What an interesting year. The late winter and early spring I can hardly remember other than some snow, feeding sheep and waiting for lambs. Warmer weather brought lambs, bottle feedings, lots of outside time moving the sheep from one electric fence pen to the next, picking and canning strawberry jam and time at friends' houses. Summer was hot and dry again and then morning sickness hit and I zoned out for most of August. September and October were spent with our mouths open watching the financial world crumble while we quickly evaluated our own financial standing. The remainder of the fall and winter were spent feeding the critters, planning for next year and trying to incorporate more frugal and simple living guidelines. Personally: T spent lots of time working, studying and testing as well as getting a few moments with his wood working toys here and there. I was able to cement a social network here in SWVA and make it through my 2nd year of parenting with a healthy child and my own mind still intact. M is a running, dancing, laughing, talking, and singing bundle of joy and in a few months we will be adding her brother to our home.
There were many other bright points through out the year and a few disappointments as well but I think the overall feeling of this year has been good. We're settling in, T is moving ahead in his career and education, we're making our house a home, growing our family and working on being better stewards of our own little plot of land and the larger world around us.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
Friday Happenings
Breakfast: Me: Sausage & Egg on an English muffin, M: Banana and sausage patty. Apple juice (50/50 with water)for M and coffee and apple cider for me. Snacked on rosemary crackers and cottage cheese.
Lunch: Leftover baked chicken, stuffing, gravy and green beans for both of us.
Dinner: Out
Weather The rain cleared out over night and this morning there was.... Sunshine! Mid-40's for most of the day with a light breeze.
Critters: Chickens and sheep doing fine.. much happier not to be stuck under the deck or in the barn though.
One good turn: Stopped being lazy and brought a bin in to collect all of our mixed paper for recycling. Talked with my Henny Penny ladies about collective recycling to take advantage of municipal pick ups for items that our own home towns don't accept, like glass and mixed paper for me. Brought our own tupperware container to dinner to take home leftovers rather than using the restaurants Styrofoam ones. Tipped the waitress well.
FDDDC: House temp still at 67 during the day, ate leftovers for lunch.
Being local: Went out for dinner at a locally owned restaurant instead of going to a chain type place, then stopped by the local coffee shop for a warm cup of joe and a sweet cookie treat.
Housework: Made the bed. Washed a load of dress clothes and dried them. I should have hung them to dry on the line but the load was larger than I had pins for. Picked up the house in general. Loaded and ran the dishwasher. Vacuumed the bedroom and dining room. Ironed all of T and I's wrinkly dress clothes, 8 shirts and 2 pairs of pants. Fixed breakfast, snack and lunch at home.
Things I thought about today:
Ordered a bunch of new seed catalogs and can't wait for them to get here. Brainstormed group recycling with the Henny Pennies. Need to start putting together my meal plan for our guests next weekend.
Lunch: Leftover baked chicken, stuffing, gravy and green beans for both of us.
Dinner: Out
Weather The rain cleared out over night and this morning there was.... Sunshine! Mid-40's for most of the day with a light breeze.
Critters: Chickens and sheep doing fine.. much happier not to be stuck under the deck or in the barn though.
One good turn: Stopped being lazy and brought a bin in to collect all of our mixed paper for recycling. Talked with my Henny Penny ladies about collective recycling to take advantage of municipal pick ups for items that our own home towns don't accept, like glass and mixed paper for me. Brought our own tupperware container to dinner to take home leftovers rather than using the restaurants Styrofoam ones. Tipped the waitress well.
FDDDC: House temp still at 67 during the day, ate leftovers for lunch.
Being local: Went out for dinner at a locally owned restaurant instead of going to a chain type place, then stopped by the local coffee shop for a warm cup of joe and a sweet cookie treat.
Housework: Made the bed. Washed a load of dress clothes and dried them. I should have hung them to dry on the line but the load was larger than I had pins for. Picked up the house in general. Loaded and ran the dishwasher. Vacuumed the bedroom and dining room. Ironed all of T and I's wrinkly dress clothes, 8 shirts and 2 pairs of pants. Fixed breakfast, snack and lunch at home.
Things I thought about today:
Ordered a bunch of new seed catalogs and can't wait for them to get here. Brainstormed group recycling with the Henny Pennies. Need to start putting together my meal plan for our guests next weekend.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday Happenings
Breakfast: Me & M: Rice chex. Milk and a banana for M, Coffee for me. Later we split a grapefruit.
