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!

Thinking Outside The Box About Retirement- Five Ways to Prep for Retirement That Don't Include a Bank Account

 

Thinking Outside The Box About Retirement- Five Ways to Prep for Retirement That Don't Include a Bank Account -

When I am thinking about when I can "retire" I think about a lot of things besides money. When I saw this blog post, by one of my favorite bloggers, I knew I had to share it!!! Please read and let me know what you think? She sums it all up quite nicely. Thanks Wendy!!!  Five Ways to Prep for Retirement that Don't Include a Bank Account    (link fixed)

Winter Reflections, My Dietary Shift

Winter Reflections-

Sometimes I just get the blahs in the winter. Maybe it's the shorter days and we had one of our "inversions" this month. Very cold and gray with the stagnant air hanging in the valley. Luckily they didn't last too long! December was busy- right after our anniversary was Thanksgiving, then my birthday, then daughter's birthday, then grandson's, then Christmas! I bought gifts starting in the summer and stashed them. Great way to save $! Our grand kids get plenty of plastic toy gifts from others, so I load up on books and art supplies for them. Lovely flowers bloomed this year in time for Christmas Eve! We had a nice lunch buffet at my house with my two daughters and their children. With freezing rain in the forecast we moved it forward into the afternoon instead of evening. Sadly our one daughter who lives in Oregon was not able to make it since the highways were closed with a terrible ice storm, better to be safe at home. 

 

Dave's gift of a new French butter keeper, made by a local artist in McCall (I picked it out)- 

We've had a lot of medical stuff going on the last several months. Not much time for blogging! Dave had an eye injury, with a horrible ER experience. Short version- they never had an eye Dr. see him or even get a call to one. We were able to call the eye Dr. on call at Dave's eye clinic on a Sunday and he opened up his clinic and saw Dave. What a miracle! We got a good diagnosis and he was treated and recovered.  Dave also had a chronic ankle injury for a few years, wearing a boot for months really slowed him down. He's doing PT now and sounds like he can get a full recovery. I've had chronic leg pain for months, did diagnostics and luckily seems to be ergonomics at work. My chair was cutting off circulation from what I can tell. I elevated my feet and started acupuncture. Getting improvement already! In the fall I went thru some cardiac issues, had a procedure and finally came out the other side. Changing meds was quite the drama. After weeks things finally calmed down! I'm feeling fine now and stable. I am grateful for the excellent medical care I received and my insurance. We weren't able to spend Christmas with our daughter living in Oregon. There were several ice storms and the highways were closed. We told her we missed her but better to stay home and be safe! We did some Facetime with our other daughters and family here for a Christmas Eve early dinner. We got hit with freezing rain too later in the evening, so we changed dinner to late lunch. We loved seeing our three grandchildren! Youngest redhead is walking, and the two six year olds are super fun! So glad we live in the area!!!

I'm very grateful for my family, especially Dave's support thru my cardiac issues.

 

 

My Dietary Shift-

With all the stress of medical issues I was eating way too much junk food. That caught up with me when I had my labs done in November. My doctor mentioned looking at starting the Mediterranean Diet style of eating. I heard about that before but didn't know quite as much as I do now. I've started it and I'm feeling better already. It is much more plant-based than I realized. While I'm not going vegan meat is used a lot less. Dave and I are both very dairy sensitive so we're not eating tons of dairy/cheeses. I got some really good information from this website, and he also has some good YouTube videos. I found this nice assortment of recipes 20 Mediterranean Diet Recipes  I LOVED this video by Greek chef Diane Kockilas Flavors of Greek Ikarian Longevity  Ikaria,Greece is a "Blue Zone" where people live very long, healthy lives. If interested she has some great other videos, very easy to watch!

 

A good video overview  Blue Diet for 90 Days Results  with great info!

 

Independence Days Challenge, Trying Natural Dental Care Products

Lots of eggs = bread pudding!

Independence Days Challenge-

Crazy weather lately, warm then cold. One day was 48 in the morning, was 103 degrees a few days before that! Sunday was 100. Now another cooler front coming. Here's a little snapshot of things here-

1. Plant Something- Some perennials (pollinators), grasses and annuals near the new gate/fence-

Collard seeds in the bare area in front of the windmill

I started a lot of seeds this Spring inside in the grow light shelf unit- 

With 2 kinds of cukes, squash, Milkweed, Rainbow Echinacea (died so started seeds outside in a pot), Rainbow Zinnias, Marigolds.  Bought some others to fill in-

I put those Nasturtiums  in a planter with a windmill, since Lady Bird (First Lady Johnson) was from Texas. I thought she'd like it! I really admire her work, she founded the National Wildflower Research Center Wildflower.org More info also here- Ladybird Wildflowers

Lady Bird Nasturtiums from seed

We bought some 2 kinds peppers, Italian and Sweet Banana. Two kinds of cukes, slicing and Lemon. A tomato, in honor of Dave's lovely German mother Bette- "German Queen", a heritage variety. Never tried it! Start some collards from seeds, Swiss Chard from seed maybe-

Peppers and a tomato

"German Queen"

We planted a row of strawberries the first time we've tried this so far they look healthy now that they're out from under the grow light . I bought three strawberry plants that were from a heritage variety. Two of them died so I am hoping that the survivor will send out some runners, and we will be able to keep them going. I filled in with a local berry. 

