I can't believe it's finally here. My last day at my away from home job is Monday. I had my exit interview today. Cleaned out my desk yesterday to make room for my replacement, and now am getting ready for the last hurrah on Monday.
When I tell you I work with some of the most precious people around, you can believe it. From the office staff, nurses, aids, social workers, chaplains, massage therapists, musicians, bereavement counselors, and volunteers; all of these people devote their heart, time, and energy to each and every patient and family member. I've watched them in amazement as they hold the hand of parents brave enough to carry their child to term and bring it into the world, knowing their child won't survive. Parents saying good bye to a child young or old. Children saying good by to their parent all too soon. And through it all this hospice staff carries them through. They are under staffed, over worked, and stressed, but carry on none the less because they are called. Called to serve in a way many can't and/ or won't do. I am honored to have worked with them and am proud to call each of them "friend". The Bible says " a man makes his plans, but God guides his foot steps". Each of us is placed where God wants us in every time in our life. Sometimes it's to serve, and other times its to learn. I pray I served God and others well during this time in my life, but I know for a fact I have learned from this experience. I will miss them greatly.
Now I face another adventure. I'm nervous. Very. Oh but so excited. The challenge is put before me. Not just to be frugal. I'm not called to do that alone. It's a part of who I am, but I'm still called to touch others in Jesus name. To do so, my walk with Him must get closer. I pray it will. It will. My youngest two children will be leaving to go on their own way soon and I don't want to miss the few years with them I have left. They grow up all to soon. What am I saying, they're already grown, but they're still home while they go to school, and until they go off on their own. I want to savor this time. Another thing I've learned these past few years in Hospice is that no one is promised tomorrow. I want to cherish everyday I have with my family. So I'm excited. Excited to start this new chapter. This choice isn't for everyone, but it's mine and I relish what lies in store.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Wa, Wa, Waaaaaa
Very excited this morning to make bread again. So excited I was up at 4:30 making it. Ever heard the term "have a hand"? It's a term used when referring to a skill you have perfected over time and now comes easy. Well the other side of that is to "Lose your hand" at something. In other words, one becomes less adept at that particular skill due to a length of time not using that skill. This is a long drawn out way of saying I am a bit rusty when it comes to bread making. I haven't made bread in a long while. Today's loaves taste good and make great toast, but not the pretty sandwich bread I'm used to. Hence the title to my post. It's just a minor set back. We will focus on having awesome grill cheese sandwiches, or toast for breakfast for a few weeks until I get used to the bread making again. It's a hard job but someone has to do it. (smile). In addition to the bread I made two pizza crust for dinner tonight and they seem fine.
Sooooo excited to be starting my last week in my outside the home job. Nervous too. It is a big step. I have a peace about it, but it is a little unnerving. I would say the planning has already started, but that would be wrong. The planning started 5 months ago when we decided to take this step. We have successfully lived off of Dh income alone for the past 5 months. My income has gone to get other things paid off. Now the rubber is hitting the road as we will be doing this for real. Other planning started 5 months ago as well. I would go to sleep and wake up planning what I would do when I have the time; from the garden, baking, sewing etc, to additional things like saving on electricity, groceries, water, etc. My full time job will be to make the income Dh brings in go further. In addition, I will be the main errand runner, chauffeur, accountant, etc. I want my home to become the sanctuary it should be for my entire family (including me). That is the desire of my heart.
One thing I'm not looking forward to is my yearly doctor visit in September. This past year has been horrible toward my health. I am up a few pounds, as are Dh, Rubic, and Einstein. Between the guys having class, both Dh and my full time job, and having only one car for a while, there was very little time for health. In addition, in preparation for leaving my job, our garden had to go in and we had to live as if we had only one income. That took even more time. The house suffered as well. I can feel the difference in myself and I don't like it. Come September 1st that changes. We are all refocusing to a healthier lifestyle, and the house will get the attention it deserves. Not sure if the changes in my health will be reflected in my lab results by the end of September, but I will know it is on the right track. Was all of this worth it? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Would I do it again. YES! We knew going into this past 5 months it would be hard. Now we get to reap the rewards of that sacrifice.
