Winter Around The Corner, Frugal - Research, Replace, Repair & Reorganize, Easy Free Mailbox Post Upgrade!

                                                                        

Winter Around The Corner- 

Autumn is definitely here with all the colors starting to change! We have been in the low to mid 70's during the day and 40's at night. After our brutal summer of hundred degree weather for a month or more it's a really nice change. Forecast in the 60's for next week. Time to get out the winter warmer clothes, etc. Will be cleaning the coop and getting that ready for winter. We're still picking some tomatoes and peppers! Will be freezing some this weekend. I decided not to can any this year because I use them up relatively quickly. I canned our pears this last weekend. Got 14 qts, a pear crumble and some left to eat fresh.  I've been dealing with some major health issues which has been exhausting, but the good news is there's a light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Our lovely cat Anya started having breathing issues the last few days. We took her to the Vet and she had fluid in her chest cavity. They were able to get some out and she's breathing much better now, but at 14 years old this is not good. We will see how her labs come back, then think about what we need to do at this time. Always hard to think about losing your companion animals. Our last three pets, two dogs and one cat, lived to be 17 years old. I assumed that would be the magic number for Anya, but time will tell. The Vet told me in the 26 years she practiced veterinary medicine she NEVER had a cat start PURRING before when she was pulling out fluids. She asked her vet tech if there was rumbling in her chest? Her assistant said no she's just purring. That's our Anya! Always mellow. 

 

Frugal Research, Replace, Repair & Reorganize-

Sometimes life throws you curve balls and sometimes there's several at a time! We noticed a few different things going on around the house. Things like our Moen kitchen faucet was starting to leak black liquids from the middle. The Food Saver set I bought had a handheld device that did not work. My small bathroom Ikea faucet had gotten pretty clogged from the road construction and I needed a new filter. So time to do some research. Dave said that Moen would replace cartridges for free since they had basically lifetime warranties on their kitchen faucets.  Here came the research. Ikea has excellent customer service on their faucets too. Again I did some more research. Ditto doing research by contacting Food Saver for a replacement handheld vacuum attachment. 

I called FoodSaver and let them know that the attachment that I had in the box did not fit. Short phone call and an email later I attached photos of the items. In the mail I got a replacement that should fit! It didn't, back to square one. Will call next week. 

I got on the Moen website and was able to order a replacement cartridge for free. Dave was able to install it in a few minutes and now it's working great and no leaks! 

 

I got on the Ikea website and found the part for the bathroom faucet and ordered two new filters for free. Previously I had ordered one for other master bathroom faucet I forgot to order one for the small bathroom faucet. Just unscrew old one, insert the new, water pressure fixed!

 

Next, our oven element died, during pre-heating it to put in a pear tart! Great timing, sigh. We called around and made an appointment to have the element replaced and the door opened up to clean the inside of the glass that I can't get to. When the guy showed up he didn't seem to know what we were talking about and said that they would have to spend a half a day labor taking the door off and cleaning the inner glass. We decided to cancel. Dave went and was able to install the element and I can live with the drips on the glass. While there are a lot of YouTube videos about how to clean the inside of the inner glass on a oven door it does void your warranty. It also seems like it would be pretty tricky to get back together and workable. Sometimes it's just easier to live with something so that works for us-

 

Oven cleaning on my list!

Our pantry rack was a bit of a disaster area. I looked a little bit more critically, was able to shuffle things around a bit more and use the space better. I had recently added a few bags of bread flour that I got at Costco. Soon I will pack those into some buckets with oxygen absorbers, but for now the bags work fine. We're lucky we've never had any pests in the house, of any kind. Soon I will break these down into smaller plastic bags and freeze them for a week to kill any possible tiny visitors, then re-pack-

I did a lot of research the last several months on solar chargers for homes. I wanted something low cost and reliable. I bought a Bluetti EB3A Portable Power Station 600W 268Wh. Still on sale here Eb3a Portable Power Station with info listed. I fired it up, charged it and so far so good! Will probably buy the solar panels to go with it soon. This will not power a home but will work for things like laptops, phones, small lights, C pap machines, etc. Company has a very good ratings, more later-

Easy Free Mailbox Post Upgrade!

Our street paving is finally done with sidewalks installed! One of the things the county was supposed to do was put in a new post/mailbox since they tore the old ones out for construction. Well they did put in a new post, but they put our old faded mailbox back. Ditto the neighbors. Shocker. I told Dave that everybody either had silver, black, or white mailboxes. Something different that would be fun. I asked Dave if he could trim out the 4 x 4 post with some spare Cedar that we had on hand. He did great job! I looked around several places and was able to find a dark green mailbox. After he trimmed at the Cedar we ordered the mailbox, (nobody had it in stock) and he installed it. I LOVE it! A little bit distinctive with some little architectural interest instead of a plain old mailbox post. The wood was free so it was just the price of the mailbox, about $25 bucks. The cedar will fade into a nice gray...

