Canning

 I canned ground beef, sausage, and bacon. We tried the bacon, on grease side and more of bits and pieces but done in 3-5 minutes. I might try doing half slices to see if they hold together better. I was told pepperoni was the same way. Was just making sure I could do it correctly incase of the freezers dying and needing to can everything.

My 4 inch cucumbers are starting to come in. I canned 5 pints of bread and butter pickles. 

Tomatoes have bottom rot due to too much rain at one time. Dealing with that. Glad I have enough put up to make it through the coming year if we don't get enough. 

I need pizza sauce though. Might have to buy the tomatoes from the Amish to get that done.

I ordered next year's seeds that I need to start my plants in Jan.... I ordered this year's fall garlic. They will come in Sept. The cherries I ordered should be in this week... the Mennonite store owner was hoping to get enough for everyone that ordered.

Hubby has decided (enough to price raised bed garden soil for 12 new beds) to do some late fall/ winter crops like I have done in the past.  I am waiting for him to come back with the costs before jumping back on that band wagon. As he has bounced back and forth on it.

Have a great day

Be safe

Prayer for all of us

Blessed Be

 

 

Let's start

 

She is pretty small since she is a hummingbird... but she sat on the fence for at least 5 minutes. I don't remember ever seeing one sit that long. I caught it because I wondered what the white spot on my fender was... her neck LOL

Hubby asked for what was coming in and going out on the budget in writing. Spread sheet was confusing him since he is always feeling exhausted... he is on blood thinners but the doctor is having him wean off so by Labor day he should be off that and start feeling less exhausted. Son2 asked for it also since he takes over if I go down. Both complained I stressed them out LOL.

I broke it down to this is for the house, this is for the maintenace of house building and barn and pump house is separate, this is for maintenace of trucks, this is gardens including things to make it easier to take care of it,this is yard (freaking moles), this is medical, this is groceries including canning supplies and eating out, this is birthday $, this is Christmas $, this is automatic savings $, this is money Hubby spent at TSC that wasn't on the buy list.... yes I wrote it exactly like that.Hubby laughed. I not only wrote this is what is coming in, and going out but what I was doing to make sure it was covered.

 BUT what caught them both was I had what we needed to have invested when we hit age of 75 to cover expenses that our social securty will not cover if we get the 30% cut they talk about. I had it broke down by amount for each month to set aside. Son2 is 42, he is retired Army with 20 yrs, has Social Security also and is working towards his next pension as he puts it.BUT even with having VA health ins. Made him think about his own.

They asked me why... I pointed out that if we don't deal with it now, we will be in crisis in 10 yrs. I really don't want that at that age.

Son 2 called Daughter 2 and 4.... they calmly said "she is her father's child, Grandpa got hit with is at 75." laughed and hung up and texted me about it.  YEP... the girls got it. Daddy nearly went broke in 2008. Lost over half his investments when he dragged his feet about moving money when his finance guy called repeatedly and asked him to come in so they could protect his money by moving it. Had to go to living on social security only. He did recover financially but worried about out living his money for the rest of his life. Thankful his house and car was paid for but he ended up only having $40 a week for groceries and I gave him plants and seeds for his garden and brought him meals for his freezer to help him. Brother took him out twice a week or brought take out. 

Brother is now 75, we talked about what he hadn't planned for... a disabled wife that is 50 (they have known for 25 yrs she was going to be disabled so I just wanted to sigh over that denial), dental work when his bridge broke,eyeglasses and medical out of pocket for his wife. Cost of groceries and rising utilities. Replacing the cars.

I have that covered except for the car.

We have the wood stove dropped propane cost of $3500.00. Hubby said he still has the timbers from E to cut and a few of the blocks of the load we got from ER sawmill. I told him we was going to be using the coal also so he thinks we have enough to go 2 years. Day wood and blocks are in barn, night wood is in the wood shed. Said he might pick up another load of blocks. That's $60.

