Back to Snow Sunday

[Colliemom]

Good Morning. Up at O’dark thirty this morning. Molly woke me up to go outside and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Feeling rested, so I guess I slept good. Watching the Weather Channel and all the damage from storms and tornadoes. Thankful none of you where it passed through have any damage. Hope same goes for Shirl. Thought about Martha and BJ.

We had a crazy Weather day here yesterday too. It rained and had a few rumbles of Thunder in the early morning hours and was a mixed bag of clouds and sun all day, but under a Wind advisory. Winds were gusting up to 50 in the afternoon. Temp went up to 65 as it did on Friday as well. But yesterday turned hazy and it was kind of brown haze. Turns out to be a combination of wildfire smoke and dust from the dust storms out west and in the plains. Was really weird. Now it’starting to rain again and temps dropping. Winter weather advisory in effect for rain changing over to snow, 3-6 inches of very wet snow and bit breezy. Hazardous travel expected to to rapidly deteriorating conditions. And because there’s still dust in the air, we could have some brown snow they say. Decided to stay home and watch Mass on TV. My group is hosting coffee and donuts this month, but they can survive without me. Ya never know what March is gonna do.

Karen, hope you had a good trip home with no weather issues. Shelia, glad you finally got the paperwork signed. Barbie, hope you get that propane issue fixed for good. Beth, glad you and TY are out walking. I’m sure he enjoys it. Boy, once they get into that habit, there’s no peace till we get out there. My two, especially Molly can get very insistant. But it gets us our exercise too. We’ve been out everyday and that roads are all clear of snow, ice etc. we can extend our range. Judy, good for you, lighting a fire under that company. Hope you get results and get that estate done.

Finally got that bathroom caulk job done. Not quite as good as I wanted it, but looks good enough , so will stay that way. My TO DO list is just about complete. Took the recycles up to the bins on Friday, so that’s done for awhile again and finally got the house cleaned for the week. Kitchen will get done when ai do the cabinets which will probably be tomorrow. Have been working on my DP quite a bit.

[Shirlv]

Morning Sue and All, the big storm to hit my area today, will f run some water in the bathtub incase of power outage and then wait. It sure has been a stressful time. Glad I have chocolate. I have a corn beef roast for tomorrow and this year will fix colcanon, mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage, what’s not to like. lol Judy, I keep thinking about your pasties. Found several recipes. I’m sure it would be delicious but this body cord not need lard. Do you ever use puff pastry ?

Be safe

[OregonLuvr]

Good morning Sue and Shirl. Unlike you I slept in until almost 6:30. Actually the rain woke me up. Apparently it has poured all night long. I have the most water in my backyard than I have ever had. "Riverfront property". Will start looking for the salmon to appear LOL We have flood warnings and the river is definitely rising. Some roads already have water across them and trees coming down and a mudslide I am hearing on the scanner. I am not in any danger thank goodness. I am so glad I came home yesterday. The drive was rainy but not bad and there are always way less trucks on the road on Saturdays. I have absolutely NO plans to go out today. I am going to clean out my pantry. It has gotten so that I am having difficulty finding stuff. I had to look quite a while yesterday just to find my brown sugar to put in the cannister. I knew I bought some so that is frustrating. So time for some reorganization in there.

Guess I better figure out what to make for dinner. I cleaned out my fridge before I left so time to fill it back up now LOL I ate things I dont normally eat with my friend so time to get back to my healthy eating plan. I weigh on Mondays and I am afraid, very afraid ha ha I will need to go get some fresh veggies but NOT today.

BJ it was not hard to resist those puppies LOL as cute as they are the puppy stage only lasts so long. I look at my Emma and she is so well behaved and knows the house rules and a great companion I am not sure I could duplicate that again. I would probably get another dog if something happened to her, but a puppy....dont think so especially at my age now. You never know and I hope she has lots of life left in her for quite a while. She just turned 8 and so far very healthy.

