Barter and other randomness

 

I'm putting together my barter for my husband's cousin.  She is the one who found me canning lids and had them shipped to my home.  I bought a red plastic basket and found this cute "canning" decor.  She'll get a jar of home canned tomato soup, home canned ketchup, and some other items I haven't yet decided on.

There are two brands of whole dried elderberries being recalled, and one is certain batch numbers of organic starwest botanicals.  I received an email, but thankfully it is not the batch I bought.

Tuesday was a much less stress over housework kind of day.  So thankful for that.  

I had one daughter home early and the other home later.  We moved front porch furniture (some) into storage and hauled the wood we split to the porch.  

The chainsaw parts have not arrived yet, and there has been no word on my car (going on week 4 of the car).

I haven't found any copies of my "Teabag Tidbits" newsletters.  Yet.  I may have them on a flash drive.

I put a basket of snacks on a small table on my porch.  I also added bottles of water.  I put a note in it for the UPS, FedEx and USPS.  Yesterday UPS came, and it totally made my day to see his smile and watch him take a snack (even with 3 dogs howling).

Teabag Tidbits

Did I ever mention, that years ago I wrote a free newsletter when I was homeschooling?  I also belonged to a writer's club.  Well, kids moved on, and we moved.  Anyway, it was one page, front and back, titled "Teabag Tidbits."  

I will have to dig one out, as I will be looking at my stories hopefully today.  I had so much fun writing the newsletter.  I would copy it and put it in libraries where they had a place to put them. 

Good Advice

It's day two of National Novel Writing Month.  Over the years I lost my mojo.  I'm digging out old stories I wrote too.  Should be interesting.  Not sure I will do it this year, but it's day 3 now.  

I loved to hand write letters too.  I used to correspond with my Aunt. We'd send a letter, sometimes a surprise box and other fun snail mail.  She passed away, I no longer had letters to send.  No fun snail mail.  No surprises for her grandkids.  

She would send me teabags.  I would send her jars of jam/jelly.  She'd send the jars back filled with goodies.  She'd mail me her hand written recipes, and I would send her something hand crocheted or other surprise.  I do miss those days a lot. 

Anyway, once in a while I will post a "Teabag Tidbits" post, with my latest teabag saying.  Today it got me thinking about my passion to write. My laptop broke down a long time ago.  I just haven't had the motivation to spend the cash for a new one, since all the kids are out of school, and we don't fight over the desktop computer.

I remember a website that was called something like "write on" and I won a contest.  I can't remember what I won, but that was fun to do too.

Today's economy is forcing so many print publications to go out of business (or go online with a fee).  I do miss my library for research, and I don't see that happening for many months to years at this point.  

Back to writing, I am looking forward to reading through some work, but it will be limited, so I can still be caught up with the house, splitting wood (parts for the chainsaw are to arrive today), and other stuff.

Happy Homemaker Monday

I can't believe November is already here.  I rolled in with a bang of cold weather.

Sunday, we were up super early due to the dogs on regular time and us on daylight savings. We could have used that extra our of sleep.  My husband and I started back up on purging the garage.  We got a lot done.  There is much to do yet, but it is much better now.

Rehomed the king box spring to our good friends, dog bed steps will go to humane society or Goodwill, sent photos of some wall lights to family to see if they could use them (new in boxes), threw stuff out until our bin was full (more to put in it after trash day).  Some will be burned.   Found tools we thought were lost, found a home for the horse feed bucket left behind by one daughter, found a brand new wheel for my garden cart, will be rehoming a child's rocker to our grand kids, toys my son left behind are going to my nephew...such a good feeling to get that much done in just half the day.  We were done by 1pm, as far as we could.  We'll resume another day.

We got snow about the time we delivered the box spring.  The cold returned for the day, and the sky turned dark.  I literally did dinner prep, put on jammies, and picked up the crochet hook.  Hubby turned on football.

Today I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

The weather outside is . . .

Woke up to 20 degrees, high of 47 today and low of 36 degrees.  We are to be up in the 70's by the weekend.

How I am feeling this morning. . .

Actually I feel rested.  Although the dogs got me up early yesterday, I went to bed early and got extra sleep.

On my mind. . .

Election day.  It's causing a lot of anxiety.  I think I will bake some cookies and deliver them to my Dad.  I have not seen him since the beginning of the plan-demic.  I will have to wait for someone to be off work to do that though.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Right now I am . .

Blanching organic spinach.

On today's to-do list . . .

-bake a breakfast for the next few days

-blanch/freeze spinach and chard

-make homemade garlic breadsticks

-sweep/mop kitchen

-wash bedding and any other laundry

-clean one shelf in my refrigerator

On the reading pile . . . 

Stay tuned.  Book has been ordered.

On my TV . . .

Football lately.

On the menu this week . . .

-homemade pizza with home canned sauce and veggies

-crockpot pork chops, mushroom sauce, green beans

-spaghetti with Kamut noodles, peas and homemade cheesy breadsticks

Steel cut oats with apples (breakfast)

Breakfast casserole

From the Camera . . .

New Christmas ornament!  It's not small, but cute.  I wanted to get at least one made, to see if they would be too big for a tree.   I just need a hanger.  I will be making more, after I finish some current projects.

Looking around the house . . .

