Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a great week.
Over the weekend we were able to visit a French colonial fort while travelling. I loved it! The gardens, above, are very much like my own kitchen garden, but bigger, and many of them were planted with perennial herbs (of course... easier to take care of) whereas mine have vegetables. But they were so beautiful. I snapped a ton of pictures for inspiration, not only of the gardens but also the interiors of the homes. I love the colonial décor- not only French, but also British. I love all of the glass, cast iron and other natural materials. Free books: Our trip to the fort coincided with my reading Jocelyn Green's Between Two Shores, which is a novel about the daughter of a Mohawk mother and French father. The setting and time period is much the same as that of the colonial fort we visited, which was pretty cool. I still haven't finished the book yet, but most of Jocelyn's work is fun to read and I always come away with a better working knowledge of history. While picking strawberries for the past two weeks, I put in many hours of audio book time and read 3 out of 4 of her "Heroes Behind the Lines" series, set during the Civil War. Then I started A Refuge Assured on audio (Scribd), and discovered that many of her novels are also available for free if you have Amazon Prime. Thus, I'm listening to one story and reading Between Two Shores on my Kindle. Several years ago I read Mark of the King, which was good but it took me forever to read on paperback. If I keep going the audio and Kindle route, I'm guessing I can finish most of her books by the end of the year, having not paid a penny for any of them. I've not read much fiction since I was a teenager (and that was a LONG time ago!), but I want to write a book about our local county history, and there is just not enough information or market to sell a non-fiction book about it. When you dig deep, there are plenty of characters, plots and events from real life that just need some blanks filled and a storyline made in order to be saleable. So I think that's the route I'll be going, but in order to do the job right, it might take me five years to get a good work of fiction out there, since I've only written and published non-fiction. Strawberries: we finished up our market strawberry season and now I'm just picking some for our own family use. I've dried some and frozen some, but we don't go through many strawberries out-of-season. I've just burned out on them, I think. I figure that I earned about $700.00 this year on berries. I tweak the business model a little bit each year, but it's still not good, financially, for something more than a hobby. If I were to expand the business, it would have to be a U-pick operation, since if I hire helpers to pick, neither them nor I make enough money. Garden: I've been harvesting lettuce, turnips and spinach seeds this week. I need to find a faster way to collect the spinach seeds. Cooking: I made bread and tarts this week, in addition to regular meals. I've been trying to use a lot of eggs, since that's what we have most of. Electricity: As with many areas around the country, our electricity rates have gone up and I'm trying to use less of it. It's very difficult, though, when it gets so hot and our house is so humid. At times, we've had to run the dehumidifier in conjunction with the air conditioning unit, just to keep things from sticking and molding. One thing I've done is to move my clothes drying racks upstairs, where it's warmer and dryer. This move saves at least $1.00 per load, and it's something I don't mind doing. I've also been more mindful to bake two things at once and keep some things on timers. That's about it for this week! Hope you've all be staying cool, well hydrated and thrifty. 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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