No snow... It'll come soon, but not quite ready yet.
They say that hunger makes a good spice for food. I think that was in reference to a starving man's first meal after a long time of privation, so I don't see how it applies to us out here in the wilderness. But, it does seem that meals cooked out here taste better. I made pancakes for breakfast yesterday. They were sOOO good. Even through the headache I had most of the day they tasted yummy. For dinner last night I opened a can of treet, (I brought a spam cookbook, need to find it, it'll work for treet too) sliced it up, and fried it on the griddle. Add some velveeta, and eat it as sandwiches with mayo and stone ground mustard and it was fit for a king. Now mind you, we are VERY far from starving. :D We have plenty of food, and we eat when we are hungry. But, everything tastes better it seems since we moved out here. cleaner is one way to describe it I guess.
Yesterday I got up with a horrible headache and it persisted through most of the day. It was accompanied by some nausea and general grumpiness. (I think I used some new swear words at the pancakes at breakfast... ) We have come to the conclusion that our propane fireplace is using up too much oxygen. It's not carbon monoxide poisoning that you can get with these appliances. There is no symptoms of that and the dogs aren't sick. Thor sleeps on the floor all the time and he would be the first one affected if it were carbon monoxide, and he has no effects from that. So, yesterday we cracked a window about an inch, and last night we left it open too. So far this morning, I am feeling no headache and am doing better than I was yesterday morning. Other than a bit stiff in the joints and such from having to sleep in a contorted position (as usual!) so the dogs can have their portion of the bed I am good to go! Problem solved (I hope!). We came to the conclusion that it was using too much oxygen when we tried to light a lighter and it wouldn't work unless we opened a window for a few minutes before it lit. This tells me that one of the components for fire was missing. Since we had a flammable fuel, and an ignitor the only thing missing would be oxygen. So tada! Problem of the headache solved.
Today, we are going to do one of a few things. :) Yesterday we were going to put together the turkey fryer my beloved Mother in Law bought for us so I can do some dishes and wash my hair. This plan of action however was pre-empted by my headache and ill tummy. So we may do that today. The other option is to drive into the library so I can update the blog and return some library books that are due today. If we don't return them today, then I'll have to do it Monday and pay the fine for being late. Which I really don't want to have to do. I guess it comes down to weighing how much the fine is vs. how much gas we will expend going today. The other factor that will decide if we go to town or not is how badly hubby wants to download new podcasts. lol. He's such a podcast freak. He listens to them while doing other work. I can't really blame him though, it's a great way to get caught up on the world at large. Of course, there is always the option of going nowhere, and doing nothing. In which case, I'll work on some crochet, and hubby will probably play a computer game or take his chainsaw out and see if he can actually cut down some trees. He was going to do that yesterday, but I woke up with a headache... I wonder if that is what gave me the headache?
Not sure what I am going to make for breakfast today. French toast was for breakfast on Thursday, and pancakes yesterday. Maybe some kind of egg something. Fried egg sandwiches? scrambled eggs and cheese? Egg in a Nest? Boiled eggs? Hummm... Will have to wait for hubby to wake up and see if he has any input on this egg thing. Maybe he'll want something entirely different. I'll have to figure out how to do omelets I guess on this propane stove, that would be a nice change of pace.
Rice. Now there is something else I have to figure out how to do on a propane camp stove. Back in Eugene we had a rice cooker. It was nice, pour in the water, add the rice, close the lid, hit the button and walk away. Here though, you can't do that. If I were to pour in the water, add the rice and walk away I would have a real mess on my hands. LOL. Something akin to a charcoal briquet with glue on top. Boil the water, add the rice and set to the side for an hour? Maybe that would work, although it would also be cold when we went to eat it, meaning that it would have to be smothered in gravy or other goopy sauce (not my favorite way to eat) in order to heat it back up. No microwaves in the wilderness. hummm.. Boil the water, add the rice then set it on top of the propane heater while the rice cooks. Maybe that would work better. The propane heater has a flat top and I keep the tea kettle there. It never really boils the water, but it keeps it hot enough for hot chocolate or tea. If it keeps the kettle that warm maybe it'll work well for making the rice up.... I'll have to give it a shot and see what I come up with. It would be nice to have some rice and something as a change for supper. I've made mac & cheese a few times and it is pretty good, and we gorge on it when I make it. Here's the recipe, sorry there isn't any real measurements, it's not how I cook. :D
boiling water
8 hands full of macaroni noodles
boil the noodles over a low to medium low propane heat until they are just tender, then drain.
