So Close!

You know how laundry is a never ending chore? Well, the other day an amazing thing happened at our house.  We saw something we don't see very often.  Rumor has it, lots of families don't see this very often.

The bottom of the dirty clothes hamper.

We have two hampers at our house.  They were both empty.  While that does happen at our house from time to time, it never lasts more than a couple of hours.

This occasion was made a bit more amazing by the fact that the washer was also empty.

And what was even more incredible, the dryer was also empty!

Alas, it was not quite perfect.  The basket still had a few things in it.  But it was, oh, so, close!  Even if only for a just a little while.

Since There's Plenty of Snow ...

We've had a lot of snow in February, a record setting amount of snow.  We just had a storm that left 7.7 inches and that's on top of more than 37 inches we had before that.   I'm not sure what the total is so far but it's got to be getting close to 50 inches. And there's another storm coming that's supposed to leave up to 3 more inches.

We have more snow in the yard than we've had for quite a while.

Our snowfall got off to a slow start this winter but then it really picked up and we're more than caught up now.

So I'm thinking, hey!  Snow makes the best homemade ice cream.  Smooth, creamy, delicious.  I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about snow that makes better ice cream.  Maybe its because it's finer than ice, I don't know.  But it makes much better ice cream.

So there was plenty of snow but we didn't have any heavy cream.  And we couldn't go get any because it was Sunday.  But the internet came to the rescue and I found a substitute that called for ingredients that we did have so it was full steam ahead!

So I threw everything together, found the rock salt, and got the churn going.  As I worked the snow and salt while the thing churned away, I'd look through the lid now and then and see that it wasn't setting up very much.  That was a worry.

But after about half an hour it began to set up and by the time I stopped it at an hour it had set up very nicely.  I was really glad we had an electric churn and that the power was back on.  We had started the day without electricity because of the storm. All that cranking by hand would have been an awful lot of work.

When it was all done I set it out on the back porch to stay cold until we were ready for it.  Some recipes call for setting the ice cream aside to "set", to firm up.  But each time I've made ice cream with this maker it really hasn't needed that. We were just waiting while we finished up getting dinner on the table and eaten.

Then it was dessert, some really yummy blueberry ice cream.  Another success.  I like that! We might have to do this more often!

Winter Wonder Land

A big ice storm was predicted for Saturday and into Sunday, today.  The snow isn't so much a problem.  Its the ice.  It gets on things, like trees, bushes, the road, and power lines. Power lines are the thing.  Ice gets on them, they get heavy, and they break.  Early this morning the power went out.  It was about 2:00 am when it went out.  I sleep with a machine and when the power goes off it wakes me up because I can't breath anymore.  It woke a few of us up this morning.  You could hear lines and trees snapping, in the front of the house you could see blue electric light flashing out front somewhere, and hear the electricity sizzling.  Kind of exciting for a few minutes.  Then it was quiet.  We all hoped the power would come right back on but no such luck. So Bombeere took a couple of pictures outside and we all eventually went back to bed and to sleep.

It started getting light around 7:00 am.  The bedroom window had frosted over a bit.  The house had cooled off some but I couldn't tell what the temperature was because the thermostat is electric and was dark.

I had slept kind of fitfully since the power went off.  One of the things that my mind had grabbed a hold of, and got stuck on, was the fact that our space heater was out in the garage, along with the kerosene to run it, but that meant I had to find it.

That was a daunting task, especially without the lights to be able to see with.  So I got dressed, grabbed a little camp lantern, and took it out to the garage to start looking.  I was able to see the heater right away. It was getting to it that proved a challenge.  You can actually see both the heater and the kerosene can in this picture, they're just behind everything and up high.

It took me a few minutes to dig a path to them, but I was able to get them both out.  The can proved to be empty but it felt like there was still some kerosene in the heater.  So I brought it up to where I could work on it and went in the house to get some stuff to clean it up.  The plan was to clean it up and get it fired up and working and then go back out and find the other kerosene cans to see if any of them had anything in them.  The power company was estimating that the power would be back on around 10:00 am. Happy thing, though.  While I was inside getting some stuff to clean with the power came back on.  So I traded my cleaning tools for my camera and took some pictures.

