On the gross side.

 E wondered why I peeled out of our driveway and hauled butt down the road.

I cut my thumb on the mandolin while cleaning it. Did not feel it but definitely saw blood. After 15 minutes of not getting it slowed down let alone stopped. I drove into the Urgent care as Hubby was over an hour away working. Holding it above my head while driving.

In total it bleed for 45 minutes. I am not on any blood thinners and have been off the aspirin for over 2 weeks (thank heavens) due to going in last Monday for injections.  

yeah it caught the nail bed also . 

The glue dried purple and then Doc used steri-strips as he felt stitches would cause more issues and I had it pinched together so well he had to turn my hand to see the cut.

He said to let it come off on it's on. Probably 5-10 days and not use the pad of the thumb for at least 5 days . No getting it wet and use gloves while cooking. I have gloves .

Hubby took one look and added a wrap that I can slide on  and off to keep me aware to not use it. At night I had another one taped on and it was a good thing as I woke more than once to Charlotte licking the wrap. 

OH well.

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?