Sneak Peak Next Week's Bathroom Remodel, The Ugly Side of Urban Life With Chickens

Before

Sneak Peak Next Week's Bathroom Remodel-
Back in 2015 I did a Mini Bathroom Makeover, and a last year we added a new Ikea medicine cabinet over the cabinet-

Back wall-

This next week we're adding new flooring, vinyl plank wood look, in a light brown/gray. I wanted just gray, but not easy to find apparently. Vinyl sheet flooring seemed to have gone away since our first remodel. We ordered a nice sheet flooring design but it got put on back order, and decided to go for good timing/same price. I can live with it. I'm going for a relaxed coastal vibe, not beachy. I'm re-using the light fixture, towel rod and small rack. Walls will be a soft nice blue/gray, Ace's Buoyant Blue, more gray in real lighting, a bit darker/grayer than the current shade-

We bought the new Ikea cabinet-

with this sink/counter, same as our other bathroom, I wanted a rectangular but Ikea was out of stock-

and a new Ikea faucet-

Lillsvan Faucet

I found a few fun accessories at Hobby Lobby last weekend. I'll take lots of photos during the process. Saturday Dave and I are ripping out the old cabinet and clearing the walls. Sunday I will paint. Monday flooring guy is coming, will add new floor and new toilet. He's also stretching some carpeting in our 2 spare bedrooms. Then I can get them cleaned! Later in the week Dave and I will finish up. More coming soon!!!

The last two

The Ugly Side of Urban Life With Chickens-

I had to think about whether I really wanted to post this or not because I was so upset. Even Dave  was upset and he's not a big fan of the chickens. A few days after coming home, with Annie gone, Dave came home and found Sarah, our beautiful big red hen dead as well-

When I came home I couldn't find Dave and I was wondering where he was. When I saw him on the back deck with a terrible look on his face I knew something awful had happened. From what we could tell a dog got under our back fence (on an easement) where some of the boards were rotting, got into the coop and killed Sarah.

Her carcass was outside in the garden and when I took a good look at her she had been eviscerated. It looked like she was cornered in the coop. I was so shocked I didn't even know how to feel. Dave and I both blame ourselves that we should have kept the fence more intact, but I guess after 5 years you start feeling like things won't go wrong. We're not sure now if dog also killed Annie?

I kept the last two chickens in the coop the next day, since the weather was cool and let them out in the evening so that they could stretch their legs. Dave bought some lumber and basically removed all of the cedar fence boards that had rotting bases. He then back filled along the fence line on the outside in the easement. He showed me the hole where the dog had dug down. It wasn't that big but it was big enough for medium/ small size dog to kill a hen. Ironically the two chickens that were killed were both the young ones or some place supposed to replace the old ones! So now our flock went from 4 to 2 and I'll think about if we want to get a few more chicks in the spring. I just never in my wildest nightmares thought a dog would break into my yard, kill one of my birds, a few days after a the other one. Shaking head...

Blue Skies & Garden Update, Chicken Escapades, New Muffuletta Sandwich Recipe, Mini Kitchen Update

Blue Skies & Garden Update-

Friday a nice low front blew through and brought some wind to stir up the air. Friday afternoon the smoke started to clear a bit and that was a real blessing. Saturday morning brought cooler temperatures, almost a little bit of Autumn, and bluer skies. What a relief! I'd love to see some rain, but for now it's still dry. The smoke did come back a little bit later in the day. This morning the skies are still blue with a little bit of clouds, but not bad at all.  With 50's last night, and 48 forecast for tomorrow night, Autumn is in the air! I read about this app last week that measures how smoky skies change your breathing in relation to how many cigarettes you might have smoked. Friday I smoked 2.2 cigarettes, yesterday it was 1.1. Here's an interesting article on a App That Measures Air Pollution in Cigarettes  It's free and an interesting little tool.
  As far as the garden update our apple tree has fruit way up, almost impossible to harvest. We are going to have a tree trimmer come in in October to work on her massive maple tree, as well as the apple tree, to trim it to a more manageable size. As far as the veggie garden production we're doing really well! Lots of tomatoes are ripening, herbs, green beans, Italian peppers, Gypsy Peppers, 2 kinds of cucumbers, and zucchini. I'm making our first salsa today since we have enough tomatoes and may start freezing some as well. There's nothing better than homegrown organic tomatoes in the middle of winter to make into soups, pasta sauce, etc. Our only fail seems to have hit everybody locally from what we have heard. With the intense heat in the 100's for a while we had very little in the way of jalapeno or bell peppers. Interestingly enough now that it has cooled down (80's) we have several small bell peppers growing, as well as jalapenos. It's pretty common knowledge that when you reach a certain temperature some vegetables will not set fruits. Tomatoes, for instance, won't set fruit if it's above 85 degrees, if I remember correctly. We have lots of pears that should be ripen in about the next month so we will harvest those. We have a small second harvest of raspberries that is trickling in which is nice. Many of our blackberries we were waiting for simply withered up in the intense heat sadly. There's always next year...

