OF MICE AND HOUSE CLEANING

Saturday was a washout.  Rained all day.  I think the final total was about 2 inches at the farm.

Not sure if a photo can convey cold, but this is damp and cold.  With the good rain we had Saturday there was no watering needed and no outside work needed either so the plan was to work inside.

It had gotten a bit cluttered as we take out boxes for future packing and some things we brought from storage as we downsize a few more things.  You know how it goes, you use any available horizontal surface to put stuff that you'll put up later...and "later" takes a little time to come around, ha!

Plus we haD spider webs in corners, dead bugs in windowsills, etc.

Here's the dining room after we got everything off the table and put up where it belongs and cleaned the corners and ceiling and window ledges.  Looking much more like it should. For those new to the blog, this room was an addition, it used to be a porch and the previous owner turned it into a dining room.  

Turning back around to where I was standing to take the first picture, here is part of the other direction.  The doorway on the left side (the other side of the canning cabinet) used to be the back door but now goes into this dining room.  You can see part of the kitchen in the doorway.  The doorway you can see just on the right edge of the photo is to the mudroom which is where the refrigerator is and that light you can kind of see is the door to the front porch.

Coming around the corner of the canning cabinet doorway into the kitchen and looking to the left, this is the stove and 2nd Man's marble top baking table.  We have another one of those at the apartment.  He loves rolling out dough on them.  Plus it's got a couple of drawers and a shelf below.  I put the shelves up above it to give us some more space.  Once again, this table had some cooking magazines stacked on it and a couple of boxes. They have been put in their proper places. 

Here's the other side, the sink and counter.  Again, the stainless counter was covered up with boxes and stuff and the window ledge full of dead bugs and spider webs.  Now it's all clean and a bit neater.

Next something yucky.  I got my socks wet stepping in some standing water so I went into the dresser to get some fresh ones to put on.

I opened the dresser drawer...

...and found this.  The t-shirts shredded up and ruined by mice...and on the other side of the drawer...

...the socks, also all eaten up and ruined.  Ugh.  Mice.  They might look cute (I used to have one as a pet when I was younger!) but they are the bane of our existence.  If they want to do their thing outside, fine, live and let live, but STAY OUT OF THE HOUSE.  Sigh.  We're not even sure what the other material is.  Good thing, no mice were inside and we do keep bait down so that did its thing but not before they did their thing.

I put my mask on and dumped the entire contents into a trash bag.  Wasn't even going to try to salvage anything from the drawer.  We don't keep a lot of fabric items in the drawers like that.  Also checked the couches, they were fine too.

Let's end this post on something pretty, ha.  When you come in the other front door from the porch (not the mudroom) you see this right straight ahead.  It's the desk where we keep the things you've seen in some posts that hold memories.  It's a great desk we found at one of our favorite furniture stores, NADEAU. 

There wasn't much to do in the living room, but I forgot to get some pictures.  Will do that next time.  This took care of 1/2 the house...next time will be the two bedrooms and bathroom and closets in those rooms.

Hope you all had a great weekend before Christmas!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

As this posts, it's off to the farm (see yesterday's post for weather update).  Today is gorgeous and cool/cold.  Won't be much outdoor work (far too wet) but the plan is some inside cleaning.  But it's Sunday so it's time for some good food and Hobart!

Chef's Salad with blue cheese dressing

Once a week, we enjoy making a large salad for dinner.  This particular one was romaine lettuce hearts with tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, bacon bits, ham, hard boiled eggs, croutons and some diced apple.

It was delicious!

Hobart and his water glass

As for Hobart, well here he is with a special thing we do for him.  He LOVES to drink water (good thing because it keeps him healthy) and so he has several bowls of water scattered around that we empty and fill several times a days.  But a special treat for him is when we fill up a glass with water and put it on the floor so he can sit there and drink it. #notspoiled

We think this look was "um, waiter, refill please!"

NO FARM VISIT TODAY

No farm today...it is a monsoon here right now in town and in the radar image below...

...the farm is the red pin in the middle, yikes!  2nd Family said it's pouring rain.  Good for the collards and garlic and fruit trees so we're ok with that.  Tomorrow will be the day to head that direction.

Here's the view from the apartment, the heaviest weather is coming this way.  Good day to do some laundry and then relax a bit this weekend...

BLUE AND WHITE A COLLECTION

We don't have a large collection of it, but since the master bedroom at the farm is decorated in blue and white, we've become fond of blue and white items like these to display in the room.  Mostly we'd like to fill up this set of corner shelves, which by the way, was a streetside find when we lived at the house in town).

Anyway, some of these items were gifts from friends of the farm and a couple were thrift store finds.  It just makes for a nice focal point in the corner of the room (and gives us something fun to collect, ha).

