Critters Around Us

We have had several fox sightings. Just last week we saw a red fox going down our road with something in its mouth - probably a chipmunk. And we have seen a baby fox recently. Yesterday, as we drove up the road, there was a baby fox right in the middle of the road! B was going slow and we kinda encouraged the fox to move along. And it did, going over the side of the road on the right down toward the stream. 

And then there is Miss Honey! Who checks out all things around here. Here is one of several flower pots on wheels I'm using for my herbs this year. I had one pot at the bottom of the steps going up to the deck. I planted some very nice flowers and the next morning they were eaten!! Darn deer. Well, dragged that pot up the steps and the flowers are growing so it's now a loss. However, the deck is the only place I could do herbs. And it's nice just to pop out during cooking to get some parsley, oregano, basil and such.

Honey has been smelling but not eating. Good Girl Honey!!

After a Warm Monday - a Rainy Tuesday

Yesterday was just lovely! Temperatures in the low 70s, sun out, light breeze - it was great! Today it rained and how can one complain since it was rain and NOT snow!  So, here are some pictures from yesterday.

I have several bunches of daffodils and this one bloomed first. It's somewhat protected between the driveway and the deck. I wanted to get this pictures quickly as the deer sometimes eat them before I can photograph flowers. Made it!

Same plants I just moved back.

And when I went down to get the mail, I crossed the road and walked down to the lake. Blue water - quite a welcome sight after all that ice and snow!

We saw two boats on the lake Monday. Docks here will go in the water this weekend. YEA spring!!

Weather Changes!

This past weekend - Palm Sunday weekend - the weather was just beautiful! Warm, snow melted and spring had arrived... in fact, I went out and took a picture of the last little bit of snow from a pile that had been soooo high... here it is.

What I thought was the "final, final" of snow for the year.

And then the forecast said colder temperatures on Monday with rain into Tuesday and a chance of over an inch of rain..  OK, rain is fine. And it did rain Monday and by Tuesday morning the forecast included the possibility of the rain turning into snow as a very cold cold front swept in. And it did! I was in the living room, looking at "Forrest Gump" on TV around 7 PM and looked out and darn, it was snowing! And it kept snowing into Wednesday morning.  Pictures below:

At 5:30 am, when Honey and I take the first walk of the day, it was snowing. The driveway was bare but the cars, lawn and bushes had snow.

The snow on the bushes in front of the deck was really very lovely. 

The sun came up and the snow stopped. I went out again to take more pictures as I knew it would quickly melt. 

And by Wednesday late afternoon it has mostly melted. But it was a nice snow - pretty and over fast!

However, this is crazy weather we are having. 

A BEAUTIFUL spring afternoon

After complaining about the never ending winter, I wanted to be thankful for the beautiful afternoon we had. The sun was out and the temperatures were in the upper 50s. Most of the snow is melted and Honey, B and I were out just enjoying the weather.

The crocuses are starting to come up

And some of the bushes that were planted last year died

The bugs are coming out. Several of these bugs were on the car. They just "sat" there. We get another bug that swarms around you that really can drive you crazy. None of them are around....yet

The sky was beautiful - the trees still bare

And two hawk were circling overhead

The back area into the woods that was sooooo snowy and hard to walk is now easy to access. I must say it was pretty the first day or so after a snow fall. Honey and I slipped and slid around so much that I'm not sorry to see it go. 

And Miss Honey is enjoying a walk in the sun. 

We missed this storm

I haven't been posting because the weather has been so cold and snowy I didn't want to sound negative. Today, the sun was out and I feel like we just might get some spring weather soon. While the temperature has been below freezing all day (29 right now at 3:30) the sun was out. We did have a few flakes but missed the major storm the Jersey shore got. We count our blessings.

Since the weather was sunny and we have been rather house bound, we took a ride to Costco. It's about an hour and 30 minute drive. The wind was gusting and the car was buffeted but the ride was nice. Snow has been melting and while it still looks wintry, there were patches of ground visible. It was a good trip as we didn't spend too much money but got several things. After we got home and took care of Honey and looked at The Chew, I finally froze the 4 pounds of asparagus I purchased Monday. I should have done it sooner but....  Well, after cutting off the ends and then cutting the stalks into quarters, I blanched it for about 3 minutes (added the tips after 1 minute). When I drained the asparagus I tasted it and it was crunchy - should be great reheated as a side dish or for a salad. I packaged it in 6 oz portions and got 8 bags. Asparagus has been available at the super market - a sure sign of spring. This was a good sale I came across at 99 cents a pound! I also purchased a 5 pound bag of small beets for under $4 and am not sure what I'll do with that. Eat some after cooking in the pressure cooker but I'm also thinking maybe make pickled beets. I'll have to check my recipes to see what would work. It's on my list for tomorrow.

