“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day 6 (Tuesday)
Okay, I’m starting to lose track of time. I have to put the day of the week in the title to remember where I am in documenting our stay.
This morning we woke to a skiff of snow. It was cloudy most of the day, but the Sun came out mid-day. It never got very warm, though. The high was around freezing. And now, about 7:00 p.m. the wind is really blowing. The wind generator is furling often which means winds of about 40 mph. A “furl” is when the tail of the wind turbine turns sideways to the wind, pulling the blades perpendicular to the wind to prevent the generator from burning out in high wind. When this happens the generator makes a noise like a low “hummmmm”.
We had poached eggs over ham for breakfast. We skipped lunch. And we had chicken that we cooked on a rotisserie in front of the fire for dinner. Yum. There is nothing like a fresh chicken basted with olive oil, salt and pepper, cooked in front of a natural fire. We saw this done in Paul Bocuse’s restaurant in Lyon, France many years ago. You can do what you want to a chicken with sauces, or herbs, or beer cans…but, nothing tastes like this simple recipe. Here are some photos of Rick preparing the chicken, and it cooking.
We got invited out for chile dinner tomorrow night at Larry and Donna’s. We are looking forward to that. We need to talk to them about a proposition to let them use our Internet connection for a few years if we end up moving to New Jersey…but, that is another topic for another post. Dave came over and invited us to lunch on Friday. We seem to have more friends and do more socializing at Sand Creek Park than at our home in Fort Collins!
Mid-day we took the dogs around. Bart did not go. Milli also stayed behind, but outside. We saw some scat that must have been from a big cat down by the pond. Otherwise, a normal walk. We were not terrorized by small furry animals.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/27/2005 at 06:44 PM
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day 5
How time flies! I can’t believe it is day 5 of our 10 or 11 day stay!
First things first, last night’s dinner. We baked a ham glazed with a mixture of apricot preserves, brown sugar, butter, cognac, and ground cloves. Yum. As side dishes we had some fresh green beans and a gratin dauphinois made with Jersey potatoes (white sweet potatoes). And, as a special treat we drank a 1986 Pernand - Vergelesses bottled by Pierre Delachaume that we bought in Beaune, France in the early 1990s. Yum, yum!
Today started as usual. Up before the Sun because the dogs got antsy. So, we peed the dogs, built a fire in the wood stove, made some coffee and started our day. It was breezy overnight and the low got to just below freezing. We had blueberry muffins from a mix for breakfast.
Today’s dog walk was a short one. We just went to the “bottom” and back. It turned out to be a sunny day, relatively warm, probably into the mid-40s, and breezy. We’ve packed the trail well enough that snow shoes were not necessary. As usual, Millennia stayed behind. And, Bart is gimping a bit, so no more long walks for him.
We have been doing great with electricity. It has been sunny the past couple of days and windy every day. We generate as much electricity as we need, and that is good given the use of Christmas lights, hair dryers, the vacuum cleaner, microwave and toaster! To be fully charged by mid-afternoon at the Winter Solstice is pretty impressive. The wind generator was a smart investment.
We had leftover crab-cheese dip for lunch and it was not very good reheated. So, we didn’t eat much. That’s okay because we are having one of our favorite cabin meals beef-barley soup for supper.
This afternoon, I played with my new toy—a Garmin GPS. We took a drive in the truck from the cabin to the state line and back so I could record the path and then play around with it on the GPS and computer. On the way back we passed a muskrat running along the side of the road. I stopped the truck and got out to look at it. It is a small furry critter with a long rat-like tail. It’s fur is beautiful. Anyway, I was following it across the grassy land down by Sand Creek and it was running away from me. Suddenly, it turned, stood up on it’s hind legs, waved it arms at me and charged me! It really scared me so I backpeddled as fast as I could across the rough ground. As long as I went backward, it kept charging! You can image what that looked like—a 215 pound guy being chased by a 2 pound furry critter! Lynne laughed. Once it quit chasing me I got my camera and followed it again to get these photos:
Another exciting thing that happened today was the arrival of the Gray-Crowned Rosy Finches. They come in large flocks and swoop down to the feeder and then back up into the trees. We only see them in Winter and today was their first visit.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/26/2005 at 03:57 PM
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Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Christmas Day
It is day 4 at the cabin—Christmas Day!
