Independence Days Challenge

Here's a snapshot of what we've been up to lately! It's still hot, around high 90's/100 degrees, just more summer!

1. Plant Something-

Recently I planted some mint for tea and cool salads. I bought some Italian Parsley seeds (mine died) and Calendula seeds. I also bought a perennial for an empty spot in the backyard- 

Sweet Mint

Little Cutie Blondie Coral Bells, good for shady spot, Poesy eating in back

Water Lettuce pond plants multiplying

We are done planting for the year, unless I find more random veggies on sale 75% off!

2. Harvest Something-

Our vegetable garden is looking really good, we have tons of green tomatoes, peppers, etc. We have harvested our first sweet Gypsy peppers, blackberries, raspberries and some of the first ripening Marion berries. From the chickens we are also harvesting eggs! Here's a snap shot of the backyard-

Gypsy peppers

Zucchini

tomatoes

Tons of lemon cukes blossoms

Nasturtiums I planted from seed

Potatoes almost ready

2 volunteer tomatoes in the cold frame

Fail- No radishes, but edible greens, not enough sun sadly, no carrots  lesson learned

Monster Italian Kale

The three new chicks are doing really well and getting bigger by the day. I watched a snippet of Lord of the Rings the other day and thought of the and heard the phrase halflings, I think I'll call them half-hens!

They're getting along with the two older hens and are sharing the coop really well. They found out how to get up to the very top roost in the coop. The other night they were all on the top and weren't bothering each other. They took a little while to realize that there was more to the chicken run that just a little square area, so they are exploring more. I let them out today into the main backyard with Dave's help-

babies first field trip

looking at Dave pruning raspberries, whatcha doing?

The other 2 came out to play as well-

Ellie

Ellie and Rosie

I've trained all of our hens three basic commands of let's go outside, let's go inside, and do you want some food? Going outside means going out in the yard, going inside means going back into the coop or run, and are you hungry means I have a snack! 

My wintered-over geraniums are blooming great-

3. Preserve/Store Something-

Will be harvesting some rhubarb former neighbors Garden that she likes to give us so I'll be freezing all of that. Too early for anything else. Canning will proceed when the peaches, apples and pears ripen. My Curtido is ready, I pulled out and re-jarred and into the fridge it went-

Homemade goodness

When I find some pickling cukes I'll ferment some of those too!

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

Got a great deal on some work dress slacks at the Eddie Bauer outlet with a $10 off coupon, for a total of $5.00!  I got a nice work blouse on eBay, clearance one on LL Bean, bought a pair of heavy leather sandals from Skechers for everyday use. My last pair lasted 3 years so that worked out pretty well, much cheaper than Birks-

I found this cute garden stake at Hobby Lobby clearance priced, $6.00, will go with the new plant, sort of a faux mini gazing ball with a chicken on top!

My $7.00 mister finally died, so we found this to replace it, has 2 misters instead of one, $12.00-

The mister is outside, hens are loving it since it's 95 degrees.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-

I've made this recipe for years and made some last weekend, Spicy Fried Chicken It's a pretty simple recipe and the buttermilk is key! I served it with homemade corn relish, salad w/homemade buttermilk dressing, green onions, and red pickled onions. I found this new free recipe from Bonappetit.com, looks good and love all the lime juice-

Spicy Ranch Sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
4 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeno pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

6. Build Community Food Systems-
Will be harvesting some rhubarb from our neighbor's garden that she gives us every year, will be selling eggs once the three half-hens start laying. Most hens start laying around 5 to 6 months old which should put our girls into October or so. I should have plenty to sell!

7. Recycle/Re-Use-
I filled up both our hummingbird feeders are they getting used! Dave got some old cedar boards from one of our girls a while back. They had some really tall planters they inherited when they bought their house that they didn't like, so Dave salvaged them. I'll have him build a small planter box for me this/next weekend so I can plant my new seeds. We took donations to the thrift store, shoes, clothes and household items. I bought some used baseballs for $2.00 for a craft project but wound up liking them as-is in my basin!

Summer decor!

I found another booster chair for one of the grand kids, since they're too big for a high chair, $5.00. I will sell the high chair on Craigslist. Thrifting seems to come in waves and I haven't been buying much lately, and that's ok.  I'm currently re-purposing some things for a new display, will post soon!

8. Skill Up-
I learned about how the Juror calling system works in Boise since I was on jury duty for the week of July 4th. You just call in every night the night before and listen to see if they pull your number. I didn't get called since they didn't call any jurors at all for 3 days. Then on the other my number wasn't called. I wouldn't have minded doing it since I believe that's a part of being a citizen.

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-
Ditto the cedar boards. 

Deleting/Restoring A Blog, Faux Lavender Wreath & Crafting W/Thrifted Finds, For You Baseball Fans!

Deleting/Restoring A Blog-

I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate Google. There are NO words. When you have someone start buying up every smaller company their "customer service" (and your privacy) evaporates. It's their nature. Here's the short version with some helpful info in case something happens to your blog!

I backed up my blog and theme before I went to delete an old junk email account last weekend. After recreating a new blog, because google closed mine, I also had to choose a new URL, or web address. I chose something similar- "The" little homestead in Boise. When you Import your blog it still misses quite a few things- links, photos, etc. so you may want to create a back up word Doc for that. It would save a LOT of time restoring or recreating. You might also document the size of the side bar, etc. if it's not the default. I like mine a bitter narrower. I finally realized I could restore the junk email I deleted and within 1 or 2  minutes my blog reappeared. I disconnected the junk email from it and added my main email. This took me 7 hours!!! And a lot of tears. I did find this fix after I published this- How To Change Blogger Login Email Address  Additional instructions I figured out- send the invite then log out. Log on with the new email, THEN accept then invite. Then log in with the old email and make the change. It worked! Pretty easy. I also deleted the new-recreated blog.

When you have blogged for several years, and create a following, it's really sad to lose all that. PROTECT YOURSELF FROM GOOGLE, ETC!!! Backup, or archive your stuff. Lesson learned :(

My faux lavender wreath

Faux Lavender Wreath & Crafting W/Thrifted Finds-
I'm getting some spring fever, with 2 inches of snow forecast tonite! We had an inch this morning. I've been loving Provence French Country colors for a while with their famous blues and yellows. I've always loved sunflowers, and I'm going to plant some BIG ones this summer. I have a tendency to put these kinds of things only in my kitchen dining room, so I'm going to spread them out into the living room and our main bedroom. This summer I'm giving our bedroom a fresh, much-needed coat of paint. I'll go with white or cream and use a lot of these kinds of blue/yellow items to brighten it up! I'm going for a rustic, shabby chic bedroom with pops of color. With blue being my fave color and loving lavender (I grow a lot!) I stumbled on to this fun lavender wreath project. It's easy- no glue, and only took me about 15 minutes. I used these 2 components, a fake lavender "bush" and a twig wreath (+wire cutter), total cost about $8.00 with a coupon from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE that place, great prices and very helpful staff. Their lavender is very realistic-

Directions here from Confessionsofaplateaddict

I saw this on Joss and Main for $60.00 and laughed! A jar, pebbles and fake sunflowers. I'll be making one. For a LOT less!

I saw this too at Confessionsofaplateaddict and loved the tin house look for winter decor. You take paper mache houses and spray paint them with "hammered paint", how cool! Also from Hobby Lobby.

My thrifted pile of components-

Recognize the house? Ready to paint and stash for next winter!

My thrifted print I just found, $1.99! Sorry, no no-glare glass :( 

The blue/yellow vase will hold a topiary ($2.00) and I found a new French butter dish. It was a steal at .99 cents, since they run about $25.00 new. They work great!

My fave new ceramic teapot (not kettle), got it from eBay for $8.00 great condition! Reminds me of Swedish country style designs -

And Santa's (me) new French tin postcard sign will go up, but where??? Hmmm...

I finally re-habbed my real Birch Yule log that I got for about $3.00 with really ugly 70's-style greenery. I stripped it down, left the candle holders as is. It has nice heavy metal feet underneath. I deconstructed a small swag I'd made and re-used it, nice! I may add something else, we'll see...

My simple winter goodies are out now, with berries from the garden. Soon sunflowers & lavender crafts and decor will emerge from my pile of thrifted supplies! Stay tuned!

For You Baseball Fans!
Dave and I are both baseball fans, so when I bought him the new James Taylor CD Before This World (excellent!) for Christmas we were both thrilled! He has a great new baseball song that he took 10 years to write. It's about the 2004 world series game, won by the Red Socks, the 1st win since 1918. It's called Angels Of Fenway, luckily he did a great music video too! Enjoy!!!

Nature Winding Down, Falconry, & Baseball

Nature is Winding Down- The days are so short now, the leaves finally starting to fall and winter is in the air. 60-ish today, but it's not going to last. High in the 50's then low 40's by Friday, with lows in the 20's. BRRR. Our tree in front of our house finally changed colors! It took a while, and 3 days later all the leaves are on the ground. We put all our backyard stuff in the shed prepping for the weather change. Kind of battening down the hatches. After seeing the big October snow storm back east the last two days, makes me glad I pay attention and watch the weather. Some people just don't. Sometimes they pay for that. I have been cleaning and filling my oil lamps for winter too. I like to keep them in case of outages and they add a nice ambiance-

I inherited one of the little oil lamps from my beloved aunt, and found an exact match (except for the chimney) on eBay! They're from the victorian era.

Next weekend we will get the chicken sun room set up and the girls tucked in, weather permitting. It will be fun to see how they use their new digs. Only one laying still, I think the other two may wait til spring. Time will tell...

Falconry Display Today- Every year the internationally famous Peregrine Fund World Center For Birds of Prey does an "October Flights" display. My husband is a regular volunteer there, and I have "bird sat" some of the birds for public display, and cleaned cages. Today was a great way to see the birds out flying on a beautiful fall day-

All the birds flown are unable to be in the wild, due to imprinting on people. Many were found abandoned or were part of a breeding program, and would not survive in the wild. Here's a nice shot in their garden pond area- 

World Series Baseball-  I'm not a big sports fan, with too much commercialism, a general lack of ethics and the "tits sell beer" mentality. And don't ask me about the BSU Broncos- I am SO sick of the team. Being in the wrong league, it's win, win, win. Give them some bigger teams, well it wouldn't be pretty. BUT I do follow the World Series every year, just the finals. It's great to watch the two best baseball best teams in the U.S. play each other! When I watched last Thursday's Game 6, well, it was the best game I ever saw. Ever. Sheer perfection, edge of seat tension til the last second. Wow!

Congrats to the Cardinals!!!