Town House Homestead "?" Wednesday

Okay I'm going to admit that I am thrown off by the holiday. It's not Tuesday. The weekend for us was mostly work and prepping for this Saturday's final move. We are ready. Work included mowing, edging, trimming, cutting, and cleaning this half acre of land, more unpacking, and getting some plants in. 

Yesterday a couple more packages arrived. Mostly items we haven't been able to find at local stores, including the "big box" stores, and yes a couple of treats. This package was especially interesting. It looked like the Godfather had delivered a detached leg. It was wrapped in a giant gray poly bag and taped for shipping. 

Inside the package was this wonderful new tool. I have named it the "scissor stick". It trims grass and weeds in hard places, and if like me your hip and knees are aging, you need a "scissor stick".  A co-worker of my daughter's told her of this tool. We played with it for a few minutes last evening and it is great. What's even better is that it reduces our carbon footprint, because we really don't have to have one of those noisy dirty weed trimmers or blower. Simply cut and rake and it's done. 

This is how the "scissor stick" works. Happy, happy, happy that we were introduced to this tool and if anyone knows the actual name for this tool I'd love to know, but for know if we ask each other for the tool we can chuckle and know what is being asked for.

Back when times were better for me I'd search flea markets and yard sales for unique pieces that I could use for planters. This piece is an old steamer that I spent $2 for, and when I was downsizing for economic reasons, a place for it and the dream to make it a planter was passed on to my sister-in-law. On her first visit here at the new Town House Homestead, when she came to see if my daughter, her God Child had done okay with the purchase of her home and land, she brought this to me all glued together. The cover has been inverted to hold the miniature garden she made and all I had to do was spray paint it and set in the plant. She even bought me the paint. The delicate plants are starting to hang over the sides which was what I wanted them to do. 

Still another of my daughter's co-workers had her husband build her a garden planter out of a pallet. With my actual in ground garden not going to be ready until some fall planting and next springs planting, my daughter asked if he would make one for me. She came to see the house and they both surprised me with it. I have it behind the garage and have put my herbs in it with some spinach. I have planted more since this picture and the spinach is now sprouting. It's an awesome idea and space saving. It also gave me that chance to have some garden and not kill myself digging through the clay earth.

Because the tilling will come slowly, the seedlings I had started were dying off. Yesterday, after grabbing as many planters and buckets as I could from the apartment, I managed to plant three tomato plants and the strongest peppers. Four of them. A sweet variety called carnival blend. I don't mind container gardening for now and I'm hoping that the country critters won't bother them. 

I discovered some well established chive plants in the garden that was already here and the flowers were opening. I harvested the chives and flowers for some holiday cooking and started a new jar of chive vinegar for summer salads. We're still looking and learning about this piece of land and we're hoping the one tree in the yard that bloomed last week is some kind of apple and is healthy. That's whats new here at the new Town House Homestead. Stay tuned because there's plenty more where this came from and if you should wonder if we are happy, the answer is yes, even with all the work it feels like home.Thank you for visiting and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday

Moving is so hard. As of today we are two thirds of the way moved. Last evening we completed the packing and moving of the kitchen, but have not unpacked it. At least it's here now at the house. We've encountered some extra work which we expected. After all the house had been empty for so long, and destroyed, so it's come back will be steady work. The elderly neighbors are so wonderful and happy to have people in the house. They have seen the house from when it was originally built and watched it go through it's decline, and now to see it resurrected. Getting it's face lifted has been a joy to them. 

One immediate issue was two dead trees. After two weekends of cutting away branch by branch it is under control. Not a fun job, but the girls just kept going.

They cut and hauled, and cut more and hauled more, until a large pile is in the garden space. We will get it cut down to manageable pieces for a wood pile to use in the fire pit. 

As of today this is what's standing and I have promised to paint it a rainbow of colors and call it art. 

This coming Thursday the new riding lawn mower will be delivered. The grass is getting high, but until the trees were cleaned up no lawn mowing could be done. We are hoping we got all the branches that were beat down into the grass out. The garden beds in the front of the house are so overgrown with weeds and grass. We took the time to remove as many flower bulbs that came up to replant later, and we put the many packing boxes to work killing the grass and weeds so we can get a fresh start. The landscape timbers and large stones holding the cardboard down were with the shed. I wanted things to happen immediately with the garden, but I see that it's going to take some time and it may be next year before it's beautiful again. 

The third bedroom is going to be used for the sewing room. It's taking time, but is now at least to the point of being usable. The closet in this room will be transformed into an office and my daughter's Etsy shop will be reopened once this is complete and her inventory is moved. All in all not too bad for three weeks. Final move will be around the first week of June and for now we just keep moving along. The electrician will be in this week, along with a plumber, and by this time next week we could have the dryer functioning and be able to take hot showers not warm ones, and the lawn will be mowed. For today I will start making curtains for the windows in the sewing room. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

There have been many things going on here at the townhouse. Some gardening, thrift shopping and textile crafting. It's been keeping me busy, helping me relax and teaching me new things. 

These are my container tomatoes that have found a home in a friends garden. There are seven plants. Four for the ground and three to hang from hooks. I sure hope I get some yield out of them. I have never planted container tomatoes before. I started these from seeds and am happy they have come this far.

This is my secret garden. It's a covert operation underway. With gardening against the rules here on the complex I had to be a rebel and do something. We'll see what comes from this container.

I planted a container with basil and rosemary. Gardening? I'll let it go until they tell me otherwise and at that time I'll bring them inside. 

I also planted cilantro and parsley. For now that's what the budget can handle, but they are what I feel is necessary to cook through the summer and put by for winter. With the space I have on the small deck it's all I could really squeeze in.

Last but not least the rose bush that the prior tenant left is producing the most beautiful roses. Once they start dying off we are picking them and drying them so we can make powder for soaps and lotions. That's what's new here and thank you for stopping by for a visit. I'm wishing everyone a great week. Happy homesteading. 

Thrift Finds and Freebie Economics

We haven't been intentionally thrifting lately. It's been unplanned stops and the purchases are very strictly monitored. We've been busy using what we find or reselling what we find and looking for items my daughter can add to her collections.

This plate is part of collection of cute little girls and sayings. They are orange and yellow and we hang them in our vintage bathroom. We always get Pyrex covers when we see them and lately natural health has been interesting learning and reading.

She found this white divided Pyrex dish and blue refrigerator dish that she's added to her collection. 

We've been trying to eat more vegetarian meals and this lovely book has quite a few recipes we are going to try and the "American Family Cookbook" is a Culinary Arts Institute recipe book and it's been added to the collection. The Knifty Knitter was an awesome find and a complete set and the price was to good to leave it behind. It has been resold in the last week. 

We will always grab canning jars. This one was $.29 so home it came. We found NIP vintage pink double sheets, a vintage yellow floral sheet and a lovely vintage geometric print scarf. Good pickings to us.

The only free item this week is this sample of Friskies cat food along with a $1 off coupon. I won it on an on-line spin to win game. This is all of the thrifting part of our lives this week. This blog is our diary and reminds us what we are doing., and how much we are growing and moving on a forward path. It's our tool to show others how you can live a frugal life and a bountiful life without large debts. Thank you for stopping by and I hope it's been a little inspiration for you.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Today is going to be in the mid 70's but we're expecting snow on Halloween. It's been cool, no cold off and on so far this fall so this is a welcome day. With the change in the season comes changes in what we eat and the blessings of winter vegetables. I don't grow my own, but the farm stands and super markets are loaded with deals.

I have a hanging basket of spearmint by the front door of the townhouse that just doesn't want to quit. I harvested it and set it back outside to do it's thing. I yielded two more cups of dry leaves for winter tea. I may get one more harvest before it goes dormant for winter.

At the market I got a four pound four ounce head of cabbage for 99 cents and I was curious about what I could do for meals from one head and a few vegetables and a little meat. I got ten servings of stuffed cabbage using ten leaves, 3/4 pound ground beef, 1 cup of leftover rice, an egg, a little onion and some home made bread crumbs. Then on to cabbage soup. I got four servings of soup and used one can of stewed tomatoes and 4 ounces of polish sausage.

I made a pot of boiled potatoes and cabbage that I'll reheat with some butter and pepper and there are about six servings there. Last but not least is fried cabbage in olive oil a small amount of butter, salt and pepper. About three servings there. So all in all I yielded about 23 servings from my four plus pound 99 cent cabbage.

