Things to Cut When Money Is Tight...2026 November Edition

 1) overstocking...

The "prepping" stuff is upping in my youtube algorithm and I am tempted to REALLY stock up for winter.

Alas, not much storage due to living in the wee shed.  And it freezing and thawing a lot.

As you stock up, also take stock (see what I did there?) of your stock (enough already).

I look at what I still have hanging around un-eaten, un-used, and try to remember what went to waste.

Don't stock so much of that!  Also, what I tend to just binge eat rather than enjoying gradually all winter (farewell almond butter...on a spoon).  

What didn't work:  

--Cheap sardines.  Expensive sardines YES.  Cheap salty slimy brands...NO.  No point in stocking what I won't eat. (Adjustment: expensive sardines stocked up when on sale and stored at work to avoid the freeze/thaw cycle when I'm out of town for a few days in winter)

--nutbutter (I just eat it immediately)

--olive oil (left it at home and it was so cold it wasn't pourable for months...adjustment: liquid oil only at work and only enough for salads and on microwaved potatoes and squash)

--...that's about it.  I've learned over the years. 

What DOES work for me:

--beans from New Mexico and local growers near home (delicious, cook up faster and easy to cook on the woodstove in winter.  Aging beans from the store just aren't as good but I will use them in a pinch)

--home jarred/canned meat and fish in the office pantry cupboard to avoid freeze/thaw.  Easy to take a jar home and make a fast stew

--apples.  Generally what I pick myself.  They store for ages because they are random old breeds.

--local hard winter squash.  Stores for ages without special conditions.  

--sprouting seeds.  Great when I remember to sprout them!  Cheap winter fresh greens.

--berries (this year it's Service berries, raspberries and blueberries) in jars of vinegar in the office pantry.   These taste like fresh berries on pancakes or in breads or on salads with a bit of oil for instant dressing.  Also good in stews when tomatoes are not a thing.  I take them home a quart at a time from the work pantry cupboard and use them up.  The vinegar that is left over can be used on one more batch of berries if I put in a bit of vinegar mother (which has usually sprouted on at least one jar of berries) to keep it fermenting and acid enough.  Then the delicious berry flavored vinegar is used as salad dressing or a bit in water with some honey as a sort of berry-vinegar version of lemonade.  Some gets used to make homemade mustard from whole mustard seed.

--dried food (apples, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and jerky currently in stock).  These can be at home with the dry beans and make up a stew base or the fruits put in oatmeal or just eaten as is.

--onions.  At home until they might freeze, then I buy in small quanties for main part of winter to avoid freeze/thaw issues.

--jam and honey in the work pantry cupboard (This year it's partly honey from the co-op bees at a friend's house!  Three of us worked together and jointly paid for them and we each got about 5 or 6 pints of honey!  So cool.  We spun it out ourselves with a hand cranked spinner...messy and fun.)

--dry grains (current stock: a few types of flour, just 1 quart jar each, posole, wheat berries (I think...), chicos, oatmeal.)  Store anywhere, don't mind a bit of freeze/thaw cycling and cook up nicely on a warm woodstove all day.  If you haven't had chicos (corn dried in an horno or earth oven) you are missing out.   EXPENSIVE but amazing.  I'd like to get some parched wild rice in but I think I have enough grain so maybe leave that for next year.

--coffee beans.   To go with my hand grinder.   Because, I like coffee and process so it works for me.  I currently have about 3lbs of coffee beans which is a few months of supply.  (thanks Chris for the last pound..it is REALLY good stuff).

Through winter I buy a week or 2 worth of root veg at a time so it's not ALL dry veg and canned meat or dry beans.  I will also be making a quart of sauerkraut at a time now and then through winter when I know it won't freeze.  Just takes about 5 min of chopping and cramming into a jar.  Maybe some ginger carrots now and then as well.  I like fermenting and it stretches the shelf life of the food a bit as well as upping the nutrition and flavor.

Over stock is waste.  And expense.  Think about culling and sharing out what you aren't going to consume and focussing on what you do eat and like.

Over stock is the same for clothes, cleaning supplies, hygiene products etc.  

It's Getting Better

 OK, you get real humble real fast with a back issue.

I haven't been able to lift or workout much/at-all which annoys me (I am a late bloomer as far as gym rats but I hate losing strength it took me a decade to build up). but I have been doing really light no-impact hiit workouts for the elderly and yoga daily.  And taking some aspirin.  

The aspirin works since I rarely take ANYTHING for pain.  It's not eliminating the pain, which would probably result in me overdoing things and re-injuring my back.  Aspirin takes the edge off so I can get around without cussing every time I move.

Yesterday I put my pants on without strategizing first!  And got out of the car without pushing the seat all the way back and pivoting on my butt as a solid unit.  Just stuck my leg out of the door and got up!  A MIRACLE!  Or, patience and letting things heal.

I am planning on hitting the gym for a very short, light session today mid-day.  I usually like to be  there in the wee hours of the morning when no one can see me, but for the moment, it's too cold out to drive that early...correction, too cold out to get stuck behind a wreck that early....and I want to be able to flag down a passerby or call the gym manager if I re-hurt myself and end up stuck on the floor.  It's a gym where one is usually ALONE (awesome!)

I think the back is ready for some controlled lifting of very very light weights. I could do a back bend this morning during my yoga session and that was impossible for the first week.  

things that went well during the injury:

having the 8lb NIEL logs to burn rather than having to split wood or pick up wood chunks of unknown weight.  

having enough water on hand  (have to haul it up hill during the winter for drinking purposes as the well water gets stale and gross.  And I'd have to lift the handle on the outdoor spigot which was not going to happen) to get through the first few days without hauling.

having multiple boot/show options as not all were possible to to put on.   

having enough clean clothes to make it though just one more week before hitting the laundry (more hauling and toting.  I COULD have made it work with multiple trips up and down the hill but ugh.  Those extra sox and undies meant I did not have to worry about it

having a floor-sleeping option.  Getting in and out of the loft when I had to be on hands and knees to get out of bed...there is only 6" of space beyond the camping mattress in the loft to work with.  That's FINE when I'm FINE, but not if I needed a level hard surface big enough to let me maneuver through various contortions to get on hands and knees to get out of bed.  So, camping mattress to the floor, chair blocking the door (not ideal but it's not like I could get up and run out if the place burst into flames anyway).   

having completely indoor toileting options.   People kept telling me "just pee outside!" uh...right.... 1+ times in the middle of the night every night you want me to come down from the loft, put something on my feet, find the headlamp, mosey OUTSIDE (down the stoop), find somewhere not visible on a moonlit night (and all day every day I'm home) from the highway, squat down, not pee on my ankles and then reverse those steps back into bed?  NO.  Also staying ahead of the toilet situation so i had a day or two to sort my back out before hauling the compost (which one hauls before it gets too heavy) bucket to the processing location OUTSIDE far from the homesite.

having enough food on hand.  Duh.

having first aid supplies on hand including aspirin and pain rub (arnica hippy dippy stuff)

Things that were not crashing successes...

losing my stability poles (ski poles from thrift) so I stopped at a thrift store ASAP and got another pair.  

having a leaky hot water bottle and no instant handwarmers!   so I didn't have an easy option to put heat on my back.  Still working on fixing this one.

falling down in the first place but...I fall often so this probably isn't going to change.  

OW!!!! I FELL!

 Hard.  I was walking from the wee shed to the car this morning so I could go in and get a shower at the gym before work.

I had my lunch (in jars) in a bag with an empty gallon jug to fill with water at work (unfrozen water...) to cook with tonight.  And a backpack with clean clothes to put in my gym bag which lives in the car.

I'm following some animal's tracks, trying to figure out what it is and generally just walking to the car.

THEN at the bottom of the hill like 6 feet from the car and also right next to the car, the animal tracks are all smeary like it was slipping and sliding.

THEN I'm on the ground, on my back, with a jar of lunch jammed between me and the icy path, apparently, my hat and head lamp (it was still dark out) are somewhere, my glasses, which had been in my hand are somewhere else.  The jar of lunch under my back REALLY HURT.  IT was just outside a kidney location and FORTUNATELY DID NOT BREAK.  Because, that could have been really bad.  I was wearing a pretty thick coat.  I have not idea why the jar didn't break.  I hit hard.  And there isn't much meat there.

My back is wonked on the left side now.  It took a couple of minutes to find my stuff, and get up.  And old-lady flatfoot shuffle to the car.  VERY CAREFULLY and PAINFULLY.   Once my butt was in the seat, it was better . As long as I didn't move at all.  which is awkward when you need to steer and brake, etc.

I took a 30min hot shower with the massager right on my owie mid-low-back.   I didn't see a bruise.  

The shower helped.  Getting sox on with half a stuck back was an adventure.  Compression sox.  I had to sit down  Usually don't have to.

Once at the office I walked VERY CAREFULLY across some slick sh*t into the office and got my chair reset to the most supportive option.  And cranked my belt down like it is a weight belt.  If I jam my fist into the sore spot on my back, I can walk a bit more.

FORTNATELY I had forgotten some arnica salve from a previous Santa Fe trip at the office.  That is good for strained muscles and bruises so that's on there.  I may rig up a heating pad of some sort later.  Not sure how.  I have a date with a hot water bottle once I get home.  

This was my first fall of the winter and it was full on Bugs Bunny.  I wasn't even facing the way I was walking by the time I hit the pavement.  It's like I jumped up and body slammed myself.

