Why am I doing Frugal Fridays on Monday? Because my husband was out of town for 3 weeks, and life got a little crazy. And the baby decided he didn’t want to sleep. At all. It’s all good, though. Hubby is home and baby has decided to resume a good sleeping pattern. Therefore: Frugal Fridays. On Monday. Successes/Blessings: I canned 4 more pints of Cinnamon Rhubarb Jam (this is seriously the tastiest jam I’ve EVER made). I dehydrated 10 bananas for our food storage. I made yogurt and granola. I added walnuts and coconut to our granola this time because I had remnant bags of them floating around the pantry. I also used honey from my uncle’s beehive (he gave me a frame to extract a few weeks ago. YUM-O). A neighbor informed me of a sale going on at the used book store. When I showed up, they women there guessed that we were a homeschooling family, and told us to take as much as we wanted and that they weren’t going to charge us! How sweet!! We got a big reusable shopping bag full of books. I havested 4 quarts of black raspberries and a handful of sugar snap peas. I haven’t gotten many peas as I’d hoped for…mostly because the weeds have taken over that part of the garden. My fault. My son found out the hard way (by falling into them) that we have stinging nettles behind our garage. These have never grown here before, but I’m very excited! (Although I felt terrible that the little guy got a rash). I made a poultice out of some plantain leaves from […]
Frugal Fridays #32
Successes/Blessings: I havested lavender and sage from my garden to dry. I also was given the opportunity to harvest mint, lemon sage, and oregano at my uncle’s house! I harvested a good amount of black raspberries from my own yard, and then some from the same uncle’s house. I’ll make jam in the next few days. I harvested garlic scapes and sugar snap peas from my garden to make stir fry. So far this is my favorite way of using the garlic scapes. Sooo yummy! I only had enough for 2 meals…note to self: plant more garlic this Fall for next year! I harvested 15 kale leaves, dehydrated them, and then ground them in the blender to make a powder. 15 leaves dehydrated down to fit into an 8 oz jar. I’ll use this in soups, smoothies, quiche etc. By the way, I’m really loving how easy dehydrating is, and how LITTLE space it takes up to store dehydrated foods. I was given some items from my aunt that were leftover from a garage sale including: place mats, Food & Wine magazine’s cookbooks, some holiday decorations, an espresso machine, and a number of other items. Our neighbor graciously offered to mow our lawn while my husband was out of town for work. I was given some zucchini and cucumber plants by a friend who didn’t have anymore space in her garden. I transplanted carrots into the garden. I know carrots are typical directly seeded into the ground, but I decided to try starting them out in peat pods since my first couple of plantings never germinated. I then carefully separated the sprouts and planted […]
A July Day Book
Outside my window… It’s evening now, so it’s cool and I can hear the crickets chirping. It’s actually too chilly to even have the windows open. I looked at the last day book I did in April. Almost exactly 2 months ago, and it was snowing on that day. It’s not quite that cold now, but we have had lots of rainy days in the 50’s. I’m thinking… About curriculum and lesson plans for next year. Do you ever do that? Just barely wrap up on year and already you’re ready for fresh curriculum? We’ll probably do some light math and daily reading this summer, but I don’t intend to do anything else really. I loved this post by Sara Mackenzie about Summer being time gained…not lost. Time to relish in your children, read, rest, and just be. I am thankful… For a husband willing to volunteer to take a 3 week work trip away from home so that we can have the extra $ for some projects around the house. These particular projects are things we need to do to get the house ready to sell. Our goal is to move to the country in 2 years…and that’s really not a whole lot of time to get several big projects done! In the school room… We’re just finishing up. Maybe a week or so left. We’d be done by now, but we got a bit behind when we had a month of the stomach flu in our house, and then a baby being born via unexpected c-section, and then another round of the stomach bug. From the kitchen… My grandpa made me a bread […]
Drying Rack review and Discount Code
