Annual Weather Bet

Drum roll .... what we have all been waiting for!  The Annual Amador Pines Meteorological Society Weather Prognosticators Bet.  No money, just bragging rights:

	LAST SNOW	DEEPEST	LONGEST	WILL THE	WHITE	WILL	CMPM	HOW LONG
	Flurries ok	SNOW IN	POWER	CREEK	XMAS	SHAKE RDG	CREEK	WILL 88
		1 STORM	OUTAGE	RUN? (date)	YES/NO	CLOSE	OUTPUT	CLOSE?
Bob H	5/1/2013	33"	48 hrs	1/13/2013	yes
Judie H	5/15/2013	29"	27 hrs	1/21/2013	yes
Aimee	5/20/2013	5 feet	7 days	3/10/2013	yes
John	5/13/2013	1.2954 M*	6D 3 hr 23m	4/5/2013	yes	yes	2.3	1 day
Steve Y	6/6/2013	22"	2 days	no	yes
Cathy KB	6/1/2012	38"	38 hrs	no	yes
		*51 inches

Taking a Closer Look at an Odd Pair of Very, Very Old Socks

Taking a Closer Look at an Odd Pair of Very, Very Old Socks

atthe philadelphia airport waiting toboard

on to ireland

hello from the phoenix airport.  i am on a layover enroute to dublin.  this morning i left thethe house at 3 a.m.  keith is such a good sport being the driver!  connectingfrom pxo to philadelphia where i will meet up with my sister gail and her family.   so in one24 hour period iwil go from the granite of tje sierra to the ricefields of sacramento to thepalm trees pf phoenix, then a forecasted th7nderstorm in philadelphia and get off a plane tomorrow morning in green ireland  .  stay tuned for more adventures!

Rising costs of fuel and food

If you haven't been to the grocery store in the past week, you are in for a rude surprise.  Prices are up.  Along with big jumps in fuel costs, the drought is also being blamed for this sudden rise.  Fuel costs jumped here on the West Coast the same day as the Bay Area refinery "problem."  Now that tropical storm Isaac is winding up, many of the refineries on the Gulf coast are shutting down.  Guess what, even before that oil could have made it to market, fuel prices have gone up again.

I fueled up on Sunday and here in Amador County, regular unleaded was going for anywhere from $4.09 to $4.19 a gallon.  I talked to my son last night -- he is a senior at Humboldt State on the far north coast of California.  Regular gas there is $4.50 a gallon.  Having made that drive many times, I can understand why fuel is so pricey there.  But here on the west slope of the Sierra, a stone's throw from the refineries, we frequently endure some of the highest fuel prices in central California.  Often, our gasoline prices will be 20 - 50 cents higher than nearby Stockton or Sacramento; while at the same time, we have a high unemployment rate (14.2% in May) and those that are employed are generally under-employed in the service sector -- store clerks, manual labor.

I can across an interesting online article on Grist this morning on nutritional values of food. The authors surveyed about 1200 common foods and ranked them for nutritional content and national average prices.  You can find the article here:  http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/goodfood/pdf/methodology.pdf

What this all boils down to is if you want to save money on groceries, go back to whole foods and make your own convenience foods.  Ditch the mix and get out your own mixer.  While a cake mix may seem like a deal at two bucks and that can of frosting may be on sale for $3, you have just spent the equivalent amount on a sack of flour and sugar.  A decent loaf of whole grain bread without high fructose corn syrup rang in last week at almost $5 a loaf.  A sack of flour and some yeast will run you about the same and you can make about 6 loaves of bread.  Throw in some wheat flour and your cost will go up a bit, but your nutritional value will sky rocket.  Yes, bread making does take some time, but you can mix up a batch of refrigerator dough and grab off a wad of dough when you need a loaf of bread and it bakes up in no time.  Or spend an evening making up about half a dozen loaves of bread for the freezer.

Instead of a bag of frozen boneless chicken ($10 - 2.5 lbs), stockup on whole chickens when they go on sale. Generally, whole chickens have not been injected with sodium or other plumping fluids.  I can make that whole chicken last 4 meals for two or three people.  The first night, I roast the whole chicken and we slice off the breast meat.  Next night, thighs and legs.  Next night, I either cook down the remaining carcass/meat and make soup or a chicken pot pie (two more meals).

Future installments:  baking to save; produce; and grow your own veggies

Pre-Industrial Age Textile Research Project

I have been a busy gal this past week.  I am in Pennsylvania visiting my family and conducting some research for an education scholarship I was awarded by the Golden Gate Weavers Guild earlier this year.  My focus of study is pre-industrial tools for home textile.  Last week, I visited the Home Textile Tool Museum in Orwell, PA   http://www.hometextiletoolmuseum.org/  .  What  a fabulous gem, filled with the most amazing barn looms, spinning wheels, and flax production tools.

