Tidbits

I put more stuff by the road and it was all gone by evening.  I'm so glad that someone can use it or scrap it, and it's out of the garage.

We hit a whopping heat index of 102°F yesterday.  Hot and very very humid.  

Prices are soaring.  Daughter K bought a 2 1/2 oz. bag of cotton candy last week at the fair and it cost her $7.00!!  Outrageous.

I made a trip to the "Big City" and restocked groceries and other items.  We ran out of trash bags while cleaning the garage last weekend.

I froze 2 bunches of organic asparagus, 2 bunches or organic dandelion greens, and a few organic red bell peppers.  These are not items I have from my garden, so I am stocking up when I see them available.  

Thunderstorms continued through out the evening and may continue into today.  They say we'll have higher temperatures tomorrow.  It will either make or break the garden this year.
 

Pie Pumpkins ~ Interesting Tidbit ~ Stocking up and Preparedness

(2018 photo, the last time we grew them on the homestead)

There was a point when organic butter at the grocery store became horribly high priced.  It's still high, but I try to stock up when they have coupons or a sale.

However, I learned something new!  I have not tried it yet, but I have pie pumpkins planted this year.  

There are concerns all over this country dealing with certain foods, shortages, price hikes and the like.  

Most people are aware you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for oil when baking, but this next tidbit is new to me.

You can substitute pumpkin puree for oil or butter when baking, using 1 to 1 ratio.  Meaning if your recipe calls for 1 cup oil, use 1 cup pumpkin puree.

At harvest time, I roast the pumpkins (cut in half as shown in the photo), and let them cool down.  I scrape out the pumpkin, puree it in the food processor and freeze it in freezer containers.

Of course there are many other uses for pumpkin puree, and we even make a macaroni dish with pumpkin and sage.  

I hope you enjoyed this tidbit, and I hope to learn of many more as our country attempts to heal all the massive damage that was done to it.

Providing we have a  nice garden year and a nice harvest, we'll have them this year.  

My blogger "featured post" gadget is not working.  I will only pick up most recent posts, so that's frustrating.  I'm trying to update it. 

Water Glassing Eggs ~ Stocking Up ~ Preparedness

 

Don't mind my reflection in the bowl, ha ha!  I took the picture outside.  I cracked it outside.  Just in case things went bad with this water glassing process. I put them in the solution back in October of 2020.

I followed the instructions from Backyard Poultry.  I took one out to bake something.  The process worked great.  You do need fresh clean eggs and cannot use store bought eggs to do this.

I baked strawberry banana bread with the egg.

Random Tidbits ~ Holiday Burn Out ~ Power Outage Prep (camping lantern)

I made a few Christmas goodies and delivered some to Dad, and then to Mom.  Sadly, Dad was not out of bed yet, so I didn't get to see him (it was 11:35am).  Mom was tickled pink.  She wasn't home, but we left it at her door.

First time to opt for biscuits for Christmas vs. rolls.

Christmas was nice with 3 (of our 6) kids and the grand kids.  However, I won't be cooking on Christmas day next year. I just felt like that is all I did on the holidays this year - cook and do dishes.  I'll be tweaking the schedule next year for sure.  Although, I do love waking up Christmas morning with an overnight casserole already made and just needs to be baked in the morning (which we did this year, along with sunrise mimosas).

Romeo had fun opening his presents - his first Christmas.  We were smart enough to not put the presents under the tree until Christmas morning, and we made sure he had his own to un-wrap while his Momma was opening her own.  He's got a stuffed latte that has a squeaker in it.  

Hubby and I plan  to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary later, as he had to work today.  It's just me and one daughter.  Trust me, there is much to clean up today from Christmas.  At least I have extra help today, and I don't have to cook tonight (lots of leftovers).

New camping, hand wind lamp for us.  It not only has a lamp, but a flashlight at the bottom, a radio, alarm and can charge cell phones.  I just have to figure out how to set the alarm if needed.  We already checked the radio and it works.

