Preparing for the winter

On friday evening old man told us he'll come at eleven am to fell our last remaining silver willow. We had five or six of them here, but they grow so fast to huge monsters which produce tremendous amounts of dried branches and sticks and even pieces of bark, and of course there is the impenetrable layer of dead leaves every autunm. Others were felled when we started to build the extension.

This one was planted as a twig about 40 years ago, it's diameter was now over 50cm. Annual rings were over 1cm thick - not very usual aroud here. It is not the most valuable fire wood, it produces masses of ashes, but it will provide us warmth on next winter.

So, old man came driving his tractor at 9:30, first he took down one big branch (which narrowly missed my precious damson bush). Then the whole tree (which also didn't hit my damson). After that it was only matter of chopping off branches and cutting the trunk... Yeah.
Now we have sunlight in downstairs much earlier in spring. So much light!

By noon we had dragged and lugged all the logs and thicker branches to the pile. Most of rest of branches were dragged to two huge heaps, and most of dry sticks and branches were burning. And when there is fire burning, there are wieners to roast...

I'm an office worker, so I was exhausted by three o'clock. I cleaned my glass greenhouse to be ready for plants (not much needed, because I had made most of it in autunm when I was hoping i could start my growing season in the polytunnel). I had heated the sauna already, so we just took 'Suma for a walk (which she really didn't need because she had been running around the whole day) and then we took the most rewarding sauna bath, ate some cheese on toast and coleslaw, tried to play few rounds of Scrabble and went to bed.
A nice productive day.

Today I was so sick (not because of yesterday) I hardly could make the first 'Sumawalk. By the afternoon I had found the right pills, but it was too late to do anything outside. So instead I observed four cranes right next to our field (they are really big birds). Oh yes, my ankle is sore because I hit it with a small log i was dragging with log tongs - I was wearing my boots but momentum was too much... But if I wear right kind of footwear it doesn't hurt. I can't currently wear my safety boots, but I hopefully don't need them until friday.

I'm thinking I need to plant another silver willow somewhere in our plot, haven't found the right place yet. Silver willows have been growing here more than a century, there is still left some of the originals around the old fish ponds. I have ten acres of land and can't find a place for a one lousy tree.

I have still a big mess to clean on the yard, maybe we might even have a decent lawn now. I wanted to sow some seed today, but it must wait another day.
Logs must be cut and split, but it cannot be done before yard is clean of snow and dried a little bit.

Swans and cranes. And a skeleton

At sunday I finally saw our cranes. We have had a pair of cranes in our village for the last decade, maybe longer. Sometimes they are able to have one or two chicks. Sadly chicks rarely make to autunm alive, I think foxes eat them.

In our last walk on sunday evening (me and 'Suma) I heard loud trumpets behind the forest and waited to see if our swans will be coming. Yes! This is fourth spring they are here, they graze in the fields (sometimes right next to cranes) and sleep the night on a tiny island in the nearest pond we have right beside our property. Sometime around early June or late May they leave, the are not nesting here.

Now they are on the fields every morning when we walk to the taxi stop. This makes me feel summer is coming.

Skeleton was found yesterday. Poor deer had been killed sometime around Christmas/New Year and now there is only clean skeleton left. Some parts (mostly limbs) are missing, but it is almost complete. I made notification about it, but I think there isn't any suspicious about it, it is most likely been killed by lynx. Haven't seen any wolf tracks (and I don't think skeleton would have been so intact after wolves), and foxes can't hunt adult deers.

Haven't seen it before, because it has been covered in snow. Now more than a half meter of snow has already melted, so there might be some interesting discoveries to come still.

But founding the skeleton with 'Suma made me realize how different from our previous dogs she is. I wouldn't have dreamed to be able to call them away from the carcass just by asking nicely, they would've dragged at least a leg with them to home. But 'Suma, she just sniffed and nibbled the bones few times, wagged her tail and ran to me cheery as ever "Look what I found mom!"

Whenever the spring arrives...

Yesterday was officially the day I decided spring is coming. No, not because of sunshine or warm winds, but loads of rain. And rain melts snow, and rinses all dirt to the surface. And dirty snow melts faster. In the morning there was officially -13℃, in the evening +5℃.

Of course that also means roads are ice rinks, d fell this morning on our way to taxi stop. Luckily she had her outdoor trousers on, so no harm done (I had to take the trousers back home to hung dry). Me and 'Suma walk with kids every morning to the taxi stop (and back), a little short of a mile walk and puppy gets done with her morning routines like sniffing all hare and deer and fox trails. Most mornings we are joined by cats.

Car is now through MOT (I don't even know the final bill because my customer server at the garage is still on Easter holiday and others dont dare to give the invoice to me).  Some repairs were needed  such as spring at the back was broken; and other lesser problems. Soon I have to change tyres, but that can wait for few weeks. After all worries I have had with my car I really hope this was it for the time.

Veg plot is still covered in snow, only a foot left, I think.  Once this rain has stopped, I'll dust the plot with ash. After cold winter I have plety of ash to throw to the field. Maybe on sunday, or monday next week ( Ichecked the weather forecast; saturday is supposed to be sunny and dry). Light is no more an issue, day is today 13hrs 49mins (that is to sunrise to sunset), but snow.

