In the pantry

 I still have grape jelly (from juice) to make

I still have apple jelly (from juice) to make

I still have tomato paste (from canned tom.) to make

I have turnips I will end up canning 

I have radishes I will end up pickling.  

I now have 15 gals of apples to deal with as we finished clearing the last tree. It even over whelmed our Amish neighbors.

I know after Thanksgiving I will have turkey meat to freeze and broth to can.

After Christmas I will have prime rib meat to freeze.. but probably no broth as the butcher shop said there probably would be no bones but I could stop in if I wanted bones for broth. Not sure I want to pay for bones. 

I need to make more homemade noodles as we are not out. As I am now getting free eggs I can make the noodles for just the price of the bread flour.

In the pantry ... remember I "put up" for 18 months, it was a year until the kids had to come get food last year. By bumping it up to 18 months we can make a year and still help the kids.  FYI, my buckets hold 25 to 35 lbs.

This is the basement door in the hall. My onions hang here. I don't really have a good storage at this point for keeping onions but Hubby can get 6 lbs from the Amish for less than I can get at the store until around Jan.

Looking down the stairs. Starting to the left and go right , the bucket you barely see is White Lily white cornbread mix, then regular AP flour, then sugar, then regular bread flour, then long grain white rice then just barely the bucket of minute rice. 

Oils, vinegars, on top of cabinet nuts and M&Ms that Hubby make trail mix from along with muffin mixes.

This holds dry mixes of just about everything. Jell-O, pudding, cake, stuffing, crackers, dry milk, Bisquick that Hubby can not live without etc.

Cookie mixes in the washer. They are Hubby's that he likes to make so I keep them separate and don't have to worry about mice getting in the washer with the lid that goes on it. Rubber maid is dried mashed potatoes and mixes for baked doughnuts.

 Lots of empty canning jars, buckets have White Lily AP flour, White Lily bread flour, White Lily self rising flour, regular self rising flour, regular oats, quick oats and 00 flour > I call this the bucket room as it has the most buckets , Hubby changes what he calls it almost daily.

more canning jars, gray frig is dairy (heavy cream, half and half, extra milk, cheeses, some beverages , freezer part is breads or such. Black frig is fresh produce and the freezer is produce and bagged turkey. 

Shelf unit next to black frig is the appliances like crock pot, roaster (behind jars) cake decorating stuff, al. pans and my bigger pans I use for bulk cooking.

The other shelf unit is paper goods, foils, freezer back, vacuum bags, paper plates , ice cube trays for broths or fats. Some larger serving dishes

Where the rug (actually dog bed as Charlotte likes to lay there during storms) is the door to the mechanical room where the furnace, water softener, breaker box and water heater is.

Freezers 2 and 3, 3 is at the door. Three has fruits, nuts and desserts, two has a veggies, pork and poultry and some odds and ends.

Freezer 1 beef, sausage, bacon, breads, meat fats, condiments like carmelized onions etc. The shelf unit at the end is canning stuff and camping things if Hubby needs it. 

We do have a small freezer in the barn, I use it for leftovers and meat that will be ate in the month. By April, lates May it will be cleared as it's the freezer we use if we end up making ice for the Amish neighbors if the pond doesn't have enough water or freezes.

ignore the double buckets as you saw those in the down the stairs pic. The first single bucket is the White Lily white cornbread mix the next one is semolina flour. The next 3 buckets with crates on them is dried sliced potatoes, dried hash browns and dried cubed potatoes. Crates are white potatoes and sweet potatoes.

applesauce. fermented foods, veggies, condiments  1st shelf unit. Coffee , coffee syrups, booze next unit (I cook more with booze than I drink and Hubby only drinks hard cider now days) , last unit Charlotte's Den I am clueless why she claimed that spot but she kept digging the canned goods out of there to lay so I just put a bed in it for her. Spices and herbs on the two shelves about her bed (I have over 100 and yes I use them all) and then top shelf is the extra pasta.

Bucket closest is Jasmine rice, the other one is Basmati rice, container on floor beside it in home grown dehydrated greens and herbs. Shelf units is pie filling and juices, other is soups, more pie filling and some grocery store canned veggies.

Bucket is par boiled rice, bottom shelf is pickles of different kinds , then dried fruit, then canned fruit and pickled beets then more canned fruit and then homegrown dried fruits and veggies.

left four buckets of 25 lbs. sugar AKA emergency supply for M  Shelf unit is different pastas, bucket is ramen noodles.

condiments, canned butter, Crisco, flavored vinegars and oils. Top shelf has dried veggies and canned red bell peppers. Karo syrup beside butter.

Taco shells, tomato products like pasta sauce, sauce, pizza sauce, hot salsa, mild salsa, green tomatoes, already got empty spots there .  Bucket on crate is for homemade noodles which I am out of, upside down bucket is for coleslaw that I can or kraut if I ever decided to go that way. Behind those buckets is more pasta, wild rice, black rice and risotto rice. Next unit is beans and canned meat. Combination of store bought or home canned. Bottom shelf has different lentils and broths . Bucket is brown sugar and XXX sugar and container in corner is corn starch, baking soda etc. Kitty bucket (there is two that Son 2 bleached and passed to us for storage) ) hold bags of smoke chips for the smoker.

Right side against wall, special flours, yellow corn meal, syrups sugars, stuff to make desserts from. The one between that and the condiments has lemon and lime juice, fruit butters, jellies and jams, more dessert stuff on top. 

beans, most of it home grown. 

Dining room dry goods used daily or weekly, bottom shelf is dried fruits. Next is different sugars, vanilla beans and paste, powdered lime and lemon juice and different syrups (some are medical used like elderberry and molasses) Next shelf is bfast items and dried soups and flavorings One more shelf up and you have the stuff Hubby uses for his trail mix, different crackers, peppers, bouillon, some dry mixes of sauces and gravies that is hard to make for just two.  Next up, fig newtons, different salts, herbal tea and the glass container that holds the family size tea bags for our kettle tea. Up one more shelf, powdered drinks, extra family size tea bags and herbal tea . Top is extra tea. I buy tea once a year. I know what we use. 

I had to move the 3 plastic pitchers I have that sits on this. I have one for whisks, one for wooden spoons and rubber spatulas and one for cooking utensils. Left to right, self rising flour in ice cream bucket, White Lily self rising on top of it, Ap flour next with AP small can for when I need to dust the board, instant flour, then bisquick and almond flour. 

Baking supplies, corn starch, baking soda, pomegranate molasses malts, stem ginger (thanks to Great British bake off) all the little goodies of adding different flavors as Hubby is definitely in to giving me new recipes.

I do have half a dozen cooking oils on roll care and two dozen bfast bars boxes on top of another cabinet . Hubby does not get "lunch time" when hauling so he carries trail mix and bfast bars that are not sticky or crumbly as he does not like the mess in his truck. Dust is fine, crumbs isn't LOL.

I usually get asked how much we end up pitching due to it going bad. Very little. If I have something that needs used up I either plan to use it or ask Daughter 4 or Son 2 if they could use it. If it is flour or sugar I pass it to M and she just refills it with fresh . They go through 25 lbs. of sugar and 50 lbs. of flour A WEEK. Sometimes more like when canning. Believe me, I've been to her house to ask if she had something that I ran out of like yeast.

I know what we use in a year. I have the same line for cleaning, dog treats(a little high now since we just lost two but Daughter 4 has 5 dogs so nothing will go bad) paper goods and personal items. Paper towel usage is down because I push the use the rag first.  Hubby just picked up pet friendly sidewalk salt and got enough for two winters. If we get a lot of freezing rain we will use twice as much because he KNOWS what we use in one year.

All the kids get rice off me, none really eat a lot of rice so it goes bad on them. They have learnt to come get it from me and as a family we get through it before it gets bad. 

Another thing I will point out, I am organized , everyone in the family knows where things go as they also know I date pretty much everything and it's first in first out to keep the "oh crap that got shoved to the back." I do have to watch that a bit more if Hubby takes something to the basement frigs and does not think to tell me he did. I've gotten to the point I go down and check every other day to keep that issue down also.

