Day without MacGyver 3

One thing we have in common is that we start projects with much more alacrity than we finish them.  So I've filled the kitchen table up with yet more "inputs."  It was very windy today, so I bailed on most of the fun yard adventures I planned.

Filled the chicken coop with $11 of pine shavings which turned the tables for beleaguered 2.0.  She had lost some head feathers and looked a little raw, but seemed to be in pretty good spirits.  She has figured out how to use sympathetic Inky as a feathered shield between her and Blinky when things get dodgy.  With shavings spread, there was nowhere our dirt loving birds thought was safe to stand, but 2.0 had made herself at home in the deepest bedded corner.

On the same errand I also discovered Zuke's dog treats make a Chondroitin and Glucosamine supplement treat which I've started feeding to Kai in hopes her luxating patella won't er... luxate so much.  Two treats in, they come stampeding to the kitchen from anywhere on the property any time I move the treat bag to accommodate other inputs .

I was really craving shahi paneer which tops my list of comfort foods.  The problem with Indian Buffet paneer is that either they're chintzy with the cheese or someone fishes it all out before you get there.  So I might have tripled the amount of paneer called for to ensure an awesome lunch and 2 more for work (thank goodness for wide-mouthed canning jars).

I also rendered giant beet into something called Odessa Salad which I found in the Moosewood Cookbook (the only other option was Borcht of which I was only familiar with due to childhood viewing of Rugrats).  You basically bake the beet in foil for 45 mins at 400 degrees.  Let it cool.  Shred it.  Mix it in with chopped prunes, pineapple, walnuts, garlic, and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice.  The bit I grazed tasted pretty decent.

While waiting, I made some lip balm because I seem to have misplaced or dryer-melted every tube of chapstick in the house.  This was a recipe from a book BroEpic gave me for festivus.  5 tb castor oil (was using more for softer consistency), 1 tb beeswax, 2 tb honey melted in mom's mini-crockpot and finished with about 20 drops of peppermint essential oil.  I deliberated dumping some of my favorite/only lipstick (blood red Nars Fire Down Below) in for tinting, but figured if this became a communal pot, that particular shade wouldn't look so swell on MacG.  Incidentally, just applying castor oil is good for temporary ultra glossy lips.  One concern:  the oil is lighter than honey and didn't seem to fully blend.  Guess we'll find out how things turned out when it's chilled out.

I had also been allowing 5 liter "Schmidt" to ferment some seriously shredded cabbage for an indeterminately long time.  So long that I forgot that I had seasoned the kraut with hot pepper flakes for some extra kick.  Instead, I became convinced Schmidt was harboring some weird red acidophilic  bacteria and that the mortician would have to retrieve me from the house in a hazmat suit.  Schmidt and I avoided eye contact for several additional weeks after I began harboring this suspicion.  In actuality, the kraut I grazed while cramming the remainder into a not-wide-mouthed mason jar (grr)  tasted pretty decent.  I suppose we'll draw our own conclusions about whether the hazmat suits are necessary if this becomes my final blog post.  In the future, I probably won't let the food processor shred kraut cabbage.  It was a pain to fish all those tiny pieces out.  As a very tangential aside, I am saddened that the Munich Marathon no longer overlaps with the commencement of Oktoberfest because I was really looking forward to that dubious combination at some point in my life.

I also finished my book club read, Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic, which I only just now realized I could have watched as a mini-series on Amazon Prime for $4 and had all but 3 hours of my life back.  Although in fairness, it was a pretty amusing read.  A bit too far into the "absurd events coming full circle" Douglas Adams style of plot line for me to relish embarking on a whole series in this vein.  I guess I'm more of a non-fiction gal.  

What's still on the table-- a pie tin because our Hallows pumpkin has been hanging around for quite some time and I learned the hard way that I can't just blithely compost him.  Faux nutella to eventually go with the San Francisco sourdough starter I picked up (but am dubious I can cultivate at stably warm temperatures at present...  maybe in a carefully rigged crockpot...).

Electrical

As a birthday treat I got to rewire the front massive living room. This was not very fun mainly because the previous owner had a lot of dogs and would apparently let said dogs run around and poop in the crawlspace. There was also quite a lot of rat shit as well. Crawling in this stuff is not entertaining.

Since this job was more than just a direct upgrade/adding a single new outlet I needed to do a pull all the way back to the breaker. Naturally getting the correct parts meant the customary multiple trips to home depot. Installing the breaker and the conduit was fun with the power going off and on about 30 times as I did some wiring then cut some conduit. After the first plan on where to run the conduit would have had me entering the basement directly on a floor joist we had to scrap that plan and come out the side of the breaker box instead of the bottom.

With the conduit installed and the romex in the basement then came the fun task of pulling the wire and tacking it in place. I pulled to the first outlet in the line split off a junction box and stopped for the night, completely filthy. The next night was Halloween and the neighborhood really got into the spirit of things. I quickly got some more wire pulled as Belle distributed goodies. Then as I was out of the basement getting more staples and wire nuts Belle called my phone from the front of the house to send me on an emergency candy run. I suppose my costume was homeless bum who sleeps in the dirt. $30 worth of candy procured and just in the nick of time as Belle had 3 lollipops left in the candy bucket. I was very happy to see lots of trick or treaters come by. Our neighbors mentioned that the the last owner kept the gates locked for the previous 20 or so Halloweens. Gave a random tour (number 6?) to a very nice lady from down the street and gave up getting any more done on the electrical. Spent the rest of the evening chatting with neighbors and kids. Chi got to make an appearance and spooked some kids but most were very excited to see her.

Tuesday I went back down for dungeon crawl #3, and we now have 4/6 outlets done in the living room and wire pulled for the other two. One more crawl and I can tear out all the knob and tube down there.


Other things we have done:
Moved the koi pond to the front porch
Carved pumpkins
Stained and installed crown moldings/footers in the office. Thanks cousin T!
Started wallpaper removal from the bedroom ceiling.
Built a new koi pond spigot out of larger bamboo.
Mandatory 3 trash bins filled to the brims.
MaGyver continued to work on the rose garden.