Yesterday was day one on my one year journey of urban homesteading while living in a rental. For those of you that don't know us personally, our income was just drastically reduced as Tim switched to a new job. He was hired on as full time, general labor, but the man he was supposed to replace wasn't approved for his disability. So we are now living on a part time job trying to make ends meet. Trying to live as frugally and ecofriendly as possible in a rental isn't bad, as long as you have a landlord like ours who doesn't mind if we till up half the backyard to garden. "It's just grass," He said. These are the steps we took yesterday to work towards our goal.
Boiling a whole chicken
Now that was an adventure. I did a little research online, pinterest & google, and a few websites had varying advice. I boiled the bird too long. By the time I went to go pull it out it crumbled under the tongs. I had a hell of a time trying to de-bone it with everything just floating around. I did however end up with 4 quarts of killer homemade frozen bone broth, also known as liquid gold, to add to my growing stock pile of home preserved food. I boiled the whole frozen chicken, minus the neck and organs, in a stock pot filled about 3 inches above the bird, with what fresh herbs and veggies I had from the garden; basil, rosemary, green beans, peas, and pearl onions with a little salt and pepper of course. We ended up using half of the chicken for salads today and had bbq chicken sandwiches for dinner. We got 3 meals ultimately out of a $5 bird!
Freezer Cooking
I also made 18 frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I try to buy bread in bulk when it is on sale for a really great price. I had three loaves of bread, which I would normally just throw in the freezer until we were ready to use it, and decided to make ahead some "uncrustables" for a 1/4 of the cost. I ended up spending $4 to make 18 sandwiches, when they retail at the grocery store $3 for 4 of them for an almost 80% savings!
Clothesline
I have a clothesline rigged up between two trees in our backyard. It is about 80 feet between the two and even with a line separator and tightener I have succumbed to the fact that I will have to rig up a T post line because even if I get the line as tight as I can it still has a pretty big sag.
Garden
I planted a new batch of corn in between the 10 in tall seedlings I planted a few weeks ago. I also went ahead and planted 4 bean seeds around the corn stalks in hopefully create a synergistic environment that will hopefully cut down on our weeds in the garden. I also pulled up the tomato plant in the front yard that had a virus and replaced it with a new Chive and Basil plant. The radishes were pulled up yesterday, the ones that never quit made it, and a burpee lettuce mix was planted in its place. We also sowed a few more sunflower seeds to hopefully have a succession of blooms through the end of July into August. Next week I have to start and plan where our broccoli, fall cucumbers, kale, spinach, peas, beets carrots, garlic, and lettuce for our fall garden.
No comments:
Post a Comment