Update on my daughter and her family. No big surprise the stay at home parent plan is working well for them as well. She has told me there is even more money freed up than she originally imagined. Both my daughter and son in law are finding they have more time for the kids and each other. The kids seem more even keeled. My daughter says she actually finds herself looking for something to do (and she is the working outside the home parent). I have told her she needs to take up her crocheting or reading again. It works! I understand not everyone has the ability or desire to do this, but I will tell those who want to or can do this. It works! It can be done!
Sooooo excited to be starting my last week in my outside the home job. Nervous too. It is a big step. I have a peace about it, but it is a little unnerving. I would say the planning has already started, but that would be wrong. The planning started 5 months ago when we decided to take this step. We have successfully lived off of Dh income alone for the past 5 months. My income has gone to get other things paid off. Now the rubber is hitting the road as we will be doing this for real. Other planning started 5 months ago as well. I would go to sleep and wake up planning what I would do when I have the time; from the garden, baking, sewing etc, to additional things like saving on electricity, groceries, water, etc. My full time job will be to make the income Dh brings in go further. In addition, I will be the main errand runner, chauffeur, accountant, etc. I want my home to become the sanctuary it should be for my entire family (including me). That is the desire of my heart.
One thing I'm not looking forward to is my yearly doctor visit in September. This past year has been horrible toward my health. I am up a few pounds, as are Dh, Rubic, and Einstein. Between the guys having class, both Dh and my full time job, and having only one car for a while, there was very little time for health. In addition, in preparation for leaving my job, our garden had to go in and we had to live as if we had only one income. That took even more time. The house suffered as well. I can feel the difference in myself and I don't like it. Come September 1st that changes. We are all refocusing to a healthier lifestyle, and the house will get the attention it deserves. Not sure if the changes in my health will be reflected in my lab results by the end of September, but I will know it is on the right track. Was all of this worth it? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Would I do it again. YES! We knew going into this past 5 months it would be hard. Now we get to reap the rewards of that sacrifice.
Update on my daughter and her family. No big surprise the stay at home parent plan is working well for them as well. She has told me there is even more money freed up than she originally imagined. Both my daughter and son in law are finding they have more time for the kids and each other. The kids seem more even keeled. My daughter says she actually finds herself looking for something to do (and she is the working outside the home parent). I have told her she needs to take up her crocheting or reading again. It works! I understand not everyone has the ability or desire to do this, but I will tell those who want to or can do this. It works! It can be done!
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Updates from The Ole Homestead
Yea, no lofty little tidbits of frugality to share. This is just a post about the goings on in our little corner of the world. Which reminds me of a joke:
God once told men he would place good obedient women in all four corners of the world. Then He made the world round and laughed and laughed.
But anyway, I digress.
This past week I finally managed to can 24.5 cans of tomato sauce. I also tried an experimental blackberry butter recipe. It's pretty good, but the next go round I'll use 6 cups of sugar instead of 4. Once I get this down, I'll share my findings and my recipe. I still have about 1 gallon of blackberries left in the freezer so this will be soon I promise.
One of the temptations I have in the summer with the heat, canning, gardening, and this summer working full time; is eating out. Not anything expensive mind you; Subway or Little Caesars. I am happy to say that while I have had a few lapses, I have managed to get dinner on the table instead. Now dinner may be grilled cheese or waffles, but everyone has eaten. Not my healthiest offerings, but definitely my cheapest. Once I have more time, dinner will be less hit or miss and better for us. I did have one exception and that was today as the family went out and about thrift store shopping. As a part of our excursion we stopped for an ice cream. Aside from that we bought pizza and baked it at home for dinner tonight.
Our morning was spent finishing a remake of the old PVC coop using the PVC and poultry netting we had on hand. The only expense was a bag of zip ties for putting everything together. Yes we've separated the coops again and each one has its own run again. With the addition of 4 new birds, our flock is now 11 and so the previous set up was getting more cramped by the day as the babies grew.
So there's the update in our neck of the woods. Not anything great and lofty, but its all I have for now.