Sheila sounds like you are making progress. It is not an easy job to decide what to do with years of collections. I came here with nothing 4 years ago and now I am cleaning out drawers getting rid of stuff....where did it come from???? sheesh

Time for some breakfast and another cup of coffee

[Redetotry]

Sue, We had the 'dirty' rain here and the lines at all the the car wash places were long for a few days! We were very lucky as the bad storm pretty much missed us. I just turned our heat up it's been in the 80's and today dropped to the low 40's so it feels extra cold. Shirl I hope the storm missed you. I had to look colcannon up, it sounds good. Karen I'm of the more than one dog at a time as I can't stand being without one and the older dogs seem to help train the little ones. Three is a bit much but Emma is gone almost more than she is home. She may be home tonight but has been in Louisville,KY at a 3 day obedience trial. The weather was bad and none of the 4 dogs wanted to go potty in the rain. Her trainer takes Emma and her Standard and they travel with a woman who has 2 HUGE Cane Corso dogs and a very large van . There is a heavy metal divide between the dogs but they get along well. Martha all the woman's clothing stores seem to be closing the Macy's here closed several years ago and I just saw where they are closing all their stores. Also Talbot's is also closing. I ordered a shirt from them and it took several days for them to ship it and they sent 4-5 ad's a day. I unsbuscribed and sent the shirt back!

[Bethers]

Haha, I only knew of colcannon using cabbage. Just looked at recipes and everyone today says cabbage or kale. Why does every place want to push kale today? Totally different flavor, imo. I'm catching up watching Will Trent. Beautiful day today. I'd enjoy it more if TY hadn't had a bad night and got me up in the middle of it to go out. Then someone driving out of the park scared the heck out of me (I didn't have my hearing aids in) driving up behind us without having turned their lights on. I would have seen the lights coming. There are a few people in the park that don't use their lights at night until entering our leaving the park. I'd like them to quit that but I can't see who it is and I'm this case it was one black truck last night and there are several with black trucks in the park.

[JudyJB]

Shirl, I have NEVER used lard in pasties. All you need is a regular pie crust made with Crisco or a similar solid shortening. (Need one crust per pasty.) I make it just a tiny bit stiffer than I would for a pie, then roll it out to a 12" round. I chop up equal amounts of rutabaga, potatoes, and onion into 1/3" cubes and mix them in a bowl with a couple of shakes of pepper. I put a spoonful of vegetables on the crust, add some broken up uncooked hamburger, another spoonful of vegetables, and some more hamburger--all on one side of the pie crust. Then I pull the opposite side over the top and crimp the edges. Finally trim off the extra pie crust, poke a couple of holes on the top just as you would do a pie, and put the finished pasties on a cookie sheet or baking pan or whatever I have. Then cook for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees, maybe 375 depending on your oven. You can tell when they are done by their being brown on the top and you can poke a knife in one easily.

And personally, I open the top and add a chunk of butter, and some salt. Also, I eat the top crust, but not the bottom crust because it is just too much. I usually make two or four and then freeze the ones I don't eat. I just thaw them and heat them up in the microwave, although my kids like them heated in the oven because the crust is better.

You can add a bit of carrot for color, and some people in London sell them made with chicken or even (horrors!) a vegetarian pasty, but those are not real Cornish pasties. They were invented in Cornwall by the wives of miners as a meal that could be wrapped in newspaper or cloth and stay hot until time to eat them. They were brought to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Cornish miners who were working in the copper mines up there. Below is an article that gives a recipe and explains how a real Cornish pasty must contain only specific ingredients or you will be shamed in the public square! (And no fair putting on ketchup or gravy before you eat them, as a lot of people in Michigan do.) I suppose it would be OK to try a puff pastry, but the ones I have had always were just made with pie dough, and I make my own pie crust, so I don't want to make a trip out to buy puff pastry.

https://www.daringgourmet.com/authentic ... ty-recipe/

I once went to the Cornwall town of St Ives just before lunchtime, and stuck my head into several bakeries to see which one's pasties smelled the best as they were cooking!! Half an hour later, I bought one, and took it with my for a late picnic lunch. (If you just open one end of the paper wrapping, you can eat them without a fork.)

[JudyJB]

Beth, they are probably driving without lights because they don't want to wake people up. You might ask the park to ask people not to do this as some of the residents might be hard of hearing and not able to hear them coming, which I suspect the driver has not even thought about. Maybe they could just turn on their dim lights.

Which reminds me that someone recently told me that people who were blind are having a similar problem because electric cars are so quiet that they cannot hear them coming! Even though I have good hearing and sight, I have been startled by an electric car coming up quietly behind me as I was walking.

[Irmi]

Good afternoon ladies!

