Another week of big temperature swings. A couple of my morning runs were done under an active aurora. Its really nice to look at but for some reason I forget to bring my camera and a tripod on my early morning runs, can’t imagine why. I thought maybe the clear weather would continue through the weekend but it warmed up and started snowing again. Lynn and I managed to get a full week of running and swimming in. Even though it was on the chilly side early in the week I was able to ride my bike to and from work every day.
Mock swim meet
The big thing this week was preparation and execution of the swim teams mock swim meet. For several reasons we can’t hold actual sanctioned swim meets here in Galena. A mock swim meet lets the swimmers experience many of the things that happen in actual swim meets, it also allows the residents of Galena that aren’t able to travel to town to watch the kids compete see what all the training is about. Another function it serves is as a fund raiser. When we have these mock meets there is usually a breakfast offered and it provides a means of raising money for travel to the meets. In addition to practicing for the events, another tradition is for the swimmers to be able to issue challenges to coaches or other adults. Some times this is an eye opening experience for an adult who knows how to swim but has never competed before. Instead of posting a couple of pictures I have linked to an album of images I shot at this years meet.
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Cooking and food preparation
I did mean to include a recipe this week using moose meat but with the mock meet and all going on I didn’t have time to write one up. I will do so next week. For the record, because it is a staple item for us moose meat is just that, meat. At its most basic it is muscle tissue that we get from a large herbivore. If you have lots of cattle available, you eat beef. Moose is what we have available so basically whatever recipe you use for beef we probably have a counterpart using moose. The biggest difference is in the amount of fat. Moose do have a substantial fat layer but at least for me moose fat does not contribute greatly to the taste like beef fat does. Another thing that is different for moose is that it normally needs to be cooked longer and at correspondingly lower temperatures than you might do with beef. That is why pressure cookers like the instant pot are really handy. That being said, we have another moose roast we will probably make next weekend and those are always good.
As usual Sunday is food prep day for the rest of the week for Lynn and I. Because of our schedules we don’t have a lot of time to do a lot of cooking during the week so as much as possible we cook a weeks worth on Sunday. Sounds boring but we don’t intend for our meals to be a source of entertainment anyway. When you get up at 4:45 am every day you are just happy to have something to eat before heading out.
Another moose picture
I put this weeks moose picture on the header. The calf was just laying in the snow right behind the house for quite a while. Not sure where the mother was but I’m sure she was close by. For some reason this time of year we start to get a lot of moose moving close to or in town. They can eat a surprising amount of our brush, mostly willows, in a short period of time. I have watched a cow moose eat in 5 minutes what it might take me a half hour to clear using chainsaws and axes. If I could just get them to work on the front yard a little more it would be nice.
The week coming up
As far as I know the coming week promises to be more of the same. My training mileage is ramping up and the weight training is being bumped up a notch as well. Ball players have been out of town for tournaments and should be returning today so we should have a full house at swim team training. Depending on the weather I’ll try again at getting some shots of the northern lights. Its hard to describe if you’ve never seen them, almost as hard to get good quality photographs. The temperatures will probably be moderate as well, the forecast is calling for temperatures in the 20’s above zero but that usually brings a lot of snow. Looks like the snow blower and shovel may get a workout as well. Until next week, stay warm!