January 24, 2014 Ice Storm Results and a China Hutch

0730  Up with the coffee maker.  I thought Jace was up so I was actually tricked into getting up.  Let the dogs out.  They were naughty and made several piles of poo.  Not what I like waking up to.  But let's face it, if they are too chicken to go out in the cold, then they're going to poo on the floor.

0735  Poo cleaned up.  Still no Peppermint.  I let her out last night and it was sleeting.  I checked for her several times up until midnight.  I'm pretty sure she's a popsicle and we'll have to wait till Spring to get a search party gathered to find her.

I went and checked on the chickens.  Surprise!  The lock is frozen so I can't let them out.  Off to the hoop house to get some scissors to break the ice.  I check the temperature in the hoop house.  Yippee!  It's a balmy 40 degrees in here.  It's 27 outside.  Maintaining 13 degrees difference is great.  It rarely gets below freezing here and the whole purpose of the hoop house is to get plants started early and not having them freeze.  The hoop house held up fine.  There's ice on the outside of it.  I worry that this will have an effect on it, like it will shatter.

I make it back to the chickens and bust open that lock.  They are tweeting like mad.  Out of the door they come.  Don't they know there's ice all over the ground?  They really seem to have a mob mentality.  Not particularly intelligent and they all join in.  "Yes, let's all jump off this cliff."

0800  Having my coffee.  Lizzie gives 3 short barks.  I go check, and yep, there's Peppermint.  She doesn't look bad and is eager to come inside.  Now I can relax.  Stupid cat.  Off to more exciting things now, paying bills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to town to the resale shop.  I was planning on going to a few different stores.  I'm searching for some chairs for my table.  I have some rickety cheap chairs that just aren't holding up well.  I don't mind nice looking used things.  

I've been searching for a China hutch for a loooooong time.  I've found the right one many, many times, but the price has been too steep.  I saw this and thought, "Here we go again.  At least $900 I'm sure."  Instead it was $300.  It's solid maple.  I'll probably never see one this nice for that price again.  I will also keep it forever.  So I bought it right away.  I've learned that if it's an item you know in your heart of hearts you will use and keep for a very long time, you should buy it right away, otherwise it WILL be gone when you come back.  Contrary to the picture, I will not keep my shoes on it.

January 23, 2014 Reinforced Hoop House

0700  Nope.

0715  Under protest.  Got up and let Lizzie out.  Coffee was already ready.  Drinking coffee and sitting with Peppermint.  She feels that I've been gone a very long time and she has missed me terribly.  Lots of meows.  Every. Time. I. See. Her.  She must have memory problems.  Probably from chewing on the computer.

I'm doing some shopping in a little while.  Jace has asked nicely for some horse liniment from Tractor Supply.  There could be a chance for some adventure there.

The real question here is why am I shopping today?  Because we're knuckleheads and I just saw the weather for tomorrow.  I thought this whole week was nothing but nice or a few clouds.  Turns out the Polar Vortex will be here tomorrow.  *Dum dum dum*(dramatic effect music)  I don't want to be out shopping tomorrow when the temps are freezing, possibly snow/sleet, and taking Rowan with me. 

Yesterday evening we added another layer of plastic across the roof of the hoop house for this event.  We're not sure of its' ability to stand up to sleet.  In a logical thought process I would think the heat generated inside the hoop house would melt any ice off the roof.

UPDATE:  I helped the warming process along this afternoon.  I ran an extension cord under the hoop house and connected a small heater.  I crawled around all the edges at the bottom of the hoop house checking for drafts.  I blocked them with scrap plastic, cardboard, wood and rocks.  I bought a thermometer at Tractor Supply and it's showing 49 degrees in the hoop house.  I'll recheck later to see if this is working.

 

Heater sitting on a cinder block to elevate it off the ground.  I'm nervous about the connection sitting on the ground so I tucked it into the hole of the cinder block.

 

 

Ye ole thermometer

 

 

 

 

I read on Garden Therapy a recipe for All Natural Orange Cinnamon All-Purpose Cleaner.  I made some and put it away.  I'll check back in a few weeks.  I also put it on my calendar and made a note of where exactly I put it.  Two weeks from now I may not remember.  "Great, it's ready.  But where is it?!"

Since the weather is so yucky there's a couple things I'm working on inside.  I'm making bread, even as we speak.  I do it the lazy way...in a bread machine.  I bought a bread machine at Goodwill a few years ago.  I don't really like bread baked in a bread machine, but it's wonderful to use just for making the dough.  Throw all the ingredients in and come back an hour later, shape some loaves, and bake in the oven.  Perfect homemade bread.

The other thing I have to work on is cleaning out the freezer, which I AM about to go do, for real.  I got a very good deal on some meat and I don't have room for it.  There's also a lot of stuff in our freezers (2 of them) that no one is ever going to eat.  I will get to eat homemade bread as a reward.