Good deal on over counter medication

Walmart has some good deals on adult, & childrens over the counter medication.  It includes free shipping to your home.  The website also tells you if it's in stock at the Walmart near you.
Here's one example:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?wmlspartner=IR2OVDzZM7s&sourceid=04917905601843769496&product_id=10899040&findingMethod=rr

Cheap way to stock up, & you don't even need coupons!  Some are sold out online already though, so don't delay if you want these!

An adventure for our bunnies

We would let the bunnies out of their cages if we were in the backyard so they could get some exercise.  Either mom & the babies, or the daddy rabbit.  Once they were a bit older we'd have to separate them by genders & then only let them out in groups.  One day my son forgot to put them back in when they kids decided to go play at a neighbors house.  Oops!  There was a big storm that night.  Neither of us had any idea the rabbits were out. In the morning, I went to the basement to get something.  Imagine my surprise, when in the window well, I saw baby bunnies!  I dragged my son out of bed to climb down & get them, worrying all the time, thinking about the storm.  They had all survived & seemed totally fine.  Whew!  Although they had eaten all the leaves off the pepper plants in the garden during their free evening.

Finally, baby bunnies!

Ok so we weren't sure if our doe was expecting.  But they had gotten over the barrier, so I made a guess on when she might have babies.  We put some wood chips in the nesting box.  The next day she pulled out a bunch of her tummy fur & added it to the chips.  This is what they do shortly before giving birth.  And a few hours later, there were baby bunnies!  They are not cute when they're born.  They're bald, & their eyes are closed, & they just lay there in a pile in the nesting box.  But we were excited!  There were 7 bunnies & they were all alive!
About a week later, we found 2 out of the nesting box, back in the hutch, dead.  We emailed & asked around, & the best guess was that they were still nursing when the mother left the box, & they got dragged out & died without the warm nest.  Bummer!  So once again my stoic son disposed of dead baby rabbits.  But we still had 5!
Eventually their eyes opened & they got fur.  Now I'm not all that into "cute" animals, but DANG!  Those little tiny bunnies hopping around on the grass were adorable!!   Again people were questioning me about if I was really going to be able to butcher them.  Wendie assured me that by the time they were big enough to butcher, the cuteness factor would have gone way down.  And that we'd be sick of taking care of that many & be glad to get rid of a few.  I hoped she was right.  In the meantime we had a steady stream of kids coming by to see the baby bunnies & chase them around the lawn.  It was worth having bunnies just for how much fun that was!

Brand new bunny

In nesting box

A surprise from the rabbits!

The rabbits we got were supposedly not old enough to breed yet.  My son was convinced that the girl was pregnant.  I kept telling him she wasn't old enough, besides you can't really tell they're expecting.  Even experts can be fooled.    But about 2 1/2 weeks after we got them, there were baby bunnies in the nesting box!  Unfortunately, they were dead baby bunnies.  Now it's not uncommon for the first litter of a doe to be born dead.  But it's also possible that they froze to death since we didn't have the nesting box ready, having had no idea any bunnies were coming!
I emailed Wendie, & she'd had the same unpleasant surprise, except her chickens had partly eaten the dead babies before they found them.  Ew!  Apparently, unbeknownst to Wendie, her son had bred the rabbits.  She was very apologetic.  "Well", I thought, "lets try to be tough about this".  My kind son was very stoic about it!  He got some disposable gloves on, a plastic grocery sack, & got all the dead bunnies of the nesting box for me & threw them away.  What a trooper!  It gave me hope that we could do this, between he & I!
I also realized that they were old enough to mate, & I needed to get them out of the same cage.  I tried various "dividers" in their cage, while I was trying to find a good deal on a hutch.  But nothing worked.  The wood they nibbled off the top until there was a big enough space to jump over.  I tried wire on a frame, & they pushed & pushed on that until it came loose.  Finally, I found a hutch I could afford (someone sold me a really good one for $30, & gave me one that needed some repairs for free!), & moved the boy out.  But by then she was expecting again!  Too late for us to have bunnies for Easter, but still expecting!

