Thrifty Thursday

[BookSaver]

I recently subscribed to "One Good Thing by Jillee" and have been enjoying it. I don't necessarily like wading through all of the ads on the site, but I understand why they're there. Her content is usually worth the extra time it takes to load the ads.

(Did I first hear about her from one of you? If so, thanks!)

The following tips all came as links from Jillee's site:

The chicken feed sack tutorial I just posted in the Arts Crafts & Needlework forum.

Okay mentioned boiled eggs. Have you tried steamed eggs?
http://whatscookingwithkids.com/2011/05 ... y-to-peel/

I think I'll try it over the weekend. If it works, I'll post in the kitchen thread.

I will also try her tub/shower cleaner (heat some white vinegar, add an equal part of Dawn dishwashing liquid -- original, not concentrated). We have exceptionally hard water here and it's a constant battle trying to keep the shower stall clean.

I did not have any luck with the homemade laundry soap. Again, I think it's because our water is so hard. (I used Fels Naptha with the borax and washing soda, dry version because I didn't have time to cook the soap in water to dissolve it.) I could try another brand of soap, and may even try her new version with Dawn since I already found that product here in Tiny Town. However, I'll probably end up sticking with Purex because that brand has been working for years.

Harriet & Helia were talking about water for the chickens. While I was looking at the tote bag tutorials, I ran into this:
http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/20 ... -ware.html
It's a water "canteen" that hangs on a fence so the chickens don't kick dirt into the dish. I wonder if it would also work for dogs who are prone to tip over their dishes?

That site owner also talks about the need to add a bit of apple cider vinegar to the chicken's water. I've never heard of that, but then I don't know nothin' 'bout raisin' chickens.

[Dove]

Good morning. A loud noise woke me up extra early this morning. Realized within a few minutes that I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep so got up & started my day. It will be a hot one here today so after taking ddog out I ran her around the yard for some exercise while it was still cool, then watered the flowers. Noticed my neighbors recycling bucket & was thankful for the reminder. Fortunately the truck doesn't usually get here until the afternoon so I was able to put everything out for pickup later.

Hi Bittersweet -- that's a great quote. My time trick today will be making dinner this morning. We're having meat & cheese stuffed shells which are time consuming to put together. I tend to have more energy in the morning, plus I know I'll be so happy when it is dinnertime & all I have to do is pop the pan into the oven .

Good idea to run errands today & lay low during all the traffic tomorrow, Dee.

Happy for you that you have no outside appointments today, Twins! I can imagine you packing & packing -- & packing some more ! I'm sure Lilac & Indi are sympathetic about your schedule after their own moves in the last year.

Hi OKay -- I enjoy reading your cardfile ideas & tricks .

Enjoy your meeting today, Bookie. How nice that someone so deserving is being honored. We owe such a debt of gratitude to all our veterans.

Waving to Harriet ~~~~~ over the village fence. Look, she has her apron on .

Going to finish my tea & cuop, then head to the kitchen. Beside prepping for dinner I will make a double batch of guacamole to freeze, make cucumber salad, cook & freeze a package of bacon for future BLTs, & cut up a mini watermelon I bought earlier this week.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

[Nancy]

.♥♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫.♥
☀ Helia's ☀ birthday ☀ yesterday ☀
♫ .♥.•* ☀¨`*•♫.•´*.¸☀.•´♥ ི♥ྀ
Sorry I missed it!

On my walk last night I saw that it looks like the neighbors up the street have removed their concrete driveway and are getting ready to put in an asphalt h. thinks it's to save $ on taxes looks messy and hot to me.

Do chickens like onions? I have various things I toss in the summer apples, mini cherry plums, seeds peels etc. that chickens could eat. We used to fill and freeze milk jugs one gal. 1/2 gal would work too for rabbits most folks have these and could get from neighbors if needed.

I was thinking eggs could cracked & cooked in cup cake papers in a crock pot.

