Archive for November, 2008
Ira: 1996-2008
Ira died sometime on Monday.
He had been struggling for the better part of 18 months with losing weight. Sarah took him to the vet hospital last winter when I was at the Pole and they gave her some special food and care instructions. She followed all those instructions to the letter and he seemed to bounce back, but never put on the type of weight we hoped. Since the arrival of fall this year he continued losing weight despite soaks in warm water and all sorts of nutritious and tortoise-friendly foods being given to him. It’s as though he was tired of living in captivity and had given up on eating.
Sarah discovered his body on Tuesday morning and called me at work. I made him a shroud and that afternoon we hiked into a natural area that is special to us where we buried him in a copse of oaks. His grave is covered by a rock cairn that we built. We’re out there year round so I expect that we’ll think of him often.
If you want to read some of my past entries about Ira, here are some highlights:
Cribs, Curtains, Mead, Mending, and Pork
With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, we spent almost no time getting ready for the holiday.
Earlier this summer we ordered half a hog through one of the local farmers at one of the farmer’s markets near our house. We’re splitting that half with another couple, however, so in reality we’re only getting a quarter hog. We placed the order in July, and only in the last couple of weeks did get get any signs that the order hadn’t been lost as we started communicating with them about cutting instructions and delivery options. Sunday morning we picked up almost one hundred pounds of roasts, ribs, bacon, ham, sausage, and lard. Our agreement with the other couple meant that they got almost all the ham while we got almost all the bacon. In addition, each couple got almost seven pounds of lard. So, if you know of any good uses for that much lard, let us know.
Our original plans were to make jambalaya and a few other New Orleans dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, but now that we’re swimming in pork we changed course and will be making a pork roast on Thursday. We need to start eating the pork because we expect to get our annual 1/4 bison delivery any day now. That’s another hundred-plus pounds of meat that will strain our deep freeze capacity, especially since we’re not quite done with last year’s bison yet.
We have thirteen pounds of ground bison left from last year’s animal, and until this weekend we had a whole slew of soup bones, stew meat, snack sticks, a liver, and a heart. The snack sticks we took to work and curling and that took care of them. Sarah made a monstrous batch of broth and soup this weekend with the stew meat and soup bones, so those are gone (or in a different package, anyway). I boiled, diced, and dehydrated the liver, which makes it a tasty treat for dogs. The heart was too fatty to dehydrate, so I diced it, cooked it for two+ hours in a slow oven, divvied up the bits, and froze them in small containers for future dog consumption. Now if the freezer wasn’t so full of veggies, berries, and the like I’d be less nervous about getting all the bison in there.
We also worked hard on the baby’s room this weekend. I finished up with my painting in there this weekend, removed all the remaining office bits (printer, books, bookshelves, etc.), and threw myself into crib assembly. That took about two hours of sweating, swearing, and puzzling over contradictory instructions (“That illustration says this is ‘Wrong!’ while these illustrations seem to indicate the exact opposite. $#%&*!!!). Finally, the crib was assembled in place, and stocked with the crib mattress. The changing table is in place, as is the glider. Sarah started the curtains this weekend and got several of them done. She also cleaned and mended the fabric for one of the strollers that we bought at a garage sale.
Sarah has also been busy mending a rug that her Grandmother made a long time ago, but she finished with that mending on Thursday night so we dropped it off at the cleaners on Friday. That rug will likely end up in our living room.
The mead that I started some time ago is now in bottles. We bottled it Saturday afternoon. It’s really strong, compared to most beers. Based solely on my sensory perception, I’d say it’s close to 15% alcohol. We drank a bottle Saturday night when my sister was over for dinner and it’s quite harsh right now. The honey is overwhelmed by the alcohol. It definitely needs some aging before it realizes any of its potential.
The Source of Tumblefurs
This morning I spent about ten minutes brushing Dalla in an effort to reduce the number of tumblefurs we get in the house. I took a photo of the results for the curious. It’s important to note that I stopped because Dalla and I both got tired of the process, and not because I ran out of loose fur to brush. After the photo was snapped, we pitched the fur outside for the birds to use in their winter houses. No sense putting it to waste.
Ready for Winter
For the most part, we’ve gotten ourselves and our house ready for winter.Last year winter hit us early and often and we never really got the chance to catch up. We weren’t left completely unprepared, but there were a couple of loose ends that we would have liked to tidy up before the snow flew.
This year, we’re in much better shape. This morning we raked the lawn for the lawn for the last time and put the rakes away. Then we mowed the lawn nice and short, put a tarp over the potting bench, cut down any standing, but dead, vegetation in the gardens, and finished up a few other minor details. There isn’t any snow forecast for the week, but at this point we’re ready. It feels good to have everything put away.
Both Sarah and I were off of work yesterday due to illness. I had been fighting a cold most of the week and she was congested and fatigued so we both called in sick and laid around the house. We’re both feeling better today, so after the yard work, we took Dalla, picked up Olive, and went hiking south of town. I’m always mystified that more people aren’t out the woods this time of year. That’s not a complaint as I enjoy seeing almost nobody every time we go hiking, but I wonder what they’re doing instead of enjoying the scenery and the weather.
Curling season started two weeks ago for me and my team is currently 2-0. I have no illusions that we’ll go through the season undefeated, but it’s a good feeling to start off the year with a couple of wins.
For some unknown reason, Dalla is in the midst of another case of heavy shedding. We vacuum the floors just about every other day and we still can’t keep up with the tumblefurs. We were wondering if the 70 degree weather we had a couple of weeks ago somehow confused her fur management system into thinking that spring had arrived. Hopefully, she’ll give up on this shedding kick soon so that we can go back to our normal floor cleaning routines.
Sarah and I have been busy getting the baby’s room ready over the last couple of weeks. I’ve got all the pictures off the walls, and am ready to paint all the spackled holes. The cuckoo clock that used to hang in that room is now in the hallway and a light that would have been directly over the crib has been relocated to the basement. Sarah picked out the fabric for the curtains and she’s started the process of sewing the new valances. We’ve still got plenty of work to do in there, but at least we’ve started the process and can see what have yet to do.