The Last Warm Days

Hello, friends.  We're enjoying all the homestead blooms for a couple more days.  When I recently made hummus, I noticed our garbanzo beans were getting low.  So, on Monday, I canned 16 pints, to replenish the pantry.  J & I cleaned the stovepipe to our woodstove.  It hadn't been cleaned since last season, and surely needed it.  On our recent walks, the spicy, autumn scent of decaying leaves was in the air.  The sheets have been changed out to flannel ones.  Though there have been light frosts around us, our garden has been spared up until now.  We'll have a little heat wave in the 80's over the weekend, then the temps will arrive at typical Fall ones, with our first frost soon after.  I got through all the hickory nuts that I'd gathered and J had cracked, and ended up with 1/3 cup.  Sadly, not really worth our efforts.

Down to our last pint of lentils, I decided to can up some of those as well.  We still enjoy having lentil sloppy joes regularly, so they're helpful to have on the pantry shelf, for a quick meal.  Laundry was dried on the line.  As always, homemade soap was used in the bathroom shower and sink, and homemade deodorant used.  Veggie scraps that didn't go in the broth bag were composted.  Paper and cardboard were shredded, and added to the compost bin.  In the garden, yellow squash, tomatoes, eggplant, kale and a tromboncino were harvested.  Dandelion greens were gathered for the pups, and a mix of greens for the chickens.  The lettuce bed was weeded and mulched.  Cranberry quinoa salad with kale and walnuts was made with the kale.  It's a favorite.  I washed the pillow and mattress covers, along with the sheets, on a warm breezy day, and hung them on the line.

After an appointment, I checked the grocery store with the great markdown section, but it was slim pickings this month, and nothing I needed.  I did pick up a few things while there, and received cash back for bringing my bags, and the senior discount.  The little "discount barn" behind a favorite thrift store was open for a few more minutes after I arrived, and they were offering a bag to fill up for $1.  I was able to find two bail lid growlers (1 qt ea.), two pint canning jars with rings, three stainless trays (silver lookalikes), and a ziploc of the sweetest little gift bags.  They reminded me of India.  Most feel like silk, and I wonder if they might have been made from sarees (I'd always thought it was sari, but see more spellings of saree).  

In the main thrift store out front, I found a basket and large organizing bin for the skoolie.  I think bins and baskets will be key to keeping organized, and keeping things from shifting while we're travelling.  At the Dollar Tree, I found Q-tips with paper sticks, which I haven't found in several months.  Also, 3-packs of Colgate toothbrushes, 2.5 gallon ziplocs, and packs of unsweetened applesauce, which were bought for the local food pantry.  It's the first time I've found the unsweetened there.  Even though it's not for me, I refuse to purchase the sweetened version, containing high fructose corn syrup.  It makes me angry they add such unhealthy junk to a food that is delicious as is.  On Saturday, we were able to attend a local veterans event, meet several more skoolie owners, and tour their rigs.  One had the most wonderful, green, vintage Magic Chef stove and oven in it.  With the weekend in the 80's, I decided to clean the pups in the outdoor shower one last time, and J turned it off for the season shortly after.  I hope you're able to enjoy whatever the season brings you.

The Skoolie Ceiling Is In

If you follow my IG or read my homesteading blog posts, you'll know we attended a skoolie gathering in VA recently.   It was a chilly, rainy day, but we were welcomed into several skoolies, met some lovely folks, and got a few ideas.  Joseph has continued to work on the electrical portion of the build.  He worked on the front of the bus, putting up beadboard, prepped for cabinets on both sides, and installed the mini split, which will provide our heat and air.  Before he installed it, he coated the beadboard and ceiling around it with clear sealer and polyurethane.

I've been filling rivet holes on the outside, from the roof raise, with metal filler.  Joseph has used over 1400 rivets in the bus so far.  We worked together to finish installing the ceiling panels.  Though we have a long way to go yet, it does look more finished with the ceiling in.

We're using maple plywood for the ceiling, and trim molding will go over all the joints.  I really like the molding we chose.  It seems appropriate for a rig that will be spending so much time in nature.  

Joseph put up the bedroom wall on the left.  This view is from our bed area.  There's a smaller, more local skoolie gathering this weekend, which we may attend.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here, and is supposed to continue throughout the weekend.  We hope yours is wonderful!

Fall Days & A Little Getaway

 

Hello, friends.  Last week, I harvested eggplant, yellow squash, cucumber, tomato, basil, oregano, and rosemary from the garden, & gathered eggs.  Extra oregano was dried.  I weeded spots of the carrot bed several days, and just about have it done.  Several trays of celery were dehydrated.  Three sticky shelves in the refrigerator were cleaned.  Sometimes it's obvious, but often, it perplexes me how they get so sticky. Laundry was dried on the line.  I redeemed Swagbucks points for a $25 GC.  This card was on sale for $22 and had a $3 credit, so only  $19 worth of points were used.

Pasta sauce was made with our onion, garlic, tromboncino, basil, rosemary and canned tomatoes, with the addition of store bought mushrooms.  I mended the corner elastic on our mattress pad.  One of the unripe melons was cut up for the chickens.  At the grocery store, I was able to get two brussels sprouts for $2.29/#, and one dogfood on sale for $6 off.  Books were picked up at the library, while in town.  I haven't mentioned our potatoes in grow bags experiment lately.  Though all but a handful appeared dead in the height of summer, and none have done well enough to flower yet, there are now half of the grow bags with happy looking potatoes in them.  Probably too late to get any before the first frost, but it makes us wonder if it was just too hot for them in the black grow bags, in that location, or both.

On Thursday, J & I headed to VA overnight, for a skoolie gathering.  I brought water, and hummus, veggies and chips for lunch, and booked an airbnb with full kitchen, so I could bring produce and do my usual morning routine of lemon water, celery juice and smoothie.  I found a restaurant with sides I could eat, which was inexpensive, and we had dinner out.  We met some really nice people, and toured several buses.  Though it was raining and cool, it was an inspiring trip. It appears one of the best things about travelling in a skoolie will be the people we meet along the way.   Shredded leaves were placed in the pond garden months ago.  J mowed them, and tilled them in, before planting the garlic.  We couldn't get our usual variety, Music, so are trying a new one, California Early White, which is supposed to be a good keeper.  Sunday evening, I headed to the pond with the pups, and just enjoyed the beautiful day.  I hope you're enjoying these days too.

A Great Read & Cherishing

Hello, friends.  We recently found out some concerning news about development in the area.  We had briefly mentioned it to neighbors, and they were very concerned.  I invited them to come to talk about it some more, and stay for dinner.  I had already been planning lentil sloppy joes, home fries, and roasted brussels sprouts, and just increased the amounts to cover all of us.  They brought a bouquet of homegrown hydrangeas, and a bottle of wine.  To save time processing the gathered muscadines, they were run through my juicer, rather than using the steamer/juicer, and I learned the results are not at all the same, being quite cloudy.  The juice/slurry is pretty tart, so I added some honey, and froze cubes for smoothies.  Skins and pulp were dehydrated for bird suet.   For an online food order, I went through Swagbucks for 4% back, and used a 20% off coupon code.  Four trays of celery were dehydrated.  I swapped out all the hot and cold weather clothes in the dressers.  I'm hoping to purge a bit, while rearranging my closet for the season.

My sister and I had a thrifting day.  I was delighted to find four canisters to turn into compost crocks.  Two sleeveless T's I'll use as camisoles were half price at $2.  In the same parking lot as one of the Goodwill's, there's an antique mall I'd heard glowing reports about.  We stopped in there, mainly to look for a small piece of furniture to use as a bathroom vanity in the skoolie.  The space only will allow for a maximum 16"W, which I knew would be tough.  I didn't find anything smaller than 20"W, but found something much better, a little self-contained 19th century piece that is 14"W.  It does need a little love, but not too much.  J already had wood glue and a clamp on it the next morning, and made a metal band, which he screwed beneath a crack.  I shored up a small chip and crack on the underside of the basin with super glue.  The day after I got it home, I thought to check Google Lens, and found a wide variety of prices, all significantly more, quite a few, thousands more, and the most similar one, in worse shape,  was listed for $2500.  Though not particularly frugal, I'm pretty pleased with finding this treasure for under $200, especially since a new vanity would be more, and be lacking in it's lovely history and patina. 

