Early Spring on the Homestead & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  Last week, I purchased some needed things through ebates, for cash back.  I made my Swagbucks goal most days.  Our little online shop continues to have good sales, which is lovely.  More spears of asparagus were harvested, with the ends added to the broth bag.  We've not used the wood stove much, and on a cool morning, I decided to bake the last two spaghetti squash, and some sweet potatoes.  I pulled a couple bags of lambs quarter from the freezer, and made a dish with it and some of the spaghetti squash.  The rest of the squash was frozen, and the skins and bits were added to the broth bag.  Laundry was done with homemade soap and soap gel.  Rain was threatening, so it was dried in the dryer, and the lint added to a TP roll for a fire starter.

The guys had a large biodiesel plant leave last week, and I took photos for their fb page and website.  I weeded around some of the perennial plants.  Picked up organic apples and oranges, and non-organic grapefruit at Aldi's, as well as bread, wine, and almonds.  Eggs were collected, and boiled for us and the pups several times.  Chickweed was gathered for the chickens.  I got some free Kindle books on amazon, prepared a quinoa and broccoli entree using our eggs, and downloaded a free weight loss app to my phone to keep track of calories and exercise.  I'm surely hungry at times, but it's keeping me accountable, and the weight is coming off.  Hooray for that!  Windows were opened for fresh air most days, and wood heat only needed  a couple of nights.

I forgot to mention I bought several needed clothing items on good sales last week (25%-40% off).  Just about each morning and evening, I've been walking 2 miles with the pups.  Sometimes J joins us in the evenings.  One morning, I set out, and it started to rain, so I headed back home.  Oh well, you do what you can, right?  One of the local potters has a friend with a diner who keeps her in lots and lots of 1 foot square egg trays.  She shares them with anyone who wants them.  They're perfect for shipping breakable items.  I went by and picked up several dozen, bought a couple of small items in her shop and let her pick one of my soaps as a thank you.  Shipping supplies can really add up, so I appreciated her sharing.

Sunday was mostly spent outdoors.   I cleaned up a couple of metal items for shop orders, then painted them.  J was working in the garden, dismantling some beds that didn't work well for us, and burning a pile of limbs.  Earlier, he had cut down a dead birch tree, and most of the limbs were from that.  While gathering them up for the burn pile, we found lots of usnea!  I'd say we doubled the amount that was "working" in the tincture jar already.  I felt like we hit the jackpot.  We transplanted several things J dug up in the garden... asparagus, strawberries, and milkweed.  Plants from the homestead meeting are in the ground... a mum, baby hellebores and a lemon ball sedum that we divided and planted in the new area near our porch.  Though I haven't totally given up on the moringa from last year, I decided to get another, which came as a huge root from a seller in the NC mountains.  There were also 2 small roots.  All of them got potted up and watered.  I'm hoping they'll do well.

I've harvested more asparagus, and we will soon have enough for a meal.  The transplanted bed of asparagus has sent up quite a few shoots, and our hopes are that the leaf mulch will assist them in being happier.  We're leaving almost all of them to grow and put energy back into the crowns for next year.  Several clumps of wild lettuce were pulled up and fed to the chickens.  I prepared a pasta dish, which used our canned tomatoes and summer squash, frozen basil and fresh rosemary.  J had a birthday, and I made him German chocolate brownies, which I've made once before.  They're yummy, and much easier than a layer cake.  I used our eggs and homemade vanilla in the recipe.  That sums up the week pretty well.  I'm happy to be joining Frugal Accomplishments.  Wishing you a lovely week!