A tale of 5 Uh 6 kittens!

 Morning all.  Before I begin my tale, I wanted to just show you what joined me yesterday evening.

"What do you want to do.  I don't know.  What do you want to do?".  Comment if you know where that line comes from.  That's a vulture sitting on our deck.  He's been hanging around here for a few weeks now.  I think all the new construction took away his house.  He's decided we're the hip place to be.  

So now onto my saga.  We have a colony of feral cats that live in our back yard.  They've been here for years.  We've tried everything we can to trap them, lure them, etc. to get them fixed, but success has been hit or miss.  The colony was down to three females.  There's a grey male that keeps coming around, but he doesn't live here.  He just knows it's easy picking.  I think he belongs to someone, but they haven't fixed him.  So we deal.  Nature seems to keep the colony small.  I don't say that to sound cruel.  My dream is that they would trust me so that I can get them fixed as well as the kittens and them live happily ever after.  That isn't the case, and the places the mother cats choose is less than stellar.  Case in point.  A few days ago I noticed kitten cries coming from what I thought was the new duct work under our house.  Not cool ( pun intended).  They would cry and then it would stop.  Then it picked up again under our house over by the front door.  Good news, they weren't in the duct work.  Bad news is I can't get to them.  The crying continued for 3 days.  At first I thought the mother was coming in to them, but soon realized she was absent.  I called a friend of mine who lives close by and he, bless his heart, crawled under the house and retrieved 5 kittens aged 2- 3 weeks.  The eyes were opened, but they weren't walking very well.  I left them outside for 2 hours until dark to see if mom would show.  She didn't, so I brought them in.  They stayed with me while I looked for a rescue that could take them.  I found a wonderful rescue called Whiskers on Wahoo; a non profit rescue.  Please follow them on facebook.  She's full to the gills, but knew this was an urgent situation.  We met at a halfway mark between our homes yesterday afternoon.  WHEW!  Crisis averted! 

During the evening I kept hearing what sounded like a faint cry.  Not enough to be for sure.  Then last night around 10 PM( because it couldn't be at a decent hour) I heard a stronger cry and knew one was left behind!  I have to say I'm very proud of myself.  I had no choice but to get into the crawl space myself.  Crawled all the way across to the other side of the house and found this little one crying and alone.  I grabbed it and brought it into the house.  I contacted the rescue and we met again around 11:30 at night to reunite this little one with it's siblings.  I was 12:15 am getting home and into bed.  Woke up at 6:30.  Needless to say, under my house is now sealed off to any wanna be mama cats that think that's just a dandy place!

I thought I'd include a few shots of "The North 40" garden.  This is the garden to the side of my driveway.  The last picture is of the bean trellis my dad built years ago.  Some of the joints broke and had to be replaced.  I tried to keep as much of his work as possible.  Very happy with the result.  It's not in the North 40.  It's in the South 40 which is the garden in the backyard.

Oh The Humanity!

 Morning all!  How's everything?  Doing well here.  Making progress.  Making progress.  Each day is another step closer to having everything planted.  The soon to be new workshop is coming right along.  All that's left to do is sand the spackle, paint, and lay the flooring.  Going to pick that up once they're ready for it..  

I had a not so minor complaint with the guy who did the mudding of the walls.  It's been addressed and I'm assured it won't happen again.  It still breaks my heart though.  Here in Ga; we're in an Extreme Drought.  Droughts and Gardening can be tricky.  Last week we got rain and I managed to squirrel away multiple buckets stored in the greenhouse and a 30 gallon rubber trash can full sitting next to the house.  Well between the house and greenhouse.  The guy that did the tape and putty put his motorize mixer thingy in my 30 gallons of rain water to clean it!  To add insult to injury he dumped all of that saved water out when he left.  I messaged the contractor (nice man).  Told him what happened, and nicely asked if he could spread the word to his guys to please not use any water in containers out there as this is for the garden.  I was heart sick.  Now I'm scrambling to use things like water caught in a bucket while showering, dish water, and bath water.  Bath water is a workout as it's hauling heavy buckets of water to the garden.  If my ancestors could haul water; I can!  We have rain, hopefully, next week, but it doesn't look like much, and may fizzle if it keeps the same patterns as in the recent past.  So time to be creative! 

