Another Pine Taken Down

  The pines continue to die and today Bob used his new chain saw to drop the largest. He stayed and cut it into manageable pieces, too. Tom and I did the clean-up.

 This pine has been dead some years. It stood along the north lawn line and at the rear of our property (west). Since it had been dead so long I worried about the top branches falling as Bob made the cuts but he opted not to wear a hard hat and felt it was safe  enough.

 Much of the tree had already fallen, a branch at a time. There wasn't a whole lot of trimming needed.

 Tom and I carried away the branches Bob cut.  Tom had a fire going in the burn barrel and he managed to get much of the debris burnt today. Here he is loading up a cart with the smaller logs. Those we added to our woodpile.

 Even with few side branches remaining, there was plenty of debris to clear. After the largest pieces had been hauled off, I raked the smaller branches and bark  and moved some to the meadow where they'll serve as kindling as we burn out the stump.

 The base of the tree was thick enough that Bob had to cut it into manageable logs. Those we left near the stump where a neighbor will pick  them up to burn  this winter.

 Bob finished by cutting the stump nearer the ground.

How old was the  tree? I can easily count 33 rings but I know the tree was here and mature when we moved here in 1987. That's 34 years  ago. So it's anybody's guess. Want to try?

 One additional note: when the tree fell it drove two branches into the ground, They were driven so deep I can't get them out. I have dug around them, rocked them back and forth as much as possible, pulled and ever used a pry bar. Tom says the only thing he can think of it cutting  them off below surface level and leaving  them.

 I can imagine these things popping up out of the ground in China!

 That's the burn ring smoking in the background as the stump smolders.

Later: More than 24 hours have passed. We started the stump burning yesterday afternoon and it's still smoking this evening. We'll have to add some more hot coals to finish the job but the stump is already greatly reduced:

Amish White Bread

  The last bread I made didn't rise as well as I had hoped. I used the same ingredients and followed the same procedures (though not this recipe). A friend suggested that it might have been the weather. That day was cold and rainy. Today was cold and sunny (and with very high barometric pressure). Whatever it was, it worked.

 This recipe is from Restless  Chipotle  and can  be found here.

I proofed the yeast (because I've had it in my freezer for the better part of a year) by placing both the water and milk in a large measuring cup and warming it in the microwave oven. I then spooned in the sugar and yeast and set it aside. In ten minutes it was very foamy and had "proved" it was alive and thriving.

 I then melted the butter in a bowl (also using the microwave) and  added the vegetable oil. To this I slowly added the flour and salt and mixed it very well.

 Finally, after about ten minutes the yeasty liquid was ready to add and I poured it onto the flour. I then stirred it with a tablespoon (no mixer for me) and poured it onto a floured pastry cloth. This I kneaded for eight minutes.

 I think proper kneading is the most important  step in bread  making. It must be done for at least eighth minutes. It's also the most pleasurable step. As the dough warms with our hands, it becomes a living thing.

I then greased a large bowl and set the dough in a warm oven to rise. I gave it an hour and a half. Here's how it looked after the first rise:

 Then I punched it down and divided it in half. I formed two loaves and placed then in pans and placed them back in the warm  oven for a second rise. This time I gave it an hour. When I took  the pans out so I could heat the oven, both overflowed their pans by an inch or so.

 The two loaves were not exactly equal. Now was the top equally smooth, But they're both pretty, I think.

 I let them cool for an hour or so before  deciding to have a slice.

 It's perfect. The top is nicely browned and the texture of the bread is light and airy. The taste is sweeter than some and yeasty-good.

Stinkhorn

  "What is that?" Tom asked. We were working in our meadow clearing weeds and limbs.

 I knew immediately but I couldn't think of the name. "Skunk ...". No, it wasn't Skunk cabbage. I went back to work carrying limbs and stepped around the intruder. It stood like a tiny, bright red and wet flag at our feet, impressively vermillion and erect as we moved to the side. It reminded me of a dog's penis.

 I continued to work and then it came to me. Not "skunk" but "stink". Stinkhorn.

 We've had them before in a flower bed where an old stump was rotting.

 It's no surprise to see that they're fungi in the Phallaceae family. This one is probably mutinus elegans. I wasn't the first to think they looked like a penis.

 And smell? Oh, do they smell. They have the smell of something rotten.

 I suppose it is because they are so distinctive and so brightly colored and not easily missed that they were the first fungus described in North America. Apparently British missionary John Bannister wrote of one growing in Virginia is 1679.

 It wasn't scientifically named until 1856.

 A friend of mine says her father  always called them "Dead Man's Finger Fungus".

 Here's a wider view ...

Panna cotta

  I often make the mistake of watching cooking shows in the evening. PBS's "Create" channel is my go-to spot (I don't have cable). Lidia Bastianich recently made an easy Panna cotta and that got me interested in giving it a try. It looked as elegant as it was simple.

