Picture day

 I keep the chair covered because she likes to dig at it. She took the boxes out of it also. Probably still smells like Daddy as it was from his home. He had bought it for me as I couldn't put my feet on the floor with any of his other furniture.

Well, she moved the pillow first , then stuck her butt up my armpit

Glad her tail always is in down position. 

This is the maple sapling Hubby dug up 6 years ago out of driveway of the farm house we were renting

I'll probably will have to cut those 2 tall branches off next fall. I am 5 ft 2 inches. 

These two maple saplings we bought this year. They were at my shoulders when we bought them.

The tallest is on the east side. Both get the same amount of sunlight.

The heart garden has some flowers reblooming

You can barely see the yellow specks of where the flower buds are

I have 8 roses and over 30 blooms between the 10 rose bushes on the back fence line

There have been 4-5 forecasts for this coming winter... NOAA  is the only one forecasting dry and warmer than normal all the rest look along the lines of this one

We are in the Artic blast zone of Ohio. Hubby decided everything else we were doing was at a stop as he is way behind on cutting wood. I actually turned the furnace on last night at it dropped to mid 40s during the night with a cold rain today. He's at the sawmill today getting free wood in exchange for running their front loader for them. E said they (his entire family) are behind on getting wood also since the crops came in more than normal. He still has field corn to deal with in the fields behind us, about 50 acres worth. They harvest the corn by HAND. It's not ready for harvest right now. 

 

Worn out but...

 Last of potatoes are harvested, last of zucchini and green beans and cantaloupe is harvested. 

Still have kale, onions, eggplant, tomatoes and watermelon... radishes in planters on deck are just starting to come up. Hubby wanted to do some extra work in the gardens so I didn't plant any more fall crops.

Now to process it.

Have a good one

Stay safe 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

1908

 was when Living on a Little was originally published. 

Great granddaughter is still in children's hospital. She had a VAD implanted as she's too young for shunt. She has to be 36 wks. and she's only 33. She's doing better for what she is going through. The brain bleed stopped, they will be checking again this week to make sure she hasn't started that back up. 

FIL is home from surgery. Still has catheter. Well be having home care to see what needs to be changed in the house for them to remain safely in the home and PT at home for now. Hubby took him home with MIL using their car. Notice FIL felt a little wobbly walking on the front room carpet so Hubby got him MIL extra walker. 

FIL told Hubby they don't have enough money for even one of them to go in the nursing home. The home they bought is not built for even a walker to go through the bedroom doors or bathroom door. Hubby offered years ago to widen the doors, grandson is electrician to move light switches. They said no. They didn't even want to put in a wheelchair shower. MIL has mild polio but was" I want to soak in the tub" mode... now she barely can get in and out of the tub to shower. Hubby came home last night and said he was thankful we made sure we could stay here and not go to nursing home due to the house. Daddy only had to move because the bathroom was not built for handicap and it would cost as much as his house was worth to change it. He lived in a poverty area in one of the best houses. Wasn't that way when he bought it 50 yrs ago.

The Roma beans have bloomed again so won't pull those.

Zucchini vine is half dead so Hubby said he would pull it. 

The cantaloupe exploded in the last down pour of 3 inches. PLUS I have new ones starting on the vines. Hubby is deciding it he want to put the exploded cantaloupe in the compost pile so they will grow there next year or the following like the freaking tan pumpkins do that we haven't planted in 2 years.

The watermelon vines are starting to die.

The goat's bag and ox heart tomatoes are turning red !!!! probably about 2-3 wks. and they will be done. UNLESS they bloom again LOL.

The red cherry tomatoes and golden cherry tomatoes are ready for picking again.

Let's see what is left in the garden....

All 10 boxes of potatoes are ready to dig. Eggplant and some kale. Might be mini bell peppers hiding under the one tomato plant.

We decided to plant fall garden... Hubby said he would rig a row cover over the trellis so it could go into Nov/ early Dec. He wants lettuce, radishes, carrots, and turnips. I am adding kale, mini bok choy, tatsoi mustard, Swiss chard, collards (daughter 3 requested), Chinese cabbage (Amish gave me seeds as they grow this as a fall plant),  and spinach, I am quite sure I can walk across the pasture and hand M an extra fresh veggies from the garden this fall as her gardens are wrapping up. Her tomatoes are about 2 wks. in front of mine.  I already have fall onions in.

Garlic bulbs to plant this fall start coming in Sept 19th. 

I will probably buy some sugar pumpkins, butternut, acorn squash and apples (for applesauce and fresh eating. Honeycrisp and Crispin have held for 6 months in the frig for me.

Best get at it. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

We had a hawk

 

I caught him just starting to fly off with what ever he caught. 

We saw an Eagle sharing a meal with the buzzards. 

Both of us are tired of eating zucchini, cucumbers, roma green beans, cantaloupe and watermelon. ( M said her family doesn't want anything that is coming out of the gardens right now either as she sent over corn)Thankful that I have enough of the green beans I can pull the plants. SO guess what is in the frig.... zucchini, cucumbers, roma green beans, cantaloupe, and now M's corn.

The red and golden cherry tomatoes have calmed down a bit. The "big" ones I use for canning is still mostly green but we have some medium size that just turning so I can  go pick them this weekend we can have them on sandwiches or as a side with cucumbers and onions.

LOL... 

First

 Charlotte waiting with her Daddy at Vet's

Charlotte wanting attention

The heart flower garden has filled in 

I run the dishwasher usually once a day. This is 5 gallons professional for 10 gallon water dishwasher. My dishwasher is 5 gallons so I will use half of what they say to use which is 1 ounce which is 2 tablespoons. I will use 1/2 ounce which is 1 tablespoon. SO I  have soap for 1280 loads. That's 3.5 years for us. 

Hubby asked for a colored tablespoon so he would know it goes to the dishwasher soap. I told him it didn't matter what color the tablespoon was as it needed to go in the dishwasher after he put the soap in... I'll be putting the soap in as he acted confused. 

Daughter 4 came up to clean the garden shed, she started in the 1st bay of the barn when she realized I still had not got through the last boxes of Daddy's stuff. Then she sorted the garden stuff that was in the 1st bay. While she was lecturing (admitting she struggles with letting things go), all of a sudden she stops and asks why I am having trouble getting up and down. Hubby answered, because we are old.  HUM. She offered to come up once a month if we can give her gas money and she can borrow her older son's car as he has the only car in the family that is safe to drive long distance. She has NO car as she blew her engine. That is the 3rd kid to do that. What part of check your oil and get your oil changed do they not understand SIGH. She told her dad that the idiot light didn't come on. 

