New Home Arrives In the Dark

When we were on the road in our RV, often a new home (aka RV) pulled in next to us late in the day or during the evening.  Sometimes we'd wake up in the morning with a new neighbor unexpectedly next to us, if their "rig" was quiet enough.

That's not as easy in a neighborhood.  But indeed, in the span of just a few minutes, a new home was positioned next to us this evening, as the sun disappeared over the western horizon.  With a few neighbors, we gathered on our porch to watch as young men maneuvered the home into place using a remote, radio-controlled tractor in much the same fashion as Jim would maneuver a radio-controlled hobby plane.

The more remarkable thing was the operator's ability to achieve this in almost darkness as the minutes wore on avoiding trees, scrubs, and a small shed on the perimeter of the lot, not to mention our awning.  All this with two halves of a home 57 feet long and probably 12 feet wide!

The new home's color is delightful.  A soft green is accented with white trim, and this gives us a pleasant enough view even though we were spoiled by a year of enjoying an empty lot beside us.  The birds, rabbits and squirrels will likewise have an adjustment to make in their territory.

It turns out the new owner's name is also Jim.  Hers is Linda.  They are moving here from Arizona to be closer to their daughter.  Similarities that are not hard to miss.  We will watch them settle in over the next few weeks, once their home is put together from these two halves that just arrived in the night.  Brand new with a huge front porch, their home is definitely a plus in the neighborhood.

Ours is progressing in that direction too.  We have demolished our kitchen and hauled it out the door to the dump.  A wall has come down.  We are painting and papering.  But that is a story for the next post.

Until then, we'll "leave the light on" out on our front door porch, awaiting the arrival of Jim and Linda.

Snow Play

There is something quite refreshing about the first view of undisturbed, newly fallen snow.  The world looks fresh and hopeful with all of its blemishes and winter dreariness camouflaged.  Such was the scene we beheld this morning when we awoke to a white wonderland of three inches of fresh snow covering our street and yard.

Snow has a way of bringing out the kid in many of us, especially while living in an area that doesn’t provide it with any regularity.  Though we didn’t actually go out and immerse ourselves in it, even at our age snow evokes memories of play when we were younger.

Jim remembers a time in the winter when he was a child playing outside with his pals on just such a day.  First they created the boundaries of a huge circle by making footprints in the snow.  Then they intersected the circle with cross paths through the center from several points along the circle’s boundary.  Within this now defined play area, next they invented their modified rules for a typical game of tag.  Adding a requirement that players must stay on the paths of the circle in order to “tag” someone, with some ingenuity the magic of snow yielded hours of play.

When I was quite young, my parents, my brother, and I built a huge snowman in the front yard with a hat, stick arms, carrot nose, and its eyes and mouth made of black rocks.  Overlooking our father’s Ford dealership that was situated across the street from our home, the snowman survived for days to wave at my dad while he worked.  I remember singing “Frosty The Snowman” over and over again to our creation, while he stood guard over us.

On another occasion, I purposely buried a toy in the snow in the same yard, only to lose track of it as more snow fell.  Impatiently, I had to wait for weeks until the snow melted enough to find it, imagining during the entire interval that “snow gremlins” were stealing it from me. 

As we grew older, my brother and I collaborated to build rooms with an igloo type of roof and door, calling them snow forts.  Once frozen, these temporary shelters could provide entertainment for days before they melted.  Ultimately, we surrounded them with more walls of snow.  Then these forts spawned snowball fights, along with hide and seek games.

Once during our youth, upstate New York received several feet of snow during one weather event.  The snow was so deep, my father borrowed a neighbor’s bulldozer to plow us out.  School was closed for days.  As children, we were delighted.  Living on a farm surrounded by hills, we created our own ski run, and rode downhill with our cousins on our father’s homemade toboggan for hours in the snow.

If I could go back in time, it would be to those fresh and hopeful, newly fallen snow moments, when no cares mattered except devising the rules of play in nature’s perfect playground.