How often do I shop? Twice a month is the most.  One will be a major dairy and what ever produce (mushrooms, carrots and celery) that I don't have any more of. The second one will be milk. Maybe something that is on sale that I try to keep stocked like butter. Bfast bars and trail mix is once every 3 months if that. Flours is maybe 9 months but closer to 12 months depending on if M or the kids need some (M replaces, kids give kisses and hugs, I did have a grandson that did some of my chores while I bagged food up for him.)

Right now I am low of popcorn. We didn't grow any this year thinking we still had some in the freezer. I just pulled the last pint. 

Yes I live in Ohio and yes I have garden producing plus menu

 

You can see there are two behind this one.  How it looked (all 3 really) before harvesting.

This is what it looks like now

It's all covered back up now as it is snowing here today (Sunday)

I got  red and black radishes and their greens, 2 different mustard greens, two heads of lettuce, half of a gallon of spinach leaves, turnips and their greens, fire red Swiss chard and ford hook Swiss chard.

I kept some of the 2 chards radish greens, turnip greens and mustard greens for soups (Soupe Pelou from Twelve Months of Monastery soups and The Prudent Homemaker Brandy's Swiss chard soup). The rest of the greens went into the dehydrators and then grinded them up. I have 16 oz of powder organic greens (savings of $23.50 -$35.95) 

I based the coming menu on the leftovers and garden.

 On Friday's lunch ,son 2 brought his lady up to meet us and the right before turning in the driveway admitted he never brough a girlfriend home to meet us(female friends yes, girl friend including the one he lived with NO) . I fixed turkey (meat from freezer and broth I canned) noodles (M's noodles she gave me) mashed potatoes (last I got off B) green beans (I canned) and homemade bread with choice of peach jelly (I canned) or apple butter (I canned) . They took leftovers home and I shoved ours in the freezer.

We had left over mac and cheese and a small piece of smoked sausage (from Thursday). I diced the sausage, tossed in the mac and cheese and added peas I had froze from the gardens and served it with applesauce I had canned for our meal Saturday.

Sunday's meal is leftover steak chopped and added to veggies in frig made into an  frittata and make biscuits.

Monday's sausage gravy , biscuits and the leftover mashed potatoes of Friday made into potato cakes.

Tuesday's leftover stir fry, our local Chinese restaurant is now has their dining room back open. It's not a buffet like it was  but they have a good menu. I froze the leftovers. I will add veggies and maybe some rice.

Also on the menu

Soupe Pelou with brat patties (instead of brat like hotdogs)

Swiss chard soup with grilled ham and cheese (either bake bread as we are now out or use tortilla wraps)

Harvest chicken, apple, sweet potato and Brussel sprouts one dish 

Haluski, might add peas and need to add some kind of pork on the side to make Hubby happy.

Looking at making refrigerator pickled radishes, apple cider donut cake, homemade saltines and most likely more bread along with the biscuits. 

I have my back injections on Monday afternoon so I need to have a couple days of meals prepped before we leave for that. 

busy

 Since Hubby didn't get the heater installed in the first bay of barn. I had to move anything that would get ruined by freezing into the house. I still have boxes sitting in the front room, not as much and not the same boxes as I got that stuff put away but now have cleaning supplies to find a place for.

The four hours I spent moving things into the house, moving other stuff that won't freeze out to the barn, Charlotte spent chasing pigeons. She finally caught one (YUCK) but didn't rip it apart after she snapped it's neck. I yet to figure out how she caught it. Must have flew low enough for her to jump and catch it. She brought it to me. Thanks for the gift, took her in for a treat. Then tossed it over the fence into the field while she wasn't looking. One of the cats (E or H's cats) took off with it.  Charlotte then spent time watching E deal with hay *it's green still so he will feed it to the animals instead of storing it*. AND then went to watch H while he was burning scrap wood. Then went over to check out what Cheryl was doing, English neighbor.  I was glad to see her out and about (not so much about the bird) and more like herself. 

I told Hubby this morning I was going to fall clean the east and west lofts this morning. That would finish the second story (we have two sets of lofts). Then I was going to put the cleaning supplies away in those areas. He told me to put the grow light and table where I want it in the east loft and figure out where I want the grow cart as the big drying rack is where it was in the front room. BEFORE I moved the cleaning supplies up. 

I did clear some area in the laundry room (now half fall cleaned LOL) to put personal stuff. Actually let me see what we have and I figured we might want to pick up toothpaste. 

I put the bleach there and couldn't figure out why I had 6 bottles of bleach until Hubby mentioned that E was having trouble finding bleach for the house and barn (calf bottles etc) . I must have picked up extra to cover it if they couldn't find any. I know when that happened he ended up getting a bottle from each of the neighbors. They buy it by the case

HUM Maybe since Hubby is working  only one job this morning , he will be back this afternoon to carry all that up 😁.

We had corned beef hash and eggs for a late (after 8) supper. 

He mentioned Charlotte crawled up on him and woke him up this morning. Usually she just is curling up to sleep on him. But this time she kept pawing at him. So he got up thinking she wanted out and realized his alarm was ringing. It was on the 3rd round as he has it set to ring 3 times (he uses him cell phone for an alarm). So he gave her a treat for waking him up so he wouldn't be late going to work this morning. He very seldom gives treats. 

I have to only computer that updated to windows 11. Already moved what was in the center on the task bar back to the left. Deleted a few things off the task bar and then put excel and word on the task bar as I use them daily. MS word glitches a bit but they already said it would as they work out the kinks.

We were talking of a no spend except for necessities for the month of Nov. Then the spare manual can opener broke. I was going to wait until Dec but Hubby said order it now or the other one will break and we won't have ANY can opener. I told him I would just pick other food that I canned until it was replaced. But what ever I thought since it seemed to upset him I would order one. Not like we would starve to death. I've sanitized a flat head screw driver and used a hammer to open can goods with. 

We got the spouting down on the porches and basement ramp roof. $80 paid.

Hubby paid J for the two porches. He cut the price almost in half because Hubby was helping a lot and we did the clean up.

The only thing left on the to do list is move the pile of dirt from the yard that came from redoing the basement windows and dealing with a fuel tank that he is not sure he is going to use but doesn't want to get rid of in case he changes his mind. I'm like it's going to be nothing but rust and worthless as it gets older. Sell it or scrap it if you aren't going to use it. In this , he is his grandfather's child (mother's side).

I best get at it. Son 2 called last night to confirm he was bringing his girlfriend (He is 39 and she is 42) up to get his car and meet us next Friday. It's the first time since he was 18 yrs old that he has brought a "girlfriend" (has several female friends) home to meet us. Did not even bring the woman he lived with for 2 yrs home.  I brought it up to his attention of that and he responded that should have told us that she wasn't important enough to make that trip. I came back it should have TOLD HIM.  He admitted the attraction was "I can rescue her" along with 3 little boys that reminded him of his sisters to raising kids on their own. This one has already made it clear she doesn't need rescued (she supported the child's father for 14 yrs) and the father is active in his daughter's life. Son2 and her have been friendly (along with the daughter) for 4 to 5 yrs now working together at the VFW hall during events. SO it's not like ,here is someone you don't know to date mom with the daughter. Which as a single mom when I was raising him, he understood both sides of that. The daughter asked if he would go to Thanksgiving dinner with them... BEFORE her mother asked him . LOL

declutter and organize day

 I placed 6 orders. They were scheduled to come in on separate days. SIGH. I got 5 of them yesterday within 30 minutes. No way I could deal with it as  I was canning turkey broth and apple jam.

I have 5 canners worth of food to take down to the pantry now.

I said something to Hubby about should we turn on the heaters in the pump house(pump house has a thermometer so we can see how low the heat is) and barn (1st bay) . He quickly said no but then admitted he forgot to buy the pipe to install the heater let along install it in the barn. But he didn't think it would get that cold in the barn.

So today I am now moving anything that would be ruined if frozen . I might end up spending a week moving stuff around but I would rather be safe than sorry.

Hubby went down to the pantry then yelled up wanting to know where the corn beef hash was.  Answer "Canned meat section". "Where is that?" West wall, north end of shelves ( do you know how tempting it was to yell back same place it's been for 4 yrs?).  He yelled back " Why is it with the beans? then a quick "Never mind, it's protein area." He did notice that was where the broth was now also . I was putting it with the soups but the soups have "grown" since I canned soup this year.

