Saturday, August 21, 2010

Catching up

* None of the fallen feathers from the chickens go to waste around here. The kids like to gather them up and make things with them. Cat toys are the main project, but Evelyn crafted this indian hat and was so proud of it. With all the sales on school supplies going on, I am stocking up on plenty of markers, crayons, pens, construction paper, and glue. Glue goes fast around here and we have already used up one bottle within a week of purchasing it!!

*Sylvia's 'attachment' preference is tape. Lots of it!! She uses so much of my tape that I have to hide it or else it will be gone. On one of our little visits into town, we decided to let the kids have fun in the dollar store and pick one item each to get since they had behaved well that day. Sylvia picked tape! 8 rolls of tape for $1! I tell ya, that was the best thing she could have ever picked! She likes to wrap little toys in construction paper ( trying to get her to switch to newspaper) and lots of tape to seal it up, then she leaves her "presents" around the house for us to find and unwrap. I swear she uses half a roll of tape just to tape one present! But it's her tape and her dollar, so I'm not saying a word. I try to show her she can use less tape, but she pushes my hands away and keeps at it.

*Andrew has the day off on Sunday, so I am going to butcher a rooster or two for dinner that day. It cannot be put off any longer! Just this afternoon, looking through the window, I caught 4 roosters, taking turns, mounting one poor little hen! Poor girl! I rushed outside and scattered them, but told myself it's time for them to go. The young ones are almost as big as the older ones, and if it wasn't for their non-existent spurs, I'd never be able to tell which is which! Only the two older roos have long spurs.

*Working on a wet walnut how-to post. I should have that up next week. I popped open one of the jars I canned last week, poured some on ice cream and it's so good! I'd like to try it with pecans one day, just substitute the walnuts with pecans. Maybe over the holidays when the nuts go on sale... This is when I miss living in Louisiana where we could pick fallen pecans and fill paper bags full of them for free!

*I think Peter is ready to be potty trained. He keeps taking off the diapers or he sticks his hand down the front of the diapers to play with his willy and then the fit gets messed up and the pee trickles down his legs. After the supply of diapers I have runs out, I'll be switching to training pants and then start potty training. I can see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel!! hooray!! more than 8 years of constant diaper changing and I'll soon be done!

*One of the young hens laid their first egg today! Pretty soon, the other ones will start laying and I should be getting at least 8-10 daily. When I have several dozen, I'd like to try and sell some. Make a sign and hang it out front. I might be able to avoid doing that and sell to friends and family only. Did you see that massive recall on eggs the other day??? Good grief! Makes me happy I have my own chickens.

*My mom feel down twice this week. Makes 3 times this year. Nothing broken or sprained, but she gets sore and hurts a few days afterwards. I need to keep a closer eye on her and get her in for a check-up. I want her to live a good long time, watch her grandchildren grow up and hopefully, she'll live long enough to see her great-grandchildren, too.

*Good news/Bad news:: I got my period/I'm not pregnant! It's never fun or easy when Aunt Flo comes to visit me every month, but when she is here, it's a relief to know I have dodged the pregnancy bullet once again. Andrew has an appointment for a consultation for getting snip-snipped! I can't wait! No more worrying when Aunt Flo is late or having to deal with raincoats anymore! Was that TMI??? :o) It's my blog, I can write what I want!

*It's almost time for that children's consignment place to start up again. I think I'll be selling the kids' out-grown clothes there for sure. The foyer has boxes and boxes of too small clothing they don't wear anymore and it looks like a yard sale is not going to happen this year. I am considering volunteering one day a week with the sale, because she added a new bonus to volunteers this year:: for every hour past the required 4 hours you volunteer, 1% will be added to your percentage of the sale. If you just consign, the percentage you earn from the sale of your goods is 50%; with the volunteer hours, if I worked 2 8-hour shifts, that would net me 12 (16 hours minus the required 4) extra percent to my sales making my total 62%! So if I sold $100 worth of items, I'd get back $62 instead of $50. Makes a difference.

Andrew usually gets 2 days off per week, so if I can leave the kids home with him, get there early and stay most of the day, I could handle a day or two per week and try to volunteer at least 4 days which would give me, hopefully, 48 hours of volunteer time. That would be equal to 44 percent added to my 50 which makes 94%! In the past, money earned from the sale of our items went to pay for car insurance. It sure would be nice to have that extra money again. The sale starts Sept 13th, so that gives me a month to get ready for it.

