Last week of October, 2010

The kitten took a nap between Steven's web gear and his magazines.

Me, shelling pinto beans.

We ran out of mini marshmallows, so I snipped up some regular marshmallows to put in jello!

This is some of the wheat we grew this year. It's been threshed, and next (after this picture) I took it outside to "winnow" it. I poured it a couple feet onto a lower sheet, and the wind carried away the chaff. It took repeated times to get the chaff out, and I still had to pick through it by hand to get out the odd bits.

Homemade french fries.

I learned a trick to it this week. After you slice the potatoes, rinse them and put them in ice water in the refrigerator for about an hour.

The oil is supposed to be 375 degrees but I don't have a thermometer, so I just get the oil good and hot, but not smoking.

Coconut oil or peanut oil are great for frying.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, the oil does not smell or taste like coconut or peanut.

I made dinner rolls Wednesday, and later in the week we wanted french toast for breakfast, but had no bread. Steven got the idea to slice the dinner rolls into 3 slices and use them. They stuck together in cool arrangements!
It made delicious french toast, too!

This tray has dried tops from rutabagas, turnips, carrots, and beets on it.

I packed them into a bucket. I have 4 buckets now, ready for winter goat food.

"Hmmm...should I bite the hand that feeds me?"

Rutabaga tops and carrrot tops, hung to dry.
These aren't the same ones as the picture above.

My window garden.

Tomato, parsley, pepper, and basil plants.

The plastic around the plants is to keep the dirt from drying out so fast.

The air inside the cabin gets dry, even with a kettle of water on the woodstove for humidity.

To the right of the flagpole, in the center of the picture, is Tristan running the chimney brush up and down the stovepipe.

It wasn't as dark out as it seems in the picture.

"Oh good, I'm in the way!"

I brought a lawn chair inside to sit closer to the woodstove the other morning.

When I went to get up I bumped the kitten, who raised her head long enough to give me a long steady stare!

The organic shortening I use is cheaper by the case. But I worried it would go rancid before I could use it all, so I vaccuum sealed all but two of the cans.

You can see the one in my hand is in a plastic vaccuum-sealed bag.

In the box are the first ones I did. I put them inside another plastic bag, then closed up the box and put it in the root cellar, which is a steady cool and dark place.

We can no longer afford to replace our socks when they get holes...nah, just kidding.

I really did repair small holes in several socks. Seems a waste to throw them away when they can be fixed. Eventually they'll get too bad to repair.

The trick is to keep the thread flat and not let it bunch up. That would make sore spots on a person's foot. I'm sure several of the people who read this blog have repaired socks at some time in their life!

I may only save a few dollars doing this, but that's a few dollars I wouldn't have had otherwise.
Notice the kitten by my foot!

"Want me to sing for you while you fix those socks? Ahem...Three little kittens they lost their mittens and they began to cry..."