Help! We've got apple maggots!

Looks like an apple!

My new partner, Daniel, owns a property in the Cle Elum area of Kittitas County in Washington (I mentioned the area in my previous post about checking out rural properties). You'll be hearing a lot about the projects we have going on over there, but as spring is upon this mountainous area, we needed to get on top of the fact that the apple tree on his property was severely infested with apple maggots last year.

I looked into a number of different options but went on the recommendations from our local nursery and that was to start with apple maggot traps and lures. Once we have signs of apple maggots, we will spray the trees with what they recommended, Bonide Fruit Tree Spray. However, the fruit tree spray we got isn't exactly the most organic thing I'd want to use, breathe in and, ultimately, eat.

So, we are running into two problems right now:

Quarantine areas of WA

1. Identification: How do you identify apple maggots on the traps versus all the various other little flying bug things that are getting stuck to it? I'm assuming pictures of adult maggots on the web are what I'm matching the trap corpses to?

and

2. Organic Options: When they do show up, what's a good (or several) organic alternative so I don't have to be concerned with what I'm ingesting both fresh and preserved?

What do you use to treat apple maggots (and coddling moths while we're at it)? I've never had apple maggots before, so I need your help!!


Warning: this post has affiliate links and all that.

Mastering Grief - Death and the Dogwood

I was seriously considering starting a totally new blog titled "Young Widow Farmer" or some such thing rather than continuing in the vein of the Crunchy Chicken, but I didn't want my marital status defining me any more than my late husband wanted his fight with cancer to define him. He was, first and foremost, a husband, father, brother, friend, co-worker and an all-around exceedingly brilliant, hilarious, kind, humble and generous person. He just also happened to have a terminal illness.

My dogwood in bloom, 2019.

So, this dogwood. It's annual blooming is completely meaningless to anyone else besides me. Sure, it's pretty and everyone who sees it comments on its beauty, but it means so much more to only me. We bought this house with this dogwood tree when it was in full bloom back in May 2006.

I don't know at what point I started doing this, but every year since my late husband's diagnosis in 2007 I'd look at it blooming in late April and early May and think, "is this going to be the last year that this tree blooms and my husband is alive"? Some years we would be out of town when it was blooming and I'd miss most of the pink flowers and get anxious. That somehow that would portend his demise. It's weird how your mind, and your superstitions, work. And, each year he would somehow survive the torture and the treatments.

After a while, I'd kind of laugh at myself because 11 years of cancer survival is a long time. Worrying about the dogwood blooming and the link to my husband's survival seemed more ridiculous. And, honestly, last year I was feeling cocky enough to not go through the machinations of thinking the, "is this the last year this blooms and my husband is alive" routine.

My dogwood started becoming pink this last week. And, shit, it hit me again. The old mental routine. Except, this year, I already knew the answer to the question. You never really master grief - it just changes color, flavor and texture. I know this from my own father's death back it 2011, just as my book was published. Grief is a strange thing and is different every time. But, this time around, I'd actually been grieving my late husband's death since his diagnosis.

I stopped blogging shortly after my Dad died, so it seems somewhat fitting that I'd restart blogging after my husband died. And, as I head into a weekend in my "new life", with a new partner, and the possibilities of a new future and all its adventures, I can't but help also be tethered by the familiarity and routine of the old to ground me and remind me that life is tenuous. The dogwood is just one of the many things that strikes me into remembering. And, because of that, each day I take nothing for granted.

Teen Trauma - The horrors of no wifi

Always with phone in hand.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization released their recommendations for screen time for children under the age of 5. For the first year of life they recommend zero time, rarely any in the second year and no more than an hour a day for ages 2 to 4. Frankly, this seems entirely reasonable, although I might be in the minority here.

My two children didn't watch any television until they were at least 5 and computer time came much later. My 16-year-old son still doesn't have a cell phone (and doesn't want one). It may sound strange coming from two parents who worked in tech, but we weren't TV watching adults, so limiting screen time in the early years came extremely easily.

Fast forward to today and it's a much different story and I know here I'm not in the minority. While my 15 and 16-year-olds don't sit down and watch network television, they watch a lot of shows using Netflix and other entertainment on YouTube. My 15-year-old daughter got her own cell phone in 8th grade after much haranguing and, for her peer group, that's late. Oftentimes, she'll be on her laptop and cell phone at the same time. But, I think that's par for the course for most adults as well.

We've become a modern nation of connectivity with expectations that we have high speed, instantaneous access through our devices to the Internet. This drives most people all day long, every day. Teens and adults. You see them in elevators, in line at the store, waiting for the bus, all staring into their phones. Myself included - I have no pretense to suggest I'm any different.

The main difference is my ability to unplug and put away my devices. A common theme among my teenagers and other teens I know is that, if there isn't access to wifi or cell service, they aren't participating. Sadly, this has been a huge constraint for my family any time we take a trip somewhere. If there isn't high speed wireless Internet available, they aren't going. Which sounds really ridiculous when you put it in writing.

Of course, sometimes you don't have much of a choice - mountainous areas of Washington state just don't have decent coverage to support streaming video. It's not like there's no Internet or cell service, it's just that it's not good enough. Because, predominately, what teens are doing online isn't downloading text to read, articles, news, etc. It's video. And video demands bandwidth. And without that bandwidth, boredom ensues. And then the complaining that's there's nothing to do begins.

One skill that kids seemed to have lost with the advent of constant connectivity is the ability to context switch off the electronic teat, with its incumbent squirts of adrenaline. But, it does happen, with enough time away from their devices. It's just getting through that chunk of time until they realize that they have to come up with something else to do that can be very trying and is, understandably, why parents oftentimes give in.

What about your kids? Are they able to unplug without protest? Do you have issues with your teens refusing to go on vacation because the wifi isn't good enough?


Recommended Reading:
Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Highjacking our Kids
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains
Digital Detox: The Ultimate Guide to Beating Technology Addiction

Warning! There are affiliate links in this post!

Log Cabin in the Little Woods - Checking out rural properties

Log Cabin - Cle Elum, WA

Back when I was blogging regularly, one thing I always dreamed about was moving to a more rural area on several acres so that I could garden and raise critters to my heart's content. Several things prevented me from living out that dream, primarily location to work, daily accessibility to the cancer treatment center and willingness of the whole family.

Since I have been working 100% remotely from home for almost the last year (and not working the last 2 months), that first barrier isn't really an issue anymore. I don't need to be within driving distance of downtown Seattle. Both of my high schoolers are homeschooled, so that isn't so much an issue now either and both of them are interested in being on more land.

It dawned on me the other night that, when I was working full-time and in the thick of being the primary caregiver for the whole family as well as the primary stable bread winner, the one thing I wished I could do instead of working in software development was write full-time and try to live the lifestyle that I talked about so often.

Being shell-shocked after my husband died, I wasn't really clearly seeing my options and, after I got laid off from work, my knee-jerk reaction was to jump back into a tech job. But I don't have the same constraints anymore. I don't have to spend 10 hours a week sitting in traffic going to a tech job I don't really have to have anymore. I can do something else. And maybe that something else is the thing I dreamed about for so long.

Last night, on my way to Roslyn with my new man friend, Daniel, (more on that later 😄), I went out and looked at a rural property that just came on the market. Two areas of the state that I had my eye on years ago for where I'd like to live is the Skagit Valley (north of Seattle) and Cle Elum (90 minutes east of Seattle).

This property is in the Cle Elum area. It's a little over 7 acres, has a number of outbuildings on it in addition to the home itself and has a canning shed, for crying out loud. When we drove down the gravel drive, the owner came out to greet us. He was probably wondering what the hell we were doing on his property at 7 pm (there's no way you'd accidentally go down the drive), but most likely figuring he had a live one looking at the property.