one large fist size lump of velveeta, cubed
1/4 "ish" cup of milk (can use a small handfull of powdered milk and a sploosh of water or canned milk)
salt
pepper
Add to your hot pot the velveeta CUBED up in about 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes, add your milk, and dump the noodles back in, stir like your life depends on it. You don't want to scorch it. Add a little salt and pepper and your done. I like to add a drained can of chicken to this for some added goodness. If hubby won't be partaking of it then I'll use a can of drained tuna instead. Makes for a more balanced meal. If I still had a freezer, I would keep a bag or two of frozen broccoli in there, and I would have added some broccoli to the noodles while they were boiling so I could have some veggies in there. A can of canned peas can make a world of difference in this meal, just open, drain them off and add them at the last minute. Can sprinkle with some bread crumbs or parmesan for extra "oomph" to the meal too.
I am working on a scarf as a Christmas/Yule gift for someone. I'll write out the pattern and include it in the blog in the next day or so as well, it's an easy pattern that is very pretty and I am more than a little satisfied with it. I am going to do a shawl for myself with this pattern I think. I got some new Red Heart yarn in a color scheme called ZEBRA and it's kind of pretty in a monochromatic way. :D Look for the yarn online.
Off to find some kind of trouble... I'm good at that.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Clean Cabin!
Here it is 6:30 am on Friday morning and I thought I would write an update. Not a whole lot going on, but we found out the weather station on the radio isn't the same forecast as for us! We kept hearing it talk about this one place, and thought it included us, but it doesn't. So the forecast for this week and next was highs in the 40's and 50's with lows in the 20's and 30's. Well, yesterday we woke up to a white world. Not snow mind you, but frost, lots and lots of frost. When I went down to the local post office, I was told it was 12 degrees F last night! that would explain the frost! lol. It was 39 degrees F at 1pm yesterday. Now. Keep in mind that the post office is at an elevation at least 100 feet BELOW us in altitude. So we probably dipped as low as 10 or even 9 degrees F. LOL.
We bought a thermometer for inside / outside, but haven't installed it yet, so perhaps I'll get hubby to do that today. Then we'll know how cold it is that we survive. :D
Yesterday the hubby was frustrated, and when he gets frustrated and stressed, he cleans. So our entire cabin has been redone. The insulation around the bed is all in, the bed is now up against the wall, the dressers are all where they are supposed to be, my kitchen is set up, and Thor's bed is under the kitchen table! There is still more insulation to go in, but a lot was done yesterday!
For all our loving living here in the wilderness, I wish that we had some friends that lived closer. We still have to insulate the roof and I'm not looking forward to that. Hubby will have to climb up there and do it himself. We only have one ladder, and I'm useless on a ladder anyway. And, it's a peaked roof, so that presents it's own problems anyway. The wonderful neighbor up here has volunteered that if we need any help to let him know and he'll see what he can do, so maybe we'll ask his help for this stage of the game. But we are going to get all the walls done first. Those we have been able to do by ourselves pretty successfully.
Now I need an area rug for the middle of our floor. Like one of those old time braided rugs or something. I don't want to put down wall to wall carpet in here. Depending on a vacuum when you have no electricity is a little silly. But a carpet of about 5 x 8 would be nice and still be able to be taken up and taken outside and beaten to get the dirt out of it. And we do have dirt!
Yesteray we hung up our copy of the consitution, and a small flag by the door. It's nice that it's there and it makes the place more homey I think. I can't wait until we get either drywall/sheetrock/plywood up on the walls so I can hang more stuff and get the walls painted! It's starting to feel more and more like home all the time.
I had to laugh, we have a tent up right now for storage. It'll come down once we get everything inside, but in the mean time it's where we put things that don't necessarily need to be in the cabin. In our moving around and unpacking yesterday, hubby found our pair of long handled pruning shears. We call them "loppers". Anyway, I was thinking we could hang them from our rafters (such as they are), but he said "no, they'll go out in the garage, there's no reason for them to be in here." I didn't say anything, but thought it was pretty funny that he called the tent our garage. So I sat them outside the door while we continued work in here. Later, he went outside to move some other stuff around and grabbed them while we were there, so he could put them in the tent. Again he said "ok, I'll put these and this other stuff in the garage."... And it hit him he had called the tent our garage. He looked at me and said "how's that for habit!?"... LOL! So now, the tent is officially known as "THE GARAGE".
