I just realized I haven't written here in a while, oops!
We've been canning a lot lately, it's keeping us busy for sure. Last week we canned 5qts and 6pts tomato juice, 5pts hot wax peppers, 4pts jalepenos, 1qt mixed hot peppers, 8qts sauerkraut,3qts meatloaf, and 9 qts potatos. Today Lisa canned 4qts spaghetti sauce from the roma's we've been cooking down, and I got up another 9qts kraut from the 28lbs of cabbage I picked this morning. I may do more tomorrow since I have 4 heads left. (we're using an older KERR recipe that makes the kraut in jars rather than in a crock) Now that the tomato's are finally producing, I picked a ****load this morning, 68lbs worth! Tomorrow I'll start canning them whole in quart jars so we can make whatever we want with them later. There will be more to pick in a few days, so we'll be getting to those as well. We're down to 19 empty regular quart jars, and around 25 wide mouth quarts. We'll have to get more pints soon, since we always use the last good week's picking to make salsa. I'd like to make up another big batch of chili soon, and can that in quarts as well. Lisa doesn't like chili, so this will be just for me, usually eaten for lunches. We're definitly going to need more jars!!!!!
We did take 2 days off of everything this week though. Wednsday was our 9th wedding anniversary, and luckily Lisa's half-day at work. We went out to dinner thanks to some gift cards from her work, of course after a quick Home Depot start. The pressure switch on the well pump went out, grrrrr. I managed to rig it with a stick just to fill a few jugs, buckets, and pots so I didnt have to worry about it that night, LOL. All was fine, we had a great dinner and survived the waterless evening when we got home. It was an easy 10 minute job the next morning, so there's one more thing conquered, yayyy. Of course, I had to call Lisa at work just so she could hear the kitchen faucet running, lol.
We have friends who have a big Halloween party every year, and they have passed it onto us this year. It's going to be tough to pull off, but we'll manage. Both of us LOVE Halloween, and love the challenge of out-doing Mike & Kris on their decorations. They always do a wonderful job, so we have our work cut out for us! We have pretty good ideas on themes for each room, so that's handled. We've been to 3 or 4 shops looking at costumes, and most of them are just plain stupid. Plus....not many are made for someone who's 6'3", so I left each one pretty disgruntled. I was sitting here at the computer, looking at costumes online when I saw something that triggered my warped sense of humor. I was kicking around the idea of being the Grim Reaper, and was even planning to make 6" platform boots, (cause ya know I'm not tall enough already lol) and Lisa told me that it would be awfully hot in a black robe all night....so that idea got shot down. I kicked around the idea of being some kind of barbarian or viking, but wasn't thrilled with the whole idea. Well........then I saw it......and it hit me like a brick. I saw a fake amish beard. My warped mind said "Yodarr"..................."Yodarr the Barbarian". Thats it!!!!!!!! Yodarr, the amish barbarian!!! Twisted and funny, just how I like it!!! I'll be dressed in simple clothes with suspenders, but with fur shoulderpads and leg wraps. I'll be wearing the black amish hat....with viking horns attached to the sides. I'll be carrying a chrome/silver painted pitchfork rather than a sword. I'll even have a shield!! The shield will have it's own custom Yodarr coat of arms, designed by myself, lol. The crest has a milk jug, bonnet, horse & buggy, and butter churn on a red cross and silver background, surrounded by a single round buggy wheel. Oh yea, it's all drawn on paper to the tiniest detail, hahahaha. I know.....I'm warped.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Yay FINALLY some produce!
Last afternoon and most of today was spent in the garden now that there is FINALLY something going on out there. This has been such a horrible year for the garden, I was really beginning to wonder if the tomatos were going to be a total bust......but, 3 days of sunshine and they proved me wrong. I forget the large variety that we planted, but I got the first real good picking from them, today's total being 38-1/2 lbs. The roma's were EVERYWHERE, and I ended up picking a total of 40-1/2 lbs of them. There are some reallllllllly close to ripe, so I'll have more to pick tomorrow morning or on Monday. (family picnic tomorrow afternoon). Lisa has the steam juicer loaded, and she'll just can pure juice to use later in other things.
I started to dig more potato's today too, and found more that had been chewed/eaten from underground. I decided to pull them all, and was really shocked to see that we lost at least 40% or more to whatever small hungry critter invaded them. Not counting the ones we have already picked, I got 60 lbs worth. Thats just sad from a total of 90 feet planted. I pulled potato after potato the size of my fist, and found them to be half eaten or more. Some were down to nothing but skins. I have no idea what kind of diggin' critter we have, but he sure ruined our potato crop for this year. I'm pretty disgusted by this mess......
I managed another 5 gallon bucket of hot wax peppers, and about another half one of jalepenos. Hopefully we can get those canned on Monday as well. With all the canning going on, we've came to the conclusion that we need more pantry space! We have a 4x8x2 and a 3x6x18 closet, both jammed. The 6x3x18" unit from Lisa's work is jammed full as well. We'll have the tomatos and the rest of the peppers with nowhere to put them, plus the strawberry and blackberry jam when we decided to get them out of the freezer and do one big batch of each. Not to mention our habit of buying lots of pasta when the store has it 10/$10, other boxed goods we buy in quantity when on sale, and the 5 gallon buckets of flour, sugar, bread flour, brown sugar, rice, and oats that stay upstairs. Luckily we never get guests for more than a weekend, cause that closet is gonna be another pantry by next weekend.
