When we moved into our wilderness hide-away, hubby's mom bought us a
chainsaw from Sears. It's a craftsman of course. And hubby used it to
cut 2 small logs to use as a table when he changes the oil in the
generator and then cut down another smallish tree (see that epic in our
picasa pictures under the album titled "chainsaw massacre".). He then
went out a few days later and tried to cut down another smallish tree.
About 6 - 8 inches across so yeah, it was small. anyway, he got it cut
down and was getting ready to slice it up (a friend had commissioned us
to make small disks from a tree so she could use them in her resteraunt
as table decorations) and the chainsaw seized up! so for a total use of
less than 10 minutes total time, the chainsaw couldn't handle it.
So we went to sears, and because it was longer than 90 days from when we
bought it (30 days was up February 8, 2009 and we took it in on March 5,
2009) they had to put it in for repair and couldn't just exchange it.
We left it in their hands and they were going to send it out to their
small engine repair shop.
I get a call a little while later, and they can't find the phone number
in their system that we gave them that we bought the chain saw under.
So I gave them both my old cell # and hubby's old cell #. These were
the #'s we had when we first moved down here. I got a call later that
night that they still couldn't find it. So I went looking for the
receipt. lol. So much for the store keeping records right? Anyway, I
found the receipt and called them back. They then found the records and
it was under my old cell #. Leaving me to question if they really had
looked at these numbers I gave them on the phone or if they were just
lazy and decided to not do anything about it.
A week later, on the 13th, I called since I hadn't heard anything from
them. The deal is, if it's fixable, then they fix it. If it's not
fixable then they replace it. Since we have work that is waiting on the
chainsaw, we kind of need it back.
The person I spoke with at Sears, couldn't give me any information other
than the name of the place that is doing the work. miller's Appliance.
Apparently, Sears outsources it's small engine repair. They were also
able to give me their phone number. YAY! I may get someplace with that.
I proceeded to call miller's Appliance, and see what they knew. I
didn't find out what was broken on the chainsaw, but they had to order
parts from sears. They had been shpped on 3/12/09. And she said that
it could take up to a week and a half (we are in Oregon, they are in
Alabama) for the parts to get here and then another week after that for
us to even get our chainsaw back. Crud.
Ok. I just wanted to say, if you buy a chainsaw, then buy it local and
don't go with sears or any of these other big stores. Sitting around,
on your butt while you wait for someone to pull their head out of their
own rump to get your chainsaw fixed is a real pain. A whole MONTH will
have been taken out of our working on the property while we wait for
this thing to come back to us. If we had bought locally, from some
small mom and pop store, then we probably wouldn't have had to wait this
long to get it back.
I am off today to see if any of our neighbors would be willing to cut
down some trees for us this next week, in exchange for some of the wood.
Blah. We need these trees down so we can use them for building
materials for the garden beds and a few storage sheds / animal barns.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Fry Bread morning
Blah. by the time we made it to the feed store the other day, they were closed! Darn it! that made me more than just a little irritable. Now I'll have to wait until we go in next week to get the puppy vaccinations. I guess I could call UPCO and just have them delivered. But that is expensive for shipping as all vaccinations are delivered using 3rd day express shipping. And I would hate to have to pay that when we know that they have them here at the feed store, we just need to get there while they are open.
Grump! hurmph! Grrr!
Oh well. Newbs' training is going well. He goes everywhere with us in the truck, and he knows when I open my truck door that he has to hop in the back and let me in. He can jump in and out of the backseat of the truck with the chair DOWN (which makes the floor he has to jump to higher than if the seat was up) and he knows that when we say "bed" he has to get on the bed and off the floor so we have room to get around. Newbs has also learned that the propane stove is not to be messed with, (no matter how pretty the flickering flames in it are) and that the other three dogs get their bowls before he gets his and he has to sit and wait until I put theirs down before he gets his. Although, he has picked up the habit that whoever takes him out for his morning potty at around 5:30 t0 6 am, then when he comes in he gets to attack the OTHER person who is still inbed sleeping. We call this his, "pirana puppy sneak attack". this is usually when he jumps on the bed, runs up to the head of whoever is still in bed and begins biting their head until they pin him so he can't reach anymore. Frustrating when you are woken up this way... Funny as all get out if you were the one to have taken him out and you see him do it to the other person. lol. hubby has learned to put the blanket over his head if I am the one to take the dogs out in the morning, he doesn't have as much hair as I have, and those puppy teeth HURT on bare skin! :D
This morning I surprised hubby with silver dollar size Indian Fry Bread for breakfast. I made them up, and dipped 1/2 of them sugar, and the other 1/2 of the ones I made into sugar and cinnamon. He snarfed them down like they were the best thing he had ever eatten! I kind of cheated, but they were still good.
