Hiking the Y

John and I try to hike the Y twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I was a little concerned Monday night, because it was supposed to rain on Tuesday.  It was nice and cloudy when we got up, but it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon, so we went.  It was a nice hike!  The weather is cooling down, though, so it's going to be harder to pysch myself up to going!

Wednesday night I told John I wasn't setting my alarm, because I was tired.  I was glad, because I slept an extra hour, and obviously needed it.  (I usually wake up too early.)  I was extra glad when John called me up from work and told me to look outside.  There was a quarter inch of snow on the rooftops and any dirt and the snow was coming down fast!  I was VERY glad I wasn't up walking around in it!

We've been seeing some pretty sites on our early walks, since we get up there about the same time as sunrise.  Last week I took these pictures:

Gorgeous colors, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

The sun is peaking through the canyon.

The sun is just reaching the lake.

The fall colors are now just shades of brown.

Pinterest testing

Another test:  I saw this clever idea and just had to try it.

I didn't happen to have an empty soda bottle, but did have an empty milk jug.  I carefully took that little ring off, and that ended up being very useful, because it needed that to hold down the bag.  Before that it was very loose and the lid didn't want to screw on.

Since this photo, I remembered I had a Snapp Capp, and put that on instead.  It works that same as the milk jug lid.

So, it worked.  Do I like it?  Yes and no.  It is a clever idea, but because the hole is so small, it is actually more difficult to pour out the chocolate chips.  So I think something like a Copco bag cap would be a lot more useful.  But obviously more expensive than free!  For now I'll keep using my chip clips from Ikea.  (I have some from Pampered Chef, too.  Love them both. I have about 3 dozen!)

Pinterest Testing

I saw this pin about re-newing old paintbrushes by soaking them in vinegar.  So I decided to give it a try.

Here's my paint brush before the soaking.

 It's not in terrible shape, but I wondered if the soaking would release the old paint.

 So I boiled up some vinegar.  I would have rather put the paint brush flat, but to cover the whole thing I would have needed to put it in my 9 x 13 pan. I didn't want to use up a huge amount of vinegar, so I stuck it upright in my quart measuring cup.

I let it soak for about 6 hours.  Then I washed it really well in soapy water.  Here's what it looked like after.

I do think it turned out nice, but not as nice as I had hoped.  The oldest paint is still there.  You can't tell from the photo, but the bristles were softer.  What I don't like is that because I didn't want to use up a gallon of vinegar, the bristles are now a little distorted!  I hope they return to normal when we paint again!

But the question is, "Was it worth it?"  No.  I may do this for little paint brushes, when just a small amount of vinegar is used.  But I don't think it affected how the paint brush will work, unless it is adversely affected by the warped bristles!  Plus, my house was stinky for 6 hours! (It was cold, and I didn't want to put the experiment outside.)