The Flu

It's been a quiet couple of days around here.  DH started getting achy a couple of days ago and it turned into the full blown flu.  I've been up and down with him and sore throat but it hasn't quite latched hold.  We've been laying around napping and watching episodes of Poirot and napping and reading and napping...

I've cranked up the OPC-3 doses, made homemade chicken soup with an added tea strainer full of ground rosehips for the extra vitamin C, and we've been staying hydrated.

We're normally pretty healthy and haven't gotten sick more than once a year or so.  When it hits, we're both miserable.  What do you do for the flu?

Weatherlore for the New Year

I love old books.  One of my favorites is Handbook of Weatherlore from 1873.  It is a compilation of weather sayings and folklore from many different countries.

Here are some excerpts I found interesting.

On cold:
"A kindly good Janiveer freezeth the pot by the feer (fire)."
"The blackest month in all the year, is the month of Janiveer."

On a mild January:
"If the grass grows in Janiveer, it grows the worse for it all the year."
"January blossoms fill no man's cellars." -Portugual

On a dry January:
"When January is dry, the farmer does not complain." -Rhone
"If January be dusty, we shall have to make our granaries of oak." -Italy (oak granaries due to the weight of the ensuing harvest.)

"If one but knew how good it were to eat a pullet in Janiveer, If he had twenty in a flock, He'd leave but one to go with the cock."

"When a woodpecker sings in January, keep your fodder till the morrow for it is a sign of snow or rain."

It was also believed that January weather could foretell the weather and events for the rest of the year.  New Year's Day was the Feast of the Circumcision.  If it falls on a Tuesday, "a stormie winter, a wet summer, a divers harvest, corne and fruite indifferent, yet hearbes in gardens shall not flourish, great sicknesse of men, women, and young children.  Beasts shall hunger, starve and dye of the botch, many shippes, gallies and hullkes shall be lost, and the bloodie flixes shall kill many men, all things deare, save corne."

Kind of a dark prediction, but like any modern day horoscope, all the rest of the days of the week predicted other serious disasters and gloom and doom.  They could all pretty much apply to any year!  Anyway, much more entertaining than the weather channel I think. Okay, I can't resist.  Here's a couple more relating to snow and winter.

"If the sun falls on the snow, there will be snow, and snow, and snow yet again."
"Corn is as comfortable under the snow as an old man in his fur coat." -Russian


What's your local weatherlore?  Do you watch the animals?  The sky or the wind?

Reflections

Today is a day to reflect back on the past year so that tomorrow, we can sit down and put together our goals for 2013.  

Here were some of our blessings and adventures in the past year:

• Bought a new to us truck to help with the move & replace my old Subaru.  We bought it off of craigslist and it had a bad tranny so we bought it without even test driving it!  Luckily everything turned out good once we had a new transmission put in.

• We bought a house in the Northwest, sight unseen so I could go back to college and finish my degree and be closer to family.  The great thing was, when we got here, it had a secret room nobody had told us about!!!  A pantry!  This is half of it, the other half has deeper shelves.  It's about 4' x 10'.  Now I just need to fill it with jars!

• We had doves nesting in the grape arbor.  Loved listening to their cooing.

• Bought a small motorcycle & took a 2 day safety class.  It will be my summer transportation around town.  SO MUCH FUN!

 

• loaded two trucks and two utility trailers and moved with 2 dogs from East of the Mississippi to West of the continental divide!

• Went to my brother’s wedding and got to meet my new sister-in law for the first time.

• Celebrated our 13^th anniversary!

• Did a batch of 30 broiler chickens.  We learned a lot, but next time, we'll do cornish cross rather than broilers.  We weren't satisfied with our ROI on this project.

• Started Crossfit.  Very challenging and I'm getting stronger!

• My sister visited for Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful visit and we had fun visiting a Japanese garden.

• We ended up with 7 thanksgiving turkeys due to a craigslist adventure, 4 Royal Palms are still out in the pasture and 13 free laying hens from another craigslist adventure.

• Made butter for the first time in my great-grandmother’s churn.

• Got to spend Christmas at my folk’s with the whole family. We saw a bald eagle setting in the cottonwoods in the back yard, went moonlight sledding, and spent plenty of time with friends and family!

 May your 2013 be blessed with mistakes, adventures, good food, good friends, fellowship, love, laughter, and opportunity.

Welcome & food smoking

Welcome to Provender Place!  Here I’d like to share wholesome food, a few of our adventures, our urban gardening, the poultry, and nourishment for the soul. 

Today is cold and the snowflakes are so fat and lazy, they don’t seem to want to fall to the ground, just swirl softly through the air.  So I think this afternoon, after a lunch of beef and veggie stew and a nap, is the perfect time to organize our smoking project for next week.  I have two turkeys, a rack of ribs, some almonds, and some jerky I’d like to smoke.   And anything else interesting you may suggest!  I’ve got a book about smoking and a couple of websites to check out so I can make my ingredient lists for the brines or rubs.  Then I’ll write down the times so that everything can be ready at the same time.

What are some of your favorite smoked foods/ rubs/ techniques?  Oh, and anybody smoked cheese?  That might be another fun one to do.