These times are a changing

It's has been the worst of times.

Woodsrunner & I have parted ways.
I believed that we were on a break which I initiated but as of a few days ago he informed me he has plans to make it permanent.
Our relationship which was founded on a traditional husband-wife marriage grounded in the homesteading lifestyle began to stray from the path over a year ago.
I am sad.
I miss the man who was my husband.
And like with most things that make me sad I just don't think about it. As of late I've made a concerned effort to just lay this in God's hands.
Pretend I'm not sad.

For years I've had a medical condition that was for lack of a better phrase - pre-pre cancerous condition that while causing stress before each yearly mammogram was something I just lived with. As an aunt once told me when I asked her if anyone else in our family has lumps, " Why do you think we all have such great racks".
My diabetes was more on my health radar than having lumpy boobies. Recently that has changed. My four children vaguely know what the score is but no one else in r/t.
I have yet another mammogram, sonogram, biopsy scheduled for St. Patty's Day. Here's to the luck of a half-breed Irishman.
I'm hoping that it is both negative for cancer & that the powers that be will just remove them because it has gone from being tender to painful.


It has been the best of times.

Two of my four grown children have moved back home which means that the three of them are paying the utilities. Which is a godsend since Woodsrunner for a variety of reasons didn't get a full measure of firewood in before he moved out. It has been a comfort to come home is a warm for me house of 63 degrees & take a hot shower.
My son also paid for the furnace to be fixed after going for 6 weeks with only the wood stove on when either myself or my middle daughter was home.
Previous to that I hadn't realized that it was broke. I assumed hubby had did a quick run through in early Oct. Lesson learned always check on all your systems even those modern day high tech.

Keeping a house warm with a wood stove isn't difficult. Getting a stone cold home warm after 14 hours of no fire is a lesson futility. There was a lot of sleeping on cots in front of the stove as well as a few of those electric oil heaters for keeping the bathroom & kitchen water pipes fro freezing.

Having them home also means I have people asking me if I've eaten, or just a spontaneous hug. And extra hands to help with the long list of home repair projects has been real nice. Unfortunately with a pending divorce all work has been halted until the ink is signed on the decree & I once again have my house to myself.

Currently the order for the day is purging ... clothes that DON'T Fit, books, hobby supplies, duplicates of home repair supplies. Lack of clutter is very calming !

I've lost almost 50 pounds ... which hasn't helped my diabetes as much as I had hoped.
As my children are found of saying I am single handily bring back the fashion of late 1980s.
Yes I am a clothes hoarder ... somewhat. But in my defense I'd be half naked if it weren't for those boxes of semi skinny clothes in the attic now.

Well that's where I'm @ now ... sick, single, in the land of never ending Winter but grateful that I have both the skills and resources to make it to the other side of the river.

It can only get better from here.

~~ pelenaka ~~

B is for Baking When Your Diabetic

Making Sugar Free Zucchini Bread with our own home ground whole wheat flour & Coconut flour.

As with most chronic (read long term) diseases progressing/severity is just about inevitable. So has been my journey with "the sugar" beginning with Gestational Diabetes for last pregnancy. My last baby popped out @ a bit over 10 pounds a side effect of diabetes despite being on tow forms of insulin I still winch everytime I think about her birth.
Now almost 18 years later I'm close to staring down an insulin syringe.
You'd think as a nurse I'd know better having cared for patients who suffered the ravages of diabetes, ranging from blindness to amputation. It's a hard disease to live with even when your coming from a medical background. While I've been better than most and @ times wort I am genetically predisposed to diabetes, my mother suffers from it as does a good portion of Puerto Ricans.

Recently took advantage of an Amazon Deal of the Day on Organic Kosher Coconut flour 
Coconut flour is high in fiber and naturally sweet helps with lowering blood glucose levels among other benefits. It is pricey but denying myself baked goods certainly hasn't worked. So I'll buckled down on other aspects of the grocery budget and shop around for sales to make this new lifestyle work.

For me personally it's been a learning curve ... I did enjoy the waffle recipe I made with the coconut flour I'm having a real issue incorporating the flour into my regular baking. Coconut flour is very dry & crumbles if you look @ it with a sideways glance. It does have a slight coconut taste and a faintly gritty texture. Most recipes call for an increased amount of eggs, the waffle recipe I use called for 6 eggs.
Like with all new lifestyle changes I'm working on a fine balance between stable blood sugar levels, keeping my cholesterol numbers low, & finding the extra greenbacks to afford to eat healthier.