I SAW THE COMET AGAIN!!!

 It was super cool again.

I SAW THE COMET!!!! !!!

 It was super cool.

I was out driving at dusk, which I hate because...deer.

But I'd been helping with a chicken butchering day at a friend's place and that was when we were done enough to leave  I had heard there would be a comet but since I didn't see the northern lights (living in a ravine with trees either side and falling asleep EARLY work against me).

SO I'm driving home and look west and THERE IT IS!!!!  It looks like a COMET in a cartoon about comets.  The big tail and everything.  There wasn't anywhere safe to pull over so instead I was unsafely staring at the sky instead of the dusky deer ridden dark road.

To celebrate, my car wouldn't start this morning.  I might have a battery drain issue, a super old battery, or both.  Or...stuff I can't even imagine because I have no idea how cars work.  I tried jumping it with the tiny jumpstart battery thing....nope.  That had worked before so I guess I will get a new battery and see if that works.  If not, I will jump it with the pickup...or use that AAA for a tow.

I drove the truck Friday, didn't drive Saturday, and drove the truck Sunday.   So the car had sat several days.   It did jump with the little jump starter thingy when I was parked at the airport 2 weeks so...probably battery???? (see above...I don't know how cars work).

A (slightly) NEWER CAR!!

 So, Juanita, my CRV, had to go to a farm.  REALLY.  Not like that dog a governor shot.  Actually to a farm.  Here is photographic proof:

She's quite happy there even with her wonky fender from an unfortunate encounter with a deer.  Less fortunate for the deer really....

I don't have a name for the new rig yet...working on it....

Another Honda.  2003 Element (replacing a 2002 CRV).   SUPER fun to drive.  Only 91000 miles.  For me, there is well and truly an "only" in front of that mileage.   Juanita had 165,000.

I paid more than planned, probably more than I had to if I had infinite time to shop and didn't REALLY REALLY like this car.  I've wanted an Element for a while.  Even more after driving a friend's for a few days around Santa Fe (Thanks Lynn!  Sorry about the near miss while you were in the car....let's focus on the "miss" part of that).

Anyway, it's basically a van you can hose out with GIANT doors and the back doors open backwards making an even bigger space to get crap/people in and out.

I sat in it for the test drive and went "ahhh" because it super fits my back and butt.  It's, much like Juanita's, seats are like straight back kitchen chairs.   Those work well with the giant stick reportedly up my butt.  I took it to a friend's house and he sat in it and said "ahhh"...also fit his back.  

It was towed behind and RV mostly so the back wheels have been yanked about a bit.  Otherwise, in pretty sweet shape.  Even came with a scotche (scoach?) BIT of dog hair.   There was a husky riding in it so they tell me.  Whatever.

No matter what I paid, pretty sure I can hit my purchase metric:  10,000miles/1k$ in purchase and unexpected repairs.

Juanita was a 5k$ purchase.  Let's say 1k$ in unexpected repairs (she went through brakes fast!) and I was at 68,000 miles and change that I put on her in 3years and  few months.  So, we were roughly even.

BUT GET THIS!!!  The dealer would NOT take Juanita in trade!  Not even for scrap.  The salesperson said she didn't want to give me 300$ scrap for a car that could still be driven.  I didn't want to mess with selling a vehicle or keeping plates/insurance on another rig if I owned it along with the newer car.  So I gave it away to a friend.  Worst case scenario the winter tires on rims will fit the friend's other vehicle and she can junk Juanita if she wants.   But, she's driving it!  She doesn't drive as much as me and has more back up drivers with vehicles in her area.  Juanita just wasn't up to being my daily driver with a 50mile/day commute minimum.  

Anyway, driving a car to the point the USED car dealer won't take it is a new personal best!  And Juanita gets to live out her natural life on a farm.   The farmer's helper said "this is a great car" and did some deliveries the day after they got her.  Nice.

The Element is a blast to drive.  Has good tires.  Still a rough ride because ...honda...but NOTHING like the 50mile kidney punch that was commuting in Juanita.  

The Element has good clearance, ooooooodles of hauling space (like enough that I wouldn't need a truck immediately should my pickup be undrivable for some reason)  (but so far Prince, the pick up, is doing GREAT!).  

Well, that's the news for now.

Soooo...APPARENTLY....I had the 'Rona

 Also apparently, the Red Cross tested me for antibodies when I donated blood in May of this year.  They had stopped the antibody testing ages ago.  I didn't realize they had re-started for a short time to find "convalescent plasma" donor options.   I think they aren't testing again...

ANYWAY...I was booking or rebooking an appointment for the future and was looking through my old vitals and whatnot from past appointments because, why not.  I have great blood pressure and sometimes my heart rate is so low they have to call HQ for permission to drain my blood.  They say things like "no, she's fine, just calm" or "I guess she meditates" and then they can do it.

On the May appointment record was also a covid antibody test that said "Reactive +"

When one has the vaccine and an immune response to it, you get "Reactive" but no "+".  So I looked that up!  I had enough antibodies for convalescent plasma donations (to help those who are sick).  

You have to have "had" the disease or at least mounted a major immune response to it.

I had tested my nose several times through spring before travel or when I was seeing someone with a compromised immune system.   And in the spring when I sneezed once and once when I was tired on a Friday.  All negative.   Interesting.

As far as I know, I didn't infect anyone fragile!  I hope!!  There was a time when everyone at work but me and another woman were out sick.  She also has "never had" the 'rona.  But people she lives with have had it multiple times.

Probably she and I had those no-symptom cases I've heard about.  I figured I would be one who had that but was also enjoying that I might be the LAST person to get it.  Guess not!

I'm fairly glad to know I've had it.  More immune having had vaccine and the disease than either one alone and I've had my vaccines.  And a booster.  Cool.

In much much sadder news...Loretta Lynn died today.  

Here are links to a couple of songs that were banned from radio and something more recent:

Rated X about divorced women being treated poorly 

https://youtu.be/SVlnhB3xPtY

The Pill...about birth control and how important that is:

https://youtu.be/E2pd1l0i0A8

And something she did with Jack White because...why not!

https://youtu.be/11tjR5ZflSw

RIP Loretta.

Anti-Inflammatory Update 3: The Minor Sugar Intake

 Still sticking with the anti-inflammatory April as I define it.  No sugar, no refined carbs.  Bit of organic whole wheat flour, plenty of veggies, eggs, and whatnot.

It is going well.  My owie toe is getting mobility back. I have no idea if it would have gotten better at this rate without the diet, but I had been working on it for 2 months before this and only made a little progress.  I COULD drop a log on the same toe on the other foot and start eating crap to see how long it takes that to get better, but I'm not going to.  

LOTS of potatoes this week because that is what I have and they are getting soft so have to eat it up. Also, carrots and onions.  I'm eating nearly an onion a day and lots of soups.  Soups are easy and tasty...NOT NEWS on that.  Mostly boiling the diced onion directly in the water rather than frying it, as noted before, because I do not want every thing I own to stink of fried onion.

I'll have garlic for next week if I run out of onions.

It is easier to keep salt intake low when one cooks for one's self.

And, as with previous food experiments, it is making more creative.  You can do lots of things with a potato.

As I run out of potatoes and the quinoa is getting low, I've started adding in a bit of whole wheat flour doing countertop dough, because I do not have a fridge.  I add dried yeast bought YEARS ago, that dry stuff cheap by the pound, to some whole wheat organic flour.  Then add water (no salt, keeping sodium low) and leave it at least over night.

When it came time to bake the first try at the dough, I greased up the tiny skillet (from thrift, obviously) formerly probably in a cookie kit gift thingy, and put the dough on it and stuck it inside the wood stove.  That worked great!  I spun it around after a while, because one side was toward the coals, then flipped it when the top was pretty brown.   It was good!  Bland because no salt so I will probably try putting herbs or spices in it eventually.  Or fermenting it longer.  I have vital wheat gluten to boost the protein etc and have used that a time or two.

Eggs...buttloads of eggs are being consumed.  4 today.  The hens are laying so free range pastured eggs are available to me.  And delicious.   Boiled, fried, scrambled.  Not poached or soft boiled because that is GROSS.  Also did some muffins at work in the toaster oven with a bit of that flour in some eggs with some olive oil and service berries stored in vinegar all winter.   Service berries have also gone in some gelatin, unflavored organic beef gelatin.

I'm out of lentils, garbanzos and peruana beans.  Down to split green peas and working on learning to cook those.  They are fine.  Will probably do a pea and quinoa pilaf next week when the taters have run out.  

Yes, I could buy more potatoes or whatever but I want to do a clear out on my stored food before the farmers markets start up in May.  

Eggs with the anti-inflammatory spice mix has been most breakfasts.  A few I just put in a lot of cocoa powder.  Also good!  2T of either of those with 2 eggs beaten in makes more or less a pancake whether fried or microwaved in a bowl.

As for new recipes...other than the woodstove firebox baked bread, nothing new and there only the location of the baking was new.

If I come up with a good way to make green peas, I will share.

That is all pretty boring!  But, it's going well.

So...the minor sugar intake.  Yesterday a long time friend and colleague defended her PhD Dissertation via zoom and in person, I was in person.  She had made cookies and zucchini or something bread.  I went with 2 reasonably sized cookies.  I meant to take one, but maybe muscle memory defeated me??

Anyway, less than 40 carbs/sugars and under 40 sods based on the recipe she seems to have used.  Very good.

