Life of a Weekend Homesteader

Hey yall.
How was everyone's weekend? Went by fast didn't it? I tell yall trying to be more active in growing and raising your own food is a full time job in itself and trying to cram all that into a 2 day weekend is rough. But if your wanting to be a homesteader that's  the price you pay I guess. This weekend we made a new brooder pen for our 3 to 5 week old chicks in the garage this will be our holding pen until we can transfer them outside. Excuse the mess we got lazy and didn't clean up after ourselves but that's another day.

We picked the garden and put up about 20 ears of yellow corn, chopped and froze some Jalapeno, Bell, and Banana peppers, blanched about 40 tomatoes and froze them and put a watermelon in the fridge to eat later. (I personally can't wait for that part YUM!!).

 

Then we went blueberry picking in the orchard. Our blueberry bushes are showing out this year we probably picked a gallon on our first picking of the season those things were loaded. We brought them in and put all them up in the freezer. I see fried blueberry pies in our future!!

Now after getting all sweaty and hot because it was like 100 degrees this weekend I may have ended up here for just a little bit. Hey I needed a break (HeeHee)

 

I think Tanzi was pouting because I wouldn't let her in the pool.

Sunday we went couponing at Publix. Got a lot of stuff for around $35.00

Then did all my house work laundry and getting everything ready for the work week ahead.

So you can see why homesteading on top of a 40 hour a week job can be a lot to handle. It's really worth it though because our freezer is stocked with deer and turkey, plenty of fresh veggies and fruits and all my coupon haul stuff. We used to spend about $250.00 every 2 weeks on groceries now we spend about $100.00 every 3 weeks and when I can add my own chicken meat to that it will probably drop even more. Now if I could just talk my husband into getting a cow, goat and pig I would be set.

Until next time

XOXO

Michelle





 

Blessing's From Out of The Blue

Today I had a test scheduled that was going to take 4 to 6 hours I had been dreading this test and that long wait time all week. This morning I get up and travel to Huntsville for my test thinking that I couldn't wait for it to be over. I had to do a test then wait 3 hours and do another test Uhhhhh. At 8:00 they call me back and I do my first test it took maybe 20 minutes then they sat me down in a waiting room to wait the 3 hours until my next test. There were about 6 of us all decked out in our hospital gowns staring blankly at the TV (can you say BORING). That all changed when this elderly man sat down beside me.
He started talking to me like elderly people do just making conversation. We talked about his kids his brother that passed away a couple of months ago, how pork was bad for your heart. We talked and talked then he told me he was a WW11 decorated vet. He began telling me that one day he was sitting on his front porch reading comics and his mother told him to go check the mail. In the mailbox he found a letter addressed to him that said Greetings from the President of the United States he was being drafted into the war. He had to go to Montgomery to get checked out and his dad was sure they would send him back home. He told him you are to scrawny to go off to war, but we will drive down to see you before you go if they do pick you. He said he arrived in Montgomery on the day they had told him to be there and was told he would be heading out the next morning to Korea. He called his mother and said I'm leaving tomorrow and tell dad they did pick me. He said that was the last time he seen his mothers face for 5 years.
He was sent to Korea as an 18 year old boy to fight in a war that he really didn't know much about. While he was there he was awarded a lot of honors. He didn't go into detail about what they were for. Then he said that the interpreter that they were using had a sister he called her Jennie she nursed him through a sickness he got from not boiling his water, she showed him were all the trails were from the villages they fell in love. One day while he was out on patrol he found a little boy wandering around a village that had been destroyed both of his parents were killed he brought the little boy back to camp with him and ask Jenny to take care of him. Closer to the end of the war he got his paper work started to bring both Jennie and Tim back to the United States with him. He said his commanding officers did not approve and one night around two o'clock they came and got him and told him they were shipping him home. He declined of course wanting to stay until Jennie's and Tim's paperwork came through but he was told he had no choice. He told me even after he got back to the United States that he stayed in contact with her for the next 20 years. As I was enthralled in his story the nurse came into the room and called my name to go for my second test the 3 hours had done went by and I haven't even noticed. I was actually a little disappointed that I was having to leave and couldn't hear any more of his stories. When I got up to leave I shook his hand and told him it was a pleasure talking to him and thanked him for his service to our great United States. This just goes to show that even though you are dreading something so bad that a little blessing can come along and make your day so much better so thank you Mr. Harwell for being my blessing today.
Until Next time
XOXO
Michelle

