The pantry... what I am buying in December.

I will start with Son 2 that gave me some of his recipes he got from Home Chef, he thought I could make some of the seasoning blends etc instead of buying it because he has found that the "spice of life" is actually the "spice in food" for him. So I made a list of what I didn't have and then went online to find out if I could make it myself... 98% I could make myself. The other 2 % I needed anyways as I didn't get enough herbs from the gardens this year.

The root veggies: 20 lbs of potatoes, 20 lbs of sweet potatoes, 3 acorn squash, 3 butternut squash, 3 spag. squash and 3 kabocha squash are in the north loft as it has the correct temp and humidity for that type of storage. I am not storing onions this year. I haven't found a place in the house yet that would be good and not be with the potatoes.I am looking at making a place in the barn for them if I have enough insulation next year. I didn't take a picture of this. I have them in milk crates with other crates under them so they have air flow and over a rubber backed rug so it something gets nasty and I miss that it's spoiling it doesn't mess up my new flooring. I check at least once a week but usually daily when I go up to get something.

I have on the grocery list 50 lbs of all purpose flour (yes I am down that much) 50 lbs of sugar again down this much. ( I gave 5 lbs of sugar and flour to Daughter 4), dried Italian salad dressing (used more for rolling cream cheese in), ground pork (found recipe for Spanish chorizo on Pioneer woman), cashews (From Aldi's)milk, half and half, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers and mushrooms, a small jar of basil pesto. I already ordered my seasonings, spices and dried peppers that I can't buy in this area. Cheaper for me to order it than buy fuel to drive 2 hrs to buy it.

Daughter 4 was here the other day and wanted a tour of the pantry. Since she was one of kids (Son 2 was the other one and an out of state friend) that put food on our table for 2 yrs when Hubby's plant went to a 3 day work week, I have no problem with her checking ...she also got a few things that I canned that she just won't buy at the store like roasted red bell peppers. 

This is what she saw when I opened the basement door.

Hubby put the buckets of flour, sugar, and rices that I use most often on the landing at the bottom of the stairs.

more of the flours, sugars, regular oats, quick oats, grits, under the stairs.

the oils, 3 empty buckets for sugar and flour,dry goods cabinet, over flow cake mixes in washer..hey at least the bugs don't get to it ;)

aisle 1 as it was named. Couple shelves on the low side but that's the broths that I make during the winter from turkeys, hams and beef roasts.

Center or end aisle

aisle 2..dried beans are on low side but I won't refill them until next summer. Low on grape jam as I made juice since we didn't get many grapes.Will have netting to deal with birds getting to the grapes before us next year.
Buckets have different rices, pasta and specialty flours.

the 3 deep freezers, sorting the meat and veggies into cloth grocery bags has been a great. First, it's easy to pull up a bag or two to get to what I am hunting for. Second, like foods are kept together. Hubby has even mentioned he like it when he was wanting bacon and I said, first freezer, left back corner, gray bag.

Refrigerator freezers hold open bags or leftovers...chocolate LOL Bread items.

Dried fruit teas, drink mixes pantry staples I use daily and the over flow of spices and herbs.Maple syrup,molasses, sorghum, honey,agave, boiled cider etc.

100 plus herbs and spices. I grew most of my herbs, didn't this last year which is why basil pesto is on the grocery list. Herbs are in on my garden plans which I am still working on.

On the home front

We have started eating our supper by oil lamp, something I grew up with  until Daddy wired the house for electric. We have found we slow down with our eating, fill up faster OR just acknowledge we are full and I am cooking less as a result.Better for our health and will make the pantry last a bit longer.

I found some winter curtains in the barn that daughter 4 had passed back (we don't get rid of curtains, someone will always need them). They are way too long and I had to put one panel at a window to have enough but they are helping keep the home warm. I did get scissors. I like the new ones better than the old ones, don't strain my wrist as much when I am cutting. Hubby did tell me he wanted me to use shower curtain hooks for all the windows. He LOVES how they slide when he opens the curtains as he is usually up before me.

I did not go shopping on Black Friday. I hate crowds. I did check prices on some things we needed on Cyber Monday but they were not low enough. Today the prices were where I was willing to pay so that's been ordered. Spices and dried peppers is not something that is stocked as well as over where we used to live and something I use daily.

We had a doctor appt (Thursday) so took the dogs along and stopped at the vet's office as both Charlotte and Wilbur were due for their annual shots and 3 yr rabies shot, Rascal is March for heart worm testing. All 3 got their nails trimmed. Because we were okay with the vet assistant doing the shots and nails they gave us a discount. They are not sure if they are going to continue the discount or the practice . We have talked about Hubby giving the annual shots, getting the rabies shot at the local TSC during their clinics.I bought nail clippers like our vet has .

We have been eating from the pantry except for Wed night. Hubby went to the funeral home (his aunt died) while I stayed home (coughing again don't want to pass it) and he went to the grocery store and got a couple items that he could heat in the microwave. All of it was marked down and was around $10, it feed us 3 meals so I guess that wasn't bad.

I found out Tuesday that the meds I was on for 3 wks for my Crohn's has caused me OTHER problems that I am now dealing with. My GI wanted to have me take another med... no thanks. My primary backed me.

We started to put Christmas decorations up...very slowly as we don't have very many lights since we agreed and really want to focus on only having LED lights.The windows here are about half the size or smaller than the windows we had so a lot of the window decorations do not work. I still haven't figured out where to set my candles or stockings since we gave the mantle to daughter 1(it was the one her late father grew up with).

Hubby called the appliance repairman. The front big burner on the stove will only light with a lighter and has more yellow in the flame than it should. It hasn't worked right since right after we moved in. Repairman said he would run the bill through the warranty before billing us. He is local and was happy to find out we moved back into this area as we all went to school together.

Hubby called about getting a bill from blood work that we had paid two months ago. He gave them the confirmation number and they immediately corrected the billing.

I called and ordered propane (we prepay for the whole year) but since I agreed for it to be delivered when he was already going to be in the area I don't have to pay an extra delivery charge.

I called our ins guy and told him I was looking for new auto ins as their cost for the new truck was horrible... he went back through  it and found they had the price as the month price when it was the price of 3 months NOT ONE. Made a lot of difference. He also caught that even though he changed the address (four times now to be exact) billing still had the auto policy listed at the other place. When that was corrected we are back down to where we was before I got rid of my car plus they gave us a credit since it was THEIR mistake.

We decided to give a couple years of trying to sell produce from the garden at the produce auction..but only what I don't need to have in our pantry. Most use boxes, but the one Amish lady told me to just use either plastic grocery bags or bread bags the first year to see if I really want to go that way. It is a lot of work to grow it, harvest it the night before or the morning of the auction along with cleaning it and making sure it is dry.

