Anaerobic Action

The first batch is very good.  Containing an eclectic list of ingredients; red cabbage, green cabbage, beets, red onions, 2 blood oranges, cranberries, sea weed, ginger, mustard seed, and sea salt - the final taste is very good.  Beautiful color too.  I'm going to give it another week to "kraut up" a bit more.  Yesterday, another 4 quarts were created. 

Making fermented vegetables is pretty cool.  First, one can snack all day and not worry about calories!  I love crisp cabbage.  The organic heads I bought were sweet and crunchy.  All those bacteria are supposed to be darn good for one's gut.  We eat a little bit as a side with any meal.  From left to right - plain sauerkraut, a jar of garlic/carrot kraut, the original batch, and two jars of ballpark kraut.  All these recipes can be found on this cool lady's site Holly Howe's Kraut which I highly recommend.  Get a kitchen scale!

Have to go now.  The chicken coop needs cleaning!! 

Fire Investigators

Had you have visited the space where the training was held, you would have been able to view the classroom, the backs of the students, and the two instructors - also the author's of the Kirk's Fire Investigation, 8th Edition classroom textbook through the back room glass walls.  Had you stayed long enough and had keen observation skills, you too might have noticed the two attendees seated directly behind me who spent the entire class glued to their iphones and computers.  One wonders why they bothered.

Did the class offer me gems of new learning?  No.  Am I glad I went?  Yes.  There are many things one can learn, even if it's not what you were hoping for!  I was reminded that I know quite a bit, actually, about fire investigations.  We don't get many fires, so being reminded of my currently-held knowledge was a good thing. 

And I got to listen to some good books while driving, see beautiful country, and arrive home - safe and sound - happy to be home, once again. 

To add visual content, here is an ExploreMeKC Flickr picture for you today.

Tags:  bicycles marshall michigan sidewalk fall

KCMeFlickr

This is the kind of picture that shows up on Flickr at times.  Weird.  Abstract.  An image you don't expect.  Jeffery City, Wyoming.  Out in the middle of no where.  Today, the wind was tame as I pulled a U-turn on the deserted highway to go back and grab this image.  Note the past affects of the wind - the chairs tossed over, a piece of metal piles up against the car.  The country has little to hold back the wind. It is a force as viable as the four seasons.

I ran into a friend at Moran, stopping there for a candy bar and bathroom break - both needed for the long road trip ahead.  He was aghast that I was driving to Denver.  With a face screwed up in disbelief, he exclaimed, "couldn't they fly you there??"  I pondered this comment all the way up the sunlit Togwotee Mountain and down to the other side, rolling the posted 30 mph speed limit into Dubois, my town of Wyoming origin. 

Turns out, I like to drive.  I like to drive across this vast, open state.  Pronghorn antelope dot the sagebrush landscape.  Rivers are frozen white along the edges.  There is no snow after one descends down the 9600 foot Togwotee Pass country.  The roads weave through seams of rocks pushed up in lines of reds and browns.  A sheep wagon sits alone out in the middle of the range.  Cows gather to feed down a line of hay delivered by an unseen rancher.  Horses keep their tails to the wind and browse brown dried up range grass.  A windmill sits frozen in the day's wind.  Golden eagles feast on road kill, giant-sized compared to the ravens they stand alongside in the ditches and borrow pits of the two lane asphalt highways. 

Usually when I am tasked to make this jaunt across the Cowboy State, I go straight south to Pinedale then Rock Springs, pick up route 80 and head to Cheyenne.  Today, graced with blue skies, (mostly) dry roads, and a sense of adventure, I chose the Togwotee Pass/Lander/Rawlins route.  Lander has a very good grocery store.  I bought a bag of food to keep me awake; carrots, celery, a container of fruit. 

Turning south from Cheyenne, the wide open spaces begin to funnel in with increased traffic.  Suddenly it is big city.  I ponder the ability of Google Maps to take me right to my motel here in a suburb reportedly ten minutes from my fire investigation class on tomorrow's docket.  How did we ever get anywhere without this amazing technology? 