Butternut squash was 99 cents each this week and I got two more to try some soup. I just made up my own recipe because all those I found added more than I was willing to use. I used two cups of cooked squash, not pureed, two cups of home made chicken broth, two tablespoons of my sage/pepper butter made earlier this summer and salt to taste. Served with a biscuit and it was gone in no time. I was getting tired of pumpkin everything so I made gingerbread biscotti. We like it more than pumpkin. I needed bread so I baked up a couple loaves of sandwich bread. It went well with all the soups. I was able to harvest a few more sprigs of fresh rosemary and I think I will get some more sage before I let them rest for the winter.

Finally I made some three cheese tortellini soup. I used 8 ounces of tortellini two cans of Italian style stewed tomatoes and 4 ounces of sausage. Served this up with fresh from the oven garlic bread made with home made french bread and it was a delightful meal on a cold evening.

This weeks freebies included a Biscoff cookie coupon, a cat food coupon, samples of Scotch brand products and taco seasoning. I spent last evening with my younger daughter just running errands and she brought me onions because there were to many for her and she paid for four pounds of carrots for me. I am so grateful and can see the veggies in my stir fry, stews and carrot cake. It's going to be a wonderful winter. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Signs of colder weather moving in. Putting the garden to bed.

Empty containers that are in need of preparation for winter storage. I will miss you until next Spring.

Down to the wire harvest of peppermint and rosemary. Some day we will have a place to grow herbs inside over the winter.

It has been the most wonderful summer adventure here at the townhouse. Hopefully I can still keep clipping the rosemary and I know I still have peppermint and spearmint growing. I will dry leaves for winter tea until it's time to put the plants to bed.

Whatever comes my way at this point in the season will be a welcome blessing.

I can't forget the freebies for this week. Nesquick samples and a great coupon, Hunts tomato sauce for that home made pizza, Dove body wash for the travel bag and another coupon for a free can of tuna fish from Tops Market. When the tuna is $2.19 for a 5 oz. can we won't do much complaining. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Autumn has officially arrived!
The days of soup with garlic bread and warm oatmeal apple crisp.

The days when trips to the farms brighten the days of we city dwellers who dream of the farm.

On a breathtaking day when you can pick your own raspberries and pumpkins and watch the silly goats walk the planks above the barn.

When you can see the most majestic blue sky behind a windmill, walk the corn maze, see the leaves turning and enjoy the bright colors of nature.

But best of all getting to try and purchase new kinds of apples (sweetangos) and produce which is the reason we visit the farms and support local farmers. 

I love the squash this time of year. I start thinking of all the things I can make. I purchased two butternut squash at the farm. It's still early here so I know there will be plenty more. From these two I got seven servings. As you can see I prepared some for oven baked squash fries and some for future cooking and baking. I see a squash pie coming.

Harvesting at the townhouse itself this week included the sweet potatoes. I was hoping for better, but I tried and there's the results. Once they've cured a while longer I'll peel them up and enjoy the fruit of my labor. There's a good amount for a side dish of mashed with the sage butter I froze earlier this season.

I was gifted a bag of green tomatoes this week. I am blessed  to have had two ripen to red, one going on the top of a white garlic pizza and the other still waiting for me. We enjoyed for the first time ever fried green tomatoes and I managed to put the remaining tomatoes up. I have four pints of garlic dill pickled green tomatoes, two pints of sliced tomatoes for future frying and three pints of pickled green tomatoes with jalapeno peppers and onions. Thank you Nannette for your gift.

To add to my freebies this week, although not as exciting as the tomatoes, I got a corn bread mix, Milano raspberry chocolate cookies, and coupons for free organic mac and cheese, yoplait yogurt with Hershey's toppings and from my super market a free can of tuna.

I have to admit that I don't have gardening fever any more. I have barnheart which is just the desire to have a barn. I would settle for a large garage that looks like a barn right now. This has been a wonderful learning and doing summer for this townhouse farm girl. I still have peppermint to harvest along with rosemary and sage so that I am sure that I have plenty for winter. From here on it will be what I can get from the farmers markets, but I have gained so much respect for where my food comes from. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week everyone. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Everyone is saying that summer is winding down. In some ways it is, but there's so much more left. I think we measure summer by school vacations. Long after the kids go back to school there is still plenty to do. I still have harvesting, canning, cooking, and garden clean up ahead. After that the holidays slip in there so quickly and then there we are planning for next spring and suffering from garden fever. 

