AND HERE WE GO... Mortgage

 We signed a 30 yr loan on 3/10/21. SOOOO payoff was set for 2051.

I have it paid down to 15 years left.

Goal is to pay it off before Social Security is forecasted to be cut. I can not afford truck payment, medigap coverage and the house payment on WHEN we get that cut in income. THEN we will pay off the truck.It's due to get paid off in 2031 anyways.

Side benefit of NOT going to the store as often it that $ can go to the mortgage. Electric bill dropped $1... I put it on the mortgage.

Saved $17 on groceries... went on mortgage. Truck ins went down as we don't put the miles on it like we used to, it went on the mortgage. Found change went in a jar, once a month I deposited it and sent it to the mortgage.

 We will be restocking the coal (last winter right before a storm our 94 yr old Amish guy came and asked to buy some of our coal. His English driver got sick and couldn't go get his coal, Hubby took a ton to him and told him to just replace it as we still had 4 tons, we got it back 2 weeks later), night time wood (Hubby was just given another tree truck so he thinks we will have enough and all cured for over a year, for this year) He wants another wagon of day wood blocks just incase.

We need creosote remover for the wood stove.

We need softener salt for water softener.We buy it twice a year.

 Sidewalk salt (pet safe) for this winter. 

Diesel, gas and mineral spirits (AKA lamp oil) are needed

We will have lawmover maintainence done this fall when the dealership has their discount. Gives them work during the slow winter months and everyone starts the mowing season with mowers ready. In the early summer we do it with the garden clippers and chainsaws.

I have enough fertilizer for the gardens.

Have a great week.

Blessed Be

AS I put the basement back together

I am inventoring what we have in the pantry.

We bounced figures around, asked some homesteaders/Amish etc. and found there was areas we forgot often causing runs to the store. We want a very small list for what is needed for the store run.

First changes.... going back to baking our own bread, pies, cakes, cookies, brownies, bagels, English muffins, cupcakes, muffins etc FROM SCRATCH. I always did it when we had the 6 (usually 12 as they all had friends in) kids. Fudge at Christmas.

Adding soup and casseroles to the meal rotation more often. One suggest to use the left over casserole as the base of the soup. Hubby's first thought was scalloped potatoes and ham to potato soup, then I added a 3rd round of adding corn to turn it to corn chowder. Little House on the Praire actually talked of them eating "drinking" the bean broth as round one and then making Boston bake beans for the next round. It was in the book about the long hard winter I think.

I need to restock my butter, yes I use the real thing. I will get 30 lbs in the freezer. I probably have 15  but I need to restock the frig 1st. I go through at least 60 lbs a year between baking and regular eating.

 I'm low on oats that is the Amish bulk store.

I need 1825 pints of veggies and fruits for ONE year. YES we eat 5 a day. Yes I have that right now between canned, frozen and dehydrated. BUT I will need to refill that from the gardens. I know peas and corn will be almost out or out completely in the spring.

So I need to make sure I plant successionly to cover that.

I need to buy 90 lbs of sugar. I am down to 30 lbs. I have honey, maple syrup, molasses, boiled apple cider and ,sorghum.

I might have to get some of the dried fruit as Hubby likes it in granola, cooked oats,cookies, muffins and vanilla bean Greek yogurt that he wants weekly.

I will focus on what the staples are and then figure out the extras.

We need about 1500 to 3000 sq ft for a garden for that amount of food. Succession gardening will be a NEED.  SO I NEED to check my seeds this fall to make sure I have enough to plant. I have the area, do need to start new strawberry patch. 

Meat wise, beef and pork (except smoked sausage links) are already ordered and will almost carry us 18 months.

Chicken and Turkey will be as they come on sale. I would love a deal like Krogers had last year before Thanksgiving of turkeys at 59 cents per pound. I bought 6, cooked 1 for Tday, shoved one in deep freezer for this year and canned the rest.

