Yep.
I've got just about 4 cords of wood stacked up ready to burn to heat my house this winter, and another set drying over by the neighbor's fence. Still a lot more to chop yet.
Last week I sliced up a tree that was in a neighbors yard, across the sidewalk, blown down from the storm. She was all worried about how the kids would navigate the monstrosity on Halloween, so I sliced that fella up and took some home. Most of it was rotten. That maple had a long life, but its insides were literally turned to chainsaw clogging mud.
I took what I could fit into the trunk of my Ford Escort and the rest I moved along the terrace for other tree scavengers to take. Not like I'm in need of wood. Put out the word you'll clean up yard waste in exchange for the yard waste and there's no end of offers, right?
I'm still gloating over my apples. Two bushels of apples for $15 dollars from the autumn farmer's market. Seconds. A few scrapes and bumps here and there, but crisp, cold sweet. The kids can't get enough of them. They run outside to the mud room night and day to retrieve a chilled apple.
I dry six apples per day and horde them away because if the kids had free reign they'd eat them all, like potato chips before I could save them up...and besides, we have two bushels of apples to burn through so they should eat those ones.
Did I mention we have two bushels of apples for $15?
This Saturday I'll make another pilgrimage to the Farmer's market and see what outrageous amounts of food I can score for cheap. Squash and apples are going cheap as the farmer's market winds down for the winter.
Turnips.
A lot of turnips this time of year.
Cabbage.
The weekly family grocery budget is about $80 to $90 for the four of us. Not all bad, not particular luxury, but doable if you never eat out. Some folks have to make do with quite a bit less, so I'm not complaining too loud. And I've gotten it down to a pretty reasonable routine at this point. $5 got us a half bushel of broccoli, which I've frozen and should last us the next couple months. Half bushel of green peppers for $8 and froze 'em. Over September I bought many half bushels of tomato seconds for $8 to $10 each and canned approximately 50 quarts of those guys. Pears, beets, plums, 30 cans of apple sauce, peaches, green beans...you know...there's really no such thing as a Great Deal on green beans. I'm going to grow the shit out of green beans next year, my own damn self. Sauerkraut...the youngest one eats whole bowls of sauerkraut, so I grow the cabbages and pickle the heck out of 'em and feed my boy aged cabbage.
Tonight I made a tomatillo type of dish from the last remaining tomatillos from the garden.
So it's not like we're eating unhealthily on $80 a week. We're getting the veggies in. Pastas, of course. Rice. Eggs. Lots and lots of eggs. I very frequently make bread and that saves on dough (ha!...dough...bread...yeah, it's funny). Oatmeal. It helps the boy loves oatmeal.
This year we're hoping the wife's store takes off, like really really really this year takes off and no more worries. Yeah. Can't wait for things to pick up. It's been a brutal three years. But, you know, you do what you do and do all you can and after a while, eventually, it starts to seem kinda normal, eh? Just things. Wood along the side of the road? Shovel it into the trunk. Somebody giving away free pumpkins close to halloween? Toss a few into the trunk and mush 'em up for pies, soups, and bread. Free fuel. Free food. I'll take it. The freezer is full, man. Jars of chicken stock, broccoli, a stack of sausage I found on uber-sale, some pumpkin mush, a couple gallons of green pepper strips. Yup. Freezer's full. And that's what counts.