Archive for ‘July, 2014’

We like cool.

Morning’s have been beautiful.

Emphasis on “have been” – above photo is from Tuesday morning (7/8).

There are fires to our west and THIS morning there was haze and smoke.

And it is hot.

Well, it feels very hot to me, but the truth is, the highest temperature per my house gauges has been 90F. And while that is hot, there were several years, including my first summer in this house, when we had weeks of mid to upper 90’s. And 80’s felt good after those 90’s.

I keep telling myself that it could be much worse. Actually, it might get hotter per NOAA.

The good news is that the yellow jacket situation is mostly not a situation at the moment. The woods is not buzzy, the front porch is usable. The chairs on Beardog Point are useable.

There are some skeeters when Bear and I take our last walk 9-10 p.m.-ish but otherwise, not much intrusive in the bug and flying thing realm.

It is hot, though.

And it kind of zaps all of us of energy.

We like cool.

Happy Birthday, Auggie!

Today is Auggie’s Birthday – He is 1 year old!

He thinks he should be able to decide when to go outside.

He thinks pretty hard!

His face looks much better and I’ve been letting him out, but going out after him in about 30 minutes.

Today, though – back to normal and all went well.

And he had some wonderful seared salmon for his birthday supper!

Bear and I love you, Auggie! You brought joy to help us with our sad. You are a wonderful gift to us and a credit to your namesakes: Gus and Bob. You help me remember them with happiness.

Happy Birthday, dear Auggie!

’tis the season…for cold brew!

I know – not hot compared to most parts of the country! It does cool overnight and as the temp goes up, the dewpoint goes down and humidity is typically in the mid-twenties, i.e. feels like no humidity, but not as dry as the southwest.

But all is relative and I, like my Mama “run hot”, so humidity or not – upper 80’s/low 90’s is HOT.

The A/C has been out and on since July 3. Well, it is on late morning through late evening.

It IS the season for cold brew coffee!

Years ago, as in more than 20 – when I lived in Los Angeles, California and spent most work days on the UCLA campus – I often walked to a nearby coffee shop early afternoon and bought what they called an iced mocha. It was frothy, but not slushy. The coffee was strong enough to stand up to the milk and slight bit of chocolate. It was not super sweet. I thought it was perfect and up until several years ago when Pioneer Woman published her iced coffee method ( Perfect Iced Coffee ) – I’ve not had anything that came close to that iced mocha.

That post also introduced me to Café Bustelo Espresso. Although I do sometimes make this hot in the Chemex, I mostly use it to do the cold brew. The ratio I like for the cold brew is 1 oz. coffee to 4 cups water.

I usually make the brew in a largish pitcher: 3 oz coffee with 6 cups water, stir and let it sit at least overnight but I like to start it one morning and filter it the next.

Then… 8 oz cold brew, 2 oz milk*, a scant tsp of maple syrup, a splash of vanilla extract and 4 ice cubes go in the VitaMix.

The 4 ice cubes…well, I found that if I add more than 4, I get granita instead a drink – 4 is the perfect number to get a frothy mix.

For an iced mocha, I add 1 tablespoon of Hershey’s dark with the other ingredients.

It’s good – the first time I made this, I thought immediately of the Iced Mochas of days gone by. I don’t like the heat and cannot help myself counting the days until Fall, but a little cold brew in my day keeps me slightly less grumpy :) !!

***Update So, since posting this I’ve made a “spicy” iced mocha: Above with the cocoa plus 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper and 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Also forgot to note that in all of the mixes, I add a pinch of salt. Sounds funny, but a pinch of salt in most things amps the flavors.

***The milk – I don’t use a lot of milk unless I’m making cheese and the local dairy’s smallest whole milk container is 1/2 gallon which I just do not use before it goes bad. I started using the Peak Dry Whole milk 2 winters ago and it is wonderful. I mix up slightly less than 2 cups (350 ml) and store in a mason jar – perfect for my use for several days.

One thing leads to another

Sometime in the timeframe of March 2011, I listed this house for sale. It was when things were going seriously sideways in the U.S. economy/banking, etc. No takers and only 1 showing in the year it was listed.

My realtor and an assistant did a wonderful “house tour” with photos and even some music. I was outside with Karl and Bob and didn’t see what was going on until I saw the “tour”. And I was impressed. I studied the photos for some time. It is not so much the quality of the photos as it was how things were presented…or staged. And although part of me rankled a teeny-tiny bit, I did get how the presentation looked clean, warm and attractive. I learned a lot!

So, this June 1 when I decided to try again. I told my realtor that the only change was the addition of the kitchen island and I sent some photos to see what she thought about adding photos, removing the island or ???

What she thought was that my photos were good and she asked if I’d take a few more inside and out.

I did.

And that is the House Photos Post of June 3.

