So Here's the Flippin' Fountain

At last!  A moment or two to show you some photos.  I don't know how life got so busy, but it did.  Probably that last burst of energy before winter settles in. 

As you will see, what we built is more of a water feature than a fountain, but it's still pretty fantastic, I reckon.

When last I wrote, we had built a circle of stones to place the actual pieces in, and Daniel had installed an electrical outlet for the pump.  Remember that?  It was a while ago.

Here's what happened next:

We lined the circle of stones with weed cloth, because...

...we decided to fill the circle with small gravel with the idea that it would make the base easier to level.  But before we got to the gravel, we (by which I mean Daniel), piled in some dirt.  It's certainly cheaper than all gravel - I just stole some from other parts of the garden. Here's an action shot of the Man himself:

Then came the gravel:

Then came the base, and the first of many excursions into the wonderful world of leveling.  Did you know that leveling comes with a swear word or three?  I do now....

We went with larger pebbles for inside the fountain base. 

And then the pump went in...

...followed by an upside down pot with some strategic holes in it to allow the vertical pipe part of the pump to be placed properly.  This involved more leveling.  And quite possibly a swear word; I really can't remember.

Then came the actual fountain part - which is really just a very large pot - followed by, surprise, surprise, a little more leveling.

Strangely enough you need water for a water feature, so out came the trusty garden hose.

And then came the moment we (and the birds and squirrels, as it turns out) had been waiting for...

Electricity!

A few minutes of holding our breath...

And the water feature arrived!

I hope you aren't too underwhelmed after waiting so long to see it.

It still needs some plants around it, and possibly a sculpture if I can come up with an idea for one.  Those two things will have to wait until spring now, because winter is getting close.

It makes a lovely sound, and we've had the chance to enjoy it in the evenings.  The squirrels and birds adore it; I saw a couple of little feathered folk bathing in the basin this morning.

We're going to have to drain it pretty soon, but I'm thrilled to know it will be there in the spring.

So Where's The Flippin' Fountain?

Weeeeelll.... the best laid plans and all that....

For those of you who don't know, I got the bits and pieces to build a fountain for my birthday this year.  Yay!  The plan was to build it over the long weekend that just happened to be after my birthday.

I had been to the store where we ended up buying the pots before my birthday so I had time to think about it all, and let my subconscious ruminate a little.  We popped down to the store and picked out all the pieces (my subconscious had apparently not been ruminating at all - it took a while), only to find out that the guy who does all the prep work for turning the pots into fountains had taken a three-day weekend, too.  The cheek!  I mean, really, didn't he KNOW what our plans were? ;)

I do believe it was Wednesday when Daniel picked everything up; the pots have the right size holes, they've been plugged where they're supposed to be plugged, and we have a fountain kit.  Daniel also got good instructions on how to assemble everything so it will work properly.

Only problem was, Daniel had a solo backpacking trip planned for the following Thursday - Sunday (yesterday).  We are talking about some rather monumental pots that there is no way I can lift by myself, so the fountain plans got put on hold again.  He actually came home on Saturday, but we didn't get anything done yesterday because...

Daniel had to go to New York this week for work.  He left way too early this morning.

Soooo... you might be wondering if we'll get to it this weekend?  Unlikely.  We have a wedding on Saturday, then Sunday we're going to Sun Valley to see Colin Hay (yes, THAT Colin Hay from Men at Work.  He's a solo artist these days, and his stuff is light years better than any of the rubbish he did with that band).  All things being equal, we'll get it done during the week next week.  I hope so, because the following weekend we're going camping. And the weekend after that we're off to Priest Lake in northern Idaho for a week's holiday (I am SO looking forward to that), then we're off to Salt Lake city for a couple of days to see The Foo Fighters, and we have to plan the hot air balloon trip we bought for 60% off the asking price (it was too good of a bargain to resist)....

I think we may have overscheduled ourselves a wee bit....

Having said all that, we have made some progress.  We went out to the desert to collect some lava rocks to make a base, and Daniel ran some wiring for a power outlet.  I had wanted a solar pump, but everything I read and everything everyone told me, led me to believe they're not much chop.  Unfortunate, but for the moment we'll be relying on mains power.  I don't plan on running it all the time, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.  In fact, at this stage I'm thinking we'll drain it for the winter, although we can get a heater for it so it doesn't freeze.  We'll see.

So.  Here's where the fountain is going:

And here are the rocks we're making a base for it from:

In case you're wondering, we didn't ravage the desert for the rocks.  We took them from the (dirt) road verges where they'd been kicked up during the road-making process.  And we didn't touch any rocks that were near a critter hole.

I dug out most of the Lily-of-the-Valley, but I still have plenty left.  In fact, they could do with some thinning and dividing:

As I mentioned, Daniel put together a power outlet.  Apparently the crawl space is an arachnaphobe's worst nightmare.  Methinks I will have to have words with the furry folks about that:

After that, we started piling rocks.  Daniel had the bright idea to make a template of the fountain base so we could make sure it was going to be big enough (he told me he remembered me putting down templates when we re-did our kitchen in Illinois... smart me, and smart him for remembering; I was wandering around with a tape measure and getting all confused!):

I've added a few more rocks since this last photo was taken, but you'll have to wait now:

I bought some weed barrier cloth today with the plan of filling the circle with dirt this evening.  The cloth will stop dirt from leaking out and destabilising the fountain base; at least, that's the hope.  But it looks like it's going to storm, so I guess I'll be doing that another night.  Good thing I don't get too freaked out when plans don't go according to plan!

Cheese, Please

Yesterday, Judy (a co-worker) and I went to a cheese making class in a town called Nampa, which is about 20 miles away.  I'd always thought it might be interesting to learn how to make cheese, so when Judy invited me, I happily tagged along.

The class was held in the cheese maker, Debra's, kitchen.  She and her family also operate a store selling beer, wine, and cheese making supplies from their home. 

We made two types of cheese, Apple Cider Vinegar Cheese and Queso Fresco (pronounced 'kayso freskco').  The vinegar cheese was really simple.  The Queso Fresco was also quite simple, but a bit more fiddly and I'm not sure I can describe properly how to do it.  It's a Mexican style of fresh cheese, and actually, that's what its name translates to in English.  They're both soft cheeses, which is probably why they're so straightforward.  I'll give you the vinegar cheese recipe, and then explain what we did.

Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 gallon pasteurized whole milk (I'll let you do the conversion)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Instructions:
Heat milk to 185 degrees F. Add vinegar and mix thoroughly. Turn off heat.

Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.  You are looking for a clear separation of curds and whey.  If the milk has not set, add a little more vinegar until it does set.

Pour the curds into a colander lined with butter muslin. Drain until desired consistency.

Remove curds from butter muslin.  Add salt and herbs to taste if desired.

It's now ready to eat, or you can keep it refrigerated for 1-2 weeks.

Here are the things I learned about this ridiculously easy cheese, along with some basic cheese making principles:

1.  1/2 gallon of milk makes a decent amount of cheese, although the quantities we got varied from person to person.  If you want to make lots, use a whole gallon (you use the same amount of vinegar).  We used plain old supermarket milk.  I think with the more complicated cheeses - cheddar and such - you'd want to get your hands on raw milk if you can.  Apparently ultra-pastuerised (not sure if you have that - it's mostly used on organic milk here), will not work.  They heat the milk to the point where all the little greeblies that actually make the cheese are killed off.  Oh the humanity!

2. Raise the milk temperature slowly so it doesn't scorch.  We made ours in double boilers, which is the way to go with this one. Most recipes will specify whether or not to use a double boiler.  If the milk does scorch, make sure you don't scrape the bottom of the pan while you're stirring it.  And if you get a skin, just remove it.  The temperature is really important, so if you go over, let it cool back down before you add the vinegar.

3. Use a slotted spoon to pour the vinegar into the milk.  Pour the vinegar over the spoon and move the spoon around the pan as you pour to help distribute the vinegar evenly.

3. Use a slotted spoon to stir, and stir slowly.  Hold the spoon vertically and work from side to side, rather than holding the spoon flat.  Can't remember why, but this one was important. Stir until the colour from the vinegar has been fully incorporated; you'll see the curds start to separate almost immediately.

4. The whey should be that clear yellowy/green colour I'm sure you're all familiar with, not milky.

5.  Butter muslin turns out to be a fairly fine muslin. Dampen it before you use it.  Oh, and if you've washed it in detergent, boil it for a bit with some bicarb to make sure all the soap residue is gone. You don't want it to be so fine the whey can't drain through, but not so coarse that the curds drain along with the whey.  Apparently old linen pillowcases work well.

5.  We spooned the curds into the colander and then poured the whey in, rather than dumping it all at once.  That can change the consistency.  You can use the whey to make ricotta... who knew?

6.  We lifted and turned the curds using the muslin, to make sure all the whey was gone.  Some people let theirs drain for quite a while to make a drier cheese, while some went with a softer consistency.  It's  a personal choice.  The cheese doesn't taste like much of anything at this stage, except for maybe a hint of vinegar (which not everyone could taste).

7.  We split our cheese into two batches to make two different flavours, and this is where we added salt to taste.  I over-salted mine, but it's still pretty tasty. I used black pepper, onion flakes and chillie flakes in one, and an Italian herb mix in the other. The important thing is that you absolutely must use non-iodised salt.  And this applies to all cheese making.  The iodine will ruin your cheese.

