scale down

this song is a great reminder to get rid of the clutter...every time i listen to it i am inspired. if only i could get the rest of my family as inspired, sigh.

in other news, i sewed 24 new wipes for us. i'd like to do another 3 dozen and then we'll have about 100. the downside is more to hang on laundry day, lol. it's tedious to stack and hang them 5 at a time!

more on less

my friend kathie posted a link to another blogger who is into non-consumeristic living (and is much more successful than i!). this post had me nodding my head the entire time i read it. in fact, most of the 14 suggestions i do myself.

i have been eyeing some great upcycled clothing on etsy and it is inspiring me to start sewing my own clothes again. i really want a serger to create some of the looks i like and have been shopping around. i was suprised to discover i could purchase one for about $200. i had always assumed they were much more. i realize this goes directly against what i am writing about but i think i would make more use out of the piles of old clothes i want to get rid of...i could create lots of clothes for myself and my kids. even though there's an upfront cost, the cost i would save in new clothes by sewing our own would be a great savings. even though 99% of our clothes come from thrift shops, i still can spend quite a bit there when i'm in the mood!

to make my 5 year plan an easy transition, i've been slowing purging items from our house. i have several boxes in the dining room that i need to load into the truck and drop off at a thrift store soon.

reasons/excuses i have for not purging more are:

-it's really hard to purge when your kids don't want to let go of anything. i am going to implement a 2 for 1 rule for everyone in the house: for every 1 thing you bring into the house you have to give up 2. i figure i'll start there and then try to increase the number over the next year or two.

-it is hard because as a homeschooling mom, i like to hang onto things that we could find useful in our schooling such as crafts and empty containers and boxes.

-i hold onto packing peanuts and bubble wrap from incoming packages to use on outgoing packages. i used to mail a lot of stuff with selling my herbal products, not so much anymore so hopefully i can let go of those through freecycle.

-i tend to buy too many books at thrift stores because they are cheap and they are great for homeschooling. i use the library a lot so i just need to trust the library can get me what we will need. it's been a huge resource so far and there are truly few books i needed to purchase that i couldn't get through them and needed for a resource. part of this is i had a lot of books around to read at my leisure as a child and i want the same opportunity for my children...we even went to a library weekly as i do now to get more books.

i think one thing that will be freeing of all this stuff, at least for me, will be the fact that i can't fit it all into  a tiny mobile home so it will either have to go in storage and be dealt with later (ugh!) or i can start letting go now and feel better.

it truly is hard to downscale when you live in a larger home though. i went from 900 sq. ft. for myself and my 2 kids to 2000 sq. ft. with 6 of us here the majority of the time and another 2 part time. but, even with the increased amount of people, i feel we have accumulated too much. even worse, we have a few outdoor sheds that double as storage units that are full of crap. when something breaks down or we get a surplus of furniture, instead of getting rid of the old, we move it to the sheds. why?! why don't we just get rid of it?! we'll never use it again, it is just nuts!

my goals for the next year include:
-gather all the old electronic equipment (old dinosaur computers, printers, etc) and take them to an electronic recycling center

-clean out the storage shed and freecycle/craiglist as much as possible

-develop better habits about dealing with papers

-finish cleaning out the basement

-downsizing the homestead items (like the cream separator that i will never use)

-continue to not shop at thrift stores (i used to go weekly) and don't take the kids when i do go! the problem with thrift store shopping is if i see something, i can't do the 'i'll wait 30 days and see if i still want it after then' because it will be gone so i tend to get things even if i've already got 5 of them at home.

does anyone else have plans to purge or are you already purging and simplifying your life? what tricks have you learned in the process to making it easier?

how many showers a week does one REALLY need?!

in the past few years, partly out of lack of time and partly out of laziness, i stopped bathing daily. during the summer, i find myself bathing more often just for the refreshment of it but in the winter, i often go a week between showers. about the same time, i gave up commercial deodorant. most days i go without but if i feel i need a little help, i use patchouli essential oil.