Today I got a call from the neighbor, asking I wanted any fencing. Rather than talk on the phone, I walked that 200 yards across the field. (shakin' head) He was tearing down his dog kennels, goat fence, and the chicken run I helped him build 2 months ago. Apparantly the old bitchy couple behind him (keep in mind "behind" is 150 yards or more) called the police, zoning, and his landlord non stop for a week. They complained about the hounds, the puppies,the rooster, and the "unsightly" chicken house. The police warned him about noise, zoning couldnt do squat since they have enough land, but the landlord had a fit. He told them he wanted it all gone by tomorrow, but the chickens and small house were ok. I came back for the tractor and trailer, helped him tear down everything, and loaded it up to bring home. I'll have no use for all of it, but I'll offer what I don't use to the local "urban homesteading" group that I run. He was actually more depressed about it than mad, knowing that old suburban people tend to get their way, and with him they did. Their only real reasoning behind all of the hassle they caused was "we moved here for peace and quiet". Poor old b****rds, sorry but this isn't beverly hills. They even called about the guy next to him that had 4 bags of aluminum cans behind his garage, saying that he was stacking garbage. They even cut the old fence behind the 2 houses to snoop. My neighbor fixed the fence, but declined my idea of making it electric....woos.
It makes me sick sometimes to know that people like that exist. They live to do nothing but bitch and complain about everything they don't like or agree with. D's dogs didn't hurt anyone, they just barked a bit. The puppies yapped a lot, but hey, they're puppies. The rooster crows, but it's not like its microphoned through giant speakers for gods sake. They're just old cranky people that want to make everyone as miserable as they are. Of course no one will do anything about them either,afraid of lawsuits like the whole damn country is. We had someone like this in our area when I was about 18. He called the police every time we took the dirt bikes on the road. He called the police every time we shot. One day he went too far and shot at my beagles when they ran a rabbit through a 20 foot corner of his property during a cool September day warm up run. Well........the next day he had his 1/4 acre of tomato plants somehow all appear in a pile on his porch in the middle of the night, and his "prize" ducks all somehow missing. I never did find out what happened to those ducks. *burp* :-)
I started to dig more potato's today too, and found more that had been chewed/eaten from underground. I decided to pull them all, and was really shocked to see that we lost at least 40% or more to whatever small hungry critter invaded them. Not counting the ones we have already picked, I got 60 lbs worth. Thats just sad from a total of 90 feet planted. I pulled potato after potato the size of my fist, and found them to be half eaten or more. Some were down to nothing but skins. I have no idea what kind of diggin' critter we have, but he sure ruined our potato crop for this year. I'm pretty disgusted by this mess......
I managed another 5 gallon bucket of hot wax peppers, and about another half one of jalepenos. Hopefully we can get those canned on Monday as well. With all the canning going on, we've came to the conclusion that we need more pantry space! We have a 4x8x2 and a 3x6x18 closet, both jammed. The 6x3x18" unit from Lisa's work is jammed full as well. We'll have the tomatos and the rest of the peppers with nowhere to put them, plus the strawberry and blackberry jam when we decided to get them out of the freezer and do one big batch of each. Not to mention our habit of buying lots of pasta when the store has it 10/$10, other boxed goods we buy in quantity when on sale, and the 5 gallon buckets of flour, sugar, bread flour, brown sugar, rice, and oats that stay upstairs. Luckily we never get guests for more than a weekend, cause that closet is gonna be another pantry by next weekend.
Today I got a call from the neighbor, asking I wanted any fencing. Rather than talk on the phone, I walked that 200 yards across the field. (shakin' head) He was tearing down his dog kennels, goat fence, and the chicken run I helped him build 2 months ago. Apparantly the old bitchy couple behind him (keep in mind "behind" is 150 yards or more) called the police, zoning, and his landlord non stop for a week. They complained about the hounds, the puppies,the rooster, and the "unsightly" chicken house. The police warned him about noise, zoning couldnt do squat since they have enough land, but the landlord had a fit. He told them he wanted it all gone by tomorrow, but the chickens and small house were ok. I came back for the tractor and trailer, helped him tear down everything, and loaded it up to bring home. I'll have no use for all of it, but I'll offer what I don't use to the local "urban homesteading" group that I run. He was actually more depressed about it than mad, knowing that old suburban people tend to get their way, and with him they did. Their only real reasoning behind all of the hassle they caused was "we moved here for peace and quiet". Poor old b****rds, sorry but this isn't beverly hills. They even called about the guy next to him that had 4 bags of aluminum cans behind his garage, saying that he was stacking garbage. They even cut the old fence behind the 2 houses to snoop. My neighbor fixed the fence, but declined my idea of making it electric....woos.
It makes me sick sometimes to know that people like that exist. They live to do nothing but bitch and complain about everything they don't like or agree with. D's dogs didn't hurt anyone, they just barked a bit. The puppies yapped a lot, but hey, they're puppies. The rooster crows, but it's not like its microphoned through giant speakers for gods sake. They're just old cranky people that want to make everyone as miserable as they are. Of course no one will do anything about them either,afraid of lawsuits like the whole damn country is. We had someone like this in our area when I was about 18. He called the police every time we took the dirt bikes on the road. He called the police every time we shot. One day he went too far and shot at my beagles when they ran a rabbit through a 20 foot corner of his property during a cool September day warm up run. Well........the next day he had his 1/4 acre of tomato plants somehow all appear in a pile on his porch in the middle of the night, and his "prize" ducks all somehow missing. I never did find out what happened to those ducks. *burp* :-)
Friday, September 4, 2009
I haven't written here in a while because, well, there isn't a whole lot going on.
