some grape vines...and food...a pretty boring post but whateva!

here is a pic of our grapevines that, for the first time last year, actually produced a bowl full of grapes - woohoo!

we haven't spent any attention on them - the previous owner planted them - but this year jambaloney has gotten some good advice from our buddy W and he will be out pruning them, properly, according to W's instructions, tomorrow.

and now some food for people without teeth - this is chicken, spinach, chick peas, broccoli, cauliflower, homemade broth and home-canned tomatoes and corn. served with pickled beets and papaya.

mine was delicious blitzkreiged in the nutri-bullet. arghghgh.

next up - some delicious roast, with home-made broth, carrots,cauliflower, potatoes, sweet potatoes and barley.

deeelishus when blitzkreiged.

here is kymberz unknown and not famous curry before going in the oven.

it's made with home-canned broth, home-canned tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, chicken pieces, shrimp, peas, carrots, potatoes, chick peas and rice. served with an orange to squeeze over the curry and some tomatoe slices.

again - if you have no teeth - blitzkreiging all of this in the nutri-bullet will keep you healthy. plus i had my greens with cashew milk this morn and my probiotic pill. my gums are healing up really fast and i plan on seeing the denturist in about 3 weeks to get his opinion.

we were up early today on a nice grey day, played our cards, had several hottub dips, jambaloney worked on his contract while i made all of the food, dishes are in the dishwasher, he is playing an old game from the 90's on his computer, i am doing this post....and then checking out your blogs.

tomorrow it is going to be 7-8 C - woohoo! planting lettuce and spinach in the greenhouse, jambaloney is going to pressure wash the greenhouse....and then we are taking a walk to the river. can't ask for a better day than that.

sending love to you all! oh ya - and don't forget Harry Flashman is back!

an update on Harry Flashman! (EDITED)

Harry always loves our sky pics so i chose this one for him cuz there's blue sky, sunshine, a little snow, Strachan's Brook and some ground melting.

kids - i know that a lot of you have been worried about Harry. but....and i don't know how to say this delicately enough...he's off on a Top Secret Mission. i know that you have all always suspected that he's a spy-man...and i don't know if i am going to get hauled off to guantanamo bay for this post...but if you don't hear from me in a few days...jambaloney will send out the message that i have been captured!

yes - Harry is off to places i am not allowed to know about or he would have to kill me. neither of us want that.

no - Harry is in that horrible of all horrible places - doing his and his wife's and his kid's taxes. buried up to his eyeballs and unashamedly crying like a baby.

ok - you know i like to be dramatic so i'll come clean. Harry is, and has been busy for the past few months taking care of a pile of odds and ends (including his family's taxes) and a whole pile of other stuff that needs taking care of at his homestead. he is going through the period that we go through during the height of summer - during the height of our summer - we are up at dawn, out working "in the fields" til noon or so - then down to the river or beach for the afternoon to get sunstroked, somehow make it home and then crash! not a lot of time for blog posts.

Harry has assured me that he is fine - just busy - and promises to be back when time allows. and he sends his love.

but really kids - he's off on a Top Secret Mission in Siberia, he's near freezing to death, but he goes where they send him. i sure hope i don't end up in guantanamo bay. i don't even have my teeth yet!

EDITED TO ADD: Harry has a new post up peeps check it out here:

http://harryflashmansblog.blogspot.ca/2016/04/welcome-back-my-friends-to-show-that.html

The Framboise Manor First Official Day of Seed Planting....and garlic too - woohoo!

there is nothing like the first day of planting seeds! it means that spring really is in the air, although we could still get belted with another snowstorm. but these seeds are planted indoors in jambaloney's crazy seed-starting thingamajig that i will show you later.

yesterday, the day was bright and beautiful and clear. we started the day with a hottub dip and then a walk around the yard.

all 3 cats came with us - here is Frankie Blue Eyes - not his best angle!

even little Noodie-Nue came out. he hasn't been out in days because he really does not like cold or snow!

here's Mobie-Moe sitting on the stone deck.

