Will hauled in extra firewood while I put new shavings down in the duck and chicken coops. I’ve been busy trying to shell out the two crates of Carminat pole beans. These lovely slender, purple pole beans are so beautiful and crispy tender, we can’t be without them. Unfortunately, the seeds are small and are very hard to get out of the pods. I worked half an hour and only retrieved a large handful of beans! You can’t tread on them in a bucket, either, as the remnants of the pod clings to the beans stubbornly. Maybe this is why the commercial beans are very expensive — $44 a pound!

I spent the morning shelling out Carminat bean seeds.
This is all the beans I got after half an hour’s work!
I wish we could shell these beans by the easy, treading method.

Our friend, Tom, was scheduled for another procedure at Mayo Clinic on the 13th of this month (tomorrow) and his friend, who was going to drive him down, developed RSV. So, at the last minute, Tom called me and asked if I could take him. Of course, I don’t mind a bit but we’re both concerned about the big storm that’s headed our way. There are between 4 and 18 inches of snow coming. Ish! I’m praying hard we can squeeze in between the storm cycles and make it down and back safely.

I’m getting serious about plotting out my gardens for spring as the grocery shelves continue to have lots of blank spaces. And the prices keep on climbing upward. I saw eggs for $5.99 a dozen yesterday. I feel like kissing each of our hens right on the lips! I feel so blessed to have the ability to grow most of our own food and have a fat pantry full of thousands of jars of beautiful food, already put up for future meals. — Jackie

21 COMMENTS

  1. Just wanting to wish you a Merry Christmas. Keep warm, and keep up with all the work that you need to get done. Bette

  2. Safe travels to and from Toms appointment. That storm is a doozie.where I live we are only getting rain but it is much needed. We have been so dry. Love the dog photo bombing in the pic of you shelling beans. The cheapest eggs I can find here are 3.49 a dozen at Aldi. My hens have stopped laying ( I’m down to 3 courtesy of the foxes). Planning to grow my flock this spring. I keep adding to my stock pile of groceries every chance I get to stay ahead of the shortages. Prayers for a safe and healthy week.

  3. The church ladies here have hooked me up with a local chicken grower that gives me large colorful eggs, freshly laid, for $3 a dozen. I do supply him with the egg cartons to recycle. It is a great deal I think and am glad that this area in eastern Washington is still semi-rural with many u-pick farms and mom-and-pop stands for fresh produce. We also have a market here that is employee owned and often buys from local farms. I am feeling spoiled because I can preserve from very fresh foods :)
    But at the moment, its icy out there and the daytime highs are below freezing and will continue to be for the foreseeable future… such are the four seasons, eh?!

  4. Pack warm and take extra supplies when you travel. You might get snowbound for real. And yes, God feeds the birds; but, He doesn’t throw the seeds into the nest! Love, love the puppy nose in the picture. Saying prayers for all of you in the storm.

  5. The storm heading your way has been a doozy…… Causing havoc across the country. This morning, there was wind (possibly tornado) damage in my area of N. Central TX. I know you are prepared and won’t have to go out to do last minute shopping. Put another log on the fire! We are to get cold (for here) right before Christmas. 18 degrees……..

  6. We am so grateful for our chickens too. We had been saving their fresh, clean eggs (we eat the ones that are less than stellar as far as clean goes) the last several weeks to water glass them in case of hard times. To date we have 160 eggs in a 5 gallon food-grade bucket of hydrated lime water and adding more each day as we get them. My 8 hens are still giving me 3 eggs per day even though we do not heat their coop or have a light in it so they can rest naturally from this task in the winter months. The humble chicken has saved many generations of people with their eggs and meat throughout the ages and we are so blessed to have them here on our little Idaho farm. Hail to the honorable chicken!!! Love to read your updates, Jackie, you inspire us all and we will order your garden seeds when the next paycheck arrives. Thank you.

  7. We had good luck on my weather for my Dr appointment trip on Friday. Wednesday last week had a big snow in the Matanuska valley and Anchorage with a foot to 30 inches down and enough on the mountains between us and there to make travel difficult. We left at 5AM and got home at 10PM. (It’s 200 miles one way). Then late Sunday through last night to give as much as 20 inches here in Copper Basin. Hope you have as good of luck!

  8. I’m grateful for my chickens too! Also for my growing food storage. I’m doing everything I can to expand that! Travel safe. The storm we were supposed to get ended up being a fizzle. I guess it is supposed to strengthen as it moves toward you.

  9. Just paid $6.99 for 18 eggs at WinCo ..lots of stores in the Phoenix area are that much for a dozen..couple in front of me paid 465.00 for there food..yikes I am planning a big garden these prices are insane.. Jackie you and Tom be safe..hope the weather is ok until you get back home

  10. Here in Ely Zups had 18 eggs for 10.25!!! And they aren’t even the good ones.
    Prayers for your travels. As my dad always said “Honey, take your time.”
    I’m so thankful for Mayo. Our 15 year old nephew just had a heart transplant. When he was born they didn’t think it would ever be a possibility for him.
    Take some beans with you. Something to do while you wait. :^)

  11. Prayed for your trip, Jackie. Yep, I’ve got many a seed to harvest from pods, etc, if I’ll just get to doing it. The space in my larder has shrunk considerably with the summer time, as I’ve put-up quite a bit what I’ve grown, as well as some things I’ve purchased. Here in far north California haven’t seen any shrunken shelves, as Kim mentioned, or empty shelves at Winco or Costco, whatsoever, but prices are sky high! I still buy 5dz eggs at a time (wish I had hens, but refuse to until husband makes the coop bear and fox proof), which at the grocery store $3.92 dz, and Costco’s $2.69 dz.

  12. I was mentioning somewhere that just because giving tithe results in the devourer being rebuked for our sake, and he cannot destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, doesn’t mean we otherwise have no responsibility in a physical and material way. God doesn’t do all the work. He works in conjunction with us, giving us knowledge, and guiding us here on the earth. Putting up and preserving is just one of those responsibilities!

  13. Trying to buy nuts for baking this year is literally nuts. No bare spaces, just shrinking shelf space, especially in our highest end store. So disappointed.

    • We use pecans, walnuts, etc. a lot but have to purchase them. Our trees that are a dozen years old have seldom produced, but then the squirrels get them all. Guess Bone Sauce is said to work marvelously to get pests of all sorts away. Maybe I should try it around my hen coop to keep bear and fox away. But, then, it’s become my storage for hundreds of canning jars! Oh, well.

    • Try Nuts.com or Azure Standard. They often have things that are hard to find at the grocery store.
      We have a Natural Grocers which is a health food chain, and they have eggs as low as $1.99/dozen for courtesy card holders. Some of their eggs are from local, organic farms. I sometimes buy eggs when my girls slack off in the winter, or instead of the 3 egg omelet I usually have, I make a quiche with just 4 eggs and whatever leftovers I have, and that will serve for breakfast for the whole week.

  14. Will be sending good karma that you get down and back sans a weather event. I know you have your vehicle prepped for winter travel. I’m sure Mayo can assist if for some reason, it isn’t safe for you guys to travel back post-procedure.
    $5.99 for free-range organic or factory eggs (as I call them)? Glad we had cold/flu meds already as those seem to be in short supply. We’ll get some weather from the storm but appears we’re on the edges so at this point in time, not looking too bad. But that isn’t a given so we’ll be ready.

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