Hubby loved his hat, but he won't need it for a few weeks.  Yesterday it got up to 55°F and today they say we'll hit 60°F.  Very strange weather this December, but we'll take it.  We need to cut wood.  Feb. is the month we tend to get the most snow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Day Interrupted ~ Tiger the Tomato Thief

My big "to do" list was interrupted on Monday.  School called.  The nurse.  Sigh.  After an hour round trip ride, I had her home sipping medicinal teas.

I managed to get some dishes washed, only to dirty more.  I am happy to say we are still enjoying sweet potatoes from the garden - sweet potato and beet green frittata.  I got that done too.  Along with some laundry.  I also managed to get the homemade sausage made too.

I am so glad spring is around the corner.  My supply of thyme and sage are running low, and so are the greens in the freezer.

Got the very last bag of frozen, garden snap peas, to make this side dish with organic asparagus from the store.  

Today is another day I have an "interrupted" day.  Hubby announced he ordered propane.  I have to be home for that, and of course no set time.  However, it's another "big ticket" job that will be done and out of the way.

Last night after a short trip to the grocery, I came home to discover the tomato plants and green onions half destroyed.  Tiger had a hay day and ate most of them.  Grrr.  There goes my plants.  Some how he got in there.  I'll try and save the rest, but I am super mad.  He threw it up too, so I'm sure he won't be back. Guess we will buy tomato plants and green onion this spring.  

Preparing and Restocking

I've been spending rainy/cold days on theter putting orders in to restock and preparing for canning season.  Brazil nuts help my hair and nails stay healthy.  These are not sold in our stores, and I haven't found them at the health store 40 minutes from home either.

I use this for a few canned items, but I also use Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar for many other canned items.  The organic white is not sold in stores (non-gmo).

This corn syrup was in very limited supply last year.  Two years ago the grocery store carried it.  I'll probably order more to be prepared for the holidays, without worries of limited supply.  I also use it to make homemade teriyaki sauce.

Restocked the einkron flour as well too.

I also made a batch of homemade dinner rolls for our "Christmas" gathering with my side of the family. It's more like an Easter get together now.

I love bread making days.  It's sort of relaxing.

I am writing up a few recipes that I'll post soon.

Surprise Mail and other tidbits

I was shocked to get this in the mail the other day!  So happy!  I also received a bag of yarn, left tied up in a bag on my door handle from another person.  Yay!

My new truck. It's really for the both of us, but it'll be my daily set of "wheels" so I don't have to keep asking the kids to rescue me to get out of the house anymore.   Remember I said we had "big ticket" jobs/purchases this year?  Well, this one is one of them. Tinted windows and 4 wheel drive.  No massage seats though, ha ha!  Oh my gosh, the gadgets in this thing?  Oye.  Big Red (the old truck) will be sold.  

Something funny to share about the truck.  We took it out to dinner the night Hubby brought it home.  Daughter was in the back and wasn't getting out.  She told us she couldn't get out, it was locked.  Later Hubby left to get in the truck first to let her drive.  He headed out before us.  When we got out there, he was yelling at us to open his back door, ha ha!  He was locked in too.  We need to deactivate the child lock, ha ha!

Good Weather Day!

My husband found the truck he wanted.  It was 3 hours away from home.


Luckily, my step-daughter drove him there for me.  Youngest was home sick.  She had donated blood at school and came home very tired and feeling sickly.  I knew she wasn't going to school when she got up and asked for "tea" yesterday morning.  

First tea I made was a ginger/thyme tea.  Her throat hurt, she had a nasty cough now and then, and she was dealing with fatigue from giving blood.  Second, I made a nettle tea infusion, cooled it and gave it to her over ice (good for blood circulation and fatigue).  As the day went on though, she lost her voice a bit, so it was some sage tincture followed by more medicinal teas.  Poor thing.

Meanwhile, while he went to check out the truck, the weather was good enough to work outside.  I spent 2 hours on another flower bed - only 7 more to go.  The garlic bed has to wait.  Some are not up enough to fix what the wind damage did to my plastic.  We are to get loads of rain for the next 3 days here.  I got myself a good dose of vitamin D and boy it felt great.