Chicken Escapades-
It's the case of the escaping chickens! For a while now I have found 1-3 of our new chickens out in the main part of the back yard. Annie, the white young hen, seems to be the ring leader. Sure, she’s cute but don’t let that chick fool you! I suspect after the hawk attacked, then dropped her in the boxwood shrub, she realized she could climb up it. It’s in the shade area and I’m pretty sure that’s their escape route-

I have lost track of how many times Dave or I have come home from work, or looked outside, to see her/them out. Sometimes, like this week, it was all 3 birds. I trimmed all their flight feathers a bit more recently, no help. I can herd them into the coop pretty easily, but it’s a safety issue having them out. There's also potential damage to our perennial beds. The neighbor's have an aggressive dog, which made them get rid of their ducks. Safety for sure! Here's what I saw yesterday-

Pru jumped up on the fence top

Short jump to the compost pile and over the fence to the dog

It suddenly dawned on me two nights ago that I could but some bird netting and basically cover the shade area pretty easily. Only a $10.00 fix! We could just staple to the top of the 6’ fence, go over the Red Twig dogwood and attach to the lower fence. After I mentioned the idea to Dave he decided to reuse some of our used cedar fence boards and create a little bit of structure for that area. He pointed out that we may occasionally need to get back there and it would be easier to have something taller that we could walk under. He added strategic boards into the existing fence, and we both covered all that with bird netting and stapled it down-

I'm hoping this won't have to be up there permanently. I observed this morning that one of the larger chickens lunged at one of the smaller hens and she tried to climb up the boxwood as an escape measure. She realized there was netting there and went back around behind the coop. I hope the flock dynamics will settle down over time. I don't think the older hens are actually trying to attack the little ones, it's just they're very nervous. If not it’s back to square one. Have any of you dealt with this? And poor Rosie is in a full blown molt! Lost all her tail feathers, so embarrassing! Normally you can't see where I trim their flight feathers, oh well. They'll grow back and I'm giving her extra protein treats.

New Muffuletta Sandwich Recipe
I was channel surfing one night and ran across a new muffuletta sandwich recipe on Cook's Country on PBS. I was used to do a lot of hand chopping lots of different ingredients to make the olive salad. This recipe uses food processor and Italian Giardiniera as the base. It also uses store-bought pizza dough to make the sandwich bread. I decided to skip that part in the interest of time with a busy weekend. I made the olive salad as directed and it came out great!

It was much faster using a food processor but was still nice and chunky. You can add whatever kind of Italian meats you like and I followed their recipe but substituted Chorizo. Trader Joe's had the perfect combo for $5.00. I also added thin sliced Italian salami. Plenty of meat for 2 dinners. Here's the recipe- New Orleans Muffulettas

Mini Kitchen Update-
With all of our garden harvesting my kitchen has been full of mixing bowls of vegetables. I realized the other day I needed to just also remove some decorative items along the kitchen counter as it was getting just too cluttered. So I pulled a few things out and moved a few things. I moved my favorite lemon topiary that I made away from the sink area over to another part of the counter,  I then replaced it with just a small Mason jar full of faux lemons and my tea sign-

  I also moved our phone charger to another area-

Over in my kitchen desk area I moved my other favorite topiary that I made. It's in a flour sifter and I put it on our dining table where it can be seen. That help me clear off my desk -

So sometimes it only takes a few minutes to pull some things, move them, or set them aside for another part of the house. There's also also the donation box! It gives you a chance to wipe everything down and declutter, killed two birds with one stone kinds thing! I like the result and it only took me about 30 minutes!