This large, Chinese style ceramic planter was actually an apartment trash to treasure find that I just realized while writing this that I forgot to post about that when I found it.  It's sitting on a wooden stool that I painted blue a few years back and it's in another corner of the room.  There is a cool object in it that is a project I'm working on.  Will show that to you when it's finished, if I can figure out what I ultimately want it to look like.

It's really the only place in the house that we have blue and white like this.  We've never collected the flow blue in the dining room/kitchen, it's just a collection for this room because we like the colors there.

CLEANED THE HOUSE SIDING

Another project done.  The back of the house is the North facing side and the eaves of the roof keep it all shaded.  The house is white.

We know what that means...

...mildew and mold grows over the course of a year or two and it just looks bad.  As we've done in year's past, we used this great stuff...

E-Z House Wash by Mold Armor.  It works great.  Picked it up at Home Depot.  They sell it on Amazon of course:

E-Z House Wash

  You can buy the kind that is just the liquid without the hose-on adaptor but for as little as we use, it was easier to just get this without having to do any extra steps.

I sprayed it on, waited a few minutes and then flipped the switch to just the water stream to rinse it off...

...and this is what it looked like after I was done.  All clean and white again.  Granted, we'll be redoing the house at some point and some of the siding will be removed and/or replaced and painted a new color.  There is no one else who can see it from the back but we can and every time we're back there, it's hard to see it looking like that

We've done this cleaning in the past with diluted bleach and this product contains bleach as well but honestly, it was just easier to buy this and be done.  So now it's back to bright and white and clean.  The rest of the house that's in sunshine all day looks fine.

One more project down!

FINALLY PRUNED THE BUSHES

The cooler weather lately let me finally prune the completely out of control bushes by the front steps and let us do a bit of porch "Spring cleaning" in the Fall.

We wanted to find a picture or two that showed what they looked like before.  They are the Vitex (Texas Lilac) on each side of the front porch stairs.  They were just always covered with bees and butterflies and looked pretty so we let them grow...perhaps a little too much.

This picture is the same angle/shot as the "after" you'll see below.  It's from the rain a few weekends back.  It's hard to tell but the stairs were completely covered and we started taking the stairs on the end of the porch because it was easier to come up them, ha!

So I got out my favorite cutting implement.  I bought these from a home shopping channel a few years ago and they are amazing.  They have a ratcheting mechanism so if you open them and put them around a branch and close to cut, you can open them, the cutters stay where they were and then you ratchet them tighter and they cut more and more.  They will cut up to a 3" diameter branch.  They made quick work of the cutting and when I was done...

...it looked like this.  Compare it to the "rain picture" above, this is the exact same view after.  We aren't worried about drastic cutting, when the house gets remodeled, they will have to go regardless.  I've done this before and they come back anyway but at least for the Winter and Spring, we'll have the view back.

We don't have a before of this angle but it was a mess of some dead plants in pots from the freeze and some bags of soil.  Got it all organized and cleaned up.  Much better.  It's amazing how less clutter makes things feel much more relaxing and less "busy", ha.

Side note, that large pot had our rosemary in it, but it did not survive the great freeze.  Even rosemary has its limits.  We'll get some of that next Spring.

This spot had the vines of the morning glory all over it.  They were killed with a homemade weed killer (more on that in an upcoming post).  Since they were now dead, I pulled/cut them all off the railing and tossed them onto the ground and then got the mower out to mow over them, scattering them into the wind.  It's now back to an unobstructed view and that definitely makes things more "relaxing" when sitting on the porch.

It's been cleaning time for the last few weekends for sure.  First the outside and now the inside.  Since there isn't much yard work to do right now and it alternates between too wet and too cold, we work where we can.  

More tomorrow...

QUAD STATES TORNADO

 

We hope that any of you in the path of last night's horrible tornado are doing OK.  We watched on the news last night and social media as the storm passed through state after state.  Now in the light of day, it's just even more horrible than you could imagine.

Thinking of everyone impacted.

GLASS CONTAINERS TRASH TO TREASURE

 Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

Here is one of the latest!

Another mystery box found in the recycling area downstairs.  Well it was a mystery when I found it and and when I saw what was inside, I brought them back up to the apartment.

This seemingly random assortment of glass containers and lids/trays?  We took them all out and sorted through them and even though they didn't look like they had ever been used, we ran the glass portions through the dishwasher and washed the tops by hand.

Here's what we had found:

An entire set of Ikea storage containers!  They are oven/freezer safe glass and bamboo lids with rubber gaskets for sealing.  There were two each of six different shapes and sizes.  The lids can be used as trivets to place the glass containers on.  We checked the prices on the Ikea website and they start at $4.99 for the small round ones and go up to $8.99 for the larger ones.  So this entire set would easily be $100.