I also made the call to check on that propane.  More money to spend, but decision is needed.  We'll now decide what we'll do.   We are told that if you have a buried tank, they have to now do a soil test that costs $250.00.  Not sure if that is per year, but they already started doing it for some, so it would be best to have it dug up and removed.  Updates on that later.

I embroidered a kitchen hand towel for us.  I've been so busy crafting for others lately, it was nice to take time for myself.  We need new towels in the kitchen, so I'll be making more.

Random Tidbits

All of my seeds are up but my peppers. Sigh.  They should be up by now.  I am getting concerned.  I saved hot banana pepper seeds too and even those are not up.  I can't find organic hot banana pepper seeds either.  Only Hungarian Wax.  Those are much hotter, so my question is are they (hot banana) even a real pepper?  A hybrid? Hm.  I may be using Hungarian if these don't come up and I have to resort to buying plants (which will cost me dearly).


We are late on buying seed potatoes too, but I am on the hunt this week.  We should have had them by now.


We are considering replacing our pellet stove with a propane heater for next winter.  Two years there has been a shortage of wood pellets (this year included).  We had plans to buy up all they had on sale, but they are either sold out or sold by a limited amount, and $5 a bag.  I much higher cost than previous years.  It's been a concern for years now, and I would never rely on a pellet stove for a heat source.  Even finding dry corn has been an issue.  Either way, we like to have 2 sources to rely on considering how cold it got this winter.  Solar panels are an option, but not in the near future.


Also in preparing for changes, I've called around to propane companies.  We are looking to change businesses.  Our current supplier quoted 199.9/gallon.  What a rip off.  I called another that services our area and was quoted 145.9/gallon. Updates on that to come soon.  If I also purchase a double oven in the future, the stove will be run on propane (not like the current electric), so that is kept as an option too, as to what size of tank we'd want.


Speaking of propane, our tank is a buried tank (previous owners did this).  I was told by one propane company that people with buried tanks will soon be charged a $250 test.  They are doing away with buried tanks.  So, we plan to have it dug up and replaced with an above ground tank with a new company.  We also heard that you cannot own your own tank anymore.  Not sure if that is true yet, but a tank with the new company is just $1.00/year, but you can only buy from them, so we are smart is asking if the quote to fill it now is a "new customer" rate and if next time the rate will be hiked like our current propane company (which has always been high).

I got an order for another "f" bomb.  I'm putting the final touch on it now.

Yesterday and today are crock pot meal days - love those!  Organic roast, potatoes, carrots and onion one day, and two crock pots today - Burger Slow Cooker dinner in one, Glazed veggies (carrots, turnips, parsnips) in the other.

The "big city" has been doing road construction for a year now, and last year busted a water line closing stores and restaurants.  Two days ago they busted another water line and there is a boil advisory until Thursday.  I had to call the kids and let them know.  Yesterday, the workers busted a gas line and downtown was evacuated.  Geeze.  They will also be closing the Interstate overpass at the main exit for a month soon.  Yeah, we avoid that area as much as possible for now.  

Here comes that word again - Prepare

I'm finally getting around to researching some poultry travel crates for meat birds.  If you have purchased any, and have reviews, and prices, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

It's time to prepare seeds for this year's garden.  Sending up prayers and goof vibes we all have a grand one this year.

Hubby's cousin found free maple (dry) for us.  She and Hubby (or with myself) will either team up to fetch it, or she'll deliver it so we just have to split it.  It's 2 truck loads of wood.  So thankful for that, and helps us stay ahead of splitting wood this spring.

Sunday Chit Chat ~ Bring a beverage

We thankfully still have green beans in the freezer, and more canned corn relish.  By the way, mixing the relish with green beans is pretty good too, as well as topping fish.

I am completely out of home canned tomato paste though.  I opened the last jar to make a large crock pot of chili on Friday.

Our high winds were said to be the worst from 4am to 10am this morning.  I had water bottles filled, jugs filled for flushing toilets, candles and lamps ready, and a portable phone charger ready.

Hubby earned this charger free at work with a program, and I had it ready just in case the winds blew down power lines.  Something handy to have during a storm.   You could also use a car charger, but for some reason my phone won't charge on the one we currently have (Hubby's phone will though).

