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Haertig said:
What breed is the sister? Some kind of Terrier? I used to be a large dog person - German Shepherds and Newfoundlands - but we ended up with a Jack Russel Terrorist (from my son) and that was a nice sized dog. Jack's are feisty little bastards, and I wouldn't recommend one if you have other pets in the house. But if they're your only pet, I do have to admit that at least ours was a great dog. Ours was giant sized (for a Jack) - appearing to be about the size of your "sister" dog. Yours has longer hair. But definitely looks like a breed I might want some day.
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We adopted her from a Corgi rescue and had her DNA tested. She is 50% Welsh Corgi and 50% Schnauzer. She is a pretty cute, spunky dog. But……she is certainly a digger. When it has rained, she comes in pretty muddy and then she dries off and the floors feel gritty. I run my robovac quite a bit.
 
Didn't have much to clean today since most of them were out, it warmed up. I did make a fire in the stove this morning but letting it go out, warm enough in here.
My kale and collards plus a few Kohlrabi survived the cold after all looks like, watered them again this morning
So we really don't HAVE to do much else today. The project list is getting smaller.
Will watch some soap opera online and take the dogs for a walk, plus cook of course. I feel like baking something but that is how I put on weight in winter.
 
Peanut said:
possible temp issues either
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Ceramic motor paint. your house will be on fire before it even thinks about peeling.
#Supervisor
Can I have a better look at the new kitty? If I'm right about his breed, he's going to be huge and crafty! I think he may be part Kerakal.
 
Yesterday I peeled, boiled, mashed and riced 40 lbs of Bintji potatoes. They went into the freezer in it 1 ib batches in cake pans, to pre-freeze for the freeze dryer. That's enough for 10 batches of lefse.

Today, I will dice up and blanch another twenty lbs for stews.

Also hope to get a conduit through the kitchen wall for a propane line. My propane stove has been gathering dust for three years.
 
Went to pick up little granddaughter's mom to come out for a visit, and I'll have to drive her back this afternoon. Animal chores done, beautiful weather. Divided out the meat chickens in another cage so they aren't so crowded while they're growing. Need to make a big salad to bring to my favorite cousin's place for supper tonight, and lots of leftover spaghetti to bring, too.
 
jishinsjourney said:
One year we had it done in August! It makes for a much less stressful holiday season.
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we don't usually do gifts at all, that's even less stress. We made a deal with the kids many years ago: ski trip or gifts, they picked ski trip all the time. Now they are adults so we might do a little gift ( socks or candy or something) and I will get granddaughter something .
We will have a Yule dinner and bonfire if the weather is ok for that
 
jishinsjourney said:
Made baked pasta for lunch and now understand why people keep jarred sauce in the pantry rather than making it from scratch every time. It was kind of an impulse decision. I think I’ll plan to put some up when I get a chance.
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I used to make just about everything from scratch but pasta sauce is something that is good to have on hand. I've never made any to can, but I have been trying different kinds and trying to figure out which is best. Of course it is the more expensive brands that are better.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
Yesterday I peeled, boiled, mashed and riced 40 lbs of Bintji potatoes. They went into the freezer in it 1 ib batches in cake pans, to pre-freeze for the freeze dryer. That's enough for 10 batches of lefse.

Today, I will dice up and blanch another twenty lbs for stews.

Also hope to get a conduit through the kitchen wall for a propane line. My propane stove has been gathering dust for three years.
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10 batches of lefse? Daughter used to make lefse with her grandmother, but only did that once a year.
 
