Waste Not, Want Not

 This Spring, when we had tornadoes nearby that gave us straighline winds at 100 mph and there were some cosmetic damages to the house and shop at this little place here, one of the casualties was the screen/storm door we've had on our front door for almost 20 years.  It got ripped open, and the closing mechanisms (top and bottom) were badly bent.  One of the hinges was also damaged.  So, our homeowners insurance approved us for a new one.  Being set in my ways and if I like something I typically like it forever no matter what newer stuff comes out, we ordered an identical screen door to replace it.  It took a while to arrive, and then it sat in the garage for a couple of weeks before DH decided it was time to remove the old one (we'd had that door locked shut for months since the storm in order to keep it from flapping) and install the new one.

That's actually not where this story really begins.  For years, DH has off and on speculated if we should add a screen door to the door that sits between the garage and the mudroom.  It is the door we use most often, and we've always thought, due to the location, and the ease of not having two doors to open just to get into and out of the house, that it didn't need a screen door.  However, in the summer, since we don't have air conditioning, our house does get rather hot at times, and DH has wondered if having a screen door in that spot might allow more air flow through the mudroom and kitchen (and therefore into the rest of the house) by being able to open the regular door while still keeping out bugs (and critters).  His thought was that with two huge north-facing garage doors open, that would let a whole bunch of coolish air into the garage, and with just a screen door between the garage and mudroom, the coolish air would get sucked into the house.

Being that money at this little place here nearly always has a better designated purpose than a full length screen door for a spot you usually don't put a screen door, we never bought one.  But now, now we had a 'perfectly good' (if you don't need a closing mechanism, or mind one hinge being marked up from being pounded back into relative straightness) screen door for no cost.  That 'perfectly good' door being the old one from the front door.  

When he removed the broken one from the front of the house and installed the new perfect screen door, he decided to see if he could adjust the broken one to be straight enough to latch without having to be jimmied into position and then locked to keep it there.  So he did some clamping and banging out in the shop, then brought the door into the garage, where he flipped it (having been a left hand swing at the front door and now needing to be a right hand swing to work in the garage where you came up the porch from the left side of the door) and screwed it into place.  

Well, it fit the opening fine.  But it didn't latch.  Something about the flipping to reverse direction and the jamb of the existing garage/mudroom door he was trying to attach it to didn't quite work as well as he'd thought it would.  After about three hours of fuc--- messing with it (now 10 p.m. when at 7 he'd thought it would be a 15 minute install) he called it quits for the night.  Hopefully sleeping on it would provide the insight he needed in how to correct whatever the root of the problem was.

The next day was the one I left to go to Shipshewana with DD1, DD2 and the granddaughters.  The door was hung in place, but didn't latch.  Sometime after work that day, DH worked on it again.  He came up with a solution.  A little unorthodox (removing something on the frame usually considered necessary), but it did the trick.  When I returned from Shipshewana, I was surprised and delighted to find a screen door between my mudroom and garage that latches without being locked!

garage side

mudroom side

Is it beautiful and undented and scratch free?  No.  Does it hang properly in the opening and latch closed easily?  Yes.  Does it have a closing mechanism that lets it open only so far and then slowly brings it closed again?  Nope.  Does it really need one in the location it's now in?  We don't think so.

Most importantly, when you open the overhead garage doors and then open the door between the mudroom and the garage, does a cool breeze come into the mudroom and kitchen through the screen door?  Oh heck yes, it does!

And, during the cooler months of the year, when we won't want to leave the solid door open so don't really need a screen door there, we'll just open the screen door all the way, and block it open resting flat on the garage wall (out of the way) so we won't need to open and close two doors all winter while going into or out of the mudroom from the garage.  Brilliant!

We're really glad DH thought to try to salvage the broken door and see if it was usable in this space, where he'd thought a screen door might actually be beneficial, rather than just tossing it into the trash when he installed the replacement screen door.  Kept it out of the landfill (or, at least, the parts that wouldn't have gone to the scrap metal pile) and fulfilled a need we weren't even totally sure we had.

Waste not, want not.

As a bonus, it makes a really cool 'snick' sound when it latches shut.  Brings up childhood memories of running out screen doors belonging to our grandparents back in the day.

The Shipshe Trip

 Shipshe being the dialectual shortening of Shipshewana, the town in Indiana not far from the Michigan/Indiana border known for it's Amish community.  In the past 10 or so years, I and one or both of my daughters plus a granddaughter or two, have done an overnight trip to there annually or biennially for some time away from home, men, and general life responsibilities.  

We always stay at the same hotel, the Farmstead Inn, which is typically peaceful and quiet, clean and well run, and provides a hot breakfast along with many choices of cold breakfast if that is your preference.  

Over the years, we've found which places we like to shop at or otherwise just revisit, which places we like to dine at, and have developed a routine for our trip.  It's always a summer trip, being that it's hard for DD1, a teacher, to get away during the school year.  Also, the flea market in Shipshewana is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Initially, the flea market was our main destination.  However, in recent years, we spend less and less time at the flea market (which seems to have become less of a handmade/Amish made market and more of the types of goods you'd find at pretty much any flea market anywhere in the US).  Our main targets are 

• the Davis Mercantile with Lolly's Fabrics, Simple Sounds (a music store with instruments and sheet music and all things instrumental), a candy store, a puzzle/toy store, and random other stores (typically we skip most of the random others); 
• Yoder's Hardware and Yoder's Department Store; 
• The Redbud Coffee and Tea Cafe in the Red Barn (very delicious tea blends including my favorite--those with no leaves!  since I don't like traditional tea, only floral/fruit ones); 
• Yoder's Meat and Cheese Co, 
• and of course the grocery store E&S Sales.

