In my continuing effort to figure out how to cook for two rather than the masses, I have decided that the freezer is my friend. My husband pulled out some of this year's elk breakfast sausage from the freezer this week, wanting to try it out. "Can you fix me some of this for breakfast?" I looked at the package and all I can think is, "What the heck am I going to do with the rest of the package after he has one little sausage patty for breakfast?" So I decided to cook all the sausage at once and assemble some kind of freezer breakfast sandwich thing. I could kill two birds with one stone, right? Use up the sausage and have something ready-made for his breakfasts. Win-win. I used this recipe as a base, substituting my exotic sausage for the pre-made patties and it worked pretty well. My sandwiches aren't as nice and flat-ish, but we made it work.
I have also started freezing some of our dinner leftovers in little containers for distributing to my college kids when I see them.
The only trouble I'm running into is that at the moment, freezer space is at a premium. I'm allotted one dedicated shelf to use for baking and freezer meals. The rest of the space is occupied by the meats.
So around here this week, it hasn't been quite as warm as last week, but still the bulbs are pushing onward.
I was also really surprised to see the hollyhocks starting up, since this is a fairly shaded area of my yard.
Played with a little paper this week. With December's recap pages done, I am totally finished with 2015 and with my use of the Project Life app now to document daily life, I can kiss this project good-bye. As I have said, I liked the approach but I really missed the daily, more mundane details that were missed with it. I compiled all the pages into one image, since you've seen most of the pictures before in previous blog posts.
And Week 8's Project Life App pictures. You have also seen most of these pictures, but I'm so excited at how well this is working for me I just have to post the finished pages.
This is the other side. You can see that one photo is blocked out at one of my kids' request. This documents filing layout copies, a funeral I attended last week. My aunt passed away and I spent some time with my cousins, some of which I haven't seen for many years. On the bottom were pictures Eric texted me from a conference he attended in Arizona, and Emmett playing with the drinking fountain at church.
From the kids and grandkids this week, another picture of Eric in Arizona last week. That's a pretty big cactus!
And the full view of Emmett's picture.
Collin's wife texted me this series of pictures with the caption, "This is what happens when Mom makes a shopping list."
James can apparently dismantle quite a bit in a short period of time.
I can tell you that this brought back a LOT of memories for me.
DDIL #4 also texted me pictures of Isaac. She made some "stop" and "go" signs and then they had dance party with them.
I actually love the blur in these photos, because they give the impression of just how much Isaac moves.
I mentioned in a post last week that there were parts of our most recent cabin excursion that might be classified as just a little dangerous. That happened when we left to come home on President's Day.
I was on a snowmobile and my husband was driving the rhino. We had made the decision to leave in the afternoon. That was probably the wrong decision because the temperatures were warm again and the snow was mushy. Not optimal conditions for traveling over the snow, but we really didn't think it would be that bad. My machine is faster than the rhino, so imagine my surprise when I came up to this in my way. That's about 8 or 9 feet of snow blocking the road. I'm thinking to myself, "Hmmmmm, this wasn't here the other day...." And it wasn't. We came in without a hitch. And while I'm thinking that, I hear a swirling, swishing sound and watch another snow slide come down just on the other side of this one. So #1 I'm scared, because from my perspective it feels like all the snow all over the mountain could come down on top of me at any minute, and I'm trapped because there's a huge wall of snow blocking the road. And #2, I'm wondering how we're going to get home because there's no trail up over this snow slide. We're the first ones over it. So my husband finally arrives in the rhino and moves me and the machines back away from the slide, in the shelter of a very large tree that would break up any more snow coming down off the mountain. (Have I mentioned lately how grateful I am to have married a mountain man, hunting fetish aside?) It's hard to see because he's wearing camo, but in this picture, he's wandering over the slide, assessing the best way over and deciding if it's just safer to turn around and go back to the cabin.
In the end, he determined that we could probably get us and the machines over it, whereupon I informed him that there was no way I was driving any vehicle of any type over that. He took the snowmobile over no problem. The rhino was another matter. It got stuck once, but eventually, with quite a bit of shoveling, the Mountain Man won against the elements.
Me? I strapped on some snowshoes that we have started carrying with us whenever we travel to the cabin in the winter, (good thing, too) and I proceed to carefully pick my way over, pausing for photo documentation, of course. This is the view up the mountain as I'm on the top of the first slide. It was about 20 yards wide.
My husband dragging the sled over the second slide to where the snowmobile and the rhino are presently waiting for us. This second one wasn't as high or wide as the first one. Now to be fair, there are always snow slides in this location at some point during the winter. It's just that I've never been quite as up close and personal with them when they are brand new. Usually multiple people have been over them and made a trail for us to follow. We are perfectly content not to be first in this arena.
