Taking a break from canning.Good news/bad news

 Sloppy joe (for hamburger pie) and Taco soup.

Sausage and potato soup, honey garlic porkchops and spicy pineapple pork chunks.

The weather forecast for the coming week. Winter is about a month early.

Winter squash including pumpkin is holding well. The rest of the meat for canning, I put directly in to freezers. So we decided to focus on getting ready for Christmas and I can go back to canning after Thanksgiving. 

Hubby went through all the Christmas lights. We have 4 Christmas decorations, issues with lights that might not get fixed. He is working on a purple martin house now as the old one fell apart.

I am behind on paperwork but got Medicare, medigap and part D dealt with for both of us.

Good news is the 5 yr old boy is recovering and in physical therapy , does have a long road of recovery especially with him having autism and in his grandparents home.

Bad news is his mother tried scamming several of our friends, some veterans and son that he was still having surgeries and she needed copays. Since the child and her was under a protection order due to an attack on her last year. It was hard for Son2 to check on them while in hospital.He finally had Children services and law enforement check on him and found he had been released and there was no copays needed.He definitely broke engagement off, been friends for over 20 years. And she is looking at criminal charges. Said her dad was a cop... he is security for a factory. They filed for custody of the child, thanked Son2 for caring enough about the child to stop her from using the boy. 

Found out that is not the only criminal activity she was doing.SIGH. Son2 put himself in to counseling over it. 

A Friend of on one of our kids

Woke up by Son 2 who had someone try to break in to his house. His neighbor got her security alarm going off because they went through her yard and over his fence. He was still up but had his lights off. When he flipped his lights on to check out his own security camara, they took off WITH his camara.Cops were there within minutes since neighbor has autocall on her securty for that crap. They actually put in a sheriff's sub office in that area but it's not manned all the time and the housing divison is right off of interstate 70 about by a mile. So they don't know if it's local doing it or if it's someone bouncing through.

A frind of asked  our child what I was doing with my vacation from the gardens...

Answer... canning quick main dishes

 WHAT??? WHY ????was the response.

Lots of answers to that one, because the meat was on sale, I am out of freezer room, so forth and so on 

Reality is , I am cutting down the take out so need healthy quick meals that are basically heat and serve without much to add to it. 

I saved 25 % on the grocery bill buying potatoes, onions and 1 salad mix and the rest was meat and dairy.  I have only to get one roast for Christmas Eve (Christmas day is leftovers) as who is coming is floating so we decided to get the roast and if they come, there will be enough, and if not, we will put leftovers in packages for other meals in freezer. Since we have a superbug, Covid and 2 types of flu going around,sickies are not welcome LOL which is why there is no confirmed of who is coming.

I got my Holiday meats for Thanksgiving, New Year's eve, New Year's day, Valentine's day, our anniversary, St Patrick's Day, Easter (I moved the ham from Christmas day to Easter) Memorial day and July 4th. 

I picked 25 recipes from Pressure canning for Beginners and Beyond by Angi Schneider. 

I figured up my costs, divided by how many jars(main part of the meals) and even Hubby was a bit shocked. It comes out to around $1.25 PER JAR which is a meal for us. Figuring 150 jars.I plan to use 3 a week. That gives me a year's supply. 

Hubby asked me why I had a cloth grocery sack with a empty card board box in the freezer.  I use cloth grocery bags to keep things separate, I have the bag tagged on handle using freezer tape to tell me what is in it. The bag is for the pumpkin puree I will freeze in 1 cup amounts when I can cubed pumpkin and winter squash so I know to NOT use that space.

Put homemade bread and a fruitI have frozen or canned with soups.

Put rice or pasta and fruit with the rest. Keeping in mind I already have canned or froze my fruit of my own or local. I do buy canned fruit that is not grown in this area like pineapple etc. I have plenty of flour. My yeast is in freezer plus I can make sourdough starter. 

I have a little bit of lettuce and some kale still growing in the vegepod that I covered with frost protection row cover.