There are lots and lots of other shops and attractions in Shipshewana, but the ones I listed are on our 'Must See' list and are places we go to every time.  After this most recent trip, however, I'm wondering if in the future we need to extend our trip by a day in order to have more time to explore more of what's there (most shops are open only until 5:00 p.m.), or if perhaps I need to maybe do a separate trip without the group. . . I'd love to take a 'just me and DH' trip to Shipshe, but I don't think he'd enjoy it quite as much as I do.  For one thing, I'm fairly sure the hotel doesn't allow alcohol, which is fine with me (and one reason I love staying there), but is a hard thing for him to find enjoyable on a 'vacation'.

Anyway, we got to Shipshewana around 1:00, which gave us time to hit the Davis Mercantile first, and not have to rush through Lolly's.  Lolly's always takes time, partly because the sheer size of the store and their offerings, and partly because they have a boat which is always overflowing with fat quarters.  Looking through the boat can easily take more than an hour.  

As soon as we walked through the door, Faline went right to the boat and quite literally dove in.

Once we convinced her that being in the boat wasn't allowed, she found a shopping basket and proceeded to put all the fat quarters with fabrics she liked into the basket.  According to her, her Barbies were in need of pillows and blankets made with fabrics that featured bananas, hot dogs, flowers, stripes, fish, and more.  DD1 talked her down to just two or three of the fat quarters she had chosen.

My personal mission at Lolly's was to get fabric for two flannel nightgowns: one for Faline (she'd called me two weeks before to ask me to sew her a new nightgown because the one I had sewed her previously had 'suddenly' gotten too small) and one for K3 (if she should want one; she did.)  I let each girl pick the fabric for their own nightgown and had it cut to the length needed before I allowed myself to figuratively dive into the boat and look at fat quarters. Of which, I very responsibly limited myself to two.

A thunderstorm blew up unexpectedly, and we got drenched going from the Mercantile to where we'd parked.  Our original plan for this trip had included a swim in the hotel pool after Davis Mercantile and before going out to dinner.  With our wet clothes and hair, we all were chilled and decided to just hang out in our room for a bit after checking in, and move the swim to after dinner.  There was some bored shenanigans from Faline (it's tough being 4 years old and having to wait for the grown ups), but overall she was pretty good with waiting and hung out on one of the beds with K3 watching a video on K3's phone.

After a good dinner from the buffet at the Blue Gate Restaurant, the girls did finally get to go swimming.  We all went to the hotel's indoor pool and swam, played in the water, and relaxed in the hot tub for well over an hour.  The only picture I took was at the end, when Faline and K3 were putting their wet towels into the bin for housekeeping to launder.  The whole trip, Faline was totally hero worshipping her older cousin, and thankfully K3 was willing to go along with being the cool chosen one.

A new tradition we started on our last trip, in 2023, is to hit the breakfast area beside the pool area after we finish swimming.  There is ice water and hot water available there 24/7 (as far as we can tell, we've never checked after 9 p.m. or before 6 a.m.), as well as tea bags, instant coffee, and hot chocolate packets.  I didn't believe it until I tried it for myself, but a cup of hot chocolate after swimming on a summer evening is actually really good.  Rather than making you feel too hot, it's just kind of cozy.  Maybe if you don't have long, wet hair your experience might be different.  But for all us chicks with long tresses, a good cup of hot chocolate post swimming pool is enjoyable.

The next morning, while sitting in the breakfast area savoring our hot breakfast (egg burritos, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage. . .), Faline commented that there was a playground outside and that she'd never gotten to play on it before.  Indeed, out the large windows of the breakfast area, you could see a nice playground belonging to the hotel.  And, indeed, on previous trips, Faline (or K3) had not had the opportunity to play there.  So I asked, since both she and I were done with our breakfasts, if she wanted to go back to the room with me so I could finish packing up my stuff, and then I would take her to the playground to wait for the rest of our group to be done eating and packing.  Of course she said yes!

Once out there, she had to try out every slide and swing and the teeter-totter (yes, this grandma attempted to teeter-totter with someone about 1/2 my height and roughly 1/4 my weight; it was hard on the knees, LOL).  I was amazed, after the first big push I gave her on the first swing, to see her keep the momentum going by pumping her legs.  Apparently pumping is a newly acquired skill for her.

Once we checked out of the hotel, we began our shopping excursion at E&S Sales.  In addition to great fresh baked goods (Whoopie Pies, anyone?), they have lots of scratch and dent, close dated, and bulk food items.  I typically stock up on some bulk spices I can't find around home in bulk (such as bay leaves for soups, marinades and canning dill pickles), as well as random candy (typically chocolate, plus a bag of Bit-o-Honey for DH).

The food purchases, mostly from E&S, but meat and cheese from Yoder's

Next stop on our planned route (which, after E&S, had us making all right turns onto and off of the main road through town until, at the last, we had to turn left to get into the Yoder's Shopping Center for the hardware and department stores ), was the flea market.  Splitting into three groups for most of that part of the morning, I think we made it through the 40ish acres of flea market in record time: about 1 1/2 hours!  Like I mentioned before, a lot of the flea market has become things you can find at just about any flea market, so we cruised right on past many, many booths without stopping to look individually at their items.  I did pick up a few things, as shown in the photo below.

Rubberized gardening gloves for weeding in dewy/wet conditions,

teal blue duct tape for using in the barn (because it doesn't have to be gray or black),

a leaping deer cast iron bottle opener for DH (only $2!!)

After the flea market, we went to the Auction House restaurant for a yummy lunch.  I think they've changed hands again since we were there in 2023, or at least, their menu has changed.  The food was still good, but with the exception of their traditional included side dish of applesauce, coleslaw or cottage cheese with every meal, and the selection of pies for dessert, not much of the menu of stereotypical Amish foods (like the awesome chicken and noodles) from the previous ownership (2020 and prior) remains.  I was a little bummed out that it had a lot of typical burger/sandwich fare with french fries these days.  The BBQ pulled pork sandwich I had was good, but it wasn't those chicken noodles I'd been dreaming of when planning the trip.

