hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Britesea

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@NH Homesteader have you ever tasted Rhode Island Clam Chowder? It's more of a clear broth with veggies and clams in it- kind of like a Bouillabaisse. Of course, if it's simply CLAMS you don't like, I guess any kind of chowder would not work for you.
 

hqueen13

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LOL! Well, NH that makes two of us. I'm not fond of clams either.
And I agree, Buff, that's pretty dang unsouthern!! LOL

Whew. Busy several days! I don't even know when I was on here last...
The office was BUSY last week. That always happens when my coworker goes away. Of course it does.
The heat finally broke with a storm on Friday afternoon late. Happily it rolled over while I was still in the office and I didn't have to drive in it. BUT things were wet in the house when I got home. Apparently it was a windy storm! I had water in windows on 3 sides of the house, which isn't a good sign, but thankfully nothing worse happened. And nothing very important got damaged, either, so it was all good.

I had to walk the fly predators out since the Gator was at the bottom of the hill on Friday evening. It was a beautiful night, there was lightening on the horizon, and it was blessedly cool compared to what it had been. It was a nice walk. It was just a long way to zig zag your way through the pasture dropping little tiny bugs everywhere every 150 feet or so. I would have loved to walk with the BF but he drove down the hill to meet me and bring the bucket so we could collect eggs and lock up the chickens.

Saturday, I can't really remember what happened on Saturday. Oh, I know. I went to 3 different places buying food. :th I don't enjoy grocery shopping, and having to make that many stops was annoying, especially shopping on a Saturday morning. I did go to Aldi, which is cheap. I got a LOT of stuff for $18.00. Then I came home and put things away, and organized some stuff, and then we ate lunch and the BF and I went to a really awesome butcher where I spent ENTIRELY too much money on half a leg of lamb (diced, without the bone, thankfully), some ground pork, and two sausages for the BF. Then it was back to the regular grocery store for a few more things before we headed home. And then of course in cooking I discover that I have run out of olive oil. Now I need to go BACK to the store. :barnie

Saturday I managed to divide the lamb that we bought into 3 packs, and froze 2 (NOT going to waste $54.00 of lamb by not putting it in the freezer!!), and then I bagged up 11 avocado muffin cups and food saver sealed them, and put them back in the freezer. I'm hoping since they are sealed that they won't turn brown as they thaw. I also made ranch dressing that is complaint with the whole30 plan (which turned out funny, I ran out of olive oil, I had 1/2cup and I needed 2/3 cup... so I used some Tuscan Herb infused olive oil that I have... it is SUPER ranchy ranch!!!! LOL), and I made some other stuff that I can't even remember. I've been cooking so dang much I can't remember what I've done. It is fairly annoying to be spending this much time in the kitchen to be honest with you. I feel like I did nothing but shop and then work in the kitchen on Saturday.

OH, hey, I remembered what we did on Saturday. We did roasted potatoes and chicken thighs. I found a recipe that used lemon and rosemary, and it turned out good. And then I was quick enough to have a recipe for apples and peaches ready to go in the oven. It was supposed to be an apple and peach compote, but it didn't end up quite like I thought it would. It didn't say cover it in the oven, but I think I will next time. The apples were good, but the peaches were really tart and not very ripe (that's what I get for buying out of season). I was planning on using it for breakfasts here and there, and probably will tomorrow. I also wanted something sort of sweet to use for desserts, too, because I've been craving having something sweet. Not really craving as much as I just want something because I can't have it.

Yesterday, I spent at home. Everything I needed to cook didn't need OO, so I wasn't about to go to the store just for that. I made beef veggie soup (which is what my friend CM and I had planned to do LAST weekend, and all the ingredients sat in my house for a week!) and I can say I sure do like being able to dump all the diced veggies right into the pot! All I had to do was chop an onion! The recipe originally called for browning the beef in a sauce pan, and then transferring cooking the veggies in a dutch oven with the juices, and then putting the beef in the dutch oven. I was like, um, no. That's too much work. So into the pot went the beef, cooked, then the veggies, cooked, and then the broth and tomatoes. And it turned out just fine, thank you very much.

Finished that and decided for some bizarre reason to organize all of the printed recipes that I have. The irony that I hoard printed recipes but don't like to cook does not escape me. I went from 2 1" binders and a 1/2" binder up to 2 1-1/2" binders, 2 1" binders, and a 1/2" binder. I think the 1/2" will end up being a 1" (that's dessert and drinks! I never made it through those to sort them into categories and such), and then I'll have a preserving binder as well. So yeah, now I have 6 binders on my shelf... And I have to rearrange some stuff! I need to go through a couple of the other smaller cookbooks and see if I like anything in them, and if not, ditch them. I also found some other recipes to work with for the whole30 plan, and I went through a paleo gluten free crockpot book and found some things that will work. So I've got some more options.

