Town House Homestead Tuesday

Not a lot to post about today. It was a mad rush yesterday to get the Cana lilies out of the ground because the first frost came overnight. We were gifted six bulbs, but look what happened in the three months they were in the ground. There's a bushel of them. 

This morning we got up to a colder than usual home to find out the furnace won't come on. Help will be here some time today to fix that, but in the meantime we are grateful for the electric heaters as backup.

We had a movie night last night. We watched "The Great Gatsby" in surround sound using the wall for a screen. It was great and the company included the young people who have been helping us work on the house. Pizza was served.

The floor paint has set and we have juggled things in still another temporary situation so we can continue working. This is the situation in the food pantry as of today. Glad we put some color on the walls. 

Now we need to scrub the rest of the floor and continue painting. A lot of this past weeks work was outside. Mowing the lawns, cleaning brush, and repairing damaged foundation so insects (Wasps) and other wildlife won't be getting in. 

We had help this past weekend continuing the work of removing cloth wrapping from the copper pipes and properly insulating them. More out with the old and in with the new. Time well spent to do it and do it right. We also discovered a water line to the laundry room which some day may get hooked up to a basement sink. The potential is growing and the progress continues. That's what's going on at the new Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday.

We are taking our time and doing it as right as possible, but the waiting is killing us. We had a couple of days at the end of last week that we really did not feel well. Tired mostly, but Sunday with the help of a dear friend we pushed through. The floor was washed three times and vacuumed even more to get it as clean as possible. It was worth all the scrub. We got all of the walls touched up and started the trim and down went the first coat of floor paint. We let it dry and got the second coat on. This basement tear out and renovation is coming along great and barring no further delays in a couple of weeks we can move the studio in and re shelf the pantry.  Wish us luck. We are racing mother nature because as soon as the studio is moved out of the garage we need to fill holes to keep critters out of it.

While the second coat was drying we moved on to the third portion of the basement. We'll call it the furnace room and got the cement walls coated in white with the primer. The further wall will be blue and the wall on the left may need another coat.

A portion of the space that will be the food storage room got a start with the floor. We did just enough to be able to move shelves in and organize the pantry when the time comes that we can walk on the floor.  

As I said we are doing it to the best of our knowledge and ability. Thanks to friends, YouTube and research it is going to be nice. We have even found some one who can help with the 59 year old screen windows that need replacing.

Once the shelves are in place we will be adding the canning that we have been doing, yes, while we've waited for paint to dry and in between the regular work. Here we have pasta sauce and apple butter. 

My daughter wanted to make something from scratch doing all the work herself and the canning herself. So she spent time making the apple butter and I gave her the first basic lessons in water bath canning. It was a job well done. We put the apple peels and scraps in water with sugar to make vinegar. It's doing well and fermenting in the cupboard.

Today's adventure in the kitchen was a batch of root beer jelly. The root beer was from a recent trip through a drive through for a quick bite and it never gets consumed so today I made jelly. It tastes like root beer candy. It will be shared with friends and the excess added to the pantry.

That's what's new at the Town House Homestead this week. All the work is beginning to feel great and the results have been amazing. On October 15th we will have been in our new home for six months and it feels like it's been home forever. We still love her. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday.

We are taking our time and doing it as right as possible, but the waiting is killing us. We had a couple of days at the end of last week that we really did not feel well. Tired mostly, but Sunday with the help of a dear friend we pushed through. The floor was washed three times and vacuumed even more to get it as clean as possible. It was worth all the scrub. We got all of the walls touched up and started the trim and down went the first coat of floor paint. We let it dry and got the second coat on. This basement tear out and renovation is coming along great and barring no further delays in a couple of weeks we can move the studio in and re shelf the pantry.  Wish us luck. We are racing mother nature because as soon as the studio is moved out of the garage we need to fill holes to keep critters out of it.

While the second coat was drying we moved on to the third portion of the basement. We'll call it the furnace room and got the cement walls coated in white with the primer. The further wall will be blue and the wall on the left may need another coat. 

A portion of the space that will be the food storage room got a start with the floor. We did just enough to be able to move shelves in and organize the pantry when the time comes that we can walk on the floor.  

As I said we are doing it to the best of our knowledge and ability. Thanks to friends, YouTube and research it is going to be nice. We have even found some one who can help with the 59 year old screen windows that need replacing.

Once the shelves are in place we will be adding the canning that we have been doing, yes, while we've waited for paint to dry and in between the regular work. Here we have pasta sauce and apple butter. 

