2nd Yule at SilverHouse - An Adventure in Building Traditions

Hello folks!

Welcome to our second holiday season at SilverMoon!

This year, thanks to a visit from D's parents and a giftcard for my birthday from my mom, we really upped the holiday spirit in the house. Since I didn't come here with a lot of things holiday related I've been slowly  building up my seasonal decor by getting one really nice piece a year. Last year was a blown glass Christmas tree in a clear ball, this year was a layered forest scene made out of several thin sheets of wood.

The rules for holiday decorations here are:
1. No loose glitter. Glitter gets everywhere and I hate cleaning it up, especially if it keeps hiding in various nooks in the house.
2. Dog friendly. The last thing anyone wants is a sick dog - so decorations with lots of loose parts, things that look like chew toys, or tiny decorations that could be swallowed in one gulp are all no-go.

Two rules. That's not so bad. ;-)

Last year's ornament - blown glass Christmas tree

Two piece deer and heart ornament

Perfect Christmas tree - comes with lights and easy to store!

You can tell from the photos that I also prefer things that are hand-made out of wood, glass, or ceramic. I also really like deer and elk images over little Lord Jesus. I've seen deer and elk and they are amazing, but Jesus imagery, while a concept of rebirth that I appreciate, doesn't speak to me as much. Plus, I enjoy having a religiously ambiguous home where I hope everyone can feel welcome.

The other things I like to think about before getting a new piece are where the item came from, who made it, how durable the item seems to be, and how storable it is. It isn't like we have a ton of room in the tiny house, so setting aside three feet or more for an actual tree wouldn't work on both the space level, and that I just don't want a dead tree disintegrating in my home. So - things like garlands, recycled pieces that D grew up with, and the flat-pack lit Christmas tree with two reindeer carved into it work really well in that they don't take up much space, show really well, and will all fit neatly into storage after January.

One of the fun things about living in a new place is setting new traditions. We talk about things like when to set up decorations, who does what job, how to hang the lights, and when decorations should come down. We each have our own family traditions that we are used to and just feel right - to us. D is used to Christmas stuff going up Thanksgiving evening. I'm used to things happening Christmas week or even Christmas eve. T is about a week or so after Thanksgiving. This year we set up the Yule decorations the first weekend of December - which we all liked as a group compromise.

D got out the boxes from his childhood, I went out and used my giftcard and brought home some new treasures, T helped me hang things and held the chair and untangled and tested the lights. Perhaps this is the start of a new tradition?

What sort of traditions are in your house? What sort of ornaments do you own and why? Who made them? What is their history? What are your customs around the end of the year and dawn of another? How do you build traditions in a blended household?

Next week we plan to visit ZooLights - pics and updates coming soon!

First Weekend with Pyewacket

Photobomb of Pyewacket below. Since I haven't had much sleep - read: waking up every couple of hours for a bathroom trip for Pye, I can't really type much. I will say we had a great first trip to the park, first visit to puppy socialization play group, first and second vet visit - the first was just for fun and treats, first bath, first trip to the ice cream shop, first nail trim, and the first time she got in her crate on the call "CRATE."

Hello World! - Meet Our New Puppy!

I usually try to post on Sunday evenings - but this week had other plans.

So - sorry for the delay, but it is well worth the wait - say hello to Pyewacket Taco Venture!

We picked her up after an intensive training weekend with Familiar, our other dog. We went camping in the Gorge and checked out all the waterfalls...but you don't want to hear about that, you want puppy pics!

She is the 7th butt from the right!

What a face :-D



Left side spots - ears still down

First time swimming!

Serious gremlin-face!

Hard at work

So today is day 2. Today was our first work-crate day. We would take a 10 minute bathroom-break and running through the grass adventure every hour, or whenever she woke up, and we practiced COME and NO. As in, come Pyewacket, and no - no eating wood chips.

At lunch we took an hour-long walk...I carried her a couple times...but she saw lots of things and did a surprisingly good job of following my coworker Sarah and I through a garden.

Things she has done:

• Met her new pack
• Found her at-home crate - her bed, her food and water bowl
• Found out what a collar, harness, and leash are. She kind of thinks the harness and leash are things to chew on...so working on that.
• Ridden in the car - falls asleep fast! I think she likes the car!
• Found her spot in the Doggy Garden for her business.
• Traded toys with Familiar - they swapped bones and chewed on them within sight of each other. Not bad for day 2!
• Chased her braided fleece toy.
• Chewed on everything.
• Bossed Familiar around - when she has had enough, she has had enough!
• Worked on COME, NO, DOWN, SIT, QUIET TIME (us playing with toys in her crate together before she naps), CRATE
• Been introduced to my co-workers, flowers, loud airplanes, a robin, some elderly folks on a walk in the garden, a bumblebee, and whatever else she has discovered at her line of sight that I can't see.

Today's awesomeness - she saw rabbits! We were out on the lawn of my workplace running around and practicing COME and I saw two rabbits. I wondered how she'd react and so we slowly, calmly, walked toward them. We actually got pretty close.

When Pyewacket saw them her ears perked up facing front, her front paws got a little stiff but her tail was high and waving, and she started to walk toward them. She didn't bark! What? Yea! a corgi that didn't bark!

She did bark and run toward some very loud construction noises but we did some distracting with her new favorite treat - chicken jerky and the fleece toy. No problem!

So, what about that name?
Blaming this one on my mother :-)
Naw, not really, though she did think of the name. I was trying to think of a good name that would be in line with Familiar's...you know, a familiar name. You can Wiki it HERE

Taco is from Hubs. He really wanted a dog named either Taco or Burrito...man-reasons.

