DIY Day

A minor emergency started our day off this morning when Ben went to get something from the freezer and nonchalantly tells me that the popsicles in the freezer have melted. WHAT??!!! He’s all calm and composed telling me that the popsicles have melted and so that means that the freezer has packed in! Battle stations people, I launch into full-fledged def-con 1 mode and begin pulling stuff out the freezer and then remember that the fridge is cooled by the freezer, so I check it… yup… warm.

How the heck did this happen? I mean, the vents in the back of the fridge were all frozen and iced over yesterday, and in discussing with one of the resident workers here, he told me that when that happens to make sure that we do a defrost – but obviously I am not going to be able to defrost the darn fridge/freezer, as it’s gone kaput.

We start a frantic search for some way to get this thing cooling again, and finally Ben gets online and starts to look up user manuals. Turns out, the fridge/freezer does an automatic defrost when it starts freezing up the vents. You’d think it would be polite enough to inform US that this was the case. In the meanwhile, the bloody popsicles have leaked out of their individual baggies and big bag and so everything has to come out of the freezer so it can be washed down. Oh and did I mention I am 5’4″ tall and the freezer is at least 5’4 off the ground?! That means that for me to clean, I’m up on tippy-toes and still can’t see or reach the back of the freezer – so yep, it became a job for Ben to do.

A couple of hours later, I checked on the freezer, after deciding to give it a rest and see if it magically decided to work again, and noticed that there was condensation on the back top of the freezer – several more hours later, I was able to just reach enough to feel the condensation which turned out to be ice. WOO HOO!!! Major catastrophe averted!

Before we ripped these horrid blinds and valance out

Well, this experience spurned us on to a couple of DIY’s. First item on the immediate list to be taken care of, the horrid broken blinds over the kitchen sink. No matter how much I would clean the area around the sink, each time I would lift the blinds – securing them open with clothes pegs (or close the silly things), it would still be filthy with a layer of dirt. These things HAD to go. The fact that they were broken amplified the fact that they were the first to be replaced.

Before we moved into the vardo, we picked up a really inexpensive set of blinds from Walmart – less than $4 for them, but they look really swanky and nice and Ben even “custom-fit” them. Now THAT impressed me… except that I had to hold the bloody thing up while he was “customizing” it – that was agonizing for me. I think I need to spend the next week with my feet up just to recover… 😉

So when you’re doing a fix-up, you can do it relatively inexpensively. There are tons of free things you can pick up from design centers too – they always get rid of their previous season materials and you can pick them up for free. While you won’t get reams of materials and such, and sometimes not even identical pieces, but you could make throw pillows (or pillow cases) from what you do pick up to create a whole new design. And you can change the designs each year if you like. You can even make “handkerchief” curtains from the material to create a larger piece. Like these… BTW I didn’t make these, but I am thinking of doing something similar with the material I have on hand. 🙂

Ben needed a couple of things which were kind of necessities for this job – a screwdriver and a measuring tape. Both of which we have… Where? We’ll stumble upon them somewhere… sometime… But today? For this job… Nope. So… we did what I am very good at doing, gerry-rigging and estimating. The difference is, Ben was working this job and not me, so it wasn’t a matter of simple estimations and attempt after attempt before it was half-arsed done. He is so much a perfectionist – so when he told me to get out of the way, I complied… and grabbed my camera instead.

He managed to borrow a screwdriver and drill from Jack (the owner here), so we were good to go, right…? I mean, how difficult is putting up blinds yeah? But then, this is us and there wouldn’t be a blog if it were… We are two of the most inept individuals, but hey, we try and when we do, we actually do a good job.

 

While we had these tools, Ben took advantage of the fact that we had them and took the old microwave out. Good thing we’d brought a shelf (from one of our old cabinets) with us because we had to put it into the hole for our microwave to fit in. Went to plug in the microwave and remembered that we only had two prongs on the plug as we’d had to pull out the grounding third prong as our last place only had a 2 pronged plug. We put the microwave in and… the shelf moved… Well, Ben got to use the drill as he screwed it into place. Now we were secure and good to go… put the microwave back in again and… it doesn’t work. I think there is something wrong with the outlet – which means the ancient microwave that was in there might actually work, it’s just the outlet broken. So… gerry-rigging to the rescue, we plugged it into the extension cord and basically use it the exact same way we had done when it was on the stove, only now it is high up. Oh and did I mention that it’s on about the same height as the freezer… grrrrrr being short sucks!

