A Year's Worth of Nature

Before I get back to a discussion of more projects around the house...and they keep appearing faster than we can cope with them...I thought I should talk briefly about one of the truly fun things we have been doing, i.e. checking out the flora and fauna while walking/hiking near Lewisville Lake.  Despite having lived here for so long, I had absolutely no idea of the huge number of birds and other things that lived nearby.

Daily walks.  Weather and trail conditions permitting and without other commitments, we try to walk at either Lake Park or LLELA in Lewisville or Doubletree Ranch Park in Highland Village every day.  At Doubletree the focus is more on walking, but at Lake Park and especially LLELA the focus is more on photography, although we still get in several miles of walking...just with lots more stops for picture taking.

The Frog "shooting" waterfowl at Lake Park on the first day of this year's City Challenge.  Lewisville Dam is in the distance.  It is not a great pic, but one of the few I have showing him with his current setup to carry two cameras.

What is so great is that both of these photography locations are very close (no more than a 10 minute drive even during "rush" hour).  Even better, the wildlife and plant life are plentiful and constantly changing.

Documenting our observations with iNaturalist.  We started to hike at LLELA in earnest last April as part of the 2017 iNaturalist City Challenge.  That introduced us to using iNaturalist, which we now use to document our nature observations. The recent advances in iNaturalist and most notably its built-in artificial intelligence to immediately suggest an identification based on any pictures we upload, has made this a very powerful and fun learning experience as the plants and animals have changed with the seasons.  Seeing other people's iNaturalist posts in the locations we frequent also gives us ideas for what to look for when we hike.

The competition aspect of iNaturalist adds some fun, too.   As of now, we are fourth in total number of iNaturalist posts at LLELA with 2016 and second with total number of species, 450.  More recently, iNaturalist has begun to track similar data for the entire City of Lewisville.  For us, that includes LLELA, Lake Park, and home.  We are fifth in number of observations, 2295, and first in number of species, 472.

So what do we actually see?   It varies tremendously from season to season and even from day to day. Even though the particular observations vary tremendously, we can almost always count on seeing a huge variety of things any time we go out.

One snapshot in time was the recent four day City Challenge this spring, April 27-30, 2018.  We posted 349 observations of 188 different species of plants and animals.  (Click here for our 349 observations with the Frog's pics of each.)  The 188 species were as follows (pics in theses links are not our pictures):  62 species of birds, 1 amphibian, 3 reptiles, 2 mammals, 4 ray-finned fish, 4 arachnids, 47 insects, and  65 plants, and all were at one of the three parks listed above or in our backyard!

 A map of our City Challenge 2018 observations (April 27-30, 2018) Blue are birds and other animals, red are insects and arachnids, green are plants.  Click here for an interactive map:  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2018-dallas-fort-worth&user_id=alchemist2000&verifiable=any

Big creatures and little creatures.  Over the past year we have seen everything from bald eagles to tiny damselflies.

The bald eagles are often on the dam or sitting in a dead tree someplace.

Bald eagles chilling out on the Redbud Trail at LLELA, 4-28-18.  They were a very long ways away, but still readily identifiable.

However, very much to our surprise, one of the eagles even sat for twenty minutes in our front yard last October!

While bald eagles are easy to ID even at a distance, tiny (1-1.5" long) damselflies can be a real challenge, especially since many species look very much alike.  Knowing nothing about them a year ago, we are slowly learning to identify many of these beautiful little creatures.

Ebony jewelwing damselfly on the Blackjack Trail at LLELA, 4-28-18

Springwater dancer damselflies (blue are males, gray are females) on the Bittern Marsh Trail at LLELA ovipositing (depositing their eggs) into the creek, 4-18-18.  See the female on the left with her abdomen in the water.

Lots of dragonflies.  Some of the most fun creatures to learn about and identify have been the many different dragonflies.  Some are everywhere, like this common whitetail.

Male common whitetail dragonfly, 4-27-18.

Others are somewhat rare but make beautiful pictures, at least in the hands of the Frog.

Wandering glider dragonfly, 7-14-17

Beautiful butterflies.  Some of the most beautiful creatures are the many butterflies, especially when they perch on the colorful wildflowers.

Gulf fritillary, 10-6-17

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on a thistle, 5-25-17

Birds, birds, and more birds.  Of course there are birds everywhere.  In the winter, the osprey (aka seahawks) are plentiful over the river.

I especially liked this picture of the osprey with his outstretched talons, 3-8-18

Osprey with a fish over the Trinity River, 2-1-18.

