Sunday 28 October 2012
This week at the Rescue
It was another super quick day at the rescue this week. I cleaned Evan's stall again, and then hung out with him for a bit. I even got him to eat right from my hand! He's getting more used to humans, slowly but surely. I then swept the aisle of the barn, which needs to be done regularly, especially when there are animals in the stalls (as that means that hay and/or straw is being hauled in to the stalls, and you can't help but lose some of it in the aisle on the way there). I didn't mind having a quick day this week, as I had some other running around to do in town before heading home to see Jordan before he left for work.
Thursday 25 October 2012
Fall at Lone Pine Farm
We are now well in to fall; I can't deny it any longer. The leaves are changing colour and falling off the trees, the sun is feeling weaker, and we are expecting that the highest temperature next week will be around +5 C.
As the weather gets cooler, I start thinking about soup more often. I made another big pot of Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup, and this time I tossed in half a green pepper we had in the fridge. It was tasty :)
Our neighbour has three Black Angus cows, who will likely be going for slaughter soon. Zim doesn't usually notice them, but this past Wednesday, they came right up to this side of their field, and Zim went NUTS. I had to stop him from crawling under the fence twice! There's a field between the road and the cows, and the cow field is kind of hilly, so often they are out of sight, or can't be seen from Zim's eye level.
One night last week, Jordan was outside with Zim and I heard a quiet "pop" then small, hard objects hitting the logs on the side of the house. Jordan came in and said that the lightbulb we had outside exploded. Luckily, he wasn't standing near it at the time! So last weekend, we picked up two motion sensor lights. We ran in to some problems trying to install this one, so I talked to my friend and coworker (who is also an electrician), and she gave me some very helpful hints for installing it. So Wednesday, I put it up :)
The furnace/fireplace is coming on more and more often, and the heavy cast iron top holds the heat for a good while after it's turned off. The cats have taken to hanging out on top of the fireplace, where they enjoy the residual heat.
This past weekend, Jordan and I worked together to install a soffit to increase the air flow in the roof to try and prevent ice dams from forming this winter. Between the existing soffits, this new one, and the vents Dad and I installed, we're hoping we won't run in to any problems.
Zim and Doodle were also on an extended, 5-day playdate last weekend, and I'll have some photos in the next post.
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| The chicken coops and a grain building |
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| Our silver poplar |
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| With a cheese breadstick from the store |
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| Mmmmm sausage and green peppers |
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| "What are those?!??" |
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| Shedding some light on the situation |
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| Even the cats know it's fall; they're spending more time on the fireplace |
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| Soffit |
Saturday 20 October 2012
This week at the Rescue
This was a fairly light week at the rescue.
I started by cleaning the pig's stall in the barn. He's getting less nervous - he came close enough this week that he touched my hand! He'll be used to people in no time :)
Then I mixed up the food for Darcy and Fin. They are both on special diets, to supplement the grass and hay they are getting right now.
I was lucky to work with Bob and Lorraine again this week. They went to walk two of the ponies, Applesauce and Chilli Pepper, while I had a quick visit with Darcy. He is gaining weight, and was happy to see me :)
I then decided to try and catch one of the ponies, Holli. She is very nervous and skittish. Bob and Lorraine gave it a try, but were unsuccessful, so I decided to try my luck. With Lorraine and Chilli acting as wingmen, I slowly walked up to her, and mirrored her movements when she would try to escape - if she stepped left, I stepped with her. I held out a treat in my hand, and when she finally reached out to take it, I was able to grab her halter and clip the lead on. Success!!!
She walked pretty good. I think that because she is so small, I was not terribly nervous about catching her, whereas I would have been scared to catch a full-size, skittish horse.
Last weekend, Nicola held a bottle drive to raise funds for winter food. She posted the total raised on the PGER site: $607 in empties and $270 in cash! Hooray!
I started by cleaning the pig's stall in the barn. He's getting less nervous - he came close enough this week that he touched my hand! He'll be used to people in no time :)
Then I mixed up the food for Darcy and Fin. They are both on special diets, to supplement the grass and hay they are getting right now.