This is a wider view of the mountain. Perhaps I should also mention to those that have read my blog from early days, that this is the area of the trail where I went up over a slide and ended up in the creek, so my anxiety level about tackling this was pretty high. I had my scare for the day and we did eventually get home safely, but what usually takes us about an hour getting from the cabin to the trailhead, took about 3 1/2 hours with multiple prayers included.
Continuing with the narrative from our President's Day trip, Evan's family went home and we woke up the next morning to this.
I really love this powdered-sugar-dusting look of snow on the trees. As is our usual custom, my husband and I went out for a walk when the snow settled down some.
This entailed snowshoes and we decided to walk down across the wooden bridge to the river past the corral here. Those fences are about 5 1/2 feet high so you can get an idea of the amount of snow. The only problem was that there was no trail that direction yet and with the warm temperatures held in by the snow clouds, and the mushy snow, it was a slog to get there. I may have accused my husband of trying to kill me at one point. I would have thought that my work on the elliptical most mornings would have made this easier, but...no.
My mountain man husband is very patient with me on these walks. He'll mush on ahead and then wait for me to catch up, thus not leaving me totally as bait for any random predators that might be roaming around....not that we saw any evidence of that besides some random coyote tracks. I think I could take a coyote if I had to. Here he's walked across the wooden bridge.
I stopped in the middle of it to take my favorite view picture. There's at least 4 feet of snow on the bridge.
On the way back from the river, I got a video that I've been trying to get for a couple of years....Ollie rolling in the snow. He does this at regular intervals up at the cabin. I'm not sure if it's just a game, or if he's trying to cool off, or what but it's fun to watch.
The end is in sight, and it was a good thing because my legs were screaming at this point.
Here you can see that the snow is totally off the roof....and that meant that I could open my kitchen cupboards all the way. :)
The snow was disappearing from other roofs as well.
So around here this week, it quite honestly hasn't been the best of weeks for a variety of reasons. I know everyone's blog/Pinterest/Instagram life is beautiful and perfect, but sometimes it just isn't.
OK, I had a birthday, and in actuality the birthday part of it was great. I'm pretty realistic about birthdays and am, in fact, grateful to have them as it beats the alternative all to heck. All my children checked in, and some of my grandkids even called and Face Timed to sing to me. I understand that there was a group text message that went around all the kids reminding each other to call me. I have great kids and I love them. Totally separate from the wonderful part of my birthday was some news I received which may require sorting through via a Stuff I Know post at some point. Suffice it to say, I got my feelings hurt but I'm putting it away.
This is happening, and I can't make it stop because
this has been happening. Actually, I'm really OK with this level of things. It's just that if it keeps up the peach tree will bud out and this is Idaho, not Georgia, and these temperatures won't last forever before they head for the basement again. I'd really like some peaches off my tree this year. Evan and his wife gave us a secret weapon for Christmas, though, to help in the event the peach tree doesn't recognize that it's not time to bud yet. I will document it if we have to break it out.
These came from my hubby. Sort of a late Valentine/early birthday deal. A really fun, festive color combo that makes me smile when I see them.
And these from Evan's family, also really pretty.
My paper productivity was somewhat limited. There was some behind-the-scenes work on putting away some new stamps and filing away some layout copies I'd had made, though.
From the kids and grandkids this week I got this picture of Emmett. Apparently, emptying the wipes container is a rite of passage among my grandkids. :)
A cute pink dinosaur valentine from him and his sisters.
My middle boys were able to get their families together over the long weekend so Isaac and James were able to play together. Their families have done this off and on since they only live about 2 hours apart. That will come to an end this summer, though, as Collin has received a new Air Force assignment. He's headed for warmer climes. In fact, he'll be not terribly far (by California standards) from where I grew up.
I got this little text valentine from Isaac.
And this video from James' mama. Puddles are magical.
Nothing from Bryce this week, but I'm hoping to change that in a day or so.
My daughter checked in with this picture of her haircut this week. It might not look all that different, and really it was only a trim, but any time we can accomplish any change of hair without the routine crisis that has accompanied this type of event in the past, it's a good thing.
So let me refresh your memory as to what the snow on the cabin roof looked like on our first winter trip in this year.
That's close to 3 1/2 feet up there....all over the roof....pressing down on it. I can't calculate the weight of all that snow up there. Maybe Eric can...that's right up his alley, but I can tell you that it's so heavy that some of my kitchen cupboards wouldn't open very far, and some of the bi-fold closet doors weren't working quite right. We realized that at some point during the weekend, the roof would probably warm up enough that at least some of the snow would slide off.