God once told men he would place good obedient women in all four corners of the world. Then He made the world round and laughed and laughed.
But anyway, I digress.
This past week I finally managed to can 24.5 cans of tomato sauce. I also tried an experimental blackberry butter recipe. It's pretty good, but the next go round I'll use 6 cups of sugar instead of 4. Once I get this down, I'll share my findings and my recipe. I still have about 1 gallon of blackberries left in the freezer so this will be soon I promise.
One of the temptations I have in the summer with the heat, canning, gardening, and this summer working full time; is eating out. Not anything expensive mind you; Subway or Little Caesars. I am happy to say that while I have had a few lapses, I have managed to get dinner on the table instead. Now dinner may be grilled cheese or waffles, but everyone has eaten. Not my healthiest offerings, but definitely my cheapest. Once I have more time, dinner will be less hit or miss and better for us. I did have one exception and that was today as the family went out and about thrift store shopping. As a part of our excursion we stopped for an ice cream. Aside from that we bought pizza and baked it at home for dinner tonight.
Our morning was spent finishing a remake of the old PVC coop using the PVC and poultry netting we had on hand. The only expense was a bag of zip ties for putting everything together. Yes we've separated the coops again and each one has its own run again. With the addition of 4 new birds, our flock is now 11 and so the previous set up was getting more cramped by the day as the babies grew.
So there's the update in our neck of the woods. Not anything great and lofty, but its all I have for now.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Domestic Tips Learned from "The Godfather"
I know right? Who Knew! But it's true. There are domestic things one can glean from watching this movie. It's not only, as Tom Hanks puts it in "You've Got Mail" the "Movie equivalent of the I Ching--the epitome of wisdom. If anyone has a problem the answer can be found in "The Godfather"". Yes ladies "The Godfather" is not just for guys.
So what can you learn from "The Godfather"? Well let me tell you!
1) How to make an awesome Italian Pasta sauce to feed a crowd. I got this recipe from The Food Network. The comments in parenthesis are my own.
"Come here kid and learn something. you might have to cook for 20 guys someday"
Clemenza's Spaghetti Sauce
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2-4 cloves of garlic chopped (I would go for 4 cause I like garlic. Keeps vampires and people away)
2 Large cans of Tomatoes
Tomato Paste (I would use a 12 oz can, but you may want to start with a 6 oz can and see if it is as thick as you like)
3-4 Italian Sausage links grilled and chopped
1 lb Cooked Meat balls.
1/4 cup Sugar
Red Wine (this is for cooking unless you've had a very trying day and then....well....)
To Make:
Heat the olive oil over med heat. Add the chopped garlic and saute a few minutes making sure not to burn the garlic. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and stir well until a smooth consistency. Add the sausages and meatballs. Stir to cover the meats well. Add a splash of red wine (I said splash not glug) and the sugar to taste. Turn down the heat and let simmer at least 20 minutes. If you must salt, do so to taste. Serve over noodles (Duh)
2) Never, never, never attempt to have a conversation on the phone with a crying baby in your arms. Now I have to state that I valiantly, valiantly searched long and hard for a photo image depicting this scene, but to no avail. Those of you who have seen "The Godfather" will remember the phone call in which Sonny finds out his sister has been beat up yet again by her husband. This scene is the set up for Sonny's eventual demise and so I am shocked, SHOCKED there is no image anywhere on the net. Anyway, the call comes in and Carmela Corleone (The Corleone Matriarch) answers the phone with a screaming baby in her arms. She then states "I can't hear you the baby is crying" and hands the phone off to Sonny. What cracks me up is she attempts to hear what the caller is saying through the screams of the baby. Now disappointed as I am at the lack of image, my point is still made so...moving on.
3) A Gardening tip! How to protect tomatoes from Sun Scald!
I'm actually trying it this year. I have had to cut back some of my tomato plants. All of the dead branches have been cut away, leaving only what has new growth. The problem with doing this is that it leaves what tomatoes left on the vine exposed to the direct sunlight. To mitigate this problem, I have placed a white cloth covering over my plants such as you see here. We will see if this really works for them. I hope so. I really did get the idea of doing this from this movie. This is one of DH favorite movies so I've seen it a lot. Well I have to admit I like it too; the first two anyway.