More shopping ensued after lunch. Due to where at the flea market we'd parked, Yoder's Red Barn Shoppes and Yoder's Meat and Cheese Co were on our way from the restaurant to our truck, so we walked and stopped at each.  The meat and cheese store has delicious offerings; their smoked gouda is a family favorite. In fact, Honorary Son had asked DD1 to bring home 5 pounds of it!  

Once finished up there, we packed our meat and cheeses into our cooler, tucked everything else into the bed of the truck, and drove to our last stop: Yoder's Shopping Center.  I love looking at fabric in the Department store, but I also love going to the Hardware.  Before I left home, DH asked what I could possibly want from that hardware store that I couldn't get from any of the hardwares near home.  I then had explained that they have way more than nuts and bolts and tools and hoses.  They have beekeeping and syrup making and wine making and canning and baking supplies, as well as tons of off-grid living type stuff, livestock supplies and even puzzles and toys for kids.

I treated myself to, from the Hardware, 

• a new large frosting spreader (my other one having gotten loaned out a handful of years ago and never returned), 
• a French style rolling pin (something I've been considering for a number of years), 
• a new clothespin bag to replace one I'd sewn many years ago that is on it's last legs and I doubt I'll have time this summer to whip up a new one, 
• two nice dish cloths (Rada, I believe; they sell Rada there) with pale green stripes.  Because, while I have, and love, my other Rada dishcloths, none of them have green! (Green being my all time absolute favorite color.)
• a pie crust decorative cutter, which is something I'd never heard of before but was instantly enamored with.  I don't typically make two-crust pies, now I guess I'm going to have to make them more often so I can use my fancy cutter.  I mean, look at that super cool crust on the label!

At the Department store, I reined myself in.  Before leaving home, I'd sternly told myself that other than flannel for granddaughters' nightgowns, I don't need more fabric.  *Sigh*  But there's so much lovely fabric in Shipshewana. . .  So I only allowed myself a few remnants (1/3yd each), two fat quarters, and a 2 1/2 yard piece of bubble gum pink cotton that I intend to sew Faline a surprise summer weight nightgown with.  I did good.  It hurt to leave so much loveliness behind, but I controlled myself.

Flannels and flannel fat quarters and a hot pad pattern from Lolly's,

pink cotton, remnants, thread and fat quarters from Yoder's Department Store.

It was a good trip.  Both in fellowship with my daughters and granddaughters, and in the items on my lists that I managed to bring home with me.  I really would like to go back and check out some of the places I've never been that we just didn't have time for.  Although I think I need to do a whole lot of sewing first, and use up at least a double digit percentage of my fabric stash.  Because I'm not sure I can be so good a second time at not buying all the pretty fabric.  =0)

I Thought I Was SOL on Broiler Chickens This Year

 When I looked, back in early March, at the website for the hatchery I've almost always ordered my chicks from, it said they were totally sold out of broiler chickens (and fryer chickens, and any other chicken hefty enough to be for dinner) for the 2025 season.  OH NO!

Trying not to panic, I looked at the website for a hatchery I've ordered from once before, a few years ago.  Same deal.  UH-OH!  Now I was starting to panic.

Looking at the websites of every hatchery I'd ever heard of, and some I'd never heard of (desperation Googling at that point), the likelihood of me raising some meat chickens this year was looking very, very grim.  Maybe I could get lucky and find some broiler chicks at one of the farm stores within a 30-40 mile radius of this little place here.

Meanwhile, I decided to try to ration the chicken that was left in the freezer from last year's crop and hope for the best.  

Well, all Spring I've been checking for chicks at the farm stores.  Limited breeds of laying pullets, but zero meat type chicks at any of them any time I checked (or asked about the coming week's chick delivery).  My hopes of finding broiler chicks pretty much hit rock bottom.

At the end of May, looking in the freezer and recounting what packages of what chicken parts I have, I knew that strategy would not get us through until Summer 2026 without having to buy chicken from the grocery store.  Which, after doing that over a decade ago, I knew without a doubt I did not want to be reliant on grocery store chicken.  It's just not the same as homegrown chicken; not the same flavor, not the same texture. 

In early June, I happened to get an email from that one hatchery I'd once ordered from.  In their email, they stated that they currently were having overhatches and that as long as I wasn't picky about the date my chicks arrived (maybe as early as three days from the date I was reading the email!!) I could put in an order for broiler chicks and get on a waiting list, as it were.

Which got me curious if the availability status for broiler chicks had changed at my preferred hatchery, too.  So I got online and looked.  And, hallelujah!!!! They had Cornish Rock cross chicks available for limited dates, the first of which was the next week!  

Quickly, I added the quantity I wanted to my cart, threw in a few Rhode Island Red pullet chicks, and hit submit before the hatch was sold out.  There was a slight possibility that they would arrive before I got home from the Shipshewana trip that DD1, DD2, K3, Faline and I were going on, but, based on previous experience with shipping times via USPS, I figured I was safe to order for the first available hatch.

Just in case, and because I figured I'd be really tired when I got home from that Girl's Trip to Shipshe, I got the brooder out and set up before we left.

Well, guess what!  When we arrived at our hotel in Shipshewana, I checked my email and saw that my chicks had shipped from the hatchery in Iowa while we were driving the 2+ hours from home.  No big deal, as they have, many times, spent a whole 24 hours sitting in Minneapolis awaiting their flight to Detroit.  We'd definitely be home before the chicks hit the local post office.

The next morning, right before we checked out of our hotel and were ready to begin our adventures for the day, I checked the tracking and saw that my birds hadn't gone through Minneapolis this time, but had made Indianapolis in the night and were currently on their way to Detroit.  Hmm.  But should still be fine; I mean, the hub in Detroit wouldn't get them until afternoon, which meant they wouldn't be arriving my way until the following morning. 

