A Quiet Night on the Homestead

Enjoying another quiet night. H was out like a light by 6:30PM. He played outside all day today while I worked more on the chicken pens and feed room. Sure going to miss the little guy when he goes home Saturday. Speaking of feed room, we have been having to set traps to catch field mice. They are getting in the feed room and eating on the bread for the animals. We have the animal feed and the bread in metal trash cans. The feed cans have lids but the bread is stack so high in the cans because of not enough room that the mice are going to town nibbling on it. We set 4 traps each night and have 4 mice each morning. We have caught 21 mice!! We have cats so what is wrong with this picture? Bet we are the only farm that catches mice to feed to their cats. Hopefully we have caught them all. Little Pug Face (orphaned baby bunny) is doing wonderfully. He got out of his mom's nest and for some reason she wouldn't let him or her (not sure yet) back in. I tried putting it back after she pushed him out when he went back on his own but she did the same. She lets me handle and put the others back but not this one so it is in a cage in the diningroom. I have been giving it a bottle 4 times a day. It's a bottle for kittens so is just the right size. Today it found the water bottle attached to the cage and has been drinking from that several times. He is also nibbling at rabbit food and whole wheat bread crumbs. He is only 2 weeks old so am surprised. Will try to take a picture of Pug Face (He has a pug nose) and post it tomorrow. The parakeets are all settled and happy. Bobbie (the male) will sit on my finger and sing. Meoka (female) will bite if I try to get her to sit on my finger but I pick her up and hold her anyway. One day she should get use to me and stop biting. I was so happy I got the kitchen and diningroom cleaned and mopped today until William decided to bring a work bench, tools and a chainsaw inside to work on tonight. Now my diningroom looks like a toolshed or workshop. Life on a farm, what can I say. Last night for supper I fixed baked barbecue chicken, german potato salad, cucumber salad, blackeyed peas, and collard greens. The only thing bought was the chicken and I got a bag of leg and thighs for $5.98. After dividing the bag I ended up with enough for 5 meals.The potato and cucumber salad came from Gerda. Leftovers from a meal at her home. The blackeyed peas were from peas dried 2 years ago and the collards are some we had in the freezer. Tonight I cleaned out the fridge so we had a lot of leftovers. The last of the potato and cucumber salad. The rest of the hopping john from New Years. The rest of the collards and the last of the cabbage and polish sausage along with the last little bit of stir fried squash,onion, potatoes and garlic. Am trying to see how many meals I can fix with mostly things from the freezer or pantry. The grocery bill for this month was only $103. That's down from $150 last month but we had the family for a weekend and several friends that ate with us a few times. We shop once a month and that amount is for food and household items. It doesn't include animal feed or supplies. We have to purchase animal feed every two weeks and we spend way more on their food than ours! The prices have sky rocketed over the past couple months. I find it fun to see how much I can cut cost and still eat very well. Leftover nights may be a weird mixture of items but heck its saving money and weird still taste good! Well I am off to check the fire in the stove and head to bed. Tomorrow is another day of outside chores. These 50 and 60 degree days won't last and we are suppose to get snow tomorrow night! I sure hope so.Don't forget to count those blessings.