The other change is that I've switch out all our fake sugar useage to Stevia. Previously I was using fresh Stevia leaves in beverages namely my coffee. Now I use it in all our baking & cooking needs. Hubby's not thrilled but he wasn't thrilled with the taste of commercially available artificial sweeteners either. I of course wasn't thrilled with the side effects.
He as a diabetic doesn't suffer from roller coaster glucose levels in the same manner as I do. His body can process Maple syrup an often recommended diabetic sweetener choice, fairly well. For me I lapse into a diabetic coma albeit with a smile on my face.
Hence the learning curve.

Scored a great deal on Powdered Stevia and once I added a label giving Stevia = Sugar conversion measurements it's been a snap.

I'm also looking @ Almond flour & Birch Xylitol a sweetener just as soon as I earn some more greenbacks.

8 quarts of shredded Zucchini in the freezer so far.
I was planning on canning it hoping to end up with Zucchini milk concoction but the squash is exceptionally dry this year. Not heirloom so that may be why.

~~ pelenaka ~~

A is for Apples

The first of many updates here on Thirtyfivebyninety Urban Homestead. 

I'll start alphabetically ... with the Apples trees my daughters and I planted in 2008. 

We were/are trying for the Espalier method which since I'm not French has grossly alluded me as you can see. We had planned to pune way back this year but it was a great season for Apples in New York State including city orchards, we just couldn't bring ourselves to saw.  

So we didn't. 

The small window dead center is the kitchen.

I got a big kick out of  first seeing Apple Blossoms then Apples growing outside my kitchen window. Reminded me of the character Ma Joad in the Grapes of Wrath, when she talked about oranges outside her window. 

Summer 2013 

Notice how shady the Apple trees and house are. I was very surprised we got a harvest @ all.

Winter 2008

Proof that you don't need feet of space to have an Apple Orchard - this bed is just a bit over 12" wide and almost 15' long.

An Apple for Snow White

Golden Russets

Golden Russets 

The 4 in 1 Apple tree produced half a bushel of Golden Russets. Disappointing no shows for the other 3 varieties but  never the less good with cheese.
Preservation method of choice - storing in the cellar for fresh eating this Winter.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Tarp Blue



Ghetto Slip & Slide just add dish soap and a helmet.

 The lovely view out of my up stairs bathroom window. On a bright & sunny day the tarp blue glow, smoothing and shall I dare say tranquil reflects off the walls of my bath ... yeah what a load of  ... this is the twin of my house which sits about 12 feet away with it's newly tarpped roof.
Apparently a bank owned home can be tarpped without repercussions.
No certified love letters speaking of fines & confinement in the big house. Oh no sweet salutations from the code man for those people.
Poor bastards.

For me a common homeowner I just work two jobs and continue to interview roofers. Hopefully I'll have til late October to earn enough.

Wouldn't a tarp camouflaged roof be the bomb baby ?

I'm gonna need a helmet.


~~ pelenaka ~~

French Connection

Checking out the Make  Magazine website for an outrageously awesome gardening idea for those of us who are spacial challenged. A design team from Paris, yeah as in France, came up with a tilt in tilt out window box holder thingy. I could so see just about all of a couples fancy salad green supplied with one or two of these holders utilizing succession planting.
If you haven't ever been on Make's site or picked up a copy of the very thick mag that plays more like a book I encourage you to do so. Usually I hang under the Home Garden section although I do enjoy checking out the electronic hacks even if it projects are way over my head.

I see a DIY project in hubbies future, lol. 

Ye of Little Faith

I really need to put my faith in God much more than I do.
Despite this Springs wild weather & late season wet snow fall we have Peaches on the trees.

The first pic is the tree closest to the garage which produces smaller Peaches as well as a smaller harvest.
Hopefully all that will change this year. We were told by the next door neighbor who is facing foreclosure that the bank will have ownership next month. I plan to lobby hard on having the 150 year old Maple that blocks out the sunshine, cut down. I'll be using phrases like litigation, damage to our many quality tools and possessions in housed in our garage when a limb decides to come crashing down.

In the meantime the Mylar mirror I've been erecting has been working out well all things considered.

