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Starkweather creek, from this morning's walk. |
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Sunflower and afternoon rain and wind today, dark enough at times for the garage lights to turn themselves on. |
'Scoakat' rhymes with 'Snow Hat'! - - Just my thoughts on music, humor, our life in Madison and anything else I feel like.
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Starkweather creek, from this morning's walk. |
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Sunflower and afternoon rain and wind today, dark enough at times for the garage lights to turn themselves on. |
It wasn't much of a firepit, but last night I did have a small fire to commemorate the summer solstice.
When I started the wind was 9-10 miles per hour, normally the top of my limit for having a fire since usually the winds lessen steadily after sunset. But last night the winds were to increase as night came, blowing in some very hot weather for the next few days for us. Anyway, I got an early start and pretty much just burned the fallen branches and sticks that had accumulated, not even taking the cover off the firewood rack. It didn't take long until the bigger stuff had burned down and began smoldering. Smoke was starting to blow everywhere so I had to put the lid on it, which I rarely ever do but it works well to suffocate it at times like this.
Today I tried a new recipe picked by my wife from King Arthur's Big Book of Bread, an Olive-Rosemary Fougasse.
The dough felt good, but was a bit sticky so my first attempt at shaping leaves leaves a lot to be desired. It came out very tasty, crusty outside with a light and airy crumb. Not bad, and I may try this again with different flavors. The recipe called for semolina as the bench flour, so I got some for the first time and I like it a lot. I may try it for pizza and peel instead of parchment paper next time.
I have another recipe from the book that I may try tomorrow, an everyday wheat bread. I still use the frozen, store-bought bread dough for my work sandwiches, and sometimes my own flatbread, but I need a good sandwich bread recipe in my repertoire.
I planted 24 sunflower seeds on Saturday, using the same mammoth sunflower seeds I got from the first successful sunflower I grew two years ago. We saved up toilet paper tubes which I lined up in a cardboard box lined with a plastic bag. I filled everything with dirt from a bag of garden soil, planted and watered. The bag has no holes in it for drainage, but can be added if needed and the whole thing is in the porch on a tray, just in case of leaks. Hopefully I will get lots of viable seedlings that will be easily replanted in the degrading cardboard tubes though I'm still not sure where they all would go, and I will still have to have them caged so they don't get randomly bitten off for no apparent reason. I wish I could go all Mr BW (see Easter post) on the damn critters, rabbits and squirrels, but my wife wouldn't allow that and neither would local law.
Another thought to mention before I forget, every two years recently they do a controlled burn along the creek and sometimes then we get a duck nest under our back steps. Thankfully that didn't happen this year because it has never turned out well for the eggs, but the banks of the creek are starting to recover. Two months from now there may be wildflowers taller than me again.
And the stump area is beginning to turn green with the usual plants and some leftover wildflowers. We have a bag of dirt ready to put over the stump and add another batch of wildflower seeds this year, and pretty soon so hopefully that area will be even prettier this year. And hard to believe, but all 3 bushes we planted last spring that got eaten almost to the nubs by the bunnies are showing signs of life. I'll have to keep them protected and make bigger cages for them to have a chance in the long term, though.
We put cages around the new bushes we got to go along the fence last year. Even with a mild winter, the rabbits have eaten them down terribly. Maybe the outside ones will come back if protected, but I'm not seeing any sign of life from the middle one yet. The critters just have no fear back there so can and will eat everything they fancy, anything we try. I even had to cage a small area of lawn I'm trying to reseed but it kept getting dug up when I did. I'd like some ornamental grasses, too, but those would stand no chance at all.
I've also not had a fire yet this spring even though there were a few opportunities. But nights are cold, and I've just begun to do some outside spring chores. Pretty much just those cages, seeding, and cutting up the lilac wood for burning, from what I had to remove for the new fence last year. The garage got swept out, and I considered putting the snowblower away for the season, but didn't. No, not quite yet.