I cleared the garden shed while she helped her Dad load the truck to take stuff to Goodwill. There is a truck load of garden pots to go to B or the other greenhouse. We have a couple tools we no longer use that I think M would take, a child's snow shovel for sure. The "trash" bags that need to go to trash is on the barn porch. ALL of them are bubble wrap or foam that no one around here accepts. Daughter 4 made sure I would finish the 1st bay as she put everything in front of the metal cabinets that has the toilet paper in LOL.

Ten bucks with the new job she won't be able to come up at all. BUT It's a good start and I now know not to give Hubby boxes for burning as he doesn't burn them.  I told him to take the large boxes over to M that we set aside. She uses them to cover the floor when they butcher. He said he will do that later this week, if not done by Friday I will do it .

He spent last night at the hospital with his Dad who had a tumor in his colon removed. They took 12 inches of the colon also. He has refused chemo. Seeing what it did to Mother at age 80, can't say I wouldn't do the same. Hubby is swinging by to see his mom and check to see if the grass needs mowed. His Dad can't do ANYTHING for another 7 weeks. No driving, no mowing, no house keeping as he runs the vacuum cleaner. NOTHING. MIL is going to be driven nuts.

Great grandbaby had VAD surgery as she's 33 weeks and they have to be 36 to have a shunt put in. She is doing better as the brain bleed has clotted.  She is sucking on a pacifier so they are looking at taking the feeding tube out this coming week if she sucks longer on the pacifier.  They have a bedside camera on her so her older sister (and her parents ) can look on the phone app and see how she is doing. Older sister says baby has a boo boo and tells her good morning and good night and she loves her. 

Hubby has been referred to ENT due to losing his voice in late afternoon/ evening. He called our primary as he had not heard anything for two weeks. They called the ENT, they are on vacation, so he wouldn't hear anything until probably the first week of Sept unless the partner comes in and starts earlier. Our primary doctor said it's taking longer and longer to get people into specialist. A lot of them are now checking with insurance to see if they can get paid. Once we go on Medicare, it shouldn't be as hard or long.

His appt with the neurologist is Nov 1st for testing for feeling in his legs and plan for his dementia. 

He did get a laugh , I was checking the calendar, checking my to do list and he asked what I was doing. I answered I thought I was forgetting something and was checking to see what it was.... he thought that was funny that I thought I forgot something. I did forget something, that was to finish fall cleaning the pump house. It's done now.

I am wore out already and it's only Monday.

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

Living on a Little by Caroline French Benton.

 I am not sure which blogger mentioned reading this but it sounded interesting so I got it on my kindle... then ordered the paperback. I took it in the car while we were running errands and going to visit his parents. Good conversation for us. I usually use my leftovers for lunch the next day, she remade her leftovers for another supper and used what bits were in the frig for her lunches. Even though she only spent $1 a day TOTAL for their food (her, hubby and maid or in this case her maid was her sister)... the line of planning is even correct for this day and age.  

The other day we went to check on Hubby's parents. His mom who has mild polio insisted we come for lunch. His Dad went in to surgery today to remove cancerous tumor in colon. He did fine. We usually go to take them out or visit at non eating times.

His mom had bought three times the amount of groceries as she doesn't drive much and wanted to just tell one of the family she just needed eggs and milk, maybe bread while FIL recovered.  The costs worried her as they haven't really stocked anything even during the pandemic as the store is around the corner maybe a half mile away. She is going to stock up some more because she doesn't think he is going to want to go out if it's really bad outside this winter. Stocking up she got away from while working in town. Just stop at the store on the way home. 

 She got a boneless whole ham that was on sale. She cut it into half slices so they could either eat it as a sandwich or as the main meal. Bagged most of it for freezer. Said it came out at $1 for meat at one meal.

 She took the slices that she kind of messed up (her words)while slicing it with an electric knife and used the best ones for our meal. She took the end pieces, diced them in her small food processor. She pan fried the ham with a little oil (yes she knows it's cooked but FIL wants it fried) and put it in the microwave on  6 minutes on level 1 to keep warm while she finished the meal ...

Now I am thinking it's going to take more than 6 minutes to get this meal together. 

She put the frozen veggies with a good splash of water in the pan and turned it on high. Turned the water for the instant mashed potatoes on high also. 

She put the diced ham in the skillet she fried the other ham in, tossed it around a bit then mixed up flour and a bit of water to make a paste and put it in, lowered that heat on that pan while waiting until the veggies were boiling. Turned the potato water down to simmer. Turned veggies off, drained the water into the pan with the ham bits and rue to make gravy, stirred it, decided she wanted it thicker, added more rue paste and then a splash of milk, a healthy pinch of ground black pepper and had me stirring it while she finished the potatoes. Turned off the microwave that had a 30 seconds left. Put everything in serving dishes and sat down to lunch. 

This 87 year old woman that could only make hamburger gravy and mashed potatoes at the age of 21 when she got married, now kicks butt in the kitchen. I made sure she knew it also and told FIL she was great in the kitchen.

Lesson, She didn't buy anything special for our meal, she used "scraps" to make the main dish, used veggie water (never have I thought to use that) for the gravy. She added cottage cheese and grape jam and a jar of pickles along with bread and butter to the table.  Something I grew up with (well not cottage cheese or jam) but don't do myself. I always had bread and butter on the table when the kids were growing up but neither Hubby or I are much of bread eaters even though our doctor just told us to increase our grains (he knows I bake or we get our bread from the Amish)

She texted me the next day and told me they had ham sandwiches with apple slices and baby carrots for supper and she diced what was left of ham, added it to the bit of diced ham she didn't put in gravy, chopped up the leftover veggies  and tossed it in water and when it got warm enough, she added the leftover mashed potatoes and leftover gravy and a splash of milk to make a cream soup to go with their  grilled cheese sandwiches for their lunch the next day and sent the leftover soup home with her one grandson that is single.  She told me she still struggles to not cook too much and toss it away as they don't have a compost pile like she did out on the farm. 

I looked at Hubby and told him what she did. He said he noticed she used smaller pans for the 4 of us that we do for the 2 of us. I texted her to find out what size pans she used.  I use 10 to 12 inch fry pans and 2-3 quart sauce pans. She uses 8 to 10 inch fry pans and 1 qtr. to 1 1/2 qrts  sauce pans. UNLESS she is making spaghetti, then she uses the 3 qrts. sauce pan.

I call my 8 inch fry pan the egg skillet as that's the only I use it for. Going to be changing that.

Have a good week, stay safe

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be 

Butt dragging.

 window casement windows protected

Still allows air so no mold when I open those windows to air out the basement.

A friend gave me her curtains as she bought new. I will be putting them up after I get done with the fall cleaning. I am thinking front room.