Lunch: Leftover fried rice
Dinner: Baked chicken breast, cornbread stuffing made with leftover corn muffins I made yesterday, green beans and gravy.
Weather Highs in the mid to upper 50's with lots of rain. There is a flash flood warning for our area through late tonight. There is also a chance of snow in the wee hours tonight once the temperature drops below 40. We'll see.
Critters: Chickens are hating life today because the rain is too heavy for them to get out and scratch around. They've spent the day running back and forth between their coop where the laying mash is and the shelter of our back deck. They rarely spend any more time than necessary in their coop, even in terrible weather preferring the slightly drippy but open space under the deck.
One good turn: Nothing today.. since we stayed in all day due to the weather.
FDDDC: House temp still at 67 during the day, ate leftovers for lunch and used up the now stale corn muffins for the stuffing.
Being local: Stayed home.. can't get any more local than that!
Housework: Washed the new flannel sheets I got from Target for $13!! Put them on our bed. Washed the old set but still need to dry them and put them away. Cleaned both bathrooms, loaded and ran, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (lots of cooking today), hand washed the pots and pans from last night (rice cooker and wok). Wiped down the kitchen counters and work table. Vacuumed all the hard surface floors. Fixed all meals and snacks at home.
Things I thought about today:
Making a quilt for our bed. The new flannel sheets have a natural tan color background with a deep red snow flake pattern on them. I'd love to make a quilt to match! Gotta see if I can make it cheaper than I could find a decent quality quilt.. I think I should be able to.. especially when the holiday fabrics go on sale.
Seeds... gotta get a list together of the types and varieties of vegetable I want to grow in 2009 then see if any of my Henny Penny girls want to buy in bulk with me and split them up.
Lunch: Leftover fried rice
Dinner: Baked chicken breast, cornbread stuffing made with leftover corn muffins I made yesterday, green beans and gravy.
Weather Highs in the mid to upper 50's with lots of rain. There is a flash flood warning for our area through late tonight. There is also a chance of snow in the wee hours tonight once the temperature drops below 40. We'll see.
Critters: Chickens are hating life today because the rain is too heavy for them to get out and scratch around. They've spent the day running back and forth between their coop where the laying mash is and the shelter of our back deck. They rarely spend any more time than necessary in their coop, even in terrible weather preferring the slightly drippy but open space under the deck.
One good turn: Nothing today.. since we stayed in all day due to the weather.
FDDDC: House temp still at 67 during the day, ate leftovers for lunch and used up the now stale corn muffins for the stuffing.
Being local: Stayed home.. can't get any more local than that!
Housework: Washed the new flannel sheets I got from Target for $13!! Put them on our bed. Washed the old set but still need to dry them and put them away. Cleaned both bathrooms, loaded and ran, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (lots of cooking today), hand washed the pots and pans from last night (rice cooker and wok). Wiped down the kitchen counters and work table. Vacuumed all the hard surface floors. Fixed all meals and snacks at home.
Things I thought about today:
Making a quilt for our bed. The new flannel sheets have a natural tan color background with a deep red snow flake pattern on them. I'd love to make a quilt to match! Gotta see if I can make it cheaper than I could find a decent quality quilt.. I think I should be able to.. especially when the holiday fabrics go on sale.
Seeds... gotta get a list together of the types and varieties of vegetable I want to grow in 2009 then see if any of my Henny Penny girls want to buy in bulk with me and split them up.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gotta get better at keeping up with this!! Wednesday Happenings
Breakfast: Me & M: Cheerios with granola. Milk for M, Coffee for me & T. Later we all had an over easy egg with crumbled sausage over it.
Lunch: Leftover Lentil and sausage soup
Dinner: Fried rice (Cooked brown rice, egg, carrots, peas, onion and little soy sauce), served with seaweed wrappers
Weather Highs in the mid to upper 50's with rain and drizzle off and on throughout the day. Felt really warm out compared to some of the recent weather we've had.
Critters: Chickens are fine.. still barely laying with only a couple eggs a week going into the fridge. I'll probably have to source some fresh eggs locally before they start laying regularly in the spring. Need to plan for some new chicks in the spring as well. The chicken who had been moulting is filling out her feathers well now and is looking almost like a regular healthy bird. I'm going to consider her moulting finished. So that gives us two moulted birds, 1 bird still dropping feathers and the last one still in her old dirty garb. The sheep have grudgingly accepted that they won't be anywhere but the barn for a long time so they just lay under the protective overhang all day waiting for fresh deliveries of hay. Since no one is pregnant this winter and their activity has dropped so much, their hay requirements are also way down.. 1 bale is lasting about half a week. I check their body condition everyday and they all still have a good layer of fat along their backbones so I'm not worried about it.
