Monthly Archives: July 2022

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, books, California, cooking, Flylady, reading, simple foods, travel, Uncategorized, Walking by

A lovely walk this morning although with the cloud cover it was muggy/ humid. Our temperatures are 10 degrees higher than Sacramento which is crazy but they are getting the delta breezes and we have none.

A busy morning when I got back. It’s sheet day so the sheets have come off and are in the laundry and I did a bathroom swish and swipe.

Then I started on the canning I planned on doing this morning. I decided to do pickled beets and another 2 jars of bread and butter pickles in the water bath canner. My canner is on the way out as it is rusty and the rack is rusty. But it works fine for boiling water. Nonetheless, I just ordered a stainless steel water canner with a rack from Amazon. I had ordered a stainless rack for inside the Ball canner but canceled the order after looking at the condition of the Ball canner overall. So the other one is a good deal with 35% off so it ended up at $53.00. So the pickled beets made 2 jars and the pickles 2 jars. Next week at the farm stand I’ll buy 2 bunches of beets and that should get me 4 more jars. I’m going to open one of the beets in a few days and check out the taste. This recipe was from a Youtuber ( Wyse Guide) who has a farm.

I finished the Anne Hillerman book and started the Jacqueline Winspear latest. Both are excellent writers.

This week is still a light week for me and then next week I have my fasting labs and regular labs and I’m going to get my new eyeglasses ordered. I’m using my Lindberg frames so that will cut some of the expense. I’ve had these frames for over 5 years and they are remarkable. They are rimless and quite light. There I’m thinking they are a titanium frame. It’s the progressives, and the no line bifocal, that cost.

It’s hard not going stir crazy this summer but our Tahoe trip is about a month away now so we have that to look forward to.

Flylady zone is Entryways. My favorite blogger, Minimom, is going back to using Flylady after trying the SHE method. She is a great example of how minimalism works for a family and she has adapted Flylady to her needs. I think that’s the ticket with Flylady, is to use the basic concepts and then adapt them, which is what I do. But I do think you have had to declutter first which is always included in her weekly tasks on her website. Granted it’s not a very sophisticated website but it does show what to do each day if you need that. I do my zone all in one morning usually Sunday or Monday morning. Then each day I do a house reset and tidy and usually always do a bathroom wipe down.

Friday things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, cooking, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Today has been mostly tidying the house and catching up on a few things. I returned a small handheld label maker I had ordered a couple of weeks ago from Amazon because the ink was skipping and after trying a bunch of times just gave up. I’ll look for a different kind of label maker when I feel like it.

I’m planning on using my cash envelopes for August for a few things like groceries, Target, Home Depot and, a few others. I feel like we need to be a bit more focused on where the dollars are going. I know our daily budget but lots of time I just say to B to get it at Home Depot and then he buys whatever. It’s covered in our checking but I feel like we need to say there’s this $amount and that’s it. I’ll focus on August and see how it goes. For some things like gas, I won’t do cash so that’s the debit card. But I will have an index card with the amounts as ‘virtual cash’. All our regular bills are automatic.

Today is our last really hot day and then we start to trend downward into the low 90s. Maybe we can start eating dinner out on the patio again.

After my gym workout, I went into the library and picked up my holds. Two were canning books but they weren’t quite what I was after so I guess I’ll just have to buy the Ball book again. ( I gave it away a few years ago because I hadn’t used it). Most recipes are on- line but I’d still like to have a copy for reference mostly. I was excited to get the new Anne Hillerman book. I still love all things Santa Fe and New Mexico and appreciate the native culture immensely. The pinion pines smell amazing and the sky is incredibly blue. I’ve bought pinion pine incense and it’s lovely.

Tonight is supposed to be pizza but alas, it’s too hot so we’re going to have a brown rice salad. Last night I made zucchini fritters from the farm. I’ll probably go out there later this afternoon for a few things.

Not much else going on here.

A goat cheese quiche:

Garlic herb butter

corn from the farm.

