Ldychef2k: Notes from a Wannabe - Ldychef2k fesses up.

[FarmerDenise]

We have a grocery outlet here. Maybe I should grab my keys and a few $$ and see what freebies I can get. There's an event on the way over, where they are giving pet stuff away too. It'll be worth it, if I can hit both places and get some free stuff. Otherwise I don't want to waste the gas nor the time.

 

[Ldychef2k]

Ours is a 30 year birthday party. Maybe that's just their excuse, and all the grocery outlets are doing something else.

 

[Ldychef2k]

It's almost 1 AM. I just took the last of the chicken quarts out of the pressure canner, and remembered what my daughter said earlier when she was here. I had shown her my cabinets and all the canning I had done, including my previous 12 quarts of chicken breasts. Now, she is a very smart cookie and has had lots of larnin'. So, it didn't really surprise me when she looked at the jars and said: They remind me of the fetal pigs in biology.

Thanks. When the apocalypse comes, she is going to have to become a vegetarian, I guess.

Went to the farmer's market this morning and got 5 dozen ears of corn. Shucked two dozen tonight and every cotton picking one of them had some kind of problem. I was especially irritated at the ones which had shrunken kernels, which I think means they are old and dehydrated. There was black mold on some, and I had to cut at least two inches off of the tops of all 24 that i shucked.

I had also picked up eight ears of white corn at Grocery Outlet, which I had to shuck just to get the motivation to can it all. It was half the cost of the farmer's market, where we are encouraged to support local farmers by paying more than we do in the grocery store (sorry if I offend). And the corn from the outlet was pristine and perfect and not one kernel was wasted.

I only worked three hours at my job today. I am an independent contractor, so there are no set hours, but I do have a minimum, and today I spent way too much time doing what I love to do, and not what makes the house payment.

I sure wish I could figure out a way to pay the mortgage and cut the utilities in half or more, so that I could live on maybe $1000 a month and not have to sit behind a computer.

Soon, I will be able to draw Social Security, if it is still there, and if I can learn now how to live on a grand a month, I can stop working altogether and have some fun. I have been working for 42 years, 31 as a transcriptionist, and to tell you the truth, I am a bit tired. Even when I was married briefly, he didn't support me, so it's always been just me, working to pay the bills and raise my daughter. Well, now it's grandchildren that steal my heart, not my pocketbook. Because of the income level she was raised in, my daughter has passed on those values to her kids, and I get to be the Grandma who "spoils us with more love than we can hold." Gotta love that.

No lids popping yet. Not sure that wide mouths actually pop as loudly as the standards.

Tomorrow Zoe comes for the morning while her Dad preaches in a tiny little country church...without child care. Zoe is a particularly active 3 year old, so tomorrow she is going to help me work in the garden whilst her family worships.

Just heard a pop. All is well.

Thinking about taking a blanket out on the lounge chair and trying to sleep, but there is a lot of traffic tonight, and the Paramedics and Fire Trucks from up the street have been active last hour. So maybe it's to bed with my nature sounds to cover the noise of civilization. Nite all.

 

[Dace]

Boy you were up late with your canning! I have not done much this year...actually I only did refrigerator pickles....just not my year

So do you actually sleep outside on occasion? I would be afraid of critters!

 

[Ldychef2k]

Yep, it was a late night. When I went to bed, my legs were aching so I had a bit of a time sleeping, but today's another day.

No, I have never slept outside at my house. It's such a busy corner, the only critters I would worry about are two legged and flash gang signs.

Zoe will be here in a few minutes, and I better bring my best game !

 

[Ldychef2k]

Sure have been tired lately. Legs and feet are aching and have shooting pain all night, so am a little crabby today.

For more complaints, it's going to be over 100 degrees for the next two weeks, so I am not sure how much time I will spend outside preparing the garden. Saturday I sprayed RoundUp in a test area on the bermuda and am still waiting for it to work.