My daughter wanted to make something from scratch doing all the work herself and the canning herself. So she spent time making the apple butter and I gave her the first basic lessons in water bath canning. It was a job well done. We put the apple peels and scraps in water with sugar to make vinegar. It's doing well and fermenting in the cupboard.

Today's adventure in the kitchen was a batch of root beer jelly. The root beer was from a recent trip through a drive through for a quick bite and it never gets consumed so today I made jelly. It tastes like root beer candy. It will be shared with friends and the excess added to the pantry.

That's what's new at the Town House Homestead this week. All the work is beginning to feel great and the results have been amazing. On October 15th we will have been in our new home for six months and it feels like it's been home forever. We still love her. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Well it has finally arrived. Warm weather in the northeast. We had one of the most wonderful weekends and I made good use of it. On Saturday my younger daughter and I went to the Rochester Public Market. I filled a large bag of fresh vegetables that of course was too much for two people, but I had my motive to start a shelf of dehydrated vegetables for my pantry. I've done a bit in the past few months, but the deals at the market were incredible. 

It started with mushrooms. I got three quarts of vegetables for $5, any variety of my choice. I chose two quarts (over flowing quarts) of mushrooms and one fresh green beans. The green beans we are eating with meals and as snacks, but the two quarts of mushrooms filled the dehydrator and condensed down to fill a one quart canning jar. They are all vacuum sealed and on the pantry shelf.

Next were sweet red peppers. They were two for $1 and very large so I got four and dehydrated them. Not quite a full pint, but there will be time to do more and they are now on the shelf. 

I got a five pound bag of carrots for $2 and four pounds of them are in the dehydrator as I am writing this post. It will yield one quart of dry carrots for the pantry shelf. I purchased a four ounce container of basil pesto for $1, zucchini squash and  yellow squash. I'm working these into my meal plan which is not going very well, but I am trying. 

I'm drying my orange peels because I have discovered that they are useful in everything from cleaners, to soups, to candy and even as a match because orange oil is flammable. It has become a matter of use everything to it's fullest before you dispose of it around here. Some people think I'm taking it to far, but if I can't compost I will make use of what I can. 

Chicken leg quarters are on sale for the next two weeks for $.59 a pound so we gathered up what we could afford and immediately put some in the oven to have available for quick meals and another few went into a pot to boil. In the refrigerator now are two large Pyrex measuring cups with my broth that I will be caning tomorrow along with barbecue pulled chicken. Eight leg quarters were put in the freezer. We aren't doing all that we can, but we are working on it. It's proving to be so economical but the work is constant and you have to be willing. That's what's happening with the kitchen and I hope soon to get ready to plant my herbs. Thank you for stopping by to read my post and I hope you all have a great week.

Thrift finds.

We headed out to do errands this past Saturday and for a break in the routine we visited three thrift stores. Lots of stuff in the stores but we continue to be selective about what we're buying. It was just a fun hour and a half fit in to a routine trip, but what good finds.

We found this darling set of bowls that are decorated with Shamrocks. We will add them to our St. Patrick's day decor. My favorite thing about them is that they are small and fit right in with our small space. We found yet another lime green Pyrex 024, 2 qt. casseroled bowl. My daughter now has three for her collection, but she may use it to trade for something later.

We found a Pyrex butterfly gold casserole bowl that was in very "baked on" condition, but it got a basic cleaning and is now listed at https://www.etsy.com/listing/229071083/pyrex-butterfly-gold-large-casserole?ref=shop_home_active_5 and we always pick up Pyrex covers for future Pyrex discoveries. The aqua bowl has no name but my daughter has a collection of them that we use for soup and snacks so this one made number nine in her cupboard.

We found a large bundle of wooden and plastic pant hangers that we will sort through and clean up to list on the store and a vintage Strawberry Shortcake pillow case.

As we walked in the door and traveled to the first aisle of another thrift store there was an abundance of 8 oz canning jars and one lonely quart jar. I walked back for a large shopping cart to put them in. Conveniently there was a very large basket sitting next to them and we loaded it up and set it in the cart. If they are priced right they come home, get cleaned up and put away for when I need them. We actually found more, but didn't get them. We are following the sale tags and will wait for the right color to come up and if they are there when we go back they are, if not they weren't meant to be ours. Not a bad lot of finds for a short time looking. We are going out with friends this coming Saturday to search a few more thrift stores after we have breakfast. This is such an addiction.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope all your thrift shopping is as much fun as ours.