This spring, when the Army Corps of Engineers was letting lots of water out of the dam, there were pelicans everywhere that were grabbing the fish being flushed out of the bottom of the lake into the river.

A double-crested cormorant and three American white pelicans all scramble for the same fish, 3-20-18

Pelican with a fish, 3-12-18

Very common birds that make great photographic subjects are the great blue herons and the great egrets.  A bit more rare, but fun to see are the little blue herons.

Little blue heron, 4-29-18

Little birds are harder to photograph since they tend to hide in the foliage, but we stood one spring day and watched two blue-gray gnatcatchers (a totally unknown bird to us prior to that encounter) work on building their nest.

A blue-gray gnatcatcher building its nest on the Bittern Marsh Trail at LLELA, 3-31-18

Although there are relatively few ducks now, there were lots and lots of ducks of many different kinds during the winter.

One duck comes in for a landing.  Most of the pond is frozen, with only a small circle of liquid water--Beaver Pond on the Cottonwood Trail at LLELA, 1-3-18

A few mammals.  We see many fewer mammals, but we do catch sight of one every once in awhile.  Last summer we saw a doe and her two fawns.

One of two fawns we saw with their mother on the Redbud Trail at LLELA, 6-21-17

We had a close encounter with a coyote that started howling when he heard sirens in the distance.  Unbeknownst to us before he started making noise, he was only a few feet away from us in the heavy brush beside the trail.  Unfortunately we got no pictures, but it was quite a shock to hear and then see him so close.  Depending upon the time of year, we have also seen armadillos, several rabbits, and even a skunk.

One of the biggest surprises was the nutria (large water rodent), which we saw both in the water and later on the ice when the marsh and ponds were frozen this winter.

Nutria at Bittern Marsh, 1-25-18.  Notice the orange incisors.

Of course some frogs.  We have seen several kinds of frogs, including lots of cute little green tree frogs.

Green tree frog on a cattail on the Bittern Marsh Trail at LLELA, 10-12-17

Of special note.  During our recent City Challenge adventures we caught sight of a tom turkey strutting his stuff for his lady friend

Wild turkey, 4-29-18

and we finally saw one of the resident alligators.

Alligator at LLELA, 4-29-18

I have not done justice to all of the many things we have seen over the past year, including many many things I had never known even existed, such as robber flies.  Nor have I done justice to the Frog's great photography.  However, this at least touches on some of the great diversity of creatures we have encountered.

It is an understatement to say that I continue to be stunned by the vast array of wildlife we see.  At the same time I am also stunned by how few people we encounter at these locations, particularly on week days.   It is not uncommon to be the only ones on the trail.  We are truly blessed to have all of this practically at our doorstep.

Multiple Projects Around the House this Spring

It has been a very long time since my last post.  That is mostly because we have been focused on things around the house rather than traveling.  Our activities this spring have focused on nature hikes at LLELA (which will be the topic of its own post) and multiple projects around the house.

Among the more routine things at home has been gardening, but even that has not been all that routine this year.  The garden production is way behind what I had at this time last year because of lots of intermittent cold weather.  The last freeze in 2017 was January 8, the earliest last freeze on record by almost a month and well before the average last freeze of March 12.

This year we were worried about cold weather several different times in April.  Of course that ignores the fact that these cold snaps were interspersed with periods of hot weather.  Neither the cold weather or the hot weather plants were happy.

Evening of 4-6-18:  preparing for a possible freeze/frost the following morning although the temperature was in the high 80's at the time of this picture.  The small palm tree in the front of the garden is a kale plant left over from last spring...a continuing source of kale leaves for Bun

The plants are finally beginning to come along.  I harvested broccoli earlier this week and plan to pick the first of the lettuce and kale tomorrow.  Now if I could only keep the squirrels from digging the plants up as they dig in the dirt.

Garden is beginning to come along, 5-4-18

Another reason for so much focus on home has been the need to fix or replace multiple things around the house.  It has seemed as if this spring there has been an appliance of the month which needed replacement.

Printer.   First was my printer.  The old one was many years old so we had gotten our money's worth from it.  I have to admit that it is very nice to now have a color printer.

Icemaker.  Next was the ice maker in the freezer.  The little sensing arm was obviously broken (in the down position).   It was a little expensive to replace, but not a big deal for the experienced repairman.  We cleaned out the refrigerator and put the items from the freezer into a cooler.  However, much to our surprise, he did not even have to pull the fridge away from the wall.  All he needed to do was take the door off of the freezer.  I am not sure of the normal lifetime for icemakers, but this one lasted about ten years.

