Birthday Boys

Jansku 10

Lee 25

Leif 68

Wishing you all a great day 🙂

Leaking roof repair

Knock knock knocking on wood. It looks like my dear husband’s been able to fix the leaking roof problem.

The leaking roof really worried me. I was thinking of it constantly. In the morning on Tuesday I told Leif maybe the main problem after all is the hatch despite the fact that we had the hatch changed for a new one in the spring. Leif agreed the hatch might be the root to the problem. Even though the handy man had inspected it in the spring and said it was okay but still, who knows.

Yes, I said, I’m going to call for a handy man right the way. Leif said please, just don’t yet, let me go up there and see what I can do. I actually forbid him to go up on the roof because of his bad hip and leg.  Oh, I should have known better than believing he wouldn’t climb the ladders and go up on the roof. Well, he’s my mule stubborn hubby.

I was watching the Young and Restless when I heard him stepping around up there. I run out to tell him he should not be there. He said it’s alright, no problem, the roof is dry. Okay it’s not that high a roof nor steep so, as he already was there, I let him stay there without any further arguing.

After a while he came down. He said he’s now taped the hatch using waterproof isolation tape. He too now was quite certain that, even if he wasn’t able to see any damage on or around the hatch that the roots to the problem lay there.

Last night it was raining. Really was raining a lot for hours. I woke from time to time to listen if there was any drip dropping. Good. No dripping sound. First thing in the morning we both went to inspect the seams in the ceiling. They were dry. Oh my goodness. It looks like my stubborn husband was able to fix it. At least, a temporary fix. Good job. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that there will be no more leaks and no more needs for new postings in this matter. In the spring we will have a new and better look into the thing.

🙂

Leaky Roof

Not again, please !

Last fall we had some heavy storms and rainfall. Our roof began leaking. There was nothing much we could do about it then. In the spring we had a handy man here tracking down the leaks. He fixed the problem. Well that’s what we thought. No leak during the summer rains. Now with heavy rainfalls it’s leaking again 😦

We have to contact the company again. Hopefully they will be able to, one more time, fix it. At least to last the winter. After 22 years it is time to, next spring, renew the entire roof. Expensive, yes, but if it will last for as long as the current one has it will last till 2035 ! Oh my goodness, I better not think that far.

The Cataract Surgery

Well, I had the cataract surgery done today. I felt very calm going there but when the other women all were asking for some sort of tranquilizer/sedative I suddenly felt pretty nervous too and asked for it. I’m glad I asked otherwise I might have panicked in the middle of the procedure. My right eye now looks like someone hit me. It’s swollen and the white of the eye is red. All other patients’ eyes looked normal. You could not even see that they had an operation. Both the surgeon and the nurse said my eye will be okay soon, in a couple of days. Also the blurry vision is going to be clear in a day or two. The eye have to be treated for three weeks with two different kind of eye drops four times a day. I’m so happy it’s over and done. I know my left eye also need an operation but that’s in the future. I don’t even want to think about it now.

After all, no apple marmalade candies

Yesterday I looked out the window and saw there were so many more apples to pick from under the tree. I thought what else can I make of them than pies and jam. Then I found a book I really had forgot we have. I browsed through it. There, the picture of the apple marmalade candies was the answer to what to make . Yes, apple marmalade candies.  Marmalade is Leif’s favorite sweets. Very easy and simple recipe.

I peeled and cleand two kilograms of apple. I cooked them and did everything according to the recipe. I poured it onto a baking tray. The recipe said let it stay on the tray for 24 h to dry. Then cut the marmalade into 2 x 2 x 2 centimeter pieces and roll them in sugar. Oooh, it looked so good and the smell was nice. I already wanted to taste it but decided to wait for the candies to be ready.

Now more than 24 hours later. Oh no ! It didn’t dry and thicken enough to be cut into pieces. I did something wrong ? ! Maybe it had needed 24 more hours. Who knows ? Anyway I’m tired of the whole thing by now and put it all in jars. We can use the “marmalade” as a spread on sandwiches, with flakes, on porridge etc.

 I know, at least, Leif will love it no matter is it cut into pieces or not as long as it is sweet.

Canelo

Today we took Canelo to a professional groomer for the first time. Until now I have cut his coat using scissors for twice or three times a year. It usually takes me many days to finish the clipping. Canelo always has been okay with me clipping him and not being bothered about it taking many hours at time. Nowadays it has been very bad for my back which is why we took him to a groomer we heard about from friends also having a spanish water dog. It made ​​me happy to see how Canelo was completely happy with being left there. In the mean time Leif and I went to Riihimäki for coffee. In one hour he was ready. He was happy to see us and so were we, happy to see him. From now on I am going to take him there for his coat clipping instead of doing it myself.

Corn Waffles

I’m familiar with waffles but today I for the first time made corn waffles. In my opinion they are good. My family said they were not able to tell any difference from the waffles I usually make. We had them for the afternoon coffee with apple jam and whipped vanilla cream.

Makes 10-12 waffles

• 4 dl milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 dl cornmeal
• 2 dl all purpose flour
• 1 dl corn oil ( I used canola oil)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 a pinch of salt

Whisk the eggs and the milk. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then whisk them into the batter and stir in the oil. Let the batter sit for about 15-20 minutes beföre you bake the in the waffle iron.

The recipe was so simple so I was able to translate it into English 🙂

Home made apple jam and pancakes

Picked more apples today in the garden and told Leif that I am going to make some apple jam.  Well, if you make the jam I will fry some pancakes. We’ll have pancakes with fresh jam and whipped cream.  It smelled so good in the kitchen of freshly boiled jam and freshly made pancakes.

Apple Cream

I still am so excited about all the apples we have this year. I keep thinking apples, apples, apples all the time. Today I, for the first time, made apple cream. I have made other kind of cream like rhubarb, plum, red and black currants, gooseberries and maybe still some I don’t recall now.

Stupid mistake happened when I was making the cream.  I put 2,5 tbsp of potato flour for it to thicken. Nothing happened ! What ? Why does it not thicken ? I thought something is  wrong with the potato flour. Maybe too old ! ? I looked into the box. Nope, looks okay. I stuck my nose into the box and smelled. No strange smell no. Maybe it will thicken if I put it back on the hot plate and let it boil a little more. Did not help either. Finally I took the box and read the text on it. Hah-hah-haa, it said icing sugar. No wonder the cream didn’t thicken.