The only thing wrong with the set was this one that is missing it's lid (a trip to Ikea will soon remedy that).

We just don't understand why someone would throw this all out but hey, who knows.

Ikea storage containers image via ikea.com/us

This image is from the Ikea website.  It shows all the sizes we now have.  We saw this and immediately thought of using them like this in our pantry.

Hey, someone didn't want it for whatever reason and so their changed mind is our lucky find!

GARDEN IS DOING NICELY

At the risk of boring everyone with garden pictures, here are the latest, LOL!

Garlic in raised bed

The garlic has ALL come up.  36 planted and 36 sprouts.  That's pretty awesome.  At this point they are pretty much self sufficient and they don't require much water as long as there is some rain.  If it rains a lot during the week, I'll lightly water them on the weekend or if no rain, I'll give them a good soaking.  They are freeze safe so no worries there.  They'll just keep doing their thing until Spring and then it'll be getting close to harvest time.

Collard greens in raised bed

Check out the collard greens!

2nd Man looked at them and said "I think we'll be eating collard greens in a week or two!"  Watch for some collard green recipes coming soon.  Now, we kind of wished we had planted the Napa cabbage, ha.

Fall gardening is much easier than "late Spring/early Summer" gardening that's for sure.  We might need to look at more "cold weather friendly" things to grow.

HOW TO DRY BRINE AND ROAST A TURKEY

Well, at the least the way WE do it, ha.  And best of all, it's done in less than 90 minutes (for a 13 1/2 lb).  Several of you said you were going to try it and since we scored a clearance bird the other day, this time we took detailed step by step pictures to share.

 

Turkey on a rack

First thing we do is take a baking sheet and cover it with heavy duty foil.  Then we have a rack that fits over it (sitting on the edges) and because the turkey is heavy, we put a silicone rack under that in the middle to keep the turkey from bending it down.

Drying a turkey

Next, we dry it off.  All the nooks and crannies, between the leg crevices and wings etc.  If there is water/moisture on it, the duck fat (or oil) won't stick.

Tucking in the turkey wings

Then we flip it over and tuck the wings in like this so the tips won't burn.

Duck fat on turkey

We turn it back upright, breast side up, and start coating it all over with duck fat.  Of course, this is the step where you can use anything you prefer, olive oil, vegetable oil, etc, but duck fat is amazing.  Rub it all over and under the skin as much as possible.

Seasoning the turkey

Next we put the seasoning on.  This is another step where you can use whatever seasoning you prefer, as long as it has some salt in it.  The salt helps the brining process.  We just rub it all over and under the skin, of course it sticks really well with the oil.  Our homemade rub is a blend of salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, sage etc.  We'll have to commit that to paper, ha.

Dry brining a turkey in the refrigerator

Then we put the whole thing in the refrigerator.  Thankfully, our sheet pan fits just right and we move some stuff around so there is room.  We will leave it this way for two days.  This is right after we put it in.

*By the way, the binder clip was to hold the skin together because it had separated and we wanted it to stay together to protect the breast while it dry brines.  We will remove prior to baking.

24 hours dry brining a turkey

This is 24 hours later.  If you look at the previous picture, it has changed.  It's a little less "shiny" and the skin is tightening up.

48 hours dry brining a turkey

And this is 48 hours later.  The dark part is where the skin has tightened up and kind of sealed up against the meat.  This locks the fat and seasoning under the skin.  We do this for 36 to 48 hours in the fridge of course.

Turkey before baking

About an hour before cooking, we take it out and let it come to room temperature.  For us, what we like to do now instead of rubbing it down again with oil, is use melted butter.  We use salted butter so that adds a bit more seasoning but here again, it's flexible.  If you don't want to use butter, use more of what you used the first time.  You can also season it a bit more if you feel it needs it or just leave the seasoning alone.

Here's where we veer off from the norm.  We cook it at a high temperature, 425 degrees.  We keep the turkey somewhat safe from burning because we take out all the racks except the very bottom and place it on that one.  This keeps it from being too close to the top element and all of the rising heat.  You still have to watch it.  At this point though, you could roast it just as you normally do your own

This one was 13 1/2 pounds and so we put in for 90 minutes.  At 45 minutes (the halfway point), we turned the sheet pan around so both sides are even in color.  Then we started checking it and it was only another 20 or 25 minutes or so when the pop up timer came up and we temped it and it was done.  Start checking yours every few minutes around the 1 hour mark.  There is carry over cooking of course if you tent it with foil after you take it out.  Just don't overcook it.

Behold:

Roasted turkey

Here it is.  How beautiful is that?  One comment on the last one we made said it was a magazine worthy bird.  We think this one's a good looking bird this time too.

