Cold, Cold and Snow! Independence Days Challenge

Cold, Cold and Snow!

Well we have been through quite the cold spell! Our cold weather at night had been in the teens. Our backyard looked like a small iceberg graveyard-

 

 

Every day I've been emptying out our back deck bird bath and refilling it with water. It's only been in the 30s lately during the day and with the cold at night the ice just isn't melting out on the lawn. Looks pretty funny! The good news was we had some warmer weather blow in, then got some rain. We desperately needed some moisture, it'd had been so dry for weeks and weeks. We did get a little snow early last month.

 

After a round of food poisoning (bad fast food) I got hubbie's dry, hacky cough and cold, oh joy. Luckily I had all the meds I needed on hand and didn't have to go anywhere. Finally got rid of the sinus part and got my energy back. I fell a bit behind on some projects, but I'm playing catch up now. I'm very grateful to be home currently, so I was able to rest and sleep as much as I needed. Then we finally got some real snow this week! Started last Thursday night, woke up to about 3", then got about another inch the next day, gorgeous! Colder weather came in. High today was 32 and hazy. More snow in the forecast soon, with lows near ZERO soon! We added more pine shavings to the coop, girls are nice and toasty! The "sun room" we added to the left of the coop is giving the hens nice extra dry space. They use it daily!  

 

Independence Days Challenge:

So here's what's been happening at the little Homestead...

1. Plant Something- Still winter, but did save/move a fern after my Trader Joe's Amaryllis bulb garden finished blooming-

I removed the bulbs and added fresh potting mix to the fern. Looks good!

2. Harvest Something- The hens finally started laying last week! No eggs since about October. I'm grateful I started our little flock years ago. I will probably get a few more chicks later this year for a larger flock. Debbie is still alive, leaving only two laying. Sunny the Brown Leghorn lays white eggs, Luna my Silver Laced Wyandotte lays brown. I like buying mixed varieties of chickens so that I can tell who's doing what-

Sunny laid first!

3. Preserve/Store Something- Froze some chicken parts, will be making some relishes to store in the fridge. Bought some extra rice to store. Will thaw some home grown tomatoes for pasta sauce and peaches for some desserts. I may also can some, didn't have time last summer.

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Trying to avoid tariffs I bought/will be buying a few things. Bought a used bread machine, thrifted after my old (thrifted) one died. I was able to find most of the owners manual online, made my first batch of bread, came out great.  Loaves are a little smaller but I can make bread as needed. Too much arthritis to hand make breads. Bought two funnel neck Nike hoodies for myself on eBay (used, like new) warm and cute! I hate crew necks-

Found some new sneakers 40% off on-sale on Amazon, love Sketchers!

 

Will be buying hubby Dave a few things right away, like his sneakers, etc. Bought a few cans of protein powder mixes (non dairy) on sale. We can't do much dairy. Bought a nice, small little rice cooker that works great! $20.00 Amazon, makes perfect rice, all kinds, always had trouble getting rice perfect every time, no more-

 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- We went out to a Japanese dinner the week of Japanese New Year and were gifted with a free thermos with the restaurant's name, how fun!

 

 

In honor of Japanese New Year I bought a little snake figurine at the Asian store (year of the snake), and then two lucky cats. The cats are called Maneki Neko, one for prosperity and one for good health, in my entry way-

 

I'm starting to make some simple Japanese food. I re-did part of my kitchen counter in the corner with some of the basics like sticky rice, etc.I got out a few things that I thought looked nice and added them. Since I'm a visual person hopefully this will inspire me and make it easy to find what I need. The two matching containers and bamboo vase were thrifted-

I had an extra planting box left over that I cleaned up, filled with various seasonings making them easier to find in the cabinet-

 

I like how it came out! I made a fun little bunting with some free sushi cat clip art. I printed on photo paper and strung on thread. I love it! 

 

 

 

We're really fortunate we live five minutes from a huge Asian food store, the biggest in the area. Their staff is also really helpful in finding things! My first dish I made is called Onigiri, or rice balls. Usually made in a triangle with different fillings for snacks or lunches. These had Bonito flakes/soy sauce and pickled ginger, yummy! I wrapped them in Nori, added some whole grain rice mix for more nutrition-

 

6. Build Community Food Systems- No farmer's markets yet. May start selling some eggs to friends with prices the way they are. I suspect a lot of people will be buying chicks soon, hopefully they will do their research first. I may do a "how to start your first urban flock" post soon.

