SSDreamin Blessings and curses

[SSDreamin]

Dehydrators are great! Congrats on the bread and jam. Did you post the recipes? Pleeeez

The apple butter and carrot cake jam are from recipe's Beanie posted in the recipe section - so good! As for the bread, it's white bread so maybe I shouldn't post a recipe?!

Moving is always an adventure, but those guys can either do the attic work themselves- or ignore the language when stuff goes bad. If they really dislike cussing on a sunday- you could always take the "day of rest" option.
Guess I'm a bad influence.

I didn't want to be up there in the first place - attic's freak me out! Still not sure how I ended up going up there - probably my 'if you won't get busy, then I will' attitude. It has been known to bite me in the backside on more than one occasion!


Dig the outhouse. They are reliable- year round, and easy enough. You can fancy it up later.

I agree. It's more of a time issue than anything. I would dig it/build it, but I can't be gone from home for long (animals). DH gets one day off a week. He usually spends the AM taking care of the pressing stuff here/loading the ridiculously heavy stuff to move, then we head out by noon. That puts us there at 3, and we have to head back by 7 - after unloading, we usually only have a few hours for him to do anything.

The chickens may need a little more light to pick up the laying.

I finished up the pumpkin. Ended up with 6 cups of pulp from 4 pumpkins. Found out I really need to spring for the teflon mats for the dehydrator if I'm going to do much more drying of mashed stuff! Used parchment paper (worked so-so) and, when I ran out, used wax paper (NOT GOOD).

Need to get cracking on the potatoes. DH wants the majority of them (about 60-70 lbs) made into hash browns! Love the way he picks the most labor intensive thing, then says 'you can do it, right?' So, I have to cook the potatoes, make room for them in the frig to sit over night, then peel/shred/dry them the next day. I think it will take me at least a week to get through them. Unless I decide that, if he wants hash browns, he can process them himself!

The Apron Project

Here is what I started with. This is the table cloth I found at Vinnie's. Plus the pink fabric from Chinamart:

This is what I made. Not really pleased with all the shiny pink, and I eye-balled everything (no pattern) so it isn't perfect:

I have enough table cloth left to make a short apron and possibly still line my project purse. We'll see.

I'm just not a pink kind of person, so this may end up being a gift. Although, with my Picasso style, not a very GOOD gift

 

[FarmerChick]

COOL
my 6 yr old daughter would love that....pink is her thing LOL

nice work tho!

 

[dragonlaurel]

The time factor is important for now. Here's a couple faster options.
Dig a "slit trench" then to get you by till the move is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujDw8dzlp5s or http://www.wikihow.com/Make-and-Use-a-Slit-Trench-Latrine
-or-
Make a compost potty from a 5 gallon pail.
You can rig up a tarp privacy screen for either of them.
You can still have a good outhouse once you're not commuting anymore.

White bread is kinda junk food, but at least the home-made version doesn't have all those crazy additives. That's a help. Thanks for letting me know where the other recipes are.

They can finish the attic work. You can find plenty of projects closer to the ground.

 

[SSDreamin]

Dragonlaurel - think I'd 'go' with the bucket, although the links were great. Have a nice, clean, big shed out behind the house that would make for a great source of privacy and keep any smells that may occur OUT of the house

Gleaned valuable - DUH! - information for raising my bread via the dehydrator - my usual method, of laying a damp flour sack towel over the loaves as they rise DOES NOT work in the dehydrator! While still edible (DS is wolfing down a sandwich as I type), the towel dried out and stuck to the tops of my bread! Duh! It is a dryer, after all! Sometimes I wonder where my brain ran off to! Also pretty sure I broke my kitchenaid mixer making the batch of bread - a 4 loaf batch made parts fall off it so I need to see if I can patch it up, and I guess save up for a Bosch.

Made a half apron with left over table cloth material, that I am much happier with. Used some pink ribbon I had picked up when I got the pink material, for 97 cents. Still have lots of it left too. Hmmm... NOT posting a picture: that apron must be worn and I am NOT subjecting any of you to a picture of any part of my anatomy, and DS refused to allow a picture of himself to be posted anywhere in a pink apron. STILL had lots of table cloth left, so I decided to try something. My absolute favorite nightgown fell apart, sort of. The top 1/4 was in tatters, but the bottom 3/4 was perfectly good. I am in the process of piecing a 'new' top portion for it from the cloth. I'm still pretty sure I have enough to line the purse I'm making from my DS' old camo overalls. Just need to think a while longer on HOW to do it - the straps are wrong for what I want, but I don't want to cut them...

Finally got the immersion mixer I ordered for soap making. Waiting for a non-rainy day to try soap - I am petrified, and will only mix the lye outside for my first batch. I know, I'm acting like a weeny about it Now that I have the blender, I am really liking it, and may have to order another to keep for daily use (got a great deal on it, online, from my local grocery store?!).