Second pic shows what some sun light can do for a tree. Would you believe that there is only a distance of  8 feet between the two ?
Apparently 8 feet can mean all the difference whether it's shade or the Berlin Wall.




Mylar Garden Mirror on the garage wall ...



Bigger than a golf ball smaller than a tennis ball.



~~ pelenaka ~~

Sabbatical Ends

Heads up this blog is still active, just a bit slow as of late.

I've been working six days a week (cue the Beatles Classic) which has been a great blessing because the borrowed time we've been living on has come to an end. The roof which needed replacing when I bought our old house 13 years ago, has finally sprung a leak.
So for now the electrical will have to wait while I come up with all those dead presidents to keep the rain & all too soon snow off our heads.                        

Last week the gods realized I had a steady paycheck & broke my laptop. Yeah that's right it was the gods who were also responsible for a few other unexpected bills that watered down the roof fund.
Such is life.

It times like these that I am glad we live well below our means; cheap rent, cheap tastes, no car note. I know that in the prepping movement everyone prepares for the "Big One" but for us it's more of being able to weather all the little ones.
Having the skills to live comfortable on almost next to nothing is what I'm talking about.

Sunday my day off I canned up 14 jelly jars of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. Both were left overs that were gifted by a gf who worked the food bank last Friday. And so the 2012 canning season begins !

I also got a portion of the garden planted which made me feel better about the sad state of my city lot. Section after section of weed and no it's not that  cash crop just Gill-over-ground, Plantain, Rye Grass, Feverfew, Buttercup, along with a perennial Primerose Sundrop that has taken over like a bad case of poverty.

My grand plans were to thin the landscape plants like a boot camp barber, pot up, then barter or sell but that will have to wait for next Spring. What little time I have will be devoted to filling the pantry shelves. The majority of the mason jars are empty due to my lazy efforts last year.


~~ pelenaka ~~

I Made the Buffalo Paper

and no it wasn't the Police blotter ... I had a phone interview with Tim Graham, a staff reporter for The Buffalo News both an online & hard copy newspaper. He wanted the low down from real life local preppers . 

Actually acknowledging to myself that I am a prepper has never been easy. 

I along with most of America has always thought of preppers as a gun toting fringe group hold up in the boonies. Cast members from the remake of Deliverance ... cue the banjos. 

Because to me in my mind the way I live my life wasn't prepping ... it was being prepared & being ghetto fugal ghetto Amish ... cue the boom box. 

As much as I'd like to say that I feel the need to use non-electric tools because I am green to the core or I worry about EMP issues the real truth is I'm cheap. In the past the cheaper I could be the less I needed to work outside the home when my babies were small. Now, well it's about hard economic times & saving for our old age.

I really didn't didn't expect to make the final cut of the article because to tell you the truth I was expecting a sensational over the top piece about the local preparedness movement here in Western New York ala Nat Geo's Doomsday Preppers. I had hopes that the subsection of preppers who prepare for lifes trails & tribulations like hubby's recent & ongoing unemployment wouldn't be excluded. 

I was pleasantly surprised ! Thank you Tim.

Here's the link - I'm mentioned under the heading Canned Goods not Zombies 

Some old homes have bats we have TP & old fans

The toilet paper was free thanks to Swagbucks which had $5 YaySave gift cards last month. Unforgivably the gc are no more which is a real heart break 'cause they were cheaper than the $5 Amazon gift cards. I bought the max allowed in March & April which was a total of ten = $50. Last year Swagbucks had the premium membership a $19.99 (free shipping & extra discount) value so I bought that with my swagbucks points. So yeah I got free Charmin no cost shipping. In fact the 4 roll Charmin packs also got me swagbucks so it was a double win win.

Now if I could only get Woods, to sell that finger tip slicing fan ! He said no, you never know when you'll have to slice up zombies with it.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Cheaper Than Dirt

Last week I got an email from Casey, whoever he or she may be, passing along a widget for a site that did a post on making a raised garden bed for $50. 

Five Zero. 

Fifty Washingtons. 

One third of a month of groceries.

Half a yard can buy allot in my world so I kinda was put out that this site was holding out their example as a cost effective fugal gardening method. It's a cool looking graphic that breaks down the cost of constructing a garden bed from scratch. 

