Chillaxin' by the woodstove

[897tgigvib]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, these nice cool (cold) mornings, the routine of making french press coffee, firing up the woodstove after slicing tinder. Never use paper to start a fire. Stoking it, turning on the inverter, turning off the LED flashlight...what a great invention of modern humans that is! LED flashlights! Batteries last forever it seems. So bright that even when the rechargeable batteries run low they can be used. Turning on the laptop, surfing the web... (Me guilty. This morning I google image searched for "beautiful Catalan women" come on now. they were fully dressed, walll, some in bikinis...) Listening to my music playlist on the new myspace. Wrassled with Peeper. He plays with my hand like it's a big mouse. Got a new claw hole on the back of my hand. They never get in trouble for that. But they hear me say OWWWWW, and that slows the attack. CARNIVORES. With sharp claws!

Watching day break with the heavy mist over the lake. Definitely a drought. The snow storm last week did not raise the lake, and the next lakes downstream, Van Arsdale and Lake Mendocino, are going dry too. Course, powerful Sonoma County used up our water and kept their lake full.

Time for a rain dance.

I might dance for a flood. I really might. Maybe I should email the local county comissioners to prepare for a flood first. ahhh spell check, just tell me how to spell commissioners, lol!

 

[journey11]

I wouldn't have but one flashlight if it weren't for LEDs. Too expensive to keep batteries in the old ones...and just when you need them--dang!--the battery would go dead. Now I've got 20 of these little LED flashlights everywhere handy.

There's nothing cozier than the heat from a woodstove. My cats won't go outside now. They want to stay inside and sleep all day near the vent (we have a woodburning furnace).

 

[897tgigvib]

My kids are inside only. They get to visit outside daily when I carry them.

 

[digitS']

Ahh, after lunch and a cup of coffee at hand!

The sun was out again for about 2 hours, just after we got back from another shopping run! I think DW gets caught up at this time of year and goes out for no discernible reason! She came back with some strange holder for the kitchen sink. I visited the library and browsed the Mother Earth News issue on the shelf - pressing oils. Whoa! 3# of walnuts yields 1 quart of oil! 5# of pumpkin seeds yields 1 quart of oil. But, they say shelling isn't necessary for the pumpkin seed so . . . comparable?

Here's a little about it on their website (link). It includes a video. I think I'd like to see how much "work" is expended to get those few tablespoons of oil. I wish a few machines like this came with foot pedal power - not that it would be a good thing for me. A few nut trees and a little cracking might make hazel or walnut oil a fairly low "calorie-burn" source of cooking oil, hmmm.

Garbanzo was in here in the sunshine napping until she realized that she still had her jacket on from the trip in the pickup. She has now moved to an un-sunny location in another room. I'd better follow and get her jacket off - she's probably sleeping in my Lazy-boy again.

Steve

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

My kids are inside only. They get to visit outside daily when I carry them.

I can see why you don't let them out by themselves! Don't want any bigger cats (pumas!) coming out to play! That and bears...

 

[journey11]

My kids are inside only. They get to visit outside daily when I carry them.

I'm sure cats aren't too high on the food chain in your neck of the woods!

Steve, I don't recall ever seeing walnut or pumpkin seed oil on the store shelves. I'm sure it would be pretty expensive to buy. Does pressing your own save you much money?

 

[897tgigvib]

I have an oil press! I have not used it yet. It needs to be put together and mounted on solid heavy hardwood.

Someone bonk me on the head and tell me to get started on that project!

 

[digitS']

It would be the tree nuts that I think would do the best but just because they'd be easier to handle.

If you have to grind up the sunflower & pumpkin seed hulls with every crank of the handle - I can imagine that would be a lot of work.

$$$ ? I am a fairly impractical person when it comes to garden "experiments." Not that I am willing to spend much money but I will try all sorts of things that have little economic value . . .

Is this the one you have, Marshall? Piteba oil press (link)

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

The sun was out here this afternoon. I took Cee Cee to play with the neighbor pooch. Skipped the coat and wore a sweatshirt. When I got home I found a grain wagon with 50 bushels of corn. As soon as we started emptying the truck, the sun ducked behind the clouds to hide from the sudden wind. Sheesh! It was cold, cold, cold, dumping all that corn into 55 gallon barrels and tugging the filled barrels into the shed.

And for what? I don't burn corn working in the wood shop every day. DS does. While DS was inside the heated room, working away on his furniture, I was toiling with the corn barrels. Something is not right here!

LATER: Drat's! There I sat sipping a tad of wine after supper when I remembered I had left the coop door open because of the nice weather(even if my chickens refuse to touch the snow). It was back out into the cold and wind -- snow drifted path and dark of night -- to shut my babies in. I should have closed the door when I was out to treat them to 3 dozen large crickets this afternoon.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

"...Someone bonk me on the head and tell me to get started on that project!"

Marshall, get started on that project!