I've run out of some teas (like that rooibos from Paris...sigh) which motivated me to use up the nettle and other herbal tea supply, or start on it.  The nettles are a diuretic so the first day drinking that I got extra steps in running to the turlet.  But my cankles looked great!

Even with a bit of sugar yesterday, I am not having cravings today which is good.  

I've also managed 2 lunches out without blowing it.  Going to a restaurant that specializes in locally sourced ingredients and has healthy salad and soup options, then skipping the bread (salty even if local and organic flour is used and I have the salt issue...thanks old age!)

Not bad over all.

 

Thrifty Mistake and "What would you do?" response

 Firstly, I am having a disorganized day.   Went to the mondo hardware this morning (local owner, not big box), and FORGOT to load half my prepaid order because I got over excited about the 6' long "scraps" in the free bin (which I scouted before I placed and paid for the lumber package up front so I could save $$).   The dude at the exit gate who checks what you got asked if I wanted to go back in and get the rest of the order.  DOH!   Yes please.   He had just cut off a finger joint so I don't think he judged me for being a tad stupid.  The finger was all bandaged up.  I told him if the attempt to sew it back on didn't take, he'd look like a shop teacher.  Fortunately, he laughed.

Second.  I've been watching the "what would you do" frugal vids on the youtubes.

The game is that there are a few ingredients and no money, no resources to go get food.   Then, make meals for 1-7 days for 1 person or a family.   Basically a food is running out scenario.

I've had those days.  Talking to a cousin  I found out that when the family of siblings were all kids, our gramma stopped by to find that the only food in the house was bread with mouse holes in it.  Gramma got mad and told the mom to always let Gram know when the kids were hungry.  The dad at the time was in the hospital with pneumonia so out of work for a few weeks or more.   

I had some lean times in college grad school.  I don't remember any food insecure times as a kid but I remember going to the town where both gramma's were once when my father was on strike for a while.  Mom gardened, froze food, and shopped well.   My father fished and hunted and occasionally an animal may or may not have been butchered in the basement at night (lived in town). I don't think you can prosecute the deceased for poaching or bogarting roadkill.

What I did in college/grad school when money was so low I couldn't get more food...and I thought I had no right to the public food pantry (I did, I was genuinely broke) was stretch what I had.

By my senior year I was getting better at it.  I had learned to make sourdough starter and bread.  At one point I was down to a few dollars, and 2 new jobs so 6 weeks to eat before a paycheck showed up (2 week pay period but pay delayed a month after the end of the pay period...the 80s were not a peak time for the low paid worker).

I assessed what I had.  Then went to the store.  I remember getting a big bag of flour and another of sugar, and some tomato sauce or paste in cans.  I could get more calories per dollar that way.  I managed a pound or two of ground beef.  Took it home.  Started the sourdough.  Divided the meat into small baggies to spread the protein out.  I had some condiments and spices and baking cocoa.  And no doubt pasta and spaghetti sauce (I didn't know how to make it myself yet...DOH!)

I remember the landlord coming in to fix something and seeing me eat pasta sauce by dipping bread in it (delicious fresh baked bread at least...)

I could make a "sauce" of baking cocoa and sugar as well.  More bread dipping.

The meat was fried in crumbles and I could make 1-2 sandwiches with one little baggie.  The next day I would fry bread in the left over burger grease (probably supplemented with cheap veg oil from the cupboard).  

NOT the most nutritious but I made it.  I knew it was short term and fortunately that turned out to be true.  One major injury and it could have been permanent.

So, that's what I'd do.

During 'Rona Round 1, i.e. 2020, I would take a few things out of pantry stock and eat on them for however long to use them up.  Handy.  Sort of the marathon version of 'what would you do.'

Key to that is taking a pantry inventory which I need to do. I started one the other day, but I fell asleep. 

The King Is Dead...Long Live the King

 Fabio, the rooster with the big blond mane, is dead.  He attacked me one too many times and had been  hard on the hens.   I got a new rooster from a local farm...though...he may not be entirely rooster.  We'll see.  NO ONE crowed this morning.  I actually overslept.  I have alarms but also listen for poultry discontent. There wasn't any.   Noted.  We'll see if Houdini cocks-up (like "mans up" but for chickens).  He, they?, are not terribly masculine.  Reminds me a bit of Cogburn who turned out to be hermaphroditic, and was a fine flock organizer, guard and provider (shared snakes he caught).  Anyway, Fabio.

He gave his life to science.  A colleague and I butchered him out with stone tools as an experiment for work.   It was interesting, and respectful.

The actual kill moment went..uh...not perfect.  Fabio's neck was hard to cut, couldn't be broken.  It took a couple of minutes for us to do the kill.  That sucked.  I prefer a quick, clean, lower trauma system.   Cutting with OBSIDIAN...couldn't get through.   Tried the head anchored to the ground and pulling up to break the neck and sever the spine!!!! I COULD'T DO IT!!!  I was pulling with my legs.  I have done 20 hens and roosters and ducks in a row this way but could not get this guy.   FINALLY, found one spot on the neck that a harders stone knife could get.   Next time we will have another back up method in place.   Before the kill I thanked him and said we'd do our best.   During and after, we thanked and apologized.

His hide was also tough.  Inflating it with a garden hose with 40psi+ and couldn't get him to fully inflate. I have not had that happen.   Still, even partial inflation helped the skinning and saved the hide.

Trying to break the joints...my colleague is a fit 6'3" dude in his 30s and HE couldn't twist the leg joint!  Good lord Fabio!  You were a beast!  Hybrid vigor I guess.  So, when you can't snap and stretch the joint, it is hard to cut the tendons and break up the carcass.  It would have been a faster butcher with a less tough bird.  But, a wild bird could be this tough as well...turkeys.  I know there are wild chickens locally.

The colleague and I did the hide by cutting up the back, peeling the skin which came off well.  Forgot to cut around the legs and wings (also hard to bust the shoulder joint to get those off).  Noted.  The hide is staked out with borax on it.  I will freshen up the borax today and see if the feathers are clean enough to offer to local craft people.

The guts went to the hens because they are gross.  I must say, there were some giant rooster balls in there!  Cripes.   The gizzard was smallish.  About the same size as his balls.   Big liver too.   The hens went right for the soft bits.

Cutting up the back between the spine and the ribs was a non-starter.  The colleague cut through the thin part of the ribs.  This left a meaty back and neck portion.  This also went to the hens and wildlife.  The breast was good sized and the legs were almost turkey legs.  These went home with the colleague. Because we hadn't prepped a 2nd table and there were tiny rock shards on the main table, we butchered on the ground on cardboard and the carcass wasn't super clean.

A friend taking photos for work records told us to wipe the carcass down with vinegar for better grippage.  He was right!  It was like magic!  Noted.

I'm not sharing a photo because we only used the work camera and I set the rule that we don't use any of those for personal things.

The whole thing, setup area, tables, etc, sharpen the stone knives, photograph them, kill the bird, cut him up, and basic clean up (it's outside...critters do much of the clean up) and get the equipment loaded back on the pick up...90 min.   We could have done an assembly line and had 3 or 4 going at a time even with 2 people and done those in 2 hours.   With practice and a less tough bird, or not trying to save the feathers, even faster.

Thar She Blows!!!!

 So, I like me some berry infused vinegar AND I like to store berries in vinegar for the winter and then eat them.  Kismet because storing berries in vinegar automatically makes berry infused vinegar.

I have several quarts still from last fall.  All is well with the big mason jars of berries in vinegar.  

Once I eat all the berries from a jar, I move the vinegar into flip-top or screw top sturdy bottles. 

Since I was going to be gone for a while in March and the weather would be cold, I brought all glass containers of liquids to the office for storage.  At home, they might freeze and bust and make a big mess.

After I was home and the weather warmed up a bit, I brought a couple bottles of the vinegar home again.  This would be last Friday.   I get home, after carrying the vinegar bottles and some other food products in a cooler...because we don't want that to spill.   I bring it in, take the stuff out and put it on the table that is my kitchen.  Take cooler outside...add it to the pile on the porch because I don't have room for that nonsense inside the house.

I look at the huckleberry vinegar.  It is deep deep purple.  I was wondering if it was still fizzy like before I left when I burped it to let the pressure off.  (Reminder:  we're in the house, it's purple vinegar that just made a 30minute ride in a bumpy pick up and was hauled up the hill in a cooler balanced on my waist).   

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!

Yes, it was still fizzy.

It was (past tense) in a flip top bottle which can take lots of pressure.  However, when you release the fliptop said pressure releases.  Lots of vinegar came along for the ride.  DEEP PURPLE VINEGAR.

Like this but a higher geyser and more purple:

Fortunately, I did suppress the urge to stick my hand over the geyser of purple vinegar foam.   Hence just one big blotchy line of splatters on the floor, kitchen table, rugs, everything on the kitchen table, some adjacent items like a brand new teal baseball cap and a yoga mat.   

I made it outside where it continued to geyse while I mopped up with old dish towels and some new TP.  No paper towels in my house.

