#Pork shoulder and Sauerkraut...a supper to remember

Today I felt sorry for people who have to eat mainly Restaurant food. We ate #Saurkraut with pork shoulder and boiled potatoes. Just a basic supper but oh so delicious. You can’t get that in a restaurant, not here, anyway.

Of course, it helps to have a wife who can cook. So I also felt sorry for men who are married to a woman who cannot cook. It happens a lot these days. The only option these men have is to learn to cook.

I’m not a cook. Okay, I’m not a complete dud, I can make chicken or beef soup, I know how to boil or fry an egg. I know how to open a can or package and make a soup (Oops, that’s not considered cooking. Anyone can do that, I think.) Anyway, I’m lucky to be married to a woman who knows how to cook and bake.

We use Hengstenberg Sauerkraut. Imported from Germany. We love it because it is not too sour and there is plenty of kraut in the container. It comes in a can. But just opening the can and heating up the Sauerkraut does not do it. My wife puts in bacon pieces to give it more taste. The pork shoulder she does in a Crock pot with onions and spices. Don’t ask me for details. The meat is tender when it’s done. That’s all I worry about. With that we eat boiled potatoes and lots of gravy.

Tonight I drank a Bitburger beer. Also imported from Germany. You have to drink a German beer when you eat German Sauerkraut. Actually, I got that beer from my son for my birthday. I am too cheap to buy imported beer. I usually drink Canadian beer, which, come to think of it, isn’t cheap either. Our government wants to make too much profit on the alcohol we buy. Aah, I got carried away again with that pet gripe of mine!

The problem with good food is that we eat too much of it. It just tastes so darn good. Tomorrow I’ll be smoking Goldeye again. We still have a few in the freezer, but they are coming to an end. It’s time for the fishing season to start again so we can on the lake, but the way the weather is, I have my doubts about that happening soon.

What was on your dinner plate tonight? I hope your supper was as good and tasty as mine.

A Poem for you

A Song of Snow and Ice

They tell me it was Easter

But I wouldn’t know

I look out of my window

And all I see is snow

There is no grass

No flower to be seen

All I see is white

And I’m dying to see green

The trees they are a sorry sight

Not even one little bloom

No leaves on their bare branches

My mind is full of gloom

I’ve had enough of winter

It was much too long

Apparently it is springtime

It seems the calendar is wrong

The temperature is plummeting

To minus zero every night

There is something wrong I tell you

This just isn’t right

All this snow, I’ve had enough

I want it to be gone

I want to see the sun shine

I want to see my lawn

I’m ready to see rain

That makes the flowers grow

But mostly what I want

Is to get rid of this darn snow

I usually don’t complain

Cause I’m pretty tough

I’m used to a long winter

But enough is just enough

I’m ready to go fishing

With my new fishing rod

But I’m stuck here in the snow

Until the ice has thawed

As I sit looking out of my window

Feeling sorry for little ol’ me

I hear a robin singing

In the old choke cherry tree

There may be hope, I’m thinking

And it won’t be long

Until my grass is growing

And I can sing a different song

© 2014 Herbert Grosshans

Release of my crime novel 'A Matter of Integrity'

Here is an announcement:

My crime novel ‘A Matter of Integrity’ has been published. Check it out to read a sample or to buy it at Smashwords:   https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/432389

It is also available from the Apple iBookstore:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-matter-of-integrity/id869721766?mt=11

Or go to my other blog Herbert’s Place: http://www.hegro.blogspot.com/

#Noah

We went to the movies today. I can't remember when we did that the last time. We watch all our movies at home on TV. We have a 46inch TV, but there is just something about seeing a movie on a huge screen. We paid $17.00 for the two of us. Senior's price.The regular price would have been $21.00. That is a lot of money. If you still want popcorn and a drink, you'll have to take out a loan from the bank. Fortunately, we are not into snacking when we go the movies. We used to go a lot before we bought our big screen TV.

We say the movie Noah, starring Russel Crow. He is the reason we went in the first place. The movie was okay, not what we expected. Okay, we know the story. Anyone who ever heard of the bible knows the story about the Great Deluge and how Noah saved his family and all the animals by building the Ark.