I'd be impressed if it didn't cost so much.

Think of this as just a box spring.

This is a bed Woodsrunner built me four years ago out of old fence material I had saved from the but-ugly fence that surrounded my city lot. I didn't save much of that old fence but it's been enough so far. Woodsrunner had odds & ends (screws) laying around his workshop. I think we did actually spend some greenbacks on dirt but knowing myself I'd lay even money down that it wasn't more than $5 for bagged topsoil. 

Bed Me Baby

This year Hubby added a second frame or as I like to say a mattress to the box spring using a few more of those old fence boards tucked up in the rafters of his man cave. Only this time he was outta hardware so he came up with a tight MacGyver move ...

Metal Biscuits 

Those shinny circles are aluminium lids & bottoms from assorted nut cans used to join the fence boards. He's a good man to steal from his scrap metal stash - estimated cost/scrap metal value < 1¢

Like before I'll fill this level up with bunny poop, compost materials, egg shells, wood ash, alternating with bagged top soil that I scored last Autumn for a buck a bag. If you click on this blog post  the second pic is of this exact same bed using the direct compost method. Slick way to say no middle man a.k.a. no compost bin.

On a side note I love my free mulch courtesy of the city who had tree stumps ground the next street over last month. Thank you to hubby for snagging a few cart fulls.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Gone-Not-Gone-Winter

YNNBuffalo 

On Friday I was pedaling around my part of the city in what else - pedal pushers & a tank top, wind in my hair, smile on my face. Life was good, very good I had one paycheck in my pocket and only two days to go to my only day off for the week on my second job.
I even got a bit of a burn on my forearms.
Life was good as pedaled my way to the next neighborhood for my last shift of the day.

That was Friday.

Today we dug out the snow shovels that I had placed behind the garage just two days ago. Today we stood in the kitchen looking out the window @ the back yard ... speechless.
I have a pang of guilt in the pit of my stomach. If I hadn't put away the shovels that late unusually hot April Friday, this sleet/snow fall wouldn't be happening now.
I apologize.
I know better.
I have no idea what I was thinking. I wouldn't have taken down storm windows nor put up snow parkas in favor of light jackets & flip flops.
I am soo sorry!

There's nothing to say.
There's nothing to do.
Or is there ?

My area is slated to have under 10" much more than plastic tarps can fend off. The plan for the cold frames is to just go old school & scrape off the accumulated flakes. The fruit trees ... I plan to shake. Yeah just shake them. Shake the wet snow off so the branches won't be weighted down & snap.
No snapping allowed.

Woods has vowed to snap a pic of me standing sentry in our urban orchard shaking trees.

On the home front we have a bit of cured firewood for tonight & Monday night. If the grid goes down due to tree branches on power lines we also have the back up of a small heater powered by propane along with a small supply but I don't see us really needing it. Instead we can just have the wood stove lit for a few hours to heat soap stone bed warmers then turn in for the night.

If this were really the dead of Winter then we'd break out the two person tents to sleep in. It's easier to body heat a small tent than a whole bedroom.

We also have that old standby, a two burner Coleman Camping Stove for cooking and heating water for hot water bottles. Don't underestimate the benefits of curling up with even a small source of warmth when your cold. There's also our supply of oil lamps which we've been putting into practice as of late, along with flash lights & solar garden lights.

The majority of our food is shelf stable no need for refrigeration. What food items that are frozen would be pressure canned for long term shelf life on the Coleman Camp Stove.

We are to use a popular term, prepared ... for the most part minus the garden & orchard pretty well set for this coming Nor'easter that's headed our way.
Are you ?


~~ pelenaka ~~

Acting Squirrely

Frost Variety Peach Tree #1 

For the most part it has been any where from a hard frost to mild frost conditions most nights here on the urban homestead. These trees, wedding gifts from me to Woodsrunner, have been tenacious in the face of Winter's last hooray.
Every morning as I look out the back kitchen window the sight of them both bring a smile to my face. My Peach Orchard in the ghetto.

When I bought these trees I had hopes of our children playing underneath them. Now going on six years of marriage sans babies Woodsrunner, parents my children as if they are his own. No pitter patter of little Dutch feet playing underneath.
My hopes is that one day my ... our grandchildren will be asking when they can pick a peach fresh off the tree.