One good turn: Nothing today.. since we stayed in all day due to the weather.
FDDDC: Washed cloth diapers, but couldn't line dry them due to the weather. Ate leftovers and from the pantry today so no food expenditures. T worked from home so no gas was used in our lives today. Kept the house at 67 all day and the heat didn't run very often.
Being local: Signed up to be on a local farms CSA application list. They only have 50 full share spots available and its on a first come first serve basis with priority given to returning customers first.. so my chances of getting in are slim.. but I'll try anyway.
Housework: Made the bed. Washed and dried M's diapers, Washed and dried a load of socks and underwear. Cleaned the counters and swept the kitchen. Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Made all 3 meals here at home. Wrapped Christmas presents.
Things I thought about today:
Had a strange dream last night that we were living in a huge house where I kept finding new rooms but kept losing track of my family. Every room came fully furnished with lavish woods, stone and metal surfaces and the house even came with its own little white yap yap dog (no offense to those who own white yap yap dogs, its just a description easily identified by most folks). I kept wandering around the house getting more and more frustrated because every room seemed to need cleaning and I couldn't keep up with it and I couldn't find my husband or kid when I needed them.. and then I finally woke up. I lay in bed for awhile grateful that I don't have a huge house. That I can hollar from any point in the house and my family will hear me and I felt like I could even have a smaller home and still be very content with it. So a kinda bad dream that allowed me to wake up and feel good about what I have. I'll take that.
Otherwise I've been thinking about gardening, both in my raised beds out front and using containers on my deck. Making "soil growing boxes" in the yard. These would be areas I would fence off away from the sheep and chickens and layer up with rotted hay, manure and compost and then put a green cover crop like rye or hairy vetch on to be fed to the animals later and then flipped over with a pitch fork to work the remaining matter into the soil.. then I would start again. Hopefully getting 2 or even 3 decent cover crops planted, harvested, and turned in over the course of the 2009 growing season. Next year that bed would be used for garden crops and I'd start a new green cover crop area. I need to talk to some of the local seed folks around here to figure out what I can plant when to give me the most yield throughout the year.
Lunch: Leftover Lentil and sausage soup
Dinner: Fried rice (Cooked brown rice, egg, carrots, peas, onion and little soy sauce), served with seaweed wrappers
Weather Highs in the mid to upper 50's with rain and drizzle off and on throughout the day. Felt really warm out compared to some of the recent weather we've had.
Critters: Chickens are fine.. still barely laying with only a couple eggs a week going into the fridge. I'll probably have to source some fresh eggs locally before they start laying regularly in the spring. Need to plan for some new chicks in the spring as well. The chicken who had been moulting is filling out her feathers well now and is looking almost like a regular healthy bird. I'm going to consider her moulting finished. So that gives us two moulted birds, 1 bird still dropping feathers and the last one still in her old dirty garb. The sheep have grudgingly accepted that they won't be anywhere but the barn for a long time so they just lay under the protective overhang all day waiting for fresh deliveries of hay. Since no one is pregnant this winter and their activity has dropped so much, their hay requirements are also way down.. 1 bale is lasting about half a week. I check their body condition everyday and they all still have a good layer of fat along their backbones so I'm not worried about it.
One good turn: Nothing today.. since we stayed in all day due to the weather.
FDDDC: Washed cloth diapers, but couldn't line dry them due to the weather. Ate leftovers and from the pantry today so no food expenditures. T worked from home so no gas was used in our lives today. Kept the house at 67 all day and the heat didn't run very often.
Being local: Signed up to be on a local farms CSA application list. They only have 50 full share spots available and its on a first come first serve basis with priority given to returning customers first.. so my chances of getting in are slim.. but I'll try anyway.
Housework: Made the bed. Washed and dried M's diapers, Washed and dried a load of socks and underwear. Cleaned the counters and swept the kitchen. Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Made all 3 meals here at home. Wrapped Christmas presents.
