31 Days of My Real Farm Life - Day 7

31 Days of Life on Our Farm!

Hi friends!  I can call friends, can't I?  Well, some of you may have noticed there was not a post on day 7.  That is because I had car trouble, and a lot of other things.  But I am going to post Day 7 and Day 8 today, so don't tell the 31 Day people, OK? 

Yesterday was Friday.  I worked from 8 until 12, like usual.  I told the man that I contract for about my plans to be off Monday.  He said that was fine, but he wouldn't be in Tuesday.  He has to take his sister to the hospital to have a procedure.  Since we won't work together or talk for 4 days, I told him I would come Monday.  I, as a rule, don't work bank and postal holidays.  Monday is Columbus Day.  But I will go in, get the messages and deposits ready for Tuesday.  And maybe if we are slow like we probably will be, I'll leave early.  So much for my house cleaning.  Since there will be no reason to go the PO boxes and banks, I can start on my house at 1:00.  That will be the new plan.  I need a house helper.  A maid.  Does anyone have a daughter that would like to be an apprentice?  She can board.  Let me know if you know someone.  I'm trying to tell Pappy we need to find a couple to move on the farm and help out.  I have not had any luck convincing him.

When I got off work, I had to meet Pappy at the bank to sign his paper work that I signed yesterday when he was at the cow sale.  I was having trouble with my car overheating on the way to the bank.  Pappy put water in my car Monday, and it needed water again.  So we decided that I should take it to the shop.  Daughter #1 was coming to meet me to go shopping so we left my car at the bank to cool off.  Pappy filled it with water.  He was prepared with a five gallon can of water on the truck.  I guess farmers are a lot like boy scouts.  Or maybe retired cops are.

Daughter #1 said she had to eat lunch, so we stopped at the Jacks.  She told me to call Pappy and see if he wanted to eat, too.  He stopped by, and we had lunch.  Then Daughter #1 and I went to the final 50% off days of Kids Market.  Kids Market is a local consignment sale.  I may have told you that GrandBoy doesn't seem to have many clothes.  His mom sells them at the end of the season.  I know this because two years in a row I have bought him clothes and when the season returns, he has nothing to wear and he has not grown much.  He just turned three and still can wear some 2s, and he can wear 3s.  So this would have been the same clothes he wore at the end of last winter.  He has jeans and church clothes at my house,  but I can't find many sweat pants.  I like him to wear those outside on the farm, so he doesn't mess up his jeans or rip them.  At Kids Market I got 28 "pieces" for 30 dollars.  Two toys, a pair of rain boots, a pair of crocks for the spring (boys can wear teal, can't they?), 6 pair of underwear, a "Cars" sandwich box and water bottle set, a John Deere toboggan, a camo hat, eight pairs of sweat pants, a red turtleneck, a Christmas sweater vest for church, and four "Cars" shirts.  He loves the movie "Cars".  I was pleased, and now he is set for winter.  I already bought some clothes and sent those to his Mom's.  So he is now ready at both places.

Next we went to a store called "Dirt Cheap".  This is a consolidation type store.  It was confusing to me.  My daughters love it, and my tenants shop there, but I know I won't go back by myself.  You have to look at charts to figure out the price, and there are discount signs on each shelf.  How do I know someone didn't just set the item down on the wrong shelf?  Any way, I spent $40 there.  Got Pappy a air compressor for the truck that runs off the cigarette lighter.  I get more flat tires than anyone in the world.  Probably should put it in my car.  I got some fall decorations.  A couple of towels with appliqued pumpkins, fake pumpkins and gourds, Some expensive fall paper plates for desert on Thanksgiving, some Thanksgiving cards to mail to the Texas family, and I don't know what else.  Daughter #1 bought some clothes.

Since Daughter #1 works nights she was getting tired, so we didn't make it to Aldis as I had planned.  We went home.  We couldn't find the garage, so Pappy followed me back there to drop off my car.  I think it may be a hose leaking.  We will see.

Pappy's niece had a baby yesterday!  It is her second girl, and they named the beautiful princess, Amelia!  She has a big sister waiting at home.  I was going to post a photo, but we are having cell phone tower issues in North Alabama, and I can't send the photo from my phone to my email this morning.  Maybe next time.

I guess that is all for today.  Everyone have a great weekend.  I'll post about Day 8 in a while.  Honey

Sunday - A Day of Rest?

Today is Sunday.  I always like Sunday, because usually it goes at a slower pace than the rest of the week.  This one, not so much.

The day started out without Grandboy.  If he doesn't spend Saturday night, he usually comes Sunday morning before church.  This week that didn't happen.  I got a call in the middle of church that he was at McDonald's and needed to be picked up.  So I had to leave church to go get him.  We got back for the last ten minutes or so of church.  He helped me pass out school supplies to some of the children at church.  School starts in our county tomorrow.  Since Grandboy loves church so much and missed most of it, we went back for the "evening" service at 1:30. 

Between services we went home and had lunch.  I washed the dishes, and made iced tea.  After the late service, I started canning.  Today I canned lima beans, corn, and apple pear sauce.  I also did about 5 loads of laundry, cooked dinner, planned the weekly menu, and washed dishes.  Now for some quiet time.  I need to send a few "get well" cards to people at church, and catch up on my Bible in 90 Days reading.

It is going to be in the 60's tonight.  That will be great.  Maybe our utility bill will go down! 

One other thing I have been working on this evening is the grocery list.  I will do our monthly grocery trip this Friday night.  We don't shop like most people.  We grow most of our own food.  We raise our own beef, some chicken, rabbit, lamb, goat, and some years pork.  We also have our own catfish.  We have a garden, and grow most of our vegetables.  We have our own eggs, and make some of our cheese from goat's milk.  So mostly, I buy a lot of dairy.  Cheese, milk, butter, sour cream, yogurt.  I buy staples like sea salt, sugar, nuts, mustard.  I buy fruit and produce for salads.  I buy crackers, animal crackers, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, bread, coffee, and tea.  I buy tuna.  I also buy those big huge bottles of water.  This is because we are on a well, and if the utilities are off we won't have water.  So at least we will have something to drink.  I buy non-food products, like dish soap, dryer sheets, paper plates, toilet tissue, Kleenex, and cat food.  I am going to buy glue mouse traps this time, because it is getting cooler and we saw a mouse this week.  That happens when you live in the middle of a 100 acres of cotton!  And I buy as much as I can on the scratch and dent shelf, and the marked down bins.  I go at least once between for perishables, and more bread and milk.  The last time I did this everything in my cart was marked down.  The cashier said, "How are we suppose to make any money if everything you bought is marked down?"  I said, "I guess you'll have to make it on someone else!". 

Well, that's all for today.  Thanks for stopping by!  Honey