Wow, 8 pages of posts since my last check in, you all have been busy.
I think I mentioned my GF flew to Michigan to help care for her grandmother who had surgery at age 98, and gramma is doing unusually well. It has been busy here without her, stepping up my daddy duties for her daughters, and having a few ongoing projects of my own on top of my 3 times a week Chiropractor appointments after work.
Farmers market yesterday and sold a couple shirts but made use of the down time to make up shirts for a custom order which was delivered last night. GF's youngest daughter went to the Andy Grammer concert in Nevada on Friday night and her always late to everything brother in law had to stop to meet a guy to buy some used fancy rims for his car and they got to the concert 5 minutes before the start so she had to wait until after the show to buy a sweatshirt. I gave her money for her birthday to buy the sweatshirt and other stuff, but she was too late and the mediums were sold out so she settled for a large which is too big. Well, the small local venue here in southern Utah (which was sold out immediately probably by season pass holders) had his concert last night and she asked me to go and see if I could trade the Large for a Medium, which I am fairly certain they will not do, but I decided to guy her a medium and tell her I traded in the large and I will make the large into a pillow for her Christmas gift. One gift taken care of.
Today I slept in (well needed) and then ordered a Michigan hockey jersey for my daughter for Christmas, Adam Fantilli played there one year before being drafted to (I think) Columbus Blue Jackets and he is her favorite player, probably because she thinks he is cute. The only place to find one was Ebay but it is (supposedly) certified authentic autographed and sort of reasonably priced at $260 and it will help bring me back to her good side, maybe. Plus it is a Michigan jersey so it will help keep her sort of a Michigan fan. This Michigander has many plans to make my Nevada kids accept my hometown teams. I followed that up with buying a custom Michigan football jersey for my youngest son with our last name across the shoulders and the year he was born for the number. He is not (yet) a big sports fan but daddy can help guide him in the right direction. I mean, after all, what pride can one actually get for being a UNLV fan, especially if he will never plan to attend UNLV. He thinks he wants to work for NASA one day so maybe, just maybe, he will choose Michigan for his college. Eh, one can hope. After this post I will buy a stereo for the Avalanche my middle son will soon be driving. It had a great stereo but the ex let her brother drive it a while after I moved out and he took out the good stereo to put in a cheap stereo just so he could connect his phone. It disgusts me that a top dollar stereo was tossed so he could talk on his phone while driving. Here's to hoping he suffers greatly one day, the rest of those thoughts I will keep to myself. :mad:

This afternoon, if the girls ever stop working on homework (kids have the wrong priorities these days:p) we will put a new plastic tarp over the horse feed and wrap the chicken enclosures in plastic for the winter. I also bought a 70 foot solar LED light string to wrap around the chicken fence to make it look cool at night, and also make it easier to walk around when it is dark.

Maybe, just maybe, I will sort through my piles of mail on my desk and catch up on stuff and maybe even sort things into my file cabinet so things are not so messy around here.

That's all I got, have a great day.
 
Weedy,

Yes. Once a year. They are a Christmas treat for us. Too time consuming and fattening to do more often.

I now have the makings for 10 yrs. Ya gotta love a freeze dryer. It's still a pain to roll them out and dry fry them. That part alone, with two pans going, takes me about six hours.

My Bintji potatoes were not going to make it two weeks in storage, they are bad that way, but the freeze dryer has solved the problem.
 
Yesterday I had to go back to the pharmacy because they only gave Mom 30 pills when she was supposed to get 90. I forgot to grab the receipt on my way out the door but found a digital version on my phone so I was able to get it. But we had a bit of back and forth again where she didn't listen to me and she got mad that I wanted to eat a sandwich when I had an hour and a half before the pharmacy closed. I hadn't eaten at all and needed something to keep me going so I could drive. She got mad even though I told her that before I got the sandwich. Then, despite complaining about how late it was getting, when I finished she wanted me to cook for her, but of course she couldn't tell me what she wanted for several minutes. LOL.

Kept having to change the thermostat from heat to cold and back as new one doesn't have Auto by default. I looked it up online and found that I could actually set it to switch automatically through an access portal on my computer. So now it is set to cool if it gets above 70 and heat if it gets below 70. That seems to be the magic number for keeping the rest of the house comfortable.

Friend from Singapore sent me an article about his daughter: Student Spotlight: Amy Lee | Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
I still remember seeing her as a baby. I'm very proud of her.

I'm having a bit of a lazy day since I didn't sleep well last night.
 
I broke down and purchased official wire lube to help my conductors through the conduit. It was delivered today! I pretty mucho goofed off but The Princess was busy setting her new of shelves withe canning and cleaning supplies.

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We ran multiple gorilla carts loads from one basement to the other (we have two basements that are not connected) and freed up shelf space in the first basement. That will be used for more food storage.

She has organized a bit better all of her food stores into multiple locations as determined by how frequently it is accessed. A few things in the kitchen but more in her primary pantry just off the kitchen. The first basement ( the one we moved the cleaning supplies from) serves as a grocery store with flats of canned goods. She can restock the pantry from there. The image above is cleaning and chemicals. She also has another room in the second basement devoted to only long term freeze dried supplies.

I am pleased with what ahe has organized. I can most often find what I need with little trouble.

So she did good!

Ben
 
I finally got up and swept the hallway & wiped down some counters. Cooked for Mom. Played Elder Scrolls Online. Watched some videos. Jeff Thorman had a long video on how to build a screened in patio.

