Silliness

Today was another one of those "interesting" days that I seem to have.  It was supposed to be just a simple day: clean house, take care of my seedlings, bake a cake, do laundry; simple, normal stuff.  Somehow, though, my simple, normal days seem to take a left turn shortly after breakfast, and then it's hold on to your hat the rest of the day.

Remember the home-made ginger ale experiment?  Well after deciding that I didn't care for the taste, I had forgotten about the bottle in the back of the fridge.  Found it this morning while clearing out other, shall we say, "unintended experiments", and decided I should just empty the bottle.  So I carefully hold it over the sink and start to slowly open the cap.

Ever watch a video of the Diet Coke/Mentos combination?  Oh yeah.  As soon as the cap was slightly open, that ginger ale started shooting out, whistling and foaming and blowing the cap right off.  The bottle spun in my hands, bounced off the sink, and shot across the room, spewing a jet of supercharged ginger ale in it's wake.  It slammed into the pantry door, ricocheted under the table, launched off a chair, arced across the ceiling, sprayed down the storage cupboards, and finally came to a spinning, gurgling stop in the center of the floor.  I was still standing at the counter, hands out over the sink cupped around a bottle that was no longer there, with bits of grated ginger dripping down my face and a soaking wet shirt.  The poor ol' dawg had run for cover and was watching cautiously from the other room, one curious brown eye and a perked-up ear visible in the doorway.  All was suddenly very quiet, except for the drip, drip, drip of ginger ale falling from the ceiling, until I started laughing.  Ok, there may have been a bit of hysteria to it, but what else could I do?  I must have looked pretty silly!

I hadn't planned on starting the heavy duty Spring cleaning today, but since the entire kitchen was a sticky, wet, aromatic mess, well, I had no choice.  Not only was the floor covered, I found puddles of ginger ale on the table, the counters, the stove, and in the silverware drawer.  There's a few silver linings to the day though - my kitchen is bright and shiny, I still got the cake done, and I'm not hosting the Easter dinner this year, so the other chores can wait.

Looking forward to the sunrise Easter service tomorrow, to the light, the joy, the great old hymns.  I know that my Redeemer lives!

Happy Easter, my friends.

Hedging

From Merriam-Webster.com: 
hedged   hedg·ing
Definition of HEDGE
transitive verb
1: to enclose or protect with or as if with a hedge : encircle
2: to hem in or obstruct with or as if with a barrier : hinder
3: to protect oneself from losing or failing by a counterbalancing action <hedge a bet>
intransitive verb
1: to plant, form, or trim a hedge
2: to evade the risk of commitment especially by leaving open a way of retreat : trim
3: to protect oneself financially: as a : to buy or sell commodity futures as a protection against loss due to price fluctuation b : to minimize the risk of a bet 

It's seventy five degrees here today.  In Michigan, in the middle of March.  That's at least thirty degrees above normal.  My snowdrops and crocuses are out; my daffodils are about three inches high, and my tulips have sprung out of the ground just overnight.  But I am not so trusting as my flowers.  Is there not a saying, "beware the ides of March"?  The forecasters say it will be this warm for at least another week but  I don't think I trust them, either.  As delightful as the day has been, with warmth, breezes, and abundant sunshine, I can't seem to shake a sense of foreboding; perhaps thinking there will be some sort of cost for this fair weather.  Maybe a blizzard will come next month, and freeze my poor flowers, maybe another round of thunderstorms and tornadoes will blow up, or maybe this is the start of a miserable summer of drought and heat?  Who knows.  Maybe I'm just still cranky because of the annoying time change.  (Whoever thought it was a good idea to mess with the clocks twice a year needs a good thump on the head.)