Where is she from?
She is from Pawcific Cardigans & Pawcific Border Collies South. Emily is an awesome breeder and I went to visit a few times before bringing Pyewacket home. She answered all my questions and asked me a bunch of questions too. Seriously, awesome breeder.

She is from the "Gem" litter of CH Toreth's Rock Me Like A Hurricane and Pawcific's One Hand One Heart (Cloe). The litter was born on February 17th, 2016. Her original name was Opal.

What is her personality like?
We have only been with each other for 2 days - but she seems like a pretty middle-of-the-road puppy. She is a little into resource guarding - growling and whining at me and trying to push my hand out of the way when I stuck it in her bowl.
1 - puppy growls are hilarious
2 - totally understandable if she was pushing her way into food from the other pups
3 - she isn't resource guarding anything else so far - she actually brought me her fleece toy after I threw it for her!
4 - totally fixable. This morning for breakfast we starting playing impatient waiter game. I made her food and she watched me and waited well and sat. I told her she was doing good and then I gave her another bowl with just a tiny bit of food from the bowl in it. She gobbled it and then looked at me like I was a crazy magician and got a little FEED ME tantrum. Once she sat down again, I put another pinch of food in the bowl and stroked her side. We did this - bite of food, calm down, more food delivered by hand, and petting - until I put my fingers in her food bowl and she didn't growl. She actually sat down and waited nicely by the end! We have been keeping it going with treats and will continue with her other meals until I can put my hand over her food bowl and take her food bowl without issue.

She is VERY food motivated. She is somewhat praise motivated and toy motivated.

She is not very mouthy...well, she is a puppy, but she hasn't really bitten me or tried to nibble me. That's awesome. :-)

She is fine with her crate and sleeps sprawled out on her side or back and twitches like she is running while she sleeps.

She sleeps fairly well.

She goes to the bathroom outdoors. I have some puppy pads but I just use them in case - she actually hasn't used any of them - though she does like to put her paws in her water bowl. Whenever she wakes up the very first thing is TREAT for being patient and sitting or standing calmly while I open the crate, then LEASH, then BATHROOM TIME for getting picked up and brought outside.

Eventually we will walk to the hallway door, then the outside door, then the front stairs, then the gate to the backyard, then the gate to the Dog Garden...but really, we have time to get there and it doesn't have to be done today.

What's in her future?
Short-term - This week is getting used to home and initial routine. We also have a vet pre-visit just to say hi and a vet visit for reals. I have people-only orientation at a training school that hosts puppy socialization on Saturdays. There is a corgi-meetup group and various cafe's, shops, neighborhoods and etc that we are going to check out together.

Eventually I'd like to see her as an outdoor-loving adventurer. She'll keep me company at the office, visit with the elderly folks, kayak and swim, and I could see her in agility or flyball.

That's it for now :-) someone just woke up from her nap!

Backyard Remodel - The Dog Garden

At SilverMoon the backyard isn't huge, but it is large enough for a patio, raised planting beds, a fire pit, fruit trees, a storage shed, and maybe even a small greenhouse one day. I can see it...in my mind, but to get there involves a lot of work.

The backyard started out as a mechanic's garage. Even after the structure was removed, the underlying cement slab was still there. We removed most of the slab - leaving a trapezoid shape for use as a patio and using the chunks of concrete as reinforcement along the fence. But it is still an old 1950's mechanic's lot. You can't dig the ground without unearthing windshield wipers, chains, hunks of twisted metal, and lots of glass.

I'd hate to see the soil toxicology report. The ground is good for grass and flowers but we won't be eating anything from this soil for the next 100 years. Raised beds will be required for anything edible.

To that end, we have (mostly) leveled the soil, removed as much of the surface debris as possible, and begun several projects around the yard. We have a half-circle raised bed for flowers at the fence and the fruit trees have been installed.

The most recent project has been the addition of a Dog Garden. We came to the realization that our dog needed a steady place to go and that with the constant changes going on in the back yard he didn't have a consistent "toilet" area.

Solution - build one!

 

It started with 4 layers of black landscape cloth to prevent weeds but also allow drainage. For the fence we reused a shipping pallet that had delivered the house siding a few months earlier.

Note on reusing shipping pallets: seriously consider time/effort over money here. To reuse the pallet we had to rip the old nails out of all of the wood, cut each plank to remove the previously nailed part / damaged edges, then measure what we had left and trim down again to the lengths we needed, then sand each piece, and then stain each piece. This was not a cake-walk. Reusing is cool, but in the end it may cost more than going to the lumber yard and the quality of pallet wood can be questionable.

I trimmed the area with flexible landscape edging and broke up the rectangle with an arc. The larger section was filled with pea gravel and the arc was covered in rubber mulch. I went with rubber mulch over traditional wood shavings because it is paw and finger friendly (no splinters!), recycled, can be rinsed off to keep it clean, and it doesn't hold water unlike wood mulch so it is less friendly to bacteria.

The fence is made of the recycled shipping pallet and black mesh netting. Since it is an area less likely to sprout seeds - I put my birdfeeder in the arc and we decorated the pea gravel area with a "marking" stone. The space also holds my hanging hummingbird feeder and it has a cement disk that will be the base of a tall planter I'm currently working on.

 

So far, and it has only been a week, the dog seems to love it. He has a space all his own to do his business and then, once he is done, he can come out and run around and play in the rest of the yard. It is nice for the humans too because 1- it is easy to clean, and 2- we can stop worrying about stepping on poo and start working on other backyard projects.

Next up - finishing the pea gravel border around the house and the fruit trees and running drip irrigation!

