Frugal Families Blog

I have been busy!  I managed maybe a week off between maple sugaring season and the start of my spring planting.  I spent a few evenings learning about proper crop rotation with my homesteading books and the latest “Mother Earth News” magazine.  I made up a quick chart of my beds and decided that I needed to rotate some of my sugar snap peas and beans out of my vertical beds a bit.  That left me with a bit of a conundrum.  I needed the ability to get the beans and sugar snaps vertical without having a permanent vertical bed.  A trellis was the obvious choice!

Have you seen how much a trellis can cost!  OH MY GOSH!  I fell in love with a metal/wood number but at $100 for each 6 foot tall by 1 1/2 foot wide section, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to laugh or just laugh!  Many trellis would never meet the tall growing demands of beans and sugar snap peas, either.  I went for a design I found in one of my gardening books!

I found large balls of jute twine at the local lot store for only $2.50 each.  I got two.  I was up to $5 in materials.  After that, it was me, a friend and two pairs of clippers walking the woody parts of our property doing a little woodlot management!  We found dozens and dozens of small pine that had to be cleared out.  We began with about seven immature pines about 2″ in diameter for our main supports.  We also cleared out a few pines about 1″ in diameter.  We clipped off all of the branches and left them to recycle in the woods and dragged out our quarry.

Here is a picture of the near finished project so you can more easily visualize the job:

We laced the four main supports together with the twine, tee-pee style.  Then we lashed four supports, horizontally about 5″ up from the bottom.  Kitty corner between each of those is a small, short support to basically tie the main frame together.  After that, I started adding what I had from the woods.  I spent an hour collecting up fresh winter fallen branches and then just got creative.  I angled them around and tried covering most of the space.  I haven’t finished this one yet.  I wanted to get it in place in the bed that I wanted it in before finishing.   This bed was my cold frame bed and you can see my wintered over spinach under the trellis.

If you don’t have a supply of wood from a woodlot, you could easily do this project with inexpensive, store-bought wood.  Go for all straight, 1″ doweling or something to that extent.  My entire project will cost me my time, $5 for jute and extra coffee for the day my friend helped me prowl the woods for my materials.

So, the sky is the limit when you’re limited in garden space (go vertical!) and so can the cost for a trellis to get you there.  But with a little time, twine and imagination, you can bring the cost of the trellis down to earth!

I have been frustrated with my cell phone bill for about a year actually and to be honest I did procrastinate initially because I had just had surgery last year and I was exhausted. However this past October I started calling my cell phone provider about fees I was being billed in error etc… and they would always keep getting corrected and then they kept showing up. In December I asked to get a state employee discount which this particular provider offers it is substantial at 20% off. Well they told me it was applied immediately and it was not so I called in January they told me it would definitely be applied in February so I waited…..patiently. In February I opened my bill and indeed it was not there and I had another data fee which I had not used applied to another line on my cell phone. So I called them back again this time they retroactived my state employee discount to January but then told me I was not on the correct plan to receive it. My patience had worn thin and I got “unfriendly” demanding I speak to a supervisor and was told one would call me back from the local store. I never received a phone call I finally called the manager and basically said I was done with the company and was ready to turn in all my phones. Finally the manager of the store told me to come in and she looked at what we were paying put us on a less expensive plan that would accept my discount. Now everyone’s happy. I am saving about $40 a month as my entire family is on this plan. Now was it a pain? Yes. Was it tiring? Yes. Was it difficult? Yes. A lot of people will say it’s just not worth it and I say it is absolutely worth it for $480 a year yes thats it almost $500 worth of savings a year to call and complain about your bill. What could you do with $500 extra dollars?

Well, another sugarin’ season has come to an end.  Although I’m relatively new to the whole sugarin’ thing, this year didn’t appear to be a great year.  I tapped early enough and still, my entire season was a mere four weeks.  My homesteading journal from last year shows a longer season.  The temps have been unseasonably warm the ‘experts’ report.  There were not a lot of ideal days (days above freezing and nights below freezing) for the sap to run.

