Valentines Day Weekend

Yesterday was Valentines Day, so a card, some candy and a nice lunch out.  We again went out to lunch today, followed by a walk around the neighborhood.  Most of the snow has melted, but that leaves the grime from winter and the drab, brown flora everywhere.  It will be nice when things start to green up again but that will take some time yet.  Our stretch of beautiful weather for this time of year continues, and should until Friday when we go back to more seasonable temperatures.  

Still not a lot happening that's been worth writing about other than the weather, but let's see what I can think of - a mini This-and-Thats:

I finally created an account on the King Arthur website and tried to put in an order, but I got an error every time I tried to submit this weekend so I went back to order from Amazon.  Not sure why the error, but I may try again sometime in the future.  Oh well, it's disappointing even though I'd have to pay for shipping there.  Most available KA flours I will continue to buy locally, but my thought was some of their seasonings and other ingredients might be fresher directly from them.  Maybe I'll find out for sure sometime in the future.

I bought a new dash camera for my car, one that also has a camera pointing back into the inside of the car.  I'd like to get one that has a rear-facing camera, but I don't want to have to run that wire back there somehow.  The interior view will show some out the windows and I thought might be a good idea as I have to transport clients often.  The dash camera that I had, forward view only, I moved to my wife's van but ran into an issue.  There are two plug-ins for it in front, one that is always on and one that is only on when the car is.  I can't use the one that is always on or it may run down the battery and the other is inoperable for some reason.  My wife said there is another one in the back that is within reach that I will have to try, but another day.  The rest of the weekend is now for rest.

It is now light out when I go to work and stays light later in the afternoon/evening.  I entertained the thought of a fire last night but the ground is very wet so I decided against it.  We have a little more than a month until the spring equinox, March 20, which is a Friday so maybe I can have an fire pit then, if not sooner.  

We don't have snowdrops around here that I'm aware of, but we do get crocus early spring in the back yard.  Still too early, I guess.  At least it feels like we can make it to there, now.

Watching The Snow

... Before it all melts.  Up to 50ºF this weekend?  But beware - it's still mid-February, after all.

Groundhog Day

Yesterday was Groundhog Day.  Primarily a North American tradition that stems from the European tradition of Candlemas, though it seems there are similar weather-predicting folklore around the world.

Locally, Jimmy the Groundhog in nearby Sun Prairie did not see his shadow so predicted an early spring.  More famously, Punxsutawney Phil was frightened by his shadow and predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  

I never realized there were so many groundhogs making predictions until I did a search for this post.  Groundhog-day dot com seems to have a comprehensive list, but only shows 4 (of 89), including Jimmy, that have been predicting for over 50 years with many more being added especially in the last couple decades.

So what does this mean?  Pretty much nothing except that people love a goofy tradition.

Well, after this last cold spell most around here would welcome an early spring.  I know I'm over winter, especially recently having a bad cold (which is why I am home from work today).

So far I seem to be asking a question at the end of my posts this year.  Here's another one:  Do you have a local groundhog or similar tradition?  If so, what was the prediction?

Cold Spell

By early yesterday afternoon schools and businesses were starting to announce closings for today, Friday.  Including my work, so I get a free day off today.

When I got up this morning temperatures were around -18ºF (-28ºC) with wind chills nearing -40ºF (-40ºC).  The high today is only -8ºF (-13ºC).  Let that sink in.

We are stuck in a bit of a cold spell, for sure.  Even the extended forecast only shows highs in the single digits to low teens.  Kate's birthday was earlier in the week, so surely the start of deep winter for us.

Today's picture was taken from inside, for obvious reasons.  While it appears to be a beautiful day outside we will not be leaving the house.  I forgot to turn off my alarm so I was up early to see the ugly numbers above, that's enough.

I just got up from a nap a bit ago since I stayed up late last night, and have no real plans for the day.  Later we'll make home made pizza for dinner, and if I get bored soon enough I may even make another batch of pizza dough for the freezer.  In fact, I'll be in for most of the weekend so I should figure out something interesting to bake.  Any ideas?

Beef 2026

Early last November I ordered another quarter of beef from the same place we always use, Wisconsin River Meats.  They were about to shut down for the next several weeks for deer processing so we were expecting a call around the middle of this month, which was not a problem for us.  In fact, last weekend my wife used the last of our beef, a round steak, to make beef jerky, then we got the call on Sunday afternoon that our beef was ready for pickup.  On Friday, my wife drove up to retrieve it.

Now, beef prices have risen quite a bit just like everything else at the grocery store so we knew we'd be spending quite a bit, but still expected it to be better quality and a better deal than any local grocery store.  We got 4 boxes of meat instead of the usual 3, so it was a bigger cow, too.  About 16 pounds bigger than our previous biggest, two orders ago in 2023.

Total cost was $1439.13 for about 159.1 lbs., to make it around $9.05 / lb.

Quite a jump from the last time in August of 2024 ($906.54 / 136.8 lbs. / $6.63), but about the same price per pound currently for a good, lean ground beef from the grocery store, so still a good deal for all cuts of meat we received.  (That would be 77 pounds of ground beef and 82 pounds of steaks, roasts and more.)  Not only cheaper but so much better quality than grocery store beef.

She didn't get too many of their processed meats this year; two pounds of dried beef, regular and garlic ring bologna, and some wieners.  But she did get some super fresh cheese curds just made that morning that were super-squeaky fresh and absolutely delicious.  If you know, you know.