3 cups flour
1/2 cup lard
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup COLD water
mix the lard into the flour, salt, and baking powder, using your hand until it resembles little peas, then mix in the cold water.
pull the dough into ping pong ball size lumps and flatten with your hands. fry until golden brown in 350 to 375 F degree vegetable oil. (for those of you who have read my post from a few months ago about temperatures on the propane stove, this is between the "check your eyebrows" and the "stand back until the propane bottle runs out" setting on the stove.)
If the recipe itself looks familiar it should! It's the same as for my tortilla recipe I use. All I did was change from warm water to cold water so the lard wouldn't melt until it was in the hot oil.
Like I said, he snarfed them up.
Sometime in the next few days I am going to make this recipe again, roll it out, then fill it with mashed potatoes, some chopped treet or bacon (I haven't decided which yet) and some cheese, then bake it and see what it comes out with. I'll serve it topped with some hollandaise. That should wake up the ol' tastebuds!
ok, I am off to play a game for a bit, I emptied and refilled the turkey fryer with snow today, made breakfast, folded clothes, and stored away some dog food among other things and I'm pooped. :D
Later Gaters!
Grump! hurmph! Grrr!
Oh well. Newbs' training is going well. He goes everywhere with us in the truck, and he knows when I open my truck door that he has to hop in the back and let me in. He can jump in and out of the backseat of the truck with the chair DOWN (which makes the floor he has to jump to higher than if the seat was up) and he knows that when we say "bed" he has to get on the bed and off the floor so we have room to get around. Newbs has also learned that the propane stove is not to be messed with, (no matter how pretty the flickering flames in it are) and that the other three dogs get their bowls before he gets his and he has to sit and wait until I put theirs down before he gets his. Although, he has picked up the habit that whoever takes him out for his morning potty at around 5:30 t0 6 am, then when he comes in he gets to attack the OTHER person who is still inbed sleeping. We call this his, "pirana puppy sneak attack". this is usually when he jumps on the bed, runs up to the head of whoever is still in bed and begins biting their head until they pin him so he can't reach anymore. Frustrating when you are woken up this way... Funny as all get out if you were the one to have taken him out and you see him do it to the other person. lol. hubby has learned to put the blanket over his head if I am the one to take the dogs out in the morning, he doesn't have as much hair as I have, and those puppy teeth HURT on bare skin! :D
This morning I surprised hubby with silver dollar size Indian Fry Bread for breakfast. I made them up, and dipped 1/2 of them sugar, and the other 1/2 of the ones I made into sugar and cinnamon. He snarfed them down like they were the best thing he had ever eatten! I kind of cheated, but they were still good.
3 cups flour
1/2 cup lard
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup COLD water
mix the lard into the flour, salt, and baking powder, using your hand until it resembles little peas, then mix in the cold water.
pull the dough into ping pong ball size lumps and flatten with your hands. fry until golden brown in 350 to 375 F degree vegetable oil. (for those of you who have read my post from a few months ago about temperatures on the propane stove, this is between the "check your eyebrows" and the "stand back until the propane bottle runs out" setting on the stove.)
If the recipe itself looks familiar it should! It's the same as for my tortilla recipe I use. All I did was change from warm water to cold water so the lard wouldn't melt until it was in the hot oil.
Like I said, he snarfed them up.
