frugal days

 Monday

 I canned 17 qrts of tomatoes. I put the tomatoes (core cut out) on a cookie sheet and put it in the grill. Five to seven minutes later the tomatoes skins were loose so they were put aside to cool. I did 4 cookie sheets per batch of 7 qrts. Doing it on the grill saved the propane that runs the house. I started harvesting the last of the sweet corn and we some for dinner. Brother texted me to let me know he was really sick. I reminded him that we nearly lost our Aunt due to infection in her teeth and he had just had an abscess under his bridge. YEP he has an infection along with low sugar (he is diabetic) and low red blood cells which runs in family. He is better, seeing his doctor on Friday for more testing and to schedule his "70's testing... that's what he calls colonscope and prostrate testing. We finished the leftovers from the frig for our meals. Furnace to run at 70 at night only.

Tuesday 

No canning or freezing though I did pick enough tomatoes to get a good start for Wednesday morning. Weather has cooled enough to cause to cause both of us to ache and be stiff. Still the furnace was turned off when the sun came up . I started washing flannel sheets. Put the clean summer sheets in the Rubber Maid to go out to the barn loft for storage. I am trying to do 1-2 loads each day of winter stuff and then put the summer in the empty Rubber Maids. They will go to the barn loft 

It's 101 days to Christmas or 95 days to Yule or 96 days to Kwanzaa... we are a family of several faiths.

I ordered 10 shirts/sweaters from Thredup using discount and sales. I need something to cover the back of my arms and not long sleeve as it is annoying to have to keep pushing them up. I noticed the Amish women wear 3/4 length in sleeves so I ordered that. 

Brother texted, on bed rest... didn't remember he had already talked to me.... sugar was 59 .

Hubby had a flat tire, one of the new ones and of course it was the inside tire of his truck (dually) . He lucked out that it could be fixed and only cost $20 and they put his spare back into it's place for him. Hamburger helper with carrots for dinner.

Wednesday

Beef roast was cooked for today and tomorrows meals. I will have enough broth(now in freezer) left to add some chunks of beef that are in the freezer to it and make noodles for this coming weekend.  

I got 9 qrts of tomatoes canned and 2 garden beds cleared of tomatoes. I washed 2 loads of laundry and 5 loads of winter stuff... which Hubby for some reason decided to mow right at the clothes lines and threw grass all over every thing. Since I am allergic to grass... fresh mowed grass triggers my asthma horribly. I will be rewashing everything tomorrow on top of appts and errands. He took a picture of the busted drainage tile and took it with him to go buy field tile. The guy at the local lumber yard took one look and told him he didn't need to replace the whole tile as they had what he could use to splice it and make sure it didn't leak (2 different tiles coming together was the issue) . SO once more the cost of fixing this had dropped... Cost him $10. and 30 mins to fix it and fill in the hole. Still need to reroute the far drain... BLESSINGS ALL AROUND... except for rewashing laundry .... 

Thursday 

Leftover beef for supper... what a day. Hubby got a email from the state requesting a drug test in 24 hrs.... they do random testing. So he had to stop what he was doing and we pushed back going to do errands until he got back home, about 2 hrs. after we had planned to start out. I did get all the laundry rewashed and on line before we left.  We paid the truck payment here in town and then went to Sidney to make a deposit at our bank( they closed our local bank), went to chiropractor. Hubby dropped me off at CVS and I did the shopping (saved 50%)there while he went to Walmart to pick up sugar for M. He picked me back up and dropped me off at Kroger's( ours is closing next month so I am trying to get in the habit of going after chiro) while he went for fuel. Saved 45%. We shouldn't need anything until late Oct or even Nov besides dairy. 

Friday

I got the flannel sheets and a blanket on the bed. Changed all the furniture covers to winter (we use old sheets due to dogs but Hubby likes a sheet in his recliner since that's his bed. Thankful a recliner worked for him since a cpap made his breathing worse. I roasted chicken and baked potatoes in the oven to help warm the house. At 1 pm I turned the furnace on and increased the temp from 70 to 72. It was 62 in the house. No sun what so ever to help warm the house. We did find we were going to have to find a new place to fax. Our library is only curb side right now and the local Kroger's is closing. Our phone company charges an arm and leg for that to be in the home. 