As for the garden, each day I'm putting plants in.  Doing as much as I can to use every nook and cranny I can find.  I'm even utilizing the chain link fence.   Gardening can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be.  I try to keep my costs to a minimum.  Utilizing my own dirt for raised beds or opting for  inground when needed.  I save my seeds from year to year so buying seeds is rare.  My chickens provide compost and manure for fertilizer.  I use manual tools rather than tillers or other items that require gas and maintenance.  Anything I have to buy is covered by the plant sale I hold each year.  This has allowed me to add a few things I normally wouldn't have been able to purchase: 4x8 galvanized raised beds; potting soil for starting seeds, pots, etc..  Although in a pinch I've used my own dirt, empty yogurt, or sour cream containers, and foraged cinder blocks.  Even with the help of a plant sale to fund my garden; I still make a point of making do with what's available at the time.  I'm currently in the process of spreading 2 loads of wood chips in the walkways of my garden and in the chicken coop.  cardboard on the bottom topped with wood chips in my walkways suppresses weeds and keeps the soil around my plants cooler.  It also holds moisture which is a must this year.  I can get these free wood chips by being on a list with a tree service; Chipdrop.com, or going to the landfill and loading up the truck.  This time a tree service brought 2 loads and so I have a mountain to bring down.  

On the kitchen front ,I'm still making due with what's on hand.  I need to get in the kitchen and make up some bread, granola, and chocolate syrup.  The chocolate syrup will be used to make yogurt pops.  I have some yogurt I need to use.  Last month, before I knew my she shed would be ready so soon, I purchased a silicone popsicle mold.  I love it!  A few days ago I made pineapple yogurt pops.  I'm thinking this is going to be my stand by for desserts this summer.  I have strawberries coming in currently an so think I'm making some strawberry pops today as well.  I can make them and then remove them from the mold, put in a freezer bag, and back into the freezer.  This way I can do a variety of popsicles.  

WELL JUST DARN!

This is the view now from my garden to the left side of my driveway.  While it used to be pasture, the back of the pasture held these wonderful old but healthy hardwoods.   Now they've been pulled up by the roots to make way for 150 townhomes!  Every single one.  They've cut trees up to our property line in the backyard.  I used to could lay in bed at night and look out my window into the backyard and see fireflies so thick it was like lights on a Christmas tree.  Not any more.  I'm told the developer has to replant in the 35 foot buffer between existing homes and the new development, but how long until they grow to make up for this monstracity?  This makes me sad, and all I can say to all of you people fleeing your blue cities for greener pastures in red states lie ours; In this case, crapping on your new town by voting how you always have, isn't going to help.  And keep your mitts off my chickens!  If you don't want to hear chickens I suggest you stay in the city.

Starting off my day with a "Use up" philosophy

 Good morning!  I hope everyone is doing well.  Plant sale is over, after shoppers have come and gone, and now I will be rushing (after my coffee of course) to get as much planted today as possible because we have rain in the forecast for tomorrow.  Not a great amount last I checked, but seeing as how we're in an extreme drought; I gotta make adjustments as necessary to succeed.  In addition to planting, I've been collecting rain water, when it does come, to help during the dry times.  When we put gutters on the house, we asked that the down spout would come down into a rain barrel.  It's been great over the years, but I really need extra barrels for overflow.  It's on the list.  Until then I scoop the water into other barrels to allow for rain to refill the main one.  So all in all, garden is top of the list today.

Planning meals for today is a "use up" kind of day.  This mornings breakfast was some french toast made with a half a loaf of sandwich bread that I needed to use up.  When the french toast was done, I had a good amount of the egg milk mixture left.  I added baking powder, a little more salt, flour, and oil to turn it into pancake batter.  Cooked up the pancakes as well and my family can choose what they prefer.  I have enough pancake syrup made for today's breakfast but will need to make another batch to restock the fridge.  What pancakes and french toast are left over can be frozen for later breakfasts.  These recipes use eggs too so that's wonderful.  We're getting about 15 a day from our chickens. 

Lunch will just be hubby and I and I have some leftover taco/burrito filling.  I'll make up a batch of flour tortillas.  We'll use those for lunch then freeze them for another meal.  I have cooked chicken in the fridge and think I'm going to make chicken and dumplings for dinner.  I have two chicken thighs left over from making the Buffalo Chicken thighs the other night, and need to start doing something with that pork loin.  I may cook 3 lbs of it in the crock pot as chalupas and can use the flour tortillas I make today to go with it.  Hmm.  That's an idea.  

"Using up" is a wonderful traditional old fashioned way the food budget was managed.  It's not poor mouthing.  It's smart.  Not wasting is a wonderful thing to do.  Below is a Dump cobbler I made to use up some canned pineapple that would expire soon( it's good for at least 6 months after sell by date.  Just sayin).  The recipe is easy.  1 stick melted butter in a 9x13 pan.  1 cup sugar, 1 cup self rising flour, 1 cup milk.  Mix it all together and pour in the pan now coated with melted butter.  our a can of whatever canned fruit you desire.  Bake 350 for 20-25 min. 

