Food Is Good....UltraProcessed Crap Isn't

 So, here's the danger of reading science stuff, sometimes it makes you do stuff that is good for you.  Not always, often, it is BS but this time...it makes sense.

I read and listened to the book UltraProcessed People by Chris Van Tulleken several times and will do that a few more times.

I'd already read/listened to various other books and articles on how the ultraprocessed food messed with our bodies, brains, moods, economies, human rights, farming, soil, weather and on and on.

This one though, it brings it all together and the dude has a nice british accent of some sort so it's an easy listen.

Turns out, frankenfood is bad for you! I mean, I KNEW that but I didn't get scared straight.  I'm getting there now.  

For years I've been working on the diet.  Decades.  And the exercise.

NOW though...I have the means, the time, the motivation and group of friends and colleagues who also are a bit into it in their own ways.  Is that what you extraverts call a support system?

So, last year I avoided cheap grocery store sugary foods.   That made a major change in the diet and budget.  Good for both as it turns out.   If I really really wanted a treat, I didn't buy Reese's (this will be a complete shock to those who know me...I haven't had an industrial candy bar, even an expensive "good" one in over a year), instead, I either made it or went to a business, all turned out to be local, where someone actually MADE the thing.   Like Moscow Candy in Moscow, Idaho where I got a really good peanut butter cup for 1$ or a "Bruttle" (what Butterfingers WISH they were) that is made in Spokane for 1.50$.   They are smaller than the industrial versions, cost about the same or less and are astoundingly BETTER.  Also, there are some  road blocks to getting them.  I'm not in Moscow most days.

Occasionally, I would get a locally made cinnamon roll or piece of pie or cookie.  And occasionally I would make them.

This year, cutting back UPF, ultraprocessed food, as defined by the NOVA system.   None of it is good and it turns out all of it wrecks my health.   

FORTUNATELY I have the means in money and location and skills now to do that.  I have enough $$ to buy eggs and live close enough to people who raise chickens that go outside.  I know people who hunt (and hope to be one of them this year) and trade them informally for game meat.  I know how to butcher chickens and other small things and can them.  I live with enough outdoor space to have a garden and near lots of people who garden.  I have enough money to buy produce from local farmers.  

While it costs more upfront for the food, by avoiding the fast food and convenience foods, my total food spend for 2023 went up very little.  Pretty much on par with inflation.

Recently people at work got into similar things and I talked one into reading the above mentioned book.  Now he and I share labor on processing (not ULTRAprocessing...very different) meat and fish.  For the holidays I gave home made mustard, ketchup, and vanilla extract.  In return I got deer and elk meat, and some smoked salmon.   We are all happy with that.

Now...to buy a 2024 hunting and fishing permit.  The hope is to ACTUALLY use it this year.  Especially for fishing because that's easy and doesn't have to result in 100lbs of meat like killing big game.

Almost Free Dinner

 Thanks to friends I had a nearly free dinner!

A friend (Hi Sally) asked if I wanted brussel sprouts.  Yes please!  She gave me a little bag with those, some radishes and some rainbow carrots already sliced.  I fried them up in coconut oil (paid for that, given the price for the jar, about 5cents for this meal) on my woodstove (already using it for heat so no fuel cost for cooking).  I added a jar of duck meat which I got free for helping a friend butcher ducks.  I did buy the jar so that's about 1$ but is reused and reused so maybe 10cents of that goes to this meal because the lid has to be new each time. There was a lemon in the bag as well and I squeezed a bit of that over my bowl of stew and added a bit of pepper (less than a penny's worth)

For dessert I had a peach cobbler of sorts.  I had a can of peaches from a free food give away.  They were in pear juice so not overly sugary. In fact no added sugar.  I used some of the juice in the can to make a quick biscuit dough and poured that over the peached in a greased pan (more coconut oil...included in the 5cents above) with baking powder I bought years ago and just found (maybe 1cent worth based on current prices) and flour I got in exchange for helping butcher chickens at the community garden.   I also put in cinnamon and nutmeg which I found on a clearance shelf for 99 cents each in the BIG canisters.  Less than 1cent of spices but we'll round up to a penny by adding in the pepper from the stew.