I was lucky to work with Bob and Lorraine again this week. They went to walk two of the ponies, Applesauce and Chilli Pepper, while I had a quick visit with Darcy. He is gaining weight, and was happy to see me :)
I then decided to try and catch one of the ponies, Holli. She is very nervous and skittish. Bob and Lorraine gave it a try, but were unsuccessful, so I decided to try my luck. With Lorraine and Chilli acting as wingmen, I slowly walked up to her, and mirrored her movements when she would try to escape - if she stepped left, I stepped with her. I held out a treat in my hand, and when she finally reached out to take it, I was able to grab her halter and clip the lead on. Success!!!
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| Walking down the driveway |
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| What a pretty girl :) |
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Our first power outage
Hi everyone, Mandi here.
This morning, as I was wavering between asleep and awake, Jordan was getting ready for work. I half noticed the lights go out, and I thought, 'oh, either Jordan's really good at turning off all the lights at once, or I managed to doze off...' before Jordan poked his head in to the bedroom to inform me that the power had gone out. I looked to where the clock's little red numbers usually glare into the dark, and sure enough, I saw nothing but black. The wind whipped a number of pinecones free from the nearby trees and scattered them across the tin roof, making a racket that made me wonder if it was hailing outside. Ah, so there's a tree down somewhere.
Okay, I've been waiting for this. I anticipate that we will get quite a few outages this winter, as we're about 15 minutes out of city limits. I had a half-formed plan in the back of my head, so I called the power company to report the outage and they confirmed that they were getting calls from others as well. That's a good sign (to me, anyway); I suspect that their service may be a bit slower for one customer than for the 1000 homes that were affected by this morning's outage. Plus, if it was just out, then there's likely a tree down on our property, which could be a real can of worms (Is it across the driveway/road? What has it taken out for fencing? Is there gas for the chainsaw? Not that I would be dumb enough to remove a tree down on a live wire, but... there will be work to be done after, I'm sure).
I usually listen to CBC radio in the morning, and while I have batteries for the radio, I don't want to put them in and drain them unless it's a real emergency (such as a winter storm or forest fire). Luckily, I can get the radio on my cell phone by plugging in my headphones to act as an antenna, so that was how I discovered it was about 1000 homes in the dark this morning.
Another problem was, you guessed it, light. We don't have a lot of windows in the first place, and it's now full dark out at 5:30 in the morning. I keep a flashlight next to the bed just for situations like this, and I was able to use it to feed the cats and find my headlamp (which you may remember from this post) so I could still use both hands. Zim, our pooch, didn't seem phased by the dark, so I let him out, and he came back in without falling off the deck :)
I was able to get ready for work without any major mishaps, other than putting the headlamp on a shelf to brush my hair and then nocking it off the shelf, which turned it off and plunged me into darkness without any hope of finding where I had put down the flashlight. So I used my phone (which I was able to find by following the sound of the radio, and I managed to grab it without knocking anything else over) to find the flashlight, which I used to find the headlamp. I tucked the flashlight into my back pocket in case of future mishaps, but luckily, it wasn't needed again and I put it back beside the bed before I left for work.
The best thing about our house in a power outage: our 'furnace' is a propane fireplace that is capable of running without any power. The fan that moves the heat throughout the house is powered, of course, but the thermostat remote control and the receiver are both battery powered (and I have extra batteries for both). So the fireplace stays on longer than usual, which burns more fuel, but we will not freeze; if anything, the house gets warmer than usual, as the heat doesn't reach the thermostat as efficiently without the fan.
The worst thing about our house in a power outage: our well needs power to run the pump, so we lose our water. This is a relatively minor inconvenience when we have water on hand, but we don't yet have any ready to go. Once we get some water on standby, we'll have a different 'worst thing': if it's well below freezing, we are in danger of frozen pipes both under the house and in the well-house. I haven't yet thought up a way to prevent this, so we'll have to do some research (as this is a common problem on most rural northern properties, it's likely that someone has an preventive idea, I just have to find it!).