We picked up 15 lbs of oats at Amish bulk store on the way to pick up the pumpkin roll Amish made us, they donate any money earned from them to Children's hospital in Columbus. St Judes has helped with Amish bills more than once.Since I am now making granola on top of the oat fruit bar I make once a month and Hubby eats oatmeal sometimes as a snack, I am not sure how long that will last us.

We are trying to eat our colors, red, green, yellow/orange, white/tan/brown and purple/blue/black daily to be healthy so I made a chart to mark off what was ate and what we need to put a little more effort into eating. The blue/purple/black is an effort for sure. 

We should be able to drop the grocery budget to $100 a month. I will move what I budgeted to savings to pay for the replacement of meat probably late summer of next year. What is left will be put on mortgage. 

 We have an Englisher that is looking to start making goat cheese. We have a couple Amish that will take an order for cheese when they go to the east side ot the state for other things. There are some stores that specialize in cheese over there. 

I am still trying to pay off mortgage early and yet bring the out go of $$ down. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

Life keeps rolling

 Hubby's uncle and brother doing fine after heart issues.

Mother in Law has her congestive heart failure stablized and is doing fine. She went grocery shopping and was not worn out afterwards.

Nephew is NOT rejecting his lung transplants. He caught a super bug that Medical doesn't have a name for but it's going around and they are using high dosage of steroids to kick it out. He is home and doing okay.

Five yr old now has the same superbug,and is not responding to surgery. Keeps having seizures even under sediation. He is having spinal fluid leaking, his BP is through the room. Since they know he has infection in his blood, his mother can't even leave the room to see anyone or have Son2 (fiance)or his grandpartents come in to see him. Mother is now struggling herself. He was supposed to have surgery last night, didn't get a text or call of what time so probably after 11. It will take 10 days to find out if the surgery did any good. Prayers are just in God's hands and Lord please stop his suffering and hoping we don't lose her also as he's been her whole life for last 5 years as he is autistic. 

I canned 15 quarts of beef stew... I called it minced stew since the pieces are so small. I did NOT use gravy (not good for homecanning) but figured I could drain the beef broth off and make gravy then add back to the stew. 

Using the meatballs that was already in the freezers. I still have 6 meals of meatballs in freezer.

I canned 7 quarts of meatballs in beef broth

I canned 7 quarts of meatballs in tomato sauce

I canned 7 quarts of meatballs in thin cream of mushroom sauce

I canned 3 pints of "slidder" size hamburger patties in beef broth.

I was going to do white bean and poultry chili but decided to wait until after Thanksgiving and use part of the leftover turkey for that.

While digging out meatballs I found 3 small prime rib roasts. So instead of buying one for Christmas I am going to use them. Hubby asked how we had them, I ordered a larger roast last year because Son2 and his date was thinking of coming up. They decided at Thanksgiving to not come up. So I just cut the extra amount into sizes that would work for the two of us. Son1 should be up unless weather stops him and he can take leftovers home with him. Plus I can slice it up for Philly steak subs and pizza instead of ordering it or buying frozen kits. LOL

SO I will start on winter squash and pumpkins.

Since the light frost didn't damage the herbs in the garden nor the kale. I dehydrated more and need to put those in containers.

We had Philly steak subs for supper that I added mushrooms to. We have a little of the meat left and 2 sub buns so I will make Philly steak pizza subs for supper tonight with apple Waldorf salad on top of lettuce from the vegepod.

I know we will have red kuri soup and spaghetti squash this week. We usually eat what I am canning.Maybe stuffed acorn squash???

I am thankful to not being living in a country that the gangs run the country.

Prayers for peace

Blessed be

How we got to this level.

One book I suggest often is When Crisis Hits the Suburbia by Ted Riley. I reread is at least 4 times a year.

I will add the advice that you need to write date canned and rotate when you are canning and eating it. When I am canning green beans , we have it once or twice for meals other wise you get tired of it and won't eat it. M even mentioned that her family got tired of asparagus as she was putting it on the table twice a day. It's a short season and they can only eat fresh. I freeze enough to go every other week .

 Hubby grew up farming,only went to factory when they lost the farm and the farmer they were working for lost his also. They used wood heat. His grandmother did the canning (his mom worked at phone co) so all the kids helped with gardening. Side benefit was he grew up eating pork chops and steaks.