Hubby paid off the work truck (now called 350) and cancelled his DOT numbers. When they terminated he cancelled the business insurance. He has a refund coming and when it comes in , he can close the business checking acct. Taking longer to close it down than it did to get it up and running. 

Hubby bartered wood at Sawmill, their Englisher that runs the loader got his hours changed at work so he can't move wood during the day. He okayed Hubby running his loader especially since the sawmill pays all costs and maintenance of  it. It's not very often but every stick of wood for winter helps. We need 12 more cords of wood. E said there is about 1 back in the woods he needs Hubby to bring out and can have.

Daughter 4 is coming up to help clean out the garden shed. Hubby is going to fix the floor and then use it for a wood shed as N and E said if we fill it, we would have enough for the winter as it's what they used it for. She might get sucked into cleaning the front bay of the barn also since she just changed jobs(got laid off as they can't get supplies in) and is short on pay. BUT she already has another job that starts Monday.

We harvested all kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, Roma green beans, mini bell peppers, kale, thyme, basil, oregano, cabbages, cantaloupe, watermelon, tan pumpkins and golden raspberries.  Hubby asked me to not plant anything except the garlic next month. He's tired of eating "garden" as he put it. NOW if I plant something that will grow into late fall... that's okay. 

I spent $49 at grocery store, saved 47 %. I got very small (think they were cut from a small tenderloin) porkchops marked down to $3.98. I used them that night and the next day for lunch.  We will only need milk the later part of the month.

Hubby built braces for the two rose trellises at the deck for the climbing roses from scrap wood in the barn.

Since I had to clean up the mess in the basement, I got rid of 4 large boxes of stuff that we donated, had some things to go to recycling tomorrow and quite a few boxes that Hubby is drying out to burn later. 

Charlotte's allergies kicked up and she was bloody raw from itching. We got her into the vet for her shot. Twenty four hours later she is a lot better. I had ran out of eggs so she wasn't getting her daily egg... that won't happen again because within a few days her allergies went nuts. Hasn't had that problem all summer since I put her on egg daily. Vet doesn't understand what ever is in the eggs that stops her allergies but is glad we found out it did as the shots are $150 on top of office call.

Daughter's 4 daughter had her baby at 29 weeks at 3lbs. 15 1/2 inches . She had to have shunt surgery yesterday due to brain bleeds. Doing okay

Hubby's dad  is having surgery today to remove cancerous tumor plus 12 inches of his colon. 

Our primary doctor has referred Hubby to ENT (regretfully it's a 1 1/2 hrs. from us for this specialist as our regular ENT won't touch it) to find out why he keeps losing his voice mid afternoon to evening. Doesn't matter if he doesn't talk much or what ever. He had throat surgery in 2006/2007 due to polyps. Since he chewed tobacco, cancer could happen. Daddy lost his voice due to smoking even though he had quit years before he got the cancer. He feels like all he does is go from one doctor and test to the next... both his parents said YEP old age does that as both his brothers and sister already are doing the same. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed be

I am thankful for the rain

BUT Hubby spend 2 days caulking and flex sealing the casement windows.

We aren't the only ones trying to keep our head above water. Poor toad. 

It's been forever

 since I've be on. 

First

this happened... I thought Sh.., which one of the refrigerators or freezers took a crap and what was I going to be trying to can or pass to kids (it's okay with 6 kids and 10 adult grandkids). 

Nope it was the casement window Hubby forgot to finish caulking and flex sealing. I forgot I have to now check to make sure he completes jobs with his dementia, more like dealing with a teenager with ADHD been there more than once. And as big as the mess looks, the pile was my canning supplies. Tatter lids took the hit, which is nice as I can sanitize them and only lost 1 box of wide mouth metal canning lids. I lost all the empty card board boxes my  jars go in when they are empty. I am not putting anything back there until he can caulk and flex seal that window. I guess the 1.75 inches of rain we got was too much at one time.  Even with all that rain, it came down in a way the ground sucked it up.

Then I dealt with this 

 There is 6 cucumbers under the zucchini. I got 2 quarts of green beans, 9 quarts of tomato sauce, dehydrated the golden cherry tomatoes (red cherry tomatoes got toss in with other tomatoes) . I ate the broccoli, froze the grapes in the kitchen refrigerator. I shoved the zucchini and cucumbers in the frig. Onions are curing in the barn

THEN E sent the boys over with a wheelbarrow full of corn

SIGH. No room for a turkey now as the corn has taken it's spot. I got 53 meals out of this corn so we have a total of 79 meals corn. I also made corn cob stock and canned it , 18 pints for corn chowder, polenta, and mush, maybe the autumn stew from Home chef that Son 2 was doing would be good for it also. 

 (https://www.tastingtable.com/873145/the-absolute-best-way-to-use-leftover-corn-cobs/#:~:text=Perfect%20in%20sauces%2C%20stews%2C%20risottos,or%20vegan%20(via%20PBS). 

I then put the cobs on the metal table out by the barn to dry so we can use them for kindling. The sparrows have been picking at them.

THEN we had a tornado go through. It hit in town. E had a little wind damage to his one barn where the door blew off, said it must not have been shut all the way as the latch was still on the barn. We get one tornado warn a year... not something that happens much.

Then I did the finances and pointed out we are over budget. I also pointed out WHERE we are over budget. I got him to leave the credit card at home and we are working at him only buying what is on his list.  He did an escort for a wide load the other day, that hauler asked if he wanted a job as rear escort. He turned it down. He knows he would be gone ALL day and anywhere from 4 to 6 days a week. He would get NOTHING done here.  This week he is scheduled to go clean up the sawmill. He got the wood wagon fixed and was going to go until I told him how the weather was going to be. He didn't want to be driving a tractor without a cab hauling a metal wood wagon in a storm. 

Then I went down with a Crohn's attack. I probably should have went to the hospital sigh... if I had been throwing up along with sitting on the toilet for 2 days I would have. I didn't do that until day 4. FYI that's usually the day I come home from the hospital. Other than wishing morphine was in this house WE handled it. Hubby fixed me dry toast immediately and started shoving fluids. He jokes I married him because he was an EMT (retired 7 yrs ago). I got a brat patty for a meal because we don't have any dinner sausage patties, For what ever reason I can hold that stuff down.  He thinks stress triggered it... didn't help that I was using core muscles to lift a 50 lb. canner that he usually puts on the stove for me. My GI strongly suggested planks and push ups. NO sit ups as my back would have a fit over that. LOL.

So we spent a lot of time of watching the hummingbirds at the feeders and dive bombing each other

It's to rain today so he probably won't be going to the sawmill. He asked what had to be done this week... two doctor appts. and pulling zucchini and cucumber plants in the garden (I am not pulling anything) I want to do some planting for fall. I need to cut tops off onions that are cured and put them in hose  (panty hose) to hang in basement or barn until it gets too cold. Clean the front bay of the barn as I want to move the canning stuff there. No worries of water damage there. 

