First Hard Freeze warning

 for tonight. We haven't had a frost to harm anything. I will need to cover my onions up and move my radishes that are in pots into the barn. Supposed to warm back up to the 60s even close to 70 the rest of the week. SO covering them will allow them to have another week or so of growth before I start pulling them. I will have to bring the apples in that are sitting on the porch. I have 4 plants still blooming so I will bring them in also. A lot to do on a Sunday.

I did 21 pints of applesauce. I have room for 15 more it I triple stack them which I really don't like doing. Hubby told me to do the apple jam which we are low on  and then apple butter (I usually only use cores and peels to do) for the rest of the apples. I use apple butter as the "frosting" on spice cakes or carrot cakes beside just putting on bread and rolls. That should use up the last of those apples. I need to put the rest of the honey crisp apples in the freezer room frig.

I got 5 qrts. of pasta sauce canned out of 2 gallons of juice.

We moved the last of the Yukon gold potatoes, russet potatoes, and sweet potatoes to the basement. I put an apple with each crate as I had a couple Amish tell me it helps keeps them from sprouting. 

Hubby measured basement ramp opening (4 ft wide). He wants to put a clear tarp (Amish made) there so I can use that area for root veggies and squashes.

I froze and bagged apple brats, beer brats and original brats.

I froze and bagged chicken thighs.

I roasted 2 whole chickens, had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and corn (starchy meal) and an apple custard with meringue sent over from M. We then had baby carrots and celery as a snack. Hubby also had an apple with peanut butter later. 

Hubby stacked more day time, night time and what he now calls cook time fire wood in house and on porch. Almost ran me over around the stove with all the wood but I realized that the cook time firewood is pretty helpful. It's small and burns quick. I needed to bump up the "temp" to roast the chicken but not for 3 hrs. like day time wood would burn. M showed him the other day when he was over to talk to E her cook time fire wood.

Monday's work 

Pay the hospital bill that came in for Hubby's heart attack. I have to keep repeating we have the money back for those bills to him as it sends him into a panic when he gets them.

I will be taking chicken off the bone and separating it for meals and bagging it for the freezer. Then I will cook the bones to make broth and can it.  ACTUALLY I will take it off the bone today when I make supper and do bone broth on Monday.

I have hamburger to cook to make taco meat (bagged in 1 cup servings) and ground beef crumbles for freezer. That's for Monday also.

I have smoke sausage links (size of hotdogs) to repackage, bag and put in freezer.

I try to do most of "nasty trash stuff" like meat packages etc. on Monday because trash goes to the road Monday night. Our trash is picked up between 4 and 6 AM  Monday morning. 

Cook more tomatoes for juice to make pasta sauce . I leave the juice sit over night to let the water come to the top, remove it and then slow cook the sauce all day. Let it sit over night (to make sure all the "water" is out) and can the next day.  Hubby said when I was done with onions and tomatoes he would "stir" the compost pile and then have E put manure over it.

E said he thinks he will be over to mow around pond and the asparagus ferns this coming week. He made it clear to Hubby that Hubby was NOT to be up on the roof of the wood shed replacing the roof. He would do that for us. Hubby said he had patched it so it doesn't leak before his heart attack but he had offered that he would ask one of the other Amish to help as E really is overloaded with work that needs done since his family day to help him with his wash house did not happen so M's wash house is still not done. He also got really cheap materials to build a saw mill so he could work no matter what the weather. His saw is sitting in the open close to our property where the berries are at. He is moving it closer to his own driveway to help trucks from getting stuck in the mud when unloading logs. Three times last spring Hubby had to pull trucks out that got stuck. BUT he made it clear Hubby was NOT to have someone else come do it or be up there himself. I laughed when Hubby said he wasn't going to tick off the neighbor... we might not get any more free eggs and desserts LOL.