Started dehydrating the potatoes - as hash browns, like DH whined about wanting Went well. DS helped, by peeling the potatoes, while I ran them through the food processor and arranged them on the drying racks. Realized an interesting fact - we picked yukon gold potatoes! Now, we have a gallon bag full of yellow/orange colored hash browns and half a quart bag full of colored potato slices (food processor mess up on my part. Flipped when I should've flopped ) Barely put a dent in the taters!! I need to change my timeline from one week to... ummm... until I am so sick of potatoes I never want to see another one as long as I live

Behind in my garden clean up. Dog became extremely sick. Had to rush him to the vet. Found out I have a stupid dog. Vet said, after charging me an arm and most of a leg, that my dog needs to quit eating cow pies! On the up side, all his vomiting and the med's make him very sleepy and the calmest he's ever been. Still, just wanna him - he eats like a horse, then 'snacks' on Ice Cream's poo? Come on!

Speaking of Ice Cream, we are working on getting her a honey. DH found a beautiful brindle colored miniature Jersey bull, 6 months old. By the time she's ready, he should be more than, then he'll help fill the freezer (The bull, not DH ). I was shocked at how much cheaper he is! Just hate the thought of A) feeding both of them through the winter, instead of just her B) having to expand the barn/pasture, because he will absolutely have his 'own place' until we decide it's time and C) Having a bull around. Really love the idea of having her boyfriend right here, on hand, instead of having to shop for one when she gets close to time, but remember from my days on the farm the hassle a bull can be - not to mention very dangerous - so I'm torn.

 

[SSDreamin]

COOL
my 6 yr old daughter would love that....pink is her thing LOL

nice work tho!

Thanks! I can't stand it, but it was fun to make and, hopefully, my MIL is a fan of pink because I think she'll be the (un)lucky recipient!

 

[SSDreamin]

No boy friend for Ice Cream DH spent most of the morning setting up a pen for our girl to go in, so the bull would be behind electric fence until next week when DH and I could put something up for him. Drove to the new house, unloaded what we brought, DH began working on the gas line while DS and I heeled in the tree's for my eventual orchard. We had to leave by 6pm, to get over to the lakeshore to see the bull, and we didn't start working until 4:30! My help bailed on me, although it was to vacuum the floors in the house, while I finished up. Got 12 trees and two blueberry bushes in the ground!

Hunted for the place where bull lived for a while - their phone wasn't working. He was HUGE! Very handsome, but twice the size of Ice Cream, at the same age! DH asked me what I wanted to do. Duh! He'd hurt my little girl!! We took a pass. Now, we need to figure out where we'll find a bull small enough to breed her, that hopefully will produce a calf small enough to not hurt her. Guess I didn't realize just how small my little girl was!!

Had made arrangements with a well company to go to the new house this morning and look at the pump/etc. My FIL offered to go over there, so I wouldn't have to drive 3 hours one way to be there. Today is the only day he can do it. As of right now (1:30pm- ish), they have not gotten there. I called, to find out what's going on. The lady did the always helpful "I'll check and get back to you." That was 2 hours ago. So tired of unreliable service people. I worked in the service industry for quite a while too, and the customer was always king/queen - when did all that change??? I am always polite when I call these people. Since when is expecting them to do the job that was agreed on, in the time frame agreed to, or calling if there will be a delay, an outdated expectation?!

I am waiting for my grapes to turn into raisins (they take a LONG time!) so I can get back to drying hash browns. I also made another big batch of dried bananas! Those things are so good! Of course, I cheat and dip them in honey water before I dry them

Days? Why? Who wants to know? I'd really rather not discuss it, if you don't mind

 

[SSDreamin]

The guy finally showed up about the well yesterday. Do you ever have that feeling, when talking to somebody, that something just isn't up to snuff? My old boss used to make me work with anyone he was thinking of hiring. He did that because I worked with one of his new hires, told him she was trouble, and he ignored me. Yeah, she was trouble. So, the guy that gives me the not-straight-up vibe tells me the well is junk, he COULD do a patch job on it that MIGHT buy me five years, for $1200-1800.00! He then informs me that if I were smart, I'd just go ahead and put in a new well, which he could do for a mere $6500 Not to get too personal, but that's almost what we paid for the house and 7.4 acres!! I told him thanks but no thanks, I'd send a check for the service call. Funny thing was, he said the call would be $65.00. The office guy had told me $35, and the well pump guy who scheduled the stupid calls had said $75. Geesh! Before you wonder why I'd deal with a fly-by-night operation like that - they are the ones who put in our well in the house we owned around the corner from our new house. I would have to say that company is under new management, very crummy new management!

