I hope those of you in the U.S. had a wonderful Independence Day! We spend the evening at a local lake to watch fireworks with family. Here are a few thrifty things I did this week:
4th of July decorations: I used things we already had to decorate with. The wreath pictured above was made with a stripped-down, free grapevine wreath out of someone's trash, plus some Dollar Tree items I had from previous years. I also hung out some bunting flags I bought on sale several years ago. The flags are beginning to fade (they were just cheap vinyl ones... something like $1.50 each) so I moved the faded ones to areas that were less visible. I also stuck two miniature flags in a potted plant. Garden: We harvested the first cucumbers this week off of the trellis! I also harvested raspberries, swiss chard and beets, which where delicious. I also froze some black raspberries picked on the edge of our property. Weather: we narrowly avoided a tornado this week, which was a relief. It was extremely hot for our area, plus humid. As I mentioned last week, working with the heat and humidity required a tricky routine of opening and closing windows, along with turning the dehumidifier and air conditioning unit on and off to save money on electricity while also keeping the house at a reasonable temperature. Now that a cold front has moved in, we'll be fine just running the dehumidifier. That's the good news: the bad news is that a swarm of mosquitos have hatched out of their watery nests. They're awful! One cannot step outside for 30 seconds without attracting a cloud of them. My challenge for this week will be trying to strike a balance between mosquito bites and DEET. I bought a repellent lantern, thinking it would be a good investment at $20.00. What I didn't know is that the lantern requires refills every 12 hours, and the refills cost between $3.00-$6.00 each! A whole can of mosquito spray costs between $6.00 and $10.00, and that will last from 3-6 months. The only advantage I can see to the lantern is that you don't actually have to spray your skin, which could be healthier. The other thing would be that you can cover two or more people with just one device. I'm going to try it and see how well it works before investing more money in refills. Books: On our trip last week, there was a cookbook I considered buying, but it was $20.00. Instead, I waited until we got home and bought it for $6.00 on Ebay. I've been trying to buy most of my books on Ebay rather than Amazon, for political reasons but also since they seem to be less expensive in general. Along with that book, I also bought Pilgrim's Progress, the Screwtape Letters and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. I know you can probably borrow all of these books for free from the library (at least, through the interloan system), but I like having them in our home. I grew up with an extensive library at home, and it was those books that shaped my beliefs and interests, rather than the ones I borrowed from the library. Speaking of borrowing from the library: I borrowed an obscure book about death to read as research for my local history fiction. I found what I was looking for, which was the burial process prior to 1870. As it turns out, local carpenters or a family member would make the casket, which wasn't even lined. After the person died, a family member or neighbor (usually female) would prop a board on two chairs to make a sort of table, and then they would lift the corpse on top for burial preparation. The makeshift "undertaker" would wash the body first. Then they would use a coin on each eye to close them, and use a forked stick between the chin and collarbone to keep the mouth closed. The final task was to wrap the body in a shroud or winding cloth before putting it in the casket. I was surprised to learn that people were not buried in their clothes; at least, not according to this book. That didn't happen until the late 1800s. Another interesting tidbit I learned was about gravestones. In our local cemetery where most of my characters are buried, there are a few plots that are surrounded by post and chain fences. One of my characters has a plot like this all to herself. Not only that, but her gravestone itself is unique; it's called a "cradle grave"—a large headstone on one end, a smaller stone on the foot end, and sidewalls so it looks like an actual bed. The grave is essentially a large flower planter, and at the time it was planted and cared for by family members. Of course, Maggie (my character) died in the 1870s, and it's likely that neither her grave nor the other two cradle graves in our cemetery have had flowers for over 100 years. At some point I may ask the sexton if I can clean up the grave (or, all the graves of my characters) and replant it with flowers. They did this in Philadelphia, and I think the result was very honoring to the occupant. Fitness: I haven't given a fitness update in a while. I stepped on my Renpho scale this morning, and it said the exact same thing it did at the end of April. I quit intermittent fasting for a while, and now I've attempted to start it up again, but I don't know if it has any effects or not. I spent $80.00 on a good quality but inexpensive rowing machine to help my posture, which has always been kind of slumpy. I've been watching nursing skills videos on my laptop while rowing, which is nice because I'm making more use of my time that way. I wish I had more to update you about on this journey, but I haven't got very far. At least I haven't gone backward at all in the past several months. Well, that's about all for this week. I have some chores calling my name. Blessings, ~Prudence~
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About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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