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Green olive focaccia bread |
The porch warms quite nicely on sunny days during spring and fall. The cats love the warmth and access again while we welcome the warmth into the house as the porch will need to close again around sunset. Temperatures this week will be nice, even up to the º70F range on Friday. Still, don't trust March.
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The porch, mostly neglected over winter, will need a cleanup. |
One thing I haven't kept up on here is our new dishwasher; yes, there was a problem. Within a week we noticed water under the sink. Upon further inspection, it was leaking about a half cup of water every time we ran it, and from what I could see - and I'm too old and broken to be getting under sinks like that - it was coming from the connection between the hose from the dishwasher and the air gap that rises above the sink. We got the company's installer back out to look at it and he concluded it was an issue with a defective hose and they would be in touch. After a week, I called to get an update. It was handled as a warranty issue so the new hose part was coming from LG, and LG would have someone out to fix it. A week later, that day came and their guys agreed with my assertation that the connection was the issue, and they fixed it easily. I was initially impressed with this company, the availability of product and ease of installation. Still, it got corrected somewhat timely and at no cost to us, so I guess we're happy for now.
I've been ill since I first recognized last Thursday afternoon. It's not been a good several days this week but I feel I must be on the better side of it by now, though I'm still getting symptoms if I'm late taking the cold meds. Never the less, I must get back to work. But I know what I'm scheduled for tomorrow and I couldn't ask for much better for a first day back from this.
Boy, this focaccia bread is super good. It came out of the oven about noon today and is already gone.
I might make a couple batches of cheese pennies this afternoon, or I may not. I feel kind of lazy.
Well, February came and went pretty quick. Since the last post we fell into a deep freeze then came out of it with spring-like temperatures for a few days. No more snow, but a bit of rain and all the snow on the ground is melted now. Anything can happen in March, any year, but there's not much in the immediate forecast right now.
And yes, I'm aware of everything political that's happened and is happening now. If you read regularly then you'll know how I feel, but it's all so obscene I'm just disassociating a bit right now.
My thoughts are slowly turning to spring chores, but I did notice yesterday that there was twine wrapped up in the snowblower. I'll have to take a sharp blade to it and clear it soon in case the snowblower is needed again. The twine is from getting too close to the hay mats they used to cover the grass seed out front after the street reconstruction. My wife already mentioned getting wildflower seeds for the stump area and I'm starting to figure out what kind of sunflower to try this year. And the more I look at the cable going to the pole across the street the more I want to cut it off the house. If we ever needed that coaxial cable again it would need to be replaced anyway due to the kinks from being held up so long (for the street reconstruction). Yes, lots of outside chores coming up, but it's mostly an enjoyable process.Until then, we'll probably just be riding out the last of this winter season. What are you looking forward to doing this spring?
Saturday it continued snowing more than not all day. We cleared snow early that morning, then again early afternoon, but this time we both shoveled without using the snowblower as it wasn't as deep as earlier. Still, with my back, that 1-2 inches was almost enough for me to use the snowblower anyway. Later that afternoon we had to clear the end of the driveway a couple times due to the snow plows coming by.
Sunday, today: I salted a bit last night, but I still had to clean up from a good dusting of snow overnight. This picture was taken after I shoveled this morning, but even though it only got up to around 20ºF the sun came out and again we got good melting on the streets and walks. What I mean by that is shoveled and plowed areas melted off nicely. This is important now because though we won't be getting more snow we're going to be very frigid these next few days so all the wet snow will freeze hard in place, wherever it is.
I'm not sure of the exact number, but all in all it would seem to be about 8-10 inches of snow since Wednesday, to me. Right now we have more snow on the ground now than we've had all season long. I'm going to have to look again for a website that I can get good, detailed, recent and local weather data. Any suggestions?
On Friday it got up to 50ºF, while today and tomorrow will hover just above and below 0ºF.
