Sickness & Shortages, Teaching Kids A Good Work Ethic, Eggs and More Eggs!

 

Sickness & Shortages-

It was 7 degrees a few mornings ago! Cold and clear, nice change from the inversion in the valley. Cold dirty air for the last two weeks on and off, yuck. Luckily we had a little bit of wind blow through. I got a yucky bug but I'm feeling much better. I woke up on a Wednesday in the middle of the night with the worst sore throat of my life. I called in sick the next day and felt really terrible, luckily I had lots of things on hand! I've always kept a good supply of homeopathic remedies oh, cough drops, pain meds Tylenol, etcetera. I still felt pretty icky the next day so I went to my doctor's office and got a strep test and the C Test both of which were negative. My doctor was checking my ears he said- oh you have an ear infection, then checked the other ear- oh this ear is infected too! He sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics which I dropped off at the pharmacy. I felt pretty lousy and Dave was out of town that weekend unfortunately. I thought I'd pick the RX up the next morning, but decided to go back that evening and pick them up. I called the pharmacy and it turned out instead of being open for 24 hours they had closed at 8 p.m. recording said "due to a severe staffing shortage". Bummer for me. I picked up my horse pills the next day and got started. Luckily I was off that Saturday, Sunday and Monday. That gave me three more full days to just stay home and rest. The interesting thing about shortages was this-  in the last week and a half I have gone to three different pharmacies and two grocery stores, (different chains), they were completely sold out of every single cough drop on the market, shocker. I know it's cold and flu season, but you never think something simple like cough drops is going to run out. I was able to find a few small bags of Ricola, my favorite brand, and grab those. Sadly I may have to resort to actually buying some off of Amazon, which is pretty funny on a certain level. You always think of something minor like cough drops as being readily available. Just a good reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore Toto. Make sure and buy what you need ahead of time and don't wait until you need it. Luckily I had plenty on hand for when I was actually sick, I was just trying to replenish my stock. I also had lots of chicken noodle soup on hand, soft foods, etc. It's easy to stash some cans of soup and other items, not very expensive and take up little space.

Teaching Kids A Good Work Ethic-

Dave and I were driving by his old employer's building today and it got me thinking. When our kids were about 10-13 my husband's boss was trying to get a small area weeded in their corporate yard. He couldn't really find a gardener that would tackle such a small project. There was basically a big weedy strip by their parking lot. I told Dave- why don't you tell him that I will come with our three kids if they will pay us and we will weed it. He asked his boss's boss said sure! Now it was summer and extremely hot, about 100 degrees. So we got there, took several hours, each of the kids made $10 an hour. They were hot and sweaty and filthy when we finished. We stopped and got ice cream on the way home, set up their little pool in the backyard, they all took a dip and cooled off. They also earned some money! Now it would be really easy to just not to have paid them, but I think working in blistering heat, doing a good job and getting paid was a really good lesson. All three of my adult girls have really great work ethic now. This is the kind of stuff people need to be teaching their kids instead of having them stuck in front of devices. If kids don't contribute to their family helping with chores, etc. as part of the group,  never may never have a chance to work for somebody else when young. Even a small one-time job they they can learn about the value of doing a good job for the sake of it, and also doing a good job for other people.

white egg not in shot

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs!

Our eggs are back in production! We had only been getting about 1 egg per day for quite a while. One of our hens is a brown leghorn and she's the only one who lays white eggs. We haven't gotten an egg out of her for four months or so and all of a sudden we got a white egg. Since then the last couple days we've been getting three eggs per day! I'm so proud of my girls they made it through the winter and are  ramping up production. I celebrated by making my favorite chocolate bread pudding using a full 10 eggs! 

This is another reason why more and more people, given the current state of the economy and access to food, should really get chickens. As long as they're willing to take care of them appropriately and have the correct space it's a really great investment. And they pull weeds and eat bugs in the garden! Selling or bartering extra eggs is always nice to be able to do. Enjoy! 

Preparedness 17.0/ And 17 Degrees!

Preparedness 17.0/ And 17 Degrees! 

