Winter Scenes

Winter 2014 was particularly harsh...and beautiful...

 

Blue skies were particularly welcome, even when shared with big fluffy clouds

 

 

 

Intermittent sun makes for come and go shadows

 

Winter may seem like a time when everyone (animals included) bunker down

but take a walk through the bush and find numerous tracks.

Coyote track...toenails dragging

 

 

When you walk through the bush do you use the path of least resistence?

So do animals, like this coyote following the snowmobile trail.

 

Deer tracks...I mean... dear tracks (haha! That's me!)

  

 

 Snowmobile track (...couldn't resist!)

 

 
 

 

 Mr. Goose meanders to the all-day buffet feeder!

 

 

Shed rooves showed a glacial slide, revealing natural snow sculpture

 

 

 

The neighbour's sun room where roof meets ground

 

 

 

Snowblowing was an Activity of Daily Living this winter

A Knight riding in on his blue Ford tractor to save the day

and make civilization accessible again!

 

 

 

The extreme cold and snow proved a very memorable ...and beautiful... Winter 2014

Coffee Confession

Right here, right now I will confess that I am addicted to coffee.

Put your hand up if you are with me.

 

That's a lot of hands! We are not alone.

 

I love the smell, the taste, the everything about coffee. Is it wrong or bad to think about the next morning's coffee twelve hours in advance?  ...because I actually have that thought most evenings...ah! coffee in the morning...can't wait...

 

There are people out there who absolutely refuse to drink coffee. They complain about the taste of coffee being "burnt" (!) It seems my profuse enthusiasm for coffee is a bit of a threat to them because most of these so called friends of mine adamantly refuse to even sample coffee when I mount my coffee bean soapbox.

 

Who are these people...and why do I call them friends...??

 

But I digress...

 

I'm not an over the top coffee consumer, one who slugs the stuff back all day long, no, I prefer my two mugs of coffee per day and know I must have them or suffer the usual coffee withdrawal headache. That's the price of addiction, folks! Occasionally I will imbibe three mugs of coffee when I'm dehydrated from too much badminton the night before but that is rare. Even when I was sick with the flu last week, I stuck with my coffee consumption routine to avoid the added stress of withdrawal to my flu-ravaged body. The coffee still tasted good, I might add, even though the outdoor air smelled sharp and chemical, like vinegar and stale gasoline to my assaulted nasal passages.

 

Coffee is right up there with red wine and cheese in the Necessity of Life category. It would be a long contemplation to give up any of these food groups in lieu of say, giving up a limb, or even that precious commodity, Time. In fact, it was just last year that my coffee drinking was threatened due to some gastrointestinal maladies. As a result I have been avoiding gluten and dairy these past few months. I thought I couldn't live without even 5% cream in my coffee, but got switched to organic, medium roast coffee, black, with even more enthusiasm for coffee than before (if that is possible). The taste of coffee is out of this world! Try it...you will probably like it!

 

So where to get this organic brew? Try your local food store in the organic section, or shop on-line. Lucky for me, there is a local bistro called Cocoa Vanilla that carries it and I went in there yesterday to purchase some more coffee beans. I may have met my match or better for title of Coffee Aficionado! I didn't catch his name, but we had a lovely and lengthy and naturally,  an enthusiastic conversation about coffee and coffee beans, and coffee growers. I was offered and accepted a couple samples of medium and dark roast brewed coffee and even some espresso coffee to take home to try. He is my new favourite coffee dealer! (Those are some whole beans in the cup, ready to grind).

 

Espresso is my Sunday morning treat. I like to brew it on the woodstove using an espresso pot my brother gave me a long time ago. I love the simplicity of the espresso pot, no electricity required, using physics only: the cold water is put in the base up to the check valve, add finely ground coffee in the filter basket, screw top to base tightly and place over heat source until water boils in base and bubbles up through the coffee,through the stem and spills into the reservoir in the top, one boiling pump at a time.

 

 

 

My brother gave me a pair of espresso cups and saucers and little spoons with this espresso pot but I've never used them, preferring my favourite mug instead. That way there are fewer refills needed!

 

 

Then I settle in to watch "Couch Church" on the TV with my mug of espresso. Life doesn't get much better than that!

 

Signed,

The Happy Homesteader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Remedies for The Doozy Cold

Being sick is icky. The last week or so I have been feeling icky sick. Sick and icky. I have a cold. A nasty cold. To say I am "fighting a cold" would be a misnomer as this cold and I have gone nine rounds together and I'm sad to say, it has beat me hands down.

 

For the first few days The Cold couldn't decide if it wanted to stay or go and just when I thought it was going to depart, it settled in, bags and all and even brought energy bars to keep up its reserves. Having decided to stay, The Cold then had to decide in exactly what location it wanted to set up shop: sinuses, chest, joints and muscle, throat...This took a while, but it finally picked a combination. Fickle Cold.  No sense just settling in one area! Not when there's that much Cold Power to spread around!