You have to watch it without being critical. It's just a story, nothing else. A fantasy story.  One wonders how one man can built such a vessel as the Ark by himself, but the way Noah did in the movie was done quite well. How humanity started fresh after the Flood is and will stay a mystery, like I said, you watch the movie without asking any questions. There is no logic to the biblical story anyway, as there is no logic with how humans were created and how humans multiplied with only Adam and Eve and Cain. Well, like my Sunday School teacher told me: "We don't ask those questions."

There was somebody a couple of rows down from us checking his email messages on his cell phone continuously. How annoying to have a bright light shining in your eyes. Before the movie started there were a bunch of people in the row in front of us playing with their phones. What is it with some people? Are they so addicted to their phones, ipods or whatever they carry in their hands all day long that they can't even live without them for a couple of hours? That is sad. Why do they bother going into public places in the first place? No wonder so many people are nervous and have some kind of mental problem these days. Whatever happened to just sit and relax?

#Easter

It should be a beautiful Spring morning. It is but not quite. The sun is shining here, but we still have plenty of snow on the ground. Today we are celebrating Easter and I would like to wish everyone who visits me a Happy Easter.

Love and Peace to everyone

Silly People

The other day my wife and I were discussing people who have dogs and cats, how silly they can be. If you get them started they will go on and on about how smart their dog or cat is, how they understand English and how they communicate with them. When they call them they say, “Come to papa or dad, or mom, silly stuff like that. They will even sign letters with the name of their cat or dog added as a family member. When I hear that I’d like to yell, “Come on, peoples, those are animals. They’re not human! They don’t understand what you’re saying. They read your gestures but don’t understand the words!”

We don’t have a dog or a cat. I can’t see myself getting up early in the morning too take a dog for a walk. No, sirree. We have a bird. Less trouble. And he’s not running our lives.

Since I mentioned bird, I might add his name is Eddie. He is a canary. We bought him last year in September from a private breeder. It’s cheaper that way and we knew when he was born. We only paid $50.00 instead of over $100.00. Canaries are too expensive to buy in a store. We had just lost our little canary Robbie. We had him for 12 years. And to fill the gap little Robbie left in our hearts we decided to buy another canary.

Now talk about a smart little guy. First thing in the morning, even before we have breakfast, my wife cleans his cage and gives him new seeds. While she is doing that, Eddie is outside the cage. He flies around in the Kitchen. We have breakfast and we let him stay outside his cage. When we are finished with eating, we move the cage onto the table. Sometimes he sits on top of the cage, sometimes not. Should he still be hopping around on the counter when we move the cage, he will fly to his cage and sit on top of it for a while. Then he hops onto the table and picks and eats the crumbs I left from my breakfast buns. He still flies around for a bit, but once he has enough and when he is ready he hops back into his cage, and then we put his cage with him inside onto his stand. That’s already routine for him and he demands it.

I said Eddie is smart. When we call his name, he will answer. He communicates with us and lets us know what he wants. If we sit too long at the table, he will fly around us, sometimes just skimming our head, usually mine, and he will chirp loudly, telling us it’s time for us to move, because he needs to walk around on the table.

For lunchtime he gets either a piece of lettuce, or an apple, or a piece of broccoli. He loves them all. If we forget to give it to him, he will sit on his perch near the place where we put his food and scream loudly until he gets his lettuce or apple. Then he is silent. Yes, he is a smart little fellow and he sings beautifully...when he isn’t complaining about something.

The other day we left him alone for the whole day and we knew he’d be lonely. So at lunchtime we called home and left a message on the answering machine for Eddie. No, he can’t check the messages. Come on! When we leave the message he can hear our voice. Hopefully, we cheered him up a little and made him feel less lonely. The moment we walk into the house and he hears the door, he starts chirping.

In the evening when it’s time to go to sleep, all we have to say, “Time to sleep, little guy. Onto your perch.” He will jump onto the perch and will sit on his spot. That’s how smart he is. He probably understands English.

Anyway, that’s our little Eddie. He is a part of our daily routine and gives us much pleasure. He’s not a dog, neither is he a cat. They are too much trouble to have around and we may just become a couple of silly people, too. That can’t happen with a bird. Oh, I’d better run, Eddie is chirping. I’ll have to see what he wants.