With a lot of projects recently we are behind in planting the summer veggie garden. The weather was also pretty crazy too! Normally we would have everything planted before the 1st of June. We still have lots of room and we'll be buying the rest of the tomatoes soon. We're definitely having an issue with our maple tree, it's needing to be pruned more, way too much shade on the sunny area. In the spring will bite the bullet and have it pruned back some more-

Too much shade

 2. Harvest Something- Lots and lots of eggs! Chives and butter lettuce. Averaging 3 eggs per day. I made the bread pudding (above) with Challah bread, bittersweet chocolate chips and walnuts.  Oh man it was so delish!!! Creamy, crunchy and chocolate, what's not to love? 

 

3. Preserve/Store Something- Not yet, but peach, apple and pear trees are loaded this year! Hoping for more bumper tomato crops! 

Apples

Pears

Peaches

I was able to find some generic canning lids online at a pretty decent price. The U of Utah came out saying if you buy an off-brand check the seal every few months. I found some Kerr kids, not much over normal price online. I found some jars for sale at one of our local stores. They told me they had "lots and lots" and I got there, and there were four boxes, not "lots and lots"! I bought 2 boxes of one Qt. jars. Ironically I read that sometimes it's cheaper to just buy new jars than just the lids! These were $10.00 a box. 

 
4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Just the usual Costco things lately. We had bought some curtains at Ikea a while back which were too long. So I measured, trimmed, hemmed and ironed them (3xs!). Then I realized they were really, really wrinkled still.  I had pre-washed them too. So I did research and  I bought a steamer! Great idea that worked really well and did not cost that much. At Costco got more Wild Brine fermented kraut, Turmeric (great for arthritis for me), TP.  Bought 2 big gallon pots of Basil for $6.00 at a local feed store. Split them up into 10 BIG plants.  The other were $4.00 for 1 plant! We finally used up all of our frozen pesto. Will make more this summer. 

Lots of Basil! 

 
5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Working on the eggs. Will be making an angel food cake to go with some fresh berries. Nothing else that I can think of. 
 
6. Build Community Food Systems- A bit too early for farmer's market, but have been giving a neighbor some eggs.
 
7. Recycle/Re-Use- Dave scored some free yellow Irises, variety unknown, neighbor had a "free" sign with 2 big bags, Dave brought them home-

He planted them around the front yard for spring. Hopefully they'll survive. We re-used some fence posts we took down from our 6' high fence post repairs, and re-used the shorter sections for the new garden fence gate-

Last year I bought this French style hose reel at a thrift store for $8.00 story here Day Trip-

I had the idea to have upper section cut off or upcycle it some how. I finally remembered, we got it out and Dave cut it for me with a Sawzall blade. I laid the one piece on top of the pipe, will glue and paint to cover the rub marks. Some nice yard art with a French flair!  

 

8. Skill Up- Learned about how to plant Irises. Haven't grown them before. Interesting reading here on low seed germination rates!  5 Acres and A Dream A New Paradigm for Gardening & Seed Saving Fascinating since I thought I was the only one seeing this. 

 
9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- The bees! Last post talked about our bee rescue! We heard they are doing well, queen is laying eggs, happy to have helped! We need bees if we want to eat. I should add- I know some are allergic to bees and may not feel the same way. That can be very scary.  And hoping my teeth will strengthen, more below. 

Trying Natural Dental Care Products-

After recently having a tooth pulled I was looking for something to strengthen my teeth. It's not an issues if you're 20, but for those of us who are bit older, we start thinking about keeping all our teeth! I also recently started using a spare Water Pic. Dave had gotten the kit at Costco which came with a travel size kit (see above).  Since our "master bathroom" is a 1/2 bath I didn't want to use the full size version. I realized I could use the small one! Works great!

                                                   

I have been using some great products already, like a Sonic Care toothbrush. I 've had mine for about 15 years or more. They last forever, just replace the heads every 3 months or so. We get our packs of replacement heads at Costco, since they sell by a 6-pack, much cheaper. The newer units are MUCH more expensive and wireless, which I have zero interest in buying! Luckily you can still buy the ones we use, works great and much, much cheaper! Amazon links or you can buy locally-

 

                                                  

I heard about these products and tried them. Here's my review so far, using for a month or more. I tried the paste first, with my Sonic Care turned off. Just used it like a regular toothbrush. It's a paste, just dip your brush. It is thick, not much flavor at first. The more I used it the saltier it got, sea salt being an ingredient. I spit well, rinsed with water and my teeth were clean and shiny!

 I did follow up with my regular paste to cancel the leftover taste. I think some people add essential oils to this. I might do more research. I used the re-mineralizing rinse next. Very mild flavor, the label warned it might be strong-

Used this next, okay, not needing the detox as much (hopefully!). My gums are super healthy, more worried about my teeth.

The kit I bought is out of stock, but this is the closest, comes with the tooth powder instead of the mouth wash, or you can buy individually. 

                                                          

I do floss daily, I love little dental pics, easy to keep in the car, on the desk, by my couch, cheap and effective!