My Canning and Conveinent Mixes

I am so glad that last year I canned a lot of convenient types of items and made up some convenient mixes.  Yesterday I made a pot of Vegetable Beef Soup and used a jar of the soup veggies and a jar of tomatoes.  Since I retired we eat a bigger variety of meals because I have all the stuff ready to use.  If you remember in December I made up some stuffing mix so we could have stuffing through the year and not just at holiday times.  We've used 2 bags so far and when I get down to the last bag I will for sure be making more.  I didn't have a recipe but came up with my own and I have to say I did an excellent job.  There is nothing I will do different the next time I make it.  Both times I just poured the bag of stuffing in a baking dish, added a quart of turkey broth, mix it well and then put some butterfly pork chops on top.  I cover this with foil for the first hour and a half and then remove the foil for the last 20 minutes or so. You could also do this with chicken but Ron likes it better with chops.  Another thing that I canned was new potatoes and we use those all the time too.  The other night I poured the liquid off of a jar of potatoes, put them in a baking dish, drizzled some olive oil on them and then sprinkled them with garlic powder, salt and pepper and baked them for about an hour.  Oh so good and easy.   My favorite is the potatoes and carrot mixture, I use when we have roast or when I make stew.  All you have to do is cook the meat in the crock pot and about 2 hours before you eat add the jar of potatoes and carrots.  Before I canned these things we ate a lot of meat and very few veggies with them.

Sinus Infection

I hardly ever get sick and have this sinus infection like I had last year.  The sinus cavity in the back of my head gets infected and it feels like my head will explode.  You know how you feel if you have smashed your finger or toe and if you run a needle under the nail to relieve the pressure it feels oh so good.  Well if someone would just take a needle and relieve some of the pressure I would feel so much better.  This is the 3rd day I have been sick and I'm more than past due to get better.  I HATE FEELING SICK.  I am not a patient person and when I have no control over something it drives me crazy.
I just got back from running some packages to the Post Office and it is nice and warm out.  It is in the 50's but the fog has not lifted all day.  Tomorrow it's suppose to be in the 60's with rain and then Wednesday it will be in the mid 30's with rain and snow.  It's no wonder so many people are sick.  We desperately need the moisture so I do welcome the rain and the snow.  The majority of my hens are white and with weather like this they look terrible.  I keep telling them that I need to install a shower for them.  Once and only once a couple years ago I gave them a bath.  You ask why in the world would she do that?  Well they were so dirty and my granddaughter Hannah said she would help me so we did it.  It was oh so much fun that I've never done it again. This proves that just because I'm old I can still learn from past mistakes.

Etsy Grand Opening Discount

I'm having a Grand Opening of my Etsy Store on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I'm offering 10% off on everything.  But to my loyal blog readers and followers I'm offering a 15% discount.  You can see all the details below.  Grab a cup of tea or coffee and sit back and enjoy.  On  the right side of my site you can click on the picture of the pattern and it will take you to my store.  Thanks

15% off a your entire order (discount not applied to shipping costs).

The coupon code is: GRANDOPENING15
The coupon code will be activated on Friday morning at 7 AM Central Time and will stop at 9 PM Central Time on Sunday night.
Sure hope you find some wonderful bargains and thanks for shopping with me.

The below is from Etsy and shows you how to use the discount code.

Once you've added an item to your cart, click Apply shop coupon code above "Item total" to enter the coupon code for your order.

Then enter the coupon code into the space provided and click the Apply button.  The coupon discount will adjust your order total.



The below info is on my policies page under shipping and I always do this. 

SHIPPING CHARGES ARE VERY HARD TO DETERMINE. IF I HAVE CHARGED $2 MORE THAN THE COST OF SHIPPING PLUS $2 HANDLING FEE I WILL CREDIT YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT THE DIFFERENCE.

EXAMPLE YOU PAID $10 SHIPPING; SHIPPING WAS ONLY $5 PLUS $2 HANDLING FEE I WILL THEN CREDIT YOU $3. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE ASK.

Bargain Find

My daughter Renee stopped yesterday at a Aldi store to pick up something and she found spiral sliced ham for $5 off.  She called me right away and we made plans to go today and pick some up for the freezer.  I got 5 hams for $31.53; 40 lbs; 79 cents a pound, 20 meals and a ham for Easter.  I packed 16 packs of ham steaks and 4 pkgs of the ham ends where they stop the slicing.  The Aldi's she found this at is closing next Thursday and moving to a new location.  There is also another store several miles from that one that is also closing.  The 2 stores are combining into 1 new store.  So next Thursday I will be going into town and going to both stores to see what good bargains I can find.  For those that shop at Aldi in Peoria it is the Sterling Ave and War Memorial Drive store that will be closing.

