Powered By The Sun

Hello, friends.  While in town picking up birdseed from Tractor Supply last week, I got some groceries at the nearby Food Lion.  Knowing we've sanctioned avocados coming from Mexico, and as they had them for .99, I got three.  They also had organic oranges on sale for $4.99/3#, and our dogfood for $6 off.  Wednesday started out rainy, so I mended a camisole, hemmed two pairs of shorts from scrub pants I'd cut off, and shortened two flannel king size pillowcases, to make them fit my husband's queen pillow.  I also darned four pairs of wool socks, before heading out to prune apple, peach and pear trees, once the rain let up.  Suet was made for the birds.  The final bit of tax info was gathered, and the last numbers crunched.  That always feels like a milestone.  Once J's info comes in, we'll be ready to take it to the accountant.  

I've wanted a heart cookie cutter for some time, and found one marked down to $2 at Marshall's, which also came with a nice spatula.  I made a double batch of pecan sandies.  The first of the peas poked up over the weekend, some of both types.  I winter sowed 13 containers, including two types of lettuce, parsley, cilantro, artichokes, and lots of flowers.  It was a rather momentous week here.  J did the final bits so we could switch over, and our home is now powered by the sun.  Though it's been cloudy and rainy since we switched, it's keeping up with our demand without problem, which is great.  On Sunday, I made a batch of hummus for lunch.  For dinner, I used one of ours and a store bought butternut squash to make a double batch of crumble, sauteed our collards with garlic, and used homemade salad dressing.  Enough squash was frozen for another crumble.  Five gallon bags of vegetable scraps were defrosted on the woodstove, with plans to can the broth. Each day, I'm sending peace, love and light to the world.  Be well, friends.  

February Blooms

Hello, friends.  Hellebore blooms brought some cheer last week.  For Valentine's dinner, J requested pasta.  Sauce was made with a jar of our tomatoes, garlic, red pepper flakes and cubes of frozen basil, all homegrown except for the pasta.  The juice drained from the tomatoes was saved in a jar, and frozen for soup.  An apple pie was made with canned, homegrown apples.  There was some pastry left over from the pie, so I added some peanut butter to the top, cut it in sections, and baked it with the pie for pup treats.  I made two purchases for our business from amazon, going through The Prudent Homemaker, as a small thank you for such a helpful site.  I forgot to mention last post that I redeemed Swagbucks points for $25 on Paypal.  I was unable to find organic grape tomatoes at the grocery store for several weeks, having checked at least 4 stores.  Organic celery is hit or miss, and organic oranges have been out at Food Lion and Aldi's when I've shopped for a couple of months.  These are interesting times.

Of the five amaryllis bought in early December, all finished blooming weeks ago, except a deep red one that decided to begin blooming on Valentine's Day.  I'm considering it a love letter from creation.  There have been lots of wildlife seen on walks lately, most often deer, but wild turkeys a couple of times.  Frozen pawpaw, figs and strawberries were used in oatmeal, and frozen peppers and lambs quarter were used in breakfast scrambles.   As our potatoes are being used, I'm cutting the eye ends off, and putting them aside for planting.  Several tufts of usnea were added to the glycerite jar, and a jar of astragalus glycerite was started.

The Early Frosty peas arrived, and were planted.  I helped J pull more wire on the solar project.  The panels are now charging with the sun.  There are just a few pieces left to get it connected to the house power.  We're hoping to be connected this coming week.  After two previous cancellations due to snow & ice, I met my sister and SIL for lunch, then we headed to an antique mall, where SIL's friend has a space.  There were lots of beautiful things, as it was a high end establishment, but I didn't find anything I needed there.  While in that town, I stopped by two favorite thrift stores.  I found a king pillowcase I'll alter to fit J's queen pillow for .50, a cashmere sweater for myself for $2.99, and a cute long sleeved top for .50.  At TJ Maxx, I bought some food items, including coconut oil, coconut water, olives and a GF snack.  

