Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[hqueen13]

Made cheesy cauliflower soup yesterday, lol
Wow on the checks! That's fabulous! I guess checking with a tax accountant would help. I don't think they'll want the money back, not sure about how that works. I hope not for your sake!

 

[goatgurl]

probably best to check with your accountant but what a blessing to have that to pay bills.

 

[Britesea]

It looks like this money is legit, but my accountant advised me to save at least 25% of it for potential taxes.

 

[hqueen13]

Well that isn't too bad! How you get to keep it all!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm guessing you'll be ok with the check. Even though my DH has used sick time while he was off, the insurance company has already requested his salary info so they can reimburse us also. They are going to reimburse me too for the time I took off to take care of him.

Since sick time and vacation time are actually paid time - and you don't have that sick/vacation time anymore - it is "lost". Ain't insurance grand! And, believe me - insurance companies don't just hand out checks from the goodness of their heart, lol.

And now I'll have to go get some cauliflower - that soup sounds divine!

 

[goatgurl]

cool beans, gotta love it when thing work for good.

 

[Britesea]

Moving a little slowly today, the back is trying to seize up. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I did manage to wash and hang up 2 loads of laundry and I'm almost done with the dishes. Got a bigger load than usual because DH cleaned out his locker and backpack and brought me all his empty ziplocs (which I wash if they aren't moldy) and tupperware containers, oh joy.

I had bought a good sized spiral sliced ham which I divided into meal size portions and froze prior to putting them into vacuum sealed bags, but DS left the roll of bag material in the trunk of the car, and DH took the car to work . I was able to vacuum seal a couple of pre-made kits for cornbread though, because they would fit in the smaller sized bags.

Since I couldn't do the ham, I spent some time cleaning out a couple of small filing cabinets that have been sitting in the studio for years. There was a lot of junk I could throw away, but I did find the pink slips to the car and the truck, and I found the prepaid burial insurance policies as well. I'm glad I found those- they need to go into the important papers safebox. Now we just need to get rid of the filing cabinets and I'll have room for another utility shelf unit for storing canned goods. This part of the studio is slowly becoming my long-term pantry. It's not as good as a cellar would be, but since half the building is living space for DS it does get some heating and cooling so it won't get the extremes of temperature a shed would have. I plan to cover the windows in this space with foil, which will block light and help block a little more heat/cold transfer as well.

Tomorrow, if I have more energy, I should be able to take care of vacuum sealing the ham, and start cooking up the turkey and vegetables that I want to can for quick meals. Starting with a quart jar of this, I can either make a soup with the addition of noodles or barley or rice, or I can cook it with dumplings. I can thicken it to a stew, put it in a crust for a pot pie or top it with mashed potatoes for a cottage pie. And right there I have a weeks' worth of meals without trying very hard, lol.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope your back gets better!

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like you got a lot done in spite of your back!

 

[Britesea]

Yesterday DH and I went into town to buy the utility shelf unit and a sheet of 3/4" plywood cut up for shelves- I don't trust the particle board shelving they use in even the heavy duty shelf units; I want something tough enough I could load a body onto it, lol! We also picked up a 5 gallon bucket of kerosene for our emergency backup stove. Then some more onions for the turkey/vegetable mix.
I found a small wood stove that is on sale for a price we can afford- I'm talking it up very hard to DH. Our ancient dinosaur of gas wall unit is so old that we can't get parts for it anymore; I'm afraid of it dying in the middle of a cold snap. If we could get this wood stove set up and start getting wood for it before that happens, we would not have to worry.
When I came home, I ended up taking the rest of the day off to give my back a rest.
I made a stirfry with some of the ham and a can of chop suey veggies; it tasted far better than I thought it would.

So today I have more laundry to do, and dishes of course. Then we need to set up the utility shelves and move some boxes of canned food that I've had sitting in the living room and dining room waiting for a spot. That will probably be the most I can get done today.