Monday, November 18, 2013

catching up (with lots of pics, events and food!)

 

wow! it's been a busy week! what the heck am i saying?!?!?!? it's been a really busy month! this time of year always is; as it is harvest time! we harvested a whole pile of stuff over the past few weeks - of course i only have a pic of our carrot harvest - have a gander:



i don't exactly know the weight of our carrot harvest but it is the best carrot harvest since moving here! the top left are white satin - they are lovely! the bottom left are purple haze - we had never planted them before but they are so sweet - we'll plant a ton more next year! and the white side of the board is a mix of napoli and chantennay reds - deelish!

here's some delicious lasagna - i made a giant dish of it and we ate it for 3 days - yummeh!



we haven't harvested our potatoes yet - we just dig up a few as we need them. that's the great thing about growing potatoes in tires - you don't have to harvest them all at once. and, because they are in tires, they can handle a couple of frosty nights with no worries. we usually harvest our potatoes in early december as we don't get solid frosts until mid-december.

however, we did harvest our seed potatoes. we planted 18 tires of 3 varieties this year and then still had a bunch of baby seed potatoes left over. so jambaloney planted a potatoe in every single spare space of our gardens. here is what we harvested for seed:



that's a freakin' lot of brown russets and red chieftains to be used as seed for next year!!! we harvested our irish cobblers a few days earlier and of course i forgot to take a picture!!! but we got a ton of them to be used for seed for next year!!! the seed potatoes keep well in a box in our basement with a old towel put over them, as our basement is basically a cold store!

anyway - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US - woohoo! i turned 43 on saturday, the 9th, and jambaloney turned 48 on saturday, the 16th. we don't really celebrate our birthdays but usually make special meals for the day of our birthday. i, of course, wanted fish cakes made the plain cape breton way - fresh haddock mixed with creamy smashed potatoes and salt and pepper - MAN - those were delicious!



jambaloney wanted chicken thighs for his birthday!



from left to right - 2 chicken thighs with blow-your-head-off kimchi paste that i make, with additonal kimchi paste for dipping! the next 3 wings on that plate were made using my home-made super hot sauce - he loved both of them! the plate on the right are baked teriyaki chicken thighs with additional teriyaki dipping sauce. it was delicious and we needed baths after we ate them - we were covered in a variety of sauces - bahahahahah!

last week, we had to take a trip into the city - ick! i hate going to the city! but as i have said many times before, thank goodness there is only one city on the island and the population is only 36,000. it was such a beautiful day and we hated wasting it by spending the whole day in the city. here we are in the parking lot of our ONE mall - bahahahahah!



see what i mean about it being such a beautiful day?!??!? and now here's the kicker - this is our busiest street in the city - bahahahahah!

 

here's a beautiful sunset from the other evening - i find at this time of the year that the sunsets are just gorgeous!



and here's some delicously, herbed lebanese hamburger rice - i love it!





anyway, this past wednesday evening was our monthly volunteer fire department meeting. it was held in fourchu so of course we stopped in at our friend C & B's before the meeting. they are really good friends to us! and then we had our first aid/cpr/aed level III course on friday evening from 6:30 to 10 and then on saturday from 9-3. our volunteer fire department takes training very seriously as the ambulances can take anywhere from an hour to 2 hours (if they got lost - which they frequently do!) to get here. that means, we as volunteers need to take our training seriously. we all really enjoyed our training and there was lots of practice on a variety of scenarios.

anyway, our instructor is the same instructor that our communities have used for years - she is wonderful! on friday she brought a bunch of different cookies for us and on saturday, she brought a beautiful chicken-pot pie for us, even though we all brought our own lunches. we had a card thanking her being passed around the hall during our training and we all signed it. we also got her a pretty red thermos cup for her coffee for when she is traveling around doing training.

she thanked us and was very touched, and thanked us for giving up our friday night/satuday in order to be re-certified and stay on top of our training. that's when our matriarch, V, said - "well jambaloney didn't just give up his saturday - he came in on his BIRTHDAY!!!"! then everyone sang happy birthday to jambaloney while he turned beet red and tried to climb underneath the floorboards - it was soooo funny! even the men sang to him - he was sooo embarrassed!!! we all were killing ourselves laughing!!! what was even funnier was that while we were singing, our friend R went into the kitchen, procured a dinner roll, put some jam on top and six lit candles - bahahahahaah! of course we had to sing happy birthday again! then R went over to our instructor, took the gift bag from her and gave it to jambaloney and said "it's not much, but it's from the heart!!!!"! bahahahahahah! oh - we killed a solid 45 minutes just laughing - it was sooo awesome! we have the bestest, funniest people in our community!!!

continuing on, after training we went to our friend C & B's again. we thought we would just stay for a cup of tea and a chat and head home - we were all pretty tired. but nope, once we all realized that we had been there for 3 hours, my friend C busted out a beer for jambaloney and some wine for me (she ALWAYS has my favourite wine at her house!) and a bit of a party ensued! we had such a good time laughing and chatting and telling stories and laughing some more - it was awesome! our friend B cooked up some home-made fries and deep-fried scallop balls - we stuffed our faces and laughed some more. it was a really good time.

i'll leave off here with another sunset.






i love this time of year! i love sitting with my man in our rocking chairs, watching the sunsets and drinking fresh-picked mint tea - it's so lovely!



i hope you all have a wonderful week and i hope that this coming week will be wonderful as well! off to check out your blogs now!

28 comments:

  1. Hey You! Compost lover! I found you too! AAAAAAAAAND me and my jambaloney were in the military too...the Royal Navy.
    Jane x

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    1. teeheehee! so awesome to find friends eh? your jambaloney sounds like a dream man too! can't wait to catch up on your story! thanks for "finding" me!