Washing machine.  Next the washing machine died or at least stopped spinning.  This left the clothes sopping wet since it could no longer spin them dry.  Needless to say, washers have changed a lot in the 15 or so years since we had last looked at them.  This one is more water efficient, since it uses only the minimum amount of water needed for any particular load. 

Yes, that is a window in the top.  The towel in between the washer and the dryer is my low-tech solution to keep them from clanging together since the washer seems to move around a lot when it spins

Best of all, it displays the time remaining and plays a little song when it is finished.  This makes it audible throughout the house and distinguishable from the many different sounds from other electronics.  The Frog refers to it as our singing washing machine.  It can also interact with an app on my phone, but I don't have that working yet. 

Microwave.  We had the replacement washing machine operational within about 24 hours of the old one failing.  However, the next appliance to fail was not so quick to replace, the microwave.  We were without a working microwave for almost six weeks, which seemed like forever.  We had to order one which would fit into the built-in enclosure in the kitchen, then schedule the installer.

Here is where it will go. 

Installing part of the trim kit

All finished

The long wait was primarily to get the correct unit shipped to our local store.   The actual installation was easy and took a very short time, even with a bit of remodeling of the box around the edges to accommodate the screws for the trim kit. 

I did not realize how much I depended on the microwave until it was not here.  It is amazing how integral it has become to our cooking since I can still remember getting my first microwave for Christmas when I was in grad school...probably 1977.  They were very novel at the time, but we were early adopters.  I remember how impressed my fellow grad students were that I had gotten one.  I don't have any idea of what the cost was back then, but I know it was not cheap.  That original microwave is obviously long since gone, but the stand we got for it (there was certainly not enough counter space for it in our kitchen at the time!) is in my office functioning as a stand for the printer.

Roof repairs completed.  While we were fixing or replacing these various appliances the construction company finally finished the last of the house repairs and associated improvements which were required after the hail storm in March, 2017 (shingles, roof vents, skylight, attic insulation, patio roof, gutters, etc.) Most of the work was done last fall, but some things drug on.  If I have the dates correct, I think the final repairs were finished a couple of days shy of one year after the storm.

The new shingles go on, 10-16-17

New shingles and the new venting system above the loft

Garage.  We thought we were finally finished with home repair and appliance replacement for awhile, but then it became apparent that the sheet rock on the ceiling in the garage needed attention.  We walked out one morning and discovered one of the panels looked as if it was going to fall.

We made some emergency repairs, but the long term fix will not start until May 16 (date may be tentative).  All the sheet rock on the ceiling and the walls will be replaced and painted.  While doing that, we will replace some shelves and install new pegboard for the tools.

Of course, to do that work everything must come out of the garage first.  That is not trivial.  A lot of stuff has accumulated since moving in nearly 37 years ago.   We have made at least one pass to remove disposable items, some of which (like old paint) had to go to the city's once a month toxic recycling.  We have boxed up most of the smaller loose items.  We are hopeful we can put a temporary storage unit (pod or similar) in the driveway to hold everything during the 4 or 5 days that the garage needs to be empty.  Unfortunately the overhanging limbs from the trees may be a problem bringing in the pod.  That is yet to be worked out.  We will see. 

Adventures with My New Instant Pot Ultra

Santa Frog got me an Instant Pot Ultra for Christmas.  I am having lots of fun playing with it, although I usually forget to take pictures of the finished food so this post may not be as visually informative as it should be. 

Instant Pot in its 'storage' location, but with the display activated for the picture

What is an Instant Pot? 

Fundamentally an Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker.  However, this appliance has many more features.  The manual calls this a "10-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Cooker".  According to the manual, the "Ultra combines the functions of a Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice/Porridge Cooker, Cake Maker, Yogurt Maker, Sauté/Searing, Steamer, Warmer, Sterilizer, and, truly new and unique feature, the Ultra program. The ‘Ultra’ provides complete custom programming for pressure and non-pressure cooking"

Different temperatures for different features

Yea, software engineers!

That is probably marketing overkill, but it is a techy toy that makes cooking fun.  It was designed by a non-foodie, laid-off software engineer...yes, really!  Yea, software engineers!


I have fond memories of the pressure cooker Mom used often when I was growing up.  The weight on the top that controlled the pressure jingled happily as steam escaped the entire time it was in use.  I was blissfully ignorant at the time, but they were probably not the safest things in the world.  The Instant Pots are nothing like the pressure cookers of old and, according to the Instant Pot website, are equipped with at least ten new safety features.  Most of these safety mechanisms interact with the built in software to shut the pot down to prevent any dangerous conditions.  (Remember...designed by an engineer!)

Figure from the Instant Pot website

New business model?

