Pantry Clean Up

Today my daughter, Jessica and I worked on cleaning and organizing our pantry.  We have a walk in pantry right around the corner from the kitchen.

When we first bought the house, the former owner was using this room for a small office.  So I just had it in my head that it was an office and that's how we first used it.  When we replaced some of the carpeting it got recarpeted.  But after a while I realized it wasn't a very good office.  It was pretty small and had only one tiny window.

So I got the brilliant idea to change it into a pantry.  It's right off the kitchen and plenty big enough for a walk in pantry.  It's pretty much a hodge podge of shelves and stuff that we had around the house and garage.  So it isn't pretty.

Someday I want to remove the carpet (who has carpet in a pantry?) and put built in shelving all the way around the room.  Someday it will look really nice.  Right now it's very functional.  And cleaner and more organized than it was yesterday.  So here it is before we tackled it.

 

And here it is after.

Yea, I know, I have a lot of small appliances.  But with all this room I can have a lot of small appliances and still have room for food.  I'm so used to having a lot of room I don't know what I would do without it. So, yes my pantry isn't very pretty, but I love it.

 

Linking to

Homestead Barn Hop

Nibble Nets

We have been using these Nibble Nets for about six months now and I'm really liking them a lot.  It slows them down and keeps them eating longer which is better for their digestion.  And it seems that less hay goes to waste.

Chase never wastes hay. Ever.  He seems to like the challenge of getting his hay from the Nibble Net .  He's much more aggressive with his eating than Skyler.  She's more dainty.

I was hoping it would slow Chase down more than it has.  But it has slowed him down some. 

Skyler seems to waste less hay than she used to.

There's different ways to attach them, but here's how I attached the top.

And here's how I attached the bottom.

They seem pretty sturdy and are holding up well.  I got the double sided ones because I wasn't sure which size holes I wanted.  One side has slightly bigger holes that the other side.  Next time I would just get one with just the smaller holes.

But they are working out really well and I would recommend them if you're thinking about getting a slow feeder for your horses.




P.S.
I have not been compensated by Nibble Nets in any way.  I just really like their product and would recommend it on my own experience with it.

Linking to Homestead Barn Hop

A Day in the life of ... me

This is what we awoke to this morning.  Snow!

  But it didn't stick.  Then we had to take this guy to the vet.

He wasn't a happy camper.  He's been throwing up and his little butt was all swollen.  It looks like he has hemeroids.  Poor guy.  Don't worry, I didn't take pictures.  You're welcome.  

The vet said he was constipated and gave him a hairball remover/laxative to take for a few days.  And because he's had this type of problem before she told us to give him canned pumpkin,  one tablespoon once a week.  We've done that for our dog before and pumpkin works really great.  Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon.

While we were in town we made a pass by the grocery store to see if any Girls Scouts were out selling cookies.  We finished our boxes already.  We were in luck.  A very nice group of very cute Girl Scouts were out selling so we bought these.

My daughter was a Girl Scout for almost nine years and I must say Girl Scout cookies taste much better when you don't have hundreds of boxes sitting in your living room waiting to be sold.  I got a little burned out on Girl Scout cookies, but it's been a few years and I'm in love with them again.

Around 1:00 everyday I walk down to the barn to feed lunch.  I feed three times a day.  It's better for the horses and I enjoy seeing them.  Come along with me today.

Of course here comes Abby to meet me.

We'll follow her down to the barn.

And here come the other girls, Gracie and Emma.

The horses are glad to see us.

Once we get in the barn we're greeted by Chase and Skyler.  Here they are playing the bitey game with each other.

I guess Skyler gave up.  Chases waits for his lunch.

What a handsome boy. And he stays so clean.  He hates the mud.

Skyler on the other hand loves the mud.  She's like a mud seeking missile.  She loves to roll in it.  And this is her clean side.

Speaking of mud, I think I'm losing the war on mud this year again.  We really need a little bit of drier weather.  Here's Chase's paddock.  His is really bad.  For some reason he is just harder on hog fuel than Skyler.  He breaks it down really fast.

Here is Skyler's.  Her is pretty bad, too but it never seems to get as bad as Chase's.

  

The weather was nice while down at the barn.  Clear, but cold.

My rain gauge is almost full.  I track the rain each month.  Feb. has had about 5 inches I think.  Almost time to dump it and start fresh for March.  

Time to take off my barn boots and head inside to get warmed up.  

Hope you enjoyed spending time with us.  

Family Room

Here's the family room.  It's upstairs and mostly used for reading, and some TV watching.  My husband watches TV downstairs but sometimes my daughter watches TV up here.  Our old 5000 pound TV has it's own way of restricting your TV viewing.  It shuts off on it's own every so often.  Then after a break it's kicks back on.

I also have my desk up here.  Our home is definitely a lived in home.  We have a lot of animals and we live in the country so things tend to get a lot of wear.  But that's OK.  It's comfortable.

The far wall has two closets behind those wood doors.  I guess when they added onto this house maybe they thought it could eventually be another bedroom, but there is no door, just the top of the stairs.  And there's our 5000 pound TV.

The bookshelves behind the couch that seem to be a catch all spot.  And fortunately I don't think you can see the windows because of the brightness.  They're REALLY dirty.

 

 These bookshelves are on the wall opposite the closets.  My daughter and I love books so we have a lot of them.  We also homeschool.  She also has large bookshelves in her bedroom that are filled with her books.  Oh and that lovely thing in the lower right hand corner.  Doesn't everyone have one of those?  No?  Lucky you.

Here's the top of one side of the bookshelf.  Those spurs were given to me by a good family friend when I was in High School who passed away some time ago.  And no, I don't use them on our horses.  Their just sentimental.

And here's the other side of the bookshelves.  Those are two beer steins my husband had from way back.  The red door is actually a picture holder inside.  I just think it's cute.

Here is the bookcase looking from across the room by the closets.  That smaller bookcase sits right behind the couch.

Here is the table near the windows.  Underneath is Kitty's bed and a cute little  old tapestry stool.

And here's Kitty

And this is on top of the table.  In that frame is a little card that I found in the wall of our other home in Southern California.  It was an old craftmans house.  The card advertises a local fashion show and movies and, from dating the movie, I believe it is from 1933.   I tried to get a picture but glare was too bad but, I'll try again later.  It's kind of neat if you like history.

 Then I have my some of my weights and in the red pottery urn I have my yoga stuff stashed.

See.

 Then there's my desk area.  I know, the black office chair isn't very attractive, but it's comfortable.  I have some back issues and am not willing to sacrifice comfort for beauty. My printer is off to the side on top of the file cabinet.  On the other side of that low wall behind the printer is the stairwell.

 The little table next to my chair is for my mouse.  It's more comfortable on my wrists when it's lower.

This picture is one of my favorites.  It was drawn by another family friend.  I think it might be of Deadwood and in the middle of the street he included himself standing in the picture.

Here are some old books of mine.  The book The Mirror is a really neat book, but I'm not sure you can get it anymore.  It's about a young woman in the present day.  As she looks into this mirror she changes places with her grandmother.  Very interesting story.

And here's Patches.  She's our senior kitty.  I think she's around 14 now.  She's pretty frail and very thin.  And she's gotten very lax about her grooming so we have to brush her fairly frequently, but she still looks pretty disheveled most of the time.  But she's very sweet.  And we love her.

And one last thing.  I noticed this on the floor.  We have several of these laying around.  They belong to kitty. :)