That said, you make what you can make and thank the Lord for what you did collect.  It also proves a point;  “Make hay while the sun shines.”  You never know about Mother Nature!  Take advantage of the time she gives you because you never know when her fickle attitude will  kick in and she’ll take what she’s given!  I made sure to be ready when the weather dictated it was tapping time but I noticed a neighbor didn’t tap until almost a full week later than I did.  Although I worried I had tapped too early, I came to realize that my early efforts would pay off because the weather wasn’t looking great for a long season.  If the conditions are right for sugarin’ or planting or harvesting, you must take advantage of that time.

Anyways, the earliest sap to run is usually highest in sugar and boils down to a delicately colored and tasting syrup.  As the season progresses, the sugar content drops and the syrup gets darker and more intensely flavored.  Many people prefer the Grade B over the Grade A because of the flavor.  I love it all!!!

Here is a beautiful picture of the three grades I produced this year:

So, another season comes to an end and another now begins.  Today I’ll begin working more intensely in the garden area.  I’ll update you another day on my goals for the garden this year.

As I previously mentioned, it’s tapping time here in CT!  I thought you might enjoy seeing pics of my ‘fancy’ sugaring operation.

The woodpile under the tarp is but a small part of my pile.  The remainder is to the left, just out of the picture.  The wood stove helps to  minimize the wind and I’m not burning nearly as much wood as last year’s open pit design.

Here is a close up of my wood stove:

The pan on the back is a buy from the UCONN surplus store.  It’s my main boiling pan.  The smaller pan in the front is to warm my sap prior to pouring it off into the big reduction pan.  You don’t want to lose your boil by adding cold sap to hot.

You can see the bulk of the wood supply in this pic and Ben, my eleven year old.  He and I share many a good conversation while we sit on our logs.   I know some people think that the boiling sap all day is a waste of time but the time spent with your children is priceless.

On the subject of just sitting around all day boiling.  I don’t.  LOL.    Last year I build two new stone raised beds while I boiled sap.  This year, I’ve repaired beds, cleaned up leaves and pulled old stems out.  I had to clean up the glass from my broken cold frame door, too.  I’ll be planting some of my cold weather crops in the cold frames this weekend, too.  So, as you see, it’s not “lost time” while I’m out there.  I multitask.

I had a feeling it was coming.

The patches of grass showing.

The longer days.

The feeling that it was above freezing yet the nights were still below freezing.

The feeling that Mother Nature might (MIGHT) be losing her wintery grasp.

We pulled out the maple sugaring equipment that I had begun to prepare.  Went to my favorite, most productive maple of last year and set the drill bit to bark.  Aiming slightly upward, I powered up the drill and the 5/16″ bit began to bite in.   2″ in and when I pulled out the bit, the signs were clear;  sweet sap began dripping out quickly!

THE SAP IS RUNNING!!!!  WOO HOOOOOOOO

The boys and I set 11 taps in  9 trees today.  I sterilized the hose I use on some of my “older” style plastic taps (older in that they’re a 7/16″ vs 5/16″ sized tap but I can’t go entirely new this year-it will be a two year plan).  Tomorrow I’ll set some more taps.

I’m also getting ‘fancy’ with my boiling set up this year!  My mom and dad had an old style parlor stove.  Nothing big-tall and narrow and it was designed to heat a small room. It’s a 1930′s style with white enamel exterior over a heavy as sin cast-iron interior.  They’re clearing out stuff and dad mentioned it might be perfect with it’s flat top for boiling down sap!  He’s right of course!  It IS perfect!

I split my wood in the early fall with the express thought of having it fit into this woodstove.  I admit I AM struggling to find the proper sized oval-to-round adapter for the flue but the local woodstove place is great.  I plan on having that baby cranking out the syrup by the weekend!

I’m also going to have a small, open pit type fire to preheat my sap so I can then put it into my already boiling sap.  Last year, I made the mistake of putting cold sap into my boiling sap and dropping my boil.  Took me longer than forever to boil stuff down this way.  Oops, beginner mistake.  I’m learning.

This book is an invaluable source of knowledge if you want to begin a backyard sugarin’ rig.  He shows basic to ‘fancy’ set-ups and the basics of sugaring.  A MUST HAVE!

Off to dream of the smell of smoke and maple steam.  Sigh…

To dream of hours of sitting by the fire chatting with my boys (reminds me of our summer camping trips, too ).

Maple syrup on pancakes.  Oh, maple syrup in butternut soup!  Maple syrup in muffins.  Oh the possibilities!

We own a dog, a puppy, a cat, and 2 chickens, although the two chickens require very little care. For us the fact that we are on a budget made looking at one of the monthly payment plans at on of the more commercial vets look like a more viable option.
Many people say that you pay more with one of those plans but I actually called around local vets and found out that office fees each time I visited my vet were $45 each and they were going to make me come in three separate visits as well as pay extra for dewormers, and other exams. So then I asked about the cost of neutering and spaying and was told several different price ranges none of which were cheap or inexpensive.
We definitely came out ahead using a monthly payment plan program but here is how you won’t come out ahead. Many times programs like these often try to charge you extra fees and unneccesary fees and procedures you don’t need to have done. If you are not experienced pet owner you may not know which expenses are necessary. If you do not educate yourself on some of these procedures then they may actually win. The entire purpose of these plans in my opinion is to sell, sell, sell and I tell my husband my plan is to say No, No, No to anything that is what I consider fluff. Another thing is these plans tend to me more ideal in the first year or two of your dog’s life and toward there later years when puppies and dogs have more needs. I do not plan on having my dog who will turn 3 this August stay on the plan for years 3 through 7, but I may put him back on the plan wants he starts having health problems as he ages.
Some of you animal lovers may disagree with my thoughts on this but I have been very successful at keeping my vet expenses including medicine at around $350 per dog. This includes neutering/spaying if necessary, heart worm medication, and flea medication. I may spend another $25 -$50 a year on each dog for minor grooming procedures etc..such as having their nails trimmed. Our family works as a team to do all of our own bathing and brushing. We buy National Brand Dog Foods such as Pedigree when they are on sale. My dogs have beautiful coats and often receive compliments they are the picture of good health!
I also save money by shopping online for heartwork and flea medication and our vet will match any online pricing! (So check with your vet on their policy!)
The only area I am still struggling with on saving money with pet ownership is with Boarding the pets but up until recently I have only owned one dog and he has gone to a Boarding facility but it is quite expensive and runs about $28 – $32 a day approximately with two dogs now this is an expense I don’t think I can afford anymore. I used to hire a petsitter back when I had our old dog that has since passed and she was great but I am apprehensive about finding someone I trust. I do know my pets are worth me finding the perfect pet sitter and making sure they have great healthcare for a reasonable price!

We are blessed with a home.

That said, we never intended this home to be our final home.  It was meant to be a starter home.  We had always realized some limitations to this home as far as available room to grow BUT with the birth of our third son (our surprise) we began to realize that this might be the forever home.

The biggest issue to this home has been the fact that it’s a raised ranch (split-level to some  of you) and the basement is half garage and half finished family room.  We are extremely limited in storage space.  On one hand, it forces you to buy wisely and avoid clutter.  On the other hand, we’ve had to get creative with our storage needs.

Quite a few years ago, we had a new deck put on.  The builder understood our storage needs and recommended going into the attic.  He put in a pull down built in stair unit.  We were able to lay down pressboard and then have access to storage room up in  the attic.  We store bins with off-season clothing up there, Christmas decorations and bins of clothing for future use (hand-me-downs and thrift store finds).

