Comments for House of Cranks

Comment on roasted potatoes in tomato-cheese sauce by Cissa

Cissa — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:44:58 +0000

That looks yummy! I mostly don’t parboil, but I’m going to give it a try.

Also, if you are not vegetarian, duck or goose fat makes the very yummiest roast potatoes- I’m eager to see what that will do with the roughed-up surface.

Comment on Pickled carrots by Josh

Josh — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:14:08 +0000

Since they weren’t canned at all, opened and unopened are probably the same thing. I’m guessing at least three or four weeks is safe, and there’s a blog post from someone who forgot hers in the back of the fridge for three months and said that not only were they fine, but they’d finally developed the flavor she was hoping for.

So… a month, probably more? Honestly, I plan on eating the entire gallon in the next month, so I might not find out.

Comment on Pickled carrots by naomi

naomi — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:58:28 +0000

Yum! Do you know how long they keep in the fridge, opened and unopened?

Comment on Stupid chickens by Mary

Mary — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:02:05 +0000

I’m going to start a series of “your chickens are so dumb” jokes, just especially for your chickens. I prefer “your momma” jokes, but your momma is my momma.

Comment on Stupid chickens by Josh

Josh — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:51:18 +0000

Hrm. The new plan doesn’t work very well either, since there’s no good way to attach a roost over there. Except maybe from the ceiling joists. Well, maybe I’ll try that. For now, I went back and moved Trouble and Miss Thing (who really doesn’t like being disturbed when she’s trying to sleep) over to the new roost and put a jar of rocks where they had been. Maybe they’ll get the hint.

Comment on New tea plant by Cam

Cam — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:08:18 +0000

Thanks, Judy! That’s a generous offer.

My little tea plant made it through the winter just fine as a houseplant, and has been leafing out like a champ these last couple of weeks. (Which is something of a miracle. I’m not a houseplant person.) I thought I remembered Wade telling me that it’d be a good idea to pamper the little critter for the first winter, and I’m glad I did. That was some winter.

Comment on New tea plant by Judy Bennett

Judy Bennett — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:30:43 +0000

Did your little tea plant survive OK? We give a year guarantee … If she didn’t make it thru this perfectly awful winter, just let us know and we’ll replace her for you. You can catch us at one of the local farmer’s markets, or via email to our website. You’re right, camelias usually do fine in the Pacific NW … unfortunately this winter and spring were just a bit too much for alot of native plants.
judy

Comment on First shot at growing Pleurotus by Jayson Patrick

Jayson Patrick — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:46:04 +0000

Ah, caffiene the miracle substance! Watch your PH…

Comment on First egg! by Cam

Cam — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:53:34 +0000

Durf seems a lot less crabby and aggressive since she started laying. That’s a good thing. She was starting to look like stew.

Comment on And that’s why we call her Durf by Cam

Cam — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:23:32 +0000

It’s hard to believe the breed would’ve survived this long if Durf weren’t at least a little bit unusual. I mean, it certainly seems like she’s just barely smart enough to eat. For weeks, I’d feed the chicks treats and Durf would be confused. The other two chicks would be chowing down, and she’d be totally unclear about what all the commotion was about. You’d see her wandering around the other two chicks, picking woodchips up out of the bedding and putting them down again. Things went something like this:

Cam: “Here you guys go. Have some carrot greens.”
Miss Thing: Oh, a treat! nom nom nom.
Trouble: TREAT! nom nom TREAT!!!! nom nom nom MINE!!
Durf: I haz a woodchip? Iz… wha?

As a chick, Durf didn’t seem to have a good sense of how big she was or how much space she could fit into.

She’s certainly unusual in that she’s a bully; usually they’re the ones more likely to be bullied. It looks very much like she’s just not smart enough to notice much of anything beyond chicken politics, and is thus undistracted by curiosity.