The theme for this year is "Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.”
We're talking gardening, bargain shopping and pantry building and how we utilize all three to keep us fed and cared for without breaking the bank!
In the garden: I did some more container gardening clean up and got a raised bed ready to plant garlic, which I did the next day.
I harvested nettles and am letting them air dry. I'm trying to gather as many as possible before they die back for the winter.
I did some work in the orchard this week as well. I did some shaping up of some of our dwarf fruit trees. The goal is to keep from getting slapped in the face when mowing. If this has ever happened to you then you will understand our desire to keep those branches high and growing upward instead of hanging low and outward!
In the kitchen: I revived Prudence, my sourdough starter. I've got a whole list of ways to use sourdough that I want to try this fall and winter starting with making what seems like a really simple pizza crust. Notice I said crust, not dough! Yes, I am a lazy cook who is always looking for the quickest and easiest way to get a nourishing meal on the table! I'll let you know more about the pizza crust after I try it!
My kitchen is so much more than just a place to cook. It's where I preserve food for our pantry, it's where I make herbal remedies, it's where I make soap and other cleaning products, it's where I create food gifts for others, and where my family pops in and out of, sometimes to chat, sometimes to lend a helping hand and other times just to be there because I'm there ... it's the hub of our home. It's the heartbeat of our home and I am blessed to be the keeper of my kitchen.
Fill in the blank: my kitchen is where I _____________.
Thrifting, bargain, and/or loss leader shopping at the grocery store, farmers market, etc: Hubby went to town to run some errands and stopped in at a local grocery store. Look what he scored!!!
I set to work cooking a good part of it. Some we refrigerated to eat on over the next few days and the rest I let cool and froze cooked. This will be so handy to thaw and heat or use as an ingredient in a meal for quick meal preparation.
In the Pantry: We were given 2 buckets of field peas and after shelling and processing them, we added 11 jars to our pantry! We are so thankful for friends who share their surplus, I pray God's blessings upon this family for their generosity.
I've also been dehydrating end of season produce. I harvested a few ugly peppers and turned them into a mixed pepper melody.
I also dehydrated some end of the season small tomatoes. I sliced them, sprinkled Italian seasoning herbs and salt on them and set the dehydrator to 125 degrees until they were dried ... about 4 - 5 hours. I plan on using them as a topping on homemade pizza later this week.
The other thing I dehydrated was onions. I plan to keep them in chopped form until I need to replenish my onion powder shaker. Then I'll powder enough of the dried onions to refill the shaker and repeat as needed. Powders lose their nutrients faster so I try to only powder what I think we will use in a given time.
(pictured: dehydrated items just mentioned, from left to right ... herbed tomatoes, mixed melody of peppers and onions.)
The pumpkin in the picture is the one I told you about in an earlier post ...
it's the only one that survived our hot, humid and dry summer ...
It's curing right now ...
I'm saving it for the seeds as it's an heirloom variety ...
Isn't it cute!
In other news:
First, thank you to those who noticed I've been MIA for the last few days and reached out to check on us. We've been dealing with an ongoing health issue and a reoccurring injury. We hope to get some answers on the injury later this week. I miss you all when I can't meet with you here in our little space in this big world ... just so you know!
I've been asked to share my thoughts and suggestions for someone wanting to start to prepare for weather related disasters that knock out power, internet and cell service.
Sadly, I've had experience with this type of scenario more than once. After moving to this area many years ago we quickly learned that we needed to up our preparedness lifestyle by adding hurricane preparedness. The area we moved from did not have hurricanes, the area we moved to, did. In fact, when we moved where we are now, we unloaded the U-Haul one day and a hurricane hit the next. Needless to say, that having lived a preparedness lifestyle up to that point helped, but we soon realized that we needed to broaden our preparedness.
I've taught online classes on preparedness that placed you in a make-believe disaster situation where you had to rely on what you had in order to see what you needed to do. Is this something anyone would be interested in again?
To answer the question of where to start though, I would start with food and water. If the power goes out, do you have enough water to meet your family's needs for at least a week? I have read many times that the recommended water storage is one gallon per day per person. I can tell you that if all you plan to do is use it to drink and maybe do a small amount of just add water type meal preparation, that will suffice. But, if you want to do any cleaning including washing dishes, basic hygiene, meal preparing other than 'just add water,' flushing the commode, etc one gallon of water per person per day is NOT enough!
Do you have enough food on hand/stored to meet your family's needs for at least a month? In a grid down situation, you need to be able to eat as healthy as possible. Surviving on packaged peanut butter and crackers or cheese spread type crackers will get old ... if one even has those. We have seen so many different sad scenarios in disaster situations regarding food and water.
These are the very first basics I would start with, then I would look at individual needs of your family members. Is there a baby in the family? If so, what about diapers and formula?
Does someone in your family have special dietary needs? If so, are you prepared to be able to meet those needs?
Do you have a source for light in a grid down situation? What about keeping warm if the disaster occurs in the winter months? What about staying cool enough to survive during the heat of summer?
As you can see this is just the tip of the iceberg, please feel free to let me know how I can help in your preparedness journey.
Every year I look forward to Cath Armstrongs 'Own Your Christmas' challenge from The Cheapskate Club. We're on week #2 and while my list looks somewhat different than hers, it's moving me toward having a less stressful holiday season and that's my overall goal and purpose of doing this challenge!
Here's my week #2 prep list ...
check gift wrapping supplies
print labels for Christmas cards
purchase 1 gift (I actually only have two gifts that I need to purchase, everything else is handmade, already in my gift trunk, a money gift or coming from my kitchen. Christmas gift giving is kept simple on purpose at our house.)
Okay, that's week's #2 prep list, but what about week #1, did I get it done ... let's take a look ...
Make gift list and divide into 8 parts. I actually made a gift list but didn't divide it into 8 parts. I'll do better just working on it weekly, some weeks I'll get more done than others, but the goal is to be mindful and keep working on it every week.
Make Christmas card list and divide into 8 parts. I made the list, but didn't divide it into 8 parts. I'll do better with scheduling a time to work on them each week and do as many as I feel like doing at that time. That's just me!
Make a list of ingredients and or materials needed to make any handmade gifts. I got that done, list is ready!
Budget to pay cash for everything. That's done too!
I'm happy with the first week's assignment, now let's see what we can do with week #2!
In our Winter Preps Challenge we're down to the last two items on the list. Have our HVAC unit serviced for the winter and order a couple ricks of wood for our wood stove. We use our wood stove as a backup and or when it gets really cold. It helps keep the house toasty warm and the power bill low. We have our lowest power bills during the winter months and we're pretty happy about that!
I put together Halloween treats for my grands and got them ready to mail. I'll be posting about that over on my sewing blog, Grandmas Got a Sewing Machine, in the next day or so.
Lesson two in our study on Martha in our Thursday ladies Bible class has been posted HERE. In case you missed my 'Mornings' with Me' post this last week, you can find them here ...
Mornings with Me: 10/8/24
Mornings with Me: 10/9/24
That's it for me this week, what has your week looked like?
until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
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