Getting Ready for Summer

When you have a pool, getting ready for summer is not a relaxing task.  Last week, the day after my brother was out of the hospital, he wasted no time trying to get his pool ready.  My brother and sister live next door to each other.  Karen's house is on the left, David's is on the right.

Since I am not putting many annual flowers in this year, I am going to need to enjoy their many that are in their yard and border the driveway.

Doug and John helped David empty his pool.

 

He still did far too much.  Kris, Steve, Karen all helped with cleaning and painting.

I have not been back to take a picture of his pool.  But while David was getting his pool ready, we were getting ours emptied, cleaned, painted, and refilled.

My garden is growing much better this year.  Last year, my garden was sad because I decided a little late to go organic.  This year, I treated the soil with manure and compost and it is sure making a difference.

I did have to replace my cucumber plants last week, between the slugs and rain, the first ones never stood a chance.

My strawberry plants are doing well, but we have replaced this one spot twice, but the chickens who don't seem to bother the plants or berries, insist on digging up this one spot and sun bathe in it.  So I am just going to live without the one plant.

And here are my three lovely ladies.  I really do love them.  Well maybe not so much Hannah, but you already know that story.

Happy Together?

LL and I absolutely love and adore each other.  That is never in question.  But when it comes to some day to day issues, well, we have our disagreements.

He worked a lot of hours this week and was able to get home early today and take advantage of the beautiful afternoon.  He wanted to get the back yard mowed.  But before he got back home, I got home from taking David to the doctor.  Things going good for him by the way.  I got home, didn't want to waste a minute of good weather so I got my boots on.

Yes they are polka dot.

Used my swifty solar clothes dryer, and cleaned the chicken coop.  Called Aunt Leone to find out how far apart to plant the strawberry plants and planted them.

LL got the back yard mowed.

Put another load of laundry out to dry................

Then the fight was on. 

Where to put the TWO new raised beds.  He said "One", I said "two", he said "there", I said "not there, over there".  He said "OK I will put ONE there"  I said "No you will put TWO there".

I have no idea who will win on this one......OK, I will win, unless he reads this and digs in his heals.  But don't you love a couple who completely feels secure enough to DRIVE EACH OTHER CRAZY!!!

Hannah Update-Dang........

Was so ready to let her go.  Last week, I stated she is not producing and I don't even really like her, "so Aunt Leone, lets make a trade."  Aunt Leone said, "give her more time, till the end of March, because if she starts laying, the eggs will be bigger and better than the one year old hen you would get from trading her."  Well, this is why every new immature coop keeper, needs a professional coop keeper like my Aunt Leone.  I still don't really like it. 

The bird from hell

Hannah is a real piece of work.  She is bitchy without real leadership qualities like Harriet.  Harriet is on top of the pecking order, but also is the most dependable layer.

Harriet, she is the smaller island red with the smaller comb

And then there is my sweet Henrietta.  See, Hannah can't even let Henrietta have her moment.  Hannah has to horn in on everything.

Henrietta, bigger bird and longer, floppy comb,

 who is doing the best to pose without the pest behind her

Henrietta is so easy to photograph.  She is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is so lovey dovey.  She comes up to me and lets me pick her up to pet and hug her. She started laying a couple weeks ago.

But guess what?  The dang bird Hannah, AKA--the bird from hell, layed an egg today.  It is the slightly speckled one.  Very big.

  Aunt Leone is the master.  I bow down to her and will always take her advice............But I don't have to like it.  Still imagining Hannah as someones soup:)

Yes, you better run from me, because I don't like you Hannah, any better than you like me

Dots, Dots, Dots

Yesterday I started on my bedroom.  Did not take a break, or stop and eat lunch (which my digestion then rebelled).  I got done around 4:00, which includes dropping things off at good will.  I needed to take the items right away, because if I don't................Well it goes like this.  I go through my books, the romance novels that tend to gather, I put the ones to take to Goodwill in a plastic bag and leave it in my closet.  My aunt Laura visits my mom and leaves sacks of books, my mom sends me some in sacks, and I put them into the closet till I have time to go through them.  I then go  through all of them, because I don't know which sack is which, I separate and make a new sack for Good will put it in the closet, and then bring home another sack from Moms.  It is an eternal circle.  Just goes round and round.  What sometimes happens, is I get about a third of the way into the book before I realise I had just read the book a few weeks before.  So to Goodwill I took 2 sacks of books, three sacks of clothes and miscellaneous items.

