Greenhouse almost complete

The greenhouse project is almost complete. Over the past few weeks I've been staining the wood. On Friday we assembled it in about 4.5 hours (be warned: this movie is a very large download). There was a lot of arguing but that just seems to be the way we work. In the end it was up and it wasn't falling over so that's all that counts. Saturday and Sunday we worked on putting in a center brick pathway and Andrew finished up the water and electrical connections. It is not the best picture here of Andrew but lately he tells me he thinks he is getting stupider so you never know (ha ha just joking). The last thing to do for the greenhouse is to get a load of pea gravel to fill in the rest of the floor and then we are done. I still need to assemble the benches but that is something I can do on my own at my own pace. Our next big garden project is to finish installing the brick paths and then all the major hardscaping of the yard will be completed. Andrew also installed another pressure regulator valve since we couldn't get rid of the humming in the pipes. This time we bought walkie-talkies so we could communicate better rather than trying to yell at each other through the floor. The communication was excellent except that Andrew was cracking me up by saying 'Over' at the end of each sentence rather than at the end of each of his transmissions. Luckily he couldn't hear me laughing, but it sure was funny. So far the new pressure valve is giving us 55 psi with no humming. Tonight we made our second home made pizza - his half (with real meat) and her half (vegetarian). Once again, it was most excellent. It's great to be able to control exactly what you want on the pizza. This time we tried using smoked mozarella and baby portabello mushrooms which are far superior in taste to the regular white button mushrooms. Andrew says they remind him of mushrooms he used to eat in Poland. I think next time I will use regular mozarella - I think the smoked flavor is lost when used in a pizza.

Stuffed

Well, the turkey dinner was excellent. I had all my favorites: a little white and a little dark meat with gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, carrots with a little brown sugar, stuffing, and cream corn. Andrew ate almost the entire 9 pound turkey which makes me a little mad since I was hoping to have leftovers for the next 2 day's dinners. But there is enough for me to make myself a turkey sandwich for tomorrow's lunch, and perhaps we will have a bit for dinner tomorrow night as well. For dessert we had homemade blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream. I use my mom's recipe and it tastes just like her pies! So now we are thoroughly stuffed. We are going to have some tea, watch a movie and stretch out. Earlier in the day we managed to get the crush run gravel base leveled for the greenhouse, so we are now ready to assemble the greenhouse tomorrow.

Getting Ready for the Big Day

A few nights ago we made another new dish - jambalaya - it turned out ok I guess. I would say it is just one of those mid week filler type meals, nothing special but definitely edible. Andrew added some fresh shrimp and sausage to his so for him this meal is a winner. I added lots of hot sauce to mine to spice up the tofu. Yesterday the weather turned quite pleasant and it looks like we are in for a great 4 day weekend. I took a shot of the red clouds in the sunset that were quite striking - the picture captures a little of it but the colors were much more intense in person. It is funny how hard it is to take a photo that looks like how things look like in real life! As a test for the greenhouse construction, we setup the camera and tried making a timelapse movie of us cooking dinner last night. Pretty goofy, especially at the end with the oh so talented dancing - yes we are both quite silly but that's what happens when you live out in the country and have to entertain yourselves. We were cooking another new dish - braised artichokes with new potatoes and carrots - and it wasn't too bad. Different, but after eating it awhile it kind of grows on you. After dinner we watched the dvd 'The Davinci Code'. We both had read the book before, and the movie was ok I guess, but honestly I did fall asleep a little in the middle. I don't think the subject lends itself well to the movie format because in the book there is just so much more detail. So today I am getting ready to make our Thanksgiving Dinner - turkey and all the fixings. Andrew is really looking forward to it but right now he is still in bed. He is saving up his energy for the big feast this evening I guess.