Just after  3 p.m., literally 5 miles out of Shipshewana, on our way home (ETA for us: definitely after 5:15 p.m. even if we didn't need any potty stops) my phone rang.  It was the post office near this little place here.  They had my chicks and wanted to let me know so  I could pick them up before the post office closed at 5:00.  They did not want to hold onto them overnight.

UH-OH!

I explained my situation and asked if I had to pick them up myself or if I could send someone for me.  Apparently they would be happy to hand my box of chicks to anyone who showed up and knew they were there.  So then I tried to call DH, but he didn't answer.  Not knowing if he was working from home that day or working in office (which he usually does that day of the week),.now I wasn't sure who to call to run and get my chicks.

DD1 said that Honorary Son was working in the vicinity of that post office that afternoon (he does IT) and that he was scheduled to be done at 4:00, did I want her to see if he would be willing to do the pick up?

Which is how Honorary Son got a message that said "Go to (City) Post Office after work and pick up chicks".  Taken out of context, that is a very strange message to get from your wife.  Rightly so, he was confused and called for clarification.  Once DD1 explained it was a box of day old chickens that was in need of transportation to my house, Honorary Son was happy (I think) to stop by the post office, get them, and drop them off in my house on his way home.

Once we got there, an hour or so after Honorary Son had done the package drop, I plugged in the brooder light, filled the feeders and waterers, and with Faline and K3's help, unpacked the 16 broiler chicks, 4 Rhode Island Red chicks and the one 'free' cockerel chick.  They all seemed to be energetic and healthy, none the worse the wear for their travels.

I think I owe Honorary Son a roast chicken dinner, with all the fixings, in about 7 weeks after these guys go to the processor.

Lucky Days

 In March, Surprise called and asked if I might be able to babysit Lucky for her one or two days a week this Spring and maybe Summer so that she could resume taking  college classes (she had gone back to school to finish her bachelor's just prior to finding out she and DS2 were expecting Lucky).  Knowing how busy that time of year is with working horses and with gardening among all the normal day to day home stuff, I told her we could try one afternoon a week if Lucky came to me rather than me driving to their home.

We settled on Tuesdays from 1-5 p.m., and started on the third week of March, when Surprise was going to register for Summer classes.  With the exception of two Tuesdays that I all ready had other things on my calendar (a farrier appointment and Spring Break trip with K3 and Toad), Lucky and I have been hanging out together for over two months now.

What was originally supposed to give Surprise time to either do school work or catch up on housework while I watched Lucky never really happened that way.  Turned out that Surprise only signed up for one class for Summer semester, and that it was a expedited course (only 6 weeks? if I remember right) and that it didn't have a rigid schedule on when she had to be online working on it.  Plus, she decided that rather than drop Lucky off to me and leave, she would just hop on our wifi at this little place here and work from my dining room table.  Which actually ended up about 30-60 minutes of working and the rest wanting to talk to me. For four hours every Tuesday during a time that just gets busier and busier for me.

Now, I'm really glad for these days of spending time with Lucky as he went from newborn into a little human who tries to initiate contact with people and interact with them.  But, I have a ton of work to do in this season, mostly outdoor and therefore dependent on weather (use all the good weather days we get!) and not things I can do in the house or with a still very small person in tow/in my arms.  So, this week was the last Tuesday for a while that Lucky and I hung out together.  I had to make the decision to tell Surprise that now that her class has finished, I need to not babysit for at least the next month, possibly the rest of the summer.

Lucky is now four months old, over 27" long, 13 pounds heavy, rolls, drools everywhere, cutting teeth all ready, has great head control and core strength, and loves looking at things, including books.

He also appears to have the widow's peak hairline that is prevalent on my side of the family.

His newest book I found just last weekend at a garage sale.  For only 50 cents, I couldn't resist!  This book is part of a series of science based board books.  Being that our whole family are kind of science geeks, and both DH and DS2 are engineers, and therefore everybody kind of expects Lucky to have scientific leanings, how could I not buy this book for him?

Life's Too Short

A random collection of thoughts for a Friday:

Life's too short. . .

•  to wear uncomfortable underwear.  In recent years, I've slowly been switching both DH and my undergarments to more pricier brands than we've worn the 50+ years we've been out of diapers.  Shopping for comfort, not price, makes a world of difference in the underwear-wearing experience!

• to not have music while you work.  I've been looking, for almost a year now, for a radio to put in my barn so that I might have music while I'm doing chores out there.  Being that I don't subscribe to or stream music, my target is just a good old plug-into-the-wall AM/FM radio.  Finding one proved to be way harder than I thought it would be.  Most non-streaming type radios that I found for sale ran on batteries.  Now, anything that lives in the barn aisle, like my radio is intended to, is going to get dang cold in the winter months.  And we all know (at least, I think it's common knowledge) that cold drains batteries faster, even when not in use.  So I didn't want anything that was only battery powered.  I needed a grid-tied radio!  Last week, I finally found one on a chance trip to the local Goodwill.  For only $7.29 plus tax, I now have an old-school radio that plugs into the wall and doesn't stream a dang thing, LOL.  Bonus, it has a CD player!  I gave it a test run out in DH's shop while painting some more ceiling boards for the tack room on the day I bought it.

• to not have fun with work.  DH's sister and brother-in-law recently had an old, large hard maple tree cut down next to their house.  They offered us the trunk and large branch pieces for firewood.  DH went and got them on Saturday.  Big and heavy, they required use of the tractor to remove from the trailer he'd hauled them home on.  DH operated the tractor (and forks) while I was in charge of wrapping the strap around them and hooking each end of it to the tractor forks.  I also snuck in a few pictures while we worked.

• to not bring flowers into your house.  I have irises blooming all over the place currently.  Some were so heavy that the stalks were falling over.  Those, I cut and brought into the house.  Now my kitchen smells like root beer, yum!

