What a Day

William is out of town helping his son in law with a emergency roofing job. I have the whole weekend to myself except for taking care of the animals. They must of read my mind on the things I wanted to do with my alone time and made other plans. In the middle of the night I hear the dogs barking like crazy. Not just barking at the wind or the neighbors but really barking like something is wrong. Go out to find the pigs have pushed open their gate and got out. With the help of Bella, Tinker, and Hillary I got them back in and secure (I hope). This morning I have to hook Andy on a runner so I can bring Buttons from the other pen to milk. She is in season and we don't want Andy breeding her. Well I get her in the milk stall and Andy is standing on his hind legs crying and jumping cause he can smell Buttons. Tinker and Hillary think Andy is wanting to hurt Buttons and take off after him. Before I can get out of the milk stall one of them has bit his ear. I get him cleaned up and moved to another pen, after a couple phone calls with William on what to do. Get rest of feeding chores done and come inside. Think it is the perfect day (cold and windy) to stay inside and finish painting the bathroom. All I need to do is a little touch up on the walls and paint the trim and baseboards. Simple huh? Not if you are having my day its not. I thought I would save myself a little time. Instead of pouring the trim paint into a container to hold while I paint I figured I could just hold the paint can while standing on a stool painting over my head.

I now have the cleanest bathroom floor in town! I scrubbed and cleaned on my hands and knees for almost an hour. Then I went ahead and mopped and polished the floor too.
 The bathroom is very small so a few years ago we had the tub removed and put in a corner shower. Also had the toilet turned from facing toward the sink to the door to give more room. The walls were white beadboard with red and beige checked wall paper at the top with country angel boarder. I collect country angels and bathroom signs. This time I painted the walls a primitive yellow. Kept the white trim and baseboards, along with the wallpaper and boarder. Moved my angels and signs around. Even took some down so it wouldn't be too cluttered. My tiny little primitive bathroom is finally done.

                                                Didn't show all this wall as its hard to get it in the picture. There are more signs and angels hanging.

                                           The window is up pretty high from the ground so only have a curtain on bottom half to help make it light and airy.

                                     The sink is a antique washstand I got at a auction years ago. It has worked great for the past few years and I love it.

                                 You can see a part of the shower in this pic. Told you it was a tiny bathroom.

                                       And though there is a rug down the floor is all cleaned with no paint! Now on to painting the diningroom!



Yesterday's menu:
 Breakfast: bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and tea
Lunch: homemade veggie soup and grill cheese and ice water
Supper: William was gone so I had another bowl of soup and a tomato sandwich with a cup of hot tea




Today
Breakfast: just me so a bowl of oatmeal and raisin toast
Lunch: just me again so another bowl of soup and cheese toast, ice water
Supper I am going to warm up leftover veggies from the fridge. It's nice having a break from cooking.
All the veggies were free from my friends produce. Bread is from the racks of bread we get each week for $5.After we pick out the bread we want there is enough bread to fill 3 30 gallon trash cans we use to keep animal feed in to crumble and give to the animals with their feed all week. The bacon was purchased and frozen 3 months ago. Purchased it when there was a good sale. And biscuits made from scratch. So not much cost at all in these meals.

Just Another Day On The Homestead

Bathroom is almost finished. Just have to paint the trim. William was out of town last night and today. He went to Virginia to pick up 2 doelings and a buckling. There was a few heated discussions over getting more goats as I just feel we are getting too old to handle more than 3 or 4 but they arrived tonight and are beautiful. They also won my heart by snuggling right up to me before they were even unloaded. I am a pushover when a animal looks at me with their beautiful eyes. I spent the day cleaning the house and back porch inbetween feeding and milking. Kuma opened her pen and came on the back porch. I let her stay while I cleaned out there before giving her a treat and taking her back to her pen. Tramp was very sad and loud until she went back. He is very attached to her.

Today is my son in law Brannon's birthday. Happy Birthday son! I am very blessed to have such a fun, sweet, caring guy  who is a wonderful husband to my daughter and a fantastic dad to my granddaughters. He and I don't care for Elvis songs, movies, etc so each Christmas we always give each other something Elvis as a gift. We always try to outdo each other on tacky. We also love scary movies and text each other several times a day with movie talk. He has a huge collection of the old scary movies so we also do a little movie trivia.

With William gone today's menu was simple. Breakfast ( didn't get to eat until 10am) was oatmeal with dried cranberries and pecans, raisin toast with apple butter, and hot chocolate. Oatmeal was purchased a couple months ago in bulk as I use it in baking and love hot cereal. Cranberries came from produce given us a few weeks ago that I dehydrated. Pecans are from some I gathered from a friends tree last year. Apple butter I made last year from apples given to us by friend with produce stand. Hot chocolate made from goat milk and Hersey cocoa that I always have in the pantry. I buy the biggest container and it lasts for months.

No lunch since I ate breakfast so late but I always carry a glass of ice water around with me most of the day. That keeps me feeling full.

William made it home for a late supper. I made something quick and easy... hotdogs. Bought package of beef franks on sale for 88cents (bought 5 packages) buns are from the racks of bread we bought at the bread store for $5. Homemade chili from leftover ground beef from last night. leftover coleslaw from last night and homemade fries with homemade ketchup. To drink we had homemade lemonade with lemons from the free produce.

Since today was spent inside I plan on spending tomorrow raking and cleaning pens before vaccinating and worming the animals. It is suppose to be raining and cool tomorrow night and Friday so I want to put fresh bedding down for everyone too. Will take some pics of the new goat family to share with you. Just enjoying counting my blessings of the day and hope you are too!