New Chicks! Summer Veggie Garden Planted, DIY Recycled Cedar Planter, Fermenting Success

New Chicks! 
It's 96 today and hot! Summer is here finally, but going to drop 20 degrees tomorrow which will be nice. When we lost two of our hens last year I decided to buy some chicks this spring. I've learned the hard way not to buy them too early in the spring or they have to be inside a long time until they feather out and can tolerate outside temperatures. I called the local Hatchery and during the Covid-19 craziness everyone was sold out. Panic buying I think. I like to buy mine directly from a hatchery because they have a good variety, their chicks are healthy, and you know what you're buying. I've had trouble at two different local feed stores getting the wrong breed and one wasn't even a chicken! The good news was the hatchery was able to take an order a month out from me. So basically ordered three chicks mid late April for late May. I took a little vacation time on Wednesday, went out and picked up the chicks. These are pullets which mean they are baby hens. One is a brown leghorn (no name yet), one is a Silver Laced Wyandotte which I have named Luna, the other is a Red Sex Link Debbie. They LOVE the mirror in the basket! All happy and healthy under their red heat lamp-

Luna in the middle named for her silver color to come, brown leghorn on the right. Debbie on the left named for the space-faring chicken in the new Lost In Space-

Lucky Debbie with Don West (actor Ignacio Serricchio), resident hunk!

I'll start getting them outside soon, depending on the weather and then integrate them to the flock slowly. Happy to have more girls to add! More eggs on the horizon, will probably start selling some eventually. My post here shows the photos of adult hens colors,  New Chicks Coming!

Summer Veggie Garden Planted-
After a really bizarre April and May we finally got all of the summer veggies planted that we had on Memorial Day. We didn't have enough tomato cages so I asked Dave to rip some old cedar boards to create tepees for the tomatoes. He did that and it worked out great!

Dave used our thrifted mini table saw, works great! 

I bought some new rabbit fencing to put around the base of the tomatoes and peppers. This works as a cage for the tomatoes and keeps the chickens out. It's easy to manipulate, cut, and stores well. I realized ours was about seven or eight years old and was just a mess. So for two rolls for $25 it was a good solution-

After my fail X 2 with seeds in the cold frame I added purple and green cabbages and Kohlrabi's-

Mr bushytail chilling in the heat! 

I'm thrilled my French Lavender topiary survived the winter, under four layers of row cover. It's now covered with flowers, just starting to open!!!

Speaking of summer, we had our first barbecue in a few years! I kept forgetting to bring it out (in garage), but we had yummy burgers, grilled green onions, chips and lots of veggies!

And speaking of more summer, I put out some sunny yellow decor in the kitchen/dining room-

DIY Recycled Cedar Planter-
Since we still have some cedar lumber left after the veggie stakes were cut, I asked Dave to build another flower box for me. He asked how big and off he went-

I just need to add the basil starts and flowers, weather proof, perfect!

Fermenting Success-
I made two batches of fermented foods, one with my new Masontops kit. The first batch I used their sauerkraut recipe and my existing jar with airlock top. The second batch I made was fermented carrots with fresh thin sliced ginger and garlic. I was really excited to make two batches simultaneously! Mid way the kraut had a little bit of stuff on the top, but not much, so I skimmed it off. I also added a little bit more brine. I think the issue was some of the tiny pieces of cabbage floated up above the weights. Next time I will leave in a large cabbage leaf under the weights. Never had this problem with the Curtido, I think there was more mass. When it was done there was what looked like a Scoby on top, similar to what you see on top of Kombucha. It had no odor so I threw it out. I checked on the sauerkraut which tasted fine! Since I'm really only making it for myself I'm not worried about any kind of problems. I ate some and it was nice and crunchy! The carrots came out well, with a little tiny bit of scum on the top of the brine which I skimmed off. I tasted the carrots and they were crunchy and slightly spicy. The fresh raw ginger and fresh raw garlic definitely gives it some kick! I will definitely do those recipes again.

Carrots going in

top on, worked great venting! 

