Harvest Time! September is National Preparedness Month, Warranty Success With A Twist

Harvest Time! 

It's been busy, busy busy!!! Harvest time is always great (and) way too much at once. Our Redhaven peach tree was delayed this year because of our wacky late spring early summer weather and started ripening around the same time as the pears. Usually our Red Haven peaches are ripe in July well ahead of the other fruit trees. We froze, baked and canned some, gave some to my kiddos. Froze these on a cookie sheet, then vacuum sealed in bags for later-

 

Apples are done now, gave away some to both my daughters and their in-laws. I put canning on hold this year as I just don't have the time and some medical stuff going on. Also working a lot of overtime at work. Since we have quite a bit left over from the last two years we're good. We have lots of fresh apples stashed in both of our refrigerators which will last for months. They are delish! As a twist we have pretty much decided to actually cut down our apple tree. It is way too big and is producing way too much fruit for us. It was a tough decision in some ways but the right thing to do. Dave has a friend who's going to take the tree down for the firewood and in the spring we'll find a nice dwarf apple tree to put in its place. I canned peaches, pears got to ripe too fast with the heat so I didn't can any. Did baking and we are ate lots fresh! Pear crisp-

 

Tomatoes are coming in like crazy, finally! Our favorite variety this summer is the Black Prince tomato, a Russian variety, sweet and really delicate flavor! Smaller but amazing, will plant again-

 

Lots and lots on the vine too. I frozen some, have eaten fresh and used some of our bumper of crop cherry tomatoes to roast and pack in olive oil. They will keep well in the fridge through the winter. Elliott Homestead has some really good videos on Youtube for food prepping. I used her recipe for the cherry tomatoes. She has another recipe for sun-dried tomatoes (in the oven) and again packed in olive oil. I made those too-

 

 

Roasting

 

Freezing, used vacuum bags after this part

 

Roma's "sun dried" in the oven

 

Packed in Olive oil

 

 

In the fridge for winter

 

Fresh with our Basil and cukes! 

Swiss chard grew really well in a in a box this summer! The chickens love it so I give them some as treats-

 

Kind of so-so on our new little garden bed with radishes, carrots, and green onions. I think it's just been the weather since they've been getting plenty of water-

 

I bought really fresh, nice pickling cucumbers at a local farmstead to ferment again this year. One jar went to each of my daughters and the rest for me-

Made my 1st Chimichurri, came out great with my stored frozen roast and local roasted potatoes!

  

 

 

Eggs are in good production since Luna started laying again!

 

 

 

We're ready for Autumn!

 

Bonnie enjoying the ending summer light-

 

 

 

 

September is National Preparedness Month-

Speaking of storing and preserving food! September is National Preparedness Month (again). I can't say strongly enough I think things are going to get much much worse over the next few years before they get better. If you or your loved ones, or someone you know, is the type to thank everything will be okay they will be in for a very rude awakening. I HOPE I AM WRONG. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic, and for those who are able to listen- store up extra foods, water, cash, fuel you know the drill. You can look back on my preparedness posts here or Google September National Preparedness Month for all kinds of resources in your area. Don't forget your pets and don't forget over the counter supplements, syrups, pain relief, etc. What if you had a bad cough and couldn't find cough syrup anywhere? Not a good scenario, but if you have a couple of extra bottle stashed along with other kinds of first aid supplies your set. Winter is coming and we've already seen the bizarre international weather events. This is the new normal. Just a good reminder to not rely on anybody to help you, EVER.