Guess I need to get back to figuring out where to stash this stuff. 

Have a great day 

Blessed Be

PS. Charlotte is spending the day tracking birds that keep flying around the barn. She should sleep well tonight. 

Charlotte and blur of week

 She wasn't sure what to do with the whole seat to herself as she usually sits on my lap or gets crammed into a corner as the boys always stretched out.

We have found she is a quiet dog , like Wilbur, that was barking because Rascal was up barking and checking things out. She will bark at Pepper (E's dog) and Betty ( Jan's dog when they walk pass on their daily walks). But there is silence when the school bus and buggies go by. She does more looking out the windows than running to the door. 

She must have been taking the balls to get Rascal to play with her as I barely can get her to play with me and them. She will walk part way of the perimeter (like Wilbur did). 

 She was doing this before while we ate, I was surprised Hubby allowed it. Now she sometimes just sits there facing him while we eat. He won't let her put her head on his chair or lap. With his tremors he does drop food. But she waits until he tells it okay to get it. Rascal would wait also. Wilbur would not wait a freaking second.

She finally is sleeping again at night. Hubby said she only got him up once and it was before midnight. He went to sleep at 7:30. I warned him this morning that would be 6:30 next week. We have talked about getting another dog, not a puppy as I don't think she would do well with a pup. I definitely said spring unless she got so depressed like Tashy did when Tubby died. She's eating normal already, definitely still is got the routine of last potty before bed and then treats still. But the care free puppy is gone. She looked older after Wilbur died, she looks even older now. Grief does that. 

Our apple tree we were told when we bought the house wasn't very good. I even said we would cut down this year because it didn't make apples at all or not very big ones. IT RAN US OVER with apples. Even M was ran over and there are still apples on the tree. I will try to pick more for fresh eating as I am done with canning.

I canned ham broth, pork broth, turkey broth , apple sauce, and apple jam.

I froze all the fat. Still have to cut the turkey fat into cubes to bag.

I got my restock order from Amazon. They screwed up and doubled the one order. They aren't charging me since it was the warehouse's mistake.

Hubby got his hearing aid replaced. They are only a couple months old but it wouldn't connect to the app on the phone. The owner is his hearing guy and flat out said to Hubby that he was sending it back and requesting a NEW replacement not a repair. Actually got it within 2 weeks. I was noticing he was getting confused with only 1 hearing aid. He said something to the doctor about it and it was his "bad" ear was the one without a hearing aid so he wasn't getting all the information he should of to make decisions. Which is why he went and got hearing aids to begin with SIGH.

Canner about done with the last of the broth. I need to go pick apples also.

Blessed Be Everyone

Beloved Rascal

 Oct 31 2021 at 11am Rascal went over the rainbow bridge to join his buddy Wilber and his adopted Mom Miss Kira . Seizures , really bad ones by something in his brain as they ruled out every thing else. Heart broken especially watching Charlotte hunt for him and then sit and wait at the door waiting for him to come home to her. 

Miss Kira is on the left and Rascal is on the right

I miss your nuzzles. I love you 

Daughter 4 and around the home

We fired Daughter 4. (her pic with her Jaxon )Well kind of... we paid her the last check we will be giving her to live on. All of us did a happy dance . We will do another happy dance in a year when she starts paying us back and again when she pays us off.  Out of 6 kids we have 3 that owes us money. Son 2 is already making monthly payments with an automatic deposit. Daughter 2 is barely making enough to keep the roof over her head along with Grandson (her youngest) being in his senior year. He is strongly thinking of going into robotic welding. 

 You can't tell there is a ramp on the front porch. We are still batting around color of railing. Both porches are done except for some odds and ends we will do ourselves next spring. Also paid in full as of this morning. We had a mess to clean up in the yard but it was easier for us to do as we keep a lot of stuff most would toss. I don't know how often we have needed 3 to 6 inches of wood for something and dug through the "lumber " section we have in the barn. Even E comes over now to see if we have something when he is only needing a small piece.

Spouting guy is coming today for finish that part. That will be paid in full also 

Probably good we are stopping with outside projects until next spring with this cold drizzling rain we have had for the last couple days and today.

Rascal(black one and 11 yrs. old) woke us up at 5:30 am today having a seizure. Charlotte was right there with us holding him and trying to keep him calm through it. Cookie, one of our old dogs used to have seizures. He is doing good now. Rough way to start the day. Every time she goes past him she stops and smells him and then goes on.

I have an ear ache, used garlic oil ... my ear did the Mexican hat dance. Gland is swollen and I have a low grade fever. Took aspirin for fever, Vicks the gland and wrapped a towel around my neck. Hot tea with honey after I took my elderberry syrup. I really need to remember to wear something over my ears when I am outside in this type of weather. In this area, I am my mother's child. She always got ear aches and ear infections if she didn't wear a scarf. Fever broke quickly. Ear is no longer dancing and I feel a lot better.

We watched Charlie Brown Halloween on PBS. We got a kick out of it as it's been a couple decades since we have watched it.

This week in the pantry:

I roasted a pork butt roast, froze the leftover meat in meal servings size, made broth from the fat and bone. Canned 5 pints of pork broth and put the fat in the freezer.

I roasted a ham,(still want at least 1 for freezer ) froze the leftover meat in meal servings size, made broth from the fat and bone . Canned said broth and froze the fat.

I roasted a turkey for supper last night, will be freezing the leftover meat and making bone broth from it and freezing the fat after I put a casserole together of it for Monday.

Tonight is taco soup using stuff from the pantry and freezers. I am making enough for Sunday also. I gave him a choice of taco soup or chili (which is already canned). He chose Taco soup.

I shelled and jarred small red beans, coco beans, lima beans, and Italian cranberry beans.

Hubby is now only drinking half a pot of coffee each day. I asked him why and he said I mentioned how his coffee is very seldom on sale( he drinks bold or French roast) and he uses two to three times as much as I do. GEEZE I should have said something sooner???  He is the one than makes the coffee in the morning, you would think it would click he was just turning mine on to reheat every other day while making a full pot for himself daily. 

Daily I have started brewing a kettle of hot tea around 11 a.m.. When it gets down about half way I fill it back up with water using the same tea bag and bring it to a boil. We used family size tea bags with our kettle.

We had doctor appts so combined it with grocery shopping. M gave us her list. It took 3 stores to get everything. Two stores were half empty of food. The last one had some empty spots in every aisle. Could not find saltine crackers. Amish use them a lot. Family members that are in food service told us that even the restaurants are struggling to get them. I found a couple recipes that I will try. 

After we dropped off M's stuff to her and I put our stuff away (still didn't find a red cabbage). Hubby announced he wanted the house stocked back up like I had it  before we supplied the kids for the pandemic.  Believe me, I ran to the computer, made 6 orders (ended up with $18 digital and 5 % cash back on what was through Amazon) before he could change his mind.  After I placed all the orders I asked why the change. He said he thought it would go back to the way it was, not maybe as many varieties of stuff but the basic stuff. Not being able to find saltines was what triggered it wasn't going to be back to normal between the pandemic and the drought in areas.

He EVEN ORDERED a fitness tracker as he knows during the cold months he does not get the exercise like he does in the warm months of pushing the push mower around garden boxes and unloading produce at the auction. Doc has mentioned it more than once he should have SOMETHING to track his movement. He didn't even argue with me when I told him to ordered a protector and extra bands for it. 

I need to update the to do list and think about meals as of Monday Nano (National Novel writing month 50,000 words Nov 1st to 30th... https://nanowrimo.org/ )

Blessed Be everyone

 

No frost yet.

We haven't had our first frost yet, it's about a month behind.  A little scary with how warm it still is. The weather is cool in the mornings and mostly warm in afternoons except the few times we have gotten rain (we need lots more).

Furnace is on 70 until bed time, it goes up to 72 *which puts where Hubby sleeps up to 70. I just shut vents mostly (not all the way as HVAC guy said the could damage our furnace but 1/2 half way shut was okay) When he gets up around anywhere from 3 to 5 a.m. he turns it down to 70.  I turn it to 68 when he goes to work and when raising bread I use a heating pad.