Things I thought about today:
Had a strange dream last night that we were living in a huge house where I kept finding new rooms but kept losing track of my family. Every room came fully furnished with lavish woods, stone and metal surfaces and the house even came with its own little white yap yap dog (no offense to those who own white yap yap dogs, its just a description easily identified by most folks). I kept wandering around the house getting more and more frustrated because every room seemed to need cleaning and I couldn't keep up with it and I couldn't find my husband or kid when I needed them.. and then I finally woke up. I lay in bed for awhile grateful that I don't have a huge house. That I can hollar from any point in the house and my family will hear me and I felt like I could even have a smaller home and still be very content with it. So a kinda bad dream that allowed me to wake up and feel good about what I have. I'll take that.
Otherwise I've been thinking about gardening, both in my raised beds out front and using containers on my deck. Making "soil growing boxes" in the yard. These would be areas I would fence off away from the sheep and chickens and layer up with rotted hay, manure and compost and then put a green cover crop like rye or hairy vetch on to be fed to the animals later and then flipped over with a pitch fork to work the remaining matter into the soil.. then I would start again. Hopefully getting 2 or even 3 decent cover crops planted, harvested, and turned in over the course of the 2009 growing season. Next year that bed would be used for garden crops and I'd start a new green cover crop area. I need to talk to some of the local seed folks around here to figure out what I can plant when to give me the most yield throughout the year.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday Happenings
Wake up: 6:30am
Breakfast: Me & M: Leftover pancakes with butter and maple syrup. Milk for M, Coffee for me.
Lunch: Leftovers of Hunan Chicken and fried rice
Dinner: Roasted whole chicken, steamed acorn squash, steamed green beans, bread
Critters: The sheep and chickens all survived without us for the holiday. We had two eggs waiting for us when we came back. I've tried yet another method of hay feeding for the sheep to help prevent waste. I'll take pictures tomorrow if it's successful.
Weather Low 40s for most of the day. Mostly cloudy with an hour or two of sun around 1pm. Had a brief down pour of ice balls about 10:30. It was enough to look as though we had had a dusting of snow but it all quickly melted.
One good turn: I bought a new re-usable shopping bag today. Kroger has their two handled black bags in an insulated version now which was great for my milk and chicken.
FDDDC: Washed cloth diapers, but couldn't line dry them due to the weather. Bought and cooked a whole chicken, (instead of caving into the convenience and extra cost of the bakery rotisserie chickens). We carved off the breast meat tonight. We'll have the legs, thighs and wings tomorrow and Wednesday I will simmer the carcass, bones, fat and organ meat for most of the day to make my homemade chicken broth.
Being local: Picked up our dogs from the local vet clinic where we board them now. We used to drive almost 20 miles away to board them at a fancier place but their hours and rates just got to be too difficult to work around and too expensive in general.
Housework: Washed and dried M's diapers, Washed and dried a load of socks and underwear. Swept and mopped the kitchen. Loaded, ran, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Made all 3 meals here at home. Put 90% of the ornaments on the X-mas tree, oh and made the bed.
Things I thought about today:
Still wishing we had a wood stove.. looked at Vermont Castings and Hearthstone versions online.. sigh. Planned a shopping trip to JoAnn's for holiday fabric. I have one project to make for gifts and another project to make for our holiday decorations. Hopefully I can find fabric that I like tomorrow.
Breakfast: Me & M: Leftover pancakes with butter and maple syrup. Milk for M, Coffee for me.
Lunch: Leftovers of Hunan Chicken and fried rice
Dinner: Roasted whole chicken, steamed acorn squash, steamed green beans, bread
Critters: The sheep and chickens all survived without us for the holiday. We had two eggs waiting for us when we came back. I've tried yet another method of hay feeding for the sheep to help prevent waste. I'll take pictures tomorrow if it's successful.
Weather Low 40s for most of the day. Mostly cloudy with an hour or two of sun around 1pm. Had a brief down pour of ice balls about 10:30. It was enough to look as though we had had a dusting of snow but it all quickly melted.
One good turn: I bought a new re-usable shopping bag today. Kroger has their two handled black bags in an insulated version now which was great for my milk and chicken.
FDDDC: Washed cloth diapers, but couldn't line dry them due to the weather. Bought and cooked a whole chicken, (instead of caving into the convenience and extra cost of the bakery rotisserie chickens). We carved off the breast meat tonight. We'll have the legs, thighs and wings tomorrow and Wednesday I will simmer the carcass, bones, fat and organ meat for most of the day to make my homemade chicken broth.
Being local: Picked up our dogs from the local vet clinic where we board them now. We used to drive almost 20 miles away to board them at a fancier place but their hours and rates just got to be too difficult to work around and too expensive in general.