Now if you are wondering if I will ever get sick of polka dots, the answer is NO.  But my sister Kris is responsible for the newest addition of dots.  Must admit, the sheets and comforter she found are very satiny, silky, soft.  I love it.  LL walked in last evening and I think said something like, "I feel like I am in Minnie Mouse's bedroom".  Well that made it even better:)

I know, why does two adults have stuffed animals in their room.  Well they were both gifts and I feel a nice reflection of LL and me.  His is a gopher that sings "The Gambler", you know the song......"you got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em".  And my sweet "little" hippo sings "Tip toe through the tulips".

Maybe I should not broadcast that I am the Hippo, but I don't care, she is so darn cute dancing in her tutu.

Week 10, 2011

Good Morning!  I am going to need to make this a fairly quick post because I have to get going pretty early this morning.  Well early for me.  Yes I know I am always up way before dawn.  If fact, sometimes I feel I am meeting myself going to bed at night while getting up.  Did that make ANY sense.  I don't think so.  But still, in the mornings I usually have a long time to get my brain and body moving.  But this morning......Oh I mean......

Today, need to get bathed and ready, chickens and dogs taken care of and then I am out the door a little after 7:00 to get my blood test for cancer markers.  I am seeing my surgeon in 2 weeks, usually the chemo Dr asks for this test a week a head of his appt. but my surgeon  wants to  have this done this time and asked for it to be done two weeks before appointment.  So I will have 2 LONG weeks to wait for results.  After getting the test, I have to go to a meeting for my sister Kathy in Monmouth.  Yes, another meeting.  I have contacted a disability rights advocacy organization and hope to hear back from them today.  Kathy, because of lack of funding, is being "exited" out of her own home.  Things are very dire.  Kris and I are under great stress about this.  Since Kris has gone back to work, I am going solo at this meeting.  I am sick to my stomach.  If I feel up to it after I am done with meeting, I will stop at Lifesource, a health food store that I hope to find a few ingredients my local store does not have.

Tuesday, Since I am done with deep cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room, it is time to start on the master bedroom.  Yikes.  to do this right, I will need some help moving the bed to clean under and turn mattress.  This room I am planning on doing on Tuesday but it will take longer than one day if I am to go through all the clothes, boxes and clean everything.  And frankly, I will be happy if I even get this done at all  this week.  Really not looking forward to it so I could easily get side tracked and end up not doing it at all.

The rest of the week is up in the air.  Really don't know when we will actually go RVing and have given up trying to guess.  I do plan on going to library, exercising more, cleaning out the green house. 

So, lets all have a good week, and please say a prayer for Kathy.

I Think I Need An Intervention

It has been awhile since I have blogged about plastic.  And even longer since I blogged about my great weakness for containers.  First off, in my defense, quite a few months ago, I made a commitment to no longer buy plastic if I can help it.  Although, I did not get rid of what I had, I stuck to my commitment. (except with a momentary weakness at Cosco for cereal containers....my bad!)  So while going through my plastics, I tried to give the same diligence I give the rest of the house and items.  I really have no problem with getting rid of things we don't use.  I will give them to someone I know, Goodwill, or recycle.  And I do use the plastic I already have for LL's lunch.  Where he works, because it is a secured facility, does not allow glass.  I figure, better to use and reuse what I have, rather then it end up in the landfill.

So I got my plastics in order.  Made sure any residue of gluten is off.  But then comes my real weakness.  I can not seem to get rid of any plastic lid.  This is my way of thinking.  What if I just misplaced the container and it shows up..........what if it is a lid to someone elses container that they accidently left.........what if I can use this lid for some other purpose!  I can't do it.  A normal person would match their containers with the lids and throw the rest out or recycle.  Well I never said I was normal.  Just can not do it.  So, Calling all out to anyone who has ever been to my house bearing food........come see if I have your lid.  You might just find Pay Dirt.

Deep Cleaning?? Not really

I am throwing my family under the bus.  Yes I am, unapologetic.  The Laundry room is really a multi-purpose room.  Half of the room is utility sink, washer and dryer, and broom closet.  The other side of the room is our home office, where mail, bills and filing cabinet is.  It is also where LL installed, after the fire, a stereo system that he put speakers around the house and can choose what rooms to listen.  So this is where we keep the Cd's.  This is also, although we use laptop, we have our printer and all the Cd-Roms for the computer.  This is also where we feed our dogs and store their food.  So with that said, it is disorganized and dirty.  A year ago, I think I blogged about it, I deep cleaned this room.  Not only did I clean every surface.  I also went through the Cd's, (separated them for who they belong), mail, (I filed and purged).  Well, you get the picture.  Well, after last year.  To quote President Bush the first........."Not going to do it!".  YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!  After I did this a year ago, I had to listen for MONTHS to everyone say and ask "Where did you put____?, I can't find _____!, Did your throw_____ away?,.  So with that in mind.  I went through my papers and filed.  Personal stuff, Max's stuff(I am his guardian and payee), and Kathy my sister's stuff,(I am her guardian).  I cleaned every surface, went through socks, and garbage laying around.  But I will not be going through the rest of the papers and Cd's.  I will wait for a weekend when everyone is around and make them help me.  I know.........good luck with that, you are saying.  Still this is the horrendous mess when I started.

