Geez, maybe this should be a once a month post instead of once a week. I am really hoping things will start to slow down so I can get back to posting this once a week.

 

The 3rd weekend of August was pretty busy. Friday we had a fair board appreciation BBQ for all the volunteers that helped us during fair. Stayed way later than we should have but it was a lot of fun. Then that Saturday evening my Brother had a Demo Derby appreciation BBQ ( he put on the demo derby for the fair) that we went to. Didn’t stay quit as late for this one haha. Then Sunday we had a family dinner since my Sister is here from Houston. We had Navajo tacos and these are always good. So with all that I didn’t get much else done that weekend.

 

That Tuesday evening we went to a County Commissioners debate at the sale barn.

 

And some really good news Joleen closed on her new house so she is now a proud homeowner. I am pretty proud of her to be able to buy a home at the age of 22.

 

The next weekend we started getting stuff ready for the music festival that we always put on on labor day weekend. I also picked plumes my Brother has a few plum trees and they are loaded this year so he said I could go get some. I was able to get 4, 5-gallon buckets. I had hoped to get jelly made before the music festival but all I had time to do was get them in the freezer but they are ready to go to make jelly when I get ready.

 

Some friends that have a small dairy farm gave me all these lids, they use jars and then put the plastic lids on so they have no use for these. There has to be over 100 of wide mouth and regular mouth, I won’t have to buy lids for a while.

The next weekend was the music festival. Every Labor day weekend we put on a bluegrass music festival at the point. People come from all over to camp and play music. We didn’t have as large of a turnout as normal but it was still good we did have a few new people so that was nice.

We cook breakfast every morning for everyone on a large grill that is set up outside to cook pancakes, omelets, and bacon for everyone. I usually make the pancake mix from scratch but this year we just used a mix. The bacon we use large packages of bacon ends and pieces so it isn’t as expensive as using regular packs of bacon. Then for dinner, it’s a potluck. This year we did spaghetti with garlic toast and the next night we did smoked sausages make and cook up a big mess of squash so with all the other food it’s pretty good.  Most everything is cooked on a big restaurant style grill that we have set up outside. For stuff like the spaghetti, we use our double burner camp stove. We feed a lot of people both nights there are people that just come for the evening instead of camping. I am always so busy that I don’t get many pictures but here is a couple.

 

That next weekend I got to stay home and work on a few things. Trying to start getting things ready in the yard for the reunion next June I know it is a ways off but I have so much to get done for the yard to be doable.

 

On 9-11 our Fire Department hosted the commutative stair climb for all the area departments. We had all five area departments participate then we had a BBQ for everyone it was a great turn out.

 

Last weekend on Saturday we went and got Honey from a local honey producer, they have a big sale once a year for all the local people and it is such good honey.

After that, we had a company picnic for Andy’s work that we went to. Then after that, we took the backhoe to Hespreas for Travis to use. The next day instead of staying home and working on things that needed to be done we decided to drive up to the mountains and look at two of the burn areas and go see how low the lakes are.

300 a month

Well, I haven’t done too great on my spending but it is that time of year when I try to buy most all of my food.  I bought 2 cases of apples, 2 cases of peaches, several pounds of grapes, some cheese, some clearance sale # 10 size tomato sauce and tomatoes that were on clearance sale, some laundry detergent that I was able to get for 99 cents each, Sure-jell, frozen raspberries to use with the plumes for jelly, some cereal that was on sale ( I use these for snacks for the daycare kids),cranberries, lemons, strawberries, Icecream ( for Andy), pumpkins, watermelons,Sugar, ginger root, horseradish root, garlic,a couple large containers of Potato salad ( for the 9/11 BBQ) sour cream, I had to buy bread :(, pork skins, cashews, trail mix ( for Andy),orange juice ( to use when canning chicken chipotle), yogurt ( for a starter), chipotle peppers, tea,40 pounds of potatoes  some turkey breast lunch meat, and honey.

 

I spent 707.38 ugh. Add that to the previous total of 1045.55 for a new total of 1752.93 🙁 That leaves me with 1847.07 for the rest of the year. I just realized that I haven’t been adding my milk that I get delivered to my totals so that adjust my total to 1802.93 spent for the year and 1797.07 left for the year.

 

Here are a few things I have done these past few weeks to save money.

1. Hung clothes on the line.

2. Canned peaches, pickles, corn, grape juice,& chipotle chicken,

3. Froze zucchini, & bell peppers

4. Made cough syrup

5. Got several dozen eggs from my chickens

6. Harvested,  tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, pine needles ( for tea),& plums

7. Made my own kombucha

8. Mixed my own chicken feed

As bad as I hate to admit it that was about it. Going to have to get a whole lot better in the future.

Goals

Kitchen

I need to get the watermelons canned, ( juice and watermelon rind pickles), zucchini fruit snacks made, meatballs made and in the freezer, stuffed bell peppers in the freezer, the rest of the grapes juiced ad canned, bread made, a couple mock apple pies with zucchini made for Andy to take to work ( I always send a couple every year) yogurt made,and more  kombucha started, apples started ( apple pie jam, and apple pie filling).

Sewing 

I have 3 baby blankets to make so I want to at least get one cut out and started this week.

Fiber Arts

I am needing to get 4 afghans crocheted by Christmas so need to get them started, the only bad thing is I may need to go to Farmington to get some yarn we don’t have all the colors I need.

 

Yard

I have a three-page list of things I would like to have done before the reunion next June so hopefully, I can get started on some of them but for sure I need to mow the backyard and get some new grass started. With the drought, I kind of let the grass go and concentrated all my water on the trees so now most of my grass is dead so I want to get it reseeded before fall.

Garden 

The big garden is doing great, my raised beds not so much I think I got them plated late. I do want to get the rest of the raised beds put together so I can [lant a few things for fall and have them ready for next spring. I also want to get a couple raised beds built by the chicken coop for mint and lavender to use in the coop. I also want to put up some new siding on the chicken coop then paint it.

What I am reading,

Haha I haven’t even had time to think about reading I do need to try and finish “The end of Alzheimer’s”  since my Step Mother is starting to show the early signs of it.

Fitness

Started working out then messed up my knee so I stopped for a while need to get back at it since my knee is getting better. Also, want to get serious about the diet, think I am going to try and stick with the Keto diet.

Miscellaneous

I am wanting to get a couple new notebooks to put together one for all my daycare info from the lesson plans to parent info.  One for the family reunion so I have everyone’s addresses and info for the cookbook. I am going to put together a cookbook with recipes from all the family.

Menu

Breakfast

• Oatmeal

• Toast & peanut butter

• Cereal

• scrambled eggs

To these, I will add toast or fruit

Lunch

• Cheese omelets

• Waffles

• French Toast

• Grilled Cheese

To these, I will add fruit, vegetables,  crackers, or something as a side dish.

Andy will have leftovers from the night before.

Dinner

• Chicken Fried Steak

• Scrambled egg sandwiches

• Stuffed peppers

• BBQ meatballs

• Speggttii

• Chili beans

To these, I will add a vegetable or appropriate side. One weekend night we will have leftovers.

Kids Snacks

• HM Fruit Rollups

• Applesauce

• Fruit

• Yogurt

• HM Donuts

Andy’s Snacks

• Strawberry shortcake

• Mock Apple pie with zucchini

Andy takes a snack to work every day (breakfast) to eat on his break.

What are your goals this week?

Have a great week.