Getting the rabbits

Finally, after about a YEAR of working myself up to it, I looked online for some rabbits.  I couldn't find any close to by.  I was sort of relieved, but worried too.  Would I not be able to get some after all this convincing?!  So I posted to my homeschool groups to see if anyone knew of a source.  That's how I found Wendie.  She raised meat rabbits, lived about 10 min from my house, & would not only sell me a pair just about old enough to breed, but would also demonstrate how to butcher them for me.  The timing was also perfect; she knows all sorts of outstanding preparedness things, & I was able to take a few classes from her before she moved an hour away.  A real blessing!
 Wendie raises New Zealand rabbits.  I looked those up in my book:  The number one meat rabbit in the US.  Large muscular bodies.  Also friendly & good about being handled.  "Great rabbits to get started with".  Could I have been any more blessed?
So anyway, I made an appointment in a few weeks to go get the rabbits & learn to butcher them.  I had 4 or 5 people who wanted to come & see it too.  But the cold March day came & no one ended up going but my son & I.
My son was having a great time playing with all her rabbits.  He glanced over a few times during the butchering, but didn't want to watch in detail.  That's ok, he's only 8!
Wendie tells me she has a husband, but even though her husband likes to eat rabbit, he refuses to have anything to do with the butchering.  She has to do it all herself.  Well there goes that excuse for me!  And maybe having a husband wouldn't get me out of it anyway!
The thing that amazed me was how easy it was.  I'd read multiple methods, & they all seemed pretty complicated.  Wendie had found the easiest way.  (I'll post more exact instructions when I post about me butchering).  But this was easy!  There was hardly any blood.  After making a few cuts, she was able to pull the hide down & off the whole rabbit, just like pulling off a sock!  A few more cuts, she grabbed out the entrails in one handful, & it was done.  My book had said when you get fast you can do it all in about 5 min.  I believed that now!  And once the hide was off, it looked just like chicken meat, & wasn't gross at all.  I was quite relieved, this is something I can do!  I may not like doing it, but I CAN do it.  She also taught me easy ways to do the pelts (I'll post instructions on that too).  Wendie was a treasure!
So we took our boy & girl bunnies, & headed home.  My son was of course in love with the bunnies!  I had decided not to let him name the rabbits we'd be butchering, but thought we could name the breeding pair.  We picked Hocus & Pocus because my son loves magic.  So now we just had to keep them alive until they were old enough to breed!

If you're wanting to read more about rabbits, check out www.raisingrabbitsformeat.com
I bought their ebook & it had the perfect amount of info.  It also came with a free rabbit recipe book.  And once when I emailed them with a question, she answered me back right away & was very helpful.

Meat rabbits- arguing with myself

One day out of the blue, someone mentioned that someone they know raises rabbits for meat.  What a chain reaction that set off!  "Really?!" I thought.  Hhhmmm. " I wonder how that works."   "But I don't want to go that far!  I'll forget about that". But it kept weighing on my mind.  I'd think about it a bit, & then dismiss it.  Up the thought would pop again a day or two later!  I'd research it a bit, & then try to forget about it.  No such luck!  "But I have canned chicken" I thought.  "But eventually that would run out", my brain replied.   I started learning amazing things about rabbits. Rabbit meat is just about the most nutritious meat there is.  hhhhmmmm.  One rabbit female can produce over 300 pounds of meat a year.  HHHHMMMMMMM.   You can feed your rabbits weeds & they give you fertilizer.   You don't have to age the droppings like other animals.  Dang!  You can use their pelts for a variety of purposes.  You could make things to help keep warm in the winter or for trade.   In the depression people fed their rabbits on grass clippings.  They're low maintenance & quiet.  Don't take up much space.  They're meal sized so you can butcher as needed if there's no way to preserve meat.  Rabbits produce 6 lbs of meat on the same amount of feed & water as it takes for a cow to produce 1 lb of meat.  Wow.  If I'm really interested in self sufficiency, that's hard to argue with!  An almost free, easy, endless supply of meat!
But what does it taste like?  I talked to a few people who raise rabbits.  They all claimed if it's cooked correctly, you can't tell it's not chicken.  So there goes that objection.
Now here comes my biggest objection.  I don't have a husband to butcher the rabbits for me! Clearly that's a man's job!  I just don't want to butcher rabbits!  I'm off the hook because a woman shouldn't have to butcher! (nevermind that many women for centuries would go butcher a chicken or rabbit from the yard for dinner).

