Swamp Fire in a Bottle

A few years ago I was asked what is in "Cajun" seasoning. The store blends never get it just right they said. This is funny to me since my very Cajun family always uses store blends. My favourite is Slap Ya' Mama. The ingredients are so simple and no MSG. One day we ran out! It was the end of the world until I decided to give making our own a try.

Mmmmmm. So good it's burns. Kosher salt, cracked white pepper, cayenne, granulated garlic, and a wee bit of turbinado. It's not the same ingredient set as SYM, but it is absolutely divine on broiled Iowa chops, steak, chicken, bread, pizza, soup, cheese, salad, my licking finger.......you get the idea.......

It will be one of our very first add ons.........

pipetacular

Spent the day yesterday with my Dad at the farmhouse getting the basement sealed up and the heat turned on. Pipes had started freezing - the family living there now will be out next week, in the meantime we'd hoped their wood burning stove would be enough heat . . . no such luck.

But some good news - no damage from the pipes, boiler is on and working, furnace will be operational by the end of today. This is work I'd hoped to do myself but the cold snap forced my hand a little so we're having a local heating/cooling place run the new duct work for the furnace and get the boiler operational.

**edit - Good news! The boilers cracked and we have to buy a new one! Or the whole house will freeze! @$%^

The Busy-ness of Moving

Now with the December open house out of the way, we begin the messy work of packing our thousands of books. It is funny really. We each have a bags worth of clothes and then hundreds or thousands of books. Even the kiddos.

I will also pack up the good dishes and breakables.

Then there is the business of connecting and disconnecting utilities and whatnot. Working on those.

Plus grades had to be reported (for my job).

In the mess of all that there is Christmas. Yay!

When I finally got a moment to reflect on it, this is the first time we have moved where we did not just move in the day of the closing. It is strange to think that the house is ours, but we can't move in just yet. It's like being 40 weeks pregnant. Will you go to 43 weeks? Probably not, but its a messy uncomfortable time with a whole lot of to do's!

Moving our food stores will probably be the most complicated thing we do. We have two deeps freezes full of meet and veg. When you move a freezer you have to let it sit unplugged for 48 hours for the compressor to do something. The details of that elude me, but I do know that it is important. So it looks like we'll be getting a third freezer, a larger one. Then we'll move all the goods into that one.

Brrrrrr.

Last night was the coldest moon. It was stunning, bright, and bold against the icing snow.

Tonight the sky held low clouds, blazing pink overhead at dusk. Not a horizon sunset, but a canopy of candy. It was amazing.

As we approach the solstice, the nights get longer, but we hope for the turn towards Spring. We spent the afternoon looking at appliances and making holiday cards. I graded papers, tended the nursling Blueberry, watched movies with Lil'Bug, and listened to the twinkle box play carols. We will begin the move into the new house just after the holidays, just after the seasonal change is officially winter and we begin the push towards Spring. It is incredibly symbolic for us, as this is an enormous change in our lives and has revitalized hope within each of us in our home. Even our sickly bird stopped plucking her feathers and began a proper molt (after 7 years!).