Last time we went to Wallyworld we bought 8 shelf brackets to put up the shelving here in the cabin. We couldn't find them yesterday (hence hubby's spate of moving, unpacking, organizing) but I need to get them found so we can get shelves up. What's really funny is even though several hours was spent moving around the contents of our cabin, the brackets weren't found! Some shelf bracket gremlin seems to have made off with them. :( So, if you happen to see that gremlin, could you bop him and send him back with my brackets?
oh, the sky is getting lighter out there finally. I wonder if it's going to be a clear day or a cloudy day. According to the weather station (HAH!) rain mixed with snow is in the forecast for Friday night and Saturday night. So we'll have to see what we get. For all I know we got snow last night too. Just waiting on the sun to lighten it up a bit more for me to find out. :D
Ok, off to turn off the generator, and get ready to face the day. I'm thinking PANCAKES for breakfast. :D
We bought a thermometer for inside / outside, but haven't installed it yet, so perhaps I'll get hubby to do that today. Then we'll know how cold it is that we survive. :D
Yesterday the hubby was frustrated, and when he gets frustrated and stressed, he cleans. So our entire cabin has been redone. The insulation around the bed is all in, the bed is now up against the wall, the dressers are all where they are supposed to be, my kitchen is set up, and Thor's bed is under the kitchen table! There is still more insulation to go in, but a lot was done yesterday!
For all our loving living here in the wilderness, I wish that we had some friends that lived closer. We still have to insulate the roof and I'm not looking forward to that. Hubby will have to climb up there and do it himself. We only have one ladder, and I'm useless on a ladder anyway. And, it's a peaked roof, so that presents it's own problems anyway. The wonderful neighbor up here has volunteered that if we need any help to let him know and he'll see what he can do, so maybe we'll ask his help for this stage of the game. But we are going to get all the walls done first. Those we have been able to do by ourselves pretty successfully.
Now I need an area rug for the middle of our floor. Like one of those old time braided rugs or something. I don't want to put down wall to wall carpet in here. Depending on a vacuum when you have no electricity is a little silly. But a carpet of about 5 x 8 would be nice and still be able to be taken up and taken outside and beaten to get the dirt out of it. And we do have dirt!
Yesteray we hung up our copy of the consitution, and a small flag by the door. It's nice that it's there and it makes the place more homey I think. I can't wait until we get either drywall/sheetrock/plywood up on the walls so I can hang more stuff and get the walls painted! It's starting to feel more and more like home all the time.
I had to laugh, we have a tent up right now for storage. It'll come down once we get everything inside, but in the mean time it's where we put things that don't necessarily need to be in the cabin. In our moving around and unpacking yesterday, hubby found our pair of long handled pruning shears. We call them "loppers". Anyway, I was thinking we could hang them from our rafters (such as they are), but he said "no, they'll go out in the garage, there's no reason for them to be in here." I didn't say anything, but thought it was pretty funny that he called the tent our garage. So I sat them outside the door while we continued work in here. Later, he went outside to move some other stuff around and grabbed them while we were there, so he could put them in the tent. Again he said "ok, I'll put these and this other stuff in the garage."... And it hit him he had called the tent our garage. He looked at me and said "how's that for habit!?"... LOL! So now, the tent is officially known as "THE GARAGE".
Last time we went to Wallyworld we bought 8 shelf brackets to put up the shelving here in the cabin. We couldn't find them yesterday (hence hubby's spate of moving, unpacking, organizing) but I need to get them found so we can get shelves up. What's really funny is even though several hours was spent moving around the contents of our cabin, the brackets weren't found! Some shelf bracket gremlin seems to have made off with them. :( So, if you happen to see that gremlin, could you bop him and send him back with my brackets?
oh, the sky is getting lighter out there finally. I wonder if it's going to be a clear day or a cloudy day. According to the weather station (HAH!) rain mixed with snow is in the forecast for Friday night and Saturday night. So we'll have to see what we get. For all I know we got snow last night too. Just waiting on the sun to lighten it up a bit more for me to find out. :D
Ok, off to turn off the generator, and get ready to face the day. I'm thinking PANCAKES for breakfast. :D
Monday, December 1, 2008
Open range (open season? Not!)
