February List 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...

• start planning the garden (ordering seeds, etc)
• convert toilet to low-flush mechanism
  

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

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted)
  
• eating down the stores through February to reduce outside purchases (challenge)

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

• thermal pot 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.

• "put up" granola for the summer
• make hot sauce from canned and stored food on hand
  
• start making custom-sized socks
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got
  

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

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!)
• began planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors
  

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)
• continue with art journal

How I Did "Anyway" in January

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 - I'm not doing it, hubby is -- and it's dependent on weather at this point Cold weather overtook us and we didn't really get a thaw this month.
  
• sealing up the cellar foundation Only a small amount of work done on this.
  
• sealing up windows in the two storage areas off the kitchen Nothing done
  
• de-clutter and organize art and craft storage Completed and a much more workable space now because of of it.
  
• curtains on the windows of one room for sound-proofing and heat retention Done.
  

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

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted) Still not sold.
  
• eating down the stores through January to reduce outside purchases (challenge) Reduced our outside spending to under $100 -- and that included some stock-up! Also decluttered the pantry and organized "oldest first" use.
  
• set up budget for our next travel vacation The budget is set and the money is being saved so we'll have all funds available before we go so we won't be "spending ahead" via credit card. We'll still use the card, but funds will be in the chequing account to cover it.
  

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

• thermal pot cooking Have been using it for soups, curry, stew, rice -- sometimes twice a day!
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible) I've been dressing for the weather and walking is no problem. I also got a lighter, more erogonomic one strap pack which is great to use.
  

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.

• designing reusable Christmas tags from photos I took of Williamsburg wreaths Done
  
• learning to make custom-sized socks Did the reading and measuring, but have yet to start a pair.
  
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got I've knit a couple of things for myself, but other things are planned.
  

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

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!) Nothing done
  
• begin planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors Nothing done
  

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) --> explore using iTree software for them It looks like we'll be able to do a lot with iTree.
  

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 Lots of walking and we've had enough good snow that I could also do Nordic skiing this year.
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books) Delightful to read to a book of short stories a friend wrote and gave me for Christmas.
  
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook Got caught up from past trips
  
• start an art journal Began it!
  

Week Four: Eating Down the Pantry

We had a last kick at a great dollar sale at one of our local grocers, so some money went for stock-up of Astro yogurt, frozen fish, oatmeal, soy milk, and bread. We also got some fresh stuff: regular milk, produce, ginger root, discounted wheat tortillas, and tea. I spent $34.30 for the week. Our total spent for the month was $99.87. So $100 to our travel savings for our next trip in March!

I finally got to the falafel and I'm glad I did: they were very tasty with some chutney and yogurt on tortillas.

Food eaten:
• chili with stored beans, salsas, stock, and home-canned chili meat
• oatmeal-fruit bars with canned fruit spread
• chili pie with made chili, pepper jack cheese, and cornbread topping from stored mix
• fruit crisp with canned fruit sauce and stored apples
• pasta with mixed veg, frozen turkey sausage, home-canned sauce
• frozen shepherd's pie
• pizza with home-canned sauce, artisan dough, mixed veg
• falafel from stored mix with stored chutney

The Siren Song of Seed Sites

So I visited one located in Manitoba because it is almost February and I thought I'd check out a few heritage varieties...

Heritage Harvest Seed has a plethora of heritage bean varieties: bush and pole, green and dried. It's wonderful reading the historical descriptions. I decided to get a long season pole bean for green beans and old variety of pinto beans. They also have a variety of leaf celery that is supposed to dry well and seems to be more practical for me to grow.

Now I've really got to do a thorough inventory of what I have on hand before I get any more!

Week Three: Eating Down the Pantry

We had a good food week -- sufficient variety and used a few more things that had to go.

Food eaten:
• remainder of lentil soup
• one frozen portion of lasagna
• canned pumpkin in pumpkin custard and pumpkin waffles
• vegetable soup with stored squash, dried red pepper, dried greens, frozen leek greens, dried zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, canned tomato stock
• mixed-bean soup with ham stock, sausage from fridge, stored potatoes, carrots, and sweet potato, roasted red pepper spread, left-over rice, home-made hot sauce, fresh parsley growing on the window sill
• Algerian flat bread with hummus
• beef and broccoli in black bean sauce over rice: local grass-fed beef, local green pepper, broccoli, on-hand black bean sauce, stored rice
• sweet-and-sour pork over rice: frozen pork, cooked rice, fresh pineapple, vegetable odds-and-ends

The $1 sale was still on at a local grocery store, so a few more things got stocked up: soy milk, crackers for travel. I also used a half-price voucher at Almost Perfect for some hummus mix (great for travel!) and frozen asparagus and sweet potato fries. All told we spent $18.59 for groceries.