Total for the meal: 

10cent jar lid and jar depreciation

5 cents coconut oil

1 penny in spices

_____________________

16cents.   Not bad.

Lunch was similarly cheap.

Pasta gotten free

Sauce gotten free

Beans gotten free

Diced pears in pear juice gotten free

Smoked salmon from a work colleague

Total:  Free  (and delicious really)

Breakfast was relatively spendy:
cinnamon and nutmeg, we'll call it a penny

banana...free

2 eggs (at 3$/dozen that is 25 cents per egg so 50 cents for organic free range eggs and it supports the community garden)  (my hens are not in a heated/lit coop and are laying about 2 eggs a week right now)

coffee 10$/2lbs on deep sale for good beans.  I get about 2 months of coffee from that.  so 10/60 is...17cents of coffee per day in my little french press.  (I use the grounds at least twice...the 3rd press is gross, the 2nd is not great)

water...out of the tap at work so free.

total for breakfast:

50cents eggs

1 cent spices

17 cents coffee

__________________

total:  68cents.

For the day:

68 + free + 16 = 84cents.   Not bad!

My goal is 50$ for groceries this month.  Not every day will be free and it's not a grocery budget I expect to be sustainable.  Right now I have plenty of stock on hand so I'm working my way through that.  I don't need to store it forever.  Better to eat what I have.

Last month I spent 47$ on groceries and about 10 of that was on candy bars. I have a habit of buying one each shopping trip.  So really, 37$ in actual groceries.  I should be able to hit 50$ this week and keep eating like royalty.  I mean really, duck soup with brussel sprouts and rainbow carrots for dinner?  That's pretty fancy food.

I have more than enough protein on hand, probably a month's worth of fruit and veg if I sprout the seeds I bought for that purpose.  I do like sprouts in the winter.  Something green and fresh and not sad bag-o-salad.  I'm not against bag-o-salad, I'm just too cheap to buy it anywhere other than the 'reduced for quick sale' bin where it is sad indeed.

Sadly last month, I did spend 68$ in restaurants/takeout type food.  One friend likes to go to lunch.  Who doesn't?  But it's a good place to cut the budget and my sodium intake.   The latter may be more important.

Anyway, I need to finish up the pasta sauce so pretty sure lunch tomorrow will be more of that.  I finished the beans but have more cans I could open and kidney beans on on spaghetti with sauce are surprisingly good!   Of course, pasta sauce is also the start of a passable tomato veggie soup.  Not a good one, but a passable one.  

For the weekend I need to decide which free meat to eat:

deer, elk, duck, chicken, salmon   Votes?

101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 60-73

Remember, I'm taking this idea from Centsible Living with Money Mom on the youtubes.   Check out her channel.

Starting to have to get more creative and think more so this is getting a bit more fun.

60  Stay home!  And not just to shop on line.  When I stay home I eat what I have, don't spend on gas, don't spend on anything (usually, unless I have forgotten to pay a bill and get online to avoid a late fee).  Staying home days are also about the only times I don't acquire plastic.  I don't have home mail delivery so no stupid plastic envelope windows acquired at home.  Sometimes people drop stuff off and almost always in a plastic bag...it's like we've forgotten how to live without goddamn plastic bags.  Even me.  Anyway.  More anon.   Stay home.  I like home days.  I get stuff done.  Today is hopefully a home day.  I picked a quart of berries before breakfast because I noticed them while I was letting the chickens out and feeding them.  I grabbed the berry bucket and had at the service berries because they are read...see above "free fruit".  Had some in a pancake...made from what I have on hand.   I hope to stay home tomorrow too!  I took some time off work to run errands, like picking up more fuel for the wee butane stove so I don't have any "musts" in town that can't be done on the phone.

