Preserving

I read this article on a pagan e-zine of sorts and liked the approach the author had.

When I have been in to the farm market near us there seems to always be one person buying a 20 pound box of something. The art of canning seems to be dying out and that in and of itself seems to be a good reason to continue.

Melody got to see grapes in the dehydrator and pick a lot of apples and pears off our older friends' trees this weekend when we went to visit. A lot of their apples go to waste as there are too many and it's difficult to get them all before they fall and start decomposing. It seems sad to me so I try to pick up the good ones and then make apple butter or pies. That's the project I am up to this week. I already made apple butter but now I am on the third pie I will make maybe tomorrow. A pie a day keeps something away? The juice that we helped make is more than half gone but it's sure tasty!

Storage

I read an article a couple weeks ago about starting to store food for $10.00 a week. I don't think about storing it for emergency reasons but for reasons of convenience. I might need something and I will have it on hand or just to cheaply do some meals with things we have that I thought to get on sale. These are items I didn't preserve myself. Most of the items like flour and sugar I buy or have in bulk but I have been trying to get extra canned goods and pasta lately. I also went through my learning experience of the $5.00 tomato sauce. I spent about $5.00 on local tomatoes at the farm close by and then made one jar of sauce from it. One of the reasons that I try to be more self sufficient is to reduce our budget and our footprint. The thing is that I can't afford to make $5.00 tomato sauce even if it tastes good. It isn't in the family budget. I can grow them myself or have some gifted to me and then it makes sense of course.

Anyways, wanted to share the link because I thought it was a good idea. I think I am going to be looking for coupons soon and try to cut the grocery bill a little more. It's currently right at $100.00 a week for 4 of us. Our little one eats more than our older daughter usually too.

I go back and forth with healthy food that might be more expensive or cheap food that is not as healthy. I am still trying to find a balance with that and usually it means one meal of hot dogs and mac and cheese and one meal of enchiladas with homegrown tomatoes and fresh fruit from our trees. I figure the balance happens throughout the week one way or the other.

Eggs

I hate making this blog about chickens but the araucanas started laying colored eggs finally! They are pinkish and greenish usually. The araucana (spelling is wrong) chickens Sara and Cornegie are still weird and not social. They will not come near me but the two others will. I don't know if it's the breed or the fact I didn't handle them as much or what. I know I can still work with them a bit but they are so crazy acting all the time!

I would like to get our water bill down more but it's not really happening. I also am concerned about our heat because we have two vents and one is blocked (by our doing and turned off). I hate having the one heat vent being used all the time in the winter. We could get an insert or something for the fireplace but not until the girls are older. So I will do some looking around on those topics to post about next.

I have canned some green beans, dilled and pickled that is, and then froze some peaches but we ate so many there weren't enough left to can. We are eating the Asian pears and bartletts from our two trees and they are so good. There are a couple pears left and that's it. The neighbor way down the street allows us to pick their pears and plums. I think they are Italian plums and they are good but small. So I made a plum sauce of sorts and stuck it in the freezer. I think it would go well on ice cream.

laundry

Crib

Before we took the old crib to the dump because Goodwill wouldn't take it, I thought it could be a chicken crib. The problem so far is that the dowels aren't long enough to go through the railings.

The newer chickens are not laying yet as far as I have seen. The two araucanas chickens are crazy in particular Sara. She runs around the yard clucking and freaking out when I go back there. I should try to handle them more but she is sort of so crazy it might just be her personality. The two Rhode Island Reds (Tina and Barbie) are more calm and docile.

There is a proposed livestock ordinance for the county I think that is getting people upset. I honestly haven't read it through and don't even know if it would apply to us. Even if it did I wouldn't get rid of the ladies unless they came to my house and threatened me. It doesn't seem like it is going to pass anyways. Some people have chickens for meat and for eggs and cull them right in their backyard. You could probably also have a pig though I don't know for sure. I read the backyard homestead book from the library by Storey Publishing. It's a cool book but has a section on pigs and goats as well as turkeys and ducks besides the fruit and veggie information.

While preparing meals this summer I have been getting kind of bored with coming up with main dishes. I can make a main dish but then I don't know whether to cook the same vegetable in a side dish too I guess. We eat a lot of rice and pasta. I have always liked cabbage and pickles and so since Willow will eat that with me I have been making it.

The purple cabbage I cooked with apples and red onions as well as sugar and red wine vinegar the other night. We had deviled eggs too but ate them before I took the photo! It looked like a rainbow meal.

The yellow beets are one of my favorites and the local farm has them this year. The neighbors have tons of cucumbers so I don't feel bad I only planted one plant.

Peaches, goats and toilets

I got a catalog in the mail from envirolet and was actually excited. I was excited to look at water saving and composting toilets! That is why I have this blog because I can put things like this on here. I don't know how long you would have to have it to make up for the water usage price. In my mind that's why I would want to convert to one to save money and the environment. It's still expensive to help the environment.

We have two peach trees in the front yard. This is the first year they are both fruiting and the peaches haven't dropped to the ground. We have been picking them the past few days. They are both semi dwarf varieties. We went to do the u-pick peaches on Saturday and they aren't ready yet so we will go on the 8th. While we were out there we stopped by to see the goat's and get a half gallon of milk. I made cheese without chevre starter and it seems to have turned out. I used citric acid and lime juice in water and a tiny bit of fresh milk starter. Before I remembered the milk isn't pasteurized I let Melody try a glass. I drank a little bit too. She said she liked it and then didn't want any more. Goat's milk is easier to digest than cow's milk so I thought I would let her try it. She wanted to have some with dinner because it was from the goats that she met.

We stopped to pick a few blueberries on the way home too since Melody really wanted to pick something.

Without

I watched the last part of Oprah yesterday and was sort of confused or shocked really at what people were having to give up. Maybe I am living in a bubble I don't know. It was about simplifying your life. I know that this is not the same as cutting back on your spending but it is still linked.

So the families had to only spend $100 or so at the grocery store for the week. That is what we spend. Then they are supposed to cut out tv and the computer for a week. We could easily do that too. The family with two young kids made them choose only 5 toys each for the entire week and the rest were locked up. I asked Melody what she would pick if we did that? Her princess dolls she would keep out. Then she said I could lock up the rest now. I had to explain we weren't doing that I was just asking. :) The kids on the show were freaking out because they could only have 5 toys and no tv or computer for 7 days. One of them was crying I think and laying in bed. One said it was the worst day of her life.

I know that we live simply compared to a lot of people but still I was interested in what other people were cutting out. The women said they were cutting out trips to the salon for hair coloring. I have had my hair colored at a salon once in my life. I do it at home and it turns out fine. Or they have to cut out manicures or pedicures. Isn't something like that easy for people to do at home? Seems like it would be. And the hair cutting I get done once a year and Melody gets a cut twice a year maybe. I know if you have a certain style it needs to be cut more often and I am just lazy and let my hair grow. I also groom the dog every 8 weeks saving $35.00.

Before 2003 I would go to the store more than once a week and eat out for lunch or go to the grocery store in the town I worked in for lunch. After I quit my job I lost 15 pounds and we saved tons of money on gas and food and other things.

I would like to have more money so our quality of life would be a little bit better but really the important things we have covered.

Did you watch the same episode? If so what did you think?