While growing up, we ran out of food in Feb. I never could understand why my parents didn't just dig up more of the back yard. No one in are area was doing succession gardening. Later as an adult they said they wanted the yard because they only had gardens and no yard to play in as a child.Mom always stretched the tax refund and Daddy's Christmas bonus to cover us until March when she could pick wild greens etc. Beans were on the table every day.

Grandpa raised potatoes for a cash crop, Daddy paid full price of $5 for 100 lbs. No discount for the family. Now I am paying $8 for 10 lbs if I am lucky.

Blessed Be

 

LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH.

Storms rolling through daily, sometimes all night and all day. Means Charlette is a walking basket case and I am a zombie from exhaustion. 

Both of us worn out. She did sleep decent today... as the storm that was to come in DID NOT. Supposed to get the next T storms at midnight SO, Vet said to give her 2 of what we have at 9/ 9:30 so it is already working. He is putting her on meds 3 times a day until these storms quit rolling through day after day. His own dog is on the same meds.

Good news BASEMENT has remained DRY.  I have 2 large shelfing units to declutter in freezer room, one has paper products and vaccum seal supplies.... those will be moved out of that area and I will put canning items there as I lost space due to sump pump. I can put a roll cart in from of the escape window.I haven't figured out the bucket room or pantry room. Pasta/ dehydrated foods is being debated on going to loft or staying in basement but WILL be put over into BUCKETS.

Got all the new buckets and gamma lids washed and dried.

Waiting for the peas to make, they bloomed.

Cleared gardens  except for the wax beans to dry for soup beans and the KY wonder beans and purple beans to finish drying on the vine for next year's seeds.

Hubby said he was leaving the beds that had the wild flowers and tulips until next spring for the small animals. I am leaving the berry vines for same reason. I will prune in Feb.

Will have to start new strawberry beds. 

I ordered some new clothes as the ones I am wearing are so big on me that I am safety pinning them or should be moved to paint clothes. I haven't bought much clothers in 10 yrs.

 

Basement done

 Did have to get a 4 ft step ladder to go out through the window, but the egress it's self has built in steps Now to figure out how to set it up. Freezer room  is now 5-10 degrees warmer since that window lets in the southern sunlight. 

Labor day... Update on Son 2

 Yes we are working the farm LOL. We do take Sundays as the day of rest.

Hubby is harvesting the apples. Some for frig for desserts this week, some for cider and the rest goes to E's pigs.

I found another cookbook, Super Easy Dry Mix Pantry Cookbook... I have most of the dry ingredients so after we get the basement back together I will put it together to see if that lowers the take out orders.

Son 2 is tired of medical personal coming daily (he's a loner). They have figured out his O2 drops down into the 30s (should be around 100) but comes back up on its own within a few minutes. Causes dizzy spells and sometimes falls. Happened when one of the medical personal was there and he had his O2 meter in his pocket. Has 4 nurses doing house therapy and there are 3 of us calling him a different times to do check has several appts in the next 30 days. Hubby is driving him to them. Since we are now at only 1 truck, means I can't go somewhere when Hubby is taking him. Charlotte got upset she wasn't getting a ride... so Hubby takes us around the block(abut 4 miles) when he come home from those appts. 😅

Life Changes

 March 10th 2018 we bought this farm for a half of million..Thirty year loan. Not what I wanted but Hubby missed farming. I insisted NO farm animals. Looking at being 60, I didn't want to be dealing with 4:30 am( I am up and down all night with Charlotte that is giving our youngest a run for the money of getting me up more than the now 42 yr old) and evening duties. He was okay with that. We planned to raise most of our veggies, a couple years later we added berries. 

IN 2021, interest dropped to half so I talked Hubby into refinancing. BUT still a 30 yr loan.  BUT I had the debt down to $350 K. So between the first loan and second we were looking at 34 yrs of loan total.

Hubby wants it paid off by March 2031.I already have it paid down to Oct. 2041.I figured it up and kept my mouth shut on how tight the budget would be until he told me WHY.