A trip late in the week to Food Lion resulted in .99 avocados, organic celery and oranges!  I got a .05 discount for bringing my bags.   With our canned tomatoes, frozen bits and pieces, and some vegetables, vegetable soup was made for a dinner.  I made a batch of MM Snickerdoodle cookies.  Our neighbors lost a son last week, and I made up a small plate of the cookies for J to take when he went by there.  Our diet is so different from most people these days, that was the best I could come up with.  The picket fence that our Seven Sisters rose climbed on was pulled out for the solar battery room.  While I was gone with my sister & SIL, J made a sweet, heart shaped trellis for it.  There was another recipe fail this week, this time for vegan cabbage fritters.  It was almost all vegetables, with very little to hold it all together.  I do love making fritters to use up little dribs and drabs of leftovers, so I'll keep trying.  I'm also going to consider the sourdough starter a fail.  After three weeks,  it never got any further than some bubbles.  It was supposed to double in size after feeding.  If it had increased much at all, I would have tried it in a recipe, but decided I'd already wasted enough flour.  A new salad dressing recipe was tried, and it was a win, so there's that.  Here's hoping the upcoming week brings more successes than failures for us all.  

A GF Bread Fail & Outdoor Time

Hello, friends.  The first signs of spring on the way showed up last week.  On a quick run to the grocery store, I found dogfood on sale at $6 off, and asparagus for $2.29/#.  While wrapping soap and stand orders, I listened to a couple of On Being podcasts, which were wonderful.  If you enjoy uplifting and insightful podcasts, I highly recommend this one.  Laundry was dried on the line.  I tried an off brand of veggie burgers bought at Aldi's some time ago, which I didn't love.  Realizing they would likely continue to sit in the freezer, I decided to defrost the remaining three on different days, and feed them  to the pups.  A little more room in the freezer, and a little less kibble needed for their dinner is a win in my book.  

I tried a new recipe for vegan GF pumpkin bread, which truly was quite awful.  It had no flour, but used unground oats as the dry base.  It'll be eaten, but I can't say it will be with great pleasure.  In the meantime, I found another recipe that sounds much better, based on what I know now.  Being new to GF eating, and having found no breads so far that I consider good, it's been a bit of a learning curve for me.  The sourdough starter is slowly making progress, making some nice bubbles at times.  It doesn't seem quite up to speed for baking yet, but I'm hopeful.

There were some lovely warmer days last week.  On one of them, I planted peas.  I've had the packet of Alaska peas for several years, and have been waiting for some new seeds, which haven't yet arrived.  Another day, I helped J run wire from the solar array to the battery bank.  He also added a grounding rod, so we don't have to worry about lightning now.  After helping him, I pruned many of our fruit trees.  There are more warm days forecast in the next two weeks, so I'm hopeful I'll finish that up, and be able to move on to other outdoor chores.   I made another round of vegan southern fried cabbage, but this time, I made the vegan bacon that goes with it.  I thought it was great, though J wasn't a fan.  That's OK; more for me.  Another night, I used our cabbage and potatoes in a vegan version of colcannon.  It wasn't as good as the heavy cream and butter version, but still tasty.  The eyes were cut, and are drying for use in our garden.

The basket shows a usual week around here, with a constant stream of empty jars to return to their storage spot, awaiting their next filling.  I'm pleased with how well the lid remover I recently bought seems to work.  The test will be when I try reusing them for canning, but I believe it will work well.  I'll definitely report back, once I try it.  In addition to emptying jars, I continue pulling from the freezer, with lima beans, broth and sweet peppers being some of what I used last week.  On Friday, J & I had an early Valentine's date.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the restaurant we gathered with family and friends after our wedding ceremony.  It's been almost five years now.  As always, the food and service were excellent.  On our way there, we passed by our library, and stopped to pick up the books and DVD I had on hold.  Sending wishes that love surrounds you this Valentine's Day, friends.  

  

Chicken Enrichment, A Pretty Puzzle & Solar Progress

Hello, friends.  Last week, I really enjoyed reading The Midnight Library.  I also finished Good Husbandry.  These came from the library, along with The Girl From Venice, which I've just started.  I pulled pawpaw from the freezer for oatmeal, and made MM spice cookies.  I attempted a try at chicken enrichment, which was rather a bust.  I left all the outer cabbage leaves intact with some I was cooking for our dinner, ran a string around it, and hung it from a branch in their yard.  I'm not sure if they were afraid of it, or if it was just too much work, as I usually throw their greens on the ground.  It's interesting to me how different batches of chickens behave.  I took advantage of a sale of essential oils for soap making at 8% off.  A coupon code was used for 20% back on ink at Staples.

