The boat is home

And that's why the item on the list is gone. I am trying to find a way to use HTML to strike through on lists, but it seems that you cannot do that with the tags...

So we'll just take it off! (But seriously, if anyone knows how to do this, please comment!)

Turtle's boat has come to live with us for permanent. It's a big boat. We have enough space for it, but the way that our property is configured (house is more on one side of the lot than centered), makes it a wee bit awkward to park and store it. It was our hope (assumption?) that it would stay at my dad's business for quite a long time, as it was close to a major highway, a large gas station, big space to park it...

Notice I say "Turtle's boat" and not "our boat?" That's right. I like going on it, I don't like taking care of it...and Turtle isn't the best at towing said boat. It's a lot to handle.

But, due to some "family drama" (that I really don't want to get into) it has to come to our house. So now we have a large boat, in part of our backyard. Good thing I hadn't decided on any landscaping ideas yet!

Composting

I'm going to be composting very soon. I could probably start now, but I want to be FULLY prepared before I do. I have this book, Composting: An Easy Household Guide, that a friend got me for Christmas...and should get around to reading it soon!

I know I need a big structure of sorts to keep it all in outside (even though we have some wooded areas on our property), so that needs to be located or built. I also need a vessel to keep the compost-to-be tucked neatly away until I'm ready to carry it outside.

Do you really need to buy something like this? Sure, it's cute and would look good in our kitchen, but I have a ton of bowls and jars--I could just plop everything into a metal bowl and bring it out to the compost pile every day. I don't want to spend a lot of money on some gadget-y thing.

As for the outside pile, what about some chicken wire constructed into a circular shape and stuck into the ground? I think people way over-think these things. No need to get all fancy! It's just garbage and dirt.

But I'll be back after I read my book. If anyone has any tips about composting (or experiences, funny stories, etc) comment away!

One other thing (good news!)

All of my lab results came back FINE, and the nurse said the doctor would talk more with me at my follow up appointment on the 11th. So I have no strange parasites, bacteria, viruses, etc. Nothing that needed immediate attention, at least.

I'm betting it's some kind of intolerance. Either lactose (my brother has been LI for YEARS) or gluten, since that seems to be what EVERYONE has a problem with these days.

Don't know which one is worse. I love carbs, even though I really should avoid them. Yes, I know, you don't have to give up all carbs when you're GI, but I'd have to give up all of the really bad for you/tastes so good ones! LOL

But I do love me some cheese. And ice cream. And butter. I could probably get by better without lactose though. I'm going to avoid as much milk/dairy stuff as I can until next week and see what happens.

I added to a previous post...

This one, about our menu this week.

I wanted to put up a little disclaimer, that's all!

It's March

One of my goals for this month, besides seeing how long I could go without grocery shopping (and we'll be changing that goal to "how FEW times I can go grocery shopping") was to see how little we could spend this month.

So far, March spending is NOT looking good. I try, I do...

$150 - Turtle's doctor appointment. Yes, we have insurance (good plan, too) but this dr. doesn't take ANY insurance. Long story about why we use him still. Thank God we can deduct from taxes.

I have to pick up a prescription tonight ($10) and some calcium supplements. Not sure how much those will be, but I buy store brand stuff most of the time anyway.

Tomorrow I have a dr's appointment ($30). Here we are, first week of March and almost $200 gone. Good thing this is also a pay week for both of us. And I did put $200 from my paycheck into savings, versus my usual $100.

Not the only one who's doing a little pre-emptive spring cleaning...

...of the freezer that is.

So is Katie, over at Making this Home! She has a great blog, be sure to check it out. Very very different life than Turtle and I live here in the U.S. but I do like a lot of her ideas and agree with her on many things. Plus, it's fun to see how other people live.

The stuffed peppers came out great. Turtle was a little underwhelmed, but he's a much better cook than me. I had some for work the next day and I froze the remainder for a lunch down the road. I love using up everything.

In a surprise move, Turtle ended up making the deer stew (he took yesterday off at the last minute) so it was 1000000000 times better than mine would have been. And now we are officially without fresh vegetables. Not even a lone onion. Potatoes, yes, but I do not consider them vegetables. They are a starch, people. So is CORN.

Since we are without any fresh vegetables, and butter, and dill pickles, and SNACKS (all things that Turtle is oh-so desperate for, lol) I'm going shopping on Saturday, but I'm cheating a bit. REBATE CARDS!!!!

When we bought our freezer for the basement, Sears was offering rebate debit cards for the delivery charges. I also bought a years supply of contacts because they were offering a rebate. Oddly enough, both rebates arrived on the same day and are Visa cards, which makes me think they all come from some great big debit card factory. Sears gave us a $75 one and CooperVision gave us a $45 one. I think I can try and snag some food with those.

Tonight is definitely fish sticks (yay Lent) and that broccoli I'd saved from the garbage ;-)

Menu this week...

Just because I feel like sharing :-) I'm still trying to limit going to the grocery store, but I didn't realize that I was running low on important things (like onions! butter!) so I might have to go this weekend. But no meat will be purchased.

Monday--stuffed peppers with ground turkey, onions, rice, etc. Might try to do a "taco" type of filling. These were inspired by Ashley & Stephen over at (never home)maker. We have 3 or 4 peppers left in the fridge and they were starting to get a little wrinkly, so they'd be fine to use in a cooked dish, but not raw. I'll let you know how these pan out. I chopped up the onions for the meat mixture last night. Yay planning ahead! And yay for using things up!

Tuesday--deer stew. Yes, we eat deer. Yes, Turtle hunts. Don't hate. If you eat store-bought beef, the deer was probably killed more humanely than that cow. (and for the record, we eat store-bought beef too, lol) On the planning ahead note, I chopped up all of the veggies (celery, carrots, onions) for the stew and used up our supply of all of them. We have a bag of potatoes that are starting to grow some eyes, so I'll chop those off and use what's left in the bag in the stew.

Wednesday--fish sticks! Whoo hoo, you know you're jealous! We'll probably have the broccoli that I froze last night with that.

Thursday--stew leftovers

Friday--FFYS or fend for yourself. It's my dad's birthday, I have an appointment after work, Turtle's working late, so chances are, I will be eating out or at my parents' house, meatless for sure...

Saturday--I'm going to make homemade pizzas again. I did this a few weeks ago and they came out really well. I buy the dough pre-made but it's from a local Italian bread bakery, so it's really good. Add sauce, cheese, toppings, done! MUCH cheaper than takeout, too. I'll probably head to the grocery store this day as well.

EDIT: I just wanted to speak out about the deer thing. I respect those who are vegetarians or vegans, those who don't eat meat, but eat other animals, or people who eat meat from the grocery store (including myself). I hope I didn't offend anyone by my quick witted lame attempts at humor. I think we all try to eat what we can afford, what we like, what we believe in. Turtle and I are fairly equal-opportunity eaters ;-) Carry on.