I do have to admit I like these movies. I like the era they are depicted in, the cinematography, just everything. Well except the graphic violence. It is a classic though, but now we can look at it from a totally new perspective; Home Economics. Oh and we can't forget the most important tip we can learn from this movie.
4) The importance of bringing home after work what your wife asked you to pick up. Please!
So what can you learn from "The Godfather"? Well let me tell you!
1) How to make an awesome Italian Pasta sauce to feed a crowd. I got this recipe from The Food Network. The comments in parenthesis are my own.
"Come here kid and learn something. you might have to cook for 20 guys someday"
Clemenza's Spaghetti Sauce
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2-4 cloves of garlic chopped (I would go for 4 cause I like garlic. Keeps vampires and people away)
2 Large cans of Tomatoes
Tomato Paste (I would use a 12 oz can, but you may want to start with a 6 oz can and see if it is as thick as you like)
3-4 Italian Sausage links grilled and chopped
1 lb Cooked Meat balls.
1/4 cup Sugar
Red Wine (this is for cooking unless you've had a very trying day and then....well....)
To Make:
Heat the olive oil over med heat. Add the chopped garlic and saute a few minutes making sure not to burn the garlic. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and stir well until a smooth consistency. Add the sausages and meatballs. Stir to cover the meats well. Add a splash of red wine (I said splash not glug) and the sugar to taste. Turn down the heat and let simmer at least 20 minutes. If you must salt, do so to taste. Serve over noodles (Duh)
2) Never, never, never attempt to have a conversation on the phone with a crying baby in your arms. Now I have to state that I valiantly, valiantly searched long and hard for a photo image depicting this scene, but to no avail. Those of you who have seen "The Godfather" will remember the phone call in which Sonny finds out his sister has been beat up yet again by her husband. This scene is the set up for Sonny's eventual demise and so I am shocked, SHOCKED there is no image anywhere on the net. Anyway, the call comes in and Carmela Corleone (The Corleone Matriarch) answers the phone with a screaming baby in her arms. She then states "I can't hear you the baby is crying" and hands the phone off to Sonny. What cracks me up is she attempts to hear what the caller is saying through the screams of the baby. Now disappointed as I am at the lack of image, my point is still made so...moving on.
3) A Gardening tip! How to protect tomatoes from Sun Scald!
I'm actually trying it this year. I have had to cut back some of my tomato plants. All of the dead branches have been cut away, leaving only what has new growth. The problem with doing this is that it leaves what tomatoes left on the vine exposed to the direct sunlight. To mitigate this problem, I have placed a white cloth covering over my plants such as you see here. We will see if this really works for them. I hope so. I really did get the idea of doing this from this movie. This is one of DH favorite movies so I've seen it a lot. Well I have to admit I like it too; the first two anyway.
I do have to admit I like these movies. I like the era they are depicted in, the cinematography, just everything. Well except the graphic violence. It is a classic though, but now we can look at it from a totally new perspective; Home Economics. Oh and we can't forget the most important tip we can learn from this movie.
4) The importance of bringing home after work what your wife asked you to pick up. Please!
Friday, July 31, 2015
A Wrench in the Works
OMG she is posting during the week! Alert the media! Well what can I say, when the muse strikes I write.
Off from work today and so it will be a full day of stuff to do. Making the most of this time. No one has to be anywhere except Dh and that's good cause the little Honda had to go into the shop for today. I have to give him (the little Honda) kudos cause he waited til we had the truck back, but little guy needed breaks and rotors on the front end. Our mechanic is near here so I dropped the car off this morning and Dh brought me back before going to work. Fortunately, if this had to happen, I'm glad it happened now. We have three paychecks this month, we had money in the car fund, the truck is back, and no one needs to go anywhere today. The final bill for this repair was only $203.00. My original plan, cause you get driven to pay it off, was to muster every available cent, including the car fund, to pay it off. I then would have paid the car fund back with the next check. This won't happen now, but it will still be paid off on time. Just not early. Oh well "All the best laid plans" you know. But it's all good.