Living Small

Posted in decluttering, minimalism, simplicity, Uncategorized by

It’s interesting how with intention comes purpose. Our intention was always just to make this house work for us because, well, honestly, it was all we could afford. Now with California prices for houses, rentals, and condos, thru the roof, we are grateful for this place we call home. Our mortgage is less than any rental would be in this area. Most rentals for 2 bedroom 1 bath run around $2200. That’s a lot of money and with only living on SS, it wouldn’t be possible. We have had the very occasional thought to sell and we could get a decent amount for this place, but we couldn’t buy again with the proceeds and then the rental cost would be very high. This August we will have lived here 27 years so I think that this is it for us.

So with intention, we plan to live here until we die and make this work. That gives us the purpose to make this place ‘aging in place’ friendly. We have a step at the front door which could be changed to a ramp if necessary/ and or a rail for support. The house is just one level except for the stairs in my office /catio area. That couldn’t be changed but I suppose some creative solution could be found or I/ we wouldn’t go down to the office area. We plan to change to a propane “wood stove” in the next few years so there would be no wood burning or for B processing wood. All of these things would simplify things and I think as we age we either can’t do what we once did or we don’t want to. I certainly don’t want Barclay using a chain saw when he’s 80!!!

Living in a small house has forced us to be creative and look at things differently. We’ve had to find creative storage solutions and declutter to make this house function. There are still ideas I have about rearranging things but for now, the way things are arranged works.

Probably the biggest asset for me is the outside space. Living in a small house is fine but if there was no outside space, personally, I would find it hard. I need to have outside space and some expansion around me. The main draw to this property was NOT the house which as I’ve said was in terrible condition but the land was amazing even though it was overgrown and had huge piles of crap EVERYWHERE. Being on top of the hill we have sky 360 degrees around( not views but sky thru the trees.)There were multiple buildings that the ‘old man’ had built for his assayer business and we had to tear these down. There was also the barn. This is not really a ‘cool’ barn but a barn he must have put up in the early 50s for his mining equipment. Barclay and my son have worked hard to make the barn more stable and usable. My son has lots of his tools for art and video production out there and it does give us the storage we don’t have in the house for camping equipment, seasonal stuff,etc. Since we’ve decluttered out there so much we don’t have a lot( us meaning B and I) out there. My son is a bit of a hoarder and does have a lot. I’m okay with that since it’s his stuff and he’s an adult and can make those decisions for himself. Plus he sleeps/works in the Tuff Shed Studio that was our original home school. So that’s cool. He likes to build things and has all kinds of tools to do that.

Living small has:

  • made life simpler
  • helped us focus on what’s important
  • made us be creative with our space
  • allowed(forced) us to accept that the house has limits(no, a baby grand piano DOES NOT FIT!!!!!
  • showed us decluttering non- essentials is ESSENTIAL
  • helped us become minimalists( to some degree)

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, bread, budgets, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, meal planning, reading, Walking by

We have smokey skies from the Yosemite fire this morning and the sun is an orange ball. The temperature seems cooler but we’re still expecting a high of 98 today. I do hope the firefighters can get this under control. There’s already been a mandatory evacuation down near Mariposa. ugh… fire is scary! We had a nice walk though, and no one showed up while we were there.

I read a few newer books this week including Josuha Becker’s” Things that matter”. I liked it well enough, not remarkable but still a good read. Then Kellerman’s new book “City of Dead”. He’s always pretty scripted but I still like his writing. Then by Kumiko Love( I wonder if that’s her real last name), “My Money, My Way. ” She basically takes most of her ideas from people like Dave Ramsey and others but I still like her presentation and I thought it a worthwhile read about money and budgets. I put a few canning books on hold and I’m still contemplating the pressure canner. I did decide that the All American is too expensive for me (over $ 400) but the Presto is $160 or so and that may be a better beginner option. I’m definitely not interested in pressure canning chicken or beef etc but there are some things I would do that need a pressure canner like chicken broth.