Hubby applied for a part time /seasonal job at Ohio Dept of Transportation AKA ODOT. He was hired, filling out paper work today (Friday) and will start towards the end of Dec Unless they call him in sooner. I did not want him going back to the plant and working 40 hrs a month. Common for the workers to go back and do that as it's enough money to pay their health ins.It's Mon through Fri. unless there is a snow event and first shift. He hasn't worked first shift in over 20 yrs except when he was in Alabama building the plant down there and the kids and I stayed here in OH.

He did get the stuff from his brother in law to set up his portable welding. Just needs to set that up.

He also went to a couple people that were looking for someone to haul pallets. His trailer isn't the size they want and he isn't going to go buy a trailer for a couple trips... not enough work/money to justify it. BUT another one told him that if he ran across a 20-24 ft live stock trailer that he could afford, he would have work as the Amish are always looking for someone to haul animals to the butcher. THEN another Amish guy put him in touch with a guy that was going to get a new live stock trailer that was still deciding if he would trade the old one in or sell it. He agreed when he got to the place (went to work at local fab shop to earn enough to buy a new one) where he was getting the new one, he would call and see if Hubby could match the price offered for trade in...but that won't be until spring. HE also told Hubby if he heard of anyone looking for someone to haul on a 16 ft flat bed, he would send them Hubby's way.

We have an appt on Monday to talk to our finance guy, he asked for the budget for 2019 so he can help figure out how to make the retirement to last as long as possible and us figure if we should take Social Security at 62 or wait. Stock market went down right after we retired (figures) and the medical bills were higher than we budgeted but the house only was over budget by $50. We are saving for gravel to put the deck on this spring as we don't want just weed barrier. Gravel for the driveway and pond. Need to replace posts on the kitchen porch and both front and kitchen porches need railing and painted (railing will help bring down house ins). We need new windows and the house needs siding but we can handle waiting for those for a couple years. We have the deck stuff and ramp in the barn but will need to save up for the awning that will go over the French doors. We want to redo the steps and awning at the back door. We think we have enough left over wood to do the steps.

The worse case is we pull the cash from the retirement, pay everything off  and put back enough to pay health ins until we are 65 and live on the balance and not pull the SS ... would take a hit on taxes (like we are this year) but stress would be lower as we would only be paying utilities and what ever we need for medical copay,deductibles...it's a thought.

Blessed Be

Happy Thanksgiving... safe Black Friday

to each of you and yours.
Blessed Be Juls Owings

When it rains it pours... still some more BUT

Good news is we have a good solid truck...bad news is we got a truck payment.
Good news is the payment is under what we had worked out because the finance guy took it for LONGER time (and then worked out what we needed to pay extra to hack off that last year he added to get the interest rate that was 3 % lower than what we had found and it still was under the $900 payment even with the extra payment saving us even more on the interest. Our insurance agent looked at a couple different underwriters to get us the best deal on insurance and still was an ouch due to the size of the truck.

Bad news is my favorite car is now at the junk yard

Good news is they came and got it for free, plus paid me for it and it's off the insurance. I will miss it as it was FAITHFUL to a fault of even driving when the axle broke...yeah really went 5 miles while Daughter 4 drove it slowly home in a rain storm. She knew the tire was coming off but it stayed on until she put it in park.Next day we realized the axle had broke.

Good news is we took food to Daughter 4, whose own daughter had invited a friend to spend the night (kids take turns on that) and at the last moment found out the friend can't eat gluten. If we hadn't take food to her she wouldn't have had something for the young lady to eat. Bad news is Daughter 4 dislocated her shoulder at work and is off work. Medical payment is 60% of her normal paycheck. Good news is , that's what she bases her budget on and with us giving her food she is going to be fine going through the next two months especially since she was back to work today with restrictions.

Bad news we are not having Thanksgiving dinner for the family any more, not just this year. After not having it this year we had several comments of kids and grandkids wanting it to stop but did not want to offend anyone with their reasons why. One grandson was very open about being torn between families and having pressure put on him by his parent to attend ours instead of the other side and he has a girlfriend that is likely to get a promise ring at Christmas so there will be her side also.Good news is no one is under pressure  to attend, no one is AKA us and Son 2 is spending money, time and effort to be at a dinner that there is a lot of complaining going on. Do not need the DRAMA which is on the good news side.

Bad news I won't be getting deep fried turkey for dinner or sweet potatoes with marshmallows(son 2) or baked beans (by girlfriend who makes extra so I can freeze them), good news is I am roasting those 3 turkeys and putting them in OUR freezer and making broth.Deep Fried turkey doesn't make good broth.

Good news is since we didn't have Tday dinner we just sent all the kids money ( a lot more than normal)for them to buy Christmas as we had trouble connecting to them all at the same time last couple years and can't afford 6 different trips (bad news). SO we all told them it was time for them to come our way and it did not have to be on holidays. The kids are fine if we don't do cookies and candy BUT if we do and want to limit it..Buckeyes, sugar cookies for Granddaughter who eats NO chocolate , snickerdoodles for most of the rest and oatmeal cookie and peanut butter for Son 2 and no candy for him. We will see how that goes.

We thought about a Christmas open house and decided to pass on that as we are still changing things around.

Bad news is my sewing scissors , all 4 pairs is missing, Daughter 4 said something to Daughter 2 and she said she had borrowed them while she lived with us for work to cut cardboard and forgot to bring them back....then Daughter 4 who does sew reminded Daughter 4 who does not sew  that sewing scissors are for fabric only not paper, cardboard etc. Daughter 2 did say she did not know where they went after she left them at work. SO I now have to replace my scissors and since they were missing I couldn't sew the winter curtains...

BUT I did use pinking shears and cut this no pill fleece for the wheelchair bathroom that at this point I call Hubby's bathroom .

I used a hole punch to put the holes in for the shower curtain hooks. Hubby decided he liked it better than me sewing a rod pocket. Said it's easier to open and close. SO that is good news... I just don't have the rest of the house done which is bad news but good news is the house really isn't getting cold because of the lack of winter curtains.

Bad news is the lights in the north loft don't work, good news we put the winter squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes in that loft since it's on the cold side and we would have to use electric heater to have it warm enough for any one. Hubby already called the electrician that installed it and they are on stand by until Hubby checks a couple things with his tester as they think it's the actual light not the wiring since the outlets and other light works.

Bad news is we need to get our propane tank filled... Good news is I prepaid it when they delivered the tank.Doubled what we used at the other place.

GOOD news, even though Hubby doesn't care if we decorate for Christmas, I would like to some...the weather is suppose to be decent Wednesday,Thursday and Friday so I can get what I want done and Hubby won't have to deal with icy cold crap doing the outside lights.

Bad news ,between the house, car, truck and medical our one retirement acct will not last to Hubby can collect SS...GOOD NEWS is , we have not touched the other retirement acct and could actually pay everything off and still have money to live on allowing him to not pull SS when he planned to. Our finance guy is bouncing some figures around and looking at the big picture to show us our options in Dec.

It all balances out in the long run is what Mother used to say. GOD will provide the work to earn what we need.

IN the pantry

Not sure where I got this from, I used to have it hanging from my frig in the fall. This year nothing got hung but I have been stocking the pantry.