Hello again world. The movie was Rob Roy.
That's not to say we didn't do ANYTHING yesterday... ok. We pretty much didn't do anything.
Todays chore is driving into town, and picking up my driver's license. Ugh. Not a chore I wanted to do today. We have an appointment on Wednesday in town too, and I didn't want to have to go back until then. But I need my license, and I also need a few groceries and to do some laundry, hit the library and such too.
There is a wonderful book I have been reading called "wilderness cookery" I can't remember the author right off the bat, but it's great. the original copyright is from 1961, and then this copy is from 1970. It's stuffed full of some wonderful information including this tidbit I love. Vinegar. I use it a lot for cleaning, and deoderizing. I'm allergic to most chemicals in cleaning products and I am not allergic to vinegar so I use it everywhere. But, when you are out in the wilderness, you can run short in quick time. So, here is what you do. Start with 1 gallon of vinegar, and once you have used 1/2 of it, you refill the bottle to full using water. Then you dump in 1 cup of brown sugar, shake it to dissolve. Then leave it. The brown sugar will ferment and add to your vinegar! What the book DIDN'T say is how long it will take it to ferment. I am thinking your nose will tell you, so I am going to have to explore this and see how long it takes it to do the job.
We were in a resteraunt eating breakfast yesterday and heard a conversation on open range cattle. Where we have moved to is ALL open range, in towns and out of towns. The very nice lady who is the owners wife was giving an earful to someone about some cows, who broke down her fence, ate her lilacs, broke the bbq, and in general raised a mess at her house. They even had her mother locked in the house because they were right up on the porch. Now, I don't know if you know much about cows. But open range cows are pretty feral. They would just as soon stomp you as look at you, especially if they are cows with calves! Never go near a cow with a calf at her side if she is an open range cow, she'll stomp you into the next season. Anyway, we found out this. Open range is just that, open range. You get a cow or a horse, brand it and turn it loose. If someone doesn't want your animal on their property then they have to fence their property to keep the critter out. If it's not fenced, then you don't have any reason to cuss. Deal with it. Most of the time, the ranchers are nice, and if you are being bothered by the cows, they will come and try to drive them out of your property to go and bother someone else. Every once in a while you get some jerk who tells you to just deal with it. My idea was that if the cow comes in and is destructive I have steak for dinner. :D But, here's the rub, I have found out that it's ILLEGAL! If a cow comes in, breaks my fence, is a pain in the rump and I shoot him... If the rancher finds out, then I have to pay him the price of the cow, PLUS he can sue me for the loss of the cow! ACK! Stupid cows.
Right now we are at such a high elevation that the open range cows and horses are down lower by the rivers and such where it may have less snow and be a little warmer through the winter. But come spring and summer, this very nice resteraunt lady has told us, be ready for them to come up. In our frequent walk abouts here on the property we have seen some cow sign, but what we have seen a lot of is horse sign. I am hoping this means that we won't have a lot of cows up here, but just in case we are going to have to work on getting the fence up so we can keep them out of the front of the house. And keep the DOGS from running the cows. Last thing I want is some local shooting the dogs because they were chasing their open range cattle.
We need the fence up anyway for when the goats and chickens get here. Don't want my goats running all over the countryside. I know that you can train both of these critters to come back in the evening for feeding and milking so not worried about that. But we have OODLES AND TONS of coyotes up here. We frequently hear them yapping in the evenings. A coyote pack can definitely decimate your goats if you don't have them in a strong fence by day, and a sound stucture by night. And! They can eat about 15 chickens a night. Think on that one for a while.
Off to get dressed and ready to go to town. Stupid drive. LOL. I plan on getting a few new gadgets today, and I'll write about them in the next blog.
That's not to say we didn't do ANYTHING yesterday... ok. We pretty much didn't do anything.
Todays chore is driving into town, and picking up my driver's license. Ugh. Not a chore I wanted to do today. We have an appointment on Wednesday in town too, and I didn't want to have to go back until then. But I need my license, and I also need a few groceries and to do some laundry, hit the library and such too.
