Happy Halloween

I have to share something that happened tonight…. It is so funny!

Grim and I are passing out candy…. I am sitting near the lit pumpkins, wearing my wool trench coat. All of a sudden I smell toast and comment to it and then ask Grim am I on fire?

To which he replies….

No honey we aren’t burning witches tonight….

LOL!

I laughed about that for awhile. Mainly, because I thought I would smell like toast if I was on fire… Who knew!

Yart

Welcome to my Witches Tea Party (pic heavy)

Poison Toadstools

Thank you for attending my Tea Party!

I hope you enjoyed yourself!

Yart

300 in 3

I have a confession to make…. I signed up for a challenge at the beginning of the month. It is to do 300 miles in 3 months. I have failed miserably. I have done 19.48 miles for the month of October. The only excuse I have is that life has gotten once again in the way of me exercising. I’m not going to beat myself up. The 20 pounds I lost at the beginning of the year is still gone. I really did hope to lose another 20 before the end of the year.

There is still hope that I can pull this together. Only 280.52 miles to get done in just over 2 months. I guess I better get on that exercise bike. LOL!

Yart

Falling asleep on my feet

I wrote this last night!

I need to get this typed up while I am waiting for Band monster to get done with practice. I am so afraid that I am going to fall asleep since this is the first time all day I have sat down.

After I dropped the monsters off at school I came home and emptied and washed the last 30 jars. Then I got started on cutting up the onions to dehydrate. I think that it was about 5 pounds. Altogether I got 7 trays of diced onions. I would have done more but I could no longer breathe or see… LOL!

Then I got started on cutting the cabbage for kraut. Grim was a huge help with this as we did 3 heads that weighed in at 21 pounds. So this took all his strength to muddle the cabbage. Man what a job. But it is done and awaiting its final home in the basement.

I got 2 loaves of French bread made. I also made for the first time Sourdough Dinner Rolls the recipe can be found here…. They came out great. Will be using my starter for this on a regular basis from now on. Since I had so much starter to use up I also made 3 batches of Sourdough buckwheat pancakes…. Minus the buckwheat… the recipe can be found here. I made so many because I am trying to get the monsters off of cereal in the mornings. It isn’t healthy and its expensive.

For dinner I made 2 pounds of pasta, 2 pounds of hamburger and beef gravy…. mixed it altogether baked for 1/2 an hour. Everyone really liked it. I liked it cause it was quick and easy.

And the dishes I have done all day… They just kept multiplying. I hate when they do that…. My shirt has dish pan hands, from where I lean against the sink…. LOL!

Yart

Sweet Paul

I want to send a big shout out to Liesl & Miles over at the Nest for posting about this wonderful site!

They shared a new to me site…. Sweet Paul Magazine…. It is to die for!

They have the greatest ideas and the recipes are fab!

The Galette, Pretzels and a ton of other great recipes and design ideas!

Yart

I did a very bad thing

I spent our whole pay check… The bills are paid and there is money set aside for expenses till the next pay. But I spent everything else.

I bought:

Farmers Market 50lbs potatoes 25lbs peanuts 25lbs turnips 1 bushel of apples 6 pumpkins assorted squash lettuce parsnips tomatoes celery peppers 5 cabbage green onions cranberries pomegranates bananas radishes dried figs	Grocery Store toilet paper dish soap shampoo conditioner razors dental floss sandwich bags laundry soap blueing agent vitamins thermos
Specialty Stores cereal safflower oil pizza crust mix halloween candy milk eggs sharp cheddar cheese cottage cheese salami tortilla tortilla chips parmesan cheese	Extra Shops Bag sale at church $2 ~ twin flannel sheet set, 6 paper backs, glass globe, knitting needles, mitten pattern book Micheals 4lbs glycerin, 3pk color, 1 scent, 2 skeins of yarn, 1 bag of melts Ukazoo Book Store Idiots guide to knitting and crochet, interview with a vampire, pride and prejudice and zombies, and sense and sensibility and sea monsters

Now wasn’t that fun…. LOL! Sometimes you just need to see it in writing before it sinks in that you bought a ton of stuff. But this will last at least 2 weeks. Some things will last well into the winter. Next pay I should only need food and baking supplies (butter, baking soda… I guess I should start a list now… LOL!)

And of course I will be heading back to Ukazoo. I told Grim about it and he is looking forward to checking it out. Gotta Love new stores! I will try and get some pic the next time I’m there.

This ended up being much longer then I originally intended.

Yart

Punkin Chunkin Time

Here are a few recipes that I stumbled across that I thought you might be interested in.

Pumpkin Bacon Pasta

Pumpkin and Pancetta Pasta

Pumpkin Pierogies with Pecan Sage Cream Sauce

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with Sea Salt

Apple Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Chili

Yart

Fanciful Twist Halloween Party

 

Oh, Dear! Oh, My!