Social Security is forecasted to run out in 2032, the year the truck is paid off. I don't want to use MY $$ from my late dad to pay off the house, but to cover emergency expenses that Hubby never thought of...like a pto hose on tractor that just broke or the $17000 on the basement repair or the blowed drain to the county drain that runs across 2 acres from the barn to the county pipe.

So where to cut???

Buy 2 tons coal we  had not been firm on and add it to the wood especially at night or when we go away, to make the wood stove heat last longer. We should have enough coal to go 3 years.That will stretch the wood supply AND make it easier for Hubby. The heat this summer has been too high for him to be cutting wood.  He's commented daily he is behind on that...like looking out by the fence between us and E and seeing 2 large tree trunks that still need cut up for winter wood wouldn't clue me in on that.

Get wood scraps (sometimes free) and blocks from Amish sawmill. Less than $1000 for a years worth of heat. I use the wood scraps to take the chill off the house. Some call it the shoulder months. That would be there early fall and late spring.

Get mineral spirits for oil lamps to keep electric down. Open curtains for light.

I got the propane already for the other cook stove, instant hot water heater, pump house heater and the furnace.Saved $1/gallon($500 total) by ordering and prepaying early and got the grill tank filled for free. What ever we don't use will be transferred to the following year. Got the amount down from 2200 gallons first year we lived here to 225 gallons this past winter.

Called our insurance agent for house and trucks. Got rid of 1 truck, not easy to adjust to that. But it dropped ins some about $200/month , didn't change coverage on farm.

Saved $$ for meat we will have come in this late fall. I put it in Ally CDs so getting some interest also.KEEPS hands off it also instead of the mental thought "I can save it up again".

Reread some cookbooks for frugal basic dishes that have disappeared through the years. A lot of Amish do one in the oven, one on stove top and one from the shelf (pickles, fruit etc) for their lunch and suppers. One told me she makes a casserole one day, left over casserole is made into soup for the lunch the next day. Oatmeal, potatoes and eggs with bread is most mornings unless they do a bfast casserole.M has 14 in the family, she does scrambled eggs with a little meat if any is left over from the night before serves it with oatmeal and bread most mornings. Bfast is at 5:30 after chores. Their day starts at 4:30 A.M. and ends around 9-no later than 10 at night. She averages $200 a month for groceries that they can't raise theirself like sugar 

Found a recipe book called One skillet that has several recipes we already have to stuff for. Made note of that to focus on using what we have. 

Decided to can most of the meat we have coming in late fall/early winter. So checked if I needed lids or jars. Don't need either. Should have enough to can it. 

FYI,  I use about 10,000 canning jars a year.I did a order through ULine during the pandemic, ordered a semi load, shared the order with some of the Amish. BEST thing I did and the jars were half of what store costs was if you could even find them.

I ordered food grade buckets with Gamma lids to change pasta and dried fruit to buckets and free up qrt jars. Debated on that one but Hubby has tremors and had dropped a couple glass jars when getting dried fruit. 

Goals for Sept.

Get the basement pantry back together. Should be finished Tuesday and then have to let cement cure before moving shelving units back in.

Make list of what is needed, looking at changing from 18 month supplies to at least 2 yrs./2 1/2 yrs.

Soup at least once a week. Take eating out or ordering down to once a month.

Update vaccines

Add more wood/coal to supply

Order bulk softener salt delivery. 

Get more mineral spirits for oil lamps

Clear the gardens and finish dehydrating...cabbages, kale, onions, celery, carrots. ETC.

Separate shelfstable foods from rest, have in another area or at least shelving unit.

Straighten and update medical supplies.

Start the deep cleaning.

Find a place to store what we want to get rid of during township sping clean up day.

Back in to routine of dropping off donations *not sitting at the front door for WEEKS.

Go through the garden supplies and seeds. Make list before the catalogs start coming in. 

That might go through October. My fibromyagia is playing with my cerebral palsy and it's not a nice time.

Stay safe,