My dtr and I were talking yesterday about budgeting and such. I told her to make sure she budgeted for bad things to happen. Dave Ramsey says if you budget for Murphy he will leave you alone and bother your neighbor. So I am budgeting for Murphy. I told her she should as well. One of the best feelings in the world is to be able to not sweat the unexpected because you are ready for it. No one knows when an unexpected event will happen...you know...cause...they're unexpected. You can guarantee they will happen, so plan for it.
On the gardening front. Let me tell you, there is such a sense of satisfaction in harvesting food from your back yard. Not just satisfaction, but...dare I say it?....well, yes, outright defiance. A shaking of your fist to "the man". To know you can skip buying things at the grocery store and paying their prices because you took the time to grow it at home. It's a great feeling to be sure. Yesterday I went out to the garden and brought in corn, tomatoes (of course) and eggs from our chickens. It's neat! Really! Now I can't be totally defiant cause there are still things I need at the store (shhh so don't tell them what I said. Lol), but little by little I make more things at home and buy less things at the store. That is awesome!
In addition to saving at the grocery store, I am proud to announce our power bill was $50 less this year than last year, and that is with this summer being hotter (way hotter) than last year. My goal each month is to keep that power bill down even more. Next month, when home, I will begin to hang clothes on the line again. Love doing that anyway. Makes me feel so Pioneery.
My ultimate goal is to make the income Dh brings in go farther. Pinch that penny til he screams! I can't wait for the ultimate frugal challenge to begin. Me vs the bills. Epic! Epic! I can confidently say I will win, the question is by how much!
So there you go. What's going on with you?
Off from work today and so it will be a full day of stuff to do. Making the most of this time. No one has to be anywhere except Dh and that's good cause the little Honda had to go into the shop for today. I have to give him (the little Honda) kudos cause he waited til we had the truck back, but little guy needed breaks and rotors on the front end. Our mechanic is near here so I dropped the car off this morning and Dh brought me back before going to work. Fortunately, if this had to happen, I'm glad it happened now. We have three paychecks this month, we had money in the car fund, the truck is back, and no one needs to go anywhere today. The final bill for this repair was only $203.00. My original plan, cause you get driven to pay it off, was to muster every available cent, including the car fund, to pay it off. I then would have paid the car fund back with the next check. This won't happen now, but it will still be paid off on time. Just not early. Oh well "All the best laid plans" you know. But it's all good.
My dtr and I were talking yesterday about budgeting and such. I told her to make sure she budgeted for bad things to happen. Dave Ramsey says if you budget for Murphy he will leave you alone and bother your neighbor. So I am budgeting for Murphy. I told her she should as well. One of the best feelings in the world is to be able to not sweat the unexpected because you are ready for it. No one knows when an unexpected event will happen...you know...cause...they're unexpected. You can guarantee they will happen, so plan for it.
On the gardening front. Let me tell you, there is such a sense of satisfaction in harvesting food from your back yard. Not just satisfaction, but...dare I say it?....well, yes, outright defiance. A shaking of your fist to "the man". To know you can skip buying things at the grocery store and paying their prices because you took the time to grow it at home. It's a great feeling to be sure. Yesterday I went out to the garden and brought in corn, tomatoes (of course) and eggs from our chickens. It's neat! Really! Now I can't be totally defiant cause there are still things I need at the store (shhh so don't tell them what I said. Lol), but little by little I make more things at home and buy less things at the store. That is awesome!
In addition to saving at the grocery store, I am proud to announce our power bill was $50 less this year than last year, and that is with this summer being hotter (way hotter) than last year. My goal each month is to keep that power bill down even more. Next month, when home, I will begin to hang clothes on the line again. Love doing that anyway. Makes me feel so Pioneery.
My ultimate goal is to make the income Dh brings in go farther. Pinch that penny til he screams! I can't wait for the ultimate frugal challenge to begin. Me vs the bills. Epic! Epic! I can confidently say I will win, the question is by how much!
So there you go. What's going on with you?