What was it Benjamin Franklin said?  "A penny saved is a penny earned".  He was right, but I'd argue it's even more than a penny earned now because that penny is a penny earned untaxed.

Can you think of things in your pantry or fridge that needs to be used up?  

Hello again!

 Well it's been a while.  Yep!  I can't say illness was the only culprit.  When your hubby is gone for weeks at a time; when he's home you just want to spend time with him.  At least I do.  However, while I would prefer flowers, each time he's come home since before Christmas, he's brought home to me some type of respiratory illness.  The first was Flu A before Christmas.  The second time was just a normal seasonal cold, but this last time was RSV!  Luckily no pneumonia or sinus infection, but the worst coughing I've experienced and I've had covid twice!  I ended up pulling an intercostal rib muscle and having a slight amount of bleeding in my eye from coughing!  It hurt every time I had to cough.  Which was often.  

Finally recovered and the plant sale was this past weekend.  I'm happy to say our gardening costs are covered, and a lot of folks got their plants for half of what they would have paid at even Wally world.  We met some wonderful neighbors and had a great time.  Got a little sun, and it was a lot of work, but worth it.  This is the 4th year we've done this and plan on doing it again next year.        

Now to get our plants into the ground.  Wasn't planning on having a garden this year, but then realized I needed to at least plant something for having the seeds for next years sale.  Then drought, war, pestilence, etc and I thought it prudent to throw some more things in the garden.  I have a friend who has a little farm stand.  She's offered to let me sell some herbs there from the garden.  So I'm tucking them into any corner I can find.  Every little bit helps!  

Another help is this!  This is my future, sooner rather than later, sewing workshop!  Now full disclosure here.  We had to pull some from our small retirement funds ( but we're retired so...)to buy this but we're cash flowing the inside finish.  That means some tight belts here.  WORTH IT!  Not only will this finally give me a place to work, but it will also add value to our property.  My poor but sweet hubby stood on one too many needles and said YES YOU CAN HAVE A SHE SHED!  Also in a pinch, this, finished, can become living space if needed.  

This workshop will allow me to do things like this:  This is the before and after of a 1967 Little Miss Fussy doll.  The white spots all over her face are from battery corrosion.  She's been cleaned completely and the new outfit she's wearing is made by me.  That's what else I will do in this shop: sew for my Etsy shop and home.  The last doll is an outfit I've made and sold in my shop.

So as a result of cash flowing this and desiring have this done and paid for as fast as possible; I've given myself a pantry challenge.  Right now my grocery list for May is Milk, potatoes, heavy cream, and chicken feed!  I've stepped up my kitchen activities and quit slacking.  Got my pantry organized yesterday and discovered a lot of things I"d forgotten I had.  Need to use those up.  I pulled a large package of chicken thighs and a whole pork loin out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw and use this week.  Those chicken thighs, roasted crisp will be a great alternative to wings with hot sauce and butter to coat them. That pork roast can be ground for ground sausage, or sliced for pork chops or stir fry.  Baking has stepped up as well.  We have strawberries coming in and still have some from last year.  I think we'll eat the fresh ones, and I'm going to make jam from the ones frozen from last year.  I'm excited to face this challenge, and stretch my frugal muscles!           

Well Just Darn!

 Good morning!  So about 2/3rd's of the US is either going to experience, or is experiencing this massive winter storm.  I wish you all God Speed!  We are in the Major impact zone for Georgia.  So we could get up to an inch of ice.  For those of you unfamiliar with an ice storm.  That's bad.  This isn't the joke of southerners panicking over a dusting of snow.  This is a one inch coating of ice on everything and it's very dangerous.  Anything 1/2 inch or greater brings on serious power outages, trees down, impossible roads.  Oh yay!  

So I've been battening down the hatches and getting things squared away.  While I do have my two strapping young sons here.  DH is out of town.  I wish he were here, if only for the company and moral support.  He's keeping in touch, and quite honestly; even if he tried to get here; with a 2000 mile long winter storm between us and him; I don't see him getting a flight.  

I've done all I can to prepare, with a few more small things to do today.  I DID NOT want to get into the craziness at the grocery stores.  Diva had to go by there and she said she had to go to three stores to find one loaf of bread.  She said everything was cleaned out.  Instead I've stayed home and made bread, granola, hamburger buns, BBQ Sauce( to go with some cooked pork in the freezer), and 2 batches of cookies.  Today I'll make up some meals that can be reheated on my camp stove.  