Although I am a fairly clutter-free person, I de-cluttered a bit more and thought back to the photos from 2011. The largest de-cluttering happened in the kitchen where I removed the food processor, the coffee grinder, the VitaMix and the toaster. And shuffled the canisters and cleared the area with the fruit basket:

You can’t see it all from this photo…BUT, I REALLY liked how it looked.

Clean.

Uncluttered.

Clear decks.

Wow.

Enlightening to me.

But.

I use the VitaMix 1-4 times a day. And I use the toaster daily. And the coffee grinder.

I thought.

The VitaMix and toaster needed to be “out”.

The coffee grinder – that is a once in the morning thing for me and I decided I could live with it in a cupboard and the in and out as part of my morning routine.

I really liked the flour canisters in their new location and the clear space on the opposite counter:

This, so works for me!

I love, love, love having this spot clear for working on dough kind of things.

I used it before, but it entailed shuffling stuff – now, just do it!

And then…

AND THEN…

My eight year old, el-cheapo microwave that I originally intended to be just a short time thing… it died.

Since it was a low power, low featured thing, I had only been using it to re-heat things…like my coffee.

When it died, I got to thinking.

I buy premium whole bean coffee. I grind the beans. I make a pour-over in my Chemex pot and put the resulting wonderful brew in a thermos.

I pour a cup.

And then I proceed to drink a few sips and THEN, I blitz in the microwave…etc. because I am distracted and doing multiple things and how silly is that???

I thought some more.

What if I didn’t have a microwave?

What if I poured a cup of coffee and sat and enjoyed it – fresh grind, fresh pour over and HOT?

It was another enlightening moment.

Instead of a new microwave, I ordered a toaster oven.

It toasts (wonderfully!).

It broils and bakes.

Toaster gone.

The “enjoy a cup of very good coffee” extended to my afternoon cup of tea and my evening glass of wine.

So often I grabbed one or the other and kept working or did other tasks – not really enjoying.

That old Zen thing “when you chop wood, chop wood”, came to mind.

For me, when I keep my mind on whatever task or drink or meal or whatever…and really have my “head in the game” – that is so good and so fulfilling and makes me so happy-content.

It works for work tasks, for house chores and for absolutely everything.

The de-cluttering for the house photos…it de-cluttered some thinking also.

And a final and funny piece…my electric coffee grinder died also!! I had actually ordered a little manual grinder for the motorhome. I usually use ground coffee when travelling, but I saw this little grinder and thought I’d give it a try.

Turns out, it is great.

No electricity needed.

A few minutes of arm power.

I LOVE it.

One thing leads to another.

The day after

Auggie’s face looks much better today. And so far, he is tolerating the medication.

AND, barring a few tentative meows, he is content-ish staying inside. We will try to get another day out of the inside routine.

I don’t know what he tangled with. It was in the 2:30 p.m. time frame. Did he stick his head in someone’s “house” where he was unwelcome?? …get too close to the turkeys?? …get to close to another bird’s nest ?? A mystery. I didn’t see which direction he came in from so don’t have a clue.

I spoke too soon yesterday about a not too bad 4th. Apparently my 2 houses down neighbors who cannot do the 4th or the New Year without incredibly unthoughtfully loud fireworks…had some sort of schedule conflict on the 4th because to my great surprise, they started with the artillery wannabe fireworks shortly after 10:00 p.m. on July 5!!

A POX ON THEIR HOUSE!!

I have a letter written which I will wait and edit in a day or so when I am slightly calmer and more rested and take maybe another day to decide whether I deliver it.

So, today is recovery day for all of us.

Bear came to the bedroom, distraught, about 10:15. He got on the bed and finally settled down next to me. I administered some Benadryl.

Auggie was very sweet and after checking Bear’s ears, rubbed his chin on Bear’s head. I told Bear that was an “I love you” in Cat language. Auggie settled himself between Bear and I, but later I woke to find him snuggled up against Bear and every time I woke they were the same.

Still, it was a short night and today we are catching up.

The day after.

***We all went outside 4:00 p.m. ish. Auggie was obviously thinking about staying close to Bear, me or the house and came in with Bear and me in about 20 minutes. Good to “get back on the horse” and I’m happy that Auggie is both wanting to go out and also very cautious about going out.

So, Auggie…what does the other guy look like???

I took this photo of Auggie and intended to write about how he watched and looked and was aware…

Auggie has alerted me to the skunk several times…ahead of Bear.

Uh-OH.

Auggie roared into the house and immediately hid, then slunk around checking out windows and hid again. I knew something had scared him.

When he’d calmed a bit, I picked him up and thought…”gee, you have ‘stickies’ all over your face.

Not stickies…wounds.

I phoned the ER to find out what to use to clean the wounds which I described as punctures.

They said bring him in.

We went.

I was told the wounds were abrasions, not punctures.

We got antibiotics.

No damage to Auggie’s eyes and all vitals good.

“Mama, you are a worry-wart!”

Yea-yea-yea. We’ll see how the next few days go. The Auggie boy will be confined to quarters until we know that he is tolerating the antibiotic.