*It's the weekend! Andrew is working Saturday, so I'll be canning tomatoes in the cool of the morning before it gets too hot. Off to bed for me!

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11 comments:

Christina said...

Love the headdress aka indian hat!

Christina said...

I forgot to mention my roma paste's are umm multiplying FAST and recipies?

Omelay said...

feathers are a big hit around here too. kassi especially likes them. her favorite is to make ink from elderberries and use the feather as a pen.

k-)

jenny said...

Christina-- I mostly can my tomatoes, and then use those canned tomatoes in the future for making sauces and meals. It's the quickest way to use up the tomatoes, especially those paste tomatoes!! You can also make a quick salsa, which is chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro with a little garlic salt, and lemon juice. Let it sit in the fridge a couple hours and devour with chips.
If you make a big batch of salsa, can it for winter time eating.

There are all kinds of recipes for spaghetti sauce.. I never follow them, just make it up and season as I go. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of cook. heh Enjoy those tomatoes!

Karl-- She's been talking about making pens from them, but I never thought of using berry juice for ink!! Good idea! Thanks! :o)

Ron said...

Yep, those back-to-schools sales are hard to beat!

That massive recall reminds me that while industrial ag can provide vast quantities of food (quality being debatable) it is also exposed to very high risk. Nice to have plan B.

I have to get snipped... but damn I hate the notion... I guess we could give up sex - yeah right! :)

Ron

jenny said...

Ron-- I wish I had more land to support a couple of cows. I'd love to have beef and milk at my disposal. As much as we love where we live, I think someday, we may look for something with more land. Who knows... For now, we'll work with what we have.

The last few times we ate eggs from the store, it seemed like everyone got diarhea not too long after.. no diarhea when we eat our own eggs. It had to be the eggs, that was the only thing different when we ate our meals. So yes, VERY nice to have plan B which is quickly turning into plan A.

Let's see, give up sex... nah! Not going to happen!! :o) A friend gave Andrew a tip before getting snipped: *ahem* relieve yourself before getting the procedure done. It seemed to help being "empty" and he didn't even use the bag of frozen peas. He was up and about and feeling fine a couple hours after getting snipped. So Andrew will try that beforehand and see how it goes. If he lets me, I'll probably blog about it! :o)

Ron said...

I was all set to do the deed, and then we had a family gathering where my bro and bro-in-law put the fear in me. Bro-in-law got to keep the weapon used against him, and he showed it to me, wire glowing red and all that.

Now, MAYBE it will happen. Damn it... I've had myself up to my shoulders in guts, this should be nothing. Still... hmmm...

Please do post lies about how great it was and how pain-free. :) :) :)

Ron

Christina said...

Ron you have keept me laughing tonight!
I can say as the woman who went for the surgery (though mine ended up going from tubal to complete hysto) the pain is much easier on the guys than it is on us, I was laid up for 2 weeks, though the drug induced haze got me through the earthquake while inpatient I would not rather not have done it!

Unknown said...

Haha! Trust me when I tell you the snip-snip is indeed much easier on the guy! Super simple, relatively painless, and also trust me when I tell you it will NOT interfere with play time. In fact it makes it soooo much better!

Jenny, Evelyn is just adorable. She has this "I rule" look in her eye... watch out world!

jenny said...

Ron!!! haha! Well I guess seeing the weapon would put anyone off. We hope it'll happen before the end of the year, but who knows with the way the medical system works now. First the consultation, then make another appt. for the snip-snip.

Christina-- Ouch!! Sorry yours ended up being major major surgery. That's why I didn't want to do it myself, Andrew volunteered for it, and it's much easier for men than women; as Karen says.

Karen-- The raincoats put me off sometimes, so yes, I can imagine after the snip-snip, things will heat up around here! LOL :o)

Evelyn will hit the ground running as soon as she hits 18, I bet!!

Johnna Sutton said...

LOVE IT! I've been changing diapers for 12 years with a 1 year break in there somewhere, my youngest wont potty train because.... I want her to! STRONG willed child! My hubs got the snip snip because after getting prego with Eve (5th) I said I will never have sex with you again until it's done. Not that I don't LOVE my kiddos I just have been prego and in baby land for most of my adult life!

I can't even remember the last time I bought eggs from the market. I feel bad for folks who have NO food freedom. I'm so blesed to be able to grow my own on my land. Nothen like home grown beef, chicken and pork!-blessings