61  Use the phone.  You can still call ahead to the hardwares, groceries, and other businesses to find out if they have what you are looking for what the prices are.  This saves me stops when I am in town.  Sometimes I do want to do a run through on hardware/lumber place to check clearance or the free scraps bins for lumber or chain bits (one store had free chain bits, handy for many things), but it's better for me not to stop at all because they might have something else I want to buy but don't need.  Right now I'm checking jar prices for the mustard business and jar stock.  Everyone seems to be using more jars, or buying more jars.  I don't know if we're all using them.  More of us went back to calling with the corona "stay home" and curbside service available.  It also keeps the number of people down in the stores and this helps with the 'rona distancing and etc that we're trying to do (well, some of us are trying to do).  I've called this year for fence post prices and stock and it saved me a few stops at places that either didn't have the posts I wanted, or were too expensive.  Then of course I found posts at the recycling center but I go through posts and they won't be cheaper next year so I did not return what I had bought.   I have about 10 fence posts for when I'm ready to beef up the garden fence or build the chicken jail.  Good to have on hand rather than need to run to town.,

62  Keep your eyes on the side of the road!  I almost stopped for a bag of cookies yesterday that someone had lost along the road.  It looked like it was closed.  I was on my way somewhere and in a hurry and decided the odds the cookies were NOT breached upon impact was low, and I did not need a bag of cookies when I'm trying to cut down on sugar.  I DO stop for pallets, giant hubcaps off dump trucks (hello new fire ring!...and since a trip to the free metal bin at the recycling center it's also a new BBQ grill because there was a grill grate that fit).  I also have picked up lumber, firewood, and hope to pick up wood chips once my pickup truck unloader gets here.  Free chicken bedding, compost and garden bed base!

63  Buy tools that will help you save money.  Think it through.  Maybe borrow them first or test them.  Read reviews, perhaps watch a few youtubes including those from folks who hated or didn't find the tool useful so you get more than just "this is awesome" vids because those are often paid for or in exchange for a free item.  Recently, and it's not here yet so we'll see if it is worth it, I bought a truck bed unloader.  I'll put a picture up if I like it.  Tools I've already invested in that have saved me money are...dewalt 20v cordless reciprocating saw, drill/driver, and weed whacker.  The saw came in a set that included a circular saw.  I haven't used that one yet.  If it goes a year without use, I might sell it or trade it.  I use the others all the time.  They save me time and make me more likely to DIY things with my scrap lumber and pallets than to go in town and buy something to fill the want/need.  The drill/drive is used pretty much every week to fix something or jerry rig something.  Decent hand tools are useful too!  I haven't had to buy these but others might.  Basic hammer, saw, drill, screw drivers.  Have them.  Also, a good multi-tool with pliers, screw drivers and a blade.  Keep it with you.  You'll end up fixing things or doing things rather than putting them off.

63 Reuse those damn plastic bags.  I haven't bought trash bags...other than contractor bags for house construction trash that needed hauled to a place that requires bags...for myself for YEARS. Reuse those stupid plastic grocery/store bags that you constantly get from stores and from people.  I almost always remember to bring my own bag or ask for paper when I'm in a store, or even just juggle the purchases until I get to the car, but now and then a clerk will have extra-bagged something (like those nails were going to leak into the candy bars?) when I wasn't looking or I'm tired or someone gives me food or something else in a plastic damn bag.  Or my SISTER...you know who you are...uses these as stuffing when she ships a package to me.   So I reuse them.  Hence never purchasing household garbage bags.  I rarely run out and when I do, there's always produce bags for trash...or...get this...paper bags.  OR get THIS...putting trash in a trash can WITHOUT A BAG!!!!!  Epic.  Ground breaking.  NORMAL.  Rinse the can out if it's stinky but since I compost and have chickens there is rarely anything in the trash that will stink.  The compost transport container will reek but not the trash.  I tried braiding the grocery sacks for rugs etc, but they are so flimsy they shred and make micro plastic trash which I find more offensive than macro plastic trash.