Crock Pot Berry Cobbler

Hey lovelies how are yall today? I hope everyone had a great weekend mine was awesome, but maybe a little too short but aren't they all really? So this weekend we picked some blueberries out of the orchard so I figured it was a good time to make the hubs favorite dessert Crock Pot Berry Cobbler this cobbler is always a hit at the family get togethers so I thought I would share the recipe with yall. So without further ado :).
I put all kinds of berries in mine whatever I have on hand. I had some strawberries that I froze when our strawberry patch was booming then I had the fresh blueberries and some blackberries and raspberries that I had frozen. The original recipe calls for 2 bags of frozen fruit but I put a little more in mine because the husband loves him some fruit.

Ok now you need to get your trusty crockpot out and spray some cooking spray inside the bowl.

I always do my filling first, get your fruit and add 2/3 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of Bisquick. Mix it all together and put it in your crock pot.

Now you want to mix your topping to go on your fruit you will need 2 1/4 cup of Bisquick 1/4 cup of sugar 4 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine and 1/2 a cup of milk add all these ingredients together in your bowl to make a dough.

Take your dough mixture and pull apart with your hands and add pieces to the top of your fruit like this.

 

Now you want to sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top of that dough I use 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sugar. Now that's going to seem like a lot of cinnamon and sugar but use it all. Cook for 4 hours on high or until your dough is cooked and your fruit is boiling.

Your finished product should look something like this.

If yall try this recipe let me know how it turned out for you or if you have any questions feel free to ask. The original recipe is a Paula Dean recipe that I got off the internet. So I can't take the credit for this awesomeness that is Crock Pot Berry Cobbler but it's a winner at the Webb house.

Until next time

XOXO

Michelle

 

Busy Busy Bread Making Fail

Hey Yall,
How has everyone been? Great I hope. I am a little late on my bread making post it has been  busy busy at the Webb house so far this week. I spent the night in the hospital Friday night thinking I was having a heart attack only to find out it was a severe case of acid reflux you know your getting older when a bacon sandwich sends you to the hospital (Hee Hee). They didn't let me go till 11:00 Saturday morning and everyone who's been in the hospital knows that you DO NOT sleep in the hospital they were in there every 2 hours poking me as you can see.

So needless to say Saturday was shot too. Monday my daughter had her college orientation so I left work and went there with her and today I have came home from work cooked supper picked the garden put chemical in the pool and put up some tomatoes to freeze. Whew I'm beat but I promised yall a bread making post so here it.

Here is my lovely bread making machine that my awesome friend Monica gave me Yes!!! I said gave me I told yall she was awesome.

Now I wanted to do a tutorial on how I make the best homemade bread and everyone should be jealous of how great I am at it well........... That's not going to happen let's be honest here I suck at making bread there I said it. I have tried making bread with my bread machine three times and all three times the bread was hard as a rock. I tried the boxed bread recipe and the homemade way and were talking major fail. I followed every direction to a T still no luck. Now I know it's not the bread machines fault it has to be something I'm doing but for the life of me I have no idea what it is. If any of yall have a good recipe for homemade bread that you use send that sucker my way because this girl needs some bread making 101. Here is a pic of the bread I made Sunday. Now don't let this picture fool you. You could literally use this thing as a boat anchor. The whole loaf was tossed in the trash.

Doesn't it look good yall?

So there you have it I can not make bread but you can believe that I will keep trying until I figure out how.

Until next time

XOXO

Michelle

Lunchtime Coupon Shenanigan's

Evening yall,
How has everyone's week been so far? We have just about made it to that glorious day we call Friday. Yesterday started a new week of sales at Publix. So.......guess where I went today at lunch? Yep, you guessed it Publix. Ya'll are so smart. I tell ya'll I have got this lunchtime Publix run down. I had my little green book my list of what I wanted and my coupons, I was in and out of their in 20 minutes with 30 minutes to spare when I got back to the office GO ME!!!!! Anyhoo I thought I would give ya'll a breakdown of my trip today so ya'll could see the the sale prices and what I paid for my haul. ( 5 ya'll's in one paragraph whew I need to come up with another word to use)
Dixie Crystal Sugar BOGO $2.99
I had four .40 cent coupons that doubled to .80 cents each. I bought four bags of sugar at $5.98 and used $3.20 in coupons so my total for all four sugars was $2.78. That's .70 cents a bag talk about a deal!