There is a wonderful book I have been reading called "wilderness cookery" I can't remember the author right off the bat, but it's great. the original copyright is from 1961, and then this copy is from 1970. It's stuffed full of some wonderful information including this tidbit I love. Vinegar. I use it a lot for cleaning, and deoderizing. I'm allergic to most chemicals in cleaning products and I am not allergic to vinegar so I use it everywhere. But, when you are out in the wilderness, you can run short in quick time. So, here is what you do. Start with 1 gallon of vinegar, and once you have used 1/2 of it, you refill the bottle to full using water. Then you dump in 1 cup of brown sugar, shake it to dissolve. Then leave it. The brown sugar will ferment and add to your vinegar! What the book DIDN'T say is how long it will take it to ferment. I am thinking your nose will tell you, so I am going to have to explore this and see how long it takes it to do the job.
We were in a resteraunt eating breakfast yesterday and heard a conversation on open range cattle. Where we have moved to is ALL open range, in towns and out of towns. The very nice lady who is the owners wife was giving an earful to someone about some cows, who broke down her fence, ate her lilacs, broke the bbq, and in general raised a mess at her house. They even had her mother locked in the house because they were right up on the porch. Now, I don't know if you know much about cows. But open range cows are pretty feral. They would just as soon stomp you as look at you, especially if they are cows with calves! Never go near a cow with a calf at her side if she is an open range cow, she'll stomp you into the next season. Anyway, we found out this. Open range is just that, open range. You get a cow or a horse, brand it and turn it loose. If someone doesn't want your animal on their property then they have to fence their property to keep the critter out. If it's not fenced, then you don't have any reason to cuss. Deal with it. Most of the time, the ranchers are nice, and if you are being bothered by the cows, they will come and try to drive them out of your property to go and bother someone else. Every once in a while you get some jerk who tells you to just deal with it. My idea was that if the cow comes in and is destructive I have steak for dinner. :D But, here's the rub, I have found out that it's ILLEGAL! If a cow comes in, breaks my fence, is a pain in the rump and I shoot him... If the rancher finds out, then I have to pay him the price of the cow, PLUS he can sue me for the loss of the cow! ACK! Stupid cows.
Right now we are at such a high elevation that the open range cows and horses are down lower by the rivers and such where it may have less snow and be a little warmer through the winter. But come spring and summer, this very nice resteraunt lady has told us, be ready for them to come up. In our frequent walk abouts here on the property we have seen some cow sign, but what we have seen a lot of is horse sign. I am hoping this means that we won't have a lot of cows up here, but just in case we are going to have to work on getting the fence up so we can keep them out of the front of the house. And keep the DOGS from running the cows. Last thing I want is some local shooting the dogs because they were chasing their open range cattle.
We need the fence up anyway for when the goats and chickens get here. Don't want my goats running all over the countryside. I know that you can train both of these critters to come back in the evening for feeding and milking so not worried about that. But we have OODLES AND TONS of coyotes up here. We frequently hear them yapping in the evenings. A coyote pack can definitely decimate your goats if you don't have them in a strong fence by day, and a sound stucture by night. And! They can eat about 15 chickens a night. Think on that one for a while.
Off to get dressed and ready to go to town. Stupid drive. LOL. I plan on getting a few new gadgets today, and I'll write about them in the next blog.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Walmart, insulation, movies, and lisence woes.
Hello World. Treehaven is sparkling, and beautiful and cold this morning. I guess we are to have temps in the 50's (F) during the day, and down to the mid 20's (F) at night with a chance of rain and snow showers by this next weekend. It's currently Sunday and Hubby has gone to "church" (meaning he has taken Freya and Pan on walkabout on the property to spend time with God and his thoughts!) and I am working on writing the blog, and working up to getting up, dressed, and out of my warm bed. :D
We ended up going through Sprint for our new phone service for out here. Thanks to Don and Ben at Wireless Toys I have a great new phone and phone plan! It's unlimited on everything! Phone minutes, text messaging and online time! so I can talk all I want to and never worry about running out of minutes! Whoot! I am so happy about that. Now I can talk to anyone who calls. I guess I'll have to call someone now. lol. Of course, this is saving us a bonkers amount of money over what we were paying with AT&t. There was a deposit we had to pay, $150.00 because of our damaged credit, but that is nothing really as far as deposits go. I mean, Don said he had seen some deposits for as much as $500.00 so I feel that isn't too bad. It definately could have been worse.
