Happy Thanksgiving! I'll Be Back Soon!

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I'll be back soon to blogging! Watch for a new post next week, lots to share!

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!

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! 

Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns, A Bowl Of Christmas Joy, Happy New Year!!!

 

My Chelsea Bun "tree"

Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns-

I  saw this a few years ago-

From Everythinglooksrosie.com

Rosie, the Scottish blogger I follow, make some amazing recipes! I decided to make this and see how it went. First I had to convert the measurements to American ones. Then I had to find certain ingredients. I had never worked with Marzipan before and unsalted Pistachios were a bit tricky to find. I will say this was the trickiest dough I've worked with, VERY sticky! It was hard to tell from the photo how big they'd be. I was thinking Danishes, but really more normal bun/biscuit-sized. It was a toss up to use American bread flour or American unbleached. I went with bread flour. I liked the combo of fresh and dried Cranberries, and orange. Here are my calculations on the measurements, feel free to do your own research for conversions. Detailed directions and photos on Rosie's blog- 

1.4 cups full-fat milk

3.48 TBL butter, chopped into cubes

1 and 8/10th cups  bread flour- NOT ENOUGH

7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

3.5 TBL white and brown sugar mixed,  plus 3 TBL 

1 Tsp ground cinnamon

Spray oil 

7 Oz.  Marzipan, chilled- 1 tube (this is hard to grate!) 

1 orange, zested and juiced

0.43 cup fresh cranberries

0.43 cup dried cranberries, plus 1 tbsp

1/3 cup pistachios, chopped

3 TBL apricot jam, sieved (I subbed Orange Marmalade) 

2/3 cup powdered sugar

I think if I made these again I would use quite a bit more flour. I did find several generic sweet dough recipes (see my Pinterest food folder) that might work better. Rosie's photos make the raw dough look thicker and mine rose plenty. It was pretty hard to handle, use LOTS of flour on your board and roller!!! 

Flavor-wise, excellent and a very different flavor profile.

A Bowl Of Christmas Joy-

I wanted something different for Christmas Eve dinner so I made beef stew. I used a basic (Martha Stewart) beef stew recipe with red wine. Simpler than the Beef  Bourguignon I had made in the past. I also added mushrooms, the last 15 minutes. It was warm, comforting and a bowl of joy! I served with hot French bread. I doubled the recipe so we had plenty for two dinners and some lunches. I made Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes for dessert, simple, fast and delicious! I used Nigella Lawson's recipe and it's great that you can make the batter ahead of time and chill until you need them  

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for all your kind comments this last year, they really helped me feel connected! My family and I have much to be grateful for. Looking forward to this next year and all the exciting projects and adventures!!!

Things I'm Grateful For, Easy Coop Winter Sunroom Upgrade

 

Things I'm Grateful For- 

I didn't really have time to do this before Thanksgiving since things were kind of crazy. Dave and I wound up having Thanksgiving by ourselves. We had a small turkey with all the trimmings, apple pie, and some nice appetizers, smoked Salmon, crackers, olives, pickles, meats and cheeses-

I have been thinking since summer how grateful I am for how things have been going for us and our family. So for (belated) Thanksgiving here's a few things I'm very happy and grateful for........

Both Dave and I have been able to stay fully employed with our jobs through Covid. I started working from home at the end of March, and I'm still working from home. It's nice, but there is a certain lack of communication in my organization. Working from home I think exacerbates that, not a surprise. I do have kitty to keep me company! 

I have a lovely view, can moderate the heat/cool as needed and it is a truly unscented workplace for me, which is awesome! 

I'm really grateful that two of my children and one son-in-law got much much better jobs this summer. With better pay and benefits! One was hired into my organization and the other two into a large national insurance company. They all are doing very well in their jobs and the pay raises they got were very helpful, since two of them have children. Kids can be expensive! 

Our house is doing well. We did have to replace our hot water heater (leaky pipe) recently but we were able to do that ourselves, so that saved a ton of money. It lasted 3 years past it's warranty too! After Dave drained it and we took it down it had 2 big rusted out areas on the back!!! Dave bought it, brought it home and with the help of my daughter put it in a place and it's working great. We saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars not getting it delivered and having a plumber install it. Dave had done it before so it was an easy install-

Leaky pipe

Dave added a heavier steel base and leak tray. Works great! He added earthquake strapping as well. 

The chickens have done well. We now have a full size flock of five and the eggs kicked in a few weeks ago. They're averaging about two per day with the shorter days, here's the flock! 

We're happy that we live close to all three of our children. We see our two grandsons off and on which is great, they grow so fast. Oliver will be 4 in December!  River's 4 and 1/2 and doing really well in preschool, yakking up a storm. Oliver is doing great, loving preschool as well, spelling and loves reading! River came by recently, Mom Tami reading to him-

The garden did really well this year even though we got a really late start with the weird weather. No peaches sadly,  maybe about 10. We had a really small crop of apples, but the pears did great, enough to can! 

 I was able to freeze a lot of fresh organic tomatoes in our freezer, pretty full now! 

I'm a planner! When Covid hit I started buying a few extra meats here and there to freeze. Already used one beef roast-

I had a full body skin cancer check-up recently and I was really happy! I was completely clear, except for two little tiny spots on my nose (pre-cancerous). The dermatologist froze them off and hopefully that will take care of it. 

Dave and I just celebrated our 27th anniversary! I'm lucky to be married to my best friend and he's a outstanding father and grandfather. When I decided to get married I definitely picked the right person!

Easy Coop Winter Sunroom Upgrade-

We built our coop "sunroom" several years ago out of recycled glass panels, shower doors and a custom frame attached to the coop. Basically it gave more room for the chickens in the winter when it was really snowy or pouring rain. After all the years the pressure wood frame started rotting and we talked about what would be a better replacement. The glass was very heavy and it's really awkward to put together. Basically after the winter's was over we could take it down and store it. It did work great for heavy snowy weather! Original-

The other downside was it cut off the shade area in the winter, losing a bit more room for the girls. I mentioned this fall that I'd seen some other hoop houses that were used for chickens in the winter. I thought maybe it was time for a simple, low cost, easy re-do. Here's a few examples of my thinking, the first design that really got my attention several years ago- 

Two photos from Sugar Mountain Farm

From Makingwillowbend.com

Dave and I really liked the idea, with it being lightweight, easy to put up/take down, as well as inexpensive.  Dave shopped around and brought home his materials, total about $40.00.  He bought six x 10' long flexible 1/2 " white PEX tubing (for plumbing), a roll of heavy clear plastic and built a frame base of 2 x 4's we had. First he cleared out the old materials, then recycled them. Next he built a base of 2 x 4's, and attached the PEX to the coop using scrap wood with a hole it it. Next he created the shape. He attached the PEX pieces to each other form the shape with tie wraps and drilled holes in the 2 x 4's. He put the PEX in the holes to brace the PEX-   

It reminds me of an igloo! Note the gap on the left, allowing the hens to go behind the coop and have more room to roam-

Roll of plastic on the ground

Now getting ready to spread out the plastic. We spread it out, he cut it to fit, then stapled it down to the base of the 2 x 4's. It works great! The chickens have been using it in the pouring rain, wind and snow. I can't really see through it since the plastic isn't that clear.  I see them in there moving around and taking dust baths. It's nice to have that extra space when the weather is really nasty. In the spring we can just take it down and it goes back into garden growing space. Lightweight but doing the job!