Independence Days Challenge, Thrifting, Shabby Chic Wedding Ideas, Bird House Re-Do, Mountain Photos

Independence Days Challenge-

1. Plant Something- Added chives (lost to the new A/C install) and mint (I know, it spreads!) We created some space in a front yard strip and added some bush beans too. Next year we'll increase our back veggie beds and add more in front as well. 

2. Harvest Something- All 3 girls are going great, 3 eggs a day! Finally. Compost, great collard greens, kale, a few berries. Waiting for every thing else to ripen, mature. Tons of fruit on the trees!

3. Preserve/Store Something- Red onion relish. When I'm up on both feet I'll start some jams/jellies.

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Doing normal rotations of pantry stuff, added a few things to the chest freezer. Went wedding rental shopping with my daughter for her wedding.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Tried a new chicken tostaditas dish from Sunset magazine. It was really outstanding! Recipe here Chicken Tinga Tostaditas

6. Build Community Food Systems- Traded eggs for rhubarb next door. Will get to a farmer's market soon.

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Re-did my one birdhouse. Photo below. 

8. Skill Up- Refreshed my memory about making colloidal silver, that stuff is great!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- We cleaned 4 birdhouses, they were pretty dirty. We ditched all the bedding, and sadly, 3 tiny eggs, sigh. We used 7th Generation all botanical cleaner, disinfects but not toxic. Let air dry, then we put back up. 

Thrifting-

I haven't been thrifting much this summer, with my foot still on the mend. Here's a couple of things I found last week-

Cute little chicken at Big Lots, love it!

Flag jar

6" basket

Shabby Chic Wedding Ideas-

My oldest girl is getting married in October, so we went to a couple of wedding rental places. They're on a tight budget, so they're renting a ballet dance studio that's set up for weddings. We were looking for some additional decorations. While she isn't doing shabby chic/farmish, I LOVED these displays! More here at Tates Events.

chicken wire, chipped paint, I liked the door too!

Burlap runner, nice little touches.

Bird House Re-Do-

This is the "after" shot. It was faded and peeling a bit. I re-painted it green and since we had some extra license plates, I cut out the tree from an old Oregon plate with tin snips. Dave screwed it on and it matches the roof now. I like it! The birds must too, as they started re-building a nest within the hour.

Penstemon

 Mountain Photos-

We went up to Idaho City last week, to have lunch and take some photos. We went farther past it up into the open mountain areas. We took a few shots were there was room to pull over-

some kind of wild flower

nice little creek I wish I could have gotten into, it was HOT!

I saw these gorgeous Western Tanagers, but they were too far away (even with telephoto) to get a decent shot of-

photo from Wiki Western Tanager