We had friends from southern Ohio in for the weekend too. I wanted them to witness this blessed event, plus I just like having them around. We haven't seen them since the annual camping trip back in June, so it was great to have them here. They know I've been layed off so long and they also know that our water heater had been out for 2 months. They left on Sunday around noon, talking about all they had to do back home on the farm, so we shook hands, hugged, and they pulled out. About a half hour later, I was a little tired and decided I needed a nap. I no sooner got my head on the pillow when I heard his truck. There is no mistaking the sound of that new F350 4wd diesel he just bought. I figured they forgot something and walked to the door, only to see him pushing a new 60 gallon water heater out of the back of his truck. I opened the door to ask him what the hell he was doing, and all I get is "happy birthday". I *HATE* gifts, especially expensive ones. I'm a big talker, but when it comes to gifts, I embarras easy, and this one had me REALLY embarrassed. Of course, they refused to take it back, no matter how much I whined and complained. They came back in the house, since of course the 'farm work" excuse was just a reason to leave and go find Home Depot. He went to the gas station, found the first person he saw, and asked where one was. It was an expensive gift, one which I'm still not comfortable with, but I have to accept it. I think that I'm just so used to not having many friends that I forget what real friends are. All he said the whole time was "You'd do the same for us". Ben and Terry, love ya, you're great friends.
The weather has been so odd that the garden seems to be on a bit of a standstill, though it looks like we'll be able to start picking tomato's tomorrow. The cucumbers are obviously done here, ugh. I'd like to buy some to make more pickles, but I refuse to pay 2/$1, so we'll just have to watch for a good deal on some. I'll do one last check on the sweet corn today, and it will be done as well. It was really disappointing this year. We did get around 60 ears, but most were barely 6" long. Still good eatin', but tiny. I'm sure there are more hot wax peppers to pick, and more jalepeno's. I was hoping for a good crop of green peppers, but so far we've gotten maybe 8-10, even though the plants are standing 18" tall or better. So much for a few big batches of jalepeno jelly, grrrrrr. Ah well, we'll just can more jalepeno slices and be done with it. After this picking, I may just go ahead and pull the plants. Even though I'd like to see 3 shelves full of peppers in the pantry, Lisa doesn't eat them...she's so picky lol. We decided not to pick any grapes this year since there are still around a dozen jars of pure grape juice on hand. I'm trying to get someone from my local group to come pick some, I really hate seeing them go to waste. I may take a walk around the orchard later and see how the apples are looking. If there are any worth picking, we may do another batch of applesauce again this year. That one is still up in the air. So.......hopefully this weather stays the way it is during the day for a while so we can get more done. *crossin' fingers*
Last weekend was the big wedding next door that I posted about a while ago. It was rather dull, and was actually totally cleaned up by 6pm with not a soul in sight. I did get some funny pictures though, lol. Bridesmaids all in nice dresses, and groomsmen in jeans and whatever they had handy. They DID get pictures taken on the LoBoy, then asked for trailer rides, LOL. I had the whole wedding party in the back at one time, then the bride and groom wanted me to take them by the road so they could wave at traffic. We got a few honks, a few waves, and a lotta turned heads with that "WTF?" look on their faces. It wasn't as bad as we all thought it would be, probably due to the fact that the inlaws refused to come to such a "hillbilly" event. My personal favorite in the pics below would be the boutineere the grooms dad has on his suspenders, lol.
We had friends from southern Ohio in for the weekend too. I wanted them to witness this blessed event, plus I just like having them around. We haven't seen them since the annual camping trip back in June, so it was great to have them here. They know I've been layed off so long and they also know that our water heater had been out for 2 months. They left on Sunday around noon, talking about all they had to do back home on the farm, so we shook hands, hugged, and they pulled out. About a half hour later, I was a little tired and decided I needed a nap. I no sooner got my head on the pillow when I heard his truck. There is no mistaking the sound of that new F350 4wd diesel he just bought. I figured they forgot something and walked to the door, only to see him pushing a new 60 gallon water heater out of the back of his truck. I opened the door to ask him what the hell he was doing, and all I get is "happy birthday". I *HATE* gifts, especially expensive ones. I'm a big talker, but when it comes to gifts, I embarras easy, and this one had me REALLY embarrassed. Of course, they refused to take it back, no matter how much I whined and complained. They came back in the house, since of course the 'farm work" excuse was just a reason to leave and go find Home Depot. He went to the gas station, found the first person he saw, and asked where one was. It was an expensive gift, one which I'm still not comfortable with, but I have to accept it. I think that I'm just so used to not having many friends that I forget what real friends are. All he said the whole time was "You'd do the same for us". Ben and Terry, love ya, you're great friends.
So.....guess what I did on Monday? LOL yep,replaced the water heater. The old one was so corroded inside that it wouldn't comletely drain, so I had to haul it out with around 30 gallons still in it. I wish I would have watched the guy who installed it more carefully, but we were in the middle of moving here and just hired someone and let them do their thing. NO unions, NO shutoff valves.......arrrgghhhhh!!!!!! I had to shut the water off to the whole house and drain it so I could solder on valves before attaching the new one. I had to get new steel vent pipe for it, since the old one had an automatic fan and used 2" pvc pipe for exaust.........NOT fun at all. But, its in and working just fine and the old one is next door in the neighbors scrap pile. I could NEVER be a plumber!! I can sweat copper no problem, but I hate working with small pipe in cramped quarters. Give me a big open warehouse and 21 foot pieces of 4" steel pipe anyday over this!!!
