Weekend

Tynx made me laugh Friday night. She loves to play with the acorns - well, she loves to play with everything, actually. The trouble with the acorns, however, is, that they end up under the fridge or other furniture, where she can't get them out. And then, clever girl that she is, she goes to the kitty toy drawer to get another one! On Friday, though, she couldn't find any more acorns in the drawer ... so, after some investigation, she found my pecan nuts on the kitchen counter! I was already in bed, when I heard them tumbling off the counter! Of course, I spent the rest of the weekend, picking up pecan nuts everywhere!

Saturday morning I woke quite late, as I had quite a bad night. My eyes were watering and puffy, and I felt quite tired, still. I let my mippies out and settled down for coffee. Mippies weren't too happy with the weather outside, either and interrupted my coffee - lots! Ah, well. So I didn't get much done on Saturday morning.

I also didn't have the 'free from chores' weekend that I had worked towards. Why? Well, I've been shopping, haven't I? And that shopping needed processing. I didn't get too much meat, at least, but it was a bit of a puzzle finding space in the freezer for it. I packed the last of it on Sunday.

After the German butchery, I went to the Kwikspar a km away. They also had the watermelon on special, but their spanspek & sweet melon were at the same price as a watermelon, so I left those. They did, however, have strawberries and blueberries at an affordable price, so I got some of those. I considered taking some juice, to make veggie smoothie, but then put it back.

On top of all the food to be processed, I also had those 8 milk bottles to wash. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but it all adds up ... and I ended up spending most of the weekend in the kitchen. Well, and in my bedroom, but still ...

I also cleaned the grass mat in the bathroom - that corner was becoming unpleasant. I'm also noticing, that the wood fibers are not as effective at keeping the smell under control. Especially when it gets warm. So I'm mixing in bicarbonate of soda and some lavender carpet shake n vac type powder. Her ladyship is still not very keen on this new arrangement, though.

I'm beginning to seriously consider letting them out during the day. It would seriously reduce my costing - providing litter 24/7 is not exactly cheap. And, they so love playing outside! I let Mynx out - he could come and go as he liked, 24/7. So why not my mippies? Well, the biggest fear is: Mewthos! If you've been reading this blog, you'll know why. He is such a clumsy one. What, if he gets hurt while I'm away? Who will he come running to, then? I'm still thinking about it ...

On Sunday, I made myself bread rolls again. This time, I followed the recipe for 450gr loaf of bread - brown bread - and I added shredded cheese! I compared the various recipes and looked what difference adding cheese made to the basic bread rolls recipe and bread rolls vs loaf of bread. And adapted accordingly. They turned out almost perfect! They are no longer 3 levels high (making 6 rolls from 900gr dough, as I did in the past, ended up in over sized rolls - but they don't have size options on the bread rolls recipe). The only thing wrong with them, is that they are a bit over done. Otherwise, they turned out perfect!

Tynx tricked me on Sunday morning! She started her licky wakey routine then pushed the phone off the night stand, and the battery fell out, so I couldn't see the time. I assumed it was late and let them out ... only to find that it wasn't even half past five, yet! Clever girl! She tried that again this morning, but I got clever today - and, anyway, they don't get to go out today. Poor darlings!

Once again, I didn't get to my cheese making. Sigh. Nor did I get to do any gardening - although, that was also due to the heat. Stepping outside felt like stepping into an oven! I did, however, make myself quite a lot of yummy smoothies!

When I was looking for smoothie recipes, I stumbled across a site where the blogger was saying that she always took a bunch of bananas, every time she was at a store. I used to buy a few quite regularly, too, always resolving to eat one a day ... yet, I hardly ever did, and often ended up throwing away brown bananas, which always upset me. Now, however, since I've taken to freezing fruits, I'm not throwing away anything at all anymore! And: I'm already low on bananas! Even though I did take some on Friday again!

Right now, however, my freezer is so full, I don't have the space I need to freeze them. I normally put them on top of everything else, on a sheet of wax paper. But that does require some room on top to lay them out. And once I had finished packing all the meat, there is no room left now. The watermelon ice is taking up a lot of space, though, since they are in the plastic cups. So, as I eat those, I'll have more space again. I've been thinking as well that, next time, I won't be adding any water - just blend the watermelon and freeze it. Maybe in the ice cube trays, then I can blend them into smoothies as well?

The nice thing about the frozen fruit is, that it's not as hard as frozen water, and therefore not as hard on the blender. When I blend ice cubes, I always struggle to remove the blending blades for cleaning (though that isn't always necessary); but with the frozen fruit, it isn't locking in tight, and I can easily remove them.

I also worked out my online shopping requirements. I've ordered another bag of litter, the wood fibers. They are quite expensive, but I'm hoping they'll work out cheaper than the sand. I'll have to see this month, as last month I still had the sand in the large box. Then I tried to order chocolates again, but saw that - even though I've met their minimum-free-delivery-requirement, a shipping fee was added. So I decided to send a mail asking about it, before placing the order. On the grocery side, all I REALLY need is white bread flour, so I ordered that. Then added a cheese cloth, a muslin cloth bag, honey and such small items to make the minimum-free-delivery price. Actually, the cheese cloth I will need for the yoghurt making. I contemplated getting the salt plate - but, given my finances, I think I'll leave that for next year.

And then I looked into vacuum sealers. Sigh. They give so little information about the products on the sales sites ... I think I need to spend some time researching, to find out which one meets my needs. From what I've gleaned so far, I need to verify whether they can take a roll of plastic - which will be much more economic, as I can then cut the bags to the size I'll need, rather than wasting plastic. And I should check to see whether they can also handle delicate items, like bread - and not squish them flat. So, some research required ...

Okay, I just learned that we're NOT planning on closing for five weeks, more like three! We apparently intend to shut down close to the 24th, and re-open on the 6th. We really do need to re-stock on some of our fast moving items, we have orders open, so on the work side, we really can't shut down too early. And on the home front, I'm quite relieved, too, as that will require less grocery stocking and especially less cat food stocking up! And, of course, it will also mean that I won't need to take unpaid leave! Major relief!

And now I had better start working ...