Before last winter I got a warming pad for the cats, and they do seem to appreciate it. Often.
Well, time to break the seal with the first new post of 2025. The holidays have come and gone, and we've settled back into daily life here. I don't have any big news or anything like that, and I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so time to start typing and see what spills out onto the page.
The winter solstice arrived early this morning, hours before I got up. For several years now I've been having a fire on this day, in cold temperatures and in a bit of snow, but we have both this year.
So, no winter solstice fire pit this year but at least the days will start getting longer. Very soon here I will be making the drive to Mom's and will be spending the night. My wife will be staying back and taking care of her dad, as usual. This week will be especially hard for her with the holidays, as well. My sister and her family were supposed to arrive there yesterday but they came down sick, and it sounds like my brother and his family will be there for a few hours this evening. This is our Christmas gathering this year. Happy solstice, everyone.
It was -2ºF (-19ºC) when I got up this morning, and I believe we only got up to around 10ºF (-12ºC) this afternoon. It was damn cold, the coldest of the season so far. Still, this is Wisconsin; life went on as normal with no shutdowns or anything. Just a lot of tongue-in-cheek complaining about the cold, but that's a winter past-time around here. Thankfully we don't have any significant snow on the ground yet to go with it. And we will get warmer again as there is a chance of rain on Saturday and Monday.
With snow being inevitable we had my wife's wheelchair van in the shop this week. Her driver side back door would not open, so she always had to use the passenger side to load and unload, which would be an issue when that curb side has 2 feet of snow piled up. It was an expensive fix at over $1700, the part alone was a grand of that, but it had to be done no matter the price. Next up for her car is brakes and tires, so we'll have another hefty bill soon after the new year.
I've not talked about my new job here much at all. It's been over a year now, and I still feel a bit unsure about it. I'm not sure why, but I've always kind of fallen into my next job and wound up being really good at it. This is so different than anything I've done I think I still just don't have a ton of confidence yet, though certainly more than when I started. Back then my head was still spinning from the last job and I knew someone who worked here and I needed insurance as soon as possible, so I took it. I could look at the negatives about the pay, hours and insurance (and maybe I do which is why I still feel unsure), but overall I am much happier than I was before.
I spend about half my time in-house and the other half out job-coaching various clients one-on-one. When I'm in-house it's usually just playing and entertaining clients with varying degrees of personal cares to do throughout the day, depending what classes I'm scheduled in. And job coaching varies depending on the client, but normally isn't very difficult. I've been getting one of our most difficult clients to job coach often, but he usually listens to me well and I know how to guide him so by now I'd actually prefer to be with him.But, before I'm tempted to type specifics I should move on. Thank you for the recent question, BW.
Meanwhile, frozen or not, these pumpkins are getting eaten. I think they will slowly disappear into the belly of the beasts out back well before spring.
I'm thinking all that is left is for the extra poles to be removed and trees planted in spring, but they may surprise me with something I didn't think of again. Happily, it appears people are heeding the signs and only parking on the other side since I'm not sure how many neighbors looked into the work to be done as I did and knew about this change. And while I'm happy parking is on the other side, that means I'll have to back out a bit more carefully on this narrower street since we're pretty much guaranteed to have a car across the street now, and it may be my wife's at times.
When I got home from my Mom's on Thanksgiving Day I caught this fat squirrel eating from the frozen pumpkins on the stoop, picture taken from the car. Well, they lasted out front for about a month and a half, through Halloween and Thanksgiving, so it was time to put them in back and let them decompose or be eaten.I've had trouble with my display driver on this computer so haven't used the trail cams lately as reviewing all that video does bad things, but you can still see the squirrels eat up our pumpkin from a couple years ago here. Question: Does anyone know if you can download a new display driver? I haven't found anything when I looked, so I fear I may need to get a new computer to fix the issue. And yes, the driver is fully updated.
I placed the pumpkins on the rotting stump in back, near the frozen bird bath. (We've been below the freezing point for several days now, though we might manage to get just above tomorrow so we can get some rain that can then freeze for us. Wonderful.) Whatever the squirrels leave of the pumpkins can help nourish the wildflower seeds we plan to spread on the stump again next year.
After the break is just some recent baking, if interested.
Our autumn has been mild, overall, and I think I heard the mildest on record. We started yesterday with a wintry mix (slush) that turned to light, wet snow, then more overnight to officially get our first snowfall of the season. Below is what we had before I left for work this morning.
It continued with sideways, wet snow all morning with temperatures just above freezing and sustained winds 20 or more miles per hour, but by this afternoon it warmed up a few degrees and turned to a light rain. Temperatures are expected to remain several degrees above freezing while the wind dies down overnight, so I don't expect to see much snow, if any, left tomorrow. The foreseeable forecast has temperatures just above and below freezing, day and night, but I do see one day where we are not expected to get above freezing all day.
I'm not ready for this, but I never am.
I believe the same day of my last Street Reconstruction post we received a letter from the city that the contractor had completed their work. Yesterday morning as I left, though, there were two of them out front; they had come back to try and connect my cable back to the top of the pole so they could get their pole holding the wire over the street, back. From what I saw this afternoon, the newly-kinked coaxial cable is now pretty useless and would need to be replaced anyway, if we have a need for that again. I should have just cut it off the house when they knocked it loose.
We got another letter today with a bit of information on caring for the grass or native plants, depending what the homeowner chose, and saying any trees would not be planted until spring. Still no word on the unnecessary footbridge over the creek yet. A waste of money, and this last election day a city referendum to raise our property taxes over state limits passed, inexplicably (who are these people voting for this crap?!). We'll now have to pay a few hundred dollars more per year - with no end date - to see our money wasted on projects like that. Ugh.
Moving on, there's now a new sign at the top of the street showing a 20 mph speed limit, but not any no parking signs on our side of the street yet, so everyone is parking as they had before but now on a narrower street. I'd think with winter coming the signs would be a priority, and I expect to see them soon.
I'll continue with updates as they happen, but surely fewer and farther between now. All in all, this went smoother than expected and we're glad the worst is over.
The windows mummy is no more this year, but I did get a neat black skeleton with lit eyes to hang on the front door tonight. I also got a cheap purple spider web that I was hoping to cover from awning to bottom rail but it was way too windy to try and set that up, so it'll be put away for next year. A flickering flame porch light and a couple squat pumpkins would round out our Halloween look this year.
I had a good day with some Halloween celebrations at work, then getting ready for trick-or-treaters at home. We'd had great weather the last few days. I was even able to wear shorts and sandals out and about the last couple days, but today was to be different.
It had been windy recently with a couple nice warm days, but today was more windy, sustained winds 15-20 mph with gusts that can stop you in your tracks. Thankfully that's easing off a bit tonight, but we've also gotten so much colder with this front coming in. By morning we'll be near freezing with barely a breeze.
Despite the weather, we had a few more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still only 14 by my count. We shut it down before 8 tonight, more than a half hour since the last ones. Gave out less than half of the candy we had, so now we have that problem, too. Happy Halloween, everyone.
Work has begun on the next street over while our street has become the storage for that work, with piles of dirt, sand and gravel with storage trailers and equipment along the whole block. Not a whole lot to report yet, but for the sound of machines every day and one rough lane to get in and out of the neighborhood. And it's a long time until November.
Meanwhile in the gardens, the garlic was ready so was pulled a few days ago and my wife is cleaning them up now. The two jalapeno plants have more peppers than we know what to do with. The raspberry bushes are done and we got about a pint again this year. Next spring we will try removing the fence to let them spill out. The basil and sage in with the mostly gone strawberry plants are doing better now that they're not drowning with all the rain we had. And the sunflowers are still growing, looking like wet dishrags per usual due to our very high heat and humidity currently.
