First Time: Part 2

Okay, so now we have 24 husked ears of corn.  What's next?  To make sure this project was going to come out correct I went back to Kirsten's blog and pulled up her Grandmother's recipe.

"Then I used my Grandma Vivian's recipe:

8 c. cut corn

1 cube butter

1 1/2 t. salt

2 T. sugar

1/2 c. water

Boil 5 minutes.  Cool and freeze in Ziploc bags."

 

I also followed Kristen's suggestion of cutting the butter down to 1/4 cup.  She blanched her corn before the kernel cutting, I just used the corn uncooked as the boiling 5 minutes in the recipe seem to get us to the same end.

 

So here goes what turned into a whole morning project.

 

 

 This part was a bit more difficult than expected.  It was easy to shave off slices of corn and not get the whole kernel.  It would make a great start to making corn chowder from scratch. 

 

 

Bill couldn't resist grabbing the camera.  Notice how much corn is in the large bowl.  Remember we only started with 24 ears of corn.

 

 

The recipe called for 1/2 cup water which surprisingly is enough.  The first pot of corn I used 3/4 cup which worked but a 1/2 would have worked just as well.  As the corn boils for 5 minutes (don't forget to stir it), it makes its own moisture.

The end result was 8 bags of corn with roughly 3 cups of corn in each. It comes to $1/bag.   From here they go into the freezer for fall and winter eating.  It is very tempting to go back to Kruse Farm and bring home another 2 dozen ears!

 

Bon Appetite! 

First Time: Part 1

Thanks to my sister, Rosemary, and her daughter-in-law, Kirsten, I am going to attempt to freeze fresh corn for winter.  

Today I swung by work (or where I use to work) and picked up Gaylen for a catch-up visit with her and a continuing tradition of ours to shop at lunch break.  We drove out to the local fresh produce stand - Kruse Farms.

Kruse Farm

Kruse Farm is on the outskirts of Roseburg and has been for as long as I can remember.  It sells quite a bit of what it grows on the land around it.  Bill has found it a great source for dried corn chowder for cooking.  Along with its fresh produce it makes wonderful pies and breads on-site.  Their pie crust left overs are to die for.

Today the farm had two large boxes of fresh picked corn.  To quote a lady who was picking through the corn next to me - "What ever happened to the 10 for a dollar corn?"  Like her I was hoping for those same prices but I will take the $3.50 for a dozen...so 24 ears later I left happy.

Since this blog is called Part 1 it is because I didn't get back home till late afternoon and only made it through the shucking of the corn.

Now this is fun!

Four pictures later, Bill finally got one that isn't too bad.  The first three were those roll the eye balls kind that only women can be caught with on film!  

Family story:  Sarah, youngest daughter, while in school had to team up with a girl by the name of Elizabeth or Mary Ellen or something like that, to do a report and was caught on video doing a huge eye roll while Elizabeth or whatever her name was doing her share of the report.  And here I thought I taught them all better manners.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.

 

A Special Treat

There are times in one's life that makes you pause and stand in awe of the wonders of our planet.  There is a multitude of diversity in plants, animals, birds, and people.  

Twice now I have been given the gift of a special sighting.

In the 18 years that Bill and I have been living here, I have only seen the Waxwing bird twice come through the back yard. The first time was 5 years ago.  I was sitting at the table which faces the birdbath outside when a flock of the most beautiful birds came to refresh themselves there. We always keep the bird identification book near, so the birds stayed long enough for an ID. Cedar Waxwings! They are rather large, sleek, and gather and move in large number flocks.

 Cedar Waxwing (wish I could say it was my picture!)

Two days ago it happened again.  This time a larger flock came through the yard but stayed on wing.  It was such a fast fly-by that there was no time to totally take it all in.  Just by instinct 'Waxwings, Waxwings' came to mind.

Out to the Internet to gather more information and find out what they feed on so we can start planting and redesigning the landscaping to lure them in more often.  

"Wikipedia:  Preferred habitat consists of trees at the edge of wooded areas, or "open" forests, especially those that provide access to berry sources as well as water. Waxwings are attracted to the sound of running water, and love to bathe in and drink from shallow creeks. In urban or suburban environments, waxwings often favor parkland with well-spaced trees; golf courses, cemeteries, or other landscaping with well-spaced trees; bushes that provide berries; and a water source, including fountains or birdbaths, is always a big plus. If you have a love for these birds, you will want to have berry bushes near you."

For sure we don't have a golf course or a cemetery (but does it count the pet cat we buried?) - we do have a birdbath (proven to work once), trees - plenty.


"The Cedar Waxwing eats berries and sugary fruit year-round, with insects becoming an important part of the diet in the breeding season. Its fondness for the small cones of the Eastern Redcedar (a kind of juniper) gave this bird its common name.

When the end of a twig holds a supply of berries that only one bird at a time can reach, members of a flock may line up along the twig and pass berries beak to beak down the line so that each bird gets a chance to eat."




Sugary fruit - would the native blackberries count as the hill is overran with them.  But if this is a yes, then way haven't we seen the Waxwing every year when the berries ripen???  And insects, golly gee, there are plenty of these as the swallows feed on flight every night for them. 


If any one has these birds as frequent visitors in their yards, please share with us what brings them into your area.

Happy bird-watching !

Every Little Girl's Dream

What better way to spend a hot summer day indoors... but by telling family stories.

Granddaughter Kayla is six years old and is following in her older sister's stirups.  

Background: 

Kenzie (the older sister) has been riding horses now for four years and has blue ribbons hanging on her bedroom wall from competitions she has ridden in. She is quite talented with her horsewomanship (is there such a word?).  When Kenzie would go to lessons and rode in the competitions, little sister Kayla would sat on the sidelines watching.