Sometime in the next few days I am going to make this recipe again, roll it out, then fill it with mashed potatoes, some chopped treet or bacon (I haven't decided which yet) and some cheese, then bake it and see what it comes out with. I'll serve it topped with some hollandaise. That should wake up the ol' tastebuds!
ok, I am off to play a game for a bit, I emptied and refilled the turkey fryer with snow today, made breakfast, folded clothes, and stored away some dog food among other things and I'm pooped. :D
Later Gaters!
Monday, February 9, 2009
SOCKS!
Ah... The trip to the big city. It's just as terrible as usual today. Madly dashing about to get everything we need done done. It may snow tonight and if it snows as bad as they say it is supposed to, then we may not make it into town tomorrow for hubby's therapy appointment. So, he is calling today to reschedule it for next week, hopefully there will be less snow then. It did snow last night at the cabin, but it wasn't all that bad.
I got some great deals on some new socks. Nice, soft, fluffy socks. Regular price of $5.00, marked down to $3.97, then 50% off that! I was pretty estatic over that. I know, I know... I'm easy to please. lol.
We are going today to get Newbs first set of shots from the feed store. That will be a lot off my mind once we get them and get him set up. Parvo is really a problem around here for puppies and the last thing I want to do is loose him to something that is so preventable.
I know this is short, but I am sitting at the library and just wanted to write this. It's iffy if I'll get it posted, as the connection here for wireless is very unreliable, and I keep loosing signal! I'll have to go back to the other town where the signal is better sometime. I have more pictures to upload!
Mistress Treehaven - off to do sock puppets with her new socks.
I got some great deals on some new socks. Nice, soft, fluffy socks. Regular price of $5.00, marked down to $3.97, then 50% off that! I was pretty estatic over that. I know, I know... I'm easy to please. lol.
We are going today to get Newbs first set of shots from the feed store. That will be a lot off my mind once we get them and get him set up. Parvo is really a problem around here for puppies and the last thing I want to do is loose him to something that is so preventable.
I know this is short, but I am sitting at the library and just wanted to write this. It's iffy if I'll get it posted, as the connection here for wireless is very unreliable, and I keep loosing signal! I'll have to go back to the other town where the signal is better sometime. I have more pictures to upload!
Mistress Treehaven - off to do sock puppets with her new socks.
Oooppps... redux
Sorry folks... I have new pics of Newbs and Hubby.... and they were going to go up today. But Hubby forgot the cord to the camera for uplaoding at the cabin! and we are in town, over an hour away. WHAAA!
So, next time you'll get pics. Promise.
hugs.
So, next time you'll get pics. Promise.
hugs.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Lazy, hazy Days of Winter 2009
What can I say? A lazy, lazy day. We only left the house yesterday to go and check the mail, and pick up some lunch. We both have the crud. Again. BLAH!
hopefully it will be very quick and quite shakable. But because we were feeling so bad, I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so we went and grabbed a quick bite at the local resteraunt.
Newbs stayed in the truck while we were in eatting and he was very good. just went to sleep in the drivers seat. As soon as we went back out to get in the truck he jumped to the back with no prompting. What a smart pup to know to do that and we have only had him for a week. Tomorrow he'll be 12 weeks. and he has ridden in the truck just about every day we have had him. :D
the rest of the pack is settling in quite nicely to the idea that there is a puppy in the group now. Thor even has played with him by wagging his tail for Newbs to chase. Pan is the most stand offish, but he was always the old fart with an attitude, even when he was only a year old. lol.
Well, we were approved for our short term disability through 2-1-09. But it's now 2-7-09... So we may end up missing a check or we may not. I was going to ask hubby to call yesterday and find out where we are, but I forgot to have him do it. DOH! They won't talk to me about this.
Between you and me, I don't like the idea of him going back to work in a big city. It's just too hard him. But, we'll have to see how it all falls out. It's crazy. We are trying to build up some kind of work we can do to bring in money out here in the wilderness, but there's not much. how many computer geeks does it take to work in the wilderness? lol. Last I saw, trees didn't grow with Network Jacks in them.
Me? I'm a clerical person by trade, I type, file, and radar it through with the best of them. And I'km a social butterfly. ROFL. At least that has put me in good company out here. But, it is also not a job that is in much demand in the wilds of Oregon.
