No Salt added foods~ oh my

Its bad enough I can't eat foods with dairy in them but one can get around that and still have tasty food to eat.
But having a "No Salt added" diet is a pain. People just don't realize that having a diet of 1000mg or less of salt a day is nigh on impossible in this day and age. One slice of store bought bread and a little ketchup can be over 1000mg of salt per day!
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So if I want bread, any kind of bread I have to make it.
Oh how I miss having bacon or sausage!! Bacon sadly is a thing of the past but my search was on for a Sausage with out standing flavor and I think I finally ironed it out.

Bangor "No Salt" Sausage

1/2lb lean ground pork
1/2lb Veal or very lean ground hamburger
1/2 to 1 package of no salt Ritz crackers crumbled fine
1/4 tsp blk pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp Mace (can be hard to find so ok if left out)
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp ground Sage
1- large egg well beaten
6oz of Veg shortening or Pork fat
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Mix together Well- pat into circles or link rounds and cook in pan with a little more shortening until as near to golden brown as you can.
You will be surprised how well this tastes.

Also working on my Chili recipe but right now I just have the ingredients in my head. Will post my recipe as soon as I can.

For all of you out there,, I am still looking for a good tasting Ketchup that is 60mg or less per serving! If you know of a brand please tell me!

Over 2' of snow ~ The snow event Dec 08

This photo was taken before I got sick and the main part of the snow coming down.

We have not seen a snow like this, since we left New Hampshire. Impressive to say the least. No power off and on and the longest time without power was 2 solid days and nights, not good up in the hills with a want'a be Fireplace. But we had to make do to stay warm and keep the pipes from freezing.
Just glad I keep a supply of Bee's wax candles and Lamp oil. Because I will tell you.. stores on this side of the country don't keep them in supply. Silly I know, seems like folks never think events like this will happen and run around like ants on a hill trying to find supplies that just aren't for sale.
I had to order another supply of Lamp Oil from Lehmans, which is on the other side of the country. Like to stay stocked up on this kind of supplies because you never know when you will need it.
I am so glad we have the old Tractor, if we did not, we would of never made it out of the driveway. Being able to plow our drive so we can get out, is priceless!
Of course during the number of days of this Snow Event, I had the flu and couldn't go out and take photos but here are some taken from the house.

It is hard to tell the depth of the snow from the photos but you are looking at 2'+ of snow...plus the inch or so ice under all of that.

Have not seen Icicles since we left NH,, some of these are 3' long and DH had to knock a few off.........after he walked into them coming out the back door. ;O)

Knock on wood, the old ugly shed is holding up, so far.

DH trying to get the gate open to feed the horses while DS and I were ill. Had to clean the snow from around the gate twice a day.

There are farm implements under all that snow...

A winter wonderland.... rather see it in pictures or drive up to it.

The far hay field and woods as seen from the inside of the house out the window. Fence is all'bout buried.

It finally started warming up today.. Icicles are all but gone but we still have a whole lot of snow. I do not mind a bit of snow but this is just too much!

I can't tell you how happy I will be when I can see green grass!

more snow pictures

Can you say...snow!?

OK,, I know for most in other parts of the country...snow is the norm and not a big deal.
Here...no one knows how to drive in the stuff..even if it is only 1".... make it 10 1/2"......and.....what a mess.
Beaufort...not impressed

Our woodlands and the hills beyond.

All the Alpacas are not impressed.

Bored horses....though they do like playing in it at times.

And..... heres the other fun part... we are supposed to get 6 more inches by tomorrow.

Did I say I love my heated water trough and buckets!!LOL

Dancing through the snow~~~

On my twit of a horse......sigh.. they don't call Icelandics, the sports car of the horse World without good reason.
Decided to go out for a ride.. snow is starting to melt,, bit warmer at 35*. So I get Dyfra tacked up and we start out. DS can't get the main pasture gate open because there is too much snow.OK.. fine.. I will just putter about in the night pasture. Ha ! Dyfra had other ideas.. She was doing her... Oh my G** oh my G**... thing. :p So I look around to see what might be bothering her. You would not guess what it is... This is the horse I take into the woods and still sitting in the saddle, prune limbs and branches off trees, which fall on her and all about her .. drag branches and so on off the path with me still riding...........and she doesn't care.

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She didn't like the horse killing snow falling off the tree branches.:grit:

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By the time DS tooks some of the pictures we pretty much packed the snow down.

So instead of the nice relaxing ride I was wanting... I got Dashing through the snow... Circles, figure 8's... .. until she finally calmed down an hour later. Sigh ~~Just glad she is very steady on her hooves and she has no issues with traction in the snow.

At least I wasn't cold,,, nothing better than Military clothes and a Charles Ownen Beta 3 Safety Vest under ones jacket.

8" of new snow today and counting

Theia

Towards the house... if you look closely you can see DS.

Gate to the night pasture.

Dyfra

Dyfra and Maggie

If you look closely you can see icicles underneath Dyfra..one is over 12" long!

Beaufort

Caribou with a good layer of snow on his fleece.

We have had an impressive amount of snow today, 8" of new snow and it is still snowing. It did warm up to 27* at least.

Will be interesting to see wither DH can get out of the driveway tomorrow. News said it will be snowing all day tomorrow and again Sat. This is the most snow we have had since we moved here, pretty impressive.

How cold can it get?

Photos are taken in the morning, you can just make out the horses past the round pen. I had to put blankets on everyone due to the freezing temps.

Beautiful morning,, you can see the moon at the upper right.

