My Unexpected Adventures

Yesterday, January 25, 2025, turned out to be a very nice day. I love it when things just happen and work out. Long range plans are not for me. I think about it too often because I don't want to forget. I have to plan when to leave and should I eat first? What should I wear in case I get too warm or too cold. That's what happens when you are an over thinker like me. Some people love to have a planned schedule, but I like to wing it within reason. That doesn't mean I like chaotic situations or disorganization, I just like plans not too far in advance. I might get a better offer and then I am stuck with something I agreed to six months ago. 

Last Thursday my grandson Jack had a swim meet more than an hour away. His parents were both going, and I hadn't planned on it. A few minutes before they were going to leave, my son-in-law had an emergency to tend to. My daughter decided to drive alone. She called to tell me and I said I could go, all I needed was twenty minutes to get to a meeting spot 12 miles away. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and put on my coat. In twenty minutes we had met and were on our way. I think I forgot to comb my hair, but I didn't care. I did overdress because pools are HOT and I didn't have time to consider that, but I stripped off a few layers and all was great. My daughter didn't have to drive home in the cold and dark alone which made me happy.

Since winters are quite long for me, I was also happy when two days later, my other daughter called. She wondered if I wanted to go to Green Bay. My youngest grandson had one of his paintings being displayed at the Neville Public Museum. It is Youth Art Month which is sponsored by the Council for Art Education. It features creative works from students in grades K through 12. Sixteen school districts in Northeast Wisconsin were represented at this location. It shows the value of art education for all kids and supports programs in Wisconsin schools. 

After having coffee and a sweet treat at a little coffee shop, we headed to the museum. First we went in to see Ewan's picture displayed and some other very good art presented there. It's is amazing the talent all children have. It just needs to be nudged out at times and nurtured. Of course Ewan lives and breaths fishing so a painting of a trout was the logical subject matter. For those of you who followed his Youtube channel called Old Time Skills when he was much younger, you can now see him tie flies for fly fishing. His Youtube channel is now called Old Time Skills Outdoors. You won't recognize him or his voice. He's 14 now and really good at it.

They have a lot of fun displays at the Neville Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin. We saw a replica of Lambeau Field constructed out of Legos, and we saw how chocolates were made. Ewan practiced being a weather man on a green screen and discovered it is much harder than it looks. Upstairs they had some of the old displays from the local Prange stores. Those stores were part of both my daughters' childhood. There were a lot of animal displays and old time vehicles. There was a cross section of a beaver lodge. It reminded me of the times I have watched beaver in my marsh. This is a blog I wrote about it in 2013. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/07/the-beaver-are-back.html As we were looking at the displays, we saw a bunch of people gathering at a big window. We laughed thinking these people were at a museum and all they were doing was looking out the window at the river. Then we discovered why. Apparently a man was trying to cross the ice on the river either to get to the other side or to run from something. A moving river isn't the safest right now and he slipped, slided and fell down several times. We joined the gawkers and were sure he was going to go through the ice. He made it and on the other side he was greeted by police and firefighters. They brought a ladder for him to crawl out and took him away. We haven't seen any details of this event, but you never know what you will see.

From the museum we went to a few stores my family needed to go to. I was fine walking around clutching my purse and looking like I was lost. I didn't buy anything, but it was exercise.

Our next stop was the Verizon store. I had needed a new phone but had avoided getting one. It is always such a pain to set it up and learn all the new features. I always put it off as long as I can. Since my grandson and son-in-law also needed new phones, we did it together. I got an iphone 16 and added a new iwatch as long as we were there. Hopefully these two pieces of technology will last me for as long as I need them. The phone is actually awesome and it has a longer zoom than my "good" camera. Many of you have seen so many pictures of the church across the river from my deck. I took this from the window. It looks much much closer than it is and pretty clear too. The iwatch has a crash feature besides getting messages, phone calls and Facetime. If I fall and can't call for help, the watch will call 911 for me and give coordinates. Living by myself, it seemed like a good idea. It takes EKG's which I was afraid to do, but I had a normal rhythm. It tracks sleep as far as awake time, REM, core and deep sleep. You can listen to music and a multitude of other things. I would never have thought growing up a million years ago that any of this is possible. Necessary, maybe not but pretty amazing.

We finally ended the adventure with a meal at a new place I had never heard of. I don't eat out much. It was called Freddies. It is a hamburger and ice cream joint with tiny little fries. It was good. 

Next we headed home. The next few hours weren't the best but we got through it. The person at Verizon said it was easy to transfer all our information from the old phones to the new phones. That was not the case. Because the phones were older or some other reason I am not capable to understand, the numbers didn't transfer. My daughter handled all of it so I can't give any details but eventually she spoke to a real person and got it figured out. It was such a relief.

I left my house at 10:00am and got home at 10:00pm. It was a great diversion. I try to be really independent but sometimes you just need your family.

Making Butter (again)

It is going to be a cold weekend. Bitter cold temperatures will start tomorrow, January 19, 2025 and continue until Wednesday. A lot of other things will happen in this time period too, but I will not mention or focus on that. If you read this in 2035, then Google (or whatever means of researching is happening in ten years) about a situation we are having now. You will probably just be able to think it, and the Wikipedia chip in your brain will know the answer but I digress.

Today I thought I would clean out the refrigerator and start fresh. I had soup that was past its prime and other things to sort through. I came across an unopened container of heavy cream. During the holidays I was going to make whipped cream for something and didn't. The container was not past the expiration date, but I sure didn't need a bunch of whipped cream. I could have eaten it from a bowl but knew it wasn't a smart idea. I decided to make it into butter rather than toss it in the trash.

I had blogged about making butter several years ago. Here is the link. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/11/make-your-own-butter.html I had purchased a little butter churn at the time. A lot of you know my youngest grandchild Ewan. He likes to experiment with making random things just like me, so I gave the churn to him a few years ago. Today I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. Not the authentic way to make butter, but today was about getting the job done and not acting like a pioneer. 

All it takes is pouring the cream into the mixing bowl, turning it on and letting it mix until you get butter. You drain off the buttermilk to use in something else. I think I will make bread. Next rinse the butter under cool water until it runs clear and add some salt which makes it taste better and preserves it some.

 I have a Butter Bell crock. It is a small crock where the butter is put in the top section and a small amount of water is put in the bottom. The top part with the butter packed inside is the lid. This keeps the butter fresh and makes it easy to spread. I put half of this batch into the bell and refrigerated the other half. I mentioned in the previous blog that 1 pint of cream makes one stick of butter (4 ounces). I got a little more this time. I got almost seven ounces. It still isn't very economical, but in this case I would have thrown it away. Now I have almost one half pound of butter to use up. I am a bit of a cheap skate so it works for me.

Now I have a clean refrigerator and I am ready to hunker down and ride out this weather. I have a lot of firewood so I might even make a fire in the fireplace. Right now it looks beautiful outside. I know it's only temporary, but the way time flies at my age the cold snap will be over before I even notice.

Thirty One Days in January Seems Like a Hundred Days

My last post was a little serious and an attempt at being a positive person with a good attitude. I really am most of the time, but I have failed miserably this past week. Even the smallest decisions seem daunting. I play four New York Times games in the morning as part of my routine. I play Wordle, Connections, Strands and Mini Crossword and Nerdle at night. I normally dislike games but somehow this is just a challenge against myself, and it's so good for my brain. Even that has been a little hard to focus on. January has never been my friend and extra vitamin D or a mood light isn't going to help that. It's cold and even though it's getting better, it's still dark at 5pm. I have tons of television channels but nothing to watch. Who wants to see murders and mayhem all night long? Living alone and making all the decisions gets overwhelming at times. After almost four years, I am still not completely used to it. At first I would wake up in the night and rush out of bed because I was sure I forgot to do something important. That doesn't happen anymore, but I still am afraid I am missing something. I never had to worry about home and car maintenance or snow removal or where the shut off valve is for the water. Tax season is coming up again and all that it entails. Tax preparers can only work with the information they are given. What if I forget an important deduction or don't even know about it in the first place? I can't get out and walk like I want to because of the weather. People say take your phone in the woods with you in case you fall or need help. If I am knocked out, my phone won't help much. So now I have to look into upgrading my smart watch to be even smarter. It has to know when I am knocked out and then tell my phone to send help. I had to replace my dishwasher and microwave the day after Christmas. Thanks to my son in law, that was easy. People in general are stressed about the state of the world, their health and healthcare and relationships making them just plain rude and self absorbed. They pay no attention to an old lady until you are parked at the side of the road looking for a special bird or animal to photograph. Then someone will pull up to make sure everything is alright. Nice, but scary at the same time. I don't park and watch anymore. I keep moving. Not everyone is rude, but a fair number would rather run you over than stop. I'm sorry this sounds terrible and pathetic. Good grief just writing all this down, it's no wonder my attitude stinks. That has to stop.

So what do I do when I get in a funk. I write ridiculous blogs, I knit or crochet unwanted items and cook food. Today I made a kettle of chicken soup. I bought a big pack of chicken legs because five pounds cost only $2 more than a little two pound package. With the extra chicken legs, I made this recipe. I am not sure I ever made chicken legs like this before. I always buy chicken breasts for meals and thighs or legs for soup but I guess you can teach an old dog a new trick or two. They were really good. I made rice to eat with them, and I will freeze most of them to eat later.

Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

Mix the marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

2 T. ketchup

1 T. apple cider or rice vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. fresh ginger or 1/8 t. of dried ginger

1 T. sesame or vegetable oil

Pour this mixture over two pounds of chicken legs (about 8-10). I put the chicken in a ziplock bag and poured in the marinade. Then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

When ready remove the drumsticks and put on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. 

After 25 minutes, turn the drumsticks over and put a little marinade on each one.

Bake another 20 minutes until they are golden brown.

The third thing I made was a Mug cake. It was really large and I tried to save half of it for later. It didn't work. I kept at it until the whole thing was gone. If I keep that up, I will really need to double up my walks into the woods. I did flip it out of the mug so it is easier to cut in half. No guarantees that will make a difference on how it is consumed.

 Chocolate Mug Cake

1/4 cup self rising flour*

*I make my own with 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 t. baking powder and 1/2 t. I keep it in a jar for when I need some.

1/4 cup sugar (or Splenda will work)

1/4 baking powder

1/8 t. salt 

4 1/2 T. milk (I used Oat milk)

1 T. oil

3 T. water

1/4 t. vanilla 

2 t. mini chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients in a microwave safe mug.

Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Put a teaspoon of chocolate chips on top and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Take out and let it rest for a minute. Top with the rest of the chocolate chips. It is a little like Lava Cake with the melted chocolate chips.

Seriously writing down the reasons for my bad mood did help. That and a good night sleep usually does the trick. Mama said there would be days like this. It's kind of like living in Wisconsin. We can't appreciate all the good days if we didn't have a few bad ones. Many would say I don't know what trouble is, and I really don't. Imagine losing everything in a fire or tornado or being abused on a daily basis. Everyone has their trials and tribulations. It doesn't matter where we have been. What matters is where we are going. I just have to get out of my head and house once in a while and eating chocolate cake doesn't hurt.

My next blog will be more fun, I promise.

Happy New Year 2025

Every now and then I get on a serious kick. It is usually in the winter when I have too much time to think. I was thinking today about how to cope with getting older. First of all, there is no turning back and those of us who have made it this far (for me 77 years) should be grateful. I really don't want to be young again because even though I thought I was smart, I was dumb. I still like knowing and learning a lot of things. I tell my grandchildren "I know a lot more things than you think". Where is that line? How can a person act young and age appropriate at the same time. We can't dwell on what we can't do or how we look. I am constantly thinking I acted or said something ridiculous. Then I think, who cares. If I embarrass myself, we can all laugh about it. It's a challenge for sure. 

Today I took my usual walk in the woods. I only walk a half a mile over bumpy terrain. A few years ago I would have kept increasing my time and distance until I hurt myself and had to stop for a few days to recover. Now I know better. It was really cold out today and as I put on my "new" warm  red coat, I realized it was at least six years old and maybe ten. My "new" kitchen is thirteen years old. My little grandchildren are adults or getting pretty darn close. Time waits for no one.

There is no conclusion to this blog or these thoughts except I shouldn't be jealous when others are out and about doing things I would like. If I really wanted to, I could make it happen. Just don't wait too long. Time isn't really on our side, but we are all on our own journey. Some things are out of our control but mostly we control our own destiny. I can still walk, I can still talk (although almost everyone texts), I can eat, I can drink and I can think my own thoughts right or wrong. I can't sing but I try, and I dance with myself in the kitchen. For me life is pretty darn good after all.

I hope everyone has a great 2025 and all our hopes and dreams come true and our fears never happen.