Winter Harvest

Hello, friends.  I hope you had a most enjoyable holiday.    Last week, we harvested cabbage for colcannon, lettuce and chard, and thyme for tea.  I finished reading Love & Saffron, which I really enjoyed, and requested three more books from the library.  A pot of small sweet potatoes was simmered on the woodstove for the pups and chickens.  Another tromboncino was grated for the chicken's mash, which they get every day that I'm at home.  My two sewing machines were moved into the new sewing room, and J bought a small wall propane heater, as our wood heat doesn't reach there very well.  I've started looking for a piece of furniture for fabric storage.  At a dental cleaning, I received a "free" toothbrush and two samples of ozone gel.  My husband and I watched the Bocelli Christmas special, free (with ads) on YouTube; free Pandora holiday stations and the holiday stream on Folk Alley provided cheer.

pre-single digit garden cover up

I stopped at Hallmark after an appointment, and got $9 off my purchase, using coupons, and received a free card.  At Harris Teeter, I received the 5% senior discount, and picked up brussels sprouts for $2.99/#.  Not a great price, but better than the $3.99 I'd been seeing elsewhere.  I also got a large organic cucumber for $1.79, and canned organic beans on sale for $1 off/ 4 pk.  At Food Lion, I got three bunches of asparagus for $1.49/#, and froze two.  The quality was less than I'd hoped for, but that's not uncommon with produce these days.  Also purchased was honey on sale, and  .99 avocados.  J read there's a bumper crop of avocados, so hopefully the price will go down further.  I went by a favorite thrift store.  The sign said Christmas items were 1/2 off, but at the register I realized they were giving everyone half off, which was a nice surprise.  I bought a small gift, and two items for my online shop.

Vegetable soup was made, with several of our vegetables, and also used some of our dehydrated greens and soup mix (onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms).  J & I deeply harvested the winter garden before the single digit temps, and covered everything as well as possible.  None of it may make it, but we wanted to try.  We harvested many lbs. of of collards, more than a large black trash bag full, and blanched and froze 16 qts.  Also harvested was 5 oz of chard, equivalent to a regular clamshell of salad, 13 oz. of lettuce, around 2# of kale, some of which was frozen, a small amount of broccoli, and a few lbs. of mixed winter greens.  We did our best to not waste anything, and hope to be harvesting something on the other side of this frigid snap.  Three friends who often take our produce were out of town, and another didn't want any of it.  I went through Rakuten with 10% back, for a business purchase.  On Christmas day, J made himself a pork roast, and our turnips and greens with bacon.  I made a sweet potato, apple, cranberry bake with walnuts, and a cranberry quinoa salad with kale and walnuts.  I also roasted asparagus and made cookies.  We ate well.  May the remaining days of '22 go out quietly, and may '23 bring greater hope, peace and light to us all.  

Back on Solar

Hello, friends.  I hope you're finding some time to enjoy these days.  Our new American made inverter arrived, and Joseph had us up and running on solar again mid-week.  Hallelujah!  Last week, I pulled black bean burgers from the freezer for a dinner, along with home fries and salad.  A new recipe for a potato tomato bake was tried another night.  It was quite bland, so I'm pondering ways to jazz it up if I try it again.  Though I've rarely been finding good deals at the grocery store, I found several on Wednesday.   At the first stop, we picked up our dog food for $6 off.  On markdown, we found two cans of organic chickpeas for .42, bags of dried baby limas and navy beans for .57/#, and a package of cotton facial pads for .62.  J found some paper goods on sale, which his Mom requested he bring to a gathering there.  Getting the paper goods and the cotton pads meant we could skip the trip to Dollar Tree we'd planned.  Also on sale was asparagus for $1.49/#, mandarins for $2.99/3#, and roasted almond tins  2/$5.  At the next stop, I found tins of local peanuts on sale for gifts 2/$6, and marked down dried organic garbanzo beans for $1.97/#.  I recently looked for them at another store, where they were $6.99/#!  I'm so glad I waited, and got 8 bags for the pantry, which I'll can up when things slow down.  I heard a few days ago that there may be a shortage of them, which would be a real shame.  We love hummus, and I also use them in a lot of vegan dishes.  A frugal fail is I missed their $10 off $50 deal by a day, but this was the day we were in town.

A pot of large sweet potatoes was put on the woodstove, to boil for pies.  Books were requested from the library, and picked up when in town for groceries.  A local orchard had marked their Christmas trees 1/2 price.  All they had left were 8' and larger, so we got an 8' fraser fir for $44, and cut it down to fit our room.  There was too much on our plates to do it this week, but we'll decorate it next week.  I've enjoyed listening to Christmas music free on Pandora.  Amazon digital credits of $13 were used to buy a book that has been on my list, making my OOP $1.  For a lunch, I defrosted a container of soup I'd frozen.  I wrapped all the presents for my extended family, with the supplies on hand from previous years, including some bags and ribbons that were reused.  I'm pretty sure all of it was bought at after Christmas sales, and a few things at thrift stores.  The garbanzo beans were all placed in glass jars to store until canning.  We received a letter from our internet provider saying they were lowering our bill, which explains the credit on the last bill.  The bill is lowering $5/mo., at the same time they're increasing internet speed from 100 to 300.  I really appreciate belonging to this telephone cooperative, who provides our service.  It was most welcome to receive this message during these times.  Happy Holidays, friends!

