Odds and Ends

It didn't rain today!  That is amazing.  My back yard, however, is like a wet sponge.  (Sigh) and it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  According to the meteorologist, this is a pattern we will have for the next 3 weeks.  UGH!

Oh well.  Either way, I had to take the opportunity available to get outside and get some long over due work done.

My main thing was to get the rooster Run cleaned out and ready to house the Bantum hens (and rooster).

We bought a chicken house.run that's supposed to house 3-4 birds.  (Eye roll) it barely houses the 4 Bantums.  So the Rooster run has been readied now and the little darlings are on board.  Moving them was fun.  One got out.  Note to self:  Bantum chickens are harder to catch...BECAUSE THEY FLY!  This hen took off and flew half way across the garden!  But, I was patient and just kept herding her to where I needed her, and eventually I won.  Neener, neener.

 Contrary to the phrase "chasing chickens", ones doesn't actually chase the chicken.  That is highly discouraged.  You will tire yourself out.  The best thing to do is walk slowly, and purposefully; heading off any avenue of escape until you have them cornered.  Then you catch whatever part of the chicken is handy.  So eventually I got her in.  Another of the hens, and she is a full size hen hatched by the tiny Bantum mama, literally started screaming when I caught her.  Interesting sound.  But she calmed down as soon as she realized she was just moving.  So all in all they all got moved and are happily ensconced in their new digs.

Also on the chicken front, we're getting about 4 1/2 dz eggs a week now.  So I'm starting to sell some to offset the cost of feed.  I sold 2 dz today for $6, and plan to sell another 2 dz tomorrow.  I'll do that every week or two.  As we get more, I'll be able to sell more.  That's a nice little benefit. But don't worry, we will still have plenty of eggs for us. 

After all that fun, it was a just matter of repairing the hoop house cover, and cutting the grass.  Yep! We've had mild enough temps to where the grass is growing.  Well the weeds are growing.  It was getting bad.  I'd put pre-emergent on if it wasn't for the fact we'd have no lawn.  lol.  Cutting the grass was interesting on the low end of our property.  It is a mucky yucky mess.  Had to drive very slow to keep from getting stuck.  But I really didn't have a choice.  It needed to be done.

So all that and throw in some kitchen cleaning, floor sweeping, bed making, and doll clothes sewing, and all in all a productive day.  My house is a mess.  The yard needs still more work, but I put in a full day.

That's the important thing.

"You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you"  Psalms 128:2

Rainy Days and Mondays

Had a bit of a sad morning today. We lost one of our oldest hens today. I just think at her age, she couldn't handle all the damp cold we've had recently. We had 3+ inches of rain this past Friday, then turned off cold really quick, and 4+ inches of snow Sat. Then today is the start of another cold 3+ inches of rain today and tomorrow. This has been our weather pattern in the last month. Just can't seem to dry out. I found her semi conscious in one of the nesting boxes when I went out this morning to check on everyone. I brought her into the house and put a warm towel in a box and let her have her last little bit of time in a warm dry area with no other hens walking all over her(yes they were doing that very thing). Chickens, especially these are cold hardy, but I think this was just too much for her. She was 6 years old. Heat lamps can be dangerous, and so we have opted to not put them in the coops, until today. After finding her, I made an executive decision and pulled out the heat lamp and put it in the coop to give them a warmer, dryer spot to stay. For safety, it will be turned off tonight, because we will be asleep and can't watch it. Plus the light can mess their sleep schedule up. So turned off tonight, but in the mean time, it will give them a dryer spot and warmer spot and when they are getting ready for bed, they will be gathered together for warmth. It will go back on tomorrow during the day.

It must be good. I just went outside in the rain to check on the rest of them. The light is still on, and just about every chicken we own is in that one coop next to the light. I'm glad it's helping, I just feel bad we had to lose one before we did this. Smh.

Finally!

Whew!  It has been a long month in regards to our food budget.  The joys of having 3 paychecks in a month is tempered by having to stretch what grocery money you had into 5 weeks instead of 4.  That can get a little tricky.

In addition, I made the mistake many make, I think, after the holidays.  We wanted to get back to eating healthy.  I wanted to encourage everyone in our household to do the same.  While not buying diet food, I did purchase a lot of things I don't normally buy.  My son likes salmon, and wanted to have that on hand for meals so he could stay on track.  I agreed to buy him 1 weeks worth of salmon and asparagus (ours isn't up yet), but he had to take over the rest if he was to stay on it.  I bought protein bars, thinking this would keep me from having to bake cookies.  Both sons enjoy these.  Yes, it did make it where I didn't have to bake cookies, but was way more expensive than if I had just baked cookies, and I question if it was the healthier alternative to home made 100% fresh ground wheat cookies.  So I read the label....yea... I think the cookies would be the better alternative all round.  I bought other things as well.  These are just a few examples.