We use oil lamps about half the time and have LED lights through entire house,pump house and barn. AC costs us $5/day running about 12 hrs as I will turn it up to 85 or off when its actually on during the day when we are outside. It's set on 80 at night and only on when the heat index is over 85. Last month it ran 5 days. So far this month it's ran 2. Hubby gets issues with heat since his heart attack due to meds.Our security light is $12/month. Our deep freezers and refrigerators costs us about $50 a month with 5 freezers and 3 refrigerators. The one refrigerator is dairy only, butter in the freezer (enough for the year) cheese, extra milk, half and half, and heavy cream and enough room for the large pot. The other is produce and then the one that is in the kitchen.

My trash pick up is the lowest for this area even though I am limited on the amount of bags and size of bag it works. English neighbor pays more for her one bag pick up from another provider.

Hubby gets a little bit of money from the plant he retired from for medical bills. I don't count on it so I have been putting the money in savings when we get reembursed.Figure we will need it for dentures or bridges. We always had to pay for our eyeglasses so that has always been in budget. He goes one year and I go the next, we both try to reuse our frames to keep it within budget.We changed dentist (I hate doing that) but actually ended up with better care and about half to cost. 

SO... Hubby asked for cost of switching to root cellars and going majority of seeds being open pollinated or heirloom. First buy will be about the same of what I spend anyways, then the price will go away as I will collect the seeds from what I am growing. We used to do that with tomatoes and squashes.  I have baskets, crates and cardboard boxes we can use to store the produce in. We have several sawmills willing to sell or give us sawdust we will need for the carrots, parsnips etc.I already use my grow cart yearly so that is the same also. Getting seed potatoes, sweet potato starts and onion sets if I don't do that myself will raise the garden cost but will even out and save us money next fall.

 I would save more than half of the grocery budget.Means more work in the kitchen making from scratch but that's fine. I also brought up I wanted to only buy dairy and a few fresh produce from Oct to March. He brought up starting that now as he saw that the green beans are almost ready, N  and the Mennonite produce stand have what ever fresh veggies we could need if ours isn't in, keep the money local with local produce.

He reminded me he was pricing soil for the new garden beds.E noticed the metal bed boxes sitting on the front porch and he smiled. Asked what I was going to be adding to the gardens... potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. Maybe more herbs. He laughed. 

I already have got the grocery budget below what the USDA thrifty food plan says we should be spending ($493.10/month for the two of us at our age). Average  cost of our groceries is $300/month including meat. I can cut the budget to $90 a month using the local Amish and Mennonite produce stands and only buying dairy at the store. M is making vanilla ice cream weekly and we get a bit of it since we make the ice for her to do that. So that drops my dairy costs since I am not making ice cream as often.

I did specify I wanted to be full stock before starting the cut... he took a pic of the to be stocked list and went to a meeting he had for HAM radio in town. Two hours later he came home with the stuff that was on the list. Did a pit stop at Walmart for E and checked prices of what was on the list. Got flour and sugar and then went to bulk store and got oats for less than $1/ lb where it runs twice if not three times of that in the store. He also found 93/7 ground sirlon on sale in 3lbs tubes. He knew I wanted to can some ground beef as I already got the sausage I want to can. 

We are stocked except for potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions... that will be in the fall. Apples... maybe pears... I have cherries on order from Mennonite store that should be in within a week.

We decided to put the saved grocery money in savings until we have 3 months of expenses which is our goal. Right now we have 1 1/2 months there.

We will continue to pay extra on mortgage with focus of getting it paid off within next 10 yrs.Preferrable sooner. 

Have a great day. 

Prayers

Blessed be

We survived Tuesday

 Charlotte had me up most of Monday night with the wind and thunder, we didn't get a drop of rain so if it doesn't rain today I will be watering the garden tonight.

I fell asleep at 7 pm and am now wide awake at 1:30 am.

We took deposits for 2 Amish to the bank as it's not really out of our road but it's over 30 minutes by CAR. Amish don't have social security numbers so are limited to what banks they can bank with.

Then we went to chiro and got put back in place, I threw my hip out before I even got off the table and had to have it put back in a second time.

Then we went to Menards and got distilled water for Hubby's bipap and they had bottle water on sale with 11% rebate so we picked some up. Should cover us for the summer.

