Midweek Ramblings

 

It seems as if winter does not want to loosen it's claws on Saskatchewan. We got rain last night and then woke up to snow, wind, blowing snow and at one point almost a mini blizzard. 

This is what it looked like at 8 this morning, before the wind came up and before more snow fell. Now things are melting once again. Who knows what next week will bring. 

It has been a quiet day on the Phillips homestead. Harvey has been fashioning a small stool with bits and bobs of his leftover wood in the workroom. He is also adding more grow lights to his shelving as Kris told him it would be better to have two lights on each shelf.

Me, well I got everything added that needed to be added for our taxes and have told Harvey we will need to take that to the accountant tomorrow. 

Got the pork and beans frozen and repackaged to put in the chest freezer. Did the usual Wednesday household tasks in record time and managed about 1 1/2 hours of weaving. I have even gotten a bit of mitten knitting done. I may need to go through my yarn stash and find a few more orphan balls that need using. I have also been watching/listening to Grace and Father Brown on BritBox. 

I am going to see how long I can last with what is in the house to make meals. I will be shopping but hopefully just for items on sale to be used perhaps months down the road. It has taken me a very long time to build up the freezers and pantries and what is in there would probably last us two or three months, so what I would purchase now meat wise, would not be used for at least three months or slightly longer. Especially since I am on another no waste, use it up year. 

At one point in time I wanted enough food in the house to last us a year or more, but really we do not have enough storage room for that, and having that much food to work my way through is kind of alarming. I did not want to be that much of a "prepper". We have enough in case of emergencies, and enough to help out our sons if need be.

The table is set, the casserole containing the leftovers from Monday is warming up to room temperature before I put it in the microwave to warm up, and I have the recipe for some biscuits to be made first thing tomorrow morning out and ready to go. 

Life is becoming a lot simpler, and the same can be said for most of our meals. Housekeeping is also becoming much easier as I work through decluttering things. I am almost at 200 items for this year. Still hoping to reach the 500 items leaving the house by the end of the year. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 It has once again been a pretty overcast day, and with no sun I find myself getting weary by the mid afternoon. Right now I could probably lay down and have a lovely nap, but I know that would ruin my sleep tonight. 

I was asked if the Grandcat tried to escape when Kris brings her to visit. Actually, I am surprised that she doesn't. Eiko is quite content as long as she can see or hear Kris. Not sure what will happen when the weather is better and Kris spends time outside. She might try and escape at that point. 

I have been working on my various projects and getting some dried beans cooked ahead of time for use in chili and today my homemade baked beans.

These are the kidney beans packaged up to use in chili. I first froze them in the silicone molds.

The baked beans and pork getting started in the slow cooker. They will be ready to put in the molds and freeze sometime after supper. 

Next up I will get the black turtle beans done as I use them in chili as well. I plan on doing those up later in the week. 

I am pulling items out of the chest freezer to use up adding them to the monthly menu. I am not sure there will be enough of the meal I make tonight to have leftovers for the two of us so I may be pulling a ready meal out of the chest freezer. Using up one more item from there. Something I need to do before I inventory it's contents once again and try to straighten the whole thing out once more. I do know there are lots of tomatoes in there so I will probably pull those out very soon and make spaghetti sauce with the vast majority of the bags. 

The days have been slipping by quickly and I have lots of projects to try and complete. I am on mitten pair number 7 of the larger size, and I have completed about 8 inches on the first scarf. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

I hope that all of you had as wonderful an Easter as we did. Kris and our Grandcat made it home around 2 on Good Friday. A bit of excitement as his car was making a dragging noise when he got into the city. Turns out the plastic that was around his front drivers side tire had broken away and was dragging and rubbing on his tire. Yesterday he cut it away, and no noise. He is however going to try and pick up the piece at Princess Auto, and if they don't have it will order it online. He has a garage so will be able to install it himself with the help of YouTube videos. 

I did send a fairly comprehensive care package home with him as well. 

So what are the menus for this week.

Monday

Leftover roast beef from the fridge freezer made into a casserole. Served with the leftover salad from yesterday. There will be enough for another meal later this week (okay on Wednesday).

Tuesday

Leftover chicken made into I think taco meat. I will try my hand at making my own tortillas as well. There will probably be enough leftover for another meal as well, probably Thursday.

Wednesday

Leftovers from Monday.

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday.

Friday

Leftover tuna casserole. Sliced veggies and dip, or I will boil up some carrots from the garden that I have frozen in the chest freezer.

Saturday

Hotdogs, baked beans, pasta or fries.

Sunday

Pork roast, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots.

And here is a picture of our Grandcat. My phone is actually sending pictures to my computer once again. Keep your fingers crossed that continues. I do have some photos on the camera that need to be transferred over.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Good Friday

 

I will be taking a short break to spend time with family. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursday

 Thrifty and Frugal

It is a chilly day today, not at all what we are really used to for the Easter holiday. But since there is no snow or rain forecast I will take it. 

