Scottish money- We found it really easy to get in the habit of spending it!

Bear here with the last blog of the year...

IT'S BAAAACK !  The Buy Nothing Challenge (BNC) is almost ready for the new year.  Why?

• Our trip to Scotland affected our spending habits for the worse. We didn't worry about what we spent because we were on vacation, but we kept going when we returned. It is easy to keep spending once you get in the habit of it.
• By going back on the Challenge we will curb our impulse buying and keep track of what we spend money on. Could it be possible to live on only one of our incomes?
• Does spending more affect the quality of our lives? (A new bed, meditation classes, and Master Naturalist training improved Theresa's. Spending more on food at work just increased my belly {by 30+ lbs} definatly not a life improvement!)
• I have a boss who STILL is amazed that my allowance in previous Challenges was 50 cents a day for food at work. Due to inflation this year I will get $3 a week, which is still less than 75 cents a day.
• We have spent a lot on going out to dinner and getting groceries (Theresa says $1000 a month for the last three months!). That is the biggest part of our spending and by paying attention we can curb that and save some cash.

Theresa and I are working on the 2018 page to go with BNC 2014 and 2015. It will have this year's guidelines and results. Hope ya stay interested. 

By the way... Taking advantage of our last chance to order out for pizza tonight.... Ironic, isn't it?

​Type at ya in the New year...

Bear here... 

You may have heard that we are writing a book about our experiences using our wood burning stove.  One of the main things people seem interested in is using it for cooking. Can you use a small wood stove to cook a big meal? Yes you can! (With good planning.) We proved it this Thanksgiving. Here is some of what we did...

The day before, cooking pumpkin for pie...

Multi-tasking: boiling eggs (for Theresa's Deviled Eggs) while keeping our smallest cat warm...

If your pots are small enough you can multi-cook too...

Thanksgiving day, multi-cooking the corn, the potatoes, and the garlic cream that goes into the potatoes...

Remember that pumpkin for the pie?

Yep, we gave our wood burning stove the bird...

... and we didn't forget the gravy!

Dinner is ready- Time to eat!

Yes, it is ironic that the last photo is on the electric stove that we didn't use all day, but it had enough space to hold all the cooked food so we could take a photo for you!

Hope all your Thanksgiving meals went well.

​Type at ya later...

Bear here... 

Looking at our sunchoke page I noticed there is a useful part of the plant we neglected to mention- the dried stalks. They're not  just for compost anymore!

Sunchokes can be harvested in the Fall or Spring. The tall dried stalks (they're even taller than me) need to be pulled to get to the tubers. During the Winter the stalks we leave behind the bird feeders create a bit of a windbreak and give the birds more places to land.

In past years we've thrown the stalks into our compost bin or added them to our birdie condo, which is the pile of branches and sticks in the photo below. Many birds shelter there in the Winter.

The compost can only hold so many, and Theresa didn't like the way they looked on the bird condo (too straight), so what do we do with the leftover stalks?

We decided to break them up like this...

For kindling to make this...

Yep... It's a great example of using all the resources we have. We only need a handful or two for some great kindling to start the fire in our wood burning stove! 

Speaking of our stove... we'd like to thank everyone for making the wood stove section on our site the most viewed pages. We're getting so many hits that we have started writing a book about our experiences with the many uses of our wood burning stove.

Side note: We're also interested in what you would like to see in the book, so add a comment or send us an email with your suggestions.

Type at ya later...

I decided we could chop them up and put them in my homemade coleslaw, in place of the pickle relish I usually add. I had to use about nine beans before we could taste the flavor. It was yummy.

.Bear, who is famous (at least with me) for his cheese sandwiches, realized that everything goes good with melted cheese, so added them to a perfectly toasted mozzarella and pickled bean sandwich.
(Bear here...  It's always perfect when no one is watching. Why couldn't I do this in the Grilled Cheese Championship?) The spicy beans paired well with the plain cheese to give the sandwich a little kick.

Then we took the coleslaw and added it with some chunks of smoked salmon to a couple wraps. Unfortunately, I tried to fill them way too full, so Bear wasn't able to use his professional burrito wrapping skills- the wraps mostly fell apart, but they were still edible.

So that is how we figured out how to not waste food. A little creative cooking made use of a flavor that we didn't think we liked, but found out we did. It's a good skill to cultivate, because some day we might not be able to go to the store and simply buy different food. And I like not being part of that statistic that says Americans throw away 40% of their food.

Bear here, 

Winter is coming and the foraging season is still plentiful if you know where to look. This weekend we looked to the farmer's market, the public bike path and our yard, here is some of what we accomplished.

From our yard ​we pulled arrow root from our home made pond. We are planning to use them like potatoes.

From public land we found two apple trees. One had big apples and the other small apples so we used both to make apple sauce. The apples may look ugly but the flavor is great, we didn't have to use much honey or cinnamon to sweeten it. We made 13 pints!

From the farmer's market we bought a large container of dark honey and enough sweet peppers to chop and freeze over 20 two cup freezer bags! No pictures because we finished late and I forgot. That's OK... We will still be able to taste summer in February.