I got to spend my evening dealing with the kitchen area and bare unfinished wood floor, and much of the weekend trying to get stains out of the hat and the worst hit rug.  The rugs will eventually go to  the laundromat.  I don't really care if they have some stains.  They are old and not my good rugs.   The hat...I wanted to call Gram...mistress of all things laundry but she's dead and I couldn't find my  ouija board.  Damn.   I seem to be the laundry headmistress now so I faked it.   Water... stain spray and laundry detergent were what I had.  Soaked up the worst of it with some baking soda because it is super dry and pulls stains out of stuff.  That helped.   Then the hat gets spot cleaned with the various detergents and into a soak bucket for a day...then a day and a half.   Finally, rubbing alcohol on a q-tip.  It's pretty good.  I can see slightly dark blotches where the purple vinegar hit, but otherwise, pretty damn good.  Spot cleaned the worst hit rug and put it in the left over hat water for a day.  It will go to the laundry with the other two lesser rugs.   

The bare wood floor...just soaked up what I could with the white cotton old (that makes them more absorbent) towels and TP.   Can't really see where the stuff hit.

Got to spend lots of Saturday doing dishes outside.   It was warm anyway.   I figured if I had to do the whole kitchen table including stuff that is more storage than utensil, might as well do everything.   That took a couple hours.

As a result, about half my place is spring cleaned.  That's fine.  Not what I planned to achieve over the weekend but it's done now.  And I got a bit of a tan by wearing a tank top while dish washing and hand laundering outside.

Post Vax Frugal Vacation

 1 step to a frugal vacation:

Step 1:  mooch off your richer sister.

(thanks!)

That's all the steps.

She's working from home and decided to do that from Santa Fe.   Rented a condo.  Offered me a free ticket and a couch and bingo-bango-bongo...free vacation.

Almost free. Pretty frugal.

An Aunt (Hi Chris) sponsored a dinner.  YUM.  We chose La Plazuela at La Fonda.  Super good and nicely spaced out.

Which reminds me:  I'm fully vaccined.  Thanks to the Tribe I work for who are super cool and generous.   Hence, traveled.  I know Fauci was saying it's not a license to travel, but it totes is.  Because I was going bonkers and offered a free vacation.  Some people....yes, you middle aged white conservative males!...were not masking on the airplanes, which were mostly packed.  At least I was vaccined.  Hope they didn't spread the 'rona to too  many people.  And, yes, I know the real word is "vaccinated" but I do not care.

ANYHOO, great vacation.  Ate most of the food in Santa Fe so don't bother going there now.

I loved that the museums that were open, mostly took timed appointments for entry.  It made for an old school, quiet, calm visit rather than the usual being run over by strollers full of toddlers piloted by privileged asshole parents who ram walls and damage art and talk loud.  ONE place, the Wheelwright, had people in there being loud IDIOTS, though there were limited timed entry tickets.  Oh well.

The farmers market and art market were done well especially when I went early to the farmers market.  People in Santa Fe are not, as a group, early risers.  The market doesn't start until 8am.  My day is half over by then.  By 10am it is getting crowded and the sellers are getting sick of people.  At 8, still not crowded and sellers still cheerful.

The art market folks...super appreciate them...are struggling with sales but hanging in there.  We bought a few significant pieces and I indulged in some amazing lotions/potions from Angela (Angelina?).  I shipped them to myself so can put the real contact when I get them.   She is amazing and gives great free, individually packed, samples.  I JUST ran out of her orange hand lotion before I went back down so now, have presents for 2 people and more lotion for me.

The farmers market...beware the eggs.  Some are 8$ a dozen, some are 3$ a dozen.  Tried both.  Get the 3$.  All are fine.  The 3$ had much less poo on them.  I'm not against poo, but the expensive ones took me forever to wash up.

We toured Tsankawi twice, Bandelier once, the Pecos and Rio Grande river areas with artists (Hi guys!) and it was lovely.  Saw relatives (also vaccined) and again, ate and ate and ate.  

Castro's is my  new favorite.  Best sopapillas on the planet.  Taosenos, at Taos, also amazing.  And then there is Santarepa...just eat there.  Eat whatever the owner says you should eat.  Tea House, fab.  Kakawa chocolate house, just eat there and drink the chocolate.  LOTS of non-dairy options! Woot woot!  Amazing.  Not fast, amazing.  Also, the little concession at Bandelier National Monument serves Kakawa hot chocolate so you can have some there too.  

At the farmers market we got goat meat and buffalo meat.  Both excellent.  Made some epically good meatloaf.

Pam (hi Pam!) was teaching me keto-ish stuff so I made a blueberry clafoutis (I know, not REALLY a clafoutis if it's not cherry but I was in France and they make non-cherry clafoutis too so shut up).  I substituted EVERY ingredient except the eggs and blueberries from a Jacques Pepin recipe and it was still delicious.   I will be eating that a lot.  

I'm not going keto, but am interested in getting away from so much carb-y, especially processed white carb-y, food.  

Maybe I will post pictures later but right now, I might need a nap.

Brand New EXTREMELY Used Car

 I was going to post about something else and then I remembered I hadn't put up the new rig.  I will have to shut off comments on this post because purchase posts get super spammed.  

Anyway, so, partway through the house build, when I was at the financial nadir of the winter (still thankfully employed and getting checks but the savings had pretty much all been transferred to the builderman and mrs builderman)...the subaru gave up the ghost.  Sol is dead.  Sol (remember, I got it by the summer solstice so "Sol") is an ex vehicle.   It started shaking like a beast.  Very much like when it broke a drive shaft (there are 2 on a subaru) last spring and cost me 300+$.   I took it in and found out it  had a completely f'd ignition system including a blown up (yes, it exploded a little and burned a hole through itself) ignition coil.   That and the new wires and installation on the hard-to-work-on motor cost me 500$ or so.  It was 180k miles LATE on the 2nd timing belt, burning more and more oil, and had 288000 miles on it.  This is not a car worth fixing.  I drew a line under it and started driving the pick up.  Not a super delight, but it was "the good car" for a couple of months.

I searched high and low.  I had 5000$ for a rig and Sol as a trade-in or to scrap.  Also, Sol had a dying battery.  Anyway, the longer I could deal with the truck, the more I could save.  By the time I purchased, I could have possibly spent 6-8000$ for the right vehicle.  I test drove a variety of things.  Chevy Equinox made my spine hurt in 20 min.   Toyota Sienna was just crap.  The particular one I drove, could afford, was less uncomfortable but also drove like a couch which makes me puke.  A super smooth ride and I get car sick.  Both would have been dealt with if I had no truck, but I had the truck.   So, I told the dealer, same one I got the truck from that my dream car was an old Honda CR-V or Subaru Forester.   The sedans I considered did not have enough clearance and newer subarus have the expensive 17" tires.  

I had two dealers I was watching and a CR-V popped up at one.  I called, texted, and emailed them requesting a 36 hour hold on it because I had work meetings I couldn't miss and they are an hour from me.   They held it , because it's easy to sell an old CR-V.  They said they had 4 or 5 people waiting in the wings if I didn't want it.  Whatever.  Don't care.

I read the reviews for the 2002 model, reliability ratings and the CarFax.  All were fine.  Of special interest was the timing CHAIN.  No belt.  The 2002 is the year Honda took the CR-V back to a timing chain.  These are much much more reliable than belts and may not need replacing for the life of the vehicle.  A timing belt replacement on the subaru was going to be over 1200$...nope.  That's why I let it go on Sol.  The CR-V is all wheel drive, plenty of clearance and has 15" wheels hence much much cheaper tires.  Also narrower tires than the subaru.  I did not look up features or cool stuff.  Don't care.  

My bottom line criteria:

Clearance of 5.75" or more

Automatic (clutch/gas dyslexia is not a solvable issue, I tried for 3 years solid, screw it)

All wheel if possible

Reasonable chance of getting 1+miles of driving for every 10cents of purchase price plus major repairs.

Seats that don't cause immediate back/next pain

and...a new one after testing the above mentioned Sienna....does not REEK of baby puke.

Preferred: 

Stiff/rough ride

Decent handling

Cheap to fix

Good cargo space

Stupid but I thought it would be fun:

a tire mounted on the back door  (because I've never had one)

I got there, in the truck, to test drive it.  It was fine.  The driver's seat is a tad wiggly but whatever.  Hood is 1/4" off square.   Scrapes in the doors.  It's grey and hence nearly invisible on the road (maybe reflective flame stickers will help?)

Stiff ride.  Rough idle.  Twitchy steering.  Decent acceleration but not a powerhouse by any means. 

166k miles on it. (LOW for the age).  Engine light on for an "evap" code.  After market gas cap likely cause.  

Asking price was about 5000$

I said I'd be back in 2 days with the subaru to buy it.  We negotiated a price before I did that.   The price was what they were asking but 450$ for the subaru (junk/salvage price would be about 250$ minus the hauling fee if I couldn't drive it there...I would not sell it to anyone who might try to drive it).  With some random 90ish$ fee, the drive-away cost out of pocket was 4650$.  Taxes (my plates from the subaru transferred at no cost) and title fees were about 340$.  Total price: 4990$.  Let's call it 5000$ with the driving down to test drive. 

The day comes and the subaru, which had been sitting for 2 months with the crap battery, would not start.  It also would not take a jump.  I called the dealer and they said they go to auctions up north of me and would pick it up, minus a hauling fee.  FINE.  Kill it.  I told them I'd be there the next day because they were about to close.  Then I called around to the 1 person in my bubble...and she gave me a ride down.  She took a 2nd test drive in it and agreed that it was fine for the price.   She had family to get presents to in the dealer's town so she took off and I wrote a check.

They picked up Sol about a week later.  

So....introducing Juanita:

Not bad looking for nearly 20 years old.

