December list for the Anyway project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation
• sealing up the cellar foundation
• sealing up windows in the two storage areas off the kitchen
• de-clutter and organize art and craft storage
• curtains on the windows of one room for sound-proofing and heat retention
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted)
  
• starting a monthly savings plan for charitable donations
• starting a monthly savings plan for travel funds
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• Christmas baking using what I have on hand or have canned
  
• batch cooking
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible)
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• making some heat bags for gifts
  
• Christmas baking and preserves for Christmas gifts
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• teaching a celiac neighbor how to make no-knead gluten-free bread
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis)

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books)
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook
• plan some future art collage work
  

November wrap-up for Anyway project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• getting the tin roof done on the back of the house done except 2 pieces of flashing
  
• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation carry over to next month!
  
• sealing up the cellar foundation carry over to next month!
  
• build a cold closet in the heated basement may carry over to next year because I can't decide exactly where to put it
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much ad has been posted
  
• finding cheaper house insurance (done! and savings have gone to charity donations)
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• reduce daytime light use as much as practical we're both getting better at this
  
• batch cooking have used my thermal cooker lots
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• knitting socks for myself, mittens as a Christmas gift I gave up on the sock pattern after I broke a bamboo needle; did finish one pair of mittens and started another
  
• putting together some baking mixes for Christmas gifts made up some bean soup mix for gifts
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• teaching a celiac neighbor how to make no-knead gluten-free bread not gotten to the gluten-free yet, but she did learn how to make the wheat no-knead bread for her family
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis) entered one inventory area of tree points; starting to investigate use of iTree (free from the US Forest Service) for them
  
• volunteer work with the Festival of Trees' Green Team (we sort recyclables out of the festival's waste stream, saving upwards of $3000 in tipping fees so more money goes to Hospice, Hospital, and another health agency). worked the Teddy Bear breakfast; also came home with some great reusable stuff for Christmas decor and wrapping that they were going to put in the landfill
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy the fall sunsets and warm afternoons found a new trail that takes me to a good grocery story with an LCBO next door; also walked to my Quaker meeting twice -- these are half-hour each way walks. Feels great!
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books) finished two books
  
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook ran into some computer issues so had to spend time and energy on those - continue to next month

A Wandering Birthday Celebration

My husband Ray had his birthday today. He started off with a good breakfast of homemade waffles and sausage. He had a late night with his garage band last night so he pretty much doddered the morning awake.

A local restaurant always sends each of us a $10 coupon on our respective birthdays and our wedding anniversary. We usually use them. We did lunch at the place since Ray didn't know if they did their superlative burgers at dinner time and a good burger with fries was what he was in the mood for. I had fish and chips. leaving the fatty batter behind, but eating everything else. We didn't have coffee; we were planning that somewhere else.

From there we drove to the place 45 km away where we got our metal roofing from and returned the chimney kit and vent closures we didn't use -- $120 refund! We continued east on Highway 7 another 32 km to Madoc and its Almost Perfect Coffee shop. Ray had their JamaicaMeCrazy blend and I had their Brazil Bahia Blue. We also had treats (to stand in for birthday cake): a date square for Ray and a caramel topped brownie for me (so much for the diet today!).

We turned around and headed back to the Peterborough. I wanted to stop at Almost Perfect to check what they had for tea (I've gotten some nice boxes of Celestial Seasonings teas for a buck in the past) and to get Ray a bag of potato chips as his final birthday treat. No Celestial Seasonings, but I got a Tazo sampler box for Christmas as well as some Tetley Red Tea.

Our last stop was the Independent grocery store for milk. The Kawartha Dairy milk is 19 cents more than the Sealtest milk at Mac's, but it is good quality and locally produced. I also found some discounted bananas for eating, waffles, and baking!

It was dark when we got home, but only 5:30 pm by the clock -- November darkness!

