Blizzard of 2013

Just because it is easier to post all the pictures that I took here on my blog instead of on Facebook. So here is my neighborhood and yard. I live in a mobile home park and the owner of it will not salt or sand the streets, only plow.

The view from the door at 9 this morning.

The snowdrift on the deck.

The hubs starting to plow us out.

Lots of snow!

This side of my car is covered, the other has nothing.

The ramp up to my deck.

My yard.

My daughter in the snow in her jammies. The snow is up to her hips.

Our mailboxes and my old bosses home. Our mailbox is the one without the door on it.

Our street.

Big snow pile in front of a neighbors home.

My car rescued from the depths of the driveway.

Plowing a path to the oil tank.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

There are some recipes that I make that I do not want to use any chicken stock in it. Basically anything that will be vegetarian.

Because I am into spending less and wasting little, I make my own stocks. During the warm months, I compost all my peelings and normal veggie parts one would toss into the trash. However, in the cold months, when I can not compost, I use those peelings to make my veggie broth.

Every time you peel, cut, etc, save those trimmings into a gallon sized bag. Make sure the veggies are cleaned and the trimmings are relatively dry. I pat them down with paper towels. You can also use a salad spinner if you have one. Store the trimmings in the fridge.

Some good trimmings to use:

Stems from herbs

Leafy celery tops

Potato peelings

Carrot peelings

Bell Pepper scraps (no seeds)

Any parts of an Onion

Tomato cores

Some bad trimmings to not use:

Broccoli

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Brussel Sprouts

Basically anything that is bitter, do not use.

After about 4 days, it is time to make your broth. Try to have about 3/4 of the bag full of trimmings. If not quite there yet, just add some limp celery or other veggies you have on hand that have seen better days.

I make mine in my crock pot and have it cooking on low over night for about 8-12 hours. Make sure to cover the veggies in water. In this batch I happen to have a bunch of potato peels and my gallon bag was full. I had to keep pushing my veggies down (they tend to float) to make sure I had plenty of water in the crock pot.

After the stock has cooked, strain  & toss out the veggies. I strain the broth again through some cheese cloth to catch anything small that might have snuck through.

From here, I can the broth for a later use. Process pints for 30 minutes and quarts for 35 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. Do not use the boiling water bath method, only the pressure canner is safe to can broth of any kind.

Car Headlight Lens Restorer Kit

My car headlights have been really foggy and really suck. They are not bright at all. As a joke, the hubby got me one of those lens restorer kits for Christmas. You know the as seen on TV ones you can get from Walmart?

Well, seeing how the other day it was freaking 60 in the middle of January up here, I decided to use it and see. It smells horrid, kind of like paint thinner. I forgot to take a picture of both headlights before, so the before shot is of the left and the after is of the right.

So you can see that it is really gross and foggy. It really doesn't shine bright at night. I have to turn my high beams on to see anything. After following the directions on the box (really easy 2 step process), this is what it looked like:

Not perfect, but much clearer. The sponge thing the kit came with was nasty dirty even though I cleaned the lenses before like the directions said to. I can still see a few foggy areas, but it is on the inside and I am not going to bother taking the lens off to clean it.

I have yet to drive at night to see how much brighter it really is. I did turn the lights on to see how much brighter, and they do seem much brighter.

My Coupon Binder

I have seen many different ways to make a coupon binder. I have tried a few different ways, like cutting out every coupon and putting them in baseball card pocket sheets. That was annoying and hurt my hands with all the cutting. So, here is how I do my coupon binder. 

I use a 1 inch binder, but I do need up upgrade it to a 2 inch. I made a little cover sheet to slip inside the clear cover.

Inside the left side of the cover, I put in the coupons that I either printed from the web or have yet to add to my binder. On the right hand side, I have a pencil pouch that holds loose coupons I got from magazines, mail or other outside the newspaper means. It also holds a pen (to make my shopping lists), scissors (to cut out the coupons I need) and a Sharpy marker (to date the coupon packets).

The first pages hold all the coupon policy's for all the stores that I can use coupons at. For me, those stores are: CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Dollar Tree, Stop & Shop, Shaws, Target, and Walmart. 

This is a must to have with you. There have been a couple of times where I have had to point out the policy of a certain drug store. I have yet to use any coupons at Dollar Tree, because honestly, it is not worth it. My store carries very little name brand stuff and what they do carry (like Hefty storage bags) has such a little amount in them, it is not worth buying. But, I have the policy just in case.

Every Sunday, when the coupons come out, the hubby heads to the store for me and buys me 2 papers. I am not an extreme couponer and hate that some people take out the coupons before the papers are sold. The store near me has to return any unsold papers with the coupons intact in order to get a refund. The hubby makes sure that the papers he buys has the correct amount of coupon packets. 

For each coupon packet (RedPlum, SmartSource, or P&G), I put the date they came out in the upper right hand side. Then I go through each packet, separating the pages. Then I staple the upper left hand corner as close to the top of the page as I can get. Then I slip the packets into clear page protectors. I use CouponMom to make up my shopping lists and she lists the date that the particular coupon you need comes out and what packet it comes from. So, if I need a certain coupon, I cut out just that coupon.

