Disdain

Reporting LIVE from Coyote Central...

It is just after 4 pm on Sunday afternoon here in Coyote Central at Chile's Place. A pair of coyotes have sauntered through the yard and are now at the edge of her property bordering the road. The dirt is loose here, supporting just a few spindly upright bushes.

Apparently the bushes look attractive to the male coyote as he is lifting his leg up and peeing on it as high as he can. Whoa, baby, he is making quite a show of marking this bush! Is this to impress his lady friend or tell the other males to "back off"?

He's strutting away from the bush now, holding his bushy tail straight out in quite a display. The female coyote, not one to be left out, arches her back sharply and marks the ground at the base of the male's dripping bush. This is no little quick two-second pee, folks, she's going on a good twenty seconds!

The male is sniffing the telephone pole across the road by the time she's finally finished and follows. The dogs in the house are going nuts, although we can be sure it is not in appreciation of such a fine demonstration of marking. They are incensed that these wild canines have dared claim the yard as their own and are demanding to go out and tell them so. Despite their greater bulk, however, I suspect their wilder cousins would have the upper paw in any contest.

After marking the pole - although nowhere near as dramatically - and heading across the road, we deem it is safe to release the hounds into their fenced yard to continue barking at the intruders. The coyotes, marking a mesquite the dogs frequently pee on during their walks, turn as one when they hear the door open and the dogs pour into the yard.

They stare at the dogs with such looks of disdain, it is impossible to think the dogs' presence will have any impact whatsoever on their continued use of this property. I am sure they will continue to travel across it, mark it, leave their droppings, eat the mesquite beans, and chase all the ground squirrels and rabbits they desire.

In the past, they have simply ignored the dogs. Now that they have claimed this property as their own, they seem to hold them in utter contempt for barking at them. They yawn and slowly saunter on up the road.

Wild Rice Soup & Salad

Okay, actually the salad came first, followed by the soup, but "soup & salad" rolls off the tongue more smoothly than "salad & soup". Although, I guarantee, you won't want any of this soup or salad rolling off your tongue; you'll want to gobble it all down.

There are many variations of this salad online. A friend gave me her recipe and I altered it to suit our taste preferences. Since I have a bunch of wild rice on hand from a store sale, I thought this salad would be a great way to use some up. I had all of the ingredients on hand except for the leeks, which I had to purchase at the grocery store. I've tried making the salad without them and was not pleased with the results; they are a crucial flavor component.




Orzo & Wild Rice Salad (with leeks, dried cranberries, & pecans)

3 leeks
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup wild rice
1 cup orzo pasta
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pecans (shelled, of course)
Salt & pepper to taste
3 tbs balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Stir in wild rice, reduce heat, and cover. Simmer for 60 minutes until tender. Remove from heat and drain off any excess liquid.

Trim the rough greens and roots off the leeks. Slice in half lengthwise and then into 1/4" half rounds. Place in a bowl full of water and swish vigorously to rinse the dirt and sand out from between the layers. Lift the leeks out of the water with a slotted spoon into a sieve to drain. (Do not pour them out or all the sand at the bottom of the bowl will be poured right back on top of the leeks!) Pat dry.

Place in a shallow roasting pan (or cast iron skillet) and toss with just enough oil to coat the pieces - about a tablespoon. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned. Remove and let cool.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the orzo and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse with cool water. Place in a large serving bowl and toss with just enough olive oil to keep it from sticking.

Chop the cranberries and pecans.

Add the cooked wild rice, roasted leeks, chopped cranberries and pecans to the orzo. Toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the balsamic vinegar.

Serve warm or at room temperature.
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We enjoyed this salad for several days but still had quite a bit remaining. The weather turned a bit chilly again (chilly for us desert wimps, not like the NE or Canada) so I thought I'd try to turn the leftover salad into a soup. I found this tasty-looking recipe for Cream of Wild Rice Soup that I thought I could adapt to use up the salad. What follows is my adaptation, using the ingredients I had on hand. If you want to see the original recipe, follow the link above.