I grew up poor.I walked the streets to pick up cans and bottles so we could scrape up the money to get my brother through college (10 yrs older, got a grant,scholarships and worked 2 jobs while in college). He was the first to graduate from high school and the first to graduate from college in both sides of family. The day he graduated Mother served Tbone steaks for supper.  Regular meals where corn(fresh or canned) and fried potatoes or fried cabbage and fried potatoesor canned greenbeans with potatoes and onions together. Fried potatoes and gravy. Grandpa grew potatoes so we made a trip once a month down to southern Ohio to see him and get 100 lbs of potatoes in season usually started getting them in Aug.About Feb was the last of them as the rest Grandpa had was to be planted.

We had a large garden. I was canning by age 5. I lived near the Amish and my Daddy's family was from the hills of Ohio working coal mines. At that time it wasn't good money. He had bean soup for lunch and supper every day, no eggs as they couldn't afford to buy them or raise the chickens. More than once we went hungry because the garden didn't produce enough, looking back I would say they didn't grow enough even though we had the land to grow more and they didn't can enough. Daddy canned even when his second wife died. They didn't grow 3 sisters which would have had the dried beans and pumpkins growing with the corn.

More than once Daddy told me he didn't crawl out of the mines for me to crawl in them because way of life seemed calm to me even with the work load. When we told him we bought an Amish house and showed him pictures (was already being admitted to nursing home). He asked if we were converting ourselves or the house. So I told him our plans to make this a home we wouldn't have to leave because we couldn't be in a wheelchair in it...which is why he was going to nursing home. My in laws are facing that issue now themselves even though they took care of the elderly. Didn't measure the bathroom or bedrooms doorways when they bought the new house, too small for a wheelchair. I would just tear them out and widen the doorway. Lot cheaper than nursing home.

Hubby has been in emergency services, squad, home land security for over 45 yrs. He has trained to handle being off grid. 

When the kids were little I would have Grandpa's childhood day every other Sunday. No electric was used except hot water heater and stove. Oil lamps, candles, reading instead of blasting their radios, milk gravy with bread and oatmeal for bfast, bean soup and bread for lunch and supper. All have said they thought it was neat but stupid but thankful I did it as they used that knowledged more than once since leaving home. 

So the back ground is there for both of us. But my growing up without enough to eat triggered for me to make sure my kids didn't go that way. I've grew food in kids sand buckets. Gleaned fields,cleared gardens for others. I learned to cook more than just bean soup. Beans and rice, bake my own bread and noodles etc.

I have cerebral palsy, parents told I would never walk and most likely die before I was 5 due to stomach and heart issues and I have had a stroke. I grew up already dealing with issues.

With that said I went from in ground gardening to strawbales then to raised metal beds. Less bending over and at the height if I was in wheelchair I could still garden. Amish told Hubby to use landscape cover which is like weed barrier but thicker. It's strong enough to handle a wheelchair being on it. We still need to make a pathway from driveway as the ramp from front porch to driveway to garden beds. But the garden area is built around the thoughts of me being in wheelchair.  I started with 12 of 2 ft by 8 ft beds. I'm up to 36 beds now.Half is planted right now with garlic that will be ready next summer, I will sell what ever I don't need at produce auction. That also keeps those beds from being planted with spring or mid summer crops so I will have them for fall crops.

Several of the Amish have offered how to deal with old age and still getting work done. They are in 80s (one couple are in their 90s), cutting fire wood and growing large gardens and canning. I now have a larger pressure canner (less water, more jars canned at once and less fuel used to can).I can my own kraut. 

Raised garden beds with the barrier under it, plant 3 seasons (4 if you have greenhouse). Eat fresh as it comes in can for late Fall to Spring.. When asparagus comes in. Grow perennials, berries, some fruit trees etc. Mother didn't like fruit.

I did strawberries first. Then added blackberries (Daddy and my favorite) Then red raspberries. Then black raspberries. I tried golden raspberries but they don't do well. I should have spaced them more apart . I did 4 ft thinking that was wide enough, it's not mid season where the vines are going nuts.

I get my corn (for freezer) from E or Amish or a Mennonite. I have grew my own popcorn but it's not worth the space at this point and time.

I looked at what I was buying at the store and figured where I could grow it myself for cheaper. I look at what I can store with the least amount of effort also. I can grow winter squash (which includes pumpkins) for little effort.I grow small ones... baby butternut, acorn, kuri and such. Hubby not thrilled with it but it puts food on the table. I had to buy potatoes and sweet potatoes this year. So I stocked dehydrated potatoes (slices, diced, shredded and instant mashed) to make it through as I buy my potatoes local from Amish. Very seldom get any the size of my palm but it's just us not a family of 10 plus.  

I stagger plantings, I try to get varities that suit spring or fall. Even with trying to make sure it does not all come in at once... there are times it does. I've put tomatoes on to cook then let it cool before straining, while I cook beets to peel and can then go back to the tomatoes. I've blanched broccoli, etc while doing tomatoes. I just finished tomatoes, yes it's Nov and that's not usual either. While dealing with winter squash.I have to finish canning some meat I shoved in the freezer (tagged to can) so I can start on the pumpkins. I want some mashed in 1 cup servings in freezer and then I will can in chunks (do not can pureed) the rest. I will do the same with winter squash if I don't see us getting them ate before going bad. I miss the root cellar I grew up with. 

As I get older I will focus on planting bush tomatoes and bush peas and bush green beans as I won't be able to reach the top of trellis from wheelchair. I sat in a computer chair to check. I will have to either pay or share for someone to pick my berries and harvest my asparagus if Hubby can't either. They mostly will just share as they need all the food they can get. I've seen M in early spring serve "just a taste" of several things to get enough food on the table for her family of 13. 

The Amish we bought house from (E's brother) mentioned they had been looking for a driver to haul hay and beans. As the one they had was killed in accident. They paid in cords of wood with some gas money as he used his tractor like Hubby does. He thought that when Hubby got to the point he needed firewood cut for him, he could barter it that way also.  He has another one that will bartar wood scraps for Hubby hauling, even give gas money and wood.

 On Sunday we talk about where we want to be, then bounce thoughts of how to do it, the cheapest way that will LAST and be easy to maintain. We pay attention to how the Amish do it as they do it until their 80s. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

Charlotte's friend/ new budget/

 It's the squirrel on top of corner post. She looks for squirrel every day, more than she does bunny (actually is two bunnys).

I am tired of hearing about social security being cut in 2035... so instead of burying my head in sand. I changed the budget as if it happened now just to see what I would have to cut or pull from the IRAs. 

What is needed... 

1...the house has to be paid off

2...if we are going to continue with 2 cars they have to be no more than 5 yrs old Hubby's 350 is 10 yrs old, mine is 20 yrs old. We will most likely go to one, probably SUV that can tow the tractor.

3... I need to grow more in gardens, do some late fall/possible early winter growing. Need to go completely or mostly completely heirloom and need to grow my own flowers from seeds. Hubby would like a small greenhouse. I would like a root cellar. 

4... I need to keep track of how much I use of cleaning, paper products etc that I buy and the price. I will do a notebook of it, keep track of it so I know what amount to put back to replace it when I run low. I will do it also with the grains and sugars. 

5... the internet/home phone went up again. Hubby called and got a discount that puts it a bit lower but the lady told him it's actually the internet going up not the phone. Our cell phones are not from this area so when we would call 911 it would go else where and then we have to give address... plus Amish use the phone and do help pay for it. 

6... utilities are kept down. We might have to buy more wood in our later years. Several Amish OUR AGE told us to get "blocks" from the sawmills... but reality is there might not be sawmills making pallets in 10 to 20 yrs from now. 

7...I know at the end of winter I will buy humidifer filters and chemical for humidifiers also the cresote logs and powder we use  as they go on sale then. I figured up how much is should cost and will put that money back.

8... I made a list of the restuarants we will go to. I will then make a list of what we usually order and then make sure we have the ingredients at home to make it AT home.

I rechecked the inventory and found we were low is some areas. I found it on sale (TP especially) so went ahead and ordered 6 month supply. I saved $43 over what I would have paid for it at the store by getting it at Amazon and me only getting what was needed. 

