Hunkering down

So about 8pm the forecasted winter mix storm rolled in..its pouring buckets of sleet :) I'd get pics of it but the camera battery is charging. The weather is suppose to be like this for my whole "weekend" We have schools already cancelling so no one here has to get out of the house, which is a good thing.

I've been productive the last couple days. I hit the Organized Home and printed off checklists for pantry/larder inventory and freezer inventory. I am currently trying to track down a spending log that I like. We will be tracking our spending for next month. We also have planned out a dinner menu for the next week and did the shopping for it. It cost a bit more but a lot of the ingredients will last for more than one meal. I got the inventory sheets done for the pantry and the freezer...and while cleaning out the freezer I found a hidden gallon bag of corn on the cob, YAY!!

The seeds I tested have started coming up so we should be good for next year. I have to finish the list of stuff we are wanting for the next years that I dont have and then cross reference that with my homesteading and organic yahoo groups that have seed swaps.

I did buy something new today that we desperately needed...a vacuum. Its bagless and large enough to handle an actual house...my last one was basically for a small apartment and liked to overheat to boot. We are focusing on paying off more bills and looking for a tiller. No longer looking for a rear tine though, he has decided we could do well with a front tine since the earth has been broken already. I will be scouring online and craigslist to see what I can find.

I have been properly scolded :) I did not mean that you guys are not there...I was lamenting the fact that none of your faces was up on my followers bar thingy. I humbly apologize and beg forgiveness.

I have no followers :(

Getting in gear

So today I slept in until 9am. I puttered around the house till around noon when company came over. Around 3pm after said company left Bill and I went into town to check out Lowe's again. I did not find any cool cheap things like Unusual Farmchick but I did get pricing for several cold frames and picked up a seed starting kit. When we got home from all that I went through my seed stash going over what I had left over from last year and what we saved from plants...then I decided that since the seeds had been in out in the unheated garage that I would do a viability test and planted a few seeds from the leftover seeds (the saved seeds have been in the nice temperate house) So we'll see how that goes.


Today while visiting with my company I found out that she has a bread machine that she never uses...I will be getting it from her. I am very much looking forward to this. Jodi also brought loaf pans when she moved in so I plan on making bread both ways.... Phelan you will be hearing from me soon :)

I forgot to mention yesterday that I hit the thrift store and got a great find! And I only paid $0.99 for it. She told me it is for tomatoes but I think its for any type of food isnt it?

There are some good things that I want to share with everyone. I have my car paid off and I did get my brakes fixed thanks to Jodie paying her rent for 6 months upfront. Also, I am getting a cash settlement from my insurance minus my deductible and we are going to be paying off some of our debt. I am extremely grateful it answers a lot of our prayers.

Bill has been putting in applications online and today we hit the pavement but to no avail. We ended up missing the inaugaration because of it. There is enough coverage going on though that if I felt up to it I could catch up on it.

I also talked to Bill today about starting a spending journal and that it would be imperative for both of us to take part in it and the importance of saving every receipt. If anyone has forms,pdfs, etc. that would help in organizing the household I would appreciate it. I am also wanting penpals. I can do email penpals too but Bill is playing a LOT of Diablo 2 to keep sane and between him and the Teen I don't get much time online as I use to...if you are interested let me know. I have run out of books here (even the silly romance ones!) and De Soto does not have a library.

We are suppose to get up to 40 F tomorrow woohoo! and Friday is suppose to get up to the 50s.

Refocusing

Im trying to regroup and refocus for 2009. Im trying to get a list of goals going and I should have some good news here in a couple days. Hope everyone is doing ok with all this cold spread throughout the country..it is currently 13 degrees and windy as hell

Umm guys???

Ok i have 6- 1 gal bags of frozen roma tomatoes with their tops cut off. Bill wants to make diced tomatoes and can them. How do I go about doing this? Is it any different from canning whole tomatoes?

New beginnings

It's the new year and I have hope. Hope that this year will be kinder to us all. There are many things that are going on here. Jodi has completed the move to our house. I'm beyond happy that she's here I've missed her she is the closest thing I have to a sister. The money she is paying for rent will help alleviate some of the bills...most importantly I can get the car fixed and paid off. That is something to look forward to. I got my first seed catalog in and Im not very impressed with it. Im going to go over my lists again with Bill and then I am going to hit my Yahoo group, they have a seed exchange. We'll see if anyone is looking for stuff I saved but a lot of my stuff came from the store Im pretty sure they say that the seeds I got from my crops won't be the same as what I originally planted.