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!

Restoring Vintage L.L. Bean Maine Hunting Shoes, Thrifting Find

 

Restoring Vintage L.L. Bean Maine Hunting Shoes-

You just never know when you'll run into something you been wanting! I'd been on the lookout for a used pair of L.L. Bean boots. They're pretty iconic, all made in the U.S., old school technology that still works. I gave up ever finding a pair in a thrift store or cheap on eBay. We were in a thrift store recently, I happened to go over to the shoe rack and saw this label-

I looked at them, stopped and thought, wait a minute! Maine? I took the boots off the shelf, looked inside and saw this- 

I thought these were L.L. Bean "Boots", but they were Maine Bean Hunting Shoes! These are the very first, original design, not Bean "boots". More flexible, thinner soles, more like a moccasin. Info here Wikipedia.org L.L. Bean They were a Men's eight (runs big), so I tried them on. They fit perfect. I didn't see a sticker on the boots and they were on a shelf that said $3 for all shoes, unless otherwise marked. I wandered around for a few other things and took them up to the front desk to pay for them. The woman clerk was upset at the register and said several times they weren't supposed to be out on the floor. She also asked if there was a sticker on them for another price and I said no. I kind of waited for her to veto this purchase but she said okay you're getting them for three bucks. She was not happy. It was obvious somebody made a big mistake there. So I bought them and took them home along with a couple of other things. Here's the before shots- 

The first thing I did was remove the laces, the insoles and took a good look. Next I cleaned the leather with saddle soap. I washed the rubber on the boots with warm soapy water. I let them dry overnight, here with wet leather-

Next I bought some Boot Guard leather conditioner that I had used years ago. The leather was really, really dry and stiff. I folded up a paper towel and started liberally applying it on all of the leather. I had to use my fingers to get in between the gusset under the laces. The gusset is what keeps all the water out of the boots, which is great! 

This next picture shows the difference after applying half of the conditioner on the leather-

What a difference the leather conditioner makes!

So both of the boots were done. I waited about an hour and added a second coat. A little later I touched up a few other spots with my fingertips

The leather softened up quite a bit! Buffed, came out with a nice patina!!!

The insoles were shot, stitched leather with something on top that looked like burlap-

I bought some black sheepskin liners, with a foam arch support. Fit perfect, warm and cozy! 

Got new laces, similar to what's used on the L.L. Bean boots. I found out the traditional laces on the Hunting Shoes are plain brown, but I like them! I emailed L.L. Bean and found out these are probably from the 70's /early 80's. I may get them re-done at some point. I could get the whole rubber bottom replaced for about $40.00 Not a big priority right now. The leather might also not be intact enough to re-do anyway. All done, the products I used are listed on the left sidebar. Ready for snow and rain!!! Apparently they are also big for preppy style, who knew? 

Thrifting Find-

When we were checking out with the boots, and a little flatware rack, I spotted this! It was in the glass case, for $4.00! It has multi-color LED lights that rotate the colors. It's about 6" long. My one Grandson love trains so I got it for our house for him to see. We love trains too however!  It's very bright, the photo was hard to pick that up. Just too cute to pass on! The lights go blue, red, dark pink and green-

Day Trip, Drying Squash, Review Vidalia Dicer/Chopper

Day Trip-

With the smoke coming and going from the California fires we finally had a break last week. A bit of a rain storm blew in last Thursday/ Friday which clear the skies. Saturday morning I woke up and the skies were deep, deep blue. We have been wanting to drive up to McCall for the day, just to get out of town to get a change of scenery. Saturday morning I decided to check the air quality in McCall since it had been pretty bad up there as well. Separate from the California fires there was a fire west of McCall and the smoke is drifting from there too.  Turned out the air quality was great! I asked Dave if he wanted to take off for the day and go to McCall and it was a resounding yes! The forecast was a little bit of intermittent rain coming and going, so we dressed for cooler weather with some possible rain. There were a few storm clouds here and there driving up-

Skies clearing

Outside McCall

After we got into town we stopped at our normal McCall Brewery for lunch. From there we went to Stacy's cakes and got some desserts to take home since they closed in the afternoon. We did our normal Loop driving all the way around the lake and then hit a fun thrift store, Toby's. I spotted a heavy steel Fleur-de-lis hose reel, of all things. I decided to buy it, $8.00, and do something else with it-

Front

Top

Base

I asked Dave if he can have a pal at work use a grinder and remove the two Fleur-de-lis pieces.  That's the plan, then I will re-purpose. More on that project later! 

Lake side, water's low 

Wildflowers in a park-

We drove down the highway on the backside of McCall for a change of scenery. We never did hit much rain at all. I hit a dollar store that's a different chain from Boise's and I found a little lantern for Autumn for $5.00, has an LED candle-

All in all was a great trip, gorgeous scenery and fun! 

Drying Squash-

We had a good harvest of our yellow squash this year. I decided to dry some to use for soups over the winter. I have a nice little Nesco food dehydrator, so I got it out and cleaned it. You could use a baking sheet for this as well. I sliced all the squash up about a quarter of an inch thick then I had quartered it-

After I got all the squash laid out, and stacked I turned it on, I left it for about three or four hours. Next  I rotated the trays. Ran another 2 to 3 hours and it was all done! 

I basically had two large squashes condensed down to 1 quart canning jar. Reminds me of a jar of sunshine!

Review Vidalia Dicer/Chopper- 

I had seen this Vidalia brand dicer/chopper on someone else's blog and thought I wanted to try one. When I made corn relish a while back it took me forever to dice up all bell peppers and onions. I figured it might be a real time-saver and it turns out it is! I was really impressed by the fact is a very, very heavy composite material. It is not cheap flimsy plastic-

Nice sharp stainless steel blades

Comes with two blades and cleaning tool-

Measurements on the side- 

Heavy box- 

I was making some black bean soup for the cooler weather. I decided to use it to test drive by dicing up some bell peppers, tomatoes and onion. Separate from being much faster you also get very uniform size pieces, which is great for cooking. I started off with a bell pepper, a little older, the skin was a little shriveled. Basically I cut it in quarters, took out the seeds and white pithy part-

Just lay down the pepper, close the top down, done!

Worked great for the onions and tomatoes too! 

Washed well but a few bits here and there

Cleaning tool comes with it, really helped! 

Use the tool, rinse well, grid came out clean-

I give it two thumbs up, great for all kinds of fruits and veggies, etc. I used the chopper blade, the dicer is even smaller, will be great for fine work. With soup season coming, and making more homemade salsas, I'm happy! Amazon link on left sidebar for more info!