Lose The Fat

In a magazine I found irresistible in the check-out line of the grocery store a few days ago, Dr. Oz’s January/February issue of “The Good Life” has an article on losing ten pounds in 21 days.  I don’t usually subscribe to fad diets, but this one is worth mentioning because some of the recipes I’ve tried so far from this article are really quite delicious.

One premise of the article is that prepping food ahead of time leads to less of the temptation style of eating.  Prepping also lends itself to avoiding the versions of eating where you “grab something quick” (usually the kind of food that falls into the realm of unhealthy or fattening) because you don’t want to make something from scratch at the end of a day.  The article also suggests storage in square containers, which I find are so much more efficient when it comes to space in the refrigerator.  Note:  Zip Lock has some nice square containers that hold about four cups.  I supplemented my stash of multi-sized and multi-shaped containers with about a dozen of these for storing the article’s “prep day” recipes.  Having about three more would have worked even better.

So far we have tried and liked the “bean chili”, “berries to go” and “container salad” while strictly following the regime for the first two days of the diet.  Indeed, I have lost a pound and Jim has dropped two, already!  Personally, I really liked all three of these recipes.  Jim is tolerating the “diet”, but I suspect the anti-inflammatory and weight loss features of this choice of foods is more to his liking than the abundance of veggies and lack of potato chips!

The recipes are filling, satisfying and sustain us until the next meal, although they are served in smaller proportions than we usually consume.  I don’t know if we will lose the ten pounds, nor if we will be able to maintain the regime, but it is tempting.

If you do try this, know that some of the items are a tiny challenge to find in the grocery store.  One item, called tempeh, required a stop at my local organic health food/co-op grocery store’s freezer department.  Stocking up on some of the staples ran up the cost a bit, but aside from that we are off and running (figuratively speaking) with the diet.  I’ll let you know how it turns out. 

      

Saving Terry

My niece has an urban farm on their acreage in Edgewood, Washington, near Puyallup.  She and her husband have done amazing things since moving to the property.  Once overrun with blackberry bushes, the backyard chicken coop has taken on an entirely new and self-sustaining purpose.  Over the time that they have lived there, goats, ducks, turkeys, chickens, pigs, dogs and cats have called this place home with this incredible family, thriving under the care and attention of their new owners.

Recently, my niece attended her first livestock auction.  Her first purchase was what appears to be a Muscovy duck she has named Terry.  Poor Terry was covered in poo, dragging her wings on the ground, and limping when she arrived at the farm.  Erika feared she would not last long.

One month has passed since Terry’s arrival.  Her limp has disappeared; clean wings tuck up along her body, and her feathers are flossy.  She is even laying eggs.  My niece says, “Perhaps she is semi-useless, and will just cost money to feed, however we don’t care.  She will live out her life eating slugs, and eventually will move into the garden this spring with all the other ducks.  Best $7 that I’ve spent!”

I love this story.  It appears that Terry is a Muscovie duck.  According to the web, these are the only domestic ducks that are not derived from Mallard stock. They are a South American species. The original (wild type) coloration is black and white, but domestication has produced many more colors, including white, black, chocolate, and blue. The males are large, weighing up to twelve pounds, with the smaller females reaching only seven.  Their feet have strong, sharp claws, and are built to grasp, so they can perch on branches.  Some people consider them ugly because of the large, red, warty caruncles above their beak and around their eyes. They are, however, very personable and interesting birds, and quite intelligent. Unlike most domestic waterfowl, Muscovies will often fly up and roost. They fly fairly well, especially the smaller females, but are known more for flying around than flying away!

If I were younger, I would love having a menagerie like this.  But caring for a farm takes lots of physical effort I can no longer muster on a continuing basis.  Enjoying their life vicariously however is awesome.  I only wish they were closer to me than the two-hour drive required from our home.  I’d be over there regularly.  I would most certainly become pals with all of these marvelous creatures, and maybe even a pseudo-mother to my niece and her family-the children I always dreamt of having.