Catch Up

It's been over a week since my last posting, perhaps I needed a break? The plumbing fix is still holding, but every now and then we get a humming sound - not sure what's up with that but I hope it doesn't get any worse. Last Monday we ate the leftovers of a new dish we made on Sunday, "Mushroom Barley Stew with Biscuits". Not bad I guess. Next we made another new dish "Jasmine Rice" which was excellent, but I forgot to take a photo of it and it was so colorful with the red peppers and carrots. Even better was the next new dish we tried, "Spicy Peanut Noodles". We made from scratch the chili oil and the peanut sauce and it was awesome. We are really liking Asian cooking a lot!
Early Saturday morning I noticed that Harley was intensely looking at something on our forest path. A herd of about 10 or so deer were crossing over our path that leads to the dock. I managed to film a young one on the path with its mom hiding in the back. In January these same deer will no doubt be eating the buds of my hydrangeas and azaleas. The deer and rabbits are my worst garden offenders. Saturday night we made a pizza pie from scratch - the dough, the sauce, the toppings and everything. It turned out to be the best pizza I have ever had, and it wasn't that hard to make. We used tomato sauce, deli-style mozzarella cheese, and our toppings were chopped artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, oil cured olives and vegetarian pepperoni. We will definitely be making other pizzas and experimenting with new toppings. Sunday we went sailing but there wasn't much wind. But Andrew got to try out his new mainsheet block that he installed awhile back, and it works pretty good. This work week is very short for us - we only have to work 3 days and then it is the 4 day long weekend for Thanksgiving. Andrew is working on re-finishing the tiller for the sailboat and so we will be installing it this coming weekend if the varnishing goes ok.

Plumbing

This morning I did a little yard work and took some photos of the fall colors. My 3 'November' camelias are starting to bloom now - they are just loaded with buds. However when I looked closer every single bloom had ants inside. I guess they like the nectar or something. Ants cover my peony blooms in the spring too. Andrew finally worked on fixing the leaking hot water heater problem. He called in a plumber and they replaced the temperature and pressure valve on the heater, but it was still leaking. It turned out that our incoming water pressure from the street is about 150 when it should be about 50-70. So Andrew bought a new pressure regulator valve and installed it in under the house. The old one must have stopped working. Thank god our interior plumbing and supply lines didn't burst running under such pressure! So far the new valve seems to be working ok and our pressure is about 55. Tonight we will be eating pizza and drinking beer and watching movies. The Tigers won today, but judging from the groans I hear coming from the living room, it sounds like the Aggies will be losing.

Watch out for bugs

The freezes lately have killed all my basil plants, and I am reduced to having to spend $3 for 3/4 ounce of fresh basil for cooking. Once the greenhouse is up and running, growing basil in the winter will be a top priority. But the italian parsley is loving the colder weather and is growing like crazy in the herb garden. Tonight's meal (Bowtie pasta with potatoes, olives and capers - the same dish we did in the cooking show) requires some fresh parsley at the end. I cut some from outside in the dark and as I was chopping it indoors, I noticed a little snail was having a snooze on one of the larger leaves. He ended up going into the compost pail where he will live for the next few days, and then he'll be tossed onto the compost pile outside. The meal turned out great and we are now liking olives quite a lot. Who knows, maybe one day we will order pizza with olives on it (well, maybe not).
My dad sent some more photos of Italy, and also a few shots he took from the Adams River Sockeye Salmon run. The water is crystal clear and the fish sure are crimson! I found a great article on the web describing the salmon's lifecycle and the history of the river system. Very interesting - I didn't know that majority of the fish are on a 4 year cycle, so the next big run will be in 2010.

Back in the yard again

For the last few weeks my right shoulder has been hurting in the joint area if I raise it and put weight on it at the same time. I think the strain might have happened from the day I was preparing the site for the greenhouse base - I must have over did it with the dirt shovelling. So I have laid off on doing any yard work to try to mend it, but today I decided I couldn't stay indoors any longer. After work today I did a lot of clipping back and tidying up of perennials that were nipped by the hard freezes of late. It was fantastic to be back in the yard doing stuff and breathing the fresh air. I really like gardening and being outside. Afterwards I cracked a beer (a Stella Artois from Belgium) and went for a forest walk with the cats. We didn't get in until just before 6:00pm. The weather has warmed up now and the crickets (or frogs?) are back to their chirping. If it wasn't for the cars in the background, you'd think we're living in the country, but we are just 5 minutes away from work!.


