Rain Means Green, Indoor Days = Baking Time, Avon Arrives

Home on the Ridge

When we woke up on Monday, May 13^th, it was to another dull, cloudy, rainy day. Good grief, Charlie Brown! Make the best of it, we say. Again, again and again. So, we had our tea and I abandoned my walk again. Again. It wasn’t very warm, sitting around 37F/3C but at least the strong winds of last evening had calmed considerably. We don’t have great grass up here, weed-less grass has never been a ‘thing’ for us but the rain certainly has greened up what we have, grass and weeds alike. So, there is one good thing about the rain, I guess. 

It's so rocky up here but where the grass grows
it is green

First thing on the agenda was to get the garbage down to the road. We finished our brew and I got the bag ready and checked the recycle bins. Only one needed to go so I put them by Ptooties. Bill drove them down before 9 am. The pickup is around 10 so we were on time.

These are the dishes I borrowed from Pat
They sit in water to be baked

We also wanted to take a trip into Durham so got cleaned up and did that. Stopping at Rob and Pat’s first for her little dishes, we had a nice visit for half hour or so. It is always nice to see them and Bill and Pat are able to joke around with each other. Rob and I were pleasant to each other today, for the most part. Ha ha, we have fun and they know we love them to death. 😊 From there, we drove to Foodland, the local grocery store and I ran in to get some bread for Bill and some heavy cream for Jell-o.

Heating the cream, Splenda and vanilla

Bill needed some vapor barrier for the Hangar so we stopped briefly at Home Hardware. Look at us, supporting local economy!! One last stop at the Esso for a fuel up and then we headed home. Nasty cold day so his plan was to work in the Hangar with our electric heater. The door won’t close tightly but he’ll figure it out so his feet especially don’t freeze and that it is warm enough to work on his airplane too.

Finished product

Inside the Suite, I had my own plans. Custard, Jell-o, banana bread and slippers. I have a nice ball of the chunky wool I love and want to make myself a warmer pair. Apparently, this weather is sticking around so I want to have warm feet! Without the furnace running, the floors are where we notice most of the coolness but our Blue Flame picks up that slack when we have it on. We are very pleased with our electric infrared carbon heater and it has been working just about every day for us since we've arrived home.

My sisters Avon order arrived

I made bacon and eggs for breakfast and then we got the dishes out of the way. Bill went out to work on the Hangar again and I carried on with my custard recipe. Wish me luck! I boiled water and prepared some sugar-free, carb-free Jell-o so it is setting in the fridge. Raspberry this time. I finished the custard and although it only made 4 single servings, it looks good and is another dessert we can eat, guilt-free.

My big ball of wool waiting to be made into
slippers

Bill isn’t big on bananas, he wasn’t keen on the milkshake because not only did I add strawberries and pineapples, I added a banana. He could taste it and his nose wrinkled up. So, with 4 leftover bananas looking like the picture below, I offered to make him Banana Date Nut Bread. Well, he sure likes that idea! I got everything blended as per the recipe and my own variations with the fruit and nuts. Just before pouring it into the loaf pan, UPS drove up the lane with my Avon order. The young driver left after hearing our ‘story’ and saying “I want to do this!!” 😊

Inside, I got an idea. Madame IP to the rescue! Not that it would take any less time, but our convection oven has worked today so let’s see if I can bake banana bread in the instant pot. Why not? I Googled it and came up with clear instructions (which I need) on how to go about it. I sprayed the inner pot and used the Pot-in-Pot method as recommended. Next step, I spooned the mixture in and covered it semi loosely with foil and crimped the edges to seal.

The banana bread ready to go in the IP

My baking pot has a handle so I just added a cup of water to the main pot, set the trivet in an placed the pot on top. There was no need to use any makeshift handle for the trivet or the pot. I baked for 60 minutes and while waiting, I walked down to the mailbox to see if there was any mail. It was drizzling so I got a bit wet but it was worth it. The FREE sunflower seeds that I’d ordered from Vesey (Honey Nut Cheerios offer) on Facebook arrived! Yay!

You got Mail!

Once the baking was done and Madame beeped, I let it release naturally for 15 minutes with the lid on. Next, I released any excess steam manually, removed the lid,  the inner pot and then the foil. I let it sit for 15 minutes before testing to see if it was done. They recommended turning it gently upside down onto a plate. Easily, my bread came out and I let it cool for another 15 minutes (the recipe should be called 15-15-15 bread) and sliced a piece for Bill. He is the tester.