 The oil lamp is lit in the mornings instead of turning on the light.

A candle is lit at supper instead of turning on the light. 

Laundry is on drying racks or clothes line. 

I inventoried my baking supplies and then grains. Baking supplies were good, grains we were almost out of barley and farro but the rest is good. I am also low on chia seeds. What is needed is now ordered at lowest price I could find. I was surprised that none of the bulk stores didn't carry any type of barley. 

I went through two cookbooks wrote by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. It is Monastery recipes. I also went through another one "The American Woman's cookbook (1948) by Ruth Berolzheimer. I pulled recipes that we have most of the ingredients.  Both had turnips and radishes in recipes and I have plenty ready to pick in gardens. Lettuce should be ready this week also.

We talked about ham and Hubby wanted another turkey for bagging as shredded. I told him we would wait until after Tday unless the price drops. I would like one ham for the freezer and another to cook in the next week. We'll see what that price is. Hubby wants 3, one whole for freezer, one in slices and bone for soup and one now.

I wrote the grocery list based on the recipes I got from the cookbooks. Hubby whined a bit about soups until I pointed out that most were potage type soups aka thick or stew type. 

We then had a round about whether or not Boston baked beans (or any baked beans) were a side dish or main dish. Just in case you are interested

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_baked_beans

I did ask how bean soup could be a main dish but a bake bean (aka casserole style) couldn't be. He told me his family never ate bean soup, not even his grandparents. So he texted his mom to make sure he was thinking right and she said his great grandparents on her side ate a thick bean soup but not her parents or them. and his dad's side didn't at all. She really couldn't answer why. Since he is always willing to try any food at least twice. So he didn't say anything when I fixed the meal the first time . All the kids love bean soup, fried potatoes (or fried potatoes and onions) and corn bread. 

Some people are just not soup eaters. He loves red beans and rice, Jambalaya, and Cuban black beans and rice. Refried beans are welcomed once a week LOL. My parents ate soup twice a day for years since that was what they had during and after the Great Depression.

We got the last of the watermelon dealt with . I still have apples, pumpkins and dried beans. Couple jellies, jams and tomato paste also. 

We will be combining doctor appts, banking, groceries and a few pit stops on Tuesday. Will be a LONG DAY. 

 

 

AND HERE WE GO

 I sat down yesterday and paid (or sat aside) Nov's bills. I forgot 4 items... all 4 auto pays. Added them into the SS budget as we now call it and instead of having $1.70 left, we are over by $78. IF we get the raise in SS like they say, we will have a lot more at the end of billing.

I talked it over with Hubby when he got home from putting ramp on front of parents home. 

I showed him what we pulled between both IRAs and SS last year. Also supporting Daughter 4 was 1/4th of that amount. Plus we sold her our car so that was a drop in ins. (I hated the car but was what we could afford cash wise at the time). 

I suggested we use His IRA (which we weren't going to use at all) to cover medical *$6400 out of pocket, propane $3000 IF we can keep the heat like we did last year, $1200 for 2022 Christmas and $240 for the umbrella farm ins. That puts us back down to social security and my inherited IRA. We decided part of it would go in savings for the medical, we can put the rest in 11 month CDs (no penalty if pulled sooner).  I'll do small CD's so anything we don't need can be rolled over for 2023 which is when Hubby goes on Medicare. This year I had 2 surgeries by Feb. that wiped out my share of the out of pocket. Hubby never has wiped out or even used half his out of pocket but about the time I don't put it aside he will need it. That's why I figure we will end up rolling over part of it. 

I sent budget to both our IRA guys. they felt that was really good as when they figured it out we were dropping the budget by almost 60% .We figured the in social security could cover clothing, shoes, groceries and stocking up. 

Sam,coffee, money, & Thyme

 Here you go

What's on Top of mind?

Getting the last of watermelon and apples (including picked) dealt with

Getting the last 20 areas of home done of seasonal cleaning by Oct 30.

Getting things around for new budget

Where I've been

SIGH too many hospitals and Amish home to keep everyone updated. THANKFUL everyone is home.

Where am I going?

This coming week MY OWN doctor appts, Hubby's hearing aid appt., grocery store, and drop Son 2's check off to our mechanic 

What am I reading?

Nora Roberts Chronicles of One Book 2 of Blood and Bone

Ruth Berolzheimer The American Woman's cook book

Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette From a Monastery Kitchen 

What am I listening to?

Silence. I've had enough of noise of any kind. OH and the dogs barking  but shut up usually when I yell ENOUGH.

What am I watching?

Weather and only weather

What I am eating..

what ever is coming out of the freezers , with suggestions from granddaughter 

Who am I paying attention to?

Hubby, Rascal, Charlotte, and ME MYSELF AND I as I am trying to get a head cold.

Who needs to be (figuratively) slapped?

Son 2 who hasn't did any exhaust work on his car in 8 yrs.

What is making me smile?

Homemade rice pudding with raisins using cooked rice that will go with the frozen stir fry meals on the menu for tonight  with store bought fortune cookies

I was a widow and lived on survivor benefits

 My late husband dropped dead at age 39. We had 4 children and his sister (same age as our oldest) in the home. No health ins to cover the hospital. No life insurance to cover the funeral and bills and no savings to cover anything including the amounts of the utilities. AND WORSE NO WILL.

It took 3 months for survivor benefits to kick in BUT since I had applied all the little help we were getting like WIC ended within a month of him dying.

I sold everything I could to keep the utilities on (didn't put one in my name because they wanted $300 to do that, in fact when I remarried they wanted that to put it in Hubby's name. We didn't do that) and the mortgage paid.

The his sister went to a cousin and his oldest we were raising went back to her mom. They both tried to take what was left in the house and the house. Thankful that the Judge not only sided with me but ordered them to pay MY lawyer for the extra costs.

The home we owned we had only 6 months and it was ONE step from being condemned when we bought it. 

Within 4 years, we (as my kids worked right by my side) paid off the negative estate , doubled the value of the home and had a savings. I worked 3 part time jobs so I was always home when my kids were. We did yard sales once a week in the summer. Then Hubby came back in my life (high school sweetheart).

We have a will(due for updating next year) we have life insurance and we have medical insurance. We have each other listed as beneficiary on IRAs.  I know what the social security benefit for me would be if Hubby dies before me. 

I also know that the car insurance, health ins out of pocket, propane , electric, water softener, his life ins, his cell phone, vehicle maintenance, garden, personal, groceries and eating out would go down, maybe not half but at least 1/3rd. That's equal to what I pay for right now. I would sell the work truck, livestock trailer and flat bed dove tail trailer. I might sell the tractor and all the equipment and my truck and get a newer truck with a plow on the front. Other wise E will be over here plowing me out like he does the other 2 elderly neighbors.

If I die before him, he already told me he was selling all the garden stuff, canning stuff and 80%( probably closer to 90% as he is a 1 pot cook) of the dishes ,pots and pans. Not including my meds are a lot more expensive than his. 

Still, know we are covered , I wonder if we are missing something. 

When we update the wills, we are going to prepay our funeral expenses. Both of my parents did that, Daddy wrote his obit. Said he wasn't putting me through what Mother did (I wrote her's the day of our Thanksgiving) .  We plan to do that also. Take that off the kids' backs.  

We also decided if we died together or went in nursing home. Son 2 who is in charge of us and estate is to have an estate sale/auction, everything goes. Son2 did happy dance as it's in writing so none of the other kids can cause a problem or they don't get any of the $$.

Do you have that stuff taken care of? 

Hubby changed his mind.

 This is from Erika at Makedohomemaker.blogspot.com  (2017)

I added to it when the pandemic hit. 

Hubby pointed at it yesterday and said he wanted to add to it.

I asked what he wanted to add.

His respondence was "living on social security only"

He has decided with out any decision that he wants us to live on social security only for 1 yr to see how hard it would be. Since he has the biggest income with his IRA, he can make the choice. It took me 2 seconds to tell him we would be short what I pull from Daddy's IRA. BUT pointed out how tight the budget would be, there would be NO extra paid on mortgage or projects done that we had to buy something or hire it done. No helping kids or his parents.  We could do birthdays but Christmas would not be covered in that budget.