Sad (background is our neighbours "birchfield"). Raised beds are

 five planks high,

 

 only 2 are above snow...

Last summer I had high hopes I would be able to start my growing season early this spring. As you can see, no fat chance.  I have few peppers and chilis, I have to pot them to bigger pots.

Actually, there is as much snow as there were in February!

Pizza and no idea what to make for supper

Yesterday was pizza night. Mainly because last week when I was defrosting freezers I found a bag of frozen pizza dough balls I bought few moths ago and dumped on the bottom of the chest freezer. And because I really need to empty freezers for summer. And kids like pizza. And no pans and pots needed, so no loads of dishes, just cheese grater and plates and forks etc.
So. One pizza with pepperoni. One pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms (from the freezer as well). One pizza with pepperoni and ham. One pizza with pepperoni, ham and shrimps(freezer)...
No pizza dough left for me, so I made my "pizza" on slices of multigrain toast also out of freezer, kids ate all pepperoni so I filled mine with leftover bolognese. No leftover pizza for 'Suma, but she got the last spoonful of bolognese and was a happy girl.

So last night was a success, but I have no idea what to make for supper tonight. Or tomorrow.

I have started to make meal plan for dozens of times. Never managed to make them work. It's not that I don't make foods I plan to make, but kids just don't want to eat them... I just can't feed them pizza  every day (or can I?).

Holotna

Vso normalno.
-26℃. Luckily no wind so no chill factor.
Should be warmer tomorrow.

I shound be checking my chili and artichoke seeds, but I don't know where to put seedling if there is any. The sun is too low to shine through our windows donwstairs and upstairs there is no room for them.

So instead I'm eating crickets (crickets and salted peanuts with chili) and watching Grand Desingns New Zealand on telly. There's no snow (yet).

I think I should get the snow off the trampoline before it gives up. Springs might hold but the net is a bit too stretched. Maybe it will be tolerable to go doing stuff outside in the weekend.

The Beast from the East

Or the blast from Siberia.
Yup. Cold.
-20℃, and with wind chill it feels like -26℃. Tomorrow -24℃, with wind chill -29℃. Not very funny. 'Suma can't stay out longer than max. 30 min with jacket, so no long walks this week. Cats can't stay out even that long. I have a house full of nutcases trying to make me insane, talk about cabin fever!
So, what to do?
Defrost one's freezers, of course!
It was actually long overdue task, but I haven't had time to do it.
Apparently we have one big Ikea bag of ice cream. Nobody wants to eat them at the moment. I wonder why...

Going nuts

I have bought food (and other stuff like cats' treats) from net store similar to Approved food   (I've better not to look up AF because I can't make an order because of postal fees) once every two months. But now I have a problem. Last order a month ago included a box of muesli bars (with lots of nuts but no raisins). Which were delicious. Note "were". ES, who doesn't eat, ate those bars, and told me he had eaten all of them.
So. A teenager who doesn't eat has found something he likes, and it costs twice as much elsewhere... They are also high in energy and high in fiber, which both are lacking in ES's diet. Should I make an order - there is also cheap(ish) puppyfoor for 'Suma.
Should I take the risk they won't be available anymore in next month when I was planning to make another order?

Sooo... Of course I made an order. Byebye money and well-laid plans.

I have spent a lot of money this year so far. Money for nothing occasionally (I had to buy car parts to my car and the it appeared they were wrong parts and the fault wasn't in those parts anyway and NOW I have to buy another part and that is also not free). Money well spent, too. I bought my first reading glasses, but I got them cheaply (kind of) because my old friend from school owns the place. Hope I learn how to use them, because honestly - I haven't been able to read that small print on labels for two years now.

On the other hand I have been doing good stuff. I have kept the house warm mostly with woodburners. I have been experimenting on different meals, made veggie burgers (first time ever) and fish cakes (second time ever). Veggie burgers not so great succes with kids (though D really liked them; next time I won't be using so much tarragon), and only two kids liked fish cakes, but hb ate them with vigour.
Last night I made omelettes, one with really really cheap sausage (hb loves that stuff, he doesn't like meaty sausages!), one with cheese and one with spinach. 7 eggs (10c per egg), a splash of milk (5c?) leftover cheese (max 50c, likely much less), 50c for the sausage and maybe 10c for butter, spices and electricity. So 1,85€ meal for six people and leftovers for hb's and my lunch, not bad.
On the other day I was raiding the fridge and found several seen-the-best-days-a-long-ago veggies like swede, cauliflower, broccoli, some iceberg lettuce, diced tomatoes... So I made soup. Now I have 9 containers of soup (each 2 portions) in the freezer for me to take to work for lunches. With free bread (provided by my mother) they make pretty cheap lunch.

This weekend I'll be browsing my seeds for the next summer. I think I have everything I'd like to grow - I had to adjust my plans because the crash of polytunnel, but with this kind of winter it really doesn't do much difference. Growing season won't begin before late April.
Maybe I'll sow some chillis?