Prepping for Winter!

Prepping for Winter!

We've been having some pretty weird weather. It's been swinging between the 60s and the lowest temperature so far was about 28°. We've had nice weather and then lots of rain. I think the next week or two will be kind of the end of our Autumn weather but that's a guess. We've been doing lots of little prepping things inside and out getting ready for winter. I have some nice Autumn decor on our front porch, took down the Halloween goodies from our front yard that we like to put out. It was fun seeing the trick-or-treaters again this year! Now we have some more regular decor out and prepping for Thanksgiving. Lots of leaves coming down daily- 

 

 

Turkey prices are seeming a bit high in our area, but I'm not seeing any shortages yet. Anybody seeing anything interesting out there? We will be hosting this year, doing a potluck with our adult kids and grandkids. Sometimes we have a little snow in November that doesn't last, but comes down. I'll be curious to see if we get some before Thanksgiving. The leaves are definitely coming down! Dave already cleaned out the gutters once-

 

We both got new wiper blades for both cars the other ones were toast. Got out out winter woolens and fleece, gloves, hats, etc. Had to buy some new wool socks at Costco, mine wore out. I love theirs, just throw in the washer dryer! Snow scrapers in the cars with emergency blankets. Cleaned out the garden beds, picked the last of the tomatoes. Caulked some of our windows. Dave repainted our house trim, gor new address numbers, all looks great! Chickens are still on strike since they molted, but that's normal for them! Dave put up the coop sunroom while it was still mild. Gives them lot of extra dry space during the snow and rain. We just take apart in the spring and store the frame-

 

 

Luna on the left Sunny on the right

 

I put our winter bedding out, nice heavy comforter to keep us warmer on the cold nights. I put out our faux sheep skins from Ikea. I have a few on our living room furniture pieces which we love. Makes it look a little bit more warm and cozy and they're easy to throw in the washer and dryer. I bought a couple blue ones too and Bonnie loves them on the foot of the  spare bed. I think she enjoys the fuzziness too!

 

 

I fermented some pickles for the winter. Also stocked up on some French baguettes, low-cost at a local French bakery. They freeze really great! Nice to have those on hand for soups in the winter. So nice to also have our homegrown, organic peaches and tomatoes frozen for the future.  I decided to try my hand at making my own sourdough starter soon and make some sourdough breads. I found a YouTube channel, Our Gabled Home, that had a really great video on how to easily make your own starter. Great video How To Easily Start Sourdough  She also has tons of simple Sourdough recipes and German food videos too. Enjoy! How is your autumn weather going???   

I'm Back! Prepping For Winter and Beyond, Over One Million Views!

 

I'm Back! Prepping For Winter and Beyond, Over One Million Views!

I am back to blogging! I recently retired, had a nice refresh and will start posting more now.  Obviously there's been a lot going on in the U.S. and the world recently. I had some mixed feelings about retiring recently given the state of the world.  The good thing is that Dave and I are both pretty resilient, I have a lot of skills if I do have to go back to work at some point. Time will tell. We recently got some of the weather from the bomb cyclone on the West Coast. Then our first major snow up in the mountains last month. Dave and I celebrated our anniversary up in McCall, Idaho. It was cold on Saturday and when we started to drive back on Sunday morning it had snowed about 4 inches-

 

Snowed steadily on the way back, turned to rain in Boise. Since then we've had some rain and dry weather. Sadly we went through an inversion for a few weeks with poor quality air and very cold! Today the sun is shining and most of it is blown out, but maybe coming back next week. Built a new sunroom for the coop-

 

 

The previous one used a somewhat flexible PVC pipe which did not turn out to be sturdy enough. Weight of snow I knock off as needed and wind. I had the idea for Dave to design something that would use the heavy PVC or 2' x4's. Dave came up with the idea of the one, then he built it. We can store off-season easily. It is much more stable. Chickens are already using it! I'm planning on probably getting a few more chicks in the spring. Not sure if I'll be working, probably part-time after the first of the year. We'll see how things go. Retiring from the federal government was quite the adventure! Lots and lots of paperwork.