 

Warranty Success With A Twist-

I blogged a while back about how I found a used Stanley travel mug with (it turned out) a broken lid-

 

 

I replaced the lid which wound up leaking sadly. I called the Stanley customer service number which was an overseas call center. That was pretty well a nightmare. I looked on their website and anything over 30 days was NOT covered by warranty, shocked! I had bought the lid and stored it for quite a few months before I used it. I started thinking about a work-around. I went on to Amazon's website looked up the Stanley flask/mug that was similar and posted a question, since I couldn't post a comment. Mentioned that they had terrible customer service and was there a local phone number? Within 24 hours I got an email from Stanley to go to their website and fill out a form, which I did. I got a response within about 2 days asking for a photo of the bottom of the cup and a video showing the leak, which I did. Within a few days I was told that the lid is out of stock, but that they were going to send me a replacement. Not a replacement LID, which was what I asked for, but a full replacement mug/flask. They let me choose which of two colors, I went with Rose Quartz (almost Copper), so now I have a brand new Stanley travel mug/flask and lid that works! Item here- Stanley1913 Mug I will save the old one, just won't use in a bag, etc. Pretty funny, I spent $3.00 for the thrifted item, $10 for a new lid and I wound up getting a free, more expensive new flask. Always pays to be creative and think about your options. 

82 Degrees & More Snowy Weather! Two Home Office Rehabs, Mini Grow Light System Hack

 

 82 Degrees & More Snowy Weather!

We have had really crazy weather here lately! One afternoon it was 82 degrees and sunny, within 3 days it was 32 and snowing! This is a more wacky Spring than we usually have here. Hens are laying great! Fresh eggs galore is so satisfying for us. The good news is the garden is greening up with the days longer-

 

 

 

Bonnie enjoys the sunny spots in the house-

"Before" shot original home office

Two Home Office Rehabs-

With my new job, and an earlier shift, my first day of work I drove in the pouring rain and dark. Not fun. Luckily it's daylight now, and I will be starting to do hybrid work in a few weeks. We added a new larger desk to our home office and relocated our other small existing desk. Here's the before and after on that! (Before shot above)

Originally when I applied for my new job it was listed as no remote work, 100% in the office. Between the time I was hired and the time it was posted things changed. I was very happy to find out I would be doing part-time remote/office work. It's really nice not to have a full time commute and be able to work from home some of the time. Lots of little things you can do in between working from home like moving sprinklers, running a load of laundry, etc. We were in the dilemma of what to do since we moved our personal home office stuff into the bedroom office. Now with that area being a kitchen buffet-

We opt to use a laptop with a monitor/keyboard/mouse at home. We decided to move the small existing desk into the other spare bedroom and set up our home office there. We donated my sewing machine cabinet and put my sewing machine in the craft closet- 

 

That made room for the small desk to go into that bedroom. Good excuse to deep clean! We deep cleaned that area, always hard to miss the dust bunnies behind the furniture-

 

Old desk, ready for when I start working remote

So next- what kind of desk was I going to use to work from on? We looked around and I really wanted to get something that would be more like a piece of furniture. Eventually when I retire we won't need two desks so I figured we'd buy something nice that we could keep long-term. We didn't want to spend too much money so I looked around and finally settled on a desk from Costco. It was $200.00 off, ordered it online and had it delivered within a week. The thing that really sold me on the desk was it was mahogany hardwood construction. I wanted something really stable that was not going to get wobbly or weaken over time. I did shop around quite a bit and we didn't want cheap MDF, etc. Dave and I got started-

Look at the Mahogany grain!!! WOW

 

Dave and I put the new desk together and it looks great! We're keeping our home set up for now. We'll move our gear to the other bedroom when I start working from home. We didn't spend any money for this except for the new desk, $300.00. I really like the distressed farm style! If we ever decide to move the personal workstation into the living room it would be a nice fit.

 

 

Bonnie approves! 

I used some leftover fabric from my kitchen buffet, so I sewed up a curtain with velcro on the top. Conceals a food storage bookcase, dresses it up!

