Betcha it looked even better when you served it,
but it looks mighty good on the recipe page.
Posted on 10/01/2024 6:10:14 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Sounds like it was a great trip to Lowe’s!
Today our first round of firewood was delivered to our driveway. It’s my job to stack it. I enjoy it at first, but then it becomes a little tiresome. Taking a break now. It’s a cord of wood, and we will usually order more in January.
Break’s over.
Glad you are enjoying not having to go back and forth any more! Congrats!
I saw the photos you posted and it seems like you are ready for a postcard Christmas in the mountains!
Hope there is not too much left before the first snow! Pretty soon now, sometime in early November?? The first snow is always magic and beautiful, anything after that, not so much...
Farmer’s Almanac says colder than normal for us this winter - but not by much. More snow this year - but not by much.
Liking that forecast! :)
I’ve got it easy. The only thing I have to shovel is the seven landings up to the house, a path on the back deck so the elderly Beagle can make her way out to pee, and a path to my greenhouse, bird feeders and compost pile. ;)
I made up a HTPC(home theater personal computer) a few years ago but never really used it due to too much buffering/start/stop/pause with streaming(free streaming websites like Pluto etc or youtube). We have a dumb TV, no antenna, no cable, so the TV was basically for use as a monitor for the HTPC via HDMI cable.
A while back, I bought an outdoor wireless access point to extend WiFi out to the shed/tunnel because I was barely getting a signal. Not enough to do much with. Barely enough to post here on this text based site. Definitely not enough to watch a youtube video. Access to my cloud was 30 seconds with every click to drill down to info I wanted to see.
When we got our phone 12-13 years ago, they ran the main fiber optic cable to the phone box along with phone line and DSL. I asked the guy how soon we could expect fiber. He kind of laughed and said 10 years maybe. Not a bad wild guess.
Phone company called last week to tell me they were upgrading us from DSL to Fiber Optic internet. They installed it yesterday and of course the modem/router was upgraded. With the new router, I can watch 4k videos in the shed, not that it's needed on the small touchscreen monitor out there. 720p/1080p is fine.
I was kind of surprised because the Mini PC out there doesn't have a WiFi adapter card built in so I'm using a 20+ year old D-Link USB WiFi adapter. I was surprised it still works really.
I couldn't even stream 4k video in the house on DSL, even if using Ethernet cable instead of WiFi.
It's not just the tunnel PC. I have a rugged tablet and work on cars and now I can stream a repair video from youtube if need be.
The end of one small project and the Access Point is now listed on ebay to get rid of it.
I have PlexTV Media Server on the HTPC. They have a free streaming channel but the Media Server is for streaming my own Movies, TV Show, Music from the HTPC to any device on the home network. Not much of a library but if I wanted to watch Longmire in the tunnel, I could. LOL
Well, I have WiFi, sort of. After hooking up the new router to the existing cable in the office, nada. The field tech finally called me back last evening. We ended up with a temporary work around so I would have something over the weekend. The router is plugged directly into the ‘radio’ in the corner of the shop where the wiring enters the building. The only available cable is about 3’ long so the router can’t get to a more open spot. The satellite (mesh system) in the house won’t connect for some reason, but my phone does connect when I am in certain locations. I made a trip to the shop & downloaded some podcasts so I have something to listen to while working on projects.
Mom got wind chimes yesterday as a housewarming gift from 2 nephews. There is no lack of wind here so they chimed all afternoon. The chime tones are pretty - this one is called Amazing Grace.
New fridge arrives today! A meat chicken is going in the crockpot & I will make a casserole once the meat is falling off the bones. There will now be room to freeze leftovers or I might make 2 casseroles & freeze one. We have gone from zero guest bedrooms to two, plus our area has a lot of attractions & interesting things to do, so we expect company.
My kids gave me an Amazing Grace wind chime for my birthday last year to replace one that I had that had completely fallen apart. It’s very nice!
So will the field tech come out personally to help set up the wifi? Sometimes they need to show up instead of coaching from the phone. You may need a different system.
Great news on the fridge! That’s exciting!
I noticed after they installed fiber optic here Wednesday, I stopped getting email to the address associated with my internet. I could send but not receive. I was looking over the router admin page and noticed port 143 was blocked to incoming traffic. Guess what port 143 is for? Receiving email!
Unblocked 143 and instantly received several emails. Port 993 is the secure incoming port but iirc, it wouldn’t work when I set up Thunderbird. That port was also blocked though.
Kind of odd that they block the two ports for incoming email from their own email service.
Gonna call them and let them know they’re blocking their own email service and see if I can use 993.
There always seems to be ‘something’ that needs tweaking. I am going to try my hand at switching out a 4-prong dryer plug for a 3-prong while the new fridge gets cold. Per the youtube video on how to switch out the plugs, it looks easy peasy.
