Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Saturday, November 26, 2011

This And That

photo by Mrs. Mac
Last week my cousin helped to restore some functions on my computer.  I now have found my 3,000+ pictures and can, once again, download new ones from my camera.  Can you hear me dancing for JOY :)?? 

Here we are approaching winter and all of the snow we received two weeks ago is gone.  It's actually been warmish (late spring temps) in the 40's to nearly 60 degrees (F) of late.  Warm enough to thaw out the ground to plant approximately 75 bulbs of garlic.

Since Daylight Savings time has ended a few weeks ago, I have reset the time on the thermostat so my heater doesn't automatically come on an hour earlier any longer.  Let's see:  one hour early x 30/31 days per month  ='s 30/31 hours each month that the heat would run when not needed.  We keep it at 65 F in the morning and evening, and 59 at night.  At noon it's set at 62 and I wear a sweater and/or turn on our little gas cast iron room stove.  Of course, if company comes over, I turn up the heat to make them more comfortable.  I'm still at that stage in life when a 'personal summer' hits me once in a while .. which isn't all that bad during the winter months ;).


It's been eleven months since we bought our wheat grinder.  I'm always one to examine purchases to see if what we buy is really paying off and or used.  We (I) make about 90% of our baked goods, and have gone through almost two 25 lb bags of wheat berries, using the grinder two times per week.  The wheat cost $26.  I've also gone through about 30 pounds of white flour ($17).  When you add in the extra ingredients such as eggs and the 7-grain cereal blend I use ... and the fuel to bake, I think we will be way under $100 for the year.


This has produced approximately :  52 loaves of bread, 382 rolls, 20 rounds of pita bread, 36 biscuits, 150 ableskivers, 72 waffles .. and countless batches of cookies.  I do believe that, by the time January rolls around, the wheat grinder will have almost paid for itself if we had had to purchase this amount of baked goods.

9 comments:

Dani said...

LOL Daylight saving is so foreign to us - wonder what life would be like with that?

Is your wheat grinder electric or manual?


Btw, have had Nathan in my thoughts for weeks - how is he doing without Miss Holly? Please send a hug to him from Cape Town, South Africa :)

Lynda said...

How lucky to have *found* your pictures! I try to keep all of my on flash drives that I've dated by year.

I love grinding my own wheat...such a wise thing to do. I've never taken the time to figure how much I save. I just know I love the end product!

Mrs. Mac said...

Hi Dani .. I'll pass on the hug to Nathan. He seems not too emotionally upset (could be a trait of having Down syndrome .. and makes me wonder if I'll be missed when I'm gone ;) .. unlike me that took two weeks of crying to 'get over' Holly's death! My daughter brings over her adorable dogs when I watch my grandson so that's helped a great deal!

I bought an electric Nutrimill grinder after much consideration over having a shoulder injury ... and having to grind so much wheat. The injury has healed PTL.

Hi Lynda. My pictures were backed up on a portable drive thru June. The computer and it's slow connection speed from living in the North Woods is a bone of contention most days.

Sue said...

Hi Mrs. Mac-thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. I'm looking forward to going through your posts-we have similar growing seasons and I like thriftiness too!

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Mrs Mac
Glad to hear all is well.
The wheat grinder sounds great.
What are ableskievers?

Mrs. Mac said...

Cabbage Tree Farm .. here is a link to a post on ableskivers: They are the equivalent of Danish donuts .. although much better :)

http://this-newhouse.blogspot.com/2010/12/danish-heritage-cooking.html

Geno said...

it must be a good feeling to have the pics back! We have fought the computer more than once for those things. The kids were pretty disappointed about how quickly the snow disappeared. But there will be more I suppose. we have a Family Grain Mill that we bought almost three years ago and we love it. We don't use it as often as i would like, but one day...

Dani said...

Mrs Mac - You constantly inspire me to become more unselfish, giving and thoughtful.

I've given you an award!
http://ecofootprintsa.blogspot.com/2011/12/liebster-award.html

Thank you, for your love of sharing, your inspiration and your support! Dani :)

Morgan said...

Hey, Mrs Mac! I have received an award which I have to pass on, so I would love to nominate you, too! I love your blog, the recipes, gardening and general frugality, so I hope you will pop over to my blog and accept your award - there is a button to share.
Morgan at Growing in the Fens