little blue house – Page 4

Housing Upgrades

September 21, 2023September 19, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

*This is the layout for my 899 square foot home from the sale paperwork. We use the front bedroom as a living room, and the living room as a kitchen/project room.*

When we moved in, we knew that the house needed some upgrades. The floors were icy to touch with bare feet, and in summer the attic crawlspace might have a lot of insulation, but would hot box the entire house anytime it was sunny and over 75F.

We held off on any more work because our nightmare experiences with the last contractor.

We had gone through Angi’s List and it was so bad their arbitration process gave us back $675, of which the contractor never paid us. Angi’s list when they suspended him for that, but my experience as an auditor says he’ll probably just pick up a new business license and start all over again. But at least his absolute trash fire of a predatory business will be inconvenienced a little before he takes advantage of someone else.

As an aside, the craziest thing about that was the last day he was at my house when he told me he never gets repeat business, and some angry man called him on the phone to tell him his plumbing no longer drained where the contractor worked on it. This was literally as the contractor was destroying my plumbing. Never again without word of mouth references.

Issue 1:
Turns out I have no insulation under my house for like 80% of the home. I called Boulton Insulation, and this really cool guy named Kevin came out. he walked us through it all, and answered questions about things that weren’t even insulation related. He talked to us about the roof and mini splits. He was really on top of things. I cannot suggest them enough. This is the second time I have worked with Boulton.

What I liked was he didn’t try to upsell us. The bid was under $1300 to fully insulate the underside of my home, and wrap the pipes. That is doable. He even gave me the name of a reliable roofer.

They are coming out next week to do the insulation. My wife will no longer have icy toes when it’s chilly. I can’t wait!

Issue 2:
I also don’t have any venting on the roof. the previous home owner did the roof himself, and while he did a good job, you have to have venting.

This is deceptive becuase you would think the more airtight the better, right? Totally wrong. Without venting on your roof, on hot sunny days, it just cooks in there no matter how much insulation you have. I have great insulation, too, up there. As it gets hotter and hotter, heat then radiates down into the house, and cooks your shingles, lowering their lifespan. Plus it can create moisture trapped in your crawlspace that can mold. You just have to have venting.

I received a bid from Patrick at Sound Roof Care. Venting out my entire 899 square foot roof will cost me about $2700. Once again, very nice on price. I liked Patrick. He seemed honest and pointed out things I hadn’t even seen but were obvious to me once he saw them. He was well educated in his trade, and what he told me aligned with what I researched. He also didn’t try to upsell me.

I haven’t got a start date for him, but that will be soon too. With that done, next summer will not be so miserable every time the sun comes out.

Issue 3:
Our next plan is for an electrician to come out so we can solve the issue with the kitchen circuit flipping every time we run the microwave, the fridge, or the dishwasher at the same time. We also want to run some electrical to the shed. This will probably be a big ticket item as I think we need a new electrical panel, and I am not sure if we need it run to the power lines from scratch.

We simply use more electricity than the elderly lady that lived here before us. We run a lot of electronics for work, and have appliances that are much more modern than the original house versions.

I also want to make sure everything is safe after that contractor put in an electrical plug for the dishwasher. I don’t trust his work at all after I had to redo like 60% of it for being dead wrong and detrimental to my home.

Issue 4:
The last item on my list is to have mini split heat pumps put in for heating and cooling. I would like to have air conditioning, and get rid of all the portable air conditioners. There are some rebates from our local power company for this, so hopefully that will not be too expensive. We will look at that later next year or so. Getting the first two issues done will make this home much more comfortable temperature wise so even if we are starting to get 90F days here in the Pacific Northwest, it won’t be like this last summer when the entire house felt like an oven.

I feel like I am in a real life Minecraft game. I am building up my base, and making it cool.

The Sunflower Project That Wasn’t.

September 19, 2023September 17, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

I grew sunflowers because I like them, and honestly from a pollinator standpoint watching all the pollinator bees, and the humming birds with them was fun and amazing. I did not set out to plant them for harvest, but I thought since I had them I would try it.

It came to the end of their lifespan so I thought I would pull some for harvest.

*Some of the heads are starting to die, and brown up.*

I cut some of the dead flower heads off, watched a couple of videos on YouTube on how to harvest sunflowers and got to work.

I rarely ever give up on a project after I start, but first I noticed you have to wear gloves because they are so sticky, and soap and water does not get it off easily. So ewww.

Second, the pattern in the heads of the sunflowers really ick out my wife, so that’s not good to have sitting in the kitchen.

Finally, it is tedious, and slow, and annoying.

All that combined, means I just gave up. It’s the first garden related project I just gave up on.