Another big thing I desperately needed was pantry space.  Years and years ago (we’ve been here 16 years now), my husband put in shelves into the furnace room.  It serves as my pantry. As our needs have grown, I added some small shelves to the space, too.  The shelves were NOT the best use of that space, though.  I’ve been pressuring my husband to add onto the shelves and help me maximize this space.  Oh, in the cheapest way possible, too!

So this past weekend, he finally took on this project.  He already had two pieces of pressboard leftover from the attic project.  All he had to buy were the shelf angles to add two full length, deep shelves to the pantry for me!  The bottom two shelves filled with my home-canned goodies are the newest shelves.  They’re four canning jars deep (big quart jars) whereas the old shelving unit was barely 2 jars deep.  All for the same space!

We were also careful not to put the lowest shelf too low so I could still slide my bulk storage buckets under the bottom shelf.

THEN came a stroke of sheer genius on  my husband’s part.   Here is a picture of the space between the studs in the furnace/pantry room:

(ignore the ski boots collecting dust from their 12 years of non-use…)

Well, my husband took scraps of two by fours we had from other projects and cut them to fit in between the studs and made shelves to hold my supply of nearly -free -after- sale -and -coupon shampoos, deodorants, hair conditioners, liquid dishwashing stuff and whatever else fit there.  He made similar shelves in the space on the other side of the door and they hold herb and spices now!

The total cost for making do with what we have was about $16!  It took my husband about 3 hours total.  I love my pantry even more now!  We’re making do with the space we do have and liking what we have a lot more!

I decided to try my hand at sour dough bread.  My boys have decided that they like a nice chewy bread with a crust.  So today I made up my first batch of starter.  I placed the following into a large glass mixing bowl:

-3 packets of dry yeast (I used 4 tsp of instant yeast)

-1.5 cups of warm water

1 TBS of sugar

2.5 cups of all purpose flour

I mixed it all in the bowl and it said to cover loosely to allow the gasses to escape so I threw a cloth napkin over the top.  It’s suppose to sit in a warm spot in your kitchen for 2-3 days and get sour smelling and begin to bubble.  At this point you can store the starter in the fridge or leave it in a cool, dark part of your kitchen (nothing cool and dark in my kitchen so I’ll probably put it in the fridge).

I suspect the instant yeast is the reason that my sour dough attempted a take over of the kitchen counter within hours of meeting up with sugar and warm water.   It bubbled out, wildly!, all over the kitchen counter!!!! I managed to lasso most of it into the bowl again and this time I  moved it to a 1/2 gallon canning jar.  I’m hoping that the narrow space will force the dough up and back onto itself before it can manage another escape attempt!

I’ll update in a few days with a sourdough recipe.  If you don’t hear from me, send help.  Hopefully, someone with experience taming wild sourdough. 

We canned peaches for the first time this past summer.  I LOVE peaches!  Our local orchard has a pick-your-own option that helps keep the cost down.  I love a sun-warmed peach that is ripened to perfection on the tree.  When you bite into it,  the juice runs down your chin.  sigh…..   just heavenly!

Anyways, I digress.  My oldest boys helped me can up our peaches.  The assembly line approach helped us speed things along but it was still a learning experience trying to pack the peaches correctly.  In the end, our jars of peaches looked so beautiful but I wasn’t sure I wasn’t better off just buying them at Aldis.

Well,  my husband is adding more shelving to our pantry and I had to pull out all of my canned goods.  We decided that we had waited long enough and opened up a jar of the peaches.  Oh my gosh!  FANTASTIC!  The boys and I devoured the quart jar in a matter of seconds.   I thought I’d use the light syrup that now tastes of the peaches for smoothies but truthfully, it’s gone, too.  I was just like that juice that runs down your chin in the summer.  The boys and I decided that the time and labor was totally worth the enjoyment we got out of just that one jar!  Granted, we have more to use up but it’s going to be hard rationing them out until this summer’s harvest.

I feel like I’ve tasted summer.

