Independence Days Challenge

1. Plant Something- Finally planted main veggie garden with starts. Raised bed is doing great, no more Mr. Stumpy! Started peas & green onions from seed, and transplanted all the basil I started from seed inside. Bought some thyme since mine died...

2. Harvest Something- Eggs, grass clippings, chives. Spreading compost, wow, a lot was ready! Got some wonderful rhubarb for free from my neighbor.

3. Preserve Something- Froze half a batch of cookies. Still adding more to chest freezer, Costco breads, etc.

4. Store Something- Restocked some of the pantry. Froze some of my free, gifted rhubarb and half of the cookies I made last night.

5. Manage Reserves- Get A Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Found a great deal on veggie starts today, so bought a few more tomatoes. Found a nice, new kitchen rug, bought some vintage items- more for my enjoyment than use :) Bought a couple of huge, cheap bags of organic chips from Costco. Got a great deal on some 1/2 price Dansko's for work for in the fall. My feet will thank me :)

6. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipes- Made global wraps (recipe coming) to use up some leftovers, and some homemade chocolate chuck oatmeal cookies. Working on freezer food.  

7. Build Community Food Systems- Got some wonderful rhubarb for free from my neighbor, about 5 lbs! More coming soon. Will go to farmer's market soon for veggies to can. I will start selling eggs in the fall.

8. Recycle/Re-Use- Spreading/adding more compost, feeding chickens more food scraps. Will be building a new deck cabinet out of reclaimed wood to use an old window screen for the door, for storage. Got rid of my big iced tea maker, freed up some counter space. Now using a nice, smaller tea pot, which will work for winter tea too. Have sold a few things thru Craigslist, like our old doggy divider for our SUV we don't have anymore. Flipped over our stained living room rug to use clean side, until we can get a new one. Still working on cleaning out my closet for charity donations. Weird how attached we can get to clothing that is too big, but has sentimental value. I'm doing it in small batches.

9. Skill Up- Dave and I tackled getting the huge broken branch down off our tree after the 65 mph winds came thru. Neither of us, or the chickens, got killed, which is always nice. Survived pretty comfortably with no power for a while. Knew where to find my lamps, crank up radio, etc. Prepped early for the storm. It's scary how many people are totally oblivious to nature :(   Learned how to freeze rhubarb. Met with advisor on insurance and retirement ideas. There's a lot to learn.

10. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Moved a few perennials and evergreens to better location light-wise for better growth and to fill in open spaces. Will be dividing some more to move. Will be spackling some areas in the house to touch up the paint. Will be doing some gutter painting too, oh joy! Deep cleaning the garage, shed and house now that I'm off for the summer. I'll be starting a project list soon...

Planting & Chicken-Proofing The Veggie Garden, Integrating Chicks to Flock, Food Swap Network

Planting & Chicken-Proofing The Veggie Garden-
With all the wild ups and downs of the weather, 50's one day, then 80's two days later, I'm glad I waited to plant. With the 65 mph winds last week, my veggie garden probably would have been flattened. Dave and I spent several hours yesterday planting, spreading compost and moving a few shrubs to new locations to save them. Next year I hope to start more veggies from seed, but this year I bought most as starts- 9 tomatoes (lots of heirloom), 3 peppers, 2 kind of cukes (trying pickling ones for the 1st time), and an eggplant. I started some peas and green onions from seed. Then there are the little basils I started from seed. I split them up yesterday into pots! Holy basil, Batman, that's a LOT of basil. We love it... I know I have more room to plant after we get the sun room down this week, will try some beans and more eggplants...

I knew I had to chicken-proof my seeds and cukes or they'd get uprooted, like last year. Scanning the yard for ideas, I came up with my 2 "seed/plant" protectors-

Over my green onion seeds, an inverted plant tray from my veggie purchase, staked down. Will let water and light thru, but no more scratchy-scratchy!

 I had a really small section of fencing left, and bingo, another protector for me peas! Staked down as well. So far today no problems!

Then Dave and I made, and added, 3 scrap fencing rings around the cukes, secured, all done. They look a bit like tomato cages-

I also had to chicken-proof my veggie tags too, as last year they got buried. Since we had scrap conduit for tomato stakes, I thought DUCT TAPE! Trimmed and taped, and up where I can see them. I like to track what grows well-

Ditto the peppers with leftover bamboo stakes

My new "Apricot Sprite" Agastache (hyssop is the common name) that I'm planting by the veggie garden. The aroma is amazing, like lemony mint. The hummingbirds and other pollinators love the stuff! Great for really hot, dry areas-

We had to re-plant some ground cover around our little backyard pond, as the chickens dug most of it up last year. Bad girls! I just need to get some pond plants now. We got all the pond components for $20.00 at a yard sale 2 years ago. I LOVE the sound of running water on a hot day. It should look a lot nicer when it grows in...