The most amusing thing about this morning: I got up earlier than usual to deal with the outage, so I had about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave the house. So I pulled up a chair in front of the fireplace and crocheted by headlamp :) May as well make the best of an odd situation!!
This morning, as I was wavering between asleep and awake, Jordan was getting ready for work. I half noticed the lights go out, and I thought, 'oh, either Jordan's really good at turning off all the lights at once, or I managed to doze off...' before Jordan poked his head in to the bedroom to inform me that the power had gone out. I looked to where the clock's little red numbers usually glare into the dark, and sure enough, I saw nothing but black. The wind whipped a number of pinecones free from the nearby trees and scattered them across the tin roof, making a racket that made me wonder if it was hailing outside. Ah, so there's a tree down somewhere.
Okay, I've been waiting for this. I anticipate that we will get quite a few outages this winter, as we're about 15 minutes out of city limits. I had a half-formed plan in the back of my head, so I called the power company to report the outage and they confirmed that they were getting calls from others as well. That's a good sign (to me, anyway); I suspect that their service may be a bit slower for one customer than for the 1000 homes that were affected by this morning's outage. Plus, if it was just out, then there's likely a tree down on our property, which could be a real can of worms (Is it across the driveway/road? What has it taken out for fencing? Is there gas for the chainsaw? Not that I would be dumb enough to remove a tree down on a live wire, but... there will be work to be done after, I'm sure).
I usually listen to CBC radio in the morning, and while I have batteries for the radio, I don't want to put them in and drain them unless it's a real emergency (such as a winter storm or forest fire). Luckily, I can get the radio on my cell phone by plugging in my headphones to act as an antenna, so that was how I discovered it was about 1000 homes in the dark this morning.
Another problem was, you guessed it, light. We don't have a lot of windows in the first place, and it's now full dark out at 5:30 in the morning. I keep a flashlight next to the bed just for situations like this, and I was able to use it to feed the cats and find my headlamp (which you may remember from this post) so I could still use both hands. Zim, our pooch, didn't seem phased by the dark, so I let him out, and he came back in without falling off the deck :)
I was able to get ready for work without any major mishaps, other than putting the headlamp on a shelf to brush my hair and then nocking it off the shelf, which turned it off and plunged me into darkness without any hope of finding where I had put down the flashlight. So I used my phone (which I was able to find by following the sound of the radio, and I managed to grab it without knocking anything else over) to find the flashlight, which I used to find the headlamp. I tucked the flashlight into my back pocket in case of future mishaps, but luckily, it wasn't needed again and I put it back beside the bed before I left for work.
The best thing about our house in a power outage: our 'furnace' is a propane fireplace that is capable of running without any power. The fan that moves the heat throughout the house is powered, of course, but the thermostat remote control and the receiver are both battery powered (and I have extra batteries for both). So the fireplace stays on longer than usual, which burns more fuel, but we will not freeze; if anything, the house gets warmer than usual, as the heat doesn't reach the thermostat as efficiently without the fan.
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| Mander on the toasty fireplace |
The worst thing about our house in a power outage: our well needs power to run the pump, so we lose our water. This is a relatively minor inconvenience when we have water on hand, but we don't yet have any ready to go. Once we get some water on standby, we'll have a different 'worst thing': if it's well below freezing, we are in danger of frozen pipes both under the house and in the well-house. I haven't yet thought up a way to prevent this, so we'll have to do some research (as this is a common problem on most rural northern properties, it's likely that someone has an preventive idea, I just have to find it!).
The most amusing thing about this morning: I got up earlier than usual to deal with the outage, so I had about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave the house. So I pulled up a chair in front of the fireplace and crocheted by headlamp :) May as well make the best of an odd situation!!