8.  If you're going to eat the cheese straight away, you can mix whatever fresh herbs and spices you'd like into it (tarragon, lemon zest and pepper comes to mind).  Otherwise, you need to use dried.  The fresh stuff will make the cheese go all gluey and unpleasant after a while.  Judy put honey in hers (along with a little salt), which I thought was a good idea.  You could serve it on crackers with fresh strawberries and nuts, or something.  It's pretty much like a dip in consistency.

And there you have it, a really simple cheese!

The Queso Fresco was more complicated.  We used rennet and something called mesophilic starter to get the curds to form. It had to go through a few cooking processes, and we had to cut the curds (they formed a mass that looked like silken tofu) to release the whey.  

Interestingly enough, even though we were all using the same milk from the same store, we had very different results.  Some people's curds set just fine, while others' did not.  This is fairly common, and leads me to believe that with cheese, as with all other cooking, learning how to rescue a disaster is an important skill!

We got to sample a couple of cheeses that Debra had made.  One was Monterey Jack, which is a mild, firm, inoffensive kind of cheese.  It was awful!  It tasted like it had fermented somehow, and was very bitter.  It was a good example of how cheese can go wrong, though.

We also got to sample some Cotswald cheese, which is a much firmer cheese.  It was about four months old, I think, and I thought it was absolutely delicious.

I'm now pondering whether or not I want to take the Farmhouse Cheddar class.  It's more expensive, and will require me to invest some dollars in cheese presses and the like.  I'm not sure I want to do that, at this stage.  It was interesting, and I learned a lot, but I'm not convinced I want to get that carried away with it.  We'll see; at the very least, I have learned some new skills, and got to spend some time with some interesting people.

In A Pickle... And Loving It!

As most of you probably know by now, I have been busy pickling cherries.  The season here is short, but sweet... and affordable!  I was flipping through one of my canning books looking for things to do with sweet cherries (as opposed to tart, or pie, cherries which are used for jams and jellies) and came across a recipe for pickled cherries.

That begged a question; how does one go about taking the stones out of cherries?  Well, I suppose you could go to the store and pay $8 (and up) for some sort of purpose-built tool that you're only going to use once in a while, or you could do what I did and talk to Daniel.  Then what happens is Daniel takes a bit of a stroll around the interwebs and comes up with a plan (of course he did; if ever you need a plan, talk to Daniel).

He rummaged around in the shed and found a guttering nail, which is rather long and made of aluminium.  He cut off the pointy bit, and drilled a wee hole in the end.  Then he got a beer bottle (an empty one), and my cherry pitting operation was ready to go.  All I had to do was pop a cherry on top of the beer bottle, and press down.  The stones went right into the beer bottle, which I thought was pretty cool:

I was surprised at how quickly it went.  Although not all of the cherries were perfectly pitted like this one:

I soon wound up with a big bowl of cherries, ready to be pickled:

The pickling mixture included vinegar, a little bit of sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice berries.  I forgot to add the fresh ginger the recipe called for, but I just popped that into the jars when I was ready to process them.

Of course I picked an atrociously hot day to do this in an uninsulated house that has no air conditioning, but oh well.  I sweated gently (okay, copiously) as the brew bubbled away and I brought my canner to the boil:

I thought the cherries looked quite lovely boiling away:

I spooned them into (sterilised - which meant the oven was on, too) jars, added the lids and rings, and into the canner they went for their allotted time.  As I recall, I went outside at this point so I could cool down a bit.

And here's the finished product:

They are absolutely delicious; I'm only sorry that cherries don't get cheap enough for you all to justify pickling them for yourselves (I'd bring some over, but the Australian Quarantine Service won't let me).  Aileen suggested them as an accompaniment for cheese and just about any meat you might like to mention.  I agree!  I also think, having eaten more than my fair share of them, that they would go well with a good quality vanilla icecream.

And as a bonus to all the sweat and grime (it took me nearly a week to get the stains out from under my fingernails), they took second place in the category of pickled fruit at this year's Western Idaho State Fair. 

It's The Bee's Knees!

As a gardener, I am somewhat fond (some might say overly fond) of bees.  I love the work they do on my behalf, I love the sound they make on hot summer afternoons, and I also happen to think they're quite attractive.

I am especially fond of bumble bees.  When we lived in Illinois, I often got to see the classic bumble bees (big and fuzzy with black and yellow stripes) as they bumbled around the garden.  I hadn't seen a bumble bee at all in Idaho, and assumed that there aren't any out here.

As it happens, I was looking for the wrong thing.  I read an article about the fact that the Western Bumble Bee went extinct without anyone really noticing.  This got me thinking, and paying much closer attention to the bees that are around our place (there are lots, thank goodness).

I noticed a new bee one day that seemed to have a red stripe on it.  I looked closer, and I saw it was very fuzzy (sure sign of a bumble bee if ever there was one).