We ordered our brains AKA calendars, 5 subject note books as neither of us remembered to go get them when school supplies came out. Daughter 2 said I spent half what she did getting them for her youngest. I also ordered my journals for the next 2 years since they were on clearance and the style I prefer. 

Saturday

N showed up and said he was cleaning the hoop house so I could get my green tomatoes. Hubby went over to pick them and N had already picked half of them. Hubby picked the other half. N didn't want any money, but since Hubby was insisting he asked for $5 since it took him 30 minutes to gather them. Hubby gave him $10 . The common amount of an hour's work around here for pretty much everything. I got 2 bushels of green tomatoes for $10. N's wife E canned over 200 quarts of tomato juice during the week not touching what she had already put up. Hubby said there was close to 4 bushels of red tomatoes waiting for her on the table at her canning stove that she would be starting to work on Monday morning. 

I went through the green tomatoes, some I will allow to ripen, most will be sliced and froze. I did find  at

https://pickyourown.org/GreenTomatoes_WhatToDoWithThem.php#:~:text=Freeze%20Green%20Tomatoes%3A&text=Select%20firm%2C%20sound%20green%20tomatoes,freezer%20wrap%20between%20the%20slices.

She doesn't flour or anything her green tomatoes before freezing. I will be trying this out this year. 

I still have tomatoes in the garden.

Green tomato ends from slicing the green tomatoes for the freezer and the small greet tomatoes from the garden will make relish. Not thrilled with green tomato relish but won't waste it. Red will be canned as whole tomatoes. Looks like a good solid week of putting food in the pantry. 

The summer bedding and the furniture throws are in the rubber maid to be taken to the barn loft. I already brought the next one in to start on Monday.

I made noodles to use the leftover beef and broth. Made enough of it and mashed potatoes to have for Sunday dinner. We hade watermelon as I sliced the one up and froze it to be bagged on Monday. I cleared the kitchen side of the bfast bar so I could roll out the noodles. 

I did a brain drain  HA HA. Wrote down in no certain order, everything that was needing done. INCLUDING using a cleaning routine for this house. I pointed out hot spots (places that gather clutter including the cardboard box sitting next to Hubby's wardrobe) that bug me but keep filling back up. The cardboard box has the American flag that needs fixed... wind ripped the hook ( not the flag) that holds it to the top of the pole. AND the old "barn" coat that Hubby was going to through away as it is ripped up and worn out beyond even rags. He said he kept it so he wouldn't ruin another coat. I asked him how many coats he has because I can tell you now he has another one he could use as a barn coat as the cuffs of it are almost gone. We looked at our punch list per room and realized we had stopped looking for some things that we wanted to use for organizing the house. We decided to order a lamp to go between the recliner and couch, a roll cart to go between the washer and dryer and a roll cart to slide in the cubby hole in the bathroom.   I looked around for the correct size, the best blah blah blah and decided to wait one more day to order.

Sunday

I checked what I had put on hold to order. Two things had went down by 25 % so I ordered everything. 

I played a bit with the finances as we know starting next year we will both have social security (2nd and 3rd Wed of the month) My IRA from Daddy will come in the 15th (date he had used so I kept it). We have bounced around when to get Hubby's IRA set for.... Hubby said the 1st but by time it comes all the way through it's the 3rd or 4th which puts the mortgage late. I can pay the mortgage with the social security but what we had planned out isn't set for that. So I will rework it to see if that is the way we should go and still get his IRA on the 1st. Otherwise we need to cover an extra month before we start his IRA next year. I'll work both it both ways and let Hubby decided since it's his IRA.

We got a FEDX delivery... on Sunday... not the norm for around here. Down in Son 2's area he even gets regular mail on Sunday.  It was the doughnut pan and doughnut mix for baked doughnuts for Hubby's birthday. He was excited even though his bday isn't for a couple more weeks. I usually bake a carrot cake for Autumn celebration, he asked for his apple cinnamon and his pumpkin spice doughnuts to be made instead. I got part of my shirts from Thredup. 

We had the last of the beef and noodles and mashed potatoes for dinner.

He decided to finish the field tile so it was done and off the list completely. He will be working on it this week when he has time. I will start prepping the house for winter. Getting around for storm windows to be put on next weekend and hanging winter curtains. He will put the insulation boards back up around the foundation in a couple areas. 

Blessed be