Books were requested and picked up at the library.  As I've been averaging 3-4 hours of sleep most nights this week, I quickly finished the first one, Project Hail Mary, which I thoroughly enjoyed.   I highly recommend it, and am adding another book of his to my list.  I just learned there's a movie in the works.  This sleep pattern has been getting so common, I'm beginning to wonder if I just don't need very much sleep.  Some days I'm dragging, but others, I don't notice much difference.  I'm pondering how to best make use of this time.  As ours is a small home, and I don't want to disturb J, I busy myself with quiet endeavors, often trimming or wrapping soap, or reading.  I have quite a backlog of mending, so think I may begin on that.  The past few times I've looked to buy dogfood, there was not the usual sale, but last week, it was on sale again, and two were purchased.  I'd love to put more back when they're on sale, but when two bags run $68 on sale, it's a bit hard on the pocketbook to do more.  My siblings and I have always had great relationships.  Recently, with all of us in our 60's, it's really hit home with me how precious time with them is.  My brother is playing music in a musical for a few weeks.  My sister and I went to the play on Sunday.  My brother is a percussionist, and it was wonderful watching him in his element, playing vibes, drums, xylophone, and chimes  (update- here's my brother's youtube channel, in case you'd like to check him out:  https://www.youtube.com/@stevemchugh1776/videos).  I cherish these times with them both.  I've also realized these October days themselves are some to cherish. 

A Skoolie-Sized Vanity

A bit more progress has been made on the skoolie this week.  After unsuccessfully searching for a small piece of furniture to serve as our vanity, which would fit in the small 16"W space we have, I found a 14" antique treasure that will work perfectly in the space.  The basin will match the blue in our little stained glass bathroom window too.  I love it, and the fact that we're able to put some of our aesthetic in the bus, which will be unlike any other out there.  It needs a little love, such as repairing the crack in the wood at about 2:00.  As I type this, Joseph has already glued, clamped, and fabricated a little metal band to shore it up, which he's screwed in underneath the crack.  The basin had a small chip on the underside edge, with a 3" crack, which I shored up with super glue.  We're debating what we want to do with the lid, and are considering turning it around to it's more decorative side, and bringing the faucet through it.  

It became obvious the past week that a couple of changes needed to be made to the original plan.  The mini split, which will provide our a/c and heat, was intended to go up above the windshield in the front.  Joseph realized it would stick out more than he cared for, so he came up with another plan, which was to put it down under his bus seat.  He cut a hole, and mounted it there.  He's thinking of a creative design we might make for the grate that will go over it, to keep any detritus from being sucked in.  The other change was when he realized the toilet could not go where planned, as underneath it is a frame rail, which would not allow the needed plumbing.  That's an easy one, as we can just swap the vanity and toilet placement.  Thankfully, no holes had been made yet, for either of these needed changes.  I do believe our angels are looking out for us, and maybe even cheering us on.

A Tiring Week on the Homestead

A surprise bloom on a houseplant

Hello, friends.  It's been a tiring week.  All the house plants were brought indoors, which is quite an adventure.  We added a couple of large ones this year, including a rosella I want to try to overwinter, as they never bloom in time for me to harvest the calyces.  In fact, though it's covered in buds, the first bloom came the day after we brought it indoors.  We have two dwarf pomegranates, which have never born fruit, so J dug one up, so I can see if overwintering it indoors changes that.  They pretty much die back to the ground, so maybe this will help.  We've dealt with intermittent roof leaks for a while now, and have been up there at least a half dozen times, to try to remedy it, with no success.  On Sunday, we started the project of replacing all the tin on the original roof.  We were delighted to find there was no wood we needed to replace, and didn't really find a reason for the leaks.  But we now have long runs of tin, instead of seams in two places on each run, in case the wind was blowing water up the incline.  We actually started and finished replacing the roof on Sunday, which we're both feeling, in our 60-something bodies.  All that's left is small things, like replacing the boots and caulking around the soil stacks.  There's a spot at the gutter that needs some shoring up, but we're delighted the project is not going to take days, as we thought it might.  

A batch of suet was made for the birds.  There was a little more activity at the feeders, but not much.  I gathered tansy for seed, and placed most of the plates and bowls of seed that had been drying in envelopes.  I found more kale volunteers, this time two varieties.  Some were transplanted, and a dozen given to a friend.  She expressed interest in a beauty berry while here, so I dug one up for her as well.  The dogs seemed to have finished getting into deer funk, and were given baths in the outdoor shower, likely the last of the year.  When we potted the dwarf pomegranate, we used a mix of old and new potting soil.   We used a large nursery pot we were given, and had no dish large enough to go beneath it, so J suggested a barrel lid, which I cleaned and epoxied the seal, to make sure there were no leaks.  Some of the gifted worm castings were used to fertilize the lemons.  I dehydrated celery twice, and a few chanterelles.  One of the GF pizza crusts were pulled from the freezer, on a night J wanted ribs, and pizza sauce made.  I chopped up sweet pepper, garlic, and some maitake mushrooms I had canned for the pizza, and added black olives.  Yummy!

