Woodburning Furnace

Sitting around today waiting for the new Woodburning Furnace. I will posts pics later, I am so excited. We are on our path to off grid. I started another blog that goes into our off grid plan for the next 5 years.
Also this last week I have planted 140 plants for the garden and started to prepare for spring which will be busy. We are looking for wood so if you have a tree that needs to be cut down please let us know. I will also be moving the wood Cook Stove to the garage or Shed to work on it before we can bring it into the home. There are two small cracks in the oven but Im thinking a little screen and stove cement and it will be good as new for a few years. Check back for pics.
First 2 Pics are Our Wood Cook Stove, pic 3 is the date of the Wood Cook Stove. Amazing it still works beautifully, date is Sept 20, 1906.

Rollie and his 20/20 on the world

Rollan had an eye dr. apt this morning so on our way I was listening to Chris Baker Ktlk. Chris was upset that the Attorney General had given a speech saying America was full of Cowards. We were raciest, and we should be out engaging our lives with illegal aliens. Chris Baker was fired up because out of all the stuff going on in America this is what the Attorney General had to say. He went into how this is the one year anniversary for Columbin (killer was an illegal alien) and how Phonix was the 2nd highest place for child abduction but all the Attorney General had to say was we should be having Barbeques in our back yard with illegal aliens and we should go ice fishing more with illegal aliens.
All of a sudden Rollan burst out laughing in the back seat, I ask him why he is laughing and he says Aliens on Earth. At first I had no idea what he was talking about so I said " why would there be aliens here Rollie" He said, "Well that is what the news guy said, He said we should go ice fishing more with Aliens and we should have them in our back yard. Is that guy Nuts Aliens aren't on Earth".
I had to tell this story because this is one I just don't want to forget.



Rollie has 20/20 vision and doesn't need glasses. YEA!

Bacon

Never blog while making bacon. Yep, its burnt. Well for all you bread makers out there I found something out today, you can use a little button on your stove called proofing to have your bread rise. Its so cool. Talking with Sara I was telling her my trick to get my bread to rise. I used to turn my microwave on for 45 seconds then turn it off and put my dough in the microwave so it would stay warm. Sara asked why I just didn't put it in the oven and use the proofing button. Wow, my bread looks awesome and so much poofier. So there is the tip of the day, see if you have a proofing button.
Second tip, If you are a huge couponer like me and have not set yourself up for paper delivery on Sunday mornings this tip will help. First buy your paper on Saturday the early edition, same coupons. Also buy it from one of those paper machines. We have one in front of McDonalds and its .25 cents cheaper. This way you can look through the ads a day earlier and see which day you should do your grocery shopping. Last week milk was 3.75 per gallon this week 1.64 per gallon. Last week bacon .68cents this week over 3.00. This simple thing can save you a ton. Also some websites like hot coupon world will actually post the ads a few weeks ahead of time so you can plan your whole month of grocery shopping.
Lastly, please pray this goes through. I had a lady on a cast iron stove Yahoo group contact me about wholesaling my homemade soaps in her store. If this happens it will be some extra cash for the family. Also on Saturday Jeremy will be skiing with experts Sara, Virgil and I, please pray his legs and head stay attached. He has only skied once with me. Ok just pray we have some good laughs and some fun with old friends. I attached a pic of Bono playing the guitar and Norah singing. Also Cait took a pic at Grandma Diane's of her smiling goat. He was happy to see the kids, wishes they would come around more.

Big Weekend

Valentines Day! Ok it was Saturday but Love is still in the air. We had a blast, Madison had friends over all weekend so she passed on the Vday Fam activities. Thursday Jeremy and Iwent to the movies. Yep you know this is my favorite thing to do in the winter. We saw Slumdog Millionair. Great scenary story line ok. Friday, Gearbear and I went and played Cupid. We went to each of the kids schools and delivered flowers and balloons to each kid. Garet was sad each time he had to give a balloon away but he always had one in the car waiting for him. Saturday we woke up and made a big breakfast for the mass amount of kids in out home. The teenagers decided to sleep through the yumminess. By noon we were off to see Coraline in 3D. We stopped at the local theater got seated, watched aprox. 2 mins of the movie and noticed it wasn't in 3D. So I went out to the box office and asked for a refund being my kiddos wanted to see it in 3D. Unfortunatly but fortunenatly they couldn't give me a money refund but instead 6 movie tickets good anytime. We the avid movie goer I am this was a great deal. You see, matenee tickets are only 4.00 a piece and regular tickets are 9.00 a piece so I got quit a deal. So we piled in the car drove 15 mins to a different theater and sordove enjoyed a disurbing 3D movie. The movie was very disturbing but the 3D effect were out of this world. Moving on we went to the big OCB for supper then off to haircuts for everyone. No not Garbear I couldn't cut his precious curls yet. Later that night Jeremy and I snuk off for a little time alone and came home with a new TV. Yep, we got our tax money back and our TV from the early 90's were barely working. So we know have a beautiful TV with no cable and a no good antena but I tell you we hooked up our old XBox and the games are so cool now. YOu can actually see something other than black. We also have a wii that we play with as a fam anad that is so much fun. Many of you know Jeremy and I are not TV people so this was a huge deal to spend our money on this. We also have a broken 20 year old fridge that can't keep Ice cream cold so on Friday my new Fridge arrives. I have been waiting for this for so long. OK 2.5 years since we moved in. Other items we are going to be buying with the big Tax refund is a Wood burning furnace (this will help our heating bill a ton) we will be cutting wood this summer which will be a wonderful thing for our daughters LOL. We will also be purchasing 4 new pairs of glasses, 2 sets of 6 month contacts and 7 dentist appointments. Hmmm, wonder if I could make that into the 12 days of Valentines song. Moving on, Sunday more kids here, played the wii on the new tv. Monday, Teens had a rock band party, maddi's glasses broke so she had to order new ones early. And now today, just a good day. I took down my dept 56 houses, as a look at each one its like a picture book. Each one has a story about who I am. I love it and they were hard to put away. I also got my tomatoes, broc, and sweet peppers planted. My green house is almost full.

Winsor Stove

My Knifty Thrifty Purchase is the Sept 20, 1906 Windsor Wood Cook Stove. Isn't she a beauty.