apparently, this is becoming the newest trend.

i have found that with less washing, my body is less dry and my hair is not oily at all.

i think americans are overly obsessed with cleanliness, personal hygiene and germs in general and this is making us susceptible to super germs such as mrsa.

i think it would be great if more americans took on a challenge to bathe less for a month! wouldn't that be a fun challenge to see taking over america? i wonder how many americans would be willing to shower only 3 times a week for a month!

beauty is as beauty does

self esteem....aaaah, that's a huge topic! i've always struggled with it and i think that's why skunk is such a HUGE totem for me...he has helped somewhat over the years and i've been working more with him lately to help me gain that self esteem.

i was always criticized and my physical attributes and/or lack of poked fun at by my mother and older sister as i grew up...never smart enough, never good enough on my grades, always skinny and underdeveloped...this was all fodder. my choices in life were never right either....i should have been a school teacher (teaching art), i should not have married so and so, i should have gotten a college degree...on and on and on....

i've chosen to shut those voices out physically and went a year w/o speaking to my mom and sister because of their criticism about my parenting choices. i've been guilted back into the relationship by my father but tread very lightly.

when people tell me they are beautiful, i think to myself, are you nuts?! are you looking at the same person i am?! it's funny, i can see the beauty in everyone else, but i cannot see it in myself. i really need to work on this. having dreadlocks is actually helping me be more comfortable with myself for some reason but i want to be more comfortable and more accepting of myself. another blogger that i read religiously posted a link to the tiny buddha who had a post on 35 simple ways to be beautiful. it's a great reminder of what true beauty is and how to make yourself more beautiful. once i can get my printer to decide to work again, i plan on printing out the list to hang next to my work area as a gentle reminder.

what have you given up for good?

rhonda over at down to earth posted this question and i thought it was a good reflection. this list is a list of what i've personally given up, even though other family members may still be resistant to it. these are choices i alone have made. this is a list of things i will choose to never purchase for my own use again:

1. paper products: toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, moon pads and tampons, wrapping paper
2. laundry detergent and chemically laden cleaning supplies
3. feed lot meat and caged eggs
4. bottled water
5. soap

are there 5 things you've given up good? let me know, i'd love to see!

concoctions

ashley picking oats

our wwoofer left this morning. boohoo. she will be missed. she made some great meals for us and fit in very nicely. the kids loved her, jaden cried for about an hour after she left. i hate seeing my little girl so sad.

yesterday i made a crisp that was the best ever. i sliced up peaches and apricots to fill a pie plate, stirred in a dab of honey and flour to thicken and then mixed in chopped up cinnamon basil, bergamot and sage to spice it up a bit. i made a crumb topping:

3/4 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup butter? (i just put in a few dollops from my room temperature roll so i don't know how much)
1 pinch salt

mix together with your fingers and squish in your hands to make it crumbly.

i sprinkled that on top and then baked at 325 for 30 minutes until it was golden on top and all yummy, bubbly.

i made a lemon verbena syrup to top it and some natural vanilla ice cream (if i'd thought ahead i would have made some lemon verbena goat's milk ice cream but i didn't). the syrup was delicious! we have leftovers so i'm thinking either some lemonade or lemon verbena soda later today.

lemon verbena syrup:

lemon verbena leaves
lemon balm leaves
rosemary leaves

i didn't measure but i did equal parts of the lemon herbs and 1/3 part rosemary. next time i think i will add more rosemary, maybe 1/2 part to 1 part of the other.

i loosely chopped the herbs, added to a saucepan and covered with about 1 1/2 cups water. brought it to a boil, turned it off and let it steep for 10 minutes. then i strained off the herbs, measured the water and added an equal amount of organic white sugar (raw could be used but i wanted the presentation to be pretty so i used white sugar which made the syrup a beautiful vibrant lime greeny yellow color.)

i put that back on the heat and boiled down a bit until it thickened. then cooled and poured into a bottle.