Speaking of camp stoves!  I had resigned myself to cook anything I needed on the outdoor grill, but then I imagined what that would be like in the middle of freezing rain.  UGH!  BRR! I figured so close to the event, the chances of finding propane cannisters for a camp stove would be zero.  Still, I got on Walmart's website.  They had 2 packs for $32.99.  I thought GOOD GRIEF!  They had to be shipped and would be there in 2 days.  Too much for no guarantee of arriving in time.  I called a local hardware store(Howard Brothers for you locals) to see if they topped off propane tanks for grills.  They did.  So I then asked them if they had adapters to convert grill propane tanks for use with a camp stove.  I was told they had sold out.  I wasn't surprised to hear that with it being 2 days before the event.  I then asked him if by chance they had any 16 ounce propane cannisters for a camp stove.  I even said "I know this is a shot in the dark, but".  He actually had some, but told me I needed to get there soon.  He'd had 8 cases the day before, but had sold out and what he had left was on the self.   I was a mile and a half away.  I was there lickedy split.  Went in and he showed me where they were.  Want to hazard a guess as to how much two cannisters were at this local hardware store?  Mind you these were the same Coleman brand cannisters.  Two cannisters were still $12 and some change.  It never dawned on them to raise their prices due to demand.  They just provided a service for their customers, and charged what they were already priced.  Walmart raised their price due to demand.  It's sad to say, because my son works for them, and they gave him a job when he couldn't get one.  I have to say, this is disappointing.  Now one could say they increased the price because of shipping.  That's what I thought until a friend told me he had seen them pull a pallet of these cannisters out at a local Walmart and they were priced the same as the ones online; $32.99.   Needless to say, they sold out, regardless.  😒

If you're in the path of this thing, were caught off guard, but are needing to grab something or use something you have to get through; Here are a few tips I've gleaned through this experience.

1)  If you have hurricane lamps, they will generate a good amount of heat in addition to light.  This is, however, when used in a closed off room such as a bedroom.  

2)  Think outside the box for items you think you need.  For example:  I have an elderly dog who won't be able to go down the steps on her own if they're covered in ice.  I feel bad I was late realizing this.  In my defense, she does fine when there isn't ice.  I'll be needing to go up and down steps too in order to see to our chickens.  So I need salt to melt the ice.  No way to find rock salt or ice melt now, but what I did find was canning salt: 2 bags around 3 or 4 pounds each.  I need 4 D batteries for one camp lantern, but could only find two.  I don't think I'll need them, but if the batteries currently die, I can still use the lamp if I put two new batteries in to replace two dead.  It won't work as long, but it will work some.  It isn't urgent to have these, but it will be nice to have.   I need to stretch the propane I have in my camp stove cannisters, so I'm making things :Coffee, meals, etc. ahead of time so I only have to reheat it on my camp stove; not cook from the beginning.

3)  So you couldn't find groceries at the store?  That sucks, I know, but that means you can go home and use the time you do have to make up meals, snacks, whatever with what you have on hand.  It's work, but it solves the problem.  That's what I spent yesterday doing.  I'll do more today if I have the time. 

4)  If you think a power outage is possible, wash clothes, run the dishwasher, everyone shower, and anything else you think you'll need to have taken care of before the outage hits.  

I'm hearing the first pitter patters of precipitation.  It's my reminder that I need to run fill up my truck just in case later gas stations are on the fritz.  Then I'll come back and situate the chickens as best I can.  Still have some indoor things to do.  Prayers for everyone going through this right now.  I figure if we're prepared it will only be rain.  That would be fine with me!

TOTALLY DOING AGAIN!

 Hello my friends!  I hope you had a great Christmas and new year!   Ours was definitely non traditional and less than stellar with DH having the flu, but we're still very grateful for all our blessings.  

I'm finally back to doing stuff and it feels good.  I've dabbled in the garden, but haven't done anything like I normally do.  

Today was the first time I felt home steady!  I worked in the garden cleaning up beds the really should have been cleaned up in the fall.  Don't Judge!  

I also started some seeds for my plant sale in April.  I'll have the date and time soon, but just know it will be a Saturday April.  I started Sage, Cilantro, Parsley, German Thyme, and Spinach.  I also potted Strawberry plants!  It felt great!