We now have 2 Christmas trees up.  On daughter put hers up in a corner in the living room (one she used in her apt.).  It's cute, but I think the dogs will get to the ornaments.  I guess we'll see.  I'm not in a hurry to get ours up just yet.  

New recipe I want to try, or one we really enjoyed . . .

I have oodles of new recipes to try.  Stay tuned.  

 Something I want to share . . .

(from Learning Herbs)

On my prayer list . . .

America, our State, the election, Youngest, my Dad's upcoming surgery, our close friends, and any personal request.

Supplies are hard to find

We started our Sunday on the hunt for dog fencing supplies.  The wooden posts are out of stock everywhere.  We located 3, but even with my insistence, my husband did not buy them (hmpf!).  I may talk him into going back today.  We'll see if I'm successful.

I was also on the hunt for a metal watering unit for my chickens.  I literally bought the last one.  I was told by one store that there is a metal shortage, due to the shutdown, and they are all behind in production.  Makes sense.

We were lucky to have breakfast with Youngest and the family of her passing boyfriend.  Gosh, we had such a good time.  I really miss them.

After that we went to vote.  The process was pretty quick.  The line moved continuously.  We decided to vote early.  Overtime is in the books for next week for my husband, and my car is still in repair.  It was better to vote early, than have the chance to not get to vote at all.

We stopped at Home Depot and picked up some door seals to prep for winter (needed replaced).  We looked at flooring for the bedroom.  Not much in stock to choose from sadly.  We picked up solar batteries for some of the solar lights, but need a special kind for our driveway posts.  I may have to order them online.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we got to splitting wood, but slightly after starting the chainsaw malfunctioned.  Go figure.  Parts are ordered.  We are coming into a nice, warm week, so hopefully the parts arrive early and we can get back at it.

Again, we have ideas for what to get done today, but planning anything is impossible these days.  We need a trailer, that we already put a call in to borrow, to pick up the fencing for the dog fence.  It's pretty heavy stuff, so that's on the "plate."  Not sure if it will be delivered today or not.
 

Shopping Day!

 

It's been a helluva week.  Dreary, rain, plans going ba-zonkers, now expecting more car repairs (when the car comes back it needs new brakes - guy is just putting in a new engine)......sigh.

However, one daughter was off work, so I was able to get to town for some last minute stock up items.  I also wanted to get to the dollar store for some waxed paper, tissues etc. 

I couldn't resist picking up a few more towels to rotate (in the bathroom) and some small ornaments to decorate the shower curtain and the small tree in the bathroom.  All at the Dollar Tree.

A breakfast I made a few days ago - tossed it together with sweet potatoes, bell pepper, onion, fire powder, eggs and dandelion greens.

Snow is predicted for us this weekend.  We are going to just go with the flow.  What gets done, gets done.  I'm working on a new crocheted Christmas ornament.  More news on that later.

Update on the home good store.  I went in to inquire on rental cost to sell my handiwork, as they requested.  First, the guy took forever to come to the counter, second, he was not nice from the get-go, and third he made a comment "everyone here gets along, so if you are not that type...."  Then he tells me $45 for one table (2 is not allowed).  Yeah, I won't be selling my items there.  Rude, too expensive and my instincts told me from the get-go he was not someone to rent space from.  I'm okay with that. 

This and That

My new Christmas bed quilt.  I have never done this for the holidays, so when my husband sees it, he's going to shake his head, ha ha!  Not a great day for drying outside, but better than hiking up the electric bill.  It's not handmade sadly.  Quilting is not something I have yet to teach myself.  

Things have just gone a bit wonky this week.  One day I put my shirt on backwards, one daughter went to work and forgot her purse, every time we try to make plans to cut wood Mother Nature stops us, one daughter's package is delayed in the mail, ....can't wait until next week.  I think we are all a bit stressed with the virus, lockdown, car repair expenses, election etc. going on this year.

We had another entire day of rain.  Like boat loads.  I need to wash several rugs, but the weather is just crazy for October.  I'm thrilled it's filling up the well though.

I emailed the home goods store (sells handmade items).  No answer back.  I was talking to my husband, and he feels I should just advertise on my blog/social media and hold off shows for next year.  I plan on going in to talk to them to ask about their booth rental rate though.   Just to know if it's even an option.

If you didn't see it (or follow it), MRH blog has a post for how to make your own homemade pectin.  I just wish they'd have a print friendly form of the article, but anyway for those looking for more self-sufficient ways to do things.  I've never tried it, but I may if pectin is in a shortage.  The last pectin (liquid) I bought, I brought home to find out that it expired last month.  A grocery store that is notorious for not fronting the shelves and selling expired foods this year.  Check your dates before buying anymore.

...from the handiwork journal

 

. . .crocheted 4 dishcloths and they all sold.

. . .crocheted some soup bowl cozies.  I had a special request.

. . .have gotten this far with one daughter's cardigan for Christmas. The SM are marking the spots for the pockets.

. . .got 2 more jar openers made.

(sorry no photo for some odd reason)

. . .got a few more dish scrubbies made

. . .started back on the "f" bombs

. . .got infusible web onto scrap fabric and traced.  Just have to cut them out and put them on the cards.  I used old greeting cards to make my templates.

My Aunt always wrote to me.  One thing she always reminded me, was "always take 5 minutes for yourself."  I did that yesterday.  The day still went too fast, but I got some handiwork done (not all of this was done in one day, ha ha!  I've been wanting to post for a while, but had zero free time).