It's been busy here as it has been on farms across this great country. I  may only have a small container garden, but the farm markets are bursting at the seams with the wonders of nature. 

One of my favorite items to can is apricot jam. Our favorite meal around here is apricot ginger chicken. I got a great price at the farm market and I now have a nine cup supply to get us through the winter. I failed at dehydrating apricots. I admit to using too much citric acid and from now on will stick to jam.

I harvested peppermint. This was quite a bit for something that is growing in a pot on the deck. I made peppermint extract and dried leaves for tea. I am going to propagate a new plant and hope I can have fresh mint through the winter. Wish me luck. I'm going to do this with some spearmint also.

I got a few cloves of garlic. This was planted in defiance because we are not allowed to grow (farm) here at the townhouse. I was honest with them and told them I planted it to keep the mice away. LOL It has a bit longer to cure and then I will wash it and store it. My transplanted chives also produced an abundant crop for me and I have added chive butter and chopped chives to the freezer.

My daughters once every so often will take me to Niblack foods. It's a store with all the great stuff that I can't make for myself right now.  All organic products of course. I stay away because the bill can get quite high, but on this trip we got some saffron rice, a sesame snack, quinoa, raw sunflower seeds, pine nuts and coconut oil. I harvested a large bunch of basil and used the pine nuts to make my pesto for winter. I freeze it in ice cube trays. I propagated a new plant that I have inside now for use through winter. I hope I can keep it alive. I am going to make sunflower bread with the sunflower seeds. It came highly recommended with strawberry butter. Sounds like it would be great for a cool Saturday morning.

Every where I went in July it was Christmas. My Christmas gift to us in July was home made almond biscotti. I had made biscotti before, but it was a total fail, but I tried again with a simple recipe this time and now I can't wait to make my lemon lavender biscotti for the holidays with our great lavender harvest.

I have been baking my own bread this summer and this was two loafs of french bread that I must say was out of this world as just a slice of bread, but topped with home made basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella cheese and broiled was a beautifully light summer dinner. I'm amazed at how little pesto is required to make something so delicious.

For this coming week I have more harvesting to do. I see my rose bush is blossoming again and I want to make rose water for cooking. My sage is running away in its hanging basket and I need to harvest it. I am going to put it in the ground so that next year it may be ready sooner. I'm also going to put the rosemary in the ground. It's not farming or putting in a garden, it is a small pleasure from mother earth. 

Thank you everyone for stopping by. I'm having a wonderful summer and I hope you all are too. Have a wonderful week and happy harvest.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

I just came in from watering my (BIG!) garden. It's looking good and is growing so well. It's all herbs and sweet potatoes, but it's mine. This past week just flew by for me. Probably because I have too much to do and never enough time. We all know how that goes. I had some catching up to do also because my daughter and I took off for a four day weekend in Vermont over the holiday. The day after we got back my herbs went in and that was two weeks ago today. 

This is what went down this week.

This is a batch of Jalapeno pepper jelly. I have been buying it at quite a price and decided that I would make it this year. I've already given the grounds keeper a jar because he came and started helping me clean the front garden by cutting back a bush. Some time this summer I will be making roasted pineapple and habenero pepper jelly/relish. 

For those who know me I love my goodies. I will not deny that I have a sweet tooth, but I do realize that I don't need to eat it all at once. I baked carrot cake in jars to put on the shelf for those hot summer days when baking is not likely to happen. My recipe makes so much so I put up ten jars and still had a good size cake for the week. 

I harvested a good bunch of flat leaf parsley. It's on it's way to drying and over the weekend I found a new coffee grinder at a thrift store, that I now have to grind my herbs after they've dried. 

I am so happy with the success of my basil. I harvested a large bunch and it is also on it's way to drying. These are just a couple of the herbs I use in my soup mixes. My kitchen is smelling so wonderful this week.

Last but not least I started a pint of chive vinegar. I cut the flowers before I moved my chive plant from the front garden to the back garden. It was so large I divided it into three and if I like this chive vinegar I will hopefully have more flowers through the summer. If not I will have my chive butter for those baked potatoes through the winter. 

That's what went down this week at the Townhouse Homestead and I am having so much fun doing what I can in a small space. Anything can be done and I am so grateful to farmers for providing the fruits and vegetable I can't grow at this time. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week everyone.