Juicy turkey

We wanted to show this picture to hopefully capture how juicy it is inside.  These are not injected by us and we always try to get the non solution filled turkeys.  The juices just run out when we cut/tear into it.

This bird gave us five bags of meat (after we ate some for dinner of course).  Now we have a total of eleven bags of cooked turkey meat off the bone, vacuum sealed, in the freezer waiting for future meals.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Here it is, the week after Thanksgiving.  Where is the year going?  It's been a warm weekend, we almost broke a high temp record.  It was also overcast with the threat of rain.  Anyway, it's Sunday now and time for some more good food and some Hobart. 

Meatloaf and broccoli dinner

2nd Man made some meatloaf.  I love his meatloaf, it's loaded with finely minced carrots, mushrooms, green bell pepper, onions and celery.  We laugh and say it's half vegetable and half meat, ha.  I made some lemon pepper baby broccoli (though I think these were more like teenaged broccoli, ha).

A glass of wine and some chocolate pudding for dessert and it was a good meal.

Hobart is 16 now

Hobart was sleeping in his usual spot (with a view) and when I turned around, he was just sitting there looking at me.  I couldn't resist capturing it.  He wasn't feeling good for a couple of days, but he's back to himself now.  We have to remind ourselves that he's 16 now (he just had his birthday a few days ago) but as we said, he's back to himself, being our sleepy but silly kitty.

Happy Birthday Hobart!

A ROBOT ROAMS THROUGH IT

A couple months back, we were looking down from the apartment balcony one night and saw something moving around in the front area of an office building.  I grabbed the camera, put on the telephoto lens and snapped some pictures.

Knightscope K5 on duty

Here is it is zoomed in.

I told 2nd Man, I think that's a robot!  The next day on the way home, I decided to take a detour and at the stoplight I rolled down my window and sure enough...

Knightscope at work

...it's a robot roaming around on patrol.

A few weeks later, we were a a local mall and as I rounded the corner...boom!

Knightscope K5 autonomous security robot

Face to face(?) with a real robot!

This is the KNIGHTSCOPE K5 security robot.  Here, it was charging, docking into a charging station just like a giant Roomba.  Click HERE to visit Knightscope Robotics.  They have several different models, though this seems to be the most popular.  They can be programmed to patrol a specific area, react to noises like breaking glass, gunshots, screams etc, record video and more.  They are not for home use (at this point, cost prohibitive) but wow, it was such a cool thing to see in person.

My inner sci-fi nerd was geeking out for sure.

Knightscope K5 up close

Look at that face!

Well, at least we think that's a face?

I tried to talk 2nd Man into one for the farm but without arms, I don't think it would be much help to us.  Wouldn't it look cool roaming up and down the driveway though?  I bet the goats and deer would stay away, ha!

The future is coming...

TURKEY DEAL

Well look what I found...

Clearance turkeys!

After Monday's turkey post HERE, I mentioned that we might do one more if we found some on sale and sure enough, I stopped at the store and found the rest of their fresh turkeys on clearance for 39 cents a pound.

Scored a 13.5 lb turkey for $5.26.  Not too bad, especially for a fresh turkey.  I picked it up at lunch  and it will be dry brining soon in the refrigerator.  I wanted to buy several but alas, we don't have the space for all that meat in our freezer (but at the farm, we'll be planning space for a large freezer.  If we can get 5 or 6 more bags, that will give us plenty for future meals.

For everyone who asked the other day, I will be taking step by step photos of our process from unwrapping to roasting so we'll have a post on that coming soon (probably Monday).

You can't keep me away from a sale! 

NEW PLACE TO PLANT

Recently, we cleaned up these large clay pots we brought from the house in town a few years ago. 

The size is deceiving with no frame of reference but they are pretty large.  They have been in front of the cleaned up area around the workshop so now we have two spots to plant something exciting.  Since they are in front of big blank spaces on the front of the building, something tall(ish) and dramatic would be nice.  

Now before everyone mentions the citrus trees in containers, we're going to do that but those will be near the other fruit trees behind the house so we can protect them in the Winters.  These would be exposed all year, full sun.  We decided we'd like something flowering or at least colorful, with some height.

 Bougainvillea on a trellis would be pretty but we have too many things out there with thorns already, ha.

  Hibiscus could be fun, we know they are freeze sensitive but they are also ubiquitous here and are available all the time at any garden center and very inexpensive.  They are pretty for sure.

We probably would want to stay away from something climbing so it doesn't stick onto the siding or grow in between boards or cause other issues like that on the building.

Ornamental grass maybe?

Topiary of some sort?

 Of course, we're just planning now, it's not the time of year to actually plant, but we would like to be ready to grab some plants in a few months when the garden centers start stocking up.  

Any suggestions?