 

How To Do This: Capsule Wardrobe - Part 2!

So, after How To Do This: Capsule Wardrobe with Coordinated Colors - Part 1 you have your color palette but are you unsure of what to do next? Do you have 27 white tank tops and you aren't sure how many you really need?

Well, while one method won't work for everyone, I can share what worked for me. Take what you can and use what fits with your life.

Step one - Ask yourself some questions!

 

Why do you wear clothes? Really, besides protecting your body from the elements - what do you see as the purpose of clothing?

Do you have a uniform, are jeans and steel toe boots a requirement, or do you have to manage a professional office?

Do you need to look a "certain way" to fit in? Do you need to look a "certain way" to express yourself and stand out?

Are you outdoorsy, a soccer mom, a busy blogger, a crafter, a student? How would you describe yourself? How, and be as objective as possible, are your clothes describing you?

As a fun side-experiment - go to a place with lots of people and watch them for a while. Check out what they are wearing - do you get an idea of their gender, status, wealth, mood, attention to detail, self-respect just by looking at their clothes? Can someone tell that information about you?

Is there a certain style that appeals to you? Are you retro? Corp-goth? Steampunk? Sporty? Princess?

One way to determine your personal style is to do the same thing as Part 1 but, instead of focusing on colors,  look for outfits you like! Are you currently wearing something you feel smashing in? Add that picture to your collection! Build a page of outfit images that you'd like to wear.

Be wary of body image issues. When searching the internet for images of clothes look for body types similar to your own. You should feel excited and good when you see the outfit, not sad or envious of the body in the clothes. A good place to start may be looking at bounding outfits as they often will not include bodies. Google "bounding outfit" or "Disneybound outfit" and you'll see what I'm talking about.


My sample board - Things I learned: I love pinup, pencil skirts, and peplum tops.
I'm a wedges over pumps person and all my sweater sleeves are 3/4 length or shorter. I prefer bold color-blocking and simple patterns over intricate designs, and my skinny jeans should be dark wash or black.

Once you have an image-board of outfits you like, your style should be obvious. You may have more than one style, perhaps in your 9-5 you are refined corporate casual, but on the weekends you're a sporty soccer player. But once you know your style, you can determine how much space and how many items of clothing you need to pull off both styles.

Step two - Shop your closet!

 

Now that you have an idea how you want to look - find the things you already own that fit your new requirements. Make sure the items fit both the style/s you are going for and the color range from Capsule Wardrobe - Part 1.

Pull everything out - keep things folded if you like, but get everything out and take a look at what you really have.

There is a saying that the things you own - own you.

You either spend time or money (sometimes both) to buy and maintain your clothes, so make sure the ones you have are worth that investment.

A few questions for sorting clothes -

• Do I adore this?
• Does this fit my body and is it in good repair?
• Does this fit my style choices?
• Does this fit my color scheme?

Pay attention to the fabric - most linen requires ironing, cotton can wrinkle too and is easy to stain. Synthetic blends may save you time but you don't want to be the polyester queen. Keep a mix of natural and blended fabrics and just be mindful of the extra care some items may require. 100% cotton T-shirt = great basic, 100% cotton pleated skirt with a wide band and pockets = mandatory line dry and 10 minutes of ironing to get the pleats perfect - is it worth it?

If you aren't sure about something, set it aside in a 'maybe' pile. You can pull from it to fill in any gaps in your new wardrobe, but give it a month or two and then reconsider. If you haven't missed it, chances are aren't going to miss it.

Be wary of sentiment. If you are holding onto a pair of jeans from 30 lbs ago - ask yourself, do these inspire you to drop that weight? If they were tucked into the bottom drawer in the back, chances are they are serving more to shame you like a dark secret rather than inspire and uplift your heart.

Keep your wedding dress if you love it, but if it would be better donated - wish it many happy memories and send it off.

If you are scared of letting go - keep a small part of that thing and reuse it. Take a pearl from your wedding dress and make it into a necklace you wear on special nights out, or cut out the patch from your favorite T-shirt from your youth and frame it.

Have something you want to give to your kids? Make a box, and put those things into that box. Stick with your box - fill it, but when you run out of room that's it. Your kid may love that one pair of passed down bell bottoms, but they don't need to inherit your entire personal style.

If you have seasonal items - a beautiful vintage woolen hat, a winter jacket, or snowpants - set them aside. Just like a work uniform, those clothes are for specific activities / seasons and should be stored accordingly. Now, if you have 7 winter jackets and live in Florida it might be time to reconsider, but if you have one classic winter jacket that fits, is in good repair, and suits your style - stash it away for the colder weather.

Step three - Put it all together!

 

So - you have a pile of clothes you absolutely adore and that fit your body, your style, your color palette, and make you super happy to wear. You are almost done!

Check for duplicates - how many white tank-tops can you wear in a week? Two weeks? If you do the laundry once a week, wear a fresh white tank-top every day, and allow for a couple of replacements due to stains / wear, then 10 should get you through a year. If you only wear a white tank once a week but you wear at least one every week, then allowing for stains / wear, 3 would get you through a year easily.

Try pulling together some outfits. See how long it takes you to pull out something to wear. Since all your clothes now fit, blend, and make you happy it shouldn't take more than a minute or two. Can you make up outfits for tomorrow and the day after? Could you spend 10-15 minutes now and know what you are going to wear for the entire week and have it all grouped together?

Put things away properly - folding and hanging items correctly takes up less space and helps you later when you need to find them. Hopefully you now have a lot more room to work with as well.