Just the usual frugal practices around the old homestead with perhaps a couple of new things.

1.  Planted some herb seeds this week, and got some other herb seed and another flower seed from a friend. Free is great.

2.  Managed to change emails in most of my bills, might have to phone to get another couple changed eventually. 

3.  Using up all leftovers in meals or frozen to be used later.

4.  Put $3.55 in the change jars this week.

5.  Added $75.00 to my savings envelope. 

6.  Got our water bill and I managed to cut $40.00 from what the last one cost us. 

7.  Harvey is going to use his cash back on his Visa to pay off the bill this coming month (should really not have much to pay on that at all).

8.   Cleaning the print heads on the printer to hopefully extend the printer life. Not going very well really.

10.  Used up another partial orphan ball knitting mitts. 

12.  Planned the months menus to use up items that we already have.

13.  Harvey cleared all the snow and did some repairs on a few woodworking items he had made. 

So that is my list for the week along with the usual things we always do.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek And A New Month

 

The months are whizzing past and here we are 1/4 of the way through 2026 already. My goodness. 

I went shopping today and will not make all of you suffer through pictures of what I purchased. I did pick up 2 tins of tuna at $0.93 each and 3 tins of smoked oysters at just under $2.00 each for the pantry. 

Stocked up on some meat, and bought the flour that was on sale. Still even watching and purchasing on sale items I went through almost half my monthly grocery budget. Mind you that included laundry items, some Kitty Litter,  and a new loaf pan so I can rid myself of the one that is 50 years old (got it as a shower gift) and which is not in the best of shape. Still I am shocked at how much things are costing from week to week. 

It took me almost 3 hours to do my shopping this morning. Of course I had to see people I knew who wanted to talk, and a nice gentleman and I had a lovely talk in the Co-op parking lot about Easter. I really need to hide when I am shopping so as to finish a bit earlier. Harvey asked how many people I had conversations with considering how long I was gone. I also took probably close to an hour to get things away and the meat packaged up for the freezer. 

This meant my back and hips were pretty much shot so most of the afternoon was spent watching video's on the computer. I did manage to wind one of the shuttles for weaving though, so all was not a complete loss. 

Tomorrow I will need to buckle down and get some baking done as well as work on those projects for this month.

Speaking of projects perhaps I should let you all know what is planned to be completed.

1.  Weave the scarves I want to give Kurt and Kris for Christmas.

2.  Knit mitts to use up more of the bits and bobs of yarn.

3.  Get my printed out craft projects from the last year put in binders.

4.  Same goes for those printed recipes I have been saving.

5.  Cut out some clothing patterns to sew next month.

6.  Make Thank you cards using my Cricut.

7.  Make some Birthday cards using the Cricut as well.

That's the plan, and I am so hoping to get things done.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

The heavy, wet snow we got yesterday is melting as the sun is shining. That sun is also keeping the furnace from cutting in much. Natural gas bill for next month should be a bit lower I hope.

I also hope that using small appliances like the electric roaster and toaster oven will bring down the electric costs as well. Especially since our costs for electric will be rising 5% starting April 1st. 

Got our extra medical insurance cost as well. It will of course be going up since we are aging. It went up for Harvey in June of last year, and is going up for me in May. It is getting pretty darn expensive, and I may look into the costs for other insurance, if I can find something that covers us for prior conditions. 

A few of the seeds I planted last week are starting to sprout. I am hoping to save just a bit this year on perennials and plants for my pots. Then next year saving a bit more by using one shelf on Harvey's set up with grow lights. Now if I could remember to save seed, that would even be better.

We were under overall budget for the month once again, but I was very close to going over on the grocery budget line. The fact is I probably will go over budget for the month of April. I want to stock up on items that are going to be very expensive due to transportation costs. 

Where we live in Saskatchewan, every single thing has to be transported. It either comes from out of province or from one of the four larger cities here. 

This, plus the fact that we live in a city where there is lots of oil and people can make a great deal of money does not make it inexpensive to reside here. Per capita, I have heard there are more millionaires here than anywhere else. Not sure if I believe that, but from the homes built and the vehicles driven I can see that many are not hurting at all right now. We did have a problem when the oil bombed, but things have picked up once again. 

I plan on stocking up on canned meats, fresh meat that is on sale (to build up freezer stocks once again), and things like flour, sugar, cheese, toilet paper, paper towels (for the messy things). If I can find olive oil with an extended use by date I will get a couple of those as well. Perhaps some instant coffee will make the list at some point as well. Prices seem to go up each and every week and that is concerning. 

Until the price of fuel falls (if it ever does) I think life is going to be tough for a great many people.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.