Cleaning Up!

As part of the Frugal Blog Tour (Hey all you visitors!) I am posting this week on frugal home cleaning. If you have ever stopped to really look at the aisle of cleaners at the grocery store, from laundry soap to dish washing soap, to carpet cleaner, there are a) a dizzying array of choices; b) some crazy money being spent there to be "clean" and c) some serious chemical overload going on.  The crazy thing is, it is so darn easy to just make your own cleaners at home. There are great "green" options out there to cut back on the chemicals, but they can be pricey unless you're good with coupons and sale watching (I fail here. I can clip the coupon, but rarely get around to checking sales ads). There currently is the Norwex fad, which I have not jumped on board with, but it does serve as an option for the thrifty minded from the sounds of it. I find around our house keeping just a few simple ingredients around, we can clean just about anything we want. I do buy our dish soap--in bulk from Costco--and our dishwasher detergent (though there are recipes for homemade/frugal soap here, too, they just don't seem to cut it in my dishwasher). Here is how we make things work on less (and healthier, too!).

Multipurpose cleaner~I use a spray bottle that I've either saved from something I've bought (and THOROUGHLY rinsed out) or picked up cheap (love Harbor Freight for this) and mix up in that. We use our multipurpose spray on just about everything. I love it. I clean counter tops, tables, around the toilet and quick spots on the floor with it. We also use it on windows and mirrors-and the way we keep it from streaking is with microfiber cloths. If you watch sales ads, these are so handy to have around. We use them to stuff cloth diapers, so we have a serious stash, but I recently scored some pretty cheap at Costco and have been using them for cleaning and loving. Clutter control is high on our list, and that includes things like cleaners. I love opening the sink doors and seeing just a couple bottles that do all my work for me. With the use of a microfiber towel, I eliminated mixing up a bottle of cleaner just for windows. I hadn't enjoyed rubbing newspaper all over my glass, but it worked until I found these guys. Love it. I use this recipe:
Multi-Purpose Cleaner
600 mL water
100 mL castile soap (we buy Dr. B's in bulk through various co-ops and buying clubs. A little goes a loooong way, so it is worth it, plus we use it on a lot of stuff)
10 drops grapefruit seed extract (this is an anti-nasty stuff agent, working to help kill some of the beasties that can start to grow on your counters). If you do not have access to this, many people add about 1/2 c vinegar to their solution to add acidity which should help with cleaning. Definitely an option.
A few drops of your favorite essential oil. Lavender oil, tea tree oil and thyme oil all have anti-microbial properties which would serve well in this situation, but aren't necessary.
We also use the multipurpose as a spot/stain cleaner. The key here is getting to the spot as quickly as possible, and changing rags as you go, so you are not continually rubbing the stain back into itself, whether on clothes or carpet. For carpet stains that are really bad, my husband has been known to bring in a nasty, but handy in our household big gun-brake cleaner. It has taken nail polish, among other things, out of the carpet, as necessary. We try to not use it, but if it is something major, we do have it on stand by.

We have vinyl, tile and carpet flooring in our house, and had wood in the last. For the carpet, we do have a steam cleaner, which we were lucky enough to inherit from some family. I never use the carpet cleaner sold in it. It gives me headaches, and my kids play on the floor too much for me to feel comfortable using something I can't recognize the ingredients in to clean with. All the hoo-jazz about having to use *their* specific cleaners and additives, I have found, aren't necessary. I use castile soap. It is a serious multitasker in this house. To the clean solution tank, I fill the water to the fill line, then add about a third cup of castile soap (peppermint scented adds to the seasonal smells right now!) and then start cleaning. To the recovery tank I add a 1/2 c of vinegar. This aids in the smell control if someone (cough, me) forgets to empty the tank when they're done using the cleaner. If I seem to have a lot of soap left in the carpet, I will go back over it with just hot water in the cleaner.

For our hard floor surfaces I love Murphy's Wood Oil Soap. I never buy this stuff. Never. What I am able to do, instead, is get it for free at the Regional Hazardous Household Waste Recycling Center. (The one for the Greater Des Moines area and many surrounding counties is located just outside Bondurant on Hubbell Ave). That is also where we get paint whenever we need it-for free. Everything at the center is free, except for custom whites and tans they mix up in 5 gallon buckets, but even those are cheap. This is the place people go to drop off the items they aren't supposed to throw away in their regular trash. I find things we need there frequently-paint for indoors and outdoors, craft paints, stains for artsy projects and the outdoor decks and furniture, sealants, spray adhesive, plaster of paris, various cleaners and solvents, citrus paint stripper. All sorts of stuff. Even if I had to buy Murphy's, the stuff is cheap and made with honest ingredients that I know are okay for the family.