This was also a time where things needed replenishing.  Some things that I buy in bulk, only have to be purchased every few months or so.  In addition, there were things I had stocked up on in the past that were allowed run out, hoping I would see the items on sale for restocking; sugar was one of those.  I never saw sugar go on a good enough sale.  It went on sale once during the holidays, but it was a limit of 5 4 lb bags of sugar.  That lasts us about a month or so.  Not enough to really replenish anything.

For all of these reasons, January was a tight month when it came to the food budget.  The benefits of this are:

 A)  I have really used up items in the freezer and pantry.  The past couple of weeks, maybe longer, have seen my menu planning based on little bits of things in the pantry, fridge and freezer.  Many times it's re-purposing left overs. 

B) It has pushed me back into what I know and that it scratch baking on a grand scale.  All our breads, cookies, breakfasts items, etc have all been made from scratch.  We haven't been starving, but everything I had to eat, had to be combined to make what I needed.  There wasn't much of  "I'll just grab something".  At least there wasn't until I made it.  This even went so far as making the dog treats.  I have to say I had gotten comfortable buying these in bulk at the warehouse store, but ran out a few weeks ago.  I've decided to keep that going.  It's better for them, and it isn't too had to make these.  If you would like the recipe, it's on my "Pet Care" page.

C)  It really cleans out the pantry, fridge, and freezer!  Makes it really easy to defrost the freezer, organize the pantry, and wipe out the fridge.

So today is the day I finally get groceries!  It's still tight, but that's okay.  I have new resolve to keep doing what I'm doing.  I should have been doing this all along.  But, you know, even a Frugal maven can have an off day (er week, ah month).

So in preparation of today being grocery day; yesterday was spent, primarily, in the kitchen.  I made English muffins, bagels, sandwich bread, hamburger buns, dog treats, coffee creamer, and chocolate syrup.  Granola and cookies will come this afternoon.  I'm out of oats.  I get them today.

Can I just add here, all this scratch baking doesn't take long.  It isn't too hard.  If I can learn to do it, and do it, so can you!  Yes, I was in and out of the kitchen yesterday, but it isn't where I stayed.  The time spent making bread items, is mainly in waiting for it to rise.  It takes about 15 minutes to mix and knead bread dough.  The rest of the time is spent waiting.

I fell into the trap of wanting things convenient.  Yes, buying something pre-made is easier, and if you have little time, then that's what you need to do.  But if you can, then try it.  Start small, make a few things that aren't too taxing.

"A penny saved is a penny earned".  Just remember Uncle Sam hasn't yet figured out a way to tax money you save, but he does know how to tax money you earn.

Has it been that long!?

Wow!  It has been that long.  I would like to say I got busy with life and couldn't find the time to blog, but that's only a small excuse.

Fact is I was frustrated.  Frustrated with how things had been going health wise.  Frustrated for you guys in the fact that I wasn't posting much worth reading.  At least in my mind I was thinking that.  I have to say I missed writing though.

First and foremost this blog has been a journal of sorts.  There are times I will come on here and read old posts to either a) remember something that happened b) remember a recipe (I know.  I should remember my own recipes, but this is how I write them down) or c) motivate myself.

It's been a hard 18 mths since the heart attack.  I am, as of this past September, off any med except my thyroid med (which I have taken daily for 31 years), and an aspirin a day.  The last med I was on was the Pravastatin.  I was on half the lowest dose prescribed.  They wanted me on it to A) lower my cholesterol, and B) strengthen my vessels.  My husband wanted me to take it for 6 mths until I had my labs done in Sept.  So I did.  Then I had my labs....Guess what!  Cholesterol went up!  Yea.  Go figure.  Plus a side effect was really sore shoulders.  So off of it I went.  My OBGYN recommended I take Magnesium 500 mg to help strengthen my vessels, so I take that as a supplement in lieu of the cholesterol med.

Now I'm trying to get back on track with my healthy eating and moving.  I did have some victories this past year.  For my Birthday, Dh and I went hiking 5 miles ( 2.5 up and 2.5 back), up to a beautiful waterfall.  I even went so far as to climb a really steep part of the falls to see additional falls behind the initial fall!  I would have never done that before!

And just recently Dh and I went and hiked Tallulah Gorge.  I think it was 1082 steps down and UP!  We made it though!  It was a milestone I wanted to achieve ever since the heart attack.  You see we had walked this twice before and I wanted to do it again!  Not a great picture, but give us some grace.  We're still learning a smartphone.