It was hard to tell just how much new snow had fallen because it was still blowing pretty hard.  The snow was still falling, too.  We're supposed to get winds over 50 mph today.  Blizzard conditions.  All the emergency services and law enforcement agencies are saying travel is extremely dangerous, don't go out in your cars; they can't come rescue anyone that gets stuck.  This time, a little more extreme than the towing bans that have become so common around here recently.

Out the garage back door, where we haven't shoveled all winter, it looked pretty deep.  These stacks of tires are four tires tall.

Lots of snow piled up on everything.

Ice coating the branches and wires.  But it wasn't all that cold, as winter around here goes, about 33 degrees.

The thermostat was back on, the cheerful sound of the furnace quietly heating the house back up could be heard.  The house was only a few degrees cooler than where we usually keep it.

I went around to reset clocks but only found two that needed it, the microwave and stove.

All the rest were either battery clocks or had reset themselves.  I like that kind of clock, the kind that reset themselves.  After giving our hot water heater a little time to get back up to its usual heat, everything was back to normal.  And that was the end of our adventure into the world of no electricity.  I like that our community has a reliable power system. In the ten or twelve years we've lived here this is only the second or third time we've lost power in a storm.  That's a happy thing.

Like the Little Red Hen

I've been thinking that we ought to figure out how to start using the wheat we bought quite a while ago and have been hanging onto ever since.  Like a long time ago.  A real long time ago.  We've moved number of times and hauled it with us each time.  Several years ago we repacked most of it, taking it out of the metal cans it came in and repackaged it into vacuum packed bags.  The cans were beginning to rust and we wanted to keep it away from the rust.  At the time, food storage was a big deal in our stake and the stake had acquired a vacuum packing system and was encouraging everyone to get and store some wheat.  Well, we already had the wheat but we took the opportunity to repack it.  And then it all went back into storage.

So I've been thinking we ought to start using it.  A few years back we bought a little wheat grinder.  We went through all the gyrations of wondering whether to get a hand grinder or an electric grinder.  I have used a hand grinder before.  Its a lot of work.  But what if there's no power when you have to dip into your food storage and grind your wheat?  Yeah.  In the end we got the electric.  We used it a time or two and then it, also, went into the storeroom.

Then just in the last day or two we bought a bunch more wheat from some friends in the ward.  So today I decided to be about it and do something.

I knew where the grinder was, I had found it (Yes, the storeroom is that bad) not too long ago.  But I wasn't entirely sure where the wheat was.  I wanted to use the oldest wheat, and I kind of thought it was in the garage.  But I wasn't sure.

So I went out to that mess of a garage of ours and decided to start looking.  Winter time, when its cold and you don't want to spend any  more time out there than you have to so if you need to put anything away you just find a quick spot where it will be more or less out of the way and set it down.  Yeah, that garage.

But this time my memory was pretty good.  I started looking in the first place I thought it was and, when it wasn't there, I moved to a nearby spot and there it was.  So I cleared off the tub it was in, grabbed a bag, and brought it in the house.

I had dug out the grinder and brought it upstairs so the next step was to open the bag and see if it was still any good.

I opened it.  It looked pretty normal, like it did when we put it in the bags, as near as I remembered.

So I dug the grinder out of its box, took a quick look at the instructions, and put it together.  I started it, poured a cup of wheat it, and suddenly wheat flour was spraying across the counter.

Note to self: Next time make sure the lid is on tight before pouring the wheat into the grinder.

Fortunately, the mess wasn't too big, just on the counter, my lap, and the floor a little.

So I cleaned up my mess, rechecked all the connections on the grinder, and made sure the lid was on tight.  Then I turned it on again (the instructions said to turn it on before pouring any wheat in) and poured another cup of wheat in.

This time it went well, no flour flying around.  The plan was to grind all the wheat in the pouch so I started pouring it in as the grinder pulled it down.  The pouch held enough wheat that I had to empty the container once a little after about the half way point, and then continue.

So that left me with a little more flour than would fit in the container I had gotten.  I figured that wouldn't be too much of a problem because the bread would take most of the extra.

Next step was to dig the bread maker out from its storage place  At least it was upstairs and not down in the storeroom.  So I dug it out, cleaned it up, and put all the ingredients in.  I initially was going to just use the basic white bread recipe that I had tucked in the bread-maker but Brombeere walked in about then and saved me from myself by explaining that simply using wheat flour in a white bread recipe was not a good idea.  Well, I was already a step or two into it but I quick found a basic wheat bread recipe and started over.  The recipe was a little different, but still pretty simple.  And still called only for ingredients that I had.  So in everything went.  When it was all in there I turned it on, set the settings for wheat bread, and tucked it back on the counter while it did its thing.

