Learning In Spite of Labels~ Practical Teaching Tips and a Christian
Perspective of Education by Joyce
A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays by Robin Sampson and Linda
Pierce
Good and Angry by Scott Turnasky and Joanne Miller
A Parents Guide to The Spiritual Mentoring of Teens ~Building Your
Childs Faith Through the Adolescent Years by Joe White , Jim Weidmann
Wild Days ( a book about language arts and nature journaling) by
Rackliffe
How to Create Your Own Unit Studies by Valerie Bendt
How to read the Bible for all it's worth by Gordon D Fee and Douglas
Stuart
Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and your
kids by Scott Turnasky and Joanne Miller
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully Grades 4-8 by Ruth
Beechick
A Strong Start in Language
An Easy Start in Arithmetic
A Home Start In Reading by Ruth Beechick
Any Child Can Write by Harvey S. Wiener
Oct. 6, 2008~ Tightwad Tuesday~ Drying Fruit and Making Do ~
Each year for the last 10 years we have been drying pears. apples, and plums for the winter. We have participated in a gleaner's program. In this program we picked the persons fruit tree and give 1/3 to the tree owner , 1/3 to the food bank, and 1/3 to us. Plus we put the word out if people have too much we are looking for fruit to pick. You would be amazed what you will find if you put the word out. Some people have fruit trees but don't want to be bothered with preserving it. (((GASP)))
I wanted to show some pics I took while preserving some of the fruit we have picked on our orchard and other places. ( plus what some generous people have given us) I still have to show what we have been doing with our apples yet. That is to come next week.
In the pic down below is when I had so much fruit at one time but didn't want to see ANY wasted. I cut up the peaches for pies but only freeze them in the pie pan then slide them into a freezer bag and suck out all the air to prevent freezer burn. Till I can make them into pies later. I also cut up fruit that I want to make jam into later and freeze them into bags of the amounts of what I need for a batch of jam. I love doing this b/c it buys me time and helps prevent me from getting overwhelmed. My Handsome and I tend to make jam when it cools down and we want to heat the house a bit but not have to turn the heater on or light a fire in the wood stove ...yet.
Now if you look carefully you will see that I don't have everything all together and some thing had to give during this time of food preserving and seed savings.....yes it was my house. ((sigh))
Before drying ....
....after drying.
I wanted to show one extra thing about living and bringing tightwadary to the next level. Make do with what you have. Make it last longer and work with the glitches. Here the lid had been cracking for the last couple years. I finally found a GOOD way to fix the cracks. Yes this is the red duck tape that you use in house construction. It has A LOT more stick to it and it worked GREAT in this project ! LOL Now I am hoping this will last till the motor dies one day. I just bought myself some time till we can afford another one one day.
Here is the next project that we are working on...dried apples
and canned apple pie filling. These are the ones that weren't deemed as eating apples and will be baking apples. This is a pic I took as I was sorting them after we picked when we were having baby cub issues.
"There are only a few big ways to save money but there are a lot of small ways....that all adds up."
Please go visit these lovely ladies and glean some good tightwad tips from them.
Remember: The best way to get a comment is to give a comment
"If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. Let the mother go out to play!
If she would have the courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day, out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in
a picture gallery looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents.
The mother would then be able to hold herself in "wise passiveness’ and would not fret her children by continual interference even of hand or eye - she would let them
be." ...Charlotte Mason
That looks absolutely wonderful! You are an inspiration. I really need to do something like this, as we live in a town that subsists by growing apples and peaches. Thank you!
What an inspiration you are. I also find it quite amazing that people who have fruit trees can be disinterested in preserving the fruit.
Those peaches look wonderful. I make a dried peach chutney but have to buy the peaches already dried :-)
Wow that is an awesome program! I am going to look and see if we have anything like that here. I have my doughts as most of the farmers here sell their produce ( you pick and prepackaged) and it is not cheap. We do get peaches and apples from an orchard in NC. Again not cheap but oh so yummy. I do get watermelon, greens, tomatoes next to free.
Oh My Goodness, Mary!! You are making me hungrier this morning - your fruit looks mouth-wateringly delicious. Your hard work is sooooo going to pay off all winter when you are flush with fruit and don't *have* to run to the store. You are inspiring me (as usual) and encouraging me to get off my duff and get moving. I don't know how you do it all, but you do it well and with love, and I'm so happy for you!!
Have a wonderful day, my friend!
love you,
Shani
(((((HUGS)))))
I love seeing your pictures of all the preserving and homesteading type projects you have going on. Now you will have healthy snacks all year round. Is it just straight dried fruit or do you add anything? I froze a few peaches and we froze berries this year, but that was about it. I was encouraged though that this year we were able to use our garden more for our own food and even further into the year. I figure a little progress every year. I want to figure out how to do some sort of year round or almost year round harvest on the cheap. Baby steps as you say.
These all look soooo yummy! :-) Our next-door-neighbor has a ton of apples that he is trying to get rid of, so I just brought home a bucketful of them today. I plan on making some pies tomorrow. Yum!
~Connie
First , I am a daughter of the King almighty and a
a wife to my Handsome of 19 years. A mom of 4 on the go boys 17, 15, 11, and 9. I grew up in the states but married my Canadian sweetheart and moved up north.
We live in the southern part of British Columbia , Canada on our homestead. We have homeschooled our four boys from birth and plan to go the distance till all four graduate from our homeschool. I teach with a Charlotte Mason style. I love to craft! I am a beader, knitter, x-stitcher, quilter. We have been on a journey of being apart of building "The House that God Built". I have been recording our journey on my blog. Go to my links on The House That God Built and you will find it. I know God has a lot more instore for us and we just need to follow where our Lord takes us.
This blog is the home of Show and Tell Friday's and Tightwad Tuesdays. I hope you decide to join in on the fun !
Blessings and ((HUGS))
In Him<><
-Mary
Thank you all who nominated me for
Best Thrifty Homeschooler
Best Encorager
Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger
Thank you all who nominated me for
First , I am a daughter of the King almighty and a
a wife to my Handsome of 19 years. A mom of 4 on the go boys 17, 15, 11, and 9. I grew up in the states but married my Canadian sweetheart and moved up north.
We live in the southern part of British Columbia , Canada on our homestead. We have homeschooled our four boys from birth and plan to go the distance till all four graduate from our homeschool. I teach with a Charlotte Mason style. I love to craft! I am a beader, knitter, x-stitcher, quilter. We have been on a journey of being apart of building "The House that God Built". I have been recording our journey on my blog. Go to my links on The House That God Built and you will find it. I know God has a lot more instore for us and we just need to follow where our Lord takes us.
This blog is the home of Show and Tell Friday's and Tightwad Tuesdays. I hope you decide to join in on the fun !
Blessings and ((HUGS))
In Him<><
-Mary
