Are things looking up?

Well, it has been a few months since my last blog.  Just haven't been in the mood to type anything.  Since February, we did take a cheap vacation that didn't turn out so well.  My husband did get a job - that he absolutely hates - they treat him like poop.  He's been in the hospital with a serious bacterial infection.  We adopted 3 horses.  I had a job interview on June 10th and made it to the 2nd round.  That round won't happen until a certain person gets back from vacation on Monday.  I am so hoping I get this job.  It is only 6 miles from my house and it's 8-5 most of the time instead of 10-7 with an hour commute each way.  This company also offers full benefits - which means hubby could quit his job and go into the hay cutting business that he wants to do.  I know - a lot of risk, but it could be worth it.  He and a neighbor are working on the detail.  We took our 12 acre field out of the CRP program - wasn't happy with the requirement to spray Monsanto's Round-up products - they make enough money poisoning our food supply and I'm not going to help them.

We are currently babysitting a friend's puppy while they are vacation for the 2nd time this year.  He's a sweet puppy, but he keeps pooping in my bedroom - even after we take him outside.  Frustrating - thought I was past the puppy phase of having dogs!

I am currently bottle feeding 2 orphan rabbits.  Their mama is a Red San Juan mix, but refused to care for her litter of 8.  These 2 are the only ones left - they are almost 4 weeks old now.  Starting to reject the formula because they are eating grass, pellets and carrots.  I have installed a water bottle for them, too.  I guess I am adding 2 more pets to the herd as I told my hubby that they were not getting sold and they were not going in the freezer.  He just frowned. I've worked way too hard to keep them alive thus far. Going to try to figure out to build a hutch for them with scraps and a little farmgirl ingenuity.  We'll see what happens.

I failed miserably with my seed starting this year.  Oh - it started out great, until I put them outside to harden off and I forgot about them until about 2 weeks later.  They were certainly crispy.  Oh well.  We have direct sowed many other seeds and things are growing.  We have some volunteer pumpkins coming up in some very strange places, too.

Hubby built 4 raised beds for me.  He also built 2 stalls in the barn and we are going to start on a 3rd one this weekend.  My 2 year old horse is at the trainers for the month and so we have put off building it.  We put the 10 year old in his stall and the 15 year old in her own custom built stall.  She's only 28 inches tall so everything had to be built to scale for her.  Seems to working.

That's it for today - getting ready to head home from work.  Yes - I did this while at work.  I can do things like this while at work because we are a very slow store.  As long as we help customers when they walk in, the boss doesn't really care what we do.  That's one thing I will miss.  See ya' next time.

Budgeting help for organic shopping

Today, I actually got to go to rummage sales and take my time looking. I didn't buy too much. I found a couple of Pampered Chef things that I can use and 1 to give as a gift to my mother. I also found a shopping tote that says right on it "Organic". Of course I couldn't pass that up for only 25 cents. That was all I bought at that particular sale. After we got back to my friends house - I decided I needed to go to the store.

I grabbed my little shopping bag and headed in with my hastily written list. ( I wrote it in the parking lot) Even though all I really needed when I entered the store was cat food, litter and those dynamo label cartridges, I decided to revamp the household with some new organic/natural items. We as a family are also trying to find gluten free foods for our son.

I headed to the health and beauty aisle first. Even though Meijer is getting more natural and organic items, Tom's of Maine is most familiar to me. Purchased toothpaste-4.69, bar soap-3.49 and aluminum free deo-4.99. I have a bar of "crystal deo", but I am nervous about using it. I am sure some of the truck drivers I deal with daily wouldn't even notice, but I would know if it wasn't working.

On to the groceries. What follows is a list of current Meijer prices for anyone looking to change their eating habits. I realize there are probably other places I could have gone and may have gotten better deals, but Meijer was on the way home and we don't have a Whole Foods Market near us. (nearest is 30 miles) I have included the name, whether it is organic or not, quanity and price.
Florida Crystals organic cane sugar, 2lbs @ 5.58 on sale 2/5.00
Wholesome Sweeteners (fair trade) organic sucanat (dehydrated cane juice) 1 lb @ 4.09
Meijer Organics EVOO 17 oz 7.99
Meijer Organics Crumbled Feta 6 oz 4.79
Meijer Organics trad. refried beans 15 oz @1.19 each got 2 for 2.38
Meijer Organics Tomato Sauce 15 oz @ 1.39 each got 2 for 2.78
Meijer Organics Golden Sweet Corn 15.25 oz @1.09 each got 2 for 2.18
Meijer Organics Tomatoes with Basil 28 oz @ 1.59 each got 2 for 3.18
Meijer Organics Tomato Paste 6 oz @ .75 each got 2 for 1.50
Bob's RedMill GF All purpose Baking flour 22 oz 4.99
Bob's RedMill GF Almond Meal/Flour 16 oz 13.99
Bob's RedMill GF Tapioca flour 20 oz 3.89
Bob's RedMill GF Bread Mix 16 oz 5.39
Bob's RedMill GF White Rice Flour 24 oz 5.79
Bob's RedMill GF Creamy Rice hot cereal 26 oz 4.89
Tinkya'da GF Brown Rice Pasta Shells 16 oz 3.89
Blue Diamond GF Natual Almond nut-thins smokehouse flavor and cheddar flavor 4.25 oz 3.39 each on sale 2/5.00
World's best kitty litter (made from whole kernal corn) 8 lbs @ 8.25 each got 2/14.50 with coupons.
Meijer reusable shopping bag .99

The only non-organic/natural purchases - mailing tape, dynamo label refill cassettes, and cat food for the barn cats.

Total for the organic/natural items is..................112.54

This includes the bag and the kitty litter. That may sound like a lot, but if you think about it, the flours, sugars, cat food, litter, toothpaste, deo and soap don't have to be purchased every week.
That would lesson the bill by more than $85. This money could then be used to purchase organic cheese, meat and veggies. If you find a good deal on the meat, you can freeze it. This blog is merely here to help someone who might not think that buying organic is affordable when in fact it is. You have to shop wisely (it helps to have a plan). Still don't think you can revamp all at once? Then don't. Start small with 1 or 2 things that you think you might like such as EVOO and the canned veggies. Also remember that I am leaning toward a gluten-free diet as well. You can find organic regular flours, crackers and other goodies that might be a little bit cheaper. Gluten-free foods have to be processed and packaged in separate facilities to prevent cross-contamination. This means higher overhead and higher prices.
I will leave you with this thought - It is better to pay a little bit more money now for organic/natural foods and products than to pay with your health later because you didn't.