Broccoli Pad Thai was made, using our garlic and broccoli.  When your fruit tastes like onion, you know it's time to scrub your cutting board :o).  I used thieves vinegar and baking soda, which worked very well.  A pair of socks and sweat pants were added to the donation box.  Foraged lambs quarter and maitake mushroom were pulled from the freezer for a breakfast scramble.  I'm so glad to have found this scramble.  I was really missing using various bits of veggies in my breakfast, as I had been doing with eggs.  I make 1/4 recipe, which is plenty for me.  This is one of the pottery plates I thrifted with my sister.  I'd also been enjoying making fritters from various bits of leftovers, and thought no eggs put a stop to that too, but I recently found an eggless recipe, which I plan to try soon.

J & I got the remaining 20 solar panels in place last week.  He moved them from his end, and I pulled on them with a rope from my end, and together, we got it done.  They weigh 60# a piece.  It was a long day, though wonderfully warm in the 60's, and we had a headlamp and flashlight before we finished it after dark, but we're so glad that piece is done.  There were steps in between, when he didn't need me, so I spent much of that time picking up the remaining junk from the fire.  By the time I was done, there was another overflowing 5 gal. bucket of metal scrap.  The true trash was put into a feed bag, of which there were many dozens of shards of glass, among other detritus.  I expect now that it's rained overnight, I'll find more, but that should be the vast majority of it.  The next step will be wiring all the panels to the combiner unit, which was a piece I'd not heard of.   I got my first hair cut since before Covid, just a simple trim which she only charged $7 for.  In addition to a nice tip, I brought her a bar of my Rose soap as a little Valentine's thank you.

J and I worked on the jigsaw puzzle another night, then I finished it up.  It was inspired by The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, and the other seasons are available, so I may purchase one to work on next winter.  When I baked sweet potatoes last week, I made sure to bake a few extra, as I wanted to make a sweet potato pie.  They're one of J's favorites.  I tried this new recipe for a vegan version, and we both loved it.  J saw GF graham cracker crusts and brought one home some weeks back, and that's what I used for this pie.  I mentioned last week that I started a GF sourdough starter.  It has been disappointing so far, making few bubbles.  It looked a bit more bubbly Sunday, so I'll give it a little bit longer.  A lentil loaf was made, and after enjoying it a second night, I froze the rest for another meal.  Our cabbage was sauteed to go with it.  I tried a MM recipe for flatbread (made with potatoes), which used our rosemary, potatoes and thyme, but I had to sub the potato starch with arrowroot.  It never set up properly, though tasted good.  I'll try it again once I get some potato starch.  I enjoyed watching the Cranford series through Netflix.  J tilled and prepped an area for me to plant peas this week.  I also hope to begin winter sowing soon.  Have you begun working on any garden plans yet?

More Wintry Weather & Making Power

Hello, friends.  Last week, for a dinner, I sauteed our cabbage, steamed our potatoes, and roasted a jar of our green beans.  It's so nice to have a meal that's from our garden in the middle of winter.  On a quick trip to the grocery store, there were shortages for a number of things on my list, including organic carrots, celery, bananas, and apple juice.  I did a double take at the bananas, as the organic section was filled, but it was with conventional bananas.  I hope no one else was fooled.  However, there was an excellent sale on frozen blueberries, $4 less than the usual price, so I got three.  I use these in the MM smoothies I have most days.  Thankfully, after making a soap delivery later in the week, I found organic celery at Harris Teeter, as well as organic GF pad thai noodles on sale 2/$5, usually 3.49 ea.  They also had organic bananas, and I received the 5% off senior discount.

cleaning up Berkey stand orders was a little chillier than usual

Working on eating from the freezer, I pulled out black bean burgers and two partial bags of french fries one night.  I pulled corn out another night for J, which is something I can't eat right now.  There are several bags in the freezer, so I'll be more diligent about cooking it for him, to use them up.  Trends shift as to what sells in my online soap shop.  Last year, I sold lots of garden sets with soap, seeds and garden gloves.  I ran out of seeds shortly before the holidays, so had to take the set down from my shop page.  I was delighted to find seeds again at both Dollar General and Dollar Tree last week.  I was also happy to find bamboo toothbrushes and garden gloves at Dollar Tree.  These things are now $1.25, but still reasonable enough, I think.

