Cleaning out closets

Today was one of those days that I decided to attack a closet.  Not just any closet mind you, but MY clothes closet.  That is a hard thing to do.  After all, if I only lose a little weight I'll still fit into that.  Never mind that it's 20 years old and the style is not coming back, or if it does at least I can say I'm too old for that style and will never wear it again! 

I really haven't changed weight in quite a few years so most of the stuff in the closet fits.  It's more of a matter of why is it in there if I never wear it?  A couple of years ago I got rid of a lot of clothes.  How?  For the new year I turned all the hangers the opposite direction.  Normally I hang the clothes straight in with the hook of the hanger facing the back.  I changed every single hanger so the hook of the hanger faced the front.  When I wore something I would replace it back into the closet with the hanger facing toward the back.  That way I didn't have to remember if I wore something or not.  The hanger told the real truth. 

The next new year, after going through a summer and winter, I removed the clothes that I hadn't worn.  Almost...  After all, the fancy stuff rarely gets worn.  If I was only invited to one formal occasion then of course only one of the four or five fancy things was worn.  No, have to keep those.  What about a sweater that I'm sure I'll wear next time.  Must have just run out of cold winter days.  OK, I'll save that one too.

The problem is it's now coming upon the third new year.  There were still a few things that had the hanger facing the wrong direction.  It's time to take them out of the closet.  I know.  I can give it to a grand kid.  Yes, that's what they all want, the clothing from a 50+ grandparent.  Sure.  Why didn't I think of that when my grandparents were going through their things?  Why?  Because I wouldn't be caught dead in most of their stuff. 

Now there are some things that the kids do like.  They all clamor over my work t-shirts and sweatshirts.  I pass those out as gifts.  Funny, used t-shirts are cherished.  And besides, they look really cool in them and all their friends want my work shirts too.  Sorry.  I have 11 grand kids, that's enough to pass my clothes to.  I buy new uniform clothes each year.  I get paid a uniform allowance, and unlike others I don't pocket the money and wear crappy looking clothes.  I actually buy new t-shirts and pants each year.  Keeps Americans working, you know.

Back to the closet.  There are some clothes in there that are really fun looking clothes...if I was 20!  Some probably are from when I was 20.  There are tank tops, t-shirts both short and long sleeve, pull over shirts, button up shirts, sweaters, and other tops that don't even fit into a category.  Funny thing is, during the weekend I'll wear old uniform t-shirts so I don't wreck my good ones.  How many good ones do I need? 

Also, I've been thinking a lot about the colors of my clothing.  Do I want to go for the bright, loud clothes?  Do I want to go for the non-camo but still fade into the background clothes?  I remember my CCW instructor reminding us that the more we look like we are ready for a fight the higher on the list of "strike that person first" if the bad guy really wants to start a fight.  Better to not stand out.  No camo (unless you are actually going hunting), no political sayings, no "my guns are bigger than your guns", or anything else that will let you stand out. 

When I packed for my trip to Hawaii, I took a bunch of clothes and wore only a few.  I washed my clothes and hung them up to dry.  When we went back east during the summer it was the same.  Only a few select pieces, other than the fancy stuff for the wedding, but guess what?  They were generally the same pieces that I had packed for Hawaii.  This should be telling me something. 

My clothing stash is getting pared down.  Sort of.  I still want to be able to make sure that I don't run out for myself and the grand kids.  What if today was the day?  No more shopping trips to Target, Sears, or Penney's to pick up new, non-stained clothing for us to wear.  If today was the day I don't think it would matter if the clothes were new and non-stained.  After all, it wouldn't be like we'd be going anywhere that would need fancy clothes, now would we?  Besides, I can sew and I do have a supply of fabric and notions.

I know.  I will take out half.  That's right.  Half (work clothes not included).  Not half my jeans.  Half my pants.  I have four pairs of blue jeans.  They all stay.  What about the 5 or 6 or 10 pairs of woolen pants?  What about the 5 or 6 or 10 pairs of other pants?  All I wear are jeans.  I only have jeans for my pants in the trailer for my backup, bug-out clothes.  I certainly don't need fancy pants if I'm bugging out, do I? 

Sweaters?  I love sweaters.  I hate being cold.  But even though I wore all but two of my sweaters when I had the hangers switched around, some of them I picked solely because the hangers were switched around and I wanted to make sure that I wore everything.  If I was just choosing, I would not have picked "that" one.  Some of those can go too.  Some can be put away for the grand kids...but not too many.  Unless I want to wait until they are in their 40s or 50s to give it to them. 