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use- We donated several boxes of holiday decor, clothes, kitchen items, shoes, etc. Bought a used bread machine $12.00, I got a few years out of my last thrifted $10.00 machine! 

 

I've been looking more critically around the house, getting rid of more decorative items I didn't really use. I donated quite a few cookbooks that I had gotten on eBay/thrift stores.  I'm sure somebody else can give them some love. On the kitchen counter (see above) I got the two blue and white ceramic storage jars with cork lids, $5.00 each. One for brown rice and one whole oats, nice! Got two Asian medium sized plates, $2.00-

 

 Got two sets of 2 condiment/sauce mini trays for a couple bucks-

 

8. Skill Up- I started watching YouTube videos about what it's like living in Japan, really interesting. Here's a YouTuber I really enjoy Chani Japan  She's Australian and moved to Japan to teach English. She had been there before. She goes camping in Japan with her kitty Millie and is delightful. She bought an abandoned house, fixed it up, inspired me to try making Japanese foods. Check her out! I'm doing lots of Youtube and Pinterest for recipes.

 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- We have decided to cut down our front apple tree. We will either plant a dwarf apple tree, small shade tree or perennials. Time will tell. Just too much to manage. Have been deep cleaning and re-organizing chunks of the house. Took everything out of the fridge and washed all surfaces, reorganized. Looks great! Will re-do the storage in our office/spare bedroom. Need t move some things around and re-sort home canned stuff, etc. More to come on that.

 

 

GOOD TO REMEMBER RIGHT NOW 

From Pba.umich.edu

 

AND 

 

First Snow! Winterizing The Coop, Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores

From Idahostatesman.com

First Snow!

I love snow!!! We had our first really big snow storm come through Oregon and Idaho Friday. Woke up to falling snow in the morning melting on the road to work. A few days before that got some snow up in the foothills, but this was our big first Mountain snow. Story here Ski Area Excited or Early Snow   Just in time as the garden had gotten it's last harvest-

 

The chickens are enjoying having the full run of the garden area now. Made our last couple of pizzas with homegrown tomatoes. We do have some hardy kale and collard greens still!

 

Closed the vents on the foundation, winterized the cars with new wiper blades, snow/scrapers and a spare blankie just in case. The summer quilt and blanket on the bed are gone, I put on our nice big warm comforter! Dave and I switched to our winter down coats, kitty Bonnie has discovered the floor heating vents and gets some nice warm air. Since we adopted her in last December this is her first Autumn going into Winter. I still miss Anya but having Bonnie here has been a real comfort-

 

We recently brought Anya home. One of the things they included with her ashes was a paw print of hers-

 

Made me cry it was so sweet. Anya always loved watching the snow fly. I think she thought the snowflakes were bugs and she'd meow at them!

 

One of my last photos of her
 

 

Winterizing The Coop- 

The weather was really warm in October and then suddenly dropped the last week. After a heavy rain and some snow we decided to put up the sun room and attach it to the coop. Dave pulled out all the components that we stored behind the coop. In the garage we attached the plastic and the frame until it was all put together-

 mid process

After we tie wrapped all the plastic tie wrapped on and got the frame stable Dave and I carried it out into the backyard. Dave attached it to the coop and now the chickens have extra space through the rest of the winter! The sun rooms have worked really great over the years. Dave also deep cleaned the coop so the chickens are ready for a nice cold winter. It's been interesting the price change on bales of pine shavings . We use the deep litter method and pine shavings are great. A bale is currently about $20 which is more than double in about the last 6 months!!! Not sure if this is due to fuel prices or more the popularity of coops in the area or both? I'm glad I did stock up on a couple of extra bags of feed a few months back.  Otherwise they are all cozy! Shot from last year-

 

 

On the low setting

Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores-

I love Ikea but there's no store in Boise sadly. One of my biggest complaints with Ikea was that they don't sell any holiday decor online. They are finally selling some, but not all. I love Scandinavian folk art and there's some things I really love (not much of fan of modern Scandinavian design).  I was able to finally find a few things online of their holiday decor and I ordered some! One of them was not a holiday item but a pseudo oil electric lamp (see above). There used to be one in a really dark green that I loved but I didn't want to spend the money. I found this one that was cream colored, was $10 off, ($20) and I bought it. I had actually never seen something marked "ON SALE" at Ikea.  It's perfect on my end table when I want just a little bit of light and it's adjustable. Since it's LED it's bright when it's on all the way, and I bought a spare bulb. The glass and metal is very heavy duty and durable.

