I felt a little rough a few days back (not sleeping well) and did not get my toasted ravioli fixed. But, I got them made up yesterday!

This was so delicious and if you’ve never had them you should give this a try. It’s a recipe that originated in St. Louis, MO. You can find them in the freezer section at the store, but it’s something simple to do at home and so quick to make using refrigerated ravioli. I used my air fryer instead of deep- or pan-frying so it was a little healthier. Even with this filling amount it only had about a third of my daily sodium and very little sat fat.

Here’s the recipe I used. I used some Italian-seasoned gluten free “breadcrumbs” and egg substitute in my recipe. I did not add basil since the crumbs had it in it already. I forgot the Parm, but it had plenty of flavor without it. I also did not pre-cook the ravioli since the recipe did not call for that. It tasted great and I even had half the ravioli left in the package. I did the only responsible thing – I made them up ready to cook and into the freezer they went.

If you’d like to try the Taste of the Hill sauce, you can order it (somewhere around $3 a jar) from Walmart.

It looks like one of the bushes in the back yard is blooming since we have had some nice days. I’ve also seen birds heading north. I wonder if they know something we don’t…

It’s supposed to warm up a little for the next week or so. Only one day is forecast for some much-needed rain, and even then it’s a 60% chance of .15”…not enough to really do anything beneficial.

I’m certainly ready for some Spring. Since I’m putting out bird feeders they have been going crazy. Tons of birds are showing up and hanging around. The suet feeders are great for cold weather; gives them energy to fly and stay warm.

I took the dogs out earlier and saw a stray cat in the yard. The dogs never did see it since once he saw us he quickly scurried up the tree about 15 feet and looked down at us (something cats do so well…). It was a big striped cat that looked similar to my old cat Bob.

I like cats but I don’t want more animals around here. Two dogs is enough for me so the cat needs to hang out elsewhere; I’m not gonna feed it and will scare it off whenever I see it. I just hope he doesn’t get flattened on the highway in front of the house. Many a pet were lost on that road over the years.

Been getting more stuff gone through in the basement. I’m just about at the point of renting a trailer to haul stuff off. As I said before it’s a shame so much stuff was ruined, but it is so away it goes.

For now I am going to stage stuff in the basement since I have made some space to do so. Some of the stuff is in cardboard boxes and will disintegrate in wet weather. It looks disorganized again but it’s the most efficient way to deal with it. I have a pile for scrap metal set aside for a guy who wants it and a few piles for tossing out and donating. When I get a trailer rented I will haul stuff up and put it right into the trailer to take away. I’m not going to keep moving stuff more than necessary.

I’m ready to have this done but there’s so much more to do still. I feel like I’ve made good progress cleaning up and it’s actually going faster than I expected. I guess with so much stuff trashed it makes it easier to get it done faster since if one thing in a box is ruined then everything else will probably be ruined.

I got quite a bit more shelf space cleaned out for lumber storage. Now I can finish going through the other shelves of lumber to separate into useable and trash, having a place to put the usable wood and some other things. With some luck I will have enough shelf space to consolidate it all in one spot. I could add one more section if I need to.

Today it’s a balmy 44° F so I went to work on the woodpile, consolidating it into a smaller area so I could clean up and remove some junk around it. I got quite a bit cleaned out and stacked up with the other junk.

I also moved the pile a bit further away from the house because some of the wood had termite damage. I think that extended cold-ass week we had around the holidays probably killed any bugs but I still have to take precautions.

I’m not sure but I think there may even be enough firewood to get through next winter. There’s definitely enough to get through this winter and I need to split a big pile to stack. Some of it feels hollow due to termites so it’s hard to judge, but there’s quite a bit of wood still.

I had to nail down some siding on the barn before the wind ripped it off completely, and while out there nosing around I found more junk that needs to go away. Then I got the blower out and pushed the leaves out. Then it was time for the beast…The $25 Lawnmower! Took a bit to get it started but I mulched those leaves up so they’ll break down faster and it looks better.

My DVD player quit working and that sucks. But, I have a plugin drive and I can use it on my Mac Mini to watch DVDs so it works other than I can’t watch Blu-ray Discs. I don’t have more than a few of those anyway.

So last night I decided to watch some travel DVDs. I’ve been hitting travel shows hard; I have been bingeing on Anthony Bourdain and am in a travel state of mind. I’m still trying to get some trip plans narrowed down and finished. I’m closer than I was a week ago but after researching a few ideas had to change due to seasonal closures of places I wanted to visit.

I got out one of my Rick Steves DVDs and one disc was missing. Dammit! It’s in my broken Blu-ray player…and I sent it to e-cycle last week. 💩 Couldn’t have been the one that was left instead, could it? No, it had to be the disc I really liked. Oh well. Guess I’ll donate the other disc.

After some concert videos I decide to wrap up the evening with Parts Unknown, finishing with the episode in San Sebastián – Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France.

And on that note I will wrap this episode of my blog. Thanks for reading.