Six roosters is entirely too much male energy for one flock!

The eggplant is finally doing well.  A curry was made one night with it, a gratin another night, which also used yellow squash and our first picking of chard, and another night was caramelized onion, tomato and eggplant pasta.  With a forecast of a low in the 30's, I harvested all the basil.  Some went into the just mentioned pasta, and the rest will be made into pesto.  A batch of cashew parmesan was made, to have with the pasta.  It really satisfies my craving for cheese on pasta or other dishes.  With the weather turning cooler, I enjoyed lemon balm tea or lemon balm/spearmint tea several times.  I had gathered more hickory nuts, and J shelled them, using his press brake.  I stuck them all in the fridge, until I have time to pick them out.  I brought flannel sheets down from the attic, and swapped them with the summer ones, and got all my cold weather clothes down, though I haven't had time to swap them all yet. J started our first fire in the woodstove Sunday morning, which the pups loved.  Their dog beds are on either side of the hearth.  Wishing you cozy days this week!

A Bit More Skoolie Progress

 

As you might imagine, due to my lack of posting last week, progress has been a bit slower on the skoolie recently.  Joseph has been working on more "away" jobs, which puts him home later in the evenings, and what he's worked on hasn't been the most photogenic, but here goes.  He finished framing out the ceiling, in the front of the bus.

He also finished installing the last of the subflooring in the front.  Over the wheel well, to the left in the pic, he boxed in what will be our couch base.  A bit smaller than I envisioned; more of a love seat really, but it's what will fit.  He's replaced every hose and belt in the bus, and gotten extras as back ups, to keep with us on the road.  That's where we're at at the moment.

Lovely October Days

Hello, friends.  *Please note: trigger warning- the last photo in this post includes a snake.  A cute, little green snake, but a snake nonetheless.  Feel free to skip that portion, if you're so inclined.  Last week, the weather was beautiful, with cooler, mostly sunny days.  It's been just lovely.  I harvested dried lima beans, and shelled them.  I noticed a nice, new to me patch of native muscadines, and harvested what I could reach, along with some from a vine J planted that he was given.  Later in the week,  J helped me pick again.  Lately, I've been gathering hickory nuts.  I tried using the black walnut cracker, but they were too small for it, and they were too hard for the regular, old-fashioned nutcracker.  J got creative.  We put a bunch in his press brake, which worked quite well.  Necessity is the mother of invention!  I'm getting very little "meat" from the nuts, but the flavor is wonderful.

I blended up a pan of GF bread ends, for bread crumbs.  Seven additional kale volunteers were transplanted, and two chard, which had been started from seed.  I made GF pizza crust, and pizza with our pepper, garlic, onion, and oregano, and homegrown sauce.  Another night, I made pasta sauce with tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil and oregano.  Laundry was dried on the line.  Another dinner, we had curry with our eggplant and sweet potato.  The first red pepper was harvested, which was used on the above mentioned pizza.  The summer garden is slowing down, and the mixed greens, carrots and beets are sprouting forth.  Cabbage, kale, chard and broccoli are growing happily.  

As part of my fall chores, I washed all windows and storm doors.  Every time I do it, it's a surprise how wonderful the views are, and the change in the light that comes in.  J helped by removing and washing all the screens, and putting them back.  I sent pawpaws with my BIL, when he was here, which my sister wanted for smoothies.  A neighbor came by for some another day, and while she was here, another neighbor and his wife brought by a bag of large muscadines.  I need to figure out what to do with all the muscadines.  We have plenty of jam on the shelves, and rarely use it, and home canned grape juice as well.  We're not really fans of sweet wine.  I may make a pie with some, and possibly try drying some.  We're also enjoying them fresh.  

All the floors were vacuumed and mopped, in anticipation of bringing in the house plants this week.  Nights will begin dropping into the mid 40's, and my plan is to always get them in before it drops below 50.  Two of the dog beds were washed, and dried on the line.  I checked out the clearance section of a Lowe's, while I was in that town, and found organic maple syrup for $4.50.  At Harris Teeter, I received the senior 5% discount for my purchases.  There have been lots of frogs, anole lizards, and this snake keeping me company while I worked in the garden.  I think the hummingbirds may have departed.  I saw them last Sunday, then saw and heard them in the garden a few more days, but I think they may truly be gone until the next season.  We're enjoying these beautiful, Fall days while they last.  Have a lovely week!