I made pear butter out of the pear's the neighbor's 4 yr old helped Hubby pick up off the ground while 4 yrs old dad put roof on the neighbor's garage. She had told the child he could have all the pears on the ground or that his dad or Hubby could help him reach on the tree. We got 2-5 gal buckets. Hubby helped him take 4-5 gal buckets home while his dad finished the roof. Good thing as the freeze came in a couple days later.

I am pretty much stocked with meat for a year. I would like to have a couple pork butt roasts or loins maybe one of each instead of two of each but if I don't get them on sale for the right price I will pass. We now have 18 months of main dishes in the pantry... 2 main dished per day. Though I image with a little bit of this and that I could turn it into a 3rd dish if needed to stretch the main meal part of the pantry for 2 yrs.Which would be great as the next 2 years are going to be very thin on the income with the outflow of the house and truck etc.

Last Wednesday Hubby picked up 2 turkeys for 48 cents/ lb if you spent $25 for Daughter 4. He got her  beef roast (buy one get one) and potatoes. I picked up 2 turkeys for us (same price) and beef roast (same deal) for us and onions for Daughter 4. 

Thursday, I run to store for dairy items, and grab 2 more turkeys and found hamburger marked down, hot dogs and smoked sausage also marked down.Got home and found out that Hubby had went to the store when he went to town to run an errand for the neighbor and got 2 more turkeys and 2 more roasts(buy one get one) and coffee as he had checked his coffee before he went to town.He had 2 coupons for the coffee and it was on sale.

Spent the weekend dealing with the food etc.

Sunday we meet son 2 and our friends over at Hong Kong to celebrate Vet's day Son and friend are vets) and since friend wants us to deep fry turkey for Ham radio Christmas dinner we went to Kroger's there so he could pay for them and we just bring them home. They had turkeys for 38 cents/lb limit 2 so we picked up 2 more (total is 8 just FYI)for us AND they had brisket for $1.99/ lb while it's running $5.99 at our Kroger's. I picked up 2 briskets.

The next day we had eye appointment back over to the other Kroger's (my steroids has cause my astigmatism to change) so we stopped at Kroger's.  I got 4 more briskets, brats that was marked down, hamburger that was marked down, 2 large containers of oats and a bag of potatoes.

I cut the 6 briskets in four pieces  to make 24 roasts (that's one every other week) or one once a month for 2 yrs.Vacuumed they will hold good.

Turkey 1 was roasted, deboned, ate and the remaining part vacuum packed (6 meals)and in freezer and carcass is been turned into broth which is now in frig to let the fat come to top and be able to remove fat and can tomorrow.

Turkey 2  was roasted today, is now deboned , I ate it tonight for dinner (Hubby working parade)and carcass is in pot simmering as I type this for broth to be defatted and then canned.

Turkey 3 is thawing. Actually I had no choice as I now need that space for the briskets LOL. But that's okay. We figured we would cook 3 turkeys this month to get the broth back up as I was low and I vacuum the meat in 3 cups packages as that's what I use in most of my casseroles, noodles etc.

We decided on our basic once a month perishable list. I will go to Save A Lot here (don't have an Aldi's) to get what I can BEFORE going to Kroger's. Walmart here does not have the choices or smaller sizes that I use. It's $125 IF I go to Kroger's a month .... but with the understanding I might have to buy something that isn't on the list but needed for a meal if it's something we agree on. I set that amount as $25. When we don't use that money or there is some left, it goes back into the stock the pantry envelope. Any of the $125 not used also goes into stock the pantry envelope.

There are a couple stores in the next town where our parents live that I would like to do a price check when we are over there. They have an Aldi's.

I pulled some different breads out of the freezer trying to use that up before I baked another loaf when the neighbors down the road brought a loaf of bread they bought from the Amish bakery around the corner so we are eating that as well.

We talked about things we were no longer eating...cold cereal for Hubby as he used to eat it in the mornings when he got home from work before going to bed.
Apples, he used to eat one either at work or before work with peanut butter...not happening. I used to eat cottage cheese, pickled beets and applesauce for lunch  and a yogurt for 2 pm snack with fig newtons or cookie, not doing that either.

I already need 25 lbs all purpose flour, 25 lbs sugar, and peanut butter and choc chips... not out but lower than I usually am at this time even without baking cookies or making candy for the kids for Christmas. IF they come on sale cheap enough I will pick them up.

What can I cut

End of October I was thinking, pantry is almost fully stocked, just need turkeys, some fresh cranberries ...then my mother in law reminded me of mincemeat. Saving account looked decent, bills were paid.

Nov. 1st, daughter 4 bought a car and now has payments (she's trying to rebuild her credit after her divorce) and she had budgeted for an oil change this paycheck and 2 tires the following paycheck and another 2 tires the following week and right after she left the dealership her doctor called her to tell her she did not have a sinus infection but is going into stage 2 mold poisoning. She called the health dept and they told her to find another place to live because as soon as they contact her landlord (AKA slum lord) he will evict her. WHICH she already knew because she knew a couple of people that went through this with him. She is now saving to move along with needing the tires, did her budget and called us to see if we could provide basic groceries for 3 months (without causing ourselves problems) so she could only spend $20 a week for dog food, toilet paper, milk and margarine.

Hubby told her we could do that as this is the kid that LOVES beans and rice.

Nov 2rd our old landlord got a hold of us and told us when they pulled the carpets up they found mold UNDER the padding (figured it was from where the basement constantly had water) and thought they should let us know to go get checked for it.. so since we was in the doctor's office when they called our doctor ran blood work...yep, it showed we had had mold poisoning but we were healing (probably due to bronchitis meds) so we have to take meds a week longer to just be on the careful side

 Nov 3rd Hubby's truck starts making a grinding noise  so on the 4th he hands me a sheet of paper that had all the information of the truck he would like to buy... he has been pricing trucks for the last year... I am glad I was sitting down. He priced it out, down payment, sales tax and title, cash payment or loan with down payment and without down payment and 5 different years. Best deal is a 2015, he PLANS for it to last 15 to 20 yrs like what we have so that puts him 75 -80 yrs old and most likely won't be driving a big truck...I really didn't want a payment of $900 along with the price of the insurance which he priced also but is the worse case. There has been a couple jobs he couldn't take because it would have been too much for his truck which is a 1998.

SO back to the budget, yes we can do it but it makes it tight because we don't want to increase what we withdraw from the IRA especially when the market is DOWN since he retired. We will be going this Thursday to look... sigh.

As I went through the pantry today, making sure we had everything, refilling the containers in the dining room from the pantry etc. Hubby came in and told me to buy more turkeys than what I had planned and handed me 2-5 gal buckets of pears he had picked up out of the neighbor's yard while helping the other neighbor with his 4 yr old put a roof on the her garage. She has all she wanted so Hubby and Neighbor's 4 yr old picked the rest up from the yard to "clean" the yard up for her. Hubby said the 4 yr old ended up with 4 -5 gal buckets in the wagon and he helped him pull them home while his dad finished the garage roof.

