Friday, January 27, 2017

Word Keeping


I think I've written before about my notebook addiction.
However, it's more than an addiction.

It is a randomly efficient and simple way for me to keep track of all of those words out there floating in and out of my life.

These words are important to many different areas and aspects of my life.

I corral and organize them (somewhat) into notebooks!

I use simple, cheap composition notebooks found at Walmart for 99c (or less) 

These notebooks hold my thoughts, ideas, scripture, wisdom, RANTS, recipes, just about everything.  obviously I have very little usable space in my head.

I take those plain notebooks and make them fancy (fancy by my standards)
I cut card stock to fit on the front cover, glue it down, edge with clear package tape or fancy duct tape if I have it, and slap on a label.  

These are my current notebooks:

journal:  weather, random daily notes, rants, complaints, praises, happy, notes to my grand babies.

bible study & prayer journal:  I write out scripture-it helps me to focus on what I'm reading.

food diary:  what I eat and what I might want to eat!

gardening:  journaling, planning, assessing

homesteading:  chicken notes and other outdoor plans

projects & ideas:  planning notes for birthdays, events, indoor projects, crafting, sewing.  I keep this one nearby when I'm on pinterest.

blog:  ideas, outlines, rough drafts

things to do locally idea book--I also write down things we've done or gone and notes about them.

gifts:  as in 1,000.  When I can remember to write stuff down, this is where it goes.  I started it a couple years ago when I read the book.  I'm up to 223!

trips:  I used this journal when we went on a cruise a few years ago.  If I ever go on another real vacation (I live in vacationland)  then I will take it along!



these two on top are covered in calendar pages I saved!

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Pantry master list part 3

.....or.......what I generally keep in my pantry.

It took me quite a long time to come up with a plan for what food items I wanted to keep in my pantry.  Every family and every situation is different.  My master list has changed over the years to reflect changes in our diet and the likes of just the two of us now that we are alone.

Remember:  these items are for emergency situations and for when our situation dictates the need to be flexible in our shopping.  The majority of items are the parts and pieces to make a complete meal.

Beans--I keep canned beans.  I found that I didn't like to cook with the dry beans.  Dry beans are a good option if your family eats a lot of bean based meals, we don't.  So canned it is!
I keep pinto, black, kidney, white, refried, porknbeans, and chick peas.

Vegetables--creamed corn, corn, peas, green beans.  On a daily basis we eat fresh, raw veggies, but the canned ones are a secondary option.

Soups--stocks & broths for soup making, cream soups such as mushroom, celery, chicken & cheese are used in casseroles and skillet meals.
chicken noodle, tomato, and a few other condensed soups are kept on hand also.

Sweet potatoes
pumpkin
Pasta sauce
diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce
canned pasta meals
Pasta--spaghetti, rotini, elbows, egg noodles
mac & cheese
stuffing mix
rice-long grain white, brown (small amount), yellow, prepared rice sides
instant mash potato
corn muffin mix
cornmeal (small amount)
coffee
tea
powder creamer, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, powdered milk
canned fruit
applesauce
tuna
chicken
chili
hash
spam
sugar, white, brown, powdered
flour, yeast
oats, barley, popcorn, dry peas
condiments: mayo, ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, relish, salad dressing
oils
peanut butter
jelly
puddings
cake mixes and frostings

Remember:  these are not the things we eat on a regular basis.  These are the parts and pieces for emergency/flexible eating.
We incorporate these items into our eating plan so that we may replenish and nothing goes to waste.

Food storage odds and ends

I collect those big plastic containers that chips, pretzels, animal cookies come in and that is what I keep my sugar, flour, oats, elbows, noodles in.  I am not hung up on glass containers so I am reusing  what I can get my hands on.
I have a chest freezer.  I keep water jugs in the bottom to take up space and in case of a power outage to provide solid chunks of ice in there.
I also use reusable shopping bags to organize all of the food.
I grow my own herbs and dry them.  I store them in zip lock bags in a closed closet.  They are supposed to be kept in the dark.

When I was planning my pantry years ago it seemed that all the information I found was either for doomsday preppers or tree hugging granolas.  I am neither.  It was frustrating.  I fall somewhere in the middle.  I just want to feel a certain level of food security.  I don't want to feel like we are one disaster away from the cupboard being bare.



Saturday, January 21, 2017

locating my pantry part 2

I have had a few different pantry locations over the years.

We lived in a house with a teeny, tiny kitchen, but the house had a basement (in new england its called a cellar)  which was dry.  bonus!

It was a perfect place to create my pantry.  I purchased metal shelving at the home improvement store and installed it along about twenty feet of the cellar wall. The metal shelving was the cheapest option at the time, however we had to be careful about weight distribution.  All of our dry storage, canned goods, and paper products were stored here. 

 At that time I estimated that we had about 4-6 months food stored for our family of five.  It was a very good feeling.  Our stores were always being used and replenished, especially when the grocery ran sales on items we used. 