to serve:
a portion of the crisp, topped with ice cream and drizzled with syrup.

the results:
lots of 'mmmmmms' and smiles.

now i'm busy bouncing between housework, making a natural cleaning book for a housewarming gift and working on a future issue of herbal roots. there are just not enough hours in the day! i am going to have to start setting my alarm to get up earlier each day so i can get more done, that's all there is to it.

purging is hard

 

i spent over 8 hours today purging the kitchen and it doesn't look like i touched it. what is it with us pack rats? why do we feel so compelled to keep everything, collect items, not let go of stuff? is this an american thing or does it span through the continents of wealth and prosperity? where does the root of this lie? what causes us to feel like we need this stuff, that we can't let go or live without it?

even as i packed stuff in boxes to ship off to the thrift shop, my partner was digging through the box, taking items out and running off with them, squirreling them away in his portion of the house and shed. wtf? these were not even items he purchased or wanted!

i am at a loss on how to let go of so much. in my future i hope to scale down to a converted bus/home and looking around my home, i could easily fill 10 buses! how does one make the jump and let go? how does one not only let go of stuff accumulated in their lifetime but sentimental stuff that was given to them by friends and family?!

this recent force of purging activity was brought about by visiting a friend's house. this friend normally comes to our house each week because she lives in town and we live in a semi-rural area where her boys can play and be boys. she also moved here a 2 years ago from new zealand. (she was originally from the midwest). her home is so sparse and simple. even in her cabinets with dishes and food, it is basic and simple. bare necessities of furniture, no piles of paper, receipts, old magazines, mail, etc. it was so nice, clean, refreshing and i was very envious. when i pointed out the sparsity, she said she was sure if she had not moved internationally several times over the past years that she too would have an accumulation but i doubt it would be as bad as my house. she just doesn't accumulate. she doesn't collect, store, hoard. oh to be so free!!

how does one break free from this cycle? i suppose/hope that what i've done today is a step in the right direction. possibly once i make one go around through the house, i can start a 2nd go around and get down to the nitty gritty...

it's especially hard with homeschooling kids. i try to keep around things that i think we can use. crafty things, fabric, etc. plus, trying to live a 'simple' lifestyle causes one to accumulate tools necessary for this simplicity....grain grinders, cherry pitters, foley mill, pressure canners, pasta makers, just to name a few. it's crazy. i was in tears last night thinking about the exhaustion i have over trying to live a simple life and raise my kids the 'right' way. i questioned the simplicity of taking 3 hours to make pasta for a meal (and even though i make extra for further meals, it still takes time). the flip side is buying items premade at the grocery store that are full of preservatives or spending a premium to buy foods that are not.

it is so exhausting and unrewarding (seemingly, to me at the moment) to live this life. i am drained. beaten down. i think if the house burned down today, there's not much i'd miss. but then, when i go to get rid of stuff, i can't let it go. WHY?!!! how does one break this cycle and let go?

one answer is to not visit stores anymore except when necessary. i love thrift shopping but i don't need it. all too often, i don't leave with what i needed but with great finds i just couldn't leave without. agh! it doesn't help that the kids are with me and do the same and i feel guilty...why should i buy myself all these good finds but refuse to let them have some too? that doesn't seem fair.

the good thing is, i want to purge. i want to get rid of crap, i want to let go. i am working on it. i got rid of a lot today and i'm sure i'll get rid of more before it's all done. it's hard to plan for the future when you don't know what to expect but i hope to try to strip it down to basics that will allow the kids freedom to create and learn while giving my mind the sanity of simplicity. looks like i've got my work cut out for me.

chop wood, heat water

our water heater spazzed out on me the other day so we've been heating water until greg can get to it to check it out. the worst part is baths. no more nice, hot showers to warm us up, instead, we heat water on the stove and then fill the ice cold bath tub upstairs in the arctic zone. brrrr! hopefully today he'll get that fixed.