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Got the truck back can I get a Hallelujah!
Finally! After 2 months of waiting and waiting we finally, on Thursday, got our truck back from the mechanic. They ended up rebuilding the engine to the tune of $2600. Still cheaper than going into debt to buy another car. The mechanic feels like the truck is in really good shape. Aside from the engine rebuild he found nothing else really wrong with the truck. He had done some work on the truck for the previous owner, but had no record of any transmission service being done. As a result he thought it prudent to have a service done on the transmission just to make sure. Aside from that we're good. He says it's running great. We still have money set aside for the truck and so will look into the transmission service and getting new tires. I have no delusions about the future in regards to our motor vehicles. I know things break and the time comes to purchase another new(to us) car. We don't buy brand new. Just doesn't happen. We buy used cars so I have no need to save tens of thousands of dollars. However, my goal now and in the foreseeable future is to put back some of our savings each month to a car account. This account will be used for either car repairs or a car purchase further down the line. My goal is to never go into debt to purchase another car. I make no promises, but that is my goal.
My life is work and tomatoes. More tomatoes than anything else. I have just come in from about 4 hours in the garden picking, weeding, tying up and cutting back tomatoes. Some of my plants have out and out died due to the hot weather we've been having. This is par for the course. Happens every year. They will start to come back in August as the temps moderate a little, and then I will have these large gorgeous tomatoes that never get a chance to ripen. For this reason, if there is no new growth on the plants right now, I get the good tomatoes and up it comes to make way for something else productive. Ironically the tomato plants with new growth are the one type of plant I really don't need...namely cherry tomatoes. They love all this weather and have no problem continuing to produce. Corn is starting to come in and I need to pick it yesterday. It was on my list of things to do today. I will get to it I hope tonight when it cools off some.
My gardening "second wave" will begin August 15th. That day I plan to plant more beans both green beans and pinto beans, and more squash. I will be starting cabbage plants sooner than that. Sept first will be my day to plant spinach, lettuce, and my cabbage seedlings. The tomatoes will still be going as well until the first frost (Oct 31st) and right before our first freeze I will be digging sweet potatoes. I can keep this gardening thing going a while if I have the time and inclination. Probably by the first freeze I will be ready for a break. Christmas will be on the way and that takes a lot of my time as well.
My life is work and tomatoes. More tomatoes than anything else. I have just come in from about 4 hours in the garden picking, weeding, tying up and cutting back tomatoes. Some of my plants have out and out died due to the hot weather we've been having. This is par for the course. Happens every year. They will start to come back in August as the temps moderate a little, and then I will have these large gorgeous tomatoes that never get a chance to ripen. For this reason, if there is no new growth on the plants right now, I get the good tomatoes and up it comes to make way for something else productive. Ironically the tomato plants with new growth are the one type of plant I really don't need...namely cherry tomatoes. They love all this weather and have no problem continuing to produce. Corn is starting to come in and I need to pick it yesterday. It was on my list of things to do today. I will get to it I hope tonight when it cools off some.
My gardening "second wave" will begin August 15th. That day I plan to plant more beans both green beans and pinto beans, and more squash. I will be starting cabbage plants sooner than that. Sept first will be my day to plant spinach, lettuce, and my cabbage seedlings. The tomatoes will still be going as well until the first frost (Oct 31st) and right before our first freeze I will be digging sweet potatoes. I can keep this gardening thing going a while if I have the time and inclination. Probably by the first freeze I will be ready for a break. Christmas will be on the way and that takes a lot of my time as well.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
I found a little friend in my garden today
Hot here. Really hot. In order to garden at all I am forced into either working in the garden early early in the morning or late in the evening right before dark. Morning work is only feasible on the weekends due to my job and so for the most part I get about 45 minutes in the evening. As a result of my lack of time in the garden, the weeds have run amok. So this morning DH and I got outside early, bout 8-ish. I started at one end and started working away. Step by step. Little by little, I reclaimed my raised beds and a few of the rows. I still have much more to do, but was finally driven indoors about 11am. During the coarse of my work, while raking up some pine straw in order to till, I discovered a little turtle guy. Unfortunately I delayed getting my camera and he moved homes. Drat!
