This Year to Date

After looking at my picture of water storage, I realized we didn't have enough water so this week I added another 14 gallons of water to storage. I still have more to go but a little bit at a time is all I can do.

Also I picked up some deals at the dollar store on cans of strawberries and mushroom soup (2 for $1). Into storage they went. And at Walmart believe it or not I actually found clearance on Freeze Dried Ice Cream Sandwiches. I bought out the last seven they had and the kids ate two of them and proclaimed them excellent. I looked up freeze dried ice cream sandwiches on line and I see there is a shelf life of 2 years. I'm hoping for a little more so we'll see.

Overall I think this has been a good week for storage. I know Wifey also stocked up on some of her vegan food too.

Food storage has been going well. Last month my in-laws gave my a large cooler full of pork and bacon from their last pig. We've been signed up for a New York State program (Anyone in NY can join) called food sense and for $15.50 you get 10-12 food items a month. And there are special packages you can buy too. This week we received fish, potatoes, pepper steaks, broccoli, carrots, polish sausage, rice, canned fruit, fresh grape tomatoes, chicken patties and more. This program helps extend our food budget and the food tastes great.

The wood is still holding out in the shed. At most there is a month's worth of wood left. That's not quite enough for the season. Next year I would say we need to add about 3 more cords to make it comfortable and definitely add more bundles of kindling. We'll run out of kindling this week or early next week for sure.

We've had problems with the roof leaking over the stove. We discovered this was because of ice build up on the edge of the roof. The wifey chopped it away with a clawed hammer one night. She climbed on the roof after dark with a head lamp (bought from the dollar store) and chipped away. The light and the wife worked well and the leak went away.

We've kept the thermostat at 62 degrees in the house this winter. It seems chilly a lot but if we sit by the fire and cover with blankets we keep warm. So far this winter propane has cost $500 and then $400. (This doesn't include the first filling of the tank.) We still have more winter left. Brrrr.

Next winter we will put in a wood stove. I'll be sad to change the fireplace for this but the house will be warmer, we'll save a lot of money on heating, and even if the power is out it'll be warm. The fireplace loses to much heat out of the pipe.

The electricity keeps going up about $5 a month, which is really annoying me since I unplug everything and often sit in the dark at night. This month I'll concentrate on unplugging my laptop more and see if that will make a difference.

At this point I'm really looking forward to spring. We have a supply of seeds to plant. We won't need to heat the house and our expenses should lower. Okay we'll get through about two more months of winter and spring should arrive. I'll keep my fingers crossed and maybe it'll be an early spring.