When I can get a pound of organic, shelled, sunflowers from Trader Joes for $2.99, and I can’t identify any real flavor difference, then I am not really into spending HOURS on shelling these and processing them.

I think I will keep my sunflowers to just decorative from now on.

Garden Misadventures – Yellow Jacket Apocalypse

September 17, 2023September 17, 2023 Wolsey3 Comments

My compost pile is being held hostage by yellow jackets.

My back yard is bordered by a retaining wall made of railroad ties. Somewhere around August, a yellow jacket hive set up shop behind some of the ties, literally next to my compost bin. I am thinking the blueberry syrup waste I tossed in there made it an attractive neighborhood. I have also since learned they are aggressive little bastards in late summer by nature.

I discovered this when I tossed some compost in the pile and was going to mix it in, and I got stung. I thought, no big deal, I would call Orkin, who I had a contract with, to come deal with it. First, I learned that my Orkin contract only covers the house, and I’d have to pay a couple hundred bucks to deal with the nest, and they’d have someone call me. After a month of trying to contact them I gave up, cancelled my contract, and decided to DIY it. I don’t need to pay for a service that ghosts me.

The first time I sprayed them with a single can of spray, early in the pre-dawn light, they came flying out of there like they were shot out of a bee cannon, and I got stung on the nose, flung myself backwards, and hit the ground. I was about five feet away, but had to finish spraying from about 15 feet away after I got stung. This seemed to kill a lot of them off, but there were still bees a couple weeks later.

I hope my back neighbors got the entire event on their Arlo camera that they have pointed at my yard. Someone should get some humor out of it. I feel like it was a flappy “OMG a bee is on me” dance that probably did not showcase what little grace and dexterity I actually have.

So then I bought six cans of spray and my wife and I went out. My wife has ADHD, which might explain while I was spraying the hive area, I noticed my wife spraying down the length of the retaining wall in a loopy pattern with the bug spray. She seemed to be enjoying herself, so why not?

This is kind of a thing for her. I once asked her to help me shave my backside, you know, as one does when they transition and realize that butt hair is the fastest and thickest incoming masculine hair you are getting. I realized after getting into a fairly compromising position in the bathtub that she was shaving down my thigh, and I had to ask her why?

So I am not sure, but I think targets are a little murky for her, and I am going to say that might be ADHD related, but it could also just be a quirk my wife has.

Back to the yellow jacket eradication project, we each had three cans, and I dumped my three in the crevasse with the nest, but my plans to get super close and really get in there were ruined as a half dozen bees came out while I was spraying. They weren’t bee cannon ferocious, and I sprayed them down the foaming bee spray. I felt I got a good coverage and into the hive, though.

Now, days later, I still notice a yellow jacket, here or there, coming in and out of the hive. They are still holding my composter hostage, and I can’t mix my compost.

My plan is to buy six more cans of bee spray and try again. Eventually I have to get them all, right? I am a grown ass adult, and I can keep buying bee spray until I have killed the stinging possessive bastards. I was going to move the composter to the other side of the yard this month originally, and now I have to wait until I get rid of the bees.

So Bees 3, me 0, in the war for the composter.

Instant Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

September 10, 2023 Wolsey3 Comments

I don’t really drink caffeine much at all. I used to drink coffee when I was young, but then I switched to tea when the caffeine was getting to me. When that was a lot I stopped that too, and now I like a hot beverage in the morning, but not the caffeine. I drink cocoa instead, and yes it has a smidge of caffeine, but not enough to trip me up.

I also don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so most commercial mixes are way too sweet for me. I do it when I eat out for breakfast, but on the day to day breakfast? I prefer less sugar. I feel like everyone is competing for the sweetest hot cocoa mix.

I also like a bit of heat in my cocoa, so I make mine with cayenne pepper. Just a tiny smidge.

This started as an Alton Brown recipe, but it’s since been tinkered with to fit my needs.

Ingredients:

5 Cups whole Dry ilk. (No Nonfat! It won’t work right!)
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 Cup White Sugar
2 Cups Cocoa Powder
4 Tsp Cornstarch
2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

Directions:

Toss it all in a bowl, and mix with a whisk.
To use, put 1.5 TBSP, or one heaping spoon full in your mug, and fill with hot water.
Adjust everything to taste.

*Whisk a lot to make sure it’s incorporated, but carefully so you don’t toss powder all over the kitchen.*

I was worried about calories because that is a lot of whole milk, but I put it in MyFitnessPal.com, which isn’t 110%, but it turns out it comes to approximately 46 calories for 1.5 TBSP of the stuff, so go wild. The lowest calorie packet I could find was a generic Winco packet for 110 calories so this beats the pants off of that.