Here are two pictures of Eddie:

My tips for #Saving a little Money in the home

 A few years ago on the radio they talked about making your own soups. There was actually a caller who called in and asked if they could repeat the recipe for the chicken soup. Come on, now! Chicken soup? The easiest soup to make. All it takes is water, pieces of chickens (with the bones), some vegetables and some spices. And a pot to cook everything. It seems so many women these days don’t know how to cook. It used to be the most important skill a girl needed if she wanted to get married. It was taught in schools, mothers taught their daughters (and sons if they were so inclined). There is nothing wrong with a man knowing how to cook, of course. It doesn’t make him any less mucho.

I love my soups. When time allows or if we feel like it we make our own soup. It doesn’t cost much and there is nothing better than homemade soup. We save the water when we boil broccoli and freeze it. We use that for soup. The vitamins are in the water everyone throws out. When we eat turkey or duck we save the wings, the neck, and the bones (we remove the meat first ☺). We add different vegetables and a couple of chicken thighs for the meat. We do the same with left over chicken. The bones from T-bone steaks in combination with pieces of meat are great for soups. When we eat ham we save the hambone and cook it with sauerkraut. It is best, though, with some ham on the bone. Soups are easy to make and don’t take much effort, either. We have a pressure cooker and you don’t have to let it simmer for hours.

When we decide to have ribs, my wife cooks them first and then she puts them into a plastic bag with bbq sauce (she uses the Chicken and Ribs variety). We let the ribs marinade for a bit in the fridge. Then we barbeque them for about 10 minutes. They are tender and taste great. We save the water from the cooked ribs, freeze it and use it for making Borscht in the Fall when the beets are harvested from our own garden.

A great way to save money is to have your own #garden. We grow our own peppers and tomatoes in the summer. I start my pepper seeds in the basement in March. Right now I have over one hundred small cups with 2 plants in each. Later I will cull them to one plant. Or maybe not. Only the Heirloom varieties produce good fruit, but the first generation from saved Hybrid seeds also work okay. Peppers are so versatile. You can use them on the barbeque, you can stuff them with hamburger meat and rice, you can make ‘Pfeffersauce’, you can make your own Salsa. And there are plenty of other uses. You can even eat them raw. A great source for natural vitamins.

Instead of Spinach I grow Swiss Chard. It doesn’t shoot out like Spinach. I grow the Rhubarb and the Bright Lights variety. They cost a bit more in seeds, but the plants taste better. It takes a lot of leaves for one meal. A whole plastic shopping bage full. My wife boils the leaves, but she removes the stem first. After they have been boiled she chops the leaves and we eat the whole thing with eggs and sausages. To give the Chard more taste we put on Maggi (a form of soya sauce). We’ve never tried it, but I heard the other day that you can use the stems like asparagus. We always discarded the stems. This year we will have to try it.

We grow different varieties of lettuce. I like the Mesclun mixtures. Then we grow plenty of beans (golden wax and the purple ones), cucumbers, zucchini (green and yellow), carrots, and a few others.

It is a lot of work to have a garden. One as large as mine requires a tiller. As soon as the weather allows, I till the soil, but only once. I till in clay buster, peat moss, leaves from last year, dried steer or sheep manure, and alfalfa pellets. Before I place my plants into the ground and put in my seeds, I make raised beds with narrow walkways in between them, careful not to destroy the integrity of the soil. With my tomato and pepper plants I also put in fertilizer into each hole I dig. After the season is over, in the fall, I dig in all left over plants, like lettuce, beans, and whatever is still growing. I also till in bags and bags of the leaves I collect from our yard. And the cycle begins anew.

To have a garden is a labour of love. You can’t keep track of the hours you spent working it, but for me it is a great way to relax (even with the pesky weeds ☺) and other pests that want to share the fruits of my labor. There is nothing more enjoyable than watching everything grow, and then picking your own tomatoes, beans, and peppers, digging up your own beets and carrots. Not only is it fun to grow your own vegetables, they taste so much better than bought ones, especially the tomatoes.

I can’t wait to get started. All we need is to have this darn snow gone and for the weather to turn warm.