I'm going to try to get to sleep soon.
 
sonya123 said:
we don't usually do gifts at all, that's even less stress. We made a deal with the kids many years ago: ski trip or gifts, they picked ski trip all the time. Now they are adults so we might do a little gift ( socks or candy or something) and I will get granddaughter something .
We will have a Yule dinner and bonfire if the weather is ok for that
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Pretty sure the rest of my family wouldn’t go for that. Alas. It’s a wonderful idea.
 
Weedygarden said:
I used to make just about everything from scratch but pasta sauce is something that is good to have on hand. I've never made any to can, but I have been trying different kinds and trying to figure out which is best. Of course it is the more expensive brands that are better.
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Pasta sauce was always from scratch when I was growing up, and I‘ve just kind of carried that with me. I have yet to find a store brand I actually like, but to be fair, I haven’t experimented with a lot of them. (Some of that is salt content; I have to keep an eye on it.)

It’s so easy to make (2 32 oz cans crushed tomatoes, 2 cans tomato paste, 1 large onion diced & sauteed, 3-5 cloves garlic minced & sauteed, generous glug of red or white wine if you like, dried porcini or any other kind of mushrooms if you like, as much Italian seasoning as you like, s&p, simmer at least two hours), but it’s that simmer at least two hours part that can get in the way. :D
 
Yesterdat Got up and helped straighten the house up and dobsome food prep for the wife, peel tater, onions, etc. Then finally got sorted thru my garlic and planted 12 foot rows of 4 different types. Got the fire ring and wood all set up. Did a little maintenance I had been putting off. Then the family came out sat around the fire a while, went in and had a huge meal. Then back outside for more fire time. Everyone had fun. By the time they all left wife and I were beat. Went to bed at 9
 
jishinsjourney said:
Pasta sauce was always from scratch when I was growing up, and I‘ve just kind of carried that with me. I have yet to find a store brand I actually like, but to be fair, I haven’t experimented with a lot of them. (Some of that is salt content; I have to keep an eye on it.)

It’s so easy to make (2 32 oz cans crushed tomatoes, 2 cans tomato paste, 1 large onion diced & sauteed, 3-5 cloves garlic minced & sauteed, generous glug of red or white wine if you like, dried porcini or any other kind of mushrooms if you like, as much Italian seasoning as you like, s&p, simmer at least two hours), but it’s that simmer at least two hours part that can get in the way. :D
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Thank you! This is a good recipe to have and it sounds good!

I didn't grow up eating pasta except in chicken soup that I remember. I have no memory of pasta sauce and pasta by my grandparents or aunts and uncles that I would stay with here and there.

I rarely have made pasta with sauce. I have made a few batches of baked spaghetti this year for church events and they were huge hits. I also have rarely made macaroni and cheese from scratch, and rarely even from the box.

That is a lot of sauce. I would make up batches of it and either freeze it in meal sized portions or can it in meal sized portions.

I started a thread about pasta sauce.
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/t...recommendations-for-store-bought-sauce.18727/
There are stories out there ranking the better sauces. I totally get that there are sauces that are not that good, and some of them can be doctored up to improve them, using them as a base.
 
@LadyLocust i didn’t go to church yesterday either. My hand wanted to do nothing. Tried to do as little as possible yesterday to give my hand a rest. Also have not felt good off and on all last week. Dr’s office said since it has been more than a year since they’ve seen me I’ll be treated as a new patient and therefore having to wait months to be seen.
Today I am planning to get some sewing projects completed as well as outdoor chores.
The creepy crawlies have been coming out a lot. One of the kids was stung by a scorpion 🦂 on the hand in bed last night in the dark. Ouch. (She lives out in the country nearer to Pearl).
I caught 2 recently at work. They were mostly dead.
 
I took today off since I have coverage at work. Day shift if the only time I can take a day off anymore. I rarely take time off anyways but I'm trying to take better care of my needs.
My ankle n foot has been bothering me the last year alot so..its a rest day.
I plan on giving the dogs a little walk, getting the fire going, getting out my winter clothes, and get another rug started.
I have some folks who want some custom rug colors.
Oh! I want to unbox my rock tumbler! I'm pretty excited to get some turquoise chips tumbled and some nice agates I've found around here..
 
I bought 100 emergency blankets for a total of $71 and that includes shipping. I bought some last year and gave them to all the cops and firemen. I gave some to the sheriff's department this morning. They can keep use them in case of an emergency. Everyone appreciates them. I also hand them out to people in wheelchairs and using walkers. The police chief said one probably saved a homeless man's life last year...that makes it all worthwhile. Now to a Kiwana meeting and then physical therapy for my neck.
 
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