I converted everything into tablespoons for the recipe and at 1.5 TBSP for each serving it comes to about 130 servings, in case you were wondering. I make this up every few months.

*This is a screen shot from MyFitnessPal’s recipe calories screen.*

Lastly, be prepared for storage. It makes a lot.

Finished mix in containers and one cup of cocoa, and a thumb in the lower right corner because I have fat fumbling fingers. I keep the ball canning jar on the counter, and the rest in the cupboard out of sight.

I’ve been doing this for years now, and honestly I even take it with me when I travel. Trying to get a non caffeinated option at a hotel is stupid hard for some reason. I just pack it up in little bags and add water.

Frozen Tomato Harvest

September 4, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

I did some tomato sauce processing this morning. I actually had two big giant batches. I had my dutch oven and my big pot going together at one point. The pictures below is after I cleaned it mostly up and it was just simmering down with the last batch. There was tom sauce literally everywhere before I cleaned, so I’ll keep that mess as a memory snapshot.

*Toma Toes sauce and jars waiting to be filled.*

In hindsight, with ten 16oz jars I could have canned it up, but I think I need more research. Since I don’t eat onions or garlic because they are my mortal gastroenterology enemy, it makes finding approved and safe recipes harder. So many of them have so many onions in them.

I also don’t really want to add any acid to them, like you would do with water batch or pressure canning, because my wife has GERD already. I don’t need to throw more fuel on that fire.

Instead, I just blanched them like before, and peeled and cored out the stems. I then just cooked them down. I initially mashed them with a potato masher, and when I had cooked them down to a close to desired thickness, I used my immersion blender to blend the remaining solid toms, and some basil and green onions in from the garden. (Green onions don’t have it in for me, so I can reasonably eat those.)

Then I just filled the jars, labeled and froze them.

I am initially freezing them in the house freezer, but then I will take some out to the chest freezer later, as I won’t have to worry about them falling over then.

*Ten jars of Toma Toes sauce waiting to freeze in the freezer. Also, so many Costco corn dogs. So so many.*

My last task fo the day is reheating some of the pickle brine I had left over from last time, and doing one last 16 oz jar of pickles with the last of my cucumbers from the garden.

*Brine and cucumbers slices waiting to become refrigerator pickles.*

I did not get a big enough harvest of these, or enough at one time to even bother with canning pickles. Refrigerator pickles work just as well, and are just as good.

Now, that I am done, I am going down for a good long nap. I am still exhausted from surgery. It’s very true, when you get over 50, these things take longer to come back from.

Incoming Tomatoes!

September 4, 2023 Wolsey1 Comment

There are only two of us in my household, and one of us had GERD and does not eat tomatoes much at all. That’s a lot for one, and maybe a half person at best.

I have a lot of toms coming up in the garden. This is after giving a big bag away two both my side neighbors. There’s more coming. It’s by far my most successful crop.

However, My experiment with freezing them was kinda sorta successful. They are so filled with juice, that a 16 oz frozen can of whole tom’s is more like an 8 oz can with another 8 oz’s of juice.

So I am going to cook it all down in a giant pot of crushed tomatoes and freeze it after I have cooked out some of the juice. It’ll take a few hours, but at last when I pull a 16 oz jar from the freezer, I will have something that will be usable like a 16 oz store-bought can without additional fussing.

I’m going to do the same boil and skin process before, but instead of tossing them directly into jars, I will toss them in a pot to cook down.

You know, once I go out and collect today’s pile, to add to this.

9/1/23 Garden Update

September 1, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

I had a small surgery on the 24th of August, so I haven’t been as up and around as usual. However, my garden keeps on going.

Here’s some update thoughts on where we are at with it.

*Glacier Bush Tomatoes from Botanical Interests.*

The tomatoes have gone wild. Like I have more tomatoes than I can handle for two of us, especially since my wife has GERD. So it’s really like one of us, and occasional she has a bite. I got these Glacier Bush Tomato seeds from Botanical Interests, and they are a 55 day semi-determinate. They grew strong, fast, and blew up in my 8b area.

I definitely will be using some of these for next year, but less of them.

My cucumbers? Not so much. I just never got them off and running? I got a few cucumbers, but nothing to really brag about. I made a few refrigerator pickle jars, but it just was never enough to fully can them. I only got 2 or 3 at a time.

I got the Homemade Pickles Cucumber Seeds from Botanical Interests. I just don’t know if I know what to do with them much? The ones I did get, were amazing. Like I made some cucumber and tomato and feta salad with rice vinegar and olive oil and I could eat that for days.

I might have to figure it out this cucumber situation for next year. Some of my plants never really took off at all and I don’t know why.

