The September Garden, Thrifted Treasure, & Frugal Accomplishments

The tomatoes, squash and cucumbers in the garden are winding down.  There are new cucumbers up, which J replanted, so we'll see if we have enough time to get some before frost.  Update- all but one cucumber seedling has been eaten :o(.  I noticed that 4 of the butternut squash were on vines that had died, so harvested them.  J harvested a second watermelon, which we enjoyed.   The others were small and teardrop shaped, which seems to happen often here, and they always rot when they're this shape.  I need to research what causes that again.  I made egg salad with our eggs.  After the late frost that got a lot of our fruit, it looked like we had about 6 apples.  A few weeks ago, we couldn't find any of them, and assumed a critter had gotten them all.  One day walking through the orchard, I noticed an apple on the ground.  It was small but perfect.  I surprised J with it, cutting it up to have with our dinner, and it tasted quite lovely.  Small blessings.

I accompanied J to the salvage yard, and bought a sweet metal pumpkin, as well as two pieces he's going to combine to create a birdbath for me.  I've got a concrete birdbath, as well as a very small metal one, and have plans for this new one, which I'll share in another post.  We then headed to a thrift store that was having a half price sale.  I bought several packages of wool yarn, a flannel pillowcase, a bag of assorted vintage buttons, fall themed tablecloth, silk Liberty of London scarf, floral painting, and an electronic connection that unfortunately does not quite fit what it was intended for.  All of this was $7 and change.  The feed & seed store had a .10/seed packet sale, and I bought 3 packets of marigolds (two types), which I thought showed great restraint :o).  We picked up a few things at Walgreens, & I had enough points to get $5 off my purchase.  One of the items I bought were pens from the clearance shelf.

floral painting from the thrift store, $3 including frame

Laundry was done with homemade soap and hung on the line.  I harvested two tomatoes and gathered eggs from the chickens.  We've eaten our leftovers, though I did forget my box of leftovers one night that J took us out to eat Mexican.  J vacuum sealed all the rice jars, as well as a few other odd ones I'd filled recently with lentils, unsweetened coconut & flax seed.  I shelled another round of crowder peas, and added the pods to the compost.  Three pairs of pants were hemmed, and a sweater, pair of jeans, cloth used to cover kefir & pajama bottoms mended.  While delivering soap to a B&B, I donated 6 books to their little library.  I froze okra.  I harvested four teardrop shaped watermelons, and gave them to the chickens over several days.  Though one of the the ends were rotting, the insides were still white with just a touch of pink.  I cut the ends off & cut them up.  The chickens loved them.

I watered plants several times with cooled down cooking or canning water, and canned 3 pints of eggplant.  I made a quiche using our eggs, zucchini, garlic, chard & parsley, and asian cucumbers on the side, along with risotto from the pantry.  Walked with the pups for exercise.   I have lost 13 lbs this spring and summer.  It doesn't take a lot of pounds to show on a just under 5 ft woman.  It crept up over the last year or two, and I'm happy to be getting back to a healthier weight.  We've been able to turn off the A/C and open the house most nights.   I composted vegi scraps, froze some for broth, & washed plastic bags for reuse.  We were in good shape this week, so I did not stop for groceries while in town for work, but  J picked up milk, bread & a bottle of wine.  I shredded paper and cardboard to add to the compost bin, and used rags to clean spills.  

I strained, sweetened and bottled elderberry syrup.  The dogs got our grated cucumbers, squash and carrots with their dinner, & I used our cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes & arugula in a salad.  The pups got boiled eggs a few days.  I made my Mom's zucchini soup with our squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic & herbs.  I'd been shelling the red noodle beans that got large & saving their beans.  I boiled the beans, and made a bean dip with our garlic to have on bread with the soup, and cooked our okra in the wok.  I spent a good part of the weekend working on windows, using my new tools.  Hooray for clean windows!  I believe I'll do a separate post about that.  I was up a good part of one night, and caught up on almost all of my ironing.  At the time, I thought that was all there was, but then remembered there were several things hanging that need ironing.  Oh well, they'll wait until next time.  I'm joining in with Frugal Accomplishments today.

As you can see by these leaves, we desperately need rain.  As I type this, it is thundering and there is at least a hope of some rain reaching us.  Time to head out and do a rain dance!  Be well, friends.