Preparedness-wise I went through our pantry closet, pulled some things that I had bought.  Made some donations to the Idaho Food Bank. I called to see if they also needed toiletries, as we had a lot of brand new mini toothpastes, etc. that we just didn't need. It's always good to think of others needing all kinds of things and they were happy to have them. I've been re-stocking the freezer a bit. Always watching for deals! I thought I had about the effects of the new upcoming tariffs. I stocked up on some things online, as well as some things locally. I already bought some needed things like bed linens, clothing and misc. stuff. We invested in a sorely needed new mattress/frame, replaced old worn out couch cushions. The couch is a flex steel, but cushions were in really soft. We both need to take care of our backs. Those were good investments! Here's a good video about some things to stock up on soon, I really like this Youtuber, he's very non-political-

I had read about the Japanese budgeting system called Kakeibo. They talk about mindful and wise investments. Great intro video here-

 

 

Lots more on Youtube and books out there. It's great being home full time, I have more time to do meal prep and I'm losing weight which is great. My back seems to be doing much better being home with not being stuck at a desk all day. I'm really happy that one year after my back surgery my back is completely healed and doing well. Also cleaned out my craft closet and donated some different decorative items I just didn't want anymore. Lots of them were already thrifted items so not much of an expense initially anyway. Will be donating more winter/holiday decor. Now I have the time to really sort and sift! Dave did get me a fun retro Santa for my birthday that I was looking for to go by our front door, courtesy Lowe's

My lovely daughter needed me some Scandinavian style wool mittens I had requested a while back. She did a beautiful job!

I also recently invested in my first solar panel to go with my Bluetti solar charger. They were doing a Black Friday sale and so I bought one. I fired it up, even in part sun and shade it started charging!

 

 

 

 

We did buy another car after our Mazda 3 started having some odd intermittent problems that nobody seemed to be able to diagnose. It was at the point where we just didn't feel like it was worth investing anymore in it. We wanted something that would be super reliable for a LOT of years. Even though we didn't want to get into a car payment we felt we got a really good deal. We bought a used 2023 Subaru Crosstrek, only 8,000 miles on it. Basically like new. We like the fact that actually has a little bit less technology than the 2024 (better price). (The 2025's finally just came out.) We didn't like their huge infotainment screens. This one was smaller screen-wise and actually had a CD player (yes, we're old school)! I don't think it's safe to be scrolling through my phone while I'm driving. We did have the front tinted windows tinting removed. Driving around on really gray days, at night made it way too dark and we felt it was a safety issue. It didn't cost much and luckily it came right off. When we drove it around much better! We still have our old 2011 Outback, still going strong!

 

Over One Million Views!

I was shocked when I saw this blog had exceeded One Million views! I started this blog in 2011 when we bought our current house. I wanted to really track our improvements. I was reading other people's blogs, getting a lot out of them and thought I might contribute my own little version. I had no idea I would go this long, and far with folks from all over the world reading it!!! While blogging is kind of a dinosaur to some when it comes to social media there are still actually a lot of us that like to read! I know a few people migrated to Facebook/Instagram and their blogs are just sort of sitting there unattended. I may get to that eventually, who knows? But for now I guess I'm kind of a storyteller at heart and we'll see how things go. I've never really made any money off of this which was never the point anyway. Now with the whole huge monetization of social media sometimes I do scratch my head. Anyway, thanks for the views! Bring your friends, bring your family!!!