64  Shop at product specific stores.  Skip the big box stores.  This save by avoiding distractions like going for tampons and seeing tires on sale.  Or trying acres of free samples and coming home with bags (plastic bags) of pot stickers you didn't plan on buying.  Also saves the "club" fee that some of the big box stores have.  If you need groceries, go to the grocery store.  Preferably a locally owned or smaller chain type.  Or the discount grocery if you have one around.  When I need hardware I go to the hardware store.  I don't leave with eggs.  Of course I check thrift and free first, but when those let me down, real hardware or real groceries.  Or real clothing stores (like discount off brand clothing stores when I need undies and socks, the rest is thrift and hand me downs for the most part).   I haven't been in a walmart since the giant flood in iowa.  Well, maybe I was IN one with a friend who shops there, but I haven't purchased from them for YEARS.   Probably over a decade.  If you skip that one event when the other stores were flooded, it's been multiple decades.  I haven't been in a costco in over a decade.  I do NOT need a pallet of toilet paper.  Or 3lbs of cheesy poofs.  Gross.  By shopping at local/specific product stores I support the community, most pay better than the big box conglomerates (not all, but I do ask), and I know my prices.  Crap isn't always cheaper at the big boxes.  I limit my distractions by not seeing hardware at the grocery store etc.  I also end up with staff who know me and don't mind when I ask annoying bougie questions like "how much will it cost to special order 5lbs of brown mustard seed?" (actual question).  They also know I like the free/cheap/discount hardware and lumber so when I buy 2 2x4s and drive out of the lumber yard with a pickup full of scrap and bent fence posts that were in the free bin, they don't have to take the extra time to double check the load. They know me, they know I didn't hide 3 more bits of good lumber under the crappy scrap (or do they...  they do). 

65  Wait before you buy.  This is in addition to the thinking noted in #26.   I wanted that pick up unloader for a while.  A friend (Hi Cindy) mentioned that it existed.  I thought about it.  Looked it up.  Thought some more.  That was the "thinking" portion.  THEN, with enough thinking, I'd picked a brand and store to get it from (a product specific store that shall remain nameless because a lot of their stuff is so cheap its crap and not the good kind for the garden).  THEN, it wasn't in stock yet so I kept hand-unloading the truck and thought through buying the more expensive brand.  But I kept checking the website and the brick-n-mortar store location when I was close to it and suddenly this last week the item could be ordered again.  So I jumped on that and it's hopefully on the way.  I didn't spend the Bday money while waiting. I didn't crack and buy the more expensive one.  This also works for electronics.  This computer I'm typing on is old and breaks sometimes.  My car and truck are older with high miles.  But I'm waiting before replacing.   Electronics get cheaper with time and more used items show up.  Cars sometime get cheaper, sometimes not.  With waiting I can save up, think things through, and perhaps decide I didn't need it in the first place.  Perhaps I borrowed the tool and it was a one time use or I didn't like it.  Or I rented an option and didn't like it.  Or, rented and loved it and solidified the choice to purchase.  Whatever.  The waiting almost always saves money.  Now and then you spend more, but in the big picture, it saves.

66  Freeware/Shareware is your friend!  At home, on this old grindy laptop, I use "libreoffice" because it works.  It's free to download and is close enough to the big expensive brand
word processing etc software that things translate back and forth well enough.  Not perfect, but good enough. I donate a little back if a freeware/shareware looks like it is particularly well done.  I check with the IT savvy sibling on that.  It also helps delineate the work/home line.  The work from home time during 'rona sucked, but that's OK.  I don't want to make it easy to work at home. I had to pay for therapy for workaholism so let's not support the cross over.  Make work pay for that if they really need me to work at home again.  I used paper and pencils (think of it!  paper and pencils) and got as much done as my coworkers with full spendy home working set ups.  I did crack and get the wifi but next time work will have to pay for that too.  I don't buy egames, emovies, etc.  If it's free, MAYBE but not always.  I have the free version of the anti-virus as well.  Right now it's irritating because I have to tell it to buzz off about 3 times a day, even when I'm not online it tries to tell me I'm being tracked.  But, it's free.   The freeware wordprocessing works for me partly because I'm a fast typist (compared to other modern folks, not 1950s secretaries) and decent editor so when I lose formatting in translating between programs, it doesn't take me long to fix it.  The "per hour" savings is still good.