As interesting as its "techiness" is the way its popularity has grown in only a few short years.  More than 215,000 were sold on one day, Amazon's Prime Day, last year.  It is the number one selling item on Amazon.  That is incredible for a product that only became available in 2010 from a small company that only started in 2008 and has no advertising.  Everything is through word of mouth, which really means online.  It all fits into its business model as described in an NPR article, so-called "sleeper"marketing.  People use it and talk or post about it, thus spreading the word.  Much of this success is based on the many different Facebook groups devoted to Instant Pots.  The main authorized Facebook group now has nearly 1.2 million members, up from about 900,000 when I joined just after Christmas.




Transitioning from Clueless to Fanatic

But back to my pre-Instant Pot days.  Even I had encountered Instant Pots as I surfed the web.  IPs (I'm getting tired of typing 'Instant Pot') had been appearing frequently in numerous blogs and other locations I encountered online.  It seemed like many folks thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, or perhaps even better.  A recent article in Inc about the growth of the IP company describes it this way:

At this point, readers of this article will separate into two (and only two) categories. There are those who, like me, last heard the phrase "pressure cooker" mentioned either in the context of people being too stressed or when some terrorist puts together an improvised bomb. (No links for that one, for obvious reasons.)

Then there are those whose reaction is more like: Yes, no kidding, the Instant Pot--here are the first seven things you should make with one when you buy it.

Even though I had not used a pressure cooker for decades, I thought an IP would be an interesting complement to my on-going gardening and cooking interests, so I asked for one for Christmas.  The Frog remained skeptical (he had apparently not come across IPs in his web surfing) but he humored me.  Under the Christmas tree was a 6 quart IP Ultra and lots of neat accessories.

Water Test

I was anxious to give it a try, but the manual is really bad and makes using the IP unnecessarily confusing. (Remember...designed by an engineer.)  Fortunately I was prepared for the confusing manual based on many comments I had read online.  In my online searching I found the excellent Instant Pot Ultra Beginner’s Manual | Quick Start Guide on the Paint the Kitchen Red website.  It explained everything about setup and showed how to do a simple pressurization test with only water, the so-called water test.  

5-5-5 Eggs

Everything worked beautifully with the water test, so I was next on to hard boiled eggs.  I am not sure that an IP is necessary for hard boiling eggs, but it supposedly makes them much easier to peel and they are an easy (and cheap) thing to practice on.  Although there is not general agreement to the best "recipe", I used the 5-5-5 method.  The "5-5-5" refers to 5 minutes of pressure cooking, 5 minutes of natural pressure relief (NPR), i.e. letting it cool on its own, and 5 minutes in an ice water bath.  Success!!  It worked great.

Meal prep

I was now ready to take the plunge and begin to fix real food, but what to fix?  I decided to start with the Kālua Pork recipe in the IP recipe booklet.  (Note, that is kālua, which refers to the Hawaiian cooking method of underground cooking, and NOT Kahlúa coffee liquor.)  Gwen and Paul had made that for us over Christmas and it was excellent, so it seemed like a good place to start.  Indeed it was great and with only the two of us, we had plenty leftover for tortilla soup with pork (not in the IP)


We also tried beef pot roast from my new recipe book using the slow cooker since it seemed particularly easy.  With a 9 hour cook time, it was an all day adventure but great for New Year's Day with the Rose Parade and football games on tv.  It also allowed us to use the glass (non-pressurizing) lid.  Everything worked great and provided plenty of left over roast beef for beef barley soup. 

Using the IP as a slow cooker--8 hours and 40 minutes to go.  I really love the silicone mini-mitts, particularly useful for holding the inner pot while stirring (during sauteing) and for removing the inner pot when it is hot.

Now finding recipes became more challenging.  With one million members on the Facebook group, there are many many recipes.  However, many are confusing and difficult to follow or just plain wrong for the IP.  Many one-off recipes may be fine, but it quickly became apparent that there are several sites that are generally trusted within the IP community.  There are probably others, but I am listing these here so I can refer to them easily in the future.

• Pressure Luck Cooking,  http://pressureluckcooking.com/  OR  https://www.facebook.com/PressureLuckCooking/
• Amy + Jacky, https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/
• This Old Gal, https://thisoldgal.com/
• Pressure Cooking Today, https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/ 
• Adventures of a Nurse, https://www.adventuresofanurse.com/ 

From these I chose a beef and broccoli recipe.   Although I have liked almost everything we have tried, the beef and broccoli has been one of my favorites so far.  We have also done honey sesame chicken, and pressure cooker beef pot roast.

