Author: Caryn

Egg cartons

On By CarynIn eggs

I have been looking into the recycled egg carton debate and have decided that I can’t risk reusing egg cartons. My youngest has a compromised immune system and unintentionally growing bacteria in reused cartons is too risky. I don’t wash my eggs until right before I use them (except if they are dirty), so there is a higher risk for contaminating the carton. I bought a wire egg rack for my counter eggs that can be wiped down and a washable tray for the refrigerated hard boiled eggs. The wire egg rack holds 36 eggs as advertised, and takes up less room on the counter than two 18 egg cartons, which is nice.

Wire egg rack

My eldest and I tore up the used egg cartons and put them in the compost. Tearing up paper is good for getting out aggression too. Bonus.

Torn up egg cartons ready for the compost pile

I bought new egg cartons online for transporting eggs. Although we have been going through the eggs in about a week, so don’t often have an excess.

Cat bowls

On By CarynIn Life Hack
Sophie enjoying dinner from a salsa bowl

I thought today I would share my cat bowl hack. Our grocery store carries plastic salsa bowls for $1 each (this may be a southern thing). These make awesome cat food bowls because the feet raise up the food a little for the cats, they are dishwasher safe, and if they drop, they don’t shatter. They are heavier than regular plastic bowls, so don’t move as much as the cats lick the last bits from the bottom. And the cats love them. So much so that Izzy (the inside calico), refuses to eat from the other bowls we have.

Poor little pumpkin stem

On By CarynIn chickens
The remains of a sugar pie pumpkin

My chickens ate a pumpkin down to the stem. I’m most impressed that the stem was still tied to the branch. They have eaten other pumpkin stems enough to drop the pumpkin off the cord. This pumpkin had a soft spot on the side of the bottom that I cut out, and thus provided access to the pumpkin flesh. This method was so successful, I cut the next pumpkin in a similar manner.

Slice of pumpkin taken out near the bottom to allow chicken access

The chickens don’t consume pumpkin as fast as red cabbage, so I do check for mold growth. After about a week I usually remove the remains.

Edge shadow

On By CarynIn Sky
Edge shadow from contrail

I have never seen an edge contrail before, or at least not one that looks like a beam of dark piercing the sky. I saw this one and had to pull over to take a picture because… what the?!? The line of shadow actually is more pronounced in the picture than what my eyes saw, so I’m glad I took it. And I’m glad for this article, from which I learned about contrail shadows. Although I’m still wrapping my head around how it works. The article goes through some complicated math. Regardless, a shadow line in a clear blue sky is rather striking. You can see a bit of the fluffy end of the contrail causing the shadow in the upper right of the photo.