Winter Harvest

Hello, friends.  I hope you had a most enjoyable holiday.    Last week, we harvested cabbage for colcannon, lettuce and chard, and thyme for tea.  I finished reading Love & Saffron, which I really enjoyed, and requested three more books from the library.  A pot of small sweet potatoes was simmered on the woodstove for the pups and chickens.  Another tromboncino was grated for the chicken's mash, which they get every day that I'm at home.  My two sewing machines were moved into the new sewing room, and J bought a small wall propane heater, as our wood heat doesn't reach there very well.  I've started looking for a piece of furniture for fabric storage.  At a dental cleaning, I received a "free" toothbrush and two samples of ozone gel.  My husband and I watched the Bocelli Christmas special, free (with ads) on YouTube; free Pandora holiday stations and the holiday stream on Folk Alley provided cheer.

pre-single digit garden cover up

I stopped at Hallmark after an appointment, and got $9 off my purchase, using coupons, and received a free card.  At Harris Teeter, I received the 5% senior discount, and picked up brussels sprouts for $2.99/#.  Not a great price, but better than the $3.99 I'd been seeing elsewhere.  I also got a large organic cucumber for $1.79, and canned organic beans on sale for $1 off/ 4 pk.  At Food Lion, I got three bunches of asparagus for $1.49/#, and froze two.  The quality was less than I'd hoped for, but that's not uncommon with produce these days.  Also purchased was honey on sale, and  .99 avocados.  J read there's a bumper crop of avocados, so hopefully the price will go down further.  I went by a favorite thrift store.  The sign said Christmas items were 1/2 off, but at the register I realized they were giving everyone half off, which was a nice surprise.  I bought a small gift, and two items for my online shop.

Vegetable soup was made, with several of our vegetables, and also used some of our dehydrated greens and soup mix (onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms).  J & I deeply harvested the winter garden before the single digit temps, and covered everything as well as possible.  None of it may make it, but we wanted to try.  We harvested many lbs. of of collards, more than a large black trash bag full, and blanched and froze 16 qts.  Also harvested was 5 oz of chard, equivalent to a regular clamshell of salad, 13 oz. of lettuce, around 2# of kale, some of which was frozen, a small amount of broccoli, and a few lbs. of mixed winter greens.  We did our best to not waste anything, and hope to be harvesting something on the other side of this frigid snap.  Three friends who often take our produce were out of town, and another didn't want any of it.  I went through Rakuten with 10% back, for a business purchase.  On Christmas day, J made himself a pork roast, and our turnips and greens with bacon.  I made a sweet potato, apple, cranberry bake with walnuts, and a cranberry quinoa salad with kale and walnuts.  I also roasted asparagus and made cookies.  We ate well.  May the remaining days of '22 go out quietly, and may '23 bring greater hope, peace and light to us all.  

Back on Solar

Hello, friends.  I hope you're finding some time to enjoy these days.  Our new American made inverter arrived, and Joseph had us up and running on solar again mid-week.  Hallelujah!  Last week, I pulled black bean burgers from the freezer for a dinner, along with home fries and salad.  A new recipe for a potato tomato bake was tried another night.  It was quite bland, so I'm pondering ways to jazz it up if I try it again.  Though I've rarely been finding good deals at the grocery store, I found several on Wednesday.   At the first stop, we picked up our dog food for $6 off.  On markdown, we found two cans of organic chickpeas for .42, bags of dried baby limas and navy beans for .57/#, and a package of cotton facial pads for .62.  J found some paper goods on sale, which his Mom requested he bring to a gathering there.  Getting the paper goods and the cotton pads meant we could skip the trip to Dollar Tree we'd planned.  Also on sale was asparagus for $1.49/#, mandarins for $2.99/3#, and roasted almond tins  2/$5.  At the next stop, I found tins of local peanuts on sale for gifts 2/$6, and marked down dried organic garbanzo beans for $1.97/#.  I recently looked for them at another store, where they were $6.99/#!  I'm so glad I waited, and got 8 bags for the pantry, which I'll can up when things slow down.  I heard a few days ago that there may be a shortage of them, which would be a real shame.  We love hummus, and I also use them in a lot of vegan dishes.  A frugal fail is I missed their $10 off $50 deal by a day, but this was the day we were in town.