Then I helped the BF cut some boards for the coop he's working on. I wish I had taken before pictures, cause it's gonna be the fanciest coop ever. It was a little 4' x 8' shed, and he's now adding a roof overhang on the door side to make it easier to stay out of the rain while refilling stuff. He's gotten the new roof on, and then just needs to put in windows, and the coop door, and then set up the inside. This dang coop keeps getting fancier and fancier... now he's looking at putting the shower wall material on the walls so that we can hose everything out. That's $20/sheet, but then again, that's the same cost as plywood, and HOPEFULLY It will be more durable and more appropriate for chickens than plywood. So we're up to about $500 for this dang coop, and we haven't even bought the lumber to make a run yet! But at least the coop itself will be completed soon. He had to get the roof completely on yesterday before the rain came in today.

So yeah, it's raining again, which is good. It's a gentle rain, and when I left this morning we had 1/4" again. It's good to catch up. And it's keeping the pollen down, which I am grateful! I'll swing by the grocery store (AGAIN.) this afternoon for more olive oil, and probably a few other things, who knows.

So here's to the start of day 8 of this crazy diet thing. One week down. The next milestone is at 10 days when I switch the supplements up that I'm taking. I'm fairly pleased that I've stuck with it this well so far! The lamb stew is going to have a little cheat tonight (there is corn and limas in the mixed veggies that I used), but other than that and a little honey here and there, and two salads with premade dressing with a little sugar in them, I've done really really well. Very pleased with that. Don't feel any different, so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not!
 

frustratedearthmother

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Congrats on sticking with it...I usually stick with a new diet too - for about 5 minutes, lol!

Can't wait to see pics of the new coop! I need some ideas for coop bldgs... I just kind of use whatever is on hand. Just stuck some chickens in a pen with two dog crates and a kind of hoop tarp on top to keep them dry. It works, just looks a little cruddy.
 

hqueen13

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Well, wait til you see this coop castle, FEM! The BF never does anything easy or simple. I'm not happy with how far over done this is, though the comforts will be nice, but the budget is complaining! He just doesn't understand that right now having things functional and neat is way more important than big creature comforts. I may have to negotiate with him to see if we can cut down on the cost of the run because I really don't want to spend that much more money!! I'd like to do a hoop style, build a low wall (maybe 4, or maybe only 3') with wire, and then use PVC and make a hoop and use netting over the top of it instead of actual wire. But he wants to build a solid run with 6' boards and a whole wire roof and everything. I think we could save a lot of money doing it out of pvc. If predators still get in we can always run electric wire around the edge or something, which we can pull right off of the horse hot wire which will be close by.

Speaking of the horse hot wire... CM was feeding this morning in the rain, and Simon touched the hot wire with his nose while coming in the gate. He was SOAKED so he REALLY got zapped. He flew backwards, and then proceeded to get everybody running around the sacrifice lot. Then he somehow got his leadrope wrapped around the post in the run in shed and tied himself there. Thankfully he stopped fighting at that point and she was able to catch him and get him back, but she said he was shaking for a really long time, even while he ate in his stall. Nothing really could have prevented that, except maybe how she was moving him in the gate (the hot wire starts right at the gate on the top board, he KNOWS it's there, though, but somehow must have forgotten where he was and got too close). I'm grateful that no one got hurt.

Other than that, not much news.... Still at about 97% with the diet. The lamb stew I made has corn and limas in it, which are on the no list. I picked out the limas the second day I ate it, the first night I was too tired to fight with it. I did have ranch on my salad yesterday, which was good, but a cheat as well. I put a tiny amount of honey in my tea every morning, but that's it. Otherwise, I've been really good. Oh, the tomato soup yesterday probably had cream in it, but again, I didn't worry about it. My good friend and food coach told me that stressing about slip ups or trying to stay completely compliant would be worse than just allowing for a little wiggle room, but staying on the bandwagon as well as possible. So that's what I've been doing.

I have a new project from my business coach, I'm supposed to list talents, skills, and abilities that I have so that we can kind of regroup and find me a new direction. The Animal Communication stuff is great, but I'm just feeling like it isn't the end all thing that I'm supposed to be doing. I think it's a think I'm supposed to be doing WITH something else. I just haven't found the something else yet. So that's my next project.

Glad to be back to a semi normal schedule this week, though with the holiday monday that won't be the case next week. I've got riding lessons this weekend and another gal is bringing 2 of her horses in this weekend, so that will be taken care of. Yay more money! Now if I can just make it MORE money! LOL

I'm beginning to think I'm going to turn into a duck with all the rain we've had. We had another 1/2" overnight, and it's still raining today. They mumbled the H word today... hail.... I just pray that doesn't actually happen! Not that I Have any thing planted to worry about, but STILL.
 

frustratedearthmother

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We've had some serious rain here too... Wish it was over, but looks like we'll get some more early next week. Grrrr! Can't wait to see pics of the coop. I know prices can add up very quickly and functional is ok with me!

Poor Simon! Glad it worked out okay despite some stressful moments - that could have been an even worse train wreck...

Thinking sunshine!
 

Wannabefree

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I think I need a business coach lol I'm all over the place! And yes, that could have been a horrific disaster! I'm so glad everyone was okay there! And I hope you don't get hail either.
 
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