Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–April 20, 2021

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Last week can be summed up with one word: YARDWORK!!!

We had 8 yards of well-rotted mint compost delivered on Friday morning at 7 (Yikes!) and spent Friday and Saturday taking it by the wheelbarrow-load to the garden. You can see the new raised beds in the background. There are peas, snap peas, snow peas, green onions and strawberries growing nicely. The weather has been great, and Rob got the watering system up and running so now they are growing even better between the water and sunshine.

We spent quite a bit of time working on the watering system. A few sprinkler heads needed replacing and there was one evening where Rob was on his stomach in the grass, I was wrist-deep in mud trying to screw the new head in, water was spewing everywhere at one moment, and Jake wanted noodles! Wow! Never a dull moment. Eventually, we got 2 out of 3 replaced and left the other one for another day!

I used an old-fashioned shovel to dig out many, many dandelions and other weeds near the raised beds by the deck and the flowerbed nearby. After I got it cleaned out, I spread a couple of bags of bark chips in the paths to help keep them clear. It helped a lot last year.

We have saved hundreds lately by either doing things ourselves or having Rob fix broken items.

We put steer manure in the flowerbed area where the fig tree used to be. The soil is terrible, but we will improve it over time. I planted out geraniums that Rob either dug up and saved in the greenhouse all winter or started from cuttings. The alyssum, pansies, African daisies and poppies were started from seed in the greenhouse. Some seeds were from seed companies, some from the Dollar Store, and the cuttings were from last years’ plants.

In the area behind the geraniums, including the stump area, tons of zinnia seeds are scattered. Most are old, (25c/quart bag at a yard sale a couple of years ago), so I threw them in there thickly. Straight back on the right, is a snowball bush. We bought it at a yard sale for $5 this weekend. I’ve been wanting one for quite some time, so I was delighted. On the right-hand side are some Hood strawberry plants–just 12. They are June-bearing. I’d like to have a large crop at one time for jam next year. The rest of my berries are overbearing, and I love having berries all summer. We shall see. Without the tree to shade everything and take all the water, I have high hopes for this area.

We all took our nephew to a track meet. They have a very short season, due to Covid, so his parents, Michaela, Rob, myself, Lovana, Patsy and Malcolm went to cheer him on. He has 2 more, and then he’s done. Malcolm’s mom was working that day, so we got to take him to his first ever sporting event:)

We took advantage of the sunshine and had a picnic at the park with Jake, Michaela, Patsy, Malcolm, Ja’Ana, Rob and myself before J had to go to work one day. We took several walks. We cooked a few meals, but did sandwiches, salads, and things like that quite a bit. I finally went to the store today, Tuesday, and stocked up on enough to hopefully last the rest of the month. The last time I went was almost 2 weeks ago, so we were getting low on produce. I also placed an Azure Standard order with the money I’d set aside the last couple of months, to stock up on some cleaning supplies and bulk items. The funniest thing we ordered, for me, was a pound of pepper. Again! I got one about 3 months ago. Really! I’m not kidding–Rob likes pepper (understatement of the year!). It amazed me to see I needed another one so soon, but I did. So, if you ever stop by for dinner…..consider yourself warned!

camping, Saving Money, Vacations

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–April 12, 2021

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We had another nice, long weekend camping. This trip was different in several ways. One difference is in the amount of outdoor activities we were able to engage in, since the weather was so nice. I’m glad we had so much fun, because this is the last trip for a while.

We had some out-of-town relatives who were staying down at the beach and my aunt got a condo down there so she could visit with them. That condo comes with a crab dock. Need I say more?

After 2 afternoons of crabbing, a few were captured. They aren’t showing up well in this bucket, as they were Red Rock Crabs. One Dungeness was also caught. All were eaten by us, aunts/uncles/nieces/nephews/ etc.

We had one nice, group dinner over at the condo and enjoyed visiting. We were camped at a near-by campground and everyone came and went at will.

One day, our family hiked the Drift Creek Falls Trail.

We hiked 2.9 miles down into a canyon, along a little creek, up the other side, across a suspension bridge and to the water fall. We enjoyed the hike very much, especially the part where we climbed right back out of that canyon without too much trouble. We surprised ourselves, in a good way! I will say Rob overdid a little though, because with his 2 trips down to the ocean that day rock collecting, plus this hike, he did over 7 miles. He was a little sore the next day, but the dog couldn’t move for 2 days, so…..Rob wins:)

We raked for cockle clams at low tide one day. Patsy got 1 measly clam. The rest of us got skunked. We put the baby back to live another day. We will try again some day when the tide is lower.