On Sunday, I visited the Goschenhoppen Historians' Museum in Green Lane, Pennsylvania.  http://www.goschenhoppen.org/   Another hidden treasure chronicling the day-to-day lives of the early Pennsylvania Dutch.

Watch this blog for photos!

Columbine

Blooming in my garden now:

Typical Sierra Spring

Thursday night, the weather changed and temperatures dipped down into the high 30's.  That is Mother Nature's punishment to me for my impatience!  During that false spring last week, I planted most of my tomatoes.  I should know better....  When I did the same thing last May 15, my tomatoes had 8 inches of snow cover them and subsequently had this nasty black spot fungus.  They did eventually recover, but were stunted most of the summer.

 Yesterday, we had what is famously, or infamously called "wintry mix."  That means the temperature is too warm for it to really snow and stick, but way up in the sky, it is cold enough.  We had some sleet mixed with corn snow, while the temperatures bobbled between 38 and 42.

The first rumble of thunder alerted me to impending tomato disaster, so I hustled out and improvised a tent over the tomatoes, eggplants and artichokes.  A few years ago, I picked up a couple brass headboards that were sitting at the end of someone's driveway with a "free" sign.  Pushed into the soft ground, then tented with some visqueen, they made a quickie row cover.

When I checked my little deck greenhouse, it seemed a tad chilly in there, so I dug through the Christmas decorations and found a string of the traditional mini lights (not the new LEDs) and rigged them up inside my tiny greenhouse.

I bet this will look really festive at night!  The greenhouse was a bargain at Raleys, for $59, and will hold quite a few trays.  It will not hold up to any snow load, so the broom is handy.   In the open center, I have rolled in a cast off rolling cart from the dumpster of a local hardware store.  That rolling cart triples my growing space and easily rolls out.

If you are wondering what is in the blue dish pans, that is my latest horticultural experiment with hydroponic barley fodder for my aging horse.    More on that in the next post.

More on How I Spent My Sunday

More pictures from live fire training today:

 

grass was still green

 Practice shelter deployment -- scratch to mineral soil

Shake and bake!

Everybody secure

Time to extinguish

Brandon, Jeff, Rich

Roy and Bianca scrub the hose

Captain Kris - we trust our lives to you!

How I spent my Sunday

Lockwood FPD, the volunteer fire department I belong to, did a little live fire training today, so here is how I spent my Sunday.  In the first picture, Martin is getting the water tender prepped and ready to go.  Then Chief Dave, our fearless leader, who takes such good care of us! 

(Pics 1.  Martin prepping the water tender; 2. Chief Dave washing his Chief Mobile; 3. Lite the fire;
4 -5.  Chris training with Bianca, Roy, Brandon, Rich.   6.  Rich;  7.  Firing the wet line  8.  Pile burning.

Tentative spring

Tentative spring here on the west slope of the Sierra at 4000 feet.  These Angel Tiger Eye violas caught my eye the other day.  Planted a few other colorful bedding plants.

Progress on the blanket:

Basketweave Baby Blanket

Friends just had a baby boy, so a blanket is in order! I chose Bernat Baby Sport for its soft hand and washability.  The pattern will be a simple basketweave.   Here is the start, multicolor warp in blue, yellow and green:

Leap Day

Today is Leap Day and winter finally arrived, with a modest 6 inches of new snow overnight.  With only 3 snows under our belt this winter, we could really use some more of the white stuff.  More is promised for tonight!

Knowing that spring is right around the corner, I started some seeds for the garden last week:  Mortgage Lifter and Brandywine tomatoes; onions from seed (new for me); broccoli, spring greens; and a variety of flowers in an attempt to bring pollinators to the garden.

Lockwood Whole Wheat Bread

Bread is a dietary basic in many cultures, be it flatbreads like pita, tortilla, or naan; or raised bread like croissants, quickbreads, French, sourdough, and the list goes on!  Years past, I made almost all the bread our family consumed, but with a career to juggle, bread making fell by the wayside.  Recently, I decided to go back to bread making and started a search for something that could be made in segments.

Refrigerator doughs are very time-forgiving and sourdough gives bread a unique flavoring, so I launched off a batch of sourdough starter a month ago using a recipe from allrecipes.com.  Very simple, consisting of a package of yeast, 2 cups of warm water and 2 cups of flour mixed well and placed in a large glass jar with a loose lid.  Set in a warm place, the starter will be bubbly and ready to use in less than a week.  To replenish, add equal amounts of warm water and flour and a pinch of sugar.  You can also use milk as your replacement liquid.

