Cooler Days

Hello, friends.  Last week, I dried organic lemon zest and made some lemon pepper blend.  It's a blend I rarely used in the past, but is in Brandy's black bean burgers, and I make those fairly often.  I planted seeds of dill, cucumbers, calendula and zinnias in pots, all of which I seed saved, and J planted tromboncino and zucchini seeds in the garden.  Carrots were replanted in missing spots in the garden, and two types of cilantro seeds were planted.  Around the SoulSeeds shop, evening primrose seedlings, nasturtium, dwarf sunflower and wildflower mix seeds were planted.  

A cluster of blackberry and blueberry bushes, and asparagus that were being nibbled regularly were sprayed with deer repellent.  Oregano was harvested and dried.  Kale was harvested for a salad.  Peas and lambs quarter were harvested, and one or two asparagus.  Their season is sadly winding down.  I shopped at Harris Teeter.  No great deals, though I got a nice sized watermelon for $3.99, and a 5% senior discount off the total.  At Food Lion, cherries were on sale for $2.99/#, and I found more lentils at Dollar Tree.  Over the weekend, I canned up some more of the lentils.  I had thought I'd instead can my first try at baked beans, but hadn't let the beans soak overnight, so will plan to do those on Monday.

Another round of lettuce seed was planted in the garden.  This time, Salad Bowl, Sweet Valentine romaine, and Thai oakleaf.  Joseph tilled up another row, and planted it with tomato seedlings.  On Sunday, I made a fruit salad to bring to brunch with friends.  We brought eggs to share, and some soap.  She also has a restricted diet, and made the most wonderful meal for us to share, which was so appreciated.  We've had the woodstove going again., so I put another pot of sweet potatoes on to simmer.  We're enjoying this cooler than usual spring.  The extended forecast is apparently calling for a cooler and wetter summer here, which works for us.  The down side to that could be tomato blight.  Heat loving plants, such as melons, peppers and sweet potatoes may not thrive, but we'll see what the coming months have in store for us.  Take care of yourselves.  

Skoolie Dweller

 

Now that all the windows and doors are out of the bus, a Carolina wren decided the front of the bus would be a good place for a nest.  Joseph is working around it, and covering it as needed, while he readies the bus for the roof raise.  He's done quite a bit to get ready, though I can't tell you specifics, other than he's detaching things.

I removed all the seat assignment cards, to save with the rest of the bus history.  The variety of children's names was pretty amazing.  There were old fashioned ones, like Caleb and Zebulon, interesting spellings such as Eriq, Dilan, Sindy and Ashely, and names that were new to me, such as Amora, Reality, Nevaeh, Naira, Ki'arra, Praven, Delayah, and Makyi.  Isn't it a blessing to have such diversity in our world?

Guinness on board hanging out, offering us encouragement.

A Sweet Pup & Green Growing Things

all but the largest house plants, acclimating to the light

Hello, friends.  Last week, all of the house plants were moved onto the porch.  They'll stay there a few days, to acclimate to the increased light, before moving to their plant stand.  I dried laundry on the line between rainy days.  Our tanks have been staying pretty full with all the recent rains.  I used our sweet potato and homemade curry mix in a coconut cauliflower curry dish.  J replanted cucumbers, after only one of the original bunch came up (or more likely were eaten by critters).  Some are coming up, but look like they're being eaten.  Grrrr... dang roly poly's.   I harvested, asparagus, peas, lambs quarter, nettles, and lemon balm.  Jar of glycerites were started with the lemon balm and nettles.  It's about two years since I got a raise from the guys for doing their expenses and bills, so I spoke to J, and got a nice raise, which I greatly appreciate.  

