Where's My Air?

Something seemed a bit off with our ventilation system...we weren't suffocating, but it definitely felt like we were missing some air.  

A trip to the attic revealed the problem...the duct work was not "working"! As I've mentioned before our house is over 100 years old.  Although this particular duct work is not that old, it sure seemed it! It was literally just crumbling at the joints.  

We used our multi-tool  (from Harbor Freight) to cut out the bad duct work!   

At this point we needed to decide if we should repair the problem area or replace it all.  After a quick budget check we decided it made the most sense to replace all the duct work (in the attic) with new more energy efficient materials. 

  

After some measuring and shopping we were ready to install our new duct work.







I think my favorite part of this project was opening the boxes of new duct work.  They just "popped" right out, like a slinky! The trickiest part of the project was figuring out lengths and connectors.  A crimped connector versus an elbow versus a tee...VERY complicated.  I suggest if you ever tackle a project like this to draw out your plans, measure twice and think through all your materials, including whether or not you need a transition between varying duct thicknesses.  

We changed the layout a bit to use the least amount of materials. I was pleased to see the new amount of storage space I now have too! 

This was a challenging project but in the end the lessons learned always make it worth doing ourselves!  For under $300 we bought ourselves decades of air flow!

Homemade Granola Bar

I love granola bars but it is impossible to find one that is not packed with sugar and ingredients I can't pronounce.  So I have embarked on a journey to create my own.  By creating my own I can include ingredients that offer vitamins and minerals I need but don't often get in my daily diet, I can omit added sugar and I can pronounce all the ingredients! 
My first stop on this granola journey was Pinterest!  I found a few pins with granola bar recipes and chose one to use as my initial baseline.  Happy Healthy Mama had encountered a similar quest as mine.  


Her ingredients were as follows: 
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup raisins
1 cup pitted prunes
2 small, ripe bananas
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips


I made a few changes for this first attempt: 

1. Instead of canola oil i used coconut oil.  
2. I did not have any prunes or raisins, but I did have dried cranberries so I added 1 C of those 
3. I used 2 large ripe bananas.  
4. I used regular milk chocolate chips.  

I mixed all the ingredients together with my Kitchenaid mixer.  Once everything was moist and sticking together I put it in an 8x8 glass dish.  I baked it at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. 


They turned out very tasty but I would like them to be a bit crunchier!  Back to my research...how to make them crunchy...