Any mama, and especially mamas of many, knows that laundry is a big deal. It’s never done, and it can pile up on you … fast! There’s an added complication when you desire to hang dry all or most of your laundry. And there are many reasons why someone would want to line dry laundry. Self-sufficiency, utility bill savings, gentler on fabrics etc. It’s no biggie when the sun is shining and you can use an outdoor clothesline, but for the months of rain and snow, what’s a mama to do? I’ve tried these and this and one of these thingamabobs They’ve all worked…for a time. And then they sagged or fell apart. The fact of the matter is, it’s hard to find well made drying racks these days. It’s even harder to find LARGE drying racks….something large enough for a family of 7, and sturdy enough to handle daily use. And then, I discovered the Homestead Drying Rack company. I read a few reviews from other bloggers…and I trusted them because I’d read their blogs for a good long while. At the time, Erin and her husband from Keeper of the Homestead owned the business and her husband built the drying racks. These days, Kristy and her husband own the Homestead Store and Kristy’s hubby builds them. I was totally flabbergasted when Kristy contacted me and asked if I’d like to try out a drying rack of my choosing for review. I’d wanted one of these racks for such a long time, and God answered my prayers!! He is so good. I tried the Homesteader Rack. I usually run 2-3 loads of laundry a day, […]
Frugal Fridays #31
Successes/Blessings: I harvested beets. This is the last of my Spring harvest of beets. I’ll replant for a Fall harvest. I made balsamic glazed roasted beets, and I haven’t decided what I want to do with the greens yet. I’ll be bringing some of them to my husband’s uncle who has been teaching me beekeeping. He mentioned last week that he loves the greens as much as the root. It’s the least I can do to thank him for his time and wisdom! The kids picked some strawberries out of our small strawberry box. They nibbled them while they played outside and we also had some with lunch a couple of days. I got a great deal on some disposable diapers at CVS. They’re in cloth most of the time, but we use sposies at night and if we’re going out. I hung almost all of the laundry on my homesteader drying rack (watch in the next few days for further information and a coupon code!). I made 7 pints of mulberry jam with mulberries gleaned from my husband’s uncle. I got several quarts of fresh strawberries from my sister (a friend gave them to her, and she couldn’t use them all before they went bad). I’ll make jam and freeze some. We haven’t had a need to turn on the air conditioning yet this year. I’m loving the low utility bills! I sold 7 home school books on the Used Curriculum Blog Hop. The money from these sales will go toward purchasing curriculum for next year. I used a coupon code to save $20 on the purchase of beehives (!!!). You read that […]
Frugal Fridays #30
Successes and Blessings: I came in at around $60 under my monthly grocery budget of $400 (per month) for our family of 7. I made 2 loaves of bread. We harvested beets and garlic scapes from the garden to eat this week. I made pesto with the scapes, and roasted the beets in foil packs on the grill. I picked up some produce from the veggie stand near our church for some great prices. I picked up another 40lbs of soft white wheat from the farm feed store. I got a great price on dog food there, too. I started more kale, cow peas, mesclun and beets for the garden. My husband has had the opportunity to take a good deal of overtime at work over the next 3 weeks. We’re hoping to be able to do a mini-remodel on the kitchen with the added income. This is one of the things we’re doing to prepare our house to sell in 2 years (God willing) so that we can move somewhere with more land. I picked up the rest of our pig order, which included the lard and smoked meats (ham, bacon, hocks). I dehydrated about 10 lbs of onions in my dehydrator (this dehydrator is very similar to the one I have ). Goals: Transplant starts. Find a U-Pick strawberry place and make jam. My husband’s uncle let me pick mulberries from his tree when I went for my beekeeping lesson today. So I’ll be making mulberry jam instead! Render lard. Pick up some craft mesh to make screens for dehydrating diced/chopped foods. Pick up bread from the outlet. I’ll be busy […]
Curriculum Sale Blog Hop
One of my favorite homeschool bloggers, Jessica, at Shower of Roses hosts a curriculum sale blog hop. This year I’m somewhat organized enough to participate. Who’da thunk. 😉 Leave a comment if you are interested in purchasing any of the items listed. I will send you a private e-mail with your total, including shipping, along with my Paypal address. To keep it all very simple, a flat shipping rate will be applied to cover the cost of packaging, postage etc. For 1-3 items, shipping will be $5. For 4+ items, shipping will be $7. I will update the post as quickly as possible to show pending sales and sold items. Thank you! 1. A Year with God, Volume 1. Catholic Heritage Curricula. $3 Sold 2. The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book. $6 Sold 3. Story of the Wold, Volume 1. Activity Book. $10 Sold 5. Story of the World, Volume 1. Tests and Answer Key. $5 Sold 1. Homeschooling the Challenging Child by Christine M. Field- Good condition. $5 Sold 2. Leading the Little Ones to Mary by Sister Mary Lelia- Good Condition. $2 Sold 1. Christian Heritage Art Program, Level 1 and Teacher’s Guide for Levels 1-8. Great condition, only used twice. $9 Sold 1. Tin Cups and Tinder. Good Condition. Small juice stain on last few pages. $7 2. World Literature, Seton. Fair condition. $2 Sold 1. Old Mother West Wind by Thornton W. Burgess. Good Condition. $5 2. Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales. Good Condition. $5 Sold 1. Sex and the Sanctity of Human Life. $2 2. Raising Good Kids by Dr. Ray Guarendi. $3 Sold 3. Teaching your Children Values by Linda and Richard Eyre. $4 […]
