Zoo Talk: Thursday payday

Up this morning around 7. Didn't accomplish a whole lot for a little while besides drinking coffee and eating toast with honey. I did hang out another load of laundry and fed the chickens, though.

After that, Son and I worked on building the fence we started yesterday. All that's left to do is set the posts where the gate will be and finish off the rest of the fence with t-posts driven in strategic locations to keep the fence sturdy. Most of it is nailed to convenient trees around the perimeter of the area.

We came inside, had a lunch of the leftover chili-mac from last night along with garlic toast, then showered and headed to town. I picked up my pay and then we did some grocery shopping. This was one of those shopping trips where I had to restock up on canned tomato products, which just happened to be on sale this week, too. We got a couple packages of the all natural pork this store offers (no hormones, no antibiotics) at a nice sale price. Plus, I needed to get more sliced cheese and shredded cheese. The shredded was a national brand that was also on sale. The sliced comes in a 5 lb. package, which we will divide up into pint zip bags for easier handling and storage. We also got some of our favorite fruits and veggies with deeply discounted prices. In all, it was a pretty satisfying shopping trip.

We ate out at a local home cooking style cafe and had enough left on my plate to bring home in a take out box.

After doing all that, then hitting McDonald's for a cup of coffee, we headed home. I think putting all the groceries away took almost as long as shopping for them! We divided the meat packages into smaller, quart zip bags for the freezer. Each pack should be enough for a meal for us. Altogether, we wound up with 9 or 10 packs of pork, so I felt pretty good about that. I spend $150 a month, and often less, on groceries by shopping this way instead of following a weekly shopping list. Much of what I bought today will carry over past the next shopping trip. I will now assess what's on hand and make my menus accordingly.

Between what we have in the freezer and pantry, and the sweet potatoes I'll be getting from my sister next week, we could probably eat for a month or more without getting anything more than the occasional gallon of milk.

I paid my bills online this evening, so that's caught up nicely. I like being able to pay online and not have to run all over two towns to get bills paid. Saves me a lot of gas, since I live a distance out of town.

Tomorrow is looking to be a busy day, too, so I should be off to bed by now.

Good night!