Musings

So, the agriculture in the high plains revolves around cattle farming, seems to me…usually black angus or these herefords—both mostly polled (a genetic mutation that renders them hornless).

Along with the natural grazing, there’s plenty of hay growing and baling, and a demand for grain, mostly grown where there’s irrigation. Some irrigation is from creeks/rivers, but mostly the water seems to be pumped up from the aquifer below (essentially non-renewable). Here’s a cattle loading chute and an elevator (grain storage).

To make the plants grow, these tanks supply fertilizer or herbicides…I’m guessing mostly fertilizer. Go ammonium nitrate!

We continued to climb westward toward the Rockies, crossing the North Platte again and again before we diverged from it above Casper. Yes, ice—not thick, but it’s pretty cold and the sun, which seems strong in the car, is rather weak out in the wind.

We’ve been looking for these four-foots, and finally found some, often gathered in fairly larger herds, some browsing and some resting. We also saw what we are pretty sure were mule deer; these were loners or up to a trio—not the large groups that the antelope have formed.

I read about a canyon in a Craig Johnson/Longmire book, and we checked it out…just an up-and-back side trip. The railroad was on the other side, and we saw a few fisherman. A sign indicated we should watch out for mountain sheep, but we saw zero. Here’s a side canyon opposite us.

It was cold enough that the tunnels had interior icicles (that word is difficult to spell if you don’t do it very often). The train’s tunnels were only as large as they needed to be. I suppose that’s true for the highway (engineers are parsimonious in design, no?), but they didn’t seem so rigidly rectangular as the railroad ones.

Now, we’re up against the Winds, and it is windy, and as we approached town we could see that it was snowing in the higher altitudes…that’s snow making that grey-blue obscurity above the sign. (Is that our motel?) We hear we may get a bit of S tonight, but not much accumulation. We bought new -30°F windshield wiper fluid and topped off our reservoir, so hopefully it’ll tolerate the low temps—ATL fluid is limited to +32°F (save the environment!).

I noticed these photos tend to be very horizontal—that’s the way it is out on the plains. Now that we’re approaching the mountains, the vertical has rejoined us.

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Plains to mountains

We were driving along and feeling the beginnings of “time to figure out a lunch spot,” and did online research, and made a pick. The way the roads were, we drove past the place (right over there, on the opposite frontage road), then had to loop back to the…place (combo grocery and café—sounds strange, I know; it was only a little odd). Of course we eyeballed the place—especially looking to see if it had many customers—almost always a good sign. As we drove past, the vehicles were numerous and 75% were red trucks like these two. Turned out a utility crew was relocating, and had stopped for lunch. And their order, by something like 40 line-dudes (or whatever their job descriptions were—I didn’t see any lady utility-workers), was in front of ours. Which was really, The Guru’s steak, as I had the all-you-can-eat sah-lahd. Anyway, the waiter/cashier took pity on us for the long wait he could not fix, and charged us $6 for everything. All because of the red trucks. (Well, the people they carried.)

That was mid-day. For our late-day meal, again we searched the area likely to have a real restaurant (not a chain place) at the right hunger-point. Came up with an old-fashioned supper club kind of place. Just look at the decorative detail in the main dining room! …Famous for their fried chicken (good, very crunchy) and for their gravy. The gravy was as rich as dessert. Cream? Certainly. And butter. Salt, too; not shy about any of those…. Yum.

I realize I haven’t mentioned b’fast. It was not special, and had no memorable qualities. The pre-scrambled eggs were hot, there were biscuits, oatmeal, and sausage patties. Coffee: choice of decaf, gourmet, or bold. See—nothing special.

Posted at 10:23 PM | Comments Off on Meal stories

The morning’s big news: rain rain rain! Since about midnight. Slow enough maybe it’ll seep in a bit. Other places not far away got more rainfall than we did; let’s hope for more.

This evening’s milestone: the last of the turkey dinner became soup, and we consumed it with gusto!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Done and done (kinda)

First, I thought, oh this geometric light-dark is…dramatic.

Then, I thought: new life. And the burgeoning bulbs took center stage in my mental universe. Go flowers! [Too early for bulb-growth…just too darned early—it’s DEcember.]

Then, I thought: the easy and wise choice is to go with the leftovers-that-don’t-look-like-leftovers. This is not tetrazzini…

The choice is yours…I give you all the options.

Posted at 10:51 PM | Comments Off on Choicefulness (not a real word)

Today part of the group had some discussion about “next time” just having a few sides and dessert. I’m guessing we go instead for a fuller menu when the time comes, just as we did today.

BTW, I forgot the mushroom side in the microwave. Even I didn’t notice that they didn’t appear on the overloaded table as we sat down.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Times, they are…

I smelled a bit of smoke today outside, but mostly I was pacing around in the kitchen doing this and that and couldn’t smell it (thankfully).

Posted at 7:48 PM | Comments Off on Side dishes: check

Preparations have begun. As in, the Guru and I gathered up veggies and some other items at The Sto to begin feast prep. The organic turkey is ordered for Monday. And the dressing cubes now are drying out. (Organic sourdough, if you’re interested.)

Posted at 7:23 PM | Comments Off on Smells like bread

Errands today included a stop at the bakery. Mmmm. Raspberry chocolate mousse. You apparently can order this as a sheet cake (mousse), if you want to serve a crowd.

And over by the registers, they had oversized candy canes…already! (But they look tastier than the usual inexpensive ones.)

We just bought bread and deli-protein for our evening meal—no sweets. Waiting for next week for that….

Posted at 6:25 PM | Comments Off on Bakery yums

The other day I read that narwhals are excellent at finding cracks in the sea ice (breathing holes) and mapping their environment using echolocation. The part that stuck with me is that they use “phonic lips” to make the clicks and buzzes. Not sure if that’s a typo…phonic lips to make phonic blips?

I also read today that in Medieval Europe they seeded fields with both rye and wheat, and both the mixture and the flour/bread made from it were called maslin. Turns out the word is etymologically related to miscellany, and can also be used for a metal blend mimicking brass, so that there could be a maslin kettle. Chaucer spelled it maselyn. Note that I checked, and King Arthur doesn’t sell a maslin flour. You could make your own….

This program accepts phonic lips but wants maslin to be marlin. Not.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Do I read too much?

WF@WF. Yes, whole fishies at WhoolFoods (in the newly revealed remodeled WF in ATL Midtown…). Something like that.

That, and after eight out of the last nine days have had record-breaking highs. Sigh. Let’s move on. (I could have cranked the contrast, etc., but this is more similar to my eyes’ take on this ray of sunshine….)

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on Eyeballing…