I made some refrigerator bread and butter pickles yesterday, and they looked good. We didn’t plant cucumbers for some reason so I bought 3 at the Farm and got 2 jars out of them.

Here are some of the onions I harvested. I’m thrilled to get some onions.

This morning I started the sourdough bread and will let it do a slow rise overnight and bake tomorrow early. I also made a pie crust for the goat cheese quiche I’m making later. The best pie crust I’ve found is from Joanna Gaine’s book” Magnolia Table”. I’ve made it numerous times and it comes together very easy.

The Flylady zone is the living room zone. I did most of it already but I still need to dust the tops of the Easton Press books.

This week I plan to do a Winco trip for a few things, and B has labs on Wednesday in Rocklin so I’ll see about him stopping at Costco again for a few more things. Other than that, trying to stay cool, and doing my normal stuff.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, cooking, Gardening, Political things, Uncategorized by

It’s been a hot week and it looks like the next 10 days are hot too. I do ok with the heat in the low -mid-nineties but the upper 90s and 100s are hard for me. I don’t want to be outside; even being in the pool isn’t all that great as the air is still stifling. I do all my chores early and then read or do some handwork in the afternoon. This afternoon I’m going to the Farm for a few veggies. I saw they had corn coming in.

I haven’t been to the store this week but B went to Costco after his hearing test and got some things. That ended up $245. Some pantry stuff and then just groceries. Food is costly and I guess will probably stay high for a while. He filled up the truck at Costco gas and that saved some as Costco gas is the cheapest around. All our monthly bills are done and I’ve done a preliminary budget for August.

Oh, I did stop at Walmart after the gym and bought a few capri yoga pants. For some weird reason, Walmart’s cotton leggings always fit my body. Anyway, I needed something that fit and I could use at the gym.

This morning I made a batch of maple granola, and 2 little 4 ounce jars of pesto

for the freezer. If the farm has basil I’ll pick up some and make a few more jars. We don’t use lots of pesto but it is nice in the winter to have. As a matter of fact, we’re having pesto pasta salad for dinner. We considered getting take out but it’s just too expensive for us to buy. I can’t remember the last time we ate out?? hmmm, maybe last spring??

Wednesday I spray washed all the outside windows with the outdoor Windex product. It works really well and there’s no going back to use a squeegee although in the past I did do that. We also have been harvesting the onions and I have some nice looking ones. Onions are hard to grow here but the one bed my daughter did, they grew to a good size. We think the reason was the cardboard that she put down before adding more soil to the bed. There are some more to get in a few other beds but they are quite small and I’m not sure they’re going to grow anymore. We have lots of tomatoes but their still all green.

We watched most of the hearing last night and I’m so over anyone ever supporting trump for anything. He almost destroyed our democracy and is STILL trying to with his ongoing lies that the election was stolen. I loved them showing Josh Hawley running like a scared rabbit in the hallway even though he had fist pumped the armed rioters. Ha, I hope he’s eating s#*t this morning.

Well, off to do whatever is left to do.

House Lessons

Posted in home stuff, minimalism, simplicity, Uncategorized by

There is any number of things I could say our small house taught us but here are some.

This house was sold ” as is” by the nephew of the owner who had died at least 3 yrs before, so it was in a very neglected state. Plus Mr. Clark was 90-something when he died so the house was already neglected due to the fact he was so old and couldn’t do any repairs. The bathroom was pretty much ruined by water damage. We had to gut the tiny bathroom and even the subfloor had to be removed. The prequel to this story is for another post.

It took a very long time for me to understand that this was a very small house and only so much could realistically fit. ( I know, I know, it seems only logical). BUT I didn’t learn this for many years We had moved from a 1500 sq ft house to under 700sq ft. I tried to cram in all our stuff and for years( at least 15) just kept moving stuff around. So the first lesson was the house is a container and the container can only fit what it can fit. It is too small for 2 couches, a piano, a large oak table and on and on. I tried but it really was too much but I still tried. It really wasn’t till I started doing Flylady( around 2010) that I began to understand the relationship between clutter, stuff, collectibles, furniture, and SPACE. What I wanted was a house that worked for me with less stuff, less cleaning, less dusting of collectibles, moving piles of stuff constantly, etc.