Try working with what you have for a few weeks. Take note of the items you could really use and anything you haven't touched since putting it away, maybe those items can find a new home? When you go clothes shopping have your style guide and color guide in your mind (or in your purse) and reference it in the dressing room.

Turns out I don't buy nearly as much as I used to - I still love to shop, but the items I buy have to match my style, color choices, and be worth their storage space in my dresser.

Ready to give it a try?
 

Finishing the Garage

The project for February was to finish the garage and I'm happy to say we are done!

It started with bare walls, similar to our living space. We added insulation, drywall, paint, lights, and lots of organization! Not to mention tons of cleaning and elbow grease.

You'll see more projects coming up in the near future. Our goal is one house project a month - we have gardening, more organization, interior projects, and lots more!

- Pics below -

No more bare walls

Working around the windows

Taping the seams

Painted, organized, and put back together

Shop side

Storage, art, and canning side. There are some left over bits on the floor - soon to disappear!

Work tables. There are some left over bits on the tables but it is soon to be organized!

Dog Tricks - A little dose of cuteness

A little dose of cuteness here: Fams has learned to balance a treat on his nose! I think it has taken so long for him to learn this trick because he can see the food. That, and it is hard for me not to laugh when I see him going cross-eyed and so excited to have a tasty treat so close he can almost taste it.

He figured it out though. We moved the treat closer to his eyes so he can't really see it and he's learned to watch our hands to see when he can move.
He'd really very good with hand signs.

Isn't he such a handsome dachshund?!

Tiny House Organizing - Clothing Storage

More organizing at the Tiny House!

This week I went through my clothing storage. You may already know that we decided to capsule wardrobe our clothes. By going through our stuff and removing things we never wore, sticking to a color pallete, and pre-planning outfits, we have eliminated the need for a closet. I have 6 drawers, T has 3.

They started out nice, but over the time / washing / refolding / stuffing things where there was available space - it was getting hard for me to find the clothes I wanted to wear. That problem is now fixed and all it took was a little tape, a sharpie, and a pair of scissors.

How To -

Think: If you'd like to sort your drawers - first it is important to figure out what you have in there and what you want in there, and those may be two separate things.

Categorize: I thought about all my clothes and separated them into categories. The categories I ended up with were:

Skirts

Pants

Work shirts

T-Shirts

Tank Tops

Party Dresses

Work dresses

Athletics

Swimwear

Leggings

Sweaters

Jackets / Blazers

Special Occasion / Rare Use

Then I went through the drawers and made piles of clothes in each category. There was no need to dump things out, I left them folded but just grouped them into areas on my bed. For a while it was hard to separate Party Dresses from my Special Occasion clothes but then I realized Special Occasion would be better used as a category for things like Halloween costumes and my wedding dress - things I don't want to donate but that I really don't wear very often.

Group: After everything was sorted it became clear what groups of clothes would fit into a drawer. While it may make sense in my mind to put Work Shirts and Work Dresses in the same drawer since they are both work-related, there wasn't enough physical space to fit both of those groups into the same drawer. By grouping things according to how much physical space they took up I was able to find room for everything with out cramming and wedging things to fit.

Restore: Putting everything in it's place took a few tries. I had to sort which clothes I wanted to reach the easiest. I did that by deciding which category of clothes I wore the most - for me, that's work clothes, so I put them at the top. Then athletic / casual clothes came next. Last were party dresses, special occasion, and T-shirts.

Label: Once I'd swapped drawer locations a few times and made sure everything was in the right place I grabbed some masking tape and a sharpie and some scissors. Making the labels was pretty easy - just make sure your letters are facing the way you can read them :-) If you are not using wire racks but have wooden drawers - you may want to consider painters tape rather than masking tape so it doesn't hurt the finish. Another, and very fancy option, might be washi tape or printing out the drawer categories on return address label stickers. You could also use colored markers, colored tape, or even post-it notes.

Now, when T or I are doing the laundry it is easy to put stuff away - we know right where it goes. It is also easier to find specific items - if I need a sweater, I go to the sweater section etc. There is no more wasted time or stress over finding things to wear. Also, this has made sorting my outfits for the week so much faster!

Where does your Christmas come from?

At SilverMoon house we celebrated our very first Holiday Party on December 19th, Winter Solstice on December 22nd, and our very first Winter Moon is tonight, December 25th (also, Christmas).

I, like many other people, love decorating for holidays. It gets me in the spirit and changes up the energy in the house. It builds up the anticipation and keeps things looking fresh. Yay decoration!

The drawback there is the push to combine decorating with consumerism. Companies market to consumers what their idea of a full table looks like, what the walls should look like, what you need to get to make it "feel" like the holiday season.

Well, that's just rubbish.

Companies market cheap, brightly colored, trinkets which we use for a few weeks on our trees and tables and wreaths and then we throw it all out come January 1st. I've walked around the city a few days after New Years and noticed the sad, dried out, wasted Christmas trees - some with lights still on, lining the streets waiting for a garbage truck to take them away. There will undoubtedly also be broken angels, cracked bulbs, and glitter shrapnel choking the gutter drains creating a twinkling twilight zone on a still post-holiday evening.

So much waste.

I find myself wondering where is the joy in these days? If you are religious - what God / Goddess / Spaghetti Monster sanctions such bingeing? If you aren't religious - where is the logic in excess consumerism that seems so prevalent in the winter months?

There are articles and documentaries that speak to the true cost of Christmas Culture. Factories in China have long been targets of investigative journalism. Information about workers being fined for using the toilet, being rushed through training and working with dangerous tools, chemicals in a country that doesn't necessarily care about the health hazards faced by the workers who use them, the list goes on and on.