Books on tape usher me across the state.  I finished the book Captivology and started A Man Called Ove .  Michael read this book.  I could tell how much he was moved by the book and now eleven chapter in, I see why.  It is a wonderful story.  Makes the miles go by, keeps boredom at bay, and entertains!

Tomorrow I go to learn.  I am optimistic the day will be worth the two days of driving. 

Road Trip

Tomorrow I head west toward Denver.  A day of driving for a day of training followed by another day of driving.  I am confident it will be worth the effort. 

Another blog theme - "The Things I Love" will document the many things I have just fallen head over heals about at the Freedom place.  In no particular order, I will describe these things that amaze me and continue to remind me of how thankful I am we were able to get and have this wonderful place.  I will forever be astonished that we pulled this off!! 

The light.  The light in the house is amazing.  In the winter, the open cathedral style face of the house receives the winter's full southern sunlight.  One can watch the thermostat click up, degree by degree, heat passively heating the inside air.  To work in the kitchen on a sunny day requires the shades be pulled or one is blinded by the intense light beaming across the counter tops.  The glass dining table was a find.  I cover the cloth chairs when we leave to preserve their color.  I love the way the light plays on things in the front room.  A dried-out weed, plucked from the strawberry garden and standing now in a hand blown glass jar shimmers in the sun.  The woody carcass finds a new home and becomes art.

When we finished the renovation of the rental house, the fogging windows replaced and shimmery cleaned, the light poured throughout the space.  Now, the renters have the shades pulled, the light blocked off with brown fabric and plastic blinds.  Each to their own.  I prefer the light.  Bright, shining, and warm. (Probably why skin cancer showed up on my lip this year!) 

The sun is now on its northbound path.  By the heat of the summer, the sun's rays will hit the side of the house rather than the full front windows.  Brilliant planning!  Location, location, location.  I wonder if someone thought about the sun when this house was built or if it was just sheer luck.

(Yes, that is an indoor bug zapper.  I am in the midst of a war against the flies.  When the sun shines, they appear, inside and out.  Mike ponders, "are you a redneck if you use your bug zapper as a night light?"  He has a point.  However, I have a battle.  So far, the flies are winning.  In the end, the flies always win.)

                     

Long Weekend

Thanks to some trading for duty officer work, I am enjoying a long weekend at the Franch.  Thank you fellow chiefs!!  Payback will be next weekend when I am on duty both Saturday and Sunday.  Sad face! 

Projects this weekend have included painting the potting shed door, hooking up Mike's new laptop, getting the Nest thermostat installed, and trying to figure out how to view the cameras online.

The color of the door on the potting shed is exactly what I wanted!  I have a silk Ryan blouse that is this color and was able to find this color for an exterior paint.  Take a look -

It is 23 degrees this morning and socked in with a half mile visiblilty.  Fog latches on to all things outside.  The hoar frost is thick, new growth that will disappear with a touch of a finger, a breath of wind, or the coming of the sun - should the sun come out today.  

Our dining area was graced with friends and a wonderful meal last night.  Six at the table works just right.  A pork roast with Mike Bressler's sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, big green salad, and a creative dessert.  I turned a half gallon of goat milk into fresh goat cheese and made some thin crackers for appetizers.  Using the quickly ripening fruits brought from home, I made a blueberry-mango-pineapple pie.  Some were doubtful on this combination, their minds quickly changed with the first warm bite.  Thanks Mom for teaching me how to make amazing crust!!  I got the touch from you!

A soak in the hot tub started this day and will finish it as we pack up to head back to Hoback for the week ahead.  

Flikr Explore

On my iPad, I have the Flikr Explore app.  Most nights, as I lay in bed annoyed that once again, Michael is reading with the light on (grrrr....we have discovered our upbringings were much different as children - he could read before he slept, Sandy and I were told "lights out" "go to sleep".  I don't ever recall reading before bed), I will open this app and look at the pictures for the day. 