Frugal Fridays #29
Successes/Blessings I had my first beekeeping lesson from my husband’s uncle! So very exciting. And I’m so thankful to have his wisdom and willingness to teach me. I’m 100% hooked! This venture will probably push back the meat rabbit thing because I can really only handle getting used to 1 venture at a time. For the time being, I’ll probably keep a hive or 2 on his land since we don’t really have a good spot on our 1/2 acre to keep them. Do you have experience keeping bees on a smaller lot? I’d love to hear about your experience! I hung most of our laundry outside except when it was raining. I have a new development in the hanging laundry department-very exciting! Watch for future posts. I made 4 loaves of bread. I used my homemade soap for household cleaning. I have been conserving water in a few different ways, specifically in the kitchen. Our water prices are extremely low since we live 5 minutes away from Lake Ontario, but I want to get in the practice of being more prudent in our water usage. I will harvest garlic scapes today and make pesto. I planted more mesclun, beets, and kale. I’ll plant more carrots today or tomorrow as well. The beets that are currently in the garden are ready to be harvested, which will happen in the next few days. I’ll probably boil the beet root and saute the greens or use them in a salad. I love that all parts of beets are edible! I purchased some Egyptian Walking onions that I will plant today or tomorrow. If all goes well, I’ll […]
Homesteading Thoughts: Meat Rabbits?
Living in the suburbs has its benefits. We can ride our bikes or walk to the library and the cute little coffee shop across the street. My husband, who is a volunteer firefighter, can get to the fire hall within seconds of a call coming through on his pager (having been on the needing end of one of those calls recently makes me appreciate a quick response time during those scary moments when minutes and seconds make all the difference). I don’t completely hate the ‘burbs, and I imagine I’ll miss those advantages when we move out to the country (2 years from this month!). There are some drawbacks, though. The lack of privacy being one. How I pine for privacy. Freedom, also. Here in New York, we pay astronomical property taxes for our half acre. Yet, we have very little freedom to do what I like on the property that *WE* pay for, that *WE* pay taxes on. I know I’m likely preaching to the choir. One of our goals as a family to become as self-sufficient as possible. And with 7 mouths to feed, a huge part of self-sufficiency is putting food in those bellies. Unfortunately here, we have to have 3 acres in order to have anything “other than traditional household pets” as per the town ordinances. ::sigh:: No chickens. No goats (even though some of them would be smaller than my 95 lbs lab). And then the light-bulb moment. Rabbits. Rabbits are household pets (for some people). But….I’ve never tasted rabbit. And….I’ve never butchered an animal. And….truth be told, as much as I love this idea of self-sufficiency, I’m feeling […]
Frugal Fridays #28
Successes/Blessings: I made hot process soap (oh yes I did!! Pictured above) for the first time. I made it using the lard from the 1/2 pig we ordered this Spring. All laundry was hung outside to dry this week. We had leftovers 2 times. We had a chilly day this past week (low 50’s), so I cooked up one of the hams that I bought around Easter time on sale. We had 3 dinners and 1 lunch from that one ham. I put the bone in the freezer to make stock with. I ground flour in my grain mill (I have this hand mill and this electric mill) to make bread. I purchased 40lbs of soft white wheat from a local farm/feed store for $8.25. (Note: Before you buy grains from a feed store to eat, double check with the farmer that the grain is suitable for human consumption. This is important as some animal feed grains are either sprayed heavily with chemicals and/or are not cleaned properly). My mom brought lunch over one day when she came to visit and help me in the garden. Cloth diapers. Huge savings. Our utility bill has gone way down the last 2 months because the weather has been so mild. ` We used our family membership to go to our favorite 19th Century living museum (since we had the membership, it cost us nothing). Our family is large enough that we easily pay for our membership within 2 visits, and we go much more than that! It’s educational, fun, inexpensive, and seeing how things were done back then totally makes us pine for a country homesteading life even […]
