Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Been To The Store Lately?

As I sit here, my sprinklers are sprinkling away.  My gardeners showed up a day early to repair the valves.  Again I had to turn the circuit breaker off because they could not get the shutoff valve to turn.       My luck was holding as nothing major happened, except for .... well .... that geyser that appeared in the lawn.

Another broken sprinkler, which they fixed post haste.  Now to test every station.  Geyser number two caught Roberto right in the face as he bent over to take a look.  No big deal because it was 103 and he was hot anyway.

Three geyser repairs later, along with one errant sprinkler watering the concrete driveway, we were good to go.  The good news is the geysers were free, as in no charge to fix those.  That made up for the high cost of the six valve repairs.

Next up on my ever increasing list of STUFF to do, was spraying weeds.  I filled my handy dandy mega sized backpack sprayer and headed out across my 2-1/2 acres.  This was probably the extent of my exercise for the last three weeks.  It felt good, mostly because as I march around I yell DIE ... DIE ... DIE to the dandelions, stinging nettle and foxtails.  I was not surprised when my neighbor came over to see if I was okay.
Next up, I headed off to the grocery store for a few necessities, like ice cream, butter and chicken for Cooper.  Have you been to the store lately?  I was pretty shocked that these three half-full bags came to $129.  Is it me or have they raised their prices considerably.  I got 3 roma tomatoes for $4.55, along with a package of low-carb tortillas for $6.  Holy cow .... I'm going to have to change my eating habits considerably.  This is NOT affordable!!
It took less than five minutes to put it all away while I scrutinized the receipt.  The prices at our Save Mart have basically doubled.  It's okay, I need to get back on my no-food diet anyway.

Out here in California, most all the chickens come from Foster Farms.  In order words, if you want chicken, you don't have much choice on the brand.  They used to be much better at processing, but I guess they are trying to keep up with the crazy demand.  This was the worst cleaning job of a chicken I've ever seen.  

The neck was still covered in feathers and honestly looked rotten.  I cut away everything I could and threw it in the trash.  It's only okay because I'm cooking it for the puppies, not me.  It was disgusting with a capital D.

Thank you George Yates for showing me how to cook a chicken on the barbecue.  I held my breath almost the entire 90 minutes because I didn't know if there was enough propane left in that canister.  I had to go check on it every fifteen minutes.  YAY .... it only lasted 88 minutes, but the chicken was done.
I chopped it all up and put it in the freezer for the kids.  A $5 chicken resulted in one container.  Too bad I'm not in Arizona where they do all the roasting and chopping for you.  One container has probably three chickens in it for $15.  SO much easier and the same price per chicken.

I sweltered for the rest of the day, sitting in front of a fan in the living room with the puppies who were hogging all the cool.  I'm too cheap to run the AC so it stayed about 83 in here all day and long into the night.  Actually it was still 83 when I woke up.

I swear I am NOT going to sit on the couch this morning.  I'm going outside for a long walk around the neighborhood.  I'm enough of a hermit that I rarely get out and see or talk to people, especially with the Magic Kingdom shut down.  With this virus stuff, I'm becoming even worse.  Now not only do I rarely go out but I argue with myself all the time.  Maybe some fresh air will help me win the argument!





14 comments:

  1. When we now accomplish a single thing in a day we're happy. When we accomplish Two things in a day we cheer. When we accomplish Three things in a day it turns into a celebration. Is this the new Normal?
    Be Safe and Enjoy the Fan.

    It's about time.

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    1. Isn't that funny? To be honest, I think it has more to do with age. I am just getting WAY too old!!

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  2. Yea, I went to the grocery store on Monday and it cost me $119. We use those low-carb tortillas (Mission brand) and enjoy them since it is within our diet too. Good snack (roll up cheese in them and micro for 10-15 seconds) or main course like tacos or enchiladas. We enjoy just a little bit of Rebel Ice Cream each night, but that costs a bunch ($6 per pint...but a pint lasts 3 days per person).

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    1. Oh I'm trying your enchiladas idea. As to the ice cream ... well ... I like the Enlightened brand. I really try to make it last three days, which really isn't that hard since it doesn't taste all that great!! LOL

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  3. Wow..that was an expensive little shopping trip. I know Walmart I can get the low carb tortillas from $2.82 to $3.09 depending on which brand I buy. Yeah that chicken was ridiculous. Enjoy your walk!

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    1. The prices have been killing me. For a single person, I spent $450 on food last month and I don't buy expensive stuff. I think a diet is in order to lessen the amount I eat!!

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  4. Nancy, perhaps you should check on-line your weekly ads from grocery stores on a Wednesday OR whenever the ads come out. Your roma tomato prices are out rageous. Here in Thayne, WY their market was $1.49 lb for romas and this morning I saw on sale $.88 lb. I found here in the small town of Thayne, many prices are cheaper than the Safeway in Benson, AZ. Perhaps it is time to look at weekly ads....just a thought. Lynn Cross

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    1. That would be a great help. There are only two stores here and they are both high priced. For me to go somewhere else, it would cost WAY too much in diesel, but maybe I can just shop their sales and not pay regular price.

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  5. Food is getting expensive here too. We're still using fans to beat the heat. We enjoy the windows being open even though it is muggy. At least you can win your arguments with yourself. :))

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    1. You are so right Doug .. I DO win ALL those arguments! LOL

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  6. Yes I have noticed how expensive groceries are getting. Great job cooking the chicken!

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    1. George was a good teacher. It always comes out perfect!!

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  7. Food has definitely gone up. Produce is up a lot.

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    1. Produce is what I eat the most of, so it's been rather pricey for me. I'm a meat and veggie girl.

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