The backroom has a REAL dryer vent!

Yes, you read that right.. We've been working on the backroom for the past few weeks, well a few months is more like it I guess. My hubby works too hard, I help when I can, but my expertise is not in home construction. I can help clean though.. So here's what we've gotten done. First we had to gut the whole room, just like the rest of the house, we gut as we go and start over. One of the exciting things about old homes is the stuff you find when you start remodeling. When we first moved in, we dug out the old cistern and found tons of dishes and bottles. Well gutting the backroom has uncovered some cool stuff too.. In the walls we found the old coal shoot.
Inside the coal shoot we found some parts to the old stove.. We had to ask around, but we've figured out that this large piece in the picture is from the top of the stove. There was another one just like it that clamped together, much like a mouth to crush the large pieces of coal.. It's really heavy and from end to end is 17" long.


We also found some other stuff too, here are a few of the really cool ones. A shoe... Note the patches tacked on with tacks, not glue. It appears to be a women's shoe, i'm guessing about a size 6.

This paper is one of my favorites.. The rolled up one was in the wall where the chimney used to be. It is a bit chard but it's dated and readable. Since it's rolled up and crumbly it's hard to take a good picture of it.

November 14, 1926

"ROWAN, 7063, between Green and Beard--Five rooms and bath, newly decorated, with garage; west side"

under the section for "SALE- BUNGALOWS
"Alter Road
Step to Jefferson, 6-room semi, oak finish,
decorated throughout, 3 large bedrooms,
garage; only $1,000 down."

We have found other papers, in the dining room and kitchen, but they are packed in a tote for now. They were used as lining under the tiles and were from when GM was first opening and hiring!

So back the the dryer vent.. This house has never had one. If you don't believe me, here's a picture of the laundry area when we moved in..

yes, that is lint all over the wall and coating the gas line. Safe eh?? We have been using a bucket of water contraption UNTIL today!!

I will post updated pictures on another post. It's hard getting pictures to the bottom of the page on here..

My freezer challenge! Day 3 and 4

Well I had some boneless western style ribs in the fridge. I LOVE those things and they were on sale, sooooo I picked some up... So we had BBQ ribs. I like to season them with salt, pepper, garlic and onion and layer them in my crock pot or pan for the oven. I add some BBQ sauce in there too. Not a ton, but enough to cover it all. Than I cook them for several hours. YUM!!! We are having leftovers today.

So we used up some more frozen vegi's from the freezer. I had some sugar snap peas in there. I LOVE sugar snap peas.. I just steam cook them on the stove in my cast iron pan. I cook all my frozen vegi's that way. In my large cast iron a little water, some salt and olive oil. After they are cooked we can add butter on our plates (since Abigail can't have the same kind of butter) or sometimes I will separate some out for her into a smaller pan and add butter than.. Did you know that frozen corn taste JUST like corn on the cob when you cook it this way??? yup!! A little salt and butter and it's crunchy and everything... That's the favorite around here!

Today, we will have leftover BBQ pork and i'm not sure what else. But I am making homemade donuts for breakfast!!! It's a perfect morning for it (what morning isn't lol) and we have cider to go with it.. I'll post a recipe later. Of course I have a allergy friendly recipe just for my baby girl too!

Dairy free, Soy free cheese!

http://www.daiyafoods.com

The non-dairy, soy free cheese I found for Abigail. I found it at the health food store in Lansing. It was about $5 for a 8 oz bag.. It was the ONLY soy free/dairy free cheese they had.. I was SO excited to find it, but wished it tasted better..

My freezer challenge!

I'm giving myself a challenge. To cook something from our freezer every day. It's FULL, which I am very thankful for, but it also needs defrosted, it's almost deer season AND we are getting a half a cow from a local farmer soon. I have so much stuff in there, that I don't even know what it all is lol. Some I may just have to toss..

So Yesterday was Day 1: I made baked mac and cheese and pulled out pork chops. Ended up I didn't make them though lol, we put some canned chicken in the mac and cheese instead. BUT I did use some frozen corn with dinner, does that count?? I guess since I made the rules, I'll say YUP! lol.

For those wondering, I made Abigail some of her own mac and cheese, after I cooked the noodles, I pulled some out and used her butter and cheese instead.. She ate it, so it must have been good!

Day 2 is those pork chops lol! Oven baked on my broiler pan, since my grill is buried right now.. Leftover re-baked mac and cheese will go with it! Here's my recipe!

Homemade Baked Mac and Cheese:

1 lb of elbow noodles, cooked till almost done, not all the way. drain
1 stick of marg or butter
a mixture of cheese, I like to use a variety, adds more flavor. Cheddar, Mozzarella, Colby even some Parmesan is good. I use about 2 pounds I think.. i don't measure, just cut up what ever I have in chunks and put some shredded in.

