A Second Look--December 11, 2013

For a Second Look this week, I watched out my window one day while it snowed--my favorite way to do Second Looks on cold, wet days. :)

Here's what I saw this week during my Second Look.

The morning started as a dry, cloudy day with a flock of crows making a morning visit.

Later it started to snow and other birds arrived.

I saw a tufted titmouse.

and a male downy woodpecker who steadily ate while the other birds were in and out.

First he was joined by a Carolina wren.

Next a white-breasted nuthatch showed up.

Soon a junco came to take a bath in the snow on top of the feeder. The woodpecker kept eating away even though the junco was shaking things up. Next, the junco took a bath on top of the squirrel baffle.

Usually the juncos were hopping around below the feeder.

Several chickadees were flitting on and off the big feeder. They'd grab a seed and then go off to eat it.

Elsewhere, this pansy was still able to peek out from the falling snow.

We eventually ended up with about four inches of snow before it turned to sleet and freezing rain.

Today...

Today, I'm going to be like my cats and adapt to wherever I am.

With all of the upheaval in the house, many of the cat's favorite lounging spots have disappeared. Not to worry, cats can always adapt, and so can I.

 

Thankful Sunday--December 8, 2013

I am thankful that Ward is not afraid of heights.

I could get on the roof if I really had to. But I wouldn't like it because I'm afraid of heights. I am thankful that Ward isn't and was on the roof yesterday cleaning gutters and hanging Christmas lights.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Dec. 6, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

Pineapple

There was a can of pineapple that got shoved to the back of the refrigerator and lived there until we discovered the smelly contents. Turns out the can has quite a complex history involving three households, brisket, and 1 1/2 months of time. Ask Ward about it sometime if you want to know the complete story.

This Week's True Food Confessions

Look! I did actual cooking this week in the new kitchen. During the refrigerator clean out, I made some tasty vegetable soup to go with the homemade whole wheat bread. I'm not sure what we ate the rest of the week, but it paled in comparison to this meal. :)

And speaking of new kitchens and construction, we're so close to the end of it, I can almost taste it (pun intended). The work on the living room floor SHOULD be done on Monday with another week and a half of floor curing before we can move everything back in. Yea!

The work continues.

Bargin Hunting

A few weeks ago, Theo was looking for a desk and took us to a used office furniture outlet he had found. The store was located in an old warehouse district and used to be some kind of a factory. The building had four floors each filled with buyouts obviously from offices that had closed. There were desks, chairs, file cabinets, and every other thing that could have been in an office. Interestingly enough, it was also an art gallery. Around the high ceilings, sagging steps, and brick walls were hanging paintings from local artists for sale.

The store had one employee who greeted us when we came in and said that we could explore on our own. I don't know if that was because we looked trustworthy or that she didn't want to leave her space heater because the building had no heat. We began our way up the stairs and discovered that each floor was dark until we turned on the lights. We spent our time winding among the mazes of stuff, calling out when we found something interesting. Some of it was interesting because it was really old or seemed out of place like the panty hose we found, and sometimes it was interesting because it might be a potential item for purchase.
  

Theo eventually did find a desk to fit his needs and Ward and I found two office chairs we wanted. Now how to get them to the car from the fourth floor? After we found the store employee, she got the building's old freight elevator working for us. When we got them to the first floor, the desk and chairs were awkwardly loaded from the old loading dock to our car.

It turned out to be a fun and interesting couple of hours. We were happy that we shopped there because we felt we got a better bargain than we would have at most other places. Later I wondered if that was because we had to work for our purchase in a place that appeared to have a very low overhead. Of course, a smart shopper knows their prices no matter where they are shopping, but I wonder if sometimes we can get caught in the idea of a good deal in a place where we think we should be getting one?

Are you ever influenced by the place you are shopping whether it is really fancy or just bare bones?

This sign assured me that we were getting good prices. :)