Suck It Pinterest...My Egg Storage is WAY Cuter Than All the Ideas on Pinterest

AND I made it for free.
The only "new" bits are the screws and they will get reused on the next project.  I had run out of decent used screws with normal head (too many hex heads, square heads, various sizes...couldn't keep up with bits).  So, I bought a cheapo box of philips head wood screws about 1 1/2 inches long.  Made the door with them.

I had been storing my eggs in an old egg carton or two.  Red rubber band on the one that is "ready to go" and a blue rubber band on the carton that is "building up".  It didn't work well because I don't have anywhere to set egg cartons.  So they were in a grocery basket hanging off my loft ladder.  But that basket ALSO had to hold groceries like fruit and veg, often heavy.  Annoying.  And the cartons wear out.

I saw one of these on a youtube and wanted to make it:



But, that was hard and I can't be bothered.  So, I thought about what I had on hand that I could use.

When I found a batch of eggs while doing another project with friends, I had an old mini muffin tin sitting around outside. It had been part of a bee feeder I'd cobbled up, and was then part of the apparatus keeping chickens out from under the shed.  I turned it up and put the eggs in it for temporary storage...it worked great and looked cute.

So, I took the muffin tin in (tested the eggs...all were plenty fresh enough to eat so I boiled them up and brought them to work for lunches that week) and sure enough, it fit pretty well between 2 studs in the shed (heh heh...studs).  I found an old plant stake, a 1x2, and cut it to length.  While doing all this, I found another mini muffin tin, same width.

In total I have 21 muffin-egg holder holes.  One tin is 9 muffins and one is 12.  They are old and I got them at thrift at least 4 years ago.  I usually won't spend over a dollar for a baking item so that is probably the original price to me.

The plant stake, I have no idea.  I got a big bundle years ago and use and reuse them until they get too weak to pound in the ground, then they are scrap lumber for propping things closed or propping up chicken wire fencing that is starting to bulge.  Maybe it cost a dollar originally.

Box of 250 screws was about 8$. I used 8.  You can do that math if you want.

The impact driver was free from Fred's stash of tools. 
The bits...I got a box of 10 for 12$ (nice magnetic ones) or so and have been using this one for about a month!  Must be better metal than the ones I used to buy because I'd strip those out quite a bit faster.

I guess it is a 3$ egg holder but I think we need to amortize that over the previous lives of the items involved and the future lives of some of them like the screws and the bit which will no doubt be reused.

It is pretty cute though.  Here's the big reveal.








































Sher said I should get out more...she is mean to me.

Holy Orchard, Batman!

Or I could have called it "The Accidental Orchard"
Or "What Am I Thinking"
Or "Good Lord I Hope the Well Pump Gets Fixed Before All the Trees Die"

Anyway, I was talking to my gramma (I'd say "Hi Gramma" but seriously, a 95 year old woman without a computer is NOT going to read this and could give zero craps about a shout out on the internet), and she asked what I'd been planting and I offered to write up a list.  While doing that, I realized I hadn't made an overall list before so best to get on that and make a copy before I sent it.

Here it is, along with a very very bad sketch map of what is where.  If you click on them for biggification, you can read any portions of the pictures that the internet is hiding from you for reasons I don't understand.

 

 Is it any wonder I have developed a creepy "Madonna" vein in my left arm?  You know, the icky sticky outy steroid-addled-weightlifter type vein also seen on the aging and underweight singer, Madonna

 

For the record, my arms are not that gross and my boobs do not look like creepy welded on orange-halves.   

Anyway, I've been driving a shovel quite a bit lately.  FINALLY those months of archaeology fieldwork have come in handy.  I can quickly dig a very tidy hole in the ground.  I'm getting better at stuffing a tree in it.  Or a raspberry, or etc.

Did a few minutes of online research today about where to put the remaining trees.  The mulberries will probably go west of the cabin site near the aronia berries.  I'd like them a west and a bit north to shade the west side of the future imaginary slightly larger cabin, but we run into hose length issues.

The lindens probably down in a low area with more soil than the hill sides and more moisture.  Will be a pain in the butt for a few years while I have to water (no hose will reach, dipping buckets from the creek or walking buckets down from the max reach of the hose will be the options), but after that, the trees should be happy and self-supporting.  I may have a couple of these trees already.  Need to check out a tree identification key.  I'm assuming the library has that.  These trees have edible leaves that make a spinach or lettuce substitute.  Nice. 

I'll be getting fruit, greens and protein from trees.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are nitrogen fixing and put out a peapod like thing which you can eat like a peapod and if you let them mature, the seeds can be used like lentils.  The leaves are nitrogen rich and can be spread around nitrogen weak areas.  I may want more of these.

The ginkos aren't picky about where to live and grow.  This is actually making it harder to decide what to do.  Do I stick them up the hill for a spectacular attractive display from the road?  And years of carrying water UPHILL until they are established?  Put them in the wooded area by the creek so that as the other trees die off, these will be established and filling in?  Or down in the lower area with the good soil near the lindens (which are also called basswoods...I remember the basswood from our house on 4th avenue...the one that pruned itself on to the suburban)?

With the chestnuts (heh heh...I said "nuts") and a couple of other things I reviewed what the tree/shrub wanted in an environment, because I never have ALL of that in one spot, how big it will want to grow, and that sort of thing, then picked one up and carried it around a bit until I hit a spot that seemed like a good compromise.  I have decided to call this "Tree witching" (like water witching) and that it makes me a tree whisperer.  But I shan't advertise my services until it's clear that I'm successful in finding just the right spot.

The next steps are:  GET MORE HOSE!  Good hose, preferably drinking water quality as I'm sick of pouring icky chemicals on the planet and down my gullet.  Most garden hoses are full of toxins that are released especially when hot, like say while out in the sun and full of water.  Barf.  I probably have hose poisoning from my childhood when we drank out of them all the time.  I bet we had to do that because Sher wouldn't let our filthy butts in the house (Hi Sher!).

I'm at the LIMIT of what I can hope to keep watered and take care of for now.  So, I'm declaring a tree/shrub moratorium until late fall.  By then I should know what seems to be doing well, what needs replaced, and have some idea of what I'd like more of.  I will also know if I can care for any more in year 2.  

Already I'm noticing a few stupid choices.  I THOUGHT I had planned the open route down the hill from the cabin site, and the imaginary future cabin site, and kept it clear of the orchard plants.   But then this morning I walked to and then got in the car, parked at the creek at the bottom of the hill east of the cabin, the hill with many many of these orchard plants.  On the walk I thought "why did I plant the THORNY black berries right in my walking path?"...those may need to move.  We'll see.  Once in the car, I looked back up at the cabin and CRAP!  A plum is right in the path for deliveries of things like wood, dirt, supplies for the future imaginary cabin.  These things may need to move.  We'll try it through the summer and see how it goes.

The location of the spigot turned out to be more important than I had realized.  It's in a pretty good spot so it's workable, but I do need more hose.  I want to leave lengths of hose strung to the far flung areas and just haul the shorter bit connecting to the spigot around to hook them up for watering.  I will need to water for a year or two.  If this summer is as hot as last (Sweet Bee-sus* let's hope not!), I will be watering one area or another or multiples every evening. 

Let me also thank Sweet Bee-sus* for my realization a few years back that I had to get in better shape if I was going to make a go of this off-grid nonsense.  I lost some tonnage, not a huge amount but every pound off the butt is a pound of water (which is about a pint) or whatever that I can now haul around.  Obviously there is a lower limit to this metric and I'm nowhere near it but do not plan on losing any more weight.  

Then a year and a half ago or so, I decided to fix the bum arm and build some muscle.  Been working out since then (which may have contributed to the icky madonna vein, see above).  It's been worth it.  I made at least 10 trips up and down the central hill yesterday, most of them hauling a plant, a hose, and/or water in a bucket, and once my composting toilet bucket, and I was able to get up today without more than the usual amount of groaning.

So, that is where I'm at right now.   The next blog entry will review the places I've been getting most of the plants.  Both are awesome.  (Crap...now I've ruined the ending!)

*Bee-sus is a reference to a text exchange amongst friends and family (not that I'm not friends with my family) about my bees when I got them.  See this entry for an explanation: 

In the Bee-ginning, There Was the Pun, and the Pun Was Bad

No offense is intended, it's just that since getting that hilarious text, I have this cartoon character of "Bee-sus" in my head.  A shout out to the contributor of that pun!  Hi Cupcakes...you know who you are.

Iowa Highlight Part 2

A few more photos from the MaidRite.
You can see Sher's technique of leaving the sandwich wrapped for tidiness. And Pam's balls-out-all-unwrapped-ultramessy method.

















They had the chocolate pie, which is not visible in this photo. I was just shooting the classic pie display cabinet.















And below are a couple of photos of the decor and clientele.































And now for the rest of the show:
The pixie cut gal came up to us and asked if we'd tried their homemade ketchup. We said "no." She pulls a ketchup squeezy thing (see above photo) out from other the counter, whacks it down hard and a stream of ketchup shoots out at Pam! But it was really red yard stuffed in the bottle. Pam nearly jumped out of her skin.

Bring Back National Thrift Week

Here is a SHORT history of National Thrift week that I swiped from
www.getrichslowly.org (a favorite blog of mine)

In 1916, with the First World War looming imminently on the horizon, the leaders of America’s major civic organizations launched an ambitious education campaign designed to ready the American public for a wartime economy…

The activities of National Thrift Week were guided by several specific principles and behaviors and each was given its own day. Hence, Americans joined together every January in celebrating:

• Have a Bank Account Day
• Invest Safely Day
• Carry Life Insurance Day
• Keep a Budget Day
• Pay Bills Promptly Day
• Own Your Home Day
• Share with Others Day

Then, as today, critics often maligned thrift as simple hoarding, but these principles demonstrate how the founders envisioned Thrift Week as so much more — they saw it not as a way to encourage miserly behavior, but instead to cultivate responsible consumerism and civic progress. Rather than self-denial, the goal was self-control…

National Thrift Week fizzled out in 1966, after being passed from one sponsor to another. Around that same time, thrift as a national virtue seems to have faded from the collective public consciousness as well…

I'm a few days late getting this posted but that is because I just heard of it. I've had to cut back on my internet use at work and with dial up at the apartment...well, there is no point in signing on if all you have is dial up. Anyway, it seems I'm the "Bandwidth Queen" at work. They installed internet use monitoring software and I've been the top bandwidth consumer! Woohoo! I'm number one. Apparently letting videos run in the background while I work is not as common as I thought. Perhaps it's because I sometimes have 2 or 3 video sites open at once. Anyway, the upshot is that I'm trying to cut back on internet use at work and was not reading my fave blogs for a while so I missed the beginning of National Thrift week.