Who made your Christmas ornaments? Seriously, who made them?

I want to be mindful of our use of ornaments and decorations. No, that doesn't mean we won't decorate, or that we will only DIY things. It does mean that I'll be checking out some DIY crafts, taking a look at the country of origin on the purchases I do make, and trying out places like Ten Thousand Villages and Etsy for  new things and Goodwill for others. Also, there are sustainable tree farms and mom'n'pop side of the road home businesses that could use a little cash for the holiday season more than a Walmart CEO.

Just before Christmas I went to check out the Urban Craft Uprising for good holiday ideas that support local artists and artisans.

There were lots of interesting folks- makers and artists with interesting gift ideas. D and I bought T's gift there. A laser cut wooden model for him to build. I can say that now 'cause we opened gifts earlier today. :-)

We are trying to be mindful this Yule. Mindful of the push of materialism, mindful of the time and privilege we have been given to be able to enjoy the holiday, and mindful of the meaning behind the season.

Happy holidays!

Victory is Mine! (End of Mousewars?)

Warning - eww ahead -

It has been quiet at night. Too quiet.

• I wrapped my clothes in brown paper so I could easily tell if they'd been disturbed. 
• All guitar cases that had been stored under the bed were removed 
• ALL on-the-floor storage was cleared out and lifted
• The grass was cut super short
• Counter tops were cleaned and sprayed with peppermint
• Floors were mopped with peppermint soap
• Original live traps were replaced with glue and snap traps 
• Door seals were added to all doors so that you couldn't put a dime under them
• Orkin put a bait box outside
• All food was put in glass jars or in the fridge (no more fruit on the counter)
• Peppermint oil was dabbed along the corners of the floor (smells like Christmas!)
• I started burning peppermint oil in the house

Besides smelling like a freshmint commercial - I thought these tactics might work to disinvite our little guests. Things were quiet.
Then I caught a wiff of something off.

I was laying on the floor getting a calf rub from T who was on the couch ( I know, lucky ) but then something made me wince. The scent made me choke a little it was so unexpected. It was the smell of rotting meat.

I've dealt with the scent before in sorting carcass barrels at a wolf sanctuary. There was no refrigeration. Let's just say I'm mostly immune to the effects of corpse smell and I can sense it a mile away - but this was unexpected and in my own house.

You couldn't smell it everywhere either. It was very faint and came in little wisps on the air.

I freaked out. 

I checked the compost bin - bananas, the fridge - rice, the dog's bed - dog, the carpet - baking soda and peppermint, the sink - dish soap, the couch - cotton, I crawled around like a mad woman sniffing the air and trying to figure out which way the air was flowing that low in the house. There was nothing.

I thought maybe I was going crazy. Perhaps my nose was going haywire, or I had a sinus infection, or my imagination was inventing it? But now I couldn't get the smell out of my head. I kept sniffing and narrowed it down to someplace near the sink and under the cabinets - but I couldn't see anything under the cabinets. Ty got a flashlight and I couldn't see anything but it was definitely coming from that area.

Then Ty put the flashlight under the fridge and I saw a tail. There was something with a tail stuck to a glue trap.

eww....

Some shrieking, and getting D out of bed, and clearing off the top of the fridge, and careful rolling of the fridge later - the offending smell was exposed. It was BIG.

I was too grossed out to look at it long but it was bigger than I expected. I had imagined a tiny house mouse, the kind you might keep as a pet, but this was a beast. Not quite rat-sized, but the idea crossed my mind.

No wonder the live traps didn't work - it couldn't get inside!

So, with the mouse war possibly over, we aired out the house and disposed of the ex-creature. I feel sad about the casualty, but now I can sleep better at night.

Also, fyi, my house doesn't smell icky now. It still kinda smells like peppermint and I might keep it that way for the season. The smell of victory...

Thanksgiving Photo Update

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We enjoyed the first Thanksgiving at SilverMoon with a feast, games, movies, a concert, and walks to burn off some of those calories!

It was pretty relaxing. 4 days of friends and family, cooking, some cleaning and organizing, and we even went out into the crowds - not to buy, but just to observe the chaos and enjoy the decorations.

Early on Wednesday morning, very early, we woke to screaming and gunshots coming from outside. We couldn't see anything but it was just to the other side of our neighbor's house. Generally our street is pretty calm (yes, just our street) so this was very unexpected and upsetting.

I was not a happy camper at work on Wednesday. Thank you to my bosses and co-workers for being awesome. Wednesday was rough.

Thankfully, after work I was able to focus on preparing the menu - getting the veggies chopped, fruits washed, and sides made took my mind off the violence. I searched for the police report just to see what the story was - but they don't publish reports on open investigations so I let it go.

I assumed no one died as there were no news stories or news vans in the area. I made a pie and cranberry sauce since those things taste better after 24 hours and they took all of my attention.

Thursday I made the ham - Alton Brown style - finished the potatoes and the sides and we enjoyed a feast with friends and games and so-bad-it's-good TV.

The Menu -

::Main & Sides::

Glazed Ham

Maple Syrup baked Sweet Potatoes 

Braised Carrots and Parsnips

Corn

Biscuits

Cranberry Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

 

::Snacks::

Grapes

Carrot sticks and Garlic Humus

Little Oranges

 

::Desserts::

Chocolate Truffles

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Bread with home made Whipped Cream

 

::Drinks::

Ginger Ale

Apple Cider

Mulled Cider

 

When we finally got restless and dared to venture outside - the weather was lovely...cold, but lovely. We walked around Greenlake and into the stores to enjoy the throng and excitement and energy without feeling the need to buy anything.