The owner offered to give us a grand tour of the house and the rest of the property and really took us in, explaining the history of the land, his wife's family's ownership, who lives where on the original 35 acre property as well as their own history and interest in retiring to Yakima.

It wasn't a property I was interested in pursuing (the house is very small and dark, the acreage is a weirdly unusable strip of land and it is too far from town), but the overt friendliness of the owners was really refreshing. I couldn't help but think their real estate agent would be horrified to learn they are divulging all the property's secrets, but maybe that's just the city girl in me.

At this point, it's just exploratory looking - I have no concrete plans to move out of Seattle immediately. My goal is to have a better idea of what I want to do over the next 6 months to a year and figure out how to get there. But, knowing me, who knows. It might happen sooner than I think!

Earth Day - Blogging Update

Getting Crunchy, 2019.

I can't believe I started this blog a little over 12 years ago. A lot has occurred since then. Most notably, in the last year my husband passed away from cancer. I know a lot of my readers followed the early days of his diagnosis and treatment and provided me with so much emotional support. I can't even relay to you how important and meaningful that was for me to be able to mentally survive such an excruciatingly difficult ordeal for my family.

After 11 years of fighting multiple myeloma, my husband passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family. I didn't post about it here because, honestly, I found it harder to tell you all than it was to just do a brief post on Facebook months after the fact and then take a long break from social media and figure out what I was going to do next with my life, without making too many big decisions.

In the intervening time since his passing, I was also laid off from work. I've spent the last two months taking a long-needed break, spending time with my kids and trying to regroup and recover from so many years of medical trauma and stress.

It's been such a roller coaster over the last year. I had switched jobs from a very stable government position to a volatile startup. During my first week of work, my husband's health dramatically took a turn for the worse and he never recovered. In the last year I've gone from having two sources of full-time income to none but I am, fortunately, in the position to take my time to discern what the next chapter of my life will look like.

On one hand, my identity is very much associated with my skills in software development. But, my heart truly lies in the realm of sustainability, green living and engaging with the rest of the world on these topics. So, it seems more than fitting to restart up my blog on Earth Day.

My goal over the next 5 months is to get back into blogging and see where that leads me. One of the reasons I stopped blogging before was because I didn't feel like I had anything new to say or contribute. Because of the changes in my life that, too, has changed and I have a lot I'd like to share with you all and can't wait to tell you all the things I am doing and have planned.

Harkening back to my first blog post, not much has changed and I hope to continue the engagement and, hopefully, the entertainment!

"This blog will cover my various wanderings through trying to add sustainable habits to my life. Things that make me feel less like I'm treading all over mother nature and perhaps lessening my footprint, carbon emissions and all that fun stuff.

In the meantime, I'll try to keep things marginally entertaining."

- The Crunchy Chicken, March 2007

Emulsifiers are in everything!

Last weekend, there was an opinion piece in the NY Times regarding how additives in processed foods negatively affect your gut microbiome, in particular mentioning emulsifiers and food thickeners. This isn't news exactly, this has been known for the last several years. But more research has shown what they do to the lining of your gut.

These are your guts on emulsifiers!

I've been having increased issues with food sensitivities over the last ten years and find that I have more and more issues with an increasing number of foods that I've had to eliminate. I can still eat them, but I generally have bad gastrointestinal issues, migraines and skin problems.

As a result of these food sensitivities, I've stopped eating foods that contain:

• gluten
• soy
• nightshades (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes)
• nitrates
• msg
• fermented foods

From the research I've done, I've found that these emulsifiers act as surfactants that break down the protective barrier lining your guts, causing food and bacterial encroachment into your bloodstream which results in an immune response. This is commonly referred to as a leaky gut and more and more scientific studies are showing this is actually a thing (versus pretending it was all in our heads).