I'm still working on getting things together to start squirrel hunting. I need to stop at the gunshop and price a sling kit for at least one of the .22 rifles and get that installed. License went up to $19, and of course I'll need that too. Both will probably have to wait until the next check comes in since I have to pay my cell phone this weekend, and had to get my drivers license AND plates renewed this week. UGH that little stuff always adds up. I hate knowing that I just paid $75 for a 1x2 inch sticker and a piece of plastic with my picture on it.
It's time to head out now and take Lisa to work, then go get more sale groceries to restock the pantries. Did I ever mention that I hate grocery shopping?????????????????
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Re-Post
I decided to re-post this from Dec 30th of last year. With the economy going the way it is, with me being layed off for so long, and all of us not knowing what the future holds, it just seems more relevant now than it did in December.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
After reading Farmergeeks response on his blog about the Boy Scout books, it somehow reminded me of my youth. Nope, I was never a scout, but I had always wanted to be one. I wanted to wear that uniform, I wanted to go on outings, have friends, and learn from them, but it never happened for several reasons. One, my parents never liked to drive anywhere other than work or to the store. Two, they could never have afforded anything I would have needed to be in the scouts. And three, dad always said they were wimps, lol, I imagine he couldnt get in either...grumpy old fart. Plus I was a very nervous kid..really withdrawn,shy, and afraid of everything. Hard to belive ain't it??? lol
While growing up, I never learned any of the wilderness survival skills in the scout books like making a shelter or tying knots, but I learned a lot from just living, even though at the time I didn't realize it. I learned to garden, I learned to shoot and hunt, I learned to fish, I learned how to preserve food, and I learned how to live on next to nothing. Times were hard at home, nearly my entire youth was spent from check to check by my parents barely making ends meet.At that time in the late 60's and early 70's, concrete guys just plain didnt work in the winter, so dad was always layed off.
To understand where I'm coming from, I'll go into a little detail:I grew up with my mom, dad, and sister on 3 acres in a small township in the same county I live in now. Our house was a 3 room basement home. NOT 3 bedrooms, 3 ROOMS...kitchen, living room, backroom, thats it. We slept in the same room as our parents on bunkbeds till I was about 12, when dad seperated the 2 rooms. Heat in the house was via an oil burning stove in the center of the living room,no ductwork, just radiant heat.(so even though we had our own room, we had to keep the door open when it was cold) We had well water attached to a kitchen sink and a washing machine, and that was all. We bathed in an old galvanized washtub with hot water from the sink. Our toilet was an indoor outhouse of sorts, inside a closet in the backroom. Basically just a frame with a seat and bucket underneath, with a matching real outhouse behind the old shed that was about 80 yards from the house.In the evenings after dark, dad carried that bucket to the outhouse, 365 days a year. We finally got a real bathroom with a tub, shower, and toilet when I was 15, so we (sis and I)thought we were rich. We had a black and white tv attached to a 25 foot antenna tower dad scrounged from a jobsite, with a grand total of 5 stations. (anyone else remember antenna rotors?) I believe I was around 18 or 19 when we got basic cable.I remember an old rotary phone in the house till around '85 as well. The flat tar roof leaked, the floor was almost always damp, the bare block walls cold, and the place always smelled of heating oil and Hoppes gun cleaner. (though I still love the smell of Hoppes, lol)
Food was always a big issue. During the warmer months, we ate what we deemed as "normal" food, though most was the cheapest cut available, and usually other things from the dented can bins at the local Sparkle Market. We busted our asses with a decent sized garden all summer, and I grew to hate it as a kid. I remember many days of pushing myself and my sister through green briar to pick blackberries, as well as wild grapes, so mom could make jellies and jams to can or freeze. (I still hate freezer jam though!) We never had any animals other than beagles, so our only meat source other than the store (when dad was working) was hunting. I can't begin to imagine how many meals we had that were duck, squirrel, or rabbit. At the time there were still pheasants in this part of Ohio, and we were always excited to bag one since it meant a good sized dinner. I think the worst time we had was one winter when dad and I set off hunting on Thanksgiving morning hoping to get a pheasant so we didn't have to have rabbit for dinner. Luckily we got one that day .
Funny how life works, isn't it? Most of my life I hated the way I grew up and resented my parents for making us live that way. We were "forced" to help around the house and garden. We had to use an outhouse when everyone else had a real bathroom. We had to watch an old b&w tv when the neighbors had color, remote control AND cable! All through my teens 20's,and early 30's, I pulled myself as far away from that life as I could, buying and doing everything I could, just because I could.
