Thanksgiving Recap - Part 1

Lot's of stories to tell, let's get going. And unfortunately I had to make this a two parter - too much information for one sitting.

We headed up to Cavalier on Thursday morning, dogs in tow, to spend Thanksgiving with Alycia's family. Thanksgiving dinner was a long affair and filled with delicious food for everyone. Alycia's Mom and Dad enjoy trying out new recipes and they had a couple of vegetarian, gluten free dishes for Alycia. One was a wild/brown rice casserole with mushrooms and water chestnuts, another was roasted butternut squash with cauliflower, garlic and pine nuts. Both were very different and quite tasty.

We have leftovers of both those dishes, and we'll spend the next several days consuming them. Since I'm busy eating the turkey, gravy and other meaty gluten filled items, I always feel a bit bad for Alycia, but this year, she had quite lot to choose from, the two aforementioned dishes, plus mashed taters, gluten free stuffing, and a gluten free apple pie, so nobody left hungry, Celiac or not.

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving though, was where the real fun started. Alycia's parents sit on the Holy Church Council for a church in the nearby hamlet of Hamilton, ND population 73 (here's the Wikipedia entry on Hamilton, ND for those who would accuse me of hyperbole for storytelling purposes). Her Dad had volunteered to remove a dead tree from the church parking lot the previous Sunday, and I as his helper monkey, was gonna help him do it.

First we had to mosey from Cavalier, ND, south on Highway 18 to the farm of a family friend (Farmer Lee) who lives outside Hoople, ND, population 292 (again here's the Wikipedia entry for you non believers) to pick up his two chain saws. Chain saws in tow, we headed up to Hamilton only to find that the tree had already been removed!!!! Alycia's Dad attributed this shocking discovery to the likelihood that another parishioner had overheard the tree removal plan and had simply jumped the gun and come over and removed the tree himself.

We were now all dressed up, chain saws in hand, with nothing to chain saw. This simply would not do, so we conjured up a backup plan. Tom called Farmer Lee and asked if we could take some of the trees that he had thinned from the tree breaks/shelterbelt around his fields, chop it up, cart it away and use it for firewood at our homestead in Grand Forks. For those of you city slickers who don't know, North Dakota is a very windy place, and tree breaks or shelterbelts are used around both houses/farmsteads and around crop fields to keep wind, snow drifts, weeds, and soil erosion at bay.

The tree breaks can be narrow (one tree wide) or deep (a hundred feet wide or more) and very long, usually the length of the field, hundreds of yards long. Essentially they're long, narrow forests, and every few years farmers go in and thin dead trees, cut down problem trees, and generally keep the forest healthy.

Alycia's Dad and I set to work, each with a chain saw and a huge tangle of large trees that had been removed by heavy equipment and piled up at one end of the tree break. After about an hour of frenzied mechanized fury, we had enough wood to fill up the vehicle (a lovely red Pontiac Aztec) and decided to call it a day. We drove the chain saws back to Farmer Lee's compound, returned to load up the wood in the Aztec, and proceed back home in time for Thanksgiving leftover lunch.

And after lunch we had yet another family adventure. To be continued.....

Another Poll

There's another poll up for all of you, my treasured readers. You can't really answer it until after tomorrow - Thanksgiving, but maybe this will get your taste buds prepared for all the deliciousness that is to come...

Good To Be Home

It's good to be home. Two weeks is about the right amount of time to be away for a business trip. Granted I'd prefer to not have to be gone at all, but since I have to, two weeks is about right. And I actually have no travel complaints this time, no rails against Northwest Airlines, no incompetence encrusted encounters with fellow travelers or airline personnel, just a nice flight, enjoyable layover, and quick second leg home to Grand Forks.

While I was gone, our fireplace repair person was able to come out and install a new damper and screen on top of the chimney. Local barn swallows had made our chimney a home and would likely return every year if we hadn't put a new cap and screen on top of the chimney. I feel a bit bad evicting Gods creatures from our chimney, but I think they can easily find a new place to take up residence.

The chimney guy also cleaned the chimney/fireplace and we were able to have a fire for the first time. I started a small fire to make sure the smoke cleared and the damper worked and slowly built it up to a pleasant, living room warming blaze. It's pretty nice to have a warm fire on a chilly night. The fire also puts out a good amount of light and really seems to open up the room. I finally fulfilled my long standing North Dakota desire and stretched out on the couch in front of the fire with a book, the appropriately titled "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore. It was awesome-rad.

Even though it's windy and chilly, and there are a few flurried flakes falling from above, we need to take Shaak Ti on a run this afternoon. Hopefully it'll have warmed up a bit by then. She has two weeks of accumulated energy to burn off, we'll see what we can do.

Need a musical jaunt back in time? Here's what I'm listening to this morning, a cold, cloudy and blustery morning - an old spiritual by Nina Simone - Sinnerman.

The Chicken Debate

I've spent the last several months in a raging internal debate as to whether or not I want to get some chickens. Chickens would not only provide fresh, organic eggs (which are significantly nutritionally better than conventional eggs), but also a significant amount of pest control (they eat a lot of bugs). Our potential poultry partners would also help make the garden a more efficient/organic place through not only the aforementioned pest control, but also turning the dirt with their constant scratching and pecking.

There are numerous articles I've read where people integrate their compost pile and chickens, and the chickens do a marvelous job of physically breaking down the compost, snacking on any fruit/veggie scraps in the compost, and munching any insect interlopers that might stop by.