Housework: Washed and dried M's diapers, Washed and dried a load of socks and underwear. Swept and mopped the kitchen. Loaded, ran, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Made all 3 meals here at home. Put 90% of the ornaments on the X-mas tree, oh and made the bed.
Things I thought about today:
Still wishing we had a wood stove.. looked at Vermont Castings and Hearthstone versions online.. sigh. Planned a shopping trip to JoAnn's for holiday fabric. I have one project to make for gifts and another project to make for our holiday decorations. Hopefully I can find fabric that I like tomorrow.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday Happenings
Wake up: 6:30am but laid in bed until 7:15 with T and M
Breakfast: Me: OJ and an English muffin with butter and raspberry jam. M: Milk, cheerios, granola and cranberries (also got an egg and cheese biscuit on the way back from the grocery store)
Lunch: Leftovers of chicken & broccoli with brown rice
Dinner: Sushi from Fresh Market
Critters: Sheep, chickens and dogs are fine. No eggs today. :(
Weather Very windy today, occasional snow flurries, but otherwise sunny a good part of the day. Mid 40's during the day although with the wind it felt more like the mid-30's.
One good turn: Gave away my shopping cart at the grocery store to an old man who couldn't get the stacked carts separated.
FDDDC: T and I have been cleaning off my old desktop computer and will be trading that to my cousin for a couple loads of hay. Hung a fleece blanket to dry on the deck . Back to 67 again during the day and trying to make a habit of checking outlets in each room for any power vampires.
Being local: Not much today.
Housework: Put away clean dishes, washed and dryed a load of socks and underwear, too windy to line dry outside with wind gusts up to 20 mph. Washed one of the fleece blankets and hung that to dry in the basement. Cleared some space around the downstairs fireplace for drying firewood. Brought in one arm load.
Things I thought about today:
Really wishing we had one or two wood stoves in the house this year. I came across a biblical teaching today that I hadn't read in a long time. "One must not cast pearls before swine for they cannot appreciate their value and will trod them into the mud". I think that is actually a paraphrasing of a larger verse but it resonated with me today for some reason.
Breakfast: Me: OJ and an English muffin with butter and raspberry jam. M: Milk, cheerios, granola and cranberries (also got an egg and cheese biscuit on the way back from the grocery store)
Lunch: Leftovers of chicken & broccoli with brown rice
Dinner: Sushi from Fresh Market
Critters: Sheep, chickens and dogs are fine. No eggs today. :(
Weather Very windy today, occasional snow flurries, but otherwise sunny a good part of the day. Mid 40's during the day although with the wind it felt more like the mid-30's.
One good turn: Gave away my shopping cart at the grocery store to an old man who couldn't get the stacked carts separated.
FDDDC: T and I have been cleaning off my old desktop computer and will be trading that to my cousin for a couple loads of hay. Hung a fleece blanket to dry on the deck . Back to 67 again during the day and trying to make a habit of checking outlets in each room for any power vampires.
Being local: Not much today.
Housework: Put away clean dishes, washed and dryed a load of socks and underwear, too windy to line dry outside with wind gusts up to 20 mph. Washed one of the fleece blankets and hung that to dry in the basement. Cleared some space around the downstairs fireplace for drying firewood. Brought in one arm load.
Things I thought about today:
Really wishing we had one or two wood stoves in the house this year. I came across a biblical teaching today that I hadn't read in a long time. "One must not cast pearls before swine for they cannot appreciate their value and will trod them into the mud". I think that is actually a paraphrasing of a larger verse but it resonated with me today for some reason.
Monday Happenings
Wake up: 6:30am
Breakfast: Coffee and Cheerios for me. Milk, a banana, some cranberries and a few of my Cheerios for M.
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich w/ mustard on whole wheat and some left over green peas for me with a glass of vegetable juice. PB&J on whole wheat and a roll of turkey and some of the green peas for M with a cup of 50/50 apple juice & water.
Dinner: Brown rice with chicken and broccoli for all of us.
One good turn: I tipped the guys $25 each for their work on the leaves. These guys are locals and I want them to stay in business!!
FDDDC: Froze two bags of left over bean & ham soup to have for meals in Dec. I turned the day time house temp down one more degree today to 67. I also plan to drop the house temp to around 55 for Thursday and Friday. No sense heating a house too much when there's no one in it. I'll set it to slowly come back up to 67 on Saturday. Tried to be very conscience of keeping the lights off in the house unless we actually needed light to work by. I sat by the big bay window to do my computer work and draw and color with M today. Unplugged or turned off at the power strip all appliances and electronics not actually being used.
