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! 

This Is Why We Do Urban Homesteading

This Is Why We Do Urban Homesteading-
Sometimes I'm more philosophical than others, and if you've read my posts you probably recognize those times. This is one of those. It's really easy in the course of life to get caught up in the mundane things. Commuting to your job five days a week, doing laundry, cleaning the house, all the really boring parts of life the rest of the time. Then there's taking care of the chickens-

and then the eggs!

We also tend the garden and see what we can grow here at our little homestead. When we plant things in the spring and early summer there's always a lot of labor involved in that, then watering, fertilizing, weeding, etc. We have planted a ton of perennials as well, and lots of pollinator plants. Now we're getting into the full harvest season! I looked at our corn this weekend and was thrilled to see that some of it was ready to pick! I haven't tried growing any since we've lived here-

Beans at the base

Sweet corn

Saturday night dinner, it was amazing!

There's also: bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Gypsy peppers, Giant Italian Marconi peppers, pickling cukes, Lemon cukes, the five different kinds of tomatoes, Itchidai eggplants, kale, collard greens, green beans, Zucchini, two kinds of baby ornamental pumpkins, peaches, apples, pears, Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Italian Parsley and the blackberries that keep on giving!

Big, tall Basil, pesto time soon to freeze!

Baby pumpkins by the beans-

All homegrown cukes and tomatoes, more Saturday night dinner

Green beans, bacon & onion, another Saturday night dinner dish

It's really amazing when I looked around this morning at exactly how much we have grown here on the small, urban lot. Dave started picking some peaches last weekend but we couldn't really process anything since we had two days of babysitting and it just didn't work. Luckily the Red Haven peaches weren't dead ripe yet, but they were this weekend-

Dave picked all the peaches, about 125 Lbs., all organic and we know exactly what is in them. Compost, water, and a little manure, a tree and that's it! No bugs either!!!

Canning started

Room for peaches

All done, 25 Qts. canned (10 Spiced)  and 10 Qts frozen. I made spiced peaches with clove and cinnamon sticks, should be nice for the holidays! More apples will fill another shelf soon.

Peach crumble

We also have our apple tree which is really loaded and should be ripe in another month or so-

I made a big batch of pasta sauce with our tomatoes last weekend and froze half of it. Dave and I deep cleaned the freezer a week or so ago and it is filling up! Next month we'll be canning and freezing lots of apple products. The pears will be ripe then too, but we just eat them fresh and bake. This is when I'm really glad we have a dishwasher. I've thought in the past if I were by myself I'd pull it out and add shelves with basket. No I don't think so! Look at all those lovely clean jars-

When I look at all the food that we can produce, except for meat proteins, I do feel really blessed. It's been 12 years of taking this lot from turf, a couple of trees and literally nothing else, to our very productive little homestead. It's been a ton of work, financial investment, sacrificing vacations, and yet here we are and we're both so happy. It's also still a work in progress. We want to add more edibles in the front yard- Strawberries, maybe some raised beds, less turf. A lot of people we know wonder why we enjoy spending weekends at home especially in nice weather. Maybe if they took a tour of our homestead they would understand a little more. Next winter, when it's cold outside, we can have our own green beans, canned peaches, and maybe a homegrown apple pie. Then there's all of our wonderful eggs! So while I thought I'd like to live out in the country, I realize (except more room for goats and a beehive) I think this is pretty much it. And I can live with that.

September Is National Preparedness Month, Styling A Glass Dome

September Is National Preparedness Month-

With hurricane Florence on the East coast it's a good reminder that September is National Preparedness Month! It's getting cooler here and wearing my first flannel blouse of the season. October tends to bring our first big storms. Interestingly enough the Farmer's Almanac has predicted our first SNOW will be in October! I'll be prepping the coop soon and getting ready for winter. Yep, WINTER! I have several links with really great information on what kinds of things you may want to have on hand. There's also tons more online. There's also a link below about how to save money while prepping. Don't forget one of the main things you need to have on hand is water as you may not have access to some depending on what kind of emergency you might have. Extra food, fuel, pet foods, baby/child items, OTC and prescription medications are always a must. We just stocked up on canned goods, batteries and I am storing more water. While we have a 55 gallon rain barrel it would need to be filtered (we have a filter) but we have to empty it for the winter. I can buy a gallon of water for $1.00 each, so it's easy to buy a few at a time. I personally don't favor reusing milk jugs, etc. for water storage. Some folks can also use alternative methods for heat, woodstove (still want one) or have a generator. We have a camping stove and several Kero heaters, but not for indoor use. We could use in the garage for cooking in a vented area. 