 

I don't mean to sound all whiney because many people get colds and have colds a long time. But in my own defense, when I get a cold, it is usually a doozy. No messing around with a slight irritating tickle, or the odd sneeze. No, my colds are full blown and usually long overdue and therefore lengthy affairs, just to make up for lost time. This one seems to be no different. Did I mention how much I hate having a cold?

 

Because I hate colds so much, and get them so infrequently, I usually don't have much of a pharmaceutical arsenal to fight them with, or if there is some drop of cold medicine in the cupboard, the expiry date is around 2006, the lozenges half melted in their blister pack. And because I live far far away from any drugstore and driving to purchase cold medications is out of the question given that there probably isn't enough oxygen getting to my brain to make driving a safe event, I rely on old-fashioned remedies for relief. So here are a few of them that I use:

 

• Mustard Plaster: To help break up chest congestion. Mix one tablespoon of dry hot mustard powder mixed with one tablespoon of water (or milk, if you want it hotter) to form a paste. Spread on multiple layers of folded paper towel and wrap in a tea towel and place on chest. DO NOT put the mustard mixture directly on your skin as you will end up with a sunburn like burn, or worse!
 
• Onion Power: The onion has germ killing properties. Cut up a large onion, skin and all into wedges, exposing as many edges as possible. Put onion in a bowl and place wherever you and The Cold are hanging out to heal or sleep. Replace when onion becomes shrivelled and loses its onion odour.
 
• Onion Power Plus: Put a few pieces of cut up onion (skin and all) in your socks and pull socks over your feet before bed. Again, the onion has a "drawing" property to rid your body of the cold germs.

 

To beat The Cold, of course you know to drink plenty of liquids, wash your hands frequently, limit contact with people to stop the spread of germs and get plenty of rest.

 

There is another home remedy brought to mind that has nothing to do with colds but is something my mother swore by: Black Salve. Hopefully as I go through my collection of archive material that is pending posting I will come across that recipe and share it with you here on this blog.

 

Hope you are feeling strong and healthy, or at least on your way to that state again!

 

In Love and Health,

The Recovering Reluctant Archivist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter`s Hide and Seek

I`ve been thinking about things I haven`t seen in a long time due to this winter`s natural game of `Hide and Seek`

Here is the list I came up with:

1. My six foot blue spruce tree in the front yard
2. The dog house
3. The dog

(kidding, I don`t have a dog...not these days anyways)

4. The back step and by extension the clothesline
5. Any gardens or flower beds whatsoever
6. A small pile of poplar logs at the back of the house
7. My window screens stored away in the crawlspace
8. Most of the snowfence. Only the top six inches or so are peeking out
9. A motorcycle on the road
10. The lawn mower which is tucked away in a back shed, under a blanket

Old weather lore said that a late Easter means a late spring and it could very well be an accurate forecast this year, given the amount of snow we`ve had this year. Still, I`m rooting for my tulips and daffodils to make an appearance sometime soon!

Hope you are staying warm and enjoying winter in whatever form that takes!

The R.A.

Hepburn Family Tree Short Form

My mother Audrey Marie Hepburn (nee Urbshott) was a born archivist. She liked to document day to day events, family trees and community history. She collected a voluminous amount of information about her own family history and that of her husband, William Allan Hepburn. She enjoyed visiting with relatives, learning about all the family connections and adding to her family information stock-pile by connecting with people far and wide. Her connections were ever-expanding linking the people and stories that make "family" in the broadest, historical sense of the word.

 

In the Wiarton, Ontario Canada area, "Hepburn" is common surname. Many people came to my mother when exploring their own family trees. Below is a quick sketch provided as an answer to a request for information about the Hepburn Family tree. It starts with the patriarchs of the family: Peter, Andrew and Simpson Hepburn, three brothers who came to Canada from Scotland. This is in my mother's handwriting written in 1976. It serves as a great reference to get the right "branch" of the family tree when meeting another Hepburn. Hope you enjoy this cornerstone, this geneological treasure to my own reluctant archiving endeavours!

Snowbank Report

Recently I was in Oliphant, Ontario, and noticed the Welcome to Oliphant sign was missing ... presumed buried...

It truly has been quite the winter. At Oliphant, the snowbanks were about 12 feet high--on both sides of the road! The word `surreal` is overused, in my opinion. But here it seems to apply! It`s like driving through a tunnel. No self-respecting photographer would post a picture taken from inside a car, but it was c-c-c-cold (too cold to step outside the warmth of the car) and besides... this blog section is called `Winter from the Window`...

Here is another world class snowbank snapped in my own neighbourhood. Somehow the camera never seems to do it justice for height and breadth, but trust me, these are tall snowbanks, even for our part of the world!

Hope the Weather Reporter in you can enjoy this blog...no matter where you are! Sincerely, The Reluctant Archivist