Well today I got the letter from the unemployment office...approved, whew. My weekly benifits will be a bit more than I expected, but not by much. I'll recieve $315 a week. While thats 300 shy of my usual takehome, it's better than nothing. I talked to the guy with the farm, and he should be ready for me this weekend. I also may have some other work with an old friend and his small handyman business doing a whole basement remodel. I ran into him when I was at my folks yesterday, and he said he was gonna call me for help anyway, he didnt know I was layed off.....perfect timing. It may get a bit awkward since Lisa absolutely hates this guy, but I'll take what I can get now, and she'll just have to buck up and understand.

This Saturday I'm getting some free roosters to butcher, six 6 month old golden comets. I'm getting them from all places, a rescue-rehab facility. I posted an ad on freecycle last week for some freezer burned meat, and she responded. We've talked via email, and she's fine with them going with me and being butchered. I had to make sure I told her up front what the intentions were, and her response was "Chicken is food! Not a problem at all! Hate for them to go to waste! There are too many in one enclosure and they are starting to get aggressive towards each other! ", sooooo.....they'll meet the hatchet this weekend after I pick them up. With these 6 birds, and the meat that Ben brought last weekend, we're set for quite a while in the meat department. Today I also took everything out of both pantries and rearranged it all. Things are better organized now, and set up a little easier for Lisa to get at. Though it was all in order before, there was no specific spot for anything, and things were kinda mixed up. Now the vegetables are with vegetables, soups with soups, etc, and all the things we use the least are on the bottom, so it's less stress on her bad knee. Now that things are arranged better, there's more room in the bottom of both for the buckets.

Speaking of buckets.....yesterday when I was at my folks, mom said she wanted to visit this new antique shop near them. I took her there and looked around, usually laughing. It's typical of me to see something that I want to buy to USE, and it's overpriced because it's old and automatically an "antique". Like 12 bucks for a hand crank mixer, or 10 for a potato ricer, lol. I did see a beautiful old Aladdin lamp for $125 though....oh if only I was working. Anyhoo....back to buckets. On the way out of the store, we drove past a cheese house/deli in the same little complex. Sitting by their back door was a stack of 5 gallon buckets with lids. I parked the car and went to look at them, and they were nice pickle buckets with sealing lids. I went inside and asked about them, and they told me to take all I wanted. I asked about more and they told me they go through about 5-6 a week, and will hold them for me. Woohoo! Now mom has a weekly mission to get my buckets for me, lol. When I get more than I need, I'll see if Farmergeek or anyone else in the homesteading group wants any. I may keep a few around in the garage, but I hate using good buckets like that to haul rabbit poo to the garden, lol. Figures eh? When Lisa just ordered all those buckets....ah well. So today I spent time scrubbing the 5 buckets I got with hot water and baking soda, and tomorrow I'll let them soak a half day in bleach water then scrub them again. I really don't want pickle-flavored bread, hahaha.