Seed Saving, a Musical, & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  Last week, while the refrigerator and freezer were empty, everything was wiped down.  That's a good thing to have off my to do list.  A few things were thrown away or composted.  The few things thrown away were in jars, things like chutney that we just weren't using.  Five boxes of donations were dropped off at the thrift store, after work on Tuesday.  I decided not to get groceries that day, as I knew I'd be going to Trader Joe's and the co-op after an appointment the following day.  Kale was harvested for a salad, and our garlic was used with ravioli.  Between the shorter days and several of our hens molting, I've been gathering an average of one egg a day for a few weeks.  They're definitely not paying for their keep at that rate.  I gave them some more loofahs to peck at.

At the natural food co-op, I used a .50 instant coupon that was on a package of noodles.  Prices seemed especially high on produce at Trader Joe's, so I did not purchase any.  For example, yellow onions were 3#/$2.99, and clementines were $5.99 or thereabout a bag.  Neither was even organic, but just conventional produce.  The seeds for pumpkin, green beans, and runner beans were dry enough to put in packets and label.  I'm considering giving a few as gifts to gardeners.  Paper and cardboard were shredded.  Notes and lists were made on scrap paper.  Wheat was ground for future baking plans.  I dropped the ball with an update about the wind turbine, but only because it's required a few tweaks.  At present, it appears to be working as it should, and has been spinning enough that we feel the battery has been charged.  It now supplies power to pump water from one of the tanks into the house.  If we should have a period without wind, all we have to do is plug it back into the grid, but we're hoping it will sustainably provide all the power we need.

On a cold day, I made lentil soup with previously canned lentils, and a salad with our tomatoes and peppers.  I had planned to make crescent rolls to go with it, but for some reason, the bread machine didn't mix the dough.  My guess is the paddle was not quite seated, though it appeared to be.  Ah well, I just baked them much later than planned, saved a few for another day, and froze the rest.  Some of the ground wheat was used in the rolls. I still needed to do something with all the garden peppers.  All but two of the ripe ones were cut and frozen, and seeds were saved.  Soft bits, the innards and some seeds were given to the chickens.  Our chicken coop is very low tech.  Their window is covered in hardware cloth.  In the colder months we've been stapling a feed bag over it.  I've wondered if the lower light in the coop is affecting their egg laying.  J had a piece of thermoclear, which he used to cover over half of the window.  It will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

Joseph had some huge hunks of tree trunks to split, so he fabricated a gin pole with which he can pick up the trunk, and swivel it around, onto the splitter.  He sure is a mighty handy guy to have around the homestead.  A friend and I went to see Bright Star, a musical my brother is playing in, by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.  It was excellent, a sweet and poignant story, with a great score.  If you have a chance to see it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Here's one song from it.  I had saved some of our green peppers for J.  He's not going to eat them soon, so I chopped and froze them, and took the seeds and bits to the chickens.  A batch of yogurt was made.  I spent time on Sunday taking photos of new products, and began listing them in the shop.  Three gallon bags of vegetable bits were put on the wood stove, to simmer overnight for vegi broth, which I'll can Monday.  Still trying to eat down the frozen food, we had green bean casserole, eggplant caponata, and stuffed summer squash for dinner Sunday.  There were several lettuce seedlings in a pot, which I put in the cold frame a couple of weeks ago.  Knowing they'd be happier in the ground than in a pot, I planted them in the soil of the cold frame, then watered and fertilized all the lettuce.