Scenic drive

This morning we went to pick up Romeo, the bull/steer we recently had butchered, at the meat-cutter's facility. Here's the meat, packed in totes and crates in the back of the car.

The butcher lives waaaaay up a hill above a river. We had never been to this particular neck of the woods before, and immediately fell in love with it. I didn't think to take photos as we drove up, but I took a few on the way down. This is some random and distant outbuilding with some hay bales in a field that made us wish we could move there.

Here's a view of the river.

Can you see the road way down there?

The road wound through rocky and very steep hills.

The hills appeared crumbly, and Don said they're probably basalt.

For this reason, it didn't altogether surprise us to see a gravel pit at the top of the hill where things flattened out.

We agreed it was an incredibly scenic excursion to pick up the meat.

Meanwhile, this is our property, photo taken from a neighbor's place. The barn is on the left (the metal roof is shining in the sun), and the house is on the right tucked behind a row of trees.

Here's a closer view of the house, what little of it is visible.

And that was our scenic drive.

Technical difficulties

Several readers have brought something to my attention, namely that this blog is giving "Secure connections failed" and error messages stating it's an issue on my end.

The trouble is, neither Don nor I can "see" what's happening. We tried implementing the HTTPS availability under "Settings" and get this screen:

In short, we have no clue what's wrong or what happened. We have not changed a single thing on our end, so we don't know what to change or fix. At this point we're about ready to contact a local computer specialist and see what he can do to restore full access to the blog.

Meanwhile, if you can see this blog post, please take a screenshot of whatever issues you're encountering at your end. Don set up a temporary email address, so please send me any technical difficulties you're experiencing. This email address is: troubleshootRR@proton.me

Thank you!

Three-day beef ambrosia

We'll be getting our bull/steer Romeo back from the butcher in a few days' time, so we've been reorganizing the freezer to make room for him. During this process, we came across several cuts of meat from a previous butchering that have just been ... sitting there. For years.

This cut is a chuck roast. I've put chuck roasts in a slow cooker in the past with excellent results, but it still remains, for whatever reason, my least-favorite part of the animal. It's generally the last thing I reach for when it comes to making something for dinner.

But this time, needing to make room, I fished out three chuck roasts as well as two packages of soup bones, another item I seldom use. My plan was to can up the meat in a bone broth.

I threw these all into a large stock pot, added powdered garlic, dried onion, pepper, and a splash of vinegar (to help draw the nutrients out of the bones), topped everything with water, and let it simmer overnight.

The next day, I scooped out all the meat and bones. I carefully went through each piece of meat and de-fatted it as best I could. I think this is one of the reasons I'm not so fond of chuck roast – it's just too fatty. (I put the fatty bits aside to feed to Mr. Darcy in small increments.)

Then I put the meat in the refrigerator overnight. More importantly, I put the pot of beef broth in the fridge too, so the fat could cool, rise to the surface, and harden.

The next day, I scooped the fat off the surface of the broth.

The bone broth is incredible – rich, meaty, full of nutrients. I filled canning jars with meat and topped them with the broth.

Then, not wanting to waste anything, I filled the rest of the jars with leftover broth.

After canning, the result is six pints of beef ambrosia – tender and delicious – and eight pints of beef bone broth for the pantry.

Not a bad haul for some cuts of meat otherwise taking up space in the freezer.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's 95th birthday.

Clearly I couldn't wish her felicitations over the phone, so I called my dad to pass them on to her. My brothers and sisters-in-law (bless every one of them) are making things festive. My older brother and sister-in-law brought homemade cheesecake (which Mom loves), and my youngest brother and sister-in-law will come in over the weekend with a birthday cake.

Dad says Mom is doing quite well in the nursing home. After her rough New Year's brush with illness, it took her a long time to recuperate and now she's much improved. As Dad says, if it wasn't for the effects of the stroke, she would be exceptionally healthy.

Altogether, Dad and I agreed, we have much to be thankful for with our family. Despite the challenges, everyone is in good spirits. We're beyond grateful for that.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Rain relief

As I post this, it's raining. What a delightful sound to hear the raindrops on the roof and water running in the gutters.

I checked my weather diary and confirmed that, with the exception of a few light (and I mean light) showers, we haven't had any appreciable or measurable rain since June 29. This is not atypical for the west, which is why fire danger is always on our radar during the dry months. It's also why the rain is such a welcome relief.