Being Local: Hired a local family business to remove our fall leaves.
The leaf removal guys (a local family business) were here today. The first guy (who happens to live just a mile or so down the road) was here at 7am to start blowing the leaves into giant piles. The second guy, arrived about 9:30 with the sucker/shredder truck. They finished the job in 6 hours. Two full loads of shredded leaves were removed from the front of the house and 3 were removed from the back. All of the leaves are still on our property, can't waste good compost!!, but are now wonderfully piled behind the pasture fence waiting to turn into beautiful leaf mold to be used in the compost piles next spring and summer.
The sheep and chickens were not so pleased with this process since they had to be confined in their coop and barn the whole time but the chickens now at least are enjoying not having to move piles of leaves taller than themselves to find dirt to scratch in. The sheep.. well they didn't really get any benefit other than an extra flake of hay to keep them busy in the barn stall.
M and I watched the process from different windows around the house. She loved watching the "big truck" as it was driven from pile to pile to suck up the leaves.
Housework today: Was uninspiring to say the least. No laundry since I couldn't line dry it outside because of on and off light rain. I did empty the dishwasher, reload it and run it, picked up M's toys, defrosted the chicken for dinner, made brown rice in the rice cooker and started a packing list for the T-day traveling.
Things I thought about today:
I used the last of the store bought whole wheat bread today for lunch. Debated making my own loaf to replace it but couldn't get motivated to do it. Maybe tomorrow? Actually I probably need to buy a fresh batch of yeast.. mine has been in the fridge for a long time.
Need to buy some lime for the yards and pastures. Removing the leaves helps a lot but the soil is still way to acidic for good grass growth.
December power challenge? Idea.. make this year's December bill lower than last years. Maybe.
Breakfast: Coffee and Cheerios for me. Milk, a banana, some cranberries and a few of my Cheerios for M.
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich w/ mustard on whole wheat and some left over green peas for me with a glass of vegetable juice. PB&J on whole wheat and a roll of turkey and some of the green peas for M with a cup of 50/50 apple juice & water.
Dinner: Brown rice with chicken and broccoli for all of us.
One good turn: I tipped the guys $25 each for their work on the leaves. These guys are locals and I want them to stay in business!!
FDDDC: Froze two bags of left over bean & ham soup to have for meals in Dec. I turned the day time house temp down one more degree today to 67. I also plan to drop the house temp to around 55 for Thursday and Friday. No sense heating a house too much when there's no one in it. I'll set it to slowly come back up to 67 on Saturday. Tried to be very conscience of keeping the lights off in the house unless we actually needed light to work by. I sat by the big bay window to do my computer work and draw and color with M today. Unplugged or turned off at the power strip all appliances and electronics not actually being used.
Being Local: Hired a local family business to remove our fall leaves.
The leaf removal guys (a local family business) were here today. The first guy (who happens to live just a mile or so down the road) was here at 7am to start blowing the leaves into giant piles. The second guy, arrived about 9:30 with the sucker/shredder truck. They finished the job in 6 hours. Two full loads of shredded leaves were removed from the front of the house and 3 were removed from the back. All of the leaves are still on our property, can't waste good compost!!, but are now wonderfully piled behind the pasture fence waiting to turn into beautiful leaf mold to be used in the compost piles next spring and summer.
The sheep and chickens were not so pleased with this process since they had to be confined in their coop and barn the whole time but the chickens now at least are enjoying not having to move piles of leaves taller than themselves to find dirt to scratch in. The sheep.. well they didn't really get any benefit other than an extra flake of hay to keep them busy in the barn stall.
M and I watched the process from different windows around the house. She loved watching the "big truck" as it was driven from pile to pile to suck up the leaves.
Housework today: Was uninspiring to say the least. No laundry since I couldn't line dry it outside because of on and off light rain. I did empty the dishwasher, reload it and run it, picked up M's toys, defrosted the chicken for dinner, made brown rice in the rice cooker and started a packing list for the T-day traveling.
Things I thought about today:
I used the last of the store bought whole wheat bread today for lunch. Debated making my own loaf to replace it but couldn't get motivated to do it. Maybe tomorrow? Actually I probably need to buy a fresh batch of yeast.. mine has been in the fridge for a long time.
Need to buy some lime for the yards and pastures. Removing the leaves helps a lot but the soil is still way to acidic for good grass growth.
December power challenge? Idea.. make this year's December bill lower than last years. Maybe.
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