The downside is that I went off and left my driver's license there! Drat! So I have to make the 40+ mile trip BACK into town to get it. I'll be doing it either Monday or Tuesday. It's a trip I don't want to make unless I have more than one thing to do. I have a photocopy of my license in case I get pulled over, and then if they still ticket me for it, I'll be able to prove to the judge that I do actually have a license. It's just annoying as all get out.
We went to the evil empire while we were in town yesterday too. Walmart (shudder). I have to admit that it wasn't a horrible experience. I figured that the day after black friday the store would be awash with many people jammed in there trying to get this or that. But it wasn't packed at all. Probably due to the fact that we were there during most peoples dinner time. We picked up some stuff we needed, and some stuff we didn't need of course. lol. I picked up some more pepsi, and hubby got some Chocolate... We got a headphone splitter and 2nd set of headphones... We have found that watching movies is fine, but that it's hard to hear due to the sound of the generator. We picked up the second set of headphones and the splitter so we both can wear headphones and that should null the sound of the generator and make it a more pleasurable viewing experience. I wanted to make our wonderful neighbor a scarf for Christmas. Afterall, everyone in this area can use another scarf or hat, and he has done so much for us! Get this. Walmart just doesn't carry WOOL yarn! They had about 400 different shades and blends of cotton, acrylic, and nylon.. Just no Wool. I was pretty disappointed in that. But, Thankfully, there is a Michaels just down the street. I'll go in there and look when I go back into town on Monday or Tuesday. I'll get some wool and make the scarf up quick as a wink.
ok, I'll write more tomorrow. Going to try to dig out the corner of our cabin today, it has stuff we just piled there and I have no clue what is really there. It's a mystery. It'll be like Christmas. Oh, I know that my jewelry box is there. Maybe I'll talk the hubby into trying to put up a shelf or two in here out of the cedar boards we brought. Then I'll have a place to put some stuff. Maybe I'll even find the staple gun so we can work some more on the insulation! Now THAT would be nice (and a miracle!), I can't wait until the insulation is all in so we can get the vapor barrier up so we can get real walls in here, so I can start putting stuff places and we can get organized. Bleah.
Or maybe... We'll just watch a movie instead.
Anyone wanna come and help?
We ended up going through Sprint for our new phone service for out here. Thanks to Don and Ben at Wireless Toys I have a great new phone and phone plan! It's unlimited on everything! Phone minutes, text messaging and online time! so I can talk all I want to and never worry about running out of minutes! Whoot! I am so happy about that. Now I can talk to anyone who calls. I guess I'll have to call someone now. lol. Of course, this is saving us a bonkers amount of money over what we were paying with AT&t. There was a deposit we had to pay, $150.00 because of our damaged credit, but that is nothing really as far as deposits go. I mean, Don said he had seen some deposits for as much as $500.00 so I feel that isn't too bad. It definately could have been worse.
The downside is that I went off and left my driver's license there! Drat! So I have to make the 40+ mile trip BACK into town to get it. I'll be doing it either Monday or Tuesday. It's a trip I don't want to make unless I have more than one thing to do. I have a photocopy of my license in case I get pulled over, and then if they still ticket me for it, I'll be able to prove to the judge that I do actually have a license. It's just annoying as all get out.
We went to the evil empire while we were in town yesterday too. Walmart (shudder). I have to admit that it wasn't a horrible experience. I figured that the day after black friday the store would be awash with many people jammed in there trying to get this or that. But it wasn't packed at all. Probably due to the fact that we were there during most peoples dinner time. We picked up some stuff we needed, and some stuff we didn't need of course. lol. I picked up some more pepsi, and hubby got some Chocolate... We got a headphone splitter and 2nd set of headphones... We have found that watching movies is fine, but that it's hard to hear due to the sound of the generator. We picked up the second set of headphones and the splitter so we both can wear headphones and that should null the sound of the generator and make it a more pleasurable viewing experience. I wanted to make our wonderful neighbor a scarf for Christmas. Afterall, everyone in this area can use another scarf or hat, and he has done so much for us! Get this. Walmart just doesn't carry WOOL yarn! They had about 400 different shades and blends of cotton, acrylic, and nylon.. Just no Wool. I was pretty disappointed in that. But, Thankfully, there is a Michaels just down the street. I'll go in there and look when I go back into town on Monday or Tuesday. I'll get some wool and make the scarf up quick as a wink.
ok, I'll write more tomorrow. Going to try to dig out the corner of our cabin today, it has stuff we just piled there and I have no clue what is really there. It's a mystery. It'll be like Christmas. Oh, I know that my jewelry box is there. Maybe I'll talk the hubby into trying to put up a shelf or two in here out of the cedar boards we brought. Then I'll have a place to put some stuff. Maybe I'll even find the staple gun so we can work some more on the insulation! Now THAT would be nice (and a miracle!), I can't wait until the insulation is all in so we can get the vapor barrier up so we can get real walls in here, so I can start putting stuff places and we can get organized. Bleah.