My schedule has been sort of crazy and I've been catching up on all the posts I've missed.

Sheila, you are making some headway going through things at your Mom's house. Karen, it sounds like you had a good trip. Those puppies were so cute! Barbie, I know your brother will enjoying having you there while his wife is checking on her friend in FL. Beth, I agree with Judy about why someone might be driving cars without lights on in the wee hours of the morning. There are some motorized cars that are so quiet, I can't hear them. That happens a lot while I'm taking my morning walk. Judy, those pasties sound good! I was wondering what you were talking about. BJ, that's a shame Talbots is closing. They have nice clothes. When I feel like splurging, I get a couple things from Chico's. I've even bought clothes from a thrift store with the Chico's tag. Shirl, I hope the storm misses your area. Martha, I've been watching your weather.

It was 71 degrees when I got up this morning, right now it is 75 and tomorrow's high will be 67. FL has had some crazy weather this winter.

I'll be playing for two services this weekend, one on Saturday for the consecration of our Fr. to a Bishop. Then the regular service Sunday morning. The past three Friday's, we've joined friends from church to attend a fish fry. They also have fried shrimp or clams. The fish and shrimp are really good. Like Shirl, being from MD, I like clams steamed on the half shell and served with drawn butter.

Please take care in the winds and storms!

[JudyJB]

Irmi, the hardest part about making pasties is chopping everything up. It takes a lot of time, and the rutabaga is hard to cut so don't cut yourself. The pie crust also takes some time, so I make it the night before and refrigerate it, but I have gotten good with pie crust over the years, so it is not too time-consuming. You can also use boughten pie crusts. When I make four, I eat one and that leaves me three meals frozen!

Meat pies of various types are really ancient--several hundred years old, actually. They are now mostly made by bakeries because they can be easily baked in a bread oven. Cornwall, England, is famous for them, and you can buy them in upper Michigan and places like Minnesota that also used to have miners who immigrated from Cornwall. My cousin's husband passed away last summer, but he used to be a member of the local Lions Club, and as a fund raiser, they got together once a week and made a couple hundred pasties and sold them!!

[Shirlv]

Thanks Judy. I ask about puff pastry because I have some in the freezer. Also saw a recipe for Puff Pastry Pasties. I like to cook but am lazy so will use puff pastry. I have never eaten rutabaga and since you said it is hard to to cut I will pass. Don’t think a88 yr old with wonky eyes should try that. lol Guess I should call mine meat pies since they won’t be authentic pasties. Thanks so much for the post it will give me a new challenge which I need.

[OregonLuvr]

I am glad this day is almost over. We have had a very wild day with the weather. Torrents of rain all day, flooding, landslides, downed trees, accidents, water rescues. Crazy day. This is the worst flooding in 30 years they say. Set a new record for high water near downtown Roseburg. Streets were flooded and impassable but ya know some people had to try it....and of course then they needed a rescue and a tow. Highways closed east and west of us due to landslides. Mobile home park evacuated in Sutherlin due to flooding. The scanner was crazy. The pictures heartbreaking of peoples homes, RV's, cars. Animals were stranded surrounded by water. Just very crazy. Kudos to all the first responders trying to be everywhere at once. Along with the road crews, public works, pacific power and Avista our gas provider. Torrential rain all day, combined with the biggest snow flakes I have seen in a long time. Temps dropped from 46 to 34 in a half an hour this afternoon. We are still under a flood watch until 8am tomorrow. It is not raining here since about 5pm but say it will start again around 8pm but wont be as bad. I sure hope not. They have opened up a few schools for evacuated people to go to for the night. Many schools are already announcing closures for tomorrow. I am sure glad I live where I do. I am not near the river or any creeks.

I didn't get much done today, I was too busy listening to the scanner. So I will have several chores to get to tomorrow for sure.

[BarbaraRose]

Good evening gals!

Wow Karen! Sounds like a terrible storm that hit there! I wonder if my friend up in Cottage Grove got hit with that too? I need to call her.

Yesterday I went to the craft fair here around noon. Didn't really see much I was interested in, so I left and went to WM to get some things, especially cat food! If the cats ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! The sun was out but the wind picked up by the time I got home so stayed inside the rest of the day.