I also found some really cute Ikea Christmas tree ornaments, candles and a really cute little tray. Tree ornaments $15, very much like Mercury glass! I did splurge on these, even prettier in real life!!!

 

From Ikea Vinterfint Ornaments

 A cute tray $4-

Happy Independence Day!

 

Happy Independence Day!

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! 

Preparedness 12.0/ Final Harvest, Winterizing The House and Coop

 

Preparedness 12.0/ Final Harvest-

Our first hard freeze is here! Eastern Idaho had several inches of snow two days ago. This is the time of year where you start preparing for winter. As they used to say in Game of Thrones WINTER IS COMING! We wrapped up the harvesting, except the Basil and herbs, covered those with a row cover-

High winds so need to weight it down

Only some small green tomatoes are still outside. We'll check on those this weekend. We picked our last really ripe tomatoes and peppers. With the cold snap warning Dave harvested all the last of the large green tomatoes in advance-

This is only one tray!

The really ripe ones we're using on homemade pizzas this week! Got the dough from a local pizza place. Some of the others I'll be freezing or I may make a big pot of pasta sauce. The green ones we will lay out and let ripen slowly. They never have quite as much flavor but they're good to use in soups and things. I dehydrated lots of dead ripe tomatoes, more coming!

This time of year we winterize the house, doing things like closing up the foundation vents, putting out some fleecy blankets for snuggling. I'll be adding our heavy comforter this weekend to our bed. I moved my summer clothes into our spare bedroom closet. Got out all my flannel blouses and fleece. Luckily I bought more wool socks last month! One of the things we do to winterize the houses is buy some of Costco's amazing chocolate/almond biscotti's! They are so good with a cup of something hot on a cold day. Winterizing the house includes the yard like putting away the hoses, pump is out of the pond and we moved some of the perennials in pots to winter-over in the garage. I'll pack up my garden bench and cover with plastic this weekend. Got out my small space heater for the kitchen. The big sliding glass doors make for a cold spot near the desk-

Link to my post Low Cost Ways to Keep Your Home Warm for more ideas. We got the cars ready for winter- new wiper blades, got out the snow scrapers, added a blanket in the backseat of each car. All those little things in case you get stranded and buried! What I bought this week- more acorn squash, lemons (small amount of pesto to still make), misc stuff.  

FOR MORE REALITY CHECKS- 5% inflation (today), new of possible brownouts/blackouts in some areas possible, droughts equal less foods, last springs freezes equals less foods and feed for ranchers, gas is going up, sizes going down /prices up (shrinkflation), less food in the stores, restaurants having less staffing/ more areas closed off, less available online to buy, trucking shortage, blackouts in China affecting manufacturing. Here's some visuals and links-  

From Wskg.org Supply Chain Troubles

Grocery Stores Food Shortage    China's Power Crunch  Australia Victorian Home Quarantine Selfie App   Natural Gas Prices Skyrocketing

Again- no down side to being prepared 

Winterizing the coop is actually fairly easy. We have a large window on the bottom of the coop that faces East. In the spring we switch it out, put on a frame with hardware cloth for ventilation (Dave built). We also took off the glass panel on the storm door. It was part of our Coop Rehab  Works much better than the old warped wood door, and it was recycled! The upper coop window (recycled) slides and can be opened as needed-

Lower vent on the left

Dave put the big glass panel on the coop wall back on and added the glass panel to the storm door before the freeze hit. They still have good ventilation through the lower vent and the coop itself is not airtight. There's also a vent in the roof. The main thing with the coop is that you do not want to have too much moisture inside. We also have the upper window that we can open if it gets really warm. Will be adding our exterior extension cord soon, to plug in their water so it won't freeze. It also allows us to turn on a light inside the coop if we have to go out after dark. I decided not to add a light at night to get more egg production. We do use a hardwired-in heat lamp and a reptile ceramic disc for additional heat if it gets really cold. Usually that would be in the teens or lower, but it depends. The good thing about the deep litter method is it actually generates some heat in the winter as it slowly breaks down. We love that method and there's never any odor! We'll add the sunroom soon, the new design worked great last year-

Just knocked off the snow once in a while!