My Tireless Retirement – Week 118

 

Hello my friends!  How was your Independence Day holiday?  I hope you had a nice day.  I did although I had no plans and didn’t do much other than stay home to hang out with the kitties and help them stay as calm as possible.  Poor little Jack doesn’t do too well with fireworks and other loud noises.

 

Last Saturday I went ahead and installed the second A/C unit in the guest bedroom so I now have two running upstairs to keep the house nice and cool.  With the hotter temperatures now I am really enjoying the A/C.  Depending on the weather they will most likely stay installed until Labor Day weekend.

 

All of this ended up wrapped and in the LTFS

On Sunday I was a busy girl.  Once again it is time to start planning ahead for the upcoming winter.  I made out a list, as well as a budget, and mapped out a plan of attack before I set out to get things done.  My first stop was to Home Depot to look at refrigerators (um, yeah that’s happening).  Then I went next door to Fred Meyer to pick up meat that was on sale, plus I had digital coupons and a $20 Kroger gift card.  I got a full bag of groceries and only had to spend $4 out of pocket.  I wasn’t sad about that.

 

After I left Fred Meyer I went to the feed store and picked up wood horse pellets for the bunny’s bin and a 50# bag of chicken feed as the first part of my winter stock up for my pets.  When I got back home I went through everything I still had on hand and was able to top up the feed bins.  After all the decluttering I’ve done I had several empty bins in the garage that I was able to repurpose and use now for storing pet food and supplies so I used them to store the new stuff I just bought and my Chewy order from last month.

 

Stella gave me her seal of approval

Now that I am the only one who feeds and takes care of the animals here I have a much better idea of what works best for me.  With everything now in bins I cleaned and reorganized the shelves and the designated pet area in the garage so it is now all nice and neat plus I know where everything is and it is easily accessible.  I love it!

 

There was a cleaning of an oven

and under the kitchen sink

While I was out in the garage I was able to do some minor repairs to the insulation board on the garage door that had popped loose.  I can’t tell you enough what a difference insulating that big door has made in keeping the garage cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  It no longer gets scorching hot in the summers or freezes in the winter so I can pretty much store anything I want out there worry free.  While I was in repair mode I also was able to troubleshoot why the doorbell was no longer working and discovered a loose wire that I repaired and now it works just fine.

 

I shined up my grandmother's Revere Ware
I love cooking with these pans

Burritos for the freezer

Meals I Prepared: 

I emptied two jars of home canned pork verde into my slow cooker to reheat and put together shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, grated cheese, salsa and sour cream for tacos to entertain a friend for lunch.  I sent home some leftovers with her and then I used what was left along with some black beans and a little bit of rice to make a few burritos to put away in the freezer for later. 

I pulled a burger patty and a bun from the freezer to thaw and made myself a hamburger one evening along with a serving of tater tots I baked in my little toaster oven.  The burger was nice and juicy and the tater tots on the side with some homemade fry sauce made it a classic diner meal.  This was my favorite meal I made last week.

 

Potato salad

The remainder of the week was pretty simple.  I pulled out a couple frozen pre-made meals I had squirreled away in the freezer to reheat – rice & pork roast and crack chicken.  I made tacos with the crack chicken.

 

Fourth of July was super simple.  On Wednesday I made a potato salad and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.  It was really tasty.  I had five angus beef hotdogs and five buns leftover from Memorial Day that I pulled from the freezer and thawed.  On Thursday I made a small batch of coleslaw.  We just toasted the buns and grilled the wieners in my mini skillet and enjoyed our meal.  It was delicious!

 

4th Of July fare 😋

I spent the holiday catching up on a few chores from my quarterly checklist and doing some paper crafting.  I was able to spend some time outside in my garden and with the chickens too.  It was a great day and a great way to end a busy week.  I hope it was a wonderful day for you too. 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.