Snow on the hills.

We live in Oregon for goodness sakes! Its not supposed to get this cold for this long.

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It all started last Friday, temp dropping fast from 37* to 22*. First snow was very wet and sticky, not a good thing for fencing, trees over fencing and on the hot wire. Took us two hours Sat morning to get the fencing and limbs near the fencing cleared off.

It warmed up a bit...just enough to make a thick layer of Ice. Then it snowed the next day but not as much the News said it would, which was fine with me. Luckily this time it was a fine powder, bad part.. it was now down to 11* and with the wind chill making it about 5*.

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I am tremendously grateful of my Dad for putting in the ground fault plugs next to the horses pasture. Now have a heated water tank for them. Much easier on DS since he does not have to carry water buckets out to the horses 6 times a day.

Snow is expected tomorrow morning, basically through Monday . Temps are going to hover 15* during the day without the wind chill factor, which is expected to be around 0*...and it sure feels like it this morning. Right now we have 3" of powder on the ground with about 1" layer of Ice underneath, more expected tomorrow.

I had thought we left this kind of weather when we moved from New Hampshire?

African Vilolets and Other things

Thought I would throw in a photo of one of my loafs of bread, can't you just smell the goodness?!!

Here is my AV called Lemon Kiss.

Rob's Combustible Pigeon has finally bloomed, it is a mini AV. Yes, that is really the flowers name.

DH will be writing "The adventures of making a new Well House cover" sometime this weekend. Sorry, no hints for now.

Looks like we will be having our first snow storm this weekend,, If the news is correct. So far this winter has been unseasonably warm up here in the Hills. Will be nice to see a little white stuff.

Will not have a Yule Tree in the house this year. Having three young cats, has a lot to do with it. One would just play with the ornaments, the other would take what ever she could reach and put it the behind DS bedroom door, leaving none on the tree LOL...so you get the idea. Christmas will be low key because DH contract job is coming to an end.

We do have a side of beef in the freezer and stocked up with the basic dry stuff. Animals are all set with a years supply of food and things they need. Is very nice to have the food and basic supply dealt with.

DS is finally out of his braces and using a Retainer. He is working on the MIT open college courses for Mechanical Engineering. At least he is doing some college courses because,right now, the local college is not doing student loans.

Have a number of friends that have had to quit college due to the lack of loans. Hopefully the economy will pick up by summer.

Am still painting, right now working on the Sleeping Mia Pen & Ink with watercolor wash. Also creating some Digital Abstracts. Would never say this to other Artists but it is a lot like Adult finger painting,, lots of fun with color, depth and shapes.

Had a nice ride out this morning~

Had DS come out with me to take some pictures of me riding.
Yes,, I know I am sitting funny and I am wearing a Beta 3 safety vest under my jacket so I look a lot larger than usual. VBG ... oh and my classic military pants I where when I ride out in the woods.:D Nothing better for repelling Blackberry vines.
Also riding Dyfra in a bit which I don't normally do, with very little to no contact on the reins. Most of the photos are of Dyfra cantering but don't think any one could tell because she looks more like a Yak! (don't think I my back is ready for that much canter quite yet..even when Dyfra is super smooth)
Am riding with a Treeless Saddle called the Hybrid Sensation.

In a couple of photographs you can Ella following along, she comes on some of our rides. Is nice to have company once in awhile.

All in All had a very nice time riding.

Cats and Kitten working hard

Cleaning of the Fireplace. You can see here how they all let DS know how to do this job correctly, as giant kittens don't always listen.
Here Mia is pointing out what he is not doing right and is showing him the proper way.

Just ironed shirts smell good and are way too clean, little cat hair is needed!

A Long Thanksgiving Day~

We weren't sure what we were going to do for the day at first but I did find out the Zoo was having a special and folks could get in for free. Free's good!

Christopher and I made the pumpkin pies the night before,, he made the crust which turned out very well and I made the filling. So that was taken care of. We had a Organic Turkey breast for dinner but that will not take long to cook.

Thanksgiving morning was pretty cold about 34*, however we decided to bundle up and go to the Zoo early in the morning anyway.Was fairly crowded but not bad being how cold it was. DH rented me a scooter so I could also enjoy the zoo and off we went. Captured a few photos but think my Evolt 510 is going down hill. My old Nikon cp4300 can now take better photos than the 510. Guess back to the shop it will have to go.
We did enjoy the Zoo outing.

Back home DH and DS started with the main part of our dinner,,, then Sadie our orange cat was not feeling well. She was not fed any kind of human food, was nothing for her to get into.
We had our dinner and Sadie was getting worse. Figures.. on a Holiday when finding a Vet is extremely hard. I called up a local Vet hospital and get directions. It was about 1am at the time and DH & DS take Sadie to the hospital. Only.. they can't find it and they call the hospital again and there was no answer so they just come home.
8am the next morning we were on the road to our normal Vet and checked Sadie in. She stayed there all day and the Vets found out she had some kind of blockage, most likely a hair ball but the Vets managed to get it moved out without surgery, for which I was very glad. For a free kitten...she is sure getting very spendy but we love her any way.
So that is how our day went in a nut shell.

DS feeding the Lorikeets

New baby Elephant at the Zoo. Boy was it a jungle to get close enough to take pictures with my camera over my head!

Seems to be saying, "Go on~ Make my Day!".

Tiger, seems to be thinking humans would make tasty snacks.

Wood duck.

This Zoo mostly has warm clime animals, so the majority were inside because of the weather.