He said work it out  

Okay, I went on computer and changed the budget and showed him how it would have to be. I pointed out the following which is where we usually have disagreements.

I did bring up restocking. He wants to not restock until next fall but agreed to restocking with sales and then agreed to a certain amount set back as we both know it can take a bit of time to get cash from an IRA if you don't have it set up.

Propane. I prefer 68 to 70 for heat . He prefers 72 to 74 (worked over 30 yrs at furnaces in factory). I told him heavier shirts, slippers on his feet instead of just socks and use a blanket when he is sitting.  We decided on 70.

Electric. I will run the furnace fan full time (we already know that helps with cold spots) BUT I brought up he doesn't need to leave a light on by his chair and two at the desk in the front room. He doesn't need to leave his laptop on all the time and he doesn't need to put the tv on sleep for 60 minutes when he goes to sleep in 30. I really wished he would just turn it off but he is has had this habit since he was 16 and had rheumatic fever. He needs He added he quit plugging in his LED candle in the wheelchair bathroom as he found if he left the curtain cracked he could see well enough through the night with our security light.  I will not turn on my bedroom light  by the bed until I go to bed. Habit of turning it on when I close curtains so when I go to bed I don't step on Rascal who is BLACK. Means I have to walk around the bed 3 times dealing with lights, I laughed and said more steps for my Fitbit (which is under medical budget as it lets me know when my heart is racing). He suggested I use the bathroom candle he isn't using. He has adapted to less AC (since we only turn it on when Wilbur was panting, we will do the same for Rascal gets to that age ).

We by passed any bill that is set or already to the lowest we can.

Christmas is based on what ever we can afford.

Food processing this budget is at ZERO. I have plenty of canning jars (HA HA), vacuum bags, freezer bags, foil, saran wrap, press and seal wrap etc to go 2 years if I can careful.

Garden costs is set at $20/month. I need a little bit of soil for some of the boxes , I  and 1 type of tomato seed. 

Home maintenance is  $20/month. I usually use Menards rebates to refill this except for the frig filter. I buy it by every other year. We won't have much in rebates since we are not doing any projects that we don't have materials already. 

Cleaning items is $20/month. The only thing I don't have a year's worth is for the dishwasher soap. Well I might if I am the one putting the soap in. Hubby follows the directions. I use about half of that.

Personal. $10/month. I really couldn't think, we both checked, of anything we needed but felt something might pop up so it's in there.

Paper goods $5/month. Another one I don't see needing for awhile and can wait for sales

Office supplies.$5/ paper and ink, stamps (next fall) 

Eating out .... I said $40, that's one sit down meal at our local restuarant or take out Chinese. He said $120. We agreed at $80. But that doesn't include birthday or anniversary. 

Groceries ... I had cut it to $200, now I have it at $150. I did ask M and B(E's mom) what they spend at the store and how often. Both buy lemon lime soda(7 up for B as her hubby won't drink anything else) . Both said around $70  to $100 if there is non food products. They both said twice a month. Once themselves (usually their hubbys) and once with an Englisher going to Aldi's that is not in this area.  I am really stocked well now except for ham. Hubby thought another turkey( I have a 20lb one in freezer) and 3 hams for stocking. SO it's up for debate. 

According to USDA thrifty plan we should be spending $426.70 on food (not junk food or non food products) a month. I can say my in laws spend that much but I see a lot of snack foods that neither of them should be eating due to diabetes and weight issues. I know where Hubby got his snacking from. As a kid they had a snack bowl(5 qrt bowl) that they munched through twice a day. I was told to get a drink of water. 

We will see how this goes. Hubby wanted to start it NOW but I pointed out we had to pay J for the two porches, an exhaust system for Son 2 (Hubby told him he could make payments), Daughter 4's last payment. PLUS he wanted to add 3 hams and another turkey and he is not fooling me, he will order a prime rib for Christmas eve.  I got him talked into starting Dec except for groceries. 

 

Odds and Ends.

 

I was going through a lot of papers that I kept in the Christmas notebook This is from 1995 .. Kt (daughter 2) was in 10th and Blane (son 2) was in 7th.  Blane called it hoarding and Kt thought it was funny I would have something over 25 yrs like that. Hubby asked why I had it all listed. Because there was more than one faith in our family and I listed them all. 

You know how some families point and say I am the same faith as my great grand parents.. Not my family. I am not sure if ANYONE was the same faith while living in the same house. 

Daughter 4, Son 2 and I have been struggling with menu... so Daughter 4's daughter is now in charge of sharing HER menu.

We had 123 pasta Saturday with cheddar biscuits

Sunday we had meatloaf, baked sweet potato, green beans and pineapple.  

Monday was pork butt roast with roasted veggies. 

She usually does menus on Wed. Last week she had goulash, Son 2 thought it sounded good but definitely made too much as he ate it 4 meals in a row. Had no freezer room as he had just bought a couple roasts LOL. I have been pulling from the freezers and pantry. Daughter 4 doesn't go to the store until she get the "menu".

My to do list is down to 25, I have 7 phone calls to make tomorrow, (hubby has one and has to go make the truck payment) and counted a 10 different veggies and a fruit that need processed in the next week. It was up to 32 but I did some things that were on the internet to get it down. Today, I planted over 100 bulbs of flowers part of them were in real bad shape but they were free so I planted that was on the list for a couple weeks from now. We'll see how it goes if they grow or not. Total now is 42 divided by 11 days left to get it done is 3.8 a day. I get the phone calls done and I will have done 2 days LOL. There is one day of appts so I won't get anything done on that day.

We needed humidifier filters (2 per humidifier) I found them on sale so ordered enough to get through this heating season.

 While looking for that I found adjustable window screens. Hubby had priced new screens made for our windows at $65 each. We need 9. we decided to get the old fashion ones that we will be sticking in the windows until we replace the windows. I got found them for $12 with a $3 off each code. Then got another $3 off total order and 5% cash  back on my credit card. Well worth looking for something else since we plan to replace these windows in 5 yrs.

E let us know last night that his daughter's appendix burst when they started surgery BUT since she was already in to the surgery it wasn't bad.  We checked on the older kids that was home and the eldest let us know they had an older cousin staying with them to help with chores. They spent today at the cousin's family (E's oldest brother).  Hubby just left to go get E and M and child from hospital. I sent 2 pillows, a light blanket (she had no coat when she went) and a small trash can just in case. Hubby took water bottles for every one. Hubby went and told E's family , his family was going to send a message to M's side through a Mennonite. I hope the families go help E and M to play catch up on chores and getting ready for winter.

Hubby installed a solar charger for the electric fence we have between us and the pond. One of E's horses likes to lean over the wire fence and play nip on Charlotte. Only took one zap (both got zapped and she raised up to touch the fence in same area) and both now stay off the fence but it's not costing us anything. They still race each other down the fence line. Pretty much a tie according to E.

E &M child is home late Sunday night. The 4 little ones came home Monday afternoon as B thought it would be better for M and child to have some quiet. M's brother sent one of his older girls (he has 6 girls and 6 boys) to help this week.

Monday: I cleaned all 3 frigs, Hubby took trash to the road for Tuesday 5:30 AM pick up. I hemmed 4 pants of mine, mended 1 shirt of Hubby's and he has already tore another shirt, 2 bras, 1 dish cloth and 1 wash cloth. I made 12 meals of taco meat and bagged the mushrooms into paper sacks (they will last longer.) Got 4 phone calls done. Checked on daughter 1 who had wrist surgery. She's doing fine except it's her dominate hand LOL. Hubby got one of his calls done, second one to call back and has to go to hearing aid place to get his hearing aid cleaned.

LORD what a week... it's only Tuesday and it feels like it is been a month instead of a few days. 

Hubby's one hearing aid is not working so they sent it in for repair or replacement. So he's down to only one...we should have realized it wasn't working as I kept asking him if he had them in when I was to the right of him which is the one that isn't working. It's under warranty so it's free.

I got my IRA dealt with over the phone so I don't have to drive 30 miles one way to deal with it. That's done for this quarter. Mine averaged 20% earnings.

Hubby got his IRA dealt with over the phone (60 miles one way). That's done this quarter. Hubby's averaged 12% earnings.