Hubby really does NOT like pears, they taste sandy to him...but his grandma used to mix apples with pears for sauce and in pies so I will be doing that because I definitely did not need any more pears canned.

We will be going to Kroger's to get turkeys on Wed as they have them on sale for 48 cents/pound.Paper ad says you have to spend $25 and limit 2, website had limit 1 with nothing to spend... either way we will be going on Wed.

We have ate from the pantry, finished canning the last of the tomatoes, hubby gave away 40 lbs while I was in the hospital , still I ended up with 6 meals of fried green tomatoes in the freezer and 30 qrts of juice beside what we ate daily.

I sewed buttons on 2 of my shirts, Hubby darned his socks three times. Amish neighbor baked a loaf of bread again for us as we stopped at the store (not out of our way) for her and saved her 4 hrs of being away from home as she is also canning the last of her tomatoes and tomorrow will be doing pears like me.

Charlotte has been finding a way to get out of the yard when we leave, I caught Wilbur and Rascal jumping on the fence when barking at the neighbor and Charlotte started to go over it since the 3 of them can tug it down.far enough she can jump it. Hubby took old fencing wood and put it on the top of the fence so they can't pull the fence down and she can't jump over it. He also put lattice we used to use several years ago over the top of the gates because he saw she could get half way through it today. Both neighbors are watching to see if they can see her get out when we leave to go vote tomorrow and again on Thursday for our doctor appt and going to look at the truck.

We had some birds getting in the loft of the barn making a mess and since that is where we store stuff we weren't happy about it. Hubby thinks he found all the holes , said they could get in but not out that way so he plugged them up today using wood I had savaged from here when the contractors where working.

We are still slowly going through the boxes in the barn and getting things put away.

I did get my gate leg table (Grandpa built it out of ply board)in the house and upstairs as I use it to cut fabric on . I also got the table I use for sewing in the house and up stairs so MAYBE I will get to start sewing the winter curtains next week.

I am spending this week gathering my recipes of things I will now make from scratch instead of buying.

Blessed Be

When I loath cooking

Yep, 2005 when I was in Philadelphia  for a convention and got a free photo of me in my chef jacket. Grew my hair back out to my waist as I got tired of fighting it to stay up inside my hat.

It sometimes surprises people when they mention I must love to cook everyday being a chef... as a self employed chef that answer depends... for work , love a good solid 5 days a week which usually ended up at least 10 plus hrs a day..at home, I am always looking for plan overs vs left overs and how to slap a good balanced meal on the table in 30 minutes or even better in the oven where I can do something else, like read a book and drink tea.I never have been much at crock pots  At work I love working with different ingredients (great in Atlanta GA) at home here in Ohio, not going to get that variety unless I travel 3 hrs one way to Jungle Jim's. though there are a few things I could order from Amazon if I really wanted to...I loath to order produce or fresh herbs online.

Right now, I am sitting here fighting bronchitis, as Hubby shared his (GRR) and for the first time in 25 yrs we are both sick at the same time and both are not really wanting to cook, let alone clean up.

Keeping with that theme HA HA...I fall back on old stand by's of when I was a widow with kids... Breads, pizza crusts etc were 98% of the time homemade.It wasn't that I did not want to spend time cooking , I was working 3 part time jobs and being single mom...not a lot of time or energy left.

Sunday Beef roast with root veggies (the next time I served beef roast it would be followed by beef noodles and the time after that would beef veggie soup)

Monday leftover beef roast as stew with dumplings (if some how there was leftover it went in to pot pie or Blue plate special of beef over stuffing with mash potatoes)

Tuesday enchilada casserole (made either the night before or in the morning) with lettuce, tom and onion

Wednesday homemade pizza with salad (crust made night before or that morning and prebaked)

Thursday Tuna noodle(store bought noodles) casserole with veggie tray and dill dip

Friday Grilled cheese(home made bread) and canned soup (store bought unless I canned chili or beef veggie soup)

Saturday mac and cheese with peas or peas and carrots mixed in with hot dogs.

Sunday Roasted turkey (yep all year around),sweet potatoes and green beans (next round of turkey would be white bean chili followed by shredded turkey sandwiches, might be a pot pie or blue plate special)

Monday Turkey noodles(homemade), mashed potatoes and cole slaw with apple sauce.

Tuesday Homemade taco pizza with salad

Wednesday mackerel patties, boiled parsley potatoes and peas or peas and carrots

Thursday Homemade baked beans with corn bread and cole slaw.

Friday Aunt Dolly's oven meal casserole (what ever was left from turkey, a layer of veggies topped with slice potatoes and what ever cream soup.

Saturday Spaghetti with red sauce (sometimes meat  or veggie sauce), homemade garlic toast

Sunday Pork roast with root veggies (next round BBQ pork sandwiches followed by Brunswick stew)

Monday blue plate special AKA sliced pork on stuffing with mashed potatoes drowned in gravy with green beans or corn and cole slaw.

Tuesday fish sticks, loaded baked potato and cole slaw

Wednesday  Hard tacos with refried beans topped with cheese and salsa

Thursday French bread pizza (homemade French bread) veggies tray

Friday Hot dogs and coney sauce, French fries and in season fruit.

Saturday. Breakfast for dinner... each kid took a turn  at choosing what would be served. Waffles, Belgian waffles, pancakes,French toast. sweet rolls, syrup or pie filling, bacon,sausage or ham, fried apples or cobbler, grits, cream of wheat or oatmeal.

Sunday Lasagna. homemade garlic bread and salad and broccoli (followed by stuffed shells followed by manicotti)

Monday  Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn and green beans because there was NEVER leftover pasta LOL. (I will add here Daughter 2 makes meatloaf first and uses the leftovers either in spaghettie with meat sauce or in chili)

Tuesday.bean and cheese burritos, Spanish rice and custard

Wednesday  Grilled cheese and soup of choice, veggie and fruit tray

Thursday  Calzones ( choice of ingredients) with salad

Friday Mackerel patties, mashed potatoes and cole slaw

Saturday eggs , fried potatoes, biscuits and gravy(gravy was made from what ever fat I had saved and be milk gravy if I had extra milk, in good times it was sausage or bacon gravy)

Sunday Roasted chicken, baked potatoes and corn (followed by chicken dumplings and then chicken and noodles the next round)

Monday chicken and rice and broccoli casserole

Tuesday mac and cheese , peas or peas and carrots and smoked sausage

Wed, chuck wagon beans (hamburger or sausage in homemade baked beans) corn bread

Thursday Homemade pizza with salad

Friday Grilled lunch meat sandwiches with veggie tray

Saturday Appetizers...might be pigs in blanket, cheese and pepperoni and crackers, sweet and sour or bbq meatballs... Kids choice.

Sunday  Baked ham, sweet potatoes and cauliflower/broccoli/carrots (followed by scalloped potatoes and ham then hot ham and cheese sandwiches)

Monday Soup beans with ham, cornbread and baked apples.