Secondly, this is an OLD house and will never have the amenities of a newer house. Our floors creak and the foundation certainly needs some attention. Old houses are harder to keep clean and are always in need of some sort of upkeep that newer houses don’t require. Accepting this house was OLD just helped me get on with the actual living in it.

Thirdly, the layout is really just awful and I’ve had to adjust to this. There is no entry wat to speak of, You come into the kitchen after stepping into what is the front door where Barclay has his desk to one side and on the other is a low metal locker for odds and ends. This room was a porch we enclosed. If we had money, I would have repositioned the front entry in a completely different way. Of course, back then in 1995, with the little money we got from the sale of our house we did redo quite a bit including all the plumbing and electrical. Still, we never changed anything structurally or added on ( like a second bath or bedroom). We just didn’t have the money then nor now.

Four, finally this house taught me to SIMPLIFY everything. Living small is possible if you remove the excess and that is what this house taught me. There’s no question, that if we had money, I would have done remodeling and building but that is not the case so, it’s do what you can with what you’ve got.

If anything, this house taught me to be a minimalist in a way that works for me. It may not be ‘minimalist’ enough for someone else but I’ve pared done to the essentials of what I need and use and love.

There’s more to the story but that’s for another time.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, cooking, Flylady, swimming, Uncategorized by

I’ve been canning jam all week. I made some peach jam which came out ok. I used the Pomona Pectin and can’t say I like it. It supposedly uses calcium water with pure pectin(both in the packet) to firm the jams. I wasn’t impressed. I bought 3 packs of the Pomona but I doubt I’ll use them unless I don’t have Sure Jell or Ball pectin.

The peaches I bought from Ikeda’s were very flavorful but the strawberries were a waste. So the jars you see here were emptied as they didn’t have any strawberry flavor and the Pomonas over firmed it and it was jelly- like and very weird. Oh well, live and learn.

Here’s a shot of my new chat Noir poster framed. When we were very young living in Tucson, I had a Chat Noir poster I loved. Somewhere, with some move it got tossed or ripped ( I don’t remember. So for Christmas B bought this one for me.

The broom is a french Jardin broom. I really love that it is beautiful and useful.

It’s been a busy week and I’m glad it’s over. My eye doctor appt went well and my vision is the same. Still can’t really see out of my right eye but fortunately, my left compensates and I have 20/20.

Then I saw Dr. L Thursday. It was pretty much an in and out visit. My Kappa LC went slightly up but nothing scary or remarkable. So that was good and I was out of there in 20 minutes. The most we talked about ( well, it was me talking he just sort of sits there) was about the best BBQ in South Lake Tahoe as he’s going to be up there in September.

Then I swam on Saturday and that was very nice. The pool was beautiful.

We walked this morning and it was already 77 at 5:30am. We have a new walker, an older guy who is friendly but not overly. The AH shows up @ 6 am and there have been a few days he’s not there so that’s nice. Tomorrow I may skip walking and go do weights but I’m not sure yet.

Yesterday I started Webi at 11am and cooked a pork roast. I was making pulled pork but it didn’t really shred but sliced nicely. It was delicious though. Today, I’m not sure what I’m cooking, maybe just leftovers. I made a coleslaw from the farmstand and wow the cabbage was delicious. I may try and do some sauerkraut or pickle some.

Flylady is the bedroom zone if you follow. Even if you don’t do zones it’s a good practice, to clear off dressers or side tables, wash windows, remove unneeded items, etc. The beauty of the Flylady zones is about every 5 weeks ( there are 5 basic zones, although you might have more if you have a big house with a family room and multiple bedroom) you clean thoroughly that zone. I’ve used her method( now modified to fit how my house is) for the last 12 years and I’ve looked at other systems and they are either too complicated or just hyped up mumbo jumbo house cleaning. Anyway, it’s a brilliant system that keeps me on track.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, home stuff, meal planning, prepper pantry, Uncategorized by

Well, the HOT weather is back and will be with us for about 10 days. I try and hold off turning on the coolers till about noon. The one we added last year in the entryway/ B’s office space actually helps the house the most as there’s no air circulation there and it gets really warm. The cooler moves the air in there and into the kitchen. I also close all the windows by 8 and close what curtains/blinds we have and that helps.

This week is the Flylady bathroom zone and I just finished that. I tidied the kitchen and other rooms too. I was going to make the bagel dough for tomorrow a little later. ( will see if that happens.)

I’m planning to go in to Auburn to go to Michaels as I need some black embroidery thread. I’ve been having fun doing some embroidery. Usually, I just like to do borders on napkins and things but I found a cute Neko cat one on – line for free and I’ve 2. One is just on a linen bag I have and the other I left in the hoop for my daughter to put in her space. It’s meditative and like knitting is a good mind exercise. I might pick up some cotton to do some wash cloths too. I can only knit so long as my hands have some arthritis and after a while cramp up. Still, it’s fun to do something creative.

I did end up going into Winco yesterday and spent a little over $100. I got a few extra pantry things so that was good. One thing I told B when I got home was all the shelves and bulk sections in Winco were all full. No gaps or empty shelves. So I think this is a good time to look at what I need to restock in my prepper type pantry.

I think dinners this week will be around a salad theme because of the heat. I plan on making a Greek pasta salad for tonight, maybe do a sandwich or wrap night too.

Friday things

Posted in budgets, cooking, home stuff, meal planning, Myeloma, Political things, seasonal things by

It’s been a quiet week and also an off week. With the 4th of July on Monday, I didn’t go to the gym and then I didn’t swim Tuesday because I didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic on I-80 with everyone traveling after the holiday. So I went to the gym Wednesday and now it’s Friday and I’ll swim tomorrow. But next week is also messed up because Monday I have my annual eye exam and I’ll get my eyes dilated so I need to drive straight home as my pupils stay dilated for hours. Then Thursday I have Dr. Laptalo, so no gym that day unless I went afterward. It’s always a crap shoot if he’s on time (almost never) or really late ( almost always). So if I don’t leave there till 11, I probably will not want to go to the gym at noon. Some weeks are just like that but I don’t have this happen that often.

I’ve been watching some youtube channels using the All Amerian pressure canner. I’m still undecided. I’d like to be able to can low acid foods( you must pressure can), or just stick with the water bath canning which is what I’ve always done. The canner is quite expensive at @$400, so not a small investment. I guess I’ll keep thinking about it.

The herbs I’ve been drying have come out very nice and quite fragrant so I’ve enjoyed that. This morning I’m making some herbed butter to freeze. I mix the unsalted butter with thyme, parsley, and chives and then roll in a piece of parchment to make a log. It’s nice to have in the winter.

The second batch of bagels I made yesterday came out great.

This is after the overnight fermentation in the fridge.

So using the barley malt syrup is absolutely a game-changer. It gives the bagels a nice chewy texture and delicious flavor. I plan on making these once a week for a while. It is a two-day process with a rise in the refrigerator overnight.

I went to the farm stand yesterday and bought some produce for the week. Beautiful lettuce, spring mix, radishes, cabbage, zucchini, and cucumbers. We’re lucky it’s 5 minutes down the road. I’m hoping to find some peaches this weekend to make some peach jam and maybe a peach pie.

I didn’t do any grocery shopping this week but I may go to Winco tomorrow as we need milk and a few other things. I guess I’ll just see after my swim. So the week has bfarm standeen quite frugal.

Other than that same old same old. It’s still hard to see the news and the horribleness of the Highland Park shootings. It’s really just crazy. Just think, you’re out with your family for the 4th of July to celebrate, and see the parade and then the next minute you’re killed by a crazed murderer with an automatic weapon. When is it going to end and we ban assault rifles. How many more must die.?