PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: And Then There Was One

Monday, September 21, 2015

And Then There Was One

I went out in the middle of the night to check on the two remaining chickens. The little one was gone. There were no feathers, almost like she was spirited away. After spending thirty minutes in the pen, searching for her and for a breach--nothing! Obviously, this carnage happened at dusk, not dawn.

My friend has been helping me sort and organize food in the kitchen. She moved a bookcase in the kitchen for more items. When I get my photo system on the computer or ipad, I will post the bookcase with a little gingham curtain over the front. Of course, I put the curtain up with no hardware, the cheap way. The curtain only cost a quarter, Martha Stewart, and from a yard sale.

Yard sales are everywhere on the weekends. But, this year, I have only stopped at one. When the woman yelled to get out of the car because everything was $1, I just kept going. I like quarter items!

Your turn
What is your summer find at a cheap price?

6 comments:

Anne in the kitchenSeptember 21, 2015 at 2:14 PM
My best find this summer was a free find (doesn't get cheaper than that) Our neighborhood has a FB page and one of the neighbors had a little girl kitchen free for the pickup. My granddaughter is about to be 2 and doesn't visit often, but I do like to have things for her to play with when she is here. This only required 1 screw and it was as good as new. Now if Pip will just come to Alabama...
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LindaSeptember 21, 2015 at 11:29 PM
Anne,
Free is the best kind of bargain! I do hope she will come to AL Her parents will have a hard time prying her away. soon. I have found all sorts of "food" for these play kitchens. A few years ago, I found baking quality play pans with the rolled edge. I paid a quarter for the two.
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Anne in the kitchenSeptember 22, 2015 at 2:38 AM
I will start hitting the fall yard sales looking for food , pots and pans and dishes. I like the sound of a quarter
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Sonya AnnSeptember 22, 2015 at 9:52 AM
I got ink cartridges for my printer for $2 each, they are normally $20. Yard sales are about over in my neck of the woods. It is getting cold. Yuck. Now I need to start working on reorganizing the kids rooms.
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Monday, September 21, 2015

And Then There Was One

6 comments: