When It Rains, It Pours...Chicken Coops!

 Ever since we knew we were going to be moving here onto this property, I told Bob that I wanted to raise chickens. We weren't able to do that when we were in RV parks, but now that we've ditched that sort of life, I want chickens. We eat a lot of eggs and, quite frankly, we plan on raising them for meat. If a hen wants to go broody, I don't care! Hatch 'em out! I want a sustainable chicken set-up. Our biggest obstacle, besides the eagles and hawks that routinely fly overhead, was finding a reasonably priced chicken coop.

I looked on Facebook Marketplace, on a whim, because it's been a while since I did, and I found not one, but 2 chicken coops.

I messaged both. I mean, when we first moved here, we were looking for a coop and every single time one came onto Marketplace, in my price range, it was immediately snapped up. Unless I wanted to monitor Facebook Marketplace 24/7, I couldn't seem to snag up one of these treasures to save my life!

This morning, my luck changed. I messaged about the first one, asking for the dimensions, because it is exactly what I've envisioned that my chicken coop would look like.

In the meantime, waiting for my message to be answered, I ran across one of those cute little ones that people use for backyard chickens. It was for a ridiculously low price, so I messaged that person, too.

My thinking was that one of them was probably sold, so maybe, just maybe, I could snag one of them. They were both the same price. One of them was down in the Vancouver area, in Clark County. The other was northwest of Winlock, in Lewis County. We are in smack in the middle in Cowlitz County.

Anyhow, the small, cute coop person messaged me back first and asked if we could be there at 10 AM. I replied that yes, we could. We set off in the truck.

I priced these coops at Lowe's. These run around $400. I bought this for $100. Bob just needs to fix the ramp. I'm not going to keep this one. I'm going to resell it because....

the person that was selling this coop for $100 messaged me back as soon as we got home from Vancouver, picking up the cute little one.
We talked it over real quick and decided that if Bob did the few repairs on the cute grey one that it needs, like the ramp being attached and cleaning it out, we could actually sell it and recoup not only the $100, but a bit more than that so that it would lower the cost of the coop that we are keeping.

The cute grey coop would house maybe 3 chickens, at most.
The more sensible coop is not only a heck of lot more sturdy, it will house around 20 chickens.
This is a no-brainer.
We'll sell the cute small coop and we will make a bit of a profit from it.

So, we hooked up the trailer to the truck and took off up north to pick up this one. This is the one we'll keep.

So, now I have a home for chickens, I'm just working on getting a supply laid in of straw (for bedding), food, grit, waterers, feeders, etc. We will also need metal pails with tight-fitting lids to store the chicken feed in. .Slowly, but surely, we're working toward having chickens on Kelpie Kapers Farm.

So, when it rains, it pours...chicken coops!

Stocking Up On A Year's Worth Of Laundry Detergent

 I do not like going into stores. They are crowded. People don't respect personal space. I just have no love lost if I don't go into a grocery store again.

I do, however, like to stock up on items so that we are not constantly running to the store. I stock up on a lot of food items, but I don't stockpile them, if that makes sense.

I will mini-stockpile non-perishables that we use. I just did a toothpaste stock up today. I have enough Crest toothpaste to last me for a couple of years and I paid 87 cents per tube. Prices are going up. Costs are going through the roof. When I find a good deal, I take advantage of it. I bought 5 pounds of a butter at $2.47 per pound. I haven't seen a better deal than that for quite some time.

I am getting off track here, though.

I'm getting my washer and dryer hooked up and I wanted to make sure I was stocked up on laundry detergent.

I jumped onto Amazon to see what I could find. I ran into what I thought was a decent deal on Ecos laundry detergent. I could buy 2 100-ounce bottles for $19.47, if I wanted to do a subscribe and save. I always opt in to subscribe and save because it's a way to save some money on my Amazon order. I am also member of Prime. It's worth the money, for us, because we watch videos, I utilize Kindle Unlimited and we take advantage of free shipping.

I looked on Walmart's website and they just didn't have any decent deals worth mentioning, which is surprising because that is where I tend to find overall lower prices on cleaning supplies.

