Successes/Blessings:
- My mom brought over some mint, pineapple mint, and columbine flowers from her garden to transplant into mine.
- I rendered five quarts of lard from last Spring’s pig. It’s been in my freezer this whole time, but since our next meat order is being delivered soon, it was time to render it. I plan to use it for cooking, baking, and soap making.
- We picked up some scrap lumber from my grandfather’s house. He didn’t have a use for it. We’ll use it to build potato boxes.
- My grandfather also gave me the pair of clippers that were my mom’s right after she finished cosmetology school. He doesn’t need them anymore since he goes to a barber now. They’re still in great shape and much better quality than the clippers I’ve purchased. I gave the 2 older boys a haircut.
- I baked our bread.
- We went to the public market for our produce.
- Our meat order came in!
- I hung all of our laundry outside to dry. I do 2-3 loads a day typically.
- I made my previous sourdough starter with fresh ground flour using hard white wheat. I wasn’t happy with how it turned out, so I tossed it and decided to start over. After some research, I learned from the family at The American Homestead that rye flour is best for sourdough. I’ve tried to make sourdough starters in the past and I’ve used a variety of flours- all purpose (bleached and unbleached), whole wheat from the store, whole wheat ground at home. I was about to give up, honestly. None of them had a very pleasant sour smell. More like a funky smell that left me shrugging my shoulders. This starter is on day 5 or 6 and is doing what the pictures and instructions say it should be doing (bubbling and smelling pleasantly sour). So I think rye flour and distilled water was a good suggestion. I purchased some rye berries so that I can grind my own going forward.
Goals:
- This week will be garden week. We had a frost advisory this weekend, but hopefully that’s the last of it. I checked the forecast and it looks like it should be safe to get our tomatoes, peppers, and other non-cool weather crops in.
How did you save money this week?
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We had a freeze warning here last night (technically, this morning), but our forecast looks good, moving forward. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I planted 4 grape tomato plants I grew from seed in containers today. Cross your fingers that they survive, please!!
Definitely praying that your garden doesn’t get hit again! We’ll be planting tomorrow and Tuesday….hopefully all goes well and the weather cooperates.