Prepping for Winter!

Prepping for Winter!

We've been having some pretty weird weather. It's been swinging between the 60s and the lowest temperature so far was about 28°. We've had nice weather and then lots of rain. I think the next week or two will be kind of the end of our Autumn weather but that's a guess. We've been doing lots of little prepping things inside and out getting ready for winter. I have some nice Autumn decor on our front porch, took down the Halloween goodies from our front yard that we like to put out. It was fun seeing the trick-or-treaters again this year! Now we have some more regular decor out and prepping for Thanksgiving. Lots of leaves coming down daily- 

 

 

Turkey prices are seeming a bit high in our area, but I'm not seeing any shortages yet. Anybody seeing anything interesting out there? We will be hosting this year, doing a potluck with our adult kids and grandkids. Sometimes we have a little snow in November that doesn't last, but comes down. I'll be curious to see if we get some before Thanksgiving. The leaves are definitely coming down! Dave already cleaned out the gutters once-

 

We both got new wiper blades for both cars the other ones were toast. Got out out winter woolens and fleece, gloves, hats, etc. Had to buy some new wool socks at Costco, mine wore out. I love theirs, just throw in the washer dryer! Snow scrapers in the cars with emergency blankets. Cleaned out the garden beds, picked the last of the tomatoes. Caulked some of our windows. Dave repainted our house trim, gor new address numbers, all looks great! Chickens are still on strike since they molted, but that's normal for them! Dave put up the coop sunroom while it was still mild. Gives them lot of extra dry space during the snow and rain. We just take apart in the spring and store the frame-

 

 

Luna on the left Sunny on the right

 

I put our winter bedding out, nice heavy comforter to keep us warmer on the cold nights. I put out our faux sheep skins from Ikea. I have a few on our living room furniture pieces which we love. Makes it look a little bit more warm and cozy and they're easy to throw in the washer and dryer. I bought a couple blue ones too and Bonnie loves them on the foot of the  spare bed. I think she enjoys the fuzziness too!

 

 

I fermented some pickles for the winter. Also stocked up on some French baguettes, low-cost at a local French bakery. They freeze really great! Nice to have those on hand for soups in the winter. So nice to also have our homegrown, organic peaches and tomatoes frozen for the future.  I decided to try my hand at making my own sourdough starter soon and make some sourdough breads. I found a YouTube channel, Our Gabled Home, that had a really great video on how to easily make your own starter. Great video How To Easily Start Sourdough  She also has tons of simple Sourdough recipes and German food videos too. Enjoy! How is your autumn weather going???   

More Snow & The New Year, Recovery, My DNA Results!

 

More Snow & The New Year-

***Update! We got over 5" yesterday, a near record!*** If you followed this blog at all you know I love snow! Living in the high desert we don't always get very much, but it varies year to year. We had a couple of small snowfalls  maybe an inch, but it melted. Then we got into some record high temp weather in December where it was almost 47°! Last week we finally had a good snow of 2 inches. Really beautiful! I had intentionally left a few holiday decor items on the deck so that it might look nice if it snowed and we got lucky, the bulbs are solar lights-

 

We got another 2 inches this last weekend which stayed due to the cold weather. We did get another inch overnight last night, it warmed up and some of it did melt. That mountains are really getting hammered which is good for the snow pack, tourists and the ski season. More on the way if you check the map. This is definitely winter winter winter. I've been putting extra food out for the chickens, some snacks and things since they don't go outside much to keep them occupied. More snow expected the next several days, first "BLIZZARD" warning in years -

 

 

I am loving it! The city's been staying on top of the roads pretty well so not too bad going to work. Loved doing Christmas/winter/Yule decorating my "buffet" I created last year- 

 

My favorite new purchase was this little tree, it lights up. I put in in my big Ikea crock and looks perfect!

My Trader Joe's bulb garden has done amazing (as usual)!

We spent Christmas morning with our family and had a quiet New Year's. Happy New Year to all! PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS BLOG FONT IS TOO BIG? THANKS!

