Day Trip

I mentioned in an earlier post that June ended up being hectic and a bit stressful. Truth be told I was really stressed at one point so dh decided we needed to get away for a day. We headed off to St. Simons Island for the day.

We arrived early and the beach was practically empty. That might have been because it was also trying to rain when we arrived.

I sat on the beach and read while dh fished. He did not have much luck this time. He fishes for whiting and sharks! Here is he far away from me at this point since the tide was out.

We stayed until the tide came in and practically washed me out to sea. Then we headed home making a stop by a few stores to do a little shopping. *I figured the challenge was already shot so why not.* It was fun to relax and listen to the ocean. That made all my cares go away at least for the day.

Henny Penny

A few months ago my parents had a problem with eggs being eaten by a chicken or chickens in one of the pens. We tried all of the tricks we could find: feeding them oyster shells, putting powdered milk in the water, putting golf balls in the nests. The only thing that worked was checking the nest a dozen times a day to gather the eggs before they were eaten. That got tiring quickly.

My parents next resorted to removing all of the chickens from the pen and adding them back one by one until the cannibal gave herself away. Here she is:

They put a tag on her foot and turned out into the world. I named her Henny Penny. She is nothing put a pet. She follows everyone around the yard, hangs out under the carport with the dogs, and sneaks into the feed room for a snack. Oh, she lays her eggs outside now and has not eaten a single one. I guess she needed something that she could only get from wandering around the yard.

I was trying to get a picture of her when this camera hog came over for a close up. Hmmm, come to think of it most of my parents' animals are nothing but pets. What a life!

Sunshine

Here is a cake I did recently for a birthday at church. I did not have the a/c on initially when I was working on the cake, and the temperature in the kitchen seemed to rise by the second. The yellow part of the sun was supposed to be done with the star tip with built up areas for the corners of the mouth and the nose. The icing kept melting and running though. Dh had to help me put it in the freezer to keep it together. In the end I think it turned out okay. I am planning to give it another try this weekend for a family member's birthday. This time I will do it early in the morning before the real sun heats things up too much.

A Walk in the Garden

First I want to share a picture of the pumpkin plants. These are growing in our compost pile, which is the only place I ever have luck with pumpkins. We toss a rotting one or two in each year so we have more for the following year. I am not a fan of eating them, but it is nice to have free pumpkins for decorating each fall. I should add that this is only half of the runners. They also extend into the yard further on the right side. The chickens have fun going in the pumpkin forest and eating bugs.

Here is a picture of the main garden. This is what 100+ degree temperatures do to cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. We did get plenty of produce off the plants before the heat got to them.

We do still have watermelon plants growing. Here is the biggest melon which we are planning to pick and cut soon. We have no money in these melons only time. They were grown from seeds dh saved from a melon last year.

Finally an earlier photo of some garden goodies. I used to use plastic grocery bags to gather the vegetables. Since we are only using cloth shopping bags now, I needed something to use in the garden. I had intentions of buying a basket, but I found this one in my craft room. It is the perfect size for gathering a few tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Of course, I had to tote those giant zucchinis.

Well.......

My June challenge was a bust. After dh got sick things just seem to go downhill from there. We had a weed eater and two lawn mowers tear up. One of them broke down three times. That was money spent each time. We finally gave up, took a vacation day, and ended up shopping for some much needed clothing items. The first half of the month was good, and the second half not so much. Oh, well, that is the way life goes sometimes.

I do have some actual posts planned beginning next week. *Gasp!* I will get back to my normal-ish day to day activities around here. Come back Monday for a fresh start!

Avoiding a Budget Buster

My shopping plans were quickly tossed aside as I took my sick husband to the doctor this morning. He is sick and whiny. The whining is due to the sickness so I will overlook it. I narrowed my shopping down to two stores: CVS and Harvey's. I did not count the prescription costs in the spending total as those will come out of the medical budget. I had $20 to spend today. How did I do?

CVS: $6.42

Dawn dish detergent - 2
chocolate chip cookies
Pecan Sandies
M&Ms
Gillette razor
Gatorade
60 pictures developed

The food items were to console the sick dh. I did have some extra bucks expiring tomorrow that I needed to use. I was not able to roll them all over, but I did get some usable items out of it.

Harvey's: $16.14

various types of canned chicken soup - 6
honey bun
Tabasco sauce
brown rice
Oscar Myer deli creations sandwich (free coupon)
frozen meals for me - 3
sour cream
shredded cheese - 1 lb
celery
pasta salad mixes - 2

Obviously I was over my $20 by about $3. I think that was okay and am not stressing about it. Sometimes challenges do not work out just right. I could have been $30 over budget. Any planned meals went out the window. I will still have those for when he is well.

The challenge continues!

Practically Free Sweet Pickle Relish

Well, here I am just over a week into my challenge. I am proud to say that I have done no spending outside of what always needs to be done (bills mainly). I even managed to make a batch of my yummy sweet pickle relish with no out of pocket costs.






I had jars and jar flats on hand already. We had plenty of cucumbers and onions from the garden. My mom gave me some limp. but still usable for relish, celery. I bartered a bottle of Pledge from my stockpile for two bell peppers. I had sugar, vinegar, celery seed, and mustard seed in my pantry.

I ended up with four and half pints of sweet relish. I found the recipe among my grandmother's things after she passed. It is a delicious and super easy relish. The combination of all the vegetables make it much better than store bought.