Saturday morning, I was up at 5am (naturally like a robot).  I got Hubby's breakfast and lunch packed up and coffee in this Thermos while he dressed to go to work for a day of overtime.  

The weather is really dragging me down.  I went from feeling like a hermit to a prisoner (truck and car are still un-repaired).  I make plans to run errands, and get excited I get to leave the house, when I'm hit with "honey I have to work."  I decided to get over my pitty party and get busy.

Before - Baking utensils drawer.  This is what happens when kids are washing the dishes.  Nothing goes back the way I organized it. 

After.  Hopefully with only one kids living here now, it'll stay this way.

It took my mind off things and I accomplished in clearing chaos from my day.  I also sold a pair of baby booties.  Woohoo!  But.  I'll have to make more.  An opening became available for a March craft vendor show.

Storm Updates and other tidbits

We will still have heat if the power goes out this weekend.  So glad I invested in the eco-fan.  Temps will be plummeting.

We are praying the power stays on.  We also stocked up on lamp oil.  Both are low.  Just in case.  We also have a few places we can rent generators from if needed.

The wind is going strong this morning.  No snow yet, but today is the day we get it.

While everyone is raiding the grocery store for bread,  milk and eggs, we are planning which day and when we'll cut more wood, checking our battery supply, filling more water jugs, double checking chicken feed, pet food and what not.  And baking bread.

Sandra over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom mentioned sharing our morning routine.  It varies with me from season to season.

Right now I rise about 5:30am, let the dog out, stoke the fire and start the coffee.   I make sure Daughter is up, get Hubby's coffee poured into his thermos, pack his lunch and watch for the bus.  Some mornings I make them both breakfast burritos, and Hubby's wrapped up for the road.

When the bus arrives I feed the dog and let him out one more time before showering (or working out then showering), and start the day.  I also make the bed and tidy up.

It typically starts with laundry (winter routine), while I wash dishes from the night before.  I do not own a dish drying rack.  I have no space, and towels work great.  I just dry them by the wood stove.  I typically do them in the morning because we get little time together with it being dark early.  Then it's out to the chickens and taking care of them.

It all depends on if there is a crock pot meal on the menu for the day as well.  Those typically get started early in the morning too.

I get my handy notebook out and look over my list of to-do's of things I want to make or do (outside of chores), and my notebook for my own recipes.  I am writing down one I made recently that Hubby raved over.  Speaking of journals (not to get off the subject), I am a journal junkie - one for just about anything including wine tasting, a garden journal, and lots more.  Journaling has been in my blood since childhood and I LOVE writing.  Daughter has that bug too.  She loves to write and journal as well.

I also have a magnetic notebook (pad of paper with a magnet on the back) that lists other things to make.  Some days is homemade mushroom soups to freeze, some things to dehydrate, items to can in winter and salves/tinctures/lotions that need made.

After that, it just depends.  Yesterday I made more dirty dishes early, by making cookies.  German chocolate.  I also baked a 10# ham to prepare for meals while snowed in too.  I'm thinking scalloped potatoes and ham, ham sliders on homemade rolls, ham and bean soup with cornbread, ham/pea pasta, ham for breakfast (possibly a scramble), ham and greens quiche....they all sound good.

How did these cookies taste?   Fantastic!   They however do not look anything like the photo that is on the recipe site.  I didn't care they were light and delicious.  Everyone needs a good dose of healthy coconut too.  And pecans.   I wanted to try this recipe for Christmas, but didn't get the chance.  Quite honestly, I forgot about it.  It's online and NY Times recipe.  I toasted the coconut at 325° for about 5 minutes prior to mixing all the ingredients.  Of course I used organic and homemade vanilla.  Speaking of vanilla, that is on my list - get out jar and refill the jars.  Along with making a jar of "Full Throttle" herb/spice mix.

This was me at 3pm yesterday - PJ's, crochet, a glass of wine, a dog at my feet, and Judge Judy.  Hubby worked over so I relaxed.

