Did We Get it all Done? Sewing Season in the Home and Late Season Crops in the Garden

 I was thinking how close I was to sewing season.  We are still cleaning up the garden and getting ready for winter so maybe another couple of weeks to a month.  In the mean time I have been  mending.

Did We Get It all Done?

Did we get our homesteading/garden chores done for September? The wood was stacked by the grandson (money talks but he did a fine job), we dug up the first of the potatoes and set them to dry and cure in the garage, then we had granddaughter help us with the knocking the dirt off and putting them in burlap bags (for a price-she wants a new doll),  I mulched around the trees with the free mulch, and  I cleaned every garden pot I could find, then bought more for a discount price at General Dollar (what is wrong with me?).   One thing I put off and it is now on the emergency to do list, is getting the strawberry bed weeded...as soon as we get some warm and dry weather.  That's next week! 

The garden looks terrible, it's overgrown with weeds, but there still is a lot growing in there, believe it or not.  We have four more short rows of potatoes to dig, cabbage, peppers, lettuce, a pumpkin, and green onions to get out.  

The lettuce came up once and then the rabbits ate it.  It is getting big again and we have added some protection.  I need to find more.  If you can see it -I found a bike basket.  I'll look for more today.  

The mustard greens I started in August.

Growing late season crops.

Husband wanted to grow enough mustard greens to can, so when we pulled up the potatoes about two weeks ago, he tilled, and I spread the seed.  I always spread them thick but we have a bumper crop that way.   We had some other mustard greens that I had started in  early August that we have had a couple of dinners from. I keep thinking winter is knocking at our door,  do we have time?  He says mustard greens can handle the cold and will grow even in the snow.  I say we'll see how that goes.  I hope he is right.

This is the mustard greens we just planted about two weeks ago.  

The fridge was thawed out this past week (we have to do this once a year or it quits).  Back when we still had a guarantee we used to call out the repairman and he told us what to do.  Sometimes it pays to watch the repairman and ask questions.  It took a total of 3 days to get it all done but it's over and running smoothly.  I'm sure the price of a new fridge would blow our minds right now. LOL

We had a big mess in the kitchen while we were doing this, so cooking was not in the picture.  One day we took a gift card I had bought and never used for the Chinese place and the next day we bought a chicken at Sam's.  I then used the rest of the chicken for chicken and dumplings one day and then chicken fajita's the next day (using my garden onions and peppers).  

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

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I'm glad this Picture is Blurry, Free Mulch, and a Tuna Salad Recipe

 

I blame it all on Becoming a Farm Girl.  Yep it is all her fault.  That woman has a lot of energy!  I watched her video on her cereal recipes and figured out that I could make cinnamon toast crunch with low carb bread and sweetener.  So, I got busy doing that and then I decided while it was toasting that I would chop my weekly onions and then I needed a pan, opened the drawer, and everything fell out.  Time to organize ..again!  

Oh the mess, I'm glad this picture is blurry! 

(Our frostless fridge needs defrosting again. so that's why the little fridge is in the kitchen.  So, this weekend some time.)

There was an ad on Facebook Marketplace for Free Mulch.  She had gotten a free chip drop and had a lot she didn't need.  On our way to finish other errands we picked up as much as we could.  I spread this around every fruit tree we have.  I wish I would have gotten more.

We had five children in our family.  Mother found ways to stretch everything she made.   There were theives though in the family.  Big sister Kathy stole your pork chop if you didn't watch it carefully.  You only got one if you were lucky.

In an attempt to make tuna go further she always put boiled eggs in our tuna salad.  We loved it but I didn't understand why no one I knew did that.  She could make up a bunch and everyone would have a sandwich.  Smart woman!  

Now that most of the country has lower egg prices this recipe is a great helper to make your tuna go further or you can even leave out the tuna and call it Egg Salad.

Tuna Salad

1 can of tuna

4 boiled eggs

1 pickle diced

1 small onion peeled and chopped

2 or 3 tablespoons of mayonaise

1 tsp mustard

Mix all ingredients well.  Adjust to your taste. 

How did you save money this week? 

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Finding Deals: Stocking and Storing for Winter 9/15/23!

 

My wild sunflower in the garden!   I counted 18 blooms on one stalk!  So fun.  Sunflowers make you happy for sure. 

 

The onions I grew this year were pitiful.  So small you would have to peel at least two maybe three to make it like a normal onion.  I blame it on the drought we had at the beginning of the growing season and then the neglect while we went away and when I came home. Yep, I completely just shut down for awhile.

We have enough little onions to last maybe a month or two then that's it.  So, when we went to the Mennonite Market and I saw a 10 lb bag of onions for $4.99, I grabbed them up.  Yesterday. I took them to my daughters cool basement to store along with my small garlic I harvested. That should last me awhile.

My point is when you find a deal buy it.  Sometimes there are failures in the garden and you just can't grow it.  This was so much better than buying a little bag of 3 lb onions for $2 or $3 dollars at my grocery store.  Make sure to start looking for those deals now!  

You can find some great deals on onions and potatoes this time of year.  Our potatoes in the garden are great but if I needed some to feed a family for the winter I would get those 50 lb bags of potatoes that are unclassifed for around $15.00.  Unperfect potatoes -no one will care!  They used to be $10, shoot I remember when they were $8.00, but you know how that goes.  We used to buy these all the time but now with just us eating the potatoes, we don't need so many.

Look for those deals at your local farm or stop at the farm stores on you way up north to see the colors in Michigan.

We love apples.  They go fast around here.  Although we finally have a producing apple tree, 8 apples are just not going to last long.

We found a peck of fresh apples for $6.00 while we were at the Mennonite store too.  We find that the apple orchards here are very expensive to buy from, they are more for entertainment.  Don't get me wrong that's fine but when your looking for a deal, look at other venues and buy there.

Are you stocking up?  Stocking up for the winter is one way to help keep the rising costs of groceries in check.

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

In the Garden: September Garden Chores and Getting Ready for winter 9/8/23!

 

Michigan is getting a lot cooler all of a sudden, just last week we were burning up.  I decided if I'm going to mess with water it has to be now.   I want to clean all the pots I used in the small coldframe/greenhouse and have them ready for next planting in the Spring.  I have about half of them done. 

The mosquitos are killing me though so I have to wait till another sunny day to get out there.  

I'm saving seeds as I go -my table is getting full with pans of seeds drying again.  You can see how I save heirloom green beans seeds here.

I've been buying discount seeds when I see them.  I always need more seeds LOL.

I need to weed the strawberry bed -boy do I need to weed the strawberry bed!  I also need to mulch.  Last year I mulched with leaves and I plan to do that again.

The apple tree that is producing is realtively young yet so it just had a few apples.  I want to pick what little apples we have -maybe in another week or so.   We picked three because we just couldn't wait but the rest really need to just ripen.

I trimmed the other apple tree.  It had a lot of dead branches.  It looks quite funny now.  We will see how it looks come Spring.  

I need to finish harvesting and canning.  We still have green beans, potatoes, green peppers, mustard greens, and pumpkins to harvest and can.  I'll weed next year.

The volunteer plant that came up is growing a pretty big pumpkin.  I'm glad I decided to let it grow.

We bought a cord of wood this morning for our fireplace.   A cord of wood was $85.00.

Are you getting ready for Fall/winter?

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Frugal Friday 9/1/23! The Fair!

 

If you remember a few weeks ago I told you I entered the fair.  I did pretty good and it was a lot of fun.  Here are a few pictures.

Canned 6 more quarts of green beans, 3 pints of salsa, and dehydrated some zucchini flour.

The zucchini flour is a first for me so I'm just trying it out.  This was actually 4 medium sized zucchini!

I'm going to try to use it in place of coconut flour.

I found another zucchini hiding under the leaves.  I'm going to use this one for lasagna noodles.   I'm making Lasagna today while it's cool.   I'm not sure why my zucchini didn't produce a lot till now but I'll take them!  

What ways have you saved this past week?

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Frugal Saturday 8/26/23!

 

I've been a little under the weather this past week but I've kept busy in the garden!  We picked 1 bushel of beans. I canned 15 quarts of beans plus we had a big mess to eat.

A bushel of beans here are $32.00 and they are the normal Michigan blue lake (our white half-runners are ten times better).

We are finally picking ripe tomatoes and this is our biggest one.  We needed nothing else to go on our tomato sandwich.  It was a meal!  

I found a double yolker in the hen house.  It was delicious!  

I needed potatoes for the house so we dug 1 bushel of potatoes one day (grandson helped).

I entered the fair (I will tell you how I did next week), it looked good when I went earlier in the week.

What ways have you saved this past week?

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Movie Review of THE HILL plus a $10 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! #TheHillMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork

 

Growing up impoverished in small-town Texas, young Rickey Hill shows an extraordinary ability for hitting a baseball, despite being burdened by leg braces from a degenerative spinal disease. His stern, pastor father (DENNIS QUAID) discourages Rickey from playing baseball to protect him from injury, and to have him follow in his footsteps and become a preacher. As a young man, Rickey (COLIN FORD) becomes a baseball phenomenon. His desire to participate in a try-out for a legendary major league scout divides the family and threatens Rickey’s dream of playing professional baseball. Based on a true story, THE HILL is directed by Jeff Celentano and also stars JOELLE CARTER, country music singer and songwriter RANDY HOUSER, Golden Globe nominee BONNIE BEDELIA, and SCOTT GLENN.

Bring your family to see this inspiring movie in theaters starting today 8/25! 

My Review: 

THE Hill is an inspiring true story that the whole family will love.  I can imagine how the inspiration to go on, no matter what the obstacles, will be swirling around children's heads.  They will cheer for Ricky and hope he makes it.  The adults will too!  

I loved all the charactors because they were so true to life. All the way from Grandma who speaks her mind no matter what anyone says (my favorite) to the pastor Dad who learns to let go of his rules.

The scenery is perfect and you feel like your in that time frame of the 50's and 60's.  Perfect!  

Giveaway: $10 Amazon giftcard! (Note: This is limited to US winners only)

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

I put the wrong question in the leave a comment section...sorry

Many thanks to Briarcliff Entertainment, LLC for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.