My Birthday Wintry Mix & "Supermoon" Tonight, Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding w/Almond Milk, Solar Charger Review, Mini Sink Makeover

My Birthday Wintry Mix and Super Moon Tonight-

Today is my birthday and I woke up to a very wet day- 34 degrees, rain and snow mix. It must have poured all night from the look of the fencing. It's really windy, but the sun is coming out this afternoon. I put out extra wild bird food for the local critters and they're eating. We had a gorgeous sunset a couple of nights ago- 

Dave wanted to get me something for my birthday. I really couldn't think of anything, but the one thing that would make my life easier was a new monitor, mine was pretty small. With aging eyes, it's harder. Dave found a 75% off deal and I love it! My old one was 18, new one is 22", here's a side by side-

Big difference, much easier to use!

I just found out that tonight will be extra special, CBS news said-  "The supermoon" will illuminate the night sky on Sunday, December 3, when the moon will appear about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons. This is the first of three supermoons in a trilogy that will continue on in January." via Twitter. Cool!

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding w/Almond Milk-
I had some Brioche bread (Trader Joe's) left over from Thanksgiving weekend, bittersweet chocolate, walnuts and lots of eggs. So... it was bread pudding time! Since Dave has developed a sensitivity to too much dairy, I used 1/2 Almond Milk. Next time I will use 100% since it came out amazing, just perfect for a cold night.

Recipe- 
1 loaf Brioche?Challah bread, cut into 1" cubes, about 8 cups
10 eggs
2 cups Almond Mix
2 cups milk
1/2 sugar plus 2 TBS
1/2- 1 cup Guittard bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped, love that brand!!!
1/2- 1 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch salt

Butter 2 qt. baking dish, fill with bread cubes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl beat eggs, salt, liquids, 1/2 cup sugar. Mix in choc chips and nuts into bread cubes- I put about 1/2 in the middle and 1/2 on top. Slowly our egg mixture over bread. Let sit overnight (for best results). Sometimes I bake right away, if so, push liquids into the bread gently. Sprinkle bread with remaining sugar and put in oven. Bake 1 hour, remove and cover with foil, bake an additional 25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool and enjoy! If you're a real chocoholic, add coarsely chopped gourmet dark chocolate! And double the nuts! Enjoy! You can also sub chopped apples, cinnamon, nutmeg for a fruit version.

Solar Charger Review-
I recent bought a Floureon Cell Device Solar Charger  It comes with one USB cord, a LED flashlight, and SOS flasher. Waterproof and small, the size of a cell phone, but a little thicker-

Front

Back, has clip and compass/keyring

You can charge up to 3 devices simultaneously! I did 2-

I have to use a wireless charger as my plug-in port died, worked great!

VERY bright LED flashlight, can also flash SOS in Morse code, handy!

There are so MANY applications for this- keep in your car on trips, hiking, hunting, cross country trips, emergency preparedness, you name it. You might not have a cell signal if there's a real crisis, but there might be info on your phone you'd still need. A great deal, $16.99, I LOVE IT!!!

Mini Sink Makeover-
All of this was less than $10.00 and I like it! love our white cast iron sink we bought a few years back, during our kitchen re-do, but I don't like this, the side sink strainer, hard to keep clean and I rarely plug this sink. This just kept bugging me-

I was on Amazon buying a belt for Dave and I found this- NITO Stainless Steel Sink Strainer, it's effective and simple, $5.00-

It has a depression, is easy to lift and empty. The garbage disposal strainer, ditto- this was the 2nd one I'd bought, kept staining-

I spotted this Danco Garbage Disposal Strainer, $4.00, black, domed, and antimicrobial-

