A bird in the fireplace is not worth two in the bush

I knew that with moving to the country run ins with animals would become more frequent.

I've grown accustomed to the frogs that hop around all over the property, the teeny little chipmunks that follow us looking for peanuts, the occasional racoon and skunk and turkey.  I'm not crazy about how close the coyotes sound when their howling at night but usually these run ins happen in the great wide open outdoors.

What happened this morning took place in the not so wide open house.

I had just sent Jack off to school and was getting Max breakfast when I heard what sounded like a cat playing with tin foil. Sadly it was not that, it was a bird that had thought it was a clever idea to jump down the chimney.

Just a side note, we have all been enjoying a beautiful indian summer so the fireplace was not lit.

I ran in a panic to get my Dad who casually shook his head and went to light a cigarette, clearly not as concerned as I was. After I got him on board with a bit more urgency we strategically placed a bed sheet in front of the fireplace and opened the door, but the bird didn't come out...of course.  I was left to man the bed sheet while Dad went to get a flash light and then you can guess what happened. The bird found a week spot in our fool proof plan and flew like crazy all around the living room.

I ran to any door I could open yelling for Dad as the bird flew to every closed window, and then the cat, oh the cat! Duster, who is our smallest cat came out of nowhere, like a lion and pounced on the poor bird. Now remember I'm yelling like there is a pterodactyl flying around! 'Dad...No Duster. ..Dad! The cats going to eat the bird! !!'

Then my Dad in all the calm in the world walks in, grabs the bird and lets it go outside.

 I think other then a small heart attack the bird was okay and he flew off. I'm sure promising itself never to fly down a chimney ever again.

Oh and where was Max during all of this? Sitting on the couch watching a movie.

Who ate all the cookies

I don't know about you but homemade cookies are a staple in our house.

Our top 3 (at the moment) are ginger snaps, oatmeal and chocolate chip. This doesn't include our seasonal favorites like pumpkin cookies and shortbread.

I made a batch of oatmeal cookies yesterday, my recipe makes about 3 and a half dozen depending on how much Max and I pick at the batter.

But back to the cookies! These oatmeal cookies are delicious, I know my opinion is bias but I don't have any written reviews. These cookies are soft and caramely with a hint of cinnamon, and there are only 4 left!

Now I'm not completely innocent, I did have 2 for breakfast and so did Jack, and Anthony and my Dad being the avid eat just about everything kind of guy it really isn't a surprise that they are almost gone.

Now I think that it's only far that since I've been bragging  about these cookies that I share the recipe. You can add chocolate chips or raisins (if you're a raisin person) or do what I do and make half the batch plain and the other half, add chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Cookies
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cooking oil
1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda
1tbsp hot water

2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat eggs in a mixing bowl until frothy. Beat in both sugars. Add cooking oil and vanilla.
Dissolve baking soda in hot water and stir in.
Add oats, flour, salt and cinnamon.  Stir well. Drop by spoonfuls (I use a medium ice cream scoop) onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

After you make these your cookie jar will look like mine.

If your cookies make it to the jar!

Who Doesn't Want Ice Cream?

Uprooting your family from your hometown can always be a little scary. We've been learning our way around locating the drug store and grocery store and so on. Lucky for us the village of Tweed isn't a bustling metropolis so it hasn't been that challenging. I know there are some hidden gems in this town that I haven't found yet though!

Our most recent adventure was to the Arctic Rock ice cream stand!

The stand is located at 560 Moira Street across the road from the Tim Hortons. 

They boast a wide variety of unique flavors while using local ingredients whenever possible. They are also 100% Canadian!

We drive by the stand often enough and I usually make note of their signs every few days advertising a new flavor. One day I noticed the sign said 'try our red velvet cake ice cream' and I knew I had to go. Sadly when we finally got around to going they were sold out of the red velvet flavor (sad pouty face). I moved on though and started examining their original flavors as well as the tried favorites like cookies and cream and tiger tale. 

The boys stayed true to their favorites, Jack had cotton candy (with gummy bears on top), while Max had cookies and cream.

 Anthony had butterscotch ripple and I had a flavor called Tin Roof Sundae (I think it was Sundae). It was a vanilla ice cream with a caramel ribbon and chocolate covered peanuts. YUM! Need I say more?

I would definitely make time to stop at this little stand on your way through Tweed on hwy 37. You just might find something new! 

DIY Compost Bin

Having 5 people living in one house can produce a lot of garbage and since we're off the beaten path we don't have garbage pick up...AT ALL! We get to go to the dump! Fun!

In order to keep our garbage under control we have to be on top of our recycling.  We usually burn all of our boxes and papers because you can have a fire in your backyard whenever.  One of the perks of country living! All of our cans, plastics and garage get sorted at the dump.