Got up late this morning and it was sunny with no wind and warmer than it has been so I decided it was a good day to put the stairs together. The instructions weren't very detailed so I got a couple parts on backwards and had to redo them the right way. Finally got it all together a couple hours later. Put them in place and they are SO much better than the RV steps!! I still need to fasten them down somehow to make them more stable but for now they are good. Tomorrow I will cut and put on the marine boat floor covering on the steps.

I took photos of the old steps and the new ones but am having trouble uploading them on here thru RV.net. That site sometimes doesn't like certain photos and refuses to upload them. I will try again tomorrow...

I dumped my tanks which I usually do on Sundays anyways, but was having some odors coming into the bathroom so I needed to do it anyways. After dumping, I filled up the black tank again and dumped again. It still didn't run clear, so I did it again with adding the tank chemicals and letting it sit for a couple hours. Dumped again and still not clear. So I filled it about half way and put more chemicals in it and will dump again tomorrow and see how it looks. I might have to buy the "big guns" (Unique brand extra strength)) from Amazon to get it really cleaned out good. Probably had the infamous "pyramid" in there. I have been trying not to put TP in there lately, unless I forget.

I swapped out my 30 lb propane tank today for a 20lb tank from the grumpy guy across the street. That will be easier for me to handle the two 20 lb tanks now. I ordered some gas tephlon tape from Amazon for that hose. It is a new hose so I am not sure why that is leaking. I tried turning on the propane and still smelled it leaking so I turned it off right away, The tape is made for leaking propane hoses and is heavy duty so hopefully that will work. I will get that tomorrow.

A guy on a golf cart stopped to see what I was building today. Turns out he is also from Minnetonka where I grew up! Small world!

Have a good night and stay safe from weather issues!

[Bethers]

Barbie, just a couple notes on flushing. I rarely use the stuff in the tank. What keeps the tank clean is flushing with enough water. And after dumping and rinsing put at least two tanks full of water into the bottom of the tank. I do try to clean my tank once or twice a year or if I see a problem. I use Commando. If I follow the instructions on the bag, it's always worked for me. But the biggest thing you can do on a regular basis is to use enough water! Yes, I don't flush tp, but even if you do, using enough water can make up for that. When I boondocked a lot, then I'd clean more often because I had to conserve water. And that is when problems are most likely to occur, thus when I also started not flushing tp and now that's simply a habit for me.

[snowball]

that sounds like a really rough day Karen hope tomorrow is much better
Sue where is there wild fires at?? or is it the ashes from the old fires in CA?
those pasties still sound good... I would think Shirl if you use the puff pastry roll it out a bit and call it what ever you want
Irmi sounds like you played lots this weekend ...do you play the piano or the organ?
woke up to enough snow had to wear snow boots to church don't like to do so as my feet get too hot after a couple hours. In fact I think that Jackson isn't accessible right now the mountain passes are closed...lot sure of the canyon's but it also sounded like they were closed we not only had snow but wind not a horrible wind but enough to make drifts ...suppose to be the same tomorrow...
Beth I get what you are saying although I imagine that the drivers are trying to be polite and hadn't really thought about how people might not hear them or see them because of the lights being out...
while at the store the other day I decided that a bologna sandwich would taste good usually get it at the deli because I don't have to buy as much... went up asked for bologna she gave me salami I told her I wanted bologna she went and looked in the bin where they put the meats that they cut from I guess said they were out of bologna I said but there is some right there in the case ... she told me that was just for display..... I thought what????? never heard of that ... just shook my head and left without bologna I'm still pondering that...
you all have a great day
sheila

[Acadianmom]

I'm glad the weather didn't get bad until it got East of here. Yesterday it got up to 84 and today it was only 70. It's hard to figure out whether to have the ac or the heat on. Karen, I hadn't heard about the bad weather and flooding but I didn't watch the weather channel today. Glad you are ok.

I never heard of colcannon and I don't think I would like potatoes and cabbage together. I haven't cooked corned beef in a few years. Sometimes I will buy one when they go on sale. I saw some puff pastry where the canned biscuits are at Walmart the other day so bought one. Today I made two turnovers using the apricot I had cooked down. They were pretty good. I still want to try to make fried pies.

BJ, I'm not even sure the Macy's in Lafayette is still open. The last time I was in there they had closed the second floor. I had ordered something from Macy's online so now I get emails from them. I have ordered from their sales several times.

I didn't make it to the farmers market again. My sister's son came to get the old mower.

Martha