Rain Coming, Finally?

Rain coming, finally? Let's hope so.

Sign me,

Smoky and dry in Boise

Re-Prioritizing & Independence Days Challenge Update

Independence Days Challenge Update-
When I started thinking about what I've been doing I wanted to stress I had been re-prioritizing. Sometimes people blog about what they shop for for their home (decor, collectibles, etc.) and while I have done that too, I've been re-focusing. Buying more "cutesy decor" won't feed your family in a pinch. I've seen food prices rising already. I have been working on not eating out as much, and buying more large bulk items of healthy staples. Buying and storing lots of small bottled waters, marshmallows and junk food won't keep you healthy. I'm looking at- what can I freeze, can, dry, etc.? I dragged out my old dehydrator the other day, scrubbed it, and fired with up with 4 squash! It all adds up-

All the squash in the basket at the top drying

All dried

Dried food takes up much less space- 4 squashes in 1 jar! It took about 5 hours

Time for an update on this:

1. Plant Something- Nurturing the volunteer and mystery squashes/pumpkins. Planted a pear tree in the last 2 weeks.

2. Harvest Something- Eggs, as finally the 2 new girls are laying most days, eggs are getting bigger! Herbs, tomatoes, hot peppers, and compost that was spread over veggie bed 3 days ago. More rhubarb, & collard greens are ready. I may freeze some of the greens. Lemon thyme, rosemary and tarragon.

  

3. Preserve/Store Something- Dried all my gifted squash for the winter for soups. Froze 6 bell peppers, 4 pints of fresh blueberries, 2 more large packs of chicken parts. Will dry the grapes this weekend, didn't get to them yet. With the 3-day weekend I'm planning on buying some strawberries, maybe local peaches and canning some mixed rhubarb sauce. I'll also do some plain rhubarb sauce. Drying some bunches of lemon thyme, rosemary and tarragon.

4. Manage Reserves- Get A Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- See above, good deal chicken, veggies, fruit.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipes- Dried squash for winter to use in soups. Using up various stuff. The refrigerator pickles I made last month came out great, very crunchy!

6. Build Community Food Systems- Working with daughter's boyfriend whose parents own a farm. Will buy more grapes, then apples in Oct. since ours failed this year.

  

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Cleaned up side yard in back and re-purposed some stuff, stored for later use. Made a temporary chicken hospital out of scrap wood, fencing, etc.

8. Skill Up- Thinking about taking a Spanish class, reading Storm Gourmet from the Library about cooking during power outages and bad weather. Some good ideas!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- backyard clean up, salvaged some items like scrap wood.

Drying lemon thyme, rosemary and tarragon

Finally Heading Towards Fall, 4-Legged Furry Alarm, Great Deals To Preserve, How To Backup Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps

Finally Heading Towards Fall-
We had a wonderful cooler, (81 degrees) smoke-free day yesterday, due to a cool front moving in with a little wind. What a relief! It was in the low 50's last night, also nice to wake up to. For a REAL change I made a pot of hot Irish Breakfast tea for breakfast with some toast and homemade peach jam. That hit the spot!

The day are getting much shorter, and while I still water daily, the garden is making more of a come back from the heat. My nasturtium basket, which had barely bloomed in the heat, is now loaded with flowers! The two young New Hampshire Red hens are both laying fairly consistently now, what a treat! I love having LOTS of eggs! I made a Spanish fritatta 2 days ago with the surplus. Weather-wise I don't envy the folks in Florida bracing for the hurricane, but we still have major smoke to suffer thru, ick. It's been so long with these smoky skies I actually don't remember when they started? Three weeks ago or longer? I actually don't know...



4-Legged Furry Alarm-
We love Anya, our sweet cat we adopted a while back. For some reason, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, she thinks about 5:15 a.m. is a good time to get up. And get US up :(  At bedtime we usually close our bedroom door and she stays out in the rest of the house. About 5:15 every stinking day for the last few weeks she starts meowing REALLY LOUD right outside the bedroom door. I usually get up about 7, Dave 6:45ish. She was de-clawed by the previous owners. While meowing she tries to claw the underside of the bedroom door. Clunk, clunk, clunk. OMG, it drives me insane! Dave usually sleeps thru it :) I joke with him that he'd sleep thru a nuclear blast. I'm not joking however. I have tried leaving her in the room with us, door open, no change. Anyway, so I get up and feed her, problem solved. BUT NO,  back to the meowing and clawing the door 5 minutes later. "Let me in, I need some love!". OMG, so I let her in the bedroom. She goes up and down the bed, repeatedly, while I pet her, eyes shut trying to SLEEP. It's now 6. Off the bed, she's now on my dresser, trying to get up on the window sill. "Get down" I say, clapping my hands. 6:15. She's back on the bed. Will it ever end? Please somebody just shoot me. It's 6:30. So.............

I did some problem-solving and it worked great last night: Cat gets a snack right before my bedtime (I'm most always last). Cat goes into spare bedroom where cat box resides. Cat gets bowl of water. Cat gets Dave's favorite blankie off the main couch. Cat gets carried to and petted there. Cat gets warning to go to sleep or else! I turn off the lights, close the door. I close my door and get in bed. And wait, and wait. No sound, nothing. I wake up 7 hours later! Uninterrupted sleep! Still nothing. Went back to sleep. Dave got up an hour later, I hear cat meows, Dave lets her out, feeds her. I roll over. An hour later (yes, I REALLY needed some major sleep) cat is at door, cat's let in and cuddled. Cat goes to sleep on bed,  all is well.....

then hens start squawking... sometimes like Roseann Rosannadanna said "it's always something..."

Anya trying to eat a paper bag, who knew?

Great Deals To Preserve-
I got some great deals today at the local grocery outlet of peppers (6 for $1.50) and blueberries $2.00 each. Both from Canada, kind of different, but seemed very fresh. I bought 4 lbs. of grapes from my daughter's boyfriend for $1.50 a lb. His parents raise table grapes at their farm outside Boise. I'm going to freeze the peppers & blueberries and dry the grapes. He also gave us some nice squashes, ditto the drying-

 

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How To Backup Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps-
After my recent disaster losing most of my blog photos, I researched how to back up your blogger blog
Very fast and easy. Remember, however, back up on an external drive, in case your computer crashes! You can also back up your design, great idea...