We also realized that it probably wouldn't be the relatively gentle sliding that often happens a little bit at a time like it did here. Even here, if you got hit by these chunks of snow it wouldn't feel good.
And we were right. We instituted a "no playing" area and sure enough, with a rumble to shake the house, the snow broke loose and slid in huge, jagged slabs off the roof.
Some of these pieces were 10-12 feet long and solid chunks.
Even at that, only half of it came off at a time. Hard to see here, but the front half of the snow is gone, the back half is still there. Interesting the formation, too. You can see definite layers in the snow. We wondered if that was separate storms that moved through, or just the way it settled. The back half eventually came off as well, with another earthquake-like shake and crash.
Now, to give you an idea of what that much snow coming off can do, that's a squished tree on the right there.
And this is a tree that's 6-8 inches in diameter. Snapped it like a twig. Just like it would your neck if you were standing right there.
As I have mentioned, we spent the holiday weekend up at the cabin. Evan's boys didn't have school, but Evan had to work, so we began the day with a trek into the cabin, taking Evan's wife and boys with us.
Edward and Frederick found the snowbank at the trailhead a great place to play. Who doesn't love lounging on a good snowbank?
We made it in without too much trouble. I drove a snowmobile and my husband drove the rhino with everyone else. They had a squishy, but uncomplicated ride. Two of the boys even fell asleep which, given how loud the rhino motor is, is pretty amazing in and of itself. Maybe it was the ear protection that helped with that. When we got there the men went to work dragging things over the snow, which is still really deep.
In this instance, the men were my husband and Edward. Grandpa would put things in the sled, and Edward would drag them to the cabin, while Grandpa carried a load of stuff in his arms. The system worked pretty darn well and Edward was an excellent sled hauler.
Evan got there in the evening after work, which entailed my husband going back to the trailhead to ride in with him, since we like to work with the buddy system as much as possible. Good thing, since one of the snowmobiles started acting up and they ended up changing out spark plugs (my husband, the eagle scout tries his best to be prepared) in the middle of the trail in the dark....alone....by themselves. (Obscure movie reference which will start my family quoting other George C. Scott "A Christmas Carol" lines. Oh yes.) By then the cabin was pretty warm on the inside, both due to the wood stoves, which can really crank out the heat once they get going, and the warmer temperatures we had in the days between the last cabin trip and this one. The warmer temperatures will become problematic as future stories unfold. "Oh yes." Sorry...another quote.
Saturday was a gorgeous day. I toyed with the idea of working on some more blocks for a long-neglected quilting project,
but in the end the temptation to get outside with the boys won out and we made a trek to the river along the trail we've made on our various snowshoe outings.
It was a great day for playing King of the Hill,
and for some snow swimming. As an aside, Andrea let me know that she can never see the videos I post here. Is anyone else having problems with that? I post them as "unlisted" to youtube, but was under the impression that if I embedded them here, they could be seen even if they're not public. Anyone? Andrea, I'm not sure what's going on...
Roger also got in on the whole snow throwing thing. When he was done with this, he spent some time sucking the snow off his gloves.
Lunchtime rolled around and it was time to head on back, mushing our way through the snow...or maybe it's technically only Ollie that can mush. I'm not sure whether snowshoes qualify as instruments of mushing. When I tell you that it was warmer last weekend, you might look at all that snow and not believe me.
But this is where we had lunch. No coats, no hats, no gloves. Yep, that warm...in the Idaho mountains....in mid-February.
Just a quick post today. We were at the cabin over the President's Day weekend and it was good. It was also eventful...and startling....and maybe even a little bit dangerous, but that's a story for another day. I needed to play catch up on the laundry and such yesterday and just didn't have time to do a bunch of photo cropping, editing and typing out the stories.
But, I'll put up the pages from the Project Life App. Week 7 and I'm still current. In all honesty, in the 6 or 7 years I've been using this system I've never been this consistently current before so...yay. This is the left side, and you've seen many of these photos already. All but the bottom right one which was taken by my daughter during her day at the Sportsmen's Expo in Salt Lake. You have no idea how true the sentiment is that I put on it.
And the right side, which documents mostly our trip to the cabin. There are stories that go along with these that will be told in the coming days. I'll just focus on one particular story.
Here's a closer view of one of the pictures. Frederick's stitches came out during our time there. He was very brave while my son undid his handiwork...with my needlework scissors. My husband is not holding his head down, he's keeping the mid-afternoon sun out of Frederick's eyes.
It's Valentine's Day! I hope you have those you love around you! I'm thinking a little Valentine retrospective is in order....just for fun. I was actually kind of surprised that there were several years I didn't take any valentine pictures at all....mother guilt. So here we go, some valentine's day pictures over the years.