Several  jars of homemade broth were used during the week.  I've been working on another bag of frozen peaches in my oatmeal.  Friday afternoon was happily spent with my sister, to celebrate her birthday.  After lunch, we thrifted a few places.  I found a large, heavy duty plant roller, and two pottery dinner plates to add to my collection at one store, nothing at another, and a T shirt for J at the last.  We finished up at Big Lots, and used a 22% off coupon.  I only found two items I needed there, but it was still nice to get the discount.  The last of our homegrown onions were used over the weekend.

A fb friend recently put up a post about her successful sourdough GF bread.  That inspired me, as I've yet to have a good GF bread.  On Saturday, I started a batch of sourdough, using brown rice flour, with these instructions.  In a week, I'll give her recipe a try, and hope for good things.  Our garlic, and jars of our tomatoes and squash were used in pasta sauce.  I harvested parsley, and used our dried oregano in a soup.  We've had some wintry weather each of the past three weekends, which doesn't happen often in these parts.  J has been working hard on our solar project, and has got the first row of panels up.  Though not hooked up to anything yet, he did hook two panels up to his meter, which showed them making power.  We're pretty excited to be getting closer to making our own power! 

Thermostats

Hello, friends.  Besides using pantry items last week, I've been slowly working on eating what's in the freezer.  During the week, I finished a jar of peaches J had opened in oatmeal, then started using a bag of gifted frozen apple pieces in oatmeal.  I felt like baking, and made a MM spice cake.  A library book I'm enjoying is The Ride of Her Life.  There were rutabagas that needed using.  I haven't enjoyed them as much this winter just boiled, so I tried making soup with them, which was decent.  There were leftover sweet potatoes, which I tried making GF naan with, with Bob's 1:1 baking flour.  I've yet to have any GF breads that I thought were good, but these were a little better than the loaf breads I've had.  It was time to get my car inspected.  I did replace tires in the fall, as I knew they wouldn't pass, and was happy it needed nothing else to pass this week.  I read about jar openers that don't damage canning lids, allowing you to reuse them.  I purchased a Jarkey, and though I haven't tried reusing the lids yet, it does seem to remove most of them without damage.  If it works, that's definitely worth the small investment.

While I was baking broccoli mac & cheese (vegan), I put 6 sweet potatoes in the oven to bake too.  Another night, I made mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, and had a salad to go with it.  Our cabbage, onions and garlic were used in a stir fry, along with cashews and other veggies.  Little by little, I've been working on my taxes.  I'll crunch numbers for a while, then go do something else.  This way, it will get done, but it's less painful.  Our library announced this week that they were doing away with fines.  I still brought back the books and documentaries I had, so others could enjoy them.  I used some pesto from the freezer with pasta, and made a salad for a dinner.  With our shop holiday over, we're back at work on Berkey stands.  We had two firsts this time. We made our first stand with three shelves, and made our first stand headed to France.  We're pretty excited about that.

We awoke to a light dusting of snow on Friday.  I asked J what cozy meal he'd like for dinner, and he said he'd like me to cook some dried beans.  I do can some dried beans every winter, and still have jars of crowder peas and lima beans, but I put a pot of dried crowder peas on the woodstove in the morning, and let them simmer through the day.  I froze several containers for future meals.  Bags of frozen spaghetti squash and lambs quarter were used in a side dish.  The chickens got warm grains, powdered milk and greens for extra warmth and nutrition on the coldest days, and a few handfuls of meal worms.  I added more hay to their nest boxes and coops, when the forecast called for a wind chill of 9 degrees.  Brrrr.  The farm cat has been getting canned food, in addition to her kibble.  There was another 3" of snow Friday night.  Even so, laundry was hung on the line, and J made progress on the framework for the solar panels.  After seeing several mentions of it, I checked out Wordle, and have played three days.  It's always good to do things to keep your mind sharp, I'm thinking.

