Packing Up for Good
Yesterday Mr Chiots and I headed back to the old house in Ohio to pack up our remaining things. We had left a few things around the house so it wouldn’t be empty.
We spent the afternoon taking down all the tomato stakes and cucumber trellises. Today we’re heading back to pack up the remaining things from the garage and to gather all the potted plants.
The people who bought our house should be signing their closing papers in the next week or two and then it will be final. It sure will be nice to have this all wrapped up before Christmas! The timing is working out perfectly, going into the new year without a house in Ohio will be really nice. It will be like starting with a clean slate!
Are you looking forward to the coming new year already? Are you formulating any plans already?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: My Stove
About 10 years ago I got a new stove. My previous stove had been a hand-me-down from my mom that never worked quite right. You had to turn on the oven before starting to mix anything up because you never knew if it was going to come on or. There were times it would turn off in the middle of baking and not come back on. I’d been saving for a newone for quite a while. I didn’t get the Blue Star I wanted, but I knew this Kitchenaid would be a good stove for many years.
Now that we’re in Maine and my stove is back in Ohio, I’ve been sorely missing it. It’s kind of like being without your favorite tool, or in this case I feel like I’m missing my right arm. I know my stove like the back of my hand, I’ve learned how to cook everything to perfection on it. Getting used to a new stove can be a big challenge, especially when you loved your old one so much.
I strongly believe that a good stove is of great importance for anyone who loves to cook, I realized that when I purchased this beauty. Having a good stove will make cooking much easier and much more pleasurable. These last two months of cooking on a less than ideal stove have really taught me that. I’m actually starting to think that perhaps many people think they don’t like to cook simply because their stoves are less than ideal.
We will have to make a few modifications to the kitchen to get my stove to fit. The one that is here is a small apartment stove. After than an exhaust fan that vents outside is on the list.
Thankfully, my stove will make it’s way back to Maine in two weeks. I’ll certainly be very thankful to be able to use it once again.
Do you have a favorite appliance?
Share this:
The Tour: Driveway
I have received lots of requests for a tour of the new place here in Maine. We’re still unpacking some things and settling in. I’m a little reluctant to to a tour since there has been no painting, only cleaning and unpacking. There are also still things in boxes and we have to paint before some things can be put away. I guess all the images will make great before photos for my before & after posts – so here starts to tour. Additional areas will be toured in upcoming weeks and I’ll add links to the bottom of the posts.
I’ll start with the driveway, which deserves it’s own post. After all, we have our own road name and our own curvy road sign.
It’s a long driveway, about a third of a mile, which we actually like after living so close to the road back in Ohio. It’s good to know that when I let Dexter outside, I don’t have to worry about traffic on the road.
There are all kinds of twists and turns which take you through the woods and up the hill. It’s pretty steep; thank goodness we now have an old truck with a plow to keep the road cleared in winter.
Almost every day, we take the dog and walk down the driveway to get the mail. It’s the perfect walk in the middle of the afternoon. It stretches your legs, wakes you up, gets the blood flowing, and invigorates you for the rest of the afternoon.
Sometimes we even get lucky and Dexter joins us on our stroll. He usually meets us halfway down when we’re on our way back.
This is the view back down from the top, well almost the top. There’s still a little bit of driveway to go, but you would see the house and garage/barn if I included it. That will come next week.
No doubt there will be times in the middle of the winter when we can’t make it up the hill. That’s OK with us, we’re always prepared with boots and extra socks in the car. That won’t be anything new either, several times each winter we would be unable to get up our rather steep driveway back in Ohio as well. We’d rather have to hike up the driveway a few times each winter than live too close to the road!
How long is your driveway? Is it curvy, steep, gravel, paved?
Share this:
Round Two
Last year I purchased a box of black mission olives from Chaffin Family Orchard to cure. I tried a few different curing methods and found that the Kalamata style fermented olives were my favorite. No surprise there since Kalamatas are my favorite kind of olive. At first I was skeptical that they’d turn out, curing olives seems like it should be harder than it is. When I tasted my first one I knew I’d be curing my own olives for the rest of my life.
This year I decided to add green olives to my curing routine. A large box was ordered from Chaffin Family Orchard and it arrived last Saturday. These are much larger than the mission olives so they don’t take as long to cut for curing. Last year I felt like I was cutting for ages, but these only took about an hour to get all the olives in their respective soaking liquids.
If you don’t like olives, make sure you try traditionally cured ones before your write them off completely. I never liked olives when my only experience was with those little black rounds that come from a can. Then I tasted my first Kalamata and was hooked. Don’t even let me near one of those olive bars at the fancy grocery stores!
I saved a few olives out hoping to make a how-to video. Curing olives is one of those things that is intimidating but is actually really simple. Hopefully I can encourage more people to try it at home. Not only are they delicious and healthy, you can save some serious money curing your own olives! I’ll happily spend a few hours curing 20 pounds of olives so I can eat organic olives all year long. I also know a few people who would love to receive olives as gifts.
Olives – love them or leave them? Which is your favorite kind/color?
Share this:
Making Mulch
The fall ritual of making mulch has begun. When we came back from Ohio, our trusty mower came with us. Mr Chiots has been out every evening mowing a portion of the lawn and collecting the lawn & leaf clippings. Generally, I’m the one doing all the mulching in the fall, but this year I’m busy planting so Mr Chiots has taken over the task.
When it comes to mulch, this is my favorite kind. Nothing promotes earth worm activity like a mix of grass and leaves. This mix also suppresses weeds in the spring as well, which saves me valuable time. If you put down some rock/mineral dust underneath it, you’ll notice marked improvement in your soil with just one winter. I have found a combination of about 25% grass to 75% leaves to be ideal.
Over the past week, we’ve been mulching like mad, all the walkways in the garden, the foundation borders, the chicken run, etc. Any we have leftover we’ll put in a big pile somewhere for use in next spring and summer. At our previous place in Ohio we didn’t have a ton of lawn and we collected leaves from the neighbors.
We have more than enough of each here, which makes me happy because the less I can bring in from elsewhere the happier I am. I love knowing exactly where everything comes from!
What’s your favorite kind of mulch to use in the garden?
