Waiting for Christmas (to be over)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Yes, I know that orange wall is hideous, please try to ignore it.

Now that my elf is hanging around in my kitchen, it's time to get busy.  My shopping is all done, presents are all wrapped and sitting under the tree; now it's time to start my baking.

I won't be able to make everything today because I don't have everything I need.  Tomorrow is another trip to the commissary.  But today I should be able to get some things done.  But waiting for that butter to get to room temperature takes a long time, which is why I have time to sit here right now and write another boring post.

I know, I know, I could nuke the butter in the microwave to speed things up, but I don't like doing that.

See my big metal bin of flour on the left?  I ground up 4 cups of soft white wheat berries to get me started.  I really love that wheat grinder!  I used to grind them up in my Vitamix "dry" grinder, which worked okay, but I could only do one cup of berries at a time, and sometimes it didn't grind consistently.  Then I was offered an opportunity to buy this one from the guy who was remodeling our bathrooms.  It's old but it works GREAT! I love that I can grind as much as want in one batch, and I love how the flour turns out - so light and fluffy!  No hard missed berries to sift out!

Anyway, I also ground up some rye berries to add to my gingerbread men - I'm thinking it would add a nice complementary flavor to the molasses and gingerbread spices.

I also like to mix in ground oats and/or ground barley.  Anything to help reduce the amount of white flour in my cookies and breads!

So, last weekend we were finally able to go to the cabin.

It was so fun to be riding on the snowmachine again!  Except my hands got really cold.  We thought we had everything we used to have, but now we realize that we forgot that we used to have the handle guards on the snowmachines to help keep our hands warm, so we will probably purchase some before we go out again.

When we got closer to the cabin, we had to stop because the trails were canopied by branches that were weighed down by snow and ice.  I had to try and lift them up so Chuck could get his snowmachine through.  Most of the rest of the trail was like this, so I ended up walking the rest of the way to the cabin, which was really tiring because the snow was deep, and it was the kind of snow that you sink down into after you step all of your weight onto it.  That kind of snow is hard to walk through when you're wrapped up like a burrito in heavy warm snow gear.  And it didn't help that the crotch of my snow bibs was almost down to my knees, making it even more difficult to pick up my feet.  I gotta try to find a way to shorten the torso length of those snow bibs. Anyway, I was hot and sweaty by the time I made it to the cabin, even though it was only 5 degrees out.

I had the privilege of shoveling off the porch while Chuck cleared the snow off the roof.And then we also got the snow off the top of the outhouse and the top of the wood shelter thing where we keep our stacked wood. The snow was hard to shovel because it was crispy, like it was thawed and refrozen a few times.

I love being at the cabin in the wintertime!  So quiet and peaceful and pretty!

Then we knew it would be getting dark soon, so it was time to start heading back.  Chuck gave me a ride back to the other snowmachine where we left it, but I still had to get off to lift up branches when they were hanging too low.  Do you know how hard it is to lift up heavy frozen branches?  I don't have the strength for that.

So that is all for now.  Hopefully now my butter is soft enough to mix up.

Merry Christmas!

December 2020

 Well, here I am again.  This will be a very boring post because I really don't have any gossip for you.  I'm just writing because I'm waiting for my cake to get done in the oven.  Is that a good reason, or what?

So I will just share a few photos that I took during the past couple weeks.

This is our neighbor dog "Einstein".  He belongs to someone a couple houses away down the road, but he might as well belong to us.

One Sunday afternoon we came home from church, and as soon as we opened the door, he came right in with us, as if he belonged here.  It took us all afternoon to find out where he lived because no one was answering both phone numbers attached to his collar.  So we called our neighbor and he told us where he belongs.  So I walked him over there and no one was home, but strangely enough, the front door was cracked open.  Einstein went right in and I didn't know if that was a good thing or not because I wasn't sure if we had the right house, and what if he was just walking in there like he walked into mine?  I knocked on the door, but no one was home, so I shut the door tight so Einstein couldn't get back out and went back home, not sure if I did the right thing.  

He's been here a few times since then.  Just this past Saturday he was here again.  It was zero degrees out, and apparently he was locked out of his house (again) because he was cold and hungry.  I gave him some snacks and let him warm up until he wanted to go back out.  But later he was whining and scratching on our door, so we let him back in.  Then later we let him back out.  But then he was back again whining and scratching on our door.  Poor thing.  When it was dark out, we let him out one last time and he didn't come back.  I have no idea what his owner is doing, but one of these days I hope to go over there and meet them.

Here is our grand-baby Pumpkin.  She is SO ADORABLE!!

Too bad she lives in Fairbanks.  I hardly get to see her.  :-(

 

We had a "winter wonderland" scene a few weeks ago, so I took this picture of our back yard.

My sun room hardly looks like a warm sunny place right now.  The windows are all frosted up.

And here is my very own brand new helmet!  We got our snow machines back, but we didn't get our helmets back, so we had to go buy some new ones.  Now we just need a weekend to go.

Here is our next house project.  Painting the kitchen.  That orange color has to go.  If you like orange walls in your kitchen, I don't know what to say.

In this picture, the samples look blue, but they are different shades of grays and tans.

I've got them narrowed down to two - Asiago or Gilded Linen.  I'm kinda leaning towards Asiago, and Chuck is leaving it up to me, so we should be ready to paint when Chuck is.  But that poor guy is overworked all the time, so I don't wanna pressure him.

Peeka found a sunny spot next to my pumpkin.  I recently baked and pureed the remaining pumpkins that I had left because they kinda clash with my Christmas decor, don't ya think?  They will look much better in a pie crust.

And now Peeka found a spot under my Christmas tree.

My cake will burn if I don't take it out 10 minutes ago, so that is all she wrote.

Happy December!