He looked at me and said , two doctor appts that's it. I laughed. I could do that onions I pointed out... nope I would side track and start doing something I really shouldn't... probably. Even when I spend the time in the hospital I struggle to not do anything (because I would do too much and retrigger an attack) the first week home. 

Be safe,

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

AS OF LAST NIGHT!!!!!!

 There is no room in the 3 refrigerator freezers.

There is no room in the 3-22 cubic chest deep freezers.

There is MAYBE room for a 15 lb. turkey in the 7 cubic chest deep freezer in the barn IF I removed the ice cream maker bowl. 

At Kroger's I got on sale 2 racks of ribs and a 4 lb. box of crab legs for half price. I got yellow and orange bell peppers for 88 cents (you can barely find them around here) I picked up enough to dehydrate them also, I got red bell peppers to "fire roast" on the grill then I will freeze them for red pepper soup (barn freezer I already put their container in to save that room) I got celery for fresh and to dehydrate. I picked up some lettuce as there is none left in the garden and I haven't replanted it yet. I had a coupon for it. I got coke a cola on sale, Kroger chips, Frito scoops and bananas.

I picked up a cantaloupe and 4 fresh peaches from an Amish stand

I picked up my 27 lbs. of cherries for pie filling at Country Variety  Store and Hubby picked up 14 hand pies to freeze and some whoopie cookies. I am not crazy about that type of cookie. He got 6 that was snickerdoodle and 6 of the oatmeal.

At the Mennonite discount store ....

I found frozen brussels sprouts. I got enough for us to have for a year since no one grows them around here. I will be planting them myself next year.

I found a box of strip steaks (think New York Strip steak). For $4.10/ lb. (about half price) I got 14 steaks and they are already vacuumed bag with1 steak per bag... saved my bags. I got 2 bags of thin chicken breast and 1 bag of chicken wings, 6 packages breakfast sausage links already frozen.

I also got:  12 whole cranberry sauce, 8 canned pears, 12 mixed berries jam, 4 boxes of Stove Top turkey stuffing and 4lbs of Velveeta cheese (regular price $27 I got it for $18) and a loaf of homemade bread.  

In the gardens I know I have tomatoes, zucchini, maybe a broccoli, hopefully another round of Roma beans and maybe some potatoes to harvest. 

I need to call to see what Honeycrisp or Crispin apples start coming in. Our apples didn't do well, they are really small. 

To Answer Hilogene In AZ question of who we feed

 I usually do 1 yr of food, OTC meds, first aid and cleaning products. After having 6 of the kids and grandkids come up to get supplies twice during the pandemic, we went to 18 months  as they wiped me out to 6 months and I was getting worried... there was 2 freezers almost empty. . This year I went for 2 yrs supplies on most stuff but what I have seeds to grow. 

Why? We are already seeing issues trying to get some foods in the area. 

BUT let's look at what we  use.

I bake our breads/ sweets (not much) etc. unless I get it from Amish/ Mennonite. 

I make waffles, pancakes, muffins, cakes, noodles, wonton wrappers (just starting that), flour tortillas (just starting that), crackers (just starting that) and breading for frying. I use  on average the least 10 lbs. of flour a week. If I am making noodles, I use 20 lbs. to fill my 5 gallon food grade bucket with noodles.  So I average 520 lbs. of flour a year. 

I average 240 lbs. of sugar a year, 360 lbs. for 18 months and 480 for 2 yrs. This year it's up to 340 lbs. due to extra canning of pie filling and jams. Today I pick up 27 lbs. of sour cherries for pie filling. 

I buy 3 lbs. of yeast a year (stored in freezer) I do make sour dough bread sometimes but not often as neither of us care much for it. 

We use 4 pints of veggies a DAY . That is 1460 pints for a year, 2190 for 18 months and 2920 pints for 2 yrs. 

We use 2 pints of fruit a DAY. That is 730 pints for a year, 1095 for 18 months and 1460 pints for 2 years... that is not touching pie filling, jams, jellies and fruit butters that would add 105 pints for a year, 158 for 18 months and 210 for 2 yrs. 

I can 104 pints of whole tomatoes, 104 pints of plain tomato sauce, 104 pints of salsa, 52 half pints of pizza sauce, 52 quarts of pasta sauce and 100 quarts of tomato juice. for a year. I will try for 18 months this year.  

I do pickles... asparagus, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, onions , coleslaw and kraut. 

I can chicken broth, beef broth and ham broth. 12 quarts of each per year

I can turkey, chicken, pork and beef. 

I do roasted red bell peppers. I won't this year as son 2 found  some on sale on base and bought me 6 jars. 

I dehydrate zucchini, mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, herbs and mints.

I still need applesauce, apple pie filling, apple butter, and apple jam. 

I do freeze broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, zucchini, yellow crockneck, eggplant and green tomatoes (breaded for frying). I do freeze berries. 

The last time I bought canned veggies was last year to make veggie soup. I canned enough for 2 yrs. 

I can 104 pints of chili soup a year. We also use it for tortilla chips and casseroles.

I buy 2 cases of each of condense soup, cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of tomato, cheddar, fiesta cheese and Campbells chicken and noodles. I have 1 Amish if they can't get to the store, will stop for 7 cans of cream of what ever soup. She makes "pantry" soup every single day for supper and uses it for the base.

Room left in the pantry

IF I CANNED IT, DEHYDRATE IT OR FROZE IT ... I don't want to see it on the supper table for a day, ok, a week... maybe a month.

I harvested another batch of potatoes that will give us 3 meals for the winter storage.

 I canned 18 quarts of a mix of seasonings, carrots, tomato and zucchini in a vinegar sugar syrup (think pickled beets syrup without the beets LOL)

I had to actually walk to the gardens to get 2 golden cherry tomatoes and 2 zucchini to finish the last 2 jars. Hubby laughed.

I have room for 1 jar of beets (won't be filled).

I have a row space for some store canned fruit (might not be filled unless I find apricots on sale)

I have plenty of room in the tomato section (pasta sauce, pizza sauce, plain sauce, enchilada sauce, and juice).

I have one row in pie filling in case I get the cherries. Still iffy if they are coming in and if they are getting enough to get some to everyone on the list. 

Fruit/vegetable 22 cubic deep freezer is FULL.

Pork/nuts 22 cubic freezer is taking on the over flow of fruit/veggies but has just enough to handle a couple racks of ribs, a pork loin  and 2 hams. 

The beef/ bread 22 cubic freezer is go a decent hole but since I know the turkey and prime rib will be going in there I will be keeping a good size home in it. 