really though, it has put in to perspective another way to conserve energy and propane. instead of using the hot water from the tap, placing pots of water on top of the wood stove that will naturally heat and put humidity into the air, multitasking at its finest and i'm a sucker for multitasking!

temperatures here have been frigid, in the teens to twenties at best, dropping to single digits at night. i'm grateful we aren't further north as i don't think i could take the negative numbers. we've had snow! several times already which was a pleasant surprise. i like snow even though i don't like cold, go figure.

i've been logging temperatures in my garden journal and reviewed the past 4 years of logging, noting that it has been in the 40's/50's during this time for the past 4 years. my hunch of having a cold winter this year was spot-on it seems.

the cold weather keeps us all inside and the kids are going stir crazy. i've been knitting wash clothes left and right...4 large ones complete and 2 minis. the minis are great for dishes. i did one in cotton and one in wool to compare. i think i like the wool better. i found out a close friend is going to have a baby! this summer so i'm preparing to knit up some sweet elfin baby booties for her next. the pattern i have is for kids sizes so i figure if i use 100% wool i can probably shrink them down enough. if that doesn't work, i'll scale the pattern down. jaden and adelena have been knitting a lot lately too. i'm thinking of taking them to a thursday evening knitting group i think it would be good exposure for both of them! of course, seeing as it is at a yarn store could be hazardous to our budget though.

our wood pile is precariously low and greg goes on a wood run by my dad's house once a week. i really wish we were more prepared than that considering how crazy the weather has been lately. surprisingly, heating the house with only the wood stove and a kerosene heater on the coldest of days, the house is warmer than when we used the boiler. much cheaper too! paying $600 a year for kerosene (plus free wood) is a lot cheaper than $3000 a year on propane to keep the house set at 58! the kids run around naked half the time, it gets so warm in here.

i've started sorting through my seed collection, taking inventory of what i have, giving my apprentice spare seeds that are going to go to waste if someone doesn't grow them. once i've completed inventory, i'll make a list of what i want to grow this year, compare notes and order what i need.

i'm still feeling ambivalent about my life but hoping the spring will renew my energy and hopes. i'm starting a mentorship with kiva rose very soon that i'm excited about. it will be a great diversion. i really wish my old self and spirit would come back. i'm at a loss as to how to come about that. maybe this mentorship will help with that.

absinthe makes the heart grow fonder...

...that IS how the saying goes, isn't it?!

i finally have wormwood in my garden and decided to harvest up a bit and try my hand at absinthe making. i'm currently converting the grams to ounces and dried to fresh so i can brew up a batch and see what happens...i'm thinking of a few friends who would be tickled green to get some absinthe for the holidays...

the ginger beer making efforts have been a flop twice. i keep forgetting to feed the starter. oye. too many distractions at this moment. i must try again when i've got it on my mind. ginger just so happens to be january's herb so i'll be working on projects for that very soon and will try again while i'm focusing on ginger.

our washer completely died but greg patched up my maytag wringer washer which i absolutely love...i worry about energy conservation using it but i suppose it can't use any more than the regular washer did. now that it's working again, it is overcast and threatening to rain. i washed a load anyway but they are just hanging on the line, not drying at all. unfortunately, it is too warm to justify building a fire in the stove so i can hang them inside as well. this time of the year is hard for drying clothing!

lorilee posted a great website/blog that has ideas on incorporating books into real life. the blog is called jump into a book and the subject is 'something to do book review.' it's got me thinking of how i loved acting out/doing things i read in books as a child (gone away lake and my side of the mountain are two that come to mind). i'm going to have to dig through our books and start bringing them to life for the kids!

rainiest october on record

all this rain is really trying for my moods. i need sun!