There might be some transcription to do tonight. Good thing, because I am not even going to make $600 this month if it keeps up. That's just a few dollars more than my mortgage.

/whine

 

[Ldychef2k]

Last year my then 9 year old granddaghter participated in that least beloved (by family) of all elementary school traditions: The Fundraiser. She happily brought me a vastly over priced catalog, using that kid expression that translates into "Go ahead, spoil me."

I looked it over, and decided to purchase a gift certificate for a magazine subscription. Six weeks later, after I had forgotten all about it, I got the paperwork, and a choice of magazines. None of them were of great interest, except for Food&Wine. I don't drink, but I do cook, so I ordered it.

It has turned out to be as affected a magazine as I have ever seen. I have learned nothing from it at all. And when approached by now ten year old granddaughter, I will probably renew it instantly. Perhaps for two to five years at a time.

So, that little intro was perhaps an explanation as to why I was just reading an article in such a snooty magazine. The article was called "The New Homesteaders". I thought, hey...maybe this isn't all bad after all. That was after reading the title. Reading the article was a less encouraging.

Three individuals were spotlighted. First, a fellow who lived in a 30x20 foot cabin in the hills as a starving youth. He was determined to live off the land, right? So far, so good. He had been living on squirrel meat, so was very excited to bag a wild boar one day ! Apparently there is a very high labor to squirrel meat ratio, and boar seemed like more bang for your buck.

Except the meat was horrible, he said. All 109 pounds of it, which he dutifully ate, offered to dinner partners (who never accepted again), and which tasted, as he put it, like chewing on old pennies.

Okay, funny story. Not much of a homesteader, though.

Then there was the family who was struggling to grow roses. The city then planted a shade tree in front of their house, and the roses had to go in the back yard. The wife wanted to be a farmer, so she wanted a fruit tree. They planted a fig. Apparently it did well, as they were happy to create lovely "tarts and clafloutis" for several years. Yeah, that's real down home grub.

But the one that really got to me, speaking of grubs, was the woman who was growing a small garden in her back yard which became overrun with snails. She fought them tooth and nail (apparently in her 'hood they haven't heard of Snarol or even table salt). One day, as she was throwing them into traffic, she realized that they looked vaguely familiar. Such as, escargot. So, this "homesteader" grabbed a half dozen snails from her garden, put them in a jar, fed them corn meal to clean their digestive tracts, then cooked them up in a pan with butter and garlic. She called it her "revenge".

Okay, now while I don't know you ladies and gentleman all that well, I am thinking there ain't no way in hades that you are going to bring snails in from your garden for dinner. They are garden pests, and some citified greenhorn has just served them over pasta.

New Homesteaders my lily white....well, you know.

 

[Beekissed]

Ldy, I could read your journal all day long....if I could keep from snorting fluids out my nose holes! Love your prose and agree with you heartily on the "homesteaders"!

Same feeling I get when I read Mother Earth News and articles on how to make a no-till garden.....the prime ingredient of which is a dump truck full of mulch! Yes. I can just see me paying for a truck load of mulch just to experience an "easy no-till garden"!

That mag has come a long way from "How to Make Shoes from Old Tires" to "How to Install $20,000 Worth of Solar Panels on Your Huge Expensive Home".

I guess when we were homesteading we should have really utilized our snails better....... To think we went to all that trouble to kill and eat deer, when the snails were there all that time.

 

[Henrietta23]

Thank goodness I'd already finished my coffee when I read that!!!
Now, this spring my garden was overrun with slugs. Well, no shells means less labor, right? Dinner anyone? <insert gagging smiley here>

Thanks for getting my day off right~with a good laugh!
That's what I love about this forum. I get more useful info from all of you than ANY magazine out there! Right now I'm sticking to Hobby Farm Home. The "farm" is still a pipe dream but I do find something a little useful in each issue!

 

[Dace]

Oh good one.....let's eat our garden pests!
Homegrown escargot...now that is SS!