Snow White and the Seven Eggs

A few days after I arrived we had our first snowfall of the year.  We run two fires, one for the living room and one in the kitchen for heat and cooking. We let them burn all night and then stoke them up in the morning so that the house is always warm.  The dogs insist that they are house dogs, barging into the kitchen to lounge and toast their paws by the fire. The chickens stay in their warm pen and gossip all day (probably about the weather).  And some of us concede to finally wear thermal underwear, it is definitely winter.

 

Having the fires on all day means that there is valuable cooking energy being wasted up the chimney and into the kitchen. To make the most of it, dog food bubbles away, stewing gelatinous feasts and prompting three pairs of wet noses to nudge: “Is it ready yet?”.  We suspect that some of our chickens lay on the field, but the snow and the cold keeps them close to home and our daily egg count has gone up.

 

I have never been much of a cook, but I practice and I am getting better.  I am learning not to cut corners and with my new found patience am trying different things.  Prompted first with the hot oven going to waste, and second by the rows of pale and dark brown eggs advancing up the fridge door, there was only one thing for it; I googled.

 

Desserts with Eggs. Desserts with 10+ eggs. Lots of eggs.

 

I settled on lemon meringue pie, which is suitably impressive to trot out at a dinner party, should I ever have one.  Seven eggs in Mary Berry's recipe. Our eggs are quite small so I used ten.  The lemon curd filling by Mary Berry was beautiful; creamy, zesty and delicious.  But my meringue went a bit soggy as I didn't add enough sugar.  We converted it into lemon curd and custard tart and three lucky pups got my rather omelette-y meringue.

 

Never mind, there were still plenty of eggs and yesterday I made my second attempt. With the egg white demanding: “More sugar! More! MORE!”  I whisked them into snow white peaks until my arm ached.  Success! Crispy meringue. I also made banana muffins which seem to have all disappeared for breakfast.

 

It is a crisp winter day and the sun is melting the very last pockets of snow.  I am going downstairs  to light the kitchen fire.  We got six eggs yesterday and I am sick of meringue...Any ideas?

 

GT

Sera saga sequel

Sera being Turkish for polytunnel
A couple of weeks ago having decided that winter might at last be over and with a crew of willing hands, the time had come to take down our somewhat wrecked polytunnel.

This was easier said than done.  First the extremely heavy , wet soil holding the polythene cover down had to be shifted  (Note four footed supervisor).

Then the polythene had to be rolled up and removed

Next all the carefully fitted nylon reinforcing lines had to be removed and coiled up.

Finally the framework was removed

In some ways we were lucky.  Because of the way the tunnel collapsed in the centre, it actually left us the equivalent of a long, rather low U shaped tunnel, which left most of our planted beds unaffected.  I did take to wearing an old builders hard hat when venturing inside after clanging my head on the frames several times.

Our local Sera frame builder tells us that some people lost ten tunnels in the winter, which was apparently "The worse for forty years".   The local gurus of such things have now decided that the reinforcing lines are not a good idea as they stop the snow sliding off. (These sages include the man who sold us the line in the first place.)

Many thanks to Aishling, Juan, Allen and John for their hard work taking the tunnel down and belated thanks to Val, Helen and Bruce for helping us put it up in the first place.

AG

Cabin Fever

The snow just keeps on coming down.   There have been a few breaks but very little in the way of a thaw, before more snow falls.   It has now been snowing for a week, with only a few days interlude from the previous snowfall.

According to weather reports this is caused by an area of high pressure,  driving cold from Siberia down and across the whole of Eastern Europe.   There is no promise of any rapid change.
Istanbul, just across the Sea of Marmara,  had its coldest day for over thirty years on Monday.
Living up on the hill,  it is surprising when you get to the bottom of the hill,  down by the sea to find there is not sign of snow there,  although because there is more wind it actually feels colder.   We can also look up to the tops of the hills around us, when it is not actually snowing of course.   The trees up there are noticeably more caked in snow and frost,  there has been no thaw at all up there.

Temperatures here,  including -10 C last night,  are like a mild spring day in comparison to conditions in the Ukraine and Serbia where night time temperatures have gone down to -37 degrees Centigrade.
Although mild cabin fever is beginning to set in,  the only thing to do is keep putting wood on the stove and work on plans for warmer days.

AG

Oh Dear!

Re think needed.       (Oh dear!  is the censored for publication version of what was actually said).

Then the snow

I said yesterday that the season that surprises people is winter, today it surprised me.
After yesterdays blue sky and sun, today dawned with rain, which by mid morning had turned to snow.
By this afternoon I needed the snow chains on the car to get home.

So far we have 5"-6"  (12-15cm), and still falling.

AG

Do not get distracted

I should know better by now.   You start one job,  get distracted by something else and the first one turns round and bites you.

When covering a polytunnel,  whenever possible start with a nice even set of frames carefully erected and level with each other.  You then stand a good chance of getting a nicely tight cover that easily sheds the rain and snow.

If you like more of a challenge,  or as in our case you are using what is available,  you put up a distinctly secondhand set of rather distorted and mismatched metal frames,  which had already done their duty on at least two other sites.
The new cover went on well,  the carefully fitted nylon reinforcing lines strung at 20cm spacings down the length of the structure,  to stop the snow loading bursting the polythene,  looked good.    Because of the rather uneven profile, the new polythene cover did seem to flap in the breeze more than other peoples,  but it would be fine,  wouldn't it?

The first snow of the winter melted,  leaving a series of pools of water between the reinforcing lines,  the slack in the plastic was transformed into a series of distended pockets of water,  particularly on what might be called the "upper slopes" of the tunnel,  where the gradient naturally flattens out and even more so where some of the frames have become rather more semi-ovoid than semi-circular.

A solution was needed,  the problem was that parts of the tunnel were too low and flat,  it needed its ridge line raising in a couple of places,  this would also improve the look of it and might cure its resemblance to a broken backed sea monster.   A couple of posts under strategic frames should sort it out.

This is not a small polytunnel.  The frames span about 10 metres and are substantial 60mm diameter tube,  gravity and the natural spring tension in the frame were both resisting any effort to lift it.  All the convenient posts I had were rather too short.   So the plan was, locate the post under the frame,  put a hydraulic jack under the bottom of the post and pump;  up goes the post lifting the frame,   then replace the jack with a permanent support.   All went well, rather too well,  which was where the distraction came in.
Fascinated by the success of the plan I climbed a stepladder to assist the emptying of the pockets of water.    Sadly I had neglected the final step of the plan, replacing the jack with a more secure support.    Over went the jack,  down came the post,  down came the frame,  and down went I,  struck a glancing blow by the descending frame.

As I sat on the floor and felt the egg shaped lump growing on my head, I looked up.    It occurred to me that I had not only unintentionally created the worlds biggest mousetrap,   I had then tested it as the 'mouse'.     The lesson is "Do not get distracted"

AG