68 Support local crafts people.  This isn't always cheaper in the moment.  It is a long range community frugal/money saving deal.  It ensures there are local crafts people. E.g. I'm selling at the farmers market in a town by me.  Partly my stuff and partly someone else's stuff.  So, I buy from the other vendors. I've mentioned this before.  Yesterday and last week, I bought a couple of things I didn't specifically NEED but they support a young person who is learning some crafts.  He made tops so is learning wood working/turning.   I bought one. It's pretty and may become a gift (or a plumb bob) but it doesn't spin. It was 3$ so not a big loss.  It supports him as he starts college.  Yesterday I bought a small knife from him.  I don't specifically NEED a knife that size. It was 5$ and he was doing his last trip to the market this year before he starts college.  I want to support his craft.  The knife is made from carbon steel and takes and edge nicely, is a good small size for a gutting knife, and is cute.  I also know it's from recycled materials that he locally sourced. I want to support him and his practices so I got the wee knife.  I've already used it.  I also buy cookies from his little brother.  The kid sells them cheap and is learning to cook and run a business.   It's a buck and it's delicious.  Same with the local bread guy.  I don't technically NEED bread, I could make it or eat something else.  But he's a crafts man with the sourdough so I buy a bit each week to support him and the business.  For my house build, I'm going with a more craftsman type builder who trains up younger staff.  It's not the cheapest but it's more flexible in the style he will do and I meet crafts people who will be around for decades when I need a repair.  They will also mostly stay in the community and we'll have actual builders around.

69  Share your skills.  This saves you and others money.  When I've shared my skills by teaching, people give back and become part of the frugal network around here.  I've taught small batch fermenting, jam making and canning, and vermicomposting.  I'm in touch with students from all these and the local extension agent knows they can call on me for these skills and teaching.  I've also passed on ferments to those who wanted to try them.  I generally get the jar back with something in it or a favor.  I don't do it specifically for that, it's just how humans usually work.  The network is another long range savings even if I spend a few bucks up front.  Right now I'm activating the network to find jars for my mustards.  People have offered jars and creative options when those aren't available.  I also enjoy running in to the kids at schools where I've helped set up vermicomposting.  Someday those kids will grow up to compost or garden. Not all of them, but maybe a few.  That helps the community and in general saves cash for them.

70  Know your limits.  How does that save money?  Well, I KNOW I can't fix the broken dash display on the pick up.  If I try, I will break it more.  Then I will have to get it fixed by paying someone.  I ran into a guy with the same issue and even doing his own work and getting the bits at a scrap yard, he was out 250$.  I'm working around the issue entirely.   I also didn't try to pour my own slab or build my own post and beam structure.  Chicken coop construction...yes.  Human house construction...no.  I DID learn something about plumbing, largely that it is one of my limits, but still saved a bit on that by DIYing with lots of help.  I don't change my oil.  I COULD but I COULD also cross thread the screw every damn time which is a trip to town, spilled oil to clean up, and reliance on 2 running vehicles (so I have one to run to town in while I get the thingy to retap the hole and a bigger plug screw thingy and crap to clean up the oil spill).   Change a headlamp...yes.  Oil...usually NO.   

Other ways to do that.  If you can't cook much, don't think "I'm making pad thai."  Instead think "I have rice, I'm making rice."  Baby steps.  For every day cooking, fixing, making, know your limits.  When you acquire a new skill, incorporate it but maybe don't make a plan based on skills you hope to acquire anymore than you make a budget based on a lottery you intend to win.  I don't buy broken down "project" cars because I can't fix them.  I don't adopt abused dogs for the same reason.  I can't fix that.   Same with my men.  Anyway.  Know your limits.

71  Meal plan.  Meal plan around what you have.  Then make the list for shopping if you MUST.  Then be flexible.  Don't write "oranges" write "fruit."   Last time I ran by a grocery store, cantaloupe was on sale for 18cents/lb while oranges were $1.39/lb.  I have cantaloupes.  Now I have service berries for free so even better.  I have duck and eggs for protein so I do not plan a steak dinner.   I plan and egg or duck dinner.   If you can meal plan entirely by what you have, even better.  This weekend, that's what I'm doing.  Partly because I'm home and partly because it's fun. 