I jumped onto Fred Meyer's (Kroger) website and I found 75-ounce bottles of Purex Free & Clear laundry detergent, regularly $5.19, on sale for $4.99. There was also a coupon.

Here's what I viewed on Amazon. 200 loads of Ecos laundry detergent for $19.47, if I do subscribe and save. I don't look at the cost per ounce when I do these deals. It doesn't pertain to anything. I'm just trying to get the most bang for my buck. The less money that I have to pay out to a retailer, the happier I am about things.

Here's what I viewed on Fred Meyer's website. $4.99 for 57 loads. I was thinking at this time that I would be able to get a few more loads for a $20 bill if I bought these.

I looked at the coupon that was an option to use on the Fred Meyer Purex detergent. It states that I get $2.50 off of $4.99 (sale price), which brings each bottle of this particular size of detergent down to $2.49. Better still, I was able to use this coupon up to 5 times in a single transaction.

Some quick calculation and I placed my order for pickup this afternoon. I held my breath that they had them in stock.

So, I multiplied 57 x 5. That equals 285 loads. 5 bottles of this, using a $2.50 coupon on each one, is a total of $12.45. This versus 200 loads for $19,47. As far as I'm concerned, they are comparable detergents. I've never used Ecos brand, but I've definitely used Purex.

So, we got home a little while ago with my 5 75-ounce bottles of Purex laundry detergent that will definitely last me a year or more.
I'm good to do and we'll have clean clothes and I won't need to run to the store for laundry detergent unless I find another deal like this.


***I am not compensated by any of the companies or products mentioned above.

Installing Washer & Dryer Hookups In The Shed

 I've been waiting and waiting...
And waiting some more.
The life of being an electrician's wife is that I get to see him fix everyone else's stuff while my list of electrical stuff, that I want done, gets to wait until Bob feels like doing it. And, I get it. He gets a payoff to do other people's stuff.
The payoff for doing this is saved gas and money having to run into town to the laundromat every 7-10 days. We don't have to worry if someone used something that is going to making my ridiculously sensitive skin flare up in a rash. I can wash our bedding a bit more often than what we do because it truly is a pain to strip the bed down with these cats and dogs...well, dog. Sasha can't jump up onto the bed anymore because she's going to be 15 years old in December.
I want to be able to stock on laundry soap. I won't be making my own as that's the quickest way to ruin an HE washer and, going off the opinion of my husband who does appliance repair (he's not just an electrician), the homemade is NOT the way to go.
I told Bob that the main thing is to get the washer hooked up. We're opting to not install a water heater at this time. I have a small one. It's like 2.5 gallons. I just don't feel it's necessary. I can wash everything just fine in cold water. If Bob wants to wait a bit before hooking up the dryer, I'm okay with that, too. I have a clothesline and I just ordered 100 clothespins. I like to hang my stuff out anyhow. I like how it smells.

I'm going to attempt to give my explanation as to how this all got installed and I'll be asking Bob for clarification.

We started yesterday at the Home Depot.

Bob's like a kid in a candy store at that place!

Just a note here. Electrical parts and supplies are not cheap. Wire is freaking expensive! The cost of electrical wire fluctuates daily, too. For a 250-foot roll of #12-2 copper wire, it's $268. One year ago, that same wire was $109.

This is the sub-panel. Bob installed it first. This is actually called a sub-main because our main is out on our power pole. This has a quad breaker, 2 pole 30 and 2 single pole 20 amp breakers that Bob installed. These are for the dryer, the washer and a general receptacle for whatever we may need it for. This feeds the metal shed where the washer and dryer will be.

I helped Bob do some wire pulls. That was interesting and, honestly, it made my arm sore. I couldn't imagine pulling wire for hours on end. This has a 30-amp, 240 circuit and 2 20-amp circuits in this pull. I fed it and Bob pulled it.

These are the conduit runs that Bob installed. One is in 1-inch conduit and it's underground and the other is 3/4-inch flex run on top of the ground and attached to the shed. If you didn't know that he did that conduit run, you'd never know it was there underground. The conduit run only took Bob about an hour. He's got some SKILLZ!