She is called Juanita because she's a bit of a rough ride, is showing some wear (dings, windshield crack, broken trim here and there), and stinks of cigarettes.

Exhibit 1:

So there you have it.

Issues that have shown up post purchase (and yes, I know that the better part of valor is to take a used car to a mechanic but I did not have time and it would have cost me a day off of work in addition to the mechanic's price for the testing.  Then what do I do with myself during 'rona?  Stores don't want you hanging around.  My mechanic near work couldn't do it for 2 weeks and the dealer wasn't going to hold it for 2 weeks...so I thought "what the hell"...and bought it.  It's 5000$.  I've made bigger mistakes.

I bought the truck, reminder: named Prince because 1999)...anyway, things that have shown up:

Shifting issue at 1800rpm and between 25 and 40 MPH.  It quits having an issue if I hit the gas or take my foot off the gas.  I'll get that assessed when it needs oil.  Turns out it the protocol is oil every 10,000 miles...I will go 5000 but I don't think I can deal with waiting 10000 miles between changes.

Mild whistling noise (antenna?) at highway speeds.

Bonuses I've noticed since purchase:

There is a trunk!  The tire is on the back door but there is a tire shaped storage spot under the floor of the cargo area.  

There is a folding table.  The floor of the cargo area is a flimsy (apparently unused) folding table.

Sun roof

Cassette player (I did notice before purchase)

6CD changes (also noticed before purchase but like the cassette player, I don't care)

The backseats not only fold down, they flip up and attach to the back of the front seats so you get a TON of cargo room.

There is a rubbery thing lining the cargo area so things don't leak all over.

There is a storage bin under the passenger front seat that slides out...perfect for filling with baking soda and charcoal to try to minimize the cigarette stank.

All the electric windows still work (I did check before purchase but didn't really care)

The seats are manual hence hard to bust (did notice before purchase but not a consideration)

The front seats lay flat and then you can shove them against the back seats for a super uncomfortable bed area!  More comfortable than the subaru for sleeping.  

There is an extra cubby on the door side of the steering wheel, in the dash but on the door side.  This helps make up for the lack of a console between the seats.  

The thingy between the seats is a fold down table.  Strange.  

Minuses:

The shifty issue

Minimal cup holders that are flimsy and crap.  Like ONE that is functional and it's flimsy.  Oh well.

Just one charging port.

The engine light goes off and on at random.  I had it checked and it's the "evap" code.  Still, annoying.  So I bought a code reader and will be able to shut it off as well as making sure it's not trying to tell me that the engine is about to blow up.  There is just the engine light, not any fine detail on what the issue is.

I think the stupid folding table is the funniest bit.  Clearly it is useless or it would have been used.

The seats do not hurt my spine.  It's like driving around in a straight back kitchen chair.  The head rests do not mess with my pony tail like every other car I'd tested AND the subaru.  This and my pick up may be that last vehicles with bun space.   My left leg doesn't fall asleep in this one like it started to in the subaru (that seat was worn out).

I've put about 2500 miles on it so far...That's 2$/mile cost so far.   It goes down fast the first few months.  By summer, we'll be hitting 1$ or less.   Headed for the golden 10cents.   The first subaru costs me 5cents per driving mile....Betty was a good car.  But, she's dead.  Long live Juanita.

No-Spend February Informed Pantry Stock List

 It is time to start restocking the pantry.   The no-spend month was handy in getting through the stuff I don't eat, as well as noticing what types of foods I get for free or onsite and hence, they will not be on the top of the restock list, but instead on a sort of watch list in case the supply should change.

Things I get, or can get, onsite or through my own efforts:

Meat  By helping people butcher, I have a pretty good supply of meat and I gain skills...oh so slowly do I gain skills.   I will add the hunting rider to the fishing license mentioned below.  I can get small game or big game here on the property.  I can also butcher out my chickens as they get past being decent layers or I get sick of the cock duet in the mornings.  The 2 roosters are on notice every day they start the concert before 4am which is now every dam day.

Eggs More free hens should 

Fish. I'm going to go get a fishing license with the "stuff for land" or "household" budget line(s) this month.  If I actually fish this year (AHEM Sara W!!  You have been warned), that will pay for itself AND provide recreation and nature break thinking time.

Legumes.  I managed to grow a very few lentils and garbanzos last year.  Critters got them before I did but with more effort, I could make it happen I think.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are starting to put out pods and those are an edible legume.   I might be able to harvest some this year.

Camelina seeds.  They are a protein boost with omega-3, fiber and they can be gelled into fake eggs like flax seeds.  EASY to grow, harvest, clean and store.  I kept plenty for seed.

Greens 9months of the year.  Need to work harder on this and I am getting a jump on it now.  My Good King Henry is up but got frozen in the bad weather.  Might begin being harvestable in April.  Same with some wild greens like nettles, dandelion leaves, and fern heads.   If I plant radish seeds this weekend, the sprouting kind (the radish is edible but not delicious but the greens are excellent if you like strong flavors on the bitter side) I could have greens in a few weeks.   I have kale coming up in the mini greenhouse.  I have some kale that has been alive through 2 winters now.  It doesn't put out a ton of leaves, but one takes what one can get.  Lovage...god the lovage!  Both a green and a seasoning.  I moved as much of the roots as I could get out of the raised bed yesterday over to the big in-ground garden and planted what might be 3 large clumps.   The rest of the root bits I plan on potting up and maybe selling or giving away.  IF I am diligent and dry some of the greens, I might be able to stretch the supply into winter.  If I get enough sprouting seeds off radish plants, that would nearly get me greens independence.

Garlic.  I am still eating on last years' sad harvest (critters got most of it) and what the community teaching garden was giving away.  Of course I forgot to plant any last fall, middle of the house build and whatnot, until a sudden really hard freeze and then gave up.  Still for the past month or more I've saved a clove off the heads that had stored well and yesterday I stuck them in the mini greenhouse.  Why not?  Might work.  I've had a few this past week that were starting to grow in the storage bag so I put a few of those in as well and planted on in a little pot in the wee shed.  The spider plant former pot occupant froze to death a few weeks ago.  Oops...

Flavoring agents.  I've managed to collect dill.  Could have collected and dried lovage leaves, chives, sage, thyme (multiple kinds), oregano, tarragon, horseradish, onions (walking onions mysteriously appear and disappear in the garden...I did plant them but where do they go sometimes?), garlic, mint (various types).

Herbal teas.  I have wild roses, pine and fir trees, hops, mints, raspberries, and much much more that I could have been gathering leaves and petals off of to dry for winter teas.  I'm testing chicory to see if I want to grow that as a coffee substitute or coffee stretcher...so far, it makes me poop to  much to want to have all the time but might be worth it as a medicinal.

Berries.   Still have a TON of service berries, elderberries, and oregon grapes perserved in vinegar (partly because I had access to so much other fruit all winter this time).  I also have blueberries from the you-pick and I might even have some of my friend's blackberries in vinegar.  My berry bushes didn't put out enough to preserve, the planted bushes.  BUT they are doing better since the move to a new garden.  We'll see...   Service berries are pretty reliable.  If I drive or walk 5 miles to the state park up the road, I should be able to get huckleberries now and then.  I think I've found a spot to put my honeyberry shrubs and they are even bearing in their sad undersized pots.  The hens picked them clean the day before I had about 2 cups coming ready to harvest.  My blueberries have never been happy and my wild raspberries are meager.  I could work harder with the pin cherries on the lower part of the property and try working with the ash berries (those orange danglers on ash trees are edible), as well as haw apples (the fruit of the hawthorn).  My aronia berries and chokecherries are coming along a bit but are not happy.  The gooseberries and currants put out 1or 2 berries a year so far...hope springs eternal.

Apples.  I get bucket tons off the deer poop apple trees.  Plenty.  Need to work on more preserving them with drying, canning, and a root cellar some day.

Water. I have a well. 

Mushrooms.  Not many, just a few.   I am trying to learn more about identification so I will have more species that I can harvest and eat. 

Potatoes grow but are hard to preserve without a root cellar.

Beets also grew well in the big garden and were a good source of greens as well as roots.

Oddly, I suck at squash but am going to keep trying.   I have a ghost pumpkin in the small garden rotting away with some sheep poo on it.  Here's hoping it turns into a nice pumpkin patch this year!!

So, that's a great deal!

Things usually/often included in 2nd Harvest distribution locally:

Canned fruit, some fresh fruit 

Canned veg, some fresh veg

Canned beans

Pasta

Rice

Bread

Those have come, in the past few months, in large enough quantities to become part of the pantry stock.  Recently the canned items have been no-added-sugar and no-added salt versions (mostly) which work in my preferred diet.  

I'm learning to pace myself with the canned goods...eat the fresh fruit and veg early on because it's usually a tad bruised or near the expiration date.

Occasionally there are windfalls like the 10lb bag of all purpose flour I got 10 months back or the 6lbs of red meat that we got last week.  Those can't be counted on but are lovely when they happen.  The usual animal proteins are dairy and/or super salty processed meat.  I can't eat those and stay healthy due to personal problems.   The amount of pasta lately has been bonkers so that is getting shared out and when people quit accepting it, I put back 2lbs of angel hair to make up for the chickens.  They love it.

Things that are currently hard to produce and hence could be purchased as pantry stock:

Grain.  I like me some grain!  I might be able to get buckwheat to go but don't have the brain space to figure it out.  I've planted it and it came up and flowered and put out seeds. I didn't figure out an easy/doable hand harvesting method.  Once I do, then there is the cleaning and getting the hulls off and etc.   I might try wheat and wild rice.  I've tried quinoa (yes, I know it's not a real grain)  (neither is buckwheat smarty pants) but didn't get a harvestable amount.  Will try again.