Then we moved into a house with no cellar!  Our kitchen has a lot of cabinet (in new england they are called cupboards) space and a closet.  I decided to add shelves to the closet and hung a wire shelf unit on the inside of the door.  This closet can hold a lot of stuff, but it was still too small for serious food storage.  

 I purchased a large plastic shelf unit from the home improvement store.  I think it was 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and had 5 shelves.  I located it in a corner of the family room and bought fabric to make a cover for it so that it would blend into the room.  That  pantry could hold a surprisingly large amount of stuff!  Not nearly as much as in the cellar pantry, but enough so I had some security in the event of an ice storm or other disruption.

When we became empty nesters, the pantry moved into a closet in a spare bedroom.  This about doubled the size of our pantry.  We are able to keep our food stored in there, paper products, and emergency water jugs.  It is not as convenient as it could be, but what's a few extra steps each day?

Since it's just the two of us we still do try to keep the pantry well stocked.  I would estimate that we could store a few months worth of food in that pantry.  

Next up:  what is in my pantry?

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Keeping a food storage pantry part 1

My food storage pantry would fall into the category of a Working Pantry.
The primary functions of my pantry are:

*To give me a level of comfort in my ability to provide meals going forward for a period of time.
 In the event of a natural or national emergency we will have enough food on hand.  We will not need to panic!

When that winter rain turns into days of freezing rain, when an early or late snowstorm dumps heavy, wet snow on the trees and power lines, I don't have to run to the store for "bread and milk"

While I pray that we never have a national emergency, it is still a real possibility.

Sickness or job loss/change in finances are a few other life episodes that could have you relying on your pantry for a while.

*To give me flexibility and convenience in our meals.

By having dry goods and canned goods on hand I can create a meal quickly or just open a can and eat.  A lot of these foods are prepared convenience foods.  They have been chosen because they can be opened and prepped with little effort. Remember:  these are MY choices.

Think:  a winter power outage, open a can of chili, vegetable, and mix up some corn muffin mix--pop them onto the wood stove and you EAT!

Think:  unexpected company and you don't have anything planned for a meal.  Cook up some rice, beans, tomatoes, veggie, or a pasta salad, or spaghetti!

Think:  You've had an exhaustively long day or you just aren't feeling well.  Husband is hungry.  He knows how to operate a can opener!  Dinner is served!

*To give me a place to stock up on sale items/special deals.

If the grocery store has pasta on sale for 50 cents a lb, buy lots!!!
The same goes for toilet paper, veggies, coffee.........if you have a designated spot to store dry goods then you can more easily spend less money on food every year.

Next up.......where to locate a food storage pantry

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Home/Garden/Personal Goals for 2017

I joined a group on facebook that focuses on learning new skills each month.  Assignment number one is to make a Goals list of 3 or 5 or 10 goals for the year 2017.  I already had a few goals lists written down here and there, so I pulled them all together into one place.  Turns out I have 20!

here they are in no particular order:

1.  Buy a book on sugaring (already on my amazon wish list) and begin to create a plan and assemble what is needed to start tapping some trees and getting me some maple syrup!

2.  Expand my garden into an area we have cut the trees down a couple of times.  I'm going to try sheet composting right on the rooty rocky ground.

3.  Build a hugelkulture (sp?) bed on the upper front lawn.  This seems like a wonderful possibility for our rocky, thin soil.

4.  Start some annual flowers from seed this year.  I need to plant tons in order to encourage more bee activity here in the deep woods.

5.  Grow more herbs--learn more aboutusing herbs and tinctures.

6.  Plan a greenhouse to be built over two of the raised beds in my garden.

7.  Learning to draw!  continue to work on this.  I have written a bunch of kids stories and i really want to get them illustrated and printed out.  then I can learn to bind my own books! 

8.  Buy a dehydrator.  I had one 20 years ago and sold it at a yard sale when I lost interest.  Stupid move.  I could really use one now.

9.  Complete more sewing projects.  nothing specific.

10.  Organize all of our photos into  photo boxes (already purchased & already set up in the dining room)  --i've begun this project.

11.  Lose weight.  This has been on my goal list for 30 years.  Well, no, longer than that.  I am 56 and have always said I was happy being fat and fit.  But the fit part is getting harder the older I get.  I'm happy with the fact that I learned to not get fatter!  I recently bought the Trim Healthy Mama book and reactivated MyfitnessPal.  I have a fitbit on my amazon wishlist.

12.  Hike more!  The last few years my sciatica has been awful (it's lots better! it seems driving makes it worse and since I stopped working in Sept. I don't hardly drive!)  I also injured my achilles tendon last spring so we didn't do one hike in 2016.  That also is better now.

13.  Build up my pantry again!  I need to get a better list going and spend more time weekly searching out the best prices on items for my pantry.  In conjunction with this I also want to work on a meal list again.