72  Creative opportunities are everywhere.   I don't really get paying to go paint ceramics while drinking wine (oops...first wrote "whine" which is what I'm doing).  I don't like wine.  (I do like whining though.)  I don't need any painted ceramic anything.  I like to do crafts and crafting, but the costs should be minimal or zeroed out.   I also look at creative options elsewhere.  I'd rather try cooking something new or learning more wild plants by walking around with my plant identification books, or picking berries or making boxes for my mustard samples, than paying to paint a mug that will end up at a thrift store in a few weeks (I see them there...along with HUNDREDS of items from "the pampered chef" parties).  Meal planning is an excellent creative outlet.  If you have 3 eggs, 2 cups of raw rice and a salsa packet from that drive-thru frugal mistake, I'm sure you can make something.  Be creative.  If you need a tool, think more about the task that made you think you "need" the tool and figure out if there is a different option based on what you have.  E.g. I needed to move well over a ton of wet straw off the slab for my future home.  I didn't have help or power equipment.  I hauled straw by hand on a pitch fork for a while.  Walking it all the way to the erosion problem I was putting it on (rather than buying erosion fabric or getting straw sprayed on it...creative solution is to use what I have).   That was heavy and time consuming and killing my shoulders.  I have a utility sled and used that for a bit.  It's small and had the strength to haul more once the load was off my shoulders.  Then I remembered tarp technology.  I shoved the straw off the slab onto a scrap of torn tarp about 15' square.  Pulled it with my arms and that was better.  Then I had the real epiphany.  Tie 2 corners of the tarp together to make a loop like the rope on the sled.   I load the tarp up with it pretty well spread out but those corners tied.  Then I step into the loop, pull the knot up to my hip bones, keeping the hauling load on my legs and butt rather than my back.  Grab some of the wadded tarp bit.  Then I walk over the to erosion area, dragging the heavy load with my powerful hind quarters.   Once I have it a bit past where I want it, I walk back over the loaded tarp and continue on in that direction.  The tarp rolls over itself, dumping the load of heavy wet straw while I walk horizontally, not lifting anything.   The chickens head over to check for bugs and scratch it up, throwing it around in a fairly even layer.  Someday I might rake it around but for now the chickens are doing that work and are happy with the job.  It took a while but it was creative, got something done that needed doing, and ended up entertaining my chickens and getting some extra bug protein in their diets.

There is a section in the Tightwad Gazette (a great book for the frugal to have or to get from the library) about being creative.  It is pretty much like what I wrote but with pictures and sketches and briefer.

73  Keep a frugal reference library on hand.  Yes, real books.  They work when the electricity is out. The wifi is out.  The internet is down.  The car is broken.  Your leg is broken.  When whatever keeps you from getting to the library or the internet or calling people for help.  Books are with you.  I have a reference library for gardening, wild plant and mushroom identification, basic home repair, cooking, frugality, beekeeping, a dictionary, home construction, solar power, and DIY projects.  Part of the library is in rotation based on what I find in the free book bin.  Many cookbooks come and go from there.  Basic cookbooks like "More with Less" and a classic Better Homes and Gardens, are permanent.  I find local and church cookbooks amusing so those come and go.  If there is an interesting recipe I tear it out or copy it down and move on.  For home repair those rotate too.  When I find the one I like best, I will keep it.  I get them from the library and the free book bin.  I keep a dictionary because I like language(s) and because I like learning new words.  For 25cents I found a 1906 vest pocket dictionary at a thrift store.  It includes how to give a toast, how to write a thank you letter, how to write a complaint/compliment letter to a business and some other handy outdated tips that I still use.  I'm trying to get a home built hence those books.  They might move on if I find ones I like better.  Same with gardening books. Those were mostly from the free bin and when I find ones I like better, they move on.

If You Build It, They Will Come

God I hate that movie!  

But, that crappy line is apparently true.

Coop 3.0 was barely settling in with the 3 red hens (ha!) when I got a call from the friend who gave me 2 of the red ones, Brittany and Suzanne (the chickens, not the friend, the friend is Cindy and human), had 11 hens given to her because the owner felt that the hens "bicker too much."...Uh...they are chickens.  Chickens are persnickety assholes.   Like most of the women in my family (sorry, but you know it's true).   Cindy has a full flock of heavy layers who don't eat much and these 11 weren't worth integrating to the big group, apparently.