Good Deeds

Hello, friends.  Last week, I cooked a bag of our frozen lima beans with onion and garlic, along with brown rice, and fried up some of our sweet potatoes.  A pot of smaller sweet potatoes was boiled for the critters.  Suet was made for the birds, and golden paste for the pups.  I finished up the toothpaste tube I had cut open, which lasted more than two weeks.  I forgot to mention last week, I used our last little tomato in a salad.  It's pretty nice to be eating our tomatoes until the end of November.  You may have heard about the county in NC that had a power outage, due to vandalism of two substations.  That county borders ours.  It was good to see all the businesses and churches that offered food, water, charging and warming stations, and shelter.

Isn't that a pretty moth, seen in the garden last week?  Lettuce and mixed winter greens were harvested for salads, and our small potatoes were steamed.  I tried a new MM friendly salad dressing, which I enjoyed.  When we received our telephone bill, there was a credit of $11.76 for internet service, lowering our bill.  We were one of the first in the area to get fiberoptic, as we were putting in our studio addition when they first started rolling it out.  We had to move the phone connection then, and were offered fiberoptic.  We're hoping the price has come down, as so many more are now connected to it.  In any case, it sure is nice to have a bill go down, rather than up, even if it's just this once.  I redeemed Swagbucks for a $25 gift card, which I'll be using for a gift, and received $6 in digital Amazon credits, for allowing slower shipping.  

J has been hard at work on the sewing room.  All the trim molding is up, and the painting finished.  Now that he's painted the new window trim outside, to match what we already had, I can wash the windows.  He's been pondering what to use as a threshold.  Like most of our house, it's a bit quirky, and we need a larger than usual threshold.  He brought two pieces of lumber we had on hand in the house to dry, but the first cracked, and the other warped.  He mentioned he had been looking for a threshold when customers came by his shop.  It turns out one of the men had a piece of dried white oak that he gave J, because at some point, J had given him a piece of metal, so his good deed came back to him at the perfect time.  Soapmaking oils were melted on the woodstove, to save propane.  A piece of my juicer was beginning to stick, so I followed J's advice to spray with a vinegar solution, followed by a soapy solution, and it moves perfectly smoothly now.  

Besides the usual Berkey stands to powder coat this week, there was an antique light we're refurbishing for a neighbor.  I think it's turning out nicely.  I gathered the few fall items I'd decorated with, took them to the attic, and brought down the gift wrapping supplies and mailbox bow.  The rest will have to wait until we're able to move the sewing machines into the new room, and straighten out the studio.  We hoped to find a tree, after meeting friends at a winery over the weekend, but there were none to be had in that town.  However, getting to visit with them did my heart good.  My sister and I visited a cidery Friday, and had a great time visiting as well.  The cidery had lost power in the outage mentioned above, so supporting them when they reopened felt good.  We made an unplanned stop at a thrift store we passed, but didn't find anything we needed there.  The coming week will be mainly focused on wrapping gifts, and planning and preparing food for the gatherings we'll be attending.  I hope your days are filled with people and things that bring you joy.

Late Autumn Days

Hello, friends.  I'm so thankful for the rain we received, which filled our tanks.  J worked out of town most of last week.  I hoped to get lots done, and worked on soapmaking and wrapping, cleaning the layer of sheetrock dust on everything in the studio (whew, was that a job!), and canning tomato sauce.  The tomato skins and bits remaining were dehydrated.  While he was gone, I cooked up some of our frozen okra, which he can no longer eat.  I harvested chard, and enjoyed having that.  For an online purchase, I went through Swagbucks for 8% back, with an additional 20% coupon code.  Joseph worked on finishing the interior of the sewing room when he got back.  He got the walls primed and painted, caulked nail holes, and put up trim molding.  

The solar saga is ongoing.  J decided to purchase another board for the inverter, to have as a backup, due to their unreliability so far.  The company promised to send a new board a couple of weeks ago, as part of their warranty agreement, but they've yet to send any shipping info.  The one Joseph bought arrived, we changed it out, and it worked....For.One.Hour.  He's done a huge amount of electrical work in various positions he's held over the years, and thinks it's likely an issue with sensors not communicating properly.  On a somewhat positive note, he did purchase a (much more expensive) U.S. made inverter, which we hope will arrive next week.  We're not sure what, if any, recourse we have with the company in China.  The inverter worked 8 months out of a 2 year warranty, with several outages before that that required resets.  With the multiple boards he's already changed out that didn't work, it's obvious it's not anything we can count on.  May the USA made one be all we hope for, or even better.  

I was blessed to have a customer purchase multiples of my Garden sets for gifts, and worked on wrapping the soap for them over the weekend.  I noticed gas had fallen to $2.99 while out, so I stopped and filled up.  While at the grocery store, I found one marked down raw honey.  Other than that, there was nothing I needed on sale, so I got the usual produce and a handful of other things.  I go through a fair amount of honey, having it every day in my lemon water, and using it in my salad dressing, so I'm always thankful to find some at a good price.  Saturday was drizzly, and I decided it was a good day to drink tea and write Christmas cards.  It's only a little over two weeks before winter begins, and the days begin growing longer again.  That's a day I always cherish.  I have some fun things to look forward to in the coming week, spending time with people I love.  May your week be filled with blessings of the season.