The weather was gorgeous. It only rained one night, and not very much. There was quite a bit of wind at times, which felt cold, but mostly it was pleasant and sunny. Yesterday, while Rob and our older nephew were crabbing, Patsy, Jake and I walked to the boardwalk viewing area. I know the picture does not show them well, but those tiny specks in the sky are people surfing with large 1/2 parachutes (parasurfing?). There was also a windsurfer with a bright sail out in the water. I hadn’t seen that before in this location.

Another different thing for us was today. We needed to come home, but had nothing pressing in the afternoon to return early for, so decided to stay down there until early afternoon. (We usually leave first thing in the morning when coming home). We decided to drive to a nearby beach and take a walk before hooking up and driving home. I was delighted to find that beautiful rock/sand formation pictured above while I was walking. The rest of them hunted for rocks and shells and a certain little boy got his shoes completely wet in a creek, and had to come home barefoot. Now, that’s a beach trip. I love it!

As usual, we got a large amount of fun for a very small fist full of dollars. Obviously, nothing is free, and we used gas to drive around. Thankfully, we had some gas rewards on our Fred Meyer card, so we used those. We always save them for when the van needs gas.

We used our park pass to camp. We used the dock at my aunt’s condo to crab with equipment we have owned for years. Rob bought some chicken to crab with, but a lady on the dock gave him hers when she got tired of crabbing, so we cooked ours, as it was on ice and perfectly good, and used hers for crabbing. We used our rakes to rake for clams. Rob had recently picked up another one at a garage sale and painted its tines blue, just for this purpose.

The Drift Creek Falls Trail had a very small parking fee, which was nice since our park pass doesn’t cover that place.

Several times we put food from the camper in a bag and took it along when we drove somewhere. We got some food from McDonald’s and used the app to save money. (McD’s is Jake’s favorite and we wanted everyone to get to do something they wanted.). We ate meals at the camper and, once, at the condo. We enjoyed visiting with all family members who were there.

I was able to use up several items in the camper fridge, such as spreadable butter, from a couple of weeks ago, and many things from our fridge. I love putting leftovers from the house right into the camper fridge so they get used, and vice versa when we return. I bought a few things from Grocery Outlet before we went and we didn’t have to shop, except for milk, while we were there. There’s plenty left so I don’t have to shop for a few days now, unless I’m SO tempted by the 97c ice cream at Safeway that I can’t stand not to get it….

We don’t have any more camping trips planned for quite some time, and I’m o.k. with that–there’s lots to do around here. We’ve already started doing the laundry from the trip and I’m looking forward to getting out into the yard and garden as the week progresses. It should be a fun week, in its own way.

Sewing

Sewing For Baby–April, 2021

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I decided to make my grandson a romper for his Easter gift. I also gave him some baby food instead of candy. He seemed to especially like the squeezable pouch of baby food, which his Mama gave him right away. I’ve just been buying a few items when I have a great coupon, or there is an amazing sale. I will definitely look out for those pouches, again. I’ve made him squash, mashed peaches and pears, and other regular food at various times while he is over here, but thought a few prepared jars might be handy for his Mama at times. He also liked the Strawberry Apple Spinach Teethers I bought.

He was perfectly content to bang 2 plastic eggs together for a while. We know he will be gobbling candy by next Easter, if allowed.

I used Simplicity 1447, and made view C. I made the large size, which says it’s 18 months, even though I know it will be too big. He is growing so rapidly that by summer, it will likely fit. If not, we will hope for a sunny fall:)

I have had this fabric for many years in my stash and love it. I was happy to find a purpose for it. Matching plaids was a challenge I have not tried for a while, but with the help of my trusty seam ripper, I prevailed until I was satisfied. I made it while on vacation to the beach, in the camper, so I had plenty of time to mess around with it to get it right. I used a zipper in the back, as called for, white bias tape around the neck and armholes and snap tape at the crotch.

I made a mistake and cut the snap tape one snap too short. I centered the piece I had cut, and just made sure all edges were finished well and hemmed. It looks fine on the outside, but won’t win any prizes at the fair on the inside!

I would like to try this pattern again. I’d like to see how this one fits first and if it seems like it will be as cool and comfortable for him as it looks on the pattern envelope.

Holidays, Saving Money

Thriving In My thrifty Week–April 5, 2021

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Yesterday, we had such a nice Easter. After missing going to church in person for almost a year, it was very meaningful to attend yesterday. We went bright and early, since I was having extended family over for lunch.