Frost Variety Peach Tree #2 & the mylar backdrop

The mylar garden mirror I installed last June has held up really good. The panels that show creases are potato chip bags, the ones without are mylar food storage bags.

Ever since our mini heat wave last month which sparked orchards including mine to sprout weeks a head of schedule I've been scrambling like a squirrel before Winter gathering nuts.
A really frenzied squirrel with empty pockets and pantry shelves to fill.
I'm pretty confident that our personal Peach orchard will pull through, however I think local Cherry orchards have been hard hit. Whatever Cherries make it to market will be beyond my economic reach.

Besides canning up Cherry Pie filling I also can jelly jars of Almond Cherries in lite syrup for Woodsrunner. Cherries are a good homeopathic anti-gout remedy to have in the house. They also are awesome on buckwheat pancakes.

I ordered Traverse Bay Fruit Co. Dried Cherries, 4-Pound Box on Amazon for $24.33 or 38¢ per oz (subscribe & save pricing free shipping) with a portion of this month's earnings from Swagbucks.

I figure instead of pie I'll make Woods Cherry Chocolate Whole Wheat Cake.
Yeah I know it's different when your walking the healthier side of the street.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Murphy's Law

Every Nightingale needs a lamp & coffee grinder 

If you have been a long time reader of my blog then you "heard" me mention how I try not to let the gods know I have dead presidents (federal tax return) least the hot water heater starts peeing like a drunk behind the dumpster of the corner club or the car needs a new battery.

Wait for it ... the car did need a new battery because of a short in the wiring. Woods fixed that but we lost the clock & radio.
No hardship there because in this pinch we just use my solar emergency weather radio  on the dash.

Next came a bearing job rod thingy followed by a wheel alignment followed by car insurance note. The money order went out to the great insurance fund in the sky. Our only chariot has been sitting idle in the driveway, transportation needs fulfilled by bicycle, shoe leather express, or carro de publica. No problema it's Spring and we need to burn off the Winter fat.

Then the mother of all creature comforts only overshadowed by indoor plumbing, broke.
In one tenth of a millisecond by the flip of a switch we lost power in roughly 70% of our house. One moment we were all sitting in my new old parlor watching the telly then we weren't. Woodrunner had gotten up to snag a snack from the kitchen and on flipping the switch set into motion yet another M. L. E. (Murphy's Law event) this Spring.

The second story of MOH (my old house) went black along with two of the first floor rooms; the living room & downstairs bedroom. NP, we are preppers we just pulled out some battery operated L.E.D. lanterns then ran an electrical cord to the t.v. Finished watching the movie because it was due back @ the library the next day. By the third day of no power we went old school pulling out Wood's oil lamps.
The upside is that none of the vital outlets that supply the Westinghouse or chest freezer were affected. Oh yeah wait for it ... $3 savings on the electrical bill so far.

So the plan for now is to take a chill pill yeah I wrote it, take a few to regroup. We're working the  bartering angle for electrical work. So far no takers.

No hurry.
We have heat & plenty of lamps; battery, solar, & oil.
Most importantly I have a means to grind & brew coffee.
I might even invite Mr. Murphy in for a cup.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Cow in the Cupboard

Free milk without buying the cow

When I think of a traditional homestead my pop culture inspired imagination often pictures dairy cows on lush green pastures contained within a perfectly picturesque white rail fence, Elsie the Borden Jersey Cow comes to mind.
Sweet smiling with her daisy chain necklace, the symbol of perfect dairy products.

But for those of us who don't have lush green pastures to keep a big doe eyed milker for our personal dairy there is always the more convenient alternative - non-fat powdered milk. Before you wrinkle your nose and mentally make whatever gag like remark that always represents forced Brussels sprouts consumption there are a few advantages of having a cow in the cupboard at your beck & call.

There's is the convenience factor which just can't be appreciated enough least there's a blizzard to remind you that you really don't want to make a midnight milk run.

I use non-fat milk for cooking and baking which frees up fresh milk for drinking, a cost savings. Then there's the added bonus of decreasing the calorie and fat content of a recipe by replacing the regular milk. I also use it to make Greek style yogurt.


I got a good deal on 8 pounds of non-fat milk in month on special offers on Amazon for $39.73 which qualified for free shipping. And as my other swagbucks rewards, this milk is free.


