Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

@goatgurl , cob stands for corn, oats and barley. I get it at the feed store in 50# bags for dirt cheap compared to rice. The grains are rolled, but that's it- sometimes I see weed seeds in it, but overall it seems to be a fine substitution for her.
My family nixed the Hoppin' John this year as well... I hope we don't regret it, lol.

I'm in the darkest part of my SADD right now... finding it difficult to motivate myself to get projects done. The only reason I'm going to my water aerobics class is because my girlfriend goes with me and picks me up. Hopefully I can get over this hump soon. I try to go outside, but when it's so cold it's not fun; the sun sets too early. Maybe I should move furniture around the living room. My girlfriend ended up putting her computer in front of one of her windows when she was in a small apartment; it occurs to me that having the window in front of me when I'm on the computer might help?. But it also might make the rest of the room darker- we only have 2 poky little windows. If I ever come into a chunk of money I'd like to install a light well in there...

The girlfriend called me last night to tell me she was recording Gallivant for me to watch. She was laughing so hard she was having trouble talking.

 

[hqueen13]

You might look for a small full specimen light. Place it so that it sits behind your computer screen, shining into your face. This has helped me in the office, I leave mine on all day. It doesn't really bother me looking at the screen, either.
I hear you on the SADD, it's tough! You're further north, too, technically, right?

 

[Britesea]

@hqueen13 that light sounds like an interesting idea. I'm not sure if I'm further north than you- we are just a few degrees north of the 42 parallel. Having SADD sucks, but at least I know and can prepare for it. All my friends know that I tend to hibernate through December.

 

[hqueen13]

That should have been spectrum, not specimen. Stupid phone.
I don't know where we are honestly, lol, kinda sad! I just know that living 8 hours north by car than where I grew up has made it very hard on me. I haven't really ever adapted to the difference in the seasonal changes up here. The cold I wouldn't mind if it didn't last so dang long! I actually like snow, I guess because we never got it as a kid lol

 

[Britesea]

We were supposed to get snow yesterday, but it was too warm so we got rain instead. This has been the first winter with no snow on the ground in 12 years-- it's been strange.
I've been busy canning lunches yesterday and today- 10 pints of chile verde, 21 pints of pozole, and 4 pints of seasoned black beans for refritos. I love being able to just grab a jar of something for lunch!
This afternoon I've been pulling out some of my bulk spice jars and repackaging them in mason jars and vacuum sealing them so they don't lose their punch before I can use them up. That started because I bought a pound of bay leaves, WITHOUT thinking about how light they are! I gave a bunch to my friends, and still have a half-gallon jar stuffed with them, as well as the smaller jar that I have for daily use.

I've been doing all this repackaging because we have been dealing with a mouse problem. They got into a 2 pound bag of raisins, which is how I found out. So far we've caught 2 adults and about 6 juveniles, but in the meantime, I pulled everything out of the pantry that was not encased in glass or metal and I've been sealing them in jars.
Next will be a couple of 50 pound sacks of rice and corn that need to be moved into buckets. So far those are still safe, but I'm crossing my fingers.

I got my first Soc Sec check a week ago. The future ones will go to paying off our bills faster, but this first one was used to buy a few things I've had my eye on- like another utility shelf unit for my growing pantry, and some cedar planks to increase the height of a couple of raised beds in the garden so the plants have more room, and I don't have to bend over as much. Oh, and I got myself 4 new-to-me pullover sweaters at the Hospice thrift store (in my favorite colours too!)

Has anyone tried out the newish trend in Mason Jar Salads? Do they really stay good for a week? If so, that will be something I've definitely got to try.

 

[Denim Deb]

What's that trend? I haven't heard about it, and am limited to what all I can do until I get a new laptop.

 

[hqueen13]

Bummer on the snow, I know that's not good for yall! We've had a lot of moisture, but not much snow, which is a bit annoying! At least snow is pretty. Mud is not.
Deb, the salad thing is to put all the fixings for salad in a mason jar, they're supposed to store for a week that way, but I'm not sure. I haven't tried it, I would be curious though.
I'm proud of myself. I finally got around to making salad dressing last night since I had a surplus of sour cream, we accidentally stocked up a little too much. We've been eating more mixed green salads, which is great.

 

[Britesea]

Today was payday, so it was also shopping day. I bought some extra salad ingredients to try the mason jar thing. Part of the process involves stacking your ingredients in a certain order: the wettest ingredients on the bottom, moving up to "dry" ingredients like shredded meat, cheese or pasta, to act as a barrier between the dressing and wet veggies on the bottom and the lettuce on the top. Some sites use a vacuum sealer to seal the jars, which seems to really help with the longevity. Maybe this way, we'll eat more salads and not have so much limp lettuce and brown celery to throw out.

We have a flood warning in effect in our area until Saturday. Supposed to get up to 5 inches in a 60 hour period. I know some of you will scoff at that, but in our High Desert it could mean mud slides and the river overflowing its banks. Tomorrow I need to pick up some sand bags for the shed.

Well, gotta head back into town now. Somehow, I forgot that hubby shared a ride with me today and needs me to pick him up at work... oops.

 

[Denim Deb]

When we only had one vehicle, the only way that I'd get to use it was to take hubby to work and pick him up. Wonder what he would have said if I had forgotten?

As for the rain, it's all relative. What's a lot of rain in one place is nothing in another. And I wouldn't want to get 5 inches in 60 hours! Normally when we get a lot of rain like that, it's due to either a nor'easter, or a hurricane!

 

[goatgurl]

@Britesea, thanks for the 'cob' info. my feed store has it all separate so i bought 50# of barley and 50# of oats and left the corn out. i'll have dog food fixin's for a long time. thanks again. hope you get some sunshine soon. people don't think about how destructive that much rain can be to a place where that's not normal. stay safe. and YEA!!! on the ss check. isn't it a law that you have to spend the first one on things that YOU want, you might check but i think it is, lol. i laughed about the bay leaves, DS5 did something like that and i am the proud owner of a pint jar stuffed with bay leafs. doubt that i'll have to buy any for a few years.