Cold, gray, windy, with frozen precip on the way. We’re kinda busy with keeping things that mustn’t freeze unfrozen, checking on the horses, checking on pipes, and (in my case) keeping hot food ready when we need it. Just came in from a check in the barn, scooping horse poop, putting out another flake of hay for each, and laughing at the silly beasts mock threatening each other (little rears, without any real attack…more a “wouldn’t you like to play?” move. If I had their muscle mass and a fur coat on, I wouldn’t be cold either!! They’re eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, and the poops I put in the tub for same were the right consistency, so all’s well on the equine front.
Today’s soup is using up the last of the ground venison Rancherfriends gave me, but E- assures me they have more in their freezers and I can have more any time we can meet. She’s down with a bum knee. It’s the mix I came up with last year shortly before the Polar Vortex. Pork hocks, venison, and all the vegetables (we like) that I can stuff in. Carrot, celery, onion, garlic, tomato, green chilis, yellow corn kernels, my soup bean mix (Red Kidney, Little Red, Great Northern, Navy, Anasazi, Black, sometimes but not this time Pinto and Black-eyed Peas) soaked the night before, cut green beans, mushrooms, spinach. Sometimes we add others, but this time the last shopping trip was late and we didn’t. So no olives, Bell peppers, zucchini, big white radishes. They wouldn’t fit in the pot anyway. I’d have to switch to the 20 quart one.
Today’s lunch was the same as we had last night for supper: a remnant of the most recent soup transformed into something vaguely Cajun with the addition of half a cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into chunks, some frozen cooked shrimp (shelled and de-tailed), some freshly chopped celery, and some hot spices, with rice. Over a slice of bakery sourdough bread…hit the spot. The combination of smoked pork, chicken, venison, and shrimp is…amazing. I keep meaning to get a little jar of Cajun spice mix but two years of pandemic store avoidances have made me less willing to stare at a wall of spices at the big supermarket while the unmasked tread on my heels or crowd in beside me.
We have at least two more days and nights of this, so I’ll probably be scarce here. Stay safe and healthy, in whatever season, weather, or other situation you find yourselves in.
I hope every thing that needs to remain unfrozen stays unfrozen, and that the precipitation doesn’t cut your power off. That soup is perfect for your weather, and mine come to that, though I did see a brief sliver of blue sky amidst the grey this afternoon.
Sadly, we are not getting any precip of any sort here in western AZ. Clouds have rolled in driven by the wind and for us, it’s COLD! You all stay warm!
Cold in the Sacramento Valley in California, too. Husband made split pea soup yesterday.
Watched two PBS shows this evening that resonated with 1) the horse stories, and 2) modified humans in the Vatta-verse.
1) Nature: “The American Horse”. About the four horse breeds developed in North America–Mustang, Appaloosa, Morgan, Quarter. Interesting conformation graphics.
2) NOVA: “Augmented”. About the development of limb prostheses that interface with the body’s nervous system to provide “natural” range of motion and function. The teams also developed a more effective amputation procedure that preserves the communication between the muscle pairs involved in natural motion. The primary developer was and still
is a rock climber.
Stay warm.
Cold up here in Winnipeg as well. We reached -58° with the wind chill one night but the weather people are promising warmer weather for the next week. Your soup sounds delicious might try my hands at making something using pork hocks and peas tomorrow.
hope all is well!
We’re OK. Power’s out, but we have some battery backup for now. We’re not freezing, we have water, and–unlike the people in Kviv–we’re not being shelled and threatened with annihilation. I won’t be online for more than another few seconds, though.
I see I have several comments that would benefit from answers, but the body is not cooperating today (despite sunshine and a blue sky) so I’m not going to get that done right away…apologies. (I have eaten that which I ought not to have eaten, and not eaten what I should have eaten, and that should be more than enough information for anyone, right? Right.) See y’all later.