Blogless in Missouri . . . 'til now!

For gosh sakes. Himself only sits at work every day with his feet on his desk. You would think he could post something in here especially after we just spent two days in a Winter Wonderland this past weekend. Yes! we finally found snow at III. Found snow and frolicked in it. Had nice mild days, 6 or 7 inches of snow on the ground and cold, clear nights. The cold clear nights don't bother us anymore, not with the cabin insulated and the propane heater.

Well, I take that back, about the heater. Himself, a throw back to less civilized times, still gets up to feed the woodstove even tho he wouldn't need to but it is habit and that is okay.

We drove down on Saturday morning. I shoved the ol' man out to unpack and put away and I headed back to Princeton to my second favorite consignment shop. I also picked up a few groceries but the one and only thing he wanted me to pick up in town, well, I just plain forgot it. It wasn't an emergency or needed right this minute, but still! you would think I could remember the one thing he wanted!

We experimented this weekend. Himself gave me a pair of snowshoes for Christmas so I experiemented with them. I had done some research but put them on and hiked with relatively little trouble. Sometimes I would forget I had them on and end up with one on top the other which does not allow me to take the next step. A few times I got them tangled in sticks or such and bumbled around a bit but one time I did just plain fall. In my research, I had read that if you fall with them on, in order to get up, well, just do it! So, I just did it and it was pretty ungainly and not graceful at all.

We also experimented with dehydrated foods, self heating foods, etc. The reason we are experimenting with these is we want some food stuff that we can leave at the cabin and not worry about it freezing or expiring. We might bop in sometime on the spur of the moment, or get snowed in an extra day or two and don't want to have to resort to boiling tree bark or eating moss or bugs!

The freeze-dried foods look like they will be the best bet. They have long shelf lives and only need boiling water and someone to read the directions (a story for another day). They are designed for hikers and the like. Himself will order us up some C-rations and we'll try them too. Guess they are called MREs now -- Meals Ready to Eat. Designed for the military, I think.

Another experiment was baking in my cast iron dutch oven. I learned a lot on this one! (That usually means it wasn't as successful as one had hoped.) I baked biscuits and I did get them done but it took an hour and 1 wood stove and 1 propane stove. It will be easier next time and the biscuits will be prettier. Do you remember that when we first found III, I wanted a wood cook stove. Himself discouraged me (I suppose because he likes to eat and was afraid he might miss that if I was cooking on a wood stove?) so that I gave up on the idea but I might just work back around to it some day.

It was a good weekend. Hopefully, Himself will tell the rest of the story . . .