Where The Sheep Bells Go We Follow... A Little Inspiration!

 

 

Where The Sheep Bells Go We Follow... A Little Inspiration! 

 I stumbled upon this on YouTube and this kind of thing gives me hope for the future! Tell me what you think? And enjoy! Lots more there on their Channel! Try and watch on a BIG screen if you can! 

What Are Synchronized Crop Failures?

                          From Vice.com

 

What Are Synchronized Crop Failures?

I thought I'd share this since this video has such a good description and explanation of what synchronized crop failure really is. Great for us non-scientists. I really appreciate this YouTuber, City Prepper, because he does such a good job with data, science and is a-political. Watch the whole thing, might be good information if you want to make some changes. I really like the idea of food pivots. He has tons of great info and a free newsletter with lots of useful info-

 

Here's his website Cityprepping.com  I rarely endorse anyone (no fee paid), but he has very professional work and very informative. Better to get ready now than later... 

 

Smoky Skies, Rural Farmer's Market Haul, Easy/ Cheap Old Monitor To Laptop Fix! Thrifted Galileo Barometer, Chick Update

Smoky Skies-

I've seen the fires in California on the national news and it's just absolutely horrendous. I really feel for all the loss of lives, both human and animal, loss of housing, businesses, wilderness, etc. The smoke has been so bad it's been drifting from California into Nevada and Idaho the last several days. It makes for gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, but is pretty bad otherwise. Early morning yesterday I saw a bright orange red ball in the sky. I wish I could have got a better picture-

It's really exacerbated people who have underlying respiratory issues, like me, with asthma and allergies. But it could be worse at least Idaho isn't on fire the way California is! I hope they get some rain soon.

Rural Farmer's Market Haul-

A few years ago we got some amazing peaches from one of Dave's co-workers. They were from a local farm/orchard and I started thinking about that the other day. They're about a 40-minute drive from here so I called ahead and they had those peaches! They're different because they're a smaller farm so they can really tree-ripen their fruits. We may go back soon for some plums. We drove out today and I bought two crates of peaches. Sorry I don't remember the variety but they're like an Elberta Peach, but much bigger, the size of a SOFTBALL!

Chilling in the bedroom

Beauties!

The peaches I'm going to freeze soon, then over Labor Day weekend (five days off with PTO) I'm going to make some big batches of peach jam. I may also can some peaches. Our poor Peach tree kind of fizzled out this year, so I was happy to buy some local peaches. Sadly none of the fruit I bought today was organic, but what can you do. Hopefully next year will be better. Our pears are ripening so I may have enough to can as well!!!

At the second farm stand we hit on the way back we got several pounds of amazingly fresh pickling cucumbers. Whenever I found them at a grocery store they tend to be mushy and bruised. This time I found some great fresh ones and I'll use these for some fermented pickles. They were muddy when I got them home, so they got a bath and a chill! 

Also got some Gaston's bread, local and amazing! Freezes great and got an apple Danish too, yummy!

We also got several pounds of fresh Gala apples, super crunchy. I've noticed this last year in the winter fall and spring that almost all the apples I had bought in grocery stores were mushy. I tried different stores, I tried different varieties and just didn't have much luck. So when I bought these I bought enough to fill up our crisper probably about five or six pounds. Will keep these for eating apples-

I bought a bag of a dozen ears of sweet corn and some Blackberry pancake syrup. All in all it was a great haul!

Easy/ Cheap Old Monitor To Laptop Fix!

I thought I'd share this in case some of you may be using older computers and need to retro-fit them. My computer I've been using in the kitchen (mostly for blogging) was an older Windows 7. I had a nice size older monitor on it. *** Updated Info*** Here's the basics on the technology redo- there's basically two kinds of monitors, old analog ones with a giant blue plug and pins with screws-

That was what I had. The newer monitors are digital and do not need an adapter. Because my monitor was older and analog there was no way to run it to the laptop without using an adapter. I hope that makes sense? Please post more questions if you need. We bought a Windows 10 laptop this last spring, it was a great deal. We wanted something more secure for banking, etc. I finally decided that I had enough of Windows 7 since it was getting SO SLOW. We thought about what our options were, maybe buying a new digital monitor that would work with the laptop?  We finally realized for $8 we could buy an adapter to use with the analog monitor. A cheap and easy fix!

Basically I backed everything up on our external hard drive first from the old Windows 7 hard drive-

Old hard drive, We're keeping it for now just to make sure I didn't miss anything. 

External hard drive-

Next I went ahead and backed up the external hard drive to the laptop. You could use a thumb drive if you don't have many files or email them to yourself. Then we plugged in the old monitor into the laptop using a HDMI to VGA adapter seen below. The blue analog monitor plug goes into the adapter, and then it plugs into the side of the laptop-

Basically this creates the laptop as your hard drive. You can go into the display/ power settings and set up the laptop so that it "does nothing when you close the screen". This set up gives you lots of flexibility, since we can still use the laptop in other parts of the house. When I work out in the kitchen I can just plug my monitor into the side of the laptop, it's ready to go. Here's the HDMI to VGA adapter-

Plugged in- 

Close the laptop, less distracting for me-

Good tech fix for $8.00!