 

The rain has come….

 

The rain has stayed….

 

All the party goes will pass right by!

 

No tents of fun….

 

No treats of sweet….

 

The rain has soaked everyone’s feet!

 

The skulls look sad….

 

The pumpkins look on….

 

Maybe next year the party will go on!

 

Yart

Garbage Lids

Yep, that’s what we call it when we make homemade pizza. Generally, because I toss all kinds of stuff on… LOL!

The one on the right is just pepperoni and cheese. The one on the left has leftover hamburger, onions, tomatoes, butternut squash and cheese. We were out of pizza sauce so we used spaghetti sauce. It was a very nice stand in.

The one that isn’t pictured had pepperoni, onions, green peppers, sweet peppers, pepper seeds and cheese.

Yart

And a Few Nuts More

Grim took me out yesterday on the bike… We had a nice ride even though it was cold enough for me to have to put my face mask on. He’s a big guy so I didn’t need my chaps yet. Those will be coming out soon.

We stopped at one of our favorite spots. The hopes of finding black walnuts were quickly dashed. The only ones we saw were smushy. So off to find a potty. As I was walking out of the potty I happened to notice acorn tops. Then I notice acorns. Not very big ones but acorns none the less. Grim and I picked up as many as we could fit into our pockets. Then wouldn’t you know it, we found black walnuts but had no place to put them as we were pretty far away from the bike at that time. That’s ok, we ended up with 1lb 6oz of acorns.

Now here is what to do with them. You can grind them into flour! Click Here for all your acorn answers.

**Side note** I know why I was able to get so many acorns… The majority of them were bad. That’s why the squirrels left them. Now I know to get my butt out there earlier and try to get good ones.

Yart

Just a few Nuts

The table is 3x5 and as you can see it goes from one end to the other and almost to both sides. This is 25 pounds of Chestnuts that we went picking a couple of weeks ago.

The place that we went to had a buy back program. They would buy back any that you didn’t want for .50 cents a pound. We sold back 45 pounds. I would have picked until all of mine were free but the family grew tired and bored.

I already cooked up a pile of them… They are so good! I do still have a ton in the freezer to enjoy all winter long. You can go here to see how to roast them up.

Yart

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you want to participate head on over to SouleMama

Yart

Freeze Yer Buns Off

Yep it’s that time of year again!

So who is in this with me this year!

I am pledging 63/56. How low can you go?

Yart

Wordless Wednesday

All taken at the Living History Museum Garden.

Yart

The End

I really enjoyed the time I spent working my way through “Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs” by Wendy Brown.

We always assumed that we would move out to the country one day. Well, this book made it clear that we need to make sure that we still make today a safe place to live, even if we do move in the future. Simply because we may not get out fast enough.

The book showed me that I am on a good path, but there is still a lot I could do.

It also made me get off my a$$ and check a few things out. First I contacted the city. There is no ordinance against bees. But I was told that if some one complained then I would be made to get rid of them… So I am going to be getting bees in the spring… Yes! Then I contacted everyone and their brother to see about putting a wood burner in the living room. We can do it…. the but here is that it is going to cost a lot of money and I would loose more space in the living room then I am willing to give up. So right now we will not be getting a wood burner. Maybe down the road if we hit the lottery then I will look into one of the high efficient wood burners… lots more money but I can put it closer to the wall.

I also realize now that I need to make more connections outside of the house. I’m not sure yet how I am going to accomplish this, but the first step is getting to know my neighbors a little bit better. Since I don’t even live near the town center it is hard to make those types of connections. I am on the outside corner of my town and the outside corner of two other towns… both of their town centers are just as far away as my own. But I really don’t think I will have to worry about the stores as they will probably close up shop in the event something like this does happen. So my best bet is still the neighborhood.

My biggest concern still is food and water. So I have continued to can up the bounty. This week I will be pressure canning a few more quarts of water to add to the shelf… ( I started do this because the canner wasn’t full and I was afraid that some of the jars would jump around and break…. so I filled up jars of water and added them in. ) Sterile water…. gotta love it! Just for the cost of a quart jar and lid…. versus $4.50 for 24oz at Emergency Essentials.

We have also been trying to eliminate all waste. I have been cooking and coming up with recipes to use the leftovers in. There is very little that is making its way into the trash. I am in the process of making toilet paper and sanitary napkins. ( I will let you know how that goes... LOL! )

Oh, and one more thing…

The opinions expressed here are my own. I was not compensated in any way for doing this review. It was a book that I purchased and thought would be interesting to follow the 21 days.

Yart

Day 21

Transportation

First of all, I can still walk…. Thank the Gods for that! But if that didn’t suit my fancy I do have a nice bicycle with metal saddlebag baskets. I also have one of the monster pull along buggy things, for hauling. I am also lucky to have a big ole dog. So he could pull the wagon if needed.

All of the monsters and Grim have good bikes. So if we needed we all could still go somewhere.

Grim’s job is the only thing that we have been talking about. How will he get to work? I still see a few things still working even in the low energy future. Police, Fire, Medical and the Railroad. Grim falls into the railroad profession. Items still need to get across the country and there are only so many that can run those big things. Even in the worst of times in our past the trains ran. So there is no reason to think other wise. So how will he get to work? I guess they will have to pick him up at the tracks and take him to the station. From there he would get on his train and go to work. To get from our house to the tracks he could walk or he could ride his bicycle. It is only about a mile and a half.

Come to think of it he is going to need snowshoes to make that trek in the winter! Gotta love the North!!!

Things to Get or Do

1. Get snowshoes for each member of the family (been thinking about doing it for a couple of years)
2. Look into getting a pull harness for the beast
3. See if I can put chains on the wagon tires… LOL! Just kidding

Yart

Day 20

Security

Everyone has there own opinion on this matter. It ranges from no weapons to a shit load of weapons. I think I fall in the middle. I have a good hunting knife and a really good compound bow as well as two recurve bows. Grim hunts so you can gather what he might have. Even though that item is not a personal protection item it could be used as such. He also has a really good hunting knife.

We also have a pellet gun. If the time ever comes that we need to hunt in the neighborhood we have that and the bows. Squirrel and rabbit, its what’s for dinner! There are even deer but they are about 3 miles away. But getting to them and getting one home would be difficult as most people don’t have the ability to hunt so they would want the deer.

Wendy Brown says that most people would not end up in the horde of zombies. But I disagree! A few years ago a new cheap grocery store opened up in a nearby town. The lines were horrible. I was there with my youngest who was still on the bottle. While inside the store a fist fight broke out between two women over nothing. Then when we had a blackout people were being run over at the gas stations, fighting over the last bags of ice and tv dinner. I believe that when push comes to shove and it will. People will do what they feel they need to do to survive. Even if it means doing things they never imagined themselves doing.

Things to Get or Do

1. Practice
2. Practice
3. Practice

Yart

Day 19

Networking

This is an area that we would have problems with. We know quite a few of our neighbors, at least enough to know some names and to say hello when we see them. There are couple of stores that know us and three restaurants. That’s it. The people that Grim works with all live other places. Even the monsters go to a school that is in a different city then we live in. With me being a SAHM, I have devoted my life to my family ( not everyone’s gig, just mine ), so I have no real life friends ( I use to, until they moved on ). So for all my online friend if the grid goes down… make sure I have addresses so that we can still communicate! ( You know who you are… LOL! )

Wendy Brown talks about how some people never even have met the neighbors. I can relate! Most of my interactions are done online. Even with my extended family. They have moved several times and I no longer have addresses. We just talk on Facebook. I know sad. But that just seems to be the way of life any more.

I am an only child, my mom came here to marry my dad. All of her family is in Canada. All of my dad’s family went the way of the dodo when he died.

Ok, who has the pork chop bone to tie to my leg so the dogs will play with me… LOL!

This isn’t suppose to be sad. But I am being honest here. My network is very limited. So I guess I need to get off the computer and open the door and make some friends.

Things to Get or Do

1. Make some more connections
2. Make some friends
3. Talk to the neighbors more

Yart

Day 18

Schooling

I still have a few schooling needs for the monsters. But I have school books and paper and pencils. We even have a chalk board. I’m sure that if push came to shove and I had to teach the monsters I could do it. At least the basics. ( Which considering that the younger two are both special ed students they could benefit from the basics ) The oldest monster really could be done with school at this point. She is in 11th grade. She can read, ‘rite & do ‘rithmetic. She could even help me with the younger ones.

There aren’t many little ones in the neighborhood. But I’m sure that we could come up with some type of school environment. Or we just deal with our own monsters and go from there.

Things to Get or Do

1. Pick up a couple more English books
2. Pick up a couple more math books
3. Get more chalk
4. Get a good pencil sharpener

Yart

Day 17

Entertainment

I have talked in previous days that we have entertainment pretty well figured out. We have board games, cards & outside toys. There are crafts and new skills to learn. Not to mention that the great out of doors has seriously been neglected in this age of computers. The monsters can put on performances and play music on the instruments.

With having everyone at home we will have plenty of hands to pitch in to get all of the chores done in the morning. That will leave the rest of the day for school, play and skill building.

For me I can entertain myself with reading, knitting, sewing or writing. Grim, can entertain himself tinkering around.

