SSDreamin Blessings and curses

[Wifezilla]

Goodwill has raised their prices here a little but the ARC has priced themselves out of my price range. They did this a few years ago, lost a lot of customers, and had to lower their prices back down. I will wait a few months then go back and see if they came back to their senses.

As for finishing projects....you are supposed to finish?!?!

 

[JRmom]

Our Goodwill prices are sky high on most things. We have a "super" Goodwill so I guess someone has to pay for the humongous new building. I love our Humane Society thrift store. Got a brand new, never used, tags still on, food mill for just a couple of bucks.

 

[Windyhillfarms]

Okay I thought it was just me when I went into Goodwill and the thought crossed my mind that it seemed a lot more expensive than the last time I had been there, or I thought perhaps it could just be in Texas it's more expensive than Pennsylvania, but i didn't think that was possible either. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is experiencing that. I have to do a thrift store loop and hit a few and see what I can find that I can recycle into crafts for the upcoming shows but where does one find the time? I so have to get to the point where I don't have to waste precious eight hours of my day with this whole working for a living thing that I have decided I am totally over ...

 

[FarmerChick]

hang in there you are doing great. to quit smoking is a biggie in health and money departments

thanks for the tip---I am now going to invest in gum stocks

 

[SSDreamin]

hang in there you are doing great. to quit smoking is a biggie in health and money departments

I blew it - under threat of death, I made my DH an accomplice in my failure - made him bring home a pack of cigarette's. I smoked three, in two days. Made me sick, and gave me a headache. So, I sent the cig's to work with him. I figure, one day a week, I can smoke if I feel the need, but otherwise, I can't. We'll see how that works out!

thanks for the tip---I am now going to invest in gum stocks

Oh yes! I am most definitely keeping the gum companies in business!

I have not been ignoring this journal. I have been really busy. The Excalibur came bow ) and I've started playing with that. I tried mushrooms, some left over pineapple and two banana's. At first I was worried, because everything was rubbery, not hard and crispy like my old dehydrator. Everything tastes good though, and looks WAY better than I'm used to.

I plan to test out the Excalibur today or tomorrow for raising bread. I found a recipe that makes four loaves at a time. At first I was freaked out at using 12 cups of flour, but that works out to three cups per loaf, so that's not so bad I guess. I think this will be my 'go to' bread recipe. The first time I tried it, I made one regular loaf of bread, one loaf of cinnamon swirl bread, and two XL pizza crusts with it. DS loved the crusts, gobbled up the swirl bread, and DH actually said "Did you MAKE this bread? It tastes really good." Wow! That is as close to a compliment as I've ever gotten from DH for any bread I've made!

Made up a batch of Caramel Apple Butter and Carrot Cake Jam this past week. Can't taste the caramel in the butter, and - to me - there was too much cinnamon, but DH loved it and said I needed to make it just like that for him. I couldn't get the jam to set up completely, but it is SOOO delicious! I think I've found my new favorite jam! Mmmmmmm! Thanks for the great recipe's Beanie!!

I managed to get the enclosed trailer packed, in between rain showers, and tried to be ready when DH was so we could take all of it up to the new house and get a lot done. Well, my Brother came over, on HIS birthday, and helped us set up our gas system. He trenched out and laid some new copper to where we wanted the tank set, serviced our boiler so we wouldn't have to pay somebody, and told us what we needed to do in the attic. I had to crawl around up in the attic checking out what was what. Found where they went from *approved* pipe to *illegal* pipe. I fell twice, almost put my foot through the living room ceiling, and at one point had to crawl on my belly. All this, while three able bodied men and one 12 yr. old boy hung out down below! Climbed out, told DH he would be handling the running of the new gas line, and sat getting admonished for swearing on Sunday. ( I stepped on a cross board, it broke, and I fell halfway up to my knee in what I hoped was JUST insulation, and I used some colorful language to express my frustration. I do that. Sorry. Geesh.)

Anyway, we had bought 50 feet of pipe for the gas line. We were at least 20 feet short. DH also spent MORE time messing with the well pump. It still doesn't work. :/ I don't like peeing in the woods. I would love either water (preferable) or a duplicate of our neighbors awesome outhouse. So, the only thing we actually accomplished was moving the load of stuff up there. On the 'plus' side, if this keeps up, DH will have to bring the motorhome up there, because the park he's staying in (for work) closes October 31st. So, I will have a place to go potty, if this continues to drag out! We always winterize it after deer hunting though, so I won't have it for long My MIL is calling some extended family with connections, to try and line up a reputable well repair company to come check things out. FIL has graciously offered to go over there when they show up, so I won't have to make the six hour round trip.

Found the material I needed for my apron at Chinamart, so I hope to get cracking on that this week too. Also want to cook up the sugar pumpkins (2 from my garden, 2 from Chinamart that cost $.79/lb = $3.76 total), then run them through the strainer and dry them. If they dry well, I'll do the same thing with the butternut squash. I figure I can plop them on the trays in two cup increments, with maybe a few one cup dollops in case a recipe calls for three cups.

Guess it's because of the cold weather, but the chickens egg laying has dropped WAY off. We had been getting 5/6 a day, now we get 3/4. I keep wondering if it's because I turned over their care to DS. He seems very skiddish around them. I try to take them treats and spend time with them, when I'm out doing things near their pen. For the most part though, I only check them - once in the morning, and once at night - to make sure DS is doing his job.

Day one Starting over.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Dehydrators are great! Congrats on the bread and jam. Did you post the recipes? Pleeeez

Moving is always an adventure, but those guys can either do the attic work themselves- or ignore the language when stuff goes bad. If they really dislike cussing on a sunday- you could always take the "day of rest" option.
Guess I'm a bad influence.

Dig the outhouse. They are reliable- year round, and easy enough. You can fancy it up later.

The chickens may need a little more light to pick up the laying.

 

[SSDreamin]

Dehydrators are great! Congrats on the bread and jam. Did you post the recipes? Pleeeez

The apple butter and carrot cake jam are from recipe's Beanie posted in the recipe section - so good! As for the bread, it's white bread so maybe I shouldn't post a recipe?!

Moving is always an adventure, but those guys can either do the attic work themselves- or ignore the language when stuff goes bad. If they really dislike cussing on a sunday- you could always take the "day of rest" option.
Guess I'm a bad influence.

I didn't want to be up there in the first place - attic's freak me out! Still not sure how I ended up going up there - probably my 'if you won't get busy, then I will' attitude. It has been known to bite me in the backside on more than one occasion!


Dig the outhouse. They are reliable- year round, and easy enough. You can fancy it up later.

I agree. It's more of a time issue than anything. I would dig it/build it, but I can't be gone from home for long (animals). DH gets one day off a week. He usually spends the AM taking care of the pressing stuff here/loading the ridiculously heavy stuff to move, then we head out by noon. That puts us there at 3, and we have to head back by 7 - after unloading, we usually only have a few hours for him to do anything.

The chickens may need a little more light to pick up the laying.

I finished up the pumpkin. Ended up with 6 cups of pulp from 4 pumpkins. Found out I really need to spring for the teflon mats for the dehydrator if I'm going to do much more drying of mashed stuff! Used parchment paper (worked so-so) and, when I ran out, used wax paper (NOT GOOD).

Need to get cracking on the potatoes. DH wants the majority of them (about 60-70 lbs) made into hash browns! Love the way he picks the most labor intensive thing, then says 'you can do it, right?' So, I have to cook the potatoes, make room for them in the frig to sit over night, then peel/shred/dry them the next day. I think it will take me at least a week to get through them. Unless I decide that, if he wants hash browns, he can process them himself!

The Apron Project

Here is what I started with. This is the table cloth I found at Vinnie's. Plus the pink fabric from Chinamart:

This is what I made. Not really pleased with all the shiny pink, and I eye-balled everything (no pattern) so it isn't perfect:

I have enough table cloth left to make a short apron and possibly still line my project purse. We'll see.

I'm just not a pink kind of person, so this may end up being a gift. Although, with my Picasso style, not a very GOOD gift

 

[FarmerChick]

COOL
my 6 yr old daughter would love that....pink is her thing LOL

nice work tho!