All 3 refrigerators freezers are full. 

I need to finish straightening up the basement, hang the cured onions and figure out a better storage for herbs and spices.   

I need a better way to store the herbal teas.

LORD I am tired. BUT I am sleeping better since my anemia has been figure out and I am on blackstrap molasses for it. Iron pills don't work to me.

Waiting

 for the dew to dry so I can go pick Roma beans, yellow wax beans and blackberries which is all that I left unpicked yesterday.  Got our first small batch of purple potatoes, enough to 2 meals also. They will go in storage for fall which is 8 weeks away. 

I will be canning Roma beans, yellow wax beans, beets (I bartered for ) and zucchini as I found 3 the size of my thigh that we missed on Saturday. I am also dehydrating zucchini.

I will then water the entire garden as we only got 1/3rd of inch of rain 2 days ago and the excessive heat is coming in tomorrow afternoon. I will also apply blossom rot meds (ha ha) to the tomatoes so I can quit throwing them over the fence towards the pond.

Hubby has put all 15 metal beds together and started filling them with dirt. He is piling the old wooden beds to the side as E said he can burn them in his one pit he has for that type of stuff, then he then cleans the metal out of it. I need to get started planting the fall/ winter crops but it's not going to be the next two days with this heat coming in.

 Today he went to go pick up a wagon that has a lift so it can dump what ever is in it. There is a part broke but he thinks he can fix that himself if not there are a couple places around here that do that type of work for reasonable $. It will help to have our own wagon for getting wood from the sawmills plus be able to dump it means I am not standing on top of a pile of wood tossing it at Hubby.

The guy said no one wanted it even though he had it for sale for 1/10th of the rest. He took pictures of it and measurements for Hubby. It has a PTO (Hum drive shaft to hook to a tractor to run) and not a motor. The guy is surrounded by Amish. E thought it  was funny as he would have picked it up in a heart beat and rigged it for a motor. Told Hubby he would help change it to a motor if he couldn't get the PTO fixed. 

It's now drifting to the back side of my arm also. It hurts to lift my arm over my head .  I caught it on a part of the 50 pound canner when lifting it up on the stove. I definitely seem to having issues with bruising easy this summer. I am NOT on blood thinner or on OTC stuff that would thin your blood also.  

Looks like the dew is drying up... back to work

In the pantry and freezers.

Starting to over run the shelves . 

The fruit and veggies freezer (22 cubic) is FULL and is now running over into the pork/nuts/seeds freezer(22 cubic) and the beef/bread *frozen French toast, pancakes and waffles* freezer (22 cubic). There is a little room left in the poultry/ice cream freezer in the barn (7 cubic ft.) But I am trying to keep enough room for M to put bacon when they butcher, she freezes it about an hour to slice it easier. All 3 refrigerators freezers are FULL.

I have half of the corn (frozen) I need for the year. IF I don't get any more, we will only have corn every other week. E's corn has not came in yet and he's thinking it's not going to make very good. So I might check at a couple places to see if I can find some more. 

I still have room for tomato stuff in the pantry.

I have room for cherry pie filling (if the cherries I ordered come in, store I ordered them from said they got a phone call stating they might not get them due to damage done to the cherries). I have room for mixed berry pie filling as I am no longer getting enough of red raspberries to make pie filling so will mix them with blackberries (which the bird that nested in as done a good job of eating the blackberries) for pie filling.

I have room for the green beans (M got ran over and sent enough to for me to get 7 quarts worth, she grows Jade green beans) and my Roma green beans and  yellow wax beans  is coming on right now. That spot might get ran over.

I have room for applesauce. I can dry apples also as that goes in to the loft for storage. I might move herbs and spices to another loft to free up a couple shelves in the pantry even though I have no shelving to put them on in that area. 

The dried beans I canned to have canned beans and the meat area is FULL.

Dried fruit area is FULL but I will find a place for dried apples if I dried some more. Maybe in the loft under a bed ??? 

The jelly, jam and fruit butter is full but I will find room some where for the apple butter as it's low. Hubby eats it on cottage cheese.

When M sent over the green beans as hers ran her over, she also sent broccoli that I blanched and flash froze as they are tired of eating it.  I will vacuum bag it today. We got enough to have broccoli every other week thanks to her. I have some side sprouts coming on my own plants for fresh eating as I had already harvested and blanched the big heads.  She also sent a head of cabbage. I turned down the green bell peppers as I can't eat them. She got tomatoes off her brother in law to make salsa with them. I don't need salsa. 

I have to dehydrate zucchini to toss in soups and sauces. I have enough in freezer for zucchini bread pancakes, zucchini pie and fritters etc. 

I have to process today and tomorrow, green beans, wax beans, berries, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, apples and bag the broccoli. THEN GO HARVEST AGAIN and WATER as the storms went north and south of us SIGH. 

I'm not the only one on over load plus July finances

 Hubby has tried almost daily to start putting the garden beds together. E yelled at me from the road that they needed help hauling hay, tell Hubby to bring tractor. The tractor goes same speed as horses and that's all the faster E wants his wagons with metal wheels to go. This is the second cutting and they got 10 times more than the first which is unusual. Even with 5 of them hauling the hay, it took 2 days to get it all up into the barns. 

He had one Amish come ask him to dig post holes for another neighbor that wanted to put a deck on the backside of their house. He had 3 come ask for him to weld something. He had one stopped and asked for him to come move the Loader. (fork lift) as the Englisher that was supposed to do it never showed up. 

Then the 350 work truck is FIXED AND HOME. I pointed out that he had a small crack from stone in the windshield so he is going to get that dealt with. Then he back up and realized the back up alarm wasn't working. He also checked the estimate list and found they were suppose to replace the ball in the gooseneck and they didn't. He is calling in the morning . Will have to run it back over but he is also taking a receipt where he had to buy a wind shield wiper as the driver's side one was completely missing. GEEZE. But that can be "a sit and wait for it" not leave it.  Returned the rental.  Ended up going to McD's for a sandwich. Haven't ate there in over 5 yrs. Sandwich was good especially since we both missed lunch and it was way past supper time. 

I canned 6 more quarts of zucchini. It's in a syrup base and has garlic, dill, peppercorn, carrot, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini.  I figured one quart a month even if we hate it we can handle that amount. M told me to just chunk it and can it with hot water. She'll add a jar of tomatoes sometimes when serving it. 

I started fermenting cherry tomatoes, has garlic and basil. Has to sit 5 days and then should be ready. If Hubby likes it (he loves fermented foods) I will make more. 

I froze 2 batches of strained blackberry puree for ice cream

I froze 2 batches of red raspberry puree and some raspberries for ice cream.