Tuesday...leftover soup has mixed veggies and rice(or small pasta)added to it and served over homemade bread.

Wednesday ground pork patties, grits and salad

Thursday chili with cornbread and salad

Friday poor man stroganoff ..(hamburger with horseradish in cream sauce over pasta) carrots  and beets

Saturday Cincy Chili (chili over spaghetti) and a salad

I used to rotate through these every 6 weeks with the change of what was served on Monday's. Sunday was when I had time and didn't mind as much the clean up as much so that's when the meal that took time was. I also baked bread on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturday...3 loaves every time. 

Still sick... 209 update

The only place we have went is the doctor's office. We have ate from the pantry that is full which is a really really good thing since neither of us wanted let alone needed to be out and about in the store.

We have finally got to the point of actually eating something like beef stew,spaghetti with meat veggie sauce and chili instead of just drinking broth and pureed veggie soup. I fixed baked pumpkin oatmeal (Pioneer woman) that was good also.

I have gotten the kitchen together completely (if you don't count curtains not being sewn and hung).  I brought my wind chimes in from the porches and hung most of them at the kitchen sink window.

I won't put a curtain up at this window as I watch the sunrise a lot through it .It also lets me see who is pulling in the drive before they get to the house.

It's nice to have everything in it's place and able to actually find what I need.

I think the next place is the bedroom and my desk area as I am starting National Novel Writing month Nov 1st.

Neighbor came over to borrow some yeast as it was Saturday morning as she didn't think she had enough bread to make it to Monday afternoon (Amish keep Sunday as the day of rest, her Hubby was away at an auction so no one to take the buggy to store for her) I asked for a loaf back in return of the yeast since we were down to 2 slices... BOY was it better than mine. Since she doesn't use a recipe she said she would have to think about it but she thinks the big difference is she uses sorghum and I use sugar. The bread was a lot moister and it is definitely GONE. So tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be baking bread.

Frugal mid month

Tuesday, I put the last of the green tomatoes in the freezer. Cleaned the pantry and moved some things around so it makes better sense... also will allow me to focus on what needs used up first and what we are low on. I had 10 jars of green beans. Forgot we lost 16 jars to bad lids, daughter 4 still has some of her's here and offered for us to keep them and use them as she has enough to go a few months. Her pantry is only 6 months. I caught the laundry up as I usually do that on Mondays and we went to visit parents instead. All loads were on the clothes line to dry even though they forecasted a freeze this morning we got nothings. I took leftover beef roast and broth and mixed it with leftover chicken and noodles my cousin made that I had shoved in the freezer and had plenty for dinner and enough for my lunch tomorrow.

Wednesday

Hubby is working today for a neighbor. He packed his lunch and we both mentioned at the same time it was weird for him to pack a cold lunch instead of leftovers that could be reheated. He was working outside with no place to to warm anything. He did take a thermos of hot coffee as he does drink it black. Said it wasn't bad even with the winds though the temp never got above 55. 

I ate the leftover noodles for my lunch and spent the day washing the fall bedding and blankets . All loads were dried on the line except the last , it's a heavy blanket but is still damp. I'm okay with the dryer running for one load as I turned off the furnace when I started the laundry since I have realized every time I open the kitchen door the furnace was kicking on. House never dropped below 64 but it will warm up quick enough between the dryer, furnace back and the oven when I bake biscuits after Hubby comes in from mowing the pasture and around the pond that he plans to finish tomorrow. I pulled pork chops (cut from the pork loin I bought at the beginning of the month) to go with pears (on sale with coupon). I will also make a salad with a pear and walnuts (from freezer that was a gift from a friend) and sweet potato (gift from neighbor for going after kerosene for them) to go with the biscuits. I have homemade strawberry pie filling (neighbor again) to go with vanilla ice cream if we decided we want a sweet.

AND THEN IT WAS A SLIDE DOWN HILL

we got the frost THURSDAY  morning so Hubby didn't want to cut anymore around pond , wasn't sure what was weeds and what was flowers since the frost killed the blooms.

I went to make waffles with the new waffle maker and it just kept ripping it apart(on line reviews say use thick batter with 2 eggs so I'll try that the next time.) I didn't want to waste the batter so I made funnel cakes

Friday we decided to hit the produce auction as I was still looking for onions,potatoes and sweet potatoes...

Wasn't advertised as butternut squash auction but that was pretty much all there was. I got some onions, a pie, candy for Hubby, maple syrup and a angel food cake in the area off the auction. SO since we didn't stay for the actual auction we went to Wapakonta to Walters Meats and SCORED. They had my sausages I had on my list, plus we got, hamburger patties, pizza burger patties, cube steak (for less than $3/lb) minute steak, round steak (that isn't paper thin), 10 lbs of hamburger, potato hash brown patties ,shoe string French fries and candy for Hubby. Adding 49 meals to the freezers. Cost is about $2 each meal.

We get the turkeys and hams in Nov and will have a total of 369 meals plus in the pantry. Then it's just milk etc to be bought during the year.

Feeling GREAT with that and then....Hubby GOT SICK. He very seldom gets sick but when he does it's BAD... dealt with that and then Saturday morning at 7 am I woke up in a Crohn's attack...

At least I can see the hospital pond out my window and Hubby is home (not visiting me ) with his crud. We now have some more answers of why I keep getting blockage. I have scar tissue from my appendix exploding and it stops my intestines from working correctly.

We will see when I get to go home... but at least Hubby is home with the babies

Rascal is pretty much laying at Hubby's feet most of the time and Wilbur and Charlotte are sharing the love seat behind Hubby. Usually Charlotte is laying on Wilbur

Blessed Be

a BUSY week

It's only Monday, I keep repeating that to myself,it's only Monday.

I did laundry today using the clothes line Hubby put up out in the yard and like he feared the deadman in concrete came up and started letting the support  post lean in causing the lines to sag in the middle. I stepped on the concrete and it sank back in some. Hubby was going to go look for something to weigh it down and I told him to get the Ford...the car that is suppose to have went to the junk yard weeks ago... Well, today it was parked with the front tire on the concrete holding the clothes line up so my bedding didn't drag on the ground.

Regretfully even after drying everything on the line I had to run the last 3 loads through  the dryer to kill the gnats that decided my bedding looked comfy. At least it wasn't a long time , just a hot dryer.

We don't have a power washer for the parts that are vinyl siding on the house so I hand washed the part that is on the front porch with blue Dawn and rinsed with vinegar. Looks better than what it did. Hubby didn't realize how dirty it was until I was about half way through.Took me a couple hours but well worth the time.

I froze enough green tomatoes for  6 meals of fried green tomatoes, I might get more before the rest of them turn red.

I cooked about 10 lbs of red tomatoes to make juice with tomorrow ( I have juice ready to can tomorrow in the frig)as I needed to make bread after dinner since Hubby ate the last of the bread this morning and wants an egg sandwich with his oatmeal in the morning. I made 2 loaves of oatmeal bread (Owlhaven.net) and made extra oatmeal for breakfast.

