The New Dehydrator - Plus and Minus AND a False Alarm at the Shop

I took a deep breath yesterday (after grocery shopping and dropping a few things off at the electronics recycling location). It was time to open the box and test out the new dehydrator. I had ordered it on that Monday night when I was basically sleepwalking after an argument that DH and I had. I knew I needed something with more power, because my little one simply wasn't getting things dried out sufficiently and I had to toss things that were developing storage issues. So, I indulged and ordered a new one - not checking all three dimensions. 18" depth, fine. 12" width, fine. The height ... well, that turned out to be not so good - by about 1-1/2 inches. Oy! 

I finally could unbox and try out the new 
dehydrator yesterday. I really like it. It 
does a great job and it's really quiet. 

But I really wanted this new dehydrator. I didn't want to actually check it out if I didn't have a place in which to put it, though, so I started rearranging cupboards. It finally found a home in a different bottom cupboard, next to my stock pots and stew pots. It fills that cupboard completely now, but it has a home, so I brought it downstairs, harvested new thyme and rosemary (the last batch I had tried to dry had molded, so I tossed that out quickly). The idea with herbs is that they get crispy. I placed the herbs on the ultra-fine mesh that was included for that exact purpose and turned the machine on. Oh! It's really quiet. It will take me a bit to get accustomed to the controls, but that's a minimal thing. When I returned to pull the herbs out, they were wonderfully done. Crispy and absolutely perfect. I'm quite pleased. 

I adore Jalapeno peppers, and use them in a lot of my 
cooking over the colder months. There's nothing like 
a few pinches of peppers in a soup to make it zing! 

I then started a batch of three different hot peppers that I had harvested, but had been afraid to dry in the old dehydrator. I had Jalapeno, Serrano and Ristra peppers ready to be dried, so I cut them down. I decided to not cut too much, I wanted to really see how well the dehydrator removed the moisture. Peppers don't need to be crispy, they turn leathery when dried properly. I then put them through the blender/chopper and store them, adding them in recipes for the year. 

I'm not getting enough peppers from my Ristra peppers 
to bother making a ristra, so I'm drying them instead. 
They have a lovely flavor - not as hot as a Jalapeno, 
and a bit sweeter. It's why they have been tied into 
ristras forever and used in cooking throughout the 
year. As a New Mexican native, I'm quite familiar 
with ristras. 

My third type of pepper for the dehydrator 
yesterday was this one - Serrano. Serrano is 
mild, with lots of seeds. I cut all of my 
peppers apart and pull out the seeds. That's 
where the heat is, and I'm really after the 
flavor of the rind instead of the heat of the 
seeds. 

I checked the peppers this morning at 3:30 am and they were perfect. I pulled them, put all of the shelving, etc back into the dehydrator, and put it away into the cabinet. I'm quite happy. Of course, I'm also a bit off kilter at the same time because my security alarm company called me last night around 9:00 pm for a "front door breach and glass break" alarm. That's not what I ever like to hear, so I drove out immediately to check. Fortunately, this one was a false alarm. I called the company back and reported in that I had cleared and reset the alarm and that everything looked just fine. It's the regional Street Rod Championships Friday through Sunday, and there is increased traffic and probably some vibrations that are more unusual outside the store. It's possible that one of the cars set off my alarm with a loud muffler or booming bass from the radio. At least it was a false alarm, although I sacrificed almost an hour of sleep due to it. So, I'm out of here. I have a busy day at the shop ahead of me, but it's Saturday. It's a slightly shorter day and I get a Sunday off to relax. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Another Busy Day (Which is Good!) and a New Bird Sharing Our House

Yesterday was another busy day at the shop, so that made me quite pleased. Lots of beads and also items for medallions and breastplates were sold. It's always fun to see the creations of my customers. I think that's the reason I started the store in the first place - to share in the creative process and help bring a bit more beauty into the world. 

Male traditional dancers in pow wow usually 
wear a shorter bone breastplate similar to this 
one. This one had the bone antiqued - the easiest 
way to do that is to boil the bones in tea and 
then allow them to dry completely before 
assembling the breastplate. 

I got an appointment with the service tech I want to look over our alarm system, telling them that if he couldn't make it on Monday (yesterday), to make it next week on Monday. He didn't show up yesterday, so I assume he'll be by on the 13th. I'm hopeful I won't have any false alarms between now and then, but I'll just have to deal with it if we do. The last time we had an issue was when the panel itself shorted out. I had two techs that day because the first tech didn't quite fix it. I requested the second tech - the one who actually fixed it last time - as our tech this time. 

Female traditional dancers, however, wear 
a much different breastplate - one that extends 
past the waist and down towards the feet. It's 
a lot heavier because all of that bone weighs 
a lot. We also carry plastic hairpipe specifically 
for those women who don't want that much 
weight around their necks. 

I got another Etsy sale, realized that the "fix" I had put in for my shipping was still not in there properly, and I'll have to live with it. I'm actually losing a little money on this sale because the shipping charges aren't supposed to be free until the order is at least $25. But for some reason, it was coming through as free shipping, even though the actual sale was less than $12. I'll live with it this time, but immediately went back into the software and changed shipping once again. Hopefully I've got it right this time. 

Until I get the code for my shipping 
correct, I'm losing money on each sale. 
I think I've finally got it together, 
though. I'll find out with the next order - LOL. 

We've got a new type of bird making a nest next to our front door this year. Usually we have Robins building on our front door light fixture. This year we have a type of Flycatcher - a Least Flycatcher. They're absolutely adorable, and get quite excited if we use the front door, so DH put up a big sign on the inside saying "NO!" to remind us to use the garage entrance or walk around the house from the backyard up to the mailbox and back instead of using the more direct route from the front door. I'm hoping their nest will survive any storms and squirrels. The squirrels have a history of raiding nests made on our light fixture. 

We have a new bird with a nest on the light 
fixture by our front door - a Least Flycatcher. 
It's a lovely and quite lively little bird - very 
protective of its' nest. I'm hoping the nest 
and babies will survive the Spring/Summer 
storms and the squirrels. Here, the male is 
protesting my walking in the vicinity of the 
nest. He's very cute. 

On that note, it's a swimming day today and I'm dressed in my skin suit and ready for the water. I'll probably skip wearing my fins today because they rub against my toes at the nail and have been causing the skin to get red and sore. I'll give my feet a break, and see if there's any way I can alter the fins a bit so that they don't hit my toe in that specific location. But, it'll be lovely to be back in the water again. I'm not sure if I'll use the outdoor or the indoor pool (probably the outdoor - it's really hard to resist). I think the hardest part will be getting into the gym - the road construction is impacting it dramatically and getting in and out is a PITA. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

It Was a Blustery Day In the Pool and WildFit Cooking on the Internet

It was windy yesterday - a very blustery day it would be called in the autumn, but it's summer, so it's just called windy. That made it a very cold run out to the outdoor pool, and impossible to use things like pull buoys, paddles, or boards. It also made that short dash out to the pool VERY COLD, but when I jumped into the water, it was magnificent. Wonderful. Heavenly. 

It was a cold dash out to the pool, but the water was 
magnificent and welcoming. It's a very different swim 
to go Olympic length, but wonderful in its' own way. 

Our outdoor lights aren't working, so Beth can't open the outdoor pool until she can clearly see the bottom. That delays the outdoor pool by about fifteen minutes or so, so we start indoors, then all move outdoors when it's a bit lighter. The usual crowd has arrived from other YMCA's in the area, so we're sharing with several people from the White Bear Lake pool, as well as other areas. It's nice to see the WBL people again - it's been pre-Covid since I last saw them. 

The lifeguard needs to be able to get a clear view of the 
pool's bottom before we're allowed in to swim. That 
simple rule helped save Meg's life last year, and she's 
back to almost 100% again now, after having almost lost 
her life in the outdoor pool last year. 

As for seeing the bottom of the pool, I heard the girls mentioning that sight was essential, and remember Meg. My good friend and fellow swimmer Meg had a stroke last July while swimming in the outdoor pool. She just sank to the bottom suddenly, and only the astute lifeguard and her swimming friends saved her life that day. She's recovered almost 100% now, and back to swimming again (as well as the other exercises she does - she's always been a VERY active person). So we're not complaining that Beth has to wait until she can see the bottom of the pool. No complaints at all. 

I played a lot of "chase down the right person" on the 
phone with my alarm company yesterday, but finally 
was able to reach someone who was helpful in 
programming. He was able to get into my panel 
remotely and block the single sensor that has been 
giving me false alarms. Now to schedule a tech 
to come out and check out all of my sensors, replace 
them if needed, and maybe my false alarms will 
be done. I'll have to wait for that, though. Right 
now I just can't afford the service call. 

\

Today is a "day off" and of course I have a bunch of errands. I also have a story to write which has thrown roadblock after roadblock in my path. Hopefully today I'll have some time to deal with it, but I also have errands to run, groceries to buy, a Zoom WildFit Cooking class at 1:00, and my weekly chat with Aearwen at 4:00 pm. So it's a packed day, and that's good. I need to be busy, and I'll certainly merit the definition today. 

Some of the best support things offered by WildFit 
are the Zoom cooking classes by several world-class 
chefs who are Living WildFit in their own lives. I've 
become much more confident in the kitchen by watching 
them make their dishes. I've also become good at reading 
a recipe and figuring out substitutions - usually good, 
sometimes not so much - LOL. 

On that note, have a fabulous and magical day. Please be kind - it's a world of hate and unrest right now and we need all of the kindness we can get to balance out that negativity. Let's start June out on a good note. I'll be back tomorrow, Slava Ukraini.