#The Gouging of Consumers

As consumers we have to be constantly on the alert, because we are continuously robbed of our money by various sources. Some of the robbing or gouging is obvious, like what the oil companies are doing. Nobody even talks about that anymore. We have been brainwashed to accept it as ‘that’s just the way it is and there is nothing we can do about it’. We are gouged by the financial institutions with high interest rates and hidden charges. The Postal Service is robbing us blind, but we have a choice; we don’t have to use them. There are other venues. Telephone charges are outrages, especially if you’re living outside the ‘local call’ area, as we do. Some stores are trying to charge more than others, but smart buyers shop around. Restaurant prices have risen and we are supposed to tip 20%. Taxes are going through the roof. Our provincial government just raised the provincial sales tax another percent, after promising that will never happen. GST was supposed to be only a temporary thing (like all taxes!), but it is part of the system now. We'll never get rid of it. The next generation of citizens won't know there ever was life before GST. Municipalities and Schools want more and more money.

Those are just the obvious ones, but actually, I am talking about that subtle gouging that we don’t even notice. A couple of weeks ago I bought a packet of pepper seeds from McKenzie Seeds. Cabernet F1 is the name of the peppers. I’ve bought them before and I liked them. I paid $2.49 for the packet and when I opened it up there was another small packet inside the larger one. It contained a total of 9 (nine!) seeds. I nearly flipped. Now, anyone who ever looked at the inside of a pepper will notice an abundance of seeds on the stem. I sent an email to the McKenzie Company and complained, pointing out that I can buy 6 ready-to-plant pepper plants for half the price from a garden center. I can save myself not only money but also time and effort. So far they haven’t replied with an explanation why they charge $2.49 for 9 seeds. I call that an exuberant charge. That’s 28 cents per seed. And not all seeds will sprout. In fact, there may be a good chance none of these will sprout, because it’s been 9 days since I seeded them and none have come up yet, while my other pepper seeds all sprouted within 7 days.

Yesterday I made a soup from a Knorr package. Chicken soup. You just add water and boil it, then let it simmer for 5 minutes. I like those soups. It goes fast to make one. The usual Knorr soups in those packages call for 4 cups of water. This one called for 600 ml which is not even 2 ¼ cups of water. Notice that they asked for ml not cups? Another trick to play with our minds. Not many people take a calculator to make a comparison. Over packaging is another trick they use. A large container filled only about half ways. You think you get more. Or the manufacturers change the look of the package and raise the price.I could go on.

Here is another subject dear to me. Ever since our all-knowing government introduced the metric system for whatever stupid reason things went haywire. Not all measurements and weights have changed. Now we don’t actually know what we have in Canada. Some stores sell stuff in inches and feet, some in cm and meters, some in ounces, some in grams, some in ml, some in cups, some in kilos and some in pounds. We kept the old pound which has 454 grams. In the metric system a pound is 500 grams. The metric system is based on ten. Some stores even sell their wares in portions. You don't know what you buy, unless you read the small print hidden somewhere on the package. And all that to confuse us. The majority of shoppers don’t even bother to compare. Either they don’t know their measurements or they just don’t care anymore. I carry a metric converter in my pocket and figure out how much it costs per kg. Then I know what I get and I can decide if I want to buy it or wait for a sale.

The snowing has stopped but it is cold again. Where is the Heat? What happened to Spring? Next week is Easter and the catkins on the pussy-willows are still too small to be harvested. We have to use the ones from last year.

Today is Palm Sunday. The sun is shining. Enjoy he day.

#Guppies, Platy, and other fish stuff

I cleaned out the tank where the heater boiled my guppies. I washed the gravel, cleaned the glass, and set up the tank with a new heater. A couple of days ago I transferred about 50 young platy into that tank and they are quite happy now.
Here are  a  few pictures from my 100 gallon tank.

This is one of the two Opaline Gouramis

The only surviving White Skirt Tetra of six

An Opaline Gourami

One of the many male Guppies in the tank. 

 The picture of the Guppy is blurry. It is difficult to get a clear picture of them. They are just moving too fast.

Another project finished

We finally changed the counter-top in one of the bathrooms. The old one lasted for 22 years. The drain in the sink was developing a dark brown ring because the finish was wearing off. We were told 22 years is about all one can expect from these types of molded counter-tops. So we bought a new one. It is made from the same cultured marble, but it has a better finish. They call it a granite finish. Cost a bit more, double actually, but supposedly lasts longer.

It was quite a job to remove the old counter-top and it was heavy. My wife and I struggled to carry it into the garage, where it still is. Now I have to get rid of it. Anyone in the market for a used counter-top?

The new one was just as heavy as the old one, but we managed to put it in place without getting a hernia. The big problem was the plumbing. These counter-tops don’t have an overflow, which means you don’t need the drain pipe with the holes in it. The only one I could find was with the plug as a pop up that is closed and opened by pushing it with your finger. You have to put your hand into the water when the sink is full to open the drain. The old drain had the plug controlled with a rod built into the faucet. Now that rod is only there for decoration.

I paid $40.00 for this drain, but it is all metal and should last as long as the sink.

Once I had everything hooked up, came the job of putting a bead of silicon around the trim. I did and discovered it wasn’t a good idea. You can’t paint silicon. I wasn’t happy with that, because we couldn’t make a straight line with the paint that had come off when we removed the old counter-top. So I cut off the silicone again and used acrylic with silicone. It can be painted.

My wife repainted part of the wall and now it looks good. Better than the old one. It took us nearly two weeks to finish the job. We didn’t work every day on it, but you have to wait between certain steps. The acrylic caulking needs to cure and the paint has to dry. I have to admit, the job turned out great and my wife is happy. So am I.

Here is a picture:

Odds and Ends

I haven’t updated my blog for a few days. So here are some bits and pieces, none of them enough material to justify their own entry.

#Casualties of Winter:

No, this isn’t a weight-challenged person hiding under an old blanket; this is our barbeque cover after protecting the barbeque from being ravaged by the snow. It lasted only one winter. And I can’t even blame the mice for chewing on it. The problem with plastic is that it gets real brittle in the cold and this cover wasn’t meant to be removed during the cold winter months. I do barbeque in the winter, which means I have to take off the cover. Well, this one didn’t survive our last brutal winter. I think for next winter I’ll look for a cover made from canvas. If I can find one.

#The Postal Service:

I just mailed a letter to my aunt in Germany for Easter. I paid $2.50 cents postage. That's what it costs now to mail letters overseas. It's a good thing there aren't any other relatives I have to write to. I couldn't afford it. With these high prices it is no wonder our postal service can’t and won’t survive. Who in their right mind wants to spend that kind of money to mail a letter or a postcard? If you want customer you have to bring down the price and not raise it. Volume is the key. You can’t make all your money on one item. There will never be any repeat customers. Smart business owners know this. I guess, the people who run Canada Post are not overly smart, like most of our politicians, be they local, provincial, or federal. Their motto: If you can’t make ends meet and you need more money, just raise the taxes, never mind giving good service or cutting down on expenses, like huge salaries, bonuses, benefits, expense accounts, pensions and so fort.

Casualties of Time:

My aunt is the only one I still send letters to, because everything else I do with email. She is in her nineties and the only living aunt I still have. She is in a home now and has no access to a computer or even an interest in such a thing. Aside from the only surviving aunt she also happens to be my Godmother. I’ve kept in contact with her ever since I came to Canada over fifty years ago. She used to phone me on a regular basis and we used to talk for an hour sometimes. She’s been in a home since 2008 and now she doesn’t call anymore, in fact, she doesn’t even answer my letters. However, I know that she enjoys receiving them. My cousin in Germany, who visits her, told me that. In fact, she’s the one who reads the letters to her, because my aunt's eyes are failing her. So I keep on writing, but I miss talking with her and getting her letters. 2008 was the last time I saw her. It probably was the last time. Time can be so cruel.

 

More casualties:

When we came back from our holiday in Cuba, I found most of my #Guppies along with four catfish in one of the aquariums dead or gasping for air. It was the tank in which I was breeding guppies for their beautiful red tails. I found only a few survivors, small females mostly. All the adult males were dead. I transferred the few survivors into another tank, where some of them still died. What happened: The heater got stuck and heated the water to nearly 100 F. Fortunately, before we left for our holiday, I transferred a large number of the adult males into my one hundred gallon tank. Had I not done that, the loss would have been even more devastating.

I cleaned out the tank, the gravel and the glass, and set it up new with a different heater. It seems okay now and I will transfer most of the young #Wagtail Platys from their breeding tank into this one. The #Platys are doing well, but I’ve lost three of the adults, partly because that tank was overgrown with some hair algae, which is a wonderful medium to provide cover for newly hatched fry, but it can become a nuisance if not kept under control. I cleaned up that tank also and the fish are much happier. I found a new batch of fry hiding in the plants this morning, so it’s time to move the others. There are at least fifty in there. You can’t really count them.