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  2. Party Animals you are!!!!! Happy Bday again to both of you and thanks for your help

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    1. thanks Rob, buddy! i can't wait for news on the grandbaby!

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  3. Sweet Kymber, and Jambaloney,

    Happy Birthday to you two young bee's Bahahahahahaha!!!!!
    Gosh do I now feel real old, lol

    OMG, what a nice carrot harvest. I can see canning carrots, making carrot salad, freezing carrots and dehydrating carrots.

    Those are some really nice looking seed potatoes for your next season. Have you ever canned your potatoes in the past?

    As usual, you've displayed all these delicious meals. Each and every time I go to read your blog, I make sure I've had something to eat before hand. If I don't, I will be hungry reading your post and looking at the pictures of your prepared food.

    Hugs and love to the both of you.
    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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    1. Sweet Sandy - what do you mean yer feeling old...you are younger than us!!! for the next month the carrots will live in boxes in the basement...our basement is very much like a cold storage room. by then we will have gotten sawdust from our friend, or sand from the beach. then we will layer the carrots in layers of either sawdust or sand. those seed potatoes are awesome - we will have plenty to plant for next year!!! i can't wait to someday be able to prepare you and BDMan some food! hugs and love right back from both of us/xoxo!

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  4. Ya all should have made Jamby kiss a fish after it was all over.

    In fact you should work that fish kissing thing into about everything you guys do up there.

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    1. bahahahah! the fish-kissing thing is strictly for screeching in honourary newfoundlanders. and ALL YOUR BEES ARE BELONG TO ME!!! (it never gets old, buddy - bahahahah!)

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  5. Off Topic: but I saw a really cool idea for a heat barrier using a welding blanket. I know you guys are looking to install a wood stove and a 6 foot x 4 foot welding blanket costs about $40.00-$50.00 in the USA. Might save you a bit of money or add an extra layer of protection for your stove install. Burning down the house is cortra-indicated for survival!

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    1. jamie - thanks for that tip. i told jambaloney and he said it's a fantastic idea! now we have to tell everyone in our 2 communities because they all heat with woodstoves!

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  6. That's a great bunch of people you live with up there. This county used to be like that, until they built the damned road in here and now there are too many people living here and nobody knows anybody else. Don't ever let your government build a road in to your little community and tell you how good it will be for everybody. It's good for all the people who have land they want to sell but it stinks for everybody else.

    Happy Birthday to J. Tell him to celebrate them while he can, soon enough he'll be getting older and then he will hate them! :-)

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    1. Harry - if we could have hand-picked them we couldn't have picked a nicer, funner bunch of folks! these people love laughing and having fun and we always have a good time at events and meetings and whatnot. thanks for the tip about the gov building roads but we really don't have to worry about that around here - we pretty much only have one paved road and calling it paved is really saying something - bahahahah! they keep patching that road and let me tell ya - they really skimp on the patching!!! i will pass on your tip to J!!!!

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  7. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH! Big hugs from Texas!!!

    Wonderful food and my two favorite pics you posted were the one with your feet and hot tea, it looked cold and warm at the same time, and then the photo with the sunset, I swear it looked like an explosion of color.

    You both always inspire us! We'll be there someday. :-)

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    1. thanks so much, buddy, and big hugs back to both of you!!! i was taking pics of the sunset one night and still had the camera in my hand and glanced down at our feet and thought - hey - i want a pic of that! i am glad that you liked it and the pic of the sunset. we love watching the sun go down!

      you guys are doing it right - i wish that we could have had a few years to set this place up before landing here. by the time you guys make the permanent move, the whole place will be fit as a fiddle, you'll move in, sigh and say "wow! it's so great to be home"!

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  8. Hey! Your birthday is one day before mine, Kymber! Happy belated and to Jam too. One of my friends is devoted to the idea of a birthday MONTH of celebration, so here's to our birthday month. lol xoxoxo

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    1. well then Happy Birthday Month to you, too, hon! i hope you have a very special month! lots of hugs/xoxox!

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  9. Well Happy Birthday to you both. Ah, to be young again...

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    1. what are you talkin' 'bout Willis?!?!?! yer only 35!!!! thanks sweet one!

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  10. Happy Birthdays!
    As usual, good food and great photo's!

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  11. Welcome to being 43 and Fabulous! Its a good age. Of course I wouldnt know cause I am only 29. hee hee.
    Hope you had the most wonderful birthday ever, and Birthday Wishes to Jambaloney !
    All your harvest looks wonderful, no wonder you have had no time to blog.
    You two have been busier then PPs Bees.

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    1. thanks Gurlie for the awesome welcome! but of course you know nothing about the 40's being only 29 yourself!!!! we had wicked birthdays - nothing out of the ordinary, just normal stuff but normal stuff around here is always awesome! jam sends you a big hug and kiss for his birthday wishes! and yes, we have been busier than PP's bees - bahahahah! xoxox

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  12. Happy, Happy Birthday my friend! If you could email me the directions for the herbed Lebonese rice I would love to have it. I get to work on a project for a couple weeks that allows me to actually sleep at home so I am looking forward to trying some of your dishes. (Your pizza was awesome!)

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    1. i am sooo happy to hear that you will be sleeping at home for a while - that's awesome! i will definitely fire you off an email with the recipe for the lebanese rice - i sure hope that you enjoy it as much as us!

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  13. Damn so I missed your birthdays! Love your slippers! :D

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  14. no probs Joey buddy! jam got me those slippers in town as a surprise - i love them!

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