But here I sit, typing and thinking about all of this and realize something. I'm going back to that way of life on purpose. It makes me chuckle to think about it, but it also makes me kinda sad. I wasted all that time trying to ignore who/what I really am. It took me all this time to find myself, but I made it. Without my childhood, and without Lisa's encouragement I would never be where I am now.....make that-WE would never be where WE are now.Without going into any detail, she grew up ver similar in a house not much bigger with FOUR siblings...and I thought I had it tough! Sometimes I write in this blog like it's all me, but it's far from it. Lisa had taken every step right beside me the whole way,taking this incredible journey of lifestyle change that we are on.Though they'll never see this, thank you mom and dad for making me who I am today, and thank you Lisa for your love and encouragement. You are my guiding light down this path to self sufficiency.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
After reading Farmergeeks response on his blog about the Boy Scout books, it somehow reminded me of my youth. Nope, I was never a scout, but I had always wanted to be one. I wanted to wear that uniform, I wanted to go on outings, have friends, and learn from them, but it never happened for several reasons. One, my parents never liked to drive anywhere other than work or to the store. Two, they could never have afforded anything I would have needed to be in the scouts. And three, dad always said they were wimps, lol, I imagine he couldnt get in either...grumpy old fart. Plus I was a very nervous kid..really withdrawn,shy, and afraid of everything. Hard to belive ain't it??? lol
While growing up, I never learned any of the wilderness survival skills in the scout books like making a shelter or tying knots, but I learned a lot from just living, even though at the time I didn't realize it. I learned to garden, I learned to shoot and hunt, I learned to fish, I learned how to preserve food, and I learned how to live on next to nothing. Times were hard at home, nearly my entire youth was spent from check to check by my parents barely making ends meet.At that time in the late 60's and early 70's, concrete guys just plain didnt work in the winter, so dad was always layed off.
To understand where I'm coming from, I'll go into a little detail:I grew up with my mom, dad, and sister on 3 acres in a small township in the same county I live in now. Our house was a 3 room basement home. NOT 3 bedrooms, 3 ROOMS...kitchen, living room, backroom, thats it. We slept in the same room as our parents on bunkbeds till I was about 12, when dad seperated the 2 rooms. Heat in the house was via an oil burning stove in the center of the living room,no ductwork, just radiant heat.(so even though we had our own room, we had to keep the door open when it was cold) We had well water attached to a kitchen sink and a washing machine, and that was all. We bathed in an old galvanized washtub with hot water from the sink. Our toilet was an indoor outhouse of sorts, inside a closet in the backroom. Basically just a frame with a seat and bucket underneath, with a matching real outhouse behind the old shed that was about 80 yards from the house.In the evenings after dark, dad carried that bucket to the outhouse, 365 days a year. We finally got a real bathroom with a tub, shower, and toilet when I was 15, so we (sis and I)thought we were rich. We had a black and white tv attached to a 25 foot antenna tower dad scrounged from a jobsite, with a grand total of 5 stations. (anyone else remember antenna rotors?) I believe I was around 18 or 19 when we got basic cable.I remember an old rotary phone in the house till around '85 as well. The flat tar roof leaked, the floor was almost always damp, the bare block walls cold, and the place always smelled of heating oil and Hoppes gun cleaner. (though I still love the smell of Hoppes, lol)
Food was always a big issue. During the warmer months, we ate what we deemed as "normal" food, though most was the cheapest cut available, and usually other things from the dented can bins at the local Sparkle Market. We busted our asses with a decent sized garden all summer, and I grew to hate it as a kid. I remember many days of pushing myself and my sister through green briar to pick blackberries, as well as wild grapes, so mom could make jellies and jams to can or freeze. (I still hate freezer jam though!) We never had any animals other than beagles, so our only meat source other than the store (when dad was working) was hunting. I can't begin to imagine how many meals we had that were duck, squirrel, or rabbit. At the time there were still pheasants in this part of Ohio, and we were always excited to bag one since it meant a good sized dinner. I think the worst time we had was one winter when dad and I set off hunting on Thanksgiving morning hoping to get a pheasant so we didn't have to have rabbit for dinner. Luckily we got one that day .
Funny how life works, isn't it? Most of my life I hated the way I grew up and resented my parents for making us live that way. We were "forced" to help around the house and garden. We had to use an outhouse when everyone else had a real bathroom. We had to watch an old b&w tv when the neighbors had color, remote control AND cable! All through my teens 20's,and early 30's, I pulled myself as far away from that life as I could, buying and doing everything I could, just because I could.
But here I sit, typing and thinking about all of this and realize something. I'm going back to that way of life on purpose. It makes me chuckle to think about it, but it also makes me kinda sad. I wasted all that time trying to ignore who/what I really am. It took me all this time to find myself, but I made it. Without my childhood, and without Lisa's encouragement I would never be where I am now.....make that-WE would never be where WE are now.Without going into any detail, she grew up ver similar in a house not much bigger with FOUR siblings...and I thought I had it tough! Sometimes I write in this blog like it's all me, but it's far from it. Lisa had taken every step right beside me the whole way,taking this incredible journey of lifestyle change that we are on.Though they'll never see this, thank you mom and dad for making me who I am today, and thank you Lisa for your love and encouragement. You are my guiding light down this path to self sufficiency.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Today the forecast calls for sunny and warm, a nice break from the wet and cloudy weather we've had off and on the the last week. I plan to spend most of the day outside, catching up a bit and generally cleaning up. I need to finish tilling the new herb bed, mow, weed the garden a bit, do some laundry, clean the chickenhouse,and just pick up things kinda laying around. I'm horrible for leaving garden tools out! lol Not a really busy day, and nothing really labor intensive, just a lot of little things that need done.
Yesterday we decided to take a day away from the house and go out shopping a bit. One of Lisa's co-workers told her about a store in a mall an hour away that had some bellydance skirts, so she wanted to just go look. For those that don't read Lisa's blog, she has been taking lessons once a week and working with a dvd every night. She's always loved to watch bellydancing, and finally decided to try it. The lessons are only $10 a week, so it's not really much of anything off the budget. She's feeling better, her knees aren't aching as much as they used to, and she is losing weight. She's happy about all of it, plus loving to learn something that has always intrigued her. I'm very proud of her.