T-shirts?  I have some hanging up in the closet but I have a drawer filled with t-shirts.  I have to keep three or four or five of the red ones.  You never know how many grand kids I'm going to take to a football game.  Red t-shirts, red sweatshirts.  Show school spirit even if I didn't go to FS.   Other than red, do I really need two or three of each color?  I have some friends who make blankets out of their old t-shirts.  They cut out the front design and use it as a quilt square.  That's a great idea if the t-shirts were really that important.  They aren't.  I can tell you a story behind each of my t-shirts that has some fun picture or design but is it worth giving up my nice wool blanket or my real hand pieced quilt for a t-shirt blanket.  No. Then the t-shirts need to go. 

The pile of clothes is large enough to completely clothe one or two other people.  It will all go to charity. 

Dear Veteran. Thank You.

Dear Coast Guard Dad (of blessed memory), Navy sister, retired, Navy brother, Army daughter, Army son, Navy step-son, and all those serving in our nation's military past and present,

Thank you very much for your service to our country.  I am honored to know that you are part of my family.  While most of the country just sees this as a paid day off, I know that your dedication to the safety and well being of this country plays a huge role in that ability for the rest of us to walk around blindly thinking that freedom is free.  It isn't.  Freedom comes at a huge cost.  I truly appreciate your sacrifices to keep us free. 

For those veterans no longer with us, I'm sure you are watching over us.  For those of you who are retired or still on active or reserve duty, may you have a safe year.

Dinner for 11

Last night after a delicious dinner of deer roast, potatoes au gratin with bell peppers, pears, bread, and cinnamon sugar tortillas, I got everything cleaned up then started on dinner for tonight.  I took out the two quart crock pot and threw in everything left over from the refrigerator.  There wasn't much so I took a cup of split peas and some TVP bacon pieces and put them into the crock pot too.  I started a loaf of bread and decided to get creative.  After all, I always say you can't go wrong with bread once you have the basic recipe down.

The kids like cold cereal so on days that I'm particularly lazy I will pour them a bowl of something.  We have the cereal in clear containers on one shelf.  Some of the cereals are highly nutritious with very little sugar.  Other cereals are what I call candy cereal.  About half the time the kids want the candy cereal the other half they want the good for them filling stuff.  One cereal that I like to snack on is mini-wheats with the sugar coating.  I'm not sure what they do to the sugar but it's more like dried frosting.  At the bottom of the container is all the crushed bits of cereal and sugar.  I always save the crushed stuff at the bottom of the containers.  When it starts looking particularly unsightly I take the bits out and put it into a canning jar.  Normally, if I'm making granola or even oatmeal I'll throw some of the sugary crumbs in as an extra flavor and texture. 

I had about 2 cups of crushed mini-wheats with sugar frosting in the jar.  I thought, wheat, sugar, sounds like normal bread ingredients.  I should put this into my bread dough.  So I did.  I didn't put anything else unusual into the dough.  Just flour, yeast, salt, and warm water.  The dough had a strange smell (perhaps it was the dried frosting?) but the texture and flavor was alright.  

With the dough made I headed out to the office.  At noon Mr. and Mrs. Bug-out renter called from my house to tell me they were there and wanted to work on the storage room a little more.  I left the office and headed home.  This meant they were staying for dinner.  I knew baby grand daughter was staying the night so now dinner needed to serve five big eaters and the baby.  Not a problem.  A half gallon of soup and bread will be enough.  Then oldest daughter called at one.  She's dropping off her four kids for the night.  They don't have school tomorrow and they wanted to play with their cousins.  Never mind that her husband doesn't have to work tomorrow so they were going to the movies tonight.  That's four more for dinner including three teenage boys.  Then Army daughter called.  The baby wasn't spending the night after all.  Oldest daughter was going to drop off the baby along with her four but the baby would be picked up by son-in-law around 5:00.  Son-in-law called at 5:00 and said he'd be here in an hour.  You may as well eat over.  Everyone else is.  

Somehow a half gallon of soup and a loaf of bread was not going to be enough food for ten big eaters and a baby.  Around here, to fill up the kids I will make rice, potatoes, or noodles almost each night.  In order to stretch the soup to serve 10 plus baby, I made a big pot of rice.  Four cups of rice, eight cups of water.  I also made a huge pot of vegetables.  For dessert they had leftover cinnamon sugar tortillas that I made yesterday.  Everyone left the table full.  We still have some rice left but the rest they devoured. 

After dinner son-in-law, baby, and Bug-out renters left.  It's just me and six grand kids.  The big ones cleaned the kitchen.  The little ones made forts to sleep in.  Me, I'm going to curl up with a good book and go to bed.  Morning comes quickly and they'll be starving once again.