Cream of Wild Rice-Orzo Soup (with cranberries & pecans)

3 cups of leftover orzo and wild rice salad (see recipe above)
1/2 red onion, diced
3 large brown mushrooms, diced
6 cups hot water (if using chicken stock, omit next three ingredients)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp poultry seasoning
3 tbs nutritional yeast

3 tbs dehydrated mixed peppers

2 tbs dehydrated celery leaves, crushed

3/4 cup flour
2 cups cool water
Salt & pepper to taste
3/4 cup soymilk
2 tbs dry white wine

In a large soup pot, saute onion in a little olive oil or vegan margarine (such as Earth Balance) for a minute.
Add mushrooms and cook for several minutes until softened.
Add hot water, salt, poultry seasoning, nutritional yeast. Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil.
Add dried peppers, celery leaves, and leftover salad (warmed up preferably). Bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Mix flour and half the cool water until thoroughly combined. Slowly add remaining water, stirring to make sure there are no lumps. Slowly pour into simmering soup, stirring constantly.
Continue to stir and simmer for a couple of minutes until soup thickens. Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in soymilk and wine. Remove from heat and serve.
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The soup came out delicious and filling. The sweetness of the cranberry pieces and crunch of the pecans were a very nice change of pace from the ordinary run-of-the-mill soup recipe. And it was a great way to use up food without any waste.

Falling Out of the Writing Habit

It supposedly takes 21 days to form a new habit. It seems to take me only a few days to fall out of a habit. The longer I wait between writing posts, the harder it gets. It's been a week since I posted and I don't think I've even responded to all the comments on the last one. (I'll get to that, I promise. Eventually...)

It's not that I've had a dearth of ideas; it's more that I haven't done anything with them. There's one lingering on the sidelines, waiting for me to actually write it up, but since it will take me a while to get just the right tone for it, I haven't done it yet. There are others that I've deemed too time-consuming to develop and yet others that would be of little interest to anyone besides myself.

Perhaps the problem is there is nothing particularly exciting, new, or note-worthy going on in my life right now. Sure, I could tell you about getting damn near every dish in the kitchen dirty yesterday - twice - while making bibimbap and then orange-cranberry muffins and chocolate chip bar cookies, but so what? All it means is I finally got motivated to actually do some cooking from scratch ... and had to wash a lot of dishes.

Or I could tell you about the wildlife we've seen lately, but without pictures (not possible with our little digital point 'n shoot), that's probably not terribly exciting for you to read. We enjoyed watching a vole poke its head out of a hole in the front yard yesterday and occasionally dart a few inches away to grab a leaf of dandelion, and Angel really had fun watching it. Not too much later, our resident Cooper's hawk swooped through the yard and perched in a mesquite for us to admire for a bit. And twice yesterday, a coyote came through and spent at least five minutes chowing down on mesquite beans under one of the older trees. Just for kicks, Polie thought he'd try a mesquite bean this morning, too. He found out they are very, very chewy. If I was nice, I'd buy some mesquite flour and make them dog biscuits again. The odds of me getting around to that are pretty slim, though.

Maybe I'll get around to taking the camera outside and photographing the garden beds we're preparing. Since we're going to be here a while, we decided to do a little planting. We're not in a big hurry since it is still getting below freezing regularly. (Thank goodness it's not below zero like the Northeast!)

So, there you go. A post all about what I'm not posting about.

A Bit of a Flounder

No, I'm not talking about having a fish dinner. I'm talking about floundering a bit in my life right now. It would be nice, in a way, to say that I am at a crossroads with a big decision to make. However, I am not. It's more like being in the middle of a broad expansive landscape with a hundred paths to choose from, and way too much uncertainty to know what path to take. So I just flounder forwards, sideways, or sometimes backwards, hoping that eventually an obvious path will present itself to me.

While we both really like the idea of living in a fifth-wheel (RV) trailer, moving from place to place, following temporary work, that life is looking less and less practical. Peak oil issues could easily make transportation costs exorbitant and possible supply shortages could stop us in our tracks, and not necessarily at a place we'd choose to be stuck. There are advantages to being mobile, but some disadvantages to not being rooted as well. This option seems to be slipping off the edge of the table.

My sweetie has made commitments at work which will keep us here for at least another year. Beyond that, I don't have a clue. Stay here and try to make this property work, despite onerous zoning restrictions? Relocate? If so, where? Making a living how? For now, I guess those decisions will be tabled and the focus will be on the current home.

We can't do what we'd like to do here, but we can put in a small garden. The weather lately has been mild, getting us in the mood to prepare some raised beds, but we know better than to be fooled into planting just yet. February often sees the coldest temperatures of the winter and we are still falling below freezing on a regular basis, although it's been over a week since we've dipped down to 18 degrees F. I've got a dozen 5-gallon buckets stacked outside, too, waiting to be filled with my finished compost and planted for a small container garden.

We need to do some minor fix-up to sell this place eventually; doing some of it in the coming months will make it a more pleasant place to live now. Without the covered deck on the front of the house, rain pours off the edge of the roof onto our heads at the front door. Putting up a rain gutter will go a long ways towards making the summer monsoons tolerable. Getting a better handle on the weeds this spring may reduce the work later in the summer. I've already started tackling some of the pruning needs while the trees are somewhat dormant for the winter.

