And Snow It Begins...

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Earlier this afternoon, as I sat at my desk reading my human behavior and the social environment textbook, I noticed something out of my peripheral vision. Bits of white were interspersed with the downpour outside. My brow wrinkled in a vision of perplexed musing as I knew what was coming.

The S word.

It is November in north Idaho. November is traditionally when we get our first staying snow. It's not unheard of to get a dusting of snow in October, but most years, the snow that comes and stays happens in November. Well, with the exception of the last couple of climatologically weird years.

Anyway, before I finished scanning the next page, the sky opened up and gigantic fluffy flakes of snow were hurtling from the sky.

Of course I ran out and took a picture, because you know, it was the first snow.

It seemed a fitting harbinger for all of the cozy homesteading chores I had in store for me today.

After 4 non-stop hours of coursework, I got cracking on the homework. Before I took my afternoon walk in the deluge with the corg, I had the giant Hubbard squash dissected and roasted. Well, roasting it took a while because only half of the squash would fit in the oven at a time. I am so not sad about the surplus of squash flesh. Nope, nope, nope! Not sad at all!

When I went out to get the Hubbard to bring it in to warm up a bit before I gutted it, I noticed the last of the tomatoes from the garden had all ripened at once too.

Not a problem! I shouted to the corg and the cats. Before the hubs restocked the woodstove, I had the tomatoes roasting in the oven on a tray adorned with freshly chopped garlic, avocado oil, basil, salt, and pepper.

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After the tomatoes emerged, I plucked off their skins, scraped the entire pan into my blender, pulsed it all a bit, put it in a freezer bag, and stuck it in the freezer. There is some delectable pasta dish in my future.

As far as the Hubbard goes, once it cools I am going to cube and freeze one half and puree and freeze the other half. The Souper Cubes are going to be utilized again, because I absolutely adore having 1 cup cubes of already pureed squash to procure from the freezer for baking culinary delights. I have a lot of sourdough recipes that I wish to try the squash in. Much yum is in the future round here!

I also need to whip up some no-knead overnight bread dough before I retire for the evening. I bake a loaf of bread every couple days or so. It's just so much more tasty, healthy, and far less costly than buying bread. Plus, making and baking it is pieces of cake, it hardly takes any time at all.

Plus, I like the sounds of general contentment the hubs makes when he slices up a piece for toast. Happy Hawaiians are wonderful to experience and exist with.

Tomorrow is voting day, and our daughter is coming over to go vote with us in the 100+ year old log cabin in the woods that is our voting precinct. Between that task, at least four hours of coursework, and tomorrow's main homestead chore of shoveling out the chicken house and applying the litter to the rose garden, I've got another full day ahead of me.

Well, I suppose every day is a full day around here, but I like that so there😊

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's narrowly avoided becoming drenched on the deluge march iPhone.

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