Our weather should warm up over the next few days. The lake is starting to look "wet" in places though there were people out on the lake over the weekend fishing. The huge piles of snow have melted to reasonable piles that Honey can climb over. Since the snow on the deck has melted including the snow on the grill on the deck, I'm hopeful we will get to grill soon. I'm hungry for a hamburger done outside (eaten inside). Cross fingers!

And AGAIN

We just came in from attempting to get the snow off of the SUV so we can go get the mail. It's been three days since we have been out. We woke up to snow falling again and thus far have about 2 inches. We should get several more before it's all over.

The driveway was cleared yesterday. It was really interesting as they came with a a front end plow with a snow throw thing on the back. They shot the snow off the driveway and up into the hill to the woods. Cleared the drive but gave us lots of snow on the slope. 

He backed down the driveway and stopped to change the snow thrower from one side to the other

You can see the plow in the front - he was backing down the driveway

And then went foreword lowering the plow.

Worked great but gave us very large piles of snow on the side. However, we are NOT complaining as the driveway was clear and we planned to get the mail today.

Honey is a bit bewildered at the large pile at the side and end of the driveway.

We just came back in and we were able to clear off the SUV - but still need to dig out mound of snow in front of it. However, we do believe we will be able to  go get the mail this afternoon and while we are there, drop off some trash. (mail and trash are less than a mile away)  And since we did think ahead, we have plenty of food and such so we can just hunker down and watch the Olympics. 

It's not a bad thing to be stuck in the house as long as you are warm and have food.

Damn that groundhog!!!

Valentine's Day SNOW

Today is Friday and it's Valentine's Day. The snow started Wednesday night and it kept snowing! Over the three days we got over 14 inches of snow.

Right now the sun is shining and it's 29 outside. I started taking these pictures when we first got up around 5:45 AM after Honey's first walk and my first cup of coffee.

Just as it started to get light, Honey was checking everything out.

And when we went out we saw how deep it was. In places it was up to my knees.

The grill in the back wearing a cap of snow.

And the car under the snow on the side of the driveway. But the sky sure looks good!

The driveway - I'm almost down to the road and you can see my foot prints.

The view from the kitchen window is sure lovely - I really enjoy watching the seasons change from this window.

Pressure Cooker Cheesecake

Do you have a pressure cooker? They now come as plug in electric cookers and many of them also function as slow cookers and steamers. Today I thought would be a good day to make a pressure cooker cheese cake. The reason I like this ( and B does too) is that it's easy, tasty and not huge so we aren't eating it forever.

My Cuisinart pressure cooker is ready to go. 

I used the food processor to first chop up ½ cup graham crackers (3 full crackers) and place them in the pan I will bake in.

Grease the bottom and sides of the pan (picture follows) with butter and and coat with crumbs. In the processor blend 16 oz of cream cheese at room temperature and ½ cup sugar. Then add 2 large eggs, 1 ½ tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp grated lemon and ½ tsp vanilla. Blend and pour into a pan that will fit into the pot of the pressure cooker.

Put 2 cups of water into the pressure cooker, cover the pan and place it on a trivet up off the bottom, lock the lid into place and pressure cook for 15 minutes.

Let the pressure release naturally (about 10 minutes) then remove the lid, take out the pan using the holder or pot holders and blot the top carefully if water is on the cake.

Once cooled, refrigerate covered for at least 4 hours. 

If you have never used a pressure cooker you should check them out. I got this one at Costco and a smaller one that I often use from QVC. 

-11 Yep, minus eleven!!!

After a while, the term cold becomes questionable. Just how cold is cold? In the summer, temperatures inside under air conditioning that are in the 60s are "cold". However, this morning, we were COLD. The thermometer in the car read -11. Yikes, now that is really cold!

And this cold is just part of this ongoing crazy winter. We just got done with a snow fall that gave us an additional inch or so on top of the 10 inches we had a few days before. Our driveway gets plowed and the guys are getting somewhat creative on how they deal with the snow. We have a mound of snow in the back, next to the SUV that is so high Honey has not been able to navigate over it. Honey and I have worked out our system for her walks. I wore my "high" boots that lace up mid calf the first day or so after the ten inches. We then trail blazed paths up the small hill next to the driveway. This started before we were plowed and has continued so the trail is now a tamped down path that winds its way through the woods and has several accesses from the driveway. Unfortunately one access is now under that mound of snow!

And now we are expecting another storm - referred to as a nor'easter so you know it's not going to drop just a few inches. The amount we will get continues to change - it appears to be in the 8 to 10 inch range. Should start tonight and into tomorrow. At least we aren't expecting any ice. We were out yesterday to make sure we had needed food supplies - bread, milk, eggs and a few other goodies thrown in. So we are set. Right now the sun is shining and the temperature has warmed up a bit. We should get into the teens today. Looking ahead, more moderate temperatures are expected by next week. It's getting there that is the concern.