I weeded the flower garden,definitely will have to move the hosta next spring as they have outgrown the area and you can't even see the sidewalk.

I fixed leftovers for lunch and then we had a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato on the side. We had potato chips as our even snack.

Hubby mowed all the property but decided to not trim as we know we will be mowing at least one more time and want to do the trimming then.

He also went to a local place we were told carried weed barrier that we are looking for,they were out but offered to order it for us and then told Hubby where they order from. The place is 15 min from a place we have been wanting to go (Lehman's in Eastern OH that provides items for Amish and like).So we decided we would go there this Thursday as part of Hubby's birthday as he turns 60 tomorrow.

I did 2 orders to Joann fabrics using coupons both times. We decided to make curtains for the French doors for night time or during the hotter months.  I need to stop at thrift shops to see if I can find something to back the flannel for the curtains in the front room as Hubby said the front room got pretty chilly when the temperature dropped last week.

Tuesday,
It's Hubby's 60th birthday and we have in recent year's went to Lock 16 in Lima OH for him to have steak. I always make sure to tell them it's his birthday and they bring him a cake.The server remembered us from last year as we paid for an elderly couple that was having their anniversary and we left the server a big tip as she went out of her way to make sure the couple had a wonderful meal which was apparent they were sharing a meal and picked the lowest costing meal. We did some errands first and got some needed items on sale.Then did a pit stop at the produce farm to pick up the winter squash for the pantry. I worked more tomatoes when we got home,should have enough juice to have a full canner in the morning.

Wednesday
Slept with the windows open as it didn't drop below 68 last night. Won't be do that again for a long while as the high for the next 9 days isn't even that high.

Hubby finished painting the house and I canned 12 qrts of tomato juice and cooked 2 more pans of tomatoes. It's drizzling now but the wind is high so I won't be going out to the barn to can tonight.

Storms are suppose to be running through in a few hours, they said that this afternoon and it came in 3 hrs early.

I went through 15 boxes and put them away.I find some old curtains of Son2 that he gave to me to keep for anyone that needed them. I had lined them with blankets several years back and decided to take the backing off and use it to line the curtains I am making for the front room. I remember I didn't spend over $3 for the blankets at the thrift shop so this is just the icing on the cake to reuse it.

I washed laundry and hung our clothes on the kitchen clothesline and the winter bedding and curtains on the yard clothesline.

We had leftovers from Lock 16 for lunch and dinner.

Thursday,
We went to Holmes county for the day. We needed weed barrier for the gardens and the local green house told us where they order it from and offered to order it but since we have been wanting to go to Lehman's in Holmes co. and the place was only 7 miles away it made sense to just pick it up ourselves. We drove the car instead of the truck and hoped it would be a negative of bringing everything home.

 Turned out to be a good choice as the gentleman gave us a price comparison of getting 4 of the 300 ft lengths instead of 5 of the 100 ft length actually saved us the price of the 4 th roll. PLUS we got more weed barrier.He also got us a deal on barrier staples that got us twice as much for the same price and the popcorn plate that fits my seed planter was half the price we found it at Johnny's seeds.

We then went to Lehman's and got wicks, lamp oil and 6 lamp chimneys so when I do the fall cleaning I can put out the oil lamps also. Those items were on sale. I picked up some hand soaps for the mudroom and kitchen sinks. I forgot I now have 4 sinks. I will just refill the bottles with the hand soap I have in the pantry.We got a cast iron waffle iron you put directly on your stove. It was marked down to $17 from the $45. Waffles will be on the menu.

We went to a grocery store that had an restaurant attached to it and had a late lunch. We chose to just have sandwiches instead of the special because it was cheaper and after seeing the specials served we could have bought 1 and split it and still had leftovers. Even with what we bought it was less and healthier than the local Mc D's .

We talked about where to cut the budget on the ride over and back. Batted thoughts of how to bring in money or save money. I will be back to growing my own plants or getting them at the produce auction of course. Hubby is going to get a hold of his brother in law about buying some stuff from him for welding.

 Friday
Last night Amish neighbor asked if we would stop by his house this morning and get his kerosene container and pick some up for him as they were almost out and it's what they use for their lamps. We were running errands today so it wasn't out of the way.

We paid some bills, Hubby got tags for the trailer and motorcycle that are in his name. Hubby filled the truck up using the Kroger points.He got a flu shot,
made a deposit at the bank, dropped off a tax paper that will give us 2.5% deduction on our taxes next year.I went in to the  newspaper and found that they had gave my delivery person the wrong address so that is straightened out. Stopped at the library and then we went to the store.

Kroger's.... wasn't busy for a Friday morning and it was stocked well. I am still adjusting to the how much smaller it is and the layout seems to be random , might be so you walk through the entire store to pick up a can of veggies and a can of fruit.

 Couple things I had coupons for they don't carry so if I am closer to a different Kroger's before they expire I will check else where. I saved over $200 and the manager had to over ride the system to get me checked out. Hubby did ask why I got more pasta with what we have.... it was on sale and the coupon I had made it 40 cents for a pound of pasta... So we will get 6 meals for $1.20....SMILE
Total meals added to pantry is 74. I was going to drop a ham and a turkey off the buy list but Hubby wants me to keep it on. We have the room in the freezers and he is just feeling it would be better if we didn't change plans at this point.

He took the kerosene to the neighbor and I sent a list with him that I keep extra flour, oil, yeast etc so if they ran out or low to come borrow instead of trying to get to the store especially as early as it's getting dark and being in a buggy. Hubby said she was excited as they haven't had time to go to town (it's an hour buggy ride one way) and she was out of oil and had been for awhile. So Hubby took her a gallon of oil and made her day. She asked what we wanted for it and he told her he would have to think about it... DUH... I said when he told me...BAKED GOODS.. He laughed because it hadn't crossed his mind even though he just bought a pie at the local store made by her cousin LOL.

I still need to find some containers to put stuff in that is now in the basement since we don't have a butler's pantry. I'm waiting as I definitely don't have everything put away let alone a place to put everything.

Saturday 
I did all the dishes up including some that had been packed, canned tomato juice, washed the outside of the front room windows and the storm windows before Hubby put them on. Did 2 loads of laundry using the yard clothes line.Hubby put together 2 more shelving units for the pantry in the basement.I searched the barn for milk crates to wash on Monday for the root veggies for the basement. I closed the ceiling vent that allows warm air to rise from the front room to the guest room. I fixed pizza from the pantry.

Sunday
I slept 12 hrs straight, definitely don't feel good so hope it's a passing thing as several of friends and family have commented that they have the stomach bug. I already got my flu shot so maybe I won't get what ever is going around. Hubby also just got his flu shot.

Hubby put up the "closet rod" I asked for in the staircase at the front room and I put a heavy curtain on it to help stop so much of the warm air going up the staircase.  I really need to finish the fall cleaning up there and get the sewing room put together so I can sew the winter curtains.