And the wildflowers growing out of the old stump are coming into their own quite well, well enough we discussed doing it again next year.
I hope everyone is having a good weekend. We'll be hiding mostly indoors in the air conditioning.
The second half of the last post left a bad taste in my mouth. This blog is not about politics, though I've made it pretty clear where I stand, and I really don't want to discuss much further. So, to push last post down the page a bit here's the stump area flowerbed this morning.
I'm off work today and tomorrow, good to have but I will need more very soon. When I woke up at my Mom's on Sunday morning I knew immediately I was having another diverticulitis flare-up, too. A mild one, but I still have to (mostly) stop eating until it passes. Also not a good way to spend time off work, but this too shall pass.
I mentioned our rain when replying to delcatto's comment a few posts back. Sounds like a very wet year across the pond, as well, though cooler temperatures than the heat we've gotten on and off. Our waterways are high and the ground is saturated. We get as many flood watches in the region as we do thunderstorm watches, anymore. The rugs have been up in the basement and the dehumidifier running for several weeks now, by far more water down there this year than any other I can recall. Might be time to buy a life raft.
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Yesterday's storm created a lake in the fire pit area and to the left of the stump area, out of picture. |
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Then I noticed the neighbor's back yard almost completely flooded. They removed the old shed recently and installed this new one earlier yesterday. Yes, it is elevated a bit. |
There is one picture I forgot to post yesterday, but I took better pics today. It appears that some animal left their muddy imprint on the window of our back door recently. Had to be a larger animal, probably attracted by seeing the cats on the porch, and our recent weather would explain its muddiness. Realistic possibilities when considering the height of it could be another cat, a rare loose dog, raccoon, opossum, or possibly a fox. But what animal and/or behavior would leave this kind of mark? Wide view to the right for context, and close up below.
The symmetry and splatter marks are curious, so now I'm thinking maybe a muddy bird hit the window? I'd like to hear all theories!
And we had an interesting phenomenon later last night, we heard a constant thunder for at least 15-20 minutes, maybe even longer, from the storms passing just north of us.
There was a tornado watch at the time, but none reported. Have you ever heard or heard of this kind of continuous thunder?
I finally got the back steps sealed last weekend, before this front came over us. The "transparent" sealer does look good when freshly done. I hope the color sticks better the more I reseal every year. Tiger lilies are blooming and the alium are going to seed.
The two sunflowers are still doing well. They've almost outgrown the cage but I'm not going to remove it until I have to or they get much bigger. I also added a stake in the ground to the left, in case support is needed later this summer.
And all sorts of things are growing in the tree stump area, some unknown wildflowers seem to be doing well but no blooms yet. I moved the solar lights to this area from the back, but not sure it will make a difference. I'm noticing these six turn on much earlier than sunset, so don't have much battery left after dark. I believe they are on in this picture. I don't think I can do anything to fix that.
It's a good time of year, just too wet recently for firepits. Otherwise, life goes on as usual, so no news is good news, I guess. Work is good, and there is so much less stress in this job. I baked more baguette this morning and prepared two rolls of cheese pennies this afternoon, so I'm still baking but just the same things over and over for now. And less than a month until street reconstruction starts. Yay.
I do have to call and cancel cable internet sometime this week. Wish me luck.
Peonies are a beautiful spring flower, yet, inevitably, it seems to rain hard every year right after they start blooming - or at least when ours at the corner of the house blooms. And if you've had peonies, you know how discouraging this can be. The flower heads collect the water and droop, never to fully rise again. Hopefully it's early enough to not matter so much as there are many yet to open. My bigger concern was seeing that my gutter was partially blocked. Also areas of overflowing on the porch gutters, but less of a concern. The helicopters from the maple trees have been flying, I hadn't thought so much this year but something is clogging the gutters.
It's a holiday weekend and I have a ladder. This will be fixed.