 

[dragonlaurel]

The time factor is important for now. Here's a couple faster options.
Dig a "slit trench" then to get you by till the move is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujDw8dzlp5s or http://www.wikihow.com/Make-and-Use-a-Slit-Trench-Latrine
-or-
Make a compost potty from a 5 gallon pail.
You can rig up a tarp privacy screen for either of them.
You can still have a good outhouse once you're not commuting anymore.

White bread is kinda junk food, but at least the home-made version doesn't have all those crazy additives. That's a help. Thanks for letting me know where the other recipes are.

They can finish the attic work. You can find plenty of projects closer to the ground.

 

[SSDreamin]

Dragonlaurel - think I'd 'go' with the bucket, although the links were great. Have a nice, clean, big shed out behind the house that would make for a great source of privacy and keep any smells that may occur OUT of the house

Gleaned valuable - DUH! - information for raising my bread via the dehydrator - my usual method, of laying a damp flour sack towel over the loaves as they rise DOES NOT work in the dehydrator! While still edible (DS is wolfing down a sandwich as I type), the towel dried out and stuck to the tops of my bread! Duh! It is a dryer, after all! Sometimes I wonder where my brain ran off to! Also pretty sure I broke my kitchenaid mixer making the batch of bread - a 4 loaf batch made parts fall off it so I need to see if I can patch it up, and I guess save up for a Bosch.

Made a half apron with left over table cloth material, that I am much happier with. Used some pink ribbon I had picked up when I got the pink material, for 97 cents. Still have lots of it left too. Hmmm... NOT posting a picture: that apron must be worn and I am NOT subjecting any of you to a picture of any part of my anatomy, and DS refused to allow a picture of himself to be posted anywhere in a pink apron. STILL had lots of table cloth left, so I decided to try something. My absolute favorite nightgown fell apart, sort of. The top 1/4 was in tatters, but the bottom 3/4 was perfectly good. I am in the process of piecing a 'new' top portion for it from the cloth. I'm still pretty sure I have enough to line the purse I'm making from my DS' old camo overalls. Just need to think a while longer on HOW to do it - the straps are wrong for what I want, but I don't want to cut them...

Finally got the immersion mixer I ordered for soap making. Waiting for a non-rainy day to try soap - I am petrified, and will only mix the lye outside for my first batch. I know, I'm acting like a weeny about it Now that I have the blender, I am really liking it, and may have to order another to keep for daily use (got a great deal on it, online, from my local grocery store?!).

Started dehydrating the potatoes - as hash browns, like DH whined about wanting Went well. DS helped, by peeling the potatoes, while I ran them through the food processor and arranged them on the drying racks. Realized an interesting fact - we picked yukon gold potatoes! Now, we have a gallon bag full of yellow/orange colored hash browns and half a quart bag full of colored potato slices (food processor mess up on my part. Flipped when I should've flopped ) Barely put a dent in the taters!! I need to change my timeline from one week to... ummm... until I am so sick of potatoes I never want to see another one as long as I live

Behind in my garden clean up. Dog became extremely sick. Had to rush him to the vet. Found out I have a stupid dog. Vet said, after charging me an arm and most of a leg, that my dog needs to quit eating cow pies! On the up side, all his vomiting and the med's make him very sleepy and the calmest he's ever been. Still, just wanna him - he eats like a horse, then 'snacks' on Ice Cream's poo? Come on!

Speaking of Ice Cream, we are working on getting her a honey. DH found a beautiful brindle colored miniature Jersey bull, 6 months old. By the time she's ready, he should be more than, then he'll help fill the freezer (The bull, not DH ). I was shocked at how much cheaper he is! Just hate the thought of A) feeding both of them through the winter, instead of just her B) having to expand the barn/pasture, because he will absolutely have his 'own place' until we decide it's time and C) Having a bull around. Really love the idea of having her boyfriend right here, on hand, instead of having to shop for one when she gets close to time, but remember from my days on the farm the hassle a bull can be - not to mention very dangerous - so I'm torn.