June Doings & Frugal Accomplishments

ironweed

Sadly we lost our ailing rooster this week.  The rest of the flock, including the 3 new chicks look healthy, thank goodness.  Last week, I harvested parsley & basil.  On a day when I wasn't feeling well, I watched a documentary and a couple of episodes of Call the Midwife on youtube, while working on my quilt.  I used homemade bread crumbs in a pasta dish.  Hand picked japanese beetles daily  & fed them & greens to the chickens.  Made a sweet potato pie from our potatoes.  It did seem a little odd to be making one this time of year, but we enjoyed it just as much.  I found a tomato volunteer, which J transplanted in the garden.  I collected eggs from the hens and used cloth napkins with meals.  I'm joining in with The Prudent Homemaker's Frugal Accomplishments today.

soapwort

To keep the house cooler on hot days, I closed the blinds and door on the south side of the house.  After trying the new Harris Teeter a second time (the first time they charged full price for sale items I had bought), I was once again less than impressed.  The cashier forgot to ring up my $10 off $50 coupon, so I had to go to customer service.  That wasn't too bad, but when I got home, I realized the almond milk I had bought had a use by date of Nov. of  '15, and this store wasn't even open in November of  '15!  After letting them know of my displeasure, I was given a $10 credit on my VIC card, which will go towards my next purchase.  When I received a survey from the company I buy supplements from, I let them know that I much preferred the shipping they used prior to the past several months, which got orders here typically in 2 days vs 6 or so.  Because of that, they have upgraded my account to always use Fedex shipping for my orders, instead of being turned over to USPS Smartpost.  I guess sometimes it pays to complain :o).

I found this yellow flowering plant down near the creek, which I've not seen before.  If you know what it is, I'd love to know.  I believe it may be some type of hypericum, but I haven't found anything like it yet online.  The leaves are smooth ovals, & do not show spots when held up the the sun, as I had been taught, so I'm not sure.  I've been hanging on to a free Tofutti coupon for a long time.  We were headed to a family gathering, with a Whole Foods a block away, so we used it when buying groceries there.  I've begun gathering the first ripe blueberries, along with wild blackberries, & rare raspberries & mulberries.  I used our garlic when making hummus.  We've had some very hot days (mid 90's), so I gave the chickens some frozen corn "muffins" to cool & amuse them, and froze another batch.  I made an herb tea using red clover, nettles, spearmint & red raspberry leaf harvested here, & planted 3 varieties of beans in the patches where the previous beans didn't come up.  Our garden spigot had a significant leak, which J felt was finally beyond repair,& he and I replaced it.  In between helping with that job, I weeded around a fig bush, cut away a mulberry seedling & some milkweed that were keeping sun from it & pulled up horse nettle & wild blackberry that had come up around it.  I'm hoping that will mean more figs in the future.  We have 5 fig trees, but a total of only 3 figs so far this year.  Three of the fig trees have become fairly shaded by various other plants, which doesn't help.  Oops, make that 7 fig trees.  I forgot about the 2 youngest ones next to the pond.

loving the various colors in this bachelor button mix

Laundry was hung on the line, after washing it with homemade laundry soap & soap gel.  I trimmed the dogs nails at home.  Guinness is a sweetie, & lets me trim all of his.  After much cajoling, McNibs let me trim his 4 longest nails, which I consider an accomplishment.  Though he is very food oriented, even treats don't help in this instance if he doesn't want to do it.  I gave both dogs a bath using my Sirius dog soap, which includes a number of essential oils for fleas and ticks.  There was a huge auction nearby over the weekend.  It was so large they had two auctioneers working in different parts of the estate.  J & I looked around, but ended up leaving in an hour without bidding on anything.

I did a clean out of the crispers in my fridge, which seriously needed some love and attention.  Some broccoli was steamed, a mix of spinach and lambs quarters was steamed & frozen for future meals;  zucchini, peppers and leeks were grilled, an elderly beet and apple were turned into apple beet salad, & I'm embarrassed to say some cranberries which were soft but not moldy were given to the chickens, who enjoyed them immensely.  I fully intended to freeze them at some point, but didn't.  The one thing wasted was a small bag of  arugula I had harvested some time back, & it went into the compost crock.  I sprayed a liquid fertilizer on the wine grapes, & also picked off japanese beetles while I was attending to them.  A late frost damaged a lot of our fruit, so I don't think we'll be making wine this year, but there's always next year to look forward to for our first batch.