Babystep Babystep 1, 2, 3.....

Hi there everyone!  I hope today finds you happy and safe.  I'm at work again and I have some time to give you a little up date on all the happenings with homemaker kim. 

First off, my dad came by the store last weekend and said that he is going to try blowing out the ignition switch on my car.... so maybe we won't have to get rid of her after all.... at least not right now anyway! 

On the store front, we are doing pretty well.  It's a bit slower than last week, but that's ok and to be expected.  The front half of the week is always slower than the last half anyway. 

On the "homestead" front, things are moving along sloooooooowly.  I'm kinda at a halt with my garden.  I have filled my cleaned out bed with all the materials that I can find.  The dead tree branch is not going to give up the dead leaves with out a fight and I'm just not ready for that battle yet.  I have some compost at the very bottom of my composter, but not enough to fill the bed with.  I had hoped that I would be able to plant in it, but I'm afraid it won't be full enough.  Here's some pics of what is growing though. 

This is my carrots, tomatoe and lima.  In the bare spots are cherry tomatoe seeds that I just planted yesterday and a bush bean.  Hopefully the bush bean will pop up soon.  I uncovered the limas this week since its been cooler.  They are doing ok, but bugs are really getting those leaves!

Here's my acorn squash plants.  They are doing really well, except that a couple are showing signs of mold, so I'm treating them with diluted milk weekly.  I have also added two bush beans at the top end  since there is more room up there.  I'm thinking about taking out the right row and trying to sell them, this will open up a spot for cucumbers and a couple cabbages.

I did some more Bread & Butter pickles this past monday, so I have 9 pints.  That's a good start.  Not nearly enough, but a good start!  I've been pretty good about keeping the house clean, having the list I've told you about really helps.  I'll see if I can find it and put it up.  I'm still struggling to find time to make a menu, and grocery shop.  I've been reading in my Mother Earth News magazine about eating locally and I really feel like I need to get back into that.  Hubby and I talked about it and he agreed that we should start going to the farm market on the weekends before work to get fresh food and local grassfed, free range meats instead of the supermarket fare.  I can tell that when I don't eat well, I just don't feel good.  We'll see what we can do on our budget.  We budget $300 per month right now for groceries, that's personal items and pet supplies also.  We raised it from $250.  I'll let you know how we do.  Hubby also agreed to one day a week "no meat" day to help.  That means a lot since he is such a meat and potatoes kinda guy.  So you can see that we are definitely babystepping our way through our fabulously simple life!

Financially we are the same.  Still hanging in there.  I'll give you a break down soon.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon!