Frugal Friday~

I know...it's been awhile since we've talked frugality, hasn't it?

In all truthfulness, it's hard to preach being frugal while I'm slapping down my Visa card to charge round trip plane tickets to China, ya know?  (I'm still working on finding a "Frugal" way of doing an adoption, and boy....is THAT going to be a challenge.)

Coming off of an international adoption, FRUGAL will be the theme around this house for awhile, needless to say.

Flash forward to now, and we are settling into a new routine in our new location, and beginning to talk what I call "Homestead Talk" again.  Diagrams of the farm are being scribbled down, seed catalogues are laying here and there, baby chicks are ordered, and thoughts of spring are just around the corner.

After having to throw out all of my frozen chicken when we moved (due to the freezers sitting for too long unplugged), fresh chicken was my first priority.  50 Cornish cross chicks have been ordered, and 15 laying hens for fresh eggs.  After recently having store-bought chicken, and not being impressed AT ALL, my mouth is already watering thinking about chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, chicken pot pie stew.... yummy!  But I digress..

To reduce the costs, I am purchasing chickens with friends for the volume discount.  We located a hatchery for the meat birds out of Nebraska that is half the price of our other poultry provider, which will help the bottom line.

This week I will also be scouring my favorite seed catalogues (Fedco, Gurneys, Johnny's) to begin planning my dream garden, which starts out each spring as a utopia of greens, but by fall is sometimes a weed-fest.  I do what I can.

Now with Quinn here, we're including more freshly made Chinese-type meals, so I'm increasing the amounts of Pak Choy, Leeks, cabbage, and other greens.  I found that sauteed vegys piled on top of rice are incredible, and super healthy, so I'm excited about growing them.

The exciting part of growing seedlings this year?  I have a WHOLE BASEMENT in which to put grow lights and trays in!!  And I won't have to worry about the basement flooding in the spring, so...

 Let the Planting Begin! 

And just for fun, a bit of cuteness :-)