A 50% Off Day at Value Village

Value Village is a big chain of second-hand shops in Canada. It has housewares and books as well as clothing. They take some donations, but mostly they buy from non-profits such as the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Periodically they have sales days: 50% off all their clothing, shoes, accessories, and bed and bath. A few years ago they used to have the discount on everything in the store, but they've limited it now.

Today was the pre-holiday one (they also had one at the end of August -- pre-school, I guess). They open two hours early on sale days, so I got there shortly after 8 am. I was interested in a pair of neoprene shoes I'd seen there last week. I figured if they were still there, my name was on them. They were!

I had looked at hats before too, looking for a good wool felt for winter. Lo and behold, I found a Tilley winter hat in my size! I've coveted one of these for years, but I always found the price too high. The original Value Village price was less than a third of the retail price -- and today I got it for half that. Just the savings in that one item (the hat was new enough to still have its owner manual) more than covered all my other purchases.

Matching the hat was an L.L. Bean wool cardigan. I didn't get it off the rack. Another woman was using the mirror I was checking hats in and she had the sweater in her basket but thought it'd be too large for her daughter who takes a size small. The size was marked as medium but the shoulder seams fell off my shoulders too, but not too much. Enough room to layer another, lighter sweater underneath it. The woman showed me a white cashmere sweater she had found for her daughter -- that she was definitely keeping.

I looked though the men's sweater and casual top section but I didn't find anything for my son or husband. I did find a Columbia micro-fleece top in my size though.

Nothing really appealed to me in the pajama section -- what I have right now will suffice. But I did want to get some elastic waist pants with pockets to see me through the next year of weight reduction. I found a brown corduroy and bright tuorquoise cotton that fit well. Coming out of the fitting booth, I saw an Eddie Bauer heavy corduroy shirt in a flower print on the reject rack. I tried it on: it fit and went with the cords I was wearing today. Its colours will also go with my jeans and some other pants I have. It's a "nice casual" and a good addition to my wardrobe.

I found a pair of nylon shorts and a tank top for summer wear as well.

A very successful day bargain-hunting!

Peoples in other places do it, why not us?

I'm trying to incorporate 5 to 7 servings of vegetables a day in my diet -- quite an uppance from the usual North American 2 - 3 a day.

In the early days of summer, I'd just go picking in the garden and do up a stir-fry with tofu or single egg omelet for breakfast. Sprouts with a splash of dressing also are great. Really added zip to my energy level at the start of the day.

November is here and though we're currently in a warmish spell (still frosty in the morning though), I know colder times are a-coming. I had stashed a bunch of tomatoes in the freezer back in October for future canning. A few days ago I got them out, defrosted them during the day, and made pizza sauce in the evening. In the course of defrosting I poured off a lot of tomato stock -- great soup base.

I still have tomatoes ripening, chard and parsley growing, and squash in storage. Those and the stock made a great vegetable soup. I froze half of it and the rest I'm using for meals and snacks. There's no starch or fat in the soup, so it is quite low-calorie. A cup of this rounds out an oatmeal (cooked with apples and garnished with yogurt rather than milk) breakfast nicely.

Mid-November Scrounge

It's been a while since I made the rounds of the recycle boxes in my neighborhood. Christmas is coming and my jar stock is low, so that was my primary objective this week.

It's also been a dry, sunny week. There's frost in the morning on everything, but the sun warms things. That we've moved into daylight saving time means it's light out at 7 am again, so that makes scrounging easier too. Though I got five bags of leaves for my garden (few leaves fall in my yard) the night before -- and they were a super find since the leaves in four of the bags were already chopped up and I had to run my electric mower over only one bag of them.

I went out with a couple of bags and came back with 4 quart jars, 4 three-quarter quart Mason jars, a pint Mason jar, a jam jar, and a face cream jar (love those for my homemade body sugars!). I also found a large wire basket of the sort you find in freezers -- too big for mine but still a great bin for all sorts of things -- and a lime green Starfrit frying pan. I'm divided between keeping the pan for myself or filling it with something like the ingredients for a paella for a sprightly gift.