I need a turkey and ham and to order the prime rib roast for Christmas

Are you cutting the budget ?

Prayers for peace

Blessed be

the laugh is on the kids

 Son 2 forgot to go get his car tags in Sept. Got pulled over, ticketed and told get them with in 24 hrs. He went and got them that day. A week later same cop pulled him over again... he got the tags, they were laying on the car seat beside him where they had been for a week. He got lucky that the cop didn't ticket him.

I said something to Hubby, he immediately went and got his as he almost forgot.

SO I said something to Daughter 1, who got her tags before her birthday. SMART

Daughter 4 forgot she had 30 day tags, ended up with 2 tickets over it (duh moment).

So I texted Daughter 2, her birthday is coming up. She told me to reminder her as her birthday is Veterans Day so she has to get them by this weekend....

Daughter 3 and I will remind each other at Christmas as our birthdays are beginning of Jan. Her Jan child is thinking of getting her permit at the same time.

Charlotte

 Has decided I am on guard duty while she takes naps... She's had me up every hour to walk outside with her and then she of course goes right back to sleep.This is the second day in a row the winds are howling both last night and tonight plus it's raining tonight and I know that triggers her pacing since the basement flooded. Better me to stay up then her wake Hubby since he is on a bipap.

Son2 mentioned to his fiancee that he didn't know how to handle the stress of not knowing if the 5 yr old was going to come home changed or not come home at all. She told him she imaged their mothers probably understood that as both of them served in Army and deployed. She was in Iraq 6 months. He was there 2 years. The only time he could come home was for the funeral of Daughter 4's daughter (born without spleen and bad heart). He was home 3 days. He told me what he said to her and I told him NO he would not come home the same and it's in GOD's hands if he comes back to them or goes to Heaven. Right now he is still not waking up, has fluid on the brain and spinal cord and infection. GOD only knows where they will come up with the money to pay the copay.

Nephew will know in two days if he is rejecting his lungs transplants or if he had some bug. A super bug is going around that antibotics is not helping. Son2 came down with it, 4 Urgent care visits later they figured out it was what he had.  Can go into walking pneumonia .

Hubby's Uncle and brother both on meds and seem stable.

E's dad and the family that went with him to Mexico are heading home. He will have to go back for the knee replacement in a month as he had more than one issue . The metal plate that he has had for years had caused some of the problems with not letting him bend his knee correctly.E said they had to use a chisel to get the plate out as it attached to the bone where it wasn't suppose to be. 

It was warm yesterday so I washed all the bedding, furniture covers and throw blankets and dried on clothes lines. We let the fire go out in the wood stove so I  cleaned it today since it's to be close to 80 today. We refilled wood racks Saturday. Hubby was glad I insisted we get 3 more racks. We can pretty much go a solid week without needing to refill. I told him just to plan on refilling on Friday or Saturdays. 

The other day we got calzones and popcorn chicken for our one meal out. I took the leftover popcorn chicken, reheated it and layered it with corn that E gave us and I froze, leftover mashed potatoes and brown gravy for a mock KFC chicken bowl.  I split a bag of meatballs I had froze. First round was with ziti and tomato sauce, second round was with cream of mushroom soup as the sauce and rice and asparagus. I did a meal of biscuits, eggs, hash brown patties and bacon. I cooked pot stickers and egg rolls from the freezer and used the leftovers for lunch the next day. We had chili I had canned for the next meal. 

I paid this month's bills, was not easy with the $4200 truck repair bill on the credit card. I don't carry balances as that's a fast way to the poor house. Pretty much wiped out savings and low in the checking.  I am thankful I have a solid pantry. I pulled shelf stable milk out of pantry as it was the only thing we needed. I will go to store for it on Thursday after our doctor appt. 

Hubby had one doctor that called and wanted to go over final test results. Since we live 2 hrs away he offered to do a phone call as going over the results only takes about 15 minutes. I had changed another doctor appt from this month to Dec so it's good I did that as we know that doctor will want to go over those results also.

For the next 3 months we have at least 5 if not 6 appts a month so I will need to put aside extra fuel money. 

I will be redoing 2025 budget today. 

 

Pinching pennies

 I harvested kale, wild lettuce and mustard greens from vegepod. Put them in dehydrator to make green powder with. 

I harvested a few rose hips, dried them and put with tea.

I went to barn to check to see if there was any ripe tomatoes and got 2 quarts of juice from that round. I hope the rest turn ripe.

We have the wood stove back on... so besides warming the house I used it for cooking.Saving propane for the pump house.

We got the berry patch cleaned up. I will trim the vines in Feb. 

I planted the garlic so that's done. 

Hubby started putting together the new garden beds when it rains so he has something to do.

I submitted vision bills for reembursement.

Changed Hubby's part D to Wellcare. He pays $5.30 for what he has now and it's to go up to $40.90 in 2025. Wellcare is $0. I have it now and have 2 meds that I have to use Good RX Gold(which saved me over $400.00) He has one that goes to Good RX Gold saving $75.

Son 2 was talking to me about our pantry and asked how long it would last. I guessed 18 months. Tomato products a bit longer. He asked why so I sent a pic over the phone... he was laughing as I was in the middle of canning more tomato juice. I mentioned the pasta would go 2 yrs as I also make my own noodles. 

I have most of my seeds for 2025. Hubby would like me to grow the lunchbox peppers (sweet bell pepper that is small) and I want to grow more herbs. We plan to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes also. We will make a want list and then decide what is best to stay in our budget.

We are going to keep track of how much time, costs etc we spend growings and preserving our food.

We are going to start tracking how much the 350 truck is costing for maintainence. 

We voted early since we were already in town instead of making a special trip and dealing with the crowd (avoiding covid). 

I used the change I had to buy eggs off Amish down the road. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

  

Medical updates

I pray everyone who reads this is safe and well. That your love ones are too.

Son 2's fiancee's 5 yr old son who was in car accident with other grandparents about a month ago is still in hospital fighting for his life. She is still having to pay copays for tests ran due to the type of insurance she bought. Son 2 has repeatedly talked to hospital about how to get him what he needs. Her mistake was not filing for medicaid when he went in and now it wouldn't matter as medicaid does not pay for the experimental procedure that is now their only hope. He is sediated and having seizures and has went into cardiac arrest twice. He is in ICU. She has to pay for meals since she can't leave the hospital and come back in as covid has reared it's head in the area. I am glad I have my pantry stocked so we can keep her covered. The veterans have been helping as she is a vet herself besides Son2 being a veteran.

Son2 got sick, drove to store to get soup and got pulled over. His car tags had expired 3 wks before . Nothing like telling your mom that even though she reminded you , even told you to check your license and still get pulled over. The following week he got pulled over by same cop for tags. Oh he got them, they were sitting on the seat beside him.

Daughter 4 forgot she had 30 day tags, ended up with 2 tickets for not having hers. 

So Daughter 4 and I decided to thunk daughter 1 and 2 as their birthdays are coming up. Daughter 1 had already did her's early as she is out of state during her birthday and Daughter 2 told me to remind her again.

Nephew had his final testing to see if he is rejecting his lung transplant. We get the results this coming week.

Hubby's uncle had heart issues and was in hospital 2 days then his younger brother had heart issues and is in and out with testing for it.

E's father is coming back from Mexico, he will have to go back to finish having the knee replaced in a month. Found his knee had calciufied to the metal plate that had been put in years ago and had to deal that first because it was what was causing his infection.

Our drugstore and my Part D had called to let me know that I need to have my meds changed as the ones I am on have serious side effects...My doctor is having a fit that he was never notified of that issue and was glad I brought it to his attention. 

Hubby had trimmed tree branchs off a tree that he and E had cut down, went to toss the branch, tripped and the branch caught his glasses and took them off his face. We hunted for 2 hrs and never found them so had to go order him new glasses... thankful we had just had our vision appts so he didn't incur that expense also. I told him he was very lucky that it didn't take his eye and asked where his protective eye goggles were... laying on the tractor as he took them off when he wasn't actually cutting... I think he will keep them on after this.