The most offensive emulsifiers include:

• carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), otherwise known as cellulose gum
• polysorbate-80 (P80)
• carrageenan
• MDX, maltodextrin, modified starches (corn, wheat, tapioca, etc.)
• lecithin, soy lecithin (the jury is still out on these)

Additional gums that cause problems include:

• guar gum
• locust bean gum
• carob gum
• gellen gum
• cellulose gum
• tara gum
• xanthan gum

Needless to say, after looking at the processed foods (all organic) that I routinely eat, these emulsifiers are in EVERYTHING. From ice cream to salad dressing, sauces, chocolate, tortillas, and gluten-free anything, they are almost impossible to avoid.

Right now I'm on an elimination diet to get it out of my guts for at least 6 weeks and then see if I can challenge eating the foods that were causing me problems.

All this time I thought I had a gluten sensitivity, but I'm starting to think I have a surfactant reaction to these modifiers that's making me sensitive to all these other foods that I used to be able to eat without issue.

I'll be posting some recipes for substitutes to products that I've been eating that contain numerous and, in some cases, up to 5 of the emulsifiers and gums listed above. Just because something is organic or "natural" doesn't mean it doesn't have potentially harmful ingredients in them.

What about you? Are you finding that you are having more food sensitivity issues as you've gotten older?

Articles for your own research:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4615306/

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/02/25/food-additives-inflame-mouse-guts-by-disturbing-microbes/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568997215000245

https://dailyhealthpost.com/beware-of-emulsifiers-like-soy-lecithin-used-in-processed-foods-its-hurting-your-gut-health/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14232

https://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2015/02/26/study-suggests-chemical-emulsifiers-in-food-are-disrupting-gut-microbes-and-making-us-fat/#7f6df5825f08

Ash on my apples - harvesting food after a wildfire

Light ash fall - just the beginning!

With all the fires in Western Washington (and in other parts of the country where it's far worse), we are getting some ash fall in Seattle. Nothing like ye olde Mt. St. Helens eruption days, but still. Enough ash to make it look like a light snowfall.

It didn't exactly dawn on me initially, but now I'm wondering what's the best way to rinse the ash off my backyard fruits and vegetables? Some things will be easier to rinse off, like zucchini and tomatoes, but sticky fruits like blackberries and herbs like Italian flat leaf parsley might be more of a challenge.

I can wait for some rain before worrying about harvesting the apples. I guess when it comes down to it, it's not exactly any more harmful than grilling vegetables over a wood fire, but it will add an unwanted grittiness to foods harvested in areas in wildfire country.

For those of you in harder hit areas of the country with lots of ash fall from wildfires - what are you going to do to get the ash off your harvested fruits and vegetables?

Homeschooling - film studies class

Rear Window

Today is the first day back to school for my two homeschoolers!

My daughter is starting 8th grade this year and has been totally loving her secular, literature-based curriculum from Bookshark. This year it's based on science (rather than world history) and includes books like the wonderful, Longitude. The Bookshark curriculum covers all the core courses, but we still search for other courses to round out the school year. Last year, she did a year of American Sign Language and got quite good at it.

This year we are taking a break on the languages and doing PE (mostly running) and a Film Studies course that's based on a two-year high school curriculum by Tim Marklevitz.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we don't have to wait for high school to cover topics of interest (assuming they were even offered at our local high school). I can adapt the curriculum to her age level as well as the content of the movies, although she already watches movies way above her age range. I would definitely not recommend this movie list to younger children or high schoolers who are uncomfortable with scary movies or adult themes.

Some of the movies we'll be watching are:

• Rear Window (1954) - unit on mise en scene
• Do the Right Thing (1989) - unit on color and light temperature
• Citizen Cane (1951) - unit on cinematography
• The Conversation (1974) - unit on sound
• Psycho (1960) - unit on editing and will be during the week of Halloween
• Run Lola Run (1988) - unit on split screen and parallel editing
• The Wrong Trousers (1993) - unit on stop motion animation

This is Spinal Tap

There are 26 movies covered in the first year of the curriculum. We'll see if there's interest in the second year when she starts high school next year and, assuming she's still homeschooled. She has expressed an interest in one of the local, alternative high schools.