This is when Bob was getting ready to mount the junction box on the side of the shed, that will feed the wire run into the shed.  He's got a couple of really super cute helpers, too. Rose is the chocolate one and Sasha is the black one. They are both purebred Australian kelpie dogs.

Rose is supervising Bob, who is mounting a junction box onto the side of the shed.

Here is the junction box finished.

This is the inside part of that junction box that Bob mounted on the outside of the shed. Don't pay any attention to this washer and dryer set. They are being sold. I actually have 2 sets at the moment. Don't ask! We're installing front loaders. So, if anyone needs a set, and you're local, let me know. I'll sell 'em cheap!

Here is Bob mounting the 30-amp dryer receptacle.

This is where Bob made up the washer receptacle.
The wires coming out are going to be for the extra receptacle he's going to install in there...in case I want a light or a heater or whatever. It'll be a dedicated 20-amp circuit.

This is the finished electrical install. We still have to get the water there. That won't be too hard. We're going to draining into a daylight ditch to water fruit bushes with. Since we're on a well, every bit of water conservation we can do, we will. So, within a few days, I'll be up and running and being able to wash laundry at home. It's been a long time!

Thanks, Bob!

What's Up With The Cost Of Canning Lids?

 
I've been canning my own food for well over a decade now. I've always been able to waltz into a number of stores and pick up a dozen wide-mouth Ball lids for around $1.99. Since 2020, the cost of canning lids has skyrocketed. Why is this?
I'll attempt to explain it to you.

Since the start of the pandemic, we've had shortages on various things. This country has been in short supply of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, disinfectants (Lysol), paper towels...even certain varieties of Girl Scout cookies. One thing that has also been in short supply are Ball canning lids.

A canning lid shortage is to be expected because there are more people growing backyard gardens and canning stuff at home is the general consensus. Is this right? Well, not really.

At first, a canning lid shortage was understandable. As I stated, more people were staying home, growing gardens and canning stuff at home. With that new influx of home canners, the canning lid suppliers needed to be able to catch up with this unprecedented public demand. However, the scarcity of canning lids hasn't changed at all.

We saw a shortage of toilet paper. It rectified itself eventually. Hand sanitizer eventually got squared away. Disinfectants did the same. Everything that had an initial shortage got straightened out except for canning lids. Why? The suppliers have had ample opportunity to catch up, yet we, as consumers, are left wondering why there are so few Ball canning lids available and why they are so expensive?

What the average home canner may not know  is that canning lids, which have been around since 1884, and canning jars, which have been around since 1858, are no longer being made by Ball and Kerr (the two big manufacturers of American canning supplies). The fact is that these two companies were under their parent company, Jarden Corp. Jarden Corp, with it's diverse global portfolio of well-known brands like Ball, Yankee Candle, Calphalon, etc., was acquired by a mega-corporation called Newell Brands. At the time it acquired Jarden Corp, it was known as Newell Rubbermaid. This transaction closed in April 2016 and, at that time, they moved their headquarters from Atlanta, GA to Hoboken, NJ. Since Ball and Kerr were just two of a long list of brands they have, consumer demands for any one product is just not a priority for this mega-corporation. Ball and Kerr are just one of a long list of brands under this parent company.

When the 2020 pandemic hit and created a huge demand for home canning supplies, Newell Brands did what any other major corporation would do. They decided to capitalize on this demand. Newel Brands decided that it wouldn't try to sell Ball brand products at every store handling canning supplies as it did in the past, but, rather, they would concentrate their sales through the online giant Amazon and a few select major chains like Walmart and Ace Hardware.

Long story short, they are a monopoly supplier.

Coinciding with this, in 2019, Newell Brands announced that they would close the Ball manufacturing plant in Muncie, Indiana. It has been located there for decades prior. They moved manufacturing to Columbus, Ohio and packing/distribution was moved to Fishers, Indiana.

None of this information has really gotten out to us who can at home. Instead, we've gotten a plethora of ridiculous excuses, with really only one of those being remotely plausible. We were told that there was a shortage of workers at the manufacturing plants. This could, very well, be true enough, just to be fair.