Well, something will work out. I am sure of that... What? I don't know, but something will.
Pensive Treehaven mommy
hopefully it will be very quick and quite shakable. But because we were feeling so bad, I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so we went and grabbed a quick bite at the local resteraunt.
Newbs stayed in the truck while we were in eatting and he was very good. just went to sleep in the drivers seat. As soon as we went back out to get in the truck he jumped to the back with no prompting. What a smart pup to know to do that and we have only had him for a week. Tomorrow he'll be 12 weeks. and he has ridden in the truck just about every day we have had him. :D
the rest of the pack is settling in quite nicely to the idea that there is a puppy in the group now. Thor even has played with him by wagging his tail for Newbs to chase. Pan is the most stand offish, but he was always the old fart with an attitude, even when he was only a year old. lol.
Well, we were approved for our short term disability through 2-1-09. But it's now 2-7-09... So we may end up missing a check or we may not. I was going to ask hubby to call yesterday and find out where we are, but I forgot to have him do it. DOH! They won't talk to me about this.
Between you and me, I don't like the idea of him going back to work in a big city. It's just too hard him. But, we'll have to see how it all falls out. It's crazy. We are trying to build up some kind of work we can do to bring in money out here in the wilderness, but there's not much. how many computer geeks does it take to work in the wilderness? lol. Last I saw, trees didn't grow with Network Jacks in them.
Me? I'm a clerical person by trade, I type, file, and radar it through with the best of them. And I'km a social butterfly. ROFL. At least that has put me in good company out here. But, it is also not a job that is in much demand in the wilds of Oregon.
Well, something will work out. I am sure of that... What? I don't know, but something will.
Pensive Treehaven mommy
Friday, February 6, 2009
Tortilla Dreamin'
I have discovered something the hubby loves... homemade tortillas!
3 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (or lard or vegetable oil)
1 cup warm/hot water
mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using your hand crumble in the lard or shortening until the mix looks like small peas. pour in the hot water a little at a time and mix with your hand (I just make the water as hot as I can stand to put my hand in. Don't use boiling water, the tortillas aren't to have chunks of your hand left behind in it.) until a nice dough forms and all the flour is incorporated. Let dough rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 7-9 balls, and roll each out to the size tortilla you like. Fry on top of an ungreased skillet (if the skillet/griddle isn't non-stick then feel free to use a little shortening or oil to keep them from sticking.) until golden brown on each side. Use as you would any storebought tortilla.
I made 9 balls, and made our tortillas a little smaller. Also I made them thicker like what they call Gordita wrappers. I liked it that way as it's more like bread. hehe. Hubby loved them so much I have made them the last 2 days in a row and will probably make more today. Blah. It's not hard, just time consuming to fry them up. I like them too, I had some last night with some chicken in them for dinner. Just open a can of chicken, drained it, added some mayo, and some season salt and put it in the tortilla.
I also made some hummus, but I didn't like it. hubby liked that too. If you don't have tahini for the hummus recipe, you can use peanut butter according to the subsitutions I found. But I didn't like the way it tasted. I don't know if it was the peanut butter or the recipe or what. I'll have to find some tahini and give it another shot. Unless I am lucky enough to find canned hummus somewhere. lol.
Nubis is coming along quite well btw, he knows his name well enough now that he's coming to it (most of the time, come on, he's only 11 1/2 weeks old!) and he's settling into a routine. We have even let him off leash outside while we are all there and he runs and plays with his siblings. Gotta keep on top of sister though, she likes to try to run off, and I don't want her to teach him that. Must admit, that since we got Nubis, she doesn't run off as much. Don't know if it's because she wants to see what he's doing, or because we are right there now to get on her case if she goes to far. :D Pan even played with Nubis some. Thor acts like the grumpy and knighted ol' man. He'll snarl and snap if Nubis tries any of that puppy crap of biting his nose while he sleeps. Then he'll sit there and wag his tail for Nubis to attack and play with later.
