Jammin'

I've been looking for a challenge to do this upcoming year. It's been tough, because this is the first challenge I'm trying, and it needed to be something that I thought I could do fairly easily, and have plenty of time to accomplish it. It needed to incorporate something I already can do somewhat, not be a total burden on my family, and be interesting enough for me to want to do it each month.

I've thought about doing Not-so Urban Hennery's Dark Days Challenge, but unless my garden is up to snuff for the winter, finding local food means driving into the city once a week, which doesn't seem like the right idea. I've thought about doing some of Crunchy Chicken's challenges, but they seem more family-oriented, and my family is already whining at me to turn up the heat when it's set to 68 degrees.

So when I saw Tigress' Can Jam, I was pretty sure that was the one for me. But I waited, and thought it over, and finally made the decision today, which was a good thing since today was the cut-off date.

So here I go! Ready for my first challenge (may it not be my last!)

Recouping

I had some minor surgery on Friday (the 13th!) and sat on my derriere all weekend. Although I'm doing fine, I seem to tire out easy, so I'm taking things slowly, and doing things that I don't have to be up running around for long periods of time. So I'm catching up on the laundry, baking and pureeing my pumpkins, and the in between resting time is spent knitting a lacy scarf for someone for Xmas (three people come to mind).

I'm baking the sugar pumpkins in a 350 degree oven for an hour, as 45 minutes doesn't seem to cut it. It seems that one of my plants wasn't truly a sugar pumpkin, although from the outside it looked like it. The pumpkin flesh wasn't dark orange like the others, nor did it have the same texture or smell. So I chucked it, since I didn't like the taste of it anyway. It was almost cucumbery. yuk.

The scarf I'm making is from
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/scarflacekm.htm (sorry about that! Blogger is messing up and the link isn't showing). I'm using some leftover fuzzy white stuff (mohair?) that I was going to make my mom a moebius scarf with, but I didn't have nearly enough. I've since lost the name of the yarn. The pattern goes really quickly, and I should have it done soon. I'll post pics soon!

Stocking Up

The pantry is bulging, and Mr. E is complaining. It's fall, and I'm stocking up.

Pasta seems to be at its least expensive in the fall, and as we go through quite a bit, I buy a lot (ergo Mr. E's complaint "Do we own stock in a pasta company or something?"). Fall is also a great time to buy baking ingredients and spices, as the stores have their holiday sales on. My store had spices 50% off recently, which is the only time I even THINK about buying saffron. If there's going to be a shortage of rice or flour, these recently have happened early in the year, so it's good to stock up on those now as well.

I'm not just stocking up on food, but cleaning supplies, medicine, and paper products. Cold and flu season is here (obviously) and so tissues and cold medicine are in high demand. My local shops have buy-one-get-one-free sales on cold medicine in the fall, or I buy in bulk at Costco. I hate having to make a special run to the store for medicine when I'm not feeling well. I also always keep a backup jug of laundry soap and dishwasher detergent so I never run out.

As I'm buying things, I'm looking at what I still have a lot of or never used. I'll be taking a trip to the local food pantry with a whole lot of canned corn. I haven't used it, and don't foresee using it, so it's better to donate it before its expiration date. This will free up some space, as well, and get things off the floor of the garage and onto shelving (which will make for a happier hubby, and reduce my buying duplicates because I can't find what I'm looking for.)

I also (finally) got our firewood. I'll never wait this late again. The wood, although not green, had definitely been heavily rained on, and is a pain to try and get started. Next year, I'll get it in early September at the latest. For now, I'll have to bring in a load to dry indoors for a day or two so it's start-able.

I'm still looking for kindling. The previous owners left a ton, and it took us eight years to go through it all. Now we're out, and I'm really curious where they got it from. It looks like mill ends or bits of cedar shakes. I'm keeping my eyes open for opportunities to stock up on that as well.