• to not take time off now and then. My daughters and granddaughters and I are heading off to Shipshewana for a day and a half next week.  We're all looking forward to it; the granddaughters mostly excited about swimming in the very nice pool at the place we stay when we go to Shipshe and eating at the buffet at the Blue Gate, the adults have our shopping lists ready (birthday and Christmas gift buying ideas as well as household goods and a can't miss trip to E&S for groceries) plus are just savoring the thought of not needing to take care of our homes for a bit.

Can We Please NOT With All The Soy?!?

 Soy.  It has somehow, in the last decade or so, taken over every food product in the store and at restaurants. Or so it seems.

Which isn't a terrible thing, unless your body, like mine, has strong opinions about soy in the things it ingests. Years ago, I discovered, quite unintentionally, that my body doesn't like interesterified soybean oil. Like, really, really doesn't like. As in, almost immediate stomach cramping and purging of all intestinal contents. Not fun.

So, I tried to avoid that particular formation of soy in my food.  Problem solved.

Except, to a lesser immediately violent extent, a couple of years later, on a hiking trip vacation, I discovered that my body also does not like isolated soy protein. UGH.  Add isolated soy protein to the Do Not Eat list.

Try finding a protein bar, or even a granola bar, without that.  Try hiking for half a day (or more) without a convenient to pack, non-temperature sensitive, source of protein like a protein bar.  Luckily in 2024 I discovered Aloha protein bars, which are both palatable, and do not get their protein from soy! Hallelujah! Highly recommend!

Unfortunately, my body's dislike of soy has gotten worse as soy has crept into more and more food items. Regular soybean oil (not just interesterified), soy lecithin (waah, even in the chocolate chips I make cookies with, not to mention pretty much every brand of ice cream under the sun and tons of baked goods, dairy products, etc.), plain old soy protein (not just isolated) all cause a measurable gut reaction. Every single time.

Even my for many years belovedly safe hot dogs from the local meat market now contain smallish amounts of soy.  So supposedly small it's almost the last ingredient listed on the package, but it's enough to make the early morning hours of the day after eating a 'safe' hot dog be requiring frequent trips to the bathroom.  That is no way to live a productive or enjoyable life!

It's so frustrating! Soy is increasingly difficult to keep out of my own kitchen. Trying to eat out (without unpleasant gut issues later) is getting practically impossible.

Now, I know that there's probably medications my doctor could prescribe to 'calm down' my intestines' reactions to soy.  But why should adding chemicals to my gut to lessen it's natural processes be the number one answer?  Why not just take all the (expletive deletive) soy out off all the foods it's been added to in the last two decades? I mean, the same food existed pre-soy craze, why can't it go back to that?

(Truthfully, I know that it's because soy has become the cheaper alternative to those other ingredients, but come on. . . it's so not good for more people than just myself.)

Can we please, please, please, NOT with all the soy?!?

Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #3

 Trough divers.  Horses that so love to splash and play in water that they will put their front legs into their water trough and paw, splashing water up all over themselves (and the ground).

This doesn't sound too terrible, does it?  I mean, especially in summer, it can be refreshing to splash water onto themself.

Except. . .

• by putting their feet into the trough, they are dirtying the water in it
• the risk of serious injury exists anytime they stick their legs into somewhere legs weren't intended to go
• splashing the water all over makes the trough need to be refilled sooner
• if the water level in the trough is low enough, they can tip the trough over and then there's no water to drink 
• the chance of cracking the trough, causing a (nearly impossible to fix) leak is greatly increased

The Poetess loves to trough dive.  I'm not sure if this habit is something she's had for a while, or was discovered when she came to Michigan and had a water trough rather than an automatic waterer/horse drinker in her turnout.  

Last year, I yelled at her anytime I caught her with her legs in the trough.  Heck, even hearing the distinctive sound of water splashing in the pasture while I was in the barn cleaning stalls would cause me to shout "Poetess!!  Quit! Get out of the trough!".  And she would, until I wasn't around/she didn't think I was around and then she'd start up again.  A couple of times I came home from running errands late on a hot afternoon to find the trough tipped on it's side, totally empty.  Not good.

Over the winter, I did a little research.  There's no way I was going to install automatic waterers in my pastures, so I needed to find a safe, economical, effective way to keep Poetess from playing in the water trough when the weather warmed up again.  If you google the subject, there's tons of different suggestions.

What I chose to try, and so far is a rousing success, is actually a very simple thing.  I put my water trough up on blocks.  We have lots of unused cinder blocks around this little place here, so DH grabbed four off the stack of blocks, and we made a platform to set the water trough on in the pasture Poetess and the LBM were currently turned out in.  Easy peasy.  And free.

But would it work?  Was a simple raising of the tank by the height of a cinder block on it's side (8") enough to keep Poetess from being able to put her feet in the trough?  And, more importantly, would the horses be willing to drink out of a raised trough?

Yes.

Yes.  

And, yes!

It works!  She tried a few times, found it uncomfortable to get her feet up above the rim of the trough, and has kept her feet out of the trough.  She has no qualms about drinking out of the trough at that height.  And, the one I most worried about being turned off by the increased height, the several hands shorter LBM, also has no issues with drinking from the raised trough.

Faces only, no feet!

A Gardening Weekend

 Saturday, I spent several hours in the garden.  The weather nice, low 60's and not very windy, and the sun actually came out!  It was the most sun we'd seen all week (which probably explains how I totally forgot to put on sunscreen and ended up with a sunburnt face).

After days and days of rain, I wanted to take advantage of the dry weather to get my tomato and pepper seedlings planted.  They'd been living outside for two weeks, so were adequately hardened off.  I did worry that the wet soil of the garden might not be ideal yet for transplanting into, but on the other hand, the small containers the seedlings were in were also saturated with rain, so I figured that it was probably a six of one half dozen of the other situation.  Hopefully the ground would drain better than the containers were, and the plants wouldn't shock too badly with transplanting.

At the end of the day, I had 50 tomato plants and 45 peppers in nice neat rows in the garden.  Fingers crossed that they grow and thrive this year.  The last two years were a bust garden-wise, so I'm really hoping that this year makes up for the two bad years.  DH is dreaming of lots and lots of homemade salsa, both fresh and canned.

