Quote of the Day: Henry David Thoreau
That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
~ Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
My simple pleasures on a cold winter day…
…a cup of coffee in a handmade mug
…freshly fallen snow
…the morning sun peeking through the clouds
…the little bits of color you spot occasionally during the winter
…the view of beautiful sunsets unhindered by tree leaves
…I can’t forget to mention warming up the bed with an electric mattress pad, it’s so nice climbing into a toasty warm bed! (we turn it off when we get into bed, it’s too hot to leave on all night)
What are some of your simple pleasures?
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Not Chickens, but They’ll Do For Now
I’ve always wanted to have chickens, we’re not allowed in our little neighborhood. I’m pretty sure I could hide some though, as they don’t really enforce the rules unless your neighbors complain. I’m not sure I’m ready for chickens though, as they take daily care, and I can be a bit reluctant to head out into the cold on a single digit morning. Those garage cats are great practice though. I have to make sure they have food every day and give them fresh water as well. Whenever I have to suit up to head out and feed them I remember that this is what it would be like to have chickens.
Miss Mama and Little Softie are doing great. They’ve made themselves a little nest in our garage with an old coat and a few cardboard boxes (amazing how they do things like this). I’m thinking of getting them a heated mat though because it’s quite cold out there, and a heated water bowl would be good as well. Perhaps I’ll attempt to build a solar waterer like I saw in Mother Earth News once.
We don’t see them out and about much in the winter, they seem to be hibernating, I think the kitty litter pan we put in the garage for them makes them stay in more as well. When we go out to the garage they come out to beg for food. They also come out when I head to take photos, feed the birds, or run something to the compost. I think they’re missing the human interaction they got in the warm months when I’m outside for several hours. Miss Mama especially is demanding when she sees you out, she wants some attention and some petting! Miss Mama has gotten a little chunky this winter, I bet she has no trouble staying warm.
It’s getting about time to take Little Softie in to get her spayed. She’s still slightly feral and doesn’t trust us 100% yet. Can you blame her after her series of unfortunate events when we had to keep her in a kennel for 2 weeks giving her antibiotics 2x a day (she did not love that). Bet she’s not going to trust us for a while after getting her fixed!
Do you have chickens? How much work are they during the cold winter months? Any other outdoor animals you have to take care of?
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Friday Un-Favorite: Travelers Insurance
I’m the ultimate loyal customer, if a company makes a great product, has a great store, or has great customer service I’ll be a loyal customer for life. I’ll sing their praises until the cows come home telling anyone and everyone about it. I’ll willingly pay more for the product if I love it and will go out of my way to shop at a specific store or buy a certain product. I’m the customer you want to have, that is unless you decide to be ridiculous. Every now and then a company falls from my graces, it doesn’t happen often since I always give second chances. Until last month I’ve been singing the praises of Travelers Insurance. We’ve been their loyal customers for 11+ years, we’ve never even bothered checking for better rates anywhere else – ever. Whenever I heard someone complaining about their insurance company I’d chime in with how much we LOVED Travelers.
Most companies will love you as long as you don’t have a problem and are handing them money. When you have an issue that needs resolved and they need to hand a little money back your way, they show their true colors. Here’s what transpired with Travelers Insurance. We had a small fender bender when we were in Maine (the first in Mr Chiot’s 18 year driving career). The process of filing a claim was OK, but there were a few misscommunications and not enough info passed along to us from them. No problem, we decided to stick with them. Then we got our policy renewal in December which was much higher than usual, 50% higher than our last bill. We expected it go up a bit, but then we saw in our statement “NEW Accident Forgiveness for customers over 4 years and who haven’t had an accident in the past 5 years”. Great we thought, we’ll just call and get this fixed. Obviously there was an error.
When we first called the agent said, “Oh yeah, you should qualify, I’ll check on it.” Then she called back and explained that since we pay our insurance 6 months ahead of time, they decided we didn’t qualify for accident forgiveness since our accident happened under our “old” policy. If we had paid on monthly basis we would have qualified because our policy renews each month, but since we pay our bill up front we were out of luck. Basically I’m being penalized for giving them a bunch of money up front and paying my bill in full at the beginning of the contract – WHAT? We called several times to complain and try to resolve the issue and basically they said, “Sorry, screw you. You can’t get this and won’t even be able qualify for this on your policy for the next 5 years, since you just had an accident.”
After much frustration and lots of thought, I decided I’ll be taking my auto, home, and business insurance elsewhere, and I’m willing to move my life insurance as well if I find a new company I like that offers all three. I’m even willing to pay more elsewhere if I get good service and if the company is respectful of their clients. I am by no means out for cut rate products with bad service, it’s not worth it. I will no longer be telling people about how great Travelers Insurance is, I’ll be telling people to stay away from them at all costs.
So this is where you come in – Do you have a great insurance company that you can recommend?
Have they been there for you and treated you with the respect you deserve as a loyal customer when you’ve needed to file a claim?
How long have you been with this company?
Do you have any insurance company horror stories? any companies we should avoid?
Do you know of a great insurance agent we should call?
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Taste Testing Carrots
On Tuesday, Mr Chiots and I tried one of each of those carrots that I harvested on Monday. It was very interesting to be able to try so many different kinds at once. The only problem was that it was difficult to tell which was which on some of them, some of my labels had disappeared from the garden, and we didn’t keep them all separate at harvest. So I was going on shape and size based on the description on the seed packets. *note to self* I must find a better labeling pen
The ‘Muscade’ carrots were probably the best when it came to size of carrots and uniformity, they did very well. They’re a shorter fatter carrot, which are the kinds I like. The ‘Atomic Purple’ did well for size also as did one one yellow variety. The best tasting ones were probably the ‘Napli’ I grew (these are the variety Eliot Coleman calls “sugar carrots”). If you like those little baby carrots from the store you’ll love ‘Short n Sweet’ as they taste exactly the same, they’re small, sweet and very crunchy and had a great texture. The ‘Little Finger’ carrots also were great, nice and orange and with great texture.
The white ones we didn’t like much at all, and one of the yellow varieties didn’t do so well in the cold weather as the texture was off. I grew both ‘Yellowstone’ and ‘Amarillo Yellow’, I’m not sure which was which at harvest. I won’t give them the thumbs down because they might be very delicious if grown and harvested in warmer weather. I have a few seeds left so they’ll be sown this spring and we’ll test again then. I also wasn’t super impressed with ‘Chantenay Red Core’ the carrots didn’t size up as well as the other varieties and they were more difficult to peel because they were highly textured on the outside. Perhaps these are also more of a warm weather carrot.
I still have seeds left for most of these varieties so I’ll grow them again and keep better track and do a better break down for you in 6 months or so. For my fall planting I’ll definitely narrow it down to 2-3 varieties. I think trying new carrots is more for the spring/summer growing season.
Have you found a type of carrot that works well in your climate/soil/garden? Do any of you have a great labeling pen you’d like to recommend that will go the distance in the harsh weather?
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Unexpected Sprouts
We have a heated bird bath on the side porch by the bird feeder. The birds especially love it when it’s cold and all the other water is frozen. We see birds at it all the time. I empty it out and add fresh water several times a week since birds can be dirty.
Yesterday when I went out to empty it I noticed that a sunflower seeds a bird had dropped in there had sprouted. I guess the warmth of the water provided the perfect conditions despite the below freezing temps outside. What a funny little thing to find in the midst of the cold winter.
You can see all the junk in the water, which is exactly why I empty it out and refill it several times a week. Every couple weeks I scrub it out with vinegar to get rid of the mineral deposits and the germs.
We love providing this service for our little feathered friends. My dad always teases us about creating welfare birds, but they provide us with a lot of entertainment throughout the cold winter months. We gladly pay the little electric it costs to keep them well watered and for the seed and suet we feed them. (we even put filtered water in their bird bath since I’m sure chlorine and all those other chemicals aren’t good for them)
Do you provide any kind of water for the birds in your garden?