For tough scrubbing jobs, like the kitchen sink and the stove top, I love, love, love baking soda.

I use it in the tubs and showers, as well. Just soda. I buy giant bags of it-either from Costco (this kind I can use for baking with, as well) or Harbor Freight sells giant bags of it for media blasting that can be used for just cleaning. I simply lightly wet the surface of what I'm going to clean, and then sprinkle baking soda liberally all over that area.

It will adhere to shower walls and the sides of tubs when they are lightly moistened with water. Then I let it sit just a little while. After it has sat a while (maybe 10 minutes) I grab a wet rag, add a little more water so I have a paste and scrub away.
With no chemicals in my face, minimal cost and just a little effort I can make just about any surface in the house shine. It takes up most stains, as well. When I'm done, I just rinse it all off and go back over spots I may have missed.


Baking soda also works wonders in stinky trash cans (we always have a little in the bottom of our cans to help with smells) and baking soda and vinegar sent down a drain then flushed with hot water will often clear clogs.

Laundry around our house is easy, as well. We make our own detergent, as after looking at the cost of buying stuff that didn't contain a lot of icky stuff and at some natural options like soap nuts, the most cost effective option was just making it. We do a lot of laundry between my husband being a mechanic, running a small farm, letting the kids get dirty while playing, cloth diapering and using cloth instead of paper products in most towel instances. That means a lot of soap. We do not use fabric softener, unless it seems necessary, and in that case just add about a 1/2 c vinegar in the softener spot on the washing machine. No fabric softening sheets, which are actually dangerous in the residues they leave on lint catches, and add a lot of residue to clothes. Many people think clean clothes means perfumed clothing. In actuality all that perfume serves no purpose but to perfume, and often degrades clothing faster. We sort our clothes according to color groups-more than just light and dark-which aids in keeping colors in clothes looking better longer as there is less color transfer between clothes of differing groups. Our laundry soap recipe is contained here. We use both soaps from local soap artists and when we can get a discount on simple store-bought soaps. As far as some people's concern with borax, which I have heard about in other posts, we don't fret on it. Many items in the house can be toxic to children, even if natural. If the kids got a hold of lye based soaps, which are many of the artisan soaps you buy, they could seriously burn their eyes if not flushed properly. Ingesting too many essenital oils could fatally injure someone. The key is keeping an eye on the members of your household and being careful in how you handle things. We mix up our soap in the kitchen, but are careful to wipe the counter down fully before it used for food preparation and clean all utensils used in the process, as well as using the rag that cleaned up for everything but dishes until it has been cleaned. Really being an observant parent is key in all applications.

 Another easy cleaning trick a good friend told me about recently: pumice stones. She uses them to scrub sink surfaces instead of a scouring pad. I re-use the plastic webbed produce bags you sometimes get shallots or garlic in from the produce section and stuff my dish cloth in there. This works will instead of a scouring pad and can be reused over and over again, simply putting your soapy, wet dish cloth in and taking it out when you're done each time. Another thing I do is write on the container what my "recipe" is for the cleaner inside. I don't have to worry about losing that particular recipe and if someone needs to know right away what is in there, it is easily accessible.

One last biggie at our house is not having to buy paper towels, paper napkins, tissues and wet wipes. All of these items we use in cloth form so they can be used over and over again. We pick up napkins from garage sales and towels in bulk from Costco, Harbor Freight or othe rbig box stores. They are all also easy to sew from old clothes. Scrubbing rags that we may want to toss when we're done we make from (hee, hee) old underwear that was going to get tossed anyway, as well as old holey t-shirts. I haven't had to buy paper goods (save toilet paper, which can be cloth as well, but I think that deserves a different post :)  ) for a long time. Wet wipes we keep in either a wipes warmer we picked up at a garage sale or in little pul lined snack sacks or a ziploc, all with a homemade solution of castile or a natural baby soap and water. Just a few squirts in the water will make a nice solution that works wonders in place of the quick wipes for all applications.