today i went grocery shopping. did a huge run: trader joe's, shop-n-save and aldi. phew! thank goodness greg's bonus came through as we were out of a lot of things. although i spent quite a bit, i don't plan on going for another 5-6 weeks, hopefully longer, so i tried to purchase accordingly. i did buy a couple bags of dove chocolate (which i will hoard and enjoy 2 or 3 pieces at a time) and a half dozen bottles of wine but other than that, everything was bare bones:

milk (our goats are dried off now and suddenly, my kids WANT milk!)
half and half (for greg's coffee) i buy several small containers and they will last a month or longer
10# butter
4 cream cheese
8# coffee beans (greg's habit, not mine)
2 packages mate (my habit, used sparingly when i need a kick start)
8# popcorn (our replacement for the nighttime ice cream snack...much healthier!)
2 large bottles ketchup (i miss my homemade, better luck next year with tomatoes)
6 bottles wine (trader joe's has some awesome chilean wine for $4/bottle!)
2 bags each: frozen tuna, frozen salmon, frozen broccoli, frozen green beans
6 - 1# packages block cheese: 2 sharp, 2 mild, 1 mozza, 1 colby jack
6 bags apples (stored 4 in basement and will ration them out)
2 bunches bananas (hide and hoard method again)
4 bags all natural beef jerky (quick snack when we have to run out the door to pick up the older kids)
8 containers of frozen juice (to be mixed with kombucha for a healthy drink)
3 portabello mushrooms
1 box organic salad/spinach mix (i'm craving fresh salad lately)
3 bags frozen shrimp
10# bacon (tj's...no nitrates/nitrites)
8 bags choc. chips
1 pkg dried apricots
1 pkg candied ginger
3 pkg cheese sticks

things i wanted but dutifully passed by: miss meringue cookies, cereal for the kids, avocadoes, cinnamon scones, salami, lunch meat...

i'd love to be able to stay away from the grocery store until dec 28, which would be 8 weeks. butter and cream probably won't last that long though.

the man is keepin' us down

rhonda has a great post over at down to earth today about keeping the guvment out of our backyards and keeping clotheslines and chickens in!

creative feeding update 2

it's been 1 month since i've started my personal creative feeding challenge. overall, we've done pretty well, with the exception of greg going out and buying steak and pork chops. agh! (he's on a low carb diet to try to lose weight).

our winter larder holds red skinned potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and still to harvest are turnips and sunchokes which we harvest as we use.

i'm craving red meat like crazy, i've never been a big chicken fan and all these chicken meals are not that appealing, especially since the chickens are old and have to be stewed to be any good. i'm hoping greg is able to get a deer this season...it would make me very happy. :)

i'll be needing to place a bulk order soon, mostly for flour but possibly some oats and beans too. i need to check my stocks.

i'm heartened to see others are challenging themselves to not buying as well. kathie at two frog home has issued a challenge for herself to not shop for 6 months!! i think that's terrific. her exceptions are similar to ours: milk/cream, butter, coffee and eggs. while we have an endless supply of eggs, my dairy goats are drying off so that's the last we'll see of the milk until my does start freshening in late february, early march. next year, i hope to have them staggered enough that i can milk year round. we don't drink a lot of milk, but the kids love yogurt and cheese. greg's the coffee drinker and i buy it in bulk from trader joe's. i think we have about 1-2 weeks left and then i'll need to go to tj's to get some more. i'll probably break down and buy bacon there too since they are the only ones in the area that sell nitrate/nitrite free bacon and a bit of bacon can flavor so many things, including the dreaded chicken dish! greg's been trying turnip greens and i think a bit of bacon in there will make them taste even better.

trader joe's is about 40 minutes away from us and i only go there about once every 2 months. it's been 3 since i've been so i need to plan accordingly. i generally buy good things there that i can't get around here: preservative free jerky (great for taking in the truck when we have to drive to pick up the older kids from their dad's house for a snack), butter, yogurt (for culture...this i freeze and use as needed), bacon, coffee, a few bottles of $5 chilean red wine which is delish!, cashews and almonds, cream cheese, chocolate chips....my goal on my next shopping trip is to avoid buying all the 'junk' foods we enjoy as well: pirate booty type corn puffs, miss meringue cookies (my addiction), cinnamon scones...

