Coulee Region excursion

My day started off slowly, with the morning sucked up by a supremely uninteresting 3 hour work meeting. Fortunately, the meeting went unusually smoothly and I didn't get out of work especially late.

There was a lunch audit available in Richland Center for $30, so I thought I would take advantage of the as-yet clear skies (snow showers were expected the next few days) and get some cash and free food for lunch and dinner. I went on Highway 154 from Loganville to Richland Center. The countryside west of Reedsburg quickly runs into the topographically interesting Coulee Region of the state. These unglaciated hills and narrow valleys all looked very attractive with the recent snow cover, and the exposed sandstone rock formations added some interest along the route.

I noticed that there was a small store in the countryside near Hillpoint (a depressingly shabby little town which makes Loganville look like a bustling metropolis). Its sign said that it was a discount store for bulk and damaged groceries, so I thought I would stop by on the way back and see if there was a good price on whole wheat flour and yeast. I've been reading the Tightwad Gazette, and even though the advice is a bit dated, the author's recommendation for buying yeast in bulk rather than the packets was probably still sound. Even at Aldi, yeast is about $0.89 for 21 g, so I thought I would check out the price difference. On the way to Richland Center, I occupied myself with doing mental calculations how much that would convert into in terms of dollars per pound. I figured that it was about $19 a pound, so I thought that even if a pound cost $10 I would save plenty. Since I make bread 3-4 times a week, I use plenty of yeast.

I did my audit and stopped at Kwik Trip ($0.03 per gallon rebate doesn't really help much with gas prices back up to $2.50 a gallon) and Goodwill. Their Goodwill is much bigger and nicer than our thrift stores in Reedsburg, even though Richland Center is more economically depressed, if anything. I think Goodwills have a regional distribution center and they must benefit from their proximity to the higher incomes in Spring Green and Madison. I will have to go back there when I'm in the mood for refreshing my wardrobe. I found 4 nice regencies in the book department. Goodwill's book prices are a little high in comparison to other thrift shops, but regencies are always resaleable on ebay (more than other pulp).

On the way home, I investigated the Valley View Discount grocery. It was easy to see that it was an Amish owned-and-operated business. The driveway was unpaved, there were no lights inside, and no heating either. Perhaps there was some heat, but it certainly was chilly inside. The roof also leaked, and they managed that problem very philosophically with a bucket underneath. Most "English" shops would have brought out the plastic tarps and set up warning signs and plastic tape blockading off the hazardous area, not to mention calling the roofers at the first opportunity! The Amish shopkeeper (complete with Amish accent; I don't know why I expected otherwise!) showed me all the different flours in the entire baking aisle. They had quite an assortment of baking supplies, including several brands of white and whole wheat flour, buckwheat flour, rye flour, pumpernickel flour, corn meal, brown sugar, raw sugar, and other items such as TVP, bulk yeast, and fancy decorating sugars for a fraction of their normal retail price. The prices beat even Yue Wah in Madison for flour, although obviously Aldi can still beat them on white sugar since that is where they get their supplies from. They also had 50# bags of oatmeal, potatoes, and other staples such as cheese and meat at bargain prices.

I got 10 pounds of whole wheat flour ($3.50), 7 pounds of rye flour ($2.79), 3 pounds of quick oats ($1.89) and a pound of yeast ($2.89). I will have to return there when I need more baking supplies.

This evening I am trying to make some pumpkin muffins with the whole wheat flour. Avinash tried it for making rotis, and deemed them a bit more tough than with Durum Atta,but "not too bad". The coarser whole wheat flour will probably make a much better-textured bread than Durum atta, but might not be best for the Indian breads.

Here is a photo of my haul today.

Our two bookends

These two keep us company whenever we watch tv. They maintain their armed detente, resolving not to even look at each other from opposite sides of the couch.

Post-blizzard photos from Old Lake Road

Here are some photos my mom took yesterday evening on Old Lake Road in Baraboo. All told, we got about 15" of snow in the last two day, more than we've seen in a while. Mom and Dad get a little bit more than the surrounding areas because of their location near the Baraboo Bluffs. More is expected next week, which means we will all be doing a lot of shoveling again.

Colleen plays in the snow

Here are a couple of very cute photos my sister took of Colleen enjoying the winter weather.




1) Colleen as Michelin Man
2) I'm king of the mountain!

Mom's Hermes Rocket typewriter is up for grabs

I posted Mom's Swiss typewriter (with fitted case) on EBay. We'll see if we get any nibbles on this well-used typewriter.

Snow, and lots of it

We got dumped on with 6 inches of wet snow Friday night. We spent a good part of Saturday digging ourselves out - the plow had Avinash's car in about a foot and a half of dense, heavy white stuff. (The photo above shows Avinash's Mazda3 during the storm).

Saturday night was a repeat of the same, with another 6 inches of heavy snow. I had to be to work at 7 am on Sunday, so I had to shovel out Avinash's car again. (My car was in the garage, blocked by the impassable driveway). The winds had caused a lot of drifting and the snow was thigh high in places. I certainly could not shovel that out in time to get to work, so I shoveled out Avinash's car, which had been plowed in, and took that. Apperently, the hospital was suffering a bit of a staffing crisis due to nurses who lived in outlying areas not being able to get through on their unplowed roads.

Avinash spent much of the day shoveling out the sidewalk, driveway, and paths around the house. Here is an "action" photo, with a clod of snow flying. You can see how close the temperature is to the freezing point by the slushy quality of the snow.