But first, let’s catch up on yesterday’s news. We watched Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel most of the day—or, at least had them on in the background. Some are pretty silly, but they were fun to watch anyway. We had Zucchini Parmigiana with Tomato Sauce for dinner. I recommend it highly for a pretty quick and easy meal. And, the sauce could go with many things.
And, we just sat and talked and enjoyed our Christmas tree and a nice fire.
As usual, we took the dogs out around sunset for a short walk and a chance to pee (for the dogs). The sunset was beautiful!
This morning, around 5:00 a.m. Sam woke up and was ready to get on with the day. We could hear him running around the cabin “chirping” (a funny noise he makes). He was knocking things onto the floor, playing with the packages under the tree, and tormenting the other cats. We finally got up, peed the dogs, fired up the wood stove, made some coffee and settle down to our Christmas morning routine…
Which starts with the dogs opening their package. And, they know what is going on. And, the older dogs are really good at grabbing packages and unwrapping them. Millennia took no time at all to find a package and open it. The others soon followed her lead. Here is Daisy opening her package.
When the dogs were done, Lynne and I opened our gifts. We had a great Christmas morning.
Lynne then made her famous Smoked Salmon Soufflé—a Christmas morning tradition for us. We really enjoy it with a bottle of Champagne. We called family to thank them for gifts and wish them the best. Then, it was off on a nice walk “around” with the dogs. The day was bright and sunny with just a breeze. It was probably close to 45° when we took our walk. Showers, a little cleaning, then playing with our new toys topped off the afternoon. As before, you can see many more photos of our time at the cabin by clicking here and going to the photo gallery.
We now have a ham in the oven. We’ll cook up some potatoes in a bit and have a nice Christmas dinner.
We hope everyone had as great a day as we did. Merry Christmas everyone!
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/25/2005 at 03:08 PM
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Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day 3
It is Saturday, December 24th. Christmas Eve!
Last night we had company for eggnog and cookies. Two of the full-time couple from Sand Creek Park came over for a couple of hours. It was a great time. Good eggnog, good cookies, Donna brought some candy, and Deb brought some spicy peanuts. The dogs all had their Christmas stuff on and after showing off a bit, settled down and were really good.
Since we have lots of photos, and are likely to take more, I decided to create an image gallery of photos rather than post each one here. So, to view photos of our Christmas at the Cabin just follow this link. I’ll update it with new photos once in a while.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t also post a photo here once in a while! Here is Bart, about to take off and lead Santa’s sleigh:
As our guests were leaving (they have to back out of our curved driveway because there is no turn-around area) Dave dropped his left-rear tire off the edge of the driveway. I did that once with Beastie my Ford F150 with a snow plow on it. The more you try to get loose, the further off the driveway you tend slip. So, Larry had to hook up to Dave’s Jeep and pull him back onto the driveway. The advantage of this little slip is that the snow next to the driveway is now beaten down and I don’t have to worry about drifts as much!
It was windy overnight and is windy again today. As I write this, about 11:00 a.m. it is 31° outside. It is cloudy and looks threatening, but there are no predictions of snow. In any case, we have plenty of electricity. So, we are about to sit down and watch some Christmas movies on TV.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/24/2005 at 10:56 AM
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Friday, December 23, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day 2
Today was busy. We got up and had a breakfast of fried eggs, Canadian bacon and toasted English muffins. Then, we strapped on the snowshoes and took the dogs “around”. That is what we call our usual walk from the cabin north to the pond along one side of the valley and then back up the other side to the road that bisects our land. From there, we walk the road back to the cabin. It is about 1/4 mile altogether. It was windy!
Here is a photo of the pond in winter:
Here are a couple of photos of us rewarding the dogs for sticking close.
We cleaned the cabin and Lynne started on preparing for company later tonight. Throughout the afternoon she made two kinds of cookies plus some home made eggnog. Somewhere in the middle of that she made slug salad, which is a favorite and tasted great with a glass of white wine.
I cleaned some, and put the presents under the tree. After the cookies were done and the dogs were fed their dinner, Lynne decorated the mantle. Now we are just relaxing a bit before we heat up some home made tamales for dinner. After that, we’ll have some friends over for eggnog and cookies.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/23/2005 at 04:12 PM
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