What's everybody doing today?

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
We went to a shindig at a local farm. Bigger than I expected. Lots of crafts booths, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, all kinds of homemade treats - but $7 for a 2x4" banana bread, and $20 for a large home made sourdough loaf, had to pass on that, but folks were snapping them up, so guess I'm out of touch. We fed lettuce to a goat. Woot-woot! And that's my day so far. ;) :D

I have to figure the profit margin on banana bread, we make really good bread, with walnuts and Kahlua. For I think about $1 a loaf. Maybe a new business. ;)
 
Bush hogged the lower pasture down in the bottoms this afternoon, just a few acres. Cut quite a few low hanging tree limbs with the new loppers I bought. Pushed down a dead willow tree and got it pushed out of the way. The bottoms are now done for the year.

Then I cut a couple acres up in the main pasture where the hay rings used to sit. Lady's thumb and perrila had killed all the grass. They had to go!

Watching football now, no plans but dinner and more football.

20241019_140152a.jpg
20241019_140153a.jpg
 
Hooray, all the upstairs door trim is painted. Little granddaughter had her headphones on while I was painting, she was singing and playing ukelele, didnt realize I could hear her, but it was great being entertained.
Almost time to start cooking dinner, and get some of the cherry tomatoes washed and sorted...green ones downstairs and red and yellow stay up. Picked four buckets of them today. And a bucket of cayenne and habanero.
 
UserNameTaken said:
We went to a shindig at a local farm. Bigger than I expected. Lots of crafts booths, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, all kinds of homemade treats - but $7 for a 2x4" banana bread, and $20 for a large home made sourdough loaf, had to pass on that, but folks were snapping them up, so guess I'm out of touch. We fed lettuce to a goat. Woot-woot! And that's my day so far. ;) :D

I have to figure the profit margin on banana bread, we make really good bread, with walnuts and Kahlua. For I think about $1 a loaf. Maybe a new business. ;)
Click to expand...
that's some high prices for bread!! I sell my sourdough rye for $7 , regular white for $5 , banana bread I would sell for $5 too
You must be in a large city with a bunch of rich folk!
 
so I am being very bad, having a slice of pizza and a beer in bed LOL. I was so tired from moving stuff around today went to bed early and then son asked if I wanted some pizza ( he made one for snack after working on solar panels all day)
I feel like I unloaded a trailer full of hay by myself...
So I moved ALL our food storage to the pantry instead of extra room, many many buckets that were heavy. I moved all the animal care stuff in the livingroom temporary , will go into a cabinet after I sort it. Cleared out the closet in the room, was full of things that needed to go in the trash, have 6 bags of trash including my last wine making experiment I forgot in the closet and the top is rusted shut on the bottle LOL , going into the trash definitely. I found my ice cream maker :)
Told husband once this project gets done I want to go swimming
 
Today I went through all my cooking spices and cataloged them by brand and "best by" date. I found that lots of brands omit any kind of date on their spices. Hmmm.

Then I went online to look for lists of "essential spices to have in your kitchen". I did have most of those, although some were quite old.

Next I researched best brands for high quality spices. And also researched brands that had "basic kits" of the most common spices. Then I researched what brands offer very small containers - no need buying larger jars of stuff I won't use often, and end up inventorying it for staleness 15 years from now.

I found that "Simply Organic" offers small jars of most things that I want. Oddly missing from the small jar offerings is paprika, but they have three versions of that in larger jars. Offering no small jars seems strange to me - paprika is a fairly popular spice, I use is often.

Two questions: (1) Does anyone have experience with this brand? Are they any good? And (2) when it comes to organic spices, does "organic" mean they will have a shorter shelf-life than non-organic equivalents?

https://www.simplyorganic.com/spices-and-seasonings?product_list_limit=100

Scroll down for the little jar varieties - they are all $2.59 per jar. FWIW, they appear to have 23 different small jars of single spices and 3 more small jars of combinations - Italian mix, Pumpkin Pie mix, and Herbes de Provence mix (which looks a lot like Italian mix to me, with Lavender added). 23 x $2.59 = $59.57 and 26 x $2.59 = $67.34 both of which are reasonable prices to get a nice assortment of spices (but you'll have to get the paprika separately). The only problem is, how does one find out if the Simply Organic brand spices actually taste good? I certainly like the small jars so less will go to waste. But if their stuff doesn't taste good, it's probably no better than my aged stuff already in my cabinet.
 
Last edited:
I have a cabinet spice drawer filled with spices. I probably have all the ones ever needed for normal cooking, and then some.

Many are likely past their "best by" dates. But I don't care.

I took a pic of them all so I know what to look for when I open the rack drawer. Saves me lots of time searching.
 
Haertig said:
Today I went through all my cooking spices and cataloged them by brand and "best by" date. I found that lots of brands omit any kind of date on their spices. Hmmm.

Then I went online to look for lists of "essential spices to have in your kitchen". I did have most of those, although some were quite old.

Next I researched best brands for high quality spices. And also researched brands that had "basic kits" of the most common spices. Then I researched what brands offer very small containers - no need buying larger jars of stuff I won't use often, and end up inventorying it for staleness 15 years from now.

I found that "Simply Organic" offers small jars of most things that I want. Oddly missing from the small jar offerings is paprika, but they have three versions of that in larger jars. Offering no small jars seems strange to me - paprika is a fairly popular spice, I use is often.

Two questions: (1) Does anyone have experience with this brand? Are they any good? And (2) when it comes to organic spices, does "organic" mean they will have a shorter shelf-life than non-organic equivalents?

https://www.simplyorganic.com/spices-and-seasonings?product_list_limit=100

Scroll down for the little jar varieties - they are all $2.59 per jar. FWIW, they appear to have 23 different small jars of single spices and 3 more small jars of combinations - Italian mix, Pumpkin Pie mix, and Herbes de Provence mix (which looks a lot like Italian mix to me, with Lavender added). 23 x $2.59 = $59.57 and 26 x $2.59 = $67.34 both of which are reasonable prices to get a nice assortment of spices (but you'll have to get the paprika separately). The only problem is, how does one find out if the Simply Organic brand spices actually taste good? I certainly like the small jars so less will go to waste. But if their stuff doesn't taste good, it's probably no better than my aged stuff already in my cabinet.
Click to expand...
Who buys small bottles of paprika? I would call those samples 😂. I actually just received seeds to grow my own paprika peppers 🤤. I order in bulk so might not be of much help here, but if your spices are properly sealed, they are probably fine. If you have flavored extract (like lemon extract) that is old, it is probably NOT fine. Check those as they turn into alcohol.
 
Didn’t get to go to the quilt show this weekend so I pouted by spending the day in the fun room stitching 😉. Finished a pillow that had been waiting for about 5 years 😣 hemmed two pairs of jeans, got the binding on my forever quilt and worked on an appliqué piece.
 
October 19th 2024
8.34 pm

52f wow its warm !!
George phoned we talked about 30 min about all and everything
We think so much the same for most things

I worked a bit in the house more than anything
I feel lazy today

The big moon still there ..LOL
I will have to put the blanket over my head again
to be able to sleep

Have a great Saturday 👍;)

This is cute and amazing...worth to listen and watch 🥰
 
Ekatarina said:
October 19th 2024
8.34 pm

52f wow its warm !!
George phoned we talked about 30 min about all and everything
We think so much the same for most things

I worked a bit in the house more than anything
I feel lazy today

The big moon still there ..LOL
I will have to put the blanket over my head again
to be able to sleep

Have a great Saturday 👍;)

This is cute and amazing...worth to listen and watch 🥰
Click to expand...

He is an old soul ~ sings like early in the last century 😍
 
High barometer so warming for a nice weekend and start of next week.. Have had a few cooler days the end of last week with a couple frosts in the area and a hard freeze on the north shore of the big lake.. Some of the tree leaves are turning color and starting to fall.. The danger is we are under an extreme grass, forest fire danger now..

I have a big slow cooker bubbling away of my world famous ..cowboy beans.. for the last cook out of the season here.. Burgers, bratwurst, beans, potato salad, pumpkin desert items..

This evening it is only a half block walk from the ..wrinkle ranch.. up to the route of the 1st of 3 Halloween parades of the season.. This will be the school kids parade, the best one of the lot to see..

Hope all are doing well..
 
Today I will finish that room, even if it takes me all day. I also plan on taking poor Otto for a hike, he has been neglected that past few days

Spices: I buy large bags of some stuff at the Asian store, like ground corriander which I use lots of . I don't look at dates, most spices I cook with and if they lose flavor I just add more. I have a whole shelve full. Most of them have probably been recalled due to listeria, salmonella, lead, arsenic and plague but I am not going to throw them away since we are still alive....
Sorry just saw another food recall , Aldi vegetables, I am sure we ate some of them already, still alive. Why does everything now have listeria in it? Where is this coming from? And don't say the illegals, they have been harvesting that stuff for many years
 
Frozen waffles were recalled, a ton of kinds of them. Everything is recalled. Green onions were just recalled. These were the ones I heard about yesterday.
Glad I don't buy either of them. Waffles are too easy to makes, and green onions are easy to grow.
Chores, doing some outdoor painting on a patch that was replaced with wood on the house (maybe), taking little granddaughter to the bigger town because she needs a new winter coat. Outgrew the last one. We'll see what else I can squeeze in.
 
Amish Heart said:
Frozen waffles were recalled, a ton of kinds of them. Everything is recalled. Green onions were just recalled. These were the ones I heard about yesterday.
Glad I don't buy either of them. Waffles are too easy to makes, and green onions are easy to grow.
Chores, doing some outdoor painting on a patch that was replaced with wood on the house (maybe), taking little granddaughter to the bigger town because she needs a new winter coat. Outgrew the last one. We'll see what else I can squeeze in.
Click to expand...
Son used to love frozen waffles but they got so expensive, I tell him to make them himself now too. Green onions I do buy sometimes, but I got a bunch from another vendor at the market and chopped and froze them. We do grow them but the weeds took them over this year and I just didn't grow anymore but might since the greenhouse is now up.
 
I've got some growing in the greenhouse in a big container. I never pull them out completely, just cut the tops off for cooking, and they keep growing. Till it gets too cold anyway, usually around December/January. Never froze them, but have dehydrated alot. Just cut them with scissors into little rings, put them on a pan into the dehydrator. A good dried herb for cooking.
I haven't check the price for Eggos for years and years. It's easy to make a bunch and freeze them yourself...like pancakes. I used to do that for our kids for a quick breakfast.
 
Have a guy coming to look at and hopefully buy our small hot tub. It is one of those nice to have things but right now with the times the way they are the cash would be nicer to have.
I put out the word to the teenagers that if they want more building supplies for the tiny houses they are building out back they need to be here to help load and unload the tub.
In the mean time the morning frost is starting to appear so i need to batten down the hatches and put some new tarps on our mountain of fire wood..
 
Have some cranberry scones in the oven and I’m drinking some coffee. I need to rest after church today. The last three weeks have been nonstop. Hopefully we will get the last of the canning stuff put away for the “season “ and the island will emerge again. I think we have the oldest young manfolks car woes taken care of. After having a boulder fall on his car at 35mph, he has a settlement and has purchased a replacement. We spent most of yesterday cleaning and fixing the minor issues with the new one. Headlights are shiny, seats are clean both on top and under (ewe!), and a bunch plastic tabs are replaced. Only real maintenance item we needed to address was a new set of spark plugs because the original ones were way past changing time. I’m looking forward to just hanging out on the couch for a day!
 
I was borderline soused when I got home last night and carried my girlfriend to bed, who was 3 drinks beyond wasted, then decided to walk down to one of the community rooms where some kind of Halloween party was happening. They didn't invite me and my plan was just to see what was going on as it was a private event, but they readily accepted me into their social group and their open bar. I can't help it if I am extroverted, witty and social. I was pretty much plowed by the time I made it back to the apartment.

Got up this morning, drug my backside to the restroom, swallowed some Aleve, downed a bottle of water, put my dirty clothes in the hamper, got dressed, made some extra stout coffee, and here I sit. Pretty sure the lady won't be up until late morning or early afternoon. I have no real plans for today other than to eventually make some bacon and scrambled eggs to go with the donuts we picked up on our way home last night. I also have to figure out why I have a number written on my arm in Sharpie.
 
Slept in until 6.45 this morning, and it felt great. I'm going and start splitting firewood soon, then work on the chicken coop roof. I'll have to move the solar panel up about 4 inches so that there's room for the new roof to fit under it. On Friday I ordered the materials for the new atv parking building. They should deliver it on Monday or Tuesday. I need to go out and fix the pad where I slid off the side with my truck.
Some time today I'll put the forks on the tractor and attempt to re-level the wood shed, then we can start loading firewood in it.
 
I had a fantastic day yesterday.

One dog hike n 2 more doggie walks
Got a few groceries,
Loaded porch with firewood,
Put together dog washing station..
Insulated the water heater access door vents.
Last year my pipe froze..never had that issue prior to a contractor guy putting vents in my heater door. The heater space already has a vented hole that goes under the crawlspace through the floor, so my plumber told me to insulate n cover the vents b4 winter.
3 loads of laundry, started dog food for the week and chicken for my soup,
Finished my last rug..
Went n dropped off eggs to my friends and meet the puppy they kept from their litter..
These pups were 3 grand a peice! I'm hoping we'll see one of them at the national dog show in a year or two..all the others went to hunting or field trial homes .
Got home showered, made me top raman..lol
Tried to watch some news but ended up on fb for awhile n passed out.
I'm tired today..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top