 Though I did not make Lidia's recipe  (here), I found a simpler one at All Recipes (here) and decided to start with that.

 Though Panna cotta is described as an "Italian custard", I wouldn't call it that. There's no eggs and in my mind a custard requires them. It's not really a pudding, either. I've seen it described as "cooked cream" and that seems more apt.

 It's a very delicate dessert. How is that possible with the preponderance of heavy cream? After Tom's first taste he said the consistency reminded him a bit of a vanilla-flavored  butter. Well, whatever it is, it's delicious ... and very easy.

 Usually I don't follow recipes but I did this time, probably because I had never made it before  and thought that the best route until I felt more confident. You simply boil the heavy cream and sugar, making sure the sugar is well dissolved. This bears watching because it will quickly rise in the pan and overflow if you're not careful.

As soon as this boils, you add the gelatin and milk combination (I used regular Vitamin D milk, not skim) and cook for an additional minute. That's it.

 Tom's ramekins are small - too small - but I filled the seven he had and then used up the rest in two similar bowls. This is left to cool on a counter before covering the tops with plastic wrap and refrigerating.

 Note: the hot liquid - even after it cools to room temperature - is quite liquid and seems not to be setting. It does, though, once refrigerated. It is never gelatin-like but rather retains a creamy, soft consistency. It'll hold on to a spoon like a thick yogurt.

 I think this is best served with a topping of berries. We bought Peru-grown blueberries this week and they were perfect. A drizzle of many sauces (caramel comes to mind) or even preserves (strawberry would work wonderfully) adds some interest. But I ate the first ramekin plain and loved the taste.

 This is a dessert I'll return to. It couldn't be easier (though it takes hours of time because of the refrigeration requirement). I worry a bit about the calories. But can what I not know hurt me?

Later: I made a Peppermint Panna Cotta yesterday (12/11/21) and will probably experiment with other flavors as well. Mocha would be a good choice (perhaps just instant coffee; or mixed with a little hot chocolate flavoring?). I'm also interested in trying lemon and perhaps key lime.

 I used about a teaspoon of peppermint flavoring and a touch of red food coloring. Since it's just two weeks until Christmas, I thought this was an interesting idea for the holidays.

Owl in the Catalpa

Photo Credit: National Aviary

  Last evening, about 7:30 PM, Tom and I were just beginning to watch Jeopardy. It's something we do every evening. I kept hearing something in the background and eventually I muted  the TV and heard an owl hooting nearby.

 I walked to several windows, even upstairs, and looked out front where the sound seemed to be coming  from. It was a rainy, dismal evening and I could see nothing. And yet the hooting continued (it went on about one and a half hours).

 When Jeopardy ended I took my phone out  and carefully recorded a one minute video. I kept the house between me and the owl so it would not be disturbed. The bird was in one of the catalpas in front of the house.

 In the video - which appears almost black - you can see TV/radio towers blinking in the distance. While I was out the moon broke through the clouds but it was just a sliver and didn't add much light. The video is best watched in a darkened room with the volume cranked up. The video includes three calls from the owl.

 I remember Mom and I used to hear owl starting in January. This is a bit early but then everything seems out of whack. I'm just happy to know we have owls living nearby. The woods to the north of us is likely their home.

South Taurid Meteor Shower

  I can  tell you, there wasn't much to see this year. I ran hi-res video all night long and only counted ten meteors. The sky was more alive with airplanes and satellites. The planes seem to come in batches. I imagine  they are package delivery routes: UPS, Amazon and  the like. The satellites go in all directions and are generally dim but steady where the planes are bright and blinking.

 Only the 3 AM hour produced no meteors. The "busiest" hour came at midnight (four).

 I certainly did not grab frames of all ten meteors - they weren't worth the trouble - but I'll post a few for my own records. And I'll post a short video (one minute) of the meteor just  after 2 AM. It wasn't much ... but it was the best I saw.

 Time stamps are provided in the lower right of each frame. By the way, I used a Wyze V3 in "night vision" mode.

 And a video of that meteor (top left at 02:12:04):

 Perhaps a wasted night? But it's always fun to throw a line into the sky  and see what bites.

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Later: I wondered if there way a  way to take the individual frames from the video above (11/05/2021 at 2:12:04 AM) and layer them into a single frame so that the entire visible track of the meteor would be made visible. Thanks to Sequator160 there is. Unlike other graphics programs which take a four year graduate degree to understand - or a huge bankroll to afford - Sequator160 does this one thing - stacking - and it does it simply and for free.

 Here's is the entire streak of that meteor. This is 16 frames (at 30 fps that's  just over half a second) layered into a single image. The meteor wasn't bright and it pulsed a bit as it burnt up, but now the entre trail  can be seen.