Monday Bread's

Just to recap the weekend. Sold 100 fish dinners on Friday, moved a friend on Saturday & felt horrible on Sunday!

So now we are back to the weekly grind. Because of the stupid time change I over slept.... I got up with the alarm and got the monsters up... Then I layed back down only to have the teenage monster say whos taking us to school? Me I said in that distant gutteral type of voice... LOL! I hate Monday's. But after that the day was really good. I got the bread made and I even made granola for lunches.... I think that there is a hole in the bag as I thought I made more then what is in there now???? Hmmmm!

I was able to get the afghan done... Now I am doing the happy dance. This will be the last one until the weather turns cold in the fall. I need to get some of the other projects going here at the house. I still need to learn to sew. The material and patterns are just waiting. But the weather is starting to change. My lilac bushes are starting to bud up. The chives are even starting to grow. Who knew! I guess when I was stuck in the house mother nature stopped by and dropped of a few spring like presents.

I have a ton of pictures to put up here. Maybe tomorrow! Well, off to bbq!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Thursday Morning

Today would have been my Gran's 83rd Birthday. She passed away a couple of years ago. But since I have been celebrating her birthday my entire life so why stop now. She was a very special lady. She raised 7 children, was the wife to an over the road truck driver and a gypsy at heart. She loved wild flowers, the open road and quite time by the lake. She taught me a ton about how to be a good person and how to be a great mom. I loved the time that I was able to spend with her. And how I wish I would have spent more time with her in her later years. But excues are a plenty..... Now I am left with the loving memories of a very special lady whom I loved dearly!

Now back to life.....

I made a double batch of pretzels yesterday.. But I didn't even have a chance to think to take a picture... and they were gone... LOL! But that is how the pretzel is eaten. They were very good. I just wish they were easier to make. I think I am going to look for a playdough machine that will make the rope. If I can then we will have pretzels all of the time.

Got the laundry and some of the dishes done. I wasn't able to make soup today. Picky monster had a half day of school as it was conference day. She is on the honor roll for the first time.... Yeah Picky Monster!

Tomorrow is super busy as every Friday here is. So I will be back with the weekend report.
Gotta Run,
Yart

Wednesday Musings

I got the laundry soap made yesterday. It turned out thicker this time. I did everything the same. It is fine just had to use my wand mixer to make it liquidy. So now I am set for the next few months. I even have enough of the powders to make another batch. So it will have cost me $14 for an entire years worth of laundry soap. Not a bad deal. And with using vinegar for the fabric softener, I only pay $1.29 a bottle and I just opened my second bottle last week. Loving the money I am saving.

I will be making pretzels again today. The family just loved them when I made them the last time. I also have to make some granola bars again. Plus it is time to finally get my taxes done. But I can get everything done today that I want to do and should be able to enjoy an evening of matching socks. LOL!

Laundry and dishes oh my! The laundry is in as I type. I still need to take the dry stuff off of the line. I also have the dishes soaking, just waiting. LOL! I don't think that my lettuce is going to grow. I checked on it this morning and it looks like there is mold growing on the seeds. Too much moisture. Damn!!! Will have to try again. But luckily it is early enough that it isn't to big of a loss. Just disappointed.

I tossed some things together for dinner last night. Lentils and rice, stewing beef braised, beef gravy made from drippings, ravioli from freezer (store bought), butternut squash sauce for the ravioli, corn, beets and applesauce. Even picky monster ate, not too much but she did eat. And I learned a valuable lesson, as this was the first time I cooked lentils. 2 cups of lentils and 2 cups of rice is way to much food even for us.

I am keeping up with the treadmill. I am now up to 1 1/4 miles it takes me 25 minutes. I am seeing small changes. But that is what I want. I don't want to loose everything and just gain it all back. Slow and steady will get me to where I want to go.

I am hoping to use up the soup bones that I have. I can't wait to make beef stock and them the soup that goes along with it. Yummmmm! But I think that it will have to wait until tomorrow. Well, I hear those chores calling my name,

Gotta run,
Yart

Title changed to save me from trademark infingment

I was super busy all weekend long. The birthday party and recital went really good. I was able to get 4 loaves of yummy bread made yesterday so I am back on track with that. I made meatloaf on Sunday and we had leftovers on Monday. Not sure what I am going to do for dinner tonight yet. I wanted to let you all know that on the left column I have included a link to Everyday Food Storage. It seems to be a site that has some really good information. With all of that said, I need to move on.

I have been trying to homestead on a lot of 33x107. I can't have chickens or any type of farm animal as we live in the city. Not a great big metropolis even though that is just a matter of 10 minutes North of here. It is a quite little community of a couple thousand. We are surrounded by other little communities all trying to get business. This area use to be very much automotive-ly dominated. We have a 3 bedroom home bungalow style with a basement and a detached garage. Now that you have all of the logistics of the homestead... LOL! I can tell you why I just told you all that.