Then, we were told that there was a labor shortage in shipping and at port docks. Could someone explain why a labor shortage at port docks would effect the distribution of a product that is manufactured wholly in the United States? I'll wait...

We have heard that there was an aluminum shortage. Okay. That's fine. Canning lids are made of stainless steel and they have a silicon gasket. So, I'm not sure what apples have to do with oranges, but that was an excuse that was dished out to the public as being a reason why canning lids are in short supply.

We were even told that a wood shortage, in early 2021, caused a pallet shortage and they couldn't pack the canning lid boxes on pallets and it caused canning lids to be in short supply.  Yeah. I'm not gonna touch that one but something stinks like a load of bull.......(sitting on my hands right here).

The truth of the matter is that Newell Brands is limiting its product to certain markets and they are charging whatever they want because, well, they can. If we, the home canning public, want to have quality canning lids, we have no choice other than pay what they want for their product.

Canning lids, sold by themselves, are scarce. When you buy a dozen canning jars, they are sold with lids and rings but anyone who cans at home already has a supply of jars and rings, since those can be used over and over again. We simply don't need those things.  If you pay attention to what stores have in stock, the only retailers that are being currently stocked with Ball/Kerr products are Walmart and Ace Hardware and that doesn't mean that they are available at every location, either.

If you decide to order them from Amazon, you're going to pay dearly for them. I was checking out prices on Amazon this morning and the cheapest price I could find for just one dozen of wide-mouth lids, Ball brand,  was $9.50. Talk about a slap of reality! I used to pay a mere $1.99 for those and that was not very long ago! This explains why I haven't been able to score at Lowe's when they have their clearance sale, in late fall, of their canning supplies. I guess those events are in the past now.

On Amazon, there's an assortment of generic lids available. They are cheap. They are not manufactured in the United States. If you read the reviews, they are very poor quality. The consensus is that they are simply junk. Lots of times, they don't even fit your jars correctly and good luck finding wide-mouth.

I'm also reading where people are reusing their Ball/Kerr canning lids because of how much they cost. There are canning lids that are meant to be reused. Tattler is one of the brands. With the cost of Ball/Kerr, this may just be the way to go in the future. I think that the one-time use lids are very comparable in price to Tattlers. But, I do not recommend reusing one-time use lids. That's a recipe for disaster. It's just not safe to do.

Click here to get further information on Newell Products.
Click here for a 2021 news clip from CBS Minnesota explaining about canning lid shortages.
Click here to read about another person's odyssey trying to find canning lids.

So, I'm here to tell you that there really isn't a canning lid shortage in this country. There never was. This is simply one corporation being able to set the market. Welcome to the world of corporate greed.

Pantry Organization & Spring Cleaning

 It was a beautiful day out yesterday. It was one of those perfect spring days where you want to sit outside and just absorb nature. I did do that for a few hours, for sure, but I also had a few projects that I wanted to tackle.
You guys already read about my instant gravy making adventures. If you haven't, click here to view that blog post. This is the other project that I wanted to accomplish was rearranging our pantry and dish storage cabinet.

This was ridiculous. I had so many Penzey's Spices. I asked my sister if she wanted them and if it was one that I hadn't used in the past 6 months, it is going to her. As much as I make from scratch, she makes more...and she lives in a house and has more room to put things. Anyhow, this is unacceptable. Things got really shifted around when we moved up here in January. Having the fifth wheel pulled up the driveway didn't help matters any. Our driveway sucks, but we like it that way.

Bob wasn't sure if this would all go back into the cabinet. I assured him that, if it came out, it would go back in.

It does look like a holy mess, though. 

That little half of a shelf is where all that stuff on the counter came from. I needed some space to work with.

My Ninja blender, vanilla, sherry and ramekins were all shoved toward the back. Now, mind you, I cannot reach to the back of that cabinet, so I rearranged things in an order that made sense to me, not Bob. Bob is 6'1". I'm 5'4". Big difference there.