I froze golden raspberries as there is never enough to do anything with them besides eat them. 

I canned 7 qrts of red raspberry pie filling. There was 1 1/2 pints left over. I shoved it in the frig. Hubby ate part of it last night over cookies and milk and said it was good. To put pancakes on the menu for Monday.

I've moved some of the pantry around to make more room as it's really starting to fill up 😁. Okay some areas are over flowing.

Went to a informal get together of high school classmates for a late supper. Was nice. 

Hubby went to store and got me garlic bulbs as I was completely out and a gallon of milk. That is the only shopping done this month. I don't see needing to stop this coming Thursday after chiro as with the gardens coming in and he just got a gallon of milk, we don't need anything.

Electric was $104 ...$71 lower than last year. We still have not turned on AC. 

I paid the school taxes for this year completely 6 months before they were due. 

Hubby said he has a couple outstanding bills to come in from the business and then he can finish closing the bank account down. He was aiming for August first, the major part of it is closed as of last week.  He said he doesn't miss it at all as the Amish have made a point of connecting to him in other ways. 

Everyone be safe. 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be 

3 jobs and Frugal moments

 Sunrise started with fog coming across the fields. Never crossed the road. I think Charlotte "scared" it. 😂

Hubby and I was talking about how he felt with closing down his business. At first he was trying to figure out something else to do with it as  it was hauling and odd jobs, he knows he needs purpose.... then after dealing with spraying the lane for weeds, mowing twice in one week, picking apples and twice helping one of the Amish, he decided he was fine with closing it down. He also after I repeatedly nagged about going up to the sawmill and ordering a wagon of scrap wood (about 4 cords would be enough to finish what we need for this winter), he stopped and the Amish owner asked if he would be interested in doing some "cleaning up" around the mill in exchange any wood he cleaned up was free for him. He will start next week when he has his truck back. Should be hearing something about that today or tomorrow. Hubby looked at the wood that needs cleared... said he was going to have to take the chainsaw with him and the Amish guy was going to ask the other Englisher that owns the fork lift at the mill if Hubby could use it. Hubby thinks about 2 weeks of work that he wouldn't have gotten while hauling and it's FREE wood for our stove and a discount on the wagon full he ordered that will come in this fall because the Amish couldn't find anyone willing to clean it up.

HB stopped over and asked if Hubby could help him dig post holes. Hubby has a post hole digger for the tractor. Got that job done in 1 hrs. 

E stopped last night and asked if Hubby could use his red horse (aka tractor not the truck ) to pull a wagon with steel wheels loaded with hay. As E doesn't want the wagon to go more than 10 mph with that type of wheel, it would damage the road. That will be tomorrow barring rain. 

Then he mentioned I was doing 3 jobs... I asked what he was thinking of... gardening, processing the food, and finances of keeping frugal. I noticed home keeping was not on that list. 

We harvested the last of the peas and pulled them. I have zucchini, red and golden beets, red raspberries, golden raspberries and the beginning of blackberries harvested. I still have blueberries in the frig to do today and should be getting a call in next week or two that the cherries are in.

I got to thinking, after the second cup of coffee this morning that I needed to puree 2 cups of each of the berries, put in a sandwich bag, then freezer bag to freeze for ice cream this fall and winter. I already did it with the strawberries. 

I use grape jelly, about 1 tablespoon in my stir fries for a glossy sauce. I told Hubby I wasn't making it because I only have a large jar of grape jelly and I knew it would go bad before we used it up. I will use it in thumbprint cookies. I got to thinking about the small jelly and jam packages at restaurants... I ordered them through Amazon.  Hubby laughed and asked if we could have a few in the "jelly, jam and fruit butter" pan in the frig. I have a sheet cake pan to keep that together otherwise I find half used ones with mold shoved to the back.

We have not turned on the AC. Hubby wanted to a couple times at night. I told him to switch to sleeping in his "gym shorts" instead of flannel pjs. He's now complaining of getting too cool (use the freaking blanket and close down the window beside you.) 

We bought take out Chinese on Friday late afternoon (got lunch prices) we ate it Friday, Saturday and Sunday for lunch. I was either harvesting or canning 12 hrs. a day.  I have 2 cases of wide mouth pint jars left. Having to use quart jars now for everything.  Hubby strongly suggested I order more wide mouth pints.  I will have to price them first.

I best get back to the blueberries, Hubby is picking apples today.

Made today's to do list

 Told Hubby I wanted it written in some what of order of what needed done first.

He quickly started with 

3 cups of coffee and sitting with Charlotte on the kitchen porch. 

Laundry  and then dishwasher. 

I was really talking about black raspberries ( need to finish last 7 quarts of pie filling) red raspberries, golden raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. The "applesauce" apple tree needs picked as they are ready. I have red and golden beets, turnips, zucchini, Swiss chard, herbs, bolted lettuce and spinach to dehydrate, red cherry tomatoes to dehydrate, Hubby already took the onions we harvested to the barn to cure. We found some huge black radishes when pulling pea vines (got enough of peas and snow peas we won't have to grow any this fall) If they are pithy I will cut them into dices and dehydrate them. Works well in soups etc. Might fry some as that works also when pitchy.

I am behind on starting seeds for plants for fall planting. Have to get that started this week. I need to sort through the seeds for what I am planting (plants and seeds) and then list what needs ordered for next year. I would like to grow more head lettuce that leaf lettuce. But small heads so I am thinking bibb lettuce. 

Hubby had already dealt with the onions when I took these. They are in half bushel baskets. 

To the porch for Charlotte time LOL

2:43 AM.

Just became great-grandma again. Zi'liyah, family is going to call her Zi. 8 lbs. 6 oz. 20 inches long. Daddy and Mommy doing good too. Born at 3:02. Grandma Daughter 3 is still struggling with becoming a grandma but the entire family keeps pointing out her daughter followed in HER FOOT STEPS. Graduated, working full time and 18. Daddy is also. AND just like her mother, not married. SIGH. 

I would say it's a weird name but we actually had an Amish family name their baby using the initials of several family members and then had to spend a year teaching everyone how they wanted it pronounced. 

Since my back injections I am sleeping better, just not very long. I rest daily at 2 pm at the insistence of Charlotte. She wants me to lay on the bed with her for 30 minutes. Probably has been a good habit as I try hard to have my work down by then so when I get up from the rest it's prep supper and take laundry down and put it away.

Sherm found out the Country Variety store (Mennonite store) had black raspberries so we went to get some. I couldn't find them anywhere last year. I got 46 pints . Making pie filling (quart wide mouth jars) and jam (pint regular mouth jars) . We have one Amish family that is selling a little bit of them. I'll get some from them for fresh eating this weekend. Hopefully our will make enough next year to cut down on what I have to buy. It was half of stores prices.