All those things were wonderful, but the big deal; the great find, was what I did to a whole Turkey purchased around Thanksgiving.  I got the turkey for .47 lb.  I like roasted turkey when it's first out of the oven, but after that it's so so.  I also like using turkey in chicken recipes, but we mainly use ground turkey when it comes to our main use of the bird.  The cheapest 85/15 ground turkey I've found is at Aldi for about $2 lb.  So my process today was to grind what turkey meat I could with y meat grinder, then cook the rest, debone, and use the bones for broth.  I got 4 pounds of ground turkey.  I've yet to see how much cooked meat I'll have, but I should end up with 8 quarts of bone broth.  The cost for my Turkey was $6.58.  The 4 lbs of ground turkey alone made this a great return on my money.  That's $1.65 per pound verses the $2 lb I normally spend.  The rest of this bird could be considered free!  Adding the other cooked meat and broth and you're talking serious money.  I have another turkey to do this too as well.  So this is going to be something foremost in my mind next Thanksgiving.  That is significant savings!  

Now I know not everyone has a meat grinder.  Mine is an attachment to my kitchen Aid mixer.  It's more than paid for itself, but it isn't a huge expense.  If you don't have or want a meat grinder, no worries!  Just cooking a whole turkey and using the meat and bone broth is also a significant savings.  So I highly recommend this to all!

Oh!  Update on the microwave.  I just got a call from our handyman/friend, and he will be here tomorrow to install a set of cabinets and a range hood!  Yay!

Okay.  I can't let you go without another cat pic!

I can't live without it ! Can I?

 Merry Christmas and Happy New year everyone!  DH and I are finally emerging from the joy that was Flu "A".  I had "something" during the course of caring for DH, but I've been told it probably wasn't the flu.  More than likely what I had was an immune response to the flu being around me at the level it was.  When DH had been sick about 5 days, I began to have a cough.  It wasn't too bad until a week after his onset of symptoms.  Mostly I've dealt with the cough, some sneezing, and a very low fever for one day.  Now he and I both are dealing with the cough, but other than that; are on the mend.  Our Christmas was a small affair.  DH was sick on his birthday, but doing some better by Christmas.  Illness kept us from being able to visit my mom for Christmas as well as being able to see our daughter and her family over the holidays.  We've rescheduled both.  Just as the Grinch learned; Christmas still came.  Jesus was still born in a stable!  Doesn't matter if we celebrate on the 25th or in January.  It's something we celebrate 365 days a year!

  

So as we we're starting to emerge from the flu fun; we anticipated a gift we bought ourselves:  a new over the range microwave.  We purchased it about 3 weeks ago.  It was supposed to be installed yesterday.  We opted to pay to have it installed because I couldn't find a way to remove the old one.  In case you're wondering if we needed a new microwave, well....

So...yeah.  What you can't see it the door is also cracked completely in two places.  The inner working still worked, but I felt like I was getting brain cancer every time I used it.  We had this on our list, but since we cash flow everything, it wasn't a priority, until it became one by getting this bad.  Anyway, there's a reason I couldn't figure out how to remove the old one.  When the man came to install the microwave yesterday; he discovered the person that installed the microwave initially had indeed sealed this thing in.  He could find no access point to remove the microwave.  He left the microwave with us.  We were given a refund on the installation, and called our awesome, fabulous, wonderful handyman, Jerry to see if he could help.  Well we texted him.  As I was waiting for his response, he showed up in our driveway!  He came in to look at the problem to see if he could figure it out.  He did, and was able to remove the old microwave.  Once removed, he didn't have time to put in the new one.  It would have to be added to his schedule.  This guy is so incredibly busy and it's all from word of mouth.  His customers are the ones who have advertised for him.  So I'm willing to wait.  While we wait, we began looking at options other than an over the range microwave.  We began to think it might be better to not have to deal with this in another few years when a new one dies.  Instead we're looking at replacing the microwave with cabinets and a range hood.  Then we would get just a small countertop microwave.  Or would we? 

Wow this has been a long post!  Thanks for hanging in if you did!  

So to the crux of my story.  I've gone 20 hours so far without a microwave.  It's been an eye opener!  I use it to tell time, defrost something quick, heat my coffee, heat up leftovers, timer for baking, and even warm milk for the kitten.  I'm having to reprogram myself to function without it, and it's like trying to function with one hand tied behind my back.  There's a part of me that says I can relearn the skills that would enable me to function without a microwave.  There's another part of me that says "forget that!  get a new one!".  Getting a counter top microwave will take up precious space on my already limited counter space counter.  With a clock, timer, and coffee warmer ( I wanted one anyway): I feel I could function without a microwave.  I would have to change some cooking routines, but I do like the idea of fewer appliances.  

So what do you think?  Should I try to live without it?  Am I nuts?  Wait don't answer that one!  😁

Let me know what you think!  

UPDATE!  Nope!  If only for heating the rice heating pad!