Yogurt 

By far the most fun thing (and maybe the easiest thing) I have made so far is Greek yogurt.  It really is easy, made even more so by the tons of info online.  There are lots of good online sources, but the best info I have found so far is as follows (two links, but by the same author): 

• Instant Pot 10 Steps to Easy Yogurt, http://www.friedalovesbread.com/2016/07/no-powdered-milk-pressure-cook-greek.html
• Instant Pot Dairy Yogurt for NEWBIES Complete Guide, http://www.friedalovesbread.com/2017/07/instant-pot-dairy-yogurt-for-newbies.html

There are multiple approaches, but I chose to go with half a gallon of whole milk, heat to 180 F, cool in an ice bath to 110 F, add yogurt starter (1 Tbsp of 2% Fage) and incubate for 8 hours.

Yogurt almost finished after 7 hours and 53 minutes of incubation.  Due to incorrect time estimates and poor planning, this was just after 4 am.

 

At this point it is actually yogurt and would probably have been fine just refrigerating.  However, I really like the thicker Greek yogurt, so I filtered the yogurt in a Euro Cuisine Greek Yogurt Maker with Stainless Steel Strainer while refrigerating for 4 hours.  It is merely a container with a mesh filter and lid.

Euro Cuisine Greek Yogurt Maker with Stainless Steel Strainer prior to assembly

 The filter holds exactly two quarts, making the process really convenient for this size batch.

This was the yogurt after dumping it from the IP pot. Some whey has already begun to collect in the bottom.

After 4 hours of filtering in the refrigerator, transferring the yogurt into half pint jars.  Note the whey (yellowish liquid) in the bottom below the filter.

Since the IP handles all of the temperature control, the overall process is really really easy.  The only tricky part is planning the rest of my life around the activities.  I did the initial heating of the milk and started the incubation before bed (only ~45 minutes, not counting an additional ~30 minutes for the milk to warm slightly by sitting on the counter--I thought all of this would take longer), transferred the yogurt to the filter first thing in the morning, then transferred the filtered yogurt into half pint mason jars in mid-morning.

This batch produced 6 cups (not very precisely measured) of yogurt and 3 cups of whey.

 

The final product--6 cups of Greek yogurt and 3 cups of whey

Probably most importantly of all, the yogurt tastes absolutely wonderful.  I may never go back to store bought yogurt again.

Since this is a lot of yogurt for me (the Frog doesn't like yogurt) and it will only keep for about two weeks, I used 1.5 cups to make fro-yo frozen fruit bites, i.e. fruit frozen into yogurt that has been flavored with honey and vanilla.  You can't see them in the pic below, but there are raspberries and blackberries in the yogurt.

One batch (1.5 cups) worth of fro-yo fruit bites prior to freezing.

One batch (1.5 cups) almost exactly fills four of the eight cubes in the super large size ice cube tray.  The taste of these is wonderful, but they are so hard when they are frozen that I had to soften one considerably in the microwave to be able to eat it.  That is not exactly a failure, but maybe it would be better with smaller sized cubes.

What have I learned so far?

Overall the IP is fairly easy to use.  Since I do not have a kitchen island, the IP must sit below the cupboards.  I don't want to ruin the cupboards when releasing steam, so I turned the IP 90 degrees and worked primarily from the end of the counter.

That works, but is a bit awkward.  As an additional step towards addressing this, we found that a 45 degree bend 1 inch PVC pipe fits perfectly over the steam outlet on the Ultra.  I only put it on when I am ready to do a Quick Release.  That helps direct the steam out into the room away from the cupboards.  (BTW, there used to be a silicone version of this available on Amazon for about $15--apparently now discontinued--but I am more than happy with this less than $1 item from Lowe's.)

45 degree bend 1 inch PVC pipe over the steam release--still plenty of room for the pop-up valve to the right.  The manual release on the Ultra (different from earlier models) is the separate knob to the right of the pop-up valve.

Most recently I have also begun placing the IP on a lazy susan.  I can position the IP for more convenient use while sauteing and other processes, then turn it 90 degrees if I need to vent the steam.

I am just beginning these Instant Pot adventures, but I am having loads of fun.  I have no intention of trying to make everything in the IP as some people online seem wont to do, but I am having fun trying different things.   Tonight is pressure cooker pork chips in mushroom gravy in the IP and cornbread made with the last of the Great Smokey Mountains cornmeal and some of the whey as a substitute for buttermilk.  Assuming these are not a total disaster, they are good indoor activities while hiding from the inclement weather.  It is mid afternoon and only in the mid-20s outside.  The low tonight is predicted to be 9 F.