The past few days have been busy. PS#1 and PS#2 celebrated their birthdays. PS#1 turned 23, and PS#2 turned 3. We had their birthday dinner at Red Lobster, with dessert of Spiderman cupcakes with the worst blue frosting ever. Lips and teeth were BLUE, and I still have stains on my hands after a day. No telling what was in those cupcakes.
PH was able to purchase the rest of the materials to complete the rest of the roof (wood and tar paper - no tin yet). The weather isn't cooperating and we have had rain for several days, and are expecting more (sigh). The wind has been high, and the weather chilly, though not freezing.
PS#1 came over to help me clean out the wash house. There was a lot of useless stuff in the loft. I have a LOT of laundry to complete (the rain is not helping, as it is hard to hang the laundry out when it is raining), and to sort through old, torn, and too small clothing. We also moved 20 cases of canning jars, along with my large pressure canner. I kept the small one inside in case I want to can something, but for now gardening time is upon us, and full scale canning will not be for several months. By removing the cases of jars from my pantry, it freed up some space. I still need to organize more, and go through and make an inventory. It is very frustrating to have such a small cabin, and not have sufficient storage space. I am very antsy for the house to be completed, as I will have a LARGE pantry.
I did purchase several items to stock my pantry, as it was depleted in some areas. I was able to purchase:
25 lbs rice
25 lbs flour
25 lbs sugar
5 lbs of cornmeal (wish this would come in a larger size)
tea
baking soda
cocoa
yeast
5 cake mixes and frosting (for PD#1)
1 box of rings and lids for jars
1 can opener for my storage (I've only had one, and was worried about it every breaking)
Next week's purchases will consist of:
soap
shampoo
t.p.
dish soap
laundry soap ingredients (borax, washing soda, Zote)
razors
deodorant
toothpaste
dental floss
ibruprofen
bandaids
Vacuum Sealer
Meat Grinder
I was given several pounds worth of produce this week consisting of potatoes, tomatoes, apples, carrots, oranges, lettuce, cabbages, romaine lettuce and onions. It was a huge blessing and saved my purchasing at the grocery store.
We did start our seeds this weekend. So far, I have started 66 roma plants, 12 cucumber, 6 green beans. I will finish up this week. We are using egg cartons to start the seeds in, and will then transplant to our raised beds.
We watched Alaska: The Last Frontier on the Discovery Channel today. I really liked it, learned a lot, but we also do a lot of what they do already, even though it's on a lesser basis, because we don't need 11 cords of wood for the Winter.
I hear thunder, so it sounds like our storm is on it's way. I am glad that the kids brought in so much wood, so I won't have to worry about heating with wet wood.
Only one more week until we butcher the Freedom Rangers. I am very excited!
We had two more baby goats born, with another expected by morning, and one more left to arrive. We have a total of four boys and 1 girl. The run down looks like this:
Bluebonnet (doe) - female, Daisy
Hera (doe) - male twins - Ares and Poseidon
Mariama - male, Simba
Artemis (last year's doe from Hera) - male, Apollo
Chamomile (last year's doe from Bluebonnet) - in labor now (her male twin Dandelion is a wether and is sticking by her side, every time she cries and is restless, he rubs against her and licks her face, it is so cute)
Violet (2 year old doe from Bluebonnet) - pregnant with first kid