There are all sorts of little tricks out there that make cleaning both more pocket book and family friendly. These are our main tactics, though I have numerous books and magazine articles for those times when you need something really specific. Just keep your eyes peeled. This is an excellent start, and our grocery bill has dropped substantially since implementing them. If you compare costs, it is crazy, even when adding in a one gallon bottle of castile soap-the most expensive thing on the list. Our bottle was about $36, and has lasted almost an entire year, and we are only half way through it. Washing soda and borax run around $3 a box, baking soda is terribly cheap, as is vinegar. Most of what you need is right there, as compared to one bottle of multipurpose spray running at least $3 a bottle and laundry soap being outrageous these days. Give a few of these suggestions a try and you'll be surprised at how simple and thrifty it all is!

Making Things Last

I often forget to post my crafty and thrifty endeavors, but believe me there is no shortage of them. It just comes as second nature so my brain does not register "blog this." My husband laughs at the many things he finds pictures of on the camera when I do remember..."Why did we need a picture of your breakfast smoothie?". So, this is an example of a recent instance-I'll try to remember more frequently. We all need a little inspiration.
This is a pair of Super Boy's footed pajamas-actually it may even be a pair in the on-going clothing swap we have with our dear friends The Reids. A hole developed in the knee (a common occurence in this house, trust me) and not one to just give up on something, I found one of my many fabric remnants and repaired it, to cuter than before, I would say. I often find clothes like this for dirt cheap at thrift stores and garage sales and love getting the chance to make it cuter than the original.

 

Sewing Pony Gal clothes with Sheets

I love sheets for material use. Big pieces of fabric most folks throw out when they no longer match the bedroom, and I pick up cheap for sewing! These two are some most recent creations. Super Boy is modeling the skirt, because he insisted, but it is for Pony Gal. I found this number at a Goodwill in the Big City and also ended up making myself a skirt with it. The dress on Pony Gal is from an old sheet of my grandmother. She had to move to an assisted living facility a few months back and I grabbed some sheets from the stuff that she had to part with. I love that I can keep a part of her with us in odd ways. Pony Gal has clothes made from Dad's grandma's stash as well.

This post part of Simple Lives Thursday hosted by A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.

Landscaping with curb shopped items

I am trying to create more "spaces" around the farm, and I must say I am loving it, and so are the kids. These are a couple vintage chairs we picked up curb shopping several years ago. It was funny, as we pulled up to grab four that were on the curb the guy throwing them out had a bunch of friends in the garage watching some sport on TV. As Dad was loading them the guy came out and asked if we wanted a couple more. Dad said yes and the guy kicked his friends out of the two in the garage and loaded them for us :) I love curb shopping. I will post pics of some of our other new areas around the farm. This particular set of chairs is under the catalpa tree just south of the newly installed playset (I haven't posted pics of what I did of Memorial Day weekend, have I? Will do!), so I (or other parents) can watch the kids play and relax in the shade. I will probably put some sort of make shift table or planters of flowers down there at some point (but we'd have to go curb shopping again to do that because Lord knows I hate to spend money when I can get things for free!), but for now this is a nice improvement and made a big difference even in the looks of the place. And obviously the kids are using them, as well.

Fabric

I was recently asked about where I find my fabric-by a few people, actually. My stash as a whole comprises of a lot of different sources. I do have some standard finds that I buy with coupons or on sale at fabric stores. I love remnants. I see them as a challenge..."what can I do with 43/47ths of a yard?..."
One source that is not renewable was my husband's grandmother's stash. She had three closets and a WHOLE room in the basement to house hers. I picked through a lot of it and kept the handy/pretty things. There was a lot I would never use (or thought at the time as I had yet to discover rug making...) like double knit polyester. That being said, thought, she got me started on my vintage material collection.
I augment that part of my stash with finds at flea markets and antique stores. I think I get pretty lucky with this, as I do not exactly see fabric all the time, but I buy up just about all I can afford when I do. I love prints from the first half of the 20th century. I have a couple right now I just keep picking up and staring at, trying to decide what they would be perfect for. It's hard, as this will most likely be my last chance with that print, as finding it in the first place was pretty awesome.
Another source is thrift stores. Now, you can often find yarn and crafting goodies, including raw fabric, at thrift stores. Where I look, though, is in the housewares/bedding section. I have gotten some terribly pretty sheets that made beautiful curtains or skirts there, as well as funky retro ones that made great stuff for clothes.
Garage sales also have great opportunities for both fabric and things like sheets.
For kids, do not look past adult clothing, as well. There are really cute things you can make out of adults clothes. Some prints on adults don't look so hot, but on a 2 year little guy or a 4 year old chica, they look absolutely adorable. There are tons of tutes online for changing grownup things into little people things. I throw away NONE of our clothing, save larger men's clothing, which gets sent to Hope Ministries. Even holey socks can be used to stuff toys and pillows later. Or that dog puke you don't wanna touch-yeah, I use an old sock and just toss it when I'm done.
I think that sums up my sources. There is a lot out there if you just look. It is not a drive to the store and find something now sort of deal, but I definitely think the hunt is what I enjoy the most-even more than using the stuff ;)

Fast Refashion

bought this jacket at a garage sale, a white velour thing. Comfy, and apparently no longer mine...

