Frugal Friday and Homestead Happenings!

Wowza, what a busy week we had.  Apparently way to busy to do a Homestead Happenings post on Wednesday so I am combining it with Frugal Friday, which works because it all melds together for this family.

I finished up all my canning projects.  My water bath and pressure canners are all cleaned up and polished waiting for next year.  My goal was to use up every canning jar in the house and this year it was close.  I am left with one case of quart jars and one pint and a half jar.  That's it!  I'm not sad about the quart jars because I will use them for fermenting foods like yogurt and beets when I harvest the last of them from my garden.  

I was able to process all the frozen foods out of our large freezer and unplug that energy sucking machine down.  I dehydrated the frozen veggies I had and vacuum sealed the flours and let's just say then animals are eating very well this week.

Dehydrated veggies from freezer

Expensive flours and nuts vacuumed packed.

It  was our anniversary this month so we did our typical date.  I love a road trip so we always take an exploration drive.  This year we did it in the mechanics "Big Truck" and took a drive on the beach and then around the North Fork which is a beautiful drive up the mountain on dirt roads looking at Fall colors.  We also picked up lunch from our favorite take out but not until the next day.

Stormy learning to drive Big Truck on beach.

Driving all by herself!

Anchor Point Beach on a cloudy day.

North Fork Road.

My mother in law is up visiting for the rest of the month so we are slowing down enough to enjoy spending time with her and this week I am anxiously awaiting the birth of chicks.  Both our broody hens should be hatching their eggs soon but I gotta admit they are terrible broody hens.  Many a night I have to chase them on the right nest after finding cold eggs.  If any chicks are actually born, it will be a miracle.

Lazy Wolf Dog

Not a frugal pet but very good company.

Food Storage - Easier Said Than Done

By this time I was spinning out of control.  The only thing I was sure of was my salvation.    I needed a task to keep me busy and to give me a feeling of well-being.  I turned my attention to food storage, it's a mommy thing.

I spent quality time with my laptop making an elaborate spreadsheet to track all the food I would be putting in storage and how much we would need to store.  My goal was to come up with four years of storage to cover the family's needs.

That is all fine and dandy on the excel worksheet but not so in reality.  Right away, I see obstacles.  We live in a small house with no basement or attic, so space is a problem.  Financially, it is expensive.  For a while I bought two of everything that was non-perishable.  As in, one bag of noodles for now and one for storage.  After a few shopping trips it was evident that doubling our food budget was putting a strain on the rest of our expenses.  We needed a better plan.

For storage, we explored the idea of a root cellar, but our water table is high, and we do live in Alaska so that is not very practical.  The very easy answer to our problem is a dehydrator.  We bought the best we could afford (Excalibur 9 trays) and it has been running non-stop.  You can reduce a huge amount of food into a very small space. (I will share examples in a future post)

For the financial end, we are doing our best to absorb the cost.  I started buying in bulk through Azure Standard with a set monthly budget of $250.  I don't always place a monthly order, but when I do it is with food storage in mind.  It is a great place to buy organic, non-gmo food.

Problems solved?  Not even close!  Now, we find that we are eating up the food storage and not gaining much ground on it. Also, the family is getting annoyed that I keep grabbing all the food and sticking it in the dehydrator, which we then eat.  Ugggh, wasted effort, we should have just eaten the fresh apples.  

A portion of my dehydrated food storage

We also have to face the very harsh reality of hanging on to our food storage.  When  times get tough, hard decisions will have to be made.  You will have hungry neighbors, friends and family.  There will also be hungry mobs who will stop at no means to get what is yours.  If that isn't bad enough, it is written that our government has the right and will use that right to seize what they consider hoarded up and "distribute" it to the needy.  Kind of makes you discouraged  to keep carrying on.

The single, best alternative I have found is foraging.  Stormy and I spent the summer wandering the woods and yard, learning about various plants and mushrooms.  Not saying that we love all that we pick but at least we know what is edible.  I do love dandelions and clover, which are great in salads and tea.  They are pretty high in nutrients and grow from spring to fall.  I believe that everyone should buy a comprehensive book about foraging in the area that you live in.  Foraged food is superior to a garden it the sense that it plants and cultivates itself.  Not that I want to give up the garden or greenhouse, but both of those will fall victim to the hungry mobs.  I'm pretty sure the mobs will walk past the Sorrel.  

We ate the dandelions and infused the rest for soaps and lotions.

I'll be writing more detailed post about long term storage, dehydrating and foraging.  For now this is what we are working toward but we are always learning.

Lovin' life with a full heart and belly.