Nuts.  I've planted chestnuts, hazelnuts, english walnuts, butternuts, horse chestnuts (don't eat those....make soap).  So far all but 1 hazelnut tree have died.  A chestnut might be powering back from roots.  We'll see.  I really want nuts (heh heh).   Good protein and an oil source.  BUT I can grow sunflower seeds so once I get that going, I may need/want fewer nuts.

Oil...the meats I can get easily are pretty much super lean.   Even the chickens because they are layers butchered in old age or roosters, they are not fatty.   The elk a friend gave me (thanks Rik!!) was amazing and lean.   Same with the ducks I've butchered with a friend. More fat on the ducks.  Since we're canning, we've been taking it off.  I might ask for some to render into cooking fat next time.  Nut oil (heh heh heh) would be handy.  It magically appears when you try to make nut butter.  Instead of mixing it in, pour it off and cook with it.  For now, I've been buying various oils. Coconut oil is the easiest to store, hardest to spill and I prefer it to the others when I use it as skin lotion.  I may not want to smell like olive oil or canola all day and they go off flavor in the freeze/thaw/overheat cycle of my home.

Spices.  Many herbs I can grow.  If I get a greenhouse going maybe hot peppers will make it, or thai peppers as a house plant.  Many spices like cinnamon won't.  Nutmeg is from Madagascar so I don't believe it's going to make it in north Idaho.  Mustard seeds...the debate is still alive on this one! Not growable in the quantities I need for making mustard for others, but maybe enough to make for me.  I will run a test.

Cocoa/Chocolate.   That's not going to grow here but I am going to continue to love it.  That will be purchased as needed/wanted/possible.

Coffee.  That isn't going to grow here.   I'm working my way toward lower consumption and finding ways to stretch it.  Right now I reuse the grounds.  If I start with all fresh grounds and make a french press, pour over or percolated version, then for the 2nd press/pour/perc  I add about 1/2 the original amount or less of fresh grounds.  It's not going to win coffee awards, but it cuts the amount of coffee grounds per 2 cups by 1/4.     That's about a week's worth per month.  Every 4th month is free!  (sort of).  Cutting back on the number of cups per day also helps.  I've been filling in with my back stock of tea and will keep doing that until the tea is gone.

Tea.  Herbal teas yes.   Green or Black tea...nope.  Not able to grow that here.  Hopefully I can mostly transition to growable or gatherable tea types (nettle, mint, raspberry) eventually.   They don't have caffeine so I'll have to watch and see if coffee intake increases when the G/B teas run out.

Sweeteners.  I keep trying to grow stevia as a houseplant!  So far, no go.   Honey is a theoretical possibility but I have failed for several years to get a harvestable amount and currently do not have bees.  I have been cutting back on  sweetener so that will be the biggest help.  If I keep making kombucha I will buy sugar for it.  If I eventually get a honey source going then I can try to move the mother over to that.   Sometimes sugar is also helpful in a liquid to turn into vinegar.  Honey vinegar is delicious but without my own honey it can be spendy.

Sourers.   I can brew vinegar and the pineapple scrap vinegar I brewed is AMAZINGLY delicious.  For reals!  I will keep trying with the vinegars.  Eventually maybe press apple cider and vinegar some of that.   Other sours...I have started a perennial sorrel in the garden and learned to pick sheep sorrel.  Nice sour for salads and whatnot.  Hmmm...I wonder if it is still sour if I dry it!  Lemons are not going to grow here outside. Perhaps a tree when I get a house.

OK!  Time to inventory my seeds while enjoying a cup of pantry stock tea!

No Food-Spend February Final Results

 HOLY COW!   You save a LOT of money if you don't spend it on food.  I mean, for reals.  You also learn stuff.

1)  You save on food

2) You save on tips (because not going to restaurants)

3) You save on gas (because groceries and laundry are my towntrip motivators)

4) You learn to eat new, often cheaper, things that have been sitting in the pantry

5) You really start to appreciate that living off other people's "waste" food is pretty amazing and get more and more willing to eat it.

6) You learn that 6 is my favorite number so I had to have 6 things in the list.  

As of Feb 28 I had 2 heads of garlic and a few random cloves as "fresh food" and still have almost all of my sprouting seeds.

Still had a few cans of 2nd harvest veggies and peaches.  4 or 5 cans of peas.  No more beans in cans.  Maybe a half cup of lentils left.

Some dried carrots.  No more bouillon cubes or dried veg mix as soup base.

Still have plenty of berries in vinegar (actually gave a pint and a half jar of them away today...must remember to get that jar back, I love that size/shape) and have been eating them pretty regularly.  They are nice on a veggie and bean soup and add some color other than the carrots from the cans of veggies.

I still have plenty of rice and put 6lbs of spaghetti in the little free pantry over the weekend because it was too much.  While I was there, I grabbed a can of diced tomatoes.  Just one.  It made a really nice tomato-garden soup with the last of the dried veggie mix.  Surprisingly good.

I'm a bit low on spices but still plan to use up what I have.  I'm out of cumin and paprika which are surprisingly handy for adding flavor to almost anything with rice or beans.  BUT I still have chimayo green chili powder and a tube of "poulet" (thanks Chris!) seasoning that is about half full and seems to have some smoky paprika in it.  It is delicious on much more than poulet.  I also have 1 or 2 small jars of salsa from the farmers market.

I was planning on going to the store in a week or so because I will be in town anyway.  I was thinking through what I "need" vs what I want and turns out I don't "need" anything.  I'd like a small bag of sugar to keep my kombucha mother going and keep making kombucha.

I thought I'd like some oatmeal or flour of some sort (still kicking myself for not grabbing the bag of 5lbs of corn meal for 25cents...damn! but I had enough flour).

I say "thought" because I am just moments back from an extra "2nd Harvest" distribution day.  A random truck showed up about 6hours ago and after lunch, the call went out far and wide that there was TONS of stuff available.  INCLUDING MEAT!!!!   

I got many many too many pounds of pasta.  I will re-donate that.  Already passed on the mac and cheese to a colleague with kids.  I don't do the dairy so much and that is totes not worth the dairy cost.  I will pass on most of the spaghetti because I got 3 or 4lbs of spinach rotini and still had 2lbs in the pantry. 

There was also....OATMEAL!!! Maypo brand.  Plain oatmeal.  No sugar.  Whole grain.  Nice.  It's quick cooking but whatever.  I kept thinking I could make a nice fruit crumble if only I had some oatmeal.  And there it was.  2 boxes of 1lb 2oz each.  Lovely.  

More than a dozen cans of fruit.  4 cans of peas.  4 cans of kidney beans.  4 cans of pork and beans (I ate one...oddly good cold out of the can...but tooo salty so the other 3 are getting donated to the little free pantry). 

3 pounds of frozen ground beef.

3 pounds of frozen ground BISON!!!!!  YAY!!!!

Since I was down to 3 or 4 jars of my home canned meat, this is excellent. I cannot remember the last time I had a burger.   I plan to fry one up this weekend and put the rest in soup with the potatoes left from last week's regular distribution (they have some dark spots so need to be eaten sooner rather than later), some of my garlic and dried carrots.  Whatever spices I can round up.   I know I have fennel and peppercorns.   I'm skipping the salt as much as possible so not adding it to most dishes.  I gave away my hot sauce but have that delicious green chili...oooo....green chili bison stew...oh yeah.  That sounds good.  With a random fruit crumble using the oatmeal and a bit of the buckwheat honey or stevia (I bought that stevia powder...less than an ounce, before I moved into the wee shed.  It lasts forever because you need so little).

There are also cans of the mixed veggies in the 2nd harvest "non-perishables" box.   I have started just emptying one into a bowl and adding meat and spices.  The home jarred meat is already cooked.  Just heat and enjoy.  The broth from the veggies in the can is good enough as soup.  Left over soup with a bit more spice and oil is good on pasta or in rice as a casserole.   Like, really not bad.   

I'm not as much of a food princess right now.  I'd RATHER eat local, organic, no-spray and think that is the way farming and consuming food helps the planet.  I think that eating up food "waste" also helps in a different way.  When I have more cash flow, once the house is done or whatever, I can go back to the fancy eating.   

I do appreciate fancy food more now.  

I put money in the grocery budget for March, but could continue to eat healthy meals without it.  I didn't put any money in the dining out lines of the budget.   Or the coffee out budget.

I still have money on the fancy bread gift card and by cutting back to every other week and getting less, like 2 small treats rather than a whole loaf of bread, I am stretching that out for another month at least.  That's kind of fun.  

Hopefully most of the March food budget will go to pantry staples I'm unlikely to get from 2nd harvest, spices, cocoa, coconut oil (one of your better no-dairy oils that keeps reasonably well in the wee shed).

I have enough coffee beans to make it through the month and still have enough tea to host the royal family a few times.  I've cut back to one cup of coffee in the morning and then black or green tea for the next couple of caffeine shots.  It works well so far.  I also found the dregs of a bag of ground chicory root so I can add a bit of that to a small ration of coffee beans and make some New Orleans style coffee.  It's quite tasty really.

