Miscellaneous

 

While running an errand not long ago, I came across this scene. It was extremely foggy and was forecasted to rain off and on all day long, and yet there was a crew of men on the gas station in the background tearing up the roof from the looks of things. It captured my attention anyway.

A few years ago, we suffered from a derecho that knocked down a couple trees in our yard creating a huge among of debris. One of those trees, closer to my burn pit and mowed part of our yard, I cut up and it is mostly in a pile of pieces suitable for burning outside in the firepit. The small stuff went into one brush pile. The second tree was on the far knob and on a very steep portion. I cut up the top part and piled all the smaller stuff where it fell. My thought is that I would burn both piles when there was snow on the ground so that I didn't have to worry about the fire getting away in the taller grasses of this unmowed portion and burning down my house or worse, a neighbor's house. 

After two years of not enough snow to do such, we finally got enough snow but burning down the pile has still proved challenging. Twenty-six inches of snow is a lot more snow than I need for brush pile burning purposes. My first attempt didn't do much of anything. My second attempt, after the majority of the snow had melted off the top of this pile, I thought was going to be successful when I took this photo. But it too just petered out. The space between the sticks and the wet outer bark of the sticks meant that it just couldn't burn hot enough to span the gaps. It too has petered out. I may have to go to plan B and just wait until the snow is gone, the brush dries from the moisture and I have to string out every garden hose I have just to keep it contained. 

Fortunately, I can still make a mean pizza. My wife informed me that I would be making pizza and gave me the two kinds, one I haven't made in many years and one I have never made. Fortunately, she helped me out so I got the crust ready and did the baking but she did the "decorating" which she enjoys. Above is a crab rangoon pizza, one of our favorites. We don't have a recipe and just winged it after eating one in a specialty pizza parlor in the urban jungle many years ago. It is really delicious.

Below is a baked potato pizza, one neither of us has ever made before. It wasn't bad but needed a lot more seasoning. Like all things made with potatoes, it takes a lot of seasoning to be enough. But it has great potential.

Both pizzas were baked using our favorite method, baking in cast iron pans that have been preheated to 450 degrees F before we add the crust and toppings.