Random Tidbits

I took this sunrise photo about 3-4 days ago.  The weather has changed.  It's colder, rainy, windy and dreary outside.  The kind of weather that makes you stay in PJ's all day or sweatpants and putter around getting whatever you need done.

We are also dealing with flooding.

My kitchen has been busy for sure.  While I am trying to put up what was pulled from the garden, Daughter K keeps piling up Halloween treat stuff all over.  Ugh.

We decided we are doing Christmas different this year.  I will not be buying new PJ's for our traditional Christmas Eve.  We all have enough, and I don't want to spend the money.  I'd rather stock up more on food.

It's getting worse and worse.  I went to the store to pick up one item, and saw 3 bags of potatoes in the produce section.  Ham is difficult to find as well.  Organic anyway.  Canned milk?  Good luck with that.  Now the radio is stating there are more shortages of paper products and now alcohol.  Who knows what to believe, other than what I see in the stores right now.

While at the store, we picked up a loaf of organic/non-gmo bread.  There were two loaves on the shelf.  When we got to the check out, the clerk noticed a mouse chewed a hole into the bag.  The carry out/bagger went back and got us the very last loaf.  I just haven't had time to get homemade bread made, but we don't eat it that often either. She said that the store was having issues with mice.  Great.  Just what we needed to hear.

Daughter K told us that at the business she works for, less and less are being delivered to sell.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but their store is not even able to order furniture for customers.  The manufacturers said no.  They can only sell what is in their stores.  America has been ruined.  Keep praying and looking out for one another.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Just 2 days after finding out we could set up meals on wheels for my Mom, the newspaper printed an article about food shortages and "problems" getting meals to seniors.  I sighed.  Just when we found a solution, the darn covid issues stomped them.  The article mentioned bulk food prices for them went 4 times higher than in 2019. They are making adjustments.

Our local schools are experiencing the same food shortages, and now they lack enough bus drivers due to covid and sick drivers.  They had an emergency meeting.  They may have to go back to in-home schooling again.  Currently, they are asking parents to share rides.  Some parents are not able to do this.  We gave family and friends with kids in that school system.

My husband worked all weekend.  We were up early drinking coffee and I realized I need to get the garden hoses off the house and put into storage.  It also meant I needed to pull the beets and carrots (need the hose to wash the dirt off as we have a septic and cannot run dirt down our sink).

I got that done, and realized there was more to do outside than I thought.  Beets did not do well this year.

We got a good chuckle with Daughter E last night.  Ha ha! She called and said she didn't know how to turn the heat on in her apartment.  We had her send photos and she didn't know what a furnace was.  So funny.  Her heat is on though.

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

I will link up later when she posts.  I'm an early bird.

The weather . . .

62°F/45° Rain all day

How I am feeling this morning . . .

Tired.  We both didn't get to sleep in over the weekend.  

On my mind . . .

The kitchen floor project.  I hope our crew is all healthy when we finally set the date.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Sausage, potato, eggs, swiss chard, bell pepper, and jalapeno breakfast burrito, organic coffee

Right now I am . . .

Posting this, then jumping in the shower to get my "power shower" and get this day started.

On my reading pile . . .

Honestly, I haven't been reading anything lately.  I need to get back with a good book.

On today's to-do list . . .
-freeze bell peppers and more hot peppers

-make more fire powder
-laundry, and get it on the drying racks

-sweep and mop

-pull bedding from the camper and start winterizing it

-take more totes upstairs

-change light bulbs

-dishes, dry and put them away

On the TV. . .

You Bet Your Life (Jay Leno) Love this new show.  The show makes me laugh and I have fun guessing the answers.  Cooking shows when they are on.

On the menu this week . . .
-Grilled chicken kabobs, baked smashed brussel sprouts

-pumpkin/ricotta stuffed shells, crock pot carrots

-Cheese sandwiches, home canned tomato/basil soup

-Turkey, carrots

From the camera . . .

I picked a lot more hot peppers than I thought. 

Looking around the house . . .

Looks like I need to buy a few storage totes.  I washed up the towels from the camper, and some hot pads.  I will store that, and the linens in the house this year.

New recipe I tried last week . . .

I tried a baked donut recipe.  It was good.   We are going to try a new grilled chicken kabob recipe this week.  I also have a new crock pot recipe with chicken to try.

To relax this week, I will . . .

Crochet

Something I want to share . . .

Fun fact I learned:  you can eat the tops (pesto, sauces etc) and they have more vitamin C than the root itself.

On my prayer list . . .