And here is when I was done.  No, without going through the papers, electronics, and etc.  I don't consider the job done.  But it is as good as it will get if I am going solo.  Throwing them all under the bus!  That's what I am doing:)

De-Glutenizing The Kitchen

Got started about 8:00 yesterday morning.  Yikes, lots of crumbs everywhere.  Lots of spills.  Lots of items to get rid of.  

Luckily, I just deep cleaned the refrigerator a few days before, so just needed to wipe out and organize.

Labeling areas for gluten free items.

Cross contamination is common if places are not designated specifically for Gluten free and certain condiment containers are easily at risk.  So I tried to make it easier on the rest of the family.  And put as many separate tools as possible.  Like measuring cups and spoons.  Definitely I need my own butter dish.

While finishing up, I put a soup together for dinner, and finished deglutenizing the kitchen around 4:30.

TaDaaaa!

Today, I am planning to work on the Laundry room and small bathroom.  I'll see how far I get, because I want to go to the library, and also drop something off at Kris's.

Week 9, 2011

Oh my, did we have a wind storm last night.  This time, no trees down.  A year and half ago, Silverton had a freak wind storm.  I was up in Portland recovering from surgery.  Bailey was home alone, and a neighbor's tree fell into our kitchen.  LL luckily got most of it fixed before I came home. 

Today, I am staying home, catching up on laundry, cleaning, and hopefully deep cleaning one of the bathrooms.  I use to do a big spring and fall cleaning 2x's a year.  I would spend a solid week from sun up to bed time going through every cupboard, cleaning every corner, washing every window.  Frankly, I do not have the stamina right now for that.  So I am picking one or two rooms a week and deep cleaning every corner.  When I am all done, I will be putting a fresh coat of sealant on my hard wood floor.  I figure since my house is big, I will be done by Easter.  And that's OK.  So both bathrooms with get a well deserved scrubbing this week.

Tomorrow is the start of the Real Food Challenge.  I hope to have a full and complete list of whole foods made today, because Kris and I might be going up north towards Portland tomorrow.  I want to go to Whole Foods store to pick up a few things I can not get at our local grocery store.

Wednesday, I am keeping open.  It is Kris's last day off from recuperating from surgery.  If she has no plans, and my "digestion" continues to behave, I am hoping we can do something fun together.  I have enjoyed having her company a lot over the last few weeks.  I am going to miss not feeling quite as alone during the weekdays.

Thursday, if LL and I decided to RV somewhere this weekend.  I will spend Thursday making sure the RV is ready to go, and prepare what foods I can.  We will not be taking any prepackaged, convenience foods because of the challenge, so my regular RV meals will not work.  And because of my elimination diet, even steak can not be on the menu.  My body is not ready to bring meat back into my diet.  I am having doubts that I will ever be able to tolerate any meat other than fish.

Friday, if we go RVing, will have me getting the house straightened up and making sure Max is good with having Mom and Dad gone for a couple days.

LL's birthday is coming up.  I need to start thinking what I would like to give him.  Don't have a clue right now.

So that's the upcoming week.  By the way, I watched the Today show this morning.  Watched an interview with Charlie Sheen.  It is even obvious to me that if indeed he is not high, than he is either going through a Manic episode, drug induced schizophrenia, or some other mental illness.  I hope someone in his life can help him.  Don't know why I feel the need to even comment on some Hollywood person but it was actually painful to watch him in the interview.

Have a great week everyone.  It is pouring down rain here today.  Bailey is house sitting for Karen this week.  So every thing will be calm and quiet around here all week.

Bonus Day:(

I hate that time of the month.  You know.  Well it use to be PMS for me.  Before my eggs were radiated into oblivion a couple years ago and put me into menopause, I would give my family a heads up when that day or two would arrive and I know I would grow two heads.  I figured I gave them warning and if they were stupid enough to get anywhere near me, well it was their own fault.

Now I am not saying my husband has PMS, but every month, between the 29th and the 2nd, he gets well, cranky.  A few years ago, the warning is when he would get a stack of mail, envelopes, checks and stamps together.  Now, because he pays most on-line, it is when the computer is set on the kitchen table and he has a stack of mail.  This is all of the rest of the family's cue to run...........run for the hills.  It kinda reminds me of the deer running from the aggressive cheetah.  It just isn't pretty.

 

You always know what bill he is paying at any given time.  Me, huddled in the bedroom can still hear him.  It goes something like this.  "What?  What???? What did you buy last month?".........The credit card bill.  Him muttering under his breath "Damn kids"........Car insurance.  " Do I have to teach everyone how to turn off the lights?"........Electric bill.  And my longtime favorite, "Does anyone know how to put a sweater on.  Is it that hard?"............Natural Gas bill. 

This is his ritual.  And it is the rest of the family's job to just get out of the way.  But we get a bonus day.  It is the one extra day of the year that sometimes gets uglier than all the others put together. 

Tax Day!!  Once in a while, a few years back, we would take everything to a tax man.  But every time we did this, LL would review it and find things that were missed.  So he has decided to just do ours and the kids taxes. 

While Beau was being groomed, I went and cleaned Marlin,(clear out of the house)  while LL did our taxes.  The older and one by one as the kids were no longer dependants, it has gotten more painful.  On top of that, he does the kids taxes.  He is a Saint.  A grumpy Saint, but a saint no less.

Salmon Bake

Went for a walk yesterday with Baby in my hand.  So I took a picture of the little red house around the corner from my place.  Doug and Kris also like this cute little home.  It is for sale.  Soon, LL and I will be putting our place up for sale.  We have a wonderful place, but now that the kids our grown, we really don't need 4 bedrooms, family room and a living room, 3 lots, swimming pool and so on and so on.  Finding a place for Max to live will be our greatest challenge when we sell, but finding my ideal new home won't be easy either. 

I am going to want a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath house with a large great room (the kitchen and living room together).  I will want a yard for my garden and hopefully chickens.  And ideally on the creek.  I know!  Picky girl I am.

On my walk I saw this little lady.

She was just 4 houses over from my house and I was hoping she would come over and visit my place, but she ran in the other direction.

Salmon, baked potato, and vegetable was on the menu last night.  Since we eat a lot of fish, I try to do something new with it.  I morphed a couple recipes together and added my own twist.  It was delicious, but I think it would be better doing it with white fish like tilapia or halibut.  Yes Kris, I am going to give the recipe along with pictures just to drive you crazy:)

I melted 2T butter and mixed it with 2T honey and 2T Dijon mustard.  Brushed it on all sides of the fish.  I let that sit while I chopped fresh bread crumbs finely, about 1/3C. Chopped finely 1/3C hazelnuts and 3T finely chopped fresh parsley.  Mixed it together.

I brushed the mustard mixture again on the fish and then breaded the fish.

I baked it at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  LL and I do not like our salmon pink but if you do, 15 minutes would be long enough.  It was delicious, but will try it next time on tilapia that I have in the freezer.

I am without a car today.  LL took the Focus and Bailey will be taking the van to work because last night, when driving to class, she had a tire blowout on her car.  Luckily she was not driving fast and she is OK.  But she needs to buy a new tire when LL and she gets off work today. 

So I am not eating this morning in case I need to walk around town to do errands.  If it is not too icy, I might ride my bike instead.  Maybe me not having a car during the day is a good thing.  Definitely am more active this way:)

BROWN PAPER Packages Tied Up With String

When looking back on this year, I have fallen short on many of my goals to live more green and sustainable.  But since my main goal was improvement, I feel satisfied, when comparing last year to this year.  I have done OK with the Christmas preparations, but must admit, I have not bought local goods as much as I should.  One of my goals was not to buy any wrapping paper.  So far, I have succeeded.  A couple weeks ago, I did spend money on some nice reusable sturdy boxes that I hope to get many years of use out of.  A few gifts are wrapped with wrapping paper, but it was left over from last year.  Years ago, when LL and I had little money, I wrapped presents with brown bags that the kids painted.  I have many paper grocery sacks, so I decided to get creative.  When talking to LL about my ideas, he says "Oh you have been looking at magazines again."  I for the life of me, don't know why he thinks I can't come of with these ideas myself. 

So I go outside with the clippers and get some greenery.  Let them dry on a towel.  I go into the garage and get the green and white nylon twine that's all tangled and balled up.  I grab a stack of brown paper sacks, and a wrappen I a went. 