We've gotten a quarter of a cow now every year since 2016, skipping 2020 and 2025 since it tends to last us for a bit more than a year.  We did have to look at some grocery store meat last month which just reaffirmed our choice to buy in bulk from a quality meat supplier.

So far it has been a pretty quiet start to the new year.  There's been a few things I've  thought about writing but nothing spectacular or of note, until this.  I do have a few pictures I may share later this week with other ramblings, but no one is missing anything.

How is your year so far?

Happy New Year 2026

Happy 2026, everyone.  I slept in this morning, New Year's Eve day, and it was nice.  I was awake for a bit early, but stayed in bed and looked at my phone until I finally slept a couple more good hours.  Chasing a good, full night's sleep has been a constant for me in 2025.

Kate and I went out and had a nice lunch today, then came home to get into comfy clothes and bump up the thermostat.  It is a very gray day today (again), with snow flurries as well. The plan for us is to make beef tenderloin steaks with potatoes or pasta for dinner, with the newer Spinal Tap movie and a sweet treat to follow.  She is feeling a bit under the weather so will likely go to bed at a normal time or earlier while I will try to stay up and ring in the new year.  I may watch Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE on television or find some other interesting show for the countdown.  Anyway, just a quiet night in for us and likely the same for tomorrow.

How did you ring in the New Year? 

Merry Christmas 2025

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and an enjoyable holiday season! 

Winter Solstice Fire Pit 2025

The winter solstice was yesterday morning, and since I put in the fire pit in 2018 I've liked celebrating the occasion with a fire, when possible.  Temperatures never got above freezing yesterday, they stayed just a bit below, so it was definitely chilly but very manageable.

I shoveled some snow out of the fire pit and considered melting more with the garden torch but there were sticks in the pit already so I felt I had a good enough base to build the fire.  I didn't want to be out there long and it would get colder after the sun went down so I got started around 3:30 in the afternoon, about an hour before sunset.  I built the small fire up right away, then basically just let it burn down until I could go inside.  I think it's pretty safe to say this will be the last fire pit of the year, but, of course, now that I said that...

I made a couple discoveries while I was out there.  First, I realized that I left the gnome outside under the lilac.  I didn't take him into the garage for winter like I usually do when doing the fall cleanup, but I still may sometime.  We've had him for quite some time now and he's starting to look a bit faded and rough.  I always have my eye out for garden gnomes but haven't found one to replace him yet.  I have a smaller one that's been living on the porch all year that I may put out come spring.

The next discovery was bat guano under the bat house.  I don't know exactly how long it's been there, but it's a bit too cold for the bats to be out and about this month so I'm guessing since October, or maybe early November.  Hopefully they found a warmer place to hibernate, but not my attic!

Saturday started a run of 10 out of 16 days off for me.  We do have some holiday obligations, but I welcome the time off.  Next post will be holiday wishes, so I may get that written up and scheduled soon so I don't forget.  Happy solstice, everyone.

Mid-December Ramblings

We've had a few more snows since last post but nothing quite as significant.  Everything around us is holiday themed and we've had plenty of cold.  This weekend's highs are about 6ºF, or negative 14ºC.

The cats have been utilizing their warming pad often, and my wife had been using our heating pad on her back for several days this past week after hurting it shoveling snow on Tuesday.

I brought in the trail camera a week ago since everything was snow covered and not showing much activity.  The SD card just shows a bunch of squirrels nibbling away, or maybe the same one appearing over and over, not sure.  I was worried the batteries may have died, but it was still working when I brought it in despite every picture and video showing a red X on the icon, lower right, since I put it out about a month ago.

We've been making our holiday plans and gathering gifts.  I have a lot more shopping to do, but only for my wife.  And I have to keep in mind she has a birthday in January, too.

Kate noticed this hole along the side of the driveway yesterday.  It appears some critter needed to create a home for the night.  My guess is an opossum, but we may never know.

That's pretty much the highlights.  We're just making our way to the holidays and trying to stay warm.  Kate still has things to get in order for her dad's passing, but that takes time so she will be dealing with plenty well into the new year.  She has my full support to take all the time she needs as her life forward will be completely different than the last decade plus.  

I'll have Wednesday and Thursday off for the Christmas and New Year holidays but will have to work those Fridays before the weekends allow me two more days off.  I'll take it, of course.  And yes, I'm reading news every day but it's mostly so absurd to me that I have to disassociate from it.  That's about all I'm going to say about that right now.  I'll probably be back here before the holidays, but leading up to them I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season as they see fit.  Cheers, everyone.

Snow Day!

As we got closer to Saturday the projected snow totals got higher, and now here we are.  We planned on staying in all day due to the weather anyway, and since it was a holiday weekend and still no responsibilities tomorrow, we had a bit of fun with it.

Homemade potato skins for the final Badger football game this afternoon.  And homemade-from-a mix chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  (Not to mention finishing off Thanksgiving's banana cream pie.)

And given a snow day's time to spare I decided to make a big and bubbly focaccia bread.  It was absolutely airy, crispy and delicious!  Don't worry, we froze half for warming up at a later time.  We're only two people, after all.

But it was oh, so delicious!

And as of right now, it's snowed at least 7 inches and probably even more more with the end several hours away.  It may still be snowing when I get up tomorrow.  

We've cleared the front and back steps about four times, plus knocking the snow weight off the front arborvitae, while doing a full snow removal twice so far.  By mid-morning we should be able to do a final cleanup, then hope for sunshine to help because the temperatures won't.  Welcome back, Winter, my old friend.