I’m going to throw out most if not all my old heaters. I only have five tanks now and three heaters are new. I may replace the other two also. I used to have thirty plus tanks at one time (about 40 years ago), when I was active in the Winnipeg Aquarium Society. Which means all those heaters I still have are that old. Sometimes it is best to replace old stuff with new things. I found out the hard way that in the long run it is cheaper and less heart wrenching to throw out old equipment. A lesson to be learned.

That’s it for now. I got longer than planned. Ahh, sometimes I just can’t stop writing. It’s my passion.

#Melatonin...Uses and Side Effects

Melatonin is a hormone found naturally in the human body. It regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin is also produced synthetically and is available as pills or in other forms. People who suffer from insomnia use it to help them fall asleep. But Melatonin has many other uses like preventing ringing in the ears, headaches, depression etc. It is even used as birth control.

I suffer from acid reflux. Mostly when I go to bed and lie down. A burning sensation in my throat and it prevents me from going to sleep. I’ve tried different means to combat this, like eating an apple before going to bed, which actually does help. Not all the time, though. I don’t want to take the medicines doctors prescribe, because they have too many side effects and can damage your liver. So I use ‘Tums’ and they do work, (I carry a few pills with me where ever I go), but even Tums or other over the counter medicines can have damaging effects if taken too long. Dr. Oz suggested using Melatonin when you suffer from acid reflux. Apparently, it contracts the Esophagus and prevents acid to rise up from your stomach.

So I’ve tried Melatonin. I bought a bottle of 180 tablets in the Health Store. At home I discovered you’re not supposed to take them longer than one month (30 tablets!) because of possible side effects. I checked out Melatonin on the internet and found out there can be tons of side effects. And I can attest to that.

I took the pills for a couple of weeks. During that time I suffered from an upset stomach, light headaches, and finally disturbing dreams. That’s when I stopped using Melatonin. I can deal with an upset stomach, but having my dreams disturbed, that’s where I draw the line. Pleasant dreams are one of the few pleasures I still enjoy ☺. I have to admit, taking Melatonin helped with the acid reflux or heartburn; it also helped me sleep through the night. In fact, even during the day I fell asleep when I sat down to relax, but some of the side effects are not pleasant.  So, conclusion: Not everything Dr. Oz says is safe and should only be done and taken with caution.

So...back to the Tums until something else comes along.

Thoughts on #Mortality

 

Yesterday we went to the funeral of a friend. He was not a close friend, only someone we met mostly at get-togethers, but we’ve known him for a long time, and his son is one of the guys I go hunting with. He would have been 72 years old in June. Not old these days where people live longer. He died of cancer.

He was retired, like most of our friends now. We are all in the same age group, some a little younger and some a little older. We are members of the dying generation and one can’t help but think about death. Eventually, we all leave this existence, but as long as we are still healthy enough to enjoy life we would like to stay. Too many things still to experience, too much still left to do.

As we get older, our circle of friends shrinks, and if we are lucky to live a long life, the people who come to our funeral are few. This friend left his mark in life, which was obvious from the number of people in the church. I didn’t count them, but doing a quick calculation there must have been close to 200 there. Most of them also older people. It seems our friend had been quite popular.

How will he be remembered? How do we all want to be remembered? I made a list of the things I want people to remember about me.

I’d like to be remembered for...

What I have achieved but not for what I could have done

The things I’ve done but not for the things I didn’t do

The things I’ve said but not for what I could or should have said

The things I’ve built but not for what I should have built

For the times I was punctual but not for when I was late

For things I love, not for the things I hate

For when I hit my target but not when I missed

For the times I was calm but not for the times I was angry

For when I praised but not for when I criticized

When I was right, but not for when I was wrong

Not for when I was weak but when I was strong

For the things I liked, not for the ones I disliked

For when I succeeded but not for when I failed

For when I was happy but not for when I was sad

For when I was good but not for when I was bad

For my strengths but not for my faults

I’d like to be remembered for who and what I was,

not for the way others wanted me to be,

but mostly I want people to remember Me.