Friday was a "calm before the storm" sort of day - warmer, no wind, no rain or snow, and cloudy.  We have a big day Saturday, so here's praying we get it done before the wind and snow gets too bad.  

Weather Predictions ~ Lets Talk Generators

The forecast here is predicting 5-8 inches of snow and high winds (blizzard conditions), that will start on Thursday and continue into Monday. First, they said 3 inches or so, and to watch the weather forecast daily.  School has a 2 hour delay this morning - freezing rain.

To be honest, it's not bothering me other than I needed to make a run for stocking up for basics, and once again I have no wheels.  The ignition in "Big Red" went bad and there is no time to fix it (right now anyway).  Add that to Youngest needing to borrow my car to get to musical practice in the evenings....limited availability.

I'm starting to feel like a damn hermit.  If this weather hits us as predicted, I'll be a hermit all weekend and into next week.  But hey, I might get a book read this winter, ha ha!

I'm sure I'll be finishing many unfinished projects too, maybe even get my utility room cleaned up.  Who knows.  I may be doing a netflix binge in my PJ's and crafting.  That actually sounds good too.

Out in the boonies, we have to prepare for power outages in the winter when the winds kick up too.  Or if car accidents put out a power pole.  Large containers of water are filled and in both bathrooms.  Just as a precaution.  Water jugs filled in magnitude.  Just preparing in case.  If power goes out, we have no water (well pump is run on electricity).  Chickens need water, dogs and cats need water, and we need water.  No way am I going without coffee in the morning either.  Here is the reason I'd like a cook stove that runs on wood, but I just don't have room.  However, we can wrap potatoes in foil and cook them in our wood stove.  There is always PB  and J too.  We have lots of jams and jellies stocked up.

We also have a portable phone charger.  It's great for traveling, but great to have on hand in a storm too.

I love crock pot days - steel cut oats with apples, raisins and walnuts.  Mmm!  Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Spanish rice cooking away - all organic ingredients and my home canned tomato sauce.  We will have carnitas with the leftover Spanish rice tonight.

I focused on all jobs requiring electricity like vacuuming the carpet, running the dishwasher, washing clothes, etc.  Just in case.

I want to get "generator" crossed off my "wish list" this year.  Any suggestions?  I would greatly appreciate them.  Hubby wants to invest in one that kicks on automatically if the power goes off ($4,000 or so).

Went straight from summer to winter...

We've had a few beautiful sunrises at our place lately.

Mia, wanting to play as soon as I sat down to knit a bit.

Made my first Einkorn chocolate chip cookies.  I didn't have whole wheat, but they tasted great!

Started up the wood stove once again, but had to use my clothes dryer for the first time in a looooong time.  It was cold and it rained.  At least the garlic is getting a good watering.

Cleaned all the straw out of my emergency chicken coop (adjacent to the main one), because the rat (or something) came back and starting chewing a new hole. Grr!  Re-set the trap.

While embarking on the mission to do the dishes, I found 45 other things that needed done (while mentally making a list of other things that needed done).  Isn't that how it always goes.  I walked into the garage to see if we had newspaper, and noticed garlic hanging.  Oops.  Brought that in right away.

Got the mail, and my beautiful bling wallet arrived!  Thank you so much for the give away Goatldi!

Snow was predicted, along with the rain and wind, so I trimmed the tops of the zinnias (no time to pull the plant), and brought in what little bit I could of green onion and chives to freeze.

One of the books I brought home from a recent library loot trip.  Once again, gaining more recipes.  There may be a few gems in this book.


Overall, Saturday was sort of a strange day after 3pm.    Our oldest daughter called to check in her dog Mia.  She's out of town for a few more weeks.  One daughter and her boyfriend came out to pick up her mail, and drop off some bandannas for her dog Jesse.  After they left, my youngest daughter left for a birthday party.  

I was home alone with the dogs until Hubby got off of his long 10 hour day work shift.  It was sort of strange.  Too quiet if you ask me, and that was when the weather started to change.  I got another arm load of wood and kept the house toasty.  I brought in a few things off the porch and stored them for winter, but I'll need reinforcements to put the larger items away.