Fall Tally Again

7 Jars Apple Jelly (250ml)
Apple Butter waiting to be processed tonight.

Apples from the trees on the property.


Edited to add... 7 jars of Apple Butter 

Fall Tally Again

4 jars baby food (plums) (250ml)
4 jars baby food pears (250 ml).

I was planning on doing peach baby food as well, then realized I still had five jars left from Buddy!  So I think I'll either can the peach slices, or freeze peach pie filling.

Score #2

3 more Motherease one-size: $4.50 for all (retails about $13 each)
5 diaper wraps: $15 for all (retails for about $15 each)
7 diaper liners: $15 for all (retails about 3.50 each)

Fall Tally Continued

5 jars of plums (500 ml)
7 jars of dill pickles (500 ml)
(both done on a week night. Mommy did the plums while Daddy made dinner, then Daddy & Chuckles did the pickles while Mommy tidied up)
we've now gone through 3 kg of sugar since Saturday.

Remember....

all those carrots?

Last night we finished the last of those carrots.

And while they were good (they were pretty darn fresh... maybe travelled 10 km to get to our grocery store), I don't think I want to see another carrot again for a very, very, long time.

Bring on the frozen veggies though, since it's winter, and fresh veggies in winter.. not too great!

On the plus side... several stores had their frozen veggies on sale recently. And, I picked up a lot. AND, Hubby, not realizing that I had stockpiled frozen veggies in the basement freezer, ALSO picked up a ton.

I think we're good till February.

More Laundry

I have never written about my laundry before, and here we are two posts in three days.

It must be some thrilling stuff.

Or something.

So my electric bill arrived the other day, along with a notice that 'time of day' pricing will begin in 2010. What this essentially means is that during peak electrical usage times, it will cost more to use electricity. The peak times change from season to season though (Due to air conditioning and whatnot).

Off-peak times include from ten at night until six or seven in the morning, and usually a chunk of time mid-day during the week, etc.

So they are recommending that we get washers, dryers, & dishwashers with a delay timer on them, and set them to run after ten at night. This has been promoted for at least two years now, to get everyone ready for the time of day pricing.

Now, I don't have a dishwasher, so that's not a huge issue.

But.

Should I delay my wash, and then do my drying during the peak?

Should I do my wash right when I get home from work, then delay the dryer to after the peak?

And HOW am I to process my regular three loads of laundry, that I normally do on Friday - Saturday, ALL AFTER TEN AT NIGHT??? maybe I'm a wuss, but I'm usually in bed then.

Even in the summer when the dryer isn't an issue since I'm using the line... this would be the scenario: I wash load one after ten on Friday, and hang it out to dry. Perfect. I wash load two after ten at night on Saturday, and hang IT out to dry. Again, Perfect. I Wash load three after ten at night Sunday, get up Monday morning, go to work, and come home to musty smelling laundry that's sat in the washer all day????

I dunno. I'm cheap, and I'm environmentally conscious. So these are things that I want to make work. But without cutting a weekly load of laundry, just can't see it being very effective (and the only reason that we only have three loads a week is because we already have the high-capacity front loader. For a family of four to only have three loads weekly? I think that that is pretty darn good already!).

Laundry

At this time every year, I feel a sense of relief that i can get my laundry for the week done in a couple of hours, instead of a couple of days.

The funny thing is, by spring, I'll feel that same sense of relief that I can FINALLY hang my laundry out to dry again, and don't have to use the dryer for several months.

I line dry from about March - mid October exclusively. The dryer MAY run once or twice in that time, if things HAVE to be dry NOW!

But generally, everything goes on the line. Even if it is pouring rain, my thought is that i am no further behind than I was when i took the things out of the washer, and the extra rinse can't hurt.

And, I love saving on the energy bill, and also that it is more environmentally friendly!!

The only problem is, in rainyt weeks, often by the time evrything is FINALLY dry & away, it's time to start over again!

Grocery shopping

So hypothetically speaking……




If one went grocery shopping, and found that the 10 lb bag of carrots could be bought for $2, but the 5 lb bag was $4



And one figured that even if they only used half the 10 lb bag, it was still a better deal….



But then when one went to put the 10 lb bag away, one found an unopened 5 lb bag already in the fridge….



How fast can a family of four eat 15 lbs of carrots????



(I think gremlins went shopping for me. I sure don’t remember buying that 5 lb bag!)

Score!

So I visited the giant school yard sale the other day, and for $40, I got about $400 - $500 worth of Thomas the tank engine "bits"
The box came with 11(!) Trains, lots of track, the bridge, the lift bridge ($50 on it's own) and many other special bits & pieces.

Each train retails for $20 - $35, so to get eleven trains for the $40 was a good deal alone. Not only that, but there are two 'Thomas' trains, two 'Lady' trains, two 'Petersam' trains, the hand car, and two different freights cars. There is one steel car that doesn't fit the set, but I can handle that, and the last car... I forget who it is. But I could probably sell the doubles on E-bay and make back my $40 if I wanted to!

The funny thing is, I bought them for the Buddy.... but the one who enjoys them the most right now is a tie, between Daddy & LR!! So fun for the whole family I guess!!

The best part... the cheaper wooden track from Ikea fits into it... so if I want more track, forget the expensive Thomas track... Ikea, here I come!