It doesn’t look like regular banana bread, instead very firm, not crumbly. That can be good but Bill said it tasted very good and that makes it alright by me. Another Instant Pot success. We sat together, after he closed up ‘shop’ out in the Hangar, and we watched some of our recorded programs. Bill works tomorrow so we won’t be able to watch them until later in the week and by then, we’ll have a bunch of new ones. At 5:30 I started supper.

Sunflower seeds for the bees

Tonight, was fish and chips. I cooked the French fries in the air fryer and the pollock filets on the stove. Everything turned out great and we were eating and cleaned up by 6:30. The fries took longer than I expected. I made him a couple of sandwiches and between us, we got his food ready for his time in London. Breakfasts, lunches, suppers and snacks. It takes a bit of planning and a bit of prep.

Now my feet are really warm!

After dishes, we watched more television and read some of our books. Bill finished his J.A. Jance and now reading James Patterson’s Princess. I finished my blog posting and then joined him in our recliners.

Supper was good

Clemson had a good day. He slept for most of ‘our’ waking hours either beside me in my chair, on his Daddy’s lap or upstairs on our bed. In his old age, sleeping, eating and doing his business are top priorities. Just like a baby, funny how we start that way and end up that way. LOL This has been a day of rain and cold temperatures. I managed to fill the hours by baking and crocheting. I have a new pair of slippers to show for it. I’m happy to have indoor things to keep me busy.

I hope your day has been a good one. Thank you for your visit!

All About Ptooties, Slippers and Meat Loaf

The Ridge, Priceville, Ontario

So, on Saturday, Apr. 20^th, it was not much different than Friday. It was still quite cold at 37F/2.7C. There was no rain falling when I got up just after 7:30. It was 11 when I went to bed last night so sleeping in was not surprising. It was a great night’s sleep for both of us. I need my 8 hours where Bill is good with 6 on most nights. His first question of the day is “Do you want your tea?” and it pertains to my decision of walking first thing.

Today's priority
Bringing our baby home

This morning, I stuck my head out the door and the wind made that decision for me. I’m getting lazier as the days go on but at least I’m feeling that something is missing, the walks being such a routine thing for me now. Soon I’ll be out the door more than once to take the jaunt down the familiar country roads. We sat with our drinks and read blogs before making a tie-me-over breakfast of toast. Bill had jam on his w.w. bread and I chose raw honey on rye.

There goes Rob in his pretty truck
We are all very happy with Murray and his storage facility

We were cleaned up and on the road around 9:30. First stop, RBC, second stop to pick up our buddy, Rob and then we drove to Murray’s to pick up our stored vehicles. Yay! There they sat, out in front of the red barn, waiting. We were getting our Toyota Rav 4 aka Ptooties and Rob getting his GMC pick up truck. Murray is such a nice guy, so accommodating and had them uncovered and pulled out for us. I swear I could see Ptooties smile when I walked up to her. 😊

Because I don't have many pictures, I thought I'd show you what I'm
using to hold our couch blanket in place
Notice the purple pool noodle? I need a smaller one so it isn't visible but it works like a charm
I think it was Kim who gave us this tip

I followed Bill out of the lane into the Walmart parking lot in Hanover where we both hopped into ‘my’ vehicle (hehheh) and drove to Carpet One (Cuneo) to drop off the carpet runner we purchased at Quartzsite. We want it for the upstairs hallway and it needs to be cut to length and the ends binded. This will replace the old one from the house that has since been stained with bleach splatter. It will also give us one more scatter mat for at the bottom of the stairs.

Bill has happy feet

 We drove to the Bread Place for Bill’s bread and some buns for lunches next week. He needed a couple of things at Canadian Tire for the Hangar and the last stop was back at Walmart for a few groceries. Here we parted ways and I followed Bill home. Slowly, things are getting back to normal. My only regret is that I don’t drive it much all summer long. It only makes sense for Bill to take the most economical vehicle for his weekly treks back and forth to London. During those times, Black Beauty and I get very comfortable together and I do enjoy driving the truck too.