Capri Sun $1.79 A Box
I had four $1.00 off coupons from the Publix flyer that you get at the door. I bought four Capri Suns at $7.16 I used $4.00 in coupons so the total for all four Capri Suns was $3.16 thats.79 cents a box. The Hubs loves these things so anytime I can get them cheap I jump on it.

Wishbone Salad Dressing BOGO $2.63
I had two $1.00 off coupons. I bought two salad dressings for $2.63 and used $2.00 in coupons my total for both dressings was .63 cents.

Snuggle Dryer Sheets $2.99 For The Big Box
I had one $1.00 off coupon. I bought one Snuggle Dryer Sheet for $2.99 and used $1.00 in coupons so I paid $1.99 for one big box of dryer sheets. Good thing to because I was almost out.

Orbit Gum BOGO $3.29
I had two Target coupons for .50 cents each. I bought two Orbit Gums for $3.29 and used two Target coupons that totaled up to $1.00 I paid $2.29 for both packs of gum. Whenever I can get gum on sale I have to get it or my daughter would have a come apart (Hee Hee) She loves that stuff.

Mahatma Rice Mixes 6 For $5.00 Or .83 Cents A Piece
I had three coupons for .75 cents off two packages. I bought 6 packages at 4.98. I used three coupons for .75 cents off two. My total for all six packages of rice were $2.73. Now I have no idea what this stuff is going to taste like but if I can get new stuff cheap for my family to try I will do it. If we don't like it I will give it away so there may be some( free to good home) rice pictures pop up on my facebook page later if someone wants rice LOL..

Bic Multi Purpose Lighters BOGO $3.49
I had four $1.00 off coupons. I bought four lighters at $6.98. I used $4.00 in coupons so I paid $2.98 for all four lighters that .79 cents a piece. Publix ran this sale about 3 weeks ago but every store I went to was sold out so I kept my coupons in my binder and sure enough the sale popped back up this week. You know I dug those suckers out!! Moral of the story here is it pays to hang on to your coupons until they expire.

I also had a $5.00 off a purchase of $40.00 or more coupon that my friend got out of her paper Sunday and gave to me and wouldn't you know it my total before coupons was $40.13 so I whipped that dude out. So Thanks Julie that was a great gift. While I'm thanking folks let me give a shout out to my other friend at work Sheila, her mom Mrs. Driver and my awesome Mother In Law Mary for graciously giving me there coupons that they don't use it's a huge help.
Now it's confession time I didn't follow my own rule today about not buying things I don't have coupons for. You see there was these great looking Chips Ahoy Cookies that somehow jumped into my buggy, in my defence they were on the BOGO sale for $2.89 and there chocolate so that should get a pass right?????

So today I walked out of Publix only spending $15.47 before tax. I would say that it was a good lunchtime couponing trip.
Until next time lovelies
XOXO
Michelle

Blessings, Dr. Peppers and Kangaroo's Oh My!!

Hey ya'll, I just have one question is it Friday yet? Whoo its been a week so far and it's only Tuesday. Monday I got socked with a migraine so that day was shot. Today I got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work and on the way home it poured down rain but who am I kidding that stuff is chump change compared to what problem's that could happen to me so I am a greatful girl today and so thankful for all my many blessings.
So for some reason I had this bright idea that I was going give up my 3 Dr. Pepper a day habit and I have been gradually weaning myself off of them. Let me tell you I smoked for 15 years and gave that up way easier than giving up these Dr. Peppers this mess is gonna kill me. I just started this journey so I'll keep you posted on how it's going or if you see where I was put in jail for murder or something like that you'll know it didn't work out so well. (Hee Hee).
Oh!! Let me tell ya'll what I saw today on the news a kangaroo was seen hopping down the street in the county next to mine now if your like me your wondering how in the world a kangaroo found his way to Alabama. Can you imagine being the person who's driving along minding her own business when a kangaroo hops across the road in front of you......... in Alabama. Oh that poor lady she must have thought she was loosing her mind. Come to find out it was somebodies pet that had gotten loose which that leaves me to ponder........ you can have a pet kangaroo? I had no idea.
Anyway that is what is happening in my part of the world for this first half of the week. Until next time.
XoXo
Michelle

America

Hi yall I hope everyone has had a great time celebrating America's Independence today. We've kept it low key around here just doing a little chicken farming. When we got up this morning we noticed that some of our eggs in the incubator were starting to pip for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about pip means that first little crack in the egg when the chicks are trying to make their escape. We should have some baby chicks by the end of the day.

