Adventures With Food Preservation

So this weekend Kira and I were worker bees. Saturday would blanched and froze 5 dozen ears of corn, made 3 gallons of chicken stock and made jam out of 6 quarts of strawberries and 2 pints of blueberries.

5 dozen ears of corn, fresh from the farm stand Saturday morning.

shucking away!

corn mountain!

Cutting it off the cob to freeze.

The weatherman told us it was going to be in the low 90's with 95% humidity and above. Luckily it was rainy and overcast all day and maybe hit 85 later on, maybe. We definitely struck gold that day!

6 quarts of strawberries destined to be jam!

Lots of freezer jam cooling in the fridge!

Chicken Stock!!

And, we finally found a source for some inexpensive 55-gallon food-grade barrels. Rain barrels, here we come! If they would've been set up Saturday, I'm sure I'd have all three of mine full already :)

The pumpkin plants still seem to be alive for the moment, and it appears as if my efforts have done some damage to the powdery mildew. I think it's gone now, I think. After hacking away, I sprayed with a baking soda, water and dish soap solution that is supposed to kill it and keep it away. So far so good.

On a very positive note, I would like to report that Hubby is now back to work! Today is his second day on the job with Molten Metal Products, working as a contractor in a local steel mill. And it's only 13 minutes away!

Adventures in Getting By...part 2

I sat down this morning and while reading my blog roll, I thought I'd check in and see where we are on our budget this month. Our total grocery bill for this month comes to a total of...$171.79!! Yeah me! I couldn't believe it!

I think I may have spent another $10 from my pocket money on groceries...but still! Less than $200 and it's the 29th, not bad. And I don't feel like we've been depriving ourselves either too much. It's awesome.

And we've only spent $150 on gasoline. We've only gotten $80 our for pocket money (of which I still have some left!) and we have gone out to eat, but that has only been a total of $57 and included a pizza I bought for us before Hubby got fired.

We also went to TGI Fridays with some friends this past weekend to celebrate that Hubby found a job! (and I had a BOGO coupon). I don't know a lot about it, but I'm happy for him. He should be hearing from them soon where and when to do the drug screening and then he starts!

He also got his truck running well again. One of the new spark plugs was bad and was causing it to misfire. So, after finding out we don't qualify for cash-for-clunkers because you can't owe anything on your clunker...we have fixed the truck and will continue to use it. (That is unless anyone wants to by and F150 V6 with a third door and 120,000 miles for $4500? :)

It looks like we'll survive this afterall.

Adventures in Getting By

I am here, I am still alive, and yes, my bills are even all paid up.

We have been blessed with a few unexpected influxes of cash these last few days and it has been a big help. Bills are now paid and there is at least something in the savings account again!

Hubby is still on the hunt for a job and toying with the idea of going to school...we'll see.

But the garden is doing great. We've been eating salads and beans. I kinda wished I would've started weighing things, but I guess I'll wait until next year to start that.

What I thought was my Stevia plant turned out to be a weed, but I couldn't be sure until it got big enough, so the stevia is a no go so far. I planted seeds again yesterday...but tomorrow is going to be a whopping 70 degrees (F), so I don't know if it'll germinate this weekend or not. I am also pretty much convinced that the lady I freecycled oregano from gave me to oregano plants instead of a marjoram plant as well. So lots of oregano!

I have a few baby pumpkins already, and they're really making me wish I would've planted watermelons. Oooh I want a watermelon. Maybe I'll stop at the farmers market tomorrow and get one...yum.

I've decided to definitely add more beds next year. Yeah!! I can grow things outside, just not inside I guess :)

And last weekend I took a full inventory of the pantry and freezer in the kitchen as well as the basement freezer and pantry. We have plenty of food to be able to just get the basics at the grocery, but we'll definitely have to cut back on what we've been accustomed to eating. No more Kashi Cinnamon Harvest and no more Diet Dr. Pepper for me...and no more Monster for Hubby. Though, I was able to get a really great deal on Kashi at Target this week, so I did get a box :)

Heading to a huge garage sale in my mom's hometown tomorrow and I hope to get some pictures of after that. The garden really is doing well. I have trees for potato plants. Let's just hope there are potatoes under them!

Thanks everyone for bearing with me as I spend my time trying to save money instead of talking about it! I will be back, I promise :)

Adventures with Unemployment

I know it's been awhile. I'm sorry again, but life has been crazy.

My husband lost his job last week. Every free minute is now spent calling people who will be wanting money from us every month and explaining why it might now be there.

For the record, I REALLY hate talking to customer service people, especially for credit card companies.

I'm also struggling with the fact that my husband and I both just got life insurance policies, for a total of $120/month. We haven't completed the physicals yet, so I don't know if we can get out of them yet...but I don't want to not have life insurance...I just don't know.

Lots going on in my head and in our life right now. I'm thankful for the food in my garden and all of the wonderful friends and family members we have. We are truly blessed.

I do have a lot of pictures and some exciting info about a black raspberry bush we found, but I'm not sure when they'll get up. My head is just moving to fast to sit down and type.

Pray for us.