I kept thinking, I bought a book on raising meat rabbits.  After about 6 months I picked up a hutch I saw a good deal on.  My mind crept closer & closer to acceptance of this idea.  Pretty much a slow, reluctant drag, with my protests getting weaker & weaker.
I mention this because people when they hear I have meat rabbits, look at me as though I'm blood thirsty or that I WANT to kill bunnies.  Not at all.  But the more I learned about it, the more of a no brainer having rabbits became.  And I reasoned that I could sell the bunnies until I REALLY needed the meat.
The next post will tell about the next step in our rabbit adventures!

Solar Oven pizza!

I just had to try pizza in the solar oven.  I'd hate to never have one of my favorite foods!  I'd gotten the pepperoni & cheese on a really good deal.  I made the crust.  It was tasty!  The only thing I'd change is putting less crust; it poofed up more than we expected so was thicker than we wanted.
Here's the crust recipe for those interested.  It's supposed to make 2 12" pizzas thin crust.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 package dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1/2 TBS oil

Mix a little sugar into warm water.  Sprinkle yeast one top.  Wait 10 min until gets all foamy.  Add flour, salt & oil.  Combine.  Knead for 6-8 min until dough is smooth & elastic (add a bit more flour if needed).  Cover & let rest 20-30 min.  Lightly grease pizza pan.  Sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal (optional).  Divide dough in half.  Place dough on pan & pat it with your fingers until it streches over whole pan.  Try to make it thicker around the edge.  If desired, pre-bake at 425 for 10 min.  Spread with toppings, & bake at 425 for 10-20 min until bubbly & hot.

I did precook the crust in the solar oven for 10 min.  I cooked it in the solar oven for about 20 min & it was heated through & cheese melted.  I used 1/3 of the dough on the small cookie sheet that fits in my Global oven.  But as I said, I should have used even less to make it thin crust.

5 free greeting cards

5 Free greeting cards from Snapfish!
Code:
5 Free Greeting Cards TRY5CARDS - exp 09/30/11

Shipping is $2.49

http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/storepage/storePageId=Store_Offers_Page/campaignName=commissionjunction_try5cards?AID=10930317&PID=1495814&source=cjcmpg


Details towards bottom of page.  
I make photo cards with good deals like these for birthday's ahead of time.  Super cheap & really special!
You can't buy a generic card for $.50!

Cheap lip balm for your food storage

Avon has grapefruit lip balm on sale for $.59.  And free shipping on $10 or more with code HOTDEAL2011 (expires 8/19)
http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?pf_id=38996
You can order 17 lip balms, & have them shipped to you free for $10.03.  Great way to stock up!  Lip Balm is something I don't want to be without!

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

I like to have salad a lot in the summer on hot days.  But I've noticed an increase in lettuce prices.  You can still get a bag of lettuce for $1, but it's a smaller bag than last year.  So this year I grew some lettuce, & that's saving lots of $.
Today I got a serious urge for Thousand Island dressing.  The trouble is, the stuff in the bottles is NASTY.  The only good place to get it is at a restaurant.  But if you're a single mom too, you know how often eating out is an option...never.  I finally clued in & looked online to see how hard it would be to make my own.  Score!  I found a recipe that is easy and VERY tasty.  I also like that I can make as much or little as I want.  I should have searched for this years ago!  And the final bonus is it's cheaper than the bottles too.  I love having things that are cheaper & taste better!  *I did add an extra splash of vinegar after tasting it, to give it a bit more zing*

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 TBS ketchup
1 TBS white vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp sweet pickle relish
1 tsp finely minced white onions
1/8 tsp salt
dash black pepper

Combine all ingredients (I mixed them in the blender).  Cover & refrigerate for several hours, stirring occasionally, so that sugar dissolves & flavors bend.  (I forgot to stir occasionally, & can't tell, but you might want to).

Shelf stable milk at Dollar Tree

I was excited to find these at Dollar Tree today!  The cheapest I'd found the quarts of shelf stable milk were $1.50.  So I bought all 25 they had at this price.  It expires in about a year, but I've used these at least a year past the expiration & they tasted fine.  You want to chill them before drinking or putting on cereal, but they require no refrigeration to keep them good.  I love having these for if we run out on a weekend, or when we're sick, we can just throw some in the fridge.
I've also never found the small size half & half before.  I've been able to get quarts a few times from Alpine Food storage, but the half & half is getting hard even for them to get in.  If you have a Dollar Tree near you, go check it out!