Thrifted Galileo Barometer-

We stopped at a thrift store the other night and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a Galileo barometer! For five bucks I squealed with delight and practically ran out of there with it. I had one years ago but it got broken and I never replaced it. As soon as I got at home I cleaned all the glass and put it in a safe place and it works! He was invented by Galileo in the 1600 and basically has little balls that are all calibrated to rise or sink depending on me ear temperature. This afternoon said 72° which was about spot-on! Each glass ball has a temperature on it on a metal tag-

More info here Galileo Thermometer

Chick Update-

I'm happy to report all of our "chicks" are doing well and are almost half-size. They're all very healthy and the flock seems to have settled in pretty well with each other. I don't see a whole lot of squabbles anymore. We did have to trim their flight feathers today again because they were flying up on top of our 4-foot fence. If they got over the 4-foot fence into the yard wouldn't really be a huge problem. The problem would be if they got from the 4-foot fence to the 6-foot fence and went over into our neighbor's backyard. They have about four dogs that would kill them. So Dave and I trimmed them again. Later in the day I got some nice photos. I really like having a mixed flock so you can tell all the birds apart. Our older hen Rosie is now molting. Neither of my two older birds have been laying anything for about the last four to six weeks. The good news is with the three younger hens will hopefully start laying around October or November. So here's a look at the girls! You can really see all there individual markings pretty well on these photos. It is hard to get pictures of chickens since they won't stand still!

Luna, the Silver Laced Wyandotte-

Debbie, a Golden Sexlink- 

Sunny, a Brown Leghorn-

Spring? Thrifting, Upcycled Dough Bowl, Farm-Style Pie Sign

Spring?

After the Snowmaggeddon we went thru this winter, I never thought spring would come! After some mild weather and rain it appears it has-

Chives are up

Rhubarb too

flowers

ground cover

Raspberries

I let the chickens out this afternoon into the main backyard since it was about 60. They ran out the gate at a high rate of speed!

Spotted some wild bird food

  

They had a blast digging thru the wet soil

Grass is greening up

Our neighbor's cat (Princess) Posie, was watching the birds

Our (Empress) Anya, however took a nap on her favorite blankie, love her!

Thrifting-

I went to Goodwill today with some donations. While I was there I bought five pairs of pants for Grand baby River, marked down 1/2 price, score!

He's getting big, and we babysat last night, what fun!!!

I also found a candle holder buried on a shelf. I had plans for that!

I also bought a small terracotta pot with faux blue flowers for my kitchen window sill, $1.99-

 All about $13.00. Score!

Upcycled Dough Bow

I saw this bowl/candle holder at Goodwill for $3.99. When I spotted it what I saw was a dough bowl. It just needed some deconstructing. It is a heavy resin, whitewashed wood look. I tried to remove the screws at the base of the candle holders. No luck. I thought to look underneath the fabric on the bottom- 

Nuts!

I removed the fabric and both the nuts with a small wench. Now it's ready to fill with some natural elements or vintage goodies, and the 2 holes won't show. So for $3.99 I'm happy. Someday I may get an expensive, wood vintage one, but this will do for now.

Farm-Style Pie Sign-

I had seen this farm-style sign all over the internet and Pinterest for a few years. I could never find one in the Cost Plus stores sadly. I wouldn't pay a lot of shipping for a $15.00 item, so I gave up. I went there to buy some teas today while I was in the area. They have a awesome collection of Twining's teas and great prices. While I was looking for something else I spotted the sign at their store! I couldn't believe it! I need to decide where to put it in the kitchen or dining area. I love the simple lettering and shabby, distressed edges-

I also found some more Slap Ya Mama Cajun sauce from my post 2 weeks ago, 1/2 price! I bought 4 jars., and 2 boxes of their Cajun rice/beans mix. Checking out the clerk asked me if I had a coupon and I said no. She said "I have one" and gave me 30% off everything! My $14.99 pie sign was $10.00. Score! Teas and food items discounted too. I HAD A GREAT SHOPPING DAY! 

More Crazy Weather! Got My Hand Back, DIY Low Cost Valentine's Day Farmy Decor

Blue Sky!!!

More Crazy Weather!

After more snow, 3" late Wednesday, it started melting! I fell going in to work Thursday, since there was standing water on ice, not a good combination. Jammed my right elbow, shoulder sore, twisted left knee a bit but okay otherwise. They should have had sand down. Anyway, it's been melting the last two days and we had 40 degrees today and a little blue sky! A tropical heatwave. Chickens have finally been able to come out and enjoy the warm temps. I saw some grass exposed when I put the hens in a few minutes ago. Grass, what's that??? We've had lots of birds out and I saw a Great Blue Heron fly over our house today too-

Google photo

They're seen frequently around our rivers and water areas, so I was surprised to see one over our house. Gorgeous! Must have been a bit off course.

Got My Hand Back-
I finally have my left hand back, all healed up from surgery in late October. No more braces/splints, just putty for strength. My surgeon did a great job. My hand had this going on, bone on bone, ow-

They removed the bottom, worn out chunk and created a "sling" of sutures. The tissue heals around it. No more pain, and only a small incision, 2"-3". I've got good grip strength and comfort. I wear my scar proudly. I'm very aware and appreciative of the fact I had insurance to cover most of this. Some might have had to do without sadly.

Ready for transformation!

DIY Low Cost Valentine's Day Farmy Decor -

Next weekend end we'll be putting away the winter decor, snowmen, etc. I have had WAY too much of the real thing. I'll put some regular decor back out and add some Valentine's Day items. I spied these glitter hearts and I thought- cut off the ribbons and put in a Mason jar. I'll add some raffia possibly, then done! I bought these out thrifting in the last 2 weeks, 50 cents for the box- 

I will cut off the loops, add these to a basket or bowl for another pop of red! Easy peasy. I will post photos when they're done. Just add a few things to what you already have. I could also add apples to my winter decor for next year. I AM READY FOR SPRING!!!