Recovery- 

I didn't know what exactly to do a photo of so I decided to add this since the Acupuncture has been so helpful! I have been back in the office for about a week, all going well. Since most insurances don't cover acupuncture much at all (if any)  I'm very fortunate that Boise has an Acupuncture Co-op! Kind of a sliding fee scale kind of thing once established as a patient. The acupuncturist I work with is really awesome I must say. I've been seeing her every two weeks and I noticed it really helped with the inflammation and healing. I also worked with my long-term Chiropractor as she did some really really minute adjustments (not on the surgical site)  but around it. My low back, separate from where the surgery was done, took a beating with being in bed so much and not moving around. After the first adjustment I walked out and I was actually upright completely with little pain. All in all everything is going super well, only been eight weeks and I'm about 98% recovered! Pain-free and all of the tingling in my legs is pretty much gone except on rare occasions. Very perfect outcome with lots of prayers involved. Great way to start the new year! 

My DNA Results!

Dave did a great job, for my December birthday/combo Christmas present- a DNA test from Ancestry. I had already done our family trees there. It was funny I always had loved Scandinavian culture and it turns out I'm part Scandinavian! And much more so than I ever would have guessed. Turns out my mother was 25% Scandinavian, as well as a large portion of Northern British, much of which apparently was settled by the Vikings. I was sort of aware of this migration, but not much. Anyway it's been really exciting to see. I guess there's a reason I've always gravitated toward Scandinavian culture, etc. Since I was a very young child when I first read about the Laplanders now known as the Sami (I think) I was fascinated by the Far North. I already knew about the Austrian/Czech side but never heard any family member mention any Swedish/Danish/Norwegian!  More DNA details here, interesting and a few potential family members popped up, probably won't contact, time will tell-

 

Gratitude, Winter Is Here/Food Preps

Gratitude -

I was going to do a "what I'm thankful for" post but didn't have time to get that done before Thanksgiving. So, while belated, here are some things I am EXTREMELY grateful for:

Surgery: One of the things I'm most grateful for right now is coming through some back surgery, solved a lot of chronic pain issues for the last year. I had two options, got two different opinions. The first doctor barely looked at Dave and I, rattled off a lot of statistics. Not a good fit. Second doctor, at a totally different practice, looked at us, answered Dave and my questions, outlined everything really well. Chose that procedure. Much shorter recovery time, surgery went well, I had immediate pain relief about 90% plus. I'm getting better each day! I've been off work the last two weeks, one more week off work then next week will start working half-time at home. Will gradually increase my hours till the end of the year and then back in the office in January. I am very grateful that I was already set up to work from home! My boss and my co-worker have been really supportive. Dave's such an incredible hard worker, and went above and beyond caring for me the 1st week after surgery. We had our 30th anniversary in this time frame! We were able to go out to dinner and relax.

New Tires: Dave took my Mazda in for a oil change and turned out the tires were really low, which was kind of a shock to us. We had about 20,000 miles onto 70,000 mile tires. Dave talked to them and since that was the place we bought the tires from they gave us a big credit towards new tires. They said they had problems with this make and model. We got brand new tires this weekend, huge discount. We also got a different brand so hopefully we won't go through this again. It was good timing getting the replaced going into WINTER since we're just starting to get some snow in the area. Nothing at our house yet, buT due this week!

Dave's Pal: Dave was thrilled that a longtime childhood friend Bob moved to our area. I had met him before, great guy. I am really happy they can spend some time together and hang out. We had him over for a simple Thanksgiving dinner, since he moved here three days before and didn't know anyone in the area. It was lovely! Really enjoyed my newer "buffet", after removing the computer in the kitchen last year, worked great for serving turkey day foods! Sorry no food shots-

Roasted some leftover pumpkins from the house for the girls-

 

 

Still wondering what they are?

 

 

 

Winter Is Here/Food Preps-

The cold weather has finally come! We had 18° weather last week, with our first snow forecast down in the valley for late this week. This is a time of year I stock up on certain things. We did take down all of the Autumn/Thanksgiving decor this weekend. I don't have any Advent/Christmas stuff up quite yet. I like to take a breather between the two. I did put my first holiday decor up, my favorite vintage jar with a little red berries on the kitchen window. We did make a run to Trader Joe's and I bought one of their nice small fresh candle wreaths that I actually hang on the kitchen wall. Bought some live red berries, some evergreen branches, an amaryllis and a few food items. Before surgery I totally forgot to buy some amaryllis bulbs last month. We went to Costco a while back and I needed some unbleached flour. I do try to do as much whole grain and I have tons of whole wheat/whole wheat pastry flour. At Costco they had a large bag of all purpose flour for eight bucks, much cheaper than at the grocery store so I bought a bag. I think it was 15 lb? 

I bought some wheat berries from the LDS Food Store online.  