Anywhoo.......we drove to this mall yesterday and found two stores that had some outfits. (did I mention that I *HATE* shopping malls?? I'd rather take a beating than go to a mall lol) We walked the whole place, and only one store caught my interest. It was just a t-shirt store, and I do love concert/band shirts. I looked around, saw a few I liked, but decided I didn't really need a $20 t-shirt right now. I decided that instead, I would look for a new hunting vest since squirrel season is right around the corner, and my old one finally fell apart. Dicks Sports carries huntin' stuff right? Well...at this particular one, their hunting clothes section consisted of camo raingear and a couple hats. There was also a chinamart attached to the mall, so I tried there as well. That was actually a joke. I have more in the basement than their entire outdoor section had. I suppose I shouldn't have expected to find much being in the Cleveland area, but I was still disappointed and kinda ticked off. We left the mall and headed for home.
Lisa decided she didn't want to go home yet since we haven't been out much since the layoff. We stopped on the way to this really big health/natural market that my sister worked at for years. That place was PACKED! We had no intenetions on buying anything, we just wanted to look at produce prices and at some of the more natural cleaners and such. Ummm...."organic" tomatos, 2 for $1??? I don't think so. "free range organic" ground beef for $8 a pound? You gotta be kidding me! All natural/eco friendly dish liquid for $7 a bottle????? Not a chance in .... There are some great products there, but the prices are just insane. But.....that doesn't stop the customers. I saw baskets and carts full of produce and other groceries, all smiling at the checkout line like they themselves are saving the planet from doom and destruction. I just had to laugh a bit, knowing that most of the same people have manicured lawns and flowerbeds that could easily grow the same produce for a fraction of the cost. I just can't imagine spending $100 a week on groceries there, it just boggles my mind. I guess that right now it's just the "trendy" thing to do. Lisa picked out a box of cereal to try, we got drinks, and the latest copy of Mother Earth News (our subscription ran out),and got the hell outta dodge.
Foolishly, I ran across the street and tried yet another Dicks and Chinamart, and both of course didn't have any vests. Dicks of course, had racks and racks of camo clothes for the upcoming deer season. Leafy camo, 3-D camo, scentblocker camo, fall camo, green camo....a sea of neverending camo. Not a one thing out for the average joe small game hunter at all.UGH!! I again got disgruntled and left. I finally decided to go past the house to a Gander Mountain store, surely THEY would have a vest. Well....they did. I wanted a plain old Carrhart hunting vest. No frills, no fancy camo, just a canvas vest with pockets and a game pouch. Of course, there weren't any. I did get one that was similar with some hunter orange on it, figuring I wouldn't find any others unless we headed further south or went to a store I knew of an hour and a half away. This one will do just fine. I got my vest, Lisa found 2 pair of jeans (buy1 get 2nd at 1/2 price) since she needed new ones, (down 2 sizes! Great job hun!) and we finally headed for home.
I wanted the vest because I plan on doing more small game hunting this year. I miss hunting as much as I used to,and I want something else to suppliment the freezer. I have no problem at all filling it with squirrel and rabbit, and *possibly* the occasional pheasant. I grew up on all of these as regular meals, so there is no reason not to now. I need to call my uncle and see if I can sight in my 22 rifle at his place, and go get a box of 20ga shells since somehow I don't have anything but 12's laying around. I WON'T use a 12ga for squirrel, thats just insane. That's like using a 30.06 to keep chipmunks out of the garden, lol. I remember the days back at the gunshop when guys would come in for shells to go Squirrel hunting...Winchester 3"XX copper plated 4 shot!! Their excuse was "them tall tree's". Funny, I didn't know Ohio had any 100 foot tall sicimore trees, hahaha. I can't imagine what was left of those squirrels after being blasted with those, wow. I never used anything beyond 20ga 6 shot for ANYTHING. Guess it takes all kinds....Hey! Maybe those guys were after that squirrel on the top of my page! hahahahahahahaha
At the request of someone who commented on my last entry,later tonight I'm going to work on a post of recipes. Not food recipes, but some for homemade cleaners. We haven't bought any cleaners or laundry detergent for quite some time, and all have worked well except for the latest one. It was for dishwashing liquid, and we're just not happy with it at all. We'll look for another recipe, but in the meantime, I'll post the ones we do use on a regular basis.
Yesterday we decided to take a day away from the house and go out shopping a bit. One of Lisa's co-workers told her about a store in a mall an hour away that had some bellydance skirts, so she wanted to just go look. For those that don't read Lisa's blog, she has been taking lessons once a week and working with a dvd every night. She's always loved to watch bellydancing, and finally decided to try it. The lessons are only $10 a week, so it's not really much of anything off the budget. She's feeling better, her knees aren't aching as much as they used to, and she is losing weight. She's happy about all of it, plus loving to learn something that has always intrigued her. I'm very proud of her.
Anywhoo.......we drove to this mall yesterday and found two stores that had some outfits. (did I mention that I *HATE* shopping malls?? I'd rather take a beating than go to a mall lol) We walked the whole place, and only one store caught my interest. It was just a t-shirt store, and I do love concert/band shirts. I looked around, saw a few I liked, but decided I didn't really need a $20 t-shirt right now. I decided that instead, I would look for a new hunting vest since squirrel season is right around the corner, and my old one finally fell apart. Dicks Sports carries huntin' stuff right? Well...at this particular one, their hunting clothes section consisted of camo raingear and a couple hats. There was also a chinamart attached to the mall, so I tried there as well. That was actually a joke. I have more in the basement than their entire outdoor section had. I suppose I shouldn't have expected to find much being in the Cleveland area, but I was still disappointed and kinda ticked off. We left the mall and headed for home.