Kenzie would take time with Kayla at home and explain all the in's and out's of how to ride a horse and Kayla would soak up these instructions while sitting on a stuffed fake horse in her bedroom. 


What is amazing is the following pictures are from Kayla's first horse riding lesson.  She is so confident, her posture is so straight, you would think she was born on a horse.


Enjoy!

The first lesson started with the basics of the different parts of the saddle.  I asked her if the saddle had a horn on it to hang on to?  "No Grandma!"

 Looks like she was born to do this.

Okay, so I have enjoyed the last hour.

Best little smile there is :D

 

Hot Days of Summer

Sometimes you just have to be careful what you wish for.  We had such a late, wet spring and early summer that the topic of conversation was "Are your tomatoes ripening yet?  Ours are still green."  

The heat descended on Roseburg, OR two weeks ago.... tomatoes are red and the harvest has started.  The winter tomato crop is being put in the freezer to last us through the year.  Canning has never intrigued me, plus it scares me enough not to even want to try it.  So we do something that is fast, easy, and doesn't heat up the house.  The tomatoes are picked, washed off, and put in the microwave for eight minutes.  After eight minutes the skins just fall off and they are ready to be put in freezer bags.  Simple! Easy! Fast!


So now that the heat is with us (without air-conditioning) I mainly hibernate through the late afternoons until the cool of the evening.  Sometimes I can talk Bill into the hibernation also.  


Thank goodness for our free library system.  What a gift to the American people!  Where else can you go and bring home a stack of books and have it cost you not a penny.  I have to thank Gaylen (a great lady at work) who got me back into using our public library and also into the habit of "if the book isn't a grabber after 10 pages, it goes back unread."  The theory (another one) being: too many books, too little time.


So here are some recommendations from the last trip.

Brian Freeman - the last book I had was (for me) a page turner and hard to put down.  Bill doesn't seem to be as interested in this author as he has this book first and the bookmark hasn't moved for the last couple of days.


The Memorist by M.J. Ross is interesting and I will finish this one and will read another one of his books.  


Sue Miller - I've read her before but this book "The World Below" hasn't grabbed my attention.  If it was the last book on the shelf I would finish it, but its not.


Ann Patchett - verdict is out as I haven't tried the 10 page rule on her yet.


Where is a good place to go out and find recommended books - NPR on the web.  This time of year they have the summer reading list. 

Day 8 of Retirement

How did we miss the day of rest?

The feeling of being on vacation has thinned a bit today.  This morning we headed up river to the quarry for another load of rocks for "the rock wall".  It  was decided that flat rocks work better in building a wall.  Not that the previous rock collections didn't have some flat rocks mixed in...there just wasn't enough.

This is an official Federal Forestry (or is it BLM) rock quarry and for a $10 monthly permit you can bring out a ton of rocks.  Now a ton of rocks sounds like a huge amount until you weigh the truck at the scales.  This we do ever so often out of curiosity. I think that we have exceeded that by now... 

The mornings are cool and perfect for this kind of trip.  The Umpqua River is so clear that you can see the bottom of it in the slower moving parts.

And we forgot to throw in the lunch and fishing poles!

The quarry is a short drive from home.  Most of the trip is on Hwy 138E which follows the North Umpqua River. This time of morning there is hardly any traffic and you feel the road is all yours.  The last mile is on a graveled logging road which should be graded in spots.  

Entrance to quarry

Doesn't look like much does it?  But there is plenty to pick and choose from.  First criteria is shape, second is color, and third is the most important - weight.  If you can't lift it, it does not go in the truck!  There is a story to tell with the third part: a few trips past we brought a trailer and a hand dolly.  The rocks we loaded were slightly larger as Bill could load them on the dolly and wheel them up into the trailer until...  I was in the trailer trying to help him pull the dolly uphill... when he realized that the rock was just too heavy for both of us he said, "let go".  Well, I took that to mean 'take your weight off the handle of the dolly'. There has to be theory to quote about a light object hanging on to a heavier object that is suddenly let go... it was not a pretty sight!  Bill, to this day, still swears that he caught me!

In search of the perfect flat rock!

We really pick through the smaller piles but this side of the quarry has some pretty colored (criteria #2) rocks.  We did get a fairly good size load of flat stones for the rock wall project (aka Sue's project).  

On the way back Bill asked a question regarding how I felt about vanity.  Since my answer fell into the middle ground he pulled into the Steamboat Inn and we got out and had breakfast.  (Picture two old people in grubby clothes, woman with no make-up, truck filled with rocks)  The Steamboat Inn is famous for Zane Gray and fly fishing.... and the food is great also.

And they let us in the front door!

What goes up must come down so after breakfast we headed back down the river to home.  When it came time to unload and move some of the rocks into the back yard I realized we must have had a ton of rock or close to it.

And this is the beginning of "the rock wall".

 

 

Day 7 of Retirement

Retirement still feels like vacation.  It hasn't hit yet that this is permanent. But I can understand now when retirees tell you that they never had so much to do and they wonder how they had time for work!

Bill (husband) is one of these retirees.  He has taken on a new project this spring that he is just now finishing up.  Our neighbor Phil has always been known to collect weird things from people who have these one of a kind items to give away.   So when a batch of large metal spoke-spools were given to him, his first thought was Bill.  

Much to my surprise I came home and found not one, but three of them leaning against the wood shed this last spring.  Bill, being the creative guy that he is, knew instantly what he was going to do with this gold mine that he fell into.

  Beginnings of the gold mine!  Patio #1.

The last one almost complete.

And they were all done from his outdoor workshop!

Quite the clever guy isn't he!