Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Aug 30, 2014

Vintage Kitchen Chicken Wire Window Display, Change in The Weather


Vintage Kitchen Chicken Wire Window Display-
Dave and I went up for the afternoon to Idaho City to our favorite little lunch place. We have tried for years to go into a little junk shop, but it was always closed. Not today! The photo above is the cute kitchen tools on chicken wire display on top of a vintage window frame. They stripped it down to bare wood, not my thing. I like chippy paint!!! I have been wanting to re-display my vintage green wood handled kitchen tools. I wanted something bigger to make more impact, rather than having them scattered all around the kitchen. Most of them are from the 1920's/30's. On the way home I found a similar sized old window for $7.00 at a Habitat-like store. We broke and disposed of the glass, and Dave got out out spare chicken wire. I'll be making the same thing, but will leave the chippy paint on the window. Watch the upcoming redo! Earlier today I found a like-new small bathroom wall storage cabinet for $5.00 at the Habitat Store, for my small bathroom. It needs a little something! So today was my day of great ideas! Ironically I didn't buy anything in the store I'd been waiting years to shop at, but at least I got a good display idea....


Change in The Weather-
I'm sitting here listening to 45+ mph winds, always a bit nerve-racking. I always worry about a huge branch coming down from our beloved backyard maple tree. So far, so good. I know the storm was coming, and we could see the clouds accumulating on our way home from the mountains. I LOVE the rain, and right now is blowing sideways across the street. Rain baby, bring it on! Chickens are all safley tucked in for the night, and I prepped the yard. I'll check my rain barrel in the morning :) It's starting to feel  bit like Fall with the cooler weather, shorter days, and storms starting to blow thru. I love the fall weather when it's a nice 65-75 degrees and sunny, then colder at night. Perfect outside weather for me... What's it doing where you live???

Aug 24, 2014

A Little State Fair Fun, Garden Update & Coop Cleaning, Cauliflower and Kale Salad



A Little State Fair Fun-
Every year we go to the local S.W. Idaho (the big one) State Fair. Have some lunch, walk around and see the old, fun stuff. I love seeing all the farm animals too. Sadly I forgot to get some photos of the goats!!! My personal fave :) It was only about 75 degrees instead of the usual 90s+. Here's a peek of our visit last Sat. I was too busy going back to work to blog any sooner! 

Cute fairy garden winner

Quilt show entries


Cute chicken kleenex box cover, I may make one!

 
winning veggies


local coop tour coming up, so we may go 

 
huge gourd

love all the old tractors





cool old washing machines, in excellent condition!!!

love the speckled finish and green color

cute water works


nap time bacon bits

sweet faces

lunch time!

rocking the bandannas

 
Just call me Elvis!


Garden Update & Coop Cleaning-
The weather has been great this weekend- in the mid 70's. It's so green and the sky has been really blue. I feel like it's almost early fall weather. Sadly back to the 90's alter this week, but a nice break. And 3 days off next weekend!!! Woo hoo, off on a day trip for us! Dave cleaned the coop, I spread the pine shavings into the garden, and I whacked back the blackberries. We have a HUGE batch of nectarines still pretty hard, so maybe 2 weeks or more before harvesting them. Then canning, and freezing. Not many apples this year...

blackberries much better!
  
tomatoes doing well

squashes nice and big

pots doing well

herbs and flowers
 
deep blue skies


Photo from Yummly

Cauliflower and Kale Salad-
I was looking for a way to use up some of my Italian kale, and found this- Cauliflower & Kale Salad  Dave and I both LOVED it! I did add some extra lemon juice, but great flavor otherwise. I never would have thought of grating cauliflower!

Aug 16, 2014

Finally Some Major Rain!!! Back To Work, At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens, A Perfect Salad

From Ktvb.com weather

Finally Some Major Rain!!!-
We have had a lot of "split storms" in Boise recently The way things are laid out here, we get a lot of storms that make a V in the valley. When they hit here they tend to split to the west and east and miss the middle of the Boise valley. Where I live. It stinks. Lots of rain in the mountains, foothills, east to Twin Falls, west to Oregon. Zippo here. It has been so dry and smoky here! Finally on Wed. we had a little rain in the morning, and a major thunderstorm came into town about 6 p.m. Lots of much-needed rain was expected in those few minutes, but we only had about 15 minutes worth. BUT in the middle of the night we awoke (about 12:30, I was sound asleep!) to a MAJOR thunderstorm, with tons of lightning, and a long lasting downpour. It even shook the windows. Happily it also filled up my 55 gallon rain barrel:) The air smells really wonderful since then, with deep blue skies. I'm sure this helped with the forest fires.  I checked with the news and we received between 1/2" and 3/4" inch of rain. It was such a great relief, settled the smoke, pollen and gave everything a good drink!!! We haven't had to water since then...




Back To Work-
Sadly my stay-at-home summer is coming to an end. I'm back to "work" on Monday. I've gotten lots of projects done this summer- deep cleaning closets, eBaying/Craigslisting extra items, painting, gardening, thrifting, you name it. I still see all the undone projects, but I have to remind myself there are these things called weekends! While I am extremely grateful for being employed, and all the benefits that go with it, it's a very stressful work environment. I work with about 85% high poverty kids, which gives me a very complicated student body to work with. Lots of behavior management, in a kind way:) Anyway, it's back to school for me. You'll see a few less posts, but I'm thinking about y'all!!! And wishing I were home. Let's see there's canning coming up, freezing, drying.....


At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens-
I've written about my Chicken Hospital set up before, and I had to set it up again this week. I went out Thursday morning to find a droopy combed, very lethargic chicken. Ellie, my sweet old retired hen. I've never seen a droopy comb before, and her coloring on her comb was off too, purplish. She seemed fine the day before. I brought her in and treated her for worms, and hydrated her. Worms are a common culprit here. I wormed the whole flock. Yesterday morning she was wheezing a bit so I suspected an infection. I had Tetroxy HCA-280 soluble powder on hand, but she wasn't drinking much. She's ate yogurt with wormer, but was still really droopy. I kept her inside the rest of the day. She's a real sweetheart so I hoped to be able to pull her through. I got her to eat some soft bread yesterday morning, then I gave her some watery homemade applesauce with the Tetroxy, and more later, which she ate. I washed her bum for good measure:)  I brought her in last night, repeated and focused more on the antibiotics. She seemed a little perked up. I just didn't want her to get more dehydrated. Today....

She's much better! This morning when I went out she was much perkier, tails up, alert. I brought her in again, since she's been out (it's mild) and she gobbled up her sauce. I gave her more diluted, homemade applesauce with Tetroxy, with some rolled oats. Comb's still a bit down, but that's ok. Long live the Internet! I get so many free resources there, and it's great in an emergency. I now keep a full-blown emergency chicken kit on hand. Good to have since things can happen quickly, can't afford vet bills, and stores might be closed. Here's a good article if you're scratching your head what to do for your birds- Caring For a Sick Or Injured Chicken 

Ellie free ranged a bit this morning after her meds, and she was much more alert and curious. I think she'll make it!!! We'll be cleaning the coop as well...





Her younger sisters, ready to lay soon!!!


A Perfect Salad-
Fresh from the garden- Swiss Chard, tomatoes (3 kinds), cukes. Add some leftover romaine- it's what's for dinner!!!

Aug 10, 2014

More Mountain Vacation & Country Street Decor, My Mini Vintage Display


Hailey, Idaho Miner's Cabin

More Mountain Vacation-
Here's more photos of our trip to Sun Valley-

Sun Valley resort building, love the Nordic style and flowers

Gorgeous flowers



Cute Hailey coffee place vintage truck
and gas pumps


Old Hailey town hall, love the steeple!

These are all from the outside looking into the Miner's cabin, wish could could have taken an inside tour! It's right behind the town hall. Sorry for the blur, but you get the idea...



Nice dough bowl


Another Hailey truck

Cute!

The day after we got back from Sun Valley we took our daughter up to McCall for a Payette lake cruise. She only gets 2 split days off work, and since Dave was on vacation we did a back-to-back trip. Shorter drive and the cruise was fun! We drove up (2 hours), had a quick lunch and got to the ferry. Nice and relaxing. It's always a good 10-15 degrees cooler up there, great in the summer! I'd love to retire somewhere outside McCall on an acre, love the cooler weather and snow in the winter.

Payette Lake


We stopped at Cascade Lake on the way back and Dave and Michelle played on the beach while I took photos and relaxed...

Cascade Lake fun


My Mini Vintage Display-
It took me a bit of time to figure out where to put my heavy, thrifted, iron mini-pot rack so.... I put it on the top of my vintage window frame! Dave hung it, as he's taller. I may add more. In the fall/winter/spring I will add some seasonal things, for now it's good....

I love the iron scroll work

My 1920's vintage kitchen tools










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