 

Heating the house

Two nights ago was the first night I had a fire in the wood stove.  It's an insert into the fire place, and a top of the line Earthstove at that...from the 1980s, which means it's really inefficient.  It sure would be nice to pull it out, block up the hole, and have a wood stove that would actually radiate heat all around it rather than just out the front with the blower.  It's still better than heating the house with propane except the heat goes into all the rooms but my bedroom. 

My room is usually 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house during the winter and 10 degrees hotter during the summer.  It's a great room but a really lousy design unless I have unlimited money to spend on heating and air conditioning.  I don't.  Instead, I just throw on another wool blanket during winter. 

I remember growing up in Southern California during the energy crisis of the 70s the saying was 55 at night 65 during the day.  This was the temperature in your house not just the speed limit.  The speed limit was reduced to 55, remember?  Anyway, if we were cold we'd put on a sweater or sweatshirt. Maybe even a knit cap. How about now?  I remember this past year.  Army daughter kept this house at 78 during the winter and 72 during the summer.  I could never understand that.  

I admit, keeping the house in the 50s in really chilly.  But the house will stay in the mid 60s without really trying.  If I do any baking, when I'm done I'll leave the oven door propped open.  I may as well let the heat into the house rather than let it stay in the oven to slowly cool down.  I also open up the curtains to let the sun shine in.  We close them up at night.  

We all have sweats to sleep in.  Boy would rather wear shorts and a tank top now.  Later in the winter he will put on two pairs of sweats at a time since it's cold out.  He will sweat all night.  It's sort of funny the ideas they get into their heads.   

Properties that have their own woodlots or are near the forest have an advantage over those who either have to heat by gas/propane/kerosene or electricity.  Bug-out place has plenty of trees.  The adjacent properties have downed trees.  It's only 500 feet off the national forest.  Too bad my wood stove is old. 

Around here the only time it's unbearably cold is when it's fog season.  Then it's not just the cold but the moisture.  I will run the wood stove each day then.

 

I've read about pellet stoves.  The wood pellets are cheap (and can be used as super cheap cat litter) and you can also use dried corn if you have a bumper crop that you aren't eating or selling for ethanol.  The problem is that they run on electricity but it's supposed to be very little electricity as compared to the heat output of burning the pellets.  I've always wondered if it could be hooked up to a solar panel and run that way?  Then it would be something that could heat the house be self sustainable if you have a garden and can grow corn.

So how do we get through winter without running out of propane like last year when Army daughter ran us dry in February?  If TSHTF I'd rather use the propane for cooking than heating the house.  It would last a very long time and would be very helpful in conserving our time and energy in having to cook with other methods. 

We can shut off rooms to conserve the heat, which I used to do before they were filled with grand kids. Heat with wood.  Cook lots of soup. And put on a sweater. 

Light fixture died

When you don't spend money for a month you start to realize just how often small things need to be repaired or replaced.  About how often do you change a light bulb?  Or replace the filter on your heater/air conditioner?  Fix a leaky faucet? Or in my case this week, need to replace a light fixture? 

Several years ago my house went through a major remodel/addition.  Because I live in a highly regulated state and county, the county planning department had their say in things as minor as the type of light fixture I could wire up in my mud room, laundry room, bathroom, and closets.  This was before outlawing regular light bulbs, so in order to make sure that the overhead lights in those rooms used fluorescent bulbs specialized lights were required.  These light fixtures use large circular bulbs that don't last long, flicker, and are overall just a lousy product.  But they were required.  So in they went.  Over the past couple of years two of the fixtures, in the mud room and in a closet, failed and were replaced by regular overhead lights.  I went to OSH, looked for the cheapest ceiling fixture and replaced the faulty fluorescent lights.  

This week another of the overhead lights died - this time in the laundry room.  I switched out the bulb.  I have about 5 or 6 spare bulbs...you know me, must have replacements.  Unfortunately, it's not the bulb, it's the fixture once again.  Only this time I don't have a spare overhead light fixture for the laundry room.  There's a window in the room but that doesn't do any good once the sun goes down.  I can rig something up, like the brooder light for the chicken coop.  Or a flashlight.  Or just use a couple night lights.  I'd prefer a real ceiling light.  

Put this on my list of items to buy: New light in laundry room, my bathroom, my closet.  I know those two others are going to go out so I may as well have the new ones on hand.  For now though, the room will be dark since I'm still in my no shopping for a month exercise.  This doesn't qualify as an emergency or a great shopping deal that I can't pass up.  This is one of those inconveniences that I have to live with. 

Several years ago I saw chandelier for the dining room.  It was non-electric and used candles.  I thought it was a great idea but didn't want to replace the ceiling fan/light that is in there now.  I wish I had gotten it anyway.  It would have been a great light fixture to have on hand.  I have oil lamps and candle lanterns for each room in the house should we have a power outage but an overhead light like the chandelier would have been great.  Ikea has one but it's really junky.  I'd rather have none.

