The circle of life in mice

Now, you might be guessing, why in God's name would I write such an essay. I would never do such a thing, but my 13-yr-old, lover of all things animal, would. This year has been an interesting one with our homeschooling. I have not stressed as much about what I want them to do or study, but instead have encouraged them (in their English) to write every day and usually write what they want to write. This way they can work on their cursive, punctuation, spelling, grammar and over all how to write a paper. They love it and writing now seems to be easy and not a chore for them. It has been fun for me in the process. I'm amazed (still) at how different my 6 kidletts are and how their interests are so vastly different.

The other day my daughter asked if she could study mice and write a short paper on it, I obliged. Here it is:

A baby mouse is called a pup. Newborn pups, or "pinkies" are almost transparent. Pups are weaned at about 4-5 weeks. Mice can mate at 5 weeks old. Female mice (does) come into heat every 3-5 days. After the buck (male) breeds the doe, extra semen forms a waxy plug in the vagina. The gestation period in the doe lasts 18-22 days.

The doe needs fattier foods such as sunflower seeds during pregnancy. The doe normally gives birth between midnight and four in the morning. A doe's average litter size is 8-12 pups. Does can have anywhere between 1-32 pups.

And there you have it. Isn't that interesting? I never knew...

New love of canning

I discovered a few years ago how much I loved to can, but this year I discovered something new.

Tattler lids.

They are plastic, made in America, BPA free (I don't know what BPA is but others don't seem to like it) and best of all they are REUSABLE!!!

I decided to purchase about 6 dozen of wide and regular mouth lids when a lady in our town was doing a large bulk order from Tattler. Earlier in the year another friend had given me 4 boxes full of Classico spaghetti sauce jars (3 cups each) and other miscellaneous jars she had collected over the years. So here I sit with FREE jars and REUSABLE lids.

I quickly used up all the free jars and decided to just spend money on more jars. We "invested" in more jars and it was like I had a playground in my kitchen. I even borrowed my neighbor's caner so I could do 2 batches at a time.

My husband made me promise that I would actually USE the food that I canned and not just let it sit there for years looking pretty. I have done a pretty good job, I think, the stock has been wonderful, the spaghetti sauce delicious, the carrots are so handy when I don't have any in the fridge, and the canned moose and chicken are so handy.

In this picture there is:
moose meat, cubed for stews
ground moose meat
hummus (not recommended for canning just like re fried beans, learned after I canned it, they are both too thick and should not be canned, now I just freeze all hummus and re fried beans)
stewed tomatoes
spaghetti sauce
carrots, plain
carrots, pickled
beets, plain
beets, pickled
pinto and black beans, plain
rhubarb jam
rhubarb/raspberry jam
fireweed jelly
blueberry/rhubarb jam
cucumber pickles
Red salmon, smoked
Pink salmon, smoked (pink smokes up really nicely! I was shocked, here in Alaska it's a "reject" fish but because if it's extra soft texture the smoked pink is not so jerky like like reds are, they are soft and great on crackers with cheese)
Chum salmon, smoked (edible, but we won't bother with chums again, too slimy and don't taste nearly as good)
Red salmon, plain
Pink salmon, plain with skin on (yuck, take the skin off or smoke those bad boys)
zucchini relish
Chow Dixie relish
lard
chicken
chicken stock
lamb stock
salmon stock
rhubarb/apple pie filling
lentil soup (turned out very mushy so I will add small amounts other recipes a little at a time to use it up)
spicy caribou and moose stew (not to impressed with the lack of flavor, not having the best luck with canned soup)

 

Update on use of our canned goods: I discovered that having them nearby made a huge difference. We used most of the spaghetti sauce, about 1/2 the moose meat, all but one jar of carrots, almost all of the jelly/jam, and generally ate a lot of it all before the next fall. I didn't can as much in 2012 but canned up a bunch of the things that were needed and bacon bean soup, this links to the video I made that had a better flavor.