Overall, my total spend for things that were NOT the "new" used car (more anon) or the house building bill, was 700$ less than January.  About 300 of that is attributable to the no food-spend.   In the summer, while building the pantry stock, I can spend 200$/month on groceries.  It is easy to spend 50-100 a month on coffee and restaurant food with a couple of work lunches and a few fast drive through coffee hut trips.   March has some annual bills to be paid so won't be as much lower.  But I think I can keep the food bill a great deal lower than it was and that I will keep patronizing 2nd Harvest late in the day after the truly needy have had a shot and the food pantry folks from the small towns around have stocked up their rigs and headed back for those 2ndary distributions (does that make it 3rd Harvest?)

3,000 Things I Don't Buy Anymore!

 Ok.  Hyperbole.  A bit. Not really 3000 in the list but if you expand the classes into individual things I think I'd have a pretty high number.

I've been following some frugal youtubers. The recipes are usually useful because they are like mine:  Take what you have, apply heat, eat.

The youtube then posts a list down the side of the screen of other stuff I might enjoy.  The list is usually wrong.  I noticed that many many of these are videos you have to watch to putatively find out what X number of things the person or family (all well staged in full make up and often wearing yoga pants) doesn't buy.  You might find out, admittedly I only watched a couple to get the flavor of it, that this person/family gave up buying a brand new Mercedes each year, no longer orders from the most expensive restaurant in town more than once a week, etc.  The real goal seems to be to build views and clicks and ad doses so the youtuber gets paid.  I moved on.  The youtubers I like for the frugal tips are the ones who clearly are filming on an outdated phone, no make up, and wearing the same outfit in pretty much every vid.

So, I gave up the new car yearly before I even started.  My "don't buys" are a tad more advanced and rest assured if you read this, I make no $$.

Most my "things" are whole classes of things.   Many of the blogger/vlogger types have "things" that are actually subsets of things...like they don't buy top end shampoo anymore.   One who is running in the background is saying they gave up "expensive make up"...ok.  What if you just looked like what you look like?

Some things I have quit buying or never bought/paid for:

1) Make up.  Once I bought mascara but it was green and blue and specifically to bug a creepo professor I was working for.

2) Hair products.  A bit of Sun-In in the 1980s, shampoo and conditioner until I went no-poo.  The occasional deep conditioner (turns out it was just olive oil). In the last 2 years I have spent 5$ on specific hair products.  An expired box of henna.   Still baking soda or salt to wash the hair, and vinegar-water to rinse, then a cold rinse.  A year ago I got a fantastic hair brush and comb so not even those.

3) Car washes.  In my life I have never washed a car that I own.  I trash them before they rust.  And, I don't care how my car looks.

4) New cars. Never bought a new car.  Don't plan on it.  Used cars and I'm shifting back to more used.  The 3 year old car was hard to get the money out of.  

5) i-anything.  I have never spent money on an apple product.  I have one. It's a gift (thanks pam!) of someone's used old one to replace another hand-me-down version of an outdated i-product.  

6) Anything from Amazon.  ONCE in 2020 I got a thing on Amazon because it couldn't be had from any other source in the timeframe I needed it to keep working.  I blame covid.

7) Cheese. OK, dairy.  I can't eat it hence I don't buy it.

8)  Booze.  I don't drink much so why buy it.  I remember buying prosecco in Italy a decade or more ago.  I might have treated to some booze in Portland a year ago...then again, might have been Unca Pat who sprung for the Brennevin.

9)  Earrings for myself...because I do not have pierced ears. 

10) Haircuts.   As covered in other posts, not even a trim since 1989. 

11) Manicures/pedicures.  I don't even get why people spend money on odd looking fingernails.  Whatever.  

12) Tattoos.  Don't have one.  Don't want one.

13) Piercings.  Why?  Why spend money to have a hole punched in your body that you now want to buy jewelry to fill the hole back up?  Those who want to pierce, help yourselves. You probably wonder why I want to spend money on thrift store coffee makers.

14) Purses. I don't carry them so I don't buy them.  I do have ONE that I carry on vacations because it fits a bottle of water and is the "personal item" I can take on an airplane in addition to the carry-on.  I got it in San Gemignano (spelling????) Italy more than a decade ago.

15) Sox.  This one I might have to start again some day but I get enough REALLY NICE sox on the holidays (3 pair or more this year...all fabulous) that I haven't needed to.

16) Dish clothes/sponges. I have a friend who knits amazing dish clothes and have a few in back stock, 3 in rotation.   An Aunt (Hi Marcie) sends me re-usable cellulose ones for holidays pretty often too.  I also find that the pockets off worn out jeans make a really good dish rag for things like cast iron pots.  Given that I buy thrift jeans and wear them out about 3 pairs a year, that's 6 dish clothes I'm producing...I should have a sustainable system going.  Yes, I wash the worn out pants before I repurpose them.

17) Paper towels.  I have dish towels and a rag bag.  AND I'm not above taking the end of the roll after the custodian at work refills the fancy (stupid?) automatic electric paper towel dispenser that seems to be unable to cope with the last 1/2inch of the roll.  That's a lot of paper towel to chuck in the trash.  That said, I have bought shop towels in 2020 so maybe I'm lying.  People were helping me with plumbing and they like shop towels to use.  So I got some.  Used up the remainder as TP during the mid 'rona times.

18)  Anything at Walmart.  Haven't been there since the floods in Iowa and that was about the only store in town with what we needed. Before that I hadn't been in a Walmart in years.  It always surprises me to see cars in the parking lot as I head to Goodwill next door in Moscow.  Much like Bezos, the Waltons do not need my money.

19)  Cable/dish/etc.   I don't have a TV.  Until the 'rona hit I didn't pay for wifi either and when it's over I plan to cancel it.  It's 20$/month for the wifi hotspot.  

20) Streaming service.  No hulu, netflix, whatever.

21) Gym membership.  I get one free at work and another one with the Dr I use.  So I have access to 2 gyms, but only one with showers.

22) Bottled water. This one I have the occasional mishap with.  Once in a while I am somewhere and have forgotten my tap water in a bottle or jug and can't find free potable water.  I then buy a bottle of water in a really good quality bottle if I can so I can re-use the bottle.  I hate it though.

23) Subscriptions.  No magazines, no food boxes, no make up boxes, no scarf/purse/etc.  I can't even conceive of how some of these are subscriptions.  No automatic re-order or re-ship things.  Since I buy less online than most of the other people I know, that helps.  

24) Autopay anything.  I don't autopay ANYTHING because it's complicated to get it stopped.  And it would make me ignore the bill.   I have auto-notices for the phone and storage, but I pay them individually and review all bills before I pay them almost every time. Twice in 2020 I paid the phone bill late so I put a reminder on my work calendar.  

25) Cleaning products.   I make what I need from vinegar, baking soda, borax, etc.  During early 'rona I bought a thing of bleach in case I had to drink my well water during a 2 week quarantine when I hadn't been running much water through the storage tank. It can get a bit funky...and not in a good "Jame Brown" kind of way.  The bleach is sitting unopened on the porch.  I may use it in laundry eventually.

26) Keurig pods.  I don't have a keurig or any similar coffee maker.  There is one at work.  I have a little adapter and fill that with whatever coffee is at hand.  The little pods are expensive compared to even nice beans you grind up yourself AND they are creating a layer at the dumps that will rival the layer of disposable diapers (I'm not just blaming babies for that...duffer diapers are a huge industry too).  

27) Audio equipment.  Because I have a bad ear for music.  No point in my buying fancy headphones or  speakers.  I have a 3 little radios, one was a gift and 2 were thrift, so I can check the news or weather or listen to something.  They are mono-speaker deals with crank things to charge them up.  One is solar.  OH!  Wait.  3 years ago I bought 2$ speakers at thrift because the speakers on my computer died.  I don't think they count as "audio equipment".   Work bought me headphones so I can do zoom meetings more efficiently.  I often forget I have them.  

28) Furniture.  The world is FULL of free furniture especially if you had my Gramma.  I bought a little shelving unit in the late 1990s when I lived in a house with a strange kitchen.  No drawers!   And the cupboards were narrower than a dinner plate.  So I got some folding shelves to put my plates on and to hold cans to stand the silverware in.

29) Electricity!  I have a wee solar system at the wee shed so that's paid off.  I will need to maintain the system through the years but no monthly electric bill.   Same with the water...put the well and pump and etc in so no monthly bill.  Something blew up last night or snapped.  Could have been a battery...which would SUCK or it could have been a frozen tree (cold and windy last night) snapping off.  Or a transformer on the electric line on the highway blowing up.  If it was one of my batteries I will need to replace that.  I think 1 or more need replaced anyway. But maybe not when it's 10 degrees out.

And much much more!    

NOT buying stuff is thrifty, frugal and helps with voluntary simplicity.  If I don't buy it, I don't have to deal with it.

10 Things I Can't Live Without

 Yea, this is all BS but you know.  I'm home.  It snowed a FOOT and got HEAVY and I am on a shoveling break.   Watching youtubes and apparently GQ for a while did a 10 things celebrities couldn't live without.  Mostly they think headphones and watches are essentials.  Uh...whatever.

Leaving aside things I really can't live without like air, water, food, shelter, yada yada yada.

Here's 10 things I really like having:

Ipod (which is now and old iphone with the sim card taken out).  Need my fatto app (free version, obviously).   And it's a handy way to have audio books.  I like falling asleep with someone reading me a story.  I also keep my master list in it.  The iphone is an improvement on the old ipod touch (may it rest in peace) because when I accidentally delete the master list, I can get it back.  The Master List includes, groceries, hardware, errands in town that need doing when I'm there, things my stock is low on (flour, bouillion cubes, underwear) so I can get those if there is a big sale or something.   And I use it as an alarm clock.  

