Thriving In My Thrifty Week–August 23, 2020

I had a little visitor today. I’d like to introduce you all to my grandson, Malcom. His mama is in town, visiting, with him, and Rob and I got to see him for the first time. He’s so precious and special, as all babies are. But I have to say right now, he’s by far the cutest baby I know:).

Of course, he stole Grandpa’s heart, too.

Last year, Ja’Ana got married in a private ceremony. She and her husband live in Hawaii, and now they have Malcom. At that time, she asked for privacy, and I have respected that on this blog. But now…..she’s letting Grandpa post it all over Facebook….and fair is fair….so–Whoo-Hoo–! The cute little guy that we have Facetimed with several times a week since he was born in early July has finally come to visit. Lovana actually flew to Hawaii to help J on the plane with baby–she never left the airport at all, just met J there and flew right back.

Alissa picked them up at the airport, brought them here for a visit and brunch, and then they went to Lovana’s house to hopefully get some rest. I also loved seeing Alissa–she’s been working at a camp most of the summer, so we don’t get to see her very often.

Jake wanted to make Snickerdoodles for our upcoming camping trip. Or should I say Jake wanted to eat Snickerdoodles before our upcoming trip. A few were frozen for the trip. A lot were eaten. It will be the first time we’ve been camping for an entire year, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time getting the camper ready. It’s a project. We are putting together an outdoor school/camp experience for both Patsy and Jake with lots of activities, learning and fun. What Jake remembers is decorating sugar cookies and having lots of glow sticks. So we will, plus a bunch of other fun things.

In the meanwhile, we are still preserving everything we can get our hands on. I’ve canned tomatoes, pears, 2 batches of salsa, bringing my total up to over 30 jars (I want 50, but we’ll see), 3 small batches dill pickles, one small batch of sweet pickles (the ones that take 4 days, dumping and pouring each morning and night according to the directions), dried peaches, pears and apples from the reduced produce rack at Freddies, done fruit leather, and finished the fruit cocktail. Rob went to a fruit stand that we know of and got my apples, which are ripening for applesauce. I have a lot more tomatoes to do, plus more pickles, more salsa…..you get the idea. Some days, I’ve worked for over 12 hours, but most days it’s way less than that. A little each day, and it’s stacking up. I’m gaining on it, but not quite there yet.

Rob tilled another section of the garden after I pulled up spent plants. I’ve planted cabbage, Chinese cabbage, boc choi, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, broccoli rapini, and snow peas for a fall/winter garden.

The right hand side of the compost bin in the back of the picture is ready and Rob started digging it out. Once it’s empty, that’s where our scraps and weeds will go and we will let the other side finish making its compost. It took about a year of us just dumping scraps and weeds in there for it to break down–we do nothing special to it–just pour it in there as we get it. That picture is from last spring. What a change in the garden!

It’s been an amazing gardening year, and we feel very blessed. That trellis of beans is now hiding the compost bins. I got a few beans from it at first, but then..nothing. Now, I notice lots of little blooms all over, so I have high hopes for eating beans in a week or so. We’ll see. They were not happy with the 90+ degree days last week.

I grocery shopped for the first time in about 3 weeks. I used lots of Bottle Drop money I’d been saving for quite a while, a $5 coupon I got in the mail, my last Fred Meyer rewards and got out the the store for under $40 cash. I also had several Ibotta rebates from the trip, which I’m leaving in that account for now. I got lots of groceries, and they will last for quite some time. I’ve saved some grocery money this month and will make an Azure Standard order next month with it (bulk products). It’s the easiest time of the year to save money with all the produce that’s available, plus my aunt gave us some extra lunchmeat, which has come in handy to snatch and eat when I’m so busy canning. There is some extra expense for canning supplies, but I still come out ahead since so much of what I can, freeze or dry is free or very inexpensive.

29 thoughts on “Thriving In My Thrifty Week–August 23, 2020”

  1. Oh, congratulations to you all!! We also do the dump it in and wait compost method. How wonderful you’ve been able to put up all that good food. Many wishes for a bountiful fall garden.