Also, my scarf matches the Japanese Maples in Waterfall Park - who knew?!

 

On Sunday we found out what the shooting was about. Apparently someone was walking their dog in the early morning hours and another dog, a dog known in the neighborhood as being very aggressive, jumped the fence and attacked the dog walker and their dog. The screaming was the woman being attacked and the gun shots were someone shooting the attacking dog.

Lessons learned -

My neighborhood is interesting.

Keep an eye out when walking you dog.

In my neighborhood folks pack poop bags AND loaded guns when they go out in the morning.  

 

 

Enter BattleMouse!!

I spent Veterans' Day doing another deep clean of the house, scrubbing the countertops and resetting the laundry. This started after I followed a little trail of pasta sauce from the prior evening's lasagna as it went across the counter, leapt from the counter to the stools, and leapt again from the stools to the top of the dresser. Then the trail of sauce went behind my plants, behind the picture of the dog, and squeezed on the dresser and the wall where the mouse brought the noodle to rest on my white jacket. I've never been so mad at a rodent. Brazen little devil!

This time I wrapped all my clothes in brown shipping paper so the mouse will (hopefully) make noise and will (hopefully) stay out of my drawers. We also reset the live traps and moved them closer to the trail the mouse made with the rogue noodle.

The ultrasonic plug-ins are fired. The mouse would have been standing next to two of them - one on the counter and one in the socket behind my drawer. Didn't seem to bother it at all.

The dog is also fired. He can obviously smell the mouse, but has yet to catch it or bark at it or anything. He did find my sauce stained jacket very interesting and sniffed all around my dresser and tried to get under the cabinet (which I cleaned and re-cleaned) which was futile but hilarious to watch.

Next step - borrow a friend's cat.

Live trap or a cat

Life, or death if you choose

MouseBattle is on!

-mouse haiku

Mouse in the House

Oh Crumbs! There's a mouse in the house!

Last weekend, while putting some laundry away, Mr T found mouse droppings on top of the clothes already in the clothing drawer. YUCK.

Upon closer investigation, it seems a mouse had been hiding in the clothes for only a few days at most - not many droppings, no chew marks in any furniture or to any clothes, no nibbled drywall, and no issues with the dog's chew toys.

Still, it was a major sanitation project over the weekend and we have yet to capture our unwelcome little guest.

We did ALL the laundry, washing all the clothing and bedding in the house. Pulled out ALL the ground-level storage and found new homes for it throughout the house. This included Mr T's guitar cases, the board games we generally store under the dresser, and the cookie sheets I was storing under the kitchen cabinets. Everything was lifted up. I did a deep cleaning on all floors mopping with Dr Bronner's Peppermint Soap and crawled around inspecting the floorboards and hunting for any cracks or gaps where a mouse might hide. I also inspected along the ceiling thinking perhaps a mouse might run along the cables and pipes through the ceiling.

I noted some gaps and that the seal at the bottom of the door had broken - so those things will be fixed.

We bought ultrasonic deterrents and live traps that I baited with a mix of maple syrup and peanut butter...which Fams had to have in his treat ball too in order for him to leave the traps alone. Poor dog thinks I'm stashing toys and treats on him!

Mr T also spent some time in the yard hacking down the tall grass and wild sunflowers that we'd been letting grow free. Mr D took the cardboard pile we'd been saving for the yard and tossed it all into his truck for a dump run.

So, I feel we've done some serious mouse-deterrence over the weekend. Hopefully he or she was just house-watching while we were all away over Halloween and won't come back now that we've all returned. Here's hoping!
 

Winter in the PNW

Holidays!

 

It has been a wonderful fall at SilverMoon and we are now starting to get excited about the winter and winter holidays. Winter in the Pacific NorthWest generally means rain, long dark nights, short grey days, continual scarf-wearing, and galoshes. Unfortunately, for a lot of folks this is also the start of SAD season, it is a horrible season to be homeless in (if ever there is a "good" season), and it is a time of great consumerism. Perhaps it is related to folks choosing indoor spaces like the mall to walk around in because it is warmer than the park, but people will often spend more money in winter than in summer seasons. Some folks even get into debt over the holidays with the intention of paying it off after the New Year. Talk about New Year's Resolution! :-(

So, in thinking about this winter season, my first winter in my very own home, I wanted to set some ground rules to establish our very own set of traditions and celebrations that felt true to us.

_______ ... _______ 

Rule 1. Go Outside.
Yes, it is grey and chilly and wet for most of the winter in the Pacific Northwest. No, that doesn't give you an excuse to hibernate inside all season.
Get outdoors, work up a sweat, take in the view from the top of a mountain. Get some sunshine even if it is only brief.

Thankfully, folks in the Pacific Northwest are great outdoors enthusiasts. There's plenty of camping, hiking, kayaking, and neighborhood events to go to even in the winter.

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." - Sir Rannulph Fiennes

Rule 2. Plan for Spring.
What's worse than day after day of grey skies? Thinking it will never end.

Instead of being sad that there is no garden at the moment, I'm actively using this time to plan out the garden in spring. Thinking about those clear blue skies and looking online at all the flowers and veggies we could set out in the yard really makes me smile. If you have a garden, then right now is the time to think about what plants have worked well for you in the past, what seeds you have stored, what plants you'd like to grow in the spring and set your schedule so you know when to start sprouting those tiny green wonders!

Another great aspect of this climate is that it actually allows for winter gardening if you are so inclined. Winter pansies, primrose, hellebore, and camellias are great flowers to keep the winter blues at bay. I even brought an amaryllis and primrose indoors to brighten up my other indoor plants that are currently wintering-over.

