My Tireless Retirement – Week 109

 

April turned out to be a particularly busy month for me and it seemed to go by in a flash.  I’ve completed quite a bit of work inside and outside of my home and I’m pretty proud of all that I’ve been able to accomplish.  I pruned fruit trees, cleaned up a lot of yard debris, pulled up a boatload of weeds, set up the bird bath, prepared the raised garden beds for planting and even purged a few things.  Inside my home I started a new quarterly housekeeping checklist which helps me to maintain my home with a little bit of deeper cleaning, I’ve purged and reorganized some stuff in my garage, purged and shredded papers and some lists I no longer needed, purged and donated some craft supplies and used up a bunch of extra stuff I’ve had lying around the house for a while.  I definitely feel like progress is being made.

 

As I’ve headed into May it appears I’m going to be just as busy as I was last month and I’m quite happy about it.  I love to be busy, especially when it is a productive busy.  Last month I worked part time five days a week and was hoping to get back to my three to four days a week, however we had one of our part time employees that I job share with quit so we are punting until we get another part timer hired on.  With a little bit of finagling they were able to get me scheduled with a weekday off three out of the next four weeks and then I just requested some time off around the Memorial Day holiday which they also worked in.  That will work!

 

One of the projects I needed to complete was to fix the front driver’s side turn signal as well as one of the side marker lights, both of which had burnt out.  This has been an ongoing project for a while as my truck is older and they no longer make the replacement bulbs for the turn signals.  I was able to easily find the bulb for the marker light and get that fixed, but I literally had to do quite a bit of research to figure out which bulb I could use.  I was about at the point of going over to the dealership and visiting the parts department for an overpriced bulb, but I was able to find what I needed, at Wal-Mart of all places, and now, three weeks later that project is completed.  Hurray!

 

Since I was at Wal-Mart I made my trip count and picked up a short list of items I needed including a can of brake fluid to top up the reservoir on the truck and some garden supplies, especially fruit tree spray for the apple and the pear tree.  This is the time of year I need to get them sprayed so we don’t end up with wormy fruit.  At least that is the goal.  Wish me luck, it has been a struggle.

 

One of the items on my canning list this year was to can up some beef roast for my LTFS.  I had picked up two pot roasts I had found on clearance so I decided to pull those out of my freezer and once they were thawed I cut them both up into pieces and was able to fill up three pint jars.  Although they were raw packed I did add a little beef broth au jus to give the roast some really good flavor.  I love to use this for quick meals or to add into rice.  I can also use a little bit of cornstarch to thicken and make a roast beef and gravy to serve with potatoes or rice.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I made some really good and tasty meals last week.  To begin with I put a pint jar of ground beef and a can of beans I had in the pantry for a while along with a bit of water into my smallest slow cooker to make a tasty chili bean soup that I topped with grated cheddar cheese and a dab of sour cream.  Very simple but it was amazingly delicious!

 

A couple of baked potatoes “baked” in the microwave made for two delicious meals when I took one and stuffed it with steamed broccoli and topped it with grated cheddar, sour cream and diced cooked ham that I had leftover from a ham steak I had thawed the week before.  I had just enough leftover soup, just over a half cup, to place inside the other potato and topped with grated cheddar and sour cream to make a chili stuffed baked potato.

 

The other quick meal I made was to combine a boxed rice mix I had kicking around the pantry that I wanted to use up, a quarter cup of extra rice and a pint jar of pot roast in au jus that I had canned in 2022.  I mixed it all together and cooked it on the stove with a pint jar of beef broth in place of the water that the mix called for.  It was surprisingly delicious, had some really grate flavor, and made four servings.  I ate three and placed one serving into the freezer to have later.  I roasted some frozen cauliflower and some broccoli in my toaster oven.  I sprinkled with seasoned salt and tossed with butter for a great side for this meal.

 

Although our weather was all over the place I was still able to get outdoors and spray the fruit trees and all of the shrubs, get the last flowerbed cleaned up as well as do a final general clean up of the yard, both front and back.  Things are looking pretty ship shape around here, even though a couple big windstorms left me with more debris to clean up, which I did, I still managed to keep things neat and tidy although everything could probably use a good leaf blowing.  Still, my yard has never looked better and I am super happy with it.

 

While I was at Wal-Mart I went ahead and picked up a new larger flowerpot to replace the brittle and well worn one I had next to my garage door.  I revitalized the old potting soil with some rabbit pooh and after placing cut up branches in the bottom of the new pot as filler I put the soil back in.  I am so ready to go and pick out something at the nursery to put in the new pot as well as some of my other ones.  Hopefully this weekend I will be able to do just that.  Anyone else ready to plant some flowers?  Or a garden?  I just love this time of year! 

 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.