the worst part of the no shopping rule has been not getting fruit for the kids. we got some free pears from a friend and they devoured them. i have to say, those were the best pears i've ever tasted in my life...they were from an old pear tree on her land and they were crisp and sweet, almost like an asian pear but shaped like a bosch/bartlett mix. interesting. she has no idea what kind they were but says they stay crisp until they go bad and then they immediately turn to mush. i'm hoping to get back down to her place soon to pick a bucket or two to bring home. there just may be some pear jelly in my future!

this necessary no shopping month has been great and i hope to continue it as much as possible. besides the upcoming tj trip and bulk food order, i plan to stay away from the grocer except to go and ask for the thrown out produce. i'm still working on that one!

eta: i forgot to add, although this has nothing to do with food, it has nothing to do with money: we sold a friend our extra buck and although we initially set a price and they paid it, while they were here visiting, i mentioned i was going to have to buy a new washer because mine is literally falling apart (our basement is moist and the washer has rusted through...the frame has come off from the insides and it's going to fall into a pile at any moment). they happened to have an extra washer so i suggested we trade our goat for the washer. sweet! they got their $$ back and we got a washer. we all agreed we'd rather barter than use money anyway. i'm happy that it was a win-win situation for all of us.

a new leaf

this fall finds me starting feel interested in homesteading again. after a summer of feeling burnt out, i'm now sad to see the garden going to sleep. today i moved our cold frame next to the back porch steps, dumped a 5 gallon bucket of compost into into, spread it around and planted some chard, kale and my 3 rosemary plants. later i'll go back out and plant some herbs, possibly bergamot and spearmint and any other small plants i can find. i also have a few sprouting onions i'd like to stick in there as well.the sweet potatoes are lying on the porch of the barn drying. in a week or less, depending on the weather, i'll individually wrap them in newspaper and box them up for storage up in our bedroom (cool and dry) for the winter. a few are sprouting so i'll bring them into the kitchen and let them go for the next few months to get a jump on next year's plants since this year i was way behind and dug up a bunch of undeveloped roots when i harvested them.
the luffas are hanging on the vine, recently touched by the first freeze of the year. i'm waiting for them to dry up a bit then i'll harvest and bring in to make into luffa sponges. i have about 20 or so. they will make great solstice gifts along with some soap and other herbal goodies.i've started craving wild food lately too. i dreamed of catching and killing some cotton tails and cooking them up for dinner. now i'm craving rabbit! i need to get to my dad's house to harvest some hazelnuts...hazelnut butter sounds delicious! i'd like to harvest some acorns but i don't know where the big ones grow that would be worthwhile for harvesting. i think part of my craving wild foods is from reading the delicious meal posts kiva and darcey have been making on facebook...they make me drool! i keep begging greg to go hunting this year so we can fill our freezer with venison. with the advent of the realization that i've taken on more than i can chew with our homesteading dreams, i feel turning to the wild for some of our food would help to relieve that burden...scrounging for food instead of having to spend several months cultivating it sounds marvelous right now. eating venison for breakfast every day sounds wonderful.

i'm hoping to find some autumn olive berries to make jelly with. the only jellies we have on hand are herb jellies and i'm craving some berry jelly. go figure. i broke open the last apricot jam i had today for an almond butter and jelly sandwich. delicious!

on the food front, i still haven't gone to the grocery store. greg has though. he tends to throw a monkey wrench into my plans and about the same time i put a ban on the grocery store, he decided to go back on the south beach diet. i'm happy that he's finally wanting to slim down to a healthier size but darn, it's hard to work around that diet given the food we have on hand! so, he's gone to the store a few times and purchased steak and pork chops, onions (even though we have onions here, he's enamoured by large red onions) and zucchini. i did kindly point out that him running his credit card up further with these purchases does not help out our current financial situation.

sharon has got me wanting to ditch my no spending mantra and join in on the pantry stocking. this is one thing i'm nervous about is whittling down the pantry while not spending money. i do so love the weekly suggestions of what to put by. oh, the torment!