day-lillies are beginning to pop up out of the ground - that is always a good sign!

the pond is completely melted - another good sign. soon we'll be hearing "meep-meep-meep" from the spring peepers who lay their eggs in our pond. i can't wait to hear them.

here's jambaloney's seed-starting thingamajig. it's a standard greenhouse thingy with plastic wrap that you can buy anywhere for about $40. we've had ours for almost 10 yrs now. the special thing is that jambaloney built a stand that goes around it and on both sides, top to bottom, are 2 fluorescent lights.

we put it right in front of the kitchen door so that the seeds get natural light but also get the additional light from the bulbs. as well, we have found through years of practice that the seedlings don't get so leggy as they do when the light is directly above them. the seedlings tend to grow straighter and towards the window. this contraption is excellent on grey or cloudy days as the seedlings still get the light from the bulbs.

we planted 52 tomatoes and 28 peppers...more peppers coming plus we have 13 overwintered pepper plants here in the house. all of them are starting to flower and bush out and one plant even has a monet pepper fully-grown!

Frankie Blue Eyes always likes to help! as soon as we got everything set up, i put my gardening book and my Vesseys magazine on the counter and he was on it before i even blinked.

needless to say i had to take notes on a sheet of paper and then transfer the notes after Frankie finally moved (3 hrs later!).

we also planted 100 garlic bulbs - woohoo - but i didn't get a pic of that. i'll get one another day. we planted 100 garlic bulbs last fall and they are all coming up beautifully. we love our garlic!!!

the early evening sky was beautiful while we were sitting in the hottub talking about all of the things that we talk about.

supper was chicken teriyaki with veg and rice. the spinach side dish is a korean dish called sigeumchi-namul. it's basically spinach sauteed in sesame oil, then you add some soya, a ton of garlic and korean red pepper flakes. it's spicy and delicious! then some kimchi and oranges to finish out the meal.

of course i had mine blitzkreiged in the nutri-bullet. nerves of steel, i tell ya. but i want my nutrients and i want to be as healthy as can be for my first fitting.

anyway, jam is at work on-site today - that guy works so hard and he makes me very proud! he may have to go back tomorrow or the next day - we're not sure yet.

i made a curried chicken thigh casserole with spinach, corn, rice, chickpeas, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot with a ton of garlic, ginger, lemon, homemade curry spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardomom. for the base of the curry i used a pint of our homemade canned tomatoes, coconut milk and cashew milk. i was crying and sneezing the whole time! it's gonna be delicious!

next up - i need to make myself some dinner - i had my probiotic super greens cashew milk drink for breakfast and took a probiotic pill. they say that taking antibiotics completely throws your own healthy gut flora out of whack and i speak from experience. i haven't taken antibiotics in over 7 years and as we eat pretty healthy, my gut flora was doing just fine. but the antibiotics really did throw everything out of whack. so that's why i've been drinking my probiotic drink every morning, taking my pill and blitzkreiging all of my meals. my own body seems to be re-establishing my good gut flora and once i finish my green drink and pills i won't need to take them anymore.

i hope that you all are having a mighty fine day, too!

april catch-up!

well for most of february we had beautifuls sunny days! then we had a dismal and grey march for the last 3 weeks. april started off beautifully....

but the last 2 weeks have been more grey and dismal! bleck! haven't started ANY seeds and the ground is still too hard for potatoes or onions. one great thing tho is that all of the garlics are popping up! woohoo! and all of the garlics we planted last fall came from our own bulbs - exciting stuff!

more exciting stuff - jambaloney goes in to the licquor store in our big city every 3-4 months. because he is always friendly with the tellers and because he always buys raffle tickets and then tells the seller or teller to put someone else's name, someone in the city who could use whatever is being raffled on - the manager always talks to him by name and always gives him some free stuff. we've gotten free baseball caps, t-shirts, shot glasses, beer glasses and this last trip the manager gave us these 2 cool coors light tocques. and based on the weather for the next week or two - we're still going to be needing them!