Today's rain is coming in a single dramatic spike.

But we have the promise of more rain and unsettled weather for the foreseeable future (i.e. the 10-day forecast).

The oak leaves are dripping water.

The porch rails are wet.

Some turkeys are taking refuge under an apple tree.

The road is running with rivulets of water.

And by evening, the blackberries will plump up.

Everything is looking fresher and cleaner since all the vegetation is having a bath and the dust is washing off. Yes, this rain is a relief.

Medicinal garlic

Don has always had marginally high blood pressure readings. A few years ago, a doctor was concerned enough to put him on a very low dose of blood pressure medication.

The interesting thing is, he very likely never had high blood pressure to begin with. What he has, literally, is "white-coat syndrome."  The Cleveland Clinic says about this condition, "White coat syndrome, or white coat hypertension, is the term for when you get a high blood pressure reading in a doctor’s office and a normal reading at home. The anxiety of being around doctors in white coats can make your blood pressure rise. Most people don’t need treatment if their blood pressure is normal at home."

Don monitors his blood pressure very closely at home, and after realizing his blood pressure just naturally spikes at a doctor's office, he decided to slowly and gradually wean himself off the already-low dosage of medication he was on. His blood pressure has remained at a healthy level. (He also walks, lifts moderate weights, and watches his weight.)

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of stating why he prefers to address any lingering concerns about blood pressure by turning to garlic.

Raw garlic has a centuries-long tradition of regulating blood pressure. Modern medical research has confirmed it may lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Essentially garlic works to soften blood vessels and make them more elastic, which is precisely what the prescription medication did. In short ... can't hurt, might help for him to have raw garlic.

So Don takes a clove or two of raw garlic on a daily basis, usually sliced or chopped up in a sandwich or whatever else he has for lunch. Since last year I canned the entire garlic harvest, this meant he was buying garlic in the store to fill his raw garlic needs.

So this year I held all the harvested garlic in raw form, storing it in a cool dark place. Remember, much of this is now the jumbo garlic I'll be growing from now on.

The recommended daily dosage of garlic is about two grams (higher amounts apparently don't make a difference in health benefits). A single clove of our jumbo garlic weights 20 grams, ten times the recommended minimum dosage. He loves garlic (as do I), so it's no hardship to eat this much every day.

These large cloves slice easily.

He can then further chop the garlic as needed, or keep it sliced. He also likes the taste of this garlic much more than the store-bought stuff. He says it's less bitter.

Don's been off his blood-pressure medication for quite some time now, and his blood pressure is fine. As I mentioned, it may never have been high to begin with.

But keeping garlic in his diet is, we agree, a good thing.

The blessing of local fruit

I walked into the grocery store recently and turned to go into the produce section. There I was confronted by crates of peaches, 22 lbs. for $39.88, or $1.81/lb.

And not just peaches. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, apples, plums ... the selection was impressive ... AND expensive.

Various types of apples were on sale, $2.99 for 3 lbs. ($1/lb.).

Plums were $1.99/lb.

Six ounces of blackberries were $3.49, equivalent to $9.31/lb.

Same price for blueberries.

Regrettably, I did not get a photo of their strawberries, so I checked on the store's website and saw they were selling strawberries for $4.59/lb.

Meanwhile, back at the farm...

Peaches.

Apples.

Plums.

Blackberries.

Blueberries.

And of course, strawberries.

The blessing of local fruit.

Did you see the lunar eclipse?

There was a lunar eclipse last night. Did you see it?

Articles kept saying it would happen just after midnight. Since I'm an early-to-bed kinda gal, I figured I'd miss it. However when the moon rose at our place around 9 pm, the eclipse was already in progress (that "midnight" timeline was apparently Eastern Time).

So I stood in our side yard, balancing the camera as best I could on the top wire of the pasture fence, and photographed the progress.

Comically what I didn't realize was there were some deer in the pasture who were becoming more and more alarmed at my quiet presence. I was just about to press the camera shutter when one of them snorted nearby (an alarm signal), and I was so startled that this was the result.

At any rate, I followed the progress until at last the moon showed the merest sliver.

And there it stayed. And stayed. And stayed. I don't know if we weren't predicted to have a total eclipse or I just ran out of patience (it was my bedtime), but I never did see the total eclipse.

Early this morning, the moon was full and bright, setting on the western horizon.

I watched it until it set.

Did anyone else see the eclipse?