The frugal black belt is still in place.  It had to be last year because we were paying off hospital bills, then we had to build our Health savings account back up.  We are still needing to be frugal for other reasons: Our car isn't getting any younger, and we will need to be thinking about buying another one.  We still have things here that need to be addressed home wise.  Groceries aren't getting cheaper and we still have our two youngest home.  We've had some big dings on our savings accounts more than once.  The latest ding was having to pay a goodly sum to put down our cat of 20 years.  She had CHF, and couldn't breathe.  Precious girl.

So I'm going to start posting some more about things going on here, good, bad, and boring.  It helps me, and if I can interest anyone, then that's a big plus.  Thanks for taking to time to read, and I hope it won't be too boring.

Rooster Run 200

Introducing the "Rooster Run 200". This little gem is currently housing the 4 roosters from our latest batch of eggs hatched. They are destined for the freezer, but until then they will get some mighty fine food, green grass, bugs (well they like'em), fresh air, and sunshine. This is made light enough for me to be able to move it to fresh grass daily. Originally, due to it's mobile nature and the final destination for the birds, I was going to name it "Road trip". A friend who shall remain nameless, thought I should name it "the green mile". Fitting since the netting is green, but I ended up referring to it as "the rooster run" out of habit and, well, it stuck. This is my design. No plans, just pictured it in my head and went with it. My mom tells me that was a talent my dad had and so I feel very happy that it's something I can do as well. It cost me about $30 in supplies because I re-purposed items I already had on hand. The used dog house was $10 of the $30.

Measures 5 ft in length and 3 ft in width.  The PVC continues inside the dog house to give the birds something on which to roost.  If you think those white lines in the center look like they're going thru the dog house, you would be right.  They go all the way thru to the other side.  This allows the dog house to be elevated to make them feel safe, and to keep them dry in wet weather.

You can barely see the little darlings under the house.  They like to hang out there during the heat of the day.  Having the house elevated allows them to use every bit of space in this run.

That's a hinged door on the top there to allow us access to the water.  They don't have a feeder because we throw their food down to encourage them to scratch.  Trust me, they eat well.  They are moved to fresh grass every day before I throw down their food.

You can also see a pole that comes from the house to the end of the run. That is an outside roosting area. Again, I am trying to give them the use of as much space as possible. The waterer is attached to the hinged door so that when lifted out the string holding the water comes up to be removed.

To Do List

Good early morning from the hot south!  If you haven't seen a U.S weather map lately, the southeast is due for some 90+ degree temps over the next 2 weeks, but more than likely 6 weeks.

In preparation for the upcoming swelter, I was making out a checklist of things to do to keep us comfortable and not break the bank.  Originally this list was typed on here for my own personal use, but I got to thinking that I'm not the only one facing the heat and the financial hit it can bring.  For that reason, I turned this into a frugal post.  There are two lists on here; one for utilities, and one for outdoors.  I'm keeping both here because I will still use this list and it will give you an idea of things to do to help with heat and dry spells (or drought) for utilities and your outdoors.  The items that don't pertain to you, just disregard.


SUMMER UTILITY MANAGEMENT LIST

1.  INSTALL AC UNITS AND SHUT OFF HEAT PUMP TO SAVE FOR WINTER (side note here.  Our heat pump can't handle temps over 85.  We didn't find that out until after it was installed.  Plus the thing is on it's last legs.  Saving it for winter means literally we are saving it to be used when we absolutely need it so as not to risk losing it from over work).  TO ADJUST FOR INCREASE IN POWER USE, DO THE FOLLOWING:

A.  HANG DRY ALL CLOTHES ONLY PUTTING THEM IN THE DRYER TO FLUFF WITH A DRYER SHEET  PRIOR TO FOLDING.
B.  MAKE SUN TEA
C.  ALL BAKING AND CANNING WILL BE TIMED FOR AFTER SUNDOWN.
D.  UTILIZE GRILL AND CROCK POTS IN LEW OF STOVE.
E.  BREAK OUT THE STAINLESS POT AND FILL WITH WATER.  SIT OUTSIDE ON DECK FOR SUN TO WARM, AND USE FOR WASHING DISHES.  USE DISH WATER AFTERWARD TO WATER GARDEN PLANTS DURING DRY SPELL.
F.  LESS OVERALL BAKING, MORE FROZEN FRUITS, SMOOTHIES, COOL DESSERTS AND SNACKS.
G.  MOVE ICE TRAYS INTO SMALL FREEZER AGAIN.  ADD A CONTAINER TO HOLD READY ICE. ( keeps us from opening the larger freezer all the time to get ice, so less loss of cooling)
H.  POSSIBLY USE CONTRAPTION FOR CONVERTING WASHER DRAIN HOSE INTO GARDEN HOSE TO HELP WATER GARDEN DURING DRY SPELL.  I had one of these made years ago when we were in a drought.  I went to a hardware store and told him what I needed, giving him the diameter of my drain hose.  He put it together while I was standing there.  It cost me a few bucks and I've kept and used it ever since.  Go to a hardware store for this.  They know their stuff.  The big box store won't.
I.  PLACE CONTAINERS UNDER WINDOW AC UNITS TO CATCH CONDENSATION.  USE FOR WATERING GARDEN.