From Ready.gov

This display had a really great group of items on the shelf as far as preparedness. Bleach is a really great disinfectant either straight or diluted. Things like paper plates, buckets, garbage bags, TP, protein bars, first aid items, etc. Tips to save money here Budget Friendly Preparedness Kit

It's great to think about your neighbors too and how you could help each other. Great post here Climate Change and Building Our Community  Thanks Wendy!

From Ikea.com.US

Styling A Glass Dome
The photo below of the Ikea painted step stool on Pinterest (couldn't find original link) gave me the idea about buying this glass dome. I had wanted one for a long time but they tend to be more than what I wanted to spend. I ordered hand towels from Ikea online and saw they had a great deal for $9.00. It has a nice, solid wood base and is 4" x 8" high. The ones in the store had a shiny gold base, not my thing. When I saw the little printed card inside below I thought what a great idea! After mine arrived I printed my own with a free printable off of Google. For winter I may put a small snowman or something else inside. Inspiration-

My version below. I tried multiple time to get a good shot, but glass is shiny! Best I could do-

The great thing about these is you can put anything inside them! I saw Star Wars toys, sea shells, feathers, Lavender, you name it! You can stack on top of books, and use multiples in different sizes.  Ikea sells two, mine's the smaller one. Here's something very similar-

                                                     

From Ikea

From Ikea

Poster Frame Dowel Kits, Installing Ikea Medicine Cabinet, Independence Days Challenge, Pear Crumble

Poster Frame Dowel Kits-

After I got my wonderful 20 x 28" poster at U Of Utah museum gift store above I started pricing frames. Ouch! I went to the manufacturer's website Cavallini.com and found these-

Oak Dowel hanging kit, $15.00

The poster website has gorgeous bags, prints and more, check it out! No, they're not reimbursing me, just nice stuff! I should have in a week or so and will post a photo.

Installing Ikea Medicine Cabinet-

We installed our new Ikea bathroom cabinet this weekend and it looks great! I have a very white blue I painted on the walls originally. The directions were pretty clear that came with it, and took us about 2 1/2 hours to install. You want to take the time to do it correctly. When I looked at the tag I was interested to see where the cabinet was actually manufactured, it was in Italy!

Has a really nice finish and is very roomy. The first thing we did was basically lay everything out on a card table with the towel since the two of us were going to put it together simultaneously. 

It was much easier to sit down to do this. They even supplied a little short screwdriver but we used our own. Basically we laid out the directions and started counting all the hardware which is included, then laid out the pieces. Since you use the mirror door last we set it aside. Basically you attach all the hardware as you go to create the box of the cabinet. Which we did. Then you had the back piece which two slides into the slot. Make the box into a cabinet, put on the back-

We didn't use the cheap plastic anchors, that they included, since they're not really heavy duty. Dave bought 3/4" L brackets and we used those. Bolt them into the studs.

Then we mounted the cabinet on the wall, adding the door last. We tried to add the door per the directions but that was tricky. Basically they say to add the hardware to the door, then attach that hardware to the cabinet. We found it was much easier to reverse the process, by adding the hardware to the cabinet and then attaching it to the door. So we got it up, it's level and it looks great. I have 3 shelves and tons of storage. The old one will go to free Craigslist. Love the new one! 

Independence Days Challenge-

This time of year is definitely a busy time so here's a review of what we've been up to recently. Last weekend there was fruit all over the counters and dining table, not a bad thing!

1. Plant Something- No, it's harvest time! We don't do fall/winter gardens here, too much erratic weather. 

2. Harvest Something- No eggs, both girls molting, but the younger ones should start in a month or so. Herbs, tomatoes, cukes, pears, peppers, beans, and squash have been really coming in steadily and it was time to start freezing somethings. We'll dig up the 3 bins of potatoes soon too! 

Our organic pears

3. Preserve/Store Something- Freezing veggies and fruits. We were gifted by one of Dave's co-workers with some huge, ripe peaches! That was great since our peach tree did not have a large harvest this year. I decided to freeze all of them except a few to eat. We have lots of fresh pears that I baked. More are on the tree, but not that much. Too little to can IMO. I found a great deal on fresh Blackberries and local gourmet Italian breads. Pesto is coming soon with my 2' high Basil, to freeze in little jars. One of the things I like to do is to add some of the sweet Gypsy peppers and Italian peppers to the frozen tomatoes. Since I will primarily use frozen tomatoes to make pasta sauces in the winter or soups that's always a good addition. I'll be freezing kale soon too. This weekend will be food preservation as a top priority.It's always nice to be able to fill up your freezer! 

Free!

