I'm tired of cooking/preparing 3 meals a day. It's just the two of us but boy oh boy can that woman eat!! She stays slimish, I get fattish. It's bad enough I do everything here much less start making her one thing and me the other. At times I feel guilty when I buy her fast food cuz of the nutritional value....not to mention I eat it too.
Golden, I have tasted both moose and bear (also rattlesnake) and have not particularly liked any of them enough to choose them off a menu. Now Emu is another story as are Bison and wild boar, all of which are delicious.
Are wolves more dangerous or aggressive than coyotes? We lived quite peacefully around coyotes in our previous home but you did have to keep an eye on pets and small livestock. There are noisy coyotes here and I assume foxes, although I haven’t seen any. Cougars have been spotted down by the river but not in our woods.
Nacy, insects are SO interesting. In our old location we had Jerusalem Crickets…weird! Also black widow spiders, which are very pretty as far as spiders go. We also had ugly scorpions - I woke one night to see one on sleeping DH’s back! I backhanded it across the room where it hit the wall, fell to the floor, and crawled into the closet door pocket, never to be seen again. Many more interesting bugs there than here but I can’t say I miss them.
psue -Moose can be great - depends. I'm not fond of venison. Haven't tried bear, but I'm not inclined to. Bison, yes. The best is caribou - never had such tender tasty meat. Elk is good too. Pronghorn - too "sagey"
I think all carnivores can be dangerous to smaller animals, and some are dangerous to us. If anything I suppose wolves are more dangerous as they are bigger. Though I don't think there are many records of attacks on humans. Now I wouldn't want to live near cougars. We lost Rocky's sister to a fox almost certainly, or a coyote. Poor Pumpkin! She was not a cautious creature.
nacy - I can do without most insects - not a fave of mine unless you are talking about beautiful butterflies, moths and dragonflies. I like ladybugs too.
I just made some ground turkey vegetable soup for supper. R wants left over turkey necks and there aren't enough for two.
I never had carabou, Golden. Another thing to put on my list. I get the impression you’ve had a very interesting life. Have you thought of writing a book? There was a way of life that is almost lost. My mom lived it for her first 20 years and she was good about giving my sibs and me summers on the farm where she grew up. I’m sad I can’t really share much of a ‘non-tech’ life with my GD.
That makes a pretty decent whine moment for today!
Peasuep - Great Horned Owls can take a grown cat. Hawks - anything under 4lb is at risk. My neighbour scooped and ran with her chihuahua once she realized a hawk was stalking it. One dull evening, as our indoor cat stood by the sliding glass door, I realized a Great Horned Owl was on the ground just outside the door, intently watching her.
Owl trivia: (stop eating) Ever seen dead rodents hung in trees? If so, you may have a Barred Owl. (or a shrike if spiked on a thorn) They save them for later.
I’m a treasure trove of grisly trivia.
His Dr. told him at least 2 quarts of water a day so what he does is pack his quart container with ice and dribble in as much water as will fit between the cubes and drink until the liquid is gone. He does that twice and calls it following doctor’s orders!
We have predominantly Great Horned owls here so I guess it’s good I haven’t adopted a cat although I have longed for one. I don’t think DH would be able to consistently close doors behind himself or even notice if a kitty snuck out between his feet when he goes out.
We also have Barred Owls - they have the weirdest call I’ve ever heard. I actually thought a neighbor was pranking me the first time I heard one. I had to record it with my Merlin app to believe it was a bird. Unfortunately there is a plan here to kill them off but there was such a public outcry it’s been tabled for now.
Kangaroo, bring it on!
Life in Northern Alberta can be interesting. Got moose blood on the ceiling once when we butchered a moose in the kitchen. I had photos of the process - no idea where they are now. Moose rib cage is huge,
Both ex and R hunted and butchered. Ex was Cree - native Canadian so we had access to caribou. I actually saw a herd on the edge of town up north once.
My life has had many phases, psue - some better than others.
Peasuep, the proposed cull of barred owls is sad but I can appreciate the need to save spotted owls, What an awful decision to have to make.
And Home Depot!
And any and all garden centers!
Micheals is caregiver’s heaven for crafts. I restrain myself and have not gone for over a year. Should do it and resume some hobbies.
How about that icky fiberglass Angel Hair snow stuff that would cut you if you handled it wrong? Or the white sheet batting with multicolored glitter that you would wrap around the tree stand to hide it. Or that metallic plastic tinsel that the cat would pull off the tree and eat like spaghetti?
Yes , I’m blaming it on the car .
I don’t go often because I like it too much .
In Scotland you could buy kits of wonderful woolen fabric for a skirt and matching yarn to knit a sweater. In the Montreal years when I was young and free I made my wardrobe. It was a very fashionable city but I couldn't afford to buy so I sewed. Later, I made a few outfits for myself and my dd but life got too busy,
I remember making a quilt for my first grandchild. I had always been fascinated by trapunto embroidery, so I designed and made a pale blue satin quilt with trapunto embroidery.
Of course, there were lots of afghans crocheted over the years, sweaters for my boys...laterly baby outfits that I gave away to the thrift shop. Knitting and crocheting are very peaceful activities. You only have to think of the next stitch.
And Halloween outfits. I was so glad when dd took over that job,
Christmas decorations and the tinsel that the cat ate - always. Dd had one cat that ate Christmas tree light bulbs - didn't swallow them, just crunched them.
Golden, I went through the trapunto stage too but never to the point of doing a whole quilt! That is extremely impressive, especially on satin, which slides all over itself.
I think I’ve tried every needle technique known to man over the years. I would get to the point where I could produce something either useful or beautiful, then give it as a gift and move on to something else. Dress making and tailoring lasted the longest out of necessity until it got more expensive to make clothes than buy them.
I really enjoyed doing the quilt and thought about doing one for each grandchild, and some sofa cushions but never did. When dd was in a funk once and I went to stay with her we redid her apartment decor - which was 1970s Halloween. We found a craft shop with lots of lovely bolt ends and made duvet covers, and curtains for her and her son's bedrooms and the living room. Then I crocheted a huge afghan to cover the 4 seater orange couch. I used to sleep on it with the cat on my head. She got tulips in pinks and yellows on a blue background, grandson got teddy bears, and the living room got a blues, greens and yellows. You can make a big difference to a place with a bit of fabric and a sewing machine. I think it was my last major sewing effort.
The tablecloth I never finished was Richelieu embroidery - cut work. It was too much effort I guess.
nacy - mother in her late 80s knitted us all large colourful scarves. They were beautiful combinations of colours and large enough to be very warm. I think anyone who came into her flat got a scarf. lol. Being mother, she became quite obsessive about the knitting, No fancy stiches, just plain knitting and great colours.
Just don't give me those crocheted dish rags. I hate them!
Then there was the annual sock hunt when I told the kids to put all their unmatched socks on their beds, then visit each other to find matches. We found quite a few and the rest went into the rag bag for polishing etc. It was fun for them.
1970’s Halloween! I LOVE it! Especially since I just finished a remodel of our funky 1977 house. I love the era and kept a lot of the funk but, boy-oh-boy, it was so dark and dingy!
When I started dating DH he was required to attend a lot of fancy ‘functions’ for work. That was not a world I could afford. I had made my 1st wedding gown and prom dresses and had done musical theater in school so I had some experience. I spent M-F nights after work sewing sparkly things and Saturday night wearing them. It was fun for awhile, then I got kind of disgusted with it and with the plastic people. I’m still amazed at how my DH was able to slot himself into that world so successfully without losing the dirt poor, barefoot, boy at his squishy center.