14.  Seek out more local foods.  Do more shopping at the various farmers markets.

15.  Spend less money!  I really don't want to go back to work, so I must get back to my frugal roots.  I need to work on a list of things that can be done to cut back, post them and keep at it.

16.  Build an arbor and plant grapes.

17.  Be very hands-on with the homeschooling of grandsons.

18.  work on plans for a new workshop/storage out back.

19.  Make decisions and have a firm plan in place for next winter to partially renovate the kitchen.  New bottom cabinets on one wall, new sink, all new countertops, paint, new flooring, and potentially build a movable island I can use for baking.  

20.  Paint the master bedroom and lay a wood laminate floor.  (the paint has been purchased and we are going to check out the laminate tomorrow)

ok, I lied, I have....

21.  Put a new roof on the house.

I know this looks like a lot, but I think it's all very doable since many of them are just "plan" things. 




Saturday, January 7, 2017

What's going on?

it's been a while since i just wrote about life around here.
so here goes.........

it's winter.  lately it's been cold, then its not so cold.  then it snows, then it rains, then it snows again.  that pretty much sums up winter weather on the maine coast!  i like the snow in the winter.  i don't like the rain in the winter.  especially on top of the snow.  we haven't gotten any big snowstorms yet, just a bunch of little ones.  we have had one frigid cold snap and now we are just entering another one.  they usually only last a few days around here.

it's been quiet on the wink. i even got to go ramble around in the snowy woods alone a couple of times this week.  so nice!  sometimes you have to make things be quiet on purpose.  you have to slow down and remind yourself that it is possible and very okay to enjoy quiet days alone; just the two of us.

things are going well in chicken land.  so far they are doing great with the cold and snow.  this morning i got up at 5 and went to check on them and the coop was about 12F and the outside temp was 3F.  i brought them water and scratch and turned on their light to get them moving and eating to stay warm.  they are about 8 months old now and i pretty consistently get an average of 56 eggs a week from the 9 birds.  it sounds like a lot of eggs, but in reality if we both eat 2 eggs per day that takes care of 28 of them!  then with baking and other recipes and maybe once a week giving the chickens a scrambled egg treat, we usually give away only about 18 each week.  we would give away more if people would remember to ask!

my other big project this winter is organizing my photos.  i've got a table set up in the dining room and enough bins or boxes to cover the years 1983-2016!  now i'm going through every loose photo and falling apart album, writing important info on the backs, weeding out blurry, dumb pics and organizing according to date.  then these neat little boxes will be condensed down and put on a shelf jeff has put up over the doorway in my craft room.

another ongoing project for me is lesson planning for my grandsons preschool homeschool.  i've stated before that i purchased Horizons preschool from Alpha Omega pub.  so far we love it.  my job is to plan out the lessons and assemble what momma needs to teach it.  the best part is that i will be able to use all of these lesson plans for all of the grands that will be homeschooled.  so i only have to do each grade once!  i love doing it!

i'm hoping to get a new camera soon so i can add pics to my blog!  my camera of 8 years finally stopped working, and as i am also pretty newly not working also (lol)  it is hard for me (even harder for me)  to spend money on myself.  but i really miss having a camera!

so i'm still trying to figure out where i'm going with this blog and what the purpose is.  i just feel compelled to keep on keeping on.  i have been blogging since i moved to maine 12 years ago.  i'm a xanga misfit, i loved the xanga blog!  i've had this one now for 3 or so years and i just need to spend more time on it and less time on facebook.  that is my goal for 2017!

well, until next time!

Monday, January 2, 2017

i am washed by the water

this may be all over the place.  just a warning.

what i really want to write about, what i really feel an intense need to write about....is....gah!!!!!
see?!  the topic i want to write about is so complicated, yet simple.  so personal, yet universal.  so layered, yet of single, epic importance!

the title of this post should be

Men who won't spiritually lead their families and the generational consequences that could have.

that title is too long.....so i chose the other one

i've been having struggles lately......heck....i've been having struggles my whole stinking life.

and it all comes down to....

you got it!

Men who won't spiritually lead their families and the generational consequences that could have.

yep.

i've been struggling lately.  a few days ago I felt God telling me to write out psalm 119.  it took me days.  it's long.  go look it up!  i never gave up.  the message was clear.  put nothing before God.  nothing.  no one.  nothing.

sometimes i wonder if i do whats right.  if i stand for what is right.  i have no doubts.  God is clear with me.  i just gotta listen.

even when the rain comes, even when the flood starts rising, even when the storms come, i am washed by the water.  even if the earth crumbles under my feet, even if the ones i love turn around and crucify me. i won't never ever let you down.  i won't fall, i won't fall, i won't fall as long as your around me.  (needtobreathe)

so this post may have just been a preview of a much deeper conversation about christian men and their responsibility before God to protect their families, physically and spiritually.  it may be a preview of a much deeper conversation about being a church goer giving you an extremely false sense of spiritual security.

maybe.