I have seen most of the movies in the list, but it will be fun to rewatch them again with an eye towards cinematography, structure, pacing and the like.

I'm using two texts along the way:

1. The Film Experience - An Introduction (Second Edition - it's cheaper and the content is similar to later editions)
2. Film Studies: An Introduction (Teach Yourself) 

For a full list of the films covered (as well as the topics touched on from each movie), you can view the list on IMDB: Movies for Teaching a High School Film Course.

Warning: There are Amazon affiliate links in this post.

Making outdoor clothes drying easier

Moerman Folding Rack

As you may remember, I've tried a number of different contraptions over the years to facilitate drying our clothes outside. Everything from retractable clotheslines to several kinds of folding drying racks. And, while the folding racks work well, they are not really made to be used outside and they tend to fall over in a stiff breeze, especially when laden with big, heavy laundry.

Why bother line drying your clothes outside, you ask? Well some of the benefits include:

• saving $150 or more per year in energy costs or coins
• reducing your carbon emissions by about a thousand pounds or more
• creating less wear and tear on your clothes
• eliminating static cling
• UV light from the sun can help disinfect clothing
• your clothes and sheets will smell fantastic
• it's a nice form of meditation

Brabantia Lift-O-Matic!

Because of the issues I was having with the folding racks and having to move them inside and back outside to protect them from the elements, we invested in a removable umbrella style rotary dryer clothes line that has 196 feet of drying space which, let me tell you, is more than sufficient. I can easily hang upwards of 4 loads of laundry which, let me also tell you, never happens. It also can comfortably dry sheets and large duvet covers with ease.

My husband had something similar in his yard when he was growing up, although not quite nearly as fancy. He's been wanting to get one of these for a while because he loves the smell of outdoor dried laundry. I've held off getting a more permanent line like this, but since this particular product allows you to pull it out of the ground and store it away so it's not a big eyesore in your yard, it was worth the extra cost.

The Brabantia Lift-O-Matic also comes with a spike cover thingy that keeps the dirt out of the bracket hole in the ground when you put the contraption away, as well as a weather protective cover to keep the crap off of it either while in storage or when it's out in the elements. Like I said, it's kind of pricey, but I love the darn thing.

Hills Panache Laundry Trolley

In order to help me lug all those heavy, wet clothes outside without tweaking out my back, I got a laundry trolley. While I can't say that I consistently use it (it's kind of hard to navigate on stairs, to be honest), it helps get me halfway there. And, it gives me one less excuse for not drying our clothes outside.

My only lamentation is that it's hard to dry clothes outside in Seattle for more than a couple of months out of the year. It's easy to fall out of the habit in the off-season and get used to using the dryer. I then have a hard time getting back into using it each year.

For more hints and tips on line drying clothes, check out the posts from my Laundry Challenge that I hosted a few years ago.

If you much prefer drying your clothes inside, check out my post for Tips for air drying clothes indoors.

What about you? Do you line dry your clothes outside and, if so, what kind of line do you use?

Warning: there be Amazon affiliate links in this here post.

Backyard mini orchard - 2017 update

Hollywood Plums

I think the last time I posted about my backyard mini orchard was back in 2011. So, it's about time that I update y'all with what fruiting things I've got growing these days.


Back in 2011 I had:

• 2 dwarf cherries
• 2 columnar apples
• 1 dwarf plum
• 2 blueberries
• 4 blackberries
• 1 dwarf nectarine
• 1 dwarf peach
• 2 dwarf pears
• 1 Peter's Honey Fig
• 4 blackberries
• 30 strawberries
• 3 grape vines

The fig sadly didn't make it

Over the years, things have changed up a bit. I ended up (due to tree disease) ripping out the nectarine, peach and pear trees. 