Or maybe... We'll just watch a movie instead.
Anyone wanna come and help?
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Bisquits, hold the gravy.
Many moons ago I bought a camp oven to put on our camp stove. And last night I was so desprite for some other food than soup I tried it out. I made biscuits. Quite the endeavor because first I had to make the biscuit mix, then make the biscuits. I opened a can of TREET (similar to SPAM) and fried up slices of it and put velveeta cheese on them. We cut the biscuits open and put the treet and velveeta in them and viola, dinner. I was actually quite impressed with them. The can of Treet, I bought at our local dollar store, and the velveeta is what we had because it is shelf stable. So, it was cheap, and easy (other than being impatient waiting for the oven to come to temp. 300 degrees F is NOT easy to get to over a cook stove!) and was good. Food just tastes SO much better cooked out here.
Going to get some more Treet I think. And we have decided on getting a cooler and some meat for the cabin. I miss meat... hubby misses bread... :D I think the meat will be easier to fill than the bread, since it takes so much propane to get the camp oven to 300 degrees. Either that or it'll be bread cooked in the fire pit. He'll just have to live with that for now.
Of course, if any one likes, they can donate towards that $2000.00 wood burning bread oven they have available at king author flour... I am going to make my own version of that from fire brick and cinderblock sometime in the future... Then hubby will have all the bread he can possibly want!
Mistress Treehaven
Going to get some more Treet I think. And we have decided on getting a cooler and some meat for the cabin. I miss meat... hubby misses bread... :D I think the meat will be easier to fill than the bread, since it takes so much propane to get the camp oven to 300 degrees. Either that or it'll be bread cooked in the fire pit. He'll just have to live with that for now.
Of course, if any one likes, they can donate towards that $2000.00 wood burning bread oven they have available at king author flour... I am going to make my own version of that from fire brick and cinderblock sometime in the future... Then hubby will have all the bread he can possibly want!
Mistress Treehaven
Phone Woes.
So, we have been AT&T customers for our cells for over 10 years. But, because we have moved to an area that they don't have coverage in, and we are more than 50% roaming... they cut our service. BLAH! Now we are living in a remote area, with no phone coverage. Jerks. Today, we are going to go and see if we can find a new provider... Kind of sad really, but maybe we won't have to pay anything to port our #'s to and it'll be cheap.. yeah, I'm an optimist.
Other than that, not a whole lotta new to report. :D Still plugging away on the homesite, will post new pictures soon.
Love you all!
Mistress Treehaven
Other than that, not a whole lotta new to report. :D Still plugging away on the homesite, will post new pictures soon.
Love you all!
Mistress Treehaven
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Praying for a mild Winter
Hello world! how are you all doing today?
Well, we've been here for 20 days and as of yet, I've gotten no letters from anyone. I guess I'll sit down and write some more either tonight or tomorrow since it's Turkey day tomorrow and we don't celebrate it. hehe.. even if we did I don't have an oven to cook a turkey in. :D I guess I could wrap it in foil and cook it polynesian style in a firepit. But that could take hours soooo.. We'll stick with no turkey.
We've decided to put a loft up in the cabin. That will give us about another 64 square feet for stuff. Our wonderful neighbor is trying to talk us into putting the bed up there. It would be tons warmer than having it on the floor and we could use the space under the loft for other things like food storage, book shelves, and bringing hubby's lay-z-boy down out of storage. The hubby likes THAT idea. And I daresay I would like to get it here too. It makes a great place to nap or to try to sleep when the insomnia hits.
There is still a number of people who don't know that we've moved. So I guess while I'm writing some letters tomorrow I'll fill out some postcards and let them know the new address. Most of my aunts don't know, and some of my cousins. A few of my cousins like to hunt, maybe I'll encourage them to come and visit that away.