Off to the freezer, 4 gallon bags

More to eat fresh

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Dave and I cleaned out our bedroom pantry closet of some older items, creating more room. There were some dry mixes and some canned goods that were past their prime. It's a good reminder not to buy odd foods just because they're on sale and then not use them! The good news- it freed up some room to move things around and open up some space for canned goods that we do use on a regular basis. I always keep things like canned beans on hand to make quick soups. I always love to make homemade soups and pasta sauces on the weekends when I have time. Love to let them really simmer and reach full flavor. I do used dried beans as well. Sometimes on a work night though it's nice to have things like canned beans to just be able to chop up some vegetables and throw it in a pot for an hour. It's a fairly instant dinner. I know there's a big thing about the instant pot but sometimes it's just another thing to buy and store. And it's just the two of us I don't really see the need for that. 

Got a $10.00 coupon for a nice sale shirt at L.L. Bean, scored for $12.00, free shipping. Perfect for work! Got a $50.00 Amazon gift card from a business acquaintance and Dave and I split it. I got a new wireless weather station, was $85.00 for $17.00 and some teas. I'm a weather geek, what can I say? My old weather station died. Dave got a wireless headset and a new CD. Both happy. I do want to say we also get rid of things on a regular basis.  Dave gets batteries wholesale sat work so we stock up on 3 lantern ones. Winter is coming...

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Ate peaches and pears oh my! Bought the new book Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo She started off  her books on French food, then married a Swedish man, equals a new book! I did break down and bought an actual paper one! I like to actually sit down with a cookbook and read it, turn the pages, etc.  I bought several of her used French cooking books and really like her cooking style. When I looked online at some of her recipes they looked great. I like some Swedish cooking, so I thought it would be good to try. Ironically the paper copy of the book I ordered through Amazon was shipped from the UK. The only thing available in the US was electronic, oh well a sign of the digital times. I'll post some photos after I try some of the recipes.

6. Build Community Food Systems- Got the free peaches. Will give our neighbor some free eggs for her rhubarb when the girls start laying.

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Gifting our old medicine cabinet, old towels. I was gifted a heavy, steel file folder rack. I used it for all of my food preservation books to keep them together.

8. Skill Up- Learned all about installing a shower faucet cartridge after Dave's attempt!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-  Another home improvement was getting a new cartridge installed into her shower faucet control. Since it was still under warranty we got a free cartridge from Moen to replace the old one. Dave did have good directions but was unable to remove the cartridge dou to a lot of hard water build up, so we had a plumber do it. The old cartridge caused the shower faucet to drip a bit. Having the new cartridge in made a huge difference! Not only did it make the handle on the shower faucet move really easily, it actually increased the water flow. Dave thought from the sound of things that the mix probably was not correct due to the cartridge being jammed. Anyway the main thing is is it works great now! The plumber said due to hard water there was just a lot of gunk in there over the years. We're talking now about potentially adding a water softener system to the house, but don't know if we really want to spend the money for that. There's also environmental issues with all of the salt used in that. We will do more research and think about it. Will be touching up the paint on the coop soon, before the cold weather hits and reinforce a couple areas. Need to keep the girls cozy!

Pear Crumble-

With lots of fresh organic pears it was time to bake! I made this last year Justapinch.com but subbed Puff Pastry this time, and used nutmeg instead of cinnamon. Oh my, almost silky! 

Hot And Smoky, Peach Fail, Independence Days Challenge

Hot And Smoky-

Like the rest of the West it's been very hot, with triple digits and smoke from various wildfires. We're fortunate that the smoke isn't any worse. The sunsets have been really spectacular, but I've been sneezing a lot more, congested, with all of the crud in the air. There's no relief in sight for the heat right now but the good news the vegetables are going great! I mostly just trying to keep the chickens cool and we're trying to stay on top of the watering. This is the time of year I'm really grateful for air conditioning in our home, my car, and my job. Could be much much worse. I feel really sad with people losing their homes, businesses and the forests. It's a terrible sight to see the Shasta area fire, huge and such a gorgeous area. I visited there a long time ago and Mt. Shasta was breaktaking.

 Morning commute 2 days ago, much worse today

Yep, that's it

Peach Fail-
This is our second year to have peaches off our little peach tree and it was doing great this spring. We had lots of fruit and then a few storms blew through. I had noticed that there weren't a whole lot of peaches on the side facing the street, but didn't think much of it until this weekend. Dave told me that a lot of the peaches were ripe and he was going to pick them. I asked him how much he thought there was on the tree and he thought a couple of crates. In reality we had a pretty tiny harvest as you can see from the photo. Pretty sad, but I guess it's better than nothing. We had lots of one gallon bags in the freezer from last year's harvest in comparison. I took the worst of the peaches that were bruised and have some bruises,  sliced those up and made a peach and blueberry cobbler. I saved the better more perfect peaches for us to just eat fresh. We gave a small bag to our two daughters last night and her one grand baby was asking for more peaches! Glad that he likes them. So unlike last winter we won't have lots of frozen peaches. Oh well, what can you do?