Sunday 14 October 2012
Bits and bobs from our week
Things are slowing down here on the farm, with the cold, rainy weather moving in. I had an evening meeting in town this week, which made the week a bit busier than normal. Here's a peek at what we've been up to:
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| I've been on a bit of a dishcloth kick lately - I've made three of these in the past week. Jordan used one yesterday, and said "It works like a dishcloth." Success!! :) |
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| Zim wanted to help too, so he held down my cotton so it wouldn't roll away. (Not that it would anyway, as I am pulling from the middle, but.... whatever makes pooch happy!) |
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| The delicious chicken pot pie from last Monday. |
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| The cats love to sit on the top of our "furnace", a propane fireplace. Here, Anomander is keeping his little toes warm. |
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| Our barn at dawn. |
This week at the Rescue
This week I got the chance to meet two other regular volunteers, the husband and wife team of Bob and Lorraine. It was lovely to put faces to the names I see so often. We split the To Do list, and I got:
Clean Evan's stall. He was feeling a bit friendlier this week, and walked around in the stall a little bit while I was there. He was intrigued by the smell of fresh shavings, and even came as close as a foot and a half away to try to smell my hand.
Wound and skin care for Bingo. Bingo was not quite as patient as Darcy was last week, but he took it well enough. He's very, very friendly, to the point that he will nuzzle and search for treats, which is just on the edge of getting to be TOO friendly. When Nic's horses started to do this, they were cut off from all treats, so I would not be surprised to see Bingo's name on the "no treat" list as well.
The rescue was a hopping place this week - there was a lot going on while I was there, including building a new pen, a few other people showing up, and a photographer stopping by to (hopefully) take some photos for the upcoming calendar.
Clean Evan's stall. He was feeling a bit friendlier this week, and walked around in the stall a little bit while I was there. He was intrigued by the smell of fresh shavings, and even came as close as a foot and a half away to try to smell my hand.
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| Evan - it was too early for his supper, so there was nothing to distract him this week. |
Wound and skin care for Bingo. Bingo was not quite as patient as Darcy was last week, but he took it well enough. He's very, very friendly, to the point that he will nuzzle and search for treats, which is just on the edge of getting to be TOO friendly. When Nic's horses started to do this, they were cut off from all treats, so I would not be surprised to see Bingo's name on the "no treat" list as well.
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| Bingo looking sweet. You can see Bob and Lorraine talking to Nic in the background, along with some of the resident dogs and one rescued dog. |
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| The wet spots on his coat are where I sprayed him with a medicated spray. |
Monday 8 October 2012
Thanksgiving weekend
Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
On Saturday, my friend and coworker Kim invited me over for dinner. Kim and her husband David are Doodle's humans (who you may remember from here) and this would be a great opportunity for the pups to visit as well. I offered to bring pie, so the majority of the day was spend mixing, rolling, slicing, filling and fluting.
I decided to make two apple pies and a cherry pie, with two crusts left over (which will be used for chicken pot pie tonight).
I even got a bit creative and made a lattice top for the cherry pie.
I tinfoiled the edges so they wouldn't burn, and two hours later, the apple and cherry pies for dinner were ready to go. I left a third pie cooking in the oven, and Jordan was able to pull it out and eat it warm after his supper. (He had also been invited to supper, but declined, due to the massive amounts of overtime he's been working lately.)
When the timer went off, I headed back inside to grab the cherry pie, and put the second apple in the oven.
Shortly after, I headed in to town with Zim and the pies. This involved putting one pie in a small box, putting the box inside the cooler, and putting the second pie on top of the box. This would adequately Zim-proof the pies while I zipped in to a store to grab more oil for the car. It worked (yay!) and we were soon at Kim and David's, were Zim eagerly jumped out of the truck and trotted right up to the front door. He and Doodle played for hours while the three of us and Kim's friend Lena ate supper, then Lena left and we settled in to a game of Civilization (a large, complicated strategy board game).
