Yaks

Out on to the natural beauty road early this morning. It was frozen. There was only one small area that I thought it was too slippery to run through. Frozen sand is so much safer to run on than frozen clay. Even wet clay can be quite slippery. It was nice being out for almost an hour around rush hour and only seeing one car the whole time. Despite the temperature, it felt like spring with the chirping birds. I did see a herd of about 6 deer cross in front of me. I stopped at the township park to look at their trail map. Next to it was a sign:

Caution: coyotes are in the area!!!

I've yet to see a coyote in Michigan though I saw the picture someone took of a coyote on their porch in our old neighbor hood. I think I've heard them howl at night though not here. If they were in the area, they should do something to that deer carcass that the crows have been slowly chipping away at though maybe they prefer fresh meat.

Yesterday, after a depressing meeting with a potential painter at the MoneyPit, I had a little time for a bike ride. I am building up the distance slowly.  I have the cardio and the muscles for more distance but dealing with the seat takes some getting used to.

Then off to our cooking class for cancer survivors. Last night's topic: budget meals with 3 dishes.
Butternut squash mac and cheese (squash is cheaper than cheese yet has the same color but less fat. To replace the missing protein, pureed cannellini beans were added. It tasted good.
Salmon salad: a mix of canned salmon, chopped apples, scallions and cranberries served over spinach.
Red lentil soup with eggplant.

As usual, things are made as healthy as possible with all organic foods. She tries to avoid gluten so the pasta was from brown rice (panko crumbs do have gluten). If she does use real milk, it is hormone free. This milk also was unpasteurized (it can be sold if the cattle are certified to be disease free). It was the first time in my long life that I tasted unpasteurized milk. I'm not a milk fan as it is. It didn't taste that special.

My new friend was there so we had a good time. She will visit my new house next week.

 I went out to lunch with my birthday buddy at the lone restaurant that is sort of near us. As we were close to the yak farm (and the restaurant serves yak), we went to visit them. This time, they were quite close to the road. Two of them were especially interested in us and came as close as possible sniffing the air. They are supposed to be much gentler than cattle. There is a movie called  Babies showing how different cultures deal with child raising. They show the Mongol culture with babies underfoot of the family yak. I am Facebook friends with the yak farm. They apparently got lots of concerned calls about the yaks being out in the cold. They want to remind people about the climate yaks came from Out in the steppe, it is much below zero for a good portion of the year..

Julie is off for a weekend with friends so Josh and Allie will be spending some time with us. Should be fun.