Lisa decided she didn't want to go home yet since we haven't been out much since the layoff. We stopped on the way to this really big health/natural market that my sister worked at for years. That place was PACKED! We had no intenetions on buying anything, we just wanted to look at produce prices and at some of the more natural cleaners and such. Ummm...."organic" tomatos, 2 for $1??? I don't think so. "free range organic" ground beef for $8 a pound? You gotta be kidding me! All natural/eco friendly dish liquid for $7 a bottle????? Not a chance in .... There are some great products there, but the prices are just insane. But.....that doesn't stop the customers. I saw baskets and carts full of produce and other groceries, all smiling at the checkout line like they themselves are saving the planet from doom and destruction. I just had to laugh a bit, knowing that most of the same people have manicured lawns and flowerbeds that could easily grow the same produce for a fraction of the cost. I just can't imagine spending $100 a week on groceries there, it just boggles my mind. I guess that right now it's just the "trendy" thing to do. Lisa picked out a box of cereal to try, we got drinks, and the latest copy of Mother Earth News (our subscription ran out),and got the hell outta dodge.
Foolishly, I ran across the street and tried yet another Dicks and Chinamart, and both of course didn't have any vests. Dicks of course, had racks and racks of camo clothes for the upcoming deer season. Leafy camo, 3-D camo, scentblocker camo, fall camo, green camo....a sea of neverending camo. Not a one thing out for the average joe small game hunter at all.UGH!! I again got disgruntled and left. I finally decided to go past the house to a Gander Mountain store, surely THEY would have a vest. Well....they did. I wanted a plain old Carrhart hunting vest. No frills, no fancy camo, just a canvas vest with pockets and a game pouch. Of course, there weren't any. I did get one that was similar with some hunter orange on it, figuring I wouldn't find any others unless we headed further south or went to a store I knew of an hour and a half away. This one will do just fine. I got my vest, Lisa found 2 pair of jeans (buy1 get 2nd at 1/2 price) since she needed new ones, (down 2 sizes! Great job hun!) and we finally headed for home.
I wanted the vest because I plan on doing more small game hunting this year. I miss hunting as much as I used to,and I want something else to suppliment the freezer. I have no problem at all filling it with squirrel and rabbit, and *possibly* the occasional pheasant. I grew up on all of these as regular meals, so there is no reason not to now. I need to call my uncle and see if I can sight in my 22 rifle at his place, and go get a box of 20ga shells since somehow I don't have anything but 12's laying around. I WON'T use a 12ga for squirrel, thats just insane. That's like using a 30.06 to keep chipmunks out of the garden, lol. I remember the days back at the gunshop when guys would come in for shells to go Squirrel hunting...Winchester 3"XX copper plated 4 shot!! Their excuse was "them tall tree's". Funny, I didn't know Ohio had any 100 foot tall sicimore trees, hahaha. I can't imagine what was left of those squirrels after being blasted with those, wow. I never used anything beyond 20ga 6 shot for ANYTHING. Guess it takes all kinds....Hey! Maybe those guys were after that squirrel on the top of my page! hahahahahahahaha
At the request of someone who commented on my last entry,later tonight I'm going to work on a post of recipes. Not food recipes, but some for homemade cleaners. We haven't bought any cleaners or laundry detergent for quite some time, and all have worked well except for the latest one. It was for dishwashing liquid, and we're just not happy with it at all. We'll look for another recipe, but in the meantime, I'll post the ones we do use on a regular basis.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Well there hasn't been much of anything blog-worthy going on the past few days. At first, it was just too hot and humid to do much outside, and now it's rained and stormed off and on for the last two. A storm rolled through last night late, and actually woke me up, which was really odd, NOTHING wakes me up, lol. No matter though, the garden can use the rain after 2 weeks of heat and dry.
On Monday, I filed for my last 2 weeks of unemployment benefits. Of course, they won't let you file for an extension the same day, so I had to do that on Tuesday. After all the forms were finished, and I clicked that "process claim" button, I got the typical "please allow 2-4 weeks for processing". I go about my day and figure I won't hear anything anytime soon. Low and behold, I get up Wednsday morning and see an e-mail from the state telling me I have a message on my inbox at the ODJFS website. Yep....approved in a day for another 20 weeks of benefits.
I'm honestly not sure how to take that. Of course, I'm happy that I have this to fall back on since there is no sign of work picking up anytime soon. But, does that show the speed, accuracy, and "gettin right on it" attitude of the unemployment office? Or does that just show that "yep, another pipefitter-might as well just give him what he needs"? I'm still shocked that it went through that fast. I'm thinkin' it just shows that they know the economy sucks, and that anyone in the construction trades are pretty much screwed right now. Ah well, now I have 'till the end of January, though that much time off is going to drive me even more insane than I am now after 6 months. I sure hope things change soon. Juggling bills is getting harder and harder.
On a lighter note, I have a dinner date tonight at 6:00 that I'm pretty excited about. As some might know, I was married before Lisa. That marraige was a big mistake, and ended rather ugly. When we had met, she had a 11 month old little girl. In the 6 years we were together, that little girl knew me as daddy. Her real father was barely in the picture, just usually on holidays so she wouldn't be with me. (he and I always hated each other) After the divorce, and after Lisa and I got together, some real SHTF with my ex, and I haven't seen her daughter in nearly 10 years.