There's been an interesting discussion about home temperatures, on The Prudent Homemaker.  It seems somewhat of a trend that those in hot climates can handle warmer temps in their homes, ie., have their a/c set on 81, and those in colder climes are comfortable with colder home temps, ie., have their heat set at 58.  Heating with wood, we aim to keep the temp 76 in our great room.  The thermostat is only about 9' from the woodstove.  Sunday morning, I noticed the bathroom temp was 63.9 and the studio was 61 degrees, so the periphery of the house is definitely cooler, and we keep our bedroom door almost closed at night.  There are winter days where it's 75 in the great room, and I'm comfortable, and on summer days when J is not indoors, I can be comfortable at 77, and I'm sure higher if it wasn't so humid here.  J's inner thermostat runs hot.  I layer up on cold days, with fleece pants, a camisole, cashmere sweater, warm vest, and use a flannel shirt over that when needed, plus wool socks and slippers.  On occasion, I'll keep a hat or scarf on indoors, and take layers off when I'm cooking, etc.  I'm sure it's what you acclimate yourself to, but I don't think I could wear enough to be comfortable at 58 degrees, or even 65.  How about you?  

A Little Winter Weather

Hello, friends.  Monday's high was in the 40's, but it was sunny and breezy, so I hung laundry on the line, which all dried by late afternoon.  Good thing, as I was planning on putting our warmest flannel sheets back on the bed.  A delicate shirt was hand washed and hung on the line as well.  I had a pile of kraft paper I'd set aside to reuse for gift wrapping, but didn't use this holiday.  I ironed it all, and put it with the holiday things, so it will be ready for next year.  I made gnocchi with tomato broth, which used our tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil and homemade broth.  Our lettuce was used in a salad, and dressing was made with honey and lemon juice.

While wrapping soap, I enjoyed listening to an On Being podcast on silence.  I got our four little butternut squash from cold storage, and cut them up for squash crumble.  The chickens got the seeds and innards.  I went grocery shopping for the first time this year on Weds., mostly for fresh produce.  At Aldi's, I found butternut squash for .99/#, and was happy to see 40# of sunflower seeds for $22.99 at Tractor Supply.  I wanted to be sure I had plenty of bird seed, for the wintry event they predicted for the weekend.  I stopped by the library to drop off a book, and picked up another, along with some Ken Burns documentaries about the National Park system.  For a dinner, I baked some of our sweet potatoes, and used our cabbage in a new recipe for southern fried cabbage.  J had leftover cranberry blueberry sauce with it, and I had warmed applesauce with cinnamon.  

With frigid temps at night, I brought in a large container of parsley plants, to keep them going.  I went through Swagbucks, for a Vitacost order, to get 6% back.  A bag of figs in the freezer was used up in oatmeal during the week.  I strained and bottled usnea tincture, stevia glycerite, lemon balm glycerite, and pine needle vinegar.  Two loads of laundry were done on Friday, and hung on the line, in advance of the wintry weather.  I gathered a few large potatoes from our outdoor storage, for fries, and made veggie burgers with lentils, oats, onions, garlic and spices, along with a salad.  I'm loving eating our lettuce in mid-January. 

 

The first hellebore bloom is a bit bedraggled, but welcome nonetheless.  We woke up to sleet on Sunday, which fell all morning, then changed to freezing rain.  I made the chickens a warm concoction of grains, powdered milk, nettles and lambs quarter.  Our power flickered a few times, but stayed on.  The gnocchi with broth always makes more broth than needed, so I added some of our cabbage to it (it already has carrots, celery, tomatoes, onions and garlic), and had soup for lunch.  A bag of our broccoli was pulled from the freezer, and used in vegan mac and cheese, a comforting meal I've had in mind to make recently.  Season One of A Chef's Life, about a restaurant in eastern NC we've enjoyed meals at a couple of times, was picked up at the library, and enjoyed for several days.  Seeing all the wonderful meals makes me want to go back there.  I hope you're staying warm and eating well.  Have a great week, friends.