Dinner tonight was the leftovers of a new dish that we made last night - Fettucini with red beans and pesto. It tasted great and we also had the leftovers of the sinful dessert as well - Molten Chocolate Cake with icecream. Delicious! We now know that we don't hate pesto - that other pesto-based meal must have truly been a bad recipe.

Happy Harley

I am very happy to report that Harley took a large poo on Monday morning and has now earned her freedom outdoors. Andrew had a brilliant idea to use the tall-sided litter box she used before when she was a kitten. About 10 minutes after he had put it out beside the other one, she used it and then she was allowed outside. So everything is back to normal now. The vets office did a great job and it is like she was never sick. Today it is miserable and rainy weather. It is the second day of fall break on campus so tomorrow we are all back to work as usual. Yesterday I went shopping to Greenville and picked up from Williams Sonoma this decadent dessert to make for Andrew which uses a delicious pecan praline sauce, so I will make that for dessert tonight. I also picked up this really great tasting cranberry relish to use at Thanksgiving. This blog post marks my 100th post! I can't believe I have stuck with this for so long now.

Still no poop

Harley has not gone poo since she came home from the vets. She has been eating a little and drinking, and going pee but not poo. We have given her some hairball treats this morning and I hope that does the trick. Otherwise we will have to give her a laxative. Perhaps her bum is sore from the enemas - I hope she doesn't have more plastic in her intestine. According to the internet, bouts of constipation can last from a few days to a few weeks, so I am not totally worried yet. She is very alert and wanting to go outside so I am taking her on walks with the leash and harness. She is not allowed outside by herself until she goes poo. I have a few windows open in the house so she can sniff and listen to the birds. It sure is cold outside these past few days and we've had frost every morning.
In better news, my dad finally emailed me a few photos from his trip to Italy. These ones were of the 'Cinque Terre' region. The area looks really beautiful and I love the colors of the houses in contrast with the blue of the Mediterranean Sea. The photo here is of 'Vernazza', one of the five villages. I hope he sends me more photos from the rest of the trip.

Harley is back at home

On Monday after work, I noticed Harley's left eye was a little swollen and the third eyelid was covering up part of her eye. She also didn't want her afternoon treats and just went to lay down on her new cat bed for the rest of the evening until we went to bed. Tuesday morning she looked even worse and didn't eat her morning fancy feast let alone her usual second and third breakfasts. Again she just wanted to lie down and sleep, so we left her inside all day. After work on Tuesday we took her to the vet, but he had taken the afternoon off and so we were to come back first thing in the morning. She still hadn't eaten anything. Halloween evening we spent giving out candy with our neighbors (a fun time!), with both cats staying indoors. Harley still wasn't feeling good and I thought she was rather hot. Wednesday morning she was admitted to the vet with a fever, a swollen left eye that had turned red, and extreme lethargy and lack of appetite. She stayed over night and we were able to bring her home at 6:00pm today - I am so happy about that! It turns out she had some plastic in her intestine which might have caused the fever. I have no idea where she got that from, perhaps from a neighbor's garbage or something I guess. Her eye still looks a little wonky, but I am happy to report that she has now eaten 3 times at home with her usual dry cat food and 1 time with some moist food. She is a little stinky from the enemas and looks thin, but I think she is on the mend - she has been meowing a lot trying to tell me all about it. I hope her eye gets better soon. We will be keeping her inside for the next few days to monitor her. Tonight Andrew is playing at another gig at the 356 club. I just phoned him with an update on Harley so he didn't have to worry and I hope he has a good time banging those drums.