After groceries were put away, I wrote a bit on my blog and then made us some breakfast. I’m going to put Madame I.P. to the test tonight with something different. It is a raining again now so rather than waiting until Easter Sunday to have a nice meal, we’ll have it tonight. I will be happy to get back to cooking on the Weber, gives me a bit of a reprieve from coming up with inside meal plans. Bill isn’t as into bbq’ing as others are so I’m sure it isn’t as happy about that.

We cleaned up dishes and the rest of the day was puttering around inside. I finished Bill’s slippers and they fit very snug which was better than sloppy. His feet should never be cold again! He has his moccasins for warmer days. Then we sat and read our books. I’m reading a J.A. Jance mystery. Sheriff Joanna Brady at her finest in Remains of Innocence writes about familiar territory to us now. She writes stories in the Bisbee, Tombstone and Huachuca areas.

This is the kind of day it was

At 5, Bill got up to feed Clemson at the same time I got up to start supper. As we were doing this, our friend, Keith, texted. He was so taken with our I.P. beef roast that he went out and bought his own Instant Pot! Yay! He will love it and already has prepared a delicious meal for himself. I still have Kim to credit for our purchase. Tonight, I am making Bill’s favourite meat loaf. Our own Easter dinner.

Oh Mom, more pictures?

Instead of taking an hour in the convection oven = electric power, I am cooking it in Madame I.P. The online recipe I found says 20 minutes cook time and 10 minutes natural release. I’m hoping it all works out! After 20 minutes of cooking, I turned it to Keep Warm and waited for 10 minutes. That was all it needed. All pressure was released naturally. I took the lid off and cut into the meat loaf, dead centre. Nope, not done yet.

Meatloaf wrapped in a makeshift tin foil pan

I reset it for another 20 minutes and let it go. This time, it was done perfectly! I was concerned about the glaze topping and how it would turn out. Although it wasn’t crispy or caramelized, it had filtered through the meat and came out as a delicious sauce that I spooned onto our servings. On the side, I made Cole slaw and warmed up creamed corn. All favourites of ours. Yum, Happy Easter, Sweetie-Pie!

It lifted out quite nicely

We forgot to turn the hot water heater on (we use the propane rather than electric when it is this cold) after turning it off after our morning washes. That meant a delay between eating and doing dishes so we bided our time writing and reading. The rest of the evening passed by listening to music on Sirius XM, with our books and maybe some tv later on. I’m ready to join my boys in our recliners so will post this now.

Our Easter dinner with leftovers for tomorrow night

It has been quiet, but we managed to get Ptooties home where she belongs, a pair of slippers finished and experimented with another home cooked meal. All good things! Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow and bring some sunshine for Easter Sunday.

Creamy Jell-o to clean up for dessert
I hope your weekend is going well!
Good night y'all!

Thank you for stopping by!

Snow Shock, Brisk Morning Walk, Little Sister’s Birthday

I was headed to bed around 10 last night when my sister, Gayle, messaged me. She is the one who spent the winter in Mexico with her husband and friends. They are now in La Posa, Quartzsite and enjoying some continuing heat. We chatted briefly before calling it a night. Bill let Clemson out for his piddle and the rain had stopped BUT the ground and picnic table were covered in snow! Yeuch! It was going down to 25F/-2C overnight so we’d already disconnected our water hose.

10 o'clock Saturday night

This morning, Sunday, Mar. 31st at 4:30, Clemson needed out and Bill obliged but I woke up as well. When we dropped off again, it must have been deep as we slept until after 7:30. We are using borrowed data again, since our famed Bell is not letting us in again. Infuriating! One more day and we’ll be into our new month. They will be getting a call once we are in home land for sure. While Bill had his coffee, I layered up and went out to meet the freezing cold day.

Right behind our site is this little stream

it was really moving this morning

It was brisk yet not too bad heading to the south but upon my return, the northerly wind was cold on my face. I only got a mile in before popping into the clubhouse to check the pool and office hours. There are no laundry facilities available yet, so I found out after chatting with a young fellow in the library/fitness room. No worries, we used the one in town last winter. I had a very welcome hot tea upon my return and layered down for inside comfort.

It was cold but pretty

Today is my little sister’s birthday. She is 17 years younger than me (so just a baby!) but I didn’t want to miss her special day. I sent her off a text before 9. Being Sunday, maybe she is sleeping in, not having to work at the museum. When she caught up with me, she informed me that they had an overnight snowstorm as well and it was still coming down. She would be spending her birthday indoors with her daughter today. Happy Birthday, Wendy!