Salsa of course also requires onions and garlic, both of which are also growing in my garden.  The garlic--five varieties--was planted last fall, all from cloves that I had grown in 2024.  In fact, one variety I've been growing since 2010? ish, from some garlic that I had bought from an online homesteading friend.

Great looking garlic for this year.

The onions are starts that I buy every year from Dixondale Farms.  I've lost count of how many years I've been buying my onion starts from them; they are a great company with a reliable product and awesome service.

200+ baby onion plants.

On Sunday, I was back in the garden again, with lots of sunscreen this time, planting cucumbers and dill (between the cucumber hills).  Interplanting the dill and cukes is something new I'm trying for this year.  No pictures of that because, well, it just looks like mounds of dirt every 4 feet with the mounds staggered every other row so I can still plant rows 3-foot on center apart from each other.  Trying to keep all that 'empty' space in the cucumber section from growing up in weeds until the cucumbers get to the vining stage is always such a pain (and nigh on impossible) that I always cheat the spacing a bit.

I did, however, take some pictures of some of my iris that are currently blooming.  I don't know the names of either variety; they were both given to me free by people I know/someone my Mom knows.

This variety I've had since 2004, when a family from church bought a new house that had iris all around the foundation of the detached garage.  They didn't want the plants, so gave me all I cared to dig up.

This variety is newer to me; someone my Mom knows was dividing hers in 2021 and gave my Mom bags and bags of them.  Mom planted what she had room for at her house and then gave me the rest.

Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #2

 This is another tip in regards to polo wraps.  I discovered, a while ago, that if I hung my used, sweaty/wet from dew, polo wraps on the hayloft ladder, the breeze coming in the front door of the barn would typically dry them by the time I returned for the night feeding.  Cleanish ones (ie, just damp from dew or sweat) could then be rerolled for use in the next training session.  Dirty ones could go in the house to the laundry and not become a yucky, damp, and potentially mildewy mess by the time I had several sets of polos in need of washing. (Especially helpful when the Poetess wasn't getting worked but once or twice a week and it took awhile to get a load of horse laundry built up.)

When DH built me the new hayloft ladder, I was happy to discover that it not only does the same drying task handily, but that it also performs another service: it holds the wraps fairly taut when I reroll them. Having them be taut makes the task so much easier!  

I attribute the difference in tension when rerolling to the fact that the old ladder was propped up and at more of an angle than the new ladder, which is installed pretty much vertically.  Whatever the reason, I'm loving how handy it is for both drying and rerolling the wraps.

So, for those of you who might also use polo wraps on your horses, and who have a ladder in your barn, my tip is to put the ladder to use as a wrap dryer!

Reminder To Self

 This is a really busy season.  I have a tendency to overwork myself in busy seasons; just put my shoulder to the grindstone (or is it my nose?), keep pushing, and don't look up until I collapse.  I'm trying to learn better self-care, because collapse isn't exactly enjoyable, and historically it's times like this that I totally neglect myself (with exception of feeding myself somewhat nutritionally--the diabetes requires it, brushing my hair and teeth daily and showering at least every third day).

Recently, when I was at Hobby Lobby shopping for a specific fabric for grandbaby #8's quilt, and a few teen-bedroom type decor things for K3's 13th birthday present, I bought a little something for myself.  I know that when I'm going all balls (because that's how I've operated for decades during busy seasons--even if those seasons are years long) I tend to get a little less than happy.  And when I'm less than happy, that's when the complete and total overwhelm (and thoughts of trashing it all and running away) kicks in.

So, when I saw this little block, I bought it.  And put it on the windowsill behind the kitchen sink where I'll see it daily, especially when doing the dishes (my most hated chore; I'd rather scrub toilets than put my hands in dishwater).

Because I do.  I do love the life DH and I have built.  Sometimes it's crazy.  Sometimes it's overwhelming.  And the work of building is definitely not totally completed yet.  But it's what we wanted: the land, the horses (well, I wanted horses, DH not so much), the garden, the large (and getting larger!) family.

I just need to remember that when I find myself focusing on all the undone tasks, or the (not so) emergency help my kids call on me for with the grandkids at the last minute.  I love the life we've built.

What's Changed in the Barn October Thru April

 I haven't posted anything in a while about the horse barn project, or about the horses specifically.  That doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on.  Rather, quite the opposite.

Last fall, I acquired two new boarders, both geldings, both basically retired and owned by the same person.  This is a great arrangement for both my client and myself: she gets someone knowledgeable about older horses giving her horses great care, and I have a client who isn't concerned that there's no 'real' riding arena here (yet. . . it's on the list but not likely this year. . .)

Those two horses, I think I'll refer to as Crockett and Tubbs.  Yeah, Miami Vice, but really the only thing remotely related to that TV show is that one of the geldings is rather chubby (he's an easy keeper and I will need to watch his weight) and mentally I started calling him Tubbs.  Which led to me thinking of Miami Vice and that I could easily name his friend, the other gelding, Crockett, because they are a long time pair.

The LBM is still boarded here, although at the end of December her owner took her out of training for the winter.  Which ended up being a good decision (and one I wholly approved of despite the loss of training revenue) based on the winter we had which was mostly too frigid/snowy/icy to work horses with any sort of regularity.  Plus, it gave me all the decent weather/decent footing days to work the Poetess rather than trying to squeeze her in around a paying customer.  

The LBM started back in training on May first, and seems to have retained a whole lot of what we worked on last year.  So far, so good!

The Poetess? She loved having me all to herself, as it were.  Her training is coming along nicely, and I'm thinking by the end of summer we'll have made an amazing amount of progress.  She catches on pretty quickly, and working her 3-4 days a week has ramped up her learning significantly.

Meanwhile, inside the barn, there's been a whole lot of changes since the beginning of the year.  DH ran wires to the feed room, so now I have a light in there.  That was a great and very appreciated addition, especially on those dark winter mornings.