I noticed that we had a lot of food waste, which meant we needed a compost bin. But compost bins are expensive,  especially the one I wanted.

You know what that meant? ! DIY project!

I've found that a a lot of my DIY projects are really DIA (do it Anthony) or DID (do it Dad) projects.  I have high hopes for myself and a drill and saw one day but for now I'm happy to leave it to the professionals...then take credit for it.

Working with the 'Use What You Got' motto from my previous blog, I hit Pinterest for some ideas and my Dad took inventory of what he and we came up with this.

We had a large blue barrel hanging around that my Dad put large holes in on either end, big enough to put a metal rod through.

He built a frame from extra wood he had lying around.

Cut a whole in the side of the barrel for our waste to go into.

With a little fine tuning,  old hinges and some barrel bolts he put on the door so no animals could get into it. Then Max and I drilled some holes all around the barrel for air circulation and.....

TADAAA!

A DIY compost bin! 

Big thanks to my Dad for taking on the project!

With regular trips to the composter we've gone 4 days without having to change the garbage!

Potatoes by the pound

In the last week I've picked about 15 lbs of potatoes from our backyard garden. That put me in the garden for about 2 hours in nice enough weather.

The work wasn't exactly back breaking, if back soring was a phrase I would use that, but you get the idea. Picking potatoes isn't the easiest or cleanest line of work but when I was finished, and got all the dirt out from under my finger nails,  I felt extremely accomplished then was quickly overcome with a dread of , how are we going to eat all of the potatoes kind of feeling.

Potato recipes to follow and storage info to follow!

As I was digging up our lovely Yukon Gold potatoes it made me think of my Great Grandfather William Dungar. William immigrated from England to Canada in 1904 (well after the good old pioneer days) when he was 16 and worked as a farm hand in Lindsay Ontario.

I was lucky enough to have been given his diaries from 1917 to 1920. His diaries are a great read and a piece of history some might say because he was fighting for our country in World War 1. It's his diary from 1920 that has really stuck with me though. After the war he resumed his life as a farm hand and through the summer months he recorded all the produce the farm harvested, most of that harvest included potatoes. He would write from day to day, 8 bags of potatoes, 10 bags of potatoes and so on.

I can't begin to imagine what a 12 hour day of field work must have been like 94 years ago, 2 hours were enough for this Not So Pioneer Life. I've grown a new found respect for those farmers who planted and picked by hand but also for the farmers of today that sell their harvest from homemade fruit and veggie stands on the side of the road.

My potato harvest is quietly drying out between sheets of newspaper waiting to be stored in a cool dry place until we need them.

Use what you got

As a kid growing up we spent every Sunday evening at my Nan's with the whole family.

And as sure as Sunday dinner would roll around, more often then not my Nan would be making biscuits to go with dinner.

Some of my earliest memories are of my Nan and I elbow deep in flour. I knew the dough was ready when she called me into the kitchen, dabbed my nose with flour and handed me a soup can.

The soup can was for cutting the biscuits.  I still to this day am not sure if she used the same can week after week or if it was a newer one but it was always on the counter ready to go.

I am partial to circle cutters myself but since mine have gone missing I was glad that I cracked open a can of chicken soup for the boys today. Which made me equally glad to have a wonderful memory come flooding into my kitchen.

I didn't keep the soup can that I used to cut my biscuits today but I know that I will always keep the memory of Nan and I elbow deep in flour, soup can in hand.

So remember in your not so pioneer life,  use what you have because Nan knew that her biscuits would taste just as good when she cut them with a soup can.

My Dad and his cake

I made a delicious Peaches and cream cake today with fresh Ontario peaches that I bought in Tweed. I was sad when I had finished the batter and couldn't find my bundt pan. We are still unpacking so I was forced to use my Dads silicone bundt pan...why he has one at all is beyond me.

I've always been skeptical of the silicone pans. I know they won't melt in the oven and baked goods are supposed to pop out of them...but not greasing a pan is unheard of to me but I continued on for the sake of the cake.

This cake took 90 minutes to bake which is a long time for anyone who loves baking but it was torture to my Dad.  When I finally took it out of the oven I had to beat him off with a stick to stay away from it and let it cool but he insisted on picking at the bottom of the cake.  After 2 hours of cooling I finally took the cake successfully out of the pan and covered it in a delicious vanilla glaze (and took a pretty picture).

After about 10 minutes my Dad's spidey cake sense must have been tingling because he came into the living room and asked if we could finally have a piece, to which I said yes. He then hopped over to the counter and cut himself a piece of cake which really meant a quarter of the cake. He then noticed I had left out the extra glaze and proceeded to smother his quarter slice all the while saying 'oh ya smother me in it and eat me up'!

That's my Dad for you!