The drawbacks are 1) building a pen/coop for them, 2) making sure they don't turn into chickensicles in winter, 3) how the dogs might react to them, 4) who'll tend to them when we're out of town, and 5) how much noise they might make (as Alycia's Mom has said repeatedly "Your neighbors will HATE you if you get chickens"). For now we're sticking with the "let's wait and see" how things shake out. Right now the drawbacks are reasonably more significant than the benefits.

In the meantime, we have access to farm fresh organic eggs from a friend of Alycia's Mom. I think as long as we have a steady supply of eggs, the need for chickens dissipates. We'll reassess this Spring what to do.

Backyard chicken keeping has become quite the hot trend, here are some books from Amazon.

The Only Gluten Free Flour Mix You'll Ever Need

In case you missed it last month, I wrote a brief piece on Gluten Free Flour Mixes over on my other lightly paid blogging site.

The Best Gluten Free Flour Mix.

It's the story of one mans' struggle against all odds, overcoming buckets of adversity to create a tasty loaf of gluten free bread. OK that might be a bit if a stretch. There is a recipe for the all purpose gluten free flour mix that we use for just about everything, including bread, coffee cake, and cookies.

Back to the Beach

Ah yes, it was back to the beach for some volleyball action yesterday. I'd almost forgotten how much I missed playing volleyball on the beach. Sure, we have wallyball (which all reports indicate has gone well in my absence) - an adequate substitute, but not as good as the real thing.

One of the side benefits of coming back to San Diego for work is all the amusing ancillary things to do in between billable hour stints. And surprisingly there are a few things that are unique to San Diego that one has trouble finding in North Dakota, especially this time of year. One of those things is beach volleyball. So in the spirit of "when in Rome", I met up with some volleyballing compatriots on Sunday and had a grand ole' time.

I'm also gonna partake in a few other things that can only be done in San Diego, and these mostly involve consumption of tasty food products. We've (I'm referring to my stomach and me as "we" for the remainder of this entry) already hit up multiple Mexican food establishments as well as Jack In the Box and some Sushi Oto. On our to do list is In N Out (at least twice) and some Phil's BBQ, but I'm not gonna panic or get stressed, we'll get it done.

So what if most of my to do list while in town involves consuming various culinary delicacies. I've also hung out with the fam and done some other stuff, but the crux of the trip involves not only the local fare that I can't find in North Dakota, but also treats that are chock full of the gluten and meat that I can't get at home. We'll let you all know how it ends up.....

All's Quiet on the Western Front

Yes it's been a bit quiet around our little blog lately. I've been afflicted with a case of work that I haven't been able to easily shake. Don't be concerned though, it's nothing serious, just some billable hours for a couple of weeks, nothing that will interfere with my long term ambitions of being the most slacktasteric slacker I can be.

This is my first trip back to San Diego since the move to North Dakota, and my time away has made me think, reinforced some of my perceptions, and solidified in my mind that moving out of San Diego was the right thing to do. One thing that amazes me is how easy it is to acclimate to a slower pace of living. Being gone for just a few months in mellow North Dakota, I come back here and my first impression is what an immense hurry everyone is in. I'm on the freeway doing 70+ and people are whizzing past me left and right, it's amazing.

And I know that just about everyone is more technologically savvy/competent/enamored than I am, but the proliferation and constancy of use of cell phones and PDA's really made me take notice. Just today while eating my lunchtime gyro, every other person in the restaurant checked, touched, used or monitored their cell phone at least once while I was there. On my way from the parking lot to eat, a Mom and her kid were in one of those psuedo-Bohemian paint-your-own-ceramic places, and she was gabbing away on her cell while supposedly having a tender moment with her child.

Seeing all the cell phones and rapid speed of life, it makes me wonder, is anyone slowing down to enjoy anything? Is anyone engaged in the moment, in reality, or just text messaging to pass the time? And why the hurry? It makes me feel odd, like there's something I'm missing, some reason that compels everyone else to move at such a pace.

This might sound like sour grapes from a former resident, but it's really not. Just observations now that I have a little (more) perspective. I still enjoy San Diego, it has its positive attributes, but I don't think I could ever come back and live here.

Applesauce Day

The whole house has that warm apple smell, a sure sign that there's some manner of appley shenanigans going on. About a month ago the apple people were in Grand Forks with their semi trailer full of apple boxes. I purchased a case of golden delicious, stored them in the back porch (where it's nice and cool) and we've been eating them fresh, pretty much every day, and have managed to consume about half the box.

Now that the apples aren't quite as fresh and crisp, it's time for their next incarnation - to live again as delicious applesauce. The whole family unit spent a few hours this morning (people peeled and chopped apples, dogs prowled the floor for fallen apple bits) and now we have a large vat of applesauce, bubbling and gurgling away on the stove.

Applesauce is a tremendously simple food to make,and honestly that's part of its appeal. Take apples, peel and chop. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, a bit of sugar, and cook it all until everything is squishy. It couldn't be easier, and it's also really hard to screw it up. Simplicity and difficulty to mess up are two qualities that I definitely look for when choosing a recipe.

It's such a pleasant thing on a cool, cloudy Sunday afternoon to have a big ole pot of applesauce cooking on the stove. Football is on the television and we're getting prepared to get our applesauce canned up and preserved for future consumption. Now I'm gonna relax on the couch with some warm applesauce and watch the Chargers game.