Week Two: Eating Down the Pantry

We finished sorting out the pantry: consolidated food items from the metal shelves to the wooden shelves (which, of course, had more space because of the clean-out last week), got rid of a few things, and stored like with like so things are easier to find. The double row of plastic storage has been reduced to one; a container of cloth went to its more appropriate place in the sewing/art room.

Food eaten:

• remainder of lentil soup
• began eating venison summer sausage
• one frozen portion of lasagna
• pizza with homemade sauce (tomato & roasted red pepper) and crust, venison sausage, mushrooms, peppers, cheese
• shepherd's pie: grass-fed beef burger, stored potatoes and carrots, frozen peas, canned cream corn
• homemade artisan bread
• vegetable soup with stored squash, home-canned tomato stock and veg stock, dried greens, dried zucchini, dried red peppers, quinoa, home-made hot sauce
  
• home-canned stew with frozen peas

There was a great $1 sale at one of our local food stores, so a few items that we like to keep a stock of were bought: canned tuna and salmon, canned corn, macaroni, bread and wieners for the freezer. Another store had my favorite yogurt on special, so I bought 3 containers of that. I can make my own, but it's not as yummy. We also got more frozen fish to last us through the winter. Of course the new stuff has been stored "behind" the older stuff. With the other usual dairy and fresh produce, total spent: $35.91

Week One: Eating Down the Pantry

My husband and I went through the bank of shelves in the pantry that is four feet high and eight feet wide. He moved stuff out to the kitchen table one shelf at a time and cleaned the shelf while I sorted. It took us a couple of hours but such satisfaction when it was done!

I was surprised how little there was that had to go: a couple of items past their expiry dates and a couple of pest-infested containers. I moved all of the pasta out of bags and boxes to sturdier glass, heavy-duty plastic, and metal containers. We've not seen any mice in the pantry this year (though a couple died in our trap under the kitchen sink), but this should protect some stuff that was pretty vulnerable otherwise. I consolidated a few packages of things. I also wrote on the kitchen white board things that are a priority to use up.

Food this week that used up some things:

• lasagna: I had the cook-before-use lasagna noodles so I made a big lasagna with tofu, cheese, grass-fed beef, dried veg, and -- of course-- three pints of homemade tomato sauce. We had two meals of it this week and one lunch for me; two containers for two more meals went in the freezer.
• corn-tomato soup: I had two lunches out of this using a corn chowder mix I had on hand with some left-over stewed tomatoes
• lentil soup: I had some mix I bagged up a couple of Christmases ago as well as some dry sausage and more dried veg. With this years tomato stock we got a very hearty and nourishing soup out of it. We have one more evening meal and couple of lunches left.

Groceries actually purchased this week: milk, half-and-half (I use it in making yogurt), organic mushrooms, red and green peppers, zucchini. Total spent: $11.53 The milk and mushrooms should last us two weeks.

Eating Down the Pantry in January Challenge

I've decided to join Angela Barton's January pantry challenge. I have the impetus of it being a good excuse to clear out usefully overstocked aspects of my pantry (three cans of cocoa??) and the need to free up some cash for car maintenace on my fixed income.

Also, in my case, my pantry extends into my cellar where I have nearly 300 jars (most a pint or less) of preserves from this year's harvest season. A lot of it came from my garden or in-season and/or local sources.

The only things I should need to buy this month:

• pre-made sandwich bread for my husband (I prefer homemade for myself)
• milk (mostly for my husband; I did stock up on soy and I have almonds to make my own almond milk)
  
• yogurt -- unless I can figure out how to make it as cheap or cheaper than a brand that I found I can digest
  
• coffee (for my husband; I'll use more sparingly the decaf I have and drink more herbal and green tea)
• onions (I'm running low on the 10 lb bag I bought in the early fall plus what I got from my garden)
• frozen peas (we'll be doing more stews with grass-fed beef from the freezer)
• lunch meat for my husband

I'll be blogging about interesting discoveries in pantry contents and what I did with them, new recipes and/or uses for things, and actual week-by-week food purchases.