I know that most homesteaders live on land that can have animals and huge gardens and animals to hunt right on the property. But there are those of us who are at least trying to lessen our impact on the earth and make a better life for ourselves and our families. We happen to be one such group of individuals... aka my family.

I hang dry all of my laundry, I have in the recent past had a container garden, I cook from scratch as much as possible and a ton of other things. But I want to start getting on to this topic more and more. As we can't be the only family doing these things and searching for information. I will include more things here. Instead of me just talking about my days.

Today I must make more laundry soap. Here is a video:
Click Here
The last time I made soap was back in November. So it lasted months.

My seedlings are doing really good. The eggplant have sprouted up. The only thing left to sprout are the peppers. I also decided to do some winter sowing. I got the milk jugs going. I put in lettuce. I figure that it is the best thing to start with as I am so jones-ing for some home grown greens. I did those up Sunday night.

If you don't know when you can plant safely. You can check here. Plus the National Gardening Association has a great deal of information. I'm area 5b. Now I need to find out what that means. LOL! My last frost date is 5/12 & 10/9 is the first. So as long as I plant within these dates I should be fine. You can also find out what your local frost dates are by clicking here.

I will try and get the pictures I took up on here later today.
Gotta Run,
Yart

Another Quick Post

Felt bad all day yesterday. So I didn't manage to get much done. I took it easy and just did my on-line stuff. Today I am feeling much better. I was able to get 7 quarts of green beans done and I have 4 trays drying in the dehydrator right now. Hopefully, they will be done before I go to bed. My freezers are starting to look bare. I am making sauerkraut and kielbasa, its in the crockpot. It will go in the freezer for St. Pat's. Probably will make a Shepard's pie and freeze also. As I usually cook a lot of food that day.

Tons to do tomorrow. Teenage monster has to get the stitches removed and from there I am running all day. I hope to be back on Saturday. As Sunday we have a birthday party and recital to get through.

Huggles
Yart

Nightly Ramblings

Well this is just a quick post for tonight. I was able to get 5 pints of hamburger done last night. But I did it to late so today I didn't want to do anything. Sitting babysitting the canner just took it out of me. I did get dishes, laundry and dinner done for today. Not much else though. I still need to fold the laundry, that can be done when I head up to watch some tv before bed.

I also worked more on the afghan. Only 2 more skeins left to go. I think that it is turning out very nice. I know I keep promising to post pictures of it. I will by the end of the week cause it should be done by then.

That's about it for tonight.
Huggles
Yart

Monday Bread's

Well, I didn't make any yeast bread but I did make waffles & two loaves of applesauce bread. I haven't made any sweet bread in a couple of weeks so I thought it was time. I still have two loaves of sandwich bread so hopefully that will last if not I'll have to make more later in the week.

On the pressure canning front. I did 7 quarts of chicken soup. Chicken, onion, garlic, carrots, & celery. Today I have started hamburger. It was in one of those chub things. It didn't even have a sell by date. I know that it hasn't been in there longer then a year. Nothing has been in there that long. I cleaned out the freezers last year at this time so it is all still good. But I digress. There was no sell by date. So into the pot of water it went along with onion, garlic and pepper. Yes, I boiled it. It is a much easier way to cook 5, 10 pounds or more. So that is done and the liquid is sitting out in the frigid temps cooling so I can defat it. Once that is done I will use the liquid to add to the jars of hamburger. I think I should at least get 4 pints. I will be happy with this as it will be the first beef that will go on to the shelf.

Tomorrow I will be doing green beans. I have a couple of quart bags in the freezer. I think they are better suited for the shelf. So that is where they are headed. I have bags of tomatoes in the freezer also. I need to make up chili and can it up also. That will be one day this week. Oh, and I found a stash of kidney beans I figure will look nice in jars also. Tons of work. But I am enjoying every bit of it. They are calling me the "mad canner" LOL!

Since it is Monday all the stuff that I put off on the weekend has to be done. I have laundry to fold and laundry to wash and hang. I got all the dishes done and the kitchen is almost spotless since I am in there so much babysitting the canner. LOL! I was lazy this morning and didn't make the bed. So that is on the list of to do. I need to wash the stairs and the basement floor. But I will see when I have the ambition to do that.

Only have a couple of commitments for this week, fish fry on Friday, 2 desserts one for the Legion and one for a fundraiser for the band. Other then that I am free and clear to do what ever all week. Which means maybe I can get more of that afghan done. Also could start on all of the sewing projects that need to be done around here.

Didn't walk on Saturday but I did get my mile in yesterday. You would think that I would be use to walking a mile and should be able to increase but I am winded after the mile. Maybe I will try and get on there twice a day and see if that does any good.

We are going to have fish tonight for dinner with french fries. Last night we had chicken baked in salad dressing, stuffing, corn and left over mac and cheese.

Gotta run,
Huggles
Yart