Wendy's favourite person is the famed Jack White
and she actually got to meet him a few years ago
She calls him her boyfriend. :)

Bill set up the satellite dish while I made our bacon and eggs. We weren’t having any luck getting anything to come in so we did dishes and gave up on it for a while. I finished my book and Bill had already started reading it. It is such a good book which means that Connelly is NOT losing his touch. There is one book that comes after this one but I don’t know if I’ll find it as easy.

They are sprucing up the park
and have added 6 new park models this spring

Of course, I had to peek inside
I still like this idea

We had a coffee together and once I got washed and brushed my teeth, I walked to the clubhouse/office. I wanted to see what kind of wifi connection I could get up there. What a busy place that was! A lot of people coming in for appointments regarding memberships. I connected to a free wifi site on my phone and was able to read a friend’s blog, comment on my last one and bring in my daily jigsaw puzzle as well. If we are still having issues later or tomorrow with our own data, once the families have left, I might have to take my laptop up there.

A sunny picture of the main office/pool entrance

I sat and connected to their wifi for a while

Our Suite was pretty dirty, after being on the road for 5 days so I got the vacuum out and cleaned her up. Clemson was up to his old doggie tricks today, showing us who was boss here. In and out over and over and at 2 o’clock I bundled up against the cold and let him walk and do what he needed to do. Mostly it was to get out for a walk with Mom.

It is a pretty park, too bad it is cool when we are here
at the beginning and ending of our journey

There are so many chubby robins out and about!

Snow covered playground

Nice pool area, nicer Monday without children

Back inside, instead of starting my next book, I decided to get back into crocheting before I forgot how to do it! So, I made another pair of slippers. Bill couldn’t believe that I sat and crocheted them in a matter of a couple of hours. That made me feel good. If I keep this up, I’ll have slippers coming out of my ears! Good thing they don’t weigh much.

My 2 hour creation, okay maybe 3 hour

At 5:30, I cut 2 large shoulder chops into 4 and sautéed them in the Instant Pot. This is something else that I didn’t want to get away from. I found a recipe on line and followed it pretty much to a tee. They cooked for 10 minutes, had a 10-minute natural release, 10-minute cool down and gravy sautéed in the same pot. This may just be the turning point of how I went from not liking pork chops to liking them a lot. Yay Instant Pot!

Absolutely delicious supper 

No sharp knives needed
No butter knives needed
We could cut them with a fork
Did I tell you how much I LOVE my Instant Pot??

We had dressing and corn on the side and then topped the meal off with cherry pie. It was a nice Sunday meal. This was a very cold day with snow and winds off and on but it was a nice day spent together. I hope you all enjoyed your day too.

Rob and Pat, just 2 sites away

Our spot for a few days

Thank you for your visit today.

Winds Over Quartzsite on a Beautiful Sunny Day, Slipper Success

On Monday, Jan. 21^st at 2 am I woke to the sound of the outside door closing and a light on downstairs. Odd. I waited and listened, since Clemson was in bed with me, curious to why Bill was up and going outside. I had my ear plugs in and when I removed them, I couldn’t hear anything else. I first thought he was still capturing glimpses of the eclipse but common sense told me that finished a couple of hours earlier.

I'm going to leave eclipse photos to the ones
who know what they're doing
But there is one cool one at least!

I waited until he came inside and he told me that the winds were really rocking his flags and the noise woke him up. He brought the flag pole down in what he called ‘a very bright moonlight’. It wasn’t enough light for him though has he cut his finger while diminishing the size of the pole. When he came back into bed around 2:30, we both lay awake for a while and I said ‘I think it’s our sign that is banging’. Aha! Yes, but the flags needed to come down anyway.

So, instead, I captured the morning moon in the west
This is a series of photos as the moon disappears behind a cloud
and the cloud eventually drops it

The next time we came fully awake, it was still dark so we chatted about our travels, past and future. We got up at 7 and I was out the door for my walk shortly after. It was a beautiful morning and the wind was still prominent but not cold. The temperature was a mild 56F/13C and the sky was pretty all around me. Before I knew it, I was already at the mile marker and kept on going to the front entrance. This is where I text bill to let him know my whereabouts.