Next, he framed in the tack room.  Which included making the divider wall between the tack room and Poetess's wall go all the way up instead of just high enough that she wouldn't be able to jump out (as we'd originally built it in our rush to get her home.) 

I wasn't sure how she would respond to that after more than a year of having an unimpeded view to the front half of the barn--and out the front door, but she took it in stride.  That first night, when she came in from turnout, she pricked her ears, sniffed the new boards and I could almost visibly see her shrug and say "huh, guess that was gonna happen sooner or later".  I have, since then, stained the new boards so they match the existing stall wall.

After that wall was finished, DH began framing in the other three walls of the tack room.  And that began the mess of stuff pushed into the center of the room so that he could access the walls with a ladder, and also be able to bring boards into the room for building with.  A mess that daily drives me nuts and has me more and more anxious for the whole tack room project to be finished.

Photo taken before more stuff was added to the center of the room,

making a gigantic mess.

The next wall to be finished was the one between the tack room and the aisle.  Once it had enough boards on the 'exterior' to make DH realize it would be easier to set the door before the whole wall was covered, DH installed the door to the tack room, and then added the remainder of the boards.

In March, when the daytime temperatures were warm enough for three to four days at a stretch, I painted the tack room door.  Because I could.  And because I have a thing for color (that thing being the rationale that anything that doesn't have to be white shouldn't be white).  Using a semi-gloss alkyd paint, I made that door dark green.  (For those wondering, it's Behr paint and the exact color I had mixed for me is called Vine Leaf).  I used two coats of paint and was quite happy with the result.

The door after the first coat of paint, definitely green, but blotchy.

That wasn't the only thing I painted green.  In framing up the tack room (and getting ready to install a ceiling in it), the time had come to move the ladder to the hayloft out into the aisle (it had been in the tack room area for eons) and cut open the 'hay drop' in the loft floor that we'd framed in nearly 20 years ago when the barn was originally built.  

Using the old ladder, which had been given to me in 2005 by a friend who no longer needed it, with the now usable hay drop didn't work ideally.  So, DH offered to build me a new, longer, ladder to my loft.  Of course I said "yes, please!"  I mean, when DH offers to do something remotely horse related, I've learned to jump on that offer before it disappears never to be mentioned again.

With a brand new ladder custom made by DH, I absolutely had to paint it green.  Two coats of the same paint I used on the tack room door, and it was good to go.

DH didn't quite understand why I so vehemently insisted that the ladder needed to be painted before installation--or painted at all--until it was in place.  Then, he had to admit that it was definitely worth waiting the three days it took me to get it painted and cured before bringing it into the barn.  The green ladder by the green door just really looks sharp.

It's the little details like that that can make a big difference.

For the interior of the tack room, we'd had many discussions over the winter of what the sheeting material on the walls would be.  DH was hoping (ease of installation and price-wise) that I would say OSB was good enough.  HA!  He knows me better than that.  So his next suggestion was cheapy paneling sheets.  Also a "I didn't wait 20 years for a tack room to slap just anything on the walls" response from me.  Plywood?  Maybe.  Maybe, I said, depending on the grade of it.

Well, then, on Craigslist he found some tongue-in-groove knotty pine paneling that ended up being, per foot, about the same cost as the (less than ideal in my book) grade of plywood he'd been trying to convince me to go with.  Knotty pine paneling?  Oh Hell Yes!!  Winner!!  

So on Good Friday (because he had the day off work) he drove two hours one way and picked up an entire 'rack' of knotty pine paneling from the guy who'd listed it on Craiglist.  And on Easter Sunday, after church and after barn chores (we'd done family Easter on Saturday, remember), I got to staining that paneling so he could start installing it.

It's really a clear coat sealant with polyurethane, but it does put a very light tint to the wood, as you can see in the above photo of the stained (bottom) vs unstained (top) board

Interior tack room/aisle wall, 

partially paneled.

Now, we don't need an entire rack of knotty pine to do the inside walls of the tack room.  But, a neat thing that DH didn't tell me about until after he'd gotten the paneling boards home, is that the back side of the boards is milled for bead board.  So, my tack room ceiling is going to be finished in white bead board, and I spend the end of April starting painting boards for that with a semi-gloss white alkyd paint.  Two coats per board, and they are exactly the look I want for a ceiling (to reflect light back downward as much as possible).

And that is all the horse and barn related news at this little place here from October 2024 to the end of April 2025.

I Went To A Symphony!

On Friday evening, I went to a symphony.  Other than when DD2 was in choir during college, and they performed on the same night as the college's local symphony orchestra, and once when I was really young and went with my parents to a Christmas concert put on by a small local symphony orchestra, I haven't been a symphony goer.  Not that I don't enjoy the music; just too many other things vying for my time and money.

I almost didn't go this time either, but my kids schemed against me and came up with a plan to get me there.  My boys paid for my ticket.  My girls were in charge of transporting me and feeding me dinner before hand.

And so, in the name of a Mother's Day present, I went to the symphony.

DD1 and DD2 came and got me, all dressed up, and took me out to dinner. We'd chosen a nearby Mexican restaurant, and were rather overdressed for the venue, LOL,  But all three of us had a hankering for Mexican, so. . .  

It was a good meal, and I tried birria tacos, which I'd never had before. YUM!  Definitely will eat them again.

Conversation over dinner was good, ranging from trying to plot a 'group' Father's Day present for DH, DS1, DS2, and Honorary Son (would they be amenable to being a foursome for a round of golf if we arranged it?  Not sure. . .) to Faline's goofy picture on her Pre-School Graduation poster to whose house needs what repairs that could be scheduled into a rotating one-weekend-a-month family workday gathering for the summer months.

