A To Z - O is for Otters

I LOVE otters!!!!!  They are my favorite wild animal and if it weren't illegal and impractical I would so love to have one for a pet.  :D  First lets look at some pictures I took at a zoo last year, then I'll tell you all about otters.

I love how sociable, playful and happy they are!   

 Two otters playing, the one you can barely see is biting the cheek of his buddy hehe.

Watching them play makes me so happy.  My husband had to drag me away from the otter exhibit at the zoo.  I could stay there for hours!  Their happiness is so infectious.  :D

Stopping for a scratch hehe.

 Otters are in the weasel family Mustelidae (subfamily Lutrinae) which includes minks, weasels, martens, badgers, wolverines and polecats.  Males are called dogs, females are bitches and offspring are pups.  They live in a den called a holt or couch.  The newborn learns to swim at two months old and lives with it's family for a year.  Otters can live up to sixteen years!

There are 13 species of otter (I had to look them all up).  More info HERE.

African/Cape Clawless
Sea
Oriential small-clawed
Congo Clawless
North American River
Marine
Neotropical/Long-Tailed
Eurasian/Eurpoean
Spotted-necked/Speckle Throated
India Smooth-coated
Southern River
Hairy-nosed
Giant

The ones we see and hear most about are the sea otter, giant otter and river otter, so I'm going to tell you a bit about each one.  You can learn more about all sorts of otters HERE.

The giant otter lives in South America and is known as the river wolf.  They can be over five feet long and weigh up to 70 pounds!!  Although they are the biggest otters, the sea otter actually weighs more.  Giant otters live in groups of up to 20.  They are active during the day and eat fish, fish eggs, frogs, etc.  They've even been known to eat Anacondas!

The North American river otter lives in Alaska, Canada and much of the United States.  They can dive up to sixty feet and swim for a quarter mile before coming up for air!  They can swim 7 miles per hour!!  They are typically three to four feet long and can weigh up to twenty pounds.  They love to slide!  They will slide across ice or down mud slides in the riverbank.

The sea otter can be distinguished from the river otters by their flattened tails and their flipper like hind feet.  If you've ever seen pictures of otters floating belly up in the water, that's probably a sea otter.  They spend a lot of time floating like that, even sleeping!  While sleeping they will hold hands with their buddies to keep from floating away from each other.  They spend almost all of their lives at sea, even giving birth in the water!  Sea otters range from Japan, Russia, Alaska to Baja California.  They may live as long as twenty years in the wild and grow up to five feet and weigh up to 100 pounds!!  They also have the densest fur of any other mammal which is how they stay warm since they don't have blubber like most marine mammals.  The air trapped in their fur holds in their body heat.  They keep the air in their fur by blowing into with with their mouths. How cool is that?  Sea otters also will often carry a rock in a pouch under their forearm and use them to smash open shells, making them one of the relatively small number of animals which use tools.  :)  How can you not love these guys??

A To Z - N is for New

 N is for New!  As in...

New blooms...

My grandparent's gorgeous Azalea bush.

It almost glows when the sun hits it!!

I did not edit the colors in this photo.

Dogwood tree is blooming too!

New butterflies migrating in for summer...

 The Azalea is so colorful it made the butterfly pale in comparison!

 He really was a gorgeous yellow though.

New life...

 My friend's Friesian mare delivered this gorgeous purebred Friesian colt four days ago!

 Isn't he handsome??

(More) New life...

 Two of my chickens hatched out new baby chicks!!!

 As best I can tell there are four black ones and three brown ones.

The funny thing is how they will hide under either hen hehe.

(More almost here, but not quite) new life...

Two of my ducks are sitting on about fifteen eggs a piece so we will have ducklings soon too!  I wish they had hatched out before this post, but instead I'll post a picture of momma sitting on her eggs inside of a hollow tree.  :D

That's all the new stuff I have around the farm for today!  I hope you enjoyed seeing all of them.

A to Z - M is for Microwave

Since building our house I still don't have a kitchen (ran out of money).  No stove, no sink, no counters, no cabinets, etc.  For right now my kitchen is set up with two tables.  On one table is my microwave, my toaster oven and my coffee pot.  That leaves just enough room in front of the small appliances for sitting plates or bowls while cooking.  On the other table is my crock pot.  It's also the one I use to prep food or eat on.

So I've had to learn to cook things in a microwave that I would normally cook on a stove, such as rice and pasta.  Here is how I do it, just in case you ever can't use your stove.

Microwave Rice

Use the biggest bowl that will fit in your microwave (I use glass, it gets very hot, but won't melt, use potholders).
Put in your rice and water (I typically do 1 cup rice, 2 cups water)
Add salt to taste
Cover the bowl (I use a paper plate as a lid lol)
Cook in microwave on high for approx. 25 minutes.  If you pull it out and there is still water just put it back in for a few minutes.
Take out, fluff with a fork and eat!
It's so simple and makes perfect rice!

Microwave Pasta

My favorite pasta is cheese filled tortellini, so I'll share how to cook it.  All pasta varies a lot and will take some adjustments.

I again use my biggest bowl.  Fill with however much water it takes to cover the amount of pasta you want to cook, but don't over fill or it will boil over in your microwave.

Add salt!!  Very important.  I read somewhere this prevents the water from exploding... how does water explode??  I haven't had that happen because I add salt lol.

Cover the bowl (again I use a paper plate)

Now heat the water in the microwave until it's very hot.  This varies depending on the strength of your microwave and the amount of water.  For a full package of tortellini I fill my bowl about halfway and heat it for seven minutes.  You can supposedly make the water boil, but mine doesn't.  As long as there is steam coming off of it or some movement in the water it should be good to go.

Add pasta (I put the whole package of tortellini in frozen).

Stir

Cook until pasta is tender.  For my tortellini it's about seven minutes.  To make sure the cheese on the inside is hot I let it sit in the microwave undisturbed for an additional five minutes after cooking.

The tortellini comes out tender and warm.  I then add the Alfredo sauce and heat back up since my sauce is usually cold.

All done!  Enjoy!


For spaghetti it took longer than seven minutes.  I broke the spaghetti in half so it would fit under the water, then cooked it, checking every few minutes until it was how I like it.  If you cook too long it turns gummy and mushy so check often!!  The key is to IMMEDIATELY drain the water!  If you leave it setting it soaks up the water until it's all nasty.  I ruined a whole bowl of macaroni by letting it sit too long.

It takes some trial and error (especially the pasta), but it's been so nice to have two of my favorite dishes without a stove.  :)  Have fun!