Well we hit 17 degrees the other morning! Winter is definitely here with a little bit of snow in the hills and mountains in a few days. I have been tracking the weather closely, so we already had all of our perennials fairly well mulched, and I put row cover over the kale and collard greens. Last year some of my collard greens wintered over with no cover but they were bigger. With the weeks and weeks of 100 degree weather this summer they got a slow start- 

under nice row covers

This weekend we will be taking all of the tools inside from my garden work bench on the back porch and storing them and then covering it up for the winter-

bench on right

Dave got the new sunroom design up on the coop, we'll be soon running a power line through for their water heater/ hard-wired in heat lamp if we need that. Gives them more dry/warm space-

For preparedness for the chickens we bought several months worth of food in advance and pine shavings. Same thing with our cat as well, we have at least a month or two's worth of extra food on hand. You just never know what's going to run out anymore-

Debbie left and Sunny right

Luna deep in thought

I'm also going to stock up on some sewing items. I'm a little bit short on various needles. Being able to mend your clothes or a pair of things over time it's a good skill to have! I cannot tell you how many really great thrifted designer tops I have bought that were missing a button, while there was one sewed into the inseam. When somebody is not knowledgeable enough (or maybe rich), they don't sew a button on, they donate to shirt instead, shakes head.

Part of preparedness for me is having the house ready for winter. We have the nice warm comforter on our bed now and we are lowering our heating temperatures during the day-

Since I'm working from home I close my office door and turn the down the furnace. I have an oil-filled electric radiant heater that I turn on first thing in the morning, then turn on/off as needed in my work space. That way we were not heating the whole house! I added a little battery operated Ikea string lights to my pantry rack, cheers up the space. I'll add some Christmas and winter decor soon after Thanksgiving!

On the preparedness front- as far as food I did notice a few anomalies here and there I went to our local WinCo last week to get some groceries. I noticed that there was actually zero beef lunch meat on the shelves, except for one brand. There was lots of turkey, chicken, ham, etc. but only one type of package of beef. Meat prices are definitely way way up so I'm glad we don't eat meat everyday. I did find some good deals on chicken breasts w/ribs for a $2.00 a pound which was not. I bought a four pack and roasted them with salt pepper garlic paprika and Sage. Roasted a couple of yams and it was a great dinner!

I think a few things are good to think about stocking up on would be things like laundry detergent, or components to make your own. Soaps, shampoos, deodorant those kinds of personal hygiene products you might need. And for you females you know what you might need certain products as well! Recently bought some extra things like Q-tips. Got to have my Q-tips! 

I have been seeing a lot on social media about ever increasing prices of gas, food, etc. I've also heard that there are people who were raiding grocery stores. They go in a group and get lots and lots of full carts of food, run out of the store into a waiting truck, load it all and leave. That's pretty scary,  stealing $1,000.00's worth of food. I think using the phrase repeatedly supply chain issues may be an attempt to normalize that. It is not normal and it never will be. Sadly the weather comes into play with this, in British Columbia one of their ports was hit with massive rain storms and was shut down-

From Canada Flood and Landslides

I just finished up my last dehydrating tomatoes batch! I have a few fresh ones on the counter that I'll be using to make some pasta sauce with sausage this weekend. Good time for hearty food!

I have been watching some videos on YouTube of preparedness folks and one of them I actually stopped watching. She kept saying "oh my husband's favorite meat and oh my daughter's favorite drink is out!" I finally put something on her YouTube comments about being resilient! Maybe time to make some homemade flavored teas and time for husband to look at alternative protein sources? With things being the way they are (I don't see this changing anytime in the future) it is time to be resourceful, flexible, and resilient. No point being a victim through all of this, get creative! 

Winter Is Here- Sort Of, Tweaking Bathroom Remodel Decor, Planning A Backyard /Coop Re-Do,Great Finds!

Winter Is Here, Sort Of-

Our weather has been so dry, dry, dry lately that it's strange watching all the snow back East. It's been in the fifties lately during the day the thirties at night, so winter is definitely here. Our 14 degree cold snap last month really affected some of our trees locally. If you look at our huge maple tree, some of the leaves are just wilted, little color. Not normal! Other people noticed that some of their trees didn't really have a chance to change color as much as usual either. We still have all of our cold weather gear out. We're loving our new warm comforter I bought off season and kitty Anya is always finding a warm spot in the sun. We're waiting for a first big rain storm to arrive. Still allergy season sadly. We packing up the garden work bench today and I covered with plastic-

Bye bye tools

Last night we had a taste of summer by opening our 1st can of our organic peaches I canned. Amazing in a light syrup, just like fresh!!! So good...... paradise peaches...