Making the silver

This sounds more complicated at first then it is.  First hook your four 9V batteries together, & attach alligator clips.  (Don't leave the batteries hooked together when you're done, they could eventually explode).









Then you need to suspend your silver over the water.  You want 2 bars of silver.  I think chopsticks would work better than the craft sticks.  I have the sticks attached with rubber bands.  You don't want the silver touching each other or the glass sides.  Put about 2 cups of distilled water in there.  Attach the alligator clips from the batteries to the silver bars.

Then you just wait.  If you have a full 36 V, it takes about a half an hour to get enough silver into the water.  You're shooting for 10 ppm silver in your solution.  This is a good, safe, effective dose.  The important thing to remember, is silver is only half as conductive as the NaCi which is what your TDS meter is calibrated with.  In simple terms, that means double the number on your TDS meter.  When it says "5", you have 10 ppm of silver.  You also need to add any number you had in your water before you started.  If your water read zero before you started, you need to get it to 5.  But if you had a reading of "2" (remember, it must be under 5 or your water isn't pure enough), you need to add 2 to the 5 you're shooting for, & stop when it gets to 7.  Did that make any sense?!

After a while you'll be able to tell that it's working.  The silver might start to turn black (you can wash this off later), & little wisps will float up.  It's hard to see, but here's a picture.  If nothing happens after about 15 min, & your TDS meter isn't showing any increase in number, you may need to adjust your alligator clips to get the current going.

Once it's done, store it in a dark container in a cool place.  I put mine in a canning jar with black plastic around it.  You can store it for quite a while, but I make it as needed, & then make more when that runs out. You won't be able to tell that any silver has even been used until you make it a LOT.   I mix this with the pulp from my Aloe Vera plant to put on wounds.  It looks & tastes like water, which is why you need the TDS monitor to know how much silver is in there.
The best way to take it internally is in your mouth.  Hold it in your mouth 30 seconds to 3 min.  It's best absorbed through the mucosa.  You can swallow it after.  Wendie doesn't recommend taking this all the time as a dietary supplement.  She recommends taking it as you feel you're getting sick, & for 3 days after you get well.  For an adult she says about 2 tsp, 2 times a day.
Email me & I'll send you her powerpoint.  She has lots of excellent information on there, & all the info on how to figure dosing for children.  And an emergency dosing for serious illnesses.  singlemomprep@gmail.com
And feel free to ask me any questions or if something isn't clear!  Once you get it & try it, it's easy!

Making your own silver-what you need

First of all, this is do at your own risk. My friend Wendie taught this to me. She's the manager of the ICU, has a 10 book series at Deseret Book, & every time I talk to her I am SUPER impressed with her knowledge. It's amazing. She really researches everything, & knows her stuff!  She also had tons of research to back it up.  So to me, I was totally willing to trust her, rather than redo all that research myself. But if you're not comfortable with that, go look into it!  I will not be held responsible for your results with this.
If you'd like her powerpoint, with dosing info & studies about silver, email me at singlemomprep@gmail.com & I'll send it to you.
You'll need a few things to make silver.  You'll need pure silver, pure water, and energy.
First the silver.  It has to be .9999.  .999 is NOT good enough.  I got mine here:

This will be enough silver to make yourself silver solution probably for life.  But if you're going to do this, buy your silver NOW.  The price has been going up, & will probably keep doing so.  I just read a post from a man who said the silver coins at a gun show sold out in 5 min, & that pawn shops are only buying silver, not selling it.  Buy your silver.

Next you need a TDS monitor.

This is important.  You need it to make sure you have pure enough water to start with.  If there is stuff in your water, the silver may bond to it & that's when it might get unsafe.  You also need this so you can tell when there's been enough silver put into your water for safe doses.

You also need distilled water.  It's an interesting test to use your TDS monitor & check different waters.  Your tap water is not clean enough (mine read 174 today).  Bottled water is not.  Water from your filter or purifier is not.  You need a reading on your monitor of under 5.  Rain & snow water are usually clean enough.  As is distilled water.  I've been buying distilled water.  But my goal is to be able to make it when there's no grocery store.  So I also bought a solar distiller.

You can also make a sun distiller pretty easily.  Look for instructions online.