I went down to change things around in the pantry since Hubby added a couple more units. He put 2 of the shelf braces on upside down and the shelves collapsed when I had them LOADED... lost 3 pints of pickled beets and have a messed up thumb and pulled bicep as I tried to stop the shelves. Got that mess cleaned up and Hubby kept telling me he was sorry... decided to just call it a day ...both of us and start again tomorrow. Good thing as I am having troubles hold things in my hand due to the swelling and bruise of the thumb and definitely don't want to lift anything heavy with the arm.

I pulled ground beef to make tacos for dinner. We had odds and ends from the frig for lunch.

I put the budget on an excel sheet and paid the bills that are not automatic. We have decided we want to put down at least 20 % on the new truck for Hubby.I transferred what we set that amount to be to Ally bank. We don't touch the savings there unless it's an emergency plus it makes more in interest than our local bank.

Filling the pantry for a year FRUGAL

Living around farmers you get to hear how the price of corn is down, how it's too wet for the beans to be harvests and the price of meat is going to go up.

We already have a good pantry but when the man who used to own this house offered us free tomatoes because they had fell off the vines (he called them seconds) and he doesn't sell them at the auction , we went to glean them...

110 lbs of tomatoes with a possibility of more when he cleans his hot house if his helper doesn't take all of what is left.

Hubby on his tractor with the new tiller preparing the south garden (the one that will have seasonal plants) He already did the north garden which is perennials and the garlic.

After we was done gleaning the tomatoes Hubby mentioned the freezers are pretty low on meat. I told him Kroger's had a sale of roasting chickens (7-8 lbs) for 69 cents a pound. Don't see it lower than that anywhere around here. So we decided to go to Kroger's before home.

We had decided the other week over our morning coffee to have 730 meals in the pantry. That is lunch and dinner for a year.

We save 1/3rd of what we bought... they had other meat on sale but it wasn't listed in the weekly ad. I now have an additional 75 meals of meat (not meat, I list things by how many meals it will make us to make sure we have enough food to go a solid year)

We got 10 dozen eggs (for less than $1/dozen) which is not counted in the meals as I will use part of them to make noodles,2 pork butts, 1 boneless rib roast (for Christmas as the price was cheaper than I have ever paid at Christmas) 2 racks of ribs (one for New Year's),3 roasting chickens, 2 pkgs of rib eye steaks (for when Hubby craves a steak after so many casseroles and soups)2 bags of frozen thin chicken breast, 2 pkgs of fresh chicken breast,3 pkgs of ground pork,12 lbs of ground beef, 2 pkgs of chicken thighs, and 2 pkgs of chicken wings (for when we miss our favorite wing place)  I cut the wings in 3 pieces and bagged the tips for broth. I broke the pkgs down to meal size and vacuumed them. What is already in the freezers is 4 prime rib roasts(from Christmas) a pork tenderloin, a pork loin, 10 meals of pork chops, 2 roasting chickens, 2 hams, 40 meals of pepperoni, 1 rack of ribs, 1 qrt of beef cubes for stew or noodles, a bottom round roast, 1 pkg of thin chicken breast, bacon, bulk sausage, and smoked sausage. Total meals in freezers are now at 117.

I then checked the pantry.
Dried beans : cranberry , navy, black, red, great northern, lima, garbanzo, cannelline, and blackeye peas.

Canned beans: refried, baked, lt kideny, dark kidney, chili beans, blackeye peas, garbanzo, pinto, cannellini and black.

I have red lentils and green lentils

Soups: chili(mild and zesty), beef veggie, asparagus,tomato,and beef stew, turkey white bean chili.

Canned meat: corned beef hash, corned beef, tuna, mackerel, salmon, pork, spam,dried beef and turkey pot pie.

Potatoes: canned sweet potatoes, canned whole white potatoes, canned sliced white potatoes,dried hash browns, dried diced potatoes, and dried sliced potatoes.

Grains: Rice-Jasmine, parboil,long grain, basmatic,arborio,brown, black, and minute. Grits, quinoa,barley, farro,millet,polenta, corn meal, oats and cream of wheat.

I have 28 varieties of pasta all bought on sale

My to buy list is now

1 roll of G&R bologna (8 meals as it is 1 inch thick)
4 Aldi's hams (20 meals)
6 turkeys(use carcass for broth) (36 meals plus broth)
1 case of Walter's dinner sausage (12 meals) or more hamburger.
12 winter squash
50 lbs of white potatoes
20 lbs of sweet potatoes
20 lbs of onions
10 lbs carrots
4 bunches of celery.

We figured out after buying what is on this list we would be short 213 meals... that we decided to have them be vegetarian. So we listed 54 meals we enjoy that have no meat/beans(though might have scraps of what ever meat was leftover aka ham bone, or eggs) so we can rotate through those meals. Hubby doesn't care much for soup but I added 7 soups (ThePrudenthomemaker.com has several) so we can rotate through the soups 4 times in a year. He will do better not eating the same one a lot.

I baked 2 loaves of bread and froze one for when I don't have time to bake. Hubby didn't realize that baking bread takes about 4 hrs. Told me I needed to buy another bread pan so I could do 3 loaves at a time. Considering he already ate half the loaf I might agree with him though I know he won't eat the same bread all the time, something both of us don't care for. I baked Amish white bread this time. I plan to make oatmeal bread (Owlhaven.net) then a potato bread (simplyrecipes.com), and my favorite English muffin toasting bread (Kingarthurflour.com).

Back to canning tomatoes
Blessed Be

The start of a frugal month

Yep...saving big time...how... we didn't have to pay Oct rent for the old place along with the mortgage here, a savings of $700 PLUS the landlord said since we weren't actually living there through Sept we wouldn't be paying the electric bill for that month, especially since we had turned off the AC before we moved here at beginning of Sept.That's another $125.  We won't be driving every day the truck with trailer and the car 120 miles round trip spending $160 a week in gas....for a savings of $640.
We won't be eating out 3 times a week at $15 a meal to split between us saving us $60 a month. That's $1525 a month savings.  JUST FYI, we came in at $10 over what we budgeted for 209 including gas and eating out.

That will be split between, savings, mortgage principal (goal it so have 20 % paid off in 3 yrs) and a new truck payment for Hubby(which we have already figured out how much he can pay down and what he can carry as a loan and the interest rate he can afford.

I harvested the last of the ripe tomatoes and the last of the green ones. I will be saving the seeds for next year.

I harvested the last of the hot peppers. I won't save these seeds as we didn't like the peppers all that well.

I harvested the last 3 heads of cabbage.

I harvested the last 2 green onions that got missed when I thought we had them pulled a couple months ago.

I harvested rhubarb by cutting it back to get ready to transplant it to the north garden.

I harvested grapes, there are some not ripe so we will eat those fresh if the birds don't get them . Buying a net for the grape vines is on the buy for gardens list.

I found a source for eggs  and a couple suggestions for bulk goods . I will be checking out the bulk goods to see if it has what I need and if it does I won't be renewing our membership to Sam's club that is almost an hour from us now.