Now, in the past, I have reused sacks as wrapping, but must say the creases and wrinkles always leave the results disappointing.  So I take the sacks and wad them up so that the wrinkles look intentional.  And NO LL.  I did not get the idea from a magazine.  See he doesn't know everything.  No, I got the idea from a earth friendly web site:)  The pink ribbon was bundling up one gift I bought, so I put the ribbon on the outside of that gift.  Instead of buying one of those paper, use once wine sacks, I bought a burlap wine tote at World Market that was only $1.99 that can hold several bottles and be reused over and over.  Our local grocery sacks for the holiday has a cute little gingerbread man on it.  So I cut one gingerbread man and have him peeking out from the sack and looking around the branch.  I decorated the gifts with twine, branches and old Christmas balls.

Besides the reusable boxes and brown sacks, I have been using fabric remnants as you would tissue inside boxes, or as the wrapping paper itself. 

So, with the exception of tape and a few bows, I am succeeding with my earth friendly, green gift wrapping goal.  And it feels good:)

O Christmas Tree

I know.  If I am trying to live more green, how can I get a cut Christmas tree?  Well, living here in Oregon, I consider it like buying produce at a farmers market.  Oregon is the worlds largest producers of Christmas trees, and in the valley where I live, we are surrounded by Christmas tree farms.  So I feel little or no guilt buying a cut tree.  I know!  Food is a necessity, a Christmas tree is not, but this is one concession I am  willing to make.  If I lived somewhere where the trees are shipped hundreds of miles, I might skip this tradition.  But as a blessed Oregonian, the tradition of Bailey and I driving LL nuts will continue.

"This one? NO?  How about this one?  NO? Crymanitly! they all look the same to me, will you just pick one!!"  LL says. 

Was he kidding?  You can see the problem with this tree.  Not meaning to be offensive here but even Stevie Wonder could see the problem with this tree.

How about this one? 

THAT'S IT!!!

Our Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Civil War.

Oregon Ducks vs Oregon State Beavers

Practically everyone in Oregon, whether they normally watch football or not, ends up at a bar watching, a party watching, or like us, in front of our big screen TV with a pizza.

Oregon Ducks Won!  We are on our way to the National Championship in Arizona.  I think I know what we're doing one day in early January.  Whoo Hoo!  No we're not going to Arizona, we'll be sitting in front of the big screen with a pizza:)

Now, back to the Christmas tree.  Max and Bailey put up ornaments.

And a good job they did.

I busied myself with hanging stockings and putting up other decorations.

So the living room is done.  I am not sure if LL is going to put lights up outside or not.  Since I have no intention of helping, I have decided not to hound him about it.......anymore:(  Very charitable of me, isn't it?

We then went to Mom's.  Kris and Steve already had her tree up and decorated it before we got there.  The tree top will be put on later by my niece Kara.  It's a tradition.  It's her big moment so we let her have it:)

When we got there, Karen, her grandson Sam, David, Kris, Steve, Mom and Uncle Leo were all sitting around visiting.  Glad Max, LL and I came over so mom isn't lonely on a Saturday night ;-)

Today is the Purdy Christmas.  It is held in Sublimity, about 15 miles south of Silverton, in the foothills of the cascades.  I have  every intention of going.  I will make the food to take, and get ready.  But I have a feeling...........just a hunch, I might be having "issues" around that time.  Oh I hope not. 

For Crying Out Loud!

Someone forgot to notify the ticket outlet that I am Elton's number one fan and should get tickets.  Kane on line, my niece on her cell, and I was on two phones.  We never got beyond a busy signal on the phones and the new ticket outlet was so goofed up, I thought Kane was going to throw the computer against the wall.  So unless some miracle happens, no Elton for me this year:(

For this next part of the post.  In my defense, this mess is not mine.  Also in defense of most everyone else in this family, it's not their mess either.  The culprit is the ever so creative genius Max.  When he gets an idea, he goes down to the storage and looks for supplies to make his creations.

It's almost too embarrassing to post.  But I will post it only because...........

It looks so good now.  It's a bit empty because all the Christmas decorations are now upstairs waiting to be put up.  When we put them away, I have two big empty tubs for a lot of them to go in.  Also I have 5 boxes to still go through, but it is a lot of little stuff so I will do that while watching t.v. one evening. 

Boy was it getting hard finishing up with Kane's and my halo's bumping together. 

Must say, nothing makes you feel better then when you finish a big job you have been putting off.  The freezers AND the storage room in one week.  I wonder what my saint name should be.