bread phase five...grind

i received a japanese made grain mill for christmas and now that the excitement of the holidays has died down it seemed a good time to turn the wheat and rye i have been storing into flour...

three hundred grams maximum ( and i have found that using less is inadvisable since the mill seems to need that amount to work effectively...timing is an issue as well...we will get to that ) is the prescribed amount per batch so that's what i used...

in with the three hundred grams...put the lid on ( a facet i seem to have neglected to photograph )...turn the mill on for thirty seconds...and you have some warm flour...or that is what i thought...

when i sifted the flour i discovered there were more than just a few unmilled wheat "berries"...so i refilled the mill and let it run for a full minute rather than just half...that did resolve the issue...there were no more berries when i sifted the flour again...it did come out quite a bit warmer though...actually hot is more accurate and i am left thinking it would be a simple matter to actually burn some flour if the mill runs too long...

my backyard crop yielded almost five and a half pounds of whole wheat flour...

which is now on the counter top in a container acquired for that purpose...

a small container of rye yielded three cups or so of rye flour...i am perusing bread recipes and have more rye to mill if necessary...actual "bread from scratch" is the next step...if things work out it will be in the next day or two

forty-five degrees ( fahrenheit )

forty-five degrees on january fifth...not quite a record...however still fourteen degrees above "the average" for this date in these parts...

the lichens are still happily green...

and while stumpy is sporting some residual snow from yesterday's dusting ( stumpy is firmly amid the shade between houses hence the lack of melt ) i can also count an even dozen dryad's saddles quietly doing what they do...stumpy has some green lichens as well, despite the shade...

there's still a bit of snow hanging around the industrial fields out county line road as well...

however the prevailing above freezing temperatures and the intermittent rainfall in the past month has not helped deter erosion out there...it has not taken a winter break yet and, if the long term forecast holds true, it will keep it up most of the winter...

there are stubble fields...

and fields that have been fallow all year because of the late spring inundation of rains...

and even fields with a crop still unharvested...the price of dense yellow number two is up $4.73 a a metric ton since the end of november..which is logical if the crop took a hit because of a lack of planting last spring...again rain...although the usda's economic research service chalks it up to an "increased demand for ethanol production"...either way the price is up...but does it actually pay?

i was stopped by a train on the way home and i got the camera out because i am always looking to photograph a "corn products" tank car...greenbrier made this tank car...they make tankers for a lot of stuff...from hydrochloric acid to corn syrup to crude oil...which is what this particular one is made to haul according to their web site...28,600 gallons if full...and why an empty crude oil tank car would head east is a question i can't answer...assuming crude is moving through town...

the spuds in the basement are doing just fine...

and every time i drive past this tree i cannot help but think of " waiting for godot "

what could be more natural...

...than temperatures twenty-eight degrees above "the average for this date"...

and nearly a half an inch of rain ( with more on the way...no snow forecast ) three days before the end of one of the warmest years on recorded and the deniers firmly in control of the political apparatus...if we look to the past for definitions of "normal" we may find ourselves seriously confused about what is going on...

bright green lichens seem out of place in december at the south end of the inland sea...

the local berries...

and the new york imports in the yard and in the bed of my truck are all cold hardy so their verdancy is not a surprise...

neither is that of the winter rye...

ot the winter wheat...although some of the wheat seems to be tinged a bit yellow...it is, perhaps, not accustomed to rain rather than snow this time of year...

some of the onions and the berries cohabiting in the south bed seem to be yellowing as well...

while the population of dryad's saddles and lichens slowly consuming stumpy seem to be robust and expanding...

and on anther "robust" note...the spuds in the basement are doing fine.

out back solstice plus one

the first full day of winter is unseasonably warm here...something like thirty six degrees ( farenheit ) above "the average for this day" ( i know, averages lie )...whatever the averages say there is no real possibility of snow for christmas...and, while this may not trouble some, it aint natural...( or, nature isn't what it used to be and there is a "new normal" afoot )...

the berries in the bed of my truck are not complaining and are basking in the sunshine...

as are the native berries on the east side...

and the new york imports and the egyptian walking onions in the south bed...

"cold hardy" is a fine designation for all these plants as i discovered when i made an effort to dig up a jerusalem artichoke and found the ground frozen solid a couple of inches down...no tuber retrieval without a pick-axe...it is warm today however there has been snow and a week of below freezing temperatures in the recent past...late autumn was colder than early winter...

the winter wheat and rye are soaking up the rays today as well...fine for now...we will see if the snow cover is deep enough to get them through the real cold ( one presumes it will arrive )

beyond that all is quiet in the ramp bed ( undisturbed mulch is fine with me )...

there are still a few seeds hanging around the mostly shattered teocintli ears...

and the dryad's saddle that has been quietly consuming a dead portion of an elm back there has seem better days...

about the only other color in the yard is the berries in the hawthorn tree...with the berries, onions, and grains they are in tune with the season...and the birds will be spreading a source of winter food as they move the seeds about.