 

As for the symphony itself, it was wonderful!  I had such a good time.  I made oddball comments based on spur of the moment thoughts in my head in regards to what was going on on stage (like how the guy playing the wood blocks made me think of a defibrillator the way he rubbed them together and then pulled them wide apart to quietly set them down) that my daughters, who have similar senses of humor, totally got a kick out of without being offended by my oddball comment.  The music was terrific, the pianist, who played the entire forty minutes of the concerto by memory without sheet music was amazing.  And the grand piano was absolutely the biggest piano I've seen in my entire life.  (Is there such a thing as a Granddaddy grand piano?  If so, I'm pretty sure it had to be that one.)

It was fascinating to watch the musicians play; their natural body movements during the course of playing their parts, coming in and out of the piece at the prescribed times, made me think of waves lapping on a beach: swelling, breaking, flowing outward to build up and flow in again.

All in all, it was a very special gift, and I'm so grateful to each and every one of my kids (plus my DH who volunteered to make sure horses were taken care of in my absence that night) for giving this experience to me.

Cherry Clafouti

 Recently, I tried my hand at making a cherry clafouti.  I'd never made one, never even tasted one before, but it was something that had been on my radar for a number of years.  A few weeks ago, after learning that I have a tart cherry tree, someone asked me if I'd ever tried making a cherry clafouti with my cherries.

"No," I answered, feeling a bit guilty that I'd never made use of them that way even though I'd heard of it more than a decade ago (best laid plans of mice and men sort of thing).

About two weeks later, I was in the chest freezer retrieving some meat to restock the kitchen fridge's freezer, and I noticed that I had a bag of frozen cherries from the 2023 crop still.  According to the label, it was 3 cups of pitted tart cherries.

Well, that sealed it.  Time to try cherry clafouti.  So I took that bag of cherries upstairs to the kitchen and thawed it overnight.  Meanwhile, I looked up a likely sounding recipe using tart, not sweet, cherries--I actually have a recipe for one using sweet cherries but I've never been confident enough to translate the needed sugar amount to make it tasty with tart cherries.  Then I made a plan for breakfast the following morning.

I confess, I was a bit nervous not knowing how this clafouti would turn out.  Even if it turned out exactly as the recipe described (I was using thawed cherries rather than fresh ones that the recipe called for, and a slightly larger amount), would I even like it?  It's technically an egg dish, and eggs are something I either love or hate, depending on how they're cooked and the resultant texture.

So, how did it come out?  Did I like it?  Will I ever make another clafouti again?

It was delicious!  Definitely a recipe success!  Even though DH complained that it 'wasn't all that good', he ate a quarter of it.  Actually slightly more than a quarter, because, as you can see by the photo above, I cut it kind of off center.  Upon questioning, he said it wasn't great because he likes meat with his breakfast, and it wasn't meat.  Ugh. Hello, macho man, eggs are meat.

Myself, I ate the other quarter! I loved not only the flavor, but the texture was spot on for the acceptable egg dish category.  In fact, the texture reminded me very much of my favorite dish I would get when we would travel to the Upper Peninsula and go out for breakfast at a little local cafe (that unfortunately, isn't there anymore as it closed down a few years ago).  

This recipe is most definitely a keeper.  In fact, I'm thinking that with a reduction of the sugar, it would probably also be excellent made with blackberries.  I will have to remember to try that in August, when the blackberries are in season (out in the woods and in a corner of our field).

I do have to say, it was awesome fresh and warm.  Leftover the next day and reheated, it was still pretty good.  The third day, when I finished off the last piece, it had gotten pretty rubbery.  So, in the future, definitely eat it all right away, LOL.

Since I followed an online recipe pretty much exactly (except my cherries were pitted and thawed), I'm not going to type it out here.  I will just post a link to the original site that I got it from.

Cherry Clafouti

View From The Porch Swing

 Yesterday, I did a lot.  Worked two horses.  Made breakfast (fried eggs and toast for DH, Greek yogurt with granola for me), lunch (leftover chicken tortilla soup) and dinner (burritos!) for DH and I (he rarely cooks).  Washed the dishes, did a load of laundry (and hung it on the line), cleaned stalls, took care of chickens; all of which are normal daily chores.  Spent about two hours painting boards that will become the ceiling of my tack room in the barn.

And then, rather than pick up another chore at nearly 8:00 in the evening (after being on the go for 12+ hours), I told myself I had to sit down.  Not just sit down, but specifically, sit down on the porch swing (because, why do I have a porch swing??? To sit on and relax.)  And, while I was sitting on the porch swing, I may as well read the library book I've had a love-hate relationship with for almost two weeks. 

Why had I not turned the book back in to the library all ready if I wasn't going to actually read it to the end? I still had it, so I should buckle down and get the last 50 or so pages out of the way.  Really, it wasn't a terrible book, and I was sort of interested in how the author was going to tie up all the loose ends. The major plot concept was okay,but I had figured out the gist of it about 150 pages ago and was not all that enthralled with the writing itself.  Overall, not a book for me even though, written a bit differently it definitely could have been more my style (um, less money and time are no object, let's pick a random event in history to add in and then, in the 1950's go back to a semblance of the noble country life of ye olde England and fall in love with the heir whose entire family just happens to love and accept you, American chick, on first meeting. . . nauseum for this person--me--who eschewed poorly written and massed produced romance novels from the time she was a teenager.)  Based on this book, I doubt I will read anything else by this author.

Anyway, I gently swang on my porch swing, skimmed through the last chapters of the book to verify I was, indeed, right about the ending, and then enjoyed about ten more minutes in the beautiful evening before the sun went down.

overlooking the garden, which has been tilled and is ready for planting 

(once it dries up from a rainy Sunday and, now, rainy Monday night and all of Tuesday morning).

due West, to the sunset

I need to remind myself to make use of that porch swing more regularly.  Just because the sun is up and on duty until nearly 9 p.m. these days doesn't mean I also have to spend all those hours working.  Mental breaks are good.  Physical breaks are good.  Remember to allow myself down time.  It's imperative.