i've started a batch of ginger beer using honey instead of sugar. we'll see if it works. it sounds divine and although we generally don't buy soda to have on hand, the kids would enjoy a treat occasionally!
i'm dreading this holiday season for more reasons than one. family issues, money issues, time issues are the main ones...although we don't buy a lot of gifts, i'm not sure we'll even be able to afford gifts for the kids this year. generally they each get just 1 so hopefully, we can squeeze something out. i'll just have to get more creative with the stocking stuffers. i tend to go overboard with those!

herbally, i'm hoping to focus on regional plants and plants that i can grow so i'm compiling a list of 100 herbs that i know grow around here to start studying in the next year. i started doing something similar a year or so go back but then got sidetracked. this is my way of picking back up on it. i'll be posting on this soon.

creative feeding

due to a serious deficit in our checking account, i'm playing the game 'how low can you go' with our pantry and challenging myself to see how long i can stay away from the grocery stores.

we have a endless supply of chicken at our disposal, i just need to butcher as needed. so, we'll be having a lot of chicken dishes.

in the garden, we have lots of tasteless tomatoes (thanks to a cool, wet summer) that i'm hoping will improve with cooking. we also have a lot of bell peppers that i'm waiting to ripen, right now they are all green. the newly planted kale and chard are ready for small pickings. we've harvested a large amount of potatoes, butternut squash and onions and soon jerusalem artichokes will be ready for winter digging.

greg planted turnips in with the clover/alfalfa seed mix for the new pasture. the goats aren't crazy about them so i'll be harvesting them as needed to add to the mix.

add lots of milk and a few eggs to the mix and that's our basis for meals. in the pantry, i have limited amounts of olive oil, flour, rolled oats, brown rice, garbanzos, lentils, red, black and pinto beans, cornmeal and sugar. plus, about 3 gallons of honey from our hives.

in the freezer, we have about 4 chuck roasts, 3# ground beef, 3 packs of bacon, 3 packs of shrimp, 1 pack each of tuna and salmon, 2# butter, 1 1/2 gallons of blueberries and 1 gallon cherries.

the challenge is going to be getting creative with the chicken and disguising it in other things so that we won't get tired of it. we could eat steak daily around here and never tire of it but chicken gets boring really quickly.

here's my short list of meals:
chicken fajitas
chicken burritos
chicken and dumplings
chicken caccitore
chicken noodles
chicken pot pie
chicken lasagna
barbecue chicken
stewed chicken
chicken with pesto and noodles
baked chicken (this might not be so good, the hens are old and have to be stewed off the bones first before using)

i'm figuring for every 3 chicken meals, we can have 1 non chicken meal. going like this, we should be able to stay out of the grocery stores for 1-2 months. hopefully by then, something will come along financially to let us breathe a little but personally, i'm looking forward to the challenge. this summer has been a huge slump for me and i'm looking forward to something new and different.

i will most likely have to go once or twice to stock back up on butter and half and half (for greg's coffee) but those trips will be few and far between and the kids will not go with me to negatively influence me in the purchase of unnecessary junk (ice cream, chocolate, candy, gum...). getting all the kids broken of the nightly ice cream habit will be nice because that alone costs us a fortune (a quart a day at $4.29/quart adds up pretty quickly). now i'm trying to come up with alternative nighttime snack options. so far, winners are:
homemade pretzels (the large kind)
popcorn
cookies or brownies (frozen and doled out a few a day)

this is definitely going to put me back on the slow life track! i'm looking forward to the lessons to be learned from it.

what's the longest you've ever gone w/o going to the grocery store?

when i need inspiration...

i read rhonda's blog.

here's some food for thought.

tortillas

i ran out of yeast last week and i refuse to pay $8 at the store for a tiny jar when i have 2# worth arriving today in my coop order. so, i've been making lots of tortillas lately. the kids helped get in on the fun, rolling them out and flipping them in the pan. the downside to making your own? they taste so good you'll never want to buy them again.