It was the first family gathering we have had in over a year. Now that so many of us are vaccinated, we feel safe to get together again. Of course, we were careful anyway. The weather cooperated and quite a few ended up outside on the sunny, but chilly, deck. I had areas set up in almost every main room, bedroom and the garage so people could spread out as much as they needed to. We had a reduced menu and sent a few people into the kitchen at a time to get food, then a couple more went in. It worked very well and we had a wonderful time together.

Everyone had fun passing the baby around.

He’s learned to kiss Grandpa now, and of course, stole the show in his cute Easter sweater.

This was a busy week. We had a birthday party for Lovana on Wednesday.

The girls brought over seafood and did a seafood boil. It was delicious. They also brought a cake. I cooked the rest of the meal. We had a wonderful time. It was just our little family and one sweet cousin, and Lovana loved it.

I spent most of the week getting ready to entertain, and entertaining, but still did a few frugal activities.

We took a couple of walks, but I’ll admit I wasn’t as diligent as I should have been with that. I ran out of time.

Rob went to the store right after we got back from camping, got milk, salad stuff, a ham and potatoes, stuff for that night’s dinner, and didn’t go again. Instead, we made out with whatever we had on hand for the rest of Easter dinner. I bought a few jelly beans for decorations, and that was it! Family members brought various foods and it turned out great. He did find a turkey for $5 and cooked that as well. We just couldn’t pass that up!

Today, he went again for about $23 worth of odds and ends, and that’s all I need for a few days, so I”m getting off easy this week where groceries are concerned. I plan pulling lots of food from the freezers for the next couple of weeks. It’s time to start clearing out room for the upcoming summer’s garden . I was already able to pick cilantro and lettuce from some volunteer plants in the garden to use in meals. I still have quite a few onions from last summer’s garden, and we are using those daily.

I went out and worked in the yard for several hours last Friday, just because I was in the mood to be out in the sun! The benefit is a flowerbed out front that looks great. I can’t wait to do more.

Quite a few seeds have sprouted in the raised beds and the small portion of the garden Rob tilled with the tiny tiller a couple of weeks ago. It won’t be long….

Saving Money, Vacations

Thriving In My thrifty Week–March 29, 2021

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We spent last week at Beverly Beach State Park, camping. We had an extreme mix between gorgeous, sunny weather and windy, rainy days! Thankfully, we had a great travel day to drive down to the coast, and a showery mix on the way back today. During the first part of the week, it was just Patsy, Rob and myself. The second part of the week, we were joined by our niece and nephew. We specifically planned some activities just for Patsy, to spoil her a little while the other kids were not with us, and plenty of fun things for them all, once they arrived. We did crafts, played “hot and cold” as is tradition on our camping trips (with small prizes for them to find), and had glow sticks. There was lots of candy, movies, games and chips, involved. We were thrilled to take the lot of them to church in the nearby town on Sunday morning. Besides the obvious spiritual reasons to attend church, it provided a great outing for our “camper-bound” crew on a rainy morning. The wind blew so fiercely that night that the camper was actually shaking and we could hear it howling. It was an adventure, for sure.

We took many walks and hikes, some on the beach and some on the trail that winds its way around the campground along a pleasant stream.

Trails like this tempt me every time and I can rarely resist following them. I hiked this one twice. It wasn’t long, but it was lovely.

Another day, we drove down the coast, and yet another time we hiked a trail from the Newport Jetty to the South Beach State Park day use area.

We visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium twice. We got a membership on-line before we went. The first time, we just took Patsy. She got to look at everything she wanted to without having to share her trip with the other kids. Then, we went back once the other two joined us, and we all enjoyed it again, together.

We had to call and get a ticket reservation each time, which was waiting at the ticket booth for us, for a certain time. We had to wear masks, and there were markings on the floor, so we could distance ourselves from others. Everyone waited patiently for everyone else, and surprisingly, we didn’t feel rushed and everyone got to see everything for as long as they wanted to. It was a one-way walk through the aquarium, and you could not backtrack. But, I believe you could have gone around again, if you wished. We were tired by then, so went out. By going those two times, we’ve already paid for our membership, but still can go all we want for the next year. We are thinking Patsy wants to do Marine Biology next year, so I’m sure she will want to visit again, and Michaela, especially, loves all kinds of animals.

On one of our walks, when we were out quite early, we came upon several salamanders. This one was plodding along, but was quite clumsy, and tumbled off this wooden block placed over a marshy spot on the trail. It was clear that he already had a owie on his back from some previous excursion, but Rob put him upright, and tried to steady him a bit and put him on a better path, but he just started on again immediately, tearing off to run into another little rock or dirt clod. It brought to mind Matthew West’s song, “Truth Be Told.” It’s one of Jake’s favorites and he can sing it all the way through, but it goes something like this: “I’m fine, yes I’m fine, oh I’m fine, yes, I’m fine, but I’m not, “I’m broken.” (It’s easy to find on U-tube). We got a chuckle out of this salamander, who did not have the sense to even rest up a minute or take the help Rob was offering….and while we were laughing at that silly salamander, we knew there was a lesson in there somewhere…..

Rob and Patsy went down to the beach frequently and collected agates, beach glass and other rocks and shells. Rob and I took walks together down the beach, then I took them alone when the kids got there. We switched off so someone could stay with them, once they were there.

The campsite we got this time was such a treat. It was up at the front of the campground, and I had an ocean view out of my camper window. Rob got this one by getting up at midnight, the very first day they were taking reservations for this time period, and clicked the button just in time. We’ve only been able to get reservations in that part of the park once before in our whole life, so we enjoyed every minute. Next time, we will camp elsewhere, but that will be fun, too!

I’ve been doing laundry since the moment I walked in the door, but there’s more. We used a lot of old towels, due to the mud and sand. I’m glad I have a washing machine, and we were able to take enough clothes and towels that we did not have to visit a laundromat, as we’ve done when the big kids were small. It’s always nice to not have to spend a lot of quarters:). Tomorrow, we will have a day to get back into the groove of things, and back to work on Wednesday. I have a bit of cleaning to do in preparation for Easter, a little cooking to do, and the garden is starting to need some attention. Last week was fun, and this one will be, too, in a different way!

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–March 22, 2021

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The most exciting thing we did this past week was taking a hike at Silver Creek State Park. We stuffed daypacks with food and water and took off on the first day we weren’t working. We used our park pass so we didn’t have to pay a parking fee, and took off down the trail. It was amazing! It has been years and years since Rob could hike on a “real” trail and he did great. He took his trekker poles to keep himself steady as there are very steep places on that trail. We didn’t rush, especially where the trail was rough. We went down into the canyon, saw several waterfalls, and hiked the rim trail back to the car, about 3-1/2 miles. We are already planning to take the longer loop later in the spring or summer, it was so fun!

It was wet and rough, and we still made it!

There were switchbacks, and we still made it. All of our daily walking is really starting to pay off for us! It’s our latest miracle. Seriously. One year ago, Rob could barely make it from the bedroom to the front room, and now look at him:). We feel so blessed!

We did some money-saving activities this week. I cooked and ground the last Sweetmeat squash. Rob’s cousin gave us this one and it’s held up well, but I wanted to get it cooked before it went bad. We ate some and I froze the rest.

The girls joined us for church again and then came over here for lunch afterwards and the baby happily ate squash. Rob and I took him out for a walk in the same stroller we used for Ja’Ana when she was little. It has been a good stroller for us. I’m glad we kept it.

We got to babysit one day, as his Mama got some extra hours at work.

We didn’t work with the kids very much this week, they had other things to so, so, instead, spent the week catching up on many appointments. We’ve worked so much with them lately that our hours will not be affected, so that’s good. We had eye appointments, several doctor appointments and even spent time with our other niece, Alissa. We are all getting new glasses. We were glad to get our tax refund, and used some of it to pay our co-pays for the glasses.

The garden dried out just enough that Rob could till a small section. First, he had to replace the carburetor in our very old small tiller. It cost him $20 to get a new one off of Amazon, instead of the couple hundred it would cost to get the tiller tuned up and the carburator replaced.

I then planted carrots, beets, lettuce, little cabbage plants Rob grew, spinach and snow peas. The next morning it started raining and hasn’t stopped since, so the garden is very soggy. We got our window of opportunity, and took it, and I’m glad!

The peas are finally coming up in the raised beds, so I will have English peas, snow peas, and climbing Sugar Snap peas. I also have lettuce and spinach up in the other covered bed, along with a few little cabbage plants. I was getting worried they weren’t going to come up, so I’m relieved they did. Some of the seeds were old, and some weren’t. I think it was just cold, so they came up slowly. There are no sweet pea flowers up yet, so those seeds were probably too old. But, who knows? Time will tell:)

The greenhouse is doing well, and there are hundreds of starts in there for us, and others. Rob got his automatic watering system going in there, and is satisfied with the settings, at last.

I went to Safeway and redeemed the coupons for the free items Patsy won in the Monopoly game a couple of weeks ago. We got French bread, ibuprophin, crackers, and 2 bottles of water for free. Then, for whatever reason, my Just for U offered olives and one other thing, so I got them, too, for free. We used the grocery rewards I’ve been saving and got 70 cents a gallon off, and filled the van. I got groceries for the rest of March, using sales and downloaded coupons. I just went a couple of times this month for main shopping and picked up a couple of other items on sale at other stores in between, and that worked well.

Garden, Saving Money, Sewing

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–March 15, 2021

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Several years ago, we got extra daffodil bulbs when my sister divider hers. Patsy planted them in front near the street and they get prettier every year. The first year there was one bloom on some of the plants. Now they are starting to multiply and will continue to do so until I will have to divide them in the future.Sometimes, we add in a few bulbs from Winco or other places, but mostly these are absolutely free flowers that just keep growing and growing. I weeded a tiny bit in that flower bed, but there’s lot more to do.

We spent the week cleaning up the tree Rob cut down last Monday. There’s still a bit left to pick up, but the majority of branches are gone. Rob borrowed a trailer to haul them away to my sister’s farm. The cardboard box was over some daffodils to keep them safe, and another one was covering the faucet. The chunks of wood will join the rest in the side yard, drying for next year. Then, I’m going to enrich the soil and plant a few things. I have not decided exactly what I’m planting, yet.

Rob’s been transplanting like crazy. He built some shelves up high in the greenhouse and is putting in an automatic sprinkler system to water things when we go camping. He’s doing some experimentation. It seems like the next thing he is going to try is 1 minute per day and see how it goes, after drenching them so badly he feared he had drowned them during the last trial run! (Do you notice a theme here lately….we are planning to make it to our camping trips this summer, unlike last summer when they got cancelled almost every time–nothing will stand in our way if we can help it, says the girl who already had to postpone one trip due to an ice storm! But, we will prevail, or if we have to cancel, it won’t be from lack of trying to go!)

The tomatoes are really starting to look good. They are not all for me, in case you were wondering if I was going on a “tomato only diet” in the summer:).

I made 3 kinds of soup this week. One was vegetable, one was chili and the other was a cream of broccoli, carrot and cauliflower with cheese, made from the little baggies of veggies in the school lunches and milk from the same place.

Rob had to stop off at Costco and grabbed a cooked chicken while he was there, so we’ve been eating that. He pulled steak from the freezer one day and then found that our niece, Alissa, accepted my invitation to eat lunch here on Sunday after church, so he saved it, cut it into smaller pieces and cooked it when she came over. She loves, loves, loves steak! Her brother and sister were already here, and they were so glad to see her. She works at a camp these days and isn’t home as much as they would like. We all were delighted to see her! As the day progressed, the party grew unexpectedly. 2 daughters and grandson came over, too, so I baked a lot of potatoes and cooked carrots, green beans and corn to stretch out the one package of meat he had thawed. It’s the garden that just keeps giving! I also used some of my home-canned apple pie filling to make an apple crisp. There was more than enough, and there were lots of leftovers for people to take home if they wished. Funny thing. There are still carrots and beans in the fridge…hmmmm….no one took those….hmmm.

I did some cleaning and yard work. It makes me feel calm when I get things tidied up. Of course, the clean house didn’t last long, since Jake and Michaela spent the weekend here, and we had the kids over on Sunday, but at least we started out clean:). It still felt good to know I had done it! I noticed that the kids all spread out nicely without being asked, so I felt happy that they were social distancing on their own.

I finally went to JoAnn’s and used some gift cards I received for Christmas. I got some cotton fabric, elastic, thread, and a few patterns. I plan to make some summer dresses for Patsy and maybe a top or two. I may even make myself a cool, flowing, oversized summer dress while I’m at it. Last summer, I wished I had one to throw on after working in the garden, since I often get quite hot out there.

I’ve been working on a dress for Patsy that was started some time ago, so need to finish that before I start anything else. I also made several masks. Some of ours are wearing out, and we lost a couple. Now that we’ve been going back to church, I am wearing masks more often.

Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–March 8, 2021

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We have had some very mild weather this week. I took the opportunity to weed out the raised bed I planted last fall. It’s been covered with plastic over wood frames. We removed them, I weeded and planted, then put the coverings back on.

Kale, lettuce, boc choi, parsley, chives and a few scraggly snow peas wintered over. I planted tiny Quick Start Cabbages, Noble Spinach, lettuce, snow peas and some cilantro. I covered 2 of the cabbages with milk jugs to see if that speeds them up even more, as I’m down to my last couple of cabbages from the winter garden. The walnut shells are an experiment. Hopefully, they are sharp and the slugs won’t want to crawl on them.

I planted climbing sweet pea flowers behind the baby strawberry plants in my new raised beds in the side yard. There are a few bush snow peas, some green onions and a space for a very small patch of something else, still not decided on. In the far raised bed, there are Sugar Snap peas in the back that will grow up the fence and Maestro bush shelling peas in the front, filling the entire bed. It takes a lot of shelling peas to get any! The sweet pea seeds and the bush pea seeds are a bit old, but I wanted to give them a try now that I have a fence they can climb, if they grow.