I got all excited, ran and grabbed the camera (they're tricky little buggers to take a photo of), and then did some research to see if I could identify it.  I believe we are being visited by Bombus melanopygus... commonly known as the russett-butted bumble bee.

Here's the little guy in all its glory:

It's not very big - about 1 1/2 centimetres - but I'm thrilled to have it (and its friends) about the place.

How Does My Garden Grow?

Well, we're at about the mid-summer stage here, and I can tell you it's been an odd one.   You may have read about the heatwave that has been hitting much of the country, but it didn't arrive here in the Northwest. We're about a month behind where we usually are at this time of year, and our cool, wet spring led to some issues with the fruit crops in our region. 

For my garden, that meant not much in the way of apricots (hurray!); I've managed to make four and seven-eighths jars of of my (ahem) award-winning apricot and orange conserve, as opposed to the potentially endless amount I could make in a normal year.  The squirrels and birds did get a feed since most of the fruit was at the top of the tree where I can't get to it.  In fact, I relied on windfalls to make the conserve.

I am still picking lettuce - this is almost unheard of at the end of July.  And I have only just gotten my broccoli.

Here are a few photos to get you up to date (let me know if you want more, Lynette!):

This is my Coreposis with unidentified butterfly....

And here's my vegie patch.  I currently have pickling cucumbers, regular cucumbers, four kinds of chillies, four kinds of tomatoes, ground cherries, tomatillos, beans, rhubarb, and asparagus.  It sounds a lot more impressive than it is, trust me!

My tomatoes are really struggling.  It simply hasn't been hot enough (although it feels like it today - it's 8pm and it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit).  They have an ugly affliction called leaf curl.  It apparently doesn't affect production, but they just don't look right.  I feel quite sorry for them:

Here's what the front garden is up to.  Those tall things are asters... they weren't supposed to grow quite that tall...



Here are my annuals for the year; two kinds of zinnias.  They were hard to grow in Illinois because the humidity would make them mouldy.  Totally not an issue here!

This is salvia and a type of coneflower I can't quite remember the name of at the moment.

I love what my sedum, grass, and lavender have conspired to do.  The bees and butterflies love it as much as I do!  This is part of the bed I built earlier this year, although these plants were in the ground last year.

And here's my piece de resistance, and one of the major reasons why I garden:



Attack of the Giant Marshmallows

Several weeks ago now (right before I got that stupid cold) it was Great American Backyard Camp Out Day.  It's not an official holiday, or anything; it's designed to get people away from their TVs and computers and, at the very least, outside into their backyards.

We thought this sounded like a good idea, and since we'd just gotten a new sleeping pad for our tent for when we go car camping, we went ahead and set up the tent.  The reason we got a new sleeping pad was because yours truly in particular is just not as comfortable as she used to be sleeping with a couple of centimetres of cushioning between her and the dirt.  I can do it, but if I don't have to (ie when we're car camping), then I'll avoid it.

Daniel came home with what is actually a mattress topper to put on top of a bed's existing mattress to help make it more comfy.  It has a layer of foam, and a layer of latex memory foam-type stuff.  It fitted the tent perfectly!  And it was totally deluxe.  Felt like I was sleeping on a little bit of cloud (or perhaps a marshmallow).  And actually, it was about as comfy as our indoor bed, which is saying something.  Now I'm plotting and scheming a way to build a permament outdoor bed for the summer!  I think it would be lovely to wake up under a shady tree every morning.

So anyhow.  Marshmallows.  Daniel picked up the food for dinner, and came home with a bag of the world's most ginormous marshmallows.

They look like this:

That's a double A battery... these marshmallows are monstrous!  They weigh somewhere around the 30 gram mark.  Each!

There is a camping tradition in the US called smores (as in, "can I have s'more, please").  It involves chocolate, something they call graham crackers, and, of course, marshmallows.

Now, traditionally you're supposed to use Hersheys chocolate.  Have you ever tasted that stuff?  It's grainy, and tastes like a spoonful of sugar that has no redeeming features. Bleccchhh! I really don't recommend it.  We opted (at least, I opted - I can't remember what chocolate Daniel chose) for Lindt dark chocolate and orange.  I guess you could call it a grownup smore, insofar as a smore can ever be grown up.

The next thing you do is toast the marshmallow.  You're supposed to do this over an open fire, but we didn't have one.  We did, however, have the Great Barbecue Behemoth handy:

It is traditional to blow out the flames on your marshmallow...

Then you assemble the smore and eat it...

As much as a I am a fan of sweet things in general, and chocolate in particular, I will warn you that these are quite rich (just in case you want to try them for yourselves).  Let me know if you want me to send you some giant marshmallows (just so you know, they only come in one flavour... sweet.)