A pot of large sweet potatoes was put on the woodstove, to boil for pies.  Books were requested from the library, and picked up when in town for groceries.  A local orchard had marked their Christmas trees 1/2 price.  All they had left were 8' and larger, so we got an 8' fraser fir for $44, and cut it down to fit our room.  There was too much on our plates to do it this week, but we'll decorate it next week.  I've enjoyed listening to Christmas music free on Pandora.  Amazon digital credits of $13 were used to buy a book that has been on my list, making my OOP $1.  For a lunch, I defrosted a container of soup I'd frozen.  I wrapped all the presents for my extended family, with the supplies on hand from previous years, including some bags and ribbons that were reused.  I'm pretty sure all of it was bought at after Christmas sales, and a few things at thrift stores.  The garbanzo beans were all placed in glass jars to store until canning.  We received a letter from our internet provider saying they were lowering our bill, which explains the credit on the last bill.  The bill is lowering $5/mo., at the same time they're increasing internet speed from 100 to 300.  I really appreciate belonging to this telephone cooperative, who provides our service.  It was most welcome to receive this message during these times.  Happy Holidays, friends!

Good Deeds

Hello, friends.  Last week, I cooked a bag of our frozen lima beans with onion and garlic, along with brown rice, and fried up some of our sweet potatoes.  A pot of smaller sweet potatoes was boiled for the critters.  Suet was made for the birds, and golden paste for the pups.  I finished up the toothpaste tube I had cut open, which lasted more than two weeks.  I forgot to mention last week, I used our last little tomato in a salad.  It's pretty nice to be eating our tomatoes until the end of November.  You may have heard about the county in NC that had a power outage, due to vandalism of two substations.  That county borders ours.  It was good to see all the businesses and churches that offered food, water, charging and warming stations, and shelter.

Isn't that a pretty moth, seen in the garden last week?  Lettuce and mixed winter greens were harvested for salads, and our small potatoes were steamed.  I tried a new MM friendly salad dressing, which I enjoyed.  When we received our telephone bill, there was a credit of $11.76 for internet service, lowering our bill.  We were one of the first in the area to get fiberoptic, as we were putting in our studio addition when they first started rolling it out.  We had to move the phone connection then, and were offered fiberoptic.  We're hoping the price has come down, as so many more are now connected to it.  In any case, it sure is nice to have a bill go down, rather than up, even if it's just this once.  I redeemed Swagbucks for a $25 gift card, which I'll be using for a gift, and received $6 in digital Amazon credits, for allowing slower shipping.  

J has been hard at work on the sewing room.  All the trim molding is up, and the painting finished.  Now that he's painted the new window trim outside, to match what we already had, I can wash the windows.  He's been pondering what to use as a threshold.  Like most of our house, it's a bit quirky, and we need a larger than usual threshold.  He brought two pieces of lumber we had on hand in the house to dry, but the first cracked, and the other warped.  He mentioned he had been looking for a threshold when customers came by his shop.  It turns out one of the men had a piece of dried white oak that he gave J, because at some point, J had given him a piece of metal, so his good deed came back to him at the perfect time.  Soapmaking oils were melted on the woodstove, to save propane.  A piece of my juicer was beginning to stick, so I followed J's advice to spray with a vinegar solution, followed by a soapy solution, and it moves perfectly smoothly now.  

Besides the usual Berkey stands to powder coat this week, there was an antique light we're refurbishing for a neighbor.  I think it's turning out nicely.  I gathered the few fall items I'd decorated with, took them to the attic, and brought down the gift wrapping supplies and mailbox bow.  The rest will have to wait until we're able to move the sewing machines into the new room, and straighten out the studio.  We hoped to find a tree, after meeting friends at a winery over the weekend, but there were none to be had in that town.  However, getting to visit with them did my heart good.  My sister and I visited a cidery Friday, and had a great time visiting as well.  The cidery had lost power in the outage mentioned above, so supporting them when they reopened felt good.  We made an unplanned stop at a thrift store we passed, but didn't find anything we needed there.  The coming week will be mainly focused on wrapping gifts, and planning and preparing food for the gatherings we'll be attending.  I hope your days are filled with people and things that bring you joy.