It isn't actually a current holiday but maybe we can get Obama to bring it back. lord knows in this economy people need to be a bit thriftier in general (as I sit at a coffee shop with organic locally produced strawberry coffee cake and a hazelnut americano).

If you're interested in bringing back National Thrift Week check out

http://www.bringbackthriftweek.org/

In other news...I'm going to lunch today with Dean Yohe. A cousin I haven't seen in decades. Like 3 decades. that should be interesting! Me and El Kid are meeting him and his family after they go to church (Yes Aunt Mary, they invited me to church but I declined). I know I'll recognize him because he looks like a taller version of his mom (the aforementioned Aunt Mary...technically "Great Aunt Mary" but the original "Great Aunt Mary" was such a character that I don't think the current reigning Aunt Mary wants to be mixed up with the original...have I told the horse-turds/AuntMary's Ashes story?) (OK, just typing that made me giggle and sort of put americano up my nose).

In still other news, Sher's kitchen is progressing apace. There have been people there all weekend working to install the cabinets and countertops. I think after this it will be ready for floors. And Sher will be ready for her vacation to Hawai'i. Interesting how Sher is headed to Hawai'i and I'm busy planning our next vacation to Nova Scotia (and hoping we can switch to Newfoundland because there is even LESS going on there).

In still other news...I tried to help a friend strip wall paper yesterday. We consulted Sher for tips and got very good direction. BUT, the friend got super sick and wouldn't just go to bed and let me finish. It was just borders and the vinegar water wash Sher recommended was working just fine. So, I had to leave the job half done. Perhaps she'll be back on her feet next weekend and we can finish then.

Why is it so much easier to do projects at someone else's house? I have needed to paint the bathroom at the trailer for years. I've needed to sort the piles of paper at both homes for...well, since about a week after I moved into each. I can't get that done. But take me to a remote location and I'm fine. I wonder if I could find a friend to trade housework with. I don't mind cleaning other people's homes (I was a janitor and a hotel maid in the past). It's just cleaning mine that doesn't interest me.

Anyway, I need to finish websurfing before I run out of power on the laptop. Then I should clean the car...but I probably won't.

A Camping We Will Go...

So, I just read an email from Jeanne (Hi Jeanne) who is going camping with me in January...come hell, highwater, or blizzards I'm going f'ing camping (can you spell "cabin fever"?).

I'm about sick of coming into the office, farting around, then going home. I work a bit but with the snow, and the overcast sky and having El Kid at home bored because it's grounded...well, I need a break.

Jeanne suggested we try some sourdough experimentation while we're there.
If people have hints or recipes, please send them along!
I used to have sourdough starter going but haven't done that for a while. It took too much babysitting. Perhaps next year while El Kid is overseas and I only have one home I can get back into the sourdough. I remember it being fun when I was in college.

I think I've been into this homesteader/self-sufficiency thing longer than I thought. What college student works two jobs and still bakes her own sourdough bread while taking 24 credits? That was before I needed sleep. And when I had an apartment in Ames, Iowa that was essentially unheated. The thermostat was in the front apartment for all three apartments in the building. The front apartment had about 2 windows and all the other walls were interior. I had the back apartment which had 2 exterior walls that were mostly windows (single pane...no insulation in any walls). It was COLD. The guy in the front apartment would never answer his door so sometimes those of us in the other two apartments would SHOUT through his door begging him to turn up the heat (old steam radiators) and he would mumble back something about being too hot and we would shout something like "then shut the f'ing valves on your f'ing radiators a$$hole" or something like that but with more foul language.
What that apartment (200$ all utilities paid...ah, good times) DID have was a little Roper (brand name) stove that went up to 750degs fahrenheit AND THEN had "broil". I would turn it on to about 600 and open the oven door. I'm sure the gas fumes would kill me eventually but at least my body wouldn't freeze solid quite so fast. There were many days when it was about 35degress in that apartment when I got up (I only ran the stove for about a half hour at a time and only when I was home).
SO...to also help with heating the place (space heaters only blew circuits and I didn't have the $$ to buy them anyway...the stove was already there and the gas to run it was paid for), I would bake alot. Bread, brownies, cakes, broiled chicken breasts/jerky (same recipe only for jerky you make a phone call and forget you have chicken under the broiler...but you're poor so you eat it anyway).

The stove was in the kitchen which was a separate little room and thus didn't heat much of the apartment very well. But, it was next to the bathroom so sometimes I could get the bathroom up in the 40s before I had to take a bath and wash my hair (no shower).
Still, I loved that apartment. HUGE, cheap, and lots and lots of light.
It was plenty warm in the summer what with the windows being all south and west facing, no shade, and no insulation. If I had known about solar ovens, I'm sure I could have made something out of foil and a cardboard box and put it in the kitchen window in the summer.
As it was, in the summer I ate just cold food. It was too hot to light the oven.

Since then, I haven't had the time or inclination to do much with sourdough. But I got quite good at it back then. Sher was into sourdough when I was in junior high or so. Must have picked it up from her.
She also got food from a co-op in the 70s (a buying cooperative, not a store), and marketed rugs out of the house and tried several home based businesses along with having a HUGE garden, canning and freezing everything in sight.
As much as she finds my quasi-hippie was amusing, she totally started it!

Hey!...she also sewed many of our clothes (she's quite good...blazers, skirts, pants, etc), knitted, possibly crocheted, and braided rugs. Hmmm....I think she was a closet hippie! I'm going to look for roaches and seeds next time I'm home (and I don't mean bugs and garden supplies!) (you know....Fred does have those grow lights in the basement....hmmmm......nah. He'd be in a better mood if he were stoned).

Anyway, in my previous post I mentioned making a recipe from the mennonite cookbook once a month in 2009 (I think I did anyway).
I made a beans-n-rice recipe yesterday that was quite good. Here it is (my modified version):

2-3 cloves garlic
2 med onion
olive oil to fry in
28oz can of tomatoes (chopped, diced, crushed, whole, sauce...whatever)
1-2T spices
4-5 cups black beans
1-3T lime juice
Rice to serve it on

I boiled up the beans and rice the day before.

Heat the oil in a big pot (I used a 6qt soup pot..enamel ware with a nice lid...thanks Pam!)
Chop the garlic and start it frying
Chop the onion and throw in with the garlic (I used red onion)
Fry the onion until it smells good
Throw in the tomatoes
Add the beans.
Stir
Add the spices (I used a mix sent by Aunt Marcie, it was intended for chili).
Stir
Add the lime juice
Stir

Heat over medium heat for a while until it's heated threw and smells good. Stir it to help some beans squish up into a thick sauce and to keep it from burning.
Taste and adjust spices if you like.

I used chopped tomatoes with their juice. I added no other

Serve over rice.

We had a side of Kombocha squash with it.
Quite a healthy dinner really.

Merry Xmas

It's Christmas Eve and I've just suffered a great tragedy...I broke the little tool that came with my "loomtastic" knitting loom that I got at the thrift store. I had finished my second hat (see photo) and was trying to be all fancy with a different knitting pattern on my third one. Just when I was thinking "wow, this is too tight" the little tool broke. I think I can use a crochet hook or maybe a nutpick, but I'm just being bummed for a bit. Sad.













Sorry it's sideways. But I have limited technology. I'm on dial-up from the trailer and since I glued the phone wire into both the caller ID unit AND the phone, I'm using the curly phone wire that normally goes from the phone base to the hand set. So my super fancy laptop is being run through the base unit of a cheap translucent purple phone, a cheap translucent purple caller ID unit (with a dead battery), and then into the wall jack. Pretty sweet and efficient.

I went to the luxurious Plummer Public Library today to download free internet services. Between the 2 I have 20 hours of internet surfing per month free...though at least 19 of that would be spent waiting for stuff to load on the dial up. But there are starving children somewhere with no internet so I'm not really complaining.

I AM also watching the BEST deer hunting movie ever. Escanaba in Da Moonlight. Right now, we're at the fart scene. It's probably on youtube but no way do I have the time and patience to get youtube videos on dial up. Just look it up yourself.
For those of you who have seen it just say quietly to yourself "one potato, two potato, more" over and over. Then end with "That explains my dream."

I'm in Plummer, Idaho and it's snowing again. I shoveled for an hour today to clear the car out of the drift that had RE-buried it. I've had about 2 feet clear on all sides. I don't think it will last. I warned El Kid that he may have to hop on the casino bus to get down here. The bus has gotten through the worst snow during this whole event. But cars are littering the ditches.

Just in case I haven't mentioned it yet...sometimes it's good to work for the Tribe (that's not a metaphor. I work for an actual Indian Tribe). Every fulltime employee got a Pendletonchristmas present from the Tribe! No wonder they switched to a potluck over the big dinner. I'd rather have a Pendleton anyday.

I've opened a couple of presents already. The one from Aunt Billie came a bit mangled so I opened it to see how the gift faired. It did fine. It is a HANDMADE!!! reversible tote bag in multiple animal prints. I LOVE it. I feel like I need some shiny stretch pants, big glasses with a sparkly glasses chain, a sweater with a sequined cat on it, and BIG hotrollered hair. I've been using it for everything. Groceries, taking packages to the mail. It's awesome. It came with a coordinating scarf! I will never be badly accessorized again. Now if only I could put together a basic outfit worthy of such accessories. I'll try to get a totebag action shot.

Aunt Marcie sent a TON of delicious spices and spice mixes. The most exciting one to use will be the sandwich size zip-top baggie of spices labeled only "HOT". She also sent some spiced mexican hot chocolate mix which is delicious and should make incredible mochas (speaking of which, I should start grinding some coffee if I want a cup tomorrow).

Sher sent many gifts. She recommended I open on in particular early since we had so much snow. I did...SNOW SHOES!!! AWESOME (I must use them while carrying my animal print tote). BUT Sher is under the impression that I'm thin. So I've sent them back for a larger size more suitable for a woman of my...um...well...fat. I should get the replacements in 2 or 3 weeks. I would be just too awful to be out snowshoeing and sink up to my hips having the shoes now working as anchors rather than floats.

Aunt Chris (lots of Aunts...) sent many things as well. Two of these said to open before xmassanta or elf with a red outfit, white face (two black dots for eyes) and a tall red hat. Here's a lame phone photo of it in action:














Tomorrow I'll open the rest. I'm sure they will be as cool as the first batch.

El Kid got me some toys (don't know if I put that in a previous blog and I don't have time to wait for another window to open so I can check). My fave is the ice tray that freezes dentures! So it looks like you have grampa's uppers in your drink. I'll have to bring that to work.

OH, and my office mate and his wife, Sally of Peace Radio on Radio Free Moscow with me, gave me a harmonica, a t-shirt, and homemade toffee. Excellent.

Ok, bad things are happening, like the cursor has disappeared. So I'm going to close now. Sorry for typos. No time to spell check.
Blanket for our so I could enjoy the contents during the holiday. I did and I am. One is a straw-crafted mobile of little reindeer or something. very cute and hanging from the ceiling fan in the kitchen of the trailer. The other was a very very cool conical candle in red, white, and green made in such a way that it was a little

Days Without A Jail Break: 1

Hammy is still in his cage. I had to jostle his cocohut to make him poke his head out so I knew he was in there.
Have I mentioned the cocohut?
95cents at the thrift store and he seems to love it. it's a coconut with the bottom cut off, a door hole, and a fake thatch roof. This apparently rocks the hamster world. You can stuff all of your bedding in it. Stuff it so tight it makes a floor that stays with the cocohut when lifted. you can climb on the roof, chew the thatch...roll it around the cage. Endless fun.

Anyway, he's home and safe and will not be sitting on my nose in the morning.

Now for the REAL excitement of the day.
El Kid had a debate tournament. He had to be there at some ungodly hour so I said I'd drop him on my way to Plummer to winterize the trailer.

I'm headed down the highway thinking "I wish someone would leave styrofoam panels lying around so I could insulate the back door with something other than that stinky old camp sleeping pad that I stole from Fred and Sher years ago and is still impregnated with Nigel-hair."

About 10 minutes later I see that someone HAS left styrofoam panels lying along the road! Sweet.
I go back and check them out. They are dry, clean, and non-stinky. There is adjacent cardboard indicating that these were furniture packaging. Must have fallen off the truck on the way to the dump. Cool. I load the ones in good shape into the subaru and head out.
The back door of the trailer is metal and poorly sealed. it is a serious heatsink. Now it is not. I not only covered it with 2" thick styrofoam, I put shrink film over the whole unit.

Of course, I forgot that I had both vacuums (shop vac and regular vac) up in Spokane to clean up after the fix-it guy who is accessing the attic through my closet. I forgot this until AFTER I had started cutting styrofoam and spread toxic beads all over the trailer, myself, and everywhere else. Fortunately my friend Wanda had a vacuum available for borrowing.

Now I have to decide what to do with the rest of the styrofoam. I would LIKE to bring it up here and insulate the wall between the unheated stairwell and the heated portion of the house. It's just a storage area so I don't care what it looks like. Well, it's also the main entry way but I still pretty much don't care what it looks like.

I would also like to stick some styrofoam to the inside of the front door of the trailer. I know it's tacky, but that door is SO COLD. I don't think double stick tape will do the job since the door is cold and shiny. Also, if the tape sticks, it will take off more paint than is already gouged and peeled off. I'm not sure the landlords would care, but still, one wants to be polite.

Anyway, first I will shrink film some windows up in the Spokane apartment while I decide what else to do with my styrofoam...I could turn ordinary cardboard boxes into coolers...then if I decopaged them with pictures cut from magazines while I wait at the doctor's office....I could give them away for christmas...or not.

If anyone has brilliant ways to recycle styrofoam, let me know. That crap never goes away and is turning up in the guts of many seabirds.

My Mother, My Dinner.

So, I've become my mother in one more way. Damn it!
Not that Sher isn't fabulous. I just thought that I would be different. I would not become my mother.

But, now that I have El Kid in my care, I find myself acting like my mother. It could be worse.

For example, I cook dinner now pretty much every night. We go out to eat about once a month, otherwise we're home. I've always cooked. But cooking for one person to eat in front of the TV or standing over the sink is different than cooking for a teenage boy.
For one, the quantities have had to change dramatically. I just made meatloaf tonight that I thought would last a good 4 meals. Yeah. More like 2. Unless he gets up and eats it for a snack tonight. Then, just one meal. It was an entire pie pan of meatloaf.

Now I understand why parents make epic amounts of food. It goes away so fast.

Then there are the selections. When cooking for myself, I could make whatever I wanted. Often these were one or 2 pot meals and then I would eat it for days. I still cook a large pot of something but then, I feel like I need to put on a balanced meal. Thank god for bag-o-salad!
Tonight's meal as an example:
Meatloaf, squash, salad, watermelon. If it was just me, that would have been meatloaf and salad. Squash was my entire lunch today (El Kid was still asleep).

