Coming Soon – The Little Homestead Orchard

The Z Man and I have been wanting to add fruit crops to our little homestead but couldn’t decide what we wanted.

I had dreams of a big strawberry patch and making strawberry jam and strawberry wine and strawberry shortcakes and strawberry pies and strawberry syrup and strawberry everything.

While the Z Man was having nightmares of more work for him and an aching back. Admittedly most often my ideas do create more work for him, so I understand.

We decided on apples and pears and off to the nursery we went. I called ahead to make sure they still had trees in stock and the man on the phone said, “yep we’ve got apple trees, come get what you want cause the wind is blowing them all over the parking lot and I’m tired of picking them up”

He wasn’t kidding either. When we got there the trees were all laying down and scattered about. And, I guess he was tired of picking them up because he marked the trees down from $24 to $7.00 each.

We got 13 trees! 3 Liberty Apple, 2 Golden Delicious Apple, 1 Red Delicious Apple, 1 Pink Lady Apple, 1 Macintosh Apple, 1 Winesap Apple and 4 Kieffer Pears.

It was a good decision to go with apples and pears instead of strawberries.

In about 3 or 4 years we’ll be enjoying the fruits of these trees for many years to come.

I can see apple butter, apple pie, apple cider, apple wine, apple crisp, apple everything.

I feel like our little homestead is complete now. We have our vegetable and herb gardens, we have our chickens and pigs, we have goji berries and wild blackberries and now we have apples and pears.

Well, complete at least until I get my next crazy idea…. I can feel the Z Man just shaking his head at me now and wondering what’s next.

Friday’s Frugal Five and One Frugal Fail

I’m going to start with the frugal fail.

I made the worst meal of all time this week. It was so bad that even the Z Man who is a Saint said “Baby, you don’t need to write this one down” (sometimes if we have really enjoyed a meal, I’ll make notes about it in a recipe journal I keep)

The concept of the meal worked in my mind, but the follow through and end result was so bad, so so so bad that I threw the whole meal out and didn’t even try to repurpose it.

In my electric pressure cooker I put brown basmati rice, diced onion, diced carrot and water. Then I put the steaming rack in the pot and put cod filets on it. I pressed the button for rice and let her rip.

What I ended up with was one large glob of overcooked rice and cod filets that were so over cooked they resembled a dried up old sponge. It was awful. FRUGAL FAIL! (well the chickens got the rice)

Friday’s Frugal Five:

Earlier this week we saved $17.00 on each apple and pear tree we bought for our little homestead orchard, paying only $7.69 for each tree.
I returned some clothes that one of my other personalities purchased on an impulse and they were not at all my style. I don’t know why she does that sometimes!
I colored my own hair, which is not unusual… the unusual part is that I foiled my own hair and put darker undertones in it. Foiling your own hair is NOT easy. The products cost me about $5 saving me $115 of what it was going to cost at the salon. No, it doesn’t look as good as it would have had it been done professionally, but the Z Man likes it so I’m ok with it too.
I spent $27.44 at the grocery store this week which brings my total for the month for groceries to $66.45.
Laundry was dried on the clothes line, no meals were eaten out or carried out, lunches were from leftovers or salad in a jar, bills are paid, still adding to the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air and loving it.

How about you, what frugal fun have you had this week?

Till Next Time,

Lori

Day 10 – No Prilosec – Update

I’m not proud to admit this, but to be thorough with this process, all needs to be noted which includes the good, the bad and the ugly of it.

Last night I had a bit of a melt down and was really having a pity party for myself.

See today is the 10th day of not taking prilosec (omeprazole) and for the past 7 days I have been experiencing some considerable discomfort with heartburn and reflux. It’s not constant, but it’s pretty typical after any meal I eat.

With this has come a bit of depression and I recognize it, but recognizing it doesn’t make me able to ignore it. This depression has caused me to be a bit of a short fuse.

The depression stems from constantly worrying about what I can eat, and how it will affect me causing pain or not. Like I said in a different post, when I was taking the prilosec I could eat or drink anything I wanted and it didn’t affect me. Just take a pill and it will be all better. This includes wine. I have come to realize that I simple can not drink wine, and as shallow as this sound I’m a bit sad over it.

The Z Man encouraged me last night not to give up and to do more research, to keep on keeping on. Which is so incredibly generous of him because he is the one who suffers the most from my mood swings and frustration.

The potato soup and cornbread I made for dinner last night was a lovely meal, but even the small portion that I ate caused me great discomfort. I suppose it was the onions in the soup.

I went back to my natural foods store this morning and got very lucky because there was a representative there who knew a lot about the subject of the PPIs drugs (prilosec, nexium, omeprazole) and was able to share some information with me as far as diet including bone broth (which I happened to bring with me for lunch today)

We went over everything I’m currently taking and he was in full agreement with all of them, however he suggested that I’m just not taking enough of them. So I will increase the doses of my current supplement regimen which you can read about here.

Sometimes, like last night I needed something for fast relief of heartburn and reflux, so I picked this up at the natural foods store this morning too.

I know I’m on the right path, and I know it will get better in time, I’m just being a bit impatient. For so long I was able to eat and drink anything I wanted and now (at least for right now) I’m not able to do that.

But I will keep on keeping on. 30 days of increasing the supplements and a stricter diet. Here we go!

What’s Cooking 5/18/16?

Breakfast: bone broth (homemade – chicken)
Lunch: same as lunch – bone broth
Dinner: same as lunch and breakfast – bone broth

I’m taking a break today from food, giving my digestive system a rest. And guess what, so far no heartburn or reflux.

Have a great day,

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 5/17/16?

The weather has been unseasonably chilly the past few days and today it’s rainy too so I think it’s a great day for a pot of soup.

My favorite soup is potato soup.

I’ll tell you how I make my potato soup, but bear with me because I do not measure at all with soups, it’s more of just a toss it in the pot process. But that’s part of the charm of soup isn’t it? Almost anything goes.

First a little funny for you… I actually googled the proper spelling of bear or bare to use in my above comment “bear with me” and if I had used the spelling “bare” with me, then by one definition I would have been unintentionally asking you to undress with me….

Whew, good thing I googled that! 🙂

Yes I’m 12 years old again.

Potato Soup Recipe

peeled and diced potatoes
chicken stock
diced celery
diced onion
finely chopped fresh rosemary
rendered bacon fat or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
masa corn flour
milk – warmed and full fat preferably

Peel and dice potatoes and boil in chicken stock until tender. While potatoes are boiling saute celery, onion and rosemary in bacon fat until softened, then add the mixture to the simmering potatoes. Test a couple of potatoes with a fork to make sure they are done and then add a heaping tablespoon (or 2) of corn masa while the soup is simmering (not boiling). You will need to stir the masa into the soup quite well and it will take a couple of minutes to get it completely incorporated. Then add warmed milk until you reach the “soup” consistency you like.

I find that by boiling the potatoes in chicken stock it adds flavor to the potatoes and the same for the masa corn flour. It adds a little flavor while not leaving that pasty texture you sometimes get with corn starch or flour.

My favorite thing to go with potato soup is a big pan of corn bread.

You can top your potato soup with cheese, sour cream and bacon bits what ever you like.

That’s the great thing about soup, you can just toss in anything you like.

Sometimes the next day I’ll add 2 bottles of clam juice and clams to the potato soup and it magically turns into clam chowder. YUM!!!