And we do have the hunting. We are right on the migration path for most ducks and geese. We have seen them overhead for a bit now, and heard the guns in the early mornings. And the deer are as thick as fleas on a mongrel hound. It's crazy! We have seen so many deer since moving down here. About 30 of them in the last 20 days and I'm not even exaggerating! Does, still haven't seen any Bucks, but it's getting time for them to drop their antlers, so it'll be hard to tell soon. But lots, and lots of does. Our neighbor says he has a few come and drink out of his little pond he put in. I bet he gets a lot of camera opportunities. Wouldn't mind seeing some of what he gets to come and visit... I think I'll put a pond in out front too. We have dogs though and that could discourage some of the critters to come and drink.
We are praying this will be a mild winter. As I have said before last winter was anyting BUT mild. 7 foot snow drifts, and 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow on the ground. -30 and -40 degrees F for temps too. If the winter just keeps itself down to about 2 feet of snow on the ground I think we'll be ok. As it is we'll have to do some shoveling of the front area so the dogs can go out and potty. The toboggan will come in handy there, we can fill it with snow from shoveling then pull it to the side and create a kind of "bowl" around the campsite of snow. hehe... kind of a snowfence around us. It'll look like a crater.. like craterlake, but this one will be created by snow, not a volcanic explosion.
I am thinking of getting a reflector oven for our propane fireplace. It would be a good way to use the heat from that to cook biscuits and the like. now I just have to find one. Anyone have a good source for one?
ok, off to find some clothes, gotta run to town today. UGH! 80+ mile round trip. lol.
Mistress Treehaven
Well, we've been here for 20 days and as of yet, I've gotten no letters from anyone. I guess I'll sit down and write some more either tonight or tomorrow since it's Turkey day tomorrow and we don't celebrate it. hehe.. even if we did I don't have an oven to cook a turkey in. :D I guess I could wrap it in foil and cook it polynesian style in a firepit. But that could take hours soooo.. We'll stick with no turkey.
We've decided to put a loft up in the cabin. That will give us about another 64 square feet for stuff. Our wonderful neighbor is trying to talk us into putting the bed up there. It would be tons warmer than having it on the floor and we could use the space under the loft for other things like food storage, book shelves, and bringing hubby's lay-z-boy down out of storage. The hubby likes THAT idea. And I daresay I would like to get it here too. It makes a great place to nap or to try to sleep when the insomnia hits.
There is still a number of people who don't know that we've moved. So I guess while I'm writing some letters tomorrow I'll fill out some postcards and let them know the new address. Most of my aunts don't know, and some of my cousins. A few of my cousins like to hunt, maybe I'll encourage them to come and visit that away.
And we do have the hunting. We are right on the migration path for most ducks and geese. We have seen them overhead for a bit now, and heard the guns in the early mornings. And the deer are as thick as fleas on a mongrel hound. It's crazy! We have seen so many deer since moving down here. About 30 of them in the last 20 days and I'm not even exaggerating! Does, still haven't seen any Bucks, but it's getting time for them to drop their antlers, so it'll be hard to tell soon. But lots, and lots of does. Our neighbor says he has a few come and drink out of his little pond he put in. I bet he gets a lot of camera opportunities. Wouldn't mind seeing some of what he gets to come and visit... I think I'll put a pond in out front too. We have dogs though and that could discourage some of the critters to come and drink.
We are praying this will be a mild winter. As I have said before last winter was anyting BUT mild. 7 foot snow drifts, and 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow on the ground. -30 and -40 degrees F for temps too. If the winter just keeps itself down to about 2 feet of snow on the ground I think we'll be ok. As it is we'll have to do some shoveling of the front area so the dogs can go out and potty. The toboggan will come in handy there, we can fill it with snow from shoveling then pull it to the side and create a kind of "bowl" around the campsite of snow. hehe... kind of a snowfence around us. It'll look like a crater.. like craterlake, but this one will be created by snow, not a volcanic explosion.
I am thinking of getting a reflector oven for our propane fireplace. It would be a good way to use the heat from that to cook biscuits and the like. now I just have to find one. Anyone have a good source for one?
ok, off to find some clothes, gotta run to town today. UGH! 80+ mile round trip. lol.
Mistress Treehaven
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