Things to Get or Buy

1. More card games
2. More craft supplies
3. More yarn
4. More fabric

Yart

Day 16

Building a Library

This one I have so covered. I have old school books to the classics to romances. Plus all the self-sufficient books and hundreds of magazines. Not to mention all of the stuff that I have printed off line that I would finally have time to read and sort out.

We have quite a few kids books. Even though Mouthy is going to be 8 in a couple weeks, she still needs to have the cute stories! The other two are very much like me when it comes to reading.  They have a ton of books on all types of vampires and Japanese animation.

Need to Get or Do

1. Buy more books ( DUH )
2. Print off more material on line
3. Get Mouthy a few more age appropriate books

Yart

Day 15

Tools

There will be a need for tools that don’t require electricity. Luckily, Grim has us covered. We have an axe and wedge. We have hammers, saws, screwdrivers. I even have an antique hand drill. Plus, most of the men in the neighborhood have tools. So if we didn’t have something then I’m sure we would be able to borrow it.

In the kitchen I have been switching over to manual tools versus the electrical ones. I have a hand beater and of course my wisks. I have a toaster that I can use on the cooktop. I have several pieces of cast iron. Most of my cookware is glass. So that may not be a great idea for using on the wood burner… LOL! But I have been weeding out my endless supply of plastic containers. They have been replaced with canning jars.

Things to Do or Get

1. Dutch Oven cast iron
2. muffin tins cast iron
3. Look into a hand crank Mixer "Little Dutch Maid"

Yart

Day 14

Cleanliness

Since I have very few options available to me. I think that we will stick to washing up with the pitcher and bowl. Then doing the weekly bath. Now this is funny because this is where the saying don’t toss the baby out with the bath water comes from…. Dad, male children, Mom, female children and then the baby would be washed in the same bathwater as everyone else…. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Can you imagine only being able to bathe once a week or even less. Man the thought of that really does make my skin crawl. But in hard times things need to be done that you would never think of doing in the civilized world.

Hauling the water, heating it up, hauling the hot water to the bathing area. That is a ton of work.

In the summer I can see us setting up a solar shower in the yard. The water could be caught and reused ( I know gross )… or it could be used to water the garden. We could even get an old metal tub and light a fire under it to heat the water for outside bathing.

Then what about clothing. I know I cover some of this in the laundry section, day 9, but I watch Frontier House for the first time and something struck me odd. Women use to wear aprons everyday, a new one. The reason was to keep the clothes clean, so that they didn’t need to washed but once a week or less. But the aprons were washed everyday because they dried so much faster then the outer clothes would in the weather.

A point that Wendy Brown points out is without power or limited power, How are you going to keep your carpets clean? Yep, that’s right no vacuums. The only rooms I have carpet is the 3 bedrooms. The rest of the house has linoleum or hard wood with through rugs. The rugs can be taken out and beat with a broom to get the dirt out of them. The floors just swept and washed.

Things to Do or Get

1. Buy another wood handled natural broom
2. See if they still sell wisk brooms
3. Look into setting up an outside bathing arrangement
4. Make more aprons

Yart

Day 13

Health Care

This is an are that we could have a few issues with. Grim is a heart patient and has apnea. He is on several different medications and he has a CPAP machine ( need more electricity then I first thought ). I need to find herbals that would accommodate him as best as possible. Doctors will be far and few between and medicines will be in short supply. Doctors and the Drug companies need machines to do the job. When we are no longer running on oil as a nation, how are these machines suppose to run?

I can sew enough to do stitches, I think I could set a bone… at least after I passed out a time or two. I know how to dress a wound. And I am taking an herbal class. So I will have the knowledge to deal with most things even if I don’t have the herbals to do it. So maybe I can substitute. Pulling teeth, I think Grim is up for that job. See how I skirted that one.

Need to Do or Get

1. Finish herbal classes
2. Look for alternatives for Grim
3. Look for solar to run his CPAP machine
4. Plant commonly used medicinal herbs

Yart

Day 12

Waste Disposal

Come to think of it this is a fairly shitty topic… LOL! Sorry! I couldn’t resist.

When you think of it though what are you going to do with the trash and your waste? Since I won’t be out purchasing stuff, my trash will be none existent. What is left that would have been tossed will just have to be saved to burn or be creative with

Now for the human waste. Wendy Brown talks about having two buckets one for liquid and one for solids. The liquid would need to be diluted with water and then you can water trees and shrubs. The solids she recommends a book about Humanure. I would recommend this as I know I don’t have room for an outhouse, and I can’t access septic system. We are on the city lines. So this seems like it is the best for us. I need to check into it more though.

Need to Do or Get

1. Look into Humanure
2. Get a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat on it.
3. Get a metal garbage can ( for controlled burn )
4. Make sure post hole digger is in good shape ( in case we did have to dig an outhouse )
5. Look into blocking off drains in basement… backup could be a problem

Yart