Today, Rob took the fig tree down. It was in the front yard, and now there’s a huge mess! He did it gradually, though, starting with his pole saw, so I could pull branches away as he downed them. No cars were hurt, no power lines damaged and nothing hurts except our muscles. Boy, do they ache after using some that had clearly not been used for a while! We started that project right after we got back from a 2 mile walk. Not sure we thought that one through:). We will work a day or two more this week to get it all picked up and dealt with. Firewood was moved to another location to be loaded into the shed when the old wood is used up. (There’s some old wood in the back of the shed that needs to be used this year, so we can’t put new wood in front of it.)

Right at the end of the project, Rob’s bigger chain saw died, so he could not quite finish. He has already been watching U-Tube videos to see how to fix it, and also called a guy he knows for advice. We borrowed a trailer, and Rob and our next door neighbor will do a group dump run because neither of them have enough junk for a full load. They will split the dump fee that way. Then, we will fill the trailer with all these branches and he will haul it to my sister’s farm where it can be burned and return the trailer. The tree was very messy and dropped many, many leaves and unappetizing figs. (I think there are other varieties that taste better than this one.). A large piece of the tree broke off this winter, and part of the rest of it was rotten. It was time for it to go, and I won’t miss it. I will miss the interesting birds that came to eat the figs. I think my Sweet William, hydrangea and other flowers will do much better with more light. Even if we could have found an arborist who had time to come (they are super busy cleaning up after the ice storm), we wanted to do it ourselves to save $. And, although they would only charge $15 to dump a load of branches at the dump, free sounds like even a better price:) and Rob needs to drive that direction anyway to return the trailer.

Rob has been busily transplanting his seedlings. He has SO many this year! At last count, there were over 100 tomato seedlings of many various varieties. There are many old tried-and-true kinds and some new ones we wanted to try. He is growing starts for my sister’s garden this year and has several other people he wants to share with.

Jake and Michaela spent a lot of time over here this week. One day, Rob took Jake and Patsy to a park. They had a blast, and I love how Patsy looks in the dress my friend gifted her! She gave Patsy several clothing items she didn’t need anymore, and several of them fit, making Patsy very happy.

Uncle took Michaela to get her hair cut. It was her first time back in a salon for over a year. Grandma’s been keeping her trimmed and tidy through Covid, but she was excited to get back to her regular routine. She loves nothing more than having Rob drive her here and there and to have appointments and activities to do. He also took her to Horses of Hope, where she gets to either ride or interact with various therapy horses.

She also went with him to pick up pork from the meat shop. (She calls those kind of errands country drives and looks for trains, McDonald’s and Dairy Queens whenever he can drum up an errand that’s a little distance away). A man we know who raises pigs had 1/2 of a small one he could not sell and offered it to us for the price of cut and wrap. We gratefully accepted and it is residing in our freezer now. It was about 80 pounds of meat, and it ended up a little over $1/lb for the cut and wrap fees.

And, what would my blog be without babies? We were blessed to be able to spend some time with Rob’s family–the first time in over a year. We had not seen a couple of the family members for over 2 years, and had never seen the youngest baby.

It’s crazy to think of, but both of these little boys are Rob’s great nephews. His nephew’s son is 2, and niece’s son is 1. They were born almost exactly 1 year apart from each other. There was a birthday party on Sunday afternoon. I had never met either little boy, so spent some time crawling on the floor, getting acquainted. The older little cutie has seen Rob before, and spent the party pointing his little finger at Rob across the room saying, “That’s Uncle Rob!” So cute:). Although Rob has occasionally been able to see his mother this past year, it’s been very limited, and even more so for me as we have so strictly limited our exposure to her, as she is in her upper 80’s. I was able to have a nice chat with her, and I enjoyed catching up. She heard Rob was raising plants and told me she had told some people at the party that they no longer needed to buy any, just go see Rob:). Good thing he has a lot!! He really does have some to share, so that’s good.

Now that so many in that group are vaccinated, we felt comfortable accepting the invitation. I did notice people keeping their distance more than they used to. This pandemic has changed us all in small ways, as well as the large, more obvious ones.

We were able to go to church again this Sunday. The girls wanted to go, too, so we picked them and our grandson up and hauled them along. The baby was great. Once again, he fell asleep on Rob for the sermon. The cutest thing was he woke up at the end and when Rob held him up during the last song, he started singing little baby praises with everyone else. So sweet!

I’m looking forward to getting outside more this coming week. There are so many daffodils blooming now. I’m loving them. I’ll try to get a picture of the front of the house where Patsy planted so many bulbs from my sister’s yard a few years ago. They are just about to burst into bloom. They should be lovely in a few days. Every year, we try to buy her a small handful of “fancy” daffodils to put in there with the others, and I’m interested to see what came up from this last batch. Hopefully, that ice storm was winter’s last hurrah, and spring is here to stay!

camping, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week– March 1, 2021

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We finally got to go camping! We had hoped to go a week ago, but the ice storm ruined our fun. Last summer, trip after trip was cancelled from Rob’s surgery, wildfires, Covid closing campsites, and so on. We hardly got to go. It was starting to feel like de ja vu, but we found an available spot when we had to postpone.

Most of last week was spent busily cooking, cleaning, watching the baby and driving the girls around, as they did not get power until Tuesday night. They were out for 11 nights–they finally went home that very night once power was restored. That day was beyond busy, as there were so many errands, trips to take people here and there, that Rob and I think we drove out 13 times between the two of us to take someone somewhere, or get prescriptions, etc.! Yikes. Hands down, it’s the most we’ve done in one day since Covid started!!!

We even managed to squeeze in our son, Anthony’s, birthday party. We had to change times on him once, which is not good for autistic/Aspberger’s sons, as he loves his routine, so we had to just carry on by putting them on one end of the table, us on the other and all the girls and baby in the other room with their plates. It felt great to be able to get together at last and he had a good time.

I made him a cake–chocolate, as requested. Of course, this all happened on the same day as all the errands, and the power returning to the girls’ house. So, while Rob was taking him home, I took the girls home, helped turn on the breakers, helped clean the rotten food from the fridge, and took Lovana shopping. We went to Grocery Outlet, and she re-filled her fridge. At least most things were bargains at that store. The next day, I picked up a few other items for them that were forgotten, and took a few things from my storage. It was so nice to have extra to share.

The baby was gifted a port-a-crib by one of my friends, and he was popped right in it in front of their gas fireplace and was settling down all cozy and warm when I finally went home.

I finished getting ready Wednesday, then we finally got away on Thursday. We were pretty tired, so the first day, we didn’t do much, and in fact swapped off taking naps.

We took a few walks. We saw this tree on a hike we took.

Rob and Patsy went rock hunting, but the surf was so wild, and high that they didn’t stay long. Rob felt it was actually dangerous where they were, so left after they scrambled higher onto the path and watched waves cover the path where they just were a minute before. We took a drive one day, and saw even more wild waves. That was the day we got candy at a candy store, and Rob waited in line outside of a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant next door to the candy shop and ordered 2 large fries, thinking we could all share. What he got was 2 huge take-out cartons of plank fries, piping hot and delicious, and we couldn’t even finish them between the 4 of us. What a nice treat!

I had been preparing the camper for this camping season for several weeks–cleaning, organizing, and so forth. I had already filled the fridge with fresh veggies and dairy products when we realized we were not actually going last week. I was able to bring all of that into the house, of course, and not waste it. I found great deals when I went to replace it when we found we could get away last Thursday. One item was milk for 44c/1/2 gallon. I prefer 1/2 gallons in the camper anyway, so it was a super sweet deal for me.

We take our own food, purchased at sale prices or in bulk and transferred into containers. Even the most hard-core McDonald’s lover realized that we cannot pull through a drive through on our way to camping, so he does not beg us to do that. Whew!!! I cooked several things ahead of time such as chili, pork Chile verde, taco meat, hard-boiled eggs and cooked white rice (for Jake mostly). I bought bagels and cream cheese for an easy breakfast in the car this morning on our way home. (Rob never wants to cook a big breakfast, or even sit down while he is packing up, so eats in the car on the day we go home.). Our camper has a very nice propane stove, fridge and freezer, they are just small. Rob often cooks outside, but we knew the weather was going to be rainy part of the time, so I made other arrangements this trip. We did manage one hot dog roast, though.

Of course, Jake went camping with us, as he does every time he can manage it. I did several hours of school with him Friday morning, but otherwise, he was free to play.

Rob and the kids found a garage sale and Jake bought a Mousetrap game for $1. He and I spent an afternoon building the trap and simply trapping the plastic mice. It was pretty fun. He and Patsy played with it another hour or so, and I put it away for next time we go. We also played Quixx and he built his camper Legos. I read aloud for hours, as he became interested in a book about the Dutch resistance in WWII, “The Winged Watchman.”

We even got to go to church on Sunday. We chose one Rob had heard good things about in the town near the campground, and had a nice, socially distanced service. They were following mask wearing to the max, so we felt very safe, and had a wonderful time. Since last Sunday was our first time back in any church building for a year, we didn’t want to miss the second chance we had to go! Everyone was as friendly as can be from 6 feet distance, the sermon was enlightening, and the kids got cookies in little packages afterwards, making them very happy!

It was fun to get away, and equally fun to come home. We got everything put away, and the laundry was started. The weather was so nice this afternoon, Rob and I took a good walk, then I worked outside in the yard, clipping and pruning and weeding, until the yard debris bin was full, just in time for it to be emptied tomorrow. I always like it when it starts to feel like spring and I can get outside!

Saving Money

Thriving In My thrifty Week–February 22, 2021

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This has been a crazy week, dealing with the aftermath of the ice storm. But, the weather has gone back to being our normal rainy, mild weather, and we were able to get a few routine things done around here.

Rob tied up the raspberry plants. The back row is an everbearing variety that was here when we moved in. The wires were falling down, and the berries were never very sweet. We decided to give them another chance to produce, because they usually give us berries (kind of small, sour ones, but berries nonetheless) early in the spring and again in the fall. So, Rob replaced the wires, dug the stray “babies” out of the middle of the row, and tied them up. With the peach tree gone, we are hoping the extra sunshine and water will sweeten them up.

He also tied up the June-bearing ones that are so big, sweet and tasty that I have carried little plants with me from house to house as I have moved. Growing our own berries saves us a lot of money each year. More than saving money, we enjoy knowing that we have raised the berries ourselves and preserve them for our winter use. We would simply go without most of the time if we needed to pay the going price for raspberries in the winter.

I was surprised to pick an artichoke from those bushes you see by the blue bucket. I really wasn’t expecting to find one in the winter, right after an epic ice storm, but……there it was!

Rob picked all the Yukon Blend lettuce and Buttercrunch that was in the greenhouse. Then, he put the boxes outside, just in time for the ice storm to hit. I went ahead and cleaned out the weeds when I saw that they had survived!!! We might as well see if we get another cutting. This was the second cutting for some of the plants and some did not make it, but some seem to want to re-grow already. Time will tell what they do. They seem to be the lettuce plants that just keep giving:). The cilantro on the side is growing just fine, too.

Rob’s tomatoes and peppers are starting to come up. Peppers, especially, take a long time to grow and he likes to transplant his tomatoes a time or two to get them really large.

Power has been slow in coming back. The girls and baby are still with us, as theirs is still out. Last night was the 10th night without. They had somewhere to go–here–but it’s sobering to think about those who are still sitting in dark, cold houses.

We have been enjoying all the time spent with the little guy. He’s grown and changed in just the 10 days he’s been here. What a blessing he is. We went to Safeway to stock up on a few things. His mama needed a few things, so he got to go with us. He loved the store, and the people in the store loved him. We had to be careful to keep a proper distance between him and the other customers, some of which wanted to get really close…

I was delighted to get shrimp for only $2.97/lb. That’s the best deal I can remember. We got a few other things, too, as we are going through more food with the extra crowd. For the most part, however, we have been easily managing meals with what I have on hand, which has been nice. We’ve had white rice on a plate with butter, under stir-fry, and with cinnamon-sugar and milk for breakfasts, shrimp, fish, vegetarian vegetable soup, lots of refried beans/tacos/burritos, salads, several jars of canned fruit, Patsy’s chicken-peanut stir fry, turkey-rice soup, odds and ends from the freezer, bits from the school lunches, smoothies, and on it goes. It’s nice to have such a variety to choose from.

We had planned to make last Sunday our first Sunday back at church, but it was too chaotic with the ice storm. So, yesterday, we loaded everyone up and went. It was so good to be back, even with all the precautions. Rob held Malcolm the whole service and he slept the whole time. So, we even got to listen:). We were wearing masks, far from other people, and they started scrubbing things the minute we left to make it clean for the next service. It was different, but we are so glad we went.

Then, we saw some friends for lunch, and ate a wonderful lunch at their house, all spaced out along their extremely long table. It made my day. I haven’t seen these particular friends for such a long time, due to Covid, so it was amazing to get to visit.

I hope all of you that are suffering with bad weather are doing ok. It’s been a hard winter for many. I saw a news story on a person that got a power bill in Texas that was several thousand dollars. I don’t understand how that could be possible, because I missed that part of the story (dealing with the baby or something). I’m very thankful that they don’t figure the cost of power here in Oregon that way–raising the cost when power is scarce. I hope that is not happening to any of you!

Making My Home A Haven