All I have ever made in the bread maker before was basic white bread.  I was a little surprised that the wheat bread took a little longer to mix and cook.  But not too much.

After about three and a half hours we had a nice looking loaf of wheat bread.  Looking pretty promising, at this point.

Came out of the pan pretty good.  Sometimes that's a challenge because of the little paddle in the bottom of the pan but this time it came out quite nicely.

There's few things quite as nice as fresh, warm, home made bread.  For years, when I was a kid, my Mom made a big batch of bread every week.  I grew up on home made bread.  And one tradition that was always observed was that as soon as it came out of the oven we broke one loaf and had hot, buttered bread.  Oh, so yummy.

So we sliced off a couple pieces, let a little butter melt into it, poured on a little honey, and sat back to enjoy it.

A very nice culmination to the day's effort.  Home made bread.  There's nothing quite like it.  We might have to do this again.

Commonplace Book

A Commonplace Book. “Commonplace”, from the Latin 'locus communis', meaning “a theme or argument of general application.”  For me, it is a collection of thoughts, ideas, anecdotes, poems, observations, and quotes that stood out and caught my attention, some with comment, some without. Essentially a scrapbook, a repository of thoughts too good to just pass over and let go.

“Wisdom is free, yet it is also the most expensive thing there is, for we tend acquire it through failure or disappointment or grief. That is why we try to share our wisdom, so that others will not have to pay the price for it that we paid.”

(Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Things Judaism has Taught Me about Life, 25 January 2019) 

“So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which these differences can be resolved.”

(John F Kennedy, Commencement Address at the American University, Washington DC, June 10, 1963) 

“We can keep the commandments and still have bad things happen. So why bother?
“Because we’ll never know what we are being protected from through our obedience. Because it helps free us from a life of self-inflicted wounds.”

(Lori Fuller Sosa, The Gospel: An Eternal Life Hack, Ensign, January 2019) 

“God’s plan includes directions for us, referred to in the scriptures as commandments. These commandments are neither a whimsical set nor an arbitrary collection of imposed rules meant only to train us to be obedient. They are linked to our developing the attributes of godliness”

(Dale G Renlund, Choose You This Day, October Conference 2018) 

“There's no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone.”

(Author unknown) 

“The Lord watches over you. You need not suppose for a moment the Lord's eye is not upon you, the angels round about you, and they will take care of you and you may be peaceful and contented.”

(Brigham Young, Sermon at the Funeral of Mary Fielding Smith, September 23, 1852) 

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns.”

(Spencer W Kimball, “What I Hope You Will Teach My Grandchildren …, ” address to LDS seminary and institute personnel, July 11, 1966.) 

“The word of the gospel as it is preached and learned is, for each of us, the beginning. “Knowing” alone is not always sufficient to bring the promised light. We have to live by every word.”

(Barbara B Smith, General Relief Society Pres, Application of Welfare Principles in the Home: A Key to Many Family Problems, October Conference 1982) 

“In this day and age, with all the information that is out there, you have to seek the good stuff, it doesn't find you. You have to find it.”

(Comment made during Sunday School discussion, 6 January 2019)

“He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief."

(Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up, Deseret Book, 2002)

 “[There are] three things that people need — mastery, belonging, and autonomy — I'd add a fourth, after basic necessities have been met. It’s the attitude or the worldview that you bring to life. ... I would call [it] a more abundance-oriented approach, that there's room for everybody to grow.”

(Raj Raghunathan, professor of marketing at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, in his recent book, If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?, quoted from an interview with Joe Pinsker published in The Atlantic April 26, 2016 titled, “Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy”) 

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
(Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967, quoted in Fearless (the biography of Navy SEAL Adam Brown, by Eric Blehm, 2018, 190) 

“All right, Heavenly Father, if I've got to be more patient, let's get it over with right now “

(Bruce C Hafen, describing Neal A Maxwell in his college years in A Disciple's Life, the Autobiography of Neal A Maxwell, Deseret Book 2002, 169) 

“My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.”

(Anne Morrow Lindbergh - 1906-2001, American author, aviator, and wife of Charles Lindbergh)