Yup, will get a real person on site Monday. I hope it’s the guy I have been talking to on the phone. He’s been very patient while I have been running back & forth between house & shop, messing with plugging & unplugging cables, plus he has a good sense of humor.
There is one cable plug I see coming through the floor into the office that should be “it” but isn’t ... we have a full basement so he (or whoever shows up) should be able to track the cable. I can see cable tacked to the ceiling but cannot see where it would connect to cables coming in from the shop, if that is what is happening.
It would be great if it’s the same person, but you never know. The tech people on the phone must be trained to deal with the waiting game while people go back and forth trying the different things they suggest.
My husband loves playing with his sound system and anything related to electronics. Most of the time he can figure it out on his own, but once in a while, he needs to call for help. It usually happens when there’s been some sort of update on his music apps that doesn’t correspond to his speakers.
I’m glad I have him as a husband. That’s one area I have little clue about, and I don’t have the patience with “gadgets” like that. If he can sort it out, it’s one less thing that I have to do. He loves it like I love cooking.
Hey, remember the roasted sweet potatoes and apple dish? I made it last night as a test run for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really tasty but I might make a couple of changes.
1. The recipe calls for the same number of sweet potatoes to apples ratio. It was close, but I might toss in an extra apple for every couple of servings.
2. Double the oil, syrup, and cinnamon. There’s a lot of surface area to cover and the extra won’t hurt. I also added some honey drizzled on top the last 10 minutes of roasting.
3. Don’t add craisins to the cooking part or else add the last couple of minutes. They were very hard. I might even make fresh cranberries or cranberry sauce and add to the roasting pan instead of craisins. That part needed some moisture; they were just too dry and cooked.
All in all it was VERY yummy, and a great change up from the usual sweet potatoes that we have with dinner. The pecans in it were wonderful.
https://www.devourdinner.com/roasted-sweet-potatoes-and-apples/#recipe
Thanks for the update!
If I added this recipe already, forgive me. It was really good - and leftovers were even better. I substituted a small (peeled & chunked) Honeynut Squash instead of the carrots as the only carrots I had were down in the barn for the mule. ;) It turned out great. It’s very ‘Octoberfest.’ I had Bear Brats to use up.
Note: Cut the cooked brat slices into quarters - easier to eat than a bigger ‘slice’ of brat.
https://www.theseoldcookbooks.com/slow-cooker-bratwurst-casserole/
Called them and got it worked out. I can now use the more secure port 993.
She seemed unfazed or didn’t care that they blocked their own email service when setting up my router. The installers talked about a she being the remote person doing the router set up. Maybe I talked to her. A she, also got my old router password wrong on the new router. She missed a character.
One of guys also made a goof. They hooked up to the wrong fiber conductor in the big box down the road so one of them had to go back down there and fix it.
Interesting article about 3 wire vs 4 wire 220. https://homearise.com/3-wire-vs-4-wire-220v/
Summary: Older dryers needed strictly 220. Some newer dryers use a mix of 220(heating element and motor) plus 110(lights and clock). 110 volt needs a neutral wire which the old 3 wire 220 circuits don’t have. The 3 wire 220 is 110+110 plus a ground.
Will the ground work as a neutral? Probably because most electricians back in the day put both the grounds and neutrals on the same terminal block in the breaker box anyway.
That looks yummy!
While we’re trading recipes, I made this recipe for Tuscan chicken with spaghetti squash. Since those are in season, I was looking for other recipes to try.
My husband LOVED this! He wants me to put in in our regular rotation. (That tells you it’s a keeper of a recipe).
For those who don’t like spaghetti squash, or are new to it, maybe add angel hair pasta to the mix to get newcomers used to the flavor.
https://deliciouslittlebites.com/tuscan-chicken-spaghetti-squash/
Betcha it looked even better when you served it,
but it looks mighty good on the recipe page.
It looked a lot like that! Great mix of flavors! I love that the squash is a way to get around the carbs from pasta, though this had the heavy cream and Parmesan in it. The calorie count took a hit with those ingredients, but it was delish!
I did some research & decided to get an electrician to deal with the issue. The best solution is to change the receptacle to 4 prong, but that usually requires running new wire from the box. The electrician will change out the ‘pigtail’ to a 3 prong - not the recommended thing to do in the articles I read, but likely no other option. If they do the plug change & the house catches on fire, at least it won’t be my fault. 😁
The company is so small the tech department is pretty much one guy & maybe a helper or two. I am used to Xfinity - call, on hold forever, ‘next available rep’ etc.
Here, after opening the account, when I asked what to do, the answer was “call Mike - he’s our field tech & here’s his number!”
Love that!! I love dealing with people who actually know what they’re doing, and are either the owner or close to it.
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