  2. Spoken like a true grandmother!!!!! Grandbabies are the BEST thing in the entire world!!!! Congratulations to you and, of course, Ja’Ana and her husband! Malcolm is beautiful!!!!!!

  3. The ONLY problem with the new grandbaby is how far away they live. I hope you get to see him a lot during their visit.

  4. Congratulations. Your grandson is so cute. Is he your first or do you have other grandkids? I know you have older kids that live all over.

  5. Oh a new grandbaby…Congratulations…And a wedding…same. the joy of family and life. And way to go Lovana for helping your sister out with the baby and plane ride.
    You and Rob have to be proud parents of those young adults. And now loving and cuddling a grand. What a week.
    Your garden looks awesome. My tomatoes fell over one day after several cold and rainy days. About overnight they got the blight and I had to pull everything. I think I got one tomatoe off those two plants. So it goes some years. i should know better then try to grow something bigger then a cherry tomatoe. But hope is eternal.
    Green beans are coming on. And wait for it…my one winter squash plant has produced exactly one fruit..LOL. So it goes with my micro farming little plots.
    All the best to you and yours. I’m with Jake – bring on those homemade cookies.

  6. Congratulations to all involved!!! Even though I’m not a grandmother (yet), babies are the absolute best.

  7. Aww what a sweet baby! He is precious! Congratulations to all of you.
    Great job preserving all that food. I’m sure it is exhausting, but won’t it taste good this winter.

  8. Congratulations! So glad you get to see your new little Grandson in this tricky time. Mama looks so happy. Blessings to their little family.

    Thanks for sharing with us.

    How is Rob’s hip doing?
    Lea

  9. Talking about compost bins. I just throw all my grass clippings and food scraps in piles at the back of our property that tends to stay wet. I have lots of volunteer tomato and vine plants this year and I was wondering why they were doing so well. Well I think they are shooting roots way down into this wet area and watering themselves!!!! I have several nice squash growing!! They are vining into the yard but that’s ok. Just less grass to mow. I have had to tell myself everything is fine!! I am a stickler when it comes to a uniform mowing of the grass lol. My garden too is producing like crazy. It is small but the harvest has been great. Have a blessed week!! Thanks for the encouragement!! I read your blog weekly!! I love the pictures.

    1. Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy reading the blog. I enjoy writing it. I love it when a plant volunteers and I get something good from it–I had a few this year, too, but am having very little luck with squash. I’m glad you are getting yours to grow.

  10. Congratulations on the grandson! That is wonderful news!

    You’ve been doing a lot of work putting up the harvest and getting ready for fall planting! Busy days!

  11. Malcolm is perfect! You are so blessed to have him and I am glad you have shared. I enjoyed seeing him. You have got to be so proud.
    The garden looks awesome and I am glad you have had such a wonderful bounty. It is hard work but worth it come winter.
    Mine has slowed down now and I am glad. I have started planting seeds in cups on the front porch and we will start with a little bit of plowing in a few weeks. It is still blistering hot! It usually begins to cool down the second week in September so I am counting the days to the first cool snap. I will go crazy working in the yard then.
    Again, thank you for sharing pictures of Malcolm. You made my day.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

    1. We need some cooler weather. We need rain. It’s been very hot and wildfires have exploded all over the state. I’ve never seen so many in my life. There are some fairly close. We have so much smoke cover that yesterday was as dark as night until 9 am, then was only a dim light during the day until it became dark again around 4:30-5ish. Today was a bit lighter, but still very smoky.Ash is falling from the sky, things are covered. The plants in the garden are not happy. I have kept canning, but am not choosing to work outside for a few days except quick runs out there to pick things. Several friends have evacuated, mostly from the area where we lived before we moved here. There are towns that are burned to the ground, as best as we can tell from the news, and there are some from our church that have been burned out. I don’t know them, but I’m saddened for them and all the others that are suffering so much.

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