Grocery Shopping

 I have been asked to post about how we live on a small grocery bill each month. There is only my husband and I though I do fix meals for anyone that is working with William each day. I will try to post my menus each day this month so you can get a better idea.
Grocery shopping was quick this month. My friend gave us lots of produce for us and the animals yesterday. I didn't have to buy  veggies or fruit except potatoes. Our potatoes didn't do well in the drought this year. The produce market won't close until Dec 31st so we won't have to purchase much until the first of the year plus I have lots of canned and frozen veggies from the garden. I also had plenty of ground beef and chicken left in the freezer from last months shopping trip so only had to purchase a few meats. After all was said and done I only spent $132.18 for this months groceries! Well except the turkey for Thanksgiving. I don't know how many if anyone will be here for dinner so am waiting so I will know what size turkey I need. It also includes paper,personal,and cleaning items as well as catfood. We have 3 meals a day most days though there are some days things happen and we have a really late breakfast and just have two meals on those days. Breakfast is usually juice, eggs, sausage, with grits or gravy, toast or biscuits. Lunch is usually soup(homemade) of some kind, homemade lemonade or tea and a sandwich. Dinner is a meat and at least two veggies and bread. Most everything is made from scratch because its cheaper, tastes better, and healthier. We both are guilty of grabbing a snack in the afternoon or evening when we sit down at the computer desk. There is always fruit, ice cream, homemade cookies or muffins. We really need to cut back on the snacks! I always keep a pad on the side of the fridge so I can work on my grocery list all month as I run out of something. I try very hard to purchase only what is on my list but if I happen to see a special sale on meats or something we use then I will go ahead and purchase extras. I don't use coupons because I find they are mostly for mixes, prepared foods, or brands I don't use. Some things that work for one family may not work for another. I am blessed to have a friend that can get us lots of fresh produce and that I have veggie and herb gardens. I also am blessed to have chickens that supply us with fresh eggs and goats that give us milk for drinking, making soaps and cheeses. This saves us lots of money. Today's menu:
Breakfast: biscuits and gravy, juice, hot herbal tea (flour for biscuits and gravy is Pillsbury Self rising ($2.24 5lb bag) I don't use a lot of self rising so only buy in 5lb bags. juice made from oranges given us with other produce, milk from goats used in gravy and tea is made from herbs I grew and dried.

Lunch: homemade chicken soup, grill cheese, crackers, ice water I buy a bag of chicken leg and thighs and divide and freeze when I get home. I get enough for 6 meals. Used one leg and thigh to make a small pot of chicken soup for lunch. used carrots, celery, and onions from produce given us. cheese made from goats milk. Crackers from a box of saltines I purchased last month for 1.18. We get racks of bread ($5 each) each week to crumble up and feed the animals. I take some loaves of wheat bread, buns, rye bread, and raisin bread from the racks for our use. The bread for the grill cheese came from that.

Dinner: sweet potatoes,white potatoes,turnips,baked in chicken broth, stuffed bell peppers, cole slaw, sliced tomato and cucumbers, green tea   All the veggies of course came from the produce given us by our friend. The ground beef was from a 10lb package I bought last month. I divided it into one pound packages to get 10 meals.(I paid 6.98 for the package) Used home canned sauce over stuffed peppers. Green tea I bought in the spring online from a bulk place. Don't remember the price but will check and see. I do know it had to be very inexpensive for me to purchase it online.

For snack this evening I had celery with pimento cheese and ice water. Celery from the given produce. Pimento cheese was purchased today. (usually make my own but this was on sale) a pound container of locally made pimento cheese for 4.14.

Hope this gives you a clearer view of how our grocery bill is so low each month. I plan on spending $150 each month but most months spend less. I like to see how much I can get for the least amount. We never go hungry and if something were to happen we have enough in pantry and freezers to feed us for up to 6 months. I always rotate and replace items so we won't be left without if there ever was a emergency. I think the real key is cooking from scratch as premade, mixes, fast foods are a lot more expensive. I try to fix several dishes when I have the oven or stove on to save on electricity. I also use our woodstove in the winter to cook on since it always has a fire in it keeping our home warm. Frugal doesn't mean doing without. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will try my best to answer them. Don't forget to count those blessings!!

Hillary

Bathroom not finished yet as I have a stomach bug. Will leave you with a picture of Hillary, William, Tinker, and Bella. Hillary has fit right in like she has lived here forever. Tinker and Bella have accepted her as part of the family though Buttons the goat is still waiting to make up her mind.

Hillary and Bella were smiling but Tinker was pouting because she was told to sit when she wanted to be licking William in the face.

What I Am Up To

The daytime hours still have me feeding and caring for the animals, their pens, cages, etc along with helping William with his many projects. The nighttime has me enjoying a project! Remember my tiny little bathroom?
These are the before pics. After I finish painting will post the new look.

Well I am painting and changing things around. I love my vintage bathroom signs and I love my country angels but have decided to move them around into a different display. Love my new paint color and can't wait to show you the finished project... hopefully tonight. It may be a tiny bathroom but there is so much trim and hard to get to places to paint. Stayed tuned!

What a Day

Lots of hayride were given

And lots of kids and animals came to enter the costume contest. We didn't enter Rusty or Petro since we were helping with the day's activities but they each got a ribbon for dressing up.

We had a fun day but boy am I tired. William did the hayride and I took pictures of the costume contestants and got to pet all the animals and help the kids color pumpkins to decorate the store windows. Thank you everyone at Tractor Supply for letting us be part of your big day!

Hayride and Costume Contest Today

At Tractor Supply in Fayetteville, NC. Noon till 5pm. Come by and say hi to Rusty the cowboy and take a free hayride. Tractor Supply is also having a costume contest for children and animals. The winners get a $25 gift certificate. Come on out, love to see you!