a rainbow a day keeps the blues away

There is no ice on the lake but that hasn’t stopped us from fishing.  We went and scraped some holes in the slush to try and entice some trout with our Swedish Pimples (this) not (this).  My friend Bill showed up, caught one in twenty minutes (his first fish in 9 years), Then decided to end on a high note and went home.  Bruce of course caught the biggest fish of the day, which we will be eating for dinner.  I caught nothing (my usual), so I will stick to what I am marginally good at which is being witty.  This post title was inspired by my favorite rainbow sun catcher design ever (collect them all).

20 eggs, 19 hens?

A new feat of egg laying prowess has been achieved by the chickens here at the farm.  I collected 20 eggs today from only 19 hens.   Hmmmmmm, Napoleon might be hiding something from us.

voles: the cutest of all evils

A plague has descended onto our little oasis of green in this desert of snow that is Wallowa Valley.  Seeking anything green these little monsters rise out of the ground at night like a horde of vegan zombies and pillage their way through the greenhouse laying waste to all in their path (example of pillage).

to combat these evil hordes we have a trap-line composed of mouse traps baited with strawberry bubble gum.  Experiencing limited success with this approach I have developed a plan B which is a combination of my cat and zombie fighter Ash from the Evildead films.  Henry (the cat) has proven reluctant to use the chainsaw I developed for him but he has taken surprisingly quickly to the double barrel shotgun,  The damage to the greenhouse may be irreparable but at least we took out a few of Satan’s favorite rodents along with it.

more chocolate than you can shake a stick at

When the icy claws of winter take hold here on the farm, we retreat inside and attempt to pad our fat reserves by manufacturing and consuming that greatest example of edible warmth, chocolate!

we are in the process of obtaining a certified kitchen in which to work. When that happens we will dominate the world of  chocolate manufacturing in Wallowa county.

Right now Erica and I are still in the training phase of chocolatierhood (Bruce and Wendy tell us  ancient magic chocolate recipes then we swear oaths of  secrecy and stuff).

as of right now we have dipped gingers several kinds of nuts, made cocoa bars and 7 different kinds of truffles in both dark and milk (cherry, raspberry, caramel, peanut butter, marzipan, mint, and mocha).  We are trying new recipes every day in order to find the best possible combination.

dipping truffles like a pro in the video below.

black diamond sledding!!!

While enjoying an afternoon of sledding Erica and I inadvertently recreated the fabled sledding scene in “Christmas Vacation” .  We actually did manage to break the amateur recreational plastic sled land speed record on our second attempt.  The braking parachutes refused to deploy however and we had no choice but to wear holes in our boots attempting to slow down from mach 12.

simon destroys nativity, spares baby jesus

Christmas festivities went off without a hitch here on the farm.  Temperatures remain cold but the skies have been relatively clear and sunny. Hope all of you had a great holiday, we did.

real hooters and fake deer; Wallowa wildlife

two great horned beasts have taken up residence in the backyard for the winter along with the usually freeloading deer and massive herd/armada of quail.

water freezes!!

In anticipation of the lake freezing over and ice fishing season about to start Bruce and I went up to the lake and took some water temperature readings.  with the air temperature in the teens the lake was somewhere between 37 and 40 so it has a ways yet to go before we get the 8 inches needed for a bunch of crusty fishermen to sit around on top of it all day.

-5 degrees

The past few nights have been negative five and the daily highs have been in the teens and twenties here at 4,000 feet in Ne Oregon.  The sun shines almost every day though and that is what’s most important to me. 

hideous cat beast with two bodies and one head