When I used to make spaghetti, that was the entire menu. Now, thanks to Sher's model, I must serve sides with it. When I can't think of what goes with the main dish, I use the menu from the lunch lady in Plummer. She has a lunch delivery service that is incredible. When SHE has spaghetti she always has a side of green beans. So now when I make spaghetti, I serve a side of green beans. It goes very well!
She serves mashed potatoes with meatloaf. I was going to serve that but El Kid tried squash earlier in the day and liked it and that was already cooked so that's what we had.

Actually, even the meatloaf idea was stolen from the lunch lady. She served banana cream pie for dessert that day, but I hate bananas and don't eat cream so that was out. We had the watermelon instead since it was on sale and I'm cheap. Also, the worms like watermelon rind so it was a treat for all residents of the apartment other than the hamster.

So what are we having tomorrow?
Probably thawed out blackbean and sweet potato chili, or pasta. Who knows. But for sure there will be bag-o-salad and a side dish. Damn you Sher with your square meals.

Theeeeeere's Sherry

First, you all have to go read my mom's first blog.
We're just so proud.
Is there a space in the babybook for her first blog? Is it near the spot for her umbilical cord and her first poopy?
Clearly, Pam put in the pictures and Sher has not seen what Pam did. Pam is funny but not kind.

Anyway, I just found some cool sites but I will not bother you with them when you should be reading Sher's blogging.

Not So Much Happened Today

Not much happened today for me...
Sher had estimaters and advisors over for the floor, kitchen, and SBA loan (which means a total damage estimate). This did not sound like fun.

Pam took the day off work to help and she and I ended up running errands about half the day and packing the remaining crap out of the main floor. If they are going to have to cut the bottom 2 feet or so of the drywall, then everything needs to be packed, or secured and plastic covered. This is boring work.

We did see some amusing things on errands. Here's the first one:
















How does one get on the "grilling team"? Is it the varsity or jv grilling team?
Do you have to wear a jock strap and/or sports bra?
How much do they train?
Are there burger-flippin' training camps?

This is what the grilling team was in town for:
















50CENTS! That is for a pork burger. Apparently pork burger is the new hamburger in the midwest. I did not know this. Fred went by but the line was too long.
Pam and I had gotten sandwich makin's for lunch anyway.

Here's how Fred spent the day...power washing ducts.















Rob got to transport ducts up the basement steps. Rob should not do that in sandals.
Fred's aim with the power sprayer must be getting better since he's down graded from chest waders to hip waders. By next week he'll be in irrigation boots.

For supper, Joe and Cathy Avery invited us all over to the steak feed at their church. It was DELICIOUS and I do not usually eat big slabs of red meat. There were a few of my old teachers in attendence. I did not go chat with them.
One of the best parts about a meal out is that Sher had to stop working at a reasonable hour.

Now we must all rest so that we can get over to the house early tomorrow to meet Brian and Shelly! Yeay!

This all truly makes me want to sort my crap NOW rather than during a disaster. I've been eliminating things, donating unused items, and getting rid of an item each time I get a new thing and bring it into the house. But it's time to speed up the process. The damage to the house is bad enough, but having to cart the stuff around (and it is LOVELY stuff...antiques and whatnot) is not fun. Then you have to find a good place, or places, to store it during repairs. THEN they will have to unpack it all and re-store it in the house (though rumor has it there won't be much in the basement).

Thanks for all the supportive missives. I tell Sher about them and she's very appreciative. They are still overwhelmed by how much people are helping. I've only got a couple of days left so I need to kick it into high gear here tomorrow and Sunday. It's back on the road to Idaho on Monday.

Back by Popular Demand

OK, I can't believe how many people are reading this blog now. Like 7 of you.


Hi Sara, Sam, Gary, Diane, Chris, Dane, Hilch, Nancy and the rest.

Here's the progress report for the day:


They got the sand piles and sandbags out of the neighborhood today.















The park is looking more like a park. Still plenty of sand on the ground but now it is an inch or two deep, not a foot. Without the piles the stank is starting to abate a bit. This is good as it is getting hot and muggy and the stink was increasing especially when the wind was off the sandpiles.


Here is Sher's new washer!! They brought it as 9am. It is not sideways in real life. It's just late and I don't know how to turn the photo the right way up and I don't want to learn today.
















The dryer and those drawers that raise them up to a reasonable height are coming soon. The old washer and dryer went away on the truck that brought the new one. That opened up alot of space.

A guy from a cleaning company came by to advise about the clean up.
He stuck his moisture tester in the walls and floors. They are wet. Pretty wet. The oak floors are 10-20% wetter than they should be and with just household dehumidifiers, he does not think they are going to get better. Fred and Sher knew that. They will get an estimate from him on a commercial desicator (desicater?...it's like a dehydrator for your house) to get everything dry...floors, walls, everything. It costs. But not as much as remediating mold in a year or two.

Since the tile is still on the bathroom walls, those were the wettest. The tile needs to come off at least 2 feet up all around. Sher got some started and then got stuck. The shower bottom needs to come off too.















Sher didn't like that because she wanted them to use that shower. I don't think they will want to use it if that poowater eats the subfloor out and they fall to the basement.