I have a cold

Fascinating I know. I normally don't mind colds but this one started a week ago and is kicking my butt.

I started humming this song earlier and could remember some of the words, so I typed them into Google and the lyrics for Bonnie Raitt's song poped up, then I found it on YouTube so I could listen. I love the Internet.

I Can't Make You Love Me

What a fabulous song when feeling melancholy. Is that an oxymoron?

Tonight was my daughter's feast day so hubby told her we'd go eat out tonight. Venturing out to a restaurant with 6 young people is always such fun and full of adventure and wonderment. Like wondering what embarrassing things the 5-year-old will shout, because she either won't speak or she shouts, she doesn't just talk. She mentioned going pee loudly a few times but that really was the most of it, not so bad. Trying to figure out what everyone wants (at IHOP) is interesting because they had the brilliant idea to list an ice cream sundae on the page with the meals. So the 3 and 5-year-old of course had that for their first choice and were convinced we would get it for them.  So when it was time to choose it was something like this but piled on top of each other.

"I want a cheeseburger. I want that. I have to pee. I want that (sundae). I don't know. I want mac n cheese, wait no I want grilled cheese! I want fruit! Do you want to split this with me? No. I will split it with you. I still don't know what I want. I want french toast and waffles, but there are no pancakes with those. You can pick one meal not two meals. No, dear, I still don't know what I want, what are you having?"

I'm trying a hot toddy before bed as I'm not a tea lover but tonight I wish I were.

Poem by Second Son

Birds

There are many kinds of birds in our neighborhood.
Like the Yellow Bellied Dote
and the Blue Crested Balote.
The Black Headed Squinch
and the Evil Brain Finch.
The Ugly Faced Belch
and the Moldy Head Squlch.
All these birds in our neighborhood.

15 years

I was talking to my mom the other night, and she asked me about our anniversary. Did we go out? What did we do? Then what, etc. She declared that I should go write a blog post about it since I haven't written in so long and she liked the story...

15 years. It's a big deal. Woop woop, and I say that in my most sarcastic way possible. I know it's a big deal but it's not a big deal. It's just us, silly people, still, yep still here. So off we go (now able to leave our chitlens home ALONE, ) the oldest ones do a fine job of watching the little ones. They also do a fine job of making mac-n-cheese and sort of cleaning up the kitchen too. Let's just say, since we discovered leaving them home ALONE, life has been maaaavalus. Allowing us to go on dates like never before, mostly just getting out of the house, going to my sister's to hang out or just out for a quick bite or a drive...spending alone time for us and for the kids has been a huge bonus.

I decided to put on a skirt for our date. After all it was our anniversary. I told the kids that if they behaved well that day I'd let papa take me out to a movie and dinner. I'm not a huge movie buff and feel like generally they're a waste of a good date since you can't talk. But I digress. We left the house with an hour before the movie began. Hubby couldn't find jeans with out a hole so we headed to Freddys to pick up his annual 2 pairs of black jeans. We found them and I wandered over to the women's clothing section finding some super awesome things that I had to have. When he found me he asked for the time, it was 7:15 and the movie started at 7:25. He gasped and we rushed up to the register. I didn't gasp 'cause I don't really care if we miss previews. After we purchased our clothes I asked him if he wanted to change, he gasped again, No! We're LATE! So off we went.

In the car he decided to try to understand how my brain worked when it came to time sensitivity and he was really trying to wrap his head around how I just don't really care about being late...the conversation didn't get far as the theater is close, but I don't think he'll ever understand.

At the theater (our new big totally awesome one in town) we got there mostly on-time/late-ish depending on who you ask and stood in line for our snacks. I got my popcorn and he got his hot dog, pretty normal for us. He insisted that I go in since he still had to doll up his dog. I sat down in the lit theater with the local commercials playing.

He came in to sit down but accidentally dropped his hot dog onto the floor. "Oh no!" I said, "your hot dog!"

