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| Move over girls. This is mine. |
I have several places that give me food for my hens. My friend picked up a box full of scraps before he left his town. Armed with a big bowl in the backyard of my home, he put it all on the table in the back yard and picked out anything that looked promising.
Food I salvaged to eat
Potatoes--1 gallon
bell pepper--1/2 cup
2 pears
14 oz squash
cucumbers--more than a pint
tomatoes--about two cups
The potatoes are in a bowl of water, ready to be cooked.
Bell pepper is in the dehydrator with other things.
Pears! I hate pears, so he took them home. They are not mushy, just not pretty.
We had squash on two salads tonight. The rest will be cooked for tomorrow.
Cucumbers! They will never pass through my lips. He had them on his salad and took the rest home.
There were enough tomatoes for two salads and the BLT I have planned for tomorrow.
Salad greens were given to me. We had chicken on our salads...free to me. So, the only thing I had purchased was the bit of salad dressing I purchased with a coupon. If I were feeding just me from the free chicken produce, I could eat for a suppers for a week if I include the free chicken and free Romaine.
He took home enough Romaine for two salads, besides the other vegetables. Two chicken thighs were frozen for him to take home.
Chickens don't like potatoes anyway. Potatoes and citrus went into a compost where I will not use it for growing anything. There were plenty more cucumbers...they attack those. I think they probably had two gallons of produce today from this box. Another half gallon is in the house for tomorrow.
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| The sliced, refrigerated tomatoes did not make this picture. |
Even if I managed to stand at the counter and do all this, the ants were all over. Despite everything I have tried, including vinegar, cinnamon, pepper, and Terro, they remain. I get the counter all wet with Dawn and water. That drowns some and seems to discourage others until it dries.
Tonight, I will use the vacuum on the fruit flies, ants, and the one fly that just came in.
Doing well
I have only spent about $40 and the month is almost over. This is how. I will need milk and bananas. If I see stock-up prices, I will be buying those.
Your turn
Have you started eating your animal food?
I don't have animals that eat this kind of food, so no. We are producing pretty well in our own garden and so our food is mostly "free". Your food looks positively scrumptious!
ReplyDeleteOh, about the ants. Do you have trees too close to the house? If so, the base needs to be sprayed. If you have a basement or crawlspace, that needs to be sprayed. We actually had ants in our third floor apartment. Nothing we did worked inside. The landlord finally sprayed the outside of the building. Done.
ReplyDeleteI have had these every year for six years, sometimes for six months at a time. Last year, I was searching, poison in hand, determined to find the source of ants. Finally, I was admiring the bit of volunteer wisteria, spawned by my fence wisteria. I noted that the wisteria was trying to go under the clapboard siding. There on that tendril of wisteria was an army of ants, pouring into my house. I pulled that piece of wisteria off the house, and I had no more ants. Last week, exbf cut it all down, again! I had him cut the volunteer elderberry tree/bush that was all over the house. The ant flow stopped,almost. The dogwood has a tiny branch about 12 feet overhead that touches the house right above the window where they seem to come in. I just know that is where they are coming from. I was going to have someone cut it. I never thought about spraying the base. That will be done within the hour.
ReplyDeleteI just love free food! Yes, we eat our chicken's food. Or do they eat ours? I guess we all just share. lol
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great with your budget! Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Free food is the only way to keep my budget in order. It's amazing because most of it looks no worse than food in the store after I have had it home for two days. Ooops, I forget I have a plastic bagful on the floor of the car.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need to read more of your blog from the beginning, but I gather from various posts that you are in somewhat of a financial bind right now (am I correct? apologies if I'm not). If so, could you give me a little background (or direct me to a post) regarding your financial situation? Might help me better understand some of your posts regarding finances.
TLC, I wrote you an email.Ask anything you like.
ReplyDelete