Burger King B.B.Q. Sandwich & sweet potato fries for our ann. meal I need to look up carbs. for this. Did not get the p/c to co-operate for that yesterday. 36 carbs on the sweet potato fries for a small order the bbq pork san. can't be that diff. than the one from Arby's. Still looking for that. 50 carbs so that's 86 carbs. ~Sigh~ Quite a bit may need to spilt those fries w/ hubby.
Still need to cuop for today. x

How do you all deal with fire works and dogs that don't like 'em? Noticed our neighbors have been keeping their dogs in a lot more lately. Less barking when I'm out weeding for example.

BS was up eggs saved the day I made an veggie omlette for my breakfast today.

We used to have water bottles up side down with a stopper in them I've seen 'em for chickens maybe they could be frozen with some ice before refilling after washing of course. Some here http://www.bassequipment.com/Waterers/default.aspx

[Harriet]

I do indeed, Dove. Thanks for noticing. It's a rather nice one today, a print of orange and teal floral with burnt orange piping.

Guacamole - love it. Cool, so just right for this time of year.

OKay, I meant to tell you how nice I thought the Random Acts of Kindness were for your community.

BookSaver, I will definitely read through all of those! It is helia's younger dd who is becoming quite the seamstress.

Oh, I agree with you, Nancy. A friend here who put in an asphalt driveway was wishing she had left the concrete because of the heat in summer. It does work well for very shaded drives.

I chased HRH out of the house with a glass of ice water this a.m. Ddil had given me a nice insulated tumbler that was especially helpful to me yesterday, and since HRH is the one out in the world today, and traveling a long way to get there, I just know he will need it. He can just deal with the fact that it's pink with flowers. My ice-block for the hens is nicely frozen. Early this morning I put a half-gallon milk jug of water in the freezer, too. I'm thinking at noon I'll change their water including the ice block, then maybe by 2 o'clock the milk jug will be ready for extra cooling and I can check the temp of the water to see if the ice block is still doing its job. I've already given Sammie ice water this morning, but she needs it often, so I won't forget her, either.

Agreeing with OKay that there are a lot of ways to "compete" with yourself when you are doing dailies.

I've always thought that quote was a little unfair. Those women chose selfless lives, yes, and overcame great hardship. But the men, to my knowledge, never were expected to take care of their own children. Nevertheless, I do have the same amount of hours in a day as many people I admire, and that's the point, so, no slouching!

I've had a smoothie this morning - been a long time since I've taken the time to do that. But we had fresh cherries.

[Dove]

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY to Helia!

CONGRATULATIONS to Grandma Lucylee!

[helia]

Thank you for the continuing birthday wishes, all. You really helped make the day feel special.

Yeah - that quote is a great reminder for me. OTOH, I also do believe that it is theoretically possible for there to be people and situations where the demands on one's time exceed the hours one has. . . . Sleep and other things can get lost in the balance, or corners get cut. I remember dh pre-tenure, working 80 hours+/week, saying "yes" to everything and traveling 1 week/month minimum. We had small children at home at the time. Yes, he was able to accomplish what he needed/wanted to accomplish in 24 hours/day; however there was also a cost which our family life paid. Those were the most difficult years of our marriage, and I don't think we could have sustained life that way indefinitely - which we didn't have to do, thank goodness. OK - not to be a downer - because the quote is still a great reminder to use my time well, something of which I can use regular reminding. And I think that is the context in which it was posted today. I too have been on this machine a lot less lately -- as you can probably tell. I am posting while eating lunch at the moment.

Today so far:
-up at 7:10
-emailed dd14 at camp; it had to be done before 11 a.m.
-morning s2s, bfast
-left at 8:10 to take dd16 to testing out center
-Target
-Meijer
-Trader Joes
-home: unloaded car, including table and chairs I had borrowed from dfriend yesterday
-left again to pick up dd16
-home again and having lunch

Next:
-finish a.m. routine
- work on photos with dd16
- get downstairs tidied

Later today:
-take dd16 to drivers ed at 5; somebody else will have to pick her up b/c. .
-I need to go pick up dd14 from camp at 7 pm.

