etienettebluet | Entries tagged with free-cycle

Friday I went to lunch and the library for more genealogy work. Picked up the inkle loom, a nice medium size somewhat lighter than the big one the Mobley's gave me a few years ago. Spent the evening picking out the last row in the corners of the garden star flimsy and cutting the pieces to finish out the corners.

Wednesday was another pretty day and I should have gotten some yardwork done, however I didn't accomplish any of that. I went to check out some storm windows on Freecycle and thought I'd take at least a couple but couldn't fit them in the car and had to leave them behind. I took some of my salsa and some chips to share at Walt Library where we were only a few this week.

Friday afternoon the new washer was delivered but in the process of turning off the water, hooking up the machine, and turning the water back on the hot water connection has sprung a slow leak AND no hot water flows into the machine. We can do cold water laundry for now and I called and made a plumber appointment for Monday. It's just one thing after another ain't it? I did win a freecycle offer and went over to pick up a box of Cooking Light magazines.

Sunday afternoon we got out and did some more yardwork. Leofwyna put the winter protection on her rosebushes while I put things away in the garage and rearranged more piles of leaves using the yard vacuum to break them down to put on the next 'working' bed. That evenng on Freecycle I saw there was some black dirt available so Monday morning I took off with the van and some bushel baskets... SCORE! If there's any still there Thursday I'll drag Leofwyna over to help get another load. Monday evening I headed over to Writing group where I managed to reconstitute a little ditty from my childhood to add to my book. Then at the end of day was this month's massage; I'm lovin' those. Oh yes, we're on Sammy duty again this week.

WEDNESDAY

I'm still working through the genealogy site with intermitant stash laundry. Leofwyna came home from the Shar-peis for a couple hours late this evening. She misses me! This was the first of five days she's staying over there with the dogs.

THURSDAY

I went out to pick up a couple FreeCycle hits late this afternoon, ink cartridges was one and the other was ten pounds of potatoes. Unfortuntely I couldn't find the potato address in the dark so I'm trying to line up to pick it up another day.

Leofwyna made a steak supper for me tonight at the Shar-Peis house where there's a gas grill on the deck in back. Naturally the weather chose to start with the freezing rain but the steaks were great. We played a game of Scrabble before I headed home to the computer and more stash laundry.

SUNDAY

Got out for awhile to pick up a quilt batt I won on Freecycle. It's a 90x108 Mountain Mist in an unopened package. Fed Shelly's cats, dropped books off at the library, and stopped for a burger, then back home for more genealogy posting.

This evening Leofwyna and I went over to renew our acquaitance with Bailey and Sam since we're taking care of them over Christmas. It's been a year and a half since we sat with these two Sharpeis. They're strong dogs and we're careful about handling them. Anyway, they both seemed to remember us and were delighted with the attention. At 12 Bailey is very old for her breed. She has been our sweetheart for years. The much younger Sam has finally settled down a little from the very rambuctious puppy he was. He's still very mouthy and bouncy but if we're very firm with him he'll back off a little bit.

SUNDAY

This morning I put two pork butt roasts to cook in the big crockpot with six cloves and a couple bay leaves and set some free-cycle beans to soak. I had a pint of pork gelee in the refridgerator from a couple weeks ago so I discarded the fat from the surface and put the gelee in the pot with the roasts for moisture (instead of water). In the afternoon I started the beans cooking on the stove. Late in the day I boned out the roasts and let the meat and beans continue cooking in the crock pot along with three peeled and grated carrots. Then I roasted the bones in the oven on high half an hour and put them in the bean juice with more water on the stovetop to cook down. Mid evening I picked out the bones to cool and cut every bit of meat and now soft grizzle off them, chopped this goodness up and stirred it into the crockpot too. I boiled down the strained liquid from the pan until it too could fit in the crockpot and left the whole thing cooking another hour.

I'd done everything I could to maximize the flavor and it was so worth it. Leofwyna and I were sucking the bones around 10pm and decided we had to have a bit of the soup too. It was really yummy beyond our usual simple pot of bean soup.

Although the weather people had said we'd have nice weather today the temps never got up to where I wanted to work outside so the veggie beds are still neglected. I spent the afternoon skimming through the genealogy site (Ancestry.com) learning how to deal with it better. Dad's side of the family tree has been developed a great deal more than ever before and his mother's line takes us back to the 15th and 16th Centuries in part of it. I did get out briefly to visit the library where I found a huge pile o'books I'd requested so I'm set up for a week or so with those now.

