Things change..... "Time is a factor", when living a homesteading life.

I don't think that I posted that Cortney is now employed( YEAH!!!!), she is working for a friend, Charlie, who lost his wife to a 6 yr battle with cancer just a little over a month ago. She works M-W-F; her job is to clean house, do laundry and cook meals for him. Monday she does the cleaning and laundry, plus cooks him lunch and puts something in the crock pot for his supper( if there isn't any leftovers from lunch). Wednesday and Fridays she does general pick up of the house, washes dishes and washes eggs and puts them away for Charlie. He is enjoying the fact that she prepares a menu and grocery list for him each week. So on Monday it takes her about 3 to 3-1/2 hours and the remaining two days approx. 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Tomorrow he's getting a crock pot of Cheeseburger Soup and a loaf of homemade bread and then the plan is for Wednesday's meal is Pork chops with mashed potatoes and gravy, enough to have leftovers for supper and then Friday we may not be needed as his family is coming up for a visit and his daughters are making homemade noodles and putting together turkey noodle soup for him. Since Cortney doesn't feel comfortable driving, due to her vision limitations, I am her taxi driver *wink* This means, even though our friends place is just 6-7 miles away that I have that much less time to get my daily chores done. So..... here comes the change, since I've been struggling to get laundry done and dried( on the drying racks) in a timely manner, Mike and I discussed bringing the clothes dryer back in to house to be used on the heavy items that typically take two days of more to dry on the racks. I didn't want to have to do this but Mike only has so many pairs of jeans and long johns and needs them to be there when her needs them so..... I agreed and he brought in the dryer.( see below)  I miss the room the dryer takes up but it is a convience and will help me with my time issues*sigh*

 Tuffy's favorite place, although he knows he's NOT supposed to be in the kitchen he sneaks in this far to lay by the warmth of the stove.... and I allow it*wink* He's NOT looking at me, because he knows he's not supposed to be in here, LOL!!!!

 The last of the seeds we've collected and saving(left) Delicatesse Cucumber and (right) Caped Gooseberry, now drying on wax paper and then will be stored in small glass jars downstairs in the pantry, awaiting our 2011 season :o)

Well, we didn't quite make it well into Dec with our tomatoes but close enough, it's still two months longer than any other season.  This last bowl I've been enjoying fresh and will make a small batch of salsa( I'm the only one who like it) and will can it for late enjoyment!  Then the canning items will be put away until next season.
Soon we'll begin our holiday baking adventure. Cortney was already rifling through the recipe box, digging out all of our "Family Favorites" and preparing a list of needed ingredients. I think we're pretty well set and may have to pick up one or two items, if that.  We will try to make at least one batch of a particular recipe a day and store in the freezer( for safe keeping*wink*) That isn't a always a sure fire way to keep them safe though, let me tell a story on Mike........   When we were first married and both working outside the home I baked Christmas goodies on the weekends and put them in the freezer out in our shed( which was also used as Mike's wood working shop, it was 24x16x10ft. Anyway I'd added and added and when it came time to put together plates for family, friends and neighbors, I went to retrieve in my frozen goodies, only to find many of the containers now only held one or two goodies! LOL!  I calmly asked Mike if he'd enjoyed the goodies and he grinned and said, I didn't eat all of them....... So now every year he has to live down this, LOL!!!!

It's snowing again and it's a heavy snow laden with moisture. We need the moisture, as our Fall was so dry and since we can take the back roads( which I'm the master of in winter, anything to avoid the highways*wink*) to Cortney's job.

So even though I dislike admitting I needed to compromise and begin using the clothes dryer again, if we've learned anything about homesteading it's that, it is always about compromise. When the weather cooperates we'll hang the clothes outside on the lines and the lightweight items, we'll still use the wooden drying racks, this will help to keep the electric bill in check!

Enjoy your new week :o)