I mended several pairs of J's work pants with iron on patches.  While the iron was on, I ironed three pieces of clothing, and caught that up too.  The next day, I mended one of our clothes hampers, and a pair of my muck boots.  The shoe goo had dried up, so I tried two part epoxy.  We'll see how well that does to keep the sole on.  I pulled our crowder peas from the freezer for a dinner one night.  On a cooler day, I baked several sweet potatoes, and roasted two pans of cubes as well.  Two of our butternut squash were made into soup, and the leftovers frozen.  On another day, a sweet potato pie was made.  I'm thankful for what we still have in storage, but feel the need to use it up before we get into hot weather.  I have some humongous sweet potatoes left, and am considering canning them for the first time.  If you've ever done this, I'd love to know what you think.

This big goof of a pup melts my heart.  How sweet is he sleeping there?  Though our extended fencing seems to be keeping the deer out of the garden, they are decimating our asparagus bed, eating the tops off before they can fern, which does not bode well for next years' crop.  On Friday, I spent the day with my sister.  Our original plan fell through, and the day required a bit more flexibility, but we enjoyed out time together.  We did manage a little thrifting.  I brought home a box of slate tiles for $3, a good sized lidded jar for $3, and Mary Engelbreit notepad for $1.  I'd just been talking about the possibility of using slate, as part of our skoolie build the night before, so had to pick those up.  There's a new post up prior to this one, if you're following the skoolie adventure.

All of the second planting of potatoes is now up.  J & I planted more tomato seedlings I started from seed, which filled out the row.  There are more seedlings than we can likely use this year, but we plan to plant at least another row, once they're large enough.  Chard and beet greens were sauteed with garlic and veggie broth for a dinner.  I multiplied the curry powder recipe by 8, and made a batch.  We've been eating curry about once a week lately, so I go through the powder fairly quickly, and want it to last a bit longer before needing to replenish.  Many of the lettuce seedlings were transplanted to other beds, to give them room to grow.  What germinated the best for me this spring was speckled bibb, which we enjoy.  This week, I hope to seed some more lettuce, so there will be a second round for summer.  Take care, friends, and have a great week.

Gathering for the Skoolie

J found an RV that was being parted out nearby online, and got almost all the windows we'll need for the bus, an exterior door with screen, and a stove with oven.  We'll be taking out the bus door, and replacing all the windows, which are notoriously leaky and inefficient.

He's keeping it all under his tractor shed until we're ready for it.  We've been too busy to get any work done this week, but are considering progress on any of it good.  

While scouring FB Marketplace, he found a new Kohler black enamel sink.  We wanted one with two basins, so we can use one for washing, and the other for rinsing.  With having to carry our water with us, whenever we're not hooked in somewhere, we want to be able to do things as efficiently as possible.  It appears to have some irregularity with the paint, but for $40, I expect we can live with it. It looks like the same sink on the Kohler site would be $825 with tax.  It's wonderful to have a partner who can find great bargains!

Lentil Results, Some Upholstery, and a Rooster

Hello, friends.  When we got our couch reupholstered last year, I got more of the fabric, to redo the bar stools in the kitchen, and finally got that done.  The chair below is the first one you come to, when you come in the door, and all manner of things get set upon it... baskets from the garden and other outings, purchases other than groceries, etc.  The second pic was as good as I could get it with upholstery cleaner.  It was time.  The ends of GF bread were added to a pan in the oven, to dry for bread crumbs.  I mulched the new flower bed with hay we got last year, and harvested lambs quarter, lemon balm, thyme, nettles, parsley, oregano, asparagus, kale, and peas.  The lemon balm, thyme, nettles, and some of the oregano were dried.  I made suet for the birds.  Our granddaughter was in a choral concert, and we enjoyed seeing that.  I made sloppy joes with some of the lentils I recently canned, and couldn't tell any difference from cooking them from scratch in the recipe.  The only difference was there were noticeably less, as a pint jar doesn't end up with 2C, with all the liquid, but the texture of them seemed no different.  

before

All the bedding, and pillow and mattress covers were washed, and dried on the line, in anticipation of changing from winter flannel to summer cotton sheets.  I've mended our mattress cover before, and the cover again disintegrated in places in the wash, allowing some of the wool to escape.  It was far enough along this time that J suggested I cover that side with a sheet.  I found a sheet that had been thrifted, and we worked together sizing, cutting and sewing it to the mattress cover.  We'll have to replace it, but it should do us at least one more season.  There's a new skoolie post up, prior to this one, if you are following that adventure.  My warm weather clothes were brought down from the attic, along with some summer sheets.  I was greeted by this visitor on the way to the clothesline one day.

After an appt, I went by Hallmark, where I got a free card and used a $4 off coupon.  I also submitted the receipt through Swagbucks, giving me the equivalent of $7 back.  So, for just over $9, I was able to get six high quality cards, most for upcoming birthdays.  I was very happy to find the organic celery price lowered at Harris Teeter, from $2.99 to $2.69.  It wasn't a sale, just the current marked price, and I'm hoping it will last a while.   Just the celery purchase alone saved me over $37 for the week, over Food Lion prices, plus I got an additional 5% off my order for seniors day.  It really does pay to know your prices.  I then did a stock up at Dollar Tree, finding toothbrushes, cotton swabs, scrubby sponges, lentils, and parchment paper. I heard from a Youtuber I follow that DT had shrunk the lentil size from 16 oz. to 12 oz, and they had at this store too, but I was still thankful to get them.

This may be TMI for those with gentle inclinations.  The bantam rooster has been acting like a randy teenager, and mounted one hen so often, he caused a wound in her side, so he's gone to time out.  I've got some chicken aprons on the way.  Though I've made some aprons in the past, I found some for a price that I felt my time was worth more elsewhere, these spring days.  We've had some warmer days.  Even with closing the house up in the morning, it was pretty hot inside, 79 degrees when dinner was ready on Friday.  J suggested we eat on the porch, which turned out to be a wonderful idea.  Even though the temp was supposedly still 80 outdoors, there was a lovely breeze, and it was so enjoyable to hear the birds and see all the blooming things while we ate and talked.  We enjoyed it so much, we did it again on Sunday, after J grilled us a lovely dinner.  Wishing you a wonderfully healthy and happy week.

Skoolie Demo

Though there is quite a bit more to do, J & I have been making good progress on demolition.  This was the day I started removing the upholstery from the bus seats, after J had unfastened them from the floor.  I had put a couple cushions down for the pups, but they were quickly more interested in the manure spreader the guys were working on :o).  J took lots of things off the bus, like mirrors and lights.

Moving all the seats, and going through things netted us a good bit of change, as well as a bunch of candy wrappers, pens and pencils, some homework, and even some love letters.  I'm saving the love letters, homework, and a few other things in a file, as part of the history of the bus.  I'm considering making a shadow box, or something similar, or may just keep the file in the bus. 

On the second day, I finished removing all the upholstery, and J got all of the seats out of the bus.  The upholstery needed to be removed, to take them to the salvage yard.

He took out all the side windows, and the door.  He's decided to do a roof raise, which is reasonably common with bus conversions.  He's around 6'2", and can only stand upright in the very front, so though it will be a good amount of work, it will make it much more comfortable for him in general, he'll be able to take showers upright, and the living space will feel a lot more spacious.  He's planning on raising it 18", which still gives us some leeway to get under bridges.  

I bagged up all the upholstery fabric and threw the foam into J's truck, so he could take it all to the dump on Friday.  We took all the seat frames to the metal salvage yard next, along with a few other odds and ends, and made a little money while getting rid of some things around our worksite. 

On Saturday, J took out the emergency exit door, and the storage compartment above the windshield.  We do plan to have storage in that area, but will make it to suit our needs.  You'll notice in the top pic that there are still the children's seating assignments on the wall.  I plan to keep several of these, or maybe all of them, as well.  As the bus is parked behind J's business, you'll see various metal objects surrounding the bus in the pics.  I found another skoolie event a few weeks away, which we're looking into.  I hope this one works out!