DIY Shelf With Hooks Reveal, We Lost A Tree, Carpeting Cleaning Choices? Garage Cleanup

DIY Shelf With Hooks Reveal-
I was going to finish our DIY Shelf With Hooks project in the last 2 weeks. I couldn't spray paint outside due to weather. It was 70 yesterday, with gusting winds to 45 mph. No outside spraying, so I switched to indoors. I have sprayed inside our garage with the side door and garage door open a bit. Warm and good ventilation. I spray on the bottom of an upside down laundry basket. Works great!

1st coat

I knew it would take several coats to really seal the wood since it was new wood. Going into a high traffic area I also wanted it to be durable! I did 2 coats and let sit overnight to cure. I did one more early today, after a light sanding, now it's all done! Thanks Dave!

Sumac on the left last week

We Lost A Tree-

After my husband's beloved Mother Bette passed away he planted to tree in honor of her. He wanted to plant a Sumac tree, since she'd had one. It's been here 11 years and has been healthy. What I didn't know was that they tend to lean. In a high wind area that might not have been the best choice. I wasn't aware of this. Today we had another high wind blowing thru and Dave found the tree on the ground when he went out to mow. There was no way to salvage it. He went ahead and was able to cut a major root with his sawz all and remove the tree-

Major trunk on the ground

The rest of the tree is in pieces in our garbage can. Sad. I'm trying to think of what to plant now that's a not a big tree? Maybe a large shrub, like a vine Maple. I am doing do some research now on what might be a smaller tree to plant. Maybe a small Oak tree? I could use this 5 Ways To Eat Acorns if I do! I also like the American Mountain Ash tree, very pretty-

From Online Tree Farm

Carpeting Cleaning Choices?

We had new carpeting installed in our 3 bedrooms about 7 years ago. While we wanted to do hardwood thru the entire house we couldn't afford it. We tore up all the old the household carpeting ourselves, and had the the bedrooms re-carpeted. We did a nice sage green. The living room and halls Dave and I re-floored with a nice Costco wood-look laminate. It still looks pretty good! We had our carpet shampooed about 18 months ago by a company that did a damp clean with soap, pads, and was a coupon deal. Looked good, at first. Later dirty track marks showed from the left over soapy reside :( Needing to be more deep cleaned this time I went online and checked Consumer Reports. You can join online for $5.00 per month, a great deal for a quick research project! I quickly rules out a rented machine, to much soap and wettness. For a deep cleaning we decided to go with Stanley Steamer after looking at CS. I like the no-chemical route, and it sucks up the leftover soap. Having asthma and allergies, removing dust mites, etc. is awesome!

I also had them do our 4-year old area rug in the living room (from Ross), now it looks like new. It is rubber backed, but was too big for a commercial laundry mat. $ well spent,after 4 years of spot cleaning. We did the 3 bedrooms for $99.00 and $35.00 for the area rug (Boise prices). I could have used a $20.00 off coupon but I accidentally deleted the email. We're good for a few years now.  

Super clean!

After

Garage Cleanup-

Last weekend Dave and I both took a vacation day for a 3 day weekend. I started a new job inside my hospital organization (excellent transfer!) and we wanted to wrap some things up. On the top of the list was cleaning the garage area below-

Before, what a mess!

Too many garden things (destined for a new shed this fall) and misc stuff stored. It was organized at one point. We started sorting first, using sawhorses for the small things-

We had- trash, donations, small amount of hazardous waste for the local pickup area, a bike "trunk bag" selling on Craigslist, and the rest to keep. We decided to build a new shed this fall. We'll use as much recycled materials as possible (as usual). We tore down the old one, as it was too small and narrow. The garden items will live out there.  In the "after" picture you can see the empty shelves! We also cleaned a smaller area where we store our paints for the house. I pitched a few things and organized the rest. We now have some empty space! 

Little Homestead Year In Review, Raclette Cheesy Dinner, My Fave Winter Footwear

One of our little winged visitors this year, a Ringed Turtle Dove

Little Homestead Year In Review-

Wow, this year went fast, especially this Autumn . Starting a new full-time, year-round job with a later shift escalated things, with less down/project time. No more school "breaks", but I'm getting used to the way the rest of the world works :)  While I miss my old librarian job this is a new path towards a more positive wok environment, better finances, while I'm servicing patients who need help. There's also lots of room for growth in my organization to move on over time. Anyway, here's a recap of some of our major projects and stuff from this last year, not in any particular order-

Re-did our veggie garden fencing, mostly with recycled wood, and added a new gate (for $10.00!), before it was garden stakes/pig panels/chicken wire. We enlarged the veggie bed too and added more stone.