Last week I needed to go shopping.  I really am NOT a shopper in the sense that if I have to get something at the mall, I am in and out.  I don’t find pleasure in going through racks of clothing.  I don’t get excited about window shopping.  Okay, that’s not ENTIRELY accurate.  I drool over seed catalogs.  I DO lovingly hold onto fishing poles and just imagine a big trout at the end.  Oh and trip through Cabellas had my budget screaming in fear.  LOL.

Anyways, last week I DID get excited about shopping.  It wasn’t about what I was going to spend but what I was going to save!

My first stop:

CVS-I had  $3.50 in ECBs (Extra Care Bucks).  I was out of dishwashing liquid!  My free or nearly free stash was gone!  Anyways, CVS hadDawn on sale for .96 each.  I had two .20 coupons as well.  They had Folgers coffee on sale for 2 for $5.00.  I bought just one and used a .55 coupon.  So, between my three coupons totaling .95 and my $3.50 ECBs, I ended up with them owing me .02!  I held out my hand for my .02 but the cashier said that they couldn’t give me the .02 BUT I could buy something else.  I politely explained that I wasn’t going to buy something else so I could give them more money.  They could have my two cents.

So, after my free CVS stop, I went onto Shaw’s Grocery store:

Shaw’s was having a roast sale.  In addition, when you bought one of the roasts that was on sale, they had a coupon for a free 2lb bag of onions, a free 1 lb bag of carrots AND a free 5 lb bag of Maine potatoes!  I had a $5 coupon from a previous promotion (one of those deals when you buy $20 in select products and get $5 off your next trip).  I was able to get a 4lb chuck roast, the onions, carrots and potatoes for only $6.24!  I was on a roll and feeling good now!  Hey, that’s what shopping therapy is all about, right?

Next stop!

Jon, my 8 year old, goes through the knees of his jeans like crazy!  Not to mention, he’s growing, constantly!  My oldest two have left a slew of hand-me-downs except that around the size 8 jean period, the oldest two grew at such a great rate through the summer that when fall came around we jumped from 7′s to 10′s!  There are NOT a lot of size 8 hand-me-downs for Jon.  My husband wanted to just drop $19.99/pair for new jeans.  I cringed, knowing that Jon would put holes in those jeans just as fast as a gently used pair.  So, my next stop was the thrift store.

I went to one of my favorite thrift stores right down from the Shaws.  Found a pair of jeans there for just $1!  WOO HOO!!!!  I was pumped now!  The adrenaline was rushing!  hehehehe

I decided to hit the Goodwill just down from the highway on-ramp (I’ve done a large loop here, by-the-way, making sure to minimize my gas consumption and get the most out of my trip).  Now, I don’t know about your Goodwill, but mine has gone up in prices.  I used to be able to snag jeans for about $3/pair but they’re up to $4 now.  I shouldn’t complain because new would be $20 but after my $1 find at the other store, $4 seemed ‘pricey’.  That said, I managed to find two  more pairs of jeans for Jon for $8.  Three pairs of gently loved jeans for $9 instead of nearly $60!  I didn’t think this trip could get any better…

THEN I spotted the brand new, unopened bags of quilt batting!  Oh my lucky stars!  I tried not to look too excited as I walked over to the rack, fearful another quilter was afoot and I’d lose my find.  I grabbed both bags, claiming them quickly.  Brand new, queen-sized quilt batting for only $2 EACH!  I felt a rush to my head!  It wasn’t possible!  I asked an associate that was loading up some racks if it was the real price.  She confirmed my wildest dreams!!!!!  Normally priced over $20 each, I was about to get two bags of queen-sized quilt batting for only $4!

THIS WAS EXCITING! This WAS therapeutic!  Only I was sure I wouldn’t have gotten the same adrenaline high if I had spent full price for all of this.  I wasn’t sure how people could get the same therapeutic effect dropping lots of cash.  No matter.  I came home.  My need for shopping therapy fulfilled.

Hmmmm, wonder if I can find Sue a really big snowblower with a headlight on my next trip.  Hmmmmm