I cut the pork loin in half and vacuum bagged it for 2 roasts for this winter. I cut the second one I bought into 20 pork chops and froze them on cookie sheets so I can vacuum them 2 to a bag for our meals.

I sliced the 2 sticks of pepperoni I got (that I was given a discount on due to moving away and being a regular buyer) and now have 20 months of pepperoni unless we eat more of it than we regularly do.

We found a tiller for the tractor for about half the price of what we were seeing. We were able to till our north garden today without paying for it to be done.
I will be transplanting the strawberries and rhubarb to this garden and planting the garlic, hopefully if the rain holds off...I'll do that tomorrow.

The Amish neighbor stopped by and asked what we were planning on doing with the 3 acres we let him plant corn in (for free), He had a look of surprise when we told him we were planning on him planting it with what ever he decided on with no rent . He said he felt better if he paid us rent and told us what he rents other properties for. I did qualify before he offered money that he had to find me an bulk store for flour and sugar and where I could buy 2 to 4 dozen eggs a month.
Hubby added someone to buy straw from... he laughed and said he could do the eggs and straw and when his hens weren't laying there was a couple others that sold eggs. He told us where the bulk stores were at and then offered to pay rent for the property. It would cost us more to maintain it so letting him do it for free
 actually saved us money. Hubby said the rent would go in the savings for what we needed for the gardens. I think I will put it in savings for when we are short on $$$.

I sewed my skort twice before I realized it kept ripping because it's too big on me and rides lower that normal so when I walk it pulls the old tear back apart.

We went to our grandson's wedding... tempted to buy a new outfit but chose to wear my little black dress that I've only had 40 years. Yes 40 years, I paid $100 for it and it's averaged out to $2.50 a year and it looks good enough to go another 5 yrs at least. I got several complements on it and my grandson remembered the dress from his childhood and mentioned it to his mom, my daughter2 and she remembered me  having it during her childhood so they decided to ask how long I had it. They were surprised it looked so good being that old... I was surprised I could still fit in it. LOL

Blessed Be 

A bright morning

and the light at the end of the tunnel as we moved the last load and finished cleaning the old place. NO more spending $$$ for gas for driving back and forth any more.

I had a bit of a worry as Daughter 2 had shut 2 of the dogs in her bedroom while she was staying with us and they did this to an 100 yr old door

We weren't very happy with her but like always in her mind she can do what ever she wants and it's always right.

I got Restor finisher for dark oak and now it looks like this. Landlord's oldest son asked for what it was because he now wants to redo all the doors and woodwork with it.

He hadn't realized that the door was 2 different woods.

We came home the other night and was a bit worried as Charlotte wasn't in the yard with the boys... we found her in the house which bothered us until I found muddy prints on the back storm door and the mudroom inside door had muddy prints also. Hubby didn't make sure the storm door was shut and Charlotte definitely knows how to get in and out. Wilbur tried to get in to her as every single window had his muddy prints on the newly painted siding.

SO now it's 118 things for this HOME and over 100 boxes to sort and put away.

Sam's club, 209 and old house... frugal choices

We had Amish ladies paint the house. They charged 1/3 of what we were quoted by "Englishers" as the term is used around here. There are 3 places they could not reach as our ladders weren't quite tall enough on the ends. I told Hubby we could park the truck next to the house and put the ladder in the truck bed giving us the 3 ft needed in height to finish the house. The house looks great and a big check mark off the to do list

The back splash at the stove was installed by Hubby instead of having the contractor do it at $150 , he put Plexiglas over it to protect that almost $250 back splash from grease from the stove.

We cleared the inside of the old house YEA!!!! We still have 2 loads in the garage...just because of the size of things not the amount. I still have to clean the house and do some minor repairs. We have chiropractic appt Tuesday morning so will be in that area and Hubby has 3 month check up on Wed with his doctor also in the area... I figured we can pretty much finish it on those 2 days ( saving gas for not making extra trips)and do the removing of the mantle that will go to our oldest on Sunday (when she is off work and Son 2 can help us) and give the keys to the landlord along with the garage openers and get our mail one last time.  Last 4 wks we spend around $600 in gas moving. SO done with doing that.

We went to Sam's club today. I had a very detailed list of what needed restocked along with price point.

I got gal./qrt/ and sandwich bags. Foil and press and seal wrap. Potato chips, Frito's and Cheddar cheese chips. Plain choc candy bars, almond candy bars and Heath candy bars. Dried cherries and dried cranberries. Cashews. Club crackers.Choc. chips.Limes,lemons,cucumbers and apples.Spaghetti and Velveeta cheese.Peanut butter.Olive Garden salad dressing. Goat cheese and fresh moz. Minute rice and 20 lbs Jasmine rice. Canned pumpkin and coffee for me. Chinet plates to replace what we used at the family reunion. The big buy was 7 lbs of light brown sugar, 25 lbs of all purpose flour, 25 lbs bread/pizza flour (definite need after we at frozen pizza because we don't care for the pizza place that is close) and 50 lbs of sugar.

About half of the buckets I have , this is the flour and sugar section.They are sitting on pieces of wood as you should never store food directly on concrete.

From Amazon I ordered 
White Lily bread flour and all purpose flour, popcorn,panko crumbs, case nacho soup,case of bean sprouts,case ramen noodles,Arborio rice,2 cases of whole potatoes, coffee for Hubby for 1/5th less than I could find it else where.

I still have manicotti, lg pasta shells,red cabbage with apples and saran wrap on the buy list.

I have my "fall/winter" list of winter squash,pork loin, pork butt, pork ribs, dinner sausage(Walters)pepperoni (IGA) G&R bologna (G&R) Prime rib(Walter's at Christmas) Turkey (Thanksgiving) Ham(Thanksgiving/Christmas and Easter). I am looking for Roasting chickens and hamburger.

I need to find a local source for eggs.... I forgot to ask when the ladies were here painting the house.We are going to the Pumpkin Auction at the Amish produce auction on Friday with our friends so I might find a local seller there.

We have the furnace on but turn it off when it's warm enough to prop doors open for the dogs and turn it down to 60 when we are gone. I said something about it being cool in the house and Hubby suggested I turn the furnace up, I came back with I could put socks and slippers on and a shawl or sweater instead of cranking the furnace up. He laughed.

Dogs are no longer staying in the kennel and their run at the barn while we are gone as Rascal has learned to climb over the 5 ft gate. Since we don't want him without water and food for hours we decided to leave the run gate open and found that they do stay in the yard (meaning he doesn't climb the 5 ft fence) and will take shelter in the kennel or on the kitchen porch when it rains. Both neighbors have checked on them and said they do very well like that.

We saved $250 on getting a dumpster instead of paying extra for the boxes etc we have from moving. I still have about the same amount of boxes to go through. I plan to have that done before the dumpster is removed.

I put darts in a couple pairs of pants. I don't want to buy new clothes going into winter when I usually put on weight. But my belts are no longer holding the pants up either.I'm still a bit under weight from last Crohn's attack.

Blessed Be