Top Secret House Update

Well it was top secret until last night.  Here's the story.....
If you remember we had our basement worked on recently to fix our excess moisture problem.  To prepare for the work, Jonathan had to rip out moldy shelving around the parameter of the basement all by himself.  (Since I am pregnant we decided it was best for me NOT to hang out with flying spores).  I felt kind of bad (emphasis on kind of) he had to do all the heavy lifting on his own so I wanted to help in some way.  The opportunity arose early this week when he was traveling for business.  I set out to conquer his work bench area, organizing and neatening it up for his birthday.
Here was the work bench area before I went to work-

Full disclosure, I am not afraid of much.... EXCEPT spiders and even their webs.  Though very useful beings... I just don't like them.  I would hold a snake any day before a creepy, leggy arachnid.  Bleh.  I bring that up to show my dedication.  There were spider webs everywhere.  Anyway, I made SOME progress and jump started the basement updating-

Home Depot sells a peg board organization kit for around $11.  These hangers are all from one kit-

I painted the lower board with magnetized paint.... for tacking up 'napkin drawing' plans and such.  That's how we make plans around here, on random scraps of paper.  I first saw magnetized paint in my friend's playroom (the Hallidays) and thought it was a great idea.  You can paint blackboard paint (for a chalkboard), dry erase board paint or just regular paint over top and it still works as a magnetized surface.  Just FYI, I think a large area would be an absolute BEAR to do with the sludge-like magnetic paint.... but its obviously do-able.

To birthday-it-up, the kids helped me make a sign.

Little man helped taste test the cake (red velvet if you're wondering why its as red as my canisters).

Somehow it all came together.  I am not on top of my game these days.  Momma is more tired than normal.  Happy birthday husband!

Quinoa Growing Experiment and Fall Garden

This year we are trying to grow quinoa.  Since quinoa apparently does NOT like temperatures above 90F degrees I thought I would try it as a late summer crop (because we had multiple days over 90 degrees in July this year).  Its growing time is between 90-120 days so we are hoping for a possible October harvest.  They can handle light frost especially if the seed (the part that you harvest and eat from the plant head) is past the green stage.

The plants are tall and quite lovely.  You can even eat their VERY nutritious leaves at young growth.

Quinoa is extremely popular because of the seed nutritional content, mainly the protein content is what interests people.

Quinoa is mostly grown in the Andean highlands of Bolivia and Peru but its recent popularity has inspired some regions in North America to try experimentation crops.  This popularity has also brought up controversy due to the rise of price thats been inflicted on the original growing regions.  Reports say those areas, which used quinoa as a dietary staple, can no longer afford it for themselves.
I am not an expert in this area and can't express an opinion one way or the other.  We thought we would try to grow it for economical reasons.  Currently, the cost is about $8/lb at my grocery store and not always available.  A packet of seeds is around $2.00 (which has enough seeds for 6+ pounds worth of harvest).

Anyway, I planted enough plants to harvest about 1 pound worth of seed.  If it works out we will try more next year and maybe even sell it.  Currently though, I am having trouble with getting it to germinate.  I will keep you updated as things progress, if they progress.

Along with quinoa I have planted our 'late summer' garden or short season and cool season plants.  We recently harvested beets and potatoes from this area.

In harvesting news, we are giving thanks for a good season so far.
Amish Paste tomatoes in the basket, Brandywine heirloom tomato still ripening on the vine-

Lots of eggplants still growing-

First year of trying soybeans (for edamame) going well so far-

We had a good harvest from the blue potato plant the came back from last year.  As roasted, these potatoes are not as tasty as some other varieties.  They are more for potato salads I would say... but interesting to look at with their blue flesh.

I am itching to get a house update post on here soon.  Hopefully that will happen. :)

Making Homemade Pickles, Is It Worth It?

Sound the match bell.  Homemade pickles vs. store bought pickles are going to battle.... sort of.
Though this is an unfair matchup in regards to flavor I still wanted to give it a looksie.

VS

So like the other homemade vs. store bought battles, the criteria only looks at cost.  Does it save money?  Is it a good way to preserve some homegrown vegetables throughout the winter?

One disadvantage might be that my particular recipe uses more ingredients than some other homemade pickling recipes.  We personally love this one though so this is the one I use.  Recipe was given to me by Mr. Wood in upstate, NY.

Here is the breakdown of cost to make Mr. Wood's Garlicky Dill Pickle recipe (yes, I troubled myself with this math for curiosity sake):

Homegrown Pickling Cucumbers (estimate per cost of cuc from packet of seeds that cost $1.59)- $0.003 

Cider Vinegar- $0.177

Sugar- $0.23
Sea Salt- $0.23
Pickling Spice- $0.03
Fresh Dill- $0.56 (or easily grow your own) 
Garlic- $0.25 (or easily grow your own)
Seeded Rye Bread (yes this gets put in there)- $0.08

TOTAL- $1.56 / homemade quart of Garlicky Dills

compared to

TOTAL- $2.00 / pint (or $4.00 / quart) of standard store bought dill pickles

So $2.44 savings per jar of pickles!

From a quick search, here are the ingredients in one of the most common store brand dill pickles-

• Cucumbers, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Benzoate, Polysorbate 80, Natural Flavors, and Yellow #5.

Time should also be a consideration.  NOT counting cooling time of the brine, it takes me less than 30 minutes to make multiple batch of pickles.  They are easy, it basically just stuffing the jar with ingredients and pouring the brine over top.  Granted I don't technically can/seal the pickles, but with all the natural preservatives (such as salt and vinegar) I don't worry with refrigerating them constantly or worry about bacterial getting in my gasket lid mason jars.

So are homemade pickles worth it?  You can decide for yourself.  As for us, YES.   Pickles make for an easy snack we ALL enjoy and quick finger food for entertaining guests.

Beside, in our house cucumbers are more safe inside jars.... otherwise baby girl will find them and bite their heads off-

So consider me doing you a favor cucumbers-

A lovely story about pickles here- Tale of the Traveling Pickles

Mud Masks

"Mud, mud glorious mud".....  pigs would sing this song along with hippopotamus I am sure if they could (Flanders and Swann, Hippopotamus Song).
It has been raining all day here and the pigs have been enjoying themselves.  Nice mineral enriched mud for digging and foraging in....

Never too young to help.... taking vegetable scraps out from dinner to the piggies-

The piggies do seem to prefer baby girl the most.

Maybe they think she is the least threatening, but little do they know.....

Basement Drains Complete

Our basement job was completed within one day.  This was nice since most businesses we have contracted for jobs have been late to start and late to finish.  We are extremely pleased with the company and their workmanship so let me know if you would like their name.  So far only two businesses/contractors that have worked on our home have really pleased us: this basement company and the guys who installed our carpet.  Working with good people makes a BIG difference.
If you don't remember, we needed work done due to our basement flooding.  Post about the work is here- There's a Jackhammer in My Basement

Here was the old sump pump area (and lowest point in our basement) during the work-

Here is the completed job-

So the basic technology of the Grate Drain is the below rectangle chambers act as a submerged gutter.  These gutters or chambers are submerged around the entire perimeter of the basement, surrounded by gravel and covered by concrete.  The outside water flows down the exterior basement wall and through holes made in the wall parallel to these chambers.  The ground water flows into these chambers and is then pumped out instead of seeping through the floor and the wall/floor joint.

There are access ports all around the perimeter in case the system ever needs to be flushed.  We can also connect a hose from our dehumidifier to a port, so we don't have to continually dump the bucket (we were having to dump it every few days through out the summer).

Others pictures of the finished product.  Jonathan's 'shop' area-

Drain added at base of bulk head stairs.  Water sometimes gets through the bulk head and runs under the door into the basement.

We have heat and a separate thermostat in our basement which is nice.

This area we are considering to finish as a playroom.  This is very exciting and makes this expensive project even more worth it (since before it was NOT a possibility with all the flooding we kept having).

It also makes storing things down in the basement easier.  Before, items stored in the basement smelled musty and always had to be off the ground.

Like I said, it was expensive work but we do not have to worry with flooding anymore.  And since we have a generator even power outages are not too much of a threat.  Good peace of mind especially since it's hurricane season. :)