Some are stunning.  Some are excellent.  Some are good.  Some are dumb.  Still, it is always photographically inspiring.  Inspiring in other ways too.  The other day I decided that we should go to Norway.  Every time I see an image from Norway, it resonates with something deep inside me.  What's up with that?

Two days ago, there was a beautiful image from inside a frozen waterfall taken in Starved Rock State Park.  You can check out the day's images at this link FLIKR Explore

There is a ton of information on the internet on how to get "explored".  There is no pay and rarely is one's name even on the photo.  It is simply something to brag about.

Having been a photographer in the past, I learned early that you can take all the beautiful pictures in the world, but if no one ever sees them, what's the point?  It seems clear, recognition by others is what makes artists keep creating art.

Caring more about my blog readers than the Flickr browsers, I have am going to post an ExploreMeKC picture every  now and then.  Am I doing this for you or for me!  Ahhhh, and that is the question, isn't it?!  Let's just say it is for both of us.  If you like the image, share my blog site with someone else who might enjoy following the blog and enjoying more ExploreMeKC images. 

The folks in the know advise tagging images with lots of tags.  So expect these too. 

I might even load one or two up into Flikr......

Here is offering #1, ExploreMeKC for today, January 10, 2018 - which is, by the way, the day after Dad's birthday!!  Hope you had a great day, Dad!!

lunchtime/packtrip/cowboys/wilderness/Wyoming/

Aerobic Activity

There is a gal in Jackson who makes really good and interesting fermented vegetables.  The name of her company is Daily Roots and by clicking on her link you can find out all the goodness of eating fermented vegetables. 

I've always stayed away from these kraut-like things, mainly because of the salt.  Turns out, there is not nearly as much salt as I thought.  Especially if you make this stuff yourself.

For my last purchase from Daily Roots, I paid $13/pint and $23 quart for fermented mixes.  They make great gifts.  I'm all about supporting local businesses, but at that price, well, I figured I could figure out how to do this....!!  I recall pickles in a big, heavy crock, a blue label impressed in the crackly ceramic container.  It was not an event I took part in or paid any attention to at all!

I found a book on Amazon called Fermented Vegetables .  I liked the cover!  One more Amazon order for a good fermenting jar made by Kilner and then off to the grocery store I went!

Here is what is in my first (rookie) batch:  red cabbage, green cabbage, 3 beets, 2 blood oranges, 3/4 sliced red onion, some cranberries, a 1/4 of seaweed, ginger, mustard seed, and sea salt.  The books says, "it all depends" on when it is done.  Four or five days.....a week....they say you know when it tastes right!  That should be hard to know that moment when it tastes right, having never done this before.....

Here is the jar, packed and full.  Ready for some aerobic action!! 

My Sister-In-Law Stephanie

Looking through older photos.

Aren't we lovely?!

Happy, happy, happy!

The heater quit working here in Freedom last night.  Some kind of temperature sensor failing.  It got down to 7 degrees.  The dogs, Mike and I snuggled under our down comforter.  He turned the whole thing off during the night. 

When he turned it on this morning - it is working!  I love it when mechanical things "fix" themselves.  Happy news!  We snuck out in the darkness in the 7 degree calm (yesterday we hit the all-year high wind of 39 miles per hour - the hot tub cover blew off) and soaked in the 104 degree hot tub water.  The moon light dazzled bright the snow covered fields. 

A shower was had.  The heater, a boiler, heats our water too.  It was a hot shower!

Coffee, showered, and the magic view to the south.  Happy, happy, happy!  What a glorious morning to close 2017! 

We got to enjoy yesterday's Chariot Races.  Friend Coralia raced and won her run!  The track was muddy.  Here she is, glowing!  We love, admire, and greatly respect this gal!  She and her husband are passionate horse people.  He races too. 

Today we will welcome in the new year here in Freedom with dear friends Todd & Janet.  Steak, crab legs, and fat shrimp slowly thaw.  Bottles of bubblie and wine await their demise.  Janet is bringing her famous cannoli for dessert.  We will eat, drink, soak, and laugh in the new year.  You can't get a much better start than that!  

A few more pictures from yesterday's races.  May your heaters keep running, your wine cellar be stocked with delicious libations, your refrigerator full, and may you be surrounded by amazing friends and family!!  Happy 2018!

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

The alarm came in at 5:32 Christmas Eve.  Mike and I had just arrived at a Christmas Eve party where we were to wear our Ugly Christmas sweaters, which we both were wearing.  I had a couple of chances at the appetizers there before I had to leave for the call.  Occupants smell smoke and are evacuating the home.  Next the alarm company receives smoke alarm notifications.  Then they report fire sprinkler had gone off.  First due engine reports heavy smoke in crawl space.

To make a very long night of strategies and tactics sum up quickly.  Upon arrival, I took Incident Command.  We lost the house.  Per our local GIS, it is worth >$12 million dollars.  I would guess the artwork inside was worth that much or more.  The owner noted there was artwork that was over 2000 years old inside the home.

Mike arrived later to be an important responder helping immensely with air supply and water operations.  His vast years of being on the department make him an especially valued responder.  All have great respect for Captain Trumbower (including the Incident Commander)!

Here is the news report which I am so pleased that they actually reported what I said to the reporter correctly!  Big Christmas Fire

By the time it was all over, I had been awake for 31 hours.  I got home at 1pm, pulled my ugly Christmas sweater off, took a shower, and spent the rest of Christmas day sleeping. 

It's hard to lose a house when you are a firefighter.  We go home with our tails between our legs, heads drooping.  With fire in the crawl space and probably already into the walls upon our arrival, we had little chance of winning.  Still, a very very sad day for a family who put their love and hearts into a spectacular home.

Winter Came Yesterday!

The snow kept piling up.  Deeper and deeper as the morning crept toward noon.  Sixteen inches accumulated; on the roofs, on the driveways, on the alfalfa fields.  The west wind blew drifts behind fences.  As the sky cleared, cold temperatures whipped around the brave souls at the Afton Cutter Races.  A ground blizzard ensued.  The kids kept digging in the snowbanks, the burger lady kept making her famous Chariot Burgers, and the teams kept racing.  Here are some images from yesterday's event.

 The trailer where the burgers are made.  That bumper sticker is for you, Mom!

 Coralia wins big!

 Burger in hands.

 Look at the light on those horses backs!  Beautiful! The driver in the blue is putting his whip in his mouth right at that moment.

 Ground blizzard.  Mike helps the Robinsons get ready for their next race.

 Winter does not phase.

I love these dogs!!  Next picture, last race of the day.  The man on the left is the timer and teams are just about to cross the finish line. 

Today

Cooking Bliss

There is nothing I love better that amazing recipes!  To find and enjoy something so wonderful as, for example, the hibiscus habenero tequila recipe.  I have savored that amazing drink ever since the ingredients were discovered.

Dishing Magazine is a really great place to find incredible recipes!  Many of you will be getting a copy in you holiday package.  But if not, check them out online!  How easy is this - leaf through the publication and soon you will find a new something to create.  Check them out at the links below.  There is one for Jackson and one for Park City.  Super cool!!

(Click on the tab for the magazine to see all kinds of local restaurant recipes within!)

Jackson Dishing Site

Park City Site

Eat well.  Delicious and beautiful food.

Meteors in the Sky

The next couple of days offer a dark sky and the Geminid meteor shower.  Thanks to the Phaethon comet passing very close to earth, there is a very good chance for an amazing meteor shower over the course of the next few days.  Learn more at this link Geminid Meteor Shower

We have a new hot tub habit, thanks to summer time temperatures.  Who wants to soak in a hot tub after a hot, summer day?  So, we started soaking in the morning, pre-dawn.  Now with cold temperatures, we are finding ourselves enjoying the night sky both in the morning and at night!!  It doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it is a stellar thing to do (no pun intended - stellar, get it?!).

Anyway, look up to the night sky.  This could be darn amazing.  I am setting my alarm clock for 2am for Wednesday and Thursday night.  Let me know if you want me to call if the show is incredible. 

Star gaze away!  Here are some star gazing tips Star Gaze Tips

Wonderful Weekend!

What a great weekend!  Mike and I stayed Friday and Saturday night in Freedom.  We slept in both days until the morning sun topped the eastern mountain tops.  And then we stayed in bed a bit longer!  It was luxurious!

I am making silk scarves again this winter.  Big, warm silk scarves.  They start at 45" square.  Having purchased a used serger, I spent most of Saturday figuring the thing out and getting it set up for the silk I use for scarves.  By the end of the day, scarves were getting sewn perfectly!!  Yeah.  Here are the beautiful silks I'm working with.  Labeled - just in case you might want one or two!

Big news for the house.  We found our cook stove!  Of course, we had to buy one that was too big and may be now destined for the airplane hanger.  Still, this is the perfect stove!  Mike and I love the way it looks in the nook the Shinkles made for Jeanie's mother's stove (moved with them to their new home in Afton).  We are hoping to fire it up next weekend.

Christmas rushes into all of our lives.  Time goes by just too fast this time of the year.  We got out our cards and Mike is working on mailing today.  Remember to find time to pause and enjoy the moment.  It's not easy to do right now!!

A Work in Progress

Most Wednesdays, I make the journey north to the Moran Fire Station to join the fun and committed crew of firefighters up in the north part of Teton County.  Despite just getting home (and really not wanting to!), I joined the crew for last night's training at Jackson Lake Lodge.  As we descended the darkened wide stairway (power is off this time of year) in our bunker gear and carrying tools, I couldn't help but think of our firefighter brothers and sisters climbing stairs just like these up into the Towers on 9/11.  I shared my thoughts with the crew and we climbed in silence, each of us thinking we would do the same thing. 

On the way home, the inky sky was pinpointed by planets and stars.  A meteor shot across the southern sky in front of my headlights, horizontal and running east to west.  A herd of elk dined close to the road.  As I topped the hill at Deadman's, the snow-covered Teton glowed in the rising moon light. 

I need to do more work, but here is my first try at trying to capture this night time beautiful scene.  The temperature outside was 16 degrees.  It was quiet and cold.  I felt like the only person on the planet.  And I said a silent thanks to those who lost their lives that day.

(I'm pretty sure it's Venus and Mercury to the right of the Grand).

Naples, New York

People think "New York City" when you are visiting New York.  Not so where we sit currently.  The hills roll and are striped with grape vines and corn rows.  The landscape is more acreage than buildings.  It is quite beautiful here.  Long, deep lakes carved from ancient glaciers sit in the valleys.  White caps slicing through their deep, inky black waters.  It is New York winter.  Gray skies.  A cold wind out of the west.  Chunks of glassy salt on the pavement. 

We settle into the Green Farm House.
 

Scott and Stephanie have done so much work on this old house.  It is warm and comfortable.  We settle into the upstairs bedroom. 

  

The Thanksgiving table was set so beautifully.  Remember that big bottle of wine?  Here is it decanted.  We drank the whole thing - of course. 

A wonderful dinner was enjoyed last night at Kindred Fare .  Knowing that we would be connecting with Steven later for chicken wings, it was a bit unusual to eat and think about eating again!  But, hey, we did!  Here are some images of our delicious meals.

Creamy cheesy grits with shrimp.

Scallops - oh, so beautiful!

Calamari and chick peas - who would think of that combination?  Very good.  

Today, we all gather up with Janet for an amazing meal of clams, crab, pie, wine, and festivities.  Thanksgiving.  Family, food, drink.  

Thank you Scott and Stephanie!