​Type at ya later...

Bear here...

As of this weekend Theresa and I have been married for 16 years. We have worked and played together. We have had a lot of adventures and one of them has been this website. Our thanks to all of you who are interested in what we do and follow our page. I figured some of you would be interested in how we celebrated, Our Tiny Homestead style...

The Work : 
Our Catio needs a Patio. We found out that the hay bale bed in the catio was not our best idea so we bought a lounger instead. The lounger needs support so it doesn't sink in the mud so we have decided to support it with a paved patio. This weekend we got the patio area ready for pavers.

The Play: (You know I mean cooking!)

We decided to eat dinner around the camp fire, so I started it while we were working on the catio patio (fun to say, it catio... patio...).  I had everything ready to grill and remembered I didn't light the charcoal.  Not a problem this time.

Good company,
Good food,
And a great night by the fire,
Doesn't get better than this!

​Type at ya later...
​

Bear here...

Ever had that day when you looked out the window and said CRAP!!! ... DOUBLE CRAP!!! Where did all that snow and ice come from!?! NOT,  PREPPED,  FOR WINTER.  Not a good feeling. Caught with your pants down & and ice dangling from the sensitive bits.

This is a friendly reminder to get ready. I have a few tips here & if you really want to be ready to ride the storm out here is a link for our Prepare for Power Outage page, 

TIPS:
OK... 1 tip...

 IF you have a wood burning stove, get the wood ready NOW. Mine has been delivered but I still need to stack it, split enough kindling to last for 5-6 months & split enough wood so we have smaller pieces to get the box hot enough to burn the bigger stuff. with my work scheduel  it's going to take me at least 2 weeks if I'm lucky, chances are it will be done around early October.

Oooo... thought of another tip... clean your chimney before everyone else does theirs, less waiting for appointments. I f you clean them yourself Its a good idea to have a professional come out every 2 or 3 years to inspect for other repairs. If you want to do it yourself there are tips on How to Clean a Chimney.

It's better to be ready than sorry, just sayen...

​Type at ya later...

Bear here...

Our new neighbor in the garden is a Black and Yellow Garden spider (Argiope aurantia). She can eat bugs that are twice her size.  Just to let you see how big she is here is a picture of her near my thumb...

She is a beneficial garden spider built for getting rid of pests. Her venom doesn't harm humans. Her bite is like getting stung by a wasp. I probably should have looked that up before the picture was taken.

I was careful NOT to disturb the web for the photo, We saw her almost go after a flying bug but she decided against it.

Just more cool stuff you can find in the garden.

​Type at ya later...

Bear here...

Cool news first. Theresa has been taking classes the past six weeks and is now a certified master naturalist (she has a badge and everything!). What this means for me is we have lots of her study books to look up the actual names of stuff in our yard. (... What? ... Whoa... I can look up stuff in books? Is that like studying? Not so sure I' into that, but... I digress...) She now has field guide books and knowledge on mid-western amphibians, mammals, birds, plants, and more. (I'm pretty sure there is more...)

Today's Look and Book is Reptiles & Amphibians and the type of frogs we have are... Green Frogs!
(How obviously... descriptive(?). Boring. They look like green frogs with bright green lipstick so I'm calling them Lady Frogs (the males can be called Frogs in Drag).

Today was the first time I was able to get a picture of three of them! There is a brown circle behind the eyes that is their "ear." Male's circles are bigger than the eyes and they have bright yellow chins. Here are some close ups. Can you tell if our frogs are male or female? (Some of the brighter green spots on the frogs is duckweed.)

Out of all the pictures I took these were the best shots. I took a lot of pictures and boy, was I hungry after that! I needed a sandwich.

COOK OF ANARCHY TIME!!! 
​

Bear here...

Some people think for a meal to be really great it has to have a complex recipe with lots of ingredients and multiple levels of cooking techniques. I am thinking that's B.S. What you need are good ingredients and patience for the process of cooking or putting it together.

"So Bear, do you have examples of good meals that were simple to put together?" you ask. But of course, dear reader, so glad you asked! And I have the pictures to prove it!

Example #1- Simple tomato and cucumber salad:

• Chop the first tomatoes of the season  (from our CSA)
• Skin, seed, and chop cucumbers (from our CSA)
• Grate a good tasting Parmesan cheese.
• Chop fresh basil (from the yard).
• Combine everything in a big bowl.
• Add 2 tblsp olive oil and 1 tblsp balsamic vinegar over everything, and mix.

That's it. It tastes amazing when you haven't had tomatoes since last Summer.

Example #2- a simple grilled meal:  

• Shuck corn, slice zucchini, season steaks.
• Grill veggies until browned the way you like them (no oil needed).
• Move coals so the veggies stay warm without burning, grill the steaks, and you are good to go...

Example #2.5 (if anybody cares): While I was outside, Theresa boiled then mashed potatoes, adding butter and fresh chopped parsley. She also browned mushrooms, more zucchini, and onions in a frying pan, with the rest of the fresh parsley.  As you can see, everything was great!

Since this is about simple food, I'm keeping it simple and stopping for now.

​Type at ya later...