Going good in So. IL

Well Friday the rest of So. IL seemed to get their power back on. The boys went back to their mom's and Bill and I got the house back together. We were without power from Friday until Monday. Everything in the deep freeze thawed and we lost quite a bit in the fridge as well. We just didn't have enough room in the cooler. :( We had a kick butt cookout and invited as many people as we could to help us not let it go to waste. Friday I called the State Farm hot line and the girl told me I had a $500 deductible on my homeowners. My groceries might total out @ $200 max if that. We didn't have any car or house damage so.....yeah according to what she was telling me we are on our own with groceries. I am going to call my insurance agent Monday and double check. Bill says not to worry and that things will be OK but I am very aggravated. Not so much with the insurance people, I expect that but that we were unprepared...and that is my job!

I have been lucky as my workplace had generators and I was working my normal days..Many people weren't so lucky. I had the option to not come in due to circumstances but I would not get paid...not an option. There weren't many of us but we did just fine. I work in product information and not sales anymore so it was not as busy.

It stormed again last night but I didn't let it get me too down as I love storms. Yes there is still standing water in parts of the garden and it is a mess. It is suppose to be nice and sunny and slightly warm for the next couple days. Actually, it's not suppose to rain again until Thursday!! I am hoping to be able to get it planted either Monday or Tuesday...Wed at the very latest. So much to catch up on. I hope that everyone is well where they are.

Pictures and lists

Here are the pics I promised...First we have the loads of canning jars from the auction.

Next we have th plans for the property mapped out...not to scale but the garden IS suppose to be bigger than the house lol! Followed by the seed starter trays and the bag of seeds/bulbs that I have now thanks to a loveable, hyper and somewhat inpatient Bill.

And lastly this is me chilling at the local Denny's at 2am after a rough day at work..Thanks Lelu!
Ok and now for the list

All the vegetables that we are planning on planting

(thanks to Tammie and a super hyper Bill)

black cherry tomato

hybrid white eggplant cloud 96

Rosa Bianca heirloom eggplant

Striped cavern tomato

Nantes carrot

National pickling cucumber seed

few pinches each of Butter head lettuce and Romain lettuce

Garden peach tomato

pinch of tendercrisp celery

Jarrahdale pumpkin

Grandma Mary's paste tomato

Jubilee orange tomato
Green onions

Sweet white onions

Green pepper mix

Pepperoncinis

Straightneck Yellow Squash

Roma tomato

Leeks

Poblano peppers

Jalepenos

Cayenne

Cannonball gourd

Dipper gourd

Loofa gourd

Bush cucumber

Radish

Cantaloupe

Spinach

Bush green bean

Pole green bean

Turnip

Sindara lettuce

Cauliflower

Sugar snap pea

Birdhouse gourd

Spaghetti squash

Zucchini

Honey dew melon

Watermelon

Its my weekend and I am beyond bored. Im sick to my stomach with this house thing. Today was the last day for the sellers to make a decision and I haven't gotten a call from the realtor. So I will call tomorrow and inbetween I guess I will pray, clean and take a lot of papaya papain.

In other news today the high was 68 degrees, the area surrounding the trailer is swampy which makes for messy floors at the front door, cuz some people dont know how to wipe their feet. Grrrr.

Ok peaceful thoughts.....let's see....the breeze is really nice tonight, I have my window cracked open. I bought some Seventh Generation dish detergent that was on sale at the Co-op. Which reminds me I have a parmesean peppercorn roll waiting for me in the fridge. But it can wait Im not hungry at the moment. Oh and I don't owe any taxes which is always good. Ahhh, that is better.

The blob, bucket style

To update, the laundry soap was a gelatinous thing with little liquid, maybe i needed more water?? It also was on the floor so it might just have been too cold. Moved it to the laundry room on top of the dry we'll see how it does. Teen got her drivers license. And we haven't heard anything from the real estate agent yet. J moved out and S hasn't been home much. So I got super industrious tonight and cleaned like a mad woman. Here's my proof....

The place only looks this nice when I do this; otherwise, it is a sad, sad sight. My own mother can attest to this. Bill will be pleasantly suprised when he gets home. When I wake up Thurs I am tackling Teen's room..she's had more than enough time to avoid this. Now Im off to find my body lotion as my hands are screaming dry.

Making my own laundry soap

So I came across a recipe on The Family Homestead to make my own laundry soap. I've been chomping at the bit to do it and finally got to do it today. Took me a bit of running around town to find the Washing Soda (Schnucks had it) and I got a deal of the Fels Naptha bars at Arnold's. The borax was easy enough. Anyway, I gathered my ingredients up. I got out what our group of friends affectionately call the "Mongolian Pot of Doom". Cleaned out my 5 gal pickle bucket that my friend G salvaged for me when he worked at Burger King. Then I had to wait for time to make it cuz we were super busy today too. I lamented to Bill today that I didn't want to leave the detergent in the pickle bucket but I didn't have a container big enough to hold it all. Bill smiles and lets me know that in all this super windy weather he spotted a huge cooking oil container running down the highway on his way home so he picked it up and brought it home for me cuz "I know you could use it somehow." So it's in the back of his Blazer waiting. How cool is that? Anyway about 7:30pm I got to make my soap, and yes I took a few pics. I added geranium oil for scent and let it sit. Checked on it at 10pm and it was already gelling up :) So we will see how it looks when I get up and then its ready for use around 7:30pm Wed. We can't wait! My next project will be trying to find a dish detergent recipe.

Backtrack a moment

This was Tuesday night until Wednesday morning. Ok so I have been rather industrious as of late, cleaning, laundry (my normal weekend stuff) but I also dove into the "craft room" and straightened it out. It looks soooo much better and I might be able to work in there now without being cramped. I hauled crap out to the living room and had 3 piles...Garbage, Shed, and Who's this belong to. J woke up around quarter til 5am and we proceeded to weed out what I had dragged out. Cleared out a fair bit of junk. While cleaning it out I got my winter clothes out and managed to clear out my closet. I have a garbage bag full of stuff to have taken to the Women's shelter. The other half of the room that I didnt attack is mainly weapons for Dagorhir fighting (foam weapons). Later in the morning J and I ran down the street to Arnold's grocery, then we made waffles :D I miss real maple syrup. But the bottle I got was on sale for a dollar and wasnt that bad.