Dave installed new gable end vents for the attic, in the process discovering they had been sealed with tar paper previously! Nice looking and much cooler! Dave got the 2 cedar vents for $10. each from the Habitat store, usually they're about $100.00 each! We'll tidy up the caulking before we paint.

I made more fermented and pickled foods-

We had a bumper crop of our organic Pippin apples, what a delight! Our first in 2 years-

In prepping for our house painting this coming spring Dave replaced rotting/worn garage door trim and added a weatherizing bottom garage door strip. It's been noticeably warmer in the garage this winter! 

Looks much better too!

Dave also replaced bad siding on the house- 

We bought a new fridge, much brighter LED lighting inside, so I can see what we have-

I ripped out and replaced our kitchen back splash, added a new sink (finally!), faucet and painted. Bye bye old back splash :)

The new, easy DIY back splash made a HUGE difference, makes the whole kitchen brighter!

So much fresher and nicer! I also re-painted the living room, entry way and back hall. A fresh coat of paint always lightens and brightens.

I also recovered my office chair in the kitchen with heavy navy linen, looks much better-

I also re-did the back splash in my master bath-

I added more thrifted yard art in the veggie area to break up all that fencing!

I moved my daughter's college art welding piece to see it better-

 Amen!

I found tons of thrifted goodies, here are some of my faves- 

Our heavy new dining table, with a leaf, $80.00-

Vintage goodies from a junk store In Idaho City- 

Fossil leather purse, like-new $3.00 at a storage unit sale

  

new lamp for our bedroom, $5.00

table top greenhouse

wall candle holder rack

I turned this into this...

I love it!

Preserved food, with outdoor canning-

Yummy apple slices, added some this morning in another baked oatmeal dish, this time with almonds and currants-

I also froze summer foods, and stayed on top of the pantry closet. We had a great harvest of tomatoes, cukes and peppers. Bought our little greenhouse and I started seeds-

Got our first pears and we planted a peach tree in the front yard-

Sadly we had to cut down our sick nectarine tree as well.

Our 3 girls laid lots of great eggs, tilled the soil, ate bugs and weeds-

Lots of fresh eggs!

Got another used Subaru Outback recently after ours finally got too old-

So that's all the big stuff I can remember, more to come for 2016!!! Stay tuned~~~

Raclette Cheesy Dinner-

A year or so ago I found this recipe Sunset.com and stashed it. I decided to make it for New Year's Eve dinner and it's great, especially on a very cold, 7 degree winter night! I got the Raclette cheese at Traders Joe's, a nice, soft, mild melting cheese. I made the fingerling potatoes, a really amazing dish by itself! I made a 2nd batch for dinner tonite and added more red peppers, yummy... 

Next I sat out our tray, my new thrifted one-

Then I sat out 3 tea towels, sat the hot cast iron skillet on the table and served the potatoes. We ripped and dipped our bread in the melted cheese, and it was divine! 

We topped it off with a TJ's tart-

It was a great hot meal, and pretty simple actually...

7 degrees this morning

My Fave Winter Footwear-

We can have some really bitter cold weather here in Boise. After living here my first winter I bought a pair of snow boots. I still use them, but I found a better option for cold winter weather- 

My Salomon snow clogs, at least 15 years old, water-proof, insulated and big treads, perfect for rain, snow or ice. There are a lot of brands now that sell something similar. I did add a heel cushion, more comfortable for my heels. You can hose them off to clean them!!!

For inside, my 15 year-old boiled wool Stegmann clogs, re-soled at a Birkenstock store, warm and toasty inside and easy to take off and switch to snow clogs. They do last forever!

When I go out tomorrow morning at 5 degrees to open the coop my feet will be all toasty! I sure do appreciate my warm, snug home to come into! All our extra insulation has paid off!!! I think our hens are enjoying our heat lamp for them too :)

Here's a nice little reminder how gorgeous our planet and little slice of the universe is, courtesy Jason Mraz and NASA. I showed this to my students and they all LOVED it! Crank up the music, enlarge it and enjoy!