We will have to go in person in Dec. 

I got my Humira ordered, sharps container ordered and 2 doctors offices to call me back when they can figure out when to schedule me. One actually had their "scheduler" program fail, just totally fail. They don't know who is coming in when at this point. No back up system at all.

I canned 14 pints of Russian Salad ( zucchini, tomato, bell pepper)

I canned 12 pints of butternut squash and 2 pints of acorn squash.

Hubby went to 3 different Menards to get the last of the stuff for the kitchen porch, 4 outdoor timers for Christmas lights and some new roller handles and paint roller fills. I should have had him get brushes also as we are done to just a couple. 

We are having pigs in a blanket for supper. It's what is in the frig LOL.

How is your week going?

Here we go again. and some good news

FIRST  Daughter 4 got her 1st  and 2nd check at once. She did a happy dance. They were concerned since her 1st check didn't go through for direct deposit so they gave her a pay card for her 2nd check and then worked out the issues with the direct deposit with the small 1st check. She is grateful Son 2 and we strongly insisted we pay her this month even though she was getting checks. As her landlord doesn't do credit cards/pay cards she can pay him with what we paid her that is in the checking acct. and use the rest for utilities, groceries and gas and maybe fix the car where the deer hit her (in front of a state cop, he sent the video from his dash cam to her so she could give it to her ins). We all cracked jokes about another hit and run of  her new to her car( 1st one was totaled and the cops still think the trash truck did it but no witnesses or evidence). At least her ins will cover this if it's more than the deductible. Her son in law thinks his brother and him can pop it out since it's on the door.

 M and E's oldest daughter got sick late Wednesday night. Since a cousin had been over and had caught the flu and they don't think she was over it completely,  they thought flu.

Thursday M sends note they can't get her stopped throwing up, did I have any ideas besides the 5 miles long list they had tried. I sent gas x (she was burping a lot) and Alka Seltzer for colds and flu. That helped a lot when I checked on her in the evening last night. She was keeping fluids and food down and feeling a lot better.

This morning at 4:15, ( It's Friday right?)M was at our door as the child woke up with pain in the area of appendix. Hubby had jury duty so I'm the driver. E called (other neighbor keeps a cheap cellphone charged in his garage for the Amish ) local hospital and they don't treat kids that young (she's 11 going on 12). So told him to go to Marion.

SO E and I took child to Marion who ran MRI and couldn't tell if she had ruptured so then they ran a CT scan and said her appendix had not burst but had a small rupture and since waiting for transport through the hospital would be 3 hrs. and then a 1 1/2 hr. drive to Children's hospital as they don't operate on children that young. (GRR, might as well drive straight to children's)The doctor was agreeable for me to transport even though he understood it would be 3 hrs. I made it in 2 hrs. before I could get her there, gave child a pain shot. and off we went.

Since I had Son 2's car that DIED OUT in E's driveway when we were heading to Marion. We came back, I dropped E and child off, stopped and let my dogs out while I grabbed truck key. Then I switched vehicles with Hubby who's truck was in the bank parking lot where the jury was told to park. Texted him so he could check at breaks or lunch of what was going on. Stopped back to get dogs back in house. Picked up Child , M and E ,made pit stop to drop off youngest 2 as the 2 older boys walked across the pasture behind us as the hay pastures join between the two families, at neighbor around the corner and another pit stop to update E's mom .

 E called another driver to pick up his parents this afternoon to bring them to Children's and his Mom will spend the night with M and child. Then driver could bring him and his dad back to take care of chores and get the older 5 over to his parents. So I am not on driver duty tonight. He knows Sherm is got a limit of drive time around 10 hrs. so he figured that counted for me also. It's a state number thing with being a commercial driver.

I told E that Hubby was hauling with his dad on early Saturday morning and was hauling for M's brother in the afternoon. But he could work in going after them at hospital if he need him to as both hauls can be put off until next week.

At this time the hospital thought they might keep her one or two days depending on the seepage  from the rupture. Since E had his burst, he definitely understands the reason why they can't say exactly when she can come home.

All 3 of them went to sleep while I was driving to Children's. 

Operating room was already prepped and they were waiting for us as E called the ER at Children's and told them when we were 30 mins away. So that helped everyone also.

I got 5 hrs. sleep last night. My rear hurts from sitting in a vehicle 9 1/2 hrs. since I couldn't go in with them (COVID rules) and it was raining so I couldn't even get out and walk around the parking lot. Blowing storms I stay put.   I don't know how Hubby just zones out while being a driver like he does. He did say it's hard when he can't go in with them and time drags forever. But since I knew how long MRI and CT scan takes and normal time of waiting for results ...I wasn't wondering what was going on as E used hospital phone to let me know that. 

Now there will be 3 households behind on things, E & M's ours and E's parents. 

Oct 11th

 This month is flying by. We have taken the summer gardens down, I put row cover on the fall/winter gardens

The first one is how they look now. When it gets to a frost or freeze it will look like the second one. I replanted some in bare spots were I had already harvested.

Instead of horses we have the guinea hens visiting the pond. Rascal was frisky that day. Charlotte is always frisky

The hens just ignore them. 

Daughter 4's daughter got married in a small wedding at the preacher's house which is her new hubby's uncle. Five generations was representing his side, four on our side. Daughter 4 looked at me and realized it's my generation that is the oldest now .It kept the focus on the vows and not on a big wedding. GD said she has seen that those with big wedding crash and burn a couple years down the line when times get hard. But those that kept it small haven't. I told her it was not the amount spent of the wedding but the attitude of why it was spent that crashed. Thoughts of "I deserve expensive things given to me" will wreck your life. GOOD life not based on money.

M is doing a lot better, she still has help come in after E had the 4 little ones for a day and complained he didn't get anything done ... then laughed and hired someone to at least come in half days. He's taken to working on the upstairs (drywalling) when he is on childcare duty. M and I just laughed and laughed. 

I spent yesterday playing with the budget since Daughter 4 comes off OUR budget beginning of Nov. Still tinkering with it.

Fine tuning the last of the outside projects that to be finished this month. Right now it's more of getting him to quit changing what is planned and just get it done. We went a couple rounds about the roof over the basement ramp. J who is doing the porches stopped by to tell us 7 -14 days he is coming in to do both porches in 1 day. Bringing the work trailer and full crew. Hubby asked him what he would do for the roof... it was exactly how I said to do it. GOT TO SMILE.

I started with 76 items to get done this month I did that list on the 3rd. As of this morning I am down to 38. I told Hubby since he isn't hauling Tuesdays that he can get on his own jobs. He didn't looked thrilled with that but he could actually finish some stuff in a day or two if he quit putting it off. He is a procrastinator which has been a hard learning curve for me as my entire family is "let's get it done and off the list".

ANYWAYS

After spending time with the budget I tinkered with the grocery list. I have 4 things in the frig I bought 2 wks ago still not touched. Still good but not even opened. HUM... 

We decided to go to Kroger's or Walmart once a month and then 2 wks later go to either Aldi's (if M needs something) or Save A Lot.  

Got to get at it.. back to the to do list

Blessed be

 
 

taking a break

 8 A.M. and I am on the second load of laundry. First load is on kitchen porch line. 

Hubby figured out that I have "save" $11.55 a month using the clothes line each month. I will save $13.76 using the clothes line when doing seasonal washing (bedding for 5 beds, 15 sets of curtains, 3 loads of clothing, furniture throws and dog beds).

I am down to washing curtains (those that are hanging and those that was in storage).

I have 3 dogs beds still.

I have 2 loads of throw rugs.

Then I will clear the gardens and garden shed if I can before the rain comes in on Saturday. If the hornets go away, I might be able to pick a few more apples. I'm highly allergic so it's not worth the risk.

Monday I got 60% of work done

Tuesday I got 99% done

Wednesday I got 15% done

That's an average of 58% done. Hubby asked me what that meant. I told him that meant instead of 15 things to do I was to cut back to 10. I think he wanted me to say 7 or 8 instead. 

Got to go hang curtains on the line.

To do list

 It's going to be a big push as we start heading into the colder months.

In the Garden :

Clear remaining boxes of summer crops. 

