Not happy, no, not me
May. 4th, 2010 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clarentineAccording to one of the characters in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams, in Greece, it’s considered bad luck to praise someone for an accomplishment. It’s the cultural equivalent of knocking on wood lest one draw unwanted attention to a triumph. Pass someone with a pretty baby? Be certain to praise the woman for her ugly child! (Truth? Misinterpretation? Made up out of whole cloth? Dunno, but it sounds good.)
In the Greek vein, then, I might observe how terribly disappointed I am that the MiFi finally is working the way it’s designed and apologize for being more available in the evenings.
That’s not to say that I’ll have more evenings to be available. We do live on a farm, after all. *g* Bad luck has nothing on unfed dogs, cats, and chickens.
***
I have a solution to the chocolate pound cake slumping problem that I encountered the week before last: instead of using a tube pan, I divided the batter into three regular-sized loaf pans. The texture is still dense, moister than an old-fashioned pound cake, but less brownie-like. In other words, exactly what I was after. One loaf is nearly consumed. The other two are waiting their turn in the freezer.
Up next, since the aforementioned chickens haven’t forgotten it’s spring, I’ll be baking one of the old-fashioned versions. Ten eggs in a single recipe! Both of these recipes, I might add, come from a booklet produced by the Virginia Egg Council entitled “A Collection of Virginia’s Best Pound Cake Recipes,” available by request from the Egg Council (www.virginiaeggcouncil.org, eggsrgr8@rev.net). All of the recipes listed are winners in their various local fairs.
***
Tomatoes and peppers went in this weekend, in the hopes that last week’s near freezing temperatures are the last we’ll see. The heat over the weekend went a long way toward convincing me; no one should have to deal with 94 degree temperatures on the first day of May. I still need to clear out the last of the four raised beds and put in summer squash – my son has specifically requested zucchini. At least with chickens I won’t have to wonder what to do with the occasional monster zucchini.
The radishes are well up, the spinaches have broken out, and the beets are slowly peering into the world. The strawberries are all in blossom; there’ll be fruit soon. (We’ve already fenced all of the working beds to keep out marauding peacocks. I’m advised that Oberon fancies strawberries.)
I’ve noted a number of wild blueberry bushes along the lower edge of the meadow. There are two cultivated bushes up with the rest of the orchard fruits, but I think I’m going to be planting more down at the bottom of the meadow to take advantage of moister conditions. And then, once they start producing, I’ll have a cash crop I can manage by myself.
***
Observing the poor aesthetic of the snow fencing we’re using to keep out the fowl and fat-footed dogs who’d just as soon take a shortcut through the veggies, I frown. I think my project for mid-summer and into the winter will be to make sections of withy fencing that can be dropped into place when we need them and then removed to the shed again at the end of each season. We have a big willow tree for the withies, crazy honeysuckle vines in the rugosa roses for decorative twine, and there’s certainly enough trees to provide the frames.
***
What, no writing notes? Sorry. Until the work on the house we’re selling is done – please, god, this weekend – I don’t have a brain cell to spare for actual writing, though that’s not to say I’m not thinking about what to do once I do get enough time. This is an improvement over the period just before the move, when I was not only packing like a dervish but trying to plan for the move itself and arrange mortgage monies and hadn’t the energy to read, much less write.
Soon.
In the Greek vein, then, I might observe how terribly disappointed I am that the MiFi finally is working the way it’s designed and apologize for being more available in the evenings.
That’s not to say that I’ll have more evenings to be available. We do live on a farm, after all. *g* Bad luck has nothing on unfed dogs, cats, and chickens.
***
I have a solution to the chocolate pound cake slumping problem that I encountered the week before last: instead of using a tube pan, I divided the batter into three regular-sized loaf pans. The texture is still dense, moister than an old-fashioned pound cake, but less brownie-like. In other words, exactly what I was after. One loaf is nearly consumed. The other two are waiting their turn in the freezer.
Up next, since the aforementioned chickens haven’t forgotten it’s spring, I’ll be baking one of the old-fashioned versions. Ten eggs in a single recipe! Both of these recipes, I might add, come from a booklet produced by the Virginia Egg Council entitled “A Collection of Virginia’s Best Pound Cake Recipes,” available by request from the Egg Council (www.virginiaeggcouncil.org, eggsrgr8@rev.net). All of the recipes listed are winners in their various local fairs.
***
Tomatoes and peppers went in this weekend, in the hopes that last week’s near freezing temperatures are the last we’ll see. The heat over the weekend went a long way toward convincing me; no one should have to deal with 94 degree temperatures on the first day of May. I still need to clear out the last of the four raised beds and put in summer squash – my son has specifically requested zucchini. At least with chickens I won’t have to wonder what to do with the occasional monster zucchini.
The radishes are well up, the spinaches have broken out, and the beets are slowly peering into the world. The strawberries are all in blossom; there’ll be fruit soon. (We’ve already fenced all of the working beds to keep out marauding peacocks. I’m advised that Oberon fancies strawberries.)
I’ve noted a number of wild blueberry bushes along the lower edge of the meadow. There are two cultivated bushes up with the rest of the orchard fruits, but I think I’m going to be planting more down at the bottom of the meadow to take advantage of moister conditions. And then, once they start producing, I’ll have a cash crop I can manage by myself.
***
Observing the poor aesthetic of the snow fencing we’re using to keep out the fowl and fat-footed dogs who’d just as soon take a shortcut through the veggies, I frown. I think my project for mid-summer and into the winter will be to make sections of withy fencing that can be dropped into place when we need them and then removed to the shed again at the end of each season. We have a big willow tree for the withies, crazy honeysuckle vines in the rugosa roses for decorative twine, and there’s certainly enough trees to provide the frames.
***
What, no writing notes? Sorry. Until the work on the house we’re selling is done – please, god, this weekend – I don’t have a brain cell to spare for actual writing, though that’s not to say I’m not thinking about what to do once I do get enough time. This is an improvement over the period just before the move, when I was not only packing like a dervish but trying to plan for the move itself and arrange mortgage monies and hadn’t the energy to read, much less write.
Soon.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 11:09 pm (UTC)