PREVENTING SEPTIC TANK BACKUP INTO HOUSE

Since we are new to having a septic tank, we are learning the ropes as they say.

Recently, the company that installed the system came out to do what they call a "Septic 101" meeting and went over everything with us. What to do, what not to do, how everything worked, early warning signs for issues, maintenance, etc.  It was great.

One thing they suggested getting was a sewer popper cleanout and relief valve.

This is what a standard cap looks like, what it came with, this screw on cap.  It's access to the system to clean out clogs, etc.  What happens is if the sewage ever does back up, it goes to here but then it reaches a screwed on cap, can't escape and keeps flowing...INTO the house via the toilets etc.  Those are the horror stories you hear about sewage backing up into a house, destroying floors, tile, walls, etc.

So, he recommended this.  It is a sewer pop up protection device.  They have several different styles, we bought THIS ONE ON AMAZON.

You can read the details on the instructions above on how it works, how to install etc, but here are some photos of the process and how it works.

First, you unscrew the regular cap...

Then you screw this piece on.  This is it sitting on a hard surface so you can kind of see how it works.  The center piece is just sitting inside, not attached to anything and will pop up like this in the event of a sewer back up.

Here it is in place!  Super easy, took about 5 minutes (if that) to install.  How it works is really just the laws of physics.  If sewage ever starts to back up, it will flow backwards and up into here because of pressure.  But instead of it meeting resistance with the previous, screwed-on cap and heading further up the line into the house (the direction of least resistance), this little valve pops up and out and the sewage will flow out of this (outside) instead of into the house.  Sure, it's a mess outside if that happens but better outside than INSIDE!

Pretty cool little fix and DEFINITELY worth the peace of mind.

GOOD FOOD AND FROZEN PICTURES

It's been cold again, mid-20s.  The other morning we had a LOT of frost and frozen water.

We've been staying in where it's warm and of course 2nd Man made us something good to keep us warm.

This is a bowl of pasta and white bean soup with ground turkey and three greens (turnip, collard, mustard).  We topped it with some warm and crusty ciabatta bread and it was hearty, filling, and warm on a cold day and freezing weekend.

The standing water from the rains a few days back was frozen solid.  I was able to (carefully) walk on this.  It was crazy.

But it sure was pretty...everything was covered in white and looked like a true winter wonderland.  It might be all we get this year (though February gives us a few more weeks of a chance).

Hope you all are staying warm!

THIS IS FOR THE BIRDS

Ha, thought that would be a fun post title.

We have decided to help the wildlife now that we are out there and part of that ecosystem are the birds.

So, the other day, 2nd Man said, "get some bird seed at lunch!".  I found this "Texas Blend Wild Bird Seed", formulated for our state's wild birds.  

Of course, we have no bird feeder.  We do have a fabulous barn replica birdhouse that a very sweet friend gave us, but we don't want to put that up just yet.  We'll do that in the Spring.  We also have some great Texas bird books also gifted to us but they are still in storage, will have to get those out soon.

In the meantime, we do have some Shepherd's Hooks that we brought from the last house, and I had plans to put windchimes on them, but we'll use one for this.

 

As I went down the "bird aisle" at the store, wow, all sorts of fun stuff.  We will get other kinds of feeders in time for the coming Spring.  We'd love for our property to be bird habitat.  Sitting on the screened in porch listening to birds sounds like a winning situation.

IT IS COLD

It has been cold.

We got down to 21.

The house has been great.  We have temp sensors around and the house attic has stayed around 70 degrees (!) even as it's almost teens outside.

We got sleet, ice and snow flurries.  This was the radar Sunday morning.  We were right in the middle of it.

Monday, all schools were closed, and most businesses (my office included) had people work from home. 

We had ice all over everything.  The roof and the driveway were covered.

As were the trees and bushes.

The screen door to the back porch was solid ice from the rain that hit it and froze.

We had some icicles over the back door and when I went out to check the well house, I shut the door...

...and one fell off and hit me in the head.  Glad it was melting and not sharp and of course also glad that it didn't fall from two or three stories up, ha.

We had a light dusting of snow that didn't last long.  But it sure looked pretty.

Last night was another cold night and after a slight warmup the rest of this week, we will have another one this coming weekend and another chance of snow!

OUR FIRST HARD FREEZE AT THE NEW HOUSE

Well in years past, the big Winter storms we've had were while we were in town and the farm was out there by itself.  Many times, too many

Ice and sleet predicted for everyone, almost all the way to the coast...

Temps in the upper TEENS for us.  Brrrr!!

But the plants are safe inside...

We moved stuff around and got both cars in the garage so they'll be safe from the elements.

Bill will have to stay outside but I took him for a long drive to move fluids around, get it warmed up and charge the battery well.  Parked between the two buildings it stays sheltered from North winds.

Our attic is super insulated so we shouldn't have to worry about the few pipes that run through it.  We have temp sensor up there to keep an eye on things.

Now we just sit back in the house, cross our fingers the power stays on and enjoy the Winter wonderland we might have in a few short hours.

Stay warm. 

Stay safe.  

DOG FOOD CANISTER TRASH TO TREASURE

OK, so you might think, we don't live in the apartment anymore, how are you having a trash to treasure find?

Well this was a last minute one before we moved.

I was going downstairs to take our own stuff to leave as we were moving and I saw this.  Wasn't sure what it was, maybe just a bin/can of some sort but you know me, I had to at least look!