Cover late fall/ early winter boxes with row cover

Air dry calla lilies to replant next spring.

Clear flower garden of bulbs. Will transplant hosta next year and put in weed barrier and stones instead of plants. This area gets no direct sunlight but tons of WEEDS coming off the pasture across the yard.

Transplant black raspberries as they are too young to put in ground yet but getting too big for the pots they came in.

Transplant orchids (just finished blooming) 

Transplant philodendron

Trim herbs

Organize flower bulbs that need planted in Oct. Get said bulbs planted in the north garden. 

Plant garlic after 1st frost.

For the house:

Prep the kitchen porch for it to be torn off this coming month. I have paint the support posts and the ceiling before they tear the rest off.

We will be getting all the winter bedding, throw blankets, clothes etc  washed and put away, all the summer stuff will be cleaned if needed and put into storage.

I will start do fall cleaning with the hope to get all 23 areas done by the end of Oct. 

 

what we saved this week

 $29.35  on bank fees each.. this has been all year but it just dawned on me (duh) that this savings should be either going on the mortgage or in a savings acct.

We were given produce. So the menu got changed LOL. 

I was able to split the leftover chuck roast into 5 meals in the freezer. We had philly steak subs (sub buns given to us) instead of philly steak pizza but some of the meat is now in freezer listed for pizza. I also put a bag in for what I fondly call blue plate special (shredded meat over mashed potatoes or bread dressing or both drowned in gravy with corn or green beans as a side along with coleslaw and some hot dessert) and some for 123 pasta or stir fry plus a bag for beef and noodles   

I had a flank steak, it's now 3 meals of London Broil, satay and stir fry/123 pasta. I was given a tip beef roast. It's in freezer. 

I was given more butternut and acorn squash and a couple small watermelons. I will can(pressure can) the squash. I am not sure if the watermelon is good but if nothing else I will use the rind to pickle and can. 

Hubby found cube steak marked down as he went to store for one of the Amish. He asked the meat dept. if they would mark it down more since it was at the end of the day for it to sell. He got it for 1/4th of what the original price was. I floured it and baked it with gravy. We ate it for 3 meals.

I harvest harvested peas. Found another zucchini and golden zucchini.  

We ate 5 meals off menu after I added a few to do what was given.

We went back over the budget... have some large bills being paid end of Sept and again in Oct to finish projects.

I priced what I have on my master grocery list at different stores  and made notes on the original list of where to get what. A few things will no longer be bought as I am not willing to pay $7 for a bag of California Blend veggies. 

We got back $68 on our cash back credit card. It went toward a coat for Hubby for this winter. That leaves him only needed wool tube socks size 13-16. Hard to find in tube socks.

I got a $45 refund due to a mistake that the company caught. 

Blessed Be

HA HA menu plan

I do great at making a menu... I suck at staying on menu.

So in no order of when we will eat what. On the menu

beef and noodles, mashed potatoes and cole slaw or salad

123 pasta (one onion, 2 cups protein, 3 cups or more veggies and 1 lb. pasta..sauce floats) and salad

bfast for dinner... use leftover steak from Sunday for omelets or egg burritos, French toast with pie filling.

fried cabbage, fried potatoes with onions and corn bread  Might chop leftover smoked sausage in cabbage if enough left over.

philly cheese steak pizza with salad

Breaded fish with French fries and coleslaw. 

stir fry (what ever needs used up in frig) fried rice (actually it's yellow rice with onion, peas and carrots), eggrolls and pot stickers aka fried dumplings.

Hubby says we will do 3 meals the least. I say 4. Both of us will be shocked it is all of them. LOL

16th to the 20th

Thursday:

 Amish started working on the front porch. Hubby has to move the fence and due some filling in with gravel before they can build the ramp that will go on it. 

Since I was so tired but couldn't just sleep away the day as I was the only one home so the one to answer questions.

I caught up the mending.3 of Hubby's shirts, One of his work pants. Of mine there was a skort, shorts, and 4 bras that the cups kept coming out of  in the laundry. I also mended 2 hand towels and 2 face cloths. 

Just getting that done made it a good day. 

I also wiped down all the canning I did last week but I didn't carry it to the basement. I can do that tomorrow.

Having leftover chuck roast , mashed potatoes  and corn.

Friday:

I carried all the recent canning down and put them away. Straightened 2 shelves. 

I harvested peas, shelled them and put them in pan in freezer to flash freeze.

I harvested concord grapes and using my new steamer made grape juice. I thought about making grape mash jam from the stuff left and decided against it. I have enough canning to do. 

We talked about getting rid of that grape harbor. We have 2 other grape harbors that should start producing some next year. This harbor is right next to the curve in the driveway. I really would like Hubby to take it out and straighten that section as much as possible by widening the driveway.. which lead to the conversation that he is still putting 2 wheels in the yard when he leaves and pulls in. We need to widen the driveway at the asparagus on the asparagus side. I think it will also help him as he keeps thinking he is going to hit the mail box. Can't move the mail box as there is no other place for it due to the country drain ditch. SO that was put on the punch list.

We had chicken wraps for supper.

Saturday:

I bagged frozen peas. We now have 18 meals. It's been a very slow harvest. If I was canning I would have never got enough at one time to can even a pint. By freezing even 1/2 cup is doable. 

Hubby hauled. Produce auction is having their annual pumpkin sale on Tuesday. S has 4 if not 5 loads to go. Hubby started hauling the first on today. He will do 2 more on Monday and possible another on Tuesday. It will be a mad house at the auction as a lot of the local stores have people coming in to buy for their stores.

We straightened up the front porch area. He stabilized the steps we are using for right now. Not sure if we will leave steps on that end when the ramp is up because that is where the ramp starts in the driveway. We might put steps at the other end of the ramp and change the fencing in that area as I wouldn't want to walk up that close to dogs if I didn't know them and they carried on like ours does.

We had leftovers for supper

Sunday:

The day of rest and we took it. We did talk about getting through the rest of the boxes, extra furniture, Daddy's stuff etc. as we just had some friends have to hire help to clear a parent's home and that was after 2 yrs. of being in assisted living home and them tossing stuff on a regular bases. Like Daddy's some of the wooden furniture had dry rotted so bad it couldn't be fixed. 

We decided to finish clearing the barn (house is done except for extra dishes) by next summer. I am 2/3rds the way through the front bay.

 Hubby has the last stall done and is going to put the tractor and it's equipment in that stall. Middle stall is half done, (he thinks mowing equipment and the motorcycle. The stall at the door..the south side of it is a kennel for the dogs if needed and he wants to put  his work truck on the northside so he can plug it in during the winter . He has a diesel truck and it needs the heater to be on during winter. 

The big bay and the loft over it is not been touched at lot. Goal is to have gone through EVERY THING by next summer.

I fixed shrimp cocktail, T-bone steak, twice baked potato and salad for supper.

Our tv started messing up today. Hubby sent pic to Son 1 and he said it was dying. BUT did tell us what he just bought himself as his had just died. We bought it in the spring of 2014. 

Monday:

I called 2 doctors that I am over due for check ups. Neither are taking patients at this time due to high rate of covid. I won't bother to try again as it's been a month now for the same reason. It's getting worse not better around us.

I harvested 2 zucchini, 1 golden zucchini, 1 cucumber, enough green beans to make a meal for us tonight and maybe 1/2 cup of peas that went in the freezer. 

Hubby hauled a couple more loads of pumpkins for S and then picked up a load of pallets from another Amish that's driver that had to cancel due to truck breaking down. 

We are having green beans, leftover mashed potatoes and beef and noodles for supper.

sitting just sitting...

 Why?

I am tired.

 I had 3 medical appointments on Monday, another on Tuesday late afternoon , and one more on break of dawn Wednesday. OF COURSE all were more than an hour away. I have one scheduled next week and have 3 more doctors to call for appts to catch it all up and get it done this year as my out of pocket is maxed out. I also will be getting the flu shot mid Oct and then Nov call to schedule my back injections. 

I got this month groceries bought in the home, not all dealt with. I found a 20 lb. turkey for 89 cents/lb. .

I have cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash , watermelon and watermelon rind, peas, apples, grapes, hamburger, steak, cube steak , sausage patties , steaks and the chuck roast I baked last night to deal with.

I have a laundry basket of mending to do

I haven't started my weekly cleaning let alone fall cleaning. 

I haven't wiped down the jars I just canned and taken them to the pantry nor shelled the dried beans 

I haven't picked peas in two days, or the other dried beans that need pulled or work at clearing the garden beds that are done.

What have I done besides run to medical appts ?

I had a light stroke that got missed amongst the busyness of the season. It showed on the head MRI that was ran for other reasons, ruled out MS and tumors.

Left side that affects vision, language and memory.  It has not affected it enough for Hubby who is a EMT to notice it. Or even my doctor that I see every 3 months. I still read nightly, I still run my mouth... which neither comment to my brother or girlfriend went over very well but our kids thought it was funny.

I already have been doing all I can to keep my heart healthy since I was BORN with left side heart failure. I had a nasty fall awhile back and they now think either the fall causes the stroke or maybe the stroke caused the fall instead of my cerebral palsy. Six one , half dozen another. My attitude is IT DOESN'T MATTER ... it just is. 

My doctor who I see this coming week already called me to let me know that I just need to eat healthy, get exercise and not watch all the negative news. I'm okay. 

But right now I am drained and tired so it's a day of doing nothing. 

Daughter 4's first week back to work

 Monday morning , actually it was more afternoon as she walked in her home, let the dogs out, left the back door open (yard is fenced in) fed and watered them, sat down to drink coffee and went to sleep... I sent text at 8 am when she should have been get home asking how it went... that afternoon the answer was EXHAUSTING. She played for 2 hrs. with the dogs in the early afternoon and then took another nap before work.

Tuesday afternoon as she figured I would be between medical tests and bored she sent that she had nearly got ran over by another scooter, that person got in trouble, she forgot to stop completely before getting off her scooter and twisted her knee, but finished the order and got it to packing before seeking medical and filing paperwork and got HERSELF IN TROUBLE as she was suppose to STOP and take care of HERSELF first not finish the order.

Wednesday afternoon... the manager in her came out ... They need to do a better job of training and more hands on training coming from the trainer to the trainee. She is good with the job, as she put all companies have issues. Loves the benefits and is glad I made her promise me to NOT sign up for over time if it was offered this week. She is EXHAUSTED. 

Glad she is working only 3 days a week and not the 5 she would have been at the old job.  I did tell her she would need those days to recover for a couple weeks.

Why I cancelled Sam's club and other memberships

 I am glad Sam asked. 

First when I look at taking a membership or subscription I ask myself these questions... does it save me money? does it save me time? Do I learn something from this? Is this helpful in any way, shape or form? (more of this at end)

Our Sam's club is 45 minutes away. 

 If we walk through the store we end up with 3 flat bed carts. We buy the OH LOOK AT THAT... stuff that should be OH WE DON'T NEED THAT  stuff. Junk food to be sold in other stores in my pantry LOL.

We did 2 curb side pick ups during pandemic. There was limits and somethings were out of stock.  SO basically I paid around $25 each trip as my membership is $50 about. At that point it was worth it to kept us out of the stores as neither of us was vaccinated. Our Walmart and Kroger's (Kroger's is now closed) didn't have anything of my list. I did use instant cart a couple times.

Membership renewal was coming up so I looked to see if it was worth having.

45 minutes away along with at least an hour and usually two shopping and then 45 minutes back. ADD the cost of gas/wear and tear of vehicle  to get there and back. My time is based on $5/ hr. with mileage to cover truck is $1.75 (yes that is more that gov't allows on tax return but it reflects the true cost for this area AKA $5000 for entire brake system of truck)

 I compared what I was buying:

25 lb. flour (bread and all purpose) was actually more at Sam's than Walmart or GFS (Gordan food service, no membership required, 30 minutes away).FIGURE THAT ONE OUT of Walmart cheaper than Sam's.

25lbs sugar ... same thing , more than Walmart's or GFS

Yeast at 1 lb. was a bit cheaper at Sam's but cheaper at Amazon and could not get at bulk store.

SO I started comparing... where is my money best spent... I was NOT saving enough to cover the cost of going there let alone the membership. 

The Amish bulk store 15 minutes from us has it but they are higher priced than Sam's club and limited on what they have. But I can pick up some items that most regular stores don't carry. Like gelatin in bulk that I can store in old canning jars. Especially peach gelatin that is hard to find. 

GFS , my brother's favorite place for getting stuff for family gatherings (he is a retired school principle) is closer (30 minutes) and lower prices, generic for most items. 

Walmart and Save A Lot are the only grocery stores here. Both with in 10 minutes. Save A Lot has decent meat. Both stores acknowledge that Amish shop there and have items in larger amounts that those families would need to buy. 

Then I priced Amazon. The amount of tv shows Hubby watches covers the cost of the membership against the cheapest satellite tv shows we could find as cable is not out here.   Add the fact I saved over $600 on shipping last year and get 5% back on my credit card. 

IF we had a Meijer's here I would shop there. But the closest is 50 minutes from us.

We shop Kroger's and Aldi's biweekly if needed when already there for doctor's appointments.

We shop Save A Lot and Walmart here. 

I order from Amazon and some spices (not much herbs as I pretty much grow what I use) from .

We have memberships or subscriptions with the following

Amazon, shows for Hubby who zones out in front of the tv (finally is setting a timer to turn it off) , unlimited kindle for me as I am a read-alcoholic , free delivery most times. 

Seed Savers not only can I find heirloom seeds but it's a tax deduction for the membership.

Real Simple magazine. Recipes, time saving tips and I pass this to Daughter 4 who passes it to her daughter who passes it to a friend etc. I do not do auto renewal. I wait a couple months to find a good deal on it.

Milk Street magazine. This is Hubby's. He watches the shows, loves the recipes and gotten a few more quick meals that were really good on the table.I think this is one of the few things he reads 

AARP... lots of tips, great brain puzzles, discounts not so much in this area but was great where we lived before . We are looking at going that way with our taxes. Keeps me up to date with changes in Medicare etc.

MS 365. I tried open office and several times could not get it to work with things coming from Hubby's employer. 

We are thinking strongly of Norton 360 with LifeLock as we have free AVG. Three of the kids have it and it has been a blessing. Since I just dealt with my credit card number being stolen I know how bad it can be. This would fall under peace of mind.

We thought about a membership to Anytime fitness or YMCA , that's all that is here. BUT we know we won't drive 15 minutes (both on west side in town and we are east of town). The price was on the high side. Wished there was a planet fitness as I would have done that. We decided we would just wait until we qualified for silver sneakers. I picked up a Fitbit which paid for it's self when it caught I was having heart issues(again, some more , what ever). I have a Fitbit Sense with membership. 

 

    

 

We have a GFS (Gordon Food Service , they also supply restaurants) that sells to public 30 minutes away, no membership required. T

savings last week

 All the bills paid on time, credit cards due paid off. 

I was going to go back to the grocery store and get dairy and some freezer stuff... I didn't.

We ate from the gardens... ours and other peoples that was giving us stuff like 3 butternut and 2 acorn squashes and filled in with the pantry. I am still harvesting peas, onions and tomatoes.

We bought local honey from Amish. We got discount as Hubby hauls for them off and on.

We bought 4 pumpkins and got a discount as Hubby hauls for them twice a week. After they spend some time as decorations I will cook and dehydrate, then grind that to powder.

The front porch is getting redone on Thursday. We cleared it and I painted the bottom face boards using white paint left over from when we painted the house. I also painted 4 posts. If they can't be used on front porch (we can't see if the posts is actually the bottom feet of the porch floor) then they will go to the kitchen porch which makes me ahead on that project.

I planted 36 different variety of seeds in the fall garden. Hubby already had the hoops for low tunnels over the boxes. Now it's wait and see what comes up.

Doc sent looked over our blood work and let us know we are low in some of our vitamin areas and what they were. He wants us to eat the food not pop a supplement. 

I canceled Sam's club membership.

We open windows in morning and again in the evening. If it's about 85 in afternoon we run the AC for Rascal. He is black and gets hot and then throws up... I guess we are doing it for us to not have to clean throw up. ;) Electric bill was still below budget.

Blessed be