My garden bench, cleaned off finally, still hanging in there after all these years. I just cover the top with plastic every winter-

 Integrating Chicks to Flock-

It's always great getting new babies until you have to integrate them into a really small flock. I had the 2 new girls outside for a while, in their own space, but next to the 2 big girls. Then I had the 4 free ranging together, and Ellie (the big barred rock) was pretty aggressive, I had to gently smack her a few times with a small mop. After several days things calmed down. They all went into the garden together, smaller space, not too bad, a little charging, but no contact. Friday I left the door open between the sun room (it's coming down this week) and the main coop. Pretty good again. Saturday night, I just left the door open. The babies slept in the doorway, big girls seem fine finally. Now I can relax!  I think they all worked it out :)  Cool diagram above, huh?

From Food Swap Network

Food Swap Network- I had never heard of this before, but what a great idea! Food Swap Network There isn't one in Boise, but I might start one, since I have the summer off. Has anyone tried this???

Here's my little living room table I put seasonal things on. See my little rehabbed, thrift store lighthouse on the right? I painted the upper tube navy and added a silicone bulb. I think it came out cute! I do miss the ocean, sigh...



Vintage Finds, Salad Recipe, Jelly Roll Quilting, Losing Samanatha, Garden Update

From Trudy's Cafe

Anyone have any idea what the metal "cabinet" is? Pie/bread safe, spice rack? We couldn't decide...

Vintage Finds-
I know, I'm such a hypocrite. Last time I wrote about Voluntary Simplicity and not having too much stuff. Then Dave and I went to Idaho City (an old mining town) yesterday for the afternoon. He's been on vacation this week, with my first week off for the summer. We had cleaned up from the wind storm, done a bunch of boring, mundane projects, so we decided to drive up to the old gold mining town for lunch. It's about an hour outside Boise. There's a nice little diner, Trudy's, with amazing huckleberry cheesecake (they were out!) and good lunches, reasonably priced. Here's some pics of her amazing collection of vintage kitchen ware, that is displayed ALL over the diner. It's like eating in a museum!

Before we had lunch we hit a few junk stores, with all of them closed but one. I found this really nice table runner (folded in half) for $3.00, in really nice shape, colors still nice and bright!

I had seen a garden and gifts store coming into town and thought I'd check out their tomato plants, since we needed more for the garden. We went inside too, to look around. Cute stuff, then Dave grabbed my arm, quietly steered me whispering "you have got to see this", as we came around a corner there was lots of this-

Vintage kitchen ware, circa 1920's with "french green" wooden handles. I didn't even know what the top right item was, until I got home. It's whipping whisk, which may be from the 1910's. I bought this batch for $15.00, a little less than the $1.99 each. Dave heard the owner say (I was so excited I missed it) "I guess Trudy will have to live with it"! Trudy is selling off some of her huge collection, what are the odds :) I just couldn't believe it! It's a real walk thru the history of American manufacturing. The "all in one" can opener is marked A & J, (which later sold out to Ecko), "tool tempered steel, Made in the U.S.A." No made in China here. I love the pastry cutter- it actually has a bolt where someone attached (by hand) the handle. Wow. Talk about handmade. I'm going to gently clean the items, a little rust here and there, and display them. I decided to paint my two other items to match, since I don't plan on ever selling them. They're displayed over my stove. These probably had red paint, but I found an exact match of the french green at a craft store today, whoopee!

Chopped Salad Recipe-
I posted this recipe last time, and made it tonite. Wow, it was great! I left out the avocado, used Romano cheese, added a little more lemon, and garlic powder, excellent. BUT I cut the recipe in 1/2, as that's a LOT of salad! 8 servings at least. Simple Chopped Salad  It's a keeper...

Jelly Roll Quilting-
I stumbled across this today, what a great idea! Jelly Roll Quilt Video Working full time, I just don't have time to quilt, but I could certainly try this over the summer, and maybe even make my own jelly rolls!

Losing Samantha-

I couldn't share this til now, but it's still tough. We had to put our beloved Sam to rest 2 weeks ago, due to severe pancreatitis, infection, and some other underlying problems. She was 13. She had never fully recovered from her spleen removal for cancer in Feb. We'd lost 2 other pets, elderly, in the last 3 years. It about killed me. We lost both dogs on Memorial Day weekend too, sad but true. This time was easier to decide, but still extremely painful, because Sam had always been what I jokingly called our "doggy triathlete". Never an illness and always really active. It was too painful to watch her decline so fast. She was such a trouper. She never had an accident in the house until her last day with us. Always healthy, and so smart. Aussies (Sam was 1/2) are renowned for being very loyal and devoted to their families. She sure was. We helped her leave at the Humane Society, Dave and I and one of our daughters, talking her all the way thru it. It was fast, thankfully. Coming home, it was the first time in our marriage when we came home to an empty house- no meowing or barking or tail wagging. That really hurt. Here's a photo of Sam a few days before she left us, watching for squirrels from the back deck. It was cold, so I gave her a blanket-

I really remember her like this, rolling on her back on a windy, warm spring day a few months back, she was really enjoying herself!

We know she went to be with her two friends, Angel our dog and Tinkerbell our cat, both adopted from the Humane Society-

I'm so glad all 3 of our furry friends were here with us...

Garden Update-

Dave and I got the fence all lined up with the coop door, and have more space to plant! Tomorrow's the day! There was snow in the hills today, and was 38 last night. What month is this??? Errr...