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• Despite the rumors that you may have heard, i am not laying comatose in a lab at a secret military installation immersed in a brain wave study to discover a renewable energy source that will have the power to save the Earth and mankind: boon to civilization that will inevitably be weaponized and show harmful side effects after 30-50 years. 

• I could not tell you if i was involved in said completely hypothetical situation

• My winter visit to Ohio was extra long and i got to spend lots of time with my mom, go shopping with my sister, meet my nephew's girlfriend over Christmas dinner (which i got to cook - yay to my mom having a better kitchen than me!) and visit Rea's farm. 

• I did however learn that cows are quicker than you think.  When i pulled up in my car there was only one cow near the fence; by the time i got out of the car, there were four!  How did an 800 pound creature just appear like that?

• The fabled studio redo is almost done, finally.    It has been a long time coming, but Rea and I set-up an 8 week challenge through December and January to get things organized, purged and rearranged in our respective houses with a scrapbooking retreat together as a reward at the end so I was really motivated.    I have seriously sorted and purged things, getting rid of supplies or pieces of half-done ideas that have been cluttering up my studio and my mind for far too long. There are 7-9 more boxes/bags to be sorted, but i have all of the new shelving and storage in place so it is only a matter of deciding what to keep and putting the other things into the correct space.

• Tonight is the greatest night of the entire project: Labeling Night! Suzanne is coming over after work and we are going to label every box, bin, case, drawer and shelf in the studio, including relabeling anything already labeled so that all of the labels match.   MATCHING LABELS, PEOPLE! Clear, concise organization really makes my skirt fly up.

• The newest addition to Nannie Niki's menagerie is an 11 week old terrier mix named Sasza (pronounced like Sasha) and she is a cutie-patootie, reminding me of my beloved Chang.

• New Year's cards are done production and i am working on addressing and getting them in the mail. Watch your box.

• Though winter is mostly a fallow festival season, don't forget the Annual Jewlery Show at Objects Found over Super Bowl weekend. More info about the event will be posted here and on the NikCo FB page, which you should go Like right now, in case you haven't already.

• It has now been half of a year since my dad died and we have made it through the major holidays (except my and my brother's bbdays in May) without him for the first time. In no way i am through grieving, but i can feel some of the depression clouds parting.

• I continue along with the 101 Goals in 1001 Days, doing very well on some and miserably on others. Once we return from our retreat at the end of the month i have plan in the works to invest time in a few of the languishing ones, including getting back to writing on a regular basis

a girl and her cow

Sooooooper cute close-up!

surprisingly tasty

I mentioned that while i was in Ohio visiting Rea we made jelly because i had never canned anything before.
The violet jelly was beautiful and tasted good, but the dandelion jelly was INCREDIBLE!
How can anything made from a bitter weed be delicious?
Like the violets, you make an infusion from the flower petals that is the base of the jelly.
It tastes honey-er than honey; it has the bright sweetness, but not the aftertaste.
I was in charge of lidding the jars as i got to use the fun magnetic wand. To see the whole process and get the recipe for the BEST JELLY you have ever eaten, click on Rea's link.
One of cool surprises for me about making jelly was that while the jars cool and you wait for the blessed PING that indicates it has vacuum-sealed, watching the bubbles blubbing through the amber liquid was mesmerizing.

i just noticed that if you embiggen the video

 you can see my lovely BFF reflected in the upper left-hand corner 

floral jelly

While i was in Ohio for my birthday/ Mother's Day i spent 2 days on the farm with Rea and helped make violet and dandelion jelly.
Here is the amazingly hot pink violet jelly.

Notice how is a completely different color from the violet infusion from which it was jellied.
The change happens when you add the lemon juice and cook it down.

It has a light, sweet floral taste that was able to stand up to peanut butter (the ultimate jelly test), but would probably be better on toast.
It was very fun for this City Mouse to do her first canning by helping with the jelly.

When i say i helped, let's understand that i was the photographer, put on lids and did a few other things.

For the full story and recipe, go here.

Hopefully there will be a post about the dandelion jelly which sounds gross and yet is one of the yummiest things i have ever eaten.

true story from the farm

Chicken followed me,
under foot, to and fro. STOP
You're freaking me out!

he kept tripping me; i almost broke my leg

basic bovine anatomy

This is Rea's cow Bess, the first week of May:

Look closely.
Do you notice anything odd about this cow.
Look again; i'll wait here.
Did you notice that she appears to have a few too many legs?
I count six.
Either Rickki has been milking a giant furry insect (ewwwwwwwwwwww),
she bought a two-legged goat from Craig's list,
or there is something else going on.

That makes more sense.

yes, I really AM this adorable

This is Weldon.




Well it was Weldon,
at four weeks old.







Now that he's over three months old he looks more like this.:

We grow up so fast, don't we?

chickens don't know gratitude

I visited Rea last month for my birthday.
While we strolled her five acres discussing the long-term farm plan i noticed a Rhode Island Red rooster hopping about frantically. His feet were all twined up so we set about unhobbling him.
Did he thank us?
Was he grateful?

i could keel you right now with just ma angry glare

This is why i prefer them in McNugget form.

