What a Lovely Day!

We've had rain for the past four days.  It had rained before I got up.  The morning was cool and overcast.  I had my coffee on the porch and left my phone inside.  Rufus and I sat together.  I saw a hummingbird fluttering about my few flowers.  That's the first time I've seen a hummingbird this year.

We walked out on the patio after I'd finished my coffee, and I looked over the plants.  The fig tree I thought had died has already budded again.  There are a few zinnias popping up from the last planting.  The basil has grown to nearly six inches in the last few days.  I checked the tomato plants.  As full of blooms as ever, but still no tomatoes.

It was a really nice start to the day.  

I took pancakes out of the freezer last night for breakfast this morning and I'd set aside one portion of the sausage I bought yesterday to cook.  I started the sausage and went out on the back porch where Rufus and I agreed that we absolutely must tackle his fur once more.  His hair grows right down over his eyes, and he's been blinking underneath a heavy set of bangs.  When I gathered up his bangs to cut them, he didn't even flinch.  He just sat down and waited.  I guess even Rufus knows when it's time for a haircut.  I hacked at some of the matted spots on his back and he let me work on him for more than ten minutes.  At some point he has to have a bath...Fun times ahead for us both!

After breakfast, I took time to journal for a bit.  Then I wrote out a to do list and got up to get busy.  I accomplished most all of the items on my list.  What I didn't get to was taken up with things I hadn't planned to do today but did anyway.  

While I was journaling, the sun came out, the skies cleared, and the day turned out really lovely.  That was unexpected but so welcome.  It's still cooler but having sunshine made it even better.

One of the girls on Instagram is an Amazon Affiliate.  She shared a photo of a nightgown today that was nice.  The price was really good.  I've had nightgowns on my list of things to buy for quite a long while now.  I placed an order for nightgowns today.  I can knock that off my list.

Please note that the pressure canner is sitting on the counter.  It's recommended that you use wide mouth jars and not the smaller mouth ones.  I have quart jars that are wide mouth so I'm going to start with those. I cooked two chicken frames today and plan to can that broth.  I also took all of the ham broth out of the freezer.  I will remove the fat from the top of that and can that as well.  If I'm making soup I'd use a quart of broth at least.

I am waiting for the chicken broth to cool so I can remove the grease, and the ham broth is frozen I'll tackle that task tomorrow.  I'm actually looking forward to it.  I've waited too long to start this.  I was watching Hometown Homestead on YouTube this week.  She uses the same Presto Digital Pressure canner to do both her water bath and pressure canning.  She has a houseful of children so I know she wouldn't be using anything unsafe for her family.

I worked hard but I stopped several times to rest along the way.  I made some Chicken Pot Pie filling for supper tonight using the meat left on the two frames.  It is starting to warm up again, but Chicken Pot Pie was the only thing I could think of that I really wanted.  I normally would make a couple of other dishes. I was out of ingredients to make two of those and the third one I would make is already in the freezer in good supply.  So, Chicken Pot Pie was all that I had in mind.  While that baked this evening, I sat down in front of the fan with an iced coffee.  That pot pie was delicious.  I put another quart of filling into the freezer for a future Pot Pie.  

I'm enjoying stocking up on supplies of all sorts for this month of the #everybitcounts challenge.  I had found a decent buy on peanut butter at Amazon but tonight when I was going over grocery ads, I discovered Publix has a buy one get one sale on the same brand with a 3c savings per ounce over Amazon's current sale price.  I'll pick up at least a half dozen jars this weekend when we're in the area.  That's really the only sale worth purchasing this week over the three groceries in that area where I'd typically shop.

I don't plan to 'miss' a day to add to my pantry, however.  There are many items we need.  Some of which I can make myself.  This week I plan to make breadcrumbs.  I'd like to mix up some taco seasoning mix if I have enough chili powder.  I have a lot of dried beans which I could put up as canned beans.  I will have to go buy wide mouthed pint jars for that.  I can buy those locally for a decent enough price.  I have cabbage and egg roll wrappers.  I'd like to make egg rolls for the freezer.  I have frozen cranberries that I want to hot water bath can for cranberry juice.  I'm thinking about trying to dehydrate some blueberries.   I can harvest and dry parsley, basil, chives and oregano.

I'm taking Sundays off from this challenge because I am doing more than one thing most days towards this challenge.  I'm keeping a list of all that I add to my pantry or freezer this month so I can look back and see what all I've added.  It is intense, but I'm not knocking myself flat out either.  I'm just trying to get my supplies back up to the level where I want them.  In the end I'll have restocked, but I'll also have used what I have on hand to help do that very thing in addition to purchasing items.  

Today I set aside some potatoes with eyes and a celery root end that I want to plant and see if they will produce something.  I have some green onions I've been growing in water for the past couple of weeks that I'm going to go ahead and plant outdoors as well. A little later this month, I am going to plant some seeds for green beans, squash, cucumbers, peas, beets, radishes.  I think planting should count towards the challenge as well.  Hope counts, doesn't it?  I'm gathering seeds off my flowering plants as they appear.  I think I'm going to ask Sam if I can possibly harvest some of his flower seed heads as well.  His garden was so lovely this year with all the flowers and his varieties seem to be hardier than the ones I've bought.

I guess, aside from the fact that I haven't done a big stock up in a long while, I want very much to feel I've done something to carry myself forward into the fall, winter and spring.  And this is something that I can do this year.  I couldn't last year.  I might not be able to do so next year but I can right now so I'm trying to make it count.

I felt like I accomplished a good bit today, but I wasn't as worn out as I was on Monday.  I think I found a good balance today.

This evening, we sat here in silence as we waited the Wednesday evening airing of church service.  The cicadas sang in the Faith tree outside the door.  The AC was off, thanks to our cooler temperatures and I could hear birds twittering.  It seemed like the perfect ending to a day that started just as pleasantly.   

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