monday's mountain musings

Things are always interesting no matter how dull or sedate life seems to be. Just when ya think you may perhaps lead the most unexciting life in the world something comes along and entirely screws that up. After a highly uneventful most of the week we were lucky enough to have two days of near monumental excitement for at least 5 minutes each day.

Saturday morning we went to feed the animals when I noticed the fence to the chickens and bunnies was ripped open and one of my hens was missing. The bunnies and remaining hens we very upset and we were disappointed that the only fur on the fence belonged to one of our dogs.He is great with the goats but for some reason every now and again he has a horrible lapse of judgment, common sense or something and decides he needs to have a chicken dinner. Thankfully he only does this about once a year and we normally catch him before he commits his crime.

Yesterday morning we went to feed the animals when captain bravo(aka ohno, f***tard or black rat bassturd) found him self a juvenile coon in the feed shed and he was going to kill it. The captain doesn't have this name for nothing, for a twenty pound dog he has absolutely no fear. For this reason I am glad he is as small as he is as I have felt the damage he can do first hand. Manthing grabbed a stick and pinned him down while I went in and held the dog and snuffed him out with my foot. Felt bad having to do it but unfortunately sometimes the wildlife forgets they are wild and come invade our boring life and unfortunately the two just don't mix well. I really wanted to skin the bugger but manthing was there apologizing to it for what we had done as he dug the hole for his little body so I dropped my idea of skinning him up.

Now for the good accomplishments of the week. We think we almost got the pack rat issue cleared up. Now the chewing is at a level where we can atleast sleep with only minor interruptions. It only took two weeks of sealing up every dang nook and cranny we could, a couple of which were done at 10 pm. There is still something up in the loft where the garden is becuase it continues mowing my plants down up there. Yesterdays mow victim was on of my tomato plants. It was nice of him to leave the bottom couple of inches of the plant though as it has a couple leaves already forming just below the chop line. I also lost a few bean plants this week to it as well as a few other small plants. This is all being done with four traps set in the plants them selves. Sneaky little devils. I am persistent though and just keep reseeding and plotting against the tiny vermin, I will win this battle.

I so enjoy winter cooking ,it seems to be much more laid back than cooking at other times of the year. Maybe it is because we already have the wood cut and ready and the fire is already made so there is no extra work involved. Maybe it is because I can start meals early in the day and allow them to cook all day, do what I have to do , relax and dinner is ready. I made some really good meals this week, the best of which was a dang good veggie beef stew with dumplings with some almost baked or almost fried apple pies.

stew
1 pound stew meat (cut tiny)
one large onion diced
one bulb garlic (chopped)
4 cups assorted veggies(carrots, taters,parsnips, peas, and corn)
10 cups water
1/4 cup vegemite
1 cup coffee
2 tsp cocoa
1 tbsp salt
pepper to taste

coat chopped meat with flour and brown. Add onions , garlic,all other veggies seasonings an water. Bring to boil then simmer for an hour or there about. Thicken as needed and bring back to boil. Put dumplings in and cook 20 minutes. Serve

dumplins
3 cups flour
1/4 cups baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
dash of salt
1 cup (there about)water or milk