Anyway, she called to see if I wanted more.  Given the size of Coop 3.0 and my unwillingness to build Coop 4.0 so soon, I said "no more than 3."
Cindy picked the 3 specialty breed hens and brought them over.

Here are the chickens. 

The reddish ones I've had for few weeks.  Others are new and very different.

Porky and Pearl

Porky is a Barred Rock (the black and white one).  She's big boned...actually, she's a fat ass.  Pearl is a Leghorn and quite shiny with an oddly large bosom just like Foghorn Leghorn in the cartoons.

Brittany and Suzanne with Porky and Pearl.

Brittany and Suzanne are "Novogen" breed.  A cross between Rhode Island reds and Leghorns.  They are super tame and lay HUGE brown eggs.  Porky, I think, also lays brown eggs.  Pearl is the only one laying white.  

Brittany is a scrawny red-neck runaway.  Suzanne is a follower who wants you to think she's tough, but she's not.

T-Bone giving the camera the stank eye, and Prudence looking put out behind her.

T-Bone came from the community garden in Worley.  All the rest are from my friend Cindy who is the bomb.  T-Bone was a runner who spent her days escaping the chicken run and digging up the garden.  I don't have a chicken run so she saves that escape time and spends it in the garden...digging shit up.  T-Bone is tough.  10 minutes after I let her out of the transport cage on my property, she had a mouthful of Brittany's feathers.   10 minutes after the 3 new chickens (Porky, Pearl and Prudence) arrived, she had a mouthful of Pru's feathers.  Suzanne just follows T-Bone around all day and gets panicky if she loses sight of T-Bone...basically Suzanne is T-Bone's bitch.

Prudence (Pru) is an Ameraucana big, and prissy (hence "Prudence").  

Pru lays BIG pale blue eggs that are a bit on the green side.

They were laying in the laying boxes, but today, no one could be bothered, apparently.  So I got one egg from the floor and covered in poo!  Jerks.  Tomorrow they will have to stay in the coop until there are eggs...at least 5 (they don't all lay every day...I think 5 eggs per week per bird is pretty good).  They will have plenty of food and water.  And it's a big coop and there is a giant storm tomorrow so I'm sure they will all be in there most of the day anyway.  When it rains they either sit under a table I have outside or go back in the coop.

UPDATE:  I actually wrote this last week.  The hens lay more in the coop now, but not entirely.  We may need more prison days (not full days...) to encourage them to lay in the coop.  Today (for real today) Pru spent HOURS just sitting in a nesting box not laying an egg.  What the hell?  The original 3 were busy sitting under the table I got out of a dumpster a few years ago:

ANOTHER Chicken

Apparently there are lots of a--hole chickens in the world.
I helped at the community garden on Saturday, installing bees there.  Love the bees!

A chicken, they have like 100 chickens and give the eggs to those accessing the local food distribution systems like Second Harvest and sell them at 3$ a dozen to the rest of us.

ANYWAY, so the garden boss and I are installing bees and one chicken keeps getting out of the chicken run and into the garden.   The garden boss is threatening to kill it so I say "If she lays, I'll take her"...I had brought my chicken carrier made from an old bee box.   She offered a rooster too but I didn't want to stuff them both in the box.  The rooster is HUGE.

Within minutes of putting her in the run with Brittany and Suzanne, this new hen has a mouth full of feathers and is randomly beating the other two up.  Then she's out and running onto my porch and messing around in the garden.

She's tough and mean so I named her "T-Bone".  She's the head prisoner in the chicken run.  Suzanne continues to be mellow and so far today hasn't bothered to get out.   Brittany is constantly out, but easy to catch.  T-Bone is also easy to catch, but more likely to hide and spending too much time on the porch.  I will warn her that one chicken turd on the porch and I'll be having soup, same day.