~~ pelenaka ~~

No Fruit 4 You

Free Strawberry bed started from 3 orginal plants bought 11 years ago

3 or 4 days ago our freakishly warm early Spring turned on us. First a very chilly night like a wing man who has forgotten that it's all about moi, then more like a spurred lover giving us a hard frost. Yesterday it was all about a disgruntled wife who has realized that her fun loving grass is greener on the other side of the fence husband, was planning on moving along solo.

Yesterday I awoke to a blanket of wet snow less than an inch which brought us up short.
It really wasn't a great surprise since we all knew that the beach party weather of  last week was a freak of nature, "Little girl you want some eye candy"?

The Strawberries I'm not so much worried about because they have the resiliency of a child who grew up in a broken home. Short daylight hours & heavy foot traffic that doesn't always stay on the walk, this bed just keeps on surviving.

No warmth felt from the stacked stone cellar

As you can see Woodsrunner, has been busy putting in next year and the year after firewood. Every few days he works on splitting a round. 

The early warm Spring not to mention a relatively warm Winter meant that we had just gotten away with enough of wood to keep us warm. Currently we are burning windfall gleaned off the city's hell strips or gifted from neighbor's yards. Annie a few houses over actually thought enough to box & toss a tarp over the pile she gave us. I get allot of looks as I pull the garden cart behind me walking around the hood. 

NP, free heat can smooth over any of the hurt feelings I might have.

 

No signs of frost damage perhaps being an antique variety is the key.
This tree a Sops of Wine from Miller's Nursery in Canandaigua, New York. It has yet to give us fruit I have despite this recent cold snap. The fact that there's no blossoms may be the saving grace.

Climbing Pink Rose originally planted over a hundred years ago.

Pink Rose Bush seems to be very hardy. 
My neighbor behind me LaShonda, had tossed it over the fence in my direction when she heard me hanging laundry last Summer. Just as the root ball went up in the air clearing the peak of the garage she gave me a shout out. I'm glad she didn't see me hit the dirt. She kept half replanted that along a fence line. I potted this half up until I can afford to make a trellis for under the kitchen window. I think that a view of pale pink roses @ the kitchen sink will compliment my gray & white kitchen. 

Looking a little like Sanford & Son despite the new layer of mulch

Earlier this morning when I looked out the kitchen window @ my two Peach trees all I could hear was the voice of the actor who played the Soup Nazi in the classic Seinfield episode, "No fruit for you ... NO FRUIT FOR YOUUUUU"! 

My plan was to go down to the furniture store and snag some plastic wrapping outta the dumpsters then wrap my precious Peach trees. Yeah I know ... but have you ever had a sweet juicy Peach rip from a tree grown in your own backyard. Then don't judge me ...

All I can hope for is that my Peach trees Frost variety will survive & produce because locally the fruit orchards were hard hit. I didn't can as much fruit as I should have, poor planning on my part. If I had then this glitch in food production could be easily rode out until 2013 or even 2014 harvest. 

Now I need to come up with an alternate plan to put fruit in on the family menu.

1. Schedule time to go foraging for wild berries I slacked last year.
2. Scope out new opportunities a.k.a. make contact for gleaning of any available urban fruit.
3. Increase garden fruit plantings such as melons to provide fresh fruit then all tree fruit can be preserved. 
4. Consider stocking commercially caned fruit (although expensive since we would need low sugar/no sugar).

~~ pelenaka ~~

I Save With YaySave

My 1st order from YaySave was over a year ago. I ordered dish washing liquid, Ivory Soap for laundry soap making, and hand sanitizer. Since then I've ordered a few more times - free shipping & fast service on quality products.

This past Saturday, I bought Charmin Ultra Strong tp - double rolls 2 ply 12 pack for $10.25. A good deal so I bought three packages, you can never have enough TP. The third only ended up costing me 25¢ or a total of $1.73 per double roll for the whole lot. 

I had a $5 credit from a previous order on YaySave which I took full advantage of on this order. Then I subtracted the upcoming $5 Amazon gift card that I'll redeem with a portion of the 500 swagbucks that was a promotional offer on YaySave this past week, (with a $20 purchase). 

Then on Sunday I remembered that my Mom would soon be needing a tissue run so I ordered her the Puffs special. Then I remembered that my very athletic teenage daughter has sneakers that can get up and walk on their own. I ordered her a can of Lysol disinfectant spray. That order also qualified me for another 500 Swag bucks. My 1000 Swag Bucks were deposited in my swagbucks account on Tuesday! 

                                                                       

Wednesday my order from YaySave was delivered to my door. Not bad @ all ... free shipping ... $10 worth of Amazon gift cards earned (+ an extra 100 swagbucks) all in 4 days from start to finish!

This week's YaySave's promotional offers are earn 100 Swag Bucks on Aveeno, Boon, and Olay products. I'm a Premium member ($19.99 for a full year) so I get free shipping, along with weekly special deals. 

YaySave also has a certified section where products are always a minimum of 25% less than other online competitors who's prices are also posted directly on YaySave's site- makes for easy comparison shopping. Each week the site focuses on a new brand as their bonus offering @ great price. 

Good customer service, fast (free shipping for premium members), and all the convenience of shopping in my pajamas for great deals on products that we use. 

YaySave also has a great referral program. If any of your referrals go premium you receive a sawbucks ($10) not to be confused with swagbucks, lol. But the real moolah making deal is that you can earn up to a C note ($100) per referral by collecting on every purchase. 

Even if you decide not to sign up under me using my referral link I still promise to share with you special E-codes for extra YaySave deals. Because after all, it's all about saving those green backs on products you really use.

Login or sign up with YaySave then to to "my accounts ". 
Your 1st special E-code for $2 is 94166d017e4caa0c922af359883ee4ef - Good til this Sunday the 25th. 


Stack the $2 E-code credit you just got with this weeks promo Spend $50 get $15 in YaySave Credit = $17 in totally free products. Stack those extra savings when you buy any products on YaySave that earn you swagbucks. Use swagbucks to earn paypal cards to pay for your Yaysave purchases.
Seventeen smackeroos without clipping coupons or throwing on street clothes to go shopping.


While you're @ it stop by this weeks giveaway enter via fb or email for their double C note a $200 valued baby product. 


Might be your lucky day, after all you just got $2.




~~ pelenaka ~~


P.S. - check out YaySave's twitter feed for another great code worth 50 cents, every penny counts. 

Cold Frame = Hot Love

Yeah, that's right when your a homesteader be it urban or rural it's gifts of cold frames and the like that tells you your man loves you. 

Loves you Hot.

This is the second cold frame Woodsrunner has built me. After 5+ years of marriage originating on yahoo singles (no he wasn't a online serial killer), he apparently loves me even more than when he built the first cold frame. 

Baby has Wood

Hubby's newest design makes the center height twice as high to accommodate marigolds (bug control) and  taller greens such as Swiss Chard. PVC pipe & wood was all scavenged from past projects around the urban homestead.

Early Spring Beige 

In place waiting on upholstery plastic to be stapled down. Red Onions made it through our mostly balmy Winter. So did the carrots which were some of the sweetest, most delicate tasting I have ever had.

Good haul ... if I was Tom Thumb. Neglected to use an object (like a quarter) for size reference but lets just say that rinsing them off greatly decreased the harvest.

Broccoli or rather 6 month old Broccoli starts but I did keep them alive through a warm Winter.

Surviving & flourishing are two vastly different concepts. Consider us starved if we had had to depend on the garden for total Winter nourishment.

It's been in the high 70s to record breaking 80 degrees as of late but I'm sure that there is one last howrah from Old Man Winter still yet to come. Maybe I'll still get to try out my new cold frame.

A hunk hunk burning love ...




~~ pelenaka ~~

Free Canning Jars - Blessings on the Curb

Bit of elbow grease makes for a new opportunity for food preservation. 

I scored 5 boxes of tall Ball Quilted Jelly Jars last week the day before my street was scheduled for trash pick up. The boxes were piled up in front of a neighbor's house along with glassware, books, and some clothing. Neighbor who I had only really waved to on my travels was purging her father's apartment contents due to his recent death. She was on her front porch taking a smoke so I was able to ask if she didn't mind me rummaging around the huge pile on the hell strip. That's when she told me he had died of complications due to diabetes.

I offered my condolences and thanks for the jars and for the first time we chatted a bit. She mentioned how she always saw me riding around the neighborhood. Then spoke about how much in the past she enjoyed riding. I gave her my card and told her to call sometime we could go for a ride. She didn't seem too enthusiastic perhaps when I drop off a few filled jelly jars I can nudge her to go for a short ride.
When your ready I told her as I pedaled away with the jars bungee corded to my bike rack. She gave a wave with the hand that held her Indian Pride cig and gently rocked on the porch swing.

Two of the 12 packs boxes were filled with what was peaches in heavy syrup and perhaps pureed pears.
No labeling but I wasn't planning on eating the contents anyways, it was all about the glass.

Two boxes worth went to my bbgf (barter buddy girlfriend) as an early Mother's Day gift. The other 3 twelve packs down to the cellar. I need to do some serious canning this year especially since I slacked off last year.

I get allot of stares when I haul cargo home on my bike, not so much when I'm just out & about. It always pays to have the means to carry stuffs on a bike. Being street level usually results in good opportunities and the chance to make new friends.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Fugal Package for Homemade Gifts

Store with the bail off & bottle upside down. 

If your a greenie or short on cash here's a packaging idea that works great & only costs a nickel.
We buy these wire & bail bottles back from the neighborhood redemption place which although not as fun is cheaper than purchasing them filled from the corner store.

Good soak in boiling hot soapy water then a bit of elbow grease scrubbing the labels off with an old toothbrush.

Fill with homemade apple cider vinegar, secure the cap, add label. These work well for flavored extracts, oils, & vinegar. I could even see these holding homemade lotions. There is the obvious of course ... homemade beer or wine.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Free Amazon Kindle Books

Amazon recommended these free kindle books to me today ... oh how they know me so well.  I haven't had a chance yet to read any of them but in case there's only a 24 hour window of opportunity (read free) I wanted to share.

~~ pelenaka ~~




Gardening - never enough points of view.

Green Living - this catch phrase makes me lol.

Turning the Unemployment Tide 

Just in case that interview is group affair.

4 reviews 5 stars - got my attention.

$

Hopefully I'll learn something new.

Foreclosure Next Door

3rd in a series of the perfect storm (foreclosures) surrounding my urban homestead.

Twin

Foreclosure due to Illness/Poor decisions - I'd been expecting the foreclosure of my neighbor's home since October when he had casually mentioned his bank note hadn't been paid in months. He had apparently missed the financial boat sometime within the 15+ years of home ownership to refinance @ a lower rate. Years later after smoking two packs a day for forever he came down with the big C, surviving isn't always the half of it. It is also surviving the cost of cancer. 

Without a steady paycheck burdened with a McMansion sized mortgage note, fed up with responsibilities of ownership he choose not to find a solution. Just as he choose not to have his roof replaced, or his furnace fixed, or gutters hung in times of plenty. Repairs now to the twin far out weigh it's current value. 

My neighbor's choices in life are now resting on my front stoop and my heart. My worry is that the twin can become a rental. Secondly, the value of my home has over night sunk even farther down the real estate rabbit hole. 

I had on the occasion of my marriage to Woodsrunner, made a promise - that with the last child out of high school we would move to the country (yes I would blog through that transition & no it wouldn't be a 100% happy move for me). Now not unlike a million other homeowners while not exactly upside down on my note, I have no pipe dreams of being able to sell. And I don't mean sell for a profit (no profit no raw land), I mean just selling to break even. 

The twin to my 1902 two story farmhouse built on a stacked stone foundation with a hand dug cellar in the balloon frame method is @ the widest point 13' from my own home. 

The floor plans is exactly the same with a few exceptions from remodels on both. The twin has had an additional toilet installed downstairs in what was originally a walk in kitchen closet that was then blocked off & door rerouted. My twin had a wall & doorway removed converting the downstairs bedroom into a dinning room. Not the smartest move, downgrading a home from three to two bedrooms. 

The most visible difference between the twins is exterior. 

For most who aren't gardeners the difference is house color. 

For others it's the porch designs. 

Neighbor's twin has two driveways a sweet deal where on-street parking can be the norm. 

But for me who has lived with spacial confinements and lack of life giving sun shine the biggest difference between the twins is MORE dirt for one twin, not enough for the other.

The other twin sits on a double lot, a full 60' x 90'. 

It also sits off to the right on that lot giving that extra 35' of lawn all day sunshine. An extra 420 inches. 

I covet my neighbor's lot.

~~ pelenaka ~~