Tweaking Bathroom Remodel Decor-
We finished up the bathroom remodel and I did the reveal last week. I wanted to tweak a few things though, so here is more of an updated version! I moved a few things around on the rack above the toilet and moved the print down. I realized there was a really big gap between the top of the toilet and the wall rack, so problem fixed! I bought some new knobs at Hobby Lobby for the new Ikea cabinet, green/blue ceramic and a really nice shade, I was not a fan of the old, cheap black metal ones-

 I moved my wood fish I bought at the coast where I could see it better, driftwood-ish...

I wanted some kind of a glass float to put in the bathroom. They're not hard to find but the ones that I found were really overpriced. I looked on eBay and I found these faux ones instead! Nice sized for a small bathroom-

I think for now we're  all done!!!

Planning A Backyard /Coop Re-Do-
Recently I was reading an article about keeping small livestock and how much easier it is. I started thinking about the layout of our background, and the fact we will probably need to rebuild the coop soon. It's held up really well for quite a few years, but it's showing wear, wood rot in small areas. We know we need to put it on a different type of foundation. I started thinking we should build a new Coop/shed where are shade area and cold frame is-

That would open up more sunny space for the garden for growing vegetables and would give the chickens a cooler area in the summer. It would also be away from the main easement fence, and less visible to hawks overhead. We'd reconfigure the chicken fencing as well. Dave's on board, and he's designing, and may do that next summer. It would be easy enough to build a second coop while the first one is still up. We'll probably build on some shed space, since we don't have a shed at this point. That would be a great use of space! And we could, of course, use a lot of recycled materials.

Tea Cups, $10.00

Great Finds !!!
I do tons of thifting and eBaying for great deals. I only recently found out that Ikea has started shipping items across the U.S.! They have a $5 shipping fee up to a certain amount of weight, I'm not sure what. I did find some really cool items that I was going to order, but was really disappointed that you can't order any of their holiday items online. If you follow this blog you know that I really love Scandinavian holiday stuff! I was really excited to find some great things and I added them to my shopping basket. When I went to check out there was a big note of these are unorderable online,  bummer. I ordered a few random things, including a new shower mat. We had bought one when we were in Portland coming back from the coast fit perfect was heavy and was only $7. These are the more fun items that I was able to get online, all found at Ikea.Us

12" tray, $7.00 for next spring, was not in store

Huge Godtagbar vase, $10.00, goes with 2 other smaller ones I bought previously, 

love the lumpy handmade clay look, and traditional Swedish folk art design

I discovered this website last year LTDcommodities (I'm not an affiliate).  I found a few fun items for winter and the holidays. A bowl/dish combo for my homemade soups! I've decided to make a pot of something each weekend. This was Minestrone and cheddar biscuits last week-

Two bowls for $12.99, nice heavy stoneware, two colors per set, I bought one of each-

Cute Christmas truck, made of solid wood, $6.00-

Fabric banner, $6.00- 

Two Troll towels, $9.00-

The Great Sardini Sandwich, Greek Horiatiki Salad, Thrifting Scores! DIY Charging Station

The Great Sardini Sandwich-
Years ago I was trying to find unusual recipes too add more fish to my diet. Loving any Italian food I spotted this recipe here Seattletimes.com I will tell you right off the bat- THIS DOES NOT TASTE LIKE FISHY SARDINES! I tastes more like an amazing olive Italian Tapenade. I used to hand chop the olives but it was much faster to use my favorite non-electric chopper, with razor sharp blades. Ten pulls and all the olives were chopped! Easy to clean, easy to store and fast, what's not to love?

                                              

I used Cajun's Choice Blackened Seasoning that I found locally at the grocery store. Great on chicken as well, I've used it for years! ! I only had some Ciabatta bread on hand, so I broiled it and used that. Amazing!!!

Greek Horiatiki Salad-
I stumbled onto this recipe, and it's a keeper! The green bell pepper really makes it. Try this and you won't be disappointed! Eatingeuropean.com

Thrifting Scores!
I stopped by a Goodwill store Saturday and really scored! The hand-stitched  piece above was $2.99, it's 12" x 5". Looks handmade and prim, probably barely used. I'll find a spot for that! Next the cute chicken sign-

Marked "Hobby Lobby" $7.99, got it for $2.99. 

