October 2022 – Snow Flurries and Turning on the Heat

October 2022. October may be our most bipolar month here in Minnesota. The first couple of weeks we saw highs in the 70s and then BAM. Goodbye warm weather, find something else to wish for. I’ve become pretty notorious for not decorating for the holidays (and being a bit of a Grinch…) however when Lodi asked if we could carve pumpkins I really couldn’t say no and I even picked up some other decorations to surprise him with. I mentioned to my dad that we were pumpkin carving this year and he asked, “Did we ever do that?” If we did I have no memory of it… clearly this is why I am the way I am when it comes to the holidays.

Admittedly though I was pretty excited about air frying the pumpkin seeds!

Is there anything the air fryer CAN’T cook?

Honestly I don’t think so. (This is the one we have)

I am totally infatuated with it.

I’m a big acorn squash fan and cooked up those seeds as well to find that they are just as good!

October 2022 I helped my dad replace his pressure tank and he spotted me while I cut a doorway between our original garage and last year’s, third stall, addition.

The doorway was no big deal but the pressure tank was a bit of undertaking!

My brother told me later he just kept telling his phone, “Please don’t have any leaks, please don’t have any leaks, please don’t have any leaks…” Because he didn’t have time to rescue us!

LOL I will say it felt like a miracle to get it all done, turn the water on and then have it work perfectly with NO LEAKS!

A project that actually goes as planned?

That happens?

Its been nearly seven years since I did the renovation here and, though my Dad used to build houses, its been many years for him as well so we are both very RUSTY.

But we got it done!

Lodi took a camping trip out West with a buddy of his so I had an odd solo weekend to myself. I used it to tackle the last couple of projects I had left in our master bathroom. (Finally I can say the second floor is FINISHED!)

October 2022 it snowed a couple weeks in. It didn’t stick but I can’t say any of us northern Minnesotans were impressed. (I believe my aunt used the word “putrid” to describe the weather.) It was kind of pretty though!

In preparation for winter we did get our old little well house cleaned out and, for the first time, have a place for all of our outdoor furniture that isn’t the garage!

Unfortunately what was IN the well house I am still dealing with.

20 years of horse tack: saddles, bridles, leads, bits etc.

We rolled up our sleeves one weekend and thoroughly cleaned the saddles and bridles that went with them to eventually sell.

Everything was pretty much disgusting from being out in a shed for so many years but the before and after of the saddles I may just have to write a whole post about! They were in A LOT better shape than they should have been!

It was sad for me as I was once a very horse crazy little girl. (I couldn’t bare to part with my English saddle though as it was me and my horse’s saddle for many years. I kept his bridle too.)

I don’t know if I’ll ever ride again but for now that chapter of my life is long behind me.

October 2022 Lodi discovered something pretty cool. Saddle soap does an incredible job on ANY leather which, of course, includes work boots!

Its a good thing too as we had a whole bunch of leftover saddle soap. (As far as I can tell this stuff doesn’t go bad either: this is the saddle soap I’m talking about. Its also less expensive than the mink oil he had been using.)

Lodi uses it practically every day on his red wings!

I gave away and I sold everything I could but I ended up taking a lot of it to the dump 🙁

It felt like such a waste!

Funny story:

So, way back when I tackled my garage I utilized my old stereo system that my folks bought me when I was a teenager. (I don’t throw anything away…) I had a bunch of speakers too that I also hooked up.

So, we ended up with a pretty bad ass surround sound system in the garage but there was one problem.

Because of the short length of the speaker wires I had to put my stereo on top of the upper cabinets above the buffet which wouldn’t have been a big deal except: THE REMOTE WAS LONG GONE.

We’ve been climbing up there to the turn the stereo on for years!

Now to be fair, because we have a blue tooth converter, it was only to turn it on and off. It wasn’t like we were going up there to switch CDs or anything but still! It was a total pain!

Well in all of those bins of horse tack and randomness there was also a bin housing all of the leftover stereos and speakers and components I hadn’t been able to use… and you won’t believe what else…

THE REMOTE!

I absolutely flipped out, jumping, screaming and cheering!

Lodi about had a heart attack!

I still can’t believe it hadn’t been lost over the last 20 years.

Tip: You can convert any old stereo to blue tooth with this little converter for only about $20 and it works great!

Another tip: Old phones still work when connected to wifi so they’re ideal for playing music as they won’t be interrupted by texts or calls coming in etc.

Or interrupted by the fact that I forget my personal phone is music central, its in my pocket and cuts out every time I get out of range which is only a few steps from the garage!