Independence Days Challenge

Independence Days Challenge

Here's what we've been up to! It's been water, water water, at least we're out of the triple digits!

1. Plant Something- Nope, past that time. 

2. Harvest Something- Yellow Gypsy/bell peppers, Lemon cukes, tomatoes, yellow squash, pickling cukes (just eating, not enough to ferment), slicing cukes, Blackberries, no pears yet, small amount of apples soon-  

You can see why they call them "Lemon" cucumbers!

3. Preserve/Store Something- Will be drying some yellow squash. Have been buying low priced chicken parts and freezing. 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Bought some Elderberry syrup to stash for the upcoming flu/Covid season. Buying sale price chicken, sausages. I realized I didn't have a summer twin quilt for our bed. After Grandson River spent the night I got a great deal, $20.00 at Walmart, light teal, basket weave design, but what's that lump?

 Anya burrowed down, taking a nap!

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Tonight I made a BBQ Chicken Salad, see recipe below. I bought Orange Poppyseed dressing, used breasts with ribs (more flavor) and used regular bacon. Yummy, sorry no photo! This is from a recipe I saw online and modified- 

Part 1-

Part 2-

6. Build Community Food Systems- Contacted a local peach farm to find out about buying some ripe peaches. I'm looking for some to eat, freeze and make some jams. 

7. Recycle/Re-Use- I deep cleaned/recycled/donated old DVDs, CD cases, and freed up quite a few really nice baskets! My daughter is taking them home to use-

The space freed up in our one entertainment cabinet now has room for our emergency lighting- candles, batteries, oil lamps-

I found this at a thrift store, love it!

Love the basket of eggs on the cork screw tail-

8. Skill Up- Found an easy/cheap way to solve a tech issue, more later ! 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Last year Dave got an old free metal bookcase from work going to the dumpster, we adopted, a good size for the grand kids toy, etc. in our spare bedroom-

It's probably about 40 years old. I decided once the weather warmed up to paint it. Dave had bought some wholesale industrial spray paint (Ford blue) and we had it in our stash. I thought it would work well with our decor. Dave took it outside to paint and set up saw horses for me. I washed it down with Dawn and hot water first, rinsed well-

  

Two shelves

Bookcase

 I started spraying!

About four cans of spray paint later-

I love it!!! I bought 2 bins at Lakeshore Learning for $8.00 each, great storage-

Dave built some bird houses in the winter, I finally finished this one. He started with used cedar fence boards we had-

  I tried spray paint, not enough coverage-

I bought a small can of white house paint in a sample isze-

 Much better coverage-

I used our blue house trim paint we already had for the accents- 

Ready for some birds!

Re-painted part of my winter snowman sign-

pretty beat up from the weather, was thrifted

Since I can't draw I decided to touch it up, as much as possible-

I went around the buttons

 I realized after closer inspection there had been red cheeks and a mouth, re-painted that as well as I could. Come November I'll buy some red and green Christmas holly fabric to replace the strips that were on the arms. Otherwise all done and ready for winter!