Hello Carrow Chat people!

Well, this has been a frustrating spring. Too much rain for mowing, golf and gardening. I've always made sure that we planted the garden by Mother's Day in the past, but I sit here staring at the empty fenced-in space with a sigh. We've gotten asparagus, but I'm dreaming of red, juicy REAL tomatoes! I'm tired of the gray, rainy days!

I've made a radical move in my career and simply walked away from the stress of the commute, lazy co-workers and unreasonable work load. I threw my fist in the air and said, "Screw You All!"
Sitting at a computer all day for 20 some years has been bad for my health. Gone was my sunny disposition and glass-half-full personality. Also missing was my waistline. I simply don't curve in at the middle anymore. However, every time I took a week off  and never sat still, I'd lose about 5 lbs.! I'd chase grandkids, deep clean the house and in general kept moving throughout the day. These things and the rising BP over the past year was the catalyst to walk away.

In March I began managing the Pub in the Golf Country Club where my hubby teaches golf. He also manages the staff who work in the Pro Shop and take care of the carts and clubs. It has been fun to decide on menu items, cook for everyone and train new hires. I don't like scheduling staff with all their days needed off and such, but they are good workers and that's not nearly as stressful as the job in IU School of Medicine Clinical Trials Office!!

One problem that is becoming apparent is that the chef for the formal dining on the second floor is feeling threatened. I guess he orders frozen biscuits and powdered soups while I make everything from scratch. Some members have been making comments that he needs lessons from me. It's all silly to me because competing with formal dining never entered my mind. What our Pub serves is nothing like what he serves upstairs, but I'm not changing how I do things because my sales is triple what it was for a year ago. Dude's gonna have to get over it.

All that rambling to say that I'm so much more relaxed, happy and have lost 20 lbs. already.  So, on this gray day after Mother's Day I may be wishing I were in the garden but it's all good.

Like a pro

the year of the 'possum

We've had an unusually large number of opossums around the farm this year. They normally are ok to have around, killing ticks and being general scavengers, but started to get eggs from the nest boxes, and cross the line.

I killed two, and caught three, drove them to a far location, and we still have some hanging around. I'm much more careful now with getting the coop hatch closed early, but if the remaining ones learn how to get in the coop during the day, I might have to get rough again.

This little guy is cleaning up under the bird feeders. The juncos don't like the competition, but I don't mind as long as he stays away from the barn and chicken coop.

winter pets

Deep snow makes for hungry critters. This young turkey has been hanging out by the house for a while now. Deer too, but I've already posted enough deer photos.

And these guys came later and found some crab apples to eat. 

lots of firewood

Had a friend who is a forester come over and help me figure out how to improve our woods. We have a couple areas that actually have some good trees- shagbark hickory.

Unfortunately, some of them are too close together, and will keep each other from getting their full potential. So we marked some trees to thin. Most were 3" to 6" in diameter. Hickory is a very good firewood. So I'll be cutting them down this spring.

Also, I practiced identifying trees in the winter, when you only have bark, twigs, and general shape to go on. Turns out we also have a couple pretty large ash trees that will be dying soon because of the emerald ash borers.

AND, there are a few large black cherry trees that have poor shape, and should just a well come down and let them stump sprout.

So we'll be flush with firewood for a couple years.

curling

Show of hands, how many of you have ever curled? Or even know anyone who has curled?

If you know me, now you know someone who has curled.

Last time we went up to the U.P. to visit Bri, Michael, and family, Michael was nice enough to take me to a curling practice. There is a newly forming curling club, and it's very informal training/practice right now, with hopes to get more interest and more formal, with possibly even competitions.

Gotta have new talent in the pipeline for future winter olympics, right?

So, I learned the proper form and curling motion to set the stone off toward the scoring circle, but that does not mean I am good at it. Turns out it is rather fun, but does require some balance, coordination, and "touch" to do well at it.

You need to dress warmly, since it's chilly on the rink, but you need to be able to bend and flex during delivery, so maybe cross country ski clothes?

Here is proper, olympic level form:

picture is from the wikipedia article.

And you need curling shoes. Yes, that is a thing.

It is essentially shuffleboard on ice ( we were using a hockey rink) but the placement strategy and ability to put english on the stone or alter its path with the sweepers makes it "chess on ice". Aiming for scoring, aiming for setting up blocking to prevent the other team from scoring or knocking your stone out of the scoring circle make for high demands on accurate throws.

The stone is a 40 pound polished round hunk of special granite that can take the banging and freezing temps. Only a couple quarries in the world are considered suitable, so the stones are not cheap. $500 a stone is typical for a new stone, and you need 16 for a full game set!

The wikipedia article will give you all the rules and history, for those who want to know.

39 below

This morning, ran out in my jammies before the sun was up, and saw -39 on the thermometer.

Then I did the hot water fling, and it looked great.

This is the coldest I have ever experienced.