Updating

OK, not much is going on and yet I'm super busy. What the Heck?
Well, maybe alot is going on.

Bookclub read Zeitoun which was wonderful and horrible. It's about a family after Katrina, non-fiction. Makes me very glad to live in a non-hurricane prone area (at least until global warming brings the ocean up 2500 feet). It does bring up an issue or two though. One person in this non-fiction book was arrested for having a large amount of cash on hand. But having a large amount of cash on hand is EXACTLY what we are told to do in an emergency. Instead of congratulating him on his preparedness, the "homeland security" worker arrested him and jailed him and his money was never seen again. Hmmm....I guess I'll have cash on hand and take my lumps. Other people were arrested for having nothing. Both were seen as suspicious. Perhaps we need to look harder at our "homeland security" and perhaps we need FEMA and security agencies separated again.

Anyway, next we're reading, at my suggestion, To Kill A Mockingbird. Aside from the main point of the book, there is quite a bit about frugality and simplicity in there. The people Scout, and apparently Atticus, respect most are those who've made conscious decisions about how to live their lives. That's pretty central to simplicity and frugality.

As for homelife...it's that time of year when I take an inventory of my panty (meaning the front bedroom, cupboards and shelves in the kitchen, and the space under the bed where I store my home-canned goods), then fill in for the winter. I'm doing OK and hopefully by the end of October will be all set for winter. Last winter I was so set, I put on like 20lbs. Good work! (maybe too good...). I ordered another 4gallon bucket (48 lbs) of honey. It went up 20$ this year which still isn't bad for a year and a half of sweetening. I also bought a pint of their buckwheat honey. It's as dark as black strap molasses but delicious (molasses is a tad bitter even for me). It's also super thick but that may be the temperature in the house rather than the natural consistency of the honey.

I, on the recommendation of a young friend, bought a 20$ space heater so I can keep the furnace off longer into fall/winter this year. So far it's working. It will add 5 degrees to the living room in about an hour. The difference between 50degrees and 55 is pretty significant. The tough part is getting up in the morning. It was 49 in the bedroom this morning which makes it hard to get up. The good part is I can heat the bathroom in about 20 minutes and be able to take a shower without fear of pneumonia. I need to re-borrow the volt-meter from the library and see what this little bugger is pulling. It HAS to be cheaper than turning on the electric furnace.

On that topic, I cleaned the furnace out, put in a new filter and got it ready for the new season.

I've got one last batch of onions to dehydrate, then I might be done for the time being. I also have onions and potatoes from the CSA which should store pretty well into winter and about 5 garlic bulbs from my garden (woohoo!). I need more garlic. I've been buying winter squash for storage as well. Have 5 right now. Maybe 10 more to get me through winter. Tons of dried tomatoes, with some left from last winter. I dried a few more (meaning 3 pints dried) sweet peppers. I have plenty of medium and hot left from last year.

The next task is to harvest the remaining marble like potatoes from my garden, throw on the horse poo and chicken poo on the half that will be fallow for the winter and some worm poo on the half where I'll put in walking onions and garlic.