Then you need energy.  You'll need some alligator clips, & 9V batteries.  Ideally you'll want 36 V going into the silver.  So four 9V batteries.  I bought rechargable ones that I can recharge with my solar battery.  If this is the only medicine I have someday I want to be able to make it.  But I've been making it for right now with regular 9V batteries.


Another useful, but not necessary item is a multi meter.  This will help you know how much "juice" is left in your batteries, so you know if you have 36V.  Sometimes Harbor Freight has a newspaper coupon to get one of these free with any purchase.



If you're at all interested in making this as a salve too, I'd recommend an Aloe Vera plant.  You can mix the silver with the pulp of the plant to put on wounds.

Ok next post will have the instructions!

medicinal silver

I've been really trying to research things I can do to help if there is no Dr.  I met Wendie, who is a nurse who manages the ICU.  She's been researching for years to find out what really works.  She strongly recommends Ionized Silver.  (sometimes called colloidal silver, but they're actually different).  They use it in the ICU.  It's also put in the eyes of newborns.
Ok a tiny bit of history.  The term "born with a silver spoon in their mouth" comes from using silver.  Those with means would have their babies suck on silver pacifiers or silver spoons, because of the medicinal qualities.  Unfortunately, if silver is taken with too big of particles; you can get "argyria", which is silver skin.  Thus the term "blue bloods".  This doesn't actually hurt you, but is permanent.  So you'll see lots of warnings online about how it's unsafe to use silver, or you'll get this.  First of all, to do that you would have to take a LOT of silver.  But some people have done it. Second, if it's ionized, it can't happen.
A bit more history:  silver was used a lot before we had antibiotics.  Pioneers put silver coins in their milk bottles to help it stay fresh.  Phoenicians stored wine in silver bottles to help it stay fresh.  Aristocrats who ate on silver plates were protected from the Bubonic Plague.

You can use silver in tons of ways.  One friend says it makes the best deodorant she's ever had.  You can put it on wounds.  You can take it internally to help with illnesses.  You can purify water with it.  It's very useful stuff!  There are also real scientific studies that show it's strong effectiveness on such bugs as salmonella, staph, canadida, & others.  You can clean with it.  It's also safe for your animals if they get sick.

We've had some personal experience with silver now.  My step-mother had 2 spots taken off her arm by the Dr.  She put silver salve on one, & not the other.  The one with silver healed much faster.  I know a dentist who was having a lot of trouble getting people's root canals to heal quickly...people have become so resistant to antibiotics.  He now rinses his root canals with silver & hasn't had any more trouble.  I cut most of the bottom skin off my toe, quite deeply, in some really nasty, green scummy water.  We put silver in, wrapped it, & I hiked out.  The toe resealed on the hike & I was prepared for a nasty infection.  That water was DIRTY!  But I was able to hike the next day, never got an infection, & 2 weeks later you couldn't tell I'd been cut.  My son & I take silver if we think we're starting to get sick.  It's really easy!  Now these are just stories, but there is research to back up silver.  And it is allowed to be sold.  That's the easiest way to get it.  The brand Wendie recommends buying is ASAP.  I had the liquid & the salve.  Next though I'll post how to make it yourself.  Much much cheaper!  But you might want to buy some to experiment with, & see how it works for you before buying the stuff to make it.
If you're interested in Wendie's powerpoint about silver, email me at singlemomprep@gmail.com & I'll send it to you.

Preparedness lessons from Dilbert part 1

This comic strip pretty much speaks for itself. But just in case, here's something to think about. Don't tell anyone how prepared you really are. Just this last week I had a neighbor who isn't very prepared, jokingly say they would just come to my house when things got bad. Ha ha. But it's not really funny. I'm a single mom, sacrificing every day to get prepared, & I'm supposed to even laugh about suddenly having to feed 3 other people? And even though people say it jokingly, what about if things really are bad? What would your friends, or even family be willing to do if their children were starving? I personally would rather not find out. So unless it's someone you're prepared to take care of, or someone on your preparedness team, who you are planning on working with during bad times, don't let them know how prepared you are. You can always say "I have a couple weeks worth", which is true, even if you had 10 years worth.
Also, don't have any of your food or other preparedness things visible to visitors to your home, even repair men.
If someone comes asking for help when things get bad; unless you're willing to let them move in & feed them, say no you don't have any to spare. You can always leave something for them later anonymously. That way you can help them, without them showing up every day. You can't possibly store enough to feed everyone. I'm all for helping people, but do it on your terms, & don't put your family & supplies at risk. And if you think of a good response for those people who say they're just coming to my house, let me know!

