Preparedness 17.0/ And 17 Degrees!

Preparedness 17.0/ And 17 Degrees! 

Well we hit 17 degrees the other morning! Winter is definitely here with a little bit of snow in the hills and mountains in a few days. I have been tracking the weather closely, so we already had all of our perennials fairly well mulched, and I put row cover over the kale and collard greens. Last year some of my collard greens wintered over with no cover but they were bigger. With the weeks and weeks of 100 degree weather this summer they got a slow start- 

under nice row covers

This weekend we will be taking all of the tools inside from my garden work bench on the back porch and storing them and then covering it up for the winter-

bench on right

Dave got the new sunroom design up on the coop, we'll be soon running a power line through for their water heater/ hard-wired in heat lamp if we need that. Gives them more dry/warm space-

For preparedness for the chickens we bought several months worth of food in advance and pine shavings. Same thing with our cat as well, we have at least a month or two's worth of extra food on hand. You just never know what's going to run out anymore-

Debbie left and Sunny right

Luna deep in thought

I'm also going to stock up on some sewing items. I'm a little bit short on various needles. Being able to mend your clothes or a pair of things over time it's a good skill to have! I cannot tell you how many really great thrifted designer tops I have bought that were missing a button, while there was one sewed into the inseam. When somebody is not knowledgeable enough (or maybe rich), they don't sew a button on, they donate to shirt instead, shakes head.

Part of preparedness for me is having the house ready for winter. We have the nice warm comforter on our bed now and we are lowering our heating temperatures during the day-

Since I'm working from home I close my office door and turn the down the furnace. I have an oil-filled electric radiant heater that I turn on first thing in the morning, then turn on/off as needed in my work space. That way we were not heating the whole house! I added a little battery operated Ikea string lights to my pantry rack, cheers up the space. I'll add some Christmas and winter decor soon after Thanksgiving!

On the preparedness front- as far as food I did notice a few anomalies here and there I went to our local WinCo last week to get some groceries. I noticed that there was actually zero beef lunch meat on the shelves, except for one brand. There was lots of turkey, chicken, ham, etc. but only one type of package of beef. Meat prices are definitely way way up so I'm glad we don't eat meat everyday. I did find some good deals on chicken breasts w/ribs for a $2.00 a pound which was not. I bought a four pack and roasted them with salt pepper garlic paprika and Sage. Roasted a couple of yams and it was a great dinner!

I think a few things are good to think about stocking up on would be things like laundry detergent, or components to make your own. Soaps, shampoos, deodorant those kinds of personal hygiene products you might need. And for you females you know what you might need certain products as well! Recently bought some extra things like Q-tips. Got to have my Q-tips! 

I have been seeing a lot on social media about ever increasing prices of gas, food, etc. I've also heard that there are people who were raiding grocery stores. They go in a group and get lots and lots of full carts of food, run out of the store into a waiting truck, load it all and leave. That's pretty scary,  stealing $1,000.00's worth of food. I think using the phrase repeatedly supply chain issues may be an attempt to normalize that. It is not normal and it never will be. Sadly the weather comes into play with this, in British Columbia one of their ports was hit with massive rain storms and was shut down-

From Canada Flood and Landslides

I just finished up my last dehydrating tomatoes batch! I have a few fresh ones on the counter that I'll be using to make some pasta sauce with sausage this weekend. Good time for hearty food!

I have been watching some videos on YouTube of preparedness folks and one of them I actually stopped watching. She kept saying "oh my husband's favorite meat and oh my daughter's favorite drink is out!" I finally put something on her YouTube comments about being resilient! Maybe time to make some homemade flavored teas and time for husband to look at alternative protein sources? With things being the way they are (I don't see this changing anytime in the future) it is time to be resourceful, flexible, and resilient. No point being a victim through all of this, get creative! 

Time To Hire A Pro/Bathroom Tile Upgrade!

Time To Hire A Pro/Bathroom Tile Upgrade!

Back in 2014 we re-modeled our old main bathroom due to rotting floor issues. The tub was probably 20 years old, tan ceramic tiles, etc.  Here's the full re-do we did Bathroom Remodel Reveal  As part of the remodel we installed a new tub and the shower walls we did with three vinyl walls. We were on a tight budget/short on time for the shower walls. Looked much nicer at the time-

We LOVE the window over the tub, lots of natural light! 

Fast forward-

Scale buildup

We decided to invest our Covid $ in the house. The whole Boise valley has very hard water which made this hard to clean after years and years. We tried all kinds of products! I had wanted subway tile but after seeing larger tile we decided to go with that. Large white matte tile (no gloss with hard water) and very light grey grout. Dave and I both decided to have some pros do the install. We thought we just wanted it to be perfect, with re-sale value and all. I also have hand issues, which would have been an issue handling so large heavy much tile, grout, etc. There was an issue with the installer not wanting to look at the job in person and bid, so we did photos and went into the store. We had three three panels, but the bidder thought it was a full shower surround.  On the day of install they realized it. That was good, as the labor went down and speeded up the process! Good news, we saved $800.00! We only have one full bathroom in the house. We will use part of the savings for our next project, the coop/ garden fencing. I was also happy to hear about the new technology that is the epoxy grout. Supposedly lasts forever and should be pretty mildew proof. We choose large 12" x 24" matte white Porcelain tile. I had seen this before with light gray grout and loved it! We added a new shower head/rod as well. I deep cleaned the faucet spout and handle/cover and we re-used those. 

We had planned on having a niche with a shelf put on the back wall, but the studs were too close together. We had planed on adding one heavy, stainless steel shelves to the front corner, decided to add two more to the job for more storage instead-

Love the floral pattern

The workers (two) removed the panels fast, scraped down the old adhesive, then sanded. I didn't take photos of this since it was a small space and didn't want to freak them out. They sanded and smoothed the walls. They added a water barrier, on top of our cement board, mesh up for the tile-

Next tile went up, with spacers-

I ran in while they were out

When they got all the tile up, with spacers, they left for the day. We choose a light gray grout Grout Epoxy listed as Cape Gray. It was darker as first and lightened up as it dried. Here's all the details-

Two shelves rear and one front

Front shelf

New hotel style shower rod/head

Tile around the window, looks much more finished! 

They drilled thru the very thick porcelain tile into the studs for the rod

Shelf floated between the tiles 

As this house was built in the 70's not a surprise when the worker told me the wall wasn't quite level. He had to level the tile by using thicker adhesive/grout. You can see on the edge the gray is wider. I may paint this white. I emailed the grout manufacturer and they said I would have to use an epoxy paint. Will live with it a bit, Dave says it looks fine. They used a white metal edge on the tile, bull nose would have been really expensive! 

I bought new towels from Ikea since the green ones were pretty well done. Sadly they discontinued their apple green color I LOVED!!! I bought a nice Ikea set of blue ones with some edging- baths sheets, hand towels and wash cloths-

I kept the same Ikea shower curtain since it was only a few months old-

Shelves work great!

I added two Ikea shower hooks under the front shelf to hang things from. I had also bought a basket to match but looks like we won't need it. We may put it right above the edge of the tub on the wall if we take baths. We are more shower people-

 

Art work back up

All in all it came out great! We will be able to maintain this tile easier with the matte porcelain finish. We're looking at the kitchen counter next, time will tell!