Last Friday was her birthday, her 18th to be exact. I found her on Facebook and sent her a happy birthday message, not sure if I would get anything back. Well...I did. We exchanged a few messages, and then text messages last night on my cell phone. We're meeting for dinner tonight.
I'm very excited about seeing her, but I'm really nervous too. I don't quite know what to say yet. I don't know how to answer any questions she may have. I'm just going to have to play this one by ear, and take it as it comes. I told her last night in a text message that I was nervous aboout this, and she said she felt the same way. Maybe this is why I slept so light last night. I don't know what is going to happen, and I don't know what this dinner will lead to. I do want her back in my life, and hopefully now that she is 18, I can do so without involving her mother. We'll just have to see where this leads. Wish me luck folks, I'm gonna need it! LOL
On Monday, I filed for my last 2 weeks of unemployment benefits. Of course, they won't let you file for an extension the same day, so I had to do that on Tuesday. After all the forms were finished, and I clicked that "process claim" button, I got the typical "please allow 2-4 weeks for processing". I go about my day and figure I won't hear anything anytime soon. Low and behold, I get up Wednsday morning and see an e-mail from the state telling me I have a message on my inbox at the ODJFS website. Yep....approved in a day for another 20 weeks of benefits.
I'm honestly not sure how to take that. Of course, I'm happy that I have this to fall back on since there is no sign of work picking up anytime soon. But, does that show the speed, accuracy, and "gettin right on it" attitude of the unemployment office? Or does that just show that "yep, another pipefitter-might as well just give him what he needs"? I'm still shocked that it went through that fast. I'm thinkin' it just shows that they know the economy sucks, and that anyone in the construction trades are pretty much screwed right now. Ah well, now I have 'till the end of January, though that much time off is going to drive me even more insane than I am now after 6 months. I sure hope things change soon. Juggling bills is getting harder and harder.
On a lighter note, I have a dinner date tonight at 6:00 that I'm pretty excited about. As some might know, I was married before Lisa. That marraige was a big mistake, and ended rather ugly. When we had met, she had a 11 month old little girl. In the 6 years we were together, that little girl knew me as daddy. Her real father was barely in the picture, just usually on holidays so she wouldn't be with me. (he and I always hated each other) After the divorce, and after Lisa and I got together, some real SHTF with my ex, and I haven't seen her daughter in nearly 10 years.
Last Friday was her birthday, her 18th to be exact. I found her on Facebook and sent her a happy birthday message, not sure if I would get anything back. Well...I did. We exchanged a few messages, and then text messages last night on my cell phone. We're meeting for dinner tonight.
I'm very excited about seeing her, but I'm really nervous too. I don't quite know what to say yet. I don't know how to answer any questions she may have. I'm just going to have to play this one by ear, and take it as it comes. I told her last night in a text message that I was nervous aboout this, and she said she felt the same way. Maybe this is why I slept so light last night. I don't know what is going to happen, and I don't know what this dinner will lead to. I do want her back in my life, and hopefully now that she is 18, I can do so without involving her mother. We'll just have to see where this leads. Wish me luck folks, I'm gonna need it! LOL
Monday, August 17, 2009
hot hot hot
Yesterday and today were incredibly hot and humid, so we decided to spend the time inside with a canner, boiling water, and dehydrator all running at the same time...makes sense eh? hahaha
We had more greens beans out back and figured we would try some pickled since we've always heard about them but never tried any. Our cucumbers aren't doing so well, but a visit to a friends got me a surprise bag full to make more pickles too. I also had a good sized basket of peppers, so those needed done too. We even got the first good picking of sweet corn. The ears are small, but still delicious. The 29 1/2 pounds of onions were dry, so Lisa braided them together, and the rest went into the dehydrator. Soooo...........we had a lot to do.
The total from yesterday and today is:
6 qt freezer bags green pepper slices
9 pts dill pickles
3pts pickled beans
1pt pickled jalepenos (i wanted to try something different)
3 pts hot wax pepper slices
8pts jalepeno slices
28 ears sweet corn into freezer
2 quart sized bags dehydrated onions
Tonight I'll be doing beets and turnips, plus there is another dehydrator full of onions to bag when they're done.
Since we planted so many potatos this year, I've been trying to think of something for storage and came up with a simple bin with mesh sides for air circulation. All made from scrap wood in the garage, a handle I had, and mesh for outdoor scucco I scavenged from a jobsite dumpster. All I had to buy was a set of hinges. It's not pretty by any means, but hey, its going to be in the basement so who cares.
Tomorrow I'm taking a day away from the garden stuff and working on other projects. I need to work on the walk-in closet I built in the prep room, and turn it into a sort-of root cellar. I need to do a bit of caulking, cover the heat vent with sheet metal, make some sort of ventalation fan, and figure a way to vent it to the outside with pvc pipe. I'll be putting hooks in the ceiling for hanging the onions, building some sort of base to put full buckets on to avoid moisture, and move the camping gear back out into the main room. We're running out of room for food storage so fast, and this is the last place we have other than converting a closet in the spare bedroom. It'll be cooler than upstairs by far, and though it won't be as convienent, it will just be for bulk and root crop storage. I'm hoping that a little of this side-job money can go to more bulk food like sugar, oats,rice, and flour. We use a lot, it less expensive in bulk, and we do tend to prep quite a bit anyway. Besides, we still havent used all of those food grade buckets we ordered a few months ago...no sense in letting 'em sit around empty.
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