I made good use of the day, though, making one of my semi-annual trips to the dump to get rid of the few barrels of stuff we can't recycle, burn, compost, or re-purpose.  Always interesting to see what folks throw away.  One year I saw eight sheets of perfectly good drywall in the dumpster.  This time it was ten foot long metal housings from shop lights.  If I had been able to fish them out it would have been a nice addition to my next scrap yard trip.  Once I got back I spent some time cleaning and raking the yard, as well as hanging out a half dozen loads of laundry.  It's so warm and breezy that the linens are basically dry by the time I finish pinning them to the line.  It's been wonderful to have fresh air pouring into the house, and especially great to have the propane-sucking furnace turned off!  The silly ol' dawg was enjoying herself too, flat on her back in the grass, paws and tail flung out in all directions, fur gleaming in the sun and her tongue hanging out as she grunted and woofed and wriggled all over.  Looked like it felt good!

But as I said, I'm not quite buying into this mid-March summer day.  I'm hedging my bets, as it were, or leaving open my line of retreat.  I took the plastic off the south windows and opened them to the breeze, but left it on the east and north windows.  I used my little lawn tractor to haul stuff around the yard, but left the chains on the back tires.  I cleaned out the back of my truck, but left the snow shovel and weights in place.  I cleaned out the fireplace but laid in a fresh bit of kindling and logs.  I refilled our pantry stash of drinking water jugs, and put new batteries in the flashlights and the weather radio.

So I guess Daughter and I are as ready as we can be for whatever may come - be it a spring storm or more sunshine.  It helps knowing that no matter what, God is in control.  In the meantime there's always something to do.  The window quilts are started, and coming together pretty well so far.  The ginger ale wasn't so good; the flowery aroma of the ginger root became overpowering after fermentation; almost medicinal or chemical-perfumey in nature.  The level of 'fizziness' was good, and the flavor was somewhat like Canada Dry brand ginger ale, but the scent was just too much, leaving a bitter sort of aftertaste.  I may try again some day, with much less ginger root and no lemon juice.

And for those who have a clear view to the west, there's a wonderful light show with Venus and Jupiter visible just after sunset.

The beauty I see around me often makes me think of Psalm 19:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. 11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. 

Until next time, God bless and take care, my friends.

Sunshine and Ginger Ale

It's that time of year when it is 20 degrees and snowing one day, and 50 degrees and sunny the next.  Confusing!  I can settle in to mittens and boots; frosty laughs and coming in to sit by the fire, or I can run around washing windows and raking the yard.  But this going back and forth day by day gets exhausting, and it's one of the reasons I'm not overly fond of early Spring.

There are some great days, though, like yesterday when the stiff northwest breeze was a hound, swiftly herding the clouds before it.  The clouds tumbled forward, gray-blue edged with gold as they passed the sun, and snowflakes spun and danced in the sunlight, catching in the pines and melting on the grass.  The birdfeeders were wildly spinning about but a stubborn woodpecker steadily worked away at one of the suet blocks, probably enjoying the lack of annoying sparrows.

Decided to try something new today:  making home-made ginger ale.  This being Michigan, we of course have that wonderful Vernors Ginger Ale in every store but I still wanted to give this a try.  I found the directions at: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/ginger_ale_ag0.htm  He has a lot of good information and gets into a little of the science behind the carbonation process.

Basically it calls for an empty 2 liter bottle, 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp. of grated ginger, lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp. of yeast.  Using a funnel, pour the sugar into the bottle and follow with the yeast.  Mix the grated ginger with the lemon juice, and pour that into the bottle and follow with enough cold water to flush out the funnel. Put the cap on the bottle and shake well to mix the ingredients, then fill with cold water.

Set the bottle in a warm location for 24-48 hours.  The yeast/sugar combination will set up a fermentation process and carbonate the ginger ale.  The bottle will pressurize, so once it doesn't give under a firm squeeze, put it in the fridge.  Leaving it out where it is warm could allow too much pressure to build, causing the bottle to rupture and make a real mess.

I had never used ginger root before and had trouble grating it so I had coarsely grated ginger instead of finely grated.  The root has a wonderful fresh lemony scent that I really enjoyed!  I didn't have any fresh lemons, so I added just a bit of bottled lemon juice.  A fairly cheap and simple experiment, and I guess in a few days I'll know if we have drinkable ginger ale.  Next we'll try the home made root beer!

Making Ginger Ale