They also had blueberries, Hubby had already bought 12 jars of blueberry preserves. But I am short on blueberry pie filling. They had a 20 lb. box for half of what all the other stores were selling blueberries for. I got it.

I also ordered sour cherries, 27 lbs. to make pie filling. Hubby had already ordered those preserves also. 

IF I have enough blackberries and red raspberries ripe I will mix some of the black raspberries and blueberries with them and make a mix berry pie filling. 

They had peaches, smaller than regular and not as juicy. I okay with what we have with peaches.  I need pears though but haven't found a supply yet.

Our "applesauce" tree is almost ready to harvest, The ones now falling are turning ripe faster than the ones on the tree. Today , Hubby is picking up the ones that fell so he can mow and is taking a bucket out with him so if there are any good he can bring them to the house for me. The bad ones Hubby tossing in the tractor bucket and take them over and dumps them at E's for their pigs. We call the other apple tree the pie tree or cider tree... because that's what the apples are good for and no one knows what type of apples they are.

We bought eggs from an Amish lady that grows beets for me. We bartered 5 gallons of asparagus for her for 5 gallons of beets for us. She was at a Sister's day so her Husband had the 5 little ones and taking care of selling eggs.  Said she had tripled her flock to have enough to sell and almost doesn't really get enough. I think it's the humidity as chickens don't lay good in hot or cold weather and they don't heat the coops in the winter.

Hubby got his hearing aids fixed and I had a hearing test. I am still good with the hearing but they noticed the left ear isn't as good as it was 2 yrs. ago but still within normal range. So him saying I am just not hearing him went out the window as the Doctor told him he was mumbling and his voice is gravelly. Told me to make sure I was getting B vitamin especially folic acid B 9, Magnesium and Zinc in our diet. So I checked what foods was needed to be in the diet. 

I know there are red raspberries, blackberries, peas, snowpeas, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, cherry tomatoes, herbs, and maybe onions, beets and turnips to pick today to deal with on top of berries I bought. We don't have any appointments until Hubby gets his truck back, hopefully next Wed. Figure I can do some canning in the morning while the beds dry from dew, then harvest and do more canning when it's too hot/humid to be out.

The last of the garden beds we ordered are in. Got them unloaded from UPS truck before the rain dumped buckets on us and the driver. Got so bad we couldn't see the end of the porch 8 ft from the door. We want to get them in within the next week so I can start planting fall/winter crops. Our primary doctor asked us how to do that as he just started last year growing any garden, first time for him and his wife. 

Hubby mentioned that made 15 beds... I looked at him and told him I only needed 13, he forgot he still had 2 beds in the barn... Sigh... we will be finding a spot for them. He thinks we have enough weed barrier to make another row.

In the past 5 days, he has told me at least once a day, that he didn't understand what I meant when I told him something. I stopped and thought about what I said and resaid it and then asked him to tell me what he thought I said. He had it correct... that is an IMPROVEMENT as before he would just say, I didn't say that, and he wasn't catching he didn't understand what was said. I told him yesterday that was an improvement after he was laughing at my brother, who was struggling to understand the text I sent. My text was had lunch at the Inn, ran in to cuz Judy L Daddy's side and her friend whose brothers see you several times a week. She didn't give her name. Manager working floor at the Inn grew up down the street from us. You know her brother Tom P. He came back with we don't have a cuz Judy (we have one on Daddy's side and one on Mother's) He didn't know anyone working at the Inn. Manage texted her brother who just happen to be eating lunch with MY BROTHER. Hubby understood the text but he realized I am dealing with it from two sides. At least my sister in law and their kids are dealing with the issues more than I am. 

Some of Son2's test results have came back. He worked burn pits in Iraq for a solid 12 months. He has PSTD (I figure all soldiers in battle would have that) and mild to medium COPD. Still has more testing to jump through. His girlfriend is struggling to handle it and the changes that have to be made to be supportive of him. He said the only blessing of finding out now that her answer was to ignore him and not be there like she said she would is they are not married or even living together. He is glad he already quit smoking (again) He has a support system of us and several other veterans that live around him. Daughter 3 and Daughter 4 both have PSTD (both lost infants) and mild COPD from smoking so he's called them also.

I did remind him she might have PSTD herself and not know it. Her dad was a vet from Nam, he ended up shooting himself in the car in the driveway and she was the one to find him. It could have triggered her and her not understand or know  that it did. He hadn't thought about that but he was going to go talk to her mom (she was raised by her dad) to see if she would check on her regularly,

Going to grab coffee and go sit on the kitchen porch with Charlotte so I don't start rattling pots and pans and wake Hubby

Prayers for peace

Blessed be

Pantry Challenge

We  decided on what we would buy from the Amish first.

Honey, maple syrup, molasses, garlic (if B has extra when she harvests late summer and I ordered mine to grow last week, they come in mid Sept in time to plant), 6 dozen eggs a month (Charlotte eats an egg a day to keep her allergies down) and in the fall it will be butternut squash, acorn squash and pumpkins.

Meat for holidays: 2 hams, 2 turkeys, 2 spare rib racks, 2 corned beef briskets, 1 pork roast, and 1 prime rib.  

What we will buy from the store each month not spending over $175 (not including the meat or Amish)

14 gallons of milk,  will make yogurt, yogurt cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, sour cream (and chip dip), puddings , gravies and whey for baking. I specified that the day after shopping is Kitchen day. Don't count on me for anything else.

3 quarts of heavy cream, will make cream cheese, whipping cream, ice cream and custards.

2 quarts of half and half, will make gelato, and mix with heavy cream for custards and white sauce.

6 lbs. of butter but ONLY if it is below $3.50 a pound.

12 colored bell peppers (I can't eat green, triggers my crohn's) or 2 bags of the mini sweet peppers.

6 lbs. of carrots (Mine won't be ready until fall)

3 bunches of celery (Mine won't be ready until fall)

4 lbs. fresh mushrooms. I use can for pizza, sauces etc. 

10 lbs. of sweet potatoes. Didn't even get one to last from last year for starts. 

20 lbs. of potatoes. Probably by October that will only be baking potatoes with fingers crossed mine will produce a good harvest.

I will be baking our own bread, biscuits, pie crusts instead of Daddy's favorite from Aunt Shirley (which I found out was Pillsbury), tortillas , tortilla chips, crackers,  crackers flavored like Ritz veggie chip, potato chips, and Fritos.

I plan to add eclairs, doughnuts (we do baked doughnuts) and cream puffs. One of the kids just gave me a scone dish and some scone mixes someone gave them . Kid took them to keep them from going into the land fill. 