"Oh no!" He said, "My new pants, they have mustard all over them."

This is where my mom asked how he got his new pants on...well, he changed in the car while I drove to the theater.

I assured him his pants would be fine and we could wipe it right off and they'd wash. But your poor hot dog, that can't be saved! He left to get another hot dog, he came back and sat down and ate it.

Him: "What time is it?" Me: "7:45" Him: "What?! I wonder if they know that the movie hasn't started..." Me: "Well, go ask them." He did, so then they started it. But I had to agree with the lady down the row from us who said, "where do we have to go?" I said, "yeah, where? We have a babysitter."

About 15 minutes into the movie the fire alarm started going off, not in the movie we were watching, but in our theater. So the lights automatically turned on, the movie shut off and we left. False alarm. Go back sit down for 5 minutes, still no movie...oh! the movie is back on...not where it shut off and with no sound. Nice. 5 minutes later an employee came in on her walkie talkie telling someone how we had no sound. And then she passed out free movie tickets to everyone...SCORE. 5 minutes later the sound came back on. Did they press their little rewind button and rewind the last 15 minutes of the movie for us? Of course not.

We left the theater at 10:05. Most restaurants in our town close at 10pm on weeknights. So he said, "lets go to the 24 hour diner." Hmm, diner on our anniversary...not much of a choice at this point. We got a pizza (note: try to avoid diner pizza, diners make good eggs, not pizza), he bought me flowers and we went home.

I love my life. I get frustrated with myself, with my emotions, with the constant list of tasks, but when it boils down to it it's a wonderful life and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My man and me about 15 years ago.

Too much.

Do you ever have a day where you say, enough!
Do you ever have a time when you want to scream?
Do you ever have a child you want to tickle?
Do you ever have a week when you can't breathe?
Do you ever just need another glass of water?
Do you ever have emotions you want to punch?
Do you ever want to hide in your car?
Do you ever need something but you don't really know what?
Do you ever act like a zombie and hope that everyone will stop talking to you if you sit very still?

Yes, mother, I'm fine.

Much Ado about Broccoli

Yes I grow a garden but the big secret is that I really am not a huge vegetable lover.

If I had to pick a favorite it might be broccoli, and for this reason only...it's amazing with bacon.

Really what veggie is not great with it? What food can go wrong with bacon? Well none really. But I happen to know two easy and yummy recipes that are great with broccoli and bacon.

'Tis the season for fresh broccoli and sometimes a plethora that you might not know what to do with. Blanch and freeze the extra and then use the casserole recipe below during the winter months. Make the salad today, you won't be sorry...but find some friends to share it with 'cause you have to show off to someone and besides, the leftovers aren't good.

Broccoli salad, serves 8-12 as a side dish

~ 4 cups broccoli cut into bite size pieces

1/2 cup low salt peanuts or other nuts

bacon- 8 ish pieces fried and cut or cut and fried or bacos or smoked salmon (guessing this would work fine)

1/2 cup chopped green onions or red onions or no onion

-I like to make this salad usually the day before so I don't mix any ingredients I just put them into baggies and set them in my bowl 'till it's time to eat, this gets soggy quickly-

dressing

1 cup mayo or Veginaise

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup raisins, crasins, dried apricots (or grapes cut in half but I wouldn't add those to dressing)

2 T vinegar

mix well, chill for about an hour before eating

The first ingredient listed if there are options are normally what I use but I have tried others and are just as good. I think the flavor balance is there if you try the other things.

My favorite cooked broccoli dish:

Broccoli casserole (can use cauliflower)

9x13 pan size about one layer of broccoli or cauliflower, steam veggie 'till almost done, put back into 9x13

Mix up 1 cup mayo and about 2T mustard in a bowl, spread over veggies

Grate cheese to cover

Fry bacon and cut up sprinkle on top (I have used smoked salmon, also very good flavor)

Bake @ 350 for about 20 minutes, take to potluck, your food will be gone first.