What did you do to save $ today?

[FarmerDenise]

I've been hoping to score a scythe. I tried buying one once, new. But the shipping was outrageous. So now I keep my eye out for one here. I'd love to cut the field with a scythe. Nice peaceful, quiet, rythmic work. Not like the noisy gas powered weedwhacker SO likes to use. Not to mention, it tends to beat the plants up and scatter the seeds everywhere.
I filled the dehydrator with another batch of wild plums. Put the dried banana chips in a jar to adjust their moisture. Put the peaches I have picked in the last couple of days in special boxes to help keep them nice. Picked more Santa Rosa plums. Fed the chickens and rabbit with weeds pulled from the popping corn we are growing for us and them.
Made my eggs and greens bake using wild spinach (lambs quarters) which was growing in the millet, and onion, cheese and eggs that FIL brought over.
Did laundry using laundry soap, borax and vinegar and hung it on the line to dry.
SO found one of our long soaker hoses and flushed it out, so we can use it to water the popcorn rows. We were about to buy one, since we couldn't find it.
Free, I remember chipmunks. They are so cute

 

[VT-Chicklit]

I had to take DM into town Friday. We passed a yard with a pile of "stuff" with a "FREE" sign in front of the pile. Needless to say, we pulled into the next driveway and turned around. My haul from the pile was a leaf rake, an almost new Yankee candle (Winter Bayberry), 2 old muffin cups, and a gift set of new and unopened goats milk toiletries including 3 bars of goats milk soap, and 3 different scented goats milk moisturizing lotions and an unopened tin of Burts Bees Hand Salve. DM got 3 new window shades, a 4 gallon tin that had held popcorn and a hand embroidered book mark. As we were picking through the pile, a young man and two girls pulled in. He was driving a small car. He took the rmaining items, including a tble saw that was mounted onto a table on wheels. The young man put the saw into his trunk with about 75% of the saw hanging out over the bumper. He stuffed several stiff bristled shop brooms into the back seat with the handles hanging out the window and then he had the girl in the front seat take the coal shovel. He quickly used some wire he had taken out of the trunk to wire the table saw to some thing in the trunk. DM and I left at that point because I did not want to be behind him on the road if he hit a bump.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I wouldn't want to be behind them either.
Great find!! Makes your day, doesn't it?

 

[VT-Chicklit]

Finding useful FREE stuff is the next best thing to finding money.

 

[freemotion]

I love free stuff! Free is good!

I raked up the hay I made yesterday....but I'd let the girls out into the field, figuring (hoping, is more like it) that they'd prefer all that wonderful, green, growing stuff over the dry hay that was drying on the ground.....wrong!!! From the look of things, all four goats parked themselves in the middle of my drying hay and ate themselves into oblivion, leaving a perimeter of hay for me to pick up tonight. I filled two packed-down wheelbarrows lined with a tarp, and from the weight of it, carrying it into the barn, I'd say I ended up with 1.5 to 2 bales worth of hay. Very nice hay. I have to divide that field up. One day. One day soon.

But free hay is free hay, and Mya was extra generous with her milk, so at least I was thanked for all my efforts!

I found some suet for .89 per pound, and got 20 lbs to make soap. Half is ground up and rendering right now, I will do the other half tomorrow, maybe, or Wednesday. I normally pay over a dollar a pound at the grocery store, but they haven't had any in weeks, so I stopped at a meat locker place and asked the butcher....it was slow, and we got to talking.

I ended up with some leads on some good, grass-fed meat, as they cut for several farmers......one guy apparently has to reduce his herd, and sometimes calls the butcher and asks if he knows who will buy some meat quickly, grass-fed beyond-organic at regular grocery store prices. Here's hopin' it turns into a great lead! Meanwhile, they have Austrailian and New Zealand beef that they grind for $2.29 per pound, the next best thing, since they range their cattle, and it is very lean. I'm gonna see if I can get some cubed for canning, until I can get grass-fed for a reasonable price. We've been eating bison for $5-6 per pound, as it was the best we could find. I love beef! So I'm glad I stopped in. It is in a very wealthy section of CT, so I did not expect to find any deals. I was wrong. Don't tell dh....

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've got to start doing some of that Free. I'm sure I could find some good deals around here. I should at least be able to get nearly free chicken parts, since we have slaughtering houses nearby. SO's cousin is a butcher and he knows of all kinds of places, unfortunatley SO does not get along with him. Not that I blame SO, the cousin is a jerk. SO and I have been living together for ten years and the cousin would not give me the family discount, when I went in to buy some meat, I would have to bring stepson with me, then he'd give me the family discount only if I asked.

 

[freemotion]

Here's another one from me:

 

[FarmerDenise]

Thanks

 

[FarmerDenise]

Did the usual of weeding and feeding the weeds to the chickens and rabbit.
SO is making bbq'd chicken. He likes to cook them in a seasoned water first. I just took that broth and put it in 8 quart jars for future use.
I spent most of my day on line goofing off. I did what I had to: take care of critters and futtzed around. Now it is wine time. Tomorrow I'll have to go to FIL's and work in his garden. So I deserve a day of rest
SO asked me to do the vegetable. Good thing I cleaned all that lettuce I picked a couple of days ago. Dump it in a bowl, take out the homemade dressing and voila, vegetables are done.
The laundry that on the line can stay on the line. "it's airing" another day

 

[big brown horse]

Did the usual of weeding and feeding the weeds to the chickens and rabbit.
SO is making bbq'd chicken. He likes to cook them in a seasoned water first. I just took that broth and put it in 8 quart jars for future use.
I spent most of my day on line goofing off. I did what I had to: take care of critters and futtzed around. Now it is wine time. Tomorrow I'll have to go to FIL's and work in his garden. So I deserve a day of rest
SO asked me to do the vegetable. Good thing I cleaned all that lettuce I picked a couple of days ago. Dump it in a bowl, take out the homemade dressing and voila, vegetables are done.
The laundry that on the line can stay on the line. "it's airing" another day

I am so glad someone else has a "wine time"!! I got it from my mama! I asked her how it started, that 5:00 was wine time. She said: At 5:00 you all would whine so I had some wine to go with it. I love my mama. (She had me @ 40. I asked her once if I was an accident, she said, "You were ALL accidents!" Well, at least she is fair!!)

Sometimes laundry needs to air longer, like wine, it sometimes gets better with time.

I'm having a glass with you, cheers!!