I'm pleased with how my spice area turned out. I still have a drawer full underneath. I cleaned that out, as well. This also gave me a chance to see what I needed to stock up on and what I needed to use up quickly.

The dishes came down a shelf and I can now reach everything.

The tote holds all of our packets of stuff and our extra bags of brown sugar, etc. We're working our way through the tote and will start replacing a lot of those packets of gravy, onion soup mix, etc. with homemade versions that I store in canning jars.

Everything in here is now a lot more accessible to me, as well. The boxes are things that are very near or just after the expiration date and they need to be used up. I also have a can of pineapple that's about 8 months past that I will use to make a marinade. I'm thinking tacos al pastor sound good.

I did not stop with just organizing the pantry. I have a working RV kitchen. By that, I mean, I use the stove and I cook in there on a daily basis. Do I tear the stove apart and clean it every single time? No. I don't. I do, however, clean it on a weekly basis. I'm not going to lie, however. I have let it go for about 3 weeks. It was getting gross and it needed to be cleaned. This is real life and stuff happens. Anyhow, I don't use any fancy cleaners for my stove. I've discovered that I can get it super clean with just plain ol' baking soda. It removes the grease, it scours it and it's something that most everyone has on hand. Here is the before photo.

Here is the after photo. Yes, I have some permanent staining on there. Like I said, this is a working kitchen and stuff happens...but my stove is clean.

It was nice to have the door open with Mickey-Shark and Ravioli safely enclosed in their cat pen.
Today, I'm dehydrating apples. Tomorrow, I'm taking Bob to the hospital so that he can have his procedure. After that, I'm going to dehydrate potatoes. After that, it will probably be time plant out some more stuff. This is a homestead/farm in baby form and every single day, if we accomplish a few goals, they eventually add up to a nice place to live.
So, my parting words of wisdom to RVers is to not be afraid to use your propane stove. I think I'd have a hard time going back to electricity after getting used to this.

Instant Gravy Mixes From Scratch

  I bought a lot of ingredients the other day. There's a reason why I did this. Bob and I tend to use a lot of instant gravy packages. Instant gravy packages tend to have a large amount of salt in them. I'm trying to cut down on salt per my doctor.
I ran across a YouTube video the other day and I thought that what this lady did was such a great idea that I wanted to make my own. Click here to view the video. She did a lot of other instant sauce mixes and I will make some, but I wanted to make these 3 instant gravies first.
On a side note, the cost of powdered milk is ridiculous! That bag, that doesn't even weigh 2 pounds, was almost $8.50! That's frigging expensive! The good thing is that I only used 1 cup of it on these recipes.

Some of these items were a stock up. I can't believe I didn't have poultry seasoning, but I haven't bought it in many, many years. I grow everything that's in poultry seasoning and I'm able to grow it and harvest it year round. So, now I have a small bottle of poultry seasoning. I'll have to think of things to use it in. If you have an idea, let me know in the comments below.

I am not stressing on the fact that 2 of these recipes have 1/2 cup of bouillon in each one. I only use 2 or 3 tablespoons per batch of gravy anyhow.

Everything gets whisked up in a big bowl and put into quart canning jars.

Whisk! Whisk! Whisk!

This is an amount that will take us well through next fall and into next winter before I will need to make more. I'm very happy with that. The bonus is that I don't have to corral and contain a gazillion little packets in my cabinet. I'm trying to get away from doing that. Less garbage to haul off. I like that.

On the lid, I wrote the directions. I didn't mind doing this because these 3 jars are now dedicated to holding gravy mixes.

Into the jars. This is my production line.

These 3 mixes will handle any situation where a gravy is called for.

Can I make gravy from scratch? Yes, I certainly can and I do on different occasions. I make really good gravy! An ordinary dinner is just not one of those occasions for us...especially since we're both tired from diving into spring cleaning and Operation Organize the RV Kitchen.

We are just too worn out for anything other than a homemade instant gravy.

Country Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (yes, 1/2 of a tablespoon! You read that right!)
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. I don't know why they said 6 months because this stuff will totally last for a year or better if it's in a sealed jar.