I just saved your life,

Mr. Could Not Walkerston.

Don't eyeball me, boy.

this actually happened

This my friends is a barn in central Ohio; it is 20 degrees.
Inside the barn is both hay and straw.
They look pretty similar, but you'll want to know which is which because also inside said barn is a cow.
Hiya Bess!
It's time for the morning milking, so straw gets spread over any fresh manure in the stall [the manure holds in her body heat during the winter months so it doesn't get mucked out, but to keep Bess clean and comfortable layers of straw go over it] and hay gets thrown in the corner for breakfast.
I told you that you were gonna have to be able to tell them apart (or in my case be able to follow directions when the pro explains which is in which corner).
With the stall raked and strawed and Bess happily munching her "yummy" hay it is time to get the specialist equipment.:
Yep, little tykes chairs. They are just the right height for milking and have better lumbar support than a traditional stool.
Rea sat with me at first (hence the 2 chairs) to help me get the technique right; it's more of a squeeze and roll than a pull.

But soon enough she was on photographer duty:

1. See how her left leg is stepped back? You can't milk if she doesn't do that. When Bess gets restless, bored or wants to move onto the dessert portion of breakfast she'll move that leg forward so watch it carefully or your bucket might get kicked over.
2. I'm a-milking away when Rea points out that she can't see my face at all; it is 20 degrees, people, i need that hood pulled forward.
3. Of course i pause to pull back my hood for the camera. It's important to acknowledge my priorities in this endeavor; it doesn't count if i don't have proof.

Hey City Mouse, how does it feel to have milked your first cow?

It was an interesting experience to say the least. I could pretty reliably get milk with one hand, but failed miserably when i tried to do 2 at once. And forget about those two tiny teats of Bess', there was no chance this novice was getting any milk from those.
 In fact, i milked until i had completely covered the bottom of the pail then i turned it over to Rea so that it wouldn't take an hour for milking.
Normally milking also involves an udder wash down, but it was way too cold for that so we just gave Bess feed and took the pail inside for straining cause...

no one wants to drink that yet.
Rea uses several layers of cheese cloth inside of a kefir strainer to fill the glass jar,
which is then measured and recorded, labeled,

and taken out to the milk fridge  where jars are shuffled so that the new milk gets cold quick and dates can be checked for freshness.
Anything older than a week is given to the cats,
 who have not only been following you through this whole procedure, but almost crawl up your leg to get to the milk as you head for their bowl which is not at all tricky or dangerous on the snow/ice.



Lastly, you bring in any milk you might need for the day's cooking/baking/dairy-ing (is that a word? it is now).
Wait to you see what we did next.

Dole Plantation

[NOTE: these pics were taken in 2010]
When i was in Hawaii i had a few days to do non-work related things. A friend had been to Oahu a few years earlier and told me that one of her favorite places was the Dole Plantation so after the canoe surfing adventure i set out with my trusty map towards the North Shore.



it looks like botanical fire


As one might expect the grounds were breath-takingly beautiful, featuring this awesome pointy plant that i had never seen before,

and, of course, pineapples. In fact, there were so many fruit bearing plants that in the parking lot i chuckled to find this sign:

There are a number of things to explore at the plantation - store, restaurant, gardens, world's largest pineapple maze, train ride - but i arrived only two hours before they closed so i had to make a strategic plan to see as much as possible.

If you know me at all i bet that you can guess that my number one option was the train tour; i don't know what it is about little trains, but i LOVE them. 

The Pineapple Express took us on a narrated tour through the pineapple fields and grounds of the Plantation:


hello wooden cutout of a worker



hello lychee trees



hello gorgeous red soil



Did you know that pineapples grew on the ground?
Cause i thought that they grew on trees.
Nope.

They grow on short ground plants that are individually hand seeded,

then hand picked and put on one of these conveyors to be transported to shipping.

The train did a turn around in a beautifully cultivated garden where various shrubs grew in the shape of pineapples.

Also, it took us by a lovely reservoir with mountains in the distance.

hello cool looking machine that i have no idea what you do

The train tracks went right in among the plants, sometimes so close that you could reach out and touch them.

There were lots of crops besides pineapples, like the lychee trees pictured earlier, macadamia nut trees and row after row of birds of paradise.

Right by the train station is the variety garden where you can see the different types of pineapples.
Heck, i didn't even know that there were different types of pineapples.


lordy, isn't it adorable



this pink guy is so big it fell over;
no, i have no idea what variety it is

I made a stop at the nearby pond where i encountered tourist fish:

These koi are so forceful about being fed by humans that they actually come out of the water.
Yikes.

I decided it was time to hit the store which was quite randomly surrounded by peacocks and peahens.
I don't really think peacock when i think Hawaii, but okay.
After some shopping and wandering i worked up the courage to try the house specialty, a type of soft-serve called Pineapple Whip even though i am no big fan of pineapple:




if only they had these dishes i definitely would have bought a set

It was surprisingly delicious.
Here i am enjoying my cone next to a perfect little pineapple.



i'm Pineapple Pete



and whatever the female version of Pineapple Pete is called



almost five thousand miles away from home

[look Rea: one of the fabled last five Hawaii posts]