Churchofjesuschrist.org/Food Storage Basically you can set up a new account if you are not a member, which I am not, and when you set up your profile there's a checkbox where you CHECK "I am not a member".  I got a really great deal on six cans of hard wheat berries for about $45. I think shipping was about $7? Took about 2 weeks but I'm really happy to have the wheat berries on hand. I think next year is going to be really really ugly for the wheat market in the US for the consumer. Really great thing is berries keep a long time in a cool, dry area in those cans. They do also sell other dehydrated things like carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, oats. I thought they had a really good customer service with shipping in a fairly timely manner. Also went thru my pantry, got out some of my stash of coffee beans. Bought more teas, cereals. Washed and sorted our winter hats and gloves. Using those already!

 

Here's a peek at our garden-random gorgeous fall colors here at our homestead- 

Our Oak Leaf Hydrangea

 

Backyard mound garden

Dave got the sun room up on the coop two weeks ago-

 

 

Bonnie enjoying the winter sun-

 

 

I had some scrap faux Ikea sheepskin (cut out a circle for Bonnie's kitty perch top)-

 

 

I thought I could winterize my little bench!

 

 

Just cut a curve and draped!

First Snow! Winterizing The Coop, Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores

From Idahostatesman.com

First Snow!

I love snow!!! We had our first really big snow storm come through Oregon and Idaho Friday. Woke up to falling snow in the morning melting on the road to work. A few days before that got some snow up in the foothills, but this was our big first Mountain snow. Story here Ski Area Excited or Early Snow   Just in time as the garden had gotten it's last harvest-

 

The chickens are enjoying having the full run of the garden area now. Made our last couple of pizzas with homegrown tomatoes. We do have some hardy kale and collard greens still!

 

Closed the vents on the foundation, winterized the cars with new wiper blades, snow/scrapers and a spare blankie just in case. The summer quilt and blanket on the bed are gone, I put on our nice big warm comforter! Dave and I switched to our winter down coats, kitty Bonnie has discovered the floor heating vents and gets some nice warm air. Since we adopted her in last December this is her first Autumn going into Winter. I still miss Anya but having Bonnie here has been a real comfort-

 

We recently brought Anya home. One of the things they included with her ashes was a paw print of hers-

 

Made me cry it was so sweet. Anya always loved watching the snow fly. I think she thought the snowflakes were bugs and she'd meow at them!

 

One of my last photos of her
 

 

Winterizing The Coop- 

The weather was really warm in October and then suddenly dropped the last week. After a heavy rain and some snow we decided to put up the sun room and attach it to the coop. Dave pulled out all the components that we stored behind the coop. In the garage we attached the plastic and the frame until it was all put together-

 mid process

After we tie wrapped all the plastic tie wrapped on and got the frame stable Dave and I carried it out into the backyard. Dave attached it to the coop and now the chickens have extra space through the rest of the winter! The sun rooms have worked really great over the years. Dave also deep cleaned the coop so the chickens are ready for a nice cold winter. It's been interesting the price change on bales of pine shavings . We use the deep litter method and pine shavings are great. A bale is currently about $20 which is more than double in about the last 6 months!!! Not sure if this is due to fuel prices or more the popularity of coops in the area or both? I'm glad I did stock up on a couple of extra bags of feed a few months back.  Otherwise they are all cozy! Shot from last year-

 

 

On the low setting

Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores-

I love Ikea but there's no store in Boise sadly. One of my biggest complaints with Ikea was that they don't sell any holiday decor online. They are finally selling some, but not all. I love Scandinavian folk art and there's some things I really love (not much of fan of modern Scandinavian design).  I was able to finally find a few things online of their holiday decor and I ordered some! One of them was not a holiday item but a pseudo oil electric lamp (see above). There used to be one in a really dark green that I loved but I didn't want to spend the money. I found this one that was cream colored, was $10 off, ($20) and I bought it. I had actually never seen something marked "ON SALE" at Ikea.  It's perfect on my end table when I want just a little bit of light and it's adjustable. Since it's LED it's bright when it's on all the way, and I bought a spare bulb. The glass and metal is very heavy duty and durable.

I also found some really cute Ikea Christmas tree ornaments, candles and a really cute little tray. Tree ornaments $15, very much like Mercury glass! I did splurge on these, even prettier in real life!!!

 

From Ikea Vinterfint Ornaments

 A cute tray $4-

Big Snow! Birthday Ikea Trip/ Holiday Decor Downsizing, Preparedness & RX Shortages

 

Big Snow!

Our first big winter storm is arriving! Woke up to about 1/2" of snow and 21 degrees this morning. We're talking lots of feet of snow in the mountains in the next week. This is our first really big snow storm to hit. I've seen there's more weather problems up in Canada and Washington, sad. We usually get snow November/December, but it varies every year. So far nothing big down here in the valley, but look at the forecast! 

Birthday Ikea Trip/ Holiday Decor Downsizing-

It's that time of year! I started putting up our winter decor about a week ago since I like to take a break after Thanksgiving. I also had my birthday! I won't say which one, but a BIG one. I like doing something fun since I never had a birthday parties as a kid. I always got combination birthday and Christmas gifts, what a bummer. Dave and I did a one-day birthday drive to Salt Lake City Ikea so I could buy some holiday goodies for my birthday present. I did about 95% of the driving, perfect weather. I know it may seem crazy but I've wanted to buy some of their winter decor, and you can't buy it online. We never go to the Portland Ikea for family visits in winter. So we went! We never got a vacation this year or last year, so we didn't feel guilty. Just gas, a couple meals, and shopping. They were out of a few things but I got most of the fun holiday items-

Finally a Dala horse! And a Tomten with deer (ceramic)

Fox and tree candle holder, ceramic too 

I really wanted their 3-piece glass mushroom set, but were out. I found one on eBay for a bit more, I was thrilled! Three sizes, heavy glass with heavy clips-

 Red and white mushrooms were said to be the basis for Santa's hat! 

I added to my display, I love the nature look with the greenery-

Bigger shot here-

Also from eBay, an Ikea LED mini candelabra, battery operated, $10.00-

I stocked up on their amazing whole grain/Rye crackers, cookies and a little Swedish cheese. Got a mistletoe table runner, some mini star lights and some stocking stuffers. I really love Scandinavian folk art and natural types of holiday decorations. So there's a sneak peek of what we have out. Our Christmas decor will be coming out this weekend! 

Dining room farm window

Kitchen window, thrifted new prim snowman

Dining room

Living room

Entryway Gingerbread theme

Living room window

I moved my Jul decor to the living room this year! 

Holiday Decor Downsizing: 

Phase two was letting go of some winter  decor. I decided I wanted to get rid of at least one or two chunks. I always start off with putting winter decor out first. Then I add Christmas things a week or two later. First thing I did with the winter stuff was spread it out and open the totes which created quite the mess! Then I started going through things that I really love versus things that I was ready to let go of. Since a lot of my holiday decor was thrifted there wasn't a huge amount of financial investment. I looked at what do I really love, how much storage do we have, etc. I wound up emptying out one complete tote and donating all of it. Next phase will be going through all the Christmas stuff. The biggest part of that is our artificial tree, wrapping paper, ditto. The rest is tree decorations and tabletop things. Over time I'm liking something less cluttered looking, although my style might be more cluttered than other people's. That's okay. I think decorating for winter is my favorite thing because I've always loved snow! Probably from growing up in Southern California where I didn't really see any except way up in the Sierra mountains.

Preparedness & RX Shortages-

What's new here for preparedness. I have noticed some distinct shortages in the grocery stores and escalating prices. I saw some bell peppers for a $1.75 each, instant noodles ramen type of foods completely off of all the shelves. This was in a Walmart Market. I see our gas prices here are going down a bit which is good. I was happy to see the Walmart Market did have some canned Keystone meat on hand. I picked up a couple cans of chicken. Keystone meat comes really really highly recommended, it's affordable only meet in a lightly salted Brian no other flavors and big chunks. Still getting a few eggs here and they're usually about one a day, glad I had some frozen! When we were getting four per day in the summer I decided to start freezing them. I did also buy some sprouting seeds in case the quality and price of greens gets really exorbitant. I have noticed some quality issues with some things like romaine and spinach . Not sure if it's from the trucking shortage? I also found a nice deal on a bread proofing basket (Ikea) with a cloth cover-

I also bought an Ikea knife sharpener, has a well for water to wet the sharpening stones-

As for RX shortages- I'm hearing this from some of my medical employers insurance  members, more RX's are getting more backordered. This is a sobering list from Drugs.com Drug Shortages, what's scary is it's so long, and growing. Wondering how are you doing in your neck of the woods as far as availability of foods and products, prices? 

Our house

Coop's ready too!