Dye Works

My favorite way to save much loved clothes...new life with dye.

Thrifty Goodness

I, apparently, have not been thrift shopping too terribly intensely for awhile. Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with my youngest sister, and she asked if we could hit a couple shops, because she needed jeans. We ran through the morning errands and then took off late morning. We visited four shops on the southside, and by that time the van was getting full, and our pockets were emptying. I was way excited, as I managed to find some seriously nice picture frames, as well as a very cute framed picture of an Amish boy and a calf in a barnwood frame. For 9.99, and I am sure it was closer to $100 or more originally. I spent way more than I planned on books for the kids, but holy cow, the Goodwill on the South side was loaded. I grabbed several really cute long shirt/tunic dresses for Liv, as well as future snowboots. I found jeans for me, too. Oddly enough, I had already made plans to go out Friday with a friend of mine, so I will be on the prowl again. But, since I know of about every thrift store in the greater Des Moines area, I will be hitting other ones. Oh, and I forgot, I picked up lots of blue and green t shirts to start working on crocheting a rug for the downstairs bedroom.

I spent last night cutting some of them into strips, and hope to pick up an extra large hook to start working on it soon. It will take a while to get enough t shirts,and if all goes well, I want ot make one in the right colorway for each of the rooms I am painting downstairs.

Treasure Hunting

Treasure to me is good deals and books. Part of my birthday "celebration" last weekend was going around to antique and thrift stores. I rarely walk out of Brass Armadillo with some antique I wanted in tow (though I did get a rare canister I did not have for my kitchen collection), but almost always with books. The dealers just throw them here or there and I scoop them up. I have gotten great homeschooling books, as well as farm related material and outdoors/camping stuff for Dad and me. This last week I found a real gem-Rodale's Stocking Up. The edition is from the 70's but was one I had wanted for a long time. It goes about storing all the bounty of the growing seasons so you can be more self-reliant in the colder ones. I am especially interested in freezing eggs and milk for use in the winter when production slows/halts. I have missed my biddies' eggs dearly and I know I will be hurting for goat milk when they take breaks (after I get goats, of course!). I find neat books at thrift stores, but those antique dealers know where to find 'em!

New (old) furniture

Friday I was able to paint my dining room, and after doing so was thinking it would be so nice to have a side board on the big wall there, and I would love a new dining room set. Ours was purchased by gun point (well, almost...) when we got married. Papa H wanted to buy us one for our gift, and that was fine, but to him that meant TODAY. So we got a cheap (but new) table, that neither one of us really liked as we found nothing else we liked after looking at most the furniture places out there. We had recently been gathering mix and match antique and vintage chairs to replace the rounded back, country style, ugly, falling apart oak ones that came with the table. I needed one more chair and we would be able to get rid of the thing. So, Saturday we went garage saleing during Altoona's city wides. I wasn't looking for much of anything, but hadn't been for a while and thought we might find a chair, though Altoona's clean up weekend was this weekend so, I knew I could look then. We were cruising around, had picked up a few knick knacky things when I spotted a sideboard from the era that we love (art deco). I stopped and looked at it, and then asked how much as there was no tag. I expected somewhere in the ball park of $100 or more, when they said $40. For everything. Everything? "Oh, yeah, the table and chairs over there go with it-it is a full set." (Mouth drops). "My husband is going to the ATM to get the money and we will be back with a truck to take it all." I LOVE it! The chairs are rough, but I was less interested in them, than the side board and the table, which has three leaves so we can now, finally fit all the extended family at the table for big dinners. We are looking into refinishing the table top-which looks fine, but is craised enough that when you put something hot on it, it turns the finish white. If we were keeping it just for collecting purposes, I would let it be, but for everyday use, it needs to be durable so the oh so pretty walnut is not ruined. I just keep staring at it all and thinking it took us six years, but we finally found our table. The wedding gift cost Papa H over $300. If he had been patient, it only would have been $40. I was willing to wait;)

Urban Mining

Every year we set out in the spring to look through other people's trash.  