Although I don't know what our future plans are, I am continuing to downsize our possessions. My goal is to have a yard sale this spring and find room somehow to move the remaining possessions in storage to the house to eliminate that monthly expense - and the frustration of having to run down to the storage unit to retrieve "this or that" on a regular basis.

I met two more of the neighbors this week, and will continue to try to establish good relationships with the folks that live in this area. Aged horse manure from one neighbor is coming over here this week for the garden plots. I've been happy with the produce I've picked up from the local farmers' market but am really looking forward to cutting that expense with home-grown veggies. I also hope to be getting a fig or jujube tree soon to utilize the graywater from the washing machine.

I continue to struggle with bringing my eating back to the healthy diet I enjoyed prior to the move out here nine months ago. My activity level dropped significantly in the past couple of months, but it is increasing again, albeit gradually. My personal goals for this year are to regain some health and fitness, have a year with a whole lot less stress, and make time for fun. And maybe I will have a bit of trout - not flounder - if my sweetie ever catches anything at one of the local urban lakes.

End of the "Getting in Shape for TEOTWAWKI" series

I've decided to discontinue the "getting in shape for TEOTWAWKI" series. While I still think it's a good idea, it is not something I want to pursue writing about right now. One thing we learned this past year is that we cannot live, happily, focused so intently on what might happen in the future. In doing so, we forfeited too much of our present. I knew this but somehow got sidetracked on the idea for this series and went back into the familiar groove of worrying about all the "what ifs."

For those of you interested in continuing this kind of program for yourself, here are some of the future steps I'd considered posting about (and will probably still take, simply to improve my current health status):

• curbing liquid calories (choosing water over sodas, sweet hot drinks like lattes and cocoa, etc.)
• dealing with food addictions (sugar, caffeine, chocolate, etc.)
• biking instead of driving (again)
• increasing core strength and flexibility
• doing more work by hand or for oneself (instead of power tools or hiring someone)

The point of all of these is to move towards a healthier diet and more active life in preparation for the possibility that food budgets and/or availability may be under strain at some future point due to peak oil, climate change, and economic issues, as well as the need to be physically capable of living with less assistance from fossil fuel-powered tools of all sorts from chainsaws and food processors to motor vehicles.

Remember, any changes you make in your life now to eat healthier and become more fit will have plenty of positive impacts right now as well as in the future.

Coyote Central

We went through a phase last year where we saw coyotes regularly on our property, usually just one or three trotting across the yard outside the fenced dogs' area. We'd see them a couple of times a week at least. We hadn't seen them much lately, though, until this week.

Yesterday, a beautiful healthy-looking coyote came through. The coyotes around here are usually a light grayish tan color, good for blending in with the soil and desert plants. The one yesterday had darker markings, with a dark mantel reminiscent of the Mexican wolves we'd seen on Christmas day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. His bushy tail also was tipped in dark fur.

This morning, I noted that the neighbors' dogs were barking quite a lot. This is not unusual as all the neighborhood dogs bark at every single person that walks or bikes by, as well as any loose dogs running about. Unfortunately, a number of people let their dogs run loose here. When Angel starting barking with great intensity, though, I knew there had to be a coyote. Remember, she is convinced that coyotes are evil.

I looked out the window, expecting to see the pretty coyote from yesterday. Instead I saw a couple of coyotes up at the corner. No, wait, three coyotes. Oops, no, there was a fourth one trotting out of the bushes. They headed across the street out of view. I happened to glance up about 30 seconds later and saw a coyote running up the street from where they'd disappeared. So, there might have actually been five. A pack!

Angel started barking again not more than ten minutes later. When I looked to see the source of her consternation, it turned out to be a scared-looking coyote running down the other street towards our yard. It passed through our property and headed over to the neighbor's south of us. I'm pretty sure it was the one I'd seen yesterday. A bit later, it headed back across the yard and disappeared in the bushes to the north.

It's been about an hour and Angel set up a ruckus again. I looked out front. Nothing. I looked out the side window where the coyotes often pass by. There were two coyotes sniffing around a bush. Both lifted a leg, in turn, and marked a little patch of weeds before moving on to the neighbor's property to the south.

I don't know what is going on today but I feel like I'm on the Coyote Super-Highway. I wonder how all the neighbors' chickens are faring.

I Want Snow, Not Mud

Our big storm dumped over an inch of rain on us, gave us freezing overnight temperatures, and even snow. However, once it started snowing, the temperature did not get cold enough for it to stick. The mountains were gorgeous and I apologize that I did not drag my butt out there in the freezing temperatures to take a picture for you before most of it melted off.