We were supposed to get some snow showers last night. But apparently we didn't. I'll tell you though, when I went and took Nubis and the others out this morning, even in my wonderful snowboots, it was slicker than troll snot out there. Whaaaaaa... I like to stay home when I CHOOSE to stay home... but having to stay home because the ice has me trapped makes me crabby. Not that I have anywhere I MUST be at today... But I was hoping to go down and check the mail at least.
Maybe I'll just stay home and work on some dishes, and the kitchen. I've about had it with my kitchen, nothing is how I want it set up and It's starting to make me irritated. When that happens what's there to do other than to change it. Right? I still have almost 5 days before I HAVE to go back to the big city. That gives me plenty of time to do other things around here... Other than the fact that I am still fighting some kind of nastiness, and this morning woke up with another headache!
I wish that I could find a dr. that could tell me why I am having these headaches. I know it's not carbon monoxide... I've been having headaches and migraines since I was 9 or so... I know that it's not the food. lol. They just seem to hit out of the blue and make my life miserable. Blah. I guess it's just my fate to be continually taking pain meds for the pain in my head.
ok, I have to start in doing "something" around here... so I am going to run for now. have a great day/week/month/year!
busy beaver of treehaven
3 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (or lard or vegetable oil)
1 cup warm/hot water
mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using your hand crumble in the lard or shortening until the mix looks like small peas. pour in the hot water a little at a time and mix with your hand (I just make the water as hot as I can stand to put my hand in. Don't use boiling water, the tortillas aren't to have chunks of your hand left behind in it.) until a nice dough forms and all the flour is incorporated. Let dough rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 7-9 balls, and roll each out to the size tortilla you like. Fry on top of an ungreased skillet (if the skillet/griddle isn't non-stick then feel free to use a little shortening or oil to keep them from sticking.) until golden brown on each side. Use as you would any storebought tortilla.
I made 9 balls, and made our tortillas a little smaller. Also I made them thicker like what they call Gordita wrappers. I liked it that way as it's more like bread. hehe. Hubby loved them so much I have made them the last 2 days in a row and will probably make more today. Blah. It's not hard, just time consuming to fry them up. I like them too, I had some last night with some chicken in them for dinner. Just open a can of chicken, drained it, added some mayo, and some season salt and put it in the tortilla.
I also made some hummus, but I didn't like it. hubby liked that too. If you don't have tahini for the hummus recipe, you can use peanut butter according to the subsitutions I found. But I didn't like the way it tasted. I don't know if it was the peanut butter or the recipe or what. I'll have to find some tahini and give it another shot. Unless I am lucky enough to find canned hummus somewhere. lol.
Nubis is coming along quite well btw, he knows his name well enough now that he's coming to it (most of the time, come on, he's only 11 1/2 weeks old!) and he's settling into a routine. We have even let him off leash outside while we are all there and he runs and plays with his siblings. Gotta keep on top of sister though, she likes to try to run off, and I don't want her to teach him that. Must admit, that since we got Nubis, she doesn't run off as much. Don't know if it's because she wants to see what he's doing, or because we are right there now to get on her case if she goes to far. :D Pan even played with Nubis some. Thor acts like the grumpy and knighted ol' man. He'll snarl and snap if Nubis tries any of that puppy crap of biting his nose while he sleeps. Then he'll sit there and wag his tail for Nubis to attack and play with later.
We were supposed to get some snow showers last night. But apparently we didn't. I'll tell you though, when I went and took Nubis and the others out this morning, even in my wonderful snowboots, it was slicker than troll snot out there. Whaaaaaa... I like to stay home when I CHOOSE to stay home... but having to stay home because the ice has me trapped makes me crabby. Not that I have anywhere I MUST be at today... But I was hoping to go down and check the mail at least.
Maybe I'll just stay home and work on some dishes, and the kitchen. I've about had it with my kitchen, nothing is how I want it set up and It's starting to make me irritated. When that happens what's there to do other than to change it. Right? I still have almost 5 days before I HAVE to go back to the big city. That gives me plenty of time to do other things around here... Other than the fact that I am still fighting some kind of nastiness, and this morning woke up with another headache!