Phone.  Flip phone.  I don't want a smartphone.  I like to separate my devices.  The ipod/phone is for email if there is free wifi, lists and whatnot.  It is rarely on the internet.  The flip phone is for texts and calls.  And lately getting lots of squares (no emojis on the flip phone).

Wool socks!  Love my wool socks.  I have heavy ones, light ones, thing ones, thick ones.  Got some super cool fancy high tech ones for xmas. Have some alpaca wool socks from a few years back and some giant knitted NW Coast wool sock booties that are on my feet the minute the floor of the wee shed gets cold.  I won't even know it's cold.  

Mouse-proof food storage. Jars and tins.  The little beggars can't bite through those AND cleanup is easy.  

Shovels.  I have a good collection of shovels.  I think only 2 were bought retail and that was due to a time crunch.  The snow shovel...aluminum with a wood (replaceable) handle.  Plastic snow shovels are STUPID.  This cost about 5$ more than a plastic one and I've had it since I moved out to the wee shed.  This is its 6th winter.  It is bent up and beaten and rusty and still moves snow.  The other retail shove was a basic rounded-point shovel for moving dirt.  Use it TONS and again, had it on the thrift/garage sale list but there came a time when I just really needed to get some dirt moved and had to spring for retail.  Again, metal with a wood handle.  It's alright.   Oh wait!  There is a 3rd retail priced shovel.  A short handled square blade one.  It's in the truck right now for snow.  I wanted a shovel that fit in the back of the car and would move snow.  Also needed one for straight walled holes. Flat/square blade for the straight walls and short handle so it fits in the car better.  The car isn't being used so it's in the truck.  I have a half dozen thrift/garage sale shovels.  As long as the blade is good I get them.  ONe is a round blade with a bat as a handle.  Like a baseball bat.  It's short but good for the raised beds with tops on them.  A few small scoop shovels for moving poo and for days like today when the snow is too heavy for the snow shovel to be effective.   The small scoop preserves the spine a bit.  They all get used.  

Long johns.  Warm, handy, and in summer they can be jammies.   Now that I'm doing zoom yoga at home, with the camera off, they are also yoga pants.  I'm wearing some now!  I have some that are SUPER stretched out and old and ratty.  They are jammies but this may be their last winter as a garment.  I can't keep them up with out a belt or new elastic..

Good hair care utensils.  Wooden comb, boar bristle brush.  I have 2 wooden combs right now and a really good boar bristle brush.   (Thanks Katie!!).  These are much better for my crappy hair and for the no-poo hair regime.  Plastic or nylon bristles make way more static and plastic combs mostly shred my hair. 

Buckets.  Love me some buckets.  I used them to haul small amounts of wood inside for the stove, keep one by the stove for waste water (like from doing dishes and rinsing coffee grounds out of my french presses), another for the composting toilet (well marked...once a bucket is a toilet, it can never be anything else, it is the end of the bucket line).   Plastic buckets, mostly free from the recycling center are used to haul water/wood/whatever until they are too broken or have holes.  Then I grow potatoes or something in them.  And then, when they are too busted up for potato planting, I used them to haul trash to the dumpsters. 

Coffee brewing equipment.  I have at the moment...IN the wee shed 5 stainless steel french presses, 3 percolators, 2 moka pots (one is a tiny camping version that makes 1 small demi-tasse at a time), 2 versions of pour overs, and some non-functioning antique graniteware coffee pots.  I do NOT Have a problem.  I do.  ALL were gifts or thrift.   The stainless steel french presses run $35 and up new, I have paid 3$ tops.  The 3 percolators were 1 or 2 bucks each at thrift.  In the office I have a BIG stainless steel percolator (thanks Pam!) that currently serves to make a colleague jealous more than it makes coffee.  I like making coffee.  Even bad coffee.  I also have a hand grinder from thrift that I've used 2 or 3 years so far.  I have an antique one in storage but it takes up too much room.  

DVDs. I like movies.  I don't like streaming movies.  I like the DVD extras, the wide screen option, the subtitle options, the commentaries, the little extra featurettes that I usually hate but then can talk about how much I hate them.  Movies are good.  I have a few series on DVD as well.  Not many.  

None of these are essentials and maybe I could have listed things like "good underpants" (which I am short on at the moment)  or jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts and boots because that's pretty much my daily uniform.  But I didn't.

If GQ asked me, which they won't, to answer their stupid question.  This is what I would say today.

Good Riddance 2020.   Happy 2021 to all of us.

Crap Roads = Night at the Office

 So you know how the weather people always ALWAYS panic with the first winter storm and over predict the snow and the ensuing chaos?

Well, this year they tried something new.  UNDER predicting.  We were TOLD (and I obsessively check weather and road type predictions) that the bad snow would start at my house at 1pm.  At Dr. Cowboy/BreadSourceTown at 5pm  FIVE pm.  I had an appointment (turns out my knee has arthritis and I need to do more squats...Dr. Cowboy ALWAYS tells you to do more exercise.  I was thinking less) at 1:30pm.  I was picking up bread for 3 people  It's always like those stupid story problems in jr high math class...how do you get 40$ of artisanal bread to 3 people around a webinar and a Dr. appt?

Well, do the webinar until 11am, time departure from the office, where you did the webinar, to leave 20 min before the Dr. appt which is time for a) a tourist to slow you down on the scenic windy road and b) pick up the bread and park at the office without turning off the car because the battery isn't charging right and it's not worth fixing wiring on a car that old.

So, I take off at 12:32pm.  ALL IS WELL>

I get to Dr.CowboyBreadTown about the time planned.   But it's snowing.  Just a little scenic pretty snow.  Seems fine.  Get bread, park at Dr. Cowboy and I'm 10min early because no tourist.  I wait in the car sorting through my "Master List" (more on that in a different blog).

I go in.  Have the appt.  Get told I'm old and that's just the deal and do more exercises.

30min or 40min and I'm on the road at 2:13.  Now it's like REALLY snowing.  It started 4 hours early.

BUT Sol the Subaru has that thermometer thingy in the dash and it says 34degs. So the road SHOULD BE FINE just like when I drove over.  I have the bread orders sorted for easy delivery.

I get 2 or 3 miles back out of town, it's 17 back to the office.  I have noticed that the road is F*$^ING SLIPPERY.  I have my winter tires on.  I tested the brakes when the rig in front of me fishtailed.  I HAVE brakes.  But they had very little effect on speed.  1 mile more and traffic is STOPPED. Flashers on.  I do get stopped (that's due to being headed slightly up hill and doing 10mph).  I text people waiting for bread that it's going to be more of a wait.  A cop tries to drive up and turns around. He eventually walks up.  Later we see him sliding, on foot, sideways toward the inside of a banked curve.  The curve where the cable-guy van had, before my eyes, slid sideways until it was completely in the ditch.  Bummer for him but at least we still had 1 lane open.

Eventually cars come from the otherway.  Until now I'd thought this was like just a vehicle blocking the lane. NOPE.  The entire road was glazed with ice and that was glazed with water and slush.  Everyone coming my way was doing 5mph or so and had BIG EYES.  Eventually enough cops got on scene to start trying to move traffic.  People who tried to turn around slid into the ditch nose first instead of sideways.  I figured I might as well keep pointing forward as I had more of a chance of continuing than if I tried to turn around on the banked/sloped road where I was stopped.  

We were stopped about a half hour.  I had plenty of gas but super needed to pee.  Oh well.  Work on the kegels and hope for the best.

When we did go, it was 5mph.  I drove in 1st or 2nd gear (thanks sport shift automatic!) because braking downhill was not going to be a thing.  It took 75 minutes of actual rolling time to do the 17 miles to my office.

I counted over 20 people in the ditch and watched many of them go into the ditch.  

I heard from folks on the highway headed to my house, that much the same situation was on the highway toward home.  I have a camping mattress and blanket at the office and had done laundry which was still in the car, along with snow shoes and water.  So I stayed at the office.  Just grabbed my gym bag so I could wear gym pants as jammie pants.  Settled in with some youtubes and my bread and the office pantry and called it a night.  Pulled chicken (from a chicken I butchered) with local hot peppers I'd put in the office freezer, and a fresh baguette.  It was a good supper.

Now I'm having my morning coffee, and waiting an hour for the sun to hit the road. There is a road camera a mile from my house that shows the pavement.  It used to have a thermometer reading too but that is conveniently broken.  Damn.  Oh well.  Last night I checked it and could see vehicles leaving wiggly tracks in slush and figured "no."  Today I see all pavement. I bet there is enough brine on that to dissolve my undercarriage before I hit the driveway.

As for the bread.  Both people had final trips to make and had also listened to and trusted the weather people...so they came by the office to pick it up and that was that.  Both also texted later that driving was CRAP in all directions.   The highway back to Dr.Cowboy/BreadTown was blocked by multiple jack knifed log trucks all night.  Part of the interstate north was as well.  Downed powerlines took out another road.  Here at the office, I had heat, food, entertainment, power, and a working toilet.   I've spent worse nights.  Much worse. The camping mattress though is utter crap!  I had tried to return it to Cabela's but they told me covid prevented them from taking returns at that time. It was warmer than the concrete floor, but otherwise not better.