Late Autumn Days

Hello, friends.  I'm so thankful for the rain we received, which filled our tanks.  J worked out of town most of last week.  I hoped to get lots done, and worked on soapmaking and wrapping, cleaning the layer of sheetrock dust on everything in the studio (whew, was that a job!), and canning tomato sauce.  The tomato skins and bits remaining were dehydrated.  While he was gone, I cooked up some of our frozen okra, which he can no longer eat.  I harvested chard, and enjoyed having that.  For an online purchase, I went through Swagbucks for 8% back, with an additional 20% coupon code.  Joseph worked on finishing the interior of the sewing room when he got back.  He got the walls primed and painted, caulked nail holes, and put up trim molding.  

The solar saga is ongoing.  J decided to purchase another board for the inverter, to have as a backup, due to their unreliability so far.  The company promised to send a new board a couple of weeks ago, as part of their warranty agreement, but they've yet to send any shipping info.  The one Joseph bought arrived, we changed it out, and it worked....For.One.Hour.  He's done a huge amount of electrical work in various positions he's held over the years, and thinks it's likely an issue with sensors not communicating properly.  On a somewhat positive note, he did purchase a (much more expensive) U.S. made inverter, which we hope will arrive next week.  We're not sure what, if any, recourse we have with the company in China.  The inverter worked 8 months out of a 2 year warranty, with several outages before that that required resets.  With the multiple boards he's already changed out that didn't work, it's obvious it's not anything we can count on.  May the USA made one be all we hope for, or even better.  

I was blessed to have a customer purchase multiples of my Garden sets for gifts, and worked on wrapping the soap for them over the weekend.  I noticed gas had fallen to $2.99 while out, so I stopped and filled up.  While at the grocery store, I found one marked down raw honey.  Other than that, there was nothing I needed on sale, so I got the usual produce and a handful of other things.  I go through a fair amount of honey, having it every day in my lemon water, and using it in my salad dressing, so I'm always thankful to find some at a good price.  Saturday was drizzly, and I decided it was a good day to drink tea and write Christmas cards.  It's only a little over two weeks before winter begins, and the days begin growing longer again.  That's a day I always cherish.  I have some fun things to look forward to in the coming week, spending time with people I love.  May your week be filled with blessings of the season.

Thankful

Hello, friends.  On Monday, I canned vegetable broth, adding another 14 pints to the pantry.  When the canner water cooled, I added it to the woodstove humidifier.  I enjoyed warm cups of tea, using homegrown herbs.  Chickweed was gathered, and added to a smoothie.  Kale, collards, and mixed greens were shared.  Laundry was dried on the line.  I've been shopping sales for gifts, and using coupon codes when available for purchases, which have further lowered prices as much as an additional 20%.  While prepping for Thanksgiving, pumpkin seeds were thrown in to roast, along with the cookies I was baking.  Fresh cranberry blueberry sauce, GF pecan sandies cookies, maple roasted brussels sprouts, and our lima beans, which J requested, were brought to share for Thanksgiving.  

I tried a recipe for lentil sloppy joes, which we both liked, though I'll decrease the heat factor next time.  We were blessed with 1 1/3" of rain Thursday night, so needed, as our tanks were getting very low again.  Once we sent the new video to the solar company, they said the board they sent was not good, and they'll send another.  Our confidence in this company is rapidly diminishing, and J is looking into getting another inverter from a US company.  It was a huge investment, to only last 8 months, and it's not looking terribly good that it will last for the long term.  It stinks, but that's reality.  J picked the company partly because of the great reviews, but he thinks many people may be using the inverter for a small backup system, not to power a home full time as we are.  Which could explain why it lasted no time before failing.

I did a little online Black Friday shopping.  A family member sent ideas for her family that day, and two of the items were 40+% off for Black Friday, so they were purchased.   I also placed a supplement order, for 23% off.  Spaghetti squash and lambs quarter were pulled from the freezer for a side dish.  Oils for soapmaking were melted on the woodstove.  I tried a new recipe for vegan sweet potato pie, using our potatoes, which was delicious.  Winter greens were harvested for a salad, and a jar of crowder peas was opened for dinner.  A bottle of nettle glycerite was strained and bottled.  We had an interesting issue happen last week, in that things that were supposed to suck were not doing so.  The motor on the house vacuum went out, quickly followed by the shop vac motor.  And the lawn vac motor went out too.  J made repairs, and got a new house vacuum (it was used when bought, and a new motor had been put in it once already), and in the process, used some of the good parts to repair others.  Thanks to a very handy guy, all is up and running again.  So many things to be thankful for every day.  Take care of yourself, friends.  

November Days

veggie scraps being turned into broth

Hello, friends.  I headed to the coast on Monday for a funeral, and listened to an audio book that I was able to change from an ebook on Kindle for free.  It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a long drive.  With the woodstove going again, another three gallon bags of veggie scraps were taken from the freezer, and simmered for broth.  I cut up and grated another two large cucuzza squash for the critters.  A toothpaste tube was cut, and it's already lasted close to a week more, with more to go.  I strained the first batch of broth, put it in the fridge, and started another pot of scraps on the woodstove.  Last week, I harvested parsley, rosemary, and collards.  I went through Rakuten for gift purchases for 2% and 2.5% back.

this Mickey mouse shadow caught my eye one day

We did get another 1/2" of rain early in the week.  The first real cold arrived, with lows in the low 20's.  We closed up all the chicken coop windows, except for leaving a small opening at the top of one for air flow.  I was able to purchase a label at home for a package heading to family in Italy, saving me a trip to the P.O..   I've been reading Lilac Girls from the library, which is a hard read at times, as it goes into details about experiments done in concentration camps.  I've known there were horrific experiments that went on, but would rather not know the details.  Before the coldest night, J and I gathered up everything we could find, and covered up all the plants in the fall garden, plus the olives and pomegranates.  There was kale that had a stalk too tall to fit under the cover, so J cut it off, and I tried a new recipe for wilted kale salad with apples and pecans.  The pups also got some chopped leaves in their dinner. 

this is apparently what made the shadow above

I turned some of our potatoes into fries, made black bean burgers, and harvested winter greens for a salad.  J and I watched the new Downton Abbey movie, free on Prime.  I would have loved to have seen it on the big screen, as we did the first movie, but we were too busy when it was playing locally.  We did enjoy watching it.  When I went by Harris Teeter after an appointment, the produce section was looking rather skimpy in what was offered.  I decided to head to Food Lion on Saturday, to get the things HT didn't have, or were too expensive.  I stopped at the Aldi across the street first, and was happy to get .99 cranberries, pomegranates for $1.89, which is the cheapest I've seen this year, and brussels sprouts for $2.29.  Food Lion had bags of mandarins for $2.99.  I went to a second Food Lion, because I wanted enough celery to not have to shop again before Thanksgiving.  They had enough celery, and I was delighted to see 3 bags of organic Pink Lady apples, which I had a $1.50 store coupon for, and haven't been in the first store in at least a month.  I also found $1 off raw honey on the clearance rack.

  

tomato rice loaf ingredients before combining

For a dinner, I made colcannon with our potatoes and cabbage.  It's one of my favorite comfort meals.  J is still going back and forth with the solar company in China.  It sounded as though they were trying to blow him off last week, and honestly, what could one do about a company in China?  But he persevered, letting them know how unhappy he was, and they asked us to take another video to send them.  Please send good thoughts for a positive outcome.  I've seen a few people using LED candles lately.  With being back on grid power, I decided to buy some I saw at Aldi, and so far, have been using one in the bathroom in the early mornings and evenings.  J spent Saturday blowing a large portion of our leaves into piles, which he'll pick up with the lawn vac.  For Sunday dinner, I made tomato rice loaf, using our onions, garlic, last grape tomatoes, and three small tomatoes.  Peas and pear sauce were sides.  While the oven was going, I baked lots of small sweet potatoes, some of which I plan to turn into pie.  We'll be enjoying the day with my sister and family for Thanksgiving.  I hope yours is peaceful, if you celebrate, with good food and company.  Take care, friends.