Snow Storm #2

We again got snow (got some over the weekend)

As expected, it started last night after midnight and continued through noon. The snow then took a "break" and now, at 4:30 PM, it's again snowing.

When I was out with the ruler it had snowed about 5 inches. I cleaned off the railing yesterday to be able to measure today's snow. But of course it continued to snow after this picture.

After the snow stopped the plow came. Now they had already plowed the driveway. We decided this year that rather than B having to do all that work, we would have the landscaping people clean the driveway. One of our best decisions! The plow is really neat - they can fold it to better move to snow to a different place. 

And here the plow goes by again after several passes. The snow is at the end of the driveway and an area is clear so we can get the SUV down from the area off the driveway where it is parked. That's easier than trying to dig out the cars that are parked along the driveway.

And through it all, Miss Honey supervised. 

She said they did a fine job - we agree!

The next storm is to hit this weekend (today is Wednesday)

We are NOT looking forward to it.

It's gonna be cold!

Again a mass of Polar air is set to descend on us!  Temperatures should drop to the single digits and today we might get up to an inch of snow.

I've been working on a few things in addition to the regular stuff that gets done on a daily basis (laundry, food, cleaning..all that fun stuff).  The major thing is getting my iMac set up, again. I purchased it back in September 2012 - and played with it off an on for a while. It's different from a PC - that's why I got it. But several months ago I got really into it and was finally "getting it" when it started acting funky. Now Macs are rather stable but I had just upgraded to the new Mavericks OS X and so I thought it might be that. One thing I did do was BACK MY FILES UP! And boy, am I glad I did. After funky - it died. I took it back to Best Buy and they needed to send it out for repair. When it came back Mac had a new hard drive and audio card and just the basic system. Files and programs and upgrades were gone. However, the price was reasonable and that's what happens when you get a new hard drive. So, for the past two weeks I've been restoring files and programs. I also take notes and have gone back to my old notes (first time round). I've gotten iTunes done, figured out how to make changes in data on music and have more or less organized my music. Today I installed Neat Filing System software and got my files restored. So I feel good about my progress.

Outside it's gloomy and cold. We got about an inch of snow and again our snow is much less than friends in the South Jersey area got. Single digits are expected this week. And the cold is a good reason to stay inside and continue to do all things Mac :)  

Cold Start to the New Year - Happy 2014

We expected snow Friday, and got it!  LOTS of snow! It’s a rather light snow that swept off the steps Friday morning despite the fact there was several inches. I had been sweeping Thursday afternoon every hour or so – and we got about 6 inches overnight.

I have Honey “duty” in the morning – and as I was suiting up for her first foray out into the whiteness, a truck drove up to the steps and the paper person tossed our paper out – right at the bottom of the steps. Great service and after doing her “thing”, Honey brought the paper back in the house for the carrot treat she gets for the paper.

Schools in the area were closed. Many, including our local school, closed Thursday in anticipation of the snow fall. Around here, the snow didn’t fall until around 3 – and on the TV weather site on FB there was a lot of bitching about the “wasted” snow day – NOT. It’s never easy to make a decision as to closing school. However, as a former school administrator who had to make those kinds of decisions you would rather err on the side of safety rather than ignore the weather forecasters and open only to have to close early and potentially send kids home to an empty house. There is more involved than the simple how much snow will fall. Well, a good reason to enjoy retirement and be glad someone else is making those decisions.

We had our driveway plowed Friday but it was so cold and the cars were so covered we stayed put until today (Sunday). B has been sick with an upper respiratory “thing” that he went to the doctor’s for. The medicine seems to be helping but he is still not up to speed. I got some sort of stomach bug that slowed me down so for the past several days we have been lying low and not doing much. However, yesterday I packed up all the Christmas stuff I had already brought down to the storage area under the stairs and again sorted out some things. After lunch yesterday I tackled the heater room – a wonderful storage area that has shelves and is narrow but deep. I’m weeding as well as organizing. And then, in a spurt of energy motivated by the desire to go out to breakfast this morning, I cleaned the snow off two cars in the very cold, cold air. Didn’t realize but it was in the low teens! When I came in I was both very tired and COLD. A hot shower helped and we had a rather easy meal of green peppers/hamburger/rice mix that was rather tasty and warming.

And this morning we got out to breakfast and picked up two day’s mail as well as drop the trash off. I’ve saved the USA Today paper from Friday to read tonight. Right now I’m working in the loft and plan to start to sort through some old pictures.

We are expecting rain and the temperature is above freezing. However the concern is will it be rain or sleet. So we also went to WalMart to pick up a few things and at least I have lunch meat, bread and such should we be iced in.

We are having baked chicken thighs for dinner along with potatoes and some veggie. It’s been a rather quiet start to 2014.