Lazy Thursday

Didn't do a whole lot of anything today.  Went into town to get 100 lbs of chicken feed and came home and made 3 canning jar baskets.  Did some wash, changed the bedding and started on a new rag rug.  After supper went in to Renee's to take her a roll of chicken wire that Ron got and sat and visited with them for an hour or so.  She gave me some shredded zucchini that she froze yesterday for me and she picked me 2 zucchini to bring home.  Looks like I am going to make some zucchini bread tomorrow, I think I have enough flour for a batch.  Saturday is Amish shopping day and will be getting 50 lbs of flour then.  I also will be getting some clear jel so I can make and can some quarts of raspberry pie filling.  I have a small list of other things that I also need to get when we are there.  I can't rely on my memory to remember them so I write it down.  I don't know if my daughter Gina has a list of things that she wants, I always let the girls know when we go down and will pick up things for them also.
Tuesday night one of the boys from the Amish dairy called because he knows that Ron works in a scrap yard and he was wondering if he could get them an air horn to use at their brothers lumber mill.  They need it to use as a signal.  He also had a couple of other things that they were looking for and Ron will do his best to help them out.  I gave them my number a couple of months ago and the next time they butcher a cow they are going to call me so I can come down and get the suet so I can use it to make soap.  They were raising organic feed hogs and selling them but the price of corn is so high that they can't afford to do that at the present time.  So one of the boys that is still at home is working at his brothers lumber mill to help support the family.  They are so sweet and friendly.
Later, take care.

Berry Picking, Change of Scenery

Ron and I got up at 6:30 this morning to beat the heat and go and pick raspberries.  We picked for 2 1/2 hours and have 3 bags with 4 cups in them (pie size) and 1 bag with 3 cups.  There is about another week of raspberries and then they are done for the year.  Want to try and go at least once more and will dehydrate them to use on oatmeal or whatever.  We also relocated some of the bushes to give them a change of scenery to the back of our property.  We now have 9 starts of raspberries and 7 blackberries.  Digging their new home was horrible.  The ground back there has been packed down really good by the farmers tractor and by us when we were loading and loading things.  We got out the ax and used it do dig the holes, it was that hard.  I added some good chicken mulch and watered them in.  I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping they make it.
I also put in some late onion sets and lettuce where I pulled the garlic.  I just hate to see any bare spots not doing their job.  I pulled the rest of the spinach and feed it to the chickens, it was getting a little bitter because it has been warm out.
Tomorrow I have to bake bread; usually do it on Sunday but was just too darn tired doing everything outside.  I also have 2 gallons of milk that needs made into mozzarella cheese that I will do in the morning after I get the bread started.  I need to make some lasagna and freeze it for easy meals but just have a little flour left until we go down to the Amish store this week.  Sure hope she got her shipment in so I can get 50 lbs and also I can't make any soap until she gets more lye in.
I sat down for a couple of hours this afternoon and tied together strips of rags for some rugs.  I have lots of rags all cut up and ready to tie together.  Crocheting the rugs is the easy part, cutting, tying and winding up the rags into giant balls of material is the hard part.
Later, take care.  

Rags for Rugs All Cut and Ready

I spent most of my day sitting at the table under the pergola cutting strips for rag rugs.  I finished everything and now I need to tie the strips together and then roll them up in balls.  It was so nice out today so I took advantage of the nice weather.  This past weekend it was in the 90's, today in the low 70's and tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 50's and finally we should get some much needed rain.
Renee and I take our stuff to the shop tomorrow, really anxious about it.  Was going to see about picking some raspberries that they found on one of their 4 wheeling trips but with the rain in the forecast that doesn't look promising. 
I know I said I wasn't making plans anymore but Friday I plan on making some ham and cheese buns, hamburger in the buns, pizza buns and need to make up a batch of Quick Mix (like Bisquick).  I keep a batch of Quick Mix, Corn Bread Mix and Muffin Mix in the refrigerator all the time so I have it to make up when needed.  I'm not sure where I got the recipes for all this stuff but I will share all of them one at a time.  Today I am sharing the Quick Mix recipe.

Quick Mix

8 1/2 cups of flour 

4 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups instant nonfat dry milk or dry buttermilk powder

2 1/4 cups vegetable shortening

Mix all dry ingredients together, with pastry blender or heavy duty mixer cut in shortening until mixture resembles cornmeal in texture.  Put in airtight container and store in cool dry place (I keep mine in the spare refrigerator).  Makes 13 cups of Quick Mix.

For Biscuits:

3 cups Quick Mix and 3/4 cup milk or water.  Mix, drop by spoonful and bake on a greased baking sheet at 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

For Drop Dumplings:

3 cups Quick Mix and 3/4 cup milk or water.  Mix and drop on top of stew, chicken and noodles or soup.  Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

You can use this mix just like you would use Bisquick.

Everything is Ready to Take to the Shop

I finished wrapping and pricing everything that I'm going to sell in a local shop.  Wrapping and pricing takes a lot of time and for me it makes a mess.  I had everything spread out on the table and the floor.  I have it all cleaned up except for running the vacuum and sweeping the floor.  I also took all the soap that I made on Wednesday out of the molds and it is now drying/curing.  The colors are oh so nice but they do change as they cure.  You can see that the avocado soap is many different colors even though it was out of the same batch.  The color is affected by how fast it cooled when in was in the mold.  The pictures aren't the best but you can see the different colors.