I called my FIL and asked him to look up well service companies for me, local ones. He found one. I called. First got a lady, who said they recently turned the business over to their son. Gave me his home phone/cell number. OK, I call the son. He is out on a service call but, because the house is right down the road from his house, he'd swing by on his way home. Waited, and waited, for his call. FINALLY, he calls and tells me that the pump is good (hooray!), there is water in the pipe, so the well is still good (Ha! I knew it!), but the pipe was probably clogged with flaked off stuff (my word)because the house sat for quite a while. Then, he said he'd have to pull the pipe, replace the screen (if I wanted, but he said it would be best, since the pipe was already out) and clean the injector. I thought it was a foot valve, but he kept calling it an injector and I didn't argue. Cost: $950.00 plus tax. He also didn't charge me for the service call. I told him we'd go with him, but - if he screwed us over - I knew where he lived AND knew how to contact his mother! He thought that was pretty funny and, in case I wanted to check his work, he told me someone who's well he'd installed that I could talk to - close to my old house (which is great - that man has BEAUTIFUL grapes. I always wanted to stop and ask how he got them to grow so well, and now I have the perfect excuse to do so! The well guy can't start until the third week in October, which will give us time to figure out how to scrape together enough money to pay for it!

DS and I processed another batch of hash browns last night. He is being VERY helpful lately. So much so I'm waiting for him to start screeching and pointing his finger at me, because he HAS to be a pod person!

Took care of our major shopping today. I bought a roast, to experiment with; lots of chicken breasts and tenders to can up, several beef steaks to can for swiss steak, and three multi packs of pork loin chops that I plan to can up whole this time. I told DH that this will be the last time we buy roast - they are horribly expensive! We will have beef, but it will come from a steer we raise! I also have some bacon in the freezer that I may can up, while I'm canning up all the other meats. It has been a LONG time since I've had to buy meat in any quantity, and I was shocked at the prices! Even cheap cuts of beef were outrageously expensive - $4.79/lb for round steak?! They used to run that on special for 99 cents/lb! Ugh!!

 

[Wifezilla]

You must have great people radar. Good job not getting totally ripped off! And enjoy your new pod person too! Lol

 

[SSDreamin]

You must have great people radar. Good job not getting totally ripped off! And enjoy your new pod person too! Lol

I have been told that my people radar is scary good, but never had it work so well over the phone

I am thinking of begging the pod person to stay, is that wrong?!


Depressing economic related news: I had to go see a lawyer yesterday, concerning our L/C people. Month four without a check. Previously, they went four months, then paid three right quick and promised to be caught up by the next month. Still waiting... I know things are rough, they gave us the excuse that he works out of town, she is supposed to handle the bills and refuses to, blah, blah, blah. DH works out of town. I handle EVERYTHING, we still make the payments on that house, on time, despite their lack of payments, AND we pay the taxes they don't (excuse: We aren't used to paying taxes, but we definitely do NOT want an escrow account - of course not, just don't pay, so we have to!) AND have paid the insurance for the entire three years of the contract (Excuse: We pay insurance, but our lawyer says we don't have to show proof of that to you, despite what the land contract says).

If I am already making the payments every month, plus paying the taxes and insurance on the stupid thing, I'd rather let family that have hit hard times live there for free - not some jerks that I don't know from Adam who can't abide by a contract! Just so frustrating! So, first is a threatening letter, then we take them to court. This stinks!!

On an up note, pod person(until things change, I think that will be his new name ) and I have been taking advantage of the great weather here and have the wooden parts of the chicken coop almost all primed. He will begin painting today, while I finish up priming. Can't believe the difference it makes! DH built it this spring, but ever since it's either been raining, too hot, or hot AND raining.

Once the bugs get to be too much outside we'll get back to the hash browns and canning meat!

I also need to get over to the neighbors with a couple dozen eggs - dug out the only stained glass I have that I made for us (that didn't go with whatever house we sold) and thought I'd take it over and show him. They are matching panels for a cabinet we never finished on our old, old house (two houses ago). DH hand made the cabinets and, once we put the frame that they were going on up on the wall, it looked so much better open, we left it that way. If I get around to it, I'll post a picture. Not my best work, but all I have for now.

 

[SSDreamin]

OK, pod person has gotten a little scary. Told him he could quit painting the coop, if he was tired, and start mowing the lawn. He said sure, he could start that, discussed the best way to divy up the job between today and tomorrow (we have a large yard), then the only hold up was the fact that he had to catch the giant bug he found on the mower and feed it to the chickens! Then, he mowed. That was it. No whining, no grumbling. Nothing.

Pod people are scary weird, but I think I really like their work ethic!