SATURDAY

Some strangeness today in that while I was getting further into my genealogy on Ancestry.com I found an obituary for my second ex. Apparently he died six years ago, age 56, but no clue to what caused it. But the strange part of it was he'd moved back to Virginia and OWNED a diner. Considering his self-destructive behaviors and inability to hold on to a job, or wife for that matter, it leaves me wondering what happened to get him straightened out this much. I'll probably never know but it is a puzzlement.

While Leofwyna slept I put together a big pot of hamberger-potato soup using the potatoes I'd grown this year (all of them). After supper we went to pick up the bags of books I'd succeeded in obtaining on Freecycle today. Turned out to be six grocery bags and although we haven't sorted through them yet it looks like an interesting mix of books on the surface.

SUNDAY-MONDAY

I put the crockpot on with a pork roast and a can of salsa from the freecycle bag I picked up last week. Not too bad. I plan to use leftovers in flour tortillas with avacado, sour cream and shredded cheese this week. Aside from that I'm still quilting but it looks like I'm going to be able to bind it soon.

WEDNESDAY

Decided to skip the archery tourney and keep at the quilt. Leofwyna brought KFC home after spending time at Shelly's. I won the contact on FreeCycle for a bag with beans and some canned stuff.

THURSDAY

Picked up the bags... turned out they left out two grocery bags of stuff. I can use the beans, Life cereal, cans of tomato salsa, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, salmon and beef with gravy. Will pass on a partial bag of vegan soups and seasoned rice things. I put supper together tonight while Leofwyna ran her errands and we watched a DVD movie, The Holiday, which we'd missed in the theater. It was a good one worth watching again if we can get a better (non-skipping) copy.

FRIDAY

Picked up a 'manager's special' pork roast to put in the crock pot; thinking I'll Spanish it up with a can of the salsa.

Made contact with State Farm for a check on the scrapped fender this week. Made contact with Tiaa-Cref about some retirement funds to keep me going while I continue looking for work.

Quilting... quilting... quilting. I am making some good progress; maybe it'll be really done in another eight days.

TUESDAY

Read an interesting book on the Internet on dumpster diving. What with the finances and job situation I'm considering this... seriously.

http://raccoonsongs.com/Raccoon%20-%20Miscellany/Dumpster%20Diving%20book/Art%20&%20Science%20of%20Dumpster%20Diving.pdf

Meanwhile I scored a connect on FreeCycle for some beans and canned stuff. No doubt I'll be eating chili and other beanie dishes this winter.

MONDAY

Leofwyna was so delighted with the scrapbooking magazines I found the other day that she gave me money today to go see if any of the others were left. I found seven were still there out of the twelve, but the ones that were gone were ones I probably would have still passed on anyway so I was pleased. I'd won the contact to get four bale-sealable bottles on Freecycle and picked them up. I stopped in a nearby thrift store and found an unopened Mountain Mist batt for $1 so I had to get that. I also sent off this month's fax and deposited a couple refund checks at the bank before heading back home to eat leftovers and put the crockpot on with turkey legs, barbeque sauce and crushed pineapple for supper. [I shoulda drained the pineapple.]

This evening we went out and carried the dirt into the garage from the van and poked about putting things ready for emptying the spare bedroom onto pallets there for sorting later this winter. We'll soon have the spare room set up for crash space, too. I've got a couple more things to list on Freecycle and Leofwyna's got things to put on Craigslist.

SATURDAY

Up early again to pick up a few square feet of good garden dirt at 10am. A FreeCycle contact turned out to be Asa from our local SCA group; what a coincidence. I wasn't the first contact but that person had a family emergency and had to back out; I was second up. How lucky was that?!

On my way back home I stopped in a thrift store I'd not been at awhile and found one of those Tupperware lunch box sets. It was all there but the little tumbler. I thought Leofwyna might want to use it for her lunches. I also found over a dozen scrapbooking magazines so I found a chair and looked through them all. Ended up taking three of 'em for Leofwyna. I'll tell her to stop in and check the others if she wants more.

Went back out later this evening to get some groceries for tomorrow's potluck. Back at home I unloaded odds and ends to make room for the gold key; got that loaded. Put together the apple-bean-sausage cassarole to put in the 'fridge tonight. It can go in the crockpot there late tomorrow afternoon to get heated through for supper, easy-peasy.