Wow, it has been cold! It snowed on Monday & Friday of this past week. Yesterday when I got up the thermometer said it was 18 outside and 55 in the house. Hubby & I both fell asleep watching a movie and neither one of us stoked the fire during the night. BRRRR! Needless to say I started a fire before I started coffee which almost never happens, I have to have my morning coffee before I can function. Ha Ha.
I'm lucky enough to have a flexible schedule from my 3 (part time) merchandising jobs so I stayed home both Monday & Friday. Since I was staying home and inside I made breakfast for hubby and I all on the wood stove. I started with frying some diced potatoes. Hubby asked for pancakes so I pulled out my trusty old Betty Crocker Cook Book and mixed up some homemade pancake mix. Doubling the recipe made extra that he ate the next morning while I was at work. Then came diced onions and ham that I added to the fried potatoes. To finish off the breakfast we had over easy eggs from our chickens. Surprisingly it only took about an hour to cook it all. Yes that may seem like a long time but I was in no hurry because I wasn't going anywhere, only outside to feed & water the chickens & ducks. This breakfast was inexpensive because the potatoes I buy in 10 to 15 pound bags, the eggs are from our chickens and the pancake mix I made. The wood stove was already heating our house so no need to use propane to cook with. Nothing like a hearty breakfast on a cold winter day.
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Have you ever opened your freezer door and something falls out on your foot? Well I sure have. My refrigerator freezer doesn't have a shelf, it never came with one. Wow I can't believe how much of a mess it gets. I try to freeze most things flat so they will stack but that isn't always the case. The small rack and the black food container only helps so much as you can see. I ended up pulling turkey, turkey stock and the last of the ham leftover from Christmas and pressure canned them so now they are shelf stable. It still needs to be organized but has so much more room. Can you relate?
With the exception of dairy products we have been eating what we already have in our pantry, cupboards, freezer and refrigerator over this past month. I haven't done much shopping since the beginning of January. I recently quit 1 of my 4 part time jobs so my income has decreased so I'm looking for additional ways to save money. I consider myself a extremely thrifty person but figure I can always learn new ways to save.
I'm the type of person that likes to make as much of my food from scratch whenever possible and none of our food goes to waste. What we don't eat goes to our chickens & ducks. Over this past month we have ate a few of the same meals that hubby & I both like. I feel that if I would have started at the beginning of the month by looking in all cabinets and the freezer I could have came up a monthly meal plan instead of just winging it like I did. Some days I opened the pantry and just stood there looking and thinking what am I going to make for dinner. That's hard sometimes when nothing in there sounds appealing. I ended up making several soups, scalloped potatoes & ham, chili, spaghetti, other hearty and filling meals. Having salad or vegetables and bread helps to round out most meals. Luckily I had canned potatoes, beans and some meats that I home canned and used to make a quick meal on days I worked. My biggest take away from eating this way is that I need to plan and prepare ahead of time. You can eat healthy, hearty food and save money doing it. Now I need to replenish my pantry and freezer but that will take some time but hopefully I be able to find some good sales. Would I do this again? Absolutely!! My printer is on the fritz so I went to my local library a few days ago to print off a couple papers I needed. While there I looked around to see what movies they have. I decided on to check out dvd's to watch instead of regular tv-limited to 4 channels. This weekend the weather was cold and snowy so I have been watching seasons of tv shows. It sure is a nice change and no commercials. I definitely have under utilized my local library and missed out on activities there as well. Be sure to check out your local library who knows what kind of fun things you'll find. I know I sure will and it's free.
Thanksgiving was enjoyable and I was blessed to spend time with my family. Today however I'm enjoying spending time at home. Yes I will always have chores to do but today is more relaxing than normal. I got all the dirty dishes done before I went to bed and I dealt with the little leftovers we had so I'm already ahead of the game. Ha ha. I'm am not a black Friday shopper because I don't like crowds or fighting over those deals. So you won't see out & about today...I'm spending today at home.
I don't know about you but I like to have fresh vegetables in the Winter. I always start lettuce & spinach to have fresh salad greens throughout the winter. I cut some of the leaves and let them grow back. This year I also started radishes and carrots but so far only radishes have sprouted. Another tray will be started soon but I haven't decided what else to grow. The temp dipped down below 30 I'll be bringing the pans inside to put in a sunny window. You can do this too it's easy and good for you.
Not the ideal way to spend a Saturday but I hoping that next year my gardens will produce more than the last couple of years. I was disappointed in the garden results needless to say. I live in a rural area there is always neighbors with animals that produce more manure than they know what to do with....that's why I was able to get a truck load of horse manure that was pretty broke down already. It took me almost 3 1/2 hours to unload it (mostly by myself). I unloaded 7 wheel barrows then got smart and moved the truck closer to where I wanted the manure to go and tossed it over the fence and that help cut the time tremendously. I topped off all my raised bed gardens and the last amount went into my compost area. This is an inexpensive way to fertilize my garden and I'm truly grateful to have great neighbors like I do. Don't be afraid to ask your neighbors for compost items-manure, used straw, wood chips, etc. I wouldn't have thought about getting a truck load of manure until a neighbor read my WANTED sign out by my driveway. I was happy! I know that sounds funny I guess I'm easily entertained. Ha ha! I will post more on the results in the spring. I'm hoping for lots of moisture this Winter whether it's rain or snow. See why I said what a way to spend a Saturday...ha ha ha.
Wow our pullets have grown so much and we put them in with the big girls so they all will be warmer this winter. They are so fun to watch, are discovering so many new things and learning a lot from the older chickens. I was worried for a while about them getting to cold but the weather has been abnormally warm so that helped to calm my fears. Now they are fully feathered so that will help keep them warm. The picture on the right are the older chickens and on the left is the younger (6 of the 8 we have). The older chickens have not been so nice when we've add to our flock previously but they seem to better with these girls, maybe because there is 8 of them not just 1 or 2. Chickens are so easy to raise and nothing beats having fresh eggs. You can't get more local than your own yard. I love my chickens. :)
They are happy and loving life right now, they can run around in a bigger area and they are out of our house. Those little things sure can make a mess so we were ready for them to go outside. They have a little house and a heat lamp ready to go for tonight. Praying all goes well and its not to cold for them. It would make me sad if I lost a chick. Yes my chickens are spoiled I can't help it so is our dog & cat. :) I've been composting for years but never seem to make enough for my gardening needs so each year I end up buying some to add to my gardens. Check out the video. www.growingagreenerworld.com is my favorite garden show.
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AuthorHello I'm Michele & I'm the matriarch of the Leverone Family Farm. I'm a wife, a mother of 2 grown/married sons and have 4 adorable grand kids. Thrifty for more than 30 years. I love gardening, cooking and saving money. Archives
November 2021
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