On the plus side...the estimate for a new hardwood floor was lower than expected...though higher than is doable (the estimate was on the same floor they have 3/4" oak, tongue and groove, same company as the one in there). Sher wanted to know what the floor they are trying to save is worth so they can know how much time/effort/money to spend trying to save it. If they replaced, it would have to be lower quality. But that is a high quality floor so there is plenty of room in "lower quality" that is still a very nice floor.
The kitchen will probably be a cork floor! That will be cool. Aunt Chris is looking into that for Sher.

I started clearing out the three-season porch so Fred and Sher will have a decent living area for the duration of demolition and construction. It stays reasonably cool (the AC is dead). Hopefully we can get that set up tomorrow so the weekend crew will have a nice lunch spot without the gnats that are invading the driveway dining area.

Fred continued to pull the ductwork. It has much mold in it so I'm sure they will be glad that is being cleaned and bleached. Hope to get that done tomorrow and on the weekend. The basement is pretty dry now and will probably end up being a work area just because it's so much cooler than the rest of the house. Though during the commercial dessication process, no one will want to be anywhere in the house. It could get up to 110 degrees in there (fahrenheit).

Thanks to Sara for the airconditioner she's bringing this weekend!! Sher is excited.

And to Sam for the Pizza Ranch food! That will be very cool. They just don't have time to cook major meals but working like that, they need to eat a major meal once a day. They have chips and soda and cookies coming out their ears and so far maindish and dessert donations are coming in apace.

On Friday we're all invited to the steak fry in Shell Rock, Iowa. Pam is real excited. Nothing like big slabs of red meat and the potential to run into the occassional ex-boyfriend to make for a festive event. Should be amusing for me. I've had all my ex-boyfriends "disposed of" so I don't have these issues.

OK, the last two photos are just for fun. For all my college friends who don't believe that there is a family named "Butzlaff" in Waverly...
















SEE! And it is pronounced "butt's laugh".



And this you can't see so well, but it cracked me up.
















This is a shoe repair shop in a converted garage in Sher's neighborhood.
The box to the left of the door says "Shoe Drop Box". It's like the FedEx of shoe repair.
You drop them in the box and magically they are fixed. I should drop my boots in there because they need new shoe-goo. They had arsenic, mercury and cadmium soaked in before I got here and now we've added bleach, sporicide, poowater, and god knows what. I was running around in sandals until I noticed that someone (not Sher) does not pick up the nails someone pulls out of the basement ceiling. Instead, someone strews them about the house and garage floor. Oh well. I suppose someone's attention is elsewhere.

Food report: we had left over venison stew with mashed potatoes and 3 kinds of fruit salad and 3 kinds of cake for lunch. For supper, left over spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, fruit, and 2 kinds of cake. I ate 4 pieces of cake, full meals, and a half a bag of chips today with a chaser of about 4 sodas...and still when I got on the wii-fit that Pam and Rob got (that is the BEST video game ever) I had lost weight. It was probably just all the sweat but still funny. I'm posting the "Flood Diet"...lots and lots and lots of food. And still you lose weight.

Is that it today? Must be. I didn't get to Sher's until 9:30 this morning so she had probably worked for about 3 hours before I arrived. That woman is a machine.
OH! We also re-scrubbed the kitchen floor, basement steps, and some woodwork. There really is no end to the poowater. It is now an integral part of the house. They need to remove the solid wood built-in cupboards from the laundry room...OR remove the siding on the outside wall there (which is in the garage). Those cupboards are so well built and solid wood that the cleaning guy thought the siding might actually be the way to go.

All this does make me glad I live in places I don't really care about. I love my trailer. But if it blew up, I really wouldn't care. If my apartment was ruined, again, wouldn't really care. Fred and Sher's house is so nice and they planned on living in it to the end so this is pretty hard for them. It's also making me rethink several things about the home I hope to one day build...for starters...UPHILL is getting more important than easy access to water. Also, being able to do repair work myself and maybe avoiding builtin cabinets and features. Dyed cement floors also seem like a super idea, though tough on the legs.

Anyway, time to watch my new favorite show, Mobile Home Disaster. (sorry about the ad at the beginning...I couldn't find any clips without ads)

The Race Is On...

We'll get to the race bit in a minute. I have trouble re-ordering the photos so you've got to see them in the order I put them on here.

Just another clean up photo from the park. I like how they are burying the tree in sand.

















Now for the race bit. Fred's friend Kenny (yes, a grown man named "Kenny" and yes, he will remind you of the character on SouthPark. Decided to mow the lawn for Sher and Fred. Kenny did not want to use Fred's mower. He went home and brought his own mower back on a trailer. When Fred noticed Kenny mowing, Fred got his mower out.
















It was like some sort of dueling-curmudgeons. Fred lapped Kenny a few times because Kenny wanted to do a really good job. Fred like to go fast.

















Meanwhile back at the ranch...Sher and I were calling contractors (like you can even get one!), talking to the ductwork cleaner (who told us that cleaning those ducts would take more than a steam and a suck...they need to be removed, powerwashed inside and put back), floor people, cabinet people, and on and on. We also set up a little kitchenette on the dining room mantle.
















And brought in a folding table and chairs. This weekend we hope to clean off their lovely 3 season porch and set up a dining table and some sit-able chairs. While they may be able to sleep in the camper, that room will be more comfortable. It's quite nice in the evening.