OUTSIDE TO DO LIST

1.  PICK STRAWBERRIES
2.  PICK SQUASH
3.  WEED EAT SIDE YARD ( we had this cleared in early spring and it is starting to grow again.  Our absentee neighbor is absent and has not addressed his side.  It's encroaching on ours.
4.  CUT GRASS
5.  KILL STUMPS IN SIDE YARD- (See explanation above in Weed Eating)
6.  SPRAY SIDE YARD WITH HOMEMADE WEED KILLER-  I don't want to spray Round up close to my garden plants, so it's an Epsom salt, vinegar, dish soap combo.
7.  WEED GARDEN
8.  PURCHASE MORE PINE STRAW( this is for mulching the garden beds to hold in moisture and keep roots cool)
9.  CLEAN OUT CHICKEN COOPS
10.  CLARK- Our rooster.....he's on his way uh out.  We have a younger and, hopefully nicer one coming up.
11.  TIE UP BLACKBERRY CANES (over due)
12.  SPRAY PERIMETER OF HOUSE WITH ORTHO (we have ants like crazy!)
13.  PURCHASE AND USE ORTHO ANT KILLER- This is different from the Ortho above.  This is for killing the mound.
14.  STAIN BACK DECK- This is just for my own use and we will get to it as soon we can.

Updates from the Homestead

Hello!  Kind of a rainy on and off day today with thunderstorms headed our way come Sunday.  As I speak chaos has ensued outside as the chickens are letting the world know someone has laid an egg.  It's quite the spectacle!

Speaking of eggs (they've simmered down ...well maybe not), I am 99.9% sure we have a little banty hen brooding on 6 banty eggs.  That is so exciting for us!  We got a Little Banty rooster for our three hens about a month ago.  His name is Eli and we got him from a chicken rescue for free.  We just put the word out in our area and someone contacted us.  He fit right in with the hens.  No fights or anything which is great.  We aren't really raising these chickens for eggs or meat.  The chickens are so small there really isn't much use for the meat, and it takes 4 eggs to equal 2 large eggs.  I usually reserve the banty eggs for baking.  The little guys are fun though, provide manure, and eat bugs too; so still worth it.  We've had a few offers on chicks when they hatch, primarily for any that are lavender colored as we have a lavender hen.  Now if we can just get the full size hens to sit on some eggs, that would be great!  We do have three chicks we recently incubated.  It produced, I know for sure, one rooster, and one hen.  The third is still a toss up, but I'm leaning toward rooster.  Little disappointing if that's the case.  Roosters mean meat for the freezer, but not something we look forward to.  It is something we accepted though when we chose to raise chickens.  If we can't get a hen to sit, we plan to incubate again in about 14 weeks.  We prefer a hen do it, but we will incubate if need be.

On the garden front, I have 90 tomato plants currently being planted on this off and on rainy day.  They have gotten so big, I need to either plant them or re-pot them.  I don't think I have enough pots.  So in between rain showers I'm planting tomato plants.  I have 29 left to plant.  Any tomato volunteers in the garden are getting the ax.  I know they are cherry tomato plants, and I don't need them.  Out they go.  I only have room for the tomato plants I am planting.  Well those and the 46 pepper plants I also have to find a home for.  Yea, I am not playing this year.  I need tomatoes, peppers, and beans.  I have plans for tomato sauce, salsa, ketchup, tomato soup, chili, BBQ sauce, etc all put up for winter.  I'll also freeze a large amount of peppers to cook with.  The beans are starting to poke their heads out.  I have 12 speckled Lima beans (a good substitute for pinto beans) coming up from last year.  They get to stay.

In addition to all this, I am harvesting spinach, asparagus, and a few beets in the garden.  I have garlic growing like crazy, as well as a parsley plant held over from last year (they are a semi perennial).

Blooms are on my strawberries!  Yay!  I've even seen a few baby strawberries, and my blueberry bushes are covered in baby blueberries!  I can't wait!  I also have apple blossoms on my apple trees!  Now if the deer will just leave them alone.  No peaches I guess.  They bloomed too early and a late freeze got them.

On the home repair front, we now have a new deck on the front of the house as well!  I can't stain it yet.  I have to wait about 6 weeks.  If it ever dries out long enough, I can go ahead and stain the back deck.  It's new too from this past October.