Independence Days Challenge-
Here's a rundown of what we've been up to lately...

1. Plant Something- 

I was able to find some half price Italian parsley since mine died and planted some fresh. This is not the time of year for planting for us since it's so hot and we don't do a fall garden due to the climate.

2. Harvest Something-
Right now we're harvesting the start of our tomatoes, lemon/slicing cucumbers, blackberries, and sweet Gypsy peppers. We got about 1 cup of Choke Cherries, that's it. I'll make some syrup for breakfast and stick it in the fridge. Our two older hens are still laying about 1 egg every day or so probably due to the excessive heat. We're doing a lot to keep them cool, but I think that their production will pick up a little bit as it cools down some over time. Interestingly enough the three half-size hens seem to tolerate the heat better probably because they're smaller.

3. Preserve/Store Something- 
We harvested our neighbor's rhubarb (she doesn't use it) and we got about four 1-gallon bags in the freezer. I also made a huge strawberry rhubarb apple cobbler last weekend! Yummy. No peaches this year, read below. Looking forward to harvesting apples and pears, the trees are loaded! I think we'll have enough tomatoes to freeze as well.

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- 
Bought grilling chicken on sale for roasting. Going to Costco soon for some supplements, cat litter etc. We get lots of great deals there, but we're careful what we buy.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- 
After I read a little article on how the English royal family stays healthy I discovered barley water! I never heard of it before and did a little research. It's made out of water left over from cooking with barley and added fruit juices for flavoring. And guess what I stumbled upon at a local grocery store? Yes lemon flavored barley water. Always ready for a culinary adventure I decided to buy a bottle. It was $7 for the concentrate of 28 Oz. Basically you use about 80% water in about 20% of the concentrate, so it makes a lot of glasses. I tried it and really liked it since it was tart and didn't have much sugar compared to other drinks. Dave even liked it! I bought Robinson's brand lemon flavor and may try some other flavors if I can find them. While this isn't something I would have ordered online, I did find it locally. I may buy some more or make my own. There are tons of recipes online. You basically cook barley, reserve the water and then add your own fruit flavorings. Fascinating stuff!

6. Build Community Food Systems-

Rhubarb from her neighbor, Dave nicely sliced it up in cubes, froze it bagged. We gave her a dozen of our fresh eggs which she greatly appreciated.

7. Recycle/Re-Use-
Mostly doing more donations and I have bought a few used things recently. I picked up a few inexpensive summer clothes for work and some bamboo silicone utensils for pots.

In a recent order from Amazon I received a $50 off coupon for Hellofresh, a new meal delivery system. After going online and doing a little research I went ahead and ordered two two-person dinners. The total will be $15 which would certainly be less than the two of us eating out. All the ingredients are provided except for simple additions like oil, butter or something else that you would usually have on hand. We should be receiving the order this weekend and I will do a review. I ordered a Hawaiian Poke Bowl meal and Pork Tacos. I will certainly let you know what I think after we try this if anyone is interested. While I think they target affluent families that don't know how to cook, maybe they'll learn something! I guess no one buys cook books any more.

8. Skill Up-
I did learn recently how to air out a perfume a smelly used leather purse. My one main leather purse that I use mostly for work was partially broken. It was a used leather Fossil bag that I bought on eBay a few years ago. I wasn't able to fix part of the metal that broke. I found another good deal on eBay for another Fossil bag that was basically brand-new, much cheaper than retail. I was really excited then I opened up the box and about fell over from the perfume odor. Since I am sensitive to odors it might not have been as bad for somebody else, but it was bad enough for me. The bag came in a cloth storage bag which I immediately threw out since I really didn't want it. I was happy to see that simply airing out the purse in another bedroom by hanging it on a closet knob seems to have fixed the problem. Interestingly enough there are tons of DIY ideas online on how to do this.

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-
I can't really think of something that we salvaged recently although we do little things all the time. Dave did pull out the dishwasher arm and I cleaned it out so maybe that qualifies? As much as we scrape dishes it seems like little bits of food are always getting clogged in the spinning wands. I told Dave if he dies first I'm having the dishwasher removed, recycled, then I will have someone build some nice shelving there and fill it with baskets. With two of us (unless we have company) we really only run the dishwasher every two days.