If you don't have a garden, think about what events or things you can look forward to in the spring. Is there a place you'd like to visit? Someone you are hoping to see? Make those plans over the winter to pull yourself out of the grey winter mindset.

Rule 3. Eat well.
Winter is the season of Yum! Mashed potatoes, collard greens, beans, fresh baked breads and other goodies - the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, all that baking, butter, and  curling up with good books can attribute to the New Year's Resolution Syndrome of body shaming and sadness.

But eating well doesn't mean eating just whatever, it means eating what's good for you - both for your body and your mind.

I could write a whole post on great winter meals and ingredients, and maybe I will, but for now here's a list of some of my favorite winter-friendly veggies and fruits that keep the blues (an the pounds) at bay.

• Pomegranates
• Oranges, lemons, tangelos, and other citrus
• Winter Squash - acorn and butternut are my favorites
• Dark Greens like kale, collards, and mustard greens
• Beans and lentils
• The three C's - cabbage, cauliflower, and carrots
• Oatmeal
• Sunflower seeds
• Nuts - macadamia, walnut, pecan, and hazel roasted over a campfire (YUM!)
• Mushrooms
• Persimmons - check your ethnic grocery store
• Edamame - steamed with a little bit of salt this is a great movie-at-home snack

Rule 4. Do good.

Choose something that's important to you and work on it. Doing good is about engaging those things that feed your soul or sense of self and feeding the spirit of others as well

For me, its homelessness. America and Seattle in particular have a huge homelessness problem. Seattle ranks 4th in the nation for homeless population.* There are lots of reasons for it, and each person (yes, these are people not just statistics and that's an important thing to remember) has a story of how they ended up on the streets. The city has lots of reasons for why their 10-years to 0-homeless plan fell through, but the fact remains that there are so many homeless people in Seattle that the city just announced a state of emergency. You can't walk two blocks in this city without coming across a homeless person, a tent, a tarp, a cardboard box that someone has been using to try and get shelter in.

Suggestions:
Go through your closet - as you get ready to store those summer tanks, take a look at your sock drawer as well. Homeless people spend a lot of time on their feet and a pair of clean socks in good condition is one of the easiest and greatest gifts you can give.

Say Hi. Acknowledge that they exist just as you would anyone else on the street. Pretending you don't see them doesn't make them go away. If you can't or don't feel comfortable talking to strangers - a smile would be nice. :-)

Your time - volunteer if you can, donate to an organization you believe in if you can't. If you can't volunteer know, no worries, lots of people try to volunteer in the winter months and some organizations have a hard time managing all of the well-meaning volunteers, consider signing up to volunteer in the summer months when it is often harder for those organizations to find the volunteers they need.

* Study by US Department of Housing and Urban Development

 

Rule 5. Celebrate.

Fight off those long dark nights with merriment and reflection. If you are religious, then celebrate your gods and traditions. If you aren't religious or don't have traditions - find what calls to you and make your own path.

 

I fall into the 'make your own path' category and making these 5 rules for winter is part of forging my own way through the season. There are some upcoming things I'm looking forward to -

 

November 11th - Veterans Day is also Free State and National Park Day (see Rule #1)

November 11th - 15th - HUMP!

November 26th - Thanksgiving - Seattle Turkey Trot

November 27th - Parade and Star Lighting

November 27th - Jan 3rd - Wildlights at the Woodland Park Zoo
November 27th - Dec 28th - The Nutcracker at McCaw Hall
November 28th - Magic in the Market at Pike Place
November 28th - Jan 2nd - Garden d'Lights in Bellevue

Want to go for a walk but it's rainy and cold outside? Not interested in fighting holiday crowds and consumerism at the mall? Check out the museums! Many even offer free-visit days so you can just go and enjoy yourself without the signs, hawkers, and crazy crowds. Check out freemuseumday.org for your local listing.

_______ ... _______

These are the rules that work for me in making the winter a holiday rather than a horror. What works for you? What are some things you look forward to as the temperature drops? 

Easy-Peasy Meal Planning

Does this ever happen to you?
You go to the grocery store, walk around for way too long, find a bunch of deals and things that look yummy, pile everything into your cart, pay way too much money, then get home to unpack everything only to discover that you have no idea what you are going to make for dinner. To top it off, you've spent so much time in the shopping center that you feel rushed to try to make anything moderately edible!

...this has happened to me more than once...

So - to change things up, I made a grocery list, started planning meals, and it has been wonderful!

When you go to the store knowing what you are planning to eat for the week and knowing what items you need to buy - you get into the store, shop, and leave. It saves time by letting you skip unneeded browsing, and it saves money but making sure that the food you are buying wont be wasted.

In a tiny house with a small fridge - everything needs a place. I don't have acreage of refrigerator shelves for left overs or random groceries. I don't have extra money for bread to go moldy or veggies to go limp from want of eating. I don't have extra time to stroll casually from aisle to aisle browsing cereals and pondering what to make for the evening.

If you have and excess of these three things, well, enjoy (or come over to my house and I'll put you to work) but if you don't have an abundance of space/money/time, you may find this helpful:

(Click Here) Free Shopping List

You'll notice that my list is vegetarian but you can edit it for your own use. If you absolutely never eat peas, then having peas on your grocery list is just a waste of ink. Remove it and add parsnips or something else you love.

How I use it -

1.) Make a meal plan.
I give myself 10-15 minutes to think of or find recipes for meals for the week ahead.
I'm a big fan of: Post Punk Kitchen, The First Mess, and The Food Network for ideas and resources.