 

Mini Grow Light System Hack-

I wanted to start some seeds and we were going to set up our grow light system in our extra bedroom. It's worked really well before. I decided this year, based on last couple years, that I really didn't need to start quite as much. I suddenly had the brilliant idea that instead of using the whole 6' tall grow light rack, with multiple shelves, that I could just downsize it. I decided to put it on top of our buffet in the dining room. So Dave set up just one rack for me-

 

Lettuce seedlings to thin

 

Basil from the grocery store to go outside

 It's over the waterproof counter and there's power there. Easy to keep an eye on and I can start plenty of cucumbers, squashes, herbs and flowers there. Because our growing season can be kind of unpredictable here in the summer we really prefer to buy tomato starts. They get off to a quicker growth pattern. I know not everybody does that but it works for us. I just moved a few things around and I added my wooden organizer that I and the seeds are in close proximity for the gardening season. Now I just need to keep the cat out! Will fill the rest of the pots this weekend. Lettuce will go outside in pots. I have given up growing in the garden area.

 

 

First Snow! Winterizing The Coop, Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores

From Idahostatesman.com

First Snow!

I love snow!!! We had our first really big snow storm come through Oregon and Idaho Friday. Woke up to falling snow in the morning melting on the road to work. A few days before that got some snow up in the foothills, but this was our big first Mountain snow. Story here Ski Area Excited or Early Snow   Just in time as the garden had gotten it's last harvest-

 

The chickens are enjoying having the full run of the garden area now. Made our last couple of pizzas with homegrown tomatoes. We do have some hardy kale and collard greens still!

 

Closed the vents on the foundation, winterized the cars with new wiper blades, snow/scrapers and a spare blankie just in case. The summer quilt and blanket on the bed are gone, I put on our nice big warm comforter! Dave and I switched to our winter down coats, kitty Bonnie has discovered the floor heating vents and gets some nice warm air. Since we adopted her in last December this is her first Autumn going into Winter. I still miss Anya but having Bonnie here has been a real comfort-

 

We recently brought Anya home. One of the things they included with her ashes was a paw print of hers-

 

Made me cry it was so sweet. Anya always loved watching the snow fly. I think she thought the snowflakes were bugs and she'd meow at them!

 

One of my last photos of her
 

 

Winterizing The Coop- 

The weather was really warm in October and then suddenly dropped the last week. After a heavy rain and some snow we decided to put up the sun room and attach it to the coop. Dave pulled out all the components that we stored behind the coop. In the garage we attached the plastic and the frame until it was all put together-

 mid process

After we tie wrapped all the plastic tie wrapped on and got the frame stable Dave and I carried it out into the backyard. Dave attached it to the coop and now the chickens have extra space through the rest of the winter! The sun rooms have worked really great over the years. Dave also deep cleaned the coop so the chickens are ready for a nice cold winter. It's been interesting the price change on bales of pine shavings . We use the deep litter method and pine shavings are great. A bale is currently about $20 which is more than double in about the last 6 months!!! Not sure if this is due to fuel prices or more the popularity of coops in the area or both? I'm glad I did stock up on a couple of extra bags of feed a few months back.  Otherwise they are all cozy! Shot from last year-

 

 

On the low setting

Fun Online Ikea Holiday Scores-

I love Ikea but there's no store in Boise sadly. One of my biggest complaints with Ikea was that they don't sell any holiday decor online. They are finally selling some, but not all. I love Scandinavian folk art and there's some things I really love (not much of fan of modern Scandinavian design).  I was able to finally find a few things online of their holiday decor and I ordered some! One of them was not a holiday item but a pseudo oil electric lamp (see above). There used to be one in a really dark green that I loved but I didn't want to spend the money. I found this one that was cream colored, was $10 off, ($20) and I bought it. I had actually never seen something marked "ON SALE" at Ikea.  It's perfect on my end table when I want just a little bit of light and it's adjustable. Since it's LED it's bright when it's on all the way, and I bought a spare bulb. The glass and metal is very heavy duty and durable.

I also found some really cute Ikea Christmas tree ornaments, candles and a really cute little tray. Tree ornaments $15, very much like Mercury glass! I did splurge on these, even prettier in real life!!!

 

From Ikea Vinterfint Ornaments

 A cute tray $4-