Going With the Flow & Sustainability Challenges on the Homestead

Hello, friends.  Last week, I earned $20 off with a promotion Food Lion is doing, and redeemed it the next visit.  I was excited to find that my library offers some streaming movies, and want to explore it further.  While checking for eggs one day, I found a snake in one of the nest boxes eating eggs.  I called J, who was on his way home.  When he got here, he bagged it up, and we relocated it, hopefully never to return.  I weeded and mulched several beds, which contain lots of lettuce, beets and chard.  We covered all the beds with lettuce and chard with row cover that is supposed to protect them several degrees.  J was able to barter with someone nearby.  She's finishing our sheetrock, and he's going to hang hers.  He found a good deal on lumber for the siding of the new sewing room, cheaper than we paid for the studio addition several years ago, and finished siding it.

I enjoyed herb tea with homegrown lemon balm, lemon verbena, spearmint and red clover.  Our frozen broccoli was used in a pad thai dish.  I emptied several pantry staples into canning jars to store.  All laundry was dried on the line.  Warm up water and water from washing greens was used for flushing or added to the humidifier on the woodstove.   When I saw a friend recently, she gave me several birthday presents, including 2 gorgeous thrifted cotton pillowcases and a floral sheet.  Seeing them while hanging them on the line, and taking them off gave me a smile.  I do love linens, especially older ones, which are often so soft.  

The soles of my my husband's work boots were in bad shape.  He bought a new pair, and when they arrived, he mailed his old pair to the company to be resoled.  He's been wanting a sweet potato pie, so I made one using the last frozen whole wheat crust just for him.  Even if it had been a GF crust, the recipe (Betty Crocker) has eggs and evaporated milk too, so I just need to find a good vegan pie recipe.  I finally got to cleaning the fridge, which has been on my to do list a very long time.  During the summer, I'd clean a shelf or two as I could, but never finished the entire thing at once.  That feels good to have done.  Boy, it was sticky!

While researching a trip to Charlotte with a friend, I found a restaurant chain called Flower Child, who have many vegan and gluten free choices.  We had lunch there, and it was delicious.  We had intended to visit a garden and bird sanctuary, but got rained out, so we ended up visiting several thrift stores.  I ended up with a cotton, still in package fitted sheet for $5  (priced $22), medium glass refrigerator dish with lid for $9, like new waffle iron for $15, shirts for J, and a large and super soft cashmere scarf for $3.50.  It was a fun day, and I look forward to visiting Wing Haven another day.

It was a bit of a challenging week, as far as sustainability goes on the homestead.  The big tanks that supply our household water ran out mid-week due to the drought.  Thankfully, J keeps a small backup tank for times such as this, which covered us the 36 or so hours before the rain started.   To make sure we'd be able to store as much rain as possible, I got up on the roof with J's electric leaf blower, and cleaned off a large amount of leaves, acorns and sticks, then did the gutters.  We were very thankful to get 1 3/4" of rain from Nicole, which filled our tanks halfway.  There's more rain in the forecast this week.  With any luck, our tanks will be filled further.  Then, the two solar boards arrived from China for the inverter.  J replaced them, and the power lasted about 10 minutes before crashing.  He tried it several more times with no success, making it obvious this isn't going to fix the problem.  He contacted the company again, to let them know.  We're back on grid power, hoping for a positive outcome and a quick return to solar.

At the grocery store, I was able to get frozen wild blueberries for $1 off, an avocado for .89, and organic red grapes for $2.49/#.  From the garden, I harvested winter greens, oregano, collards, rosemary, lettuce and chickweed.  On the most likely last day in the 70's, I cleaned the chicken coop.  Sunday was chilly, so I made a vegetable soup by sauteing  homegrown onions, garlic, carrots and cabbage, and adding jars of tomatoes, tomato sauce, summer squash and potatoes.  A store bought can of beans and stalk of celery were added, with a container of a small amount of leftovers from the freezer.  Some winter salad was included, and it made a tasty meal.  The week ahead had looked to be a calm one at home.  But now, an appointment has been moved to this week, and there's an out of town funeral to attend another day.  Ah well, it's good to breathe, and go with the flow.  Wishing you a good week!