Early May on the Homestead

Hello, friends.  I hope your week has been a good one.  Last week, I used our broccoli in pad thai for a dinner, and opened a jar of our pear sauce with honey.  I dried all laundry on the line.  Our crowder peas were used for another dinner, and frozen kale, baked sweet potatoes, and a beet was used in apple beet salad.  I finally caught up on canning broth for a few days, using 9 gallon bags of veggie scraps, which made a bit of room in the freezer.  In case you're interested in our adventure in converting the bus to an RV, and missed it, I posted about it for the first time last week.  There will be other posts whenever there is news to share and I have time to create one.   https://abelabodycare.blogspot.com/2023/05/our-new-skoolie-adventure.html

I requested two books from the library, and picked them up while I was nearby.  When I walked in, I was surprised to see an incubator holding guinea eggs on the counter.  They told me they have a live feed, and expect the eggs to hatch around May 28th.  I pulled some plant based ground beef from the freezer, which has things in it I can't have, and doled it out in the pups dinners.  J tilled up a row for tomatoes.  I transplanted tomatoes from the little starter cubes to larger pots, and we started hardening off the larger ones I had transplanted prior.  All were fed with the nettle and comfrey tea that was started two or three weeks ago.  A batch of suet was made for the birds.  With three different wired ribbons that were thrifted, I made a spring mailbox bow.  

One day, I headed to Burlington with friends, and had a thrifting day.  I'm happy with what I found, which included a wicker laundry basket, heavy pottery dog bowl made in England, two canisters to turn into compost crocks, some sewing supplies, and a wood and fabric laundry hamper.  One of the friends recommended a Thai restaurant for lunch, and I was delighted to find they had steamed vegetables (mostly broccoli, a favorite) and brown rice.  I'm always happy to find a place I can eat out safely.  Asparagus and lambs quarter were harvested.  The ends and skins of aloe were blended with water, and used to feed some outdoor plants.  

Our anniversary was over the weekend.  On Saturday, we headed to the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.  They were having their spring plant sale, and we picked up osage orange, robin's plantain and golden alexander.  They all got planted on Sunday.  We met friends at the local wine bar Saturday night, and enjoyed catching up with them.  Twelve of the potatoes in the grow bags are up.   J replanted some of the other bags with potatoes I'd saved.  The peas have got a number of pods.  Two more rows of strings were added to their trellis.  I pulled the first pea pod, and added the peas to our salad.  While gathering eggs, I found a rat snake in the chicken coop.  J grabbed it with a feed bag, and we relocated it to the edge of a huge field, where it should find plenty of mice.  J had intended to grill our dinner Sunday, but found out something, likely a squirrel or rat, chewed the hose to the propane tank.  Ah well, it's good to roll with whatever life brings your way.  Have a great week, friends!

Our New Skoolie Adventure

Last month, April '23, Joseph brought home a school bus.  It was a surprise, and one I didn't notice for several days.  There is an ever revolving roster of vehicles here that they're working on in the shop... tractors, trailers, manure spreaders, dump trucks, etc., so a bus didn't stand out immediately.  In all honesty, I wasn't pleased when I first realized it.  Though it's the sort of thing that's right up my alley, having a great love of good adventures, and a bit of hippy in me, I felt the timing could have been better.  Both of us have plates that are overflowing, jobs that are unfinished on the homestead, and we have differing opinions on debt.  But, after a couple of days, my excitement won out, and now I'm fully on board.  

So, let's tell you a little about the bus.  It's a '98 Thomas MVP, with a 3126 Caterpillar engine, and a 4 speed automatic transmission.  The engine is in the rear, so it is a "pusher".  The bus is 32' long.  It has 177,000 miles on it, runs on diesel, and is in good mechanical shape, except for some minor issues.

I love seeing all the signs of the previous students, like their assigned seats.

Our plan is to create a comfortable living space for the two of us and our dogs, so we can see more of this beautiful country.  For those new to this concept, they're frequently called skoolies, when turned into living quarters.

We expect it may take a couple of years before the bus is far enough along to travel in.  We plan to finish it as frugally as possible, and have already found some good deals.  We're making slow but steady progress.  I'll share about both of these in the next post.  Thanks for coming along for the ride.  The adventure begins!

Spring Happenings

Hello friends.  Last week, I canned lentils for the first time.  A pan of egg shells was crushed, and added to the compost bin.  I made golden paste for the pups, and strained and bottled all the remaining jars of herbal glycerites.  GF bread ends were ground into bread crumbs, and frozen.  Every day, vegetable scraps were added to the broth bag in the freezer.  Toilet paper tubes were saved for fire starters, with lint from the dryer added, and candle wax.  Laundry was dried on the clothesline.  We've gotten some nice rain, filling our tanks.  We had a few days and nights without heat, but with nighttime temps lowering to the 40's, the woodstove was going again on Sunday.  I filled two large pots with veggie scraps, intending to catch up on broth making before it heats up, and make room in the freezer.  While prepping a bed, before planting cucumber and carrot seeds, I pulled up quite a few wild onions.  I cut off the tough stem, scrubbed them up, and added them to the broth bag, along with a carrot I mistakenly pulled up.  No waste.  

J and I took a quick trip to Richmond, VA, to attend a tiny home event.  I purchased tickets online, saving us $6 from buying them at the door.  We knew it would lean heavily to tiny homes, but the ad stated there would also be vans and skoolies, which is the whole reason we went.  Sadly, there were two vans and no skoolies.  The only takeaway from it was a vintage looking fridge we both liked, but on reading reviews, found out it's prone to freezing up.  Oh well, we did pick up a couple of pens, so there's that.  We stayed in an Airbnb with kitchenette, so I was able to bring my fruit and blender, and have my morning smoothie.  Though not ideal, I made my celery juice just before we left home, and had it the next morning.  I found a restaurant that had both vegan and gluten free options, and also had plenty of other options for J.  We had a lovely dinner there, and it was nice to have a little getaway.

We couldn't check in until after 6, so we stopped at a thrift store on the way.  I found a canister for 1/2 off, at $2.50, which I'll turn into a compost crock, and J found a light fixture we may use for the bus.  It was 75% off, so at $1, it was worth picking up.  On the way home, we stopped at a discount grocery, where we found cilantro .38/bunch, aloe .78#, and red lentils .50#.  All were a significant savings over local prices.  J also got several different bottles of $4.99 wine to try.  The tomatoes and peppers started from seed have been looking pale.  I first tried feeding them an epsom salt solution, and when that didn't seem to do much, gave them fish fertilizer over the weekend.  Hopefully, that perks them up.  We've got 11 potatoes up in the grow bags.  With all the rain we've been getting, I'm thinking it's a good thing they're in bags, and less prone to rot.  I redeemed Swagbucks points for a $25 gift card, using the once a month deal of 2200 points for the card, and getting 75 points back from a recent challenge they had.

I tried a new pasta recipe with butternut squash sauce.  We liked it, and there's one less squash in storage.  Sales have picked up in my soap shop, and it's been nice to ship some orders out.  J checked what it would cost to add me to his car insurance policy, and it ended up saving us around $350.  He added me before telling me, but as they actually gave him a refund to add me, he knew my insurance couldn't beat that.  I recently saw that blended aloe is a good plant fertilizer.  As I use it every day in my smoothies, on a day when I'm finishing up one leaf and starting another, I take the end bits and skins, and blend them up with water.  The most recent time, I fed all the houseplants with the diluted solution.  It's worth a try.  I'm planning on writing up the first post on our bus, and hope to have it up soon.  Wishing you a great week, friends.