It's a good thing I raked up the straw prior to tilling cause he would have been in bad shape. As it was this little guy just looked at me like "Hey whatcha doin. Give me back my cover!". I took him and put him in a raised bed I had already completed. I laid down a pan of water which he drank and then he promptly found another bit of pine straw and dug himself under it. He has been there all day. I checked on him this evening and there he was quite contented in his new straw cover. He's a funny little thing. Most turtles will go into their shell when you pick them up, but he didn't. As I moved him around he was more like "where we goin?". Just along for the ride.
Another little buddy I found was a surprise snow pea volunteer. I know! 90 degrees outside and there he is just happy as you like. I was clearing out the area where the snow peas had been planted in early spring. I had let the rest of the pods go to seed and so was collecting the pods from the now gone plants. There he was under some plants. Well at least I know the seeds will germinate. I told him he could stay and covered him some with straw to protect him a bit. You know since I took his cover away too. Mean ole gardening lady takin everyone's shade away. How dare she! The little guy didn't stay mad long cause something ....ate him. (sigh) yea. Dh says it was probably the turtle.
I like to think it was a bunny. We all have our delusions.
Also on the garden front. I'm in the process of back to back tomato sauce making/canning. I have about 3 gallons of ready tomato sauce in the freezer to can, but since I'm out of room in my freezer for the moment, I'm finishing each batch now from start to canning completion. I made 8 half pint jars of pizza sauce yesterday and have enough for probably another 18 half pint jars. I also have enough raw tomatoes in my dining room to do another 4 batches. I have more tomatoes in the garden to pick. I need 52 half pint jars of pizza sauce and would like 52 quarts of spaghetti sauce for the year. I'll take what I can get.
Never a dull moment her on the homestead. Dull would be nice. It would mean I was looking for something to do. On a happy for me note, tomorrow marks the 6 week mark til my last day at my outside the home job. I can't wait. On another note in 2 weeks we will make our last credit card payment!!!!!!!!! So excited.
So that's all the news here!
It's a good thing I raked up the straw prior to tilling cause he would have been in bad shape. As it was this little guy just looked at me like "Hey whatcha doin. Give me back my cover!". I took him and put him in a raised bed I had already completed. I laid down a pan of water which he drank and then he promptly found another bit of pine straw and dug himself under it. He has been there all day. I checked on him this evening and there he was quite contented in his new straw cover. He's a funny little thing. Most turtles will go into their shell when you pick them up, but he didn't. As I moved him around he was more like "where we goin?". Just along for the ride.
Another little buddy I found was a surprise snow pea volunteer. I know! 90 degrees outside and there he is just happy as you like. I was clearing out the area where the snow peas had been planted in early spring. I had let the rest of the pods go to seed and so was collecting the pods from the now gone plants. There he was under some plants. Well at least I know the seeds will germinate. I told him he could stay and covered him some with straw to protect him a bit. You know since I took his cover away too. Mean ole gardening lady takin everyone's shade away. How dare she! The little guy didn't stay mad long cause something ....ate him. (sigh) yea. Dh says it was probably the turtle.
I like to think it was a bunny. We all have our delusions.
Also on the garden front. I'm in the process of back to back tomato sauce making/canning. I have about 3 gallons of ready tomato sauce in the freezer to can, but since I'm out of room in my freezer for the moment, I'm finishing each batch now from start to canning completion. I made 8 half pint jars of pizza sauce yesterday and have enough for probably another 18 half pint jars. I also have enough raw tomatoes in my dining room to do another 4 batches. I have more tomatoes in the garden to pick. I need 52 half pint jars of pizza sauce and would like 52 quarts of spaghetti sauce for the year. I'll take what I can get.
Never a dull moment her on the homestead. Dull would be nice. It would mean I was looking for something to do. On a happy for me note, tomorrow marks the 6 week mark til my last day at my outside the home job. I can't wait. On another note in 2 weeks we will make our last credit card payment!!!!!!!!! So excited.
So that's all the news here!
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