While we were eating, Kim let the pups out into the backyard to play. When Kim went to let them back in about 20 minutes later, she came back with Doodle and said "So, I'm not sure where Zim is… he's not in the yard." 'Oh,' I thought, 'this will be interesting, this neighbourhood is nothing like the farm and he's never been here before. At least he's a good listener, I'm confident that he'll come when I call.' We put our shoes on and I opened the front door to start the hunt, and there's Zim, waiting patiently to be let in. Ha! What a clever pooch :) The rest of the evening passed without incident, and Kim won the game. We made plans for a puppy swap, and Zim and I headed home.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a lazy day. I puttered around in my craft room for a few hours, and made some rings, turned a bead into a pendant for a necklace, and started some glass marbles to be made in to soldered pendants (or maybe fridge magnets).
Today will also be a lazy day. I plan to crochet a bit, then head outside and try to finish staining the pole shed.
On Saturday, my friend and coworker Kim invited me over for dinner. Kim and her husband David are Doodle's humans (who you may remember from here) and this would be a great opportunity for the pups to visit as well. I offered to bring pie, so the majority of the day was spend mixing, rolling, slicing, filling and fluting.
I decided to make two apple pies and a cherry pie, with two crusts left over (which will be used for chicken pot pie tonight).
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| Filled and ready for tops |
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| Mid-latticing |
While I was bustling about the kitchen, Jordan was out changing the oil in the car and staining fences. At one point, he came in and said "Well, I have some bad news" and proceeded to inform me that the car was spewing oil from the filter, and it was likely that the previous filter had been cross-threaded on, thus toasting any hope of getting the filter to seal properly. The car was already full of oil, but Jordan decided to take the filter back off and see if he could get a better look. He was able to scrape an old piece of filter seal off the engine, and ta-da! the oil filter now seals like a charm. So he came in to relay the good news, and grab a well-deserved beer.
At this, the first pie was ready to come out.
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| Drinking Cariboo - a beer that is brewed right here in town. |
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| Mmmmm apple pie |
After I got pie number two in the oven, I went out to keep him company while he stained fences.
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| Hard at work :) |
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| I debated putting in more filling - I was glad I didn't! |
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| Tug-of-war with a seal stuffie - Zim has a dirty trick for this game: he holds still until Doodle loses interest and lets go, then Zim runs off with the stuffie and Doodle chases him. |
Yesterday (Sunday) was a lazy day. I puttered around in my craft room for a few hours, and made some rings, turned a bead into a pendant for a necklace, and started some glass marbles to be made in to soldered pendants (or maybe fridge magnets).
Today will also be a lazy day. I plan to crochet a bit, then head outside and try to finish staining the pole shed.
Saturday 6 October 2012
This week at the Rescue
Hi folks, Mandi here.
This week at PGER, I got the opportunity to meet three new critters (and a new person).
I started off the evening by having a quick visit with Moo Cow, who was feeling quite talkative when I pulled up. As she was so vocal, I decided to pop in and see if she was feeling equally social, and I was not disappointed! She let me walk up to her, and as I started to scratch her head and neck, she started eagerly tasting my fingers to see if I had brought anything edible with me. Moo Cow then insisted on returning the scritches, by vigorously rubbing her head up and down my leg. She's a character :)
I then headed in to the barn to see who I would be working with. I was greeted by three new names: Darcy, Dallas and Evan. Okay, Darcy first. I grabbed his halter off his hook (each horse gets their own halter while they're at the rescue) and headed out to the pond field to grab him. He was a little cautious but once he made up his mind to be sweet, I was glad it wasn't raining because he surely would have melted. I had to do a bit of wound care (nothing gruesome, I promise, but I'll spare you the details anyway) and throughout it all, he stood quietly, occasionally twitching or shifting his weight. As I finished, a car pulled up and the driver asked "Excuse me, do you work here?" I replied "Well, I volunteer, yes," and he explained that he had come with a donation of carrots - would they be useful? Of course they would!! I texted Nicola to let her know, and as the gentleman carried six bags of carrots into the tack room, she came down to the barnyard to say hello. The visitor introduced himself as Stu, and the three of us hung around chatting for 15 minutes. I was able to learn that Darcy used to be a racehorse, pulling a sulky (a one-person racing buggy), that he was 22, and that he came in with another horse (who was slightly overweight). As Stu left, I walked Darcy back to his field and released him.