Why? Well, because it's fun. We love the hunt. I hate to see items that still have gads of life in them just tossed out. I love to save money. We have enough to buy it ourselves, yes, but why when it is just as easy to get it free. So I am posting some of our finds. There are a few more weekends left then one pickup in the fall. We look forward to it every year!
One thing we noticed is the courteousness of some of the people throwing away. They know they have usable items. One family laid out an entire bedroom set on plastic so it would be dry for the lucky finders. Many people post that their major appliances "still work!". We were looking through some boxes (which we found Pony Gal's winter coat for next year and about a box full of attachment parenting and children's books in) and the woman came out and offered tons of other like new items (they were moving after a divorce).
I love it; I consider it one of the many small things we do to be "green" and thrifty, as well.
I also keep my business expenses down because of the many items I can pick up that help around the farm.
To curb shopping!
(above is the wicker love seat and woven rug that we picked up in Norwalk...love it!)

Urban Mining, Part Deux

I forgot that I also wanted to mention to those who curse us as we travel up and down your street-not all of us are rude. My dh and I make an honest effort to be as courteous as possible. There are those who rip open trash bags all over lawns and such. Not us. I get upset when I see it. Or parking in the middle of the road to peruse a pile, so no one can get through. Also not us.
And, just because we enjoy other people's junk does not make us lower class citizens. We live in a larger home than a lot of people in our situation. I have had more schooling than a lot of people out there. We have the money-we just choose to use it only when we have to. We saw someone driving a *NEW* Cadillac Escalade and pulling a trailer behind looking while we were. This is not in anyway related to the money we make. It is about attitude.

(above is the gate I have been wanting to block off the back deck for the scoundrels, er, dogs in the neighborhood...free!)

Fresh Dirt

I was almost in tears as I watched dh till the lower garden spot last night. I love the smell of clean, freshly tilled dirt. I have waited to really get into planting so long this year. The wet would have been great had it given me a week or two of dry so we could get things planted, but it has been difficult. We went ahead and gave the tiller a try last night, and it went pretty well. The top part of the lowest garden was still a little wetter than I would have liked, but for the most part it didn't look bad. It is kind of funny that the lowest garden was the driest. I am still trying to figure that one out.
So in general, it finally feels like spring at our place. We recently separated the roosters from the hens, resulting in crabby roosters and happy hens. Their poor backs are naked from too many men in the house. They will be going to the butcher soon, while the girls have kicked up their laying some, most likely from happiness. We kept the one male and three female ducks in with the gals. How does this feel like spring? Well, everyone, save the roosters, gets to wander about the very green yard, eating grass and bugs and rolling in the dirt.
The chickies continue to grow and feather out. I will be building some sort of chicken tractor here very soon so they can be outside some once the days get just a little warmer. I am hoping with the roosters separate, transitioning in new chicks will be easier.
The plum trees have beautiful buds on them-loaded actually. I did a lot of pruning due to some pretty serious below the graft issues. Everyone looks okay now,though. This week will entail a lot of spring veggie planting and moving a lot of herbs outside, as well as getting mulch all over the yard, and putting in more perennials.
Speaking of perennials, the rhubarb and raspberries looks happy. One rhubarb has a flower coming up. I haven't ever had them do that.
We went to the farmer's market in the town to the east last week. It was cold. We sold some eggs and cookies, but that was about it. I think once it warms up, though, it will be a great venture. And I have enjoyed getting to know more of the ladies around the area, some closer to my age in particular (most of the fm ladies could be my grandmother...).
DH and I did some major cleaning and landscaping last weekend, and will be curb shopping/urban mining this. I love this time of year, albeit this year is far cooler than usual.
So excited, and I will keep posted, hopefully adding pictures soon!

Homesick

We visited my little sister Auntie A in Kansas City, MO this weekend. She is currently interning at International House of Prayer (IHOP). She loves it, but is definitely missing home. She and Pony Gal and I spent tons of time together and are very close and it has been difficult for us all with her down there. She will be back in June, but it seems so long. The program seems very neat, and I am looking forward to going down when we can attend a service at the church there. We had lunch in the coffeeshop run by IHOP. It was awesome. I took her down my biscotti (I used to sell these to a coffee shop in Toona Town-they're good), which she had requested, and a half gallon of dhal curry soup. That was a surprise and she was so excited. She had missed my cooking. Aaah. We went bargain shopping and found all kinds of fun things. We also found KC seems to not have too many "nice" looking places. We are thinking of camping near there the end of April to see her again, but I am going to do some research to find somewhere to go that doesn't look so industrial. It was so nice to see her. And take Superboy on his first long trip. He did pretty well on the way down, but not so much on the way back. I was in the back seat helping him all the way home. He just wanted out of that seat, which I can understand. That gives us hope for our trip we are planning this summer. I didn't know if we would make it up to Minnesota in good time, but it looks promising. In the end, a nice, albeit short visit. We miss you Auntie A!