kids - don't ya just love poached eggs on spinach - yummeh!

well, try that combination blitzkreiged in the nutri-bullet and it's a whole nuther story. it's lumpy, gaggy mush. but i got to get a variety of nutrients in me on top of all of my juices and smoothies.

kids - remember how many times i have said i love mashed potatoes?

well how about baked potatoes with the middles scooped out, a ton of butter and spinach blitzkreiged in the nutri-bullet and again - more gaggy mush! if i can't bite into a blt sandwich soon - i will scream!

but my gums are healing up really well, one side more than the other because i had less teeth taken out on that one side so i have been doing "sideways" chewing of small pieces of banana and other soft fruits.

here's an awesome sunset from the other night.

and here's some delicious shepherd's pie...another of my favourite foods. that turn into a gloppy, mushy mess when blitzkreiged.

and look at the bass that jambaloney caught last year that we vaccuum-sealed and froze. can you even imagine how delicious that was blitzkreiged with the veg??? ga-rossss! but i force myself to eat it.

and just for your fyi - all of those plates pictured above are jambaloney's dinners and suppers. i wouldn't put you through the horror of seeing my blitzkreiged mush!

well, in backtracking and catching you up in my healing - i came home the first day from having the teeth removed and i was fine. ran around all week like a nut thinking i was healed. and then the big crash came. all of a sudden my jaws and gums were hurting like mad and i had no energy but i think that's normal after a major oral surgery. i'm back to feeling almost human again and well on the mend. and wanting to get some seeds started!

poor jambaloney's been work-work-working on his contract and crab season officially opened last week so all of our friends are back to work in this horrible weather.

hope you all are having a great weekend comin up!

fishing reels

jambaloney here!


framboise we have a problem..... like a shoe problem, or in pioneer preppy's case, a "tractor" problem ;-)))

i have some of my grandfather's old fishing reels and they needed work... then i started looking online about old reels vs new and there is a debate, then i got on eBay, then i found some deals then..

<omitting picture of all my reels>

ANYWAY...
i thought this would be an opportunity to post more about my version of firearms... fishing reels  LOL! but i will add some depth and do some serious fishing equipment posts this year... rods and line and stuff included...

when i was a kid, i serviced my reels  - you should too

oh ya i got LOTS of pics...

first up a medium-used a DAM 220. recommended DAM Quick microlite and my current ultralight Shimano Sahara 1000

220,  circa 1965

microlight, circa 1965

the DAM reels are German..

the Shimano I bought in 1992 - it was made in Malaysia..

spools from the micro lite and the Shimano...

WAIT - first you need a toolkit... I have been making this kit over a 20 year period, it is stuffed with pint-size tools

see??

some sweet examples.. mini everything - woot!!!!!

okay - the microlite was the prize so i started with the 220

i am getting old - glasses and a flashlight..

and a sturdy old fishing reel...

plate with screw removed...

and off - you can see the DAM 220 uses an oscillating worm drive gear. you can read more about it at

Alan Hawk
leroy
ebay guide to ultralight

anyway - it has pretty hardened grease...

off with the plates..

and out with the parts... in order - ALWAYS in order!!!

further along the line...

the rotating head..

this reel has a odd all-in-one gear and handle, as it was in good shape i omitted taking it apart...

but the bail arm comes off..

and here is the happy collection...

cleaner and lube - these will be upgraded - it had been a while...

i used the murphy soap on all as it is an oil based soap.. (okay i used WD 40 on the nasty bits)

Here is the spool..

take GREAT care in removing the washers - they must go back in the same order - older reels tend to have a variety of washers, metal cork and plastic, this keeps the spools spinning well under load..

this cleaned up nice!!!

so did the main shaft...

cleaned....

greased..

and whole!!!

this is not a bad reel - heavy but sturdy... it makes a lot of noise in anti reverse, but is all metal and built to last. i have yet to fish it - i will give a report this year. as far as prepping goes, these old reels are great as they have few plastic parts....

more to come - hope everyone is well!!

cheers!!