Holiday Preparations

  Just stopping in to wish you a happy holiday season and share a bit of our holiday preparations here in the driftless.We did some work on our old cabin floor before Thanksgiving. We wanted to bring out the beauty of the old wood and still have a rustic feel .We applied dark stain and finished with polyurethane . It's a great look and very easy to keep clean.

The Pantry Project

Hello again from the driftless!
  The end of Summer is full of frantic activity for us, as the warmer days slip away and we try to get all the projects done, that call for good weather. One of the things we finished recently is our pantry. Our 6 shelves of nook space along two walls have been reduced to two deep made-to-fit slide-out shelves and as you can see, we've begun to stock the pantry for winter. Just wanted to share a few photos.

 

 

 

Winter Preparedness

One of the things that we needed to do this year was to change the axe handle.
In the cold of winter, this tool is extremely significant for day to day living.
We buy our handles at the local farm store. This just saves time for us.
 I came across this and wanted to share .

• So grab a cup of coffee or tea , sit back and watch..

 How to change an axe handle ...Enjoy! 

Winter Pantry

Hello all! I love Fall...It's my favorite time of the year! We are busy with things like , truck repair, gathering wood for this winter and stocking up on food .Why?? You might ask.Well first, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not a "Survivalist". I don't hoard food or store it under my bed.What we do here is a winter pantry.This practice has been very useful for us.We start buying a little extra in late summer and add more to our pantry throughout the fall. That way, I'm assured of having plenty when we need it. We had a big snowstorm in 2010 and our small pantry was the best thing I've ever done.We don't have a walk-in pantry. What I have is just a small nook in our kitchen.(I'll post photos soon) I just buy more of what we like and use frequently, just stock up on things when they're on sale. Like, when the soup we love was on sale for 99 cents a can 3 weeks ago, we got 10 for the pantry. if you do this starting in late summer, you'll be ready for winter.(This way the cost is kept quite low) Our pantry is no more than  6 shelves of nook space along two walls. I'll be painting and adding cute kitchen curtains at some point.I've found that stocking a winter pantry is money and time very well spent....Happy Fall :)