Things I look for in a recipe - one pan / one pot recipes, crock pot options, and things I can grill.
They also need to have easy to understand directions, simple lists of ingredients, and bonus points for nutritional breakdowns.

Of course, I love trying new cakes and fancy stews with 25+ ingredients, but I save those for the weekend and focus instead on healthy, simple, and fast meals for the week.

Print or write these out and attach them to the list so that everything stays together.

2.) Analyze the meal plan for ingredients.
Have two recipes that call for half an onion each? Great! Chop up the whole onion and save yourself having to chop again the next day.
Mark down the ingredients you need and take stock of what things you already have in your cupboard.

3.) Take the thing to the store with you! Remember the reusable bags! :-)
Of course while you are at the store you can keep an eye out for discounts and those fancy special ingredients, but try to limit the cursory shopping to a minute or two and no more than two items. Even if there is a great sale on frozen sliced carrots - do you really have room to store all ten boxes? Instead grab one or two and start your meal planning for next week by looking up a carrot soup, carrot cake, and carrot and lemongrass curry.

4.) Save your work!
All that planning and shopping won't do you any good if you look in the fridge on Wednesday and can't remember what you were going to make. So, save yourself the stress and smack the list and recipes to your fridge with a magnet. That will keep it handy and visible for the Wednesday you had to work late and can't even remember your own name by the time you got home.

So - good luck darlings and happy cooking!
 

Tiny House Update - First Fall At SilverMoon House

Welcome to Fall at SilverMoon House!

We've been comfy cozy in our 296 square foot abode and learning with our house all it's little quirks and personality. We love the way the doors creak like the Addams family on the storage cabinet, and the way it feels light and happy even on the darkest rainy grey days.

There have been some minor changes to the layout - moving the bed and the bookshelf around to provide more privacy and separation of the spaces and caulking the tub (who knew you had to caulk around the tub?) and sealing some gaps in the floorboards. The repairs and improvements have all been pretty minor though and easily done.

Remember the before?

Check out the now!

Hanging Pots and Pans

This is one of the little projects in the house. I wanted a place to put pots and pans but there was no available storage in the drawers and so...we looked up. There are holes in all the beams from old electrical wires and old plumbing that was removed during the construction. The majority of the new wiring is aligned in straight lines along the ceiling and bundled cables. We used the existing holes  used 3/4" PVC pipe (it's flexible!) through three of the beams. Once through the beams the PVC pipe held firm and straight even with my steel and cast iron!

The hooks came from Ikea and we just bent them 45 degrees so that the items hung would be in profile.

Yay storage!


Where are your clothes?

Part of living in a tiny house is realizing you might not have as much clothes storage as you had before. There are no closets in our space. Instead, we bought a set of cabinets from the Ikea kitchen in the shallow European depth but with the same drawer fronts and we use that as our clothes storage.

Having the cabinet fronts the same in the kitchen as in the bedroom area keeps the flow of the space and makes the whole area seem larger.

T gets the drawers in the middle and I get the wire baskets on both sides.

I know it doesn't seem like much, but proper folding and capsule wardrobe theory really help. I have a drawer for each category - dresses, pants, skirts, shirts, fancy / special occasion, and gym / construction clothes. It is actually more than I need - but to conserve space I always try to think before I buy. It is important both to your budget and to your space to consider why you are buying new clothes. Is it replacing something your already have? How long do you expect it to last? How often do you plan to wear it?

Once you have those questions answered you can really see if you need that new top or those new slacks. Also, because I take out the whole basket to fold and put away the clean clothes, I can rotate and "shop" through the clothes I already own.

Where do you sleep?

In a bed, silly!

We moved things around a bit to provide more privacy and separation between the living room and the sleeping area. Now the rolling bookshelf hides the bed from plain sight during the day and at night it still opens up providing plenty of room.

There are little cubbies and drawers for socks and sundries on the "sleeping" side and those translate to flat surfaces for hanging art on the "living" side. We even put in some wire shelves so I can pick out my outfits for the week and not have to search for things at 6am. Yay! Snooze button!

Because the bedroom is cordoned off from the rest of the space, I use the walls there to hang a bunch of the art T and I have collected and made through the years. i love waking up in the morning to the bright and shiny image by Mikeatron of Deadpool killing rainbow-blooded unicorns with sparkle-glitter automatic weapons and a sword. Makes me laugh every day! We also have a print of Judith and Holofernes by Klimt, a Mastodon misprint, some wedding pictures, and some paintings made by yours truly. 

Is that a new couch?

Why yes, yes it is. Bonus, it's a HUGE sleeper-sofa, so come stay over! :-)


It is another Ikea find...can't fight the modular, but it really works in the space and when it is all made up it makes a queen size bed and is wonderfully comfy. We've had a few guests stay with us overnight and they really enjoyed having so much room.

The part that sticks out into the room is also a large storage drawer perfect for stashing our motorcycle jackets and guest supplies like extra blankets and pillows.

The last item I'd like to find would be a movable ottoman with storage that also has locking wheels so I can actually rest my feet on it. The requirements are pretty exact - no higher that 18", firm yet comfy top, soft rounded rectangle, storage and locking wheels - so we may have to build it over the winter.

I'm kind of looking forward to it though. It gives us reason to focus on the next project - the shared work space over in the garage.

So, I hope you have enjoyed this Fall tiny-house tour! We feel pretty good about the work done so far getting it livable and welcoming. Of course there's more to do, curtains, upgrading the dog bed, utilizing every inch of space under the kitchen cabinets, but we really like hoe far we've come from bare walls and ratty (literally) wiring.

Have a great fall everyone and 

Happy Halloween from ghost-Fams!