I wish that I could find a dr. that could tell me why I am having these headaches. I know it's not carbon monoxide... I've been having headaches and migraines since I was 9 or so... I know that it's not the food. lol. They just seem to hit out of the blue and make my life miserable. Blah. I guess it's just my fate to be continually taking pain meds for the pain in my head.
ok, I have to start in doing "something" around here... so I am going to run for now. have a great day/week/month/year!
busy beaver of treehaven
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Thor and Newbs go on an outting
OK, so I am going to brag about Newbs this morning. He's 11 weeks old, he's been with us since Sunday afternoon (at 3pm) and now it's Wednesday at 7:53am, and he's only had one accident in the house! Whoot! ONE ACCIDENT in three days. Other than that he's gone to the door to let us know he has to go. I think it's lovely.
On the other hand he thinks everyone is a chewtoy and is undaunted by all non-chewing tactics. Grabbing his tongue doesn't work nor does pinching his noes real quick. I'll have to think a bit to get ahead of this little one in that department.
Yesterday he and Thor went with us so hubby could work on a computer and then to the library, then over to a friends house for a little bit where he got to play with the friends dogs.
That was a funny trip. When we went to leave, we took Newbs out with us (don't want to leave a chewie puppy in the house while we're gone!) Thor ran out the door. When a dog that weighs 120 lbs lays down because he doesn't want to be moved, there's not much you can do. So we left him out while we loaded Newbs into the truck. Thor started trying to get into the truck. So I looked at hubby and told him to load Thor up and we'd take him too. lol. So We took Newbs and Thor both with us. They both had a great day and when we got home, they both slept very soundly. lol. Thor got out at all three places we stopped and so did Newbs, so they got to smell new smells, meat new people and new dogs.
Then we came home, Freya and Pan told us what kind of jerks we are for taking the others and not them, and life went on. Dinner last night was mac and cheese (macaroni noodles with velveeta cheese) and a huge can of chicken. It was pretty good and pretty filling. Wish I had a fridge, I would have put some cream cheese in it too.
Then we sat around and watched a movie and read. What a long and busy day! We saw "the illusionist" a GOOD movie. I'll have to be sure that the sister in law knows she should see it.
not sure what today will bring other than we need to go get some gas for the generator and some propane for heat. There are things we need to be doing,b ut that we still have been putting off. But we'll get them done this week. lol. Pretty busy and exciting stuff that is for sure!
Ok, off to make some breakfast and get going for the day.
Busy mom!
On the other hand he thinks everyone is a chewtoy and is undaunted by all non-chewing tactics. Grabbing his tongue doesn't work nor does pinching his noes real quick. I'll have to think a bit to get ahead of this little one in that department.
Yesterday he and Thor went with us so hubby could work on a computer and then to the library, then over to a friends house for a little bit where he got to play with the friends dogs.
That was a funny trip. When we went to leave, we took Newbs out with us (don't want to leave a chewie puppy in the house while we're gone!) Thor ran out the door. When a dog that weighs 120 lbs lays down because he doesn't want to be moved, there's not much you can do. So we left him out while we loaded Newbs into the truck. Thor started trying to get into the truck. So I looked at hubby and told him to load Thor up and we'd take him too. lol. So We took Newbs and Thor both with us. They both had a great day and when we got home, they both slept very soundly. lol. Thor got out at all three places we stopped and so did Newbs, so they got to smell new smells, meat new people and new dogs.
Then we came home, Freya and Pan told us what kind of jerks we are for taking the others and not them, and life went on. Dinner last night was mac and cheese (macaroni noodles with velveeta cheese) and a huge can of chicken. It was pretty good and pretty filling. Wish I had a fridge, I would have put some cream cheese in it too.
Then we sat around and watched a movie and read. What a long and busy day! We saw "the illusionist" a GOOD movie. I'll have to be sure that the sister in law knows she should see it.
not sure what today will bring other than we need to go get some gas for the generator and some propane for heat. There are things we need to be doing,b ut that we still have been putting off. But we'll get them done this week. lol. Pretty busy and exciting stuff that is for sure!
Ok, off to make some breakfast and get going for the day.
Busy mom!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)