The problem with all this rain is that our yard is MUDDY. Who cares, though, right? Uh, did I happen to mention that the dogs got baths over the holidays? Their first baths in about a year, mostly because Polie really doesn't like the blow dryer and it's hard to handle two dogs at the self-serve bath place at the same time. Angel got a special allergy bath at the vet's office while we took care of the big guy.


So, the mud means dirty dogs. Again. Muddy filthy paws that have to be wiped off after every single outing. When the dogs play, Angel often ends up getting bowled over and getting covered in dirt.


Yesterday, she evidently thought there might be truffles in the yard so she also went rooting around in the mud. Her entire snout was covered in mud but she'd licked much of it off by the time I got the camera. (Click on the picture. It will enlarge and you can see the mud on her tongue.)


It's pretty funny, though, to watch Polie try to get a drink of water. Their outside water bowl filled with rain water and then froze. It has not thawed out yet since each night drops below freezing again, so the poor guy was lickin' a big ice cube!

I'd much rather throw them out in deep snow than deal with all this mud!

Starting a Brand New Year

My new year started out pretty damn early as we didn't go to bed until 1:01 am on 1/1/11. It's the first time in years that we've managed to make it to midnight on New Year's, and we did it for the dogs. No, they didn't care that it was a significant turning point on the calendar; they just don't like fireworks.

Now that small fireworks are legal here (ugh), we were concerned that all our neighbors would be setting off bunches of them at midnight, along with the big noisy illegal fireworks everyone here drives over to New Mexico to buy. To cover the sound of fireworks, we put on action movies with the volume up a bit higher than normal. With luck, this keeps the dogs from noticing the big booms outside.

Surprisingly, there were not as many set off as we expected. I wonder if this had anything to do with the really cold temperatures. By 8 pm, it was already in the low twenties! If that was the case, there's a good chance people have leftover fireworks they will be setting off tonight.


I felt ambitious when I woke up this morning so I baked some bread from scratch for the first time in ages. While waiting for the bread to bake, we noticed quite a few birds landing in the yard. After grabbing our binoculars, we were surprised to find quite a variety out there. I grabbed a piece of paper and started jotting down what we could see just in the small field of view from the front windows. (It was way too cold to go outside for a broader view!)

In fifteen minutes, we noted 16 species, including a new one for the "yard list"!
Gambel's quail
Mourning dove
Gila woodpecker
Cactus wren
Phainopepla
Northern mockingbird
Plumbeous vireo (the new one)
Verdin
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Pyrrhuloxia
Curve-billed thrasher
Great-tailed grackle
Sparrow sp. (Cassin's?)
White-crowned sparrow
House finch
European starling


While eating our late breakfast of delicious orange cranberry nut bread, we noted a few more birds including a Cooper's hawk chasing a common raven, an American kestrel perched on a power pole out back, and a rufous-winged sparrow.

After getting dressed, we headed out to an urban lake to walk the dogs and hang out for a while. Just before leaving, I noticed the time was 11:11 am ... on 1/1/11. At the park, Polie had delusions of being able to catch a couple of killdeer running around in the grassy field where people fly model airplanes. We also saw yellow-rumped warblers in bright breeding plumage (um, this is January, guys!), red-winged blackbirds, grebes, a couple of great egrets, and a few great blue herons.

Using the restroom at the park was interesting. They have flush toilets in little outhouse-style buildings with lots of ventilation. The toilets are all metal usually with no toilet seat - the metal is shaped wide enough to act as a seat. So the first challenge on a cold day is not freezing one's butt off. The second challenge today was pushing in the button in the wall to get it to flush. I physically could not exert enough force with my fingers and had to kick it with my foot; difficult as it was high and I am short.

However, I did finally get it to flush ... at which point I discovered there was a decent amount of ice in the toilet bowl from it freezing overnight! The paper disappeared but I sure hope the lines don't freeze and get clogged. We'd had a good laugh here over the solidly frozen outdoor water bowl for the dogs and the paint tray that filled with rain water and then froze solid, but it never occurred to me that the park toilets might freeze.

We're back home and just chillin' now. Literally. The temperature is dropping as the sun makes its way to the horizon and we're expecting a very cold night again tonight. (Cold for here, that is. Our low was 16 degrees on Thursday night.)

I haven't thought about what I'm going to make for dinner yet, but it will be something from scratch. We've splurged over the past vacation week and enjoyed far too much rich food made by others. It's time for me to re-acquaint myself with the art of cooking from scratch and re-acquaint my palate with low-fat healthy food. Hope your New Year's was as nice as mine!