While a bit of a tradition of leftover-turkey crepes were being cooked up for brunch this morning, I was eying the leftover boiled beets. It was something about shapes and the muted, earthy shades of purple, and maybe the bowl helped along the effect. Soothing. Mesmerizing. I couldn’t stop staring. Guess I’ve got veggies on my mind… These were beets from the basement, roughly cut up as you can see, a mix of red (probably Scarlet Supreme) and white-with-red-stripes Chioggia, which were colored by the red beet juice. Boiling this time round was easier, though baking is the favored way to cook ’em. Anyhow, possessed by the beets, I brought them out into the light to take a picture, grabbed the first suitable surface to stick in the snow (a wooden bushel basket, upended), and took a pic. The color is sort of as I saw it, but you really had to be there for the full effect. Stare into the beets… Like I said, veggies on my mind! :)
Month: December 2007
Temperature gadget
This wireless remote temperature and humidity sensor sits outside, beside the side door to the Milkhouse. Here, it’s reading 0.3°C. Precise! I’m not overly thrilled by technology, but some gadgets I like. Like digital weather stations! They’ve become really CHEAP in the last couple of years. A local hardware chain just stocked a house brand, indoor/outdoor (dual measurements), min/max (stores highs and lows until reset) thermometer/hygrometer (humidity) for 10 bucks! I started tiny farming with a plain old analog min/max thermometer, until the digital ones got cheap about three years ago. Plus they had humidity. I got one, but it soon broke (didn’t like the greenhouse heat and humidity, I guess). The next generation of cheap weather stations had outdoor sensors. Cool! I got two for the greenhouse, one for the seedling room, and they’ve lasted. But, the remote sensor (a bonus!) is on the end of a long wire that I never got round to running… Now, there’s cheap and WIRELESS. That’s REALLY cool. More units, more batteries, but it’s WIRELESS. I banged in a nail and hung it out there in three minutes. It sends temp and humidity to a neat little unit sitting by my computer. It doesn’t store min/max wirelessly, that one’s not as cheap until probably next year. Instead, I glance at it quite often. The remote isn’t protected from direct sunlight, so the highs are too high when the sun hits it, but here it’s on the east side of the barn, so only the morning reading is off… Why do I need real-time outdoor temperature for tiny farming? Hmmm… It’s been just above zero days and most nights lately, and THAT’s interesting? You mightn’t have noticed otherwise that everything is slowly MELTING… Though really, watching the temperature through the day is kinda like watching the balls spin on a lottery draw: it DOESN’T REALLY MATTER! So maybe this wireless thing is yet another clever, largely unnecessary…gadget. I still like it: it’s 32.6°F outside the door, three days to the New Year, and seeds start soon! :)
Another year gone by, and the donkey’s doing fine…
As the day faded into New Year’s Eve, I did a little walkaround, checking the goats and visiting Jack the Miniature Donkey, who’s a pretty good barnyard pal. I don’t see him up close that often (I hear him all summer), but we get along. He’s cool. Along with the goats and half-dozen cows, they’re Bob and Karen’s charges. I helped care for the goats daily for a couple of years, winter and summer, watering and feeding twice a day, experienced the goat cycle of life and death (well, birth, and occasionally, off to the slaughter). But my tiny farming career has yet to directly encompass livestock. Another thing to do! I think, this spring, CHICKENS!