Nesting

So, I think I won't know if I go through a nesting spurt with this pregnancy. I have been obsessed with prepping the house since like 4 or 5 months along. That's a little early, I think, to be indicative of impending delivery. I think, lol. Anyway, I have been busy since then, for sure. We are trying to do some rearranging in the basement, and clearing extra clutter out of the main living area and moving it down there, trying to keep the house remotely clean in the event its that "Time", I have been freezing healthy lunch leftovers for use later when I don't feel like cooking, and made about three bags of baby food for the freezer as well. I went yesterday to the Stork Wearhouse to get a few accessories. I have come to the conclusion I am a natural living stuff addict, especially baby stuff. I bartered diapers from my friend Sarah for a farm share, and got a Klean Kanteen for Pony Gal yesterday to start to try to eliminate more plastic from our household, along with more cloth mama pads, a few diapers (still Wallypop brand, they were on clearance and I can't help the words clearance...;) ), some Babylegs-neat little inventions for keeping warm legs on half naked babies, and now mommies too!. I meant to get some Snappis so we don't have to use pins on the prefolds, which is probably what I will have to use for at least a few days until the baby starts to put on a little more weight as I think he will be a little small for the diapers I have on hand. I hate pins, and after seeing Snappis in action, they are definitely the way to go. I had Louisa, the owner, show me how they worked and everything and still managed to walk off without them. I felt like such a doofus. But, back to nesting, I have quite the list to finish off. More baby food. Bread baking and freezing. Dough making and freezing. More junk to be rid of. More rearranging. Maybe it is this weird pregnancy long nesting that has made the pregnancy go quickly. I think everyone in the house is ready to meet this guy at this point. And we have decided because I will not be induced due to my c-section, even if I go a little early, we will not let the drs stop the labor. Especially since dating my pregnancies is an even more inexact science than the regular pregnancy. So whenever it goes down, its happening!

Random Stuff

First and foremost, I hate being sick. I have dealt with allergies that I have not had for the last three years, which have been trying as I can do NOTHING about them. I refuse to medicate my baby. I do drink some tea that helps, but definitely does not fully alleviate the problem. Now, I also have a nasty cold on top of it. I think it is due to catering my brother in law's wedding this weekend, which totally wore me out. I am, after all, eight months pregnant. I woke up-no got up because I did not really sleep at all-about an hour and half before I usually do and ran a hot bath (as hot as it can be because of the baby) and laid in it for about the full hour before my husband got up. My throat had pretty much swollen shut so I wasn't going to be sleeping. I tried to nap yesterday when Pony Gal did, but it was futile. I hate flies also, I might mention. They were the problem then. I still had to get farm deliveries ready and need to get garage sale stuff ready, too. I can't really give myself much time at this point to be miserable, and yet I am.
So, about the garage sale. For those of you who like the city-wides, as I do because then you don't have to drive much, you can walk most of the them, the prison town to the north is having theirs this weekend, Thursday on. My sister lives in town there, so we are selling a lot there. Lots of toys that I have weeded out that I just don't care to have around anymore. Plenty of other stuff, too, of course.
On a third note, Pony Gal is growing up so fast. We woke up this morning and there were lights on in the house that we know we turned off last night before we went to bed. I noticed the kitten had not followed us in to sleep like she usually does, so I left the door cracked. Well, at some point she must have decided she wanted to come in, but needed to be rescued to do so. Pony Gal woke up and was telling me about the kitten crying and how she had gotten her. I didn't think anything of it until the lights issue came up. She managed to get up in the middle of the night, turn on lights, find Callie, and bring her back in to go to sleep with her. She has done pretty well at helping with her care. I am trying to find a bucket to keep the food in so she can keep that topped off and she runs Callie to the litter box when she gets whiny like she needs to potty. She also watches her to make sure she isn't getting into trouble.
I love the weather, though. It is definitely nice. If only I could enjoy it...