Microwave after

We started the blind DIY just after 3PM, it was finally finished just after 8PM. Yep… it took it’s time for sure, but it was so worth it. I cleaned the whole area up, cleaned the windows and the “sills”, fixed the stove top, and oh gosh it’s gorgeous.

   

After it’s all done, how gorgeous it looks

So… we plan on putting in a tile back-splash, and I think we’re going to put it right behind the stove itself, while the small area around the window, we’ll paint. I removed some of the wall paper which was peeling and bubbled. As money comes in, we’ll have to redo all the walls and get insulation put in to ensure it’s winterized as it’s just a wooden panel on the walls. I’m now wondering about painting as I think the undercoat will more than likely get soaked up into the wood, might need a fair few coats just to hold the top coat(s).

The area behind the stove is where we’ll put the tile backsplash

Well… now that the kitchen window is done, I’m eager to get the rest of the windows done. The rest of them, I’m also going to get curtain dowels and put up curtains over the blinds – extra privacy and pretty it up for us in here too.

So what do you think? My very own DIY! HA

While Ben was sweating it up in the over 10o°F temperature, I did my own “DIY” (HA) project… tell me, what do you think…? 😉

Winston had another very hot day today. Poor lil guy, he was panting most of the day, but he was very happy when he got to sit up on the sofa right in front of the floor fan and cooled down. As you can see from this photo, he’s smiling. 🙂

And of course, can’t not share with you how relaxed and at home the girls are… here they are chillin – although I think Ezmi really was the one lounging the most today…

Ezmi

Ainey

Nari

Ezmi’s perfect spot to bird-watch

RV Vegan Cooking: Seitan Pot Roast

It’s Sunday and growing up, Sunday’s was the day that we always enjoyed a roast. So, I decided that I’d make a delicious pot roast in the handy crock pot. Oh boy I wish you could smell the delicious scent wafting throughout this vardo as it cooks away nicely.

One thing I have come to realise when living in a vardo, something that my Mum taught me growing up, was that you need to clean up as you go along. The more you leave everything to do after, the more work you will have and the less room you will have. So as I prepared the pot roast, I ended up doing two loads of dishes that had gone in to the prep of the roast. See, when you make seitan, you’re actually making a dough and you’re using a fair few things – like measuring cups, measuring spoons, bowls, etc… These stack up really fast in a small sink – even if I am blessed to have a double sink, it’s shallow and small. So getting these washed and out of the way as I go along makes it much nicer in the vardo as well as more room to move around.

So my biggest advise is, if you’ve not got running water – like I don’t at the moment – make sure you fill up jugs of water, heat your water on the stove, on an outdoor fire, or in the microwave to do your dishes.

Keep things clean, it is not only good for the vardo, good for your home, but also your soul and peace-of-mind, as well as makes things so much easier to cook in.

So here is the recipe for my vegan pot roast.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp paprika

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup diet coke
3 TBSP tomato puree
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 TBSP light soy sauce

1/2 large onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
5 cups baby carrots
3 stalks celery, cut into thirds and then halved vertically
1 head broccoli, florets cut off and stalks halved vertically
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Vegemite (or you can use Marmite or Better than Beef vegetable bouillon paste)
1/2 cup diet coke
1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Mix the dry ingredients together until very well combined. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together until very well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix until you can’t mix it anymore then start kneading until all the dry ingredients are mixed well into the dough. Knead for 5 minutes, then let sit aside for 15 minutes.
2. While the seitan is resting, prepare the vegetables for the crock pot. Add 1 tsp vegetable oil to the crock pot and using a brush or a piece of
kitchen paper and spread the oil all around the crock pot. Add the vegetables to the crock pot and mix well. Add the salt, garlic and onion
powder and mix into the vegetables. Create a “well” in the center and add the rested seitan.
3. In a small mixing bowl, add the Vegemite and diet coke. Mix very well until the Vegemite is dissolved. Pour over the vegetables and a little over
the seitan roast.
4. Set crock pot to HIGH and cook for 4 hours, or until the seitan is cooked through. Stir the vegetables around the roast occasionally, and about 2 hours into cooking, turn the roast over and let it cook a further 2 hours. Also spoon the pan juices over the roast.

Once cooked, let sit for 10-15 minutes so that the seitan can “rest” and the juices can be retained in the roast.

You can add potatoes to the pot or you can serve it with (vegan) buttered pasta or just as it is. Also, use any vegetables that you have on hand. I tend to stay away from canned veggies in this sort of a dish because they are already cooked (often over cooked) and will turn to mush.