Now our house has 4-5 foot snowdrifts surrounding it. If it snows any more, the drifts may rival the December 1999 size - I remember that the drifts were over my head; very hard to throw snow that high.

Ned snoozes in one of his favorite spots.

If you're not quick enough putting away clothes in the morning, Ned usurps the spot for a long midwinter's nap. Here he is eye to eye with my kitty bank, who seems to find the situation amusing.

Heart cookies

A little late for Valentine's Day, but I made some sugar cookie cut-outs with pink royal icing. I made the cookie cutter out of a water chestnut can and used my Grandma Hickey's 1960 red decorator sugar for the color, since I have no food coloring. They turned out very nicely.

Here they are in my Grandma Chickering's trusty cookie jar.
:)

Florida panther

Spring(like) weather

We have had a warm spell the last couple of days. I only had to work half the day today, so I took the bike and went to the post office, the bank, and city hall, to vote. I was apparently one of the 3% of Wisconsin residents who took the opportunity to do so - I was the only one there when I voted. I'm sure more people were taking the opportunity to wash the grime and salt residue off their cars. There were about 16 poll workers, all regulars from the local civic volunteer groups. They recognized me, so I didn't have to show any ID.

I placed my vote for Linda Clifford for the Supreme Court primary, which was the only item on the ballot. I was glad to see that 2/3 of the candidates in the non-partisan election were women.

Mom came over in the evening, to enjoy a dinner of baked scallops in lemon butter garlic sauce, and to show her photos from their Florida trip. Here's a sample of some of the wildlife they saw near Fort Meyers. She even got to see one of the 100 or so Florida panthers in existance.

Reedsburg Players

I was asked to play in the orchestra pit for the local production of South Pacific. This musical has a lot of English horn segments in the oboe part. I borrowed the high school's English horn, which I had just returned, for the event. I've been fortunate enough to have had it much of the year. I should really spring the $4000 it takes to buy one, but it hardly seems worthwhile when the high school has such a nice one which is not being used.



The production itself is very disorganized. It will be interesting to see if it all comes together for the performance. I can't comment much on the stage work, since my back is to the stage, in the pit, and since the general miking doesn't pick up the dialogue or the minor character's solos. Perhaps they can here those things in the house. I hope so.

Here I am with both horns, for those of you not familiar with double reed instruments. The English horn is a larger version (the "alto" version) of the oboe. It has a rather spine-chilling, exotic sound. The reeds are similar, but the the English horn has a bocal similar to a bassoon. It requires a little bit more air than the oboe, but I still have a lot of positive pressure in the lungs at breathmarks.

Home projects

I've been busy lately with several of home projects. Both of my recent projects turned out to be a lot more work than I bargained for, as usual, and took much more time than anticipated, as well.

I made three roman shades for the office, which previously had some cutesy lace balloon valances. The previous owner of the house loved ruffles, lace, hearts, and ducks on everything. I was looking for something a bit more masculine and tailored for the office, which is full of mission style furniture and high-tech equipment.

I used Evil Empire upholstery fabric ($5/yd) and old muslin bedsheets for the lining. The shades cost about $35 in materials - mostly because I wanted nice wine-colored suede fabric, but also because I overestimated the amount of cord I would need. I eventually found a very cheap alternative to the plastic rings used for the cords - washers from the hardware store, sold by the pound. Instead of $5 for cheapo plastic rings which will likely break, I spent $0.22 on a couple of handfuls of sturdy washers. I can use the leftover washers for other household projects; it seems I never have enough washers in any case. I am going to return about $10 worth of cords and rings to the Evil Empire. The shades turned out to be very floppy and untidy, perhaps because of the heavy fabric I used. Because the pleat seams were too narrow to insert a dowel, and since I didn't want to sink any more money into the shades, I used old metal hangers as stiffeners. I bent the hangers straight with a vice-grip and inserted one wire into each pleat so the whole shade would lay flat.

Rowena was a big help with the process, laying on the fabric, jumping on the fabric, and chewing on the threads and cord.

I have enough fabric and lining left over I may make some valances for the bedroom and get rid of the awful dust-gathering balloon valances which came with the house.

Here's the final result:



I also designed a large spice rack, to extend the storage available in our tiny kitchen. We already have used hanging pot racks, cupboards in the breakfast nook, and hooks in the basement entryway to store kitchen items - but our extensive South Asian spice collection and my cooking spices were difficult to find in the nook cupboard. My dad brought over his collection of hardwood scraps (he saves everything, for just such an occasion), and we cut pieces to make a 3" deep, 3' long hanging shelf unit for the basement entryway. It's just around the corner from the kitchen, and should be big enough to store quite a few bottle of bulk spices.

Of course, it was easier said than done, as well. None of the pieces lined up flush, and when we tried to screw the pieces together, the screws didn't go in anywhere near straight. I tried roping the pieces together and gluing with carpenter's glue, but it didn't hold firmly. I don't have any good corner clamps, which maybe caused the poor result. I ended up nailing everything, which is not the way my dad does things (he likes screws), but the end result is very sturdy and much less infuriating than his way.

Ned helps Avinash get his desk organized

Note the innocent look on this face. Not pictured: Piles of stuff kicked onto the floor.

Suki updates are back online!

Mom and Dad are on their way to Florida today, so that means the Suki updates are back again!

Here is a photo of Rowena "helping" me sew a set of Roman shades.