Winding Down/No Christmas Yet, Now on Facebook! Chicken Sun Room In Action

Anya winding down

Winding Down, No Christmas Yet-

I was thrilled to get off work at noon Wednesday, since I had the afternoon to prep for turkey day. I LOVE 4 day weekends! After a whirlwind Thanksgiving day here, it was nice to have yesterday to myself. Sadly Dave had to work. I worked on various projects, including my blog. I'll be putting away the Autumn and Thanksgiving decor this weekend. Next weekend I'll put out some Winter decor. It's my birthday weekend too! I REALLY don't like the American emphasis on binging on shopping, putting up Christmas decor after Halloween, and radio stations are the worst. A week before Thanksgiving I was hearing Christmas music. Sad and aggravating. Christmas, when I was a kid, was a tree, simple gifts, going to church and time with family. No black Friday, no knocking people out of the way for gifts. One possible GOOD side affect of Internet shopping is maybe the stores will do away with that. Maybe. I really appreciate the simplicity of the way Europeans celebrate holidays, bringing nature inside and less materialism. So I'm not putting up anything Christmas-y for at least another week or two. With lows forecast in the 20's at night this week, we put on our flannel sheets and plugged in the heated birdbath (thrifted). The coop is done, Dave raked more leaves today, cleaned the mower for the season and stores. I put away the garden bench tools and covered it with plastic sheeting for the winter. It sits on our deck year round, next Spring I'll repaint it to freshen it up.

Now on Facebook! 

I decided recently to take the plunge and start a Little Homestead Facebook page. I'll be adding extra content on a regular basis. Please hit the sidebar to follow to see what we're up to! Thanks!!!

Chicken Sun Room In Action-

After a heavy rain Thursday night, the girls really enjoyed the drier sun room yesterday and today! Dave added pine shavings later today for odor control. It's made from recycled materials, Dave built the frame, and we just dis-assemble each spring and store. Nice and dry, with a great view. There's a door inside the coop that goes into it. Sturdy and a great extra space for the girls!

Neighbor kitty Posey stopped by for a pet

Better shot

  I found my photo of Thanksgiving in 2014, snowy!

Sun room covered in snow, but dry and warm inside for the hens

Girls came out for some rolled oats, a fave treat, from the left- Rosie, Gwynne, Ellie

Heated birdbath ready for winter! Herbs still hanging in there :) 

Record High Thanksgiving, Anniversary Road Trip, Planting Fruit Trees

 Record Warmth in The West, Cold in The East

Record High Thanksgiving-

We had a really fun, busy Thanksgiving at my house yesterday. It was 65 degrees! Four years ago we had 2 feet of snow on the ground. Usually it's nice and cool, instead I had all the kitchen windows open, and the ceiling fan on in the living room. Looks like the East coast had the cold. My 2 grand babies had a great time playing together, and our kids brought lots of yummy sides dishes. Babies were falling asleep heading home from all the food and activities. A fun time was had by all! Sorry no pics, I was busy! I'm really thankful that we could all be together this year. You never know what the future will bring.

Anniversary Road Trip-

Dave and I went to McCall, Idaho for our 24th anniversary last weekend. It was gorgeous, cold and clear! Due to a variety of things we've haven't had a real vacation in over 2 years. We went up Saturday morning and stayed the night. We came home Sunday afternoon. We stayed at the historic McCall Lodge right near Payette Lake-

We had a really nice room, and my favorite features was the very deep jetted tub. My aging bones appreciated a very hot soak! It was really quiet, with a king sized bed. We had time to drive around the area, had a great dinner out and fun breakfast. It was really nice to have a rest break. Since they had cable I found a really cool show- Discovery.com Homestead Rescue The 3 person team, Dad, son and daughter help off-grid folks. Pretty interesting "rescues".

Here's some nice shots near the lake-

Brundage ski runs at the top

So calm!

A bit of snow

Sweet little moss

Boats docks covered with snow

Ski runs still thin

Planting Fruit Trees-
I was looking at my lovely frozen organic peaches and canned apples that we grew this year. It's great having bumper crops and knowing how to preserve them! I knew I wanted to plant fruit trees once we moved into our small house, with our standard city lot. We had a few fruit trees at our last house, which was a 1/3 acre lot. Here at this house we started with an apple tree and a nectarine tree. Oddly enough I couldn't find one stinking peach tree in this entire town that spring! Go figure. A few years later we later planted a pear tree. After we lost our nectarine tree we decided to plant a peach tree, finally. It's such a small investment of money for the eventual long term harvest you will have. What a great investment. It's take some planning- where will it go, how high will it reach, how will you harvest, what exposure do you have, what variety do you want, etc. There's a ton of material online, but I found two great little books with lots of ideas from planting to pruning, if you want to plant some fruit trees!

Grow a Little Fruit Tree

and 

Growing Urban Orchards