Well my last post of pictures of the girls in our empty pool seems to have made people wonder why we had the water for it brought in by truck. So I thought it might be a good idea, for this week's Friday High Five, to list how living here is different from living in the big city.
1. I live in a village, which is really a small collection of houses gathered around two intersections. Once upon a time there was a sign as you came into "town" that stated the population was 500. It was handmade so I have no idea how accurate it was, but it was probably pretty close.2. I have neighbours, lots of great nighbours, "close" by. Our properties all vary in size, but we have lots of room in between the houses. Imagine a new survey and then remove every second (or sometimes third) house.3. From my house you don't have to walk too far before you hit the first farmer's field -- in any direction -- but we're a mere 10 minutes away from "civilization". 4. Every lot out here is different, most have wells. Ours does not and city water pipes do not come out this far. What we do have is a cistern or a holding tank that is buried in the ground right underneath the office. It holds X amount of water and once that is gone, it's gone. Then we have to order a delivery of water from the water truck. Ideally you notice you're low before you run out and order it, but I can't say we've never run the thing completely dry because we have many times. We don't drink the water from our tap so we do have the down spouts on one side of the house run into the cistern to collect rain water. And everything we do is about conserving water to help a load last as long as possible. We were water conservationists well before it became cool to be one.5. Way back in the day this was a bustling little town. The house beside us was the mill/funeral parlour. The house across the corner was a hotel. The house I looked at last weekend was the doctor's office. There used to be a store where The Mommy Project's house is now. Papa, himself, grew up in the house right next door to that and generations of Mike's family have lived in various houses in the village.It is a great place to live, especially now that we have high speed internet, right MP.
Before I let you dive on into wordless wednesday. I'd like to extend a hearty congratulations to FaithChick - winner of the Always Infinity giveaway. So FC, email me - fairyblogmother at live dot com so I can get your mailing info.and now WW
This so happens to be a home made version of my favourite thing to order at my favourite restaurant. Turns out I can make a fairly good imitation in my own kitchen. Which is great for a couple of reasons -- first we don't go out to eat all that often and secondly, when we do now I'm free to try out the rest of the menu.
Chicken Alfredo3 boneless skinless chicken breasts2 cups sliced mushrooms1 tomato, diced1 jar alfredo saucecooked spaghettiDice chicken and brown in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil. Toss in mushrooms and cook until chicken is cooked through and the mushroom are soft. Add the jar of alfredo sauce and the diced tomatoes and cook until heated through. Serve over cooked spaghetti.Recipe Notes: I, of course, love this, but I was surprised to find Mike did as well. I did use a jarred alfredo sauce, but if you want to make your own, go for it. It's a pretty quick easy week night meal.
What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?
What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.
So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html
I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday
A while ago I was contacted by those lovely people at that PR firm I've been dealing with. This time they wondered if I'd be willing to try a new maxi pad that was not yet out of the market. While I was saying yes, in the back of my head I was thinking what in the heck could they possibly do to a maxi pad? I mean it's a maxi pad. Oh I should pause here to say -- boys, you may want to move along for this post. If, in fact, any boys actually read this.Okay so where was I?Oh yes -- it's a maxi pad for crying out loud. Sticky stuff on one side, absorbent stuff on the other. It's not rocket science.Except it kinda is because these maxi pads -- the new Always Infinity -- are kinda space age.They are made with a new absorbent material called Infinicel that pulls fluid from the surface to the core and it can hold ten times it's weight while staying dry and light. The pad itself has perforations and channels like nothing you've ever seen before. Sounds like a lofty goal doesn't it? Well let me tell you, that's no empty promise - it delivers. Having had the opportunity to take these for a test drive I was surprised at how dry it felt until the time came to dispose of it. Unbelievably dry. How ever dry you are imagining it to be, it was likely drier. At no time - even over night - did I ever feel less than confident that it could handle the job. I'm not sure what kind of voodoo magic they used, but wow! Excellent work Always Infinity team.I think this is such an incredible product I have been telling everyone I know about it. Insisting they must start buying it now that it's available here in Canada. And to celebrate that (very happy news) I am giving away a package of the new Always Infinity.Entering is easy, just leave me a comment either here or for those of you reading this via facebook leave a comment over there and I'll draw a winner from all the commenters (blog or facebook) on Wednesday evening at 9 PM EST. And then you'll love the new Always Infinity as much as I do.Good Luck all!
I love my house. I love my neighbourhood. I have zero interest in moving. And then this beautiful old house up the street went up for sale. It is way out of my price range and the taxes are double what we pay here. I'm not even allowing myself to think about what the utilities would run me.Even knowing all that I still went to the open house today and of course fell in love with it. Even though I realize it's not meant to be I still uttered the following statements -- out loud -- to my pal Jenni.Oh the Christmas tree could go right there.My girls would have bedrooms that were larger than a closet.With all this counter space think of all the cookies I could bake.There'd be a guest room for Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel.This is the house I need.Jen! Think of the movie nights we could have here!Also in my head I was planning out where I'd put my furniture and which bedroom would belong to which kid. I am in for certain heartbreak when this place actually sells.
Last week was hot! Really hot. The humidex was through the roof. Temperatures were up into the 30's. It was hot. This coming week temperatures are predicted to be much cooler. Like ten degrees cooler. And rainy. A whole week of rain.So yesterday, on the last day of this heat wave, we did the only the only sensible thing we could do and finally had the pool filled with water fresh from the Arctic. Water so cold, even penguins would refuse to swim in it.We're hoping it warms up by August.