My strawberries also went crazy. I need to research how to manage them because they went wild. My plans for them is to transplant them into the front yard into another blue raised bed. I have the bed, but I have not put it together because my health was not super great that last couple weeks.

I am wondering if I can combine one of these raised blue beds with a raised bed situation and have the strawberries cascade down from above into the bed below? It would look cool, and remove an entire grassy area. I hate lawn grass.

I got a misc beet mix from Botanical Interests, and planted that recently. I love beets, and I plan to make pickled refrigerator beets and some borscht with them. I should have enough for roasted veggies as well.

I’ve never grown beets, so I am just watching and waiting.

In all, for my first year here? This garden has done so damn well. I have not really ever had this kind of space and I am shocked at how easy it was, once I got the beds and green house set up.

The only downside, is I have had a squirrel incursion into my garden cage. I am not sure how they are getting in, but I plan to really go over the area once I am done for the season and patch up any holes in my perimeter.

Refrigerator Pickles

August 27, 2023 WolseyLeave a comment

My cucumber plants had a lot of flowers, but not so many cucumbers. They are proving more challenging than my other crops. I just am not getting enough cucumbers to be worth trying a full canning attempt at pickles.

I feel like my plants are trying to sneak cucumbers at me when I am not looking so they can die off too! I swear I will be out every day just looking, and BOOM! one day there is a big cucumber, that literally wasn’t there the day before. I have had two giant version show up out of nowhere and I am sure I didn’t miss them.

I got a few little ones and a big one today, and so I decided to make Alton Brown’s Kinda Sort of Sour refrigerator pickles.

The only alteration I made was two use dill seed instead of celery seed because that is what I had on hand. I am recovering from eye surgery, so I am not into going to the store right now.

*Three jars of pickles and one of brine.*

I made way too much brine, with a double batch, so I am just going to refrigerate it and save it for the next few cucumbers that come up. This three jars will add to the other two I made last week before I went into surgery.

I know my wife will be happy. She loves pickles, and I just don’t think grocery store pickles have much of a flavor at all. These do, and I am sure it’t because of the apple cider vinegar and the spices used.

I am experimenting. The first two jars I made last week, I weighed down with my sauerkraut weights, and these I am not. So I will see how it all turns out.

That’s all I am up for today. I’ll go back and nap as I let my eyes heal, but at least I will have pickles waiting for me when I am up and about again.

Unintended Consequences

August 22, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

I was cooking some cabbage stir fry for dinner. It’s the same red cabbage from the garden. It was all good until I added the wine and the cabbage went from bright red to dark indigo blue/black.

It tastes the same, and is good, but it sure looks funky.

In all my years cooking I have never had this happen. Apparently the acids evaporate when you cook it, and it can turn blue. They say you have to add lemon or vinegar to turn it back.

I over did the cooking I think. Notes for next time, I guess.

Air Fryer Grilled Cheese

August 22, 2023 Wolsey1 Comment

I wasn’t sure what to do for lunch today, but I had some garden grown red cabbage and some leftover feta cheese.

I decided to make air fryer grilled cheese sandwiches. I like doing them this way because I can toss two of them in the air fryer at a time, and they have a very crunchy exterior and soft interior that just is melty perfect. Then my wife and I get them both at the same time.

*All the fixings for grilled cheese. Tally is the background judging me.*

I assemble the grilled cheese right in the fryer basket. For these I did a layer of cheddar on my buttered bread than sliced up little diced cubes of feta to lay on top, before topping it with another layer of bread. This is some sort of sourdough sandwich bread.

*Two assembled grilled cheese in an air fryer just waiting to be grilled.*

I toss it in for 350F for 5 minutes, flip them over, and 380F for 6 minutes. Then I pull them, slice them and they are done.

The Cole slaw was super easy, too. I just made the slaw dressing as follows:

3/4 Cup mayo – we use low fat.
3 TBSP Apple cider vinegar – I prefer Braggs
2 TBSP sugar
Salt and pepper to taste.

I mix that up and keep it in the fridge and just toss it in a bowl with some diced red cabbage from the garden. It’s a favorite in our house. I usually keep a container of this slaw sauce in the fridge at all times. It’s also tasty on carrot sticks.

*Two plates with the grilled cheese, slaw, and sugar wafer cookies.*

This literally takes me about 15 minutes to make. I keep diced cabbage in the fridge with premade slaw sauce, and that way I can toss it together on a work day, and then go back to tying out financials to source documents with a nice hot meal in front of me.

You can’t have this in an office environment! Well, I mean, you are not supposed to. We do have a forbidden panini press hidden in the closet that my coworkers and I use in the office, but this is much less likely to get me in trouble.