Not a bad haul at all!

The Jar Dilemma

I have nearly 300 Mason jars that I've accumlated over the years -- yet I still scrounge for jars at the height of canning season. A major part of it is poor stores management on my part: I don't eat some of the stuff up fast enough. At least I do keep track of what is around from the past year or two and put a priority on using that first. But there is only so much mustard and ketchup two people can eat in a year.

Of course I can give stuff away as presents, and I do, with much appreciation from recipients. But once a jar leaves this house, it rarely returns. I can only hope it is being reused. But I've reached the point, with the rising price of new jars, of not using new jars for gifts.

So I periodically check the Value Village housewares section. Four pint Mason jars, often with bands and lids, which is the size I most frequently use, can be had for a Canadian buck plus the sales tax. These are the jars I use for Christmas gifts, as it were.

Another kind of jar is the non-sealing kind. We're getting fewer and fewer of these in our house every year. Some is because food manufacturers have been moving to lighter-shipping-weight plastic for things that used to come in jars. A lot is because most things that come in jars (jams, pickles, fruit, sauces) I put up myself in my own Mason jars.

But these jars are great for such home-made gifts as body sugars, bath salts, soup mix, and spice mixes. Baking mixes are a "once opened, it's used" sort of thing and they can easily be put into cleaned and dried milk bags (4 liters of milk are often sold in a set of three bags here in Canada -- nice size for something like a cookie mix).

The source for these: the neighborhood scrounge on garbage/recycle day. Sometimes I score Mason jars as well!

Money Out of Thin Air

Well, not really, but it sure felt that way this week: an expected cheque for energy retrofit work arrived at least 6 weeks early and the expected shortfall for house insurance (I did not have enough in the savings account to cover the new rate which was 150% of last year's) turned into a rate lower than last year with much better coverage when I queried and found a new insurer -- and the payment system moved from a lump sum at the start of the year to monthly payments during the year -- so I had insurance savings to use for my year-end charitable donations.

Two-thirds of the cheque is going to savings that have been depleted/not added to in the past few months, about a third will be for our Christmas travel, and a little bit will be some "mad money". One reason I had felt in a financial bind (not a serious one -- I could have dipped into savings) was that I had actually pre-spent some of that cheque for a guitar for my husband. A well-deserved reward for all the retrofit work and roofing he's been doing.

We've been with the same house insurance since we bought the house. In that time we've upgraded the plumbing, laid down metal roofing, and upgraded the electrical. Maybe we could have got better rates if we had talked to them, but the "bump" wouldn't have disappeared entirely. I checked out other mainstream firms and got quotes that were about a hundred dollars over our rate last year.

Then I checked out the small insurance company we get our travel health insurance from. I belong to something called the Quarter Century Club for Ontario public service retirees and this firm gives that club good rates. The health insurance rate (here in Canada you need it spectacularly if you do any travel to the US) from them was definitely lower than that from CAA. I went through the lengthy phone interview and then was pleasantly surprised when the rate they quoted me for much better coverage was lower than my rate last year before added on taxes. It was a no-brainer to go with them. Then a no-fee monthly payment plan was the icing on the cake. We already do that with our travel health insurance. It really is the way to go when you're on a monthly income.

The Anyway Project for November

The categories for the Anyway Project are:

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• getting the tin roof done on the back of the house
• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation
• sealing up the cellar foundation
• build a cold closet in the heated basement
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much
• finding cheaper house insurance (done! and savings have gone to charity donations)
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• reduce daytime light use as much as practical
• batch cooking
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• knitting socks for myself, mittens as a Christmas gift
• putting together some baking mixes for Christmas gifts
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• teaching a celiac neighbor how to make no-knead gluten-free bread
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis)
• volunteer work with the Festival of Trees' Green Team (we sort recyclables out of the festival's waste stream, saving upwards of $3000 in tipping fees so more money goes to Hospice, Hospital, and another health agency).
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy the fall sunsets and warm afternoons
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books)
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook