#Apples from the Tree

We have an old apple tree. It is the first apple tree we planted in our yard. It is now 21 years old and dying. It is the only survivor from a number of different trees that surrounded it through the years. We’ve had a couple of plum trees. They did produce for a few years and then they died. We’ve had one #Parkland apple tree. It produced nice apples, many of them, but one year it decided to pack it in. We’ve also had a couple of #Goodland apple trees. They lasted only about four years; long enough to give us one small harvest of apples.

I have to mention here that we had two Goodland apple trees when we lived in Winnipeg. They were about thirteen years old and very productive. The year before we move we had 350 pounds of apples. Goodland apples can grow to 3 ½ inches. We’ve had some that were even larger. They taste great but don’t last long, even in the fridge. We gave most of them away. Four years ago I planted two Goodland apple trees on our lot here where we live now and the larger one has over one hundred apples. The branches are bending, because of the many apples so close together. During the last storm we had it dropped more than thirty apples; I hope we don't get another storm like that. The apples won’t be ready to harvest for another three or four weeks. I can’t wait. I planted these two in a more protected part on our property, behind some spruce trees and the seem to like it there.

We live north of Winnipeg and the temperature here is probably a couple of degrees cooler on average. That makes a huge difference. Because of the proximity of buildings and the concrete streets in Winnipeg the heat gets trapped and stays longer. Everything is more protected. Things grow better there. Manitoba is not like BC or Ontario. Fruit trees don’t grow that well here the way they do in the #Okanagan Valley.

The old apple tree goes by the name #‘Battleford’. The apples don’t grow large but they have a nice taste. For the last couple of weeks they’ve been falling off at a rate of three or four each day, but the seeds inside are not quite brown yet. It doesn’t matter. Every day I pick them off the ground, check them for bugs, wash them off and eat them. Nothing better than an apple fresh from the tree. Yesterday I picked the remaining apples. I only got an ice cream pale full of them, but that’s okay. I am surprised this tree is still hanging on and producing. Most of the tree is dead. Every year I’ve cut off a few branches. I use the wood to smoke my fish. Nothing is ever wasted. Even in death this old tree is useful. It’ll be a sad day when I have to cut it down, but my Goodland apple trees will take over by then. There are only so many apples we can eat. By the way, my wife loves them for baking apple cakes.

I love apples, but the store-bought ones just don’t measure up. Most of them are too hard for my taste and they hurt my old jaws.

#Singing like a Canary

We don't have a dog or a cat. They are too much trouble and cost a lot to maintain. We have a canary. His name is Eddie. He's two years old and he entertains us with his beautiful songs. We let him fly around in the sun room and he loves it. When he's ready to go back into his cage, he does without any problems, but before he goes back in he sits on top of his cage for a while. Here is a picture of him on his cage, posing like a proud king. Well--he is the king in our house and we are his servants.

Vegetable/Beef Soup

It is the time of year to enjoy fresh vegetables form the garden and reap the benefits of having a garden in the first place and the hard work I put in. We have an abundance of beans and zucchini right now. We've been eating purple and yellow beans almost every day. Can't get them any fresher than this and they are just so tasty. Beans are so versatile. We boil them, eat them with a cream sauce, make a salad, etc. The zucchini we slice and grill on the BBQ, together with mushrooms and pepper. The peppers are still green, but a few are turning red. Tomatoes are not ready yet, except for the odd one.

Since the temperature has dropped to an acceptable level, my thoughts turned to soup. I love soups. So today I made a Vegetable/Beef soup. Why? Because I had the necessary ingredients at home. My wife doesn't mind if I borrow her kitchen to make soup, as long as I clean up afterward. I love eating soups and I love making them.

I cruised the internet looking for a recipe and found plenty. Not all of them were suitable for me so I sort of put my own recipe together with ideas from what I found. I've made enough soups and do have a certain basic knowledge. When I need more direct information, there is always my wife who I can ask for some advice. But she has to stay out of the kitchen. After all--it is my soup. She has no problem with that. I got all my ingredients together and started chopping and slicing.

Here is the recipe:

Vegetable/Beef Soup

Note: The following recipe is enough for at least 10 people

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 chopped onion

4 cloves of minced garlic

Red pepper flakes (optional)

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

½ tsp. Mrs. Dash

½ tsp. Thyme

1 cubed potato

4 cubed small turnips

3 stalks of celery, thinly sliced

4 chopped carrots

1 small piece of broccoli, diced

2 small yellow zucchini, thinly sliced  (or use green zucchini)

 One handful of yellow beans, sliced into small chunks

2 mushrooms, sliced

1 tomato, chopped

Parsley and celery tops, shredded

2 cups of beef broth

3 ½ cups vegetable broth from vegetable seasoning cubes (Knorr) or powder

Beef bones left over from T-bone steaks  (optional)

*In a large pot sauté onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if used)

*Add the hard vegetables: potato, turnips, celery, and carrots and sauté for a couple of minutes

*Add beef stock and vegetable stock

*Add beef bones

*Add spices

*Bring to boil then simmer for 15 minutes until vegetables are almost tender

*Add Mushrooms, zucchini, beans, tomato, parsley and celery tops

*Simmer for 20 minutes (until all vegetables are tender)

Note: I just used whatever vegetables I had on hand. Obviously, they can be substituted with other vegetables or more added. The soup was very tasty but a bit spicy. Go easy on the red pepper flakes.

Is it just me?

Sometimes I wonder if I’m living in a different universe or crossed into another dimension. Why do some people make everything so difficult? I like things to be simple.

I was at Tim Horton for lunch. I’m not a Tim Horton’s fan, but my wife likes the coffee, so I go. I usually just have a soup, but I’m getting a bit tired of eating the same soup all the time. I don’t care for the Classic Chicken Noodle soup, mainly because it has those large butterfly pasta. All you taste is the pasta. I like my chicken noodle soup with regular soup noodles. Don’t like the Harvest Vegetable soup, either, nor the Onion soup. I like the broccoli or cauliflower soup, the Italian Wedding is okay, also. But they don’t always have those.

Anyway, this time I ordered an Italian Sausage sandwich with a soft drink. The girl asked me if I want to make it a meal. It would cost me $6.49 and I would still get a donut with that. It would be cheaper than ordering the sandwich and drink separately. So I said, “Okay.” I don’t mind saving money.

When I looked at the screen that displays what she punches in I noticed that she charged me for each item separately: Sandwich, drink, donut. It came to more than $6.49. When I questioned it, she said that the meal includes a coffee but not a soft drink. Then she said, “I’ll see what I can do.” So she starts explaining what she’s going to do and by this time she lost me. I had no idea what she was actually doing. She started adding and deducting items (My wife also ordered her coffee and bagel). I didn’t look anymore at the screen while listening to the girl. I paid what she told me to pay and went to get my food, feeling like a fool. I didn’t get a donut with my order. They never give you a bill so I couldn’t even check what I paid for. It seemed to me the bill was too high, but I was left with the feeling the whole thing was my fault.

Next time I’ll pay more attention, but mostly I’ll stick to my original order and keep my mouth shut. Why offer something you can’t deliver. All she did was confuse things. Usually, I am always suspicious when somebody tells me they can make it a better deal. Better for whom? Not for me, that’s for sure.

Then we went to Walmart. They were selling peaches by the litre. I remarked to one of the sale’s women that I found it odd to sell peaches by the liter. She gave me this blank look and I said, “You know liquid—liter. Peaches are solid.” Still that blank look. She looked at the peaches and then walked away. My wife said to me, “She had no idea what you were talking about.” I felt like a fool again.

The whole situation is pretty sad. Of course, why am I so surprised? This whole metric system we are supposed to have in Canada is completely screwed up. Everything is a mess. They sell stuff by grams, millimeters, milliliters, liters; kg, by a pound that has only 454 grams instead of 500 g; ounces (how do they fit into a metric system?) meters, inches, etc. There is no rhyme or reason. A wonderful system to confuse buyers. It is difficult to compare, but I carry a metric converter when we go shopping.

We have one of our past Prime Ministers, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, to thank for that mess. He’s the one who introduced the metric system to Canada. It was never implemented the correct way. He also declared Manitoba a Bilingual Province when it definitely isn’t, not with the low percentage of French Speaking citizens living in Manitoba. And now his son Justin is trying to become the next Prime Minister of Canada. I’m afraid what he will screw up should he succeed. He’ll probably sell the country to the minorities. He’s already hugging and kissing them and wants to bring more into Canada so they can change our free country into one similar to the one they are running away from now.

Sorry, now I got carried away again. I’m not really into politics, but at the same time I don’t want my adopted country changed. I like it the way it is. I don’t think that is weird.

Have a good day.

#Surviving the Heat

It is 33 C out there today. 40 C Humidex. That is hot and uncomfortable.

I spent one hour outside today from 11:15 am until 12:20 pm. Not too smart. Midday is the worst time to spend outside doing work when the sun is burning down on you. Not only was it uncomfortably hot, the mosquitoes were also out in full force making my life more miserable.

