Sunday, January 13, 2013

Working the Night Shift

I tell my ride pals we’re over the hump. We’ve survived the solstice, and now the days are getting longer.  Any encouragement helps when you are heading out on the bike this time of year.  Why then does it seem that I am going to work at night, and then coming home at night?  If the days are getting longer, it can only be by nanoseconds.  I live up here in the far northwest corner of the continental US by choice; I have all my life so I know this whining may seem out of place.  I could have escaped the icy clutches by sneaking off to some sunny southern, retirement community.  I suppose it could be worse, I could live farther north where they really don’t see the sun much between November and March.  Even so, it gets old not seeing the sun much.

Did I mention that we rode the January 200K on the 5th?  It went well enough; we caught the weather about right, coming out of a freezing spell and just before the rain.  I was not well rested (in fact not entirely well, I had an ear infection) but decided to make a run at it all the same.  At times like that it is easy to think this is not the ideal time.  On the other hand, you really can’t know what is around the corner.  Like I said, it worked out however I was slow enough that I finished the last couple hours in the dark, … and rain.

In other news, when we had that break in the weather I took the opportunity to do a little cleaning and a major water change in the pond. We have had enough rain in the last month that there has been a fair amount of water turnover, but rain water lacks some of the chemistry that ground water provides. Plus there was a pretty good (bad?) collection of detritus 'mulm' pond keepers call it to remove from the bottom of the pond.

In this effort I found the babies I put into the pond last fall. I had not seen them since my fall cleanup. Turns out they have been hiding out by the skimmer box. As the water level went down they slipped into the upper pond.  I hope they will take up residence there, I think they will be safer and hopefully they will start hanging out next to the underwater light. It will give them warmth and also promotes algae growth which is a source of food for the little buggers through the winter. I think they have grown some since I moved them to the pond. 
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But they are still pretty small.
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I made SD English muffins yesterday. 
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In order to keep your Sour Dough starter alive you have to feed it every so often. Feeding amounts to adding equal parts of water and flour, enough to double your starter.  Of course if you bake a lot it all works out, but I have not been baking much so that means I either have to toss some SD starter or in this case, make English muffins.  Making the muffins is a no brainer:  They are very tasty, a big hit in the neighborhood and incredibly easy.  Just combine some starter, flour and water the night before, then in the mooring add some salt, sugar and baking soda.  Roll the dough, cut the muffins, let them rest for a half hour and then fry them up on a griddle. 
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I use one of my Mom’s hand me down cast iron skillets.  

1 comment:

  1. Uh, that's not fair showing the bread and not providing the recipe! Paul, how do you mix your Sour Dough? Would like to try it myself.

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