Dh will cook for the Thursday crew coming over tonight since I obviously will be unavailable. I'll need to leave around 5:45 and should be back around 8:30.

I could sure get a lot more done around here if I didn't have kids. LOL!

[Twins' Mom]

I am home again - at new house checked out landscaping and tried to inquire as to why ferns were placed in full sun, but the guy in charge wasn't there, just workers. So we'll ask tomorrow, I don't think they're a good choice for a sunny border. The electricity and A/C were on and I could see the lights all installed and lit up. Nice.

Gave myself about 15 in a relocated antique store near where we will live - not looking for anything but just checkin' it out. Then groceries at Wal mart and home again. DS helped unload and put away, and speaking of smoothies made himself a large one which he shared with me.

I am giving myself a little down time before I hit it again.

[Harmony]

Usually when I am here doing something fun I'm not really accomplishing anything...except for a little mental and physical rest, regrouping, enjoying that feeling of something accomplished, ready to begin anew on something else. When I don't take breaks, I tend to slow down and eventually stop getting stuff done.

Anyway, I ate lunch while I was here too!

DH is out working for the first time since our storm hit in earnest. This is the first day I've had the house free in a while and boy did I get a lot of sewing done!

I need to go look at my desk now.

I've been watching the news. If I walked out of here in a huff every time things didn't go my way, I'd be out of the house a lot! I want to tell them, oh, grow up! Think I need to turn off the TV and get back to work around here.

[Harriet]

Well, so far, the hens are delighted with the ice-block-in-the-drinking-water idea. Me, too, since this will be a way I can feel confident they are fine through an entire afternoon. It was easy as pie to accomplish.

However, the frozen half-gallon sitting in their midst is worthless, since they are afraid of it. I put it right down where they were dust-bathing minutes before, and now all I've done is stop them dust-bathing, as they are standing staring at it, uneasy and alert. Any sudden movement around them will cause hysteria, I guess, now that there is an Alien Presence. Maybe I should have gotten them used to it for a week or so first.

[Twins' Mom]

DH dropped by using a friend's vehicle to deliver five or six 6-ft tables for the yard sale. Dh's friend mentioned we had a lot of work in the next two days for a garage sale. Just noticed that the weather forecast is for 101 here on the mountain on Saturday, too.

I'm torn between cleaning/straightening up the house, packing boxes, gathering more yard sale items from the house, or working on the garage sale stuff already in the garage. I also need to do some laundry and put some laundry away. Tomorrow I have a vet appt with dMacs for blood work, but he has to be there at little over an hour, at three p.m. we're supposed to walk through the new house, and I need to be at services tomorrow evening. So tomorrow is broken up.

I just called to set up an appt with my dermatologist doc and can't get in for quite a while. I have a scaly patch of skin on my forearm that I'm freaked out about, given my melanoma last year. The doc can't see me for quite a while so I have an appt in two weeks w nurse practitioner. I also need to go by the hospital for a chest X-ray as follow up from the melanoma last year and I see the nurse practitioner in the surgeon's office in three weeks. Unsettled that I can't get in for awhile. (This doc is a personal friend who attends our synagogue - I wonder if I should give him a call and ask if he'll set my mind at rest? When he was following me to get rid of the plantar wart he did suggest I call him at home instead of an office appt....)

Decision made: at 3:15 I'll do a 45 minute clean up here at home, start dishwasher, start laundry, load stuff into car to haul off and I'll feel better about stepping into the house. At the top of the next hour I'll break, then do another 45 on whatever the next priority is.

I'm kind of in a snit about the garage sale. It's taking time from other stuff I need to be doing and makes it harder to prioritize. Of course, dh was all for it, but he's not here to help out much this week.

Harriet, I also saw an idea to make an ice bowl for ddogs with some treats and toys embedded. Cools them down and helps with boredom. Of course, both are in the house right now.