The garden boss sent me home with veg that was past human consumption ...except for 2 romaine lettuce heads that were find for human consumption, so I ate those.   Greens, pears, a couple of sweet peppers.  All with lots of mold.  They were from the Second Harvest delivery.  Some were past it on arrival and some just didn't make it to the next distribution date.  The distribution center is on the same lot as the garden and they share staff/storage.   To maintain social distance fewer people can come for food at once and they can no longer tour the building picking what they want.  So, some of the fresh isn't making it.  I think the staff will find ways to sort this out.   When stuff arrives rotten, there isn't hope, and with fewer staff on hand at once (to maintain distance), it's hard to get it boxed up ahead of people coming.  The usual system is people come in and pick what they want, but now it's all car delivery.  Most other food distributions have gone to pre-boxed stuff and if people get say lettuce and hate lettuce, well, throw it out or compost it or give it away.  It might not all get eaten but it will have more of a shot!

I fed the slightly moldy veg to the hens.  They have some wheat berries, are eating worms and things.  I threw in a dead mouse I'd trapped in the garden.  And I have some cheapo bulk oatmeal to get through until I see if they are going to need real feed. 

I got 2 eggs yesterday!  Had them for breakfast today.  Nice!  If the shells get weak I'll go for some pre-fab feed, but they are free ranging so should get plenty of whatever they need.   Lord knows if they eat gophers or mice they will end up fat!

So, off to start on the upgraded coop and to fence off the raised beds that already have stuff planted in them.  And figure out something to keep the hens out of the enclosed porch bit.  I am not capable of making a screen door....but I'm going to try!

Thank A Janitor Day!!!

How about not a "day" but rather just do that always.
Janitors, housecleaners, maids, custodians, orderlies, homemakers, ANYONE who cleans stuff.

THANK YOU.  Thank you always and especially now. If anyone is an "essential worker" in a health crisis it is your local cleaning professional.

























So, there you have it.
These folks are on the frontlines of health EVERY DAY all the time and especially now.
I have been a janitor and a hotel maid (there must be a better phrase for that...something not sexist because half of us working there were dudes).   It's not easy and people assume you are stupid or a loser or poor.  I was cleaning a "motel no-tell" type establishment when I was working on my Ph.D.  Sure, I may have been a loser, but not uneducated.  People staying there would not talk to me like a human.  Please do that.

Last time I was at a hotel, a decent one, even though it wasn't all that clean, I thanked the cleaners (a man and a woman) when I saw them in the hall.  I told them I'd had that job, it's not easy, and I appreciate it.  I assume that the lack of super-clean-ness is more a lack of pay and people who will work for that pay rate than lack of wish to do a good job,   Hotels on the off season tend to cut staff.  Sometimes I had 10 minutes per room for weeks on end.  I can change sheets and do a bathroom in that amount of time, and maybe vacuum the traffic areas.  Mopping, hitting the baseboards, etc...not happeneing.  Getting paid minimum wage and very very few people knowing to tip each day (different cleaner may hit your room each day and they will not know how long you've been there and what other staff cleaned your room, and CERTAINLY they do not have the time to get together in a group and figure out who all cleaned that room or brought your damn extra towels over the time you were there and then divvy up the cash...how could they for every occupied room?).  Remember too that the cleaners do the halls, lobby and breakfast rooms, shovel the snow, wash the sheets and towels, and are generally treated like crap by management.  A tip and a note are encouraging and appreciated.

Anyway...the folks I thanked were surprised and pleased to be acknowledged.

I also thank the janitors at the gym.  The gym  here is CLEAN.  More bleach than I would ever use at home, but this isn't home.  It's the gym used by elders, people with immune issues, and people with athlete's foot.  So I thank them and wait for them to finish cleaning a shower or toilet before I barge in.  They too seem surprised to be thanked.

I've also thanked the cleaners at the local casino.  Haven't found a way to tip them but I'm working on it.  The toilets near and "all you can eat" buffet can NOT be a treat to clean.  That casino funds half my wages and many important things in the community and is the biggest employer around.  If that place looks dirty, the whole community loses.

Cleaners are the plankton of the economy...the whole chain rests on them.  How many businesses do you avoid because they are dirty?  I pay more for laundry because I go to the clean laundromat.  I thank the people cleaning it (who are also the owners and are frankly, quite wealthy...not just from the laundromat...they are also in realestate. I respect a wealthy real estate agent who also cleans toilets and mops floors)

So, take a moment now and always to thank anyone you see cleaning.

Again: