Poet's Snow

January snowfall has for the most part been limited to nightly dustings of new snow.  Not enough to plow, the snow was driven over frequently.  That compression began the creation of a glacier on the surface of the driveway.  The resulting hard and slippery road surface caused a delivery driver to make a u turn at the reverse curve rather than continue up the gentler hill.  That seemed like a poor choice to me, but the driver was able to make her exit unassisted after dropping our package in a snow bank.  Lucky for her, I found the parcel before nightfall.

This morning the air was cool and calm.  Steadily falling large snow flakes and the insulation from sound produced by the density of snow in the air suggested that it was time for a walk in the woods.  Clearing the driveway called louder so I headed out to work rather than to walk.

My lawn tractor lacks the speed to push a quantity of snow to the side.  Two round trips with the plow left a fair sized row of snow near the edge of the roadway.  Then the snow blower was called upon to throw that snow clear of the driveway.  High wide skids keep the blower riding above the gravel surface.  The inch of snow left behind was then plowed to the edge.

The combination of the plow and the blower kept me out of trouble today.  I'm certain that the blower would do an excellent job of clearing a suburban blacktop level driveway.  My sloped, both to the side and downhill drive, has a tendency to pull either the front or the back of the machine into the deep snow depending on movement either uphill or down.  If one gets stuck going down hill, one is really stuck.  Trying to back out only makes matters worse as the rear of the tractor then moves to bury itself.

The plow tractor has a new parking spot next to the truck.  Bitter cold and an aged battery combine to require an occasional jump start.  That is more easily accomplished in newly fallen snow if the two machines are within reach of each other.

This afternoon winds  shifted to blast at us from the north. With the temperature dropping fast, my pleasant snowy morning turned into a windy, frigid afternoon. The walk in the woods will have to wait for a warmer day.

Pumpkin Procrastinator

We grew a plethora of pumpkins this year.  We gave some away.  We put many green and damaged pumpkins in the compost.  We left more back by the woods for the critters.  We also stored pumpkins in the basement.  Many of them are still lurking down there waiting.  Today Ed and I  took care of three pumpkins.  We do these together.  Ed doesn't like to see me with a large knife in my hand and he definitely doesn't like to make trips to the emergency room, so he cuts the pumpkins in half for me.  He also scrapes out the innards using an old gravy ladle.  I then place them cut half down surrounded by one half an inch of water and bake them in a 350 degree oven.  It takes about an hour, sometimes more depending on their size.  When the house smells like pumpkin and the shells cave in when touched, they are ready.

They look like this when they come out of the oven.  I give them some time to cool off so that I can handle them comfortably.

When they are cool you can scoop the pumpkin out leaving the intact skin to go in the compost.  After that I freeze the pumpkin in containers that contain enough pumpkin for six pumpkin custards or a pie.

We could have done this sooner so now for the procrastinator part.  The first pumpkin Ed cut was disgusting inside.  The pumpkin looked fine, but a close inspection revealed a small hole in the bottom.  Some insect had burrowed in through the blossom scar while the pumpkins were growing in the field.  Had this pumpkin been processed promptly, it would have been fine.  Our wait allowed rot to take hold so now it went directly to the compost.  Today's next two chosen pumpkins were fine.  Since we have waited so long some of the pumpkins have nasty surprises.  The worst are the ones that have developed soft spots.  When you pick up a pumpkin and your thumb sinks into a soft smelly spot, you know you have put things off too long.  Mithren, our cat, seems captivated by the smell.  I can't think why since when he licks that yucky pumpkin juice he always seems to throw up.

So we are multitasking.  We are warming the kitchen, cleaning up the basement, freezing pumpkin for later use and keeping the cat from throwing up all at the same time.  Oh right, did I tell you we had a huge bumper crop of Butternut squash?  They are processed in a similar manner.