12 December, 2010 Fresh bread, boiling traps and rain ...

What do you get when you add rain to 18 inches of snow?  A slushy mess!  This is what we went through last winter ... snow, then rain, then cold (turning everything to ice), then another repeat of the cycle.  Yuch!

Breakfast Saturday - I made extras then re-heated the leftovers Sunday morning.  To re-heat them without a microwave and to keep them from turning to rubber we set them on a plate on the upside down kettle lid as shown in this picture then cover the plate and pancakes with a lid.  It takes about 15 minutes or more if the water in the ketttle is boiling hot but the pancakes don't dry out or turn to rubber this way. 

The little red berries are from asparagus plants.  Susan crushed them and picked the seeds out.  We'll save them for planting this spring.

I need to get some more traps into service so I spent Sunday afternoon in the shack melting water and derusting/coloring traps.  This is the stove I use for heating the shack.  It's a barrel stove kit in an old pressure tank designed for a well.  They have a thick rubber diaghram in them that must be removed.  I put the tank in one of our brush piles and lit the pile on fire.  The heat melted the rubber diaghram out of it so I could use the tank for a stove.  It's heavier steel than a barrel and should last longer.  It's also shorter than a barrel which is a little more convenient. I'm melting snow in the can and pan.

I put a pot of water with the dye on our outfitter's propane stove.  It would have taken too hot of a fire to keep it boiling on the wood stove and I spent about four hours doing it.  If the temperature had been -30 (F) that would have been okay but it was about 40 degrees outside yesterday.  I have about two hours more to do today to finish up.

A closer view.  The instructions said to keep it just below boiling but I like to have a little "roll' to the water to keep the sediment stirred up.  I have to add water periodically to replace what boils away.

One of the finished traps compared to one awaiting treatment.  These are #3 double-long-spring traps I use for bobcats and coyotes.

Susan was busy cooking Sunday afternoon.  Here are 1 1/2 loaves of fresh bread.  We ate the other half loaf!

Fresh, hot biscuits and pumpkin pie (made from summer squash and spaghetti squash.  You can't tell the difference between it and real pumpkin pie. 

Split pea and ham soup cooking on the stove.

The cat annoying Susan.  The only time he wants to lay on your lap is when you're doing something else.