Last week, I roasted our first hulless pumpkin seeds, after processing the pumpkin and two spaghetti squash that weren't going to store well. I made pumpkin bread with the puree. The pumpkin seeds were fantastic! I believe it was the Naked Bear variety. I know the others are Lady Godiva pumpkins, and look forward to trying them. Several more of last year's sweet potatoes were found in a stash I'd forgotten about. A few trays of these sweet potatoes were dehydrated for pup treats, and I planted three that had sprouted in a pot, to see if I can coax them into supplying some winter greens for me. I harvested tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, a few green beans, the last of the cow peas, tromboncino, one pear, two pawpaws and a cucuzza squash. There were bronze muscadine grapes ready on a vine we'd planted some years ago, and I gathered 20. Not many, but I'm happy to gather any fruit this year that the critters haven't already gotten. I also nabbed two of the wild purple muscadines. Squash were shared, as well as a bar of my Pumpkin Chai soap. Receipts were downloaded for Swagbucks points.
I shelled butter beans while watching a movie, and while listening to a podcast another day. J shelled all the cow peas. After an appointment, I shopped at Harris Teeter, and received the 5% senior discount. I bought a pineapple for $1.99, 4 packs of organic black beans and garbanzo beans for .50 off, organic peanut butter for $1 off, and asparagus for 1.99/#. At Food Lion, I got dogfood for $6 off ea., and brussels sprouts for $2.59. The dogfood and beans have certainly gone up, but at least there are some savings getting them on sale. At Hallmark, I picked up my free card, while buying a pack of Thanksgiving cards. I had a $5 off $20 coupon, but decided the holiday cards were more than I wanted to spend, so didn't use it. At a thrift store, I picked up a cotton sheet, pillowcase and book of Native Plants of the Southeast for $1 total. I passed by a feed & seed store, and stopped and bought lettuce seedlings, to replace the ones deer had chewed off. We covered them with some hog wire, and row cover, to hopefully keep them safe. Vegetable soup was made after pulling a "soup fixings" container from the freezer. I add to these containers when I have little dribs and drabs of meals leftover, not enough to really do anything with. It turned out quite good, and also used our canned tomatoes and carrots, onions, garlic and cabbage.
I think I mentioned a few weeks ago my MIL had given me her commercial sewing machine. As there is really nowhere for it in our home, we are going to bump out a small room at the porch edge, and will use the existing floor and ceiling. The two windows that will come out when we open up the wall will be used, and we'll get one more window, and possibly a small one for the third wall. J pulled out two of the porch posts, and framed the room out. So it begins. Kale and rosemary were harvested for a new spaghetti squash recipe we both enjoyed. Good thing, as we harvested quite a few of them this year, and the only recipe we'd liked in the past used butter and cream, which we can't have. I'd tried making it with plant based versions of each, but it wasn't wonderful. I've got another new sp. squash recipe from the same website to try as well. There was some strong wind from Ian, and almost 3 inches of rain, with lots of sticks and limbs down, and one tree down in the woods. Our neighborhood lost power, some of the 6200 homes in our area, but with our solar, we weren't affected. Power had mostly been restored the next morning, other than a few small patches of homes. Golden paste was made for the pups.
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The last hummingbirds I saw were on Tuesday. Hopefully, they made it safely past the storm. I used the toaster oven to warm bread, so free power from solar, instead of using the main propane oven. Warm up water in the shower was saved for flushing, and water glasses were emptied into the humidifier on the woodstove. Having read all the library books I had, I began reading a book received free on Amazon Prime on my Kindle. I continue making chicken mash using chopped banana peels, grated cucuzza squash, often chopped tomatoes with cracks or holes, pears that I gather with bad spots, etc. They always come running when they see me with the bucket. I can't remember if I mentioned, but the Blue Australorps are now laying. I'm working on using up bread that's in the freezer, heating it for J whenever soup is for dinner. I baked the first of this year's sweet potatoes. They were good, but if cured a bit longer, will be better. On my walk Sunday morning, I watched a hawk, and heard a pileated woodpecker and bluejay calling. Being amongst nature refreshes my soul. Have a good week, everyone!