Chicken Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken bouillon powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Brown/Beef Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup beef bouillon powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley

The following recipe directions are for all 3 gravy mixes.

To use: melt 2 tablespoons of fat in a saucepan. I used butter but you can use oil, lard, chicken fat, bacon grease...whatever you'd like. Add 2 tablespoons of instant gravy mix and cook, stirring for 2 minutes to take the raw taste out of the flour. You're making a roux. Pour in 1 cup of milk, water or broth. Make sure your liquid is cold. Whisk and cook until mixture boils and the gravy gets thick.

NOTE: Do you notice how these 3 recipes all start off with 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of cornstarch? That's handy.

NOTE: With the brown/beef gravy, when you make it, it will not be very brown. You can add 1/2 teaspoon of a browning sauce, like Kitchen Bouquet when cooking.

NOTE: With the chicken gravy, once gravy comes to a boil and is thickened, you can add 1/4 cup heavy cream to make a delicious sauce for a Chicken Pot Pie.


So, I hope you find these recipes useful because you never know when you might be in a situation where you need to get a meal put together quickly. This fits that ticket quite nicely.

Earth Day 2022

 I wish we would stop and think about this planet that we live on more than just one day out of the year. It should be 365 days of Earth Day.

On April 22, 1970, more than 20 million Americans took part in Earth Day events, eventually leading to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The first official Earth Day was in 1990. In 2009, Earth Day was officially renamed by the UN to International Mother Earth Day. Organizers hope to plant 7.8 billion trees during this year’s Earth Day activities.

I think we, as a species, can do more than commemorate. It's estimated that more than a billion people, in over 180 countries, are believed to mark this day by holding rallies, planting trees and generally cleaning up the outdoors. I hope it's not too late. I have my own personal beliefs/fears on this subject.

Just in this year alone, I've witnessed some events that make me take pause here in my little corner of the world. From an unheard of, record breaking snow storm in mid-April in western Washington state to...

some major flooding that caused many thousands of dollars in damage, not just once this past winter, but there were 3 times that the Cowlitz River came over the banks...

to skies so filled with smoke that they turned yellow and blocked the sun for many, many days in September 2020...

and when we could finally see the sun, it was pink because of the smoky haze.

We've got to do better than this. We've got to be better than this.

I can only tell you what I am, personally, doing to change in my little slice of the Earth. First and foremost, none of this timber, on this property,  will be going anywhere unless nature takes it out.

Rather than buying everything that I need in the store, I've learned to grow my own produce. Today was carrot planting day. I think these 5 varieties, of which, one is a landrace, will fill my yearly carrot needs quite nicely.

I tend to purchase the majority of my seeds through Baker Creek. There is a reason for this. They sell only heirloom and OP varieties. What that means is that I can save seeds from any of these and they will grow true for me. If you want to view Baker Creek's website, click here.

So, why do I knock myself trying to get this area seeded in and planted? Well, that goes back to an Earth Day concept. Instead of purchasing vegetables that were shipped from all over the world, I want to save the fuel it would take (not to mention the pollution) and simply step out my door and pick what I may need for a meal. I'll be getting chickens up here soon. I'm going to have a rabbit or two. We want some ducks. We're debating on getting alpacas/goats or pigs.
I digress....
I garden. I make things from scratch. I try to lessen my carbon footprint in many, many ways.
Those are some of the things I do to try to save this planet.

We've no interest in removing any trees from this property.

We don't let anything go over the bank down to the creek below. We keep that area as natural and pristine as possible. I'm actually putting in fig trees to act as a buffer.

I discovered some old tires under my favorite cedar tree that we will be removing and repurposing into flower beds. I'll put them by the pig pen and plant them out with borage. These tires will not be going into a landfill. They won't be pretty, but they can certainly be used to grow flowers in.

When this fir tree drops it's cones and the seeds take hold, we won't be just pulling them up and discarding them. They will be transplanted into other areas on this property.

And I can't wait for these apples to come on! I'll be making applesauce (no more little plastic containers in the landfill), dried apples (no plastic waste). If we all take small steps it will, eventually, equal a huge step.

Happy Earth Day 2022.