I keep my binder in my Hello Kitty tote bag. It makes it easier to carry (I have like no wrist or arm strength thanks to my RA) and it also has inside pockets to hold my phone and keys. I also keep the current store add in there to compare with what is at the store. There is a few times an item is advertised in the paper at a lower price than they show at the store. It helps to have the paper with you to get the lower price.

My First Infusion

After trying Enbrel for over 6 months, my rheumy decided to put me on something else. The Enbrel simply did not work for me. It doesn't work for everyone. I hate the commercials for all biologics, like Enbrel and Humira. It makes it seem that if we take this shot, we will be cured. Ya, right. It takes about 3-6 months for them to start working, if they do at all.

Anyway, at my last appointment with my rheumy, he decided to put me on Actemra. It has the same side effects as Enbrel does but it could also raise my cholesterol levels. I have always had an issue with my cholesterol. He did lots of blood work and then called me the next day. Apparently my cholesterol is great, for once. It was 167, down from 264 from last year. Because of the cholesterol risk, he decided to put me on Remicade instead. Fine with me. I have herd lots about it and it works for them.

So, today was my first infusion. I got there a few minutes before my appointment, just in case. The infusion center is a big open room. We have recliners, our own tv's and our own headphones that will stay there. They offered me snacks and something to drink. I was kinda dehydrated so they gave me a bottle of water and gave me intravenous fluids before the infusion. I was even given a nice hot blanket.

My nurse, Cindy was so nice and explained everything to me. She started my iv in a vein in the middle of my hand. She missed the vein or went through it because the saline started to build up in the area around the vein. It didn't hurt but I started to get very light headed almost right away. IV came out and I got put in the blood pressure machine and layed back in the recliner. I was sweating and felt like I was going to pass out. Hate that feeling.

After a few minutes, I felt back to normal and Cindy went back to starting up the IV. Second time was on the top of my wrist. It didn't hurt but man when that tape came off, that hurt.

I guess it takes 30 minutes to mix my Remicade because it goes by your weight, so they gave me my fluids while I waited. I also got a Benadryl and a couple of Tylenol. Good thing I asked my neighbor, Nancy, to drive me. Benadryl makes me tired and I sure was once this was all done.

Once the Remicade was ready, that got hooked up to me. It took 2 hours for that to get into me. I had my phone, a book and come needlework to do while there. I tried to do some of the needlework, but I think me moving my hand, even the little I was, messed up with the IV. I think the alarm on the pump went off like 5 times because the needle kept bending inside my vein. Didn't hurt thank goodness.

So once the Remicade was done, I had to stay an extra half hour to make sure I didn't have any issues. They kept me hooked up to the IV and finished off my bag of fluids. The last hour I was really cold and dozed a little. I was really tired from both the Benadryl and the fact that I was there for over 3 hours. Long draining day. The next infusion is in 2 weeks and that one should go faster, plus I don't have to stay for the extra half hour after.

I took an hour and half long nap when I got home.I think the only reason I woke up was because I herd Matt come home from school. I would have slept longer I think. I am hoping that this stuff works. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Happy Halloween 2012

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy's arrival tomorrow, our town celebrated Halloween tonight. For the past few years, Matt has always been dressed for the military, but this year he decided on something different. After seeing some ninja weapons at Walmart, that is what he wanted to be.

All I did was dig out some black sweats, a black turtleneck and made a head piece out of a black shirt. All I really paid for was the weapons, which cost me 8.00. After I put on his head piece, he looks at me and says he looks like a terrorist. I was like, Ummm don't say that outside this house. He kinda did, I guess.

A week ago we decided to carve one of our pumpkins. I saved all the seeds to roast up.

 

Not bad, eyes are a little off though.

Seeds all cleaned and dried all ready to be oiled and salted up to roast. Yumm!

The pumpkin all lite up with a taplight. LOL

We also grew our own pumpkins this year, with help from my dad. He gave us the seeds. We gave him the biggest one that grew.

These are the ones we kept. They eventually turned a little darker orange red.

The pumpkin that went to dad.

My new toy

This summer we grew a ton (and I mean a ton) of tomatoes. We ate a ton and the rest I cut up and froze till I could borrow a food strainer to process all my Roma's into sauce. Towards the end of summer, we were getting sick of eating the Grape and Beef Steak tomatoes, so I chopped them all up and froze them all.

Three gallon sized bags, 2 quart and one sandwich sized bags full. Then the hubby said to go ahead and buy myself the strainer I wanted. This showed up this past Monday afternoon:

My food strainer and additional screens for pumpkins, berry's, grapes, and salsa. So I put all my tomato bags into the fridge to thaw out. I had to dump out a lot of water from the ice melting.

 Here it is all set up, just ignore my clean dishes in the background. hehe

In use. Look at all the yummy tomato goodness.

Full pot of sauce cooking on the stove to thicken it up a little. It was still very thin even after letting it simmer for a long time and adding tomato paste. Still smells yummy though.

Leftover tomato skin and seeds for my compost bin. I wonder if any tomato plant will start to grow?

All canned and cooling on the counter. I got 8 pints out of all those tomatoes. Not bad for a first time.