I dug up the fig because it was over a side sewer line, removed 2 blackberries because 4 was waaaay too many, removed one grape because they were super seedy (and we replaced our fence that it was growing on), removed 1 blueberry because it just wasn't growing, and most of the strawberries died off over the winter (who knows why).


So, here we are in 2017 and I've got:

• 2 dwarf cherries
• 2 columnar apples
• 1 dwarf plum (Hollywood)
• 1 blueberry
• 2 thornless blackberries
• 3 strawberries
• 3 grape vines

And I've added since 2011:

• 1 super dwarf Honeycrisp apple
• 1 dwarf almond tree
• 1 Sudachi lime tree
• 1 cranberry 
• 1 super dwarf persimmon
• 2 thornless raspberries
• 1 arbequina olive

Fruit Production:

Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in blackberries and I'm pulling off the Hollywood plums since they are just about done for this year. I love this plum - the fruit is fantastic tasting and the tree is self-pollinating. I keep it about 8 feet tall, just so I don't have to reach too high for the fruit. I've also got some residual blueberries on the bush and I'm holding off on harvesting the apples until this weekend. I'm planning on canning some apple pie filling and applesauce.

What kind of fruiting trees/plants are you growing? What just didn't work out in your yard?

A cold hardy lime that I haven't yet killed

I am a notorious citrus tree killer. I admit it. It's not that I'm trying to kill all of them, it just happens. I think I've gone through at least three Meyer Lemon trees and one Kaffir Lime. And possibly a Key Lime. None of them ever flowered or produced any fruit.

Look at them baby limes!

My husband, at this point, is very doubtful of my abilities in citrus. So, last year when I enthusiastically brought home a cold hardy Sudachi Lime that I could plant in the ground and leave outside year round, he was less than excited. He thought I was nuts. I believe there may have been some eye rolling. This was a year ago.

But the lime tree is still alive! And living outside! In the ground! And, lo and behold, it has about 10 baby limes growing on it. He's still doubtful. Granted, the plant is only about two feet tall and they may not survive, but I'm fairly confident this time around that I'll be enjoying some lime based beverage soon. A very small lime based beverage since the fruit only gets about as big as a golf ball. But I'm not picky. I've got limes!

Have you had any success growing citrus - keeping them outdoors in the summer and moving them indoors or just keeping them indoors? Of course, if you live in the south, I'm assuming you have more citrus fruit than you can possibly handle. And, I'm incredibly jealous.

I think I'm 90% blackberries

Blackberry crisp!

'Tis the time of year wherein I'm inundated by far more blackberries than it is possible for one human to consume. Last year my daughter helped out with eating the blackberries but, for some reason, this year I've been left to my own devices.

I swear that about 90% of my body cells are being fed by a steady diet of Triple Crown Thornless blackberries and I still can't keep up with them. So, not surprisingly, I've been freezing them on sheet pans and storing them in gallon freezer bags to make this awesome blackberry crisp. But, mostly I'll be using them in my oatmeal when fruit and berry season slows down.. 

Triple Crown Thornless blackberries

I had a similar issue with our raspberries and have several bags frozen as well. I'm certainly not complaining! I've been relying on the fruit produced in our yard this year since I didn't really plant a garden until late in the season (it was really unseasonably cold here up through July) and broke down four of my raised beds and need to rebuild. 

The only vegetables I grew this year were garlic, zucchini, lettuce and tomatoes. It was a record low for me. I did make up for it by planting a fall garden, so we'll see how that goes since it's been very warm here since the beginning of August.

My fruit trees and bushes have been humming along producing loads of cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. The time for apples and plums is almost upon us, but more about that later!

How are your fruiting plants doing this year?

Yeah, I know I've been MIA - I can't make any promises, but maybe I'll post more than a few times this year!

Turn your Pumpkins into Turkeys

If you have any pumpkins left over from Halloween, now's a good time to transition them into the next holiday.

I got this great Thanksgiving Pumpkin Turkey Making Kit last year to use with my pumpkin. My kids hated it, but I love it! (And it furthers my career as a parent destined to embarrass two teenagers).

Gobble gobble!

*Warning - this post contains a link to an affiliate program that might make me money, wherein I use said $ for giveaways and suchlike.

Dwarf Almond for Urban Spaces

This spring I purchased and planted a few new dwarf fruit and nut trees to replace some other trees and plants that just weren't producing. I finally decided to pull out some pear trees that always suffered from trellis rust and never produced any fruit, in spite of all the pruning and perseverating over.

In place of one of the pear trees, I planted a dwarf almond - something I've wanted to have for years, but just couldn't find something suitable for an urban space. Well, the Nikita's Pride almond tree, developed in the Ukraine, does great in both small spaces as well as in cold environments. It will grow about 10 - 12 feet tall (although I'll keep it smaller) and is hardy to -20 degrees F. They bloom at the same time as peach trees, which helps avoid damage by last frosts.

These dwarf almonds are partially self-fertile. Another reason I bought this tree was in the hopes of making more of my own almond milk, which I started making earlier this year. Buying bulk organic almonds can be pretty cost prohibitive for making milk.

The Nikita's Pride is prized for their profuse, pinkish-white, fragrant flowers. I haven't had it long enough to flower and produce anything yet, but it's grown quite a huge amount just over the summer. When I planted it, it was about 2 feet tall. It's about 6 feet tall now. Hopefully we'll see some flowers on it next year. I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this tree.

Do you have any nut trees growing on your property?

Gluten-free Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

Gluten-free pumpkin gingersnap cookies

I had some leftover pumpkin sitting in the fridge when I stumbled upon a recipe for Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies over at Two Peas & Their Pod. I really wanted to try it out, but I also really want to make them in a gluten-free version.

So, after doing some research and cross-referencing the King Arthur website (for just their gingersnap recipe) as well as gluten-free gingersnap recipes versus pumpkin gingersnap recipes, I settled on just a few changes to the original recipe.

Basically, I switched out the granulated sugar for brown sugar, replaced the all-purpose flour with America's Test Kitchen gluten-free flour mix and added 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum. The only other thing I changed was I added cinnamon to the sugar for rolling. And, voila! They turned out perfect. Soft and chewy.

Buy Nothing October - Saving Tactics

We've been having a little personal Buy Nothing October to cut back our spending and, hopefully, save up a little for the holidays this year.

Now, to be clear, it's not like we aren't buying anything - my youngest child's birthday is this month, so I budgeted a certain amount for those gifts, but I've been trying to cut out extraneous purchases.

This last year has been chock full of expenses. We had a lot of car maintenance expenses on our 14-year-old vehicle, replaced quite a few single pane windows in our basement, got a new roof and refinanced our home. We paid for all of these out of our checking/savings and didn't finance anything. And that was on purpose.

The plan was to save the $500 a month we are saving from refinancing to recoup the closing costs and other expenses, but we just haven't really achieved that. Other monthly expenses have crept up and we haven't really been strict about "binge" buys.

So, I've been really trying to crack down on that this month and hope to continue through next month. My husband really likes going out to coffee so we haven't stopped doing that, just reduced what we buy when we do so (only coffee, no treats). And, we otherwise aren't eating out. At all. Which is pretty normal for us anyway but we've been ordering out a lot over the summer.

One of the techniques that we've employed is to create Christmas lists for ourselves on Amazon and, whenever we feel like we want to buy something, we put the item on our respective Christmas lists to be ignored for a couple months. Most likely the urge will pass and if, after two months, we are still dying for those purchases, they'll get budgeted into our Christmas gifts. So far it's working.

Another tactic I'm using is recording all our expenses and watching our credit card closely to keep us on track. That way, if we start falling back into old habits, it's easier to correct sooner rather than later.

What are your favorite ways to avoid overspending money?