 

Gratitude, Winter Is Here/Food Preps

Gratitude -

I was going to do a "what I'm thankful for" post but didn't have time to get that done before Thanksgiving. So, while belated, here are some things I am EXTREMELY grateful for:

Surgery: One of the things I'm most grateful for right now is coming through some back surgery, solved a lot of chronic pain issues for the last year. I had two options, got two different opinions. The first doctor barely looked at Dave and I, rattled off a lot of statistics. Not a good fit. Second doctor, at a totally different practice, looked at us, answered Dave and my questions, outlined everything really well. Chose that procedure. Much shorter recovery time, surgery went well, I had immediate pain relief about 90% plus. I'm getting better each day! I've been off work the last two weeks, one more week off work then next week will start working half-time at home. Will gradually increase my hours till the end of the year and then back in the office in January. I am very grateful that I was already set up to work from home! My boss and my co-worker have been really supportive. Dave's such an incredible hard worker, and went above and beyond caring for me the 1st week after surgery. We had our 30th anniversary in this time frame! We were able to go out to dinner and relax.

New Tires: Dave took my Mazda in for a oil change and turned out the tires were really low, which was kind of a shock to us. We had about 20,000 miles onto 70,000 mile tires. Dave talked to them and since that was the place we bought the tires from they gave us a big credit towards new tires. They said they had problems with this make and model. We got brand new tires this weekend, huge discount. We also got a different brand so hopefully we won't go through this again. It was good timing getting the replaced going into WINTER since we're just starting to get some snow in the area. Nothing at our house yet, buT due this week!

Dave's Pal: Dave was thrilled that a longtime childhood friend Bob moved to our area. I had met him before, great guy. I am really happy they can spend some time together and hang out. We had him over for a simple Thanksgiving dinner, since he moved here three days before and didn't know anyone in the area. It was lovely! Really enjoyed my newer "buffet", after removing the computer in the kitchen last year, worked great for serving turkey day foods! Sorry no food shots-

Roasted some leftover pumpkins from the house for the girls-

 

 

Still wondering what they are?

 

 

 

Winter Is Here/Food Preps-

The cold weather has finally come! We had 18° weather last week, with our first snow forecast down in the valley for late this week. This is a time of year I stock up on certain things. We did take down all of the Autumn/Thanksgiving decor this weekend. I don't have any Advent/Christmas stuff up quite yet. I like to take a breather between the two. I did put my first holiday decor up, my favorite vintage jar with a little red berries on the kitchen window. We did make a run to Trader Joe's and I bought one of their nice small fresh candle wreaths that I actually hang on the kitchen wall. Bought some live red berries, some evergreen branches, an amaryllis and a few food items. Before surgery I totally forgot to buy some amaryllis bulbs last month. We went to Costco a while back and I needed some unbleached flour. I do try to do as much whole grain and I have tons of whole wheat/whole wheat pastry flour. At Costco they had a large bag of all purpose flour for eight bucks, much cheaper than at the grocery store so I bought a bag. I think it was 15 lb? 

I bought some wheat berries from the LDS Food Store online.  

Churchofjesuschrist.org/Food Storage Basically you can set up a new account if you are not a member, which I am not, and when you set up your profile there's a checkbox where you CHECK "I am not a member".  I got a really great deal on six cans of hard wheat berries for about $45. I think shipping was about $7? Took about 2 weeks but I'm really happy to have the wheat berries on hand. I think next year is going to be really really ugly for the wheat market in the US for the consumer. Really great thing is berries keep a long time in a cool, dry area in those cans. They do also sell other dehydrated things like carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, oats. I thought they had a really good customer service with shipping in a fairly timely manner. Also went thru my pantry, got out some of my stash of coffee beans. Bought more teas, cereals. Washed and sorted our winter hats and gloves. Using those already!

 

Here's a peek at our garden-random gorgeous fall colors here at our homestead- 

Our Oak Leaf Hydrangea

 

Backyard mound garden

Dave got the sun room up on the coop two weeks ago-

 

 

Bonnie enjoying the winter sun-

 

 

I had some scrap faux Ikea sheepskin (cut out a circle for Bonnie's kitty perch top)-

 

 

I thought I could winterize my little bench!

 

 

Just cut a curve and draped!

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.