A gorgeous, like-new Crown Stoneware tea pot with built-in filter that's removable, $5.00-

Last I found a gorgeous, made-in-Italy Merino wool lightweight cardigan, perfect for Fall, $5.00! It is so SOFT! Probably really expensive new-

DIY Charging Station-
I was really tired of the mess of devices and cords in the kitchen taking up counter space-

Not safe and messy. I had a Eureka moment looking at my Ikea step stool. I got out the 2 charging cords, plugged them into an extension cord into the wall behind the little pine entertainment center. Problem solved!!! The fan will go away soon, but it's easy to get to. 

Now we're off to pick more peaches!

Bless This Mess Comedy Farming TV Show

Bless This Mess Comedy Farming TV Show-

I'd heard about this show coming up a while back, and watched episode two, hysterical!!! Lots of info here Wikipedia.org From there- Young couple Mike and Rio leave their home in New York to move to a Nebraska farm Mike inherited from his great-aunt, only to find it badly neglected and occupied by a senile old man named Rudy. Then there's the screaming goat and it's chicken friend, and it only gets better from there! From ABC it airs on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm central. You can watch the first 2 episodes online if you missed them at ABC.com  Six more to come (I think) as it's a mid-season replacement. I 'm happy the ratings are looking great! Enjoy!!!

Independence Days Challenge

Independence Days Challenge-
We've been having getting a little taste of spring the last week. Days are getting longer, now the time change is here. I've seen people out walking their dogs in the evening and I heard lawn mowers roaring. We had some snowflakes on the weekend, but that was okay. So here's the recent rundown-

1. Plant Something- 

Dave and I set up the indoor greenhouse in a spare bedroom this weekend. I'll be planting veggie, flower and herbs this weekend to get a head start. We'll added out new light to our existing mini greenhouse-

First I moved all this out, and moved to a closet

Nice open wall

After we set up the greenhouse Dave found a scrap piece of conduit and drilled it to attach the light to the greenhouse frame

The conduit fit perfect and popped into he greenhouse frame, with the light screwed onto it

   

I moved our geranium from the garage into it! Added a timer for 12 hours a day

I wasn't going to bother putting the plastic cover on. Then I saw Anya eyeing the shelves! Better safe than sorry. I also had Dave cut some clear, plastic tarp on top of the carpet, just in case there's leaks. 

Anya was exhausted from watching!

2. Harvest Something-

Eggs, lots of them! Chives are up too.

3. Preserve/Store Something-

Need to make some fermented veggies. This will fix some stomach issues I've had lately, hopefully.

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

Bought some artisan breads 80% off and froze. Stocked up on our regular things at Costco.

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

I made some wonderful French baked eggs with our own eggs. I am so loving having 4 hens laying! I gave one of my daughters a dozen fresh eggs last weekend since we had plenty. I don't add extra light (except heat on occasion) during the winter, since I decided to let their production drop naturally. They eat local feed, with lots of extra greens during the winter. I added some dried meal worms recently, since one of the girls is molting. I'll going to thaw out some of our peaches and make a cobbler next weekend. Summer will be here soon, with hopefully more peaches! We sprayed our tree last year with a copper spray to save the tree from peach rust. It should keep it healthy. 

6. Build Community Food Systems- 
Nothing yet, may start selling excess eggs soon. No farmer's markets yet. 

7. Recycle/Re-Use- 
Cleaned out kitchen cupboard and donated a box of misc. mugs, cups, etc. Also cleaned out some crafting supplies. Got a great linen blouse off eBay for $10.00 for summer. Found some craft items that I will sell on eBay as well. I will re-used some potting soil from the potato bins last summer for the seed trays for the inside inside greenhouse. Got some more DVD sets from the library, all free! Dave cleaned out the coop, we sent all the pine shavings to the city for composting-

8. Skill Up- 

Learned about some retirement strategies from a show on PBS. I didn't know about the new HUD program for reverse mortgages. Fascinating. I didn't know there's a lot of flexibility with those programs. I'm not recommending it, just learning. I need to boost my retirement so I don't have to work til I'm 90! I've been re-reading the best way to prune our apple tree, really needs it-

Nice article here Modernfarmer.com

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-
Dave repaired the roosting bar in the coop after it came undone. Glad he's handy! He also is looking at re-habbing his bicycle so he can start riding again. Not sure if mine is salvageable, pretty heavy for me. We decided to prune the apple tree ourselves and save some $$$.