Look!

It's a really cool metal "dog food" bin/container.

Doesn't look like it had ever even had anything inside. Or maybe they just kept the whole bag inside and didn't pour it in.  We don't have a dog of course, but I figured maybe we could keep it to put food in for when "J"s dog Maggie comes to visit us.  Or who knows what the Universe has in store for us out here.  

Maybe this find was serendipitous!

SOME FUN CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Before it gets too far away from Christmas, thought I'd share these.  While 2nd Man and I didn't exchange gifts this year, my office did some gift giving and I scored a couple of really fun things.

The first one is this:

What is it?  It's a really cool, handmade wooden trivet set.  They all stack on this holder and when you pull them off, they look like this above.  Each piece of wood is hooked together with an elastic band and when you push it flat...

...it becomes the perfect trivet for your hot pots and pans!  It's already come in handy a few times.

And then I got this set of plastic, vintage style John Deere popcorn containers!

We love the look of them, the are a wonderful off white/beige color with the original John Deere logo.

Another friend gave me these bee themed gifts:

First, this rather large stepping stone.  When we get bees again here at the farm, I think this will go in the ground between the beehives.

 

A crock and to hold pens and things and a similar one that has an artificial succulent.  Very cute.

In the middle is a Gnome paperweight, well, the head of one, wearing a cap with bees on it!

I'm going to have a desk in the barn, under the rear window, and I'd like to keep items like this out there since that will sort of be my farm office space, ha.

Thank you to everyone!

GOOD WINE AND GOOD CHEESE

When we planned the house, one of the things I suggested was finding a place in the kitchen for a wine fridge.  The way we redesigned the island, moving some cabinets and extending the length, gave us the perfect spot at the end nearest the dining room.

We found the right one for the space and best of all, it holds 48 bottles.  We only had a few to bring from the apartment so we need to get a few more.

We found these deals.

This was a curated set of twelve different wines that we found online and it gives us a nice mix of reds and whites and again, they are all different.

Then, we love the O'Leary wines (Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank).  His wines are really good and we saw a collection for sale that was also twelve bottles, with two each of different reds, whites and rosé.

We got these 24 loaded in with the others we brought (including some sparkling on the bottom shelf) and we still have space for more.  But these should last us for quite a while, allowing for an occasional gift from somewhere or a special treat.

What goes best with a couple glasses of wine?  A cheese board/tray!  We got this set as a gift from our mortgage broker after our closing and put it to good use.  I picked up some small cheese pieces to try:  Beemster Swiss, Westminster Rustic Red Cheddar, and Sartori Montamore Cheddar.  We added some assorted crackers, wonderful plump and sweet grapes, Sicilian marinated olives and red pepper jam.

#goodlifegoodfood

DIY PANTRY GATHERING TRAY USING A PIZZA PAN

 This was something that I made that has been invaluable now with the pantry and the larger kitchen/island.

I was at the store one day and found this deep dish pizza pan on clearance.  It was only $5.  I didn't buy it for us to make pizza (2nd Man has a cast iron pizza pan for that).  I bought it to create something else useful.  Super easy project, if you can even call it a "project", ha.  I picked up some of the large thick felt pads like the ones that go on the bottom of chairs...

...and stuck them on the bottom.  For what you might ask?

For this!

It's what we call a "gathering tray" (the high side is what I liked about it).  When we go into the pantry, we can gather up the ingredients we need and put them on this tray, then stop off at the freezer or fridge and add more, and then carry it all to the island to work on for the meal.  The felt feet keep it from scratching or clanging on the counters and bonus points, you can grab the edge and pull it or push it around as needed.

TRASH TO TREASURE FINDS TO HELP MOVE STUFF

Figured we should update on some of our unpacking.

We have books.  A lot of books.

In the study, we are going to have four new bookcases with glass doors to hold the majority of our books.

But we still have four more bookcases (one at the apartment and three at the old farmhouse) and so we are going to use those around the new house.

 In the master bedroom, we decided to put one on each side of the window, with the desk in between under the window itself.

Here is one of them.  We moved them both into the room.  That was the easy part.  Then we needed to move one huge load of books.

These books have been in the back of 2nd Man's Jeep since we moved in.  It was time to get them out.  When we moved them from the apartment to the car, we used one of those valet carts that the apartment had and it was pretty good but it took quite a few trips because the sides were open and you can only stack so many before they slide/fall off.  But we got them in the car (these books are three, four  five deep, ha).

I had to think outside the box (no pun intended).

This was a a shipping crate/box that I found a few years ago in the trash to treasure area.  I put in the barn thinking "I might be able to use this for something".

This was another find that I saved after it was discarded. a dolly.  It was probably used to move appliances or something else heavy.  I figured I might could use it someday as well.

That someday was last weekend!

The box + the wheeled dolly = this...

               

Our own movable heavy-duty cart!  We loaded the books from the car into the box and rolled them into the bedroom and loaded them into the bookcase.  It was only three trips total to get the car empty.

We got one bookcase loaded.  This won't be the final arrangement.  We sorted through them and there are some stacks elsewhere.  We had cookbooks.  Vintage cookbooks.  BBQ & grilling books.  Gardening books.  Canning books.  And finally, all other/misc books.  With another bookcase on the other side and then four more in the study and one in the guest room, we'll have space for them and can keep them organized.

In the meantime, four stars for our homemade "trash to treasure" moving cart!