Mom (heart health issues), Mike's family (passed away from a car/semi accident), the world, the USA

Grilling ~ Fall Photo and Handiwork

 

We grilled out the other night.  I did not have red bell pepper and used mad hatter pepper.  Delicious!  They have hardly any heat, but add flavor and color.  I call it Christmas in a pan.  So good.  The foil packets contained turkey sausage, red potatoes, and green beans (with olive oil and butter).

Fall photo from our last camping trip.

I crocheted a set of "pretty in pink" pot holders.

Crocheted 4 more jar openers.  I'm still waiting on the General store to call or email me back.  I've called and left messages 2 times now.

We woke up to a brisk 37°F this morning.  More rain is moving in and will be hanging out for a few days.

Garden Work ~ Rain Barrels and other Tidbits

 

I pulled all of my hot pepper plants and brought in 2 strainers full of hot peppers. I brought in some swiss chard and one small bell pepper, which went into breakfast.   Our weather is changing and evenings are getting pretty cold.  We will be picking up some free ash that is already split too, as we'll need to fire up the wood stove soon.

I drained the rain barrels and have them flipped over for winter storage.  One has the spigot completely ripped off.  Our mower guy must have gotten too close.  It's fixable though.

Daughter K went back to work.  She's feeling better thankfully.

Dirty Dishes and Tragic News

 

I think I did about 5 rounds of dirty dishes, but then turned around and made homemade lemonade and a pot of homemade ginger-ale syrup for Daughter K.  She is sick.  Her throat was very sore, thus the extra dirty dishes.

Lemon juice can help break up the mucus and help a sore throat, plus it's packed with vitamin C.  Homemade ginger-ale has a lot of healing properties too, and helps with nausea as well.  

She was dealing with a very bad headache as well.  I surely hope she feels better this morning.

Tragic news.  My husband's first day back to work was not good.  He was told that a co-worker, 41 years old passed away.  A semi trailer crossed over the center line and landed his semi on top of my husband's co-worker's car.  I was told that it took 75 minutes to get the semi off of the car.  Mike (his co-worker) died at the hospital.  He leaves behind his high school sweet heart (wife) and two kids (7 and 9).

Life can change in an instant.....

We got our sad news about Patty while we were on a camping trip last weekend.  We relied on our cell phones to make arrangements from the camper.  We are thankful we visited her the day prior.  Enjoy your family and friends.  Life can change in an instant.  Although her nurses took precautions (mask, gloves the whole sha-bang), Patty contracted covid from a nurse in her home.

As for the camping trip?  Well, it was interesting for sure.  It was so windy we had to put the awning back up, and could not make a campfire until the morning we left.  We were thankful that the campground had a cement slab for our door way and chairs (we moved our chairs to the campfire the morning we cooked a campfire breakfast).  It rained the entire first night, but we still had a good time.

I made a few things for the meal for Patty's celebration of life.  It took some work, but we got someone to do the main meal for us (so very very thankful for that help). I baked a double batch of honey roasted caramel corn, a double batch of chex mix, and made two pans of cherry delight.  I'm glad I did though.  Only one other family member made 2 pies and all desserts went fast.

In fact, Monday we were so busy that we both forgot to eat lunch and dinner ended up refried beans and organic tortilla chips.  If someone had offered to deliver us a meal, I would have gladly accepted. It didn't happen though.

We are all totally mentally and physically exhausted.  In fact, daughter K left the meal early, and upon getting home felt sick.  She immediately, based on her symptoms, went to Urgent care.  She tested negative, but has a random virus.  We are keeping her upstairs, sanitizing and what not.

I joked that I'd tie her medications on the collar of her dogs and send them up to her.  Meanwhile, I'll get the diffuser out and have it going downstairs (now that we don't have a cat down here and we put a curtain on the stairway).

We had a beautiful weather day for the funeral.  Today, the thunder is rolling in with rain.  It's been over a week since I have been in the garden, and it can wait now.  There are still plants to pull, and hopefully some greens etc. to harvest and put up.

Now we are back to homestead work, and sadly my coop door broke.  It's been one thing after another.  My sink is over-flowing with dirty dishes, so it's first on the to-do list today.  I told my husband let it sit until today.  We just needed a bit of rest.  He is back to work today.

Thank you for all your kind words, thoughts and prayers regarding the passing of my husband's sister.  Had covid not been here, she would have probably out lived us all.  She has been through a lot in life, but also brought much love and laughter.

In honor of Patty, I will be out for a few days.....

 My sister-in-law, Patty, has passed away.  I will not be posting for a few days.  Patty is in heaven now.