What did you do to save $ today?

[big brown horse]

I'm closer to San Francisco, I'll do it
bbh if you do drive to S.F., drop on by for some fresh homemade lemonade.
Free next time I visit the folks in NY, we'll have to try and get together. I think we are twins, raised apart

DEAL!!!!!!

 

[freemotion]

Let's have a ss reunion!!!

Today dh and I finished turning the strawberry bed, and took all the grass and shook the dirt out and brought it to the compost pile. I planted almost half of it, need more plants!

I made a small batch of chevre, it is draining now, and a small batch of St Maure, also draining. On Tuesday we can have the chevre, and the St Maure needs to age for a while. One more week until the next cheddar is at 60 days!

I have a ton of goat's milk ice cubes in ziplocs in the freezer, for soapmaking (I decided to give it four days, after deworming, before I drink it again. I am giving it to the doeling and freezing the rest.)

I filleted the turkey breast, such as it was, and will fry that up in a few minutes. DH is making a salad. I will also make another strawberry-rhubarb crisp, the fruit is already cut up, just gotta make the topping. (Advanced manipulation.....good thing I use my skills for good and not evil..... )

The rest of the turkey is cooling on the stove, I boiled it up and will remove the meat and make a broth. The legs are so dark they look like beef! I kept the one that we had to skin, and sent my folks home with the other one, as my mother's roast anything can't be beat! Wish I could have some!

 

[big brown horse]

Freemotion, you are a busy gal!! So what happens now that the cheese is 60 days old? I am taking notes, because I might have something to milk one day too!

Your mother's roast (of anything) sounds delish! I have to get a fresh turkey!

BTW, do you grow your own stevia?<--sp? Anyway, I was just wondering how it would do in your climate because that is going to be my next plant (seed?) purchase.

 

[freemotion]

Yeah, BBH, I am in perpetual motion.....dh knows to "pull over" if we meet in our narrow hallway of our little capecod, or I might just run him over!

The cheddar is supposed to age for a minimum of 60 days. We opened the first one early, it was delish, but I really want to be patient and go the full two months on the next one.

I planted my first stevia plant a couple of weeks ago...so I will have to let you know! I prefer the more flavorless extract that I purchase, but I thought I would try adding some leaves to herbal tea mixtures and see how it tastes that way.

OK, dh is getting restless, gotta go cook up that turkey breast...

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have tried planting stevia several times and keep killing it.

I planted all the odds and ends plants that we had started. In some cases we had planted a six pack, but only one came up. Or we have extras, or we just hadn't got around to figure out where to plant it. So the front of the chicken yard will have a nice variety growing. I also transpanted sunflowers that needed to be thinned anyway. I put some of those in the front yard. They always look so striking.

We integrated the chicks with the older birds today. It went pretty smoothly. Bedtime was the hardest. The little ones were so confused and a bit scared. But in the end everyone settled down in their new accomodations.
We're thinking of keeping one of the kittens I am fostering. A little black one. We'll see if our resident formerly feral cat will accept him.

Oh, when I went to the store today, I also picked up some goats milk. Figure I should try it, if we're thinking of getting a goat. I sure wish I could try some of your cheeses Free.
I am soo sore today, my back is killing me, my feet hurt, my eyes burn and I think I should go to bed.
Got to feed the little kitties one more time though.

 

[freemotion]

FD, dh has a friend we went to visit in NC years ago who keeps honey bees for the sole purpose of getting stung. She was headed towards a wheelchair fast when I met her a few years before that trip, and she was obviously in a lot of pain.

She captures a few bees in a jar every few days, and uses something like long tweezers to hold one against her back each day. Not sure how many she uses each day, but she was moving normally when I saw her, and she had also installed the tile herself in her kitchen and bathroom! The woman I'd met earlier would never have been able to do that.

She says the stings don't even hurt anymore. She keeps three hives, just in case. Some hives are mellow and some are more aggressive. The more aggressive ones work better!

She also had a cupboard with jars and jars of honey that she sold and gave away as gifts.

Hope you like the goat's milk. Is it raw? If you don't like it, see if you can track down the farm it came from, and find out how they are fed and if the does are kept near a buck. Mine don't get much foraging in the woods, and I don't have a buck, so there is no "goaty" taste to Mya's milk.

If I thought it would survive the USPS, I'd send you some! I've been waiting for some free kefir grains from someone on byh who is also in CA, and two weeks later, they still have not arrived. She's gonna give it another try.

The turkey breast was yummy....pan-fried yet still very juicy, and a bit more chewy than we are used to. DH loved it....whew, that was a HUGE hurdle here, him eating something that he saw while alive....

 

[VT-Chicklit]

I was very buisy today. I made rhubarb jelly, no added sugar blueberry jam and I also dehydrated and canned hamburg. I have been trying to get these things accomplished for the last 4 days without success. It rained today, so I was unable to work in the garden. That is why these projects finally made it to the top of my list.

 

[freemotion]

Yup, rained here, too. So I got some domestic stuff done. I haven't made flour in a few weeks, so I ground up a bunch of wheat and made the MEN artisan bread dough, cracker dough, pie dough, and topping for a crisp.

I have the turkey bones boiling on the stove (dh stripped the meat this morning before going to the office) and I took some early broth to make a turkey pot pie with some dark meat (ya know the expression, tastes like chicken? This tastes like very nice beef!) and half the pie dough for a top crust....we polished it off tonight.

I used the last of the rhubarb for the last strawberry rhubarb crisp.....we polished that off, too!

I made one pan of crackers to have with some chevre, my first batch, but we were too full from supper! The chevre smells good, the St. Maure smells fantastic! And it is supposed to age a couple of months....don't see how that will be possible. And I need to rework my home-made chevre molds (from quart yogurt and liver containers) because it wasn't drained enough after two days.

I made three batches of mayo, two with veg oil (canola, blah) and one with chicken fat. It didn't seem to emulsify, it is very liquid....which really surprised me. The veg oil ones are fine. I love the bright yellow of homemade summer mayo, made with an egg plus an extra yolk.

I realized how far I've come in being more ss when I realized that the only other things I ate today were: a pint of raw, warm milk for breakfast (chocolate, of course!) and a cup of yogurt with my raspberry pomegranate jam and a quart jar of boiled peanuts. Not all in the same sitting....

I also picked a bunch of branches, goat salad, for the baby, since she was stuck inside most of the day.

DH called on the way home to see if I needed anything at the store, and my reply was, "Nothing that I can think of right now..." This is becoming the normal reply, rather than a long list of stuff. Love it!

 

[Beekissed]

Hey, gals! Someone offered me 6 doz. canning jars today....anyone need canning jars? I have no more room for jars!

 

[freemotion]

Wish you weren't so far away, I'd take 'em in a heartbeat!