Monday, January 12, 2009

The House is Buried

Well not quite...
With all the cold we didn't worry too much about the snow. But this weekend the temperatures rose to above freezing. Time to shovel off the roof!

Back of the house with Son on the roof.



Inside looking out - now that's a lot of snow!


The front fence is buried.

Front of house - siding not yet complete.
While Husband and Son worked on the roof, I dug out the siding and soffits from the snow.




I needed to dig out the greenhouse as I have some work related items I need to get out of there. For the 4th time this winter I shovelled the snow off the greenhouse roof.


Back of the greenhouse


Thankful for the tractor with snowblower attachment. Husband is getting the snow away from the the house... maybe we can look out of the window again!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Work? What's that?

The snow is becoming relentless. We have another snowfall warning in effect for today... 10-30cm again! I better go shovel off the greenhouse this morning before it collapses.

I'll be going into the office this afternoon. Work? What's that? It has been a really slow time for my business - needless to say that is why I have been able to be at home for the past 6 weeks or so. Luckily, I'm totally wired at home so that I can work from here if need be. Business seems to be picking up again - so it's off to the office to see clients today!

I am also suppose to drive out to the other side of town after 5pm to see other clients, but because of the heavy snowfall I think I will postpone.

I prepared Sloppy Joes in the crockpot so dinner will be ready when I get home. I'm just waiting for my buns to rise - I'll bake them just before I need to leave.

The dress that I wanted to reinvent into a pillow (I wrote about it in my last post) has been STOLEN! Daughter decided if she puts on a blouse underneath, wears knee socks and a headband, she can have a vintage look just like Nancy Drew.


Photo of Emma Roberts in the 2007 Nancy Drew movie

I began on a couple of my goals. I cleaned out one drawer full of papers and the budget has been established and begun.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Kitchen Duty

Another storm warning was announced for our area today. Heavy snowfall and winds. It was a good day to stay put at home again. I seem to have stayed home most of the time over the holidays, but I'm not complaining!

I started out the day making some laundry detergent as I had run out yesterday. Then on to making breakfast... egg mcmuffins (without the 'mc' as Daughter would say) for the family.

I dug out the Christmas turkey carcass from the freezer and made some stock for this evening's soup dinner. I found the secret for making a good stock is to first roast the bones/carcass along with some veggies (onion, carrots and celery) in the oven at 450ยบ until nice and brown. This makes for a much more flavourful soup.



Just look at how nice and brown the stock turns out when roasted first

The latest issue of Mother Earth News magazine had a great article (one of many) on baking easy artisan bread. Husband urged me to give it a try as it makes a huge batch of dough which is kept in the fridge for up to two weeks. One just hacks off enough to make a loaf, let it rise for a bit and throw it in the oven. Simple! The recipe can be found on Mother's website here.

Simple to bake and tastes great! We went through two loaves with dinner.

We roasted the first of our lamb the other day and it was fantastic! I made the roast in the oven with a honey glaze that really added to the flavour. The roast was very small, but just enough for us (we really don't need to eat tons of meat anyway).

If you want to try the glaze, this is what you need to combine in saucepan:

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder

On low heat warm the ingredients until well blended. Brush on the roast and continue glazing during the roasting period until the lamb is done. (I had quite a bit of the glaze left over, so you may want to reduce the recipe)

Later in the day we took down the Christmas tree and decorations. I ran out of laminate floor cleaner (seems to be a reoccuring theme today) so I whipped up my own which I think is far superior to the store bought brand; plus cheaper and healthier.

Laminate Floor Cleaner
1 cup vinegar
3 cups water
A few drops of essential oil (which ever scent you prefer)
Shake together in a spray bottle. Spray floor and mop up using a dry/microfibre type mop.


The other day I took my weekly trip to the landfill to deposit our small bag of garbage and I stopped into the Swap Shed. This is a shed where you can drop off or pick up items that are still useable and too good to throw away. It was really cold so I didn't stay long, but did find this really cute Eddie Bauer dress made of a wool weave. It was a fabric I have been looking for to make a decorative pillow that I have been dreaming up in my brain.

Dress soon to be upcycled into a new pillow.



I also came across this really nice fabric; by this time I was really cold so I just took it and ran. When I got home I realized it was curtain panel about 2 metres long (6 ft). It think I will have just enough to make an apron out of it.
Very pretty green fabric with blue flowers and swirls machine embroidered upon it.

Someone had also put a bunch of photo/picture frames in the shed. They were all unopened in original packaging from Ikea. So of course I grabbed those too - I think I have 18 frames in total.



Friday, January 2, 2009

In With the New

We had lots of fun on New Years Eve. We had been invited to a friend's home for a family party were we ate lots of good food, had wonderful conversation and played games. I guess there were about 15 people there and it really was a good time. Daughter was babysitting, but she finished early and managed to come at the tail end of the party.

The next day we went back for an afternoon of snowmobiling at their property. Luckily it was only -15c (5f), but everyone had rosy cheeks from being outside for several hours.

Daughter on a family friends snowmobile!

I have been thinking over goals for 2009. I don't want to commit to too much, as there is such a lot still to do on the acreage, but I have a few things that I definately want to achieve this year...

  • Build the hen house
  • Obtain our chickens (heritage breeds if possible) and meat rabbits
  • Grow tomatoes
  • Plant a garden (at least a small one if that is the only thing possible)
  • Re-organize the closets, drawers and cupboards
  • Get back on our budget
  • Pay off some debt