We have brown spots on our lawn, which means it is infected with a fungus. I sprayed the brown circles with a mixture of skim milk and water. 350 ml of milk to 3 ½ liters of water. It is supposed to kill the fungus. Can’t get any more organic. I’ll have to do it again next week.

What a tedious and demanding job! Especially in this heat. I used a handheld sprayer that holds about 8 liters of water. When full it is quite heavy to carry. And you have to continuously pump it to get pressure. You can’t hurry, because the brown spots need to be soaked with the liquid.

Why did I do that today? Well, it’s been raining a lot and it just so happens I had time today. I should have done it earlier, though. When I came back into the house I felt exhausted with wobbly legs and my face was beet-red from the heat. You don’t realize that while you are doing the job. I took a cold shower immediately and felt better. We didn’t even sit in our sun-room for lunch today because of the heat. The only one enjoying it is our canary.

Thank goodness for air conditioning. I pity the people who don’t have that luxury. They must suffer tremendously. I can still remember when we didn’t have air conditioning. You couldn’t sleep at night because of the stifling heat and the humidity. Never got a good night’s rest. Of course, we were younger then and not as susceptible to the heat they way we are now as we got older. However, we were still working at the time and not being able to sleep affects your performance at work.

Anybody who thinks using milk to spray grass is a waste of good milk I’d like them to know that this milk had gone bad. We’ve been buying #Dairyland milk until now but are finally done with that. We are fed up with it going bad all the time before its expiry date. This is the sixth time in two months that it happened. I wrote the parent company #Saputo a letter of complaint and they sent us a couple of coupons. Well, guess what? The milk we got for the coupons turned bad also. Talk about adding insult to injury! We usually buy our milk at Wal-Mart. Somewhere from the time they bottle the milk until it reaches the shelves of Wal-Mart something goes wrong. We know it isn’t at our end, because we always buy with coolers and ice-packs to bring home perishable goods, and that includes milk. They should not put on their cartons 'Fresh Local Milk' and 'Fresh is never far'. I don't believe this milk is local, anyway.

Tonight we’ll be going to watch ‘Sister Act’ at Rainbow stage in Kildonan Park. Hopefully it isn’t too hot and the mosquitoes aren’t there to watch the play with us. We enjoyed the last two performances ‘Westside Story’ and ‘Les Miserable’. Hopefully, this one is as good. It will be funny.

I went fishing with my friends on Tuesday for Goldeyes. According to the weather people, it was supposed to be 31 C with a mix of sun and cloud. Rain was never mentioned. Well, we had barely begun fishing when it started raining; not just raining but pouring. I pack rain-gear every time I go fishing. As Murphy’s law dictates it, this time I didn’t. It wasn’t supposed to rain.

I remembered that I had a plastic garbage bag in my stuff, so I made a rain cover for myself by cutting a hole into the bottom for my head and two holes for my arms. It did the trick. My arms got wet and my pants were soaked, but my upper body stayed dry. It finally stopped raining and the sun made an appearance. It got hot and our clothes dried again. Another lesson to be learned: Never ever trust the weather people!

Here again is my poem I wrote about the weather people and put on my blog last year:

#The Weather Forecaster's Song

I forecast the weather and I love my job

Because I can’t do no wrong

No matter what I forecast I can’t be blamed

Every day it’s the same sing-song

I will tell you it might rain or it might snow

The sun may even appear

Every night on TV I’ll make a big show

And I do this without fear

I just flip my coin in my secret room

Rain or shine it don’t matter to me

Will I forecast gloom and doom

Heads or tails, what will it be?

Will the sun shine or will there be a storm

To be honest I have no clue

How the weather pattern will perform

Sometimes I truly wish I knew

With weather satellites to track the clouds

And other high-tech gizmos

I still don’t know what it’s all about

None of us weather people really knows

My job is secure, for life you might say

I work for the government you see

With this job I will always stay

For the benefits and the security.

So let me give you some advice

If the weather you want to know

Check in the Farmer’s Almanac

Or just look out of your window

© 2014 Herbert Grosshans

I wish you a cool, pleasant day tomorrow and for the weekend. And don’t put too much faith in the weather forecast.

A Scrumptious Meal

My friend Rudi went mushroom picking and he brought us a few from his bounty. These are Chanterelle, a delicacy  you can't buy in he stores. We used to go picking for them, but we haven't gone for years now. They only grow at a certain time of the year and the conditions have to be right for them to grow. They usually grow under old conifers in the moss and under cedars. Mushroom pickers are secretive people, like fishermen. They will not divulge the location of their mushroom patches unless you torture them, and even then they may not be that easy to break.

There is nothing worse for mushroom pickers to see their  patch destroyed by deforestation, because Chanterelle grow mostly in old forests. It takes patience and luck to locate a productive spot. Once you have one, you can go back there year after year to find mushrooms. We've gone through those sad events of losing a spot twice. After finally locating a patch it was destroyed a year later by the clearing of that part of the forest.

We ate those mushrooms last night with roasted pork. They were delicious.

In the frying pan

Chanterelle on roast pork

This is an Easter Lily that popped up in my wife's flowerbed this year. She transplanted it a couple of years ago from a flower pot she got for Easter. It never came up last year, and suddenly this year here it is--in September. These lilies are not that hardy, meant to grow down to zone 5. We are zone 3, which is too cold for some plants. This one survived two winters.

#Hackers and Vermin

Well--it seems I laughed too soon. I'm still hearing voices. Not in my head, but I might as well. When I was browsing the internet this morning, suddenly an ad popped up, not visually, just audio. Only for a few seconds, though, then it was gone. Don't know what happened.

These friggen hackers. They are lower than the vermin I'm trying to get rid of in my garden. Obviously, these are smart people, but why are they using their talent to destroy and create havoc instead of using it to create programs that help people! Bunch of Jerks! In their twisted minds they probably believe they are some kind of hero, but they are not. They are just a bunch of immature idiots, lower than those misguided, brainwashed fanatics from ISIL who blow themselves to 'Kingdom-Come' for a chance to screw 72 imaginary virgins in the afterlife that nobody has ever proved existed. And that is low on the totem-pole of humanity. We're talking LOW here.

Anyway, otherwise I'm fine.

Yesterday I barbequed a five-pound Pork butt roast on the rotisserie. We had our friends over for supper and a good time. In my opinion the roast turned out superb. It was nicely browned on the outside and moist on the inside and it tasted great. My wife had spiced it just right. I even put some pieces of oak wood chips over the fire for a little smoke, but I don't know if it actually did anything.

I watched over it like a hen watches over her chicks, making sure the temperature stayed between 300 and 350 F. It took 2 hours and 50 minutes for the roast to get done. That's 34 minutes per pound.

Son-of-a-bitch! As I'm writing this the voices popped up, but only for a couple of seconds. One guy saying "You guys should come over later..." and then it was gone. Totally annoying. I'm hoping it is my Virus program that cut it off in mid-sentence. What a waste of an ad, really. I wouldn't buy anything from whoever puts up this ad, just out principle for annoying me like that. I'm sticking with what I wrote yesterday about what should be done with these hackers.

#Viruses and Adware

I spent hours this past week to get rid of annoying audio popups on my computer. Out of nowhere I suddenly heard voices and music, even when I wasn't on the internet. One time I came into my room and there is some guy talking about something and he kept going on and on, wouldn't shut up.

 Constantly asked for my email address to help him in his fight for something I wasn't interested in.
My virus program didn't find anything. It told me everything was okay when it wasn't. I downloaded an anti-threat tool kit and a program called 'Housecall' from my virus-program provider, but it was useless. They ran for hours, searching, but they came up with nothing, and yet, those annoying ads kept popping up constantly.

I finally searched the internet and found a website that let you download a program called ADWcleaner. I think it did the trick. Unfortunately, it also deleted my toolbars, which I found so handy. I miss that world-map on one of them. One click and an interacting map popped up to find any place on Earth.

Before I did anything else, I cleaned my history and deleted all the cookies. That was also inconvenient, because now I had to sign in into every one of my sites, like Facebook, Blogs, the Bank, and all the other places I visit daily.

There should be stiff penalties for these hateful individuals and hackers who put viruses and malicious adware into unsuspecting users of the internet. Even email isn't safe. I've been getting one who sent me a copy of his passport with the note that he wanted to wrap up this deal fast. What deal? I sent him a reply asking him about the deal, but, of course, no such email address existed. There was a zip program attached. I never open those anyway. Those email get deleted as soon as I see them, but still, it is annoying and makes me angry at those jerks.

I say bring back the death-penalty for them. But before they get executed, put them into a room for a month and let them listen day and night to advertisements.

I hope your computer is virus and adware free.

Good Luck and have a nice day.

#Hitch Bob

Hitch Bob, the robot is dead. It made its journey unmolested through Canada, parts of Europe, but it lasted only 2 weeks in the USA. Some jerks in Philadelphia destroyed it and brought its journey to and end. A journey that brought pleasure to so many people around the world. What's wrong with the Americans?First they give us the dentist who kills Cecil the Lion and now this.