I have a 1991 Sunset book, Breads:  Step-by-Step Techniques, that has a nice selection of recipes, including sourdough.  I jumped on the Super Sourdough Refrigerator Bread (page 84) because you can mix one day and bake the next. I have actually held this dough in the fridge more than the recommended 24 hours and it has baked up nicely.  It's a basic white bread, nice texture, great for sandwiches or eating by the slice.

Yesterday afternoon, I planned to make some bread for a fire department potluck that evening.  I had barely started the bread (yeast + warm water in the bowl),when my pager went off for a medical call about 10 miles away.  I figured the bread would be lost by the time I got home, but thankfully our cool kitchen kept the batter in check until I got home.  I jazzed up the basic bread recipe with some additions and came up with two nice big round loaves.  So here goes, as best I can remember:

1 pkg regular dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
pinch of sugar or dollop of honey

Place these ingredients in the mixing bowl, swirl it around and drive to the fire station, jump in the engine with the guys and drive halfway to Fiddletown and get cancelled.  Then come home (about 45 minutes) and pick up where you left off:

Come home, peek in the bowl -- hey, looks pretty good!

Add another cup of warm water
1 cup room temperature sourdough starter
2 eggs
1 Tbl salt
1/3 cup sugar or honey
1/3 cup olive oil
4-ish cups of whole wheat bread dough flour (I used Moore's Mill stone ground from Redding, CA)

I use one of those larger Kitchen Aid mixers with the dough hook, so get it mixing and add in:

another 4-ish cups of white bread dough flour (depending on weather, elevation, other factors)
1 small can drained sliced black olives
a handful of chopped red onion (probably about 1/2 - 3/4 cup)

Knead with the hook until the dough comes together well.

At this point, the dough should have gone in the refrigerator for 1 - 24 hours, but I didn't have time, so I just let it raise to double right in the mixing bowl after I sprayed some olive oil on top.

After first raising, punch down, cut in half and shape loaves, place in greased pans (round or loaf).  Sprinkle some sea salt on top
Raise again about 30 minutes, pop in the oven at 350 for about 30 - 35 minutes.

Grab it from the oven and run to the potluck.

Be sure to replenish your start with 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk and a pinch of sugar.

fibonacci numbers in nature

Too Cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ahXIMUkSXX0

London's Pothole Gardener

Check out London's pothole gardener:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QI22vN1xAcM

Yosemite Timelapse

A stunning timelapse of Yosemite posted on Facebook this morning by Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center:
http://vimeo.com/35396305

Weaving Research Project Scholarship

I have been a member of the Del Oro Spinners and Weavers Guild of Sutter Creek for about 15 years.  I am known in the guild as a dabbler of many interests, rather than concentrating on one particular textile focus.  I have always been intrigued by the old ways, fascinated that our ancestors could create such beautiful textiles, woodwork, and structures with only human- and animal-powered tools.

The Golden Gate Weavers Guild recently announced a $500 scholarship for a weaving student.  I applied and, imagine my surprise when notified last week that I was awarded the scholarship!

My project will be research and a publication on Early American textiles and textile tools.  I will give a presentation to the GG Guild in early 2013.  All weekend, I have been laying my plans and will update my progress here on this blog, so watch for updates.



Fresh eggs, broccoli, swiss chard, grapes

Been busy the past couple weeks -- still no snow here in the Sierra, although some has been promised for later this week.  This morning's low was 25, so maybe winter is finally here.  I spent all weekend terracing, building, and composting raised beds for a second garden on the hill behind the house.  Also pruned fruit trees, planted some bare root grapes.  Then lo and behold, I found two six-packs of broccoli and swiss chard seedlings under the patio table!  Plunked them in the ground yesterday and hooped 6-mil plastic over them.  That, for sure, will guarantee snow this week! Ha!

Our hens are still laying.  Miss Flossie found her usual door closed yesterday, so she couldn't get into the utility room to lay her egg in the wreath.  Sooo, so she hustled herself around to the back door and laid her daily egg offering on the foot mat.  What a goof.  Here are some of our multi-colored eggs:



Is it spring yet?!

What can I say?  I was seduced by all the pretty seed packets....  It better snow soon or I won't be responsible for my seed actions.

Goosebone Weather Forecasting

Maybe this will help in the weather forecasts:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19141201&id=zYstAAAAIBAJ&sjid=85wFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5516,87428

Apparently, back in the day, the breastbone of the goose served at Thanksgiving was helpful in long range weather forecasts.  Hey what the heck, why not?  Wonder if you could use a turkey breastbone.....