basic recipe:
3 c. flour
1/2 t. cream of tartar
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. warm water.

mix together and knead a few times. divide into 8 -12 balls, depending on your size preference. roll out until very thin. cook on a hot cast iron skillet that is ungreased. place on a plate and cover with a cloth napkin to keep warm. devour!

not buying it

since i've worked to cut out all unnecessary purchases from our budget, i continuously search for ways to continue to cut. the latest has been laundry soap. in the past, i've made the powdered version with it but stopped back when jaden or sage was born as it was too much at the time to grate soap.

thanks to my stock piling ways, i still have 2 14 oz bars of zote soap plus about 3 boxes each of borax and washing soda so i grated 1 bar today and added 2 oz to try making some liquid soap. i heated the water and dissolved the mixture on the wood stove and it is now cooling and waiting a permanent bucket to be stored in. it took very little tie at all so i have no idea why i quit doing it before. since i grated the entire bar, the next 6 times i make it i'll only need to measure and heat the ingredients. i shouldn't have to buy the ingredients for at least a year, if not more. one more expense i can cross off my list!

for st. patty's day this year, i'm going to attempt to make my own corned beef. i hate all the preservatives they put in the ready made ones from the grocer. i have the brisket, now i need to find a brining recipe and get busy!

just thought of another one! i've run out of trash bags so i'm reverting back to using plastic shopping bags...when i shop, i use canvas bags but still, those plastic bags creep into my house...people bringing me back egg cartons, greg doing any shopping (he always forgets the canvas bags are right next to him in the truck), my parents giving me anything (garage sale clothing finds, egg cartons, empty jars, etc). we only fill about 2 shopping bags a week so they should never run out.

what i look forward to

one of my goats, calendula, is close to freshening. she is due march 19. i have watched her bag up and am very hopeful. she is a first time freshener so i don't know what to expect from her. i have high hopes though. she comes from good milking lines and is part la mancha.

i'm dreaming of being able to shave our grocery bill further when she freshens:

milk
mozzarella (i have never tasted anything so good as homemade)
yogurt
ice cream

possibly cream too but i doubt there will be enough to make butter in the quantities i use it in. i'm hoping to locate the person in the area who purchased a milk cow from my aunt's brother last year. if i can, i'd like to start buying cream from them.

as the season progresses, other things will be able to fall off as well:
fruit - we'll have all we can eat of cherries, apples, blackberries, mulberries, plums, elderberries, peaches, possibly grapes
vegetables - we'll be growing all the veggies we eat and what we don't i can usually trade goat's milk for at the farmer's market
honey

so that leaves meat mostly. all the bulk staples i buy through a coop (flour, sugar, beans, etc). andcoffee and chocolate. :) i also plan to make more mead this year. elderberry comes to mind.

it would be great to get our grocery bill down to $100/month for this summer (including the coop bills). in theory it's doable. we'll see how reality plays out.

observations

-when hidden from the rest of the household, ONE bag of dove chocolates can last me an entire month. (when not hidden, it may last one DAY.)

-the bare earth feels wonderful on my feet after being tucked away in socks all winter long.

-the peeps of the peepers is music to my ears. spring! it's here!

-i have missed plunging my hands into the earth and feeling the coolness and goodness of it all.

-i have missed the quiet meditation that comes with working the earth. such peace is found in my garden.

-hooping, while addictive, is like learning to play the mandolin...you have to toughen up key body parts and wince your way through it until you do. knife throwing on the other hand, doesn't really have the same problem but can be just as frustrating. thank goodness there's yoga!

-everything seems better when it's 76 degrees outside and the window is open, letting in fresh air, sunshine and a gentle breeze.

nature makes the best toys...

i found this log on the wood pile and couldn't throw it in the fire. it's been a lot of fun flinging hot wheels through it! jaden has come up with a lot of other uses for it as well.