I swapped halters and went to grab Dallas. He's a handsome fellow who is a bit energetic, but listens well enough. I started by grooming him, which was a quick job; I think he's the cleanest horse I've ever seen there! I then took him out to graze for ten minutes. He didn't give me any grief, other than getting a bit too excited to see the hay field and tugging me along (which was easily corrected by turning him in a circle). He's got a fine nose - he was able to sniff out any clover patches and eat those exclusively!
I returned Dallas to his pen, and got to work cleaning Evan's stall. Evan is a pot-bellied pig, and as he just came in he's in quarantine for a bit until Nicola can verify his health and temperament. He's very shy, but didn't give me any problems as I cleaned out the soiled shavings and put down fresh stuff. He was quite happy to munch his food, not taking his eyes off me the whole time.
There are four other pot-bellies at the rescue right now: Rosie and Twixie are pets, and Morris and Teddy are rescues who came in filthy, overweight, covered in mites and un-neutered. Nicola has remedied all four of their problems, and they now spend their days with the other two pigs, or with the goats, lamb and one of the llamas. I'll admit that Morris is my favourite - he's super sweet and very friendly.
Ah…… another relaxing evening at the rescue :)
This week at PGER, I got the opportunity to meet three new critters (and a new person).
I started off the evening by having a quick visit with Moo Cow, who was feeling quite talkative when I pulled up. As she was so vocal, I decided to pop in and see if she was feeling equally social, and I was not disappointed! She let me walk up to her, and as I started to scratch her head and neck, she started eagerly tasting my fingers to see if I had brought anything edible with me. Moo Cow then insisted on returning the scritches, by vigorously rubbing her head up and down my leg. She's a character :)
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| Moo Cow, looking bashful |
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| Darcy |
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| Dallas |
I returned Dallas to his pen, and got to work cleaning Evan's stall. Evan is a pot-bellied pig, and as he just came in he's in quarantine for a bit until Nicola can verify his health and temperament. He's very shy, but didn't give me any problems as I cleaned out the soiled shavings and put down fresh stuff. He was quite happy to munch his food, not taking his eyes off me the whole time.
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| Evan |
Ah…… another relaxing evening at the rescue :)
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Roof work (and soup!)
Last Wednesday, I cautiously crawled up on the roof to install another vent. Here's how that went:
First, I picked a spot (Dad and I had identified this area as a good place to put another vent).
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| The vent is just resting on the other side of the peak. |
Then I did some measuring, and drew a square to cut out.
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| With the hole drilled - I got a little ahead of myself! |
When Dad was helping me, we had his hole saw bits; with those we were able to cut a large enough hole to do a bit of investigation before using the jigsaw to cut the tin. We don't have any hole saw bits, so I used the biggest drill bit we have, and then cut a small square so I could locate the wire that powers the living room lights. When I peeled back the tin, I found the cord all right - that cut in the 2x4 is from cutting the investigation hole.
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| Yikes! |
So I clambered down off the roof and killed the power to all the lights in the house. Back up on the roof, I managed to push and pull the wire as needed to finish cutting out the large square.
Then I dry-fit the vent. Once I had an idea of where I needed to silicone, I removed the vent and laid the needed sealant. I left little gaps on either side of the centre ridge for drainage.
Once I fit the vent back in, I replaced the roof bolts I had pulled for installation. I also added some extra screws to close the remaining gaps - we have bats in the area, and they have no qualms about living in our roof.
While I was up there, I decided to quickly tar over a few cracks in previously tarred roof 'accessories': the vent for the bathroom fan, the sewer vent for the bathroom, and the chimney for the 'furnace' (our furnace is actually a propane fireplace).
That was enough excitement for the day, so I crawled off the roof for some supper, a shower, then thankfully to bed.
This past weekend, I puttered around the farm doing small bits and bobs - nothing terribly exciting or newsworthy, other than the carrot harvest. We managed to get about 3 or 4 pounds; most were small, stunted carrots (which says to me that the soil under the first layer is still compacted - I'll try adding some compost in the spring to fluff it up) but a few were a decent size.
