That sounds like an amazing Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing it with us
Along the same vein, if there’s a meal that always brings back good memories, make that. And if you’re comfortable sharing, invite some of your friends to eat it with you.
The same goes for activities - is there a game or something you did a lot back home? Could you teach some friends in NZ how to do it?
Finally, if possible, can you set up a regular time to play games online with friends or family back home?
That one up on the right looks really proud, like a kid showing you something they made
Younger kids:
- Madagascar
- The Shrek movies
- The Despicable Me movies
- Any Muppet movie
Older kids:
- Honey I Shrunk the Kids
- The Karate Kid
- ET
- The Goonies
- Kindergarten Cop
- Matilda
- Jumanji
- Cool Runnings
- The Mighty Ducks
My spouse and I started Terraria on a whim. After going in blind and thoroughly getting out butts kicked the first night, we found the wiki, started a new game, and have survived a few nights now.
We’re trying to avoid spoilers, so only read the tutorial and getting started pages of the wiki. The mechanics on xbox aren’t always intuitive, and building is especially painful so far.
Several years ago we lost power for 4 days after an especially bad storm. We don’t have good enough cell service at our house to usually use data or run a hotspot. Mostly it’s like camping except we get to sleep in our beds.
Prepare: We keep filled water jugs for both drinking and flushing the toilets.
We have a small generator to run our fridge, so once a month we run it for about 10 minutes. We keep gas and spark plugs for it handy.
We have a weather radio that’s solar powered with battery back-up.
We have a solar-charging battery bank (to charge our phones) as well as lanterns and flashlights that use AA batteries and a stash of extra AA batteries. Winter here can be quite cloudy, making solar lights harder to use sometimes.
We have a camping stove and extra fuel, as well as some easy to prepare foods. We use the food when we go camping and get new ones to store for emergencies, making sure the food doesn’t expire. We cooked outside (it was summer but even in winter I would do the cooking outside).
For winter we have a kerosene heater and extra fuel and wicks.
Entertainment: I would guess you’re especially asking about evenings, as during the day when our power was out we’d go outside if the weather was nice. In the evenings we played board games and card games, did puzzles and crosswords, did art (drawing, coloring, and painting), did crafts, and read.
If we know ahead of time bad weather’s coming, I’ll download some shows and movies to my tablet. We also have a DVD player to connect to my laptop while the battery lasts.
I have friends who published before being married, so now professionally still use their own last name (for continuity) but socially will go by their husband’s last name.
You may know this already, but if it comes back you can take your feeders down for a few days to a week until the hawk decides to move on
No because the feet are typically also part of the wing and have a flap of skin in between them too, and in many species the toes are pretty much the only part that sticks out from the wing skin
At-home laser tag game? When we were kids my brother had one - 2 battery powered chest plates you wore and 2 guns. We’d turn the lights off in the basement and play.
Owls can control their pupils independently. They have such neat adaptations to make them such effective hunters. Amazing you noticed that detail - are you sure you’re not an owl?
For kitchen stuff - If it’s not dishwasher safe I don’t get it or don’t keep it (if it was given to me).
We have a robot vacuum and litter box. I am grateful for them every day.
Getting myself and my kid out the door in the morning feels like climbing Everest every day. One thing she almost always forgot was to put socks on when she got dressed, so she’d have to go back upstairs. Since she’s also neurodivergent there was a good chance she’d get distracted upstairs and 1. forget to get her socks, 2. lose track of time or 3. both. I put a bin by our shoes and now her clean socks go in there.
Congrats! That’s not something to be embarrassed about, thanks for sharing it with us
World's first wooden satellite, built in Japan, heads to International Space Station
The palm-sized LignoSat is tasked with demonstrating the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space.
> The world's first wooden satellite, built in Japan, is being flown to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission.
> LignoSat will be released into orbit about 400km above the Earth, with researchers hoping it will prove wood is a space-grade material.
>LignoSat will stay in orbit for six months, with the electronic components onboard measuring how wood endures the extreme environment of space.
Edit: added sunmary
Why do I feel like they complained when people didn’t “speak American” in the States
Yip Yip Hanging Baskets
Just in time to start my mystery knit along, I finished both yip yips. The knit eyes worked out really well. I’ve never laughed so much while knitting something, these were a really fun project
Yip Yip Hanging Basket
Remember those “Martians” from Sesame Street? A friend asked me to make a couple of these for their kid. My first one is on the left and the pattern photo is on the right. I’m going to try to knit some eye balls instead of using ping pongs, we’ll see how that goes
Any guesses?
This came up unexpectedly and I’m waiting to see what it’ll be. I didn’t plant any squash or pumpkins this year. In fact I’ve never planted either in this garden bed. We affectionately call it our “pumquash” while we wait.
I have it under a greenhouse because we had our first frost warning this weekend, and I’d really like at least one fruit to mature so we can solve the mystery. This is the furthest along.
I see a lot of green tomato canning in my future
Today’s our first frost date, and I haven’t had a single ripe tomato yet. Time to break out the plant covers and cross my fingers.
I usually make green tomato relish. What are your favorite green tomato canning recipes?
Sweet horseradish dill pickles
Edit: Here’s the recipe. I couldn’t find a recipe that didn’t use already-made dill pickles, so I combined several recipes instead. I used the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s vinegar solution ratios for sweet pickles to make sure the pH was safe. Then I used a combo of spices from a sweet dill recipe and a sweet horseradish recipe.
My dill plants didn’t do well this year, so I used dried. It’s important to note, I’ve never made this recipe before and since I just canned yesterday I don’t know yet whether it’s good.
Makes 4-5 pint jars
- 4 lbs cucumbers
- 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 3.25 cups granulated sugar
- 0.25 cup canning salt
- In each clean, sterilized jar add:
- 0.75 tsp mustard seed
- 1 Tbsp dill weed
- 1.5 tsp prepared horseradish Cut off a little of the blossom end. Slice and put in hot vinegar solution. When cucumbers are heated through, pack in jars. Add vinegar solution, leaving a 1/2” headspace. Water bath can for 10 minutes.
Today's harvest
Between earwigs and wildlife this year, the only plants producing are the ones in my porch boxes. The cucumbers are gherkins so I’ve been picking them small so I can make them into sweet pickles. I have 3 jars put up already and enough cucumbers to make #4 this weekend. I just wish I had a small deep pot to can in, it’s such a waste to pull out my big canner. But until I can find one that at least fits pint jars I have to keep using the big pot.
I planted more peas this week and plan to do some more fall planting this weekend. I’m about 2 weeks behind but better late than never.
Edit: I forgot to mention, the leaves in the photo are just for our bunny’s breakfast. Although I will soon be drying some raspberry and blackberry leaves for her to enjoy in the winter.
Soft French Bread half recipe
Fewer people at home this week, so I made a half recipe of my usual Soft French Bread (that’s what the recipe calls it) and baked it in a sandwich loaf pan. Forgot the egg wash but it’s still tasty!
Edit: here’s the recipe
- 230g warm water
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp oil (I usually use olive oil)
- 355g all purpose flour
- 1-1/8 tsp instant yeast
- Mix all ingredients in bread machine on dough cycle. Let rise until end of dough cycle. Shape into loaf and let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 375F for about 25 minutes.
Olympian Tom Daley finished his sweater
Now that Tom Daley is finishing competing at the Paris Olympics, he's spent a lot of time with his other passion — knitting.
I don’t get much knitting done in the summer, so I thought I’d share someone else’s project. Saw him in the stands tonight watching the men’s doubles final and it looks like he’s already cast on something else.
Anyone having issues with some sites and apps?
Off and on this week I’ve been having trouble with some sites and apps - mainly Amazon, Walmart, Bing, Pinterest and Peacock - where they won’t load.
Other sites and apps are working just fine, and I don’t think it’s our internet as I’ll have videos streaming while those sites just sit and spin. I’ve also tried them on several devices (phone, tablet, computer) but no difference.
Is this maybe some carry over from last week’s CrowdStrike issues?
Fingers crossed my trap works
Earwigs or some other insect have been voraciously nibbling on my bean and radish leaves. I saw it mentioned in several places to put out a dish with oil and a little soy sauce. I figured it’s worth a shot.
Do you have a favorite way to keep the tiny critters away from your leaves?
Any tricks to keep ants off milkweed?
We’ve noticed we don’t find monarch caterpillars on milkweed plants that have ants on them. We’ve also noticed if ants start coming on a plant with a caterpillar on it, the caterpillar disappears. It doesn’t seem to show up on a neighboring milkweed plant either.
I’m wondering if anyone has a way they keep ants off these plants so the caterpillars can continue their life cycle in peace.
First cucumber
Didn’t spot this one right away so it got away from me. They’re gherkins, I plan to make sweet pickles. Not with this monster though, we ate it fresh and it was delicious.
Best way to shape hot dog buns?
First try at making hot dog buns today. Next time I’m definitely going to do 8 buns instead of 6. Other than that, do you have any tips or tricks to shaping them?
I've learned I really don't like large needles
Just have to vent, because I’m struggling to finish this sweater. The body was knit with US 17s (12mm). Now I’m doing the sleeves on US 19s (16mm) because my gauge was too tight with the 17s. I have discovered I don’t like knitting with these size needles. They’re uncomfortable for me to hold and knitting with them feels like a chore.
Vent over. Hopefully I’ll get this sweater off the needles today or tomorrow, and now I know to avoid any more projects using these needles.
Chalk-fronted corporal
Newly emerged. Landed on some netting while I was gardening, seems to be settled in for the night.