Outdoor "wildlife" camera

A several years ago a friend of mine showed me his digital wildlife camera that he was using to track deer.  I had seen these cameras out in the woods but had never had one explained to me.  They are great tools for the wildlife biologist, which he was.  He didn't work for the same outfit as I do but our offices were across the hall anyway.  We used to discuss field work a lot - or at least every time both of us were at the office, which was rare considering we avoid the office.  

I was thinking about when the mountain lion took 20 of my sheep.  I had a hard time convincing the county trapper that it was a mountain lion.  With a camera like this I would have had proof.  I asked him to order one for me.  I knew that he could get a good price since he had ordered many.  I gave him some money and that was the end of that.  Actually, it was, since he passed away not too much longer after that in a tragic accident.  I never got the camera. 

Since then the office has been pretty much just used as a storage room.  Nobody wanted to be in that office.  There were people in that office this afternoon and they were rummaging through the cabinets.  I walked in and asked if anyone has inventoried the cameras.  If so, was there an extra because my friend was supposed to have gotten one for me.  The person said that he has inventoried items but since he didn't have a starting inventory he had no idea if there were any extra or not.  He has said that a few have gone missing since his initial inventory.  I told him that one was supposed to be ordered for me and I didn't know if it ever was.  He opened the cabinet and showed me a closet full of cameras.  Since they were all inventoried he couldn't just give me one but he gave me one anyway and had me sign for it.  Not a problem.  At some point it will be straightened out but for now, I can't believe I have a camera.  

It's a Reconyx PC-900 HyperFire Professional High Output Covert Infrared camera.  Would I ever spend the money on something like this now?  No, but this was when I was single, no grand kids that I was responsible for, and had extra money.  So, now I have a camera.  

The camera can take two pictures per second.  It takes 3.1 mega-pixel photos.  During the day the pictures are color, at night monochrome.  It will print the date, time, temperature, and moon phase.  Ok, I don't need to moon phase...  When it takes the pictures at night there is no flash or red light.  You can walk right by the thing and you won't know it's there if you have it strapped to a tree.  It's pretty well camouflaged except I was given a Python Master Lock with a bright yellow lock.  Yes, that's covert...

It takes 12 AA batteries but can also be plugged into a power source.  The batteries are supposed to be able to take 40,000 pictures although that seems completely far fetched, but they also suggest using lithium or NiMH rechargeable ones.  It works in -40 to 140 degrees.  

You can set the camera up for motion or time lapse.  The motion detector works when the animal (or human) is a different temperature than the ambient air temperature.  There are two different horizontal detection bands and six different width zones within each band.  You can put up to a 32GB SD card in it for the memory card.  I only have a 2 GB  which is supposed to give me 5,000 pictures.  That will do since it's not going to be in a remote location where I won't be able to download the card often. 

I'm looking forward to setting this up.  I'd like to see what creatures roam around the barn at night.  The infrared flash works up to 50 feet or so at night.  It would also be a good tool to see if any human creatures are roaming around when I'm not there. 

Cheap dinner

Today we went to Army daughter's house for lunch.  She has discovered Costco!  Lunch was spinach ravioli's on top of a spinach salad, which was spinach, tomatoes on the vine (what can I say, she still refuses home grown stuff), and feta cheese.  It was good but also filling.  Needless to say, when dinner rolled around tonight I wasn't hungry.  I can't pull that one on the grand kids...sorry, I'm full so no dinner tonight...

Unless you are one of those people who needs to have meat every single night, and I am not one of those people, then a dinner like this is not only delicious but also good for your wallet.  On Friday I made a huge amount of homemade bread.  Since Bug-out renters were eating over for two days, bread does wonders for keeping people full.  We still had over half a loaf left.  The chickens are still laying more eggs than we can keep up with.  Eggs and bread equals French toast! 

I used four eggs, added a little cinnamon sugar, and beat them well.  I didn't add milk because I didn't need to extend the eggs.  If I needed more eggs I would have just used more eggs.  I sliced the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Each piece was soaked well.  The egg didn't soak all the way into the center but about 1/4 way in.  I had some butter that's been sitting in the butter bell for the last week.  I melted about a teaspoon and spread it on the griddle with my silicone brush.  Then I cooked the bread on both sides until it was a golden brown. 

The next door neighbors gave the grand kids a jar of pomegranate jelly that they made yesterday.  I put a spoon of the jelly on toast.  That with a glass of chocolate Quik powdered milk and dinner was served.  It was delicious.  Cost?  Probably less than a dollar total for the three of us.