We ended up working through supper time which has not been the habit. But, Dave Weston, a friend of Sher and Fred's, came buy and when he heard the duct work needed to come out, he just started doing it. It's laying on the floor now in the same pattern as when it was on the ceiling. Pam and I took boxes to Pam's boss' house for long term storage (delicate things that need not be in construction zones).

And for those who have been following the food log:
We had left over venison stew over baked potatoes made in the new kitchenette (microwave works), with salad, strawberry dessert, 2 kinds of cake, strawberries, and whatever bev erage you want. Lunch was roast beef sandwiches, scalloped potatoes and ham, fruit, and beverages.
They still have several more days of food before anyone needs to cook. And there are fresh fish in the fridge. I was hoping that by cooking too many potatoes, we'd get fried potatoes with our fish.

Just before I left it rained and a rainbow came out. A bit cheesy to put here after a flood (tad on the "Noah" side), but here's a photo:















As a final note...if any of the relatives in the area have, but ARE NOT USING, a window airconditioner that would fit a 22inch window...the 'rents could use it. They need to control the temperature on the second floor of the house where much furniture and many pictures are stored. It's getting hot and muggy up there. It's not an enormous space and probably one airconditioner and a dehumidifier (which they will have available as soon as the basement is dry) will do it. If no one has one lying about, Pam and I will just go buy one and stick it in the window.

OK, I am missing the cocktail party in Pam's living room so you'll hear about the floor, the new HOT WATER!!! (now with extra bleach) and other improvements later...or not at all (here's the short version: there is hotwater now, but it's full of bleach. The bedroom floors look pretty good and the dining and living room are getting better. If they can get the commercial size dehumidifier rented for a few days they can get the subfloor and walls dried out and know where they stand. If Brian can call or come and advise them, that will help even more. Relatives rock).

FEMA Fun 'n' Fotos

Another flood update for friends and family.

(WARNING>>>I'm fighting with the blog site today. It won't space things right, and the font is funny and there are big blank spots that won't go away. Try to ignore these. I tried but they keep reappearing even after I go through and change it all)

Today it was mostly going to various places to apply for assistance.

FEMA/SBA (small business administration) for a loan application. This is to help with reconstruction or whatnot. They said you do this along with your FEMA application so Sher did.

The SBA lady taking and checking Sher's application got to the part where Sher listed her social security income and looked up and said, "I'm sorry but how old are you?" Sher does not look old enough to be getting that. Another woman asked Sher the same thing.

Fred went fishing for a bit which was good. They need to take some breaks. You can't stare at your damaged house all day, your crap all over the yard, and face what needs to be done all the time. This also means helpers tomorrow get fresh fish so come on over!

Sher and I also went to the Red Cross and got some $$ to help with a new hot water heater. We'll need to talk to the city or someone later. She could have gotten an estimate and gone back and MAYBE gotten 25$ mroe than she got today...but seriously. Her time is worth more and the Red Cross center is closing tomorrow so it would be a big pain to try to get the money later.

Now for today's photos:

Here's the river looking all pretty and peaceful and back in its banks.

You can see why everyone wants to live there.





Here is one of the great tragedies of the flood of '08...































The garden is a goner. I thought there was one tomato plant left but it was just a weed in a tomato cage (isn't there a song about that?) (there should be).




Sher by a sand pile for scale:

Keep in mind that Sher is 5'2" tops. This sand is scooped up from the park. No. It is NOT from the sandbag levees. It was dumped by the flood on the park/streets/lawns/basements. There are dozens of these piles around town. The street sewers are full of sand. The rumor is that the city is taking this to use on the roads in winter.

Here is the park...NOT a street. That is the grassy area.

It's just covered with sand and looks like a street. They have little front end loaders and guys with shovels trying to scoop up the sand and get the park back in shape.

Here's a depressing photo from somewhere around town.

All over people have piles of their homes' walls, floors, kitchens, baths and personal items piled by the street for pick up. Fred and Sher had a friend come with a truck and haul it all away as it was pulled from the house 10days ago or so. They didn't have to walk out each morning (out of their camper) to face a pile of their ruined stuff. I think this can't be good for the general mental health of the community. So far only one neighbor hauled off to the ...uh...psych ward. Sad. But he's back and his family and friends and neighbors carried on.

Tomorrow is the last day for the Red Cross meals. We found out they were coming from a group of Southern Baptist men. They have mobile kitchen trucks and just go from one emergency situation to another doing this. They are good. Tonight was spaghetti for supper. We added some salad (to keep things movin') and cake. Pam brought a bowl of strawberries! Quite nice.

Tomorrow we're expecting another dishwashing crew and some help with the kitchen as well as an evening meal delivery. The meals really help (as do all the people) because it is quite hard to cook anything without a decent stove or hot water. If they pull the kitchen counters out, it will be even tougher. But, it might also be good here in a week or two if Sher took a break to come cook at Pam's or Fred took one to barbecue each day. Breaks are good.

For those who care...my hair is still doing well without shampoo though it was a bit of a pain to wash it in the hotel shower with just the little plastic hotel cups. I need to brush it tonight.

Sher is out of the shower so I think it's time for some booze.