Since Hubby is home for bfast and lunch I will probably add English muffins and bagels. 

Might be 2 days in the kitchen LOL.

IN the gardens.

I picked more  red and golden raspberries and 4 blackberries. Hubby asked for a pie until I mentioned pancakes with raspberry topping. He thought that was a good idea.

First batch of onions curing. I use 365 onions a year. I usually can only get about half of that and they store until January if temps hold decent.

purple grapes looks to be making for the 1st time and rhubarb that is regrowing

white grapes that we thought died, we won't get a lot but glad they really didn't die.

Herbs, rows 1,2,3,4,5,and 6

Rows 7 and 8

Rows 9,10,11, and 12

I have some pots of odds and ends but Hubby is cutting winter wood close by. I don't want to deal with ear protectors in this humidity. 

Snow peas, peas , turnips and lettuce is almost done. Any "edible leaves" will be dehydrated to be ground to add to sauces etc. this winter.

I'll be looking at what I want to plant for fall and early winter harvests. 

Blessed Be

Prayers for peace

Roller coaster

yellow rose #1

                                            Yellow rose #2

Pink rose

                                                   pale red rose

 I walked out to see if there was any more June dropped apples before Hubby started mowing. Got another bushel for E to have for his pigs.

I made a batch of caramelized onion and apple chutney using 1/2 bushel of drop apples. It's on the menu for this week.

Decided against making apple pectin at this time so E's is also getting a half of bushel  that I was going to use. 

Hubby said something about I needed to finish processing the groceries for the freezers I bought yesterday. I told him I didn't need to as it was what we were eating the next couple days. He thought I had a lot of meat... it was cheese and that was dump the bag into the bin in the freezer.

Paid the propane early, got a grill propane tank filled for free savings of $41.29 , get 5￠/ gallon off by paying in  full, got another 5￠off by paying before Aug. 1st. Put the charge on my Capital One and got $8.08 back. Total savings is $119.37.

Signed Hubby up for his Plan D (premium $5.10 month and meds are less than $5 every three months) and Supplement (through AARP is $123.36). It will cut his medical costs in half.

We sat on the kitchen porch and talked about cutting the budget, what to cut (how low can you go keeps running through my head). Figured it out including doing a pantry challenge for the rest of this year with limited (actually listed) buying.

And saw Momma with her twin babies.

OOPS Momma saw us

She took off with the babies following her but stopped at the woods to see what we were doing. Then trotted over the dip to finish grazing as E saw her as he came down the road and asked if they were up this way. 

Hubby brought in the mail, wouldn't you know the house insurance went up and that was after the taxes doubled. I already looked and the escrow account (required by mortgage)  is going to be short end of August so I need to put that in and that also means the mortgage payment is going up by $265.85. Our agent sent out notices to all his house insurance customers so they would have as much time as he could give them to get the extra money up. 

I harvested red raspberries, golden raspberries, peas, snow peas, onions for storage, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens,  turnips, last of golden cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, zucchini and beets, the beet greens went into the dehydrator. 

I got my appt. for my back injections including follow up scheduled .A group of our classmates is having an informal meet up that is also on the calendar. We are thinking of changing our chiro appts to Thursday since Hubby is no longer working so we can go in the morning, would be able to take Charlotte along when she is to see vet and/or meet up with a couple friends in that area. We would only go over on Tuesdays every 3 months as that is the only day Doc will see "couples" and that is in the afternoon. 

Have a safe July 4th . 

Prayers for peace

Blessed Be

GRRR... if it isn't one thing, it's another.

Bad news, we are in the smoke from the wild fires of Canada. I will be wearing a mask when out doesn't help we have a heavy fog.  

Good news...July 1st I will be hitting the apply button on Hubby's plan D. It's Aetna and CVS. If it doesn't change in October I will apply for the same plan D as it covers Humira pens pretty decent. Instead of the $12,000 , it is $1000 . I will still call the company to see if I can get a reduction. Never hurts to ask.

Bad news... my lettuce is running me over and Amish next door don't need anymore since theirs is coming in. I already dehydrate and ground to powder for green powder. I even gave a quart of it to a friend. 

Good news is I found Kevin Jacob's lettuce soup recipe. We had it a couple years ago.  https://www.agardenforthehouse.com/kevins-lettuce-soup. Some I will let go to seed so I have fresh seed.

Bad news ... we lost $1800 a month income from closing the business

Good news ... Hubby can use the insurance payment from the totaled trailer to pay off the truck and still have some to put in savings. 

Good news is he finally got the wrecker reimbursement and we are using it to pay for the last of the garden beds and the rest will go in savings.

Bad news... I have 2 IRA accts that was Daddy's that is now closed... I have 2 other IRA's that are sitting but I don't want to use them at this point. That's a loss of $1334.

Good news...IRA guy called , they are seeing a strong possibility of stocks going down a lot at the end of 2023 into 2024. They hope not as bad as 2008 but are trying to protect their clients as much as possible. Hubby listened and changed how he is invested, mine is pretty much safe as can be. Unlike Daddy who didn't listen and lost almost all of it before he got it changed. We will toss some savings into CD's to lock that interest in. It's good news when they call and warn you BEFORE it happens.

Bad news.... Hubby cut the withdraw by $2666.67.  That cut the income down 50%. Now I have the shakes. 

I definitely told him there is no way to make extra payments on the mortgage or replace the Silverado. Eating out and take out stops. I can pack us food if we are going to be gone that long from home. We already carry water with us.

 I understand that he is worried of losing the house as this is triggering all the feelings he went through in 2008(which is not helping the brain issues) where we lost 2 houses, ours and the one Daughter 2 was living in.

 I reminded him we have a full pantry(actually has over flowed) which we didn't in 2008 and had 2 kids and a friend putting food on our table. 

We have 4 months of expenses in savings and what ever is left in business acct will go into savings. The truck will be paid off and that is a $800 payment.

 I have garden seed, I can start my own plants and we have perennials that produce food. He needs pvc pipe to make frame for row covers for garden beds this winter.

 I also have as of tomorrow a year's supply of OTC meds except for two. We will both be on Medicare and the cost of the rest is less than what we spend on insurance now. It will actually save us $6600 a year even after paying for my Humira.

 We have clothes and shoes as we just replaced some things he wore out. I replaced my shoes and clothes last year.

I have the money for the propane (was going to lower what we order but since I will be baking bread more I will keep the order the same) and wood we get from the sawmill. E is also giving us some from his woods as he really tries to keep his woods healthy and growing more maple trees (he has 2 growing for every one he cuts down). We have 2 yrs supply of coal. 

 I need a couple things for Charlotte, will order the rest of the OTC and the garden beds today.  

Now if I could go back to sleep LOL