The loan is taking a bit longer than originally planned but I’m not in a huge rush as long as I get the money by September for the installation I am good to go. I just had something pop up in May this year on my credit report while I was getting my refi done, so I will need to dispute a five year old bill of some sort. These things happen so the loan won’t be quite as easy as I first thought, but working with my local Credit Union we will get it figured out in the next few days.
Mom came over and pulled some weeds from my raised garden beds, and brought over some tomatoes, cukes and a peppers from her garden. She likes gardening and is much better at it than I am. She wanted to pay me back for storing stuff she preps because I have the basement and my shop. I figure the eggs she gives me for free is more than enough payment and I’m glad to help. Yes, most of the family are idiots as far as prepping, but they are mine and Mom’s idiots!
I got my new lager made with the Zythos hops bottled. A quick taste after fermenting but before carbonation is very promising. Lagers need a cooler fermenting environment than ales and I was a little concerned about temps and my bubbler/airlock didn’t show much movement. Thank goodness for the Hydrometer for measuring the alcohol content. Takes a lot of the guess work out of making your own beer.
I may have got a bad solar light from Amazon. I kind of screwed up and did not test the latest ones right away so I don’t think I can send it back. I replaced the light with a good one and will give the bad light a chance to get a good charge and see if that is all that is wrong. It might just be a loose wire or contact that I can fix easily. So far I have bought nine of these solar motion detection lights and all but one have worked great so I’m not disappointed. A nice thing about these solar lights don’t attract bug like an always on porch/security light.
Trying out a new recipe for steel cut oats. This recipe has you toast the oats in some butter or olive oil before adding your water. After you add the water and bring it to a rolling boil you just let it sit over night and let the residual heat finish cooking the oats (about 8 hours). If this method works, what a great prepper recipe that will save energy and you have a good hearty meal to start the day with very little work. If this method works for steel cut oats I bet it will work cooking grits/polenta though the time might be a bit shorter for grits. Many people commented that they used the steel cut oats as a start on both a sweet or savory meals. I’m not much of a sweet eater and prefer savory as a rule, you know how I love multi-taskers.
I’m baking some of the Artisan bread tonight. I’m doing a normal loaf using the Terra-cotta tile in the oven and a couple of mini- loaves in pans I got a yard sale. If I have to barter having the flexibility to make different size loaves of bread might be profitable. I think the mini-loaves will be great for potlucks and get togethers and I can try adding things like spices, herbs or cheese to the smaller loaves and see how well they bake up and taste without risking a big loaf of bread.
One last thing my slow drain started working again and I can use my washer without watching it in case it overflows the drain. I think I’ll give it one more treatment of the stuff I got from True Value hardware store and keep a bit on hand if a clog happens again. If things get bad or if you want to save a little money, keeping the things that work and tools on hand can make a make your life a lot easier.
My Adventures in selfreliance 
Good luck with the credit report mistake. I had one on my credit report. My daughter lost her credit card , so the bank cancelled it and issued her another. But they reported the cancelled card as a “charge off” which is a bad thing. I finally had to go to the bank and see the President to get them to fix it, the underlings kept telling me they had taken care of it but they hadn’t.
j, an old plumber taught me his secret drain clearing technique. stick your garden hose in the drain as far as you can. stuff rags or old towel or whatever around it to seal it in. turn on the faucet wide open, holding the hose so it won’t shoot backwards. no clog has ever held up to this, except root bound pipes. works for toilets too.
river, I got one of those “Drain Kings” that uses water pressure to clear the drain but I didn’t hook it to the garden spigot. I may give that a try to make sure the clog is really gone.
I have been adding plumbing tools slowly and have been surprised that those tools are less expensive than I thought the would be.