Top, L-R; avocado, spinach, gift baskets.  Bottom L-R; avocado, carrot and cucumber.

The buckets all have a different soap in them.  Notice that I drilled some holes around the top of the buckets so they could get some air.  The buckets were picked up free from local grocery stores at the bakery.                                          

Pile of rag rugs ready to go.

Good News Friday

1st thing; those of you who personally know me know how it has been a struggle to get the grandson who lives with us his drivers license.  Well he finally got it this morning, now to get him a vehicle is the next step.  I am so happy that this day has finally came.  Some thought it might never happen (including him) but it has.
2nd thing; I have an appointment with a shop to see about selling my soap and rag rugs.  I go next Tuesday and am very anxious to go and talk to the owner.  If everything goes well I will need to start making some more soap and rugs to get my stock built up.  :)
Later, take care.

Beautiful Monday

Until I retire next month I have been working 4 days a week; only 20 more working days and then I will come and go as I please.
Tried to separate the glycerin out of some of the used vegetable oil  today without any luck.  Did some wash, watered all the trees and the garden and sat outside and cut strips for rag rugs.  I also picked some lettuce, spinach and a couple of green onions and made myself a salad for my lunch for the next 3 days.  Renee gave me some radishes from her garden yesterday and I added them.
Today I also baked 2 loaves of bread.. Bread baking was done on Sunday until I started working 4 days a week.  I love the smell of the house on bread days.
Weighed the batches of soap I made last week and also calculated the cost of each batch.  I love making the soap and hope to start selling it.  My soap is not fancy looking nor does it have any fancy smell.  Fancy looks or fancy smell does not get you clean.  I also plan on selling rag rugs.  I would like to set up a stand when Spoon River Days come.  Please watch my blog for details about buying soap or rugs.
Right now the chickens are paying their own way with selling eggs.  They are even making a little money after buying feed' now the soap and rugs need to pay their own way.
Later, take care.

Earth Day

April 22nd Earth Day, what do you do to help out our mother earth?  Here are some things that I am doing and maybe you can add some of these things to your list.

We planted 10 pine and 2 apple trees this year.

I go to a couple of grocery stores and get buckets with lids from their bakery (free) and use them to store my flour, oatmeal, rice and other items.  I have all I need right now but still get them and take them down to an Amish community that I go to a couple of times a month.  They give them to anyone who wants them to do the same.

I recycle old clothes and linens to make rag rugs.

I have my daughter Renee save her avocado peels and seeds and orange peelings.  I also save orange peels and put them in the crock pot with some water and simmer all day and put them through the food processor to use as the liquid when making soap.  It gives the soap some color and it is all natural.  So far I have used avocado, orange, clementines and pineapple to use when making soap. What doesn't get used for the soap I give to the chickens.

I render beef suet and pork fat to make soap.  I get the fat and suet from a local butcher for 50 cents a pound.

My daughter Renee's in-laws give me used vegetable oil to use to make soap.  They volunteer at a local American Legion and they save the oil when they change it out.  I filter it and use it to make soap.

I save all my soap scraps and use them in making laundry soap.

I feed all the table scraps to the chickens.  I also feed them all the vegetable and fruit scraps that I don't use for soap.

I have 2 rain barrels that I use to water my plants.

When the dehumidifier fills up I use that water to water my flowers and bushes.

I have fixed up a system to collect the water from the AC to water my garden.  In the middle of the summer I get about 10 gallons of water a day.

There are so many things that we all can do to help; just adding one thing helps to save our earth.

Later, take care.

April 21st

This blog is being started because one of my former co-works Noel and grandson Brandon urged me to do this.  I will try and blog about many of the things that I enjoy doing.  My retirement life will begin on May 25th and this will be a new and enjoyable time of my life.

Today I worked on one of my raised garden beds that has tomatoes and pepper plants.  I added a PVC frame and made a "green house" over it so I can encourage the plants until it gets a little warmer.  This is my first attempt at extending the season on some of my plants.  Right now I have garlic, red and yellow onions, lettuce, spinach and potatoes in the other 3 raised beds.  I have several herbs in one of the beds and in the PVC tube garden.  Sometime I will post a picture of the tube garden so you can see what it looks like.

After the garden work I finished one of the crochet rag rugs that I had been working on.  I taught myself how to crochet rag rugs by watching You Tube.  I was inspired to start making them after reading a book that was written in the late 1800's and they were using some old drapes to make some rag rugs.  I remember my grandmother making them when I was very young.  I asked my daughters to clean their drawers and closets and they gave me lots of t-shirts to use and I also did the same.  I also went to a couple of auctions and purchased 4 boxes of sheets that I am using to make the rugs with also.  The 4 boxes had about 24 sheets and a dozen or so of tablecloths and only paid $6 for everything.  I've given a rug to both granddaughters one of the grandsons and my middle daughter Renee took one for her kitchen.  I have one in my bathroom and one in my kitchen.   I enjoy doing them and it makes a nice thing to do to relax in the evening.  It also is a good way to recycle old linens and clothing items.

Well enough of my thoughts for today, later.