I had to buy clothes. I hate shopping for clothes and ALWAYS question two of my girls and one granddaughter where the sales are and what they are wearing as their style is more like mine and they are close to my size.  I looked at 4 different thrift shops and found nothing. I have lost 20 lbs. from being sick and the weight is not coming back on. I hate shopping for bras. But I was lucky that granddaughter who is just close to my size told me what she wears and because we were at Hubby's ENT appt. (no cancer, no tumors, nothing to be concerned about, doc figures he is losing his voice do to allergy reaction from wildfire smoke. So will have that dealt with and some voice therapy as he has always been a little "gravelly" in speaking) Hubby wanted to stop at Meijer's We don't have one close to us but the kids do. Not only did they carry the bra granddaughter wears (fits great), they were on sale for half price. I also go 2 pairs of every day spandex pants for half price and 3 shawl like vests with hood also half price. I don't have any "dress" jackets and the hoodie I wear at home is definitely seen better days. I texted a friend (she's my size) and let her know they had a sale going on. She texted me back to stop and try on the "dress" pants she just bought. They were lovely. Hubby told me to order some also as I have NO dress pants. She gave me a code she was given to share (so she gets another discount) and I was able to hit their sale and ended up getting 4 pairs for the price of 2 AND free shipping.  THEN a Facebook "friend" let me know she had just bought boots from Amazon that were warm and fit well. She wear's same size as me. I checked it out and ordered 2, one at ankle and one above ankle, both on sale.

BEST PART... even with buying so much I am still under budget for clothing. Hubby even picked up another pair of boots, one with steel toes and rubber coating over the toes for 25% off. He is still under budget for clothing. I also just put what is too big for me now back into storage in barn. 

Hubby thought we should cut that budget some... I am not going to do that as he still has 30 lbs. to lose. He's lost 30 lbs. this year. I've taken darts in all his pants. BUT I know if he loses the other 30 he will need new pants. I do have some put back that got too small for him that were still good. I can see him dropping in shirt size also. He used to wear 3 x large. His long sleeve shirts are x lg. his tee shirts are lg. His pants were 56 waist, now are 44 waist. He'll probably need a new belt also. 

On the nice side we inputted the RRA (retiree reimbursement acct.)acct. that Hubby got from work. When he was retiring they told him that they had did away with that. Found out that he got it due to the years he had in. They gave him the amount we would be getting. I figured out that it will cover the cost of our dental and eyeglasses ... maybe if those stay on the low side, cover his hearing aids when he has to replace them. Anything not used in one year is ROLLED OVER to the next year.

Our primary used to be " no" to anything holistic... his daughter went to Africa (she's a doctor) came home and told what they use there... he no longer is a no to holistic. IN FACT, we were talking (as we are friends also) and he mentioned his Daughter was telling her patients with metabolic syndrome to use green tea (capsules or tea) to help along with those that have IBD and IBS...He checked it out and felt it would be good for both of us. BUT mentioned it lowers the iron and I would need to watch that part as I struggle with low iron (always have).  I have green tea (tea and capsules) for other reasons but we decided to start that immediately to see if it helps. I actually wished his Daughter was working in the area as she does both traditional medical and holistic. 

Menu for the week:

Today: Bacon and tomato wraps, salad blend, M's dessert

Monday: chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, cole slaw

Tuesday: steak, baked potato, salad, rolls

Wednesday: mackerel patties, boiled potatoes with butter, peas

Thursday: One pot green beans, ham and potatoes with corn bread (pick up more salad and milk if needed after doc appt)

Friday: fried cabbage with sausage, fried potatoes and onions, left over corn bread

Saturday: stuffed shells , meatballs, salad and garlic toast.

Hubby has asked for me to bake bread, make granola, bake monster cookies, bake custard pie (pie crust optional) and make ice cream to go between the cookies. He is thinking on ice cream sandwich (cookie) would be a good sweet that would limit him instead of a bowl of ice cream. He used to eat half gallon of ice cream at a time, then he went to a quart. Then it was a pint. He has found that he can get a ice cream sundae at the gas station (where we get $11 pizza at times) and it's enough. It's 1/2 cup.... I reframed from dancing in joy.

How has your week being going?

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be