Close up 

Chilling in the fridge, the brine will get clearer in a few days

More Crazy Weather, Italian Mountain Bean Soup, Bird Houses Project, Cleaning From The Top Down

More Crazy Weather-

Last Wednesday it snowed when I was home sick, a stomach bug, and I took a couple photos-

It all melted by afternoon. Two days later, it was 57 degrees! Today the sun is shining, breezy and it is about 45 degrees. The grass is starting to green up just a little bit and I've noticed some shoots on my Oriental Poppy bush-

Bulbs

Lamb's Ear

After my tummy bug I was thrilled to find some sheep's milk yogurt. Technically I'm allergic to dairy cow products, and was told to avoid goat's milk cheese. I can eat Sheep's milk cheese with no problems though. I tried this, has tons of probiotics and pretty tangy! I've been really tired lately with working too much overtime, especially on Saturdays, but it was good to have the money coming in since we had a big car repair. My super reliable Mazda needed a new belt and tension rod. All fixed. I'm not working next weekend, I'm going to have two full days off!

This Spring weather is way too early, but there's nothing we can do about it. Since we can get hard freezes in April sometimes I hope that if it's going to be mild, that it's going to stay mild! Forecast next week in 20's at night, mid 40's during the day, still cold. It's so nice to have the windows open a bit for some fresh air, hear the birds singing and see the sun. The sparrows are out fighting over our bird houses, so good thing Dave is building more! I'm making gardening plans since summer isn't that far off.... I do have some winter indoor flowers hanging in there-

Last Amaryllis from the bulb "garden" from Trader Joe's

Cream colored Poinsettia, also from Trader Joe's

Speaking of gardening-

Yes!

Italian Mountain Bean Soup-
I was channel surfing last night and stumbled onto this recipe on the Ciao Italia show on PBS. Fascinating combo of ingredients and fast to cook! I loved the idea of having thin, dried smoke ham in the soup (you could use prosciutto). I was lucky to find some today, from a local high end meat and cheese company. You add beans, veggie broth, potatoes, rinsed sauerkraut, onions for thick hearty soup. The recipe calls for cranberry beans, which I saw a long time ago in a local store, but didn't have any on hand. We went to the grocery store today and I found something called European Soldier beans, an heirloom variety that was canned. I had planned on buying small kidney beans, but bought these instead since I think they're closer to the what the original recipe calls for. I was actually really lucky spotting them and they were on SALE. So instead of using dried soaked beans I used the canned ones, rinsed well. At some point I will see if I can find some dried ones. Here's the recipe! Italian Mountain Bean Soup Yoda  I used fresh sage and dried thyme, bay leaf and rosemary and added to the broth, didn't use a bundle. The flavor was different and we both loved it! I served with hot whole grain Italian bread. Dave, who doesn't like sauerkraut, loved it even though it was in there. I rinsed it a LOT and squeezed out until pretty dry. If you go to the link there's a short video showing how to make it. It's a keeper!!!

Bird Houses Project-
Dave really enjoys doing woodworking and sadly we don't have room for a wood shop for him. I encouraged him to build some bird houses since a few of ours have gotten pretty bad and had to be pitched. One was full of a yellow jackets nest and I'd heard once there's that smell they will keep coming back. Off to the trash it went, after we sprayed it. I really like adding birdhouses for our local birds to our garden growing space. I LOVE birds! Since we had lots of scrap lumber on hand Dave did a lot of research, then came up with some plans. He came up with some really cute designs he found online. These are all demo projects that need to be finished. They will be for our yard, made from mostly recycled items/wood we had. He might make some for sale locally, we will see how time goes. Here's one I will paint white and add some trim-

For smaller renters, license plate roof, needs the hole and a perch-

I bought a vintage funnel off eBay for this, needs chain, and a stopper on top-

Cleaning From The Top Down-
Sometimes roaming around your house you notice all kinds of little things. Recently I noticed how dusty a lot of my frames were on my wall art. I always dust my furniture and vacuum, but it's easy to miss those other little things. I started thinking I really needed to start at the TOP of the walls and work down, as far as dusting. I had a brilliant idea that David I could tag team this. I gave him a long handle Swiffer and I took the short handled one. These kits are available in Costco, so cheap and work great! They're slightly sticky and don't spread the dust. He started along the ceiling and the corners of each room making its way across the house. He also went down about a foot below the ceiling corners. Then I came along, did the tops of all the framed prints, wall art, light fixtures, etc. This way is all the dust falls down and you come back and I suck it all up with your vacuum! Everything is clean, tidy and you let gravity do some of the work.  If you have allergies and respiratory issues (like we do) it's really helpful. I also cleaned the outer filter of my HEPA living room filter, all dusty and covered with cat fur. All clean now! We breathed a clean sigh of relief....