Homesteading Weekends

After a couple of months of split days off, I'm finally back to two consecutive days.  It involved training a new baker and losing my baking shifts, but I'm so tired that I'm ok with it.  Not much point of earning a fantastic paycheck if you're too tired to do fun stuff.  I'm still working a lot of overtime, just on different days.  Oh, and our new delivery driver can't find her way out of a paper bag, so I'm doing the vast majority of deliveries until another new driver can be trained.

And what did that rant have to do with this blog, you may ask?  With two days off in a row, I had time to do some home improvements that I'd been postponing because I just wanted to sit around on my split days off and do as few projects as I could get away with.

First up was yet another rearranging of the spice cabinet.  I finally realized that I can't get everything in there neatly because some containers are quite large.  I bought some wedding favor jars that look like Weck canning jars, but they're only 2oz.  Spices that I usually spoon or pinch went in those, while shaker types stayed in the manufacturer's container.  I ended up with far more going in the overflow spice box in the main pantry than expected.  I also finally admitted that I was never going to finish the tiny container of cayenne because I'm allergic to it and threw the thing out.  I haven't given up on some other items that I probably should have tossed long ago, but an allergy is a legitimate wake-up call.  I also rubbed the dried fennel seeds off their stems, which is why this whole thing was happening now, and one plant's worth nearly filled a jar.  I'm going to have to start using fennel seeds.

Once that was done, I planted the Pond.  Two rows each of carrots, beets, and radishes.  The shallow sides have cress.  The starters I made failed their first round, so I may just have to do some direct sowing.  I'll give it one more try before letting nature have a crack at it.  Since five different kinds of seeds failed, I'm pretty sure it's something I did.

I also went to a couple of estate sales.  It always feels a bit like grave digging, or those scavengers out of "A Christmas Carol".  But I also feel like I'm rescuing items that meant something to someone.  Not sure if the half-cup plastic containers were all that loved, but I'm making a home for the non-stick egg pan.  The rubber grip is gone, so I need to use a towel over the handle.  Still means I can finally have round over-easy eggs.  I also got a havdalah plate that was missing its assorted pieces, but I have the cup, candlestick, and spice box.  I just needed a better plate.  I also got The Book of Garnishes, from the same series as The Book of Afternoon Tea.  Lots of cute ideas to go with the current presentation theme.  In the non-food-related category, there was a record of the music from the movie "Mary Poppins".  We never had that, just a story version with Marni Nixon singing Mary.  Pretty good haul for $5.  More important, I've already used everything.  It isn't just going to a shelf or my next garage sale.

The next "weekend", which is really Wednesday and Thursday, I picked the last watermelon and cleared out the patch in the front yard.  20 lbs 5 oz.  Everyone I knew got some.  It probably could have spent another week on the vine, based on the thickness of the white, but I didn't want to leave it out over Halloween.  The ripened parts were delicious.

On cue, the weather turned cool enough to sow greens.  After some soil conditioning and yet more water, I planted the lettuces.  The radishes and beets in the pond were already coming up.  I'm still hoping for a home-grown salad next month.

I'm catching up on other projects, too.  I've had time to go to the mall.  A big cooking afternoon doesn't make me feel like I've wasted a day.  I was able to stay up a bit on Halloween to give out candy, but I did fall asleep before the end of Game 6.  I could still use a staycation, but this is the next best thing.