Add some milk to make it moist and remember, the noodles will suck it up to finish cooking..
Salt and pepper

Bake at 350 for oh an hour, till it's all melted and the sides are getting crunchy.

You can mix ham, chicken, or even tuna or beef in it before you bake it if you want. Bacon is good too.. I suppose you could throw in some frozen vegi's too lol. I love versatile meals, makes life more interesting!

Off I go to get those chops in the oven!!

Timeline in my closet???

My daughter says my closet looks like a timeline. You know, current fashions in the most worn section, and the older ones as you get farther in, ending with my wedding dress lol. So I figured it was a good time to sort my closet. I'm not a fashionista, but I do try to stay current and modest. She got quite a kick out of trying on all my clothes. She also got quite a few to keep herself, I had some skirts that were just a bit shorter than comfortable, or tighter than I liked. So I never wore them and figured it was time to get them out of there. It's sad really, my daughter, who is 10 fits my too small clothes, not the ones that only fit my leg either, but ones I could squeeze into still, UGH!! Where has the time gone.

She had WAYYYY to much fun trying them on lol. A pant suit that was in there, was the biggest hit. I've never wore it, not sure why I have it, but it's been there for.. well lots of years. She had more fun with that suit. She put it on, aside from the length it fit her lol, she danced in it, squatted, made herself look like a puppet, and begged to keep it, just to be able to be a goof in lol..

What really made me laugh was when she asked, "why do all your clothes of shoulder pads" lol, ummmmm... well?????

Needless to say, I know have one overflowing baskets worth of clothes not in my closet anymore. I'm sure someone can use them!

And there is my wardrobe thinning, I should be good for another 10 years LOL!

Greenhouse picture

FINALLY... a picture of my greenhouse lol. It's from a few weeks ago, but you can see it's all doing pretty good. It's a small variety but it has been tons of fun to do. We have had a few salads from it, yesterday we had our first cucumber and tomato on a salad YUM!! We have some lettuce ready to cut too. I have a variety of kinds planted and plan on planting some more seeds to enjoy some through the year as well.

The very front is filled with collard greens. We planted them for our bearded dragon, he LOVES them. So he's been eating healthy as well this year. We've not had to buy any greens either which is great. We have a few stalks of corn, lol, that was after the kids begged to plant some.. We have one large tomato plant and one smaller size one. It's the patio kind and they are about the size of a golf ball I guess. Not cherry tomatoes, but not the huge ones. Lots of green ones, getting ready to ripen.

The Sugar snap peas are the BEST.. We only planted one plant, but next year we will be doing more. They were SO good. Even if it was just one pea at a time.

Oh yea and we have a Potato plant. I know my garden is small, so we just tried a few things (usually ONE) of several different plants. We have some strawberries in tin buckets that are overflowing and will fill out the back side of the greenhouse.


Time to go water them for the day, so we can cut some nice crisp greens for supper!! Wilted greens are not good :)

My garden, of sorts!

I do have a garden this year. Last year it was a sad affair. This year it's doing much better. It's small and a combination of pots and a small area of dirt. Everything is starting to blossom and grown. Amberlin and I got to share our very first Sugar Snap Peas yesterday. SO YUMMY!! I know we won't get many, but the juicy and plump kind are my favorite for just eating raw. No cooking them please!! We have lots of green tomatoes and even more flowers too. I only have two tomato plants, but we sure can't wait to eat them. I seen a flower on the cucumbers too, they plants are still pretty small though, so i'm not sure how well they will do. We planted a few corn plants, just because the kids were really excited to. I have a bunch of seed packets that I got for Science class and they insisted on planting them ALL lol. I have more seeds to plant again and have some stuff, like lettuce and such later in the year too. I think it's about time to get planting them.

This is the first time I've ever tried the lettuce and greens, so i'm not sure when to harvest them. They are looking good though and I'm thinking it's soon!!! I'll get some pics to show you all my garden.

On another note, my sewing has been keeping me pretty busy. no complaints, i'm LOVING it. Sewing for me, is my way of relaxing, so I don't get stressed about it, now money, I get stressed, but sewing, I look forward too. I've been busy with custom made stuff lately. Had to make a few patterns and everything. It all seems to have turned out well and for that we are thankful. I even got to sew with my MIL for a few days. Something we don't get to do often enough!! Love her, and she's always a great help!

I'm off to get dressed and get some pictures.


Below: custom shirt I made. Had to make a pattern and a few samples to get it right, but it was a perfect fit in the end. www.jensews.com