Unfortunately we had to cull 3 of our chicks today that we had bought from the Trade Day, we bought 15 chicks and they have all died one by one until we were down to three we decided that since they may have a disease we were not going to put them in with our healthy chicks so they had to go it's the Circle of Life I guess but it still sucked.

Our Chicks we hatched last week are still doing good there a week old tomorrow. They were all happy happy joy joy today when we cleaned out there brooder.( A brooder is just a place to keep them safe and warm while there babies)

Then we got our 6 week old chicks in the Chicken Tractor, yes I said Chicken Tractor (a chicken tractor is a pen outside that is movable)

Last but not least is our grown hens and our rooster (Sir Crow's A lot) their in the big coop were one day all of the above chicks will go except the roosters and they will go in the cooking pot.

Here's there coop

It's been a great day here and we have enjoyed it to it's fullest. I hope yall all did the same.

Well looky here, before I got done writing this post we had a visit from the chicky stork and look what he left us

 

A new baby born on the 4th of July I think I shall call her America.

 

XoXO

Michelle

Let's talk coupons shall we

Today I went on a little coupon run to Publix. Now I know what yall are thinking PUBLIX!!!!! I can't afford to shop there but I'm telling you if you're a couponer Publix is the place to be. They are very coupon friendly and believe me most stores are not. They double your coupons up to .50 cents. They let you use competitor coupons ( Target and Star market at my store) and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. They have fliers when you walk in the door with Publix coupons in them that you can also pair with a manufacturer coupon. They have BOGO (buy one get one free) sales every week and if there out of stock on an item that is in their weekly ad they will give you a rain check and you have 30 days to buy your item at the sale price. It's a couponer's dream I tell you. So now that I am done floating Publix's boat, here is a tutorial on how I do my coupon runs.

First things first get those Sunday papers and cut out those coupons. I only cut out coupons that my family will use. Now don't confuse this with name brand things you used to not be able to afford, with coupons you can get the good stuff. If you think your family will use any of the things there are coupons for cut them out the items may not be on sale this week but they may be next week. I also get a lot of my coupons from Coupons.com I just print what I want and go on my merry way.

Now you can't be a real couponer without a binder or some way to keep up with your coupons. I got mine at Walmart fairly cheap.

I'm OCD with organization I mean it's a problem so I have mine separated into categories but you can do it however you like. (But it really needs to be organized wink wink) sorry I can't help myself.

After you have all your coupon's clipped and put into your binder it's time to see what's on sale for the week. The biggest tip for a successful couponing trip is to coupon only the item's that are on sale. Publix runs their sales from Wednesday through Tuesday in the Southeast region. The first thing I do is go to the Publix website and pull up their weekly ad. I go through writing down everything I see that my family could use and the price. If it's a BOGO the price listed in the ad is for both items. If you don't want to buy both items just divide the price by 2 you do not have to buy both items to get the BOGO price. After I have my list  made out I go to my binder to see if I have matching coupons for the items on sale. I do not buy if I don't have a coupon. You can use one manufacturer coupon on each item you purchase on the BOGO deal  as long as the coupon states one purchase per item and don't forget if you have a Publix or competitor coupon you can use that too. If you have a coupon that says off any 2 just use one coupon for the BOGO deal. Always pay close attention to the wording of you coupons. Here's a little coupon lingo for you, when a coupon says you can buy one item per purchase a purchase means one item that you bought. So you could use 5 coupons on 5 items (usually 5 is the store limit). If a coupons says you can buy one item per transaction this means you can only use one coupon for one item included in everything you bought. I know, I know its kinda crazy but the more you do it the easier it will get right couponing sista's.

Ok moving on, I write down everything I want to get, how many I want to get, the sale price and the coupon price in my little notebook. I get all my coupons that I'm going to use and check the expiration dates and match them up to my list and I'm ready to go.

Now you will notice that I put all of my weekly ad items that I want to get first, that way I know I can get a rain check if they are out of stock. Then I list some things that I want to get that are unadvertised deals that I can't get rain checks for. I follow I Heart Publix on Facebook and they are great about putting unadvertised deals on their site. I figure up my total without tax because you can't coupon tax so it doesn't count towards your total, Hey my couponing my rules (Hee Hee).

Here is a picture of my haul today I paid $17.33 before tax

No extreme couponing here no 15 buggies with 300 rolls of toilet paper just buying what's on sale and what my family will use. Sorry for the long post if you have any questions feel free to ask if I can help you I surely will.