One of Those Days

Do you have days when you are busy all day and still feel like you didn't do anything?  Well I had one of those today.  Worked on my Etsy store redoing some of the listings and did a couple loads of laundry.  Then I am either stupid or stubborn or maybe both and hung 2 loads of linens outside.  For a normal day that would be OK but it was about 8 degrees and the wind was horrible.  The stuff would freeze before I got it hung, the sheets and material would whip around and hit me.  My fingers were the only thing that about broke off.  I had on my backyard coat, earmuffs, neck scarf and gloves but my finger tips were almost froze.  When I came in I was almost in tears.  Yes I have a working dryer but after I retired I said I would not use it unless I absolutely could not hang the clothes up.
After all of that I washed the towels but hung them on my rack in the laundry room and then washed the last load of stuff we got this weekend.  The towels were dry by supper time so I took them down and hung the last load of material.  I also did some packing of orders from my Ebay stuff which I will get mailed in the morning and a few other odd things.  Busy but still feel like nothing got done.  Tomorrow I need to get pictures of stuff that need to be put on Ebay and Etsy and that will take most of the day.  I think, no I know I work harder since I retired that when I worked and Mr SLB you don't need to chime in.  :)
Brandon stayed last night because my son-in-law had surgery today.  He was up most of the night working on the below items.  He was real good and did not drive me crazy, I instead drove him crazy.  He hates it when I make him pick up after himself.

Brandon's creations.

The hauler.

The race car.

Vehicle that pulls everything.

He got cans of Coke out and placed them on the hauler and had the race car pull it and it would pull 10 can of coke which we calculated weighed  a little over 8 lbs.

Baby it's Cold Outside and my Auction Finds

Yesterday it was 50 degrees and today it didn't get out of the 20's.  Monday and Tuesday we will be lucky to get to 15 degrees.
We went to a large auction yesterday where I got a lot of linens, some material and lots of tablecloths.  The linens will be used for rag crocheting and I will put the tablecloths on Etsy or Ebay.  This lady loved sheep and everything had sheep on them.  There was 1 hay wagon with huge bags of wool that had been dyed and ready to be spun.  There had to be at least 100 garbage bag size bags of the wool, it  was beautiful.  Also there was about 50 garbage bags of material, huge amount of sewing items, yarn and 1 hay wagon full of baskets.  The antique furniture was beautiful.  It was hard to believe that all the stuff came out of a 3 bedroom old house.  I'm sure most of the stuff had to come out of a garage or barn.  I can't say for sure but I would think she was a hoarder.  Of the $20 I spent yesterday I should make at least $200 +.   All the boxes of stuff I got were only $1 each.  I think that they just went through the house and threw everything in a box or bag and I always find some good treasures that way. I also got lots of patterns that I will go through to make sure all the pieces are there and then put them on one of the sites.  People love vintage patterns.  If I don't sell something after a short time then I find someone who might want it or take it to Goodwill.  I need to keep turning over the stuff because I have such a small place to keep it and don't want my kids to clean stuff up when I die.

Free Webinars for Small Farms or Homesteads

A couple of weeks ago a former co-worker Shaun emailed me some info on some webinars that the state of Illinois was having this year and thought I would be interested in some.  I registered for several and enjoyed the first one on Raising Broiler Turkeys on Small Farms.  I learned a lot and plan to make the Ohio Brooder that they talked about.
I emailed the gentleman about sharing this info on the blog and they said "Certainly you can mention these.  We appreciate the assistance."

The first link is where you register and the second link is the recording of the 1st one on turkeys.

Also on the first link they have the list of everything they are offering and they are free which is always very good.  They have webinars on pest control in the garden, companion planting, one on poultry and many more.

Look around their site as they have a lot of programs planned for the year that are something you can attend or log into.  You do need to register for them.
This is a wonderful way to expand your knowledge for your small farm or homestead.

https://webs.extension.uiuc.edu/registration/default.cfm?RegistrationID=7543

The Webinar entitled Raising Broiler Turkeys on Small Farms can be accessed at:

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/hkmw/localfoods.html

Scroll down the page to Small Farm Webinar- Raising Broiler Turkeys