I really enjoyed this performance
Not the true Blood Moon eclipse but
a cloud eclipse at least

There were 2 rv’s at the dump station and 3 waiting in line, the last one being our friends, George and Suzie. By the time I’d walked to the front office, which was still closed, and back to the dump station, there were 10 rv’s in line including the 2 at the stations. I’m so pleased that we have other means to dump and get water rather than pack up and pull our home out of our site. I know we are told that it is easy to pull rigs out but with a 5^th wheel, this is the easy way to take care of that business.

My morning walk was full of beauty no matter where I looked

Back home, I made my tea and sat with Bill. I caught up on a lot of blogs today. I’m having difficulty syncing my Fitbit so my step count on my app shows me way far behind. I’ve tried various things and I know eventually it will sync but it is frustrating. My last one was on Sat. the 19^th. Before Bill had his shower, I asked him to turn the generator on and I made the promised batch of Pillsbury Cinnamon Buns. I cut up a Gala apple to share and spread icing and cream cheese on 6 of the buns. The other 2 were iced and sent home with Rob when he popped in to say good morning. Perfect timing!

This notice was on the events board
We Canadians will have to discuss whether we are attending
Bill and I have never attended so maybe we should go!

We cleaned up dishes, washed/showered as the case may be and I started my post with a coffee beside me. Our little gapher slept until 7:15, not disrupted at all by Bill’s early morning activity, and went straight back to bed. He hasn’t been seen downstairs since and it is 11:25. I guess he is comfortable. I’m pretty sure he has my shirt all bunched up underneath him too. We know better than to leave things on the bed if we care to wear them again. ‘Wrinkly’ isn’t always in style.

A cute directional marker in La Posa South

I sat outside for most of the afternoon with my crochet project. I had one slipper done except for tying up lose ends and the second one was half done. It was sheer determination that it would be finished today. Bill came outside and got his kite out again. More sheer determination was in play here. You’d think with the 20 – 25 mph winds today it would be a perfect kite flying day.

Good day for flying kites

The problem was that the winds were not steady at those speeds and would drop off occasionally. Bill didn’t give up and was able to tie down the string and let the kite do its floating, fluttering and floundering for about 45 minutes or so. After putting things away, he went inside to have a rest before Happy Hour and at 3 I went door to door to the sunny west facing rv’s to see if anyone had less wind than us. It was kind of a lost cause to gather in the middle because the wind had a chill to it.

By that time, I had finished my slippers. Tadah! First time ever for me so I was tickled pink or tickled multicoloured, I mean.  It didn’t matter to me that one was a big bigger in places than the other, they were just for me and in my mind a total success! Bill made us each a cup of tea and eventually our friends, Rob and Pat, Tom and Deb, George and Suzie and Ken and Kim, joined us in front of the Suite. Those that sat on the outside edge were in the chilly wind while 3 or 4 of us were warmer and sheltered.

Aren't they purty?

Clemson joined us for Happy Hour

The gathering broke up before 5 tonight which is fine on these Arizona nights. We decided to have fish and chips for supper so at 5:30 Bill started the generator for the air fryer. I had 2 pollock filets to pan fry with Fish Crisp and give the barbecue a break tonight.  The temperature got up to 67F today and it would have been much warmer if not for the strong winds. Rumour has it that they will be even stronger tomorrow. We won’t complain, at H.H. we discussed what our families are dealing with back home.

In one corner, Kim and Suzie in the cold wind
George sheltered from it

Pat, Tom and Ken in the cold wind

Bill sheltered, Deb in the cold wind

Rob and Bill sheltered from the wind

I borrowed this picture from George's blog
to show that I'm present - in the sun in a sleeveless top

Our supper was very good. I need to cook Bill’s plain fries a bit longer than the seasoned ones that I like just to crisp them up a bit more. Clean up is a breeze in the air fryer. Because we’re watching a few programs on television tonight, we’ll leave the generator running for a while. We had lots of sun today so we were in good shape for battery power until I turned on the fryer. This has been a great day and I’ve accomplished something I’d never done before.

I almost missed the dusty sunset
but caught it from our window

Because we have mostly carpet in our Suite, I am not worried about wearing my slippers without rubber soles or hot glue tabs, as suggested by Nancy, a fellow blogger. However, I will certainly keep it in mind if I’m taking my slippers as a guest at someone else’s home and look into a safer bottom so I don’t slip and fall.

Supper turned out very well
These are my crispy seasoned fries
Good night!

Thank you for visiting today. I love hearing from you if you wish to leave a comment.