I also managed to whip up a fairly good Butternut Squash and Sausage soup for supper on Sunday. I combined two recipes, and this is what I came up with:
Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup
Ingredients:
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| Thanks for securing that wire, builders. |
Then I dry-fit the vent. Once I had an idea of where I needed to silicone, I removed the vent and laid the needed sealant. I left little gaps on either side of the centre ridge for drainage.
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| Gooey |
Once I fit the vent back in, I replaced the roof bolts I had pulled for installation. I also added some extra screws to close the remaining gaps - we have bats in the area, and they have no qualms about living in our roof.
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| It's not pretty, but it's not going anywhere, either. |
While I was up there, I decided to quickly tar over a few cracks in previously tarred roof 'accessories': the vent for the bathroom fan, the sewer vent for the bathroom, and the chimney for the 'furnace' (our furnace is actually a propane fireplace).
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| Sewer vent |
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| Sewer vent and fan vent |
That was enough excitement for the day, so I crawled off the roof for some supper, a shower, then thankfully to bed.
This past weekend, I puttered around the farm doing small bits and bobs - nothing terribly exciting or newsworthy, other than the carrot harvest. We managed to get about 3 or 4 pounds; most were small, stunted carrots (which says to me that the soil under the first layer is still compacted - I'll try adding some compost in the spring to fluff it up) but a few were a decent size.
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| Carrots :) |
I also managed to whip up a fairly good Butternut Squash and Sausage soup for supper on Sunday. I combined two recipes, and this is what I came up with:
Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup
Ingredients:
2 lbs butternut squash (I used one large squash)
1 chopped onion
1 T butter
1 lb sausage meat (no casings - we can find sausage meat in the grocery store)
4 c chicken broth (I'd likely up it to 6 c next time; leave it at 4 c if you like a nice, thick soup)
1/4 t ground pepper
1/4 t salt
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese OR 1/2 c heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven at 375 F
Cut the squash in half and discard the seeds. Place cut side down in a 9x13 cake pan. Surround with about 1/2" water. Bake until squash is easily pierced with a fork, about 45 min.
In a large pot, saute the onions in the butter until translucent. Add spices and sausage meat and cook until crumbly and browned.
Scoop the insides of the squash into blender or food processor. Discard peels. Add broth and cream cheese (or cream). Blend until smooth and creamy. (I did this in the food processor in batches of 1/4 of squash, 1 c broth, and 1/4 of the cream cheese.)
Add squash mixture to sausage in the pot. Heat until warm, being careful not to boil it.
Next time, I will try to remember to take pictures!
Take care everyone :)
1 chopped onion
1 T butter
1 lb sausage meat (no casings - we can find sausage meat in the grocery store)
4 c chicken broth (I'd likely up it to 6 c next time; leave it at 4 c if you like a nice, thick soup)
1/4 t ground pepper
1/4 t salt
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese OR 1/2 c heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven at 375 F
Cut the squash in half and discard the seeds. Place cut side down in a 9x13 cake pan. Surround with about 1/2" water. Bake until squash is easily pierced with a fork, about 45 min.
In a large pot, saute the onions in the butter until translucent. Add spices and sausage meat and cook until crumbly and browned.
Scoop the insides of the squash into blender or food processor. Discard peels. Add broth and cream cheese (or cream). Blend until smooth and creamy. (I did this in the food processor in batches of 1/4 of squash, 1 c broth, and 1/4 of the cream cheese.)
Add squash mixture to sausage in the pot. Heat until warm, being careful not to boil it.
Next time, I will try to remember to take pictures!
Take care everyone :)
This morning....
... we woke up to this terrible mess in the yard. This weird, white substance was everywhere! It stuck to everything - Zim even brought some of this foul stuff back into the house with him! Walking outside became a sticky, slippery, treacherous task, and the floor became magically wet when we returned indoors.
You guessed it...
You guessed it...
 |
| Snow :( |
(I'll be back tonight with a full post.)
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