Then we went to Aldi's as M is looking for blueberries. Hubby got her 15 LBs since they were $1.89/LB. I got 12 LBS for us, not that we want them right now as we are burnt out from eating berries but I know come mid winter we will be wanting them again and at that price... I hope my blueberry bushes produce more next year.  I also got 4 lbs of thick cut bacon on sale and 7 LBS of mild sausage to can.

Then we went to Kroger's. I picked up some box Mexican meals , enchilida and crunch wrap... what we usually order at Taco Bell's (I get Mexican pizza also) along with tortilla wraps. I got 5 jars of chocolate peanut butter and 5 jars of regular. we only eat Jif now days as it can trigger my chron's when I eat other brands.I got 5 jars of Miracle Whip, 25 lbs of sugar (only bag they had and they had no large bags of flour), I got 7 lbs of hot sausage to can but they did not have any 90/10 ground sirlon for me to can so that's still on the list.  I got honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon and bananas. Carrots, celery, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, container of red and green lettuce and roman lettuce.  Half and half, heavy cream and buttermilk, cottage cheese and vanilla bean Greek yogurt.  Five 6 packs of coke and a large bottle of Jack Daniels Tenn. Honey whiskey. Hubby laughed because I usually don't buy it until closer to winter. I like Hot toddy's....it was on sale so I got it now. I was actually looking for Son2's bourbon but they were out. I saved $53. I spent $200. 

I still need AP flour, whole wheat flour, oats, sugar ,90/10 ground sirlon ...I know there is something else on that list but it's in my purse and if I get my purse I will wake Hubby up as his recliner he sleeps in is right there also. 

On the way home we stopped at bulk store to check when they are open (not on Tuesday and closed for lunch) and then went to CVS to pick up Hubby's meds and I used my rewards to get a 4 pack of TP and 3 bottles of body soap as it was on sale.

We checked some garden centers to see what was left... I need to get the fall gardens planted. 

Unloaded and put everything away...We both called it DONE. 

Hubby has a meeting today with HAM radio group. I will be working in the kitchen. Freezing the blueberries. I will can the sausage tomorrow since it's humid today and will not be tomorrow.

Prayers

Blessed Be

Root cellar

Hubby grew up with a pantry of combination of home canned and store bought canned goods and freezer full of meat in the basement.They raised cows and pigs.

I grew up with a small pantry of home canned food and a root cellar. 

Mother grew up with small pantry, Daddy grew up a cabinet of what ever Grandpa could buy from the company store or the girls and Daddy's grandma put up. His Mom had polio and could not walk or even peel a potato.

I've talked about making small root cellar's and Hubby has listened but really just wasn't ready to make that choice. E pointed out to him the other day he was kind of surprised we didn't have something set up as a root cellar since Hubby talks of being prepared to be off grid if needed when Hubby told him we had trouble keeping potatoes. 

Sunday Hubby asked where my book on root cellaring was (Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel). I went and got it thinking he wanted to look at it. Should have known better as he hates to read much of anything, He asked about areas in the home that we could store veggies and fruit. So I showed him the lists in the book, varieties that are good keepers, temperature and humidity, how to store them etc. They even had lists of what they ate from fresh(had a solar greenhouse), from freezer, from canned foods and the root cellar. I pointed out if I had a root cellar I would be canning less veggies and fruit and could can more meat and have room for it on the shelves. 

He is willing to try it. More he is willing for me to do it and is agreeable to carrying food into where ever I think we can store it. 

I have a some temperature, humidity thermometers that I can place a wireless sensor to monitor that also. We have one in south loft, east loft, barn, front room, pump house and two in the basement (pantry and bottom of basement ramp to outside as I make kraut there). Good thing we decided to move them around and found out that 5 out of the seven was not working correctly. Changed batteries in sensors, unplugged the monitors, reconnected them and still had 4 not working. I ordered new ones that were on sale. We figured we could adjust where we have them and I would be able to monitor areas we store food in.

He wanted to check temps and humidity now, I had to explain that we needed to wait to do that in late Sept. as the temps and humidity would be a lot differnet then.  Then he was like, Oh yeah that's right. (cognitive dysfunction strikes again, some more, what ever, we call it glitching, he is okay with that term).

He asked HOW MUCH we should store... got to love this book as they told what they stored for a family of 4. Hubby took those figures, cut them in half and converted bushels to pounds so I could do some of the buying at the one store that brings in fresh produce from local farmers. Yes I checked his figures. 

He asked if we could afford to buy artichoke heart jarred... I am thinking okay, I have some, not a lot.... he knows he should eat spinach (does fresh, but gets nausated with smelling cooked spinach or any greens) but thought if I made spinach artichoke dip while he was outside and air the house out it would be a way for him to eat spinach.He eats kale in Home Chef Autumn stew.

Then he asked how much money it was going to cost to do root cellaring... NOT including food... the cost of the humidity/temperature gauges. I have crates, baskets, we can get saw dust from E or other sawmills for free. I can save a few boxes and use that for carrots, parsnips, etc. I have bee's wax to coat rutabaga like you see in the stores.  I have 8 areas to check to see if they will be able to be used for storing food. 

He mentioned I would have to plant more than just what I usually do for the fall garden... I pointed out some things can be left in the garden and just covered a row cover (I use Agribon 19 or 30 and just double it )I did that a couple years ago to keep cabbage and brussels sprouts through Dec in the garden. Cleaned snow off and gave E 3 heads of cabbage  and watched his jaw drop. Jan. King Cabbage does well for me.

We have several errands today along with starting to stock up grains. M told us to check blueberry prices, she heard they were less than $2.50 lb at Aldi's and the orchard down the road has them for $2.50 So if they are less than $2.50 get her 15 lbs and if not she's have one of the kids go to the orchard to get them.

Does not help we had a storm go through at 2:30 so Charlotte has me up. 

Stay safe

Prayers 

Blessed Be

July 14th next goals

We celebrated last night... we met the goal of getting our mortgage down below $200,000.  We have paid off 9 yrs in 3 yrs.  His first words was"if we keep it up we can be paid off in 3 years, maybe 4 if we have to replace the silverado.

When we bought this house in 2018,two years after bankruptcy, we took a mortgage of $345,000 to buy the house(Amish) and land and convert to English with wheelchair accessible and some off grid due to electric not always on. In 2021, 3 years later, we refinanced for a lower rate (and removed PMI) and the amount was down to $247,500 on a 30 yr loan (lowest rate we could get for a farm). It was a 2 bedroom with no baths and is now a 4 bedroom with storage and 2 baths (one wheelchair accessible). 

We put a solar pump on the deep well, added a wood/coal heating/cook stove, graveled 400 ft of driveway, ran new field tile and added a windmill to the pond so it doesn't get yucky. Put in 1/4 acre garden in raised beds (my health issues) and pernnials for long term harvesting. We have fuel on site (that needs to be kept full) so if the electric goes out long term I can keep freezers going long enough to me to can all the meat in them since I have 2 propane cooks stoves and 1 wood cook stove. About a week of dailycanning according to M.  Grid goes down we will be okay. It will be rough and hard work but we would be okay.

So after the celebration of take out, (he hauled hay for E all afternoon so E paid for our supper) Hubby asked what our goals for the rest of the year was. I knew he would ask.

Increase savings and CD's to cover 3 months expenses. Right now we would have to pull more for retirment funds after the first month, might be able to go two with Social Security so we could still pay extra on mortgage.

Pay down mortgage so the amount that is going on principal is more than the amount going on interest. That would be 12 regular payments. I say small steps with him as he gets overwhelmed with big steps with his health issues. Where in my head I said pay extra for next 4 months and be to that spot.

Put together the metal garden beds and fill with dirt.(rainy day project of putting them together)

Plan fall garden and next year's gardens, moving to heirloom and open pollenated for majority of crops. 

Changing bottom of ramp to basement for short term root cellar. Use lumber and stuff we have in barn as we already have a tarp door on the ramp.

Find a good cleaning routine.... better storage (no closets in this house). 

Build cabinets in barn for storage. We have lumber and stuff we can use and not buy much if anything.

Then he added, 3 of his doctors and our primary want us to eat better... since Sept it's been horrible between heart attacks, my bp dropping to 50/75 for a solid week, Freaking covid then the freaking flu, Son2 having heart issues...Daughter 4 house burning down (she's doing good right now)... it's like putting meals on the table is what ever is the easiest. Neither of us has much of an appetite. 

I'm pulling more veggies from the pantry and freezers than the gardens. It's not a good year for it, first 8 inches of rain in 2 wks then nothing but high heat to kill the plants. Berries did okay, not as good as normal but okay. Asparagus the same. I have plenty of canned green beans and beets so it they don't do well it's okay. L's wife planted beets , said if she had extra she would let me know. 

Going to go sit on the kitchen porch with Charlotte... 3:48 AM. 

Have a great day and wonderful week

Prayers for peace and sanity

Blessed Be

Hubby starts the conversation

 as we were sittting on the kitchen porch enjoying our coffee with Charlotte who we have found is a creature of habit and wants to sit on the porch every morning and is not thrilled we sit on the porch after the news in the evening instead on in the front room where she curls up in Hubby's recliner. 

Hubby starts with... I remember we are suppose to be working at rebuilding the saving and paying the house off. Maybe some back for a replacement of the old truck... BUT 

I sighed, thinking his cognitive dysfunction was rolling but he laughed about it. At least at that point he was pretty much on spot with what we talked about.

He wanted to know how we were sitting for the grid going down. Got a couple odds and ends needing dealt with but pretty much could handle it if I had to can everything in the freezers. I already have started canning some of our meat when I buy it. Would need to make sure fuel on site is kept up so I can run generator for 2 wks to deal with it. We keep the solar pump for the well charged and he checks batteries every month. We keep the solar cube (looks like a cooler) charged also.

Then he brought up the gardens. We still have some wooden garden beds and they constantly have to be weeded as they are lower than the metal beds. He got one set half weeded in the time I weeded the rest of the gardens. I told him it was better since he added more weed barrier around the entire garden and the new push mower is a mulch mower. He wanted us to replace those beds with metal AND add enough to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes and more herbs and such. He watches the news nightly and said in the past week he saw over a dozen food recalls and know that is why I started changing what we eat and what I grow. 

I priced the two brands of metal beds that we have and then found a 3rd one that was having a sale. First brand was $350 a bed, (I did not pay that when I got mine) the second one was $180. Not bad and just a bit higher than it was when I bought that brand. I found a 3rd one at Amazon for less than $100 each.  He will get the soil in the fall when the stores are trying to clear that kind of stuff out. He will also put out to the Amish that he will be looking for potatoes and sweet potatoes (to grow starts from) this fall. E's Mom does white sweet potatoes so we might have 2 varieties of that.

He called around for prices for tires for the Silverado, got a set of four and got a discount for not using credit card (almost $20). He then took the truck to get oil change and engine flushed using a coupon that one of the Amish got in their mail and passed to him. He pit stopped at the hearing aid office as he's not been hearing me when I am right in front of him, they replaced the end pieces, cleaned them, changed his right hearing aid ear piece to a bigger size and turned it up. He has lost a little bit more hearing on the right side. ALL FREE.

THEN that evening, when we sat on the porch after the news he starts with, I want to at least 18 months total stock up for the home (I pretty much do close to that after kids took me down to 6 months during pandemic, they all stock up for at least a month if not two now). He took a breath and stated firmly" I want a savings of what it costs us for 3 months and I want the house paid off in 10 yrs."

I answered that I usually have about 18 months (some is 2 yrs like pasta) but not on everything and I would have to buy dehydrated potatoes to cover that as he doesn't care for canned. He was okay with it. I also pointed out that it would be by servings not he go eat what ever amount he wanted. He was iffy on that until he tried a couple pairs of jeans on and realized he had not lost what he thought he had but he is between sizes. I offered to take darts in the bigger size. He is thinking about it. But did ask me to start measuring his food or prep stuff that he doesn't have to try to remember what a serving size is.  I made a berry cobbler (used the odds and ends up from the garden) and when it was done I cut it so when he got some, he could see exactly what he amount he should take. He really liked that. 

Since I inventoried all food I know how much I can use a month. 

We get Social Security... did he want that amount also put back also? I also pointed out the we were pulling extra to pay extra on mortgage so we didn't need to put that part back, just regular payment that includes taxes and house ins.

He said since there is constant talk of only getting 70% down the road to put the other 30% in the amount with what we are pulling from retirement.... 

Okay, first we won't need to pull that much from retirement if the mortgage is paid off and second... 30% is MY social security which is where we have been heading for anyways since the widow neighbor ran into problems of paying her bills as her budget was needing both her and her late husband's.  I also pointed out I might be slow at getting the savings to that point since extra money is going on the mortgage. 

We refinanced in 2021 with 30 yr mortgage (pay off date 9/2051)

As of this month, I have the pay off date 2/2046

He wants it paid off 7/2034.... if I can hold to what I have budgeted it will be paid off 8/2029... When I told him that he looked surprised. He didn't realize that even though we were paying off the taxes, I still paid a bit extra (not the amount I had budgeted) on the mortgage. 

I got groceries.... milk and heavy cream, mixed berry pie filling (finishes out that need). I stopped at the Mennonite produce stand and got a small zucchini, 2 green tomatoes, 5 peaches, a loaf of bread (marked down) and a pan of cinnamon rolls (marked down due to being Saturday).Total spent $65.

I still need to stock peanut butter and miracle whip (Hubby hates mayo).

Going to be an interesting year.

July 1st 2024

 We set the budget. Set an extra amount to send every month to mortgage company. 

We refinanced in 2021 as we had paid 20% and could #1 get the PMI off and #2 cut the interest rate in half.

So mortgage of 8/2021 was for 30 yrs ending 8/2051 (we would be in our 90s)

With all the other bills we have had I have been able to pay an "extra" 2 yrs so we have 5 yrs paid to pay off mortgage 7/2046, we would be in our mid 80s.

With the set amount we would be paid off 8/2029. 

This is how we set it up for now.

I already use my Social Security to pay all medical,life insurance, birthday and Christmas $ for 35 kids,grandkids, great grandkids, and Hubby's parents.

I will now use my IRA to pay the extra on the mortgage.

Hubby was using his Social Security to cover costs in business, now it will cover what his IRA does not cover of the house.

IF we had the mortgage paid off and bought no groceries we wouldn't need to pull either IRA. 

We decided the set amount we would pay and then he suggested any money left over to be divided between savings and the mortgage. 

He plans to finish cutting the wood that is on site and get it put up for winter. He doesn't ever want to be in the place like we were when he had his heart attack and not have the wood for the winter done. He is trying to get 2 yrs worth on site so it's not a you have to go cut or spend $$ to get it. 

We have 8 garden beds that should be replaced, that is a maybe. I need to go through seeds to make sure I have enough for next year (heirloom and open pollinated) I do harvest my own seeds from some. I need to do more.

I have 3 roses bushes that died completely due to winter weather, maybe 1 peony due to too much and then not enough water thanks to how the rain came in and a 3 fruit trees (we think moles got the fruit trees) PLUS we are battling moles.

Our purple martin house needs replaced.E fixed the top which the birds sit on and noticed it needed replaced so said something NOW. If Hubby wants, he could take this one down and use it for a pattern this winter to make one or he could get one of the Amish to make one as several do in this area during the winter.

Instead of our normal stocking of 2 hams, 2 turkeys, 20 lbs of bacon  and 1 prime rib roast for Christmas eve, we are doing 1 ham, 1 turkey, 1 prime rib roast and 10 lbs of bacon UNLESS I find it on sale. I also need strawberries to dehydrate as I am NOT paying that price to buy them and really wished I had checked on the dehydrated fruit BEFORE the fruit season. I also need blueberries for the freezer. Mine are not making enough and the birds definitely got to the ripe ones before I did.

I checked the FDA food plans for grocery budget, we fall between thrifty and moderate. Since I am stocked as best as I can be or will be when the gardens come in this fall.I am now working on what I will buy at the store when we go every 6 wks. Milk will be bought every two weeks at Save A Lot. 

Now I just need to put what I just finish stocking up in it's proper place