crazy busy

WOW! This past month has been busy with projects. My husband and our neighbor got the lower siding completed. He measured and ordered the siding and I spent a few weeks painting all of siding, trim and door. I thought it would be best if I painted it before we hung it, so we wouldn't have to go up the ladder again to paint. I am scared of heights and get dizzy on a ladder, then go into a panic attack, so that would not be an option for me. Our neighbor is pretty cool, he taught my husband how to measure and cut the siding. It was quite an adventure for them, the power was out for six hours so they had to run a tiny saw off the inverter from the jeep battery, cutting was a very slow process. They had to fight off wasps, mosquitoes and a bat even flew out at my neighbors head, he managed not to even fall off the ladder. Before and After pictures:

We want to do something different for the top bedroom part we were thinking shakes or something that would add some texture.

We had several terrible storms over the last month. One of which dumped NINE inches of rain in one night and flooded our front yard, tore apart part of our driveway and flooded the low area by the mail box. We still have standing water down there that smells terrible and is hatching millions of mosquitoes. I actually saw a small cloud of mosquitoes swarming around, living in the city I have never seen anything like it before.

To top things off a snake got inside our jeep. ICK! The power went out so I went outside to start the jeep and hook up the inverter, I opened the Jeep door and there was a snake on the drivers side floor by the gas pedal. I shrieked and ran back inside and sat by candle light. I. HATE. SNAKES!!! I had my husband go out the next day to inspect the jeep and he could not find the snake. I can not bring myself to ride in the vehicle until I see the snake being removed dead or alive. If you would like to see how we power our house off of our vehicle during a black out check out Steven Harris' blog. We followed his directions and it works perfectly. "How to Power Your House from Your Car with an Inverter" http://www.battery1234.com/

We hook the inverter up to the battery run an extreamly long extension cord from the jeep to the house. The cord is long enough so it will reach upstairs to power a fan and the noise machine so my son can sleep.


















My husband built a woodshed so we can start the process of splitting and stacking all of the wood from the trees we cut down last winter. He has never built a structure before and neither have I. He read a book that had building plans, purchased all the lumber and watched some videos. He did it alone one weekend and I'm very impressed with it. I know it might not sound like much to some people, but when you have zero building skills and you actually build something its pretty amazing. All of our wood we cut and split last summer for the well drillers to get their truck in, has dried and cured and is ready to be burned this winter. We still will buy a couple trailers full of wood just to make sure we have plenty to make it through the winter and for sap boiling in the spring.

My son has been eager to help our with chores too. He is a toddler so he gets bored after about 5 minutes but at least he is taking an interest. He has his own set of tools including a wheel barrow. He likes to help move wood and debris, he pretends he is a dump truck.

I have been busy in the kitchen. I made a batch of refrigerator pickles and lacto-fermented pickles. I also made a batch of my fermented kimchi.

 I made my first fruit pizza and it turned out extreamly good. It really was a perfect chilled treat on a summer day.









I also took a crack at making Australian meat pies. The pies turned out delicious, not sure what an actual Australian would think, but my family gobbled them up. I started with a steak stew and added shredded cheese. Then I made a short bottom crust and used puff pastry for the top crust finished it off with an egg wash and baked.




I purchased an electric pressure cooker/caner. I got rid of my giant pressure caner when we moved because I did not have space for it. This electric model does not make as many jars but its perfect for when I make large batches of soup or roasts, I just can a couple pints of the left overs and put on the shelf for day I'm not in the mood to cook or to give as gifts. It can be used as a pressure cooker as well, it makes perfect hard boiled eggs and sweet potatoes so far.

I am also wrapping up my term as an Americorps volunteer at the local school garden. Its bitter sweet. I wish the schools had more funding to have healthy eating, plant and gardening education as a permanent position. With Americorps the school gets a federal grant to have the volunteer there, because of this there is a lot of new people rotated in so it seems like its really hard to get a good solid foundation built in lesson plans. I started volunteering at another local school garden (not through Americorps just as a volunteer once a month) where my son found a giant zucchini. I also have been volunteering at a community farm harvesting produce that is donated to the local food pantry.

For everyone reading this blog I challenge you to take a break from politics and to go on your social media accounts and post something positive you are doing to make yourself, family or community better. Posts of your kids or pets, your art or music, your new skills or your favorite books. Fill up social media with pictures and stories of actual positive change.