A favorite food storage source!

www.alpinefoodstorage.com
One of my favorite food storage sources has a brand new website!  I'm fortunate to live about 10 min from here, but they do ship all over the US.  They find great prices on stuff, & know a lot about how to use everything.  I've found some of my favorite items here, like shelf stable milk, shelf stable whipping cream, powder to make lemon juice, coconut oil, canned seeds, & tons of other things!  It's well worth getting on their email list.  One late winter she had end of winter apples for making applesauce for $.14 lb!  The pears I got there last fall were amazing!  I also got onions & potatoes to store all winter.  She's working on green beans to buy to can right now.  They also have a selection of gluten free food storage items.  Check it out!

A wheelbarrow full of stuff, plus the wheelbarrow!

Here's is an example of our preparedness garage sale hunting today.  The most expensive thing was the wheelbarrow at $5.  The next was the box of fireworks (purely for fun!) at $4.  All together though, this cost around $20.  I got a bunch of clothes, including a snow suit for my son, & a church suit for him at a clothing exchange.  We got 20 canning jars for $1!  We got brand new lotions, & herb seed packets for $1 total.  And for fun we got a huge box of scrapbook paper (if you have a crafty child you'll know what a treasure that is!), 2 Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books, a board game, a snow tube, & my son bought himself some...unusual indian head bookends.  We spent a bit over an hour.  At regular prices, just the wheel barrow, or just the canning jars would have cost $20!  The suit by itself would have cost more than $20!  A great return on our time!  I had added a wheel barrow to my mental list last week, & there one was!

Pinching Your Pennies

This is a great site for helping you find deals.  You can sign up on the link on the right side of the screen to get email alerts of deals.  These will include mostly online things you can buy.  But you can also go to the "forums", & "state forums" & then your state.  They do a great job matching up grocery stores in your state with coupons. You can look at a grocery list every week (preview list usually goes up the day before a sale starts).  It has stars along the side to alert you to how good a deal it is.  I look at just the red stars.  It has links for printable coupons, what date the newspaper coupons were, the price before coupons & the final price after coupons.  They have it for the entire US.  It makes getting deals at the grocery store super easy!  It's all free, & you'll save tons of money!
http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/newsletters/screaming-penny/?ref=a57808c1a1hlue 

Cheap way to stock up, case lot sales

If you have a Macey's near you, they have a caselot sale this week.  If you don't, keep watching your ads.  Most stores have a caselot sale in the fall, & Smith's reportedly has the best prices.  There's a few things so cheap, that even if you only have a few dollars to spend, you can go get something, & that sure feels good!  Here's a few things I noticed from the Macey's ad:
Top Ramen $.10!  Case of 24 for $2.40.  Ok not the tastiest stuff, but you could live on it!  At least go get one of these!
Western Family Mac & Cheese, $.35 each.  That's a cheap meal!
Broths or Cream soups (Western Family brand) for $.50 each. .
Spagettios, Canned green beans, corn, beans, diced tomatoes, $.50 each.
Betty Crocker cornbread $.25 package (makes 6 muffins, tasty & great for your solar oven)
Salt $.33 (you can't produce salt yourself, & you literally can't live without salt.  Get some!)
Italian dressing mix or Ranch $.33 each (great for flavoring meats & soups.  Name brand's cost over $1 each now)
The canning jars are on sale, but are still cheaper at Walmart.  Walmart will also price match anything they carry, so won't work on Western Family brand, but will on any name brand items.
Macey's also has a large food storage section.  A lot of the long term storage is on sale this week as well.  The big blue 55 gallon water storage barrels are $34.

Free at Walgreens this week

Free stuff

There is $42 worth of things you can get free this week at Walgreens.  One has a rebate, & the others get you get back "register rewards" after you pay for them.  That means that the $2 markers, I got a $2 certificate printed to use next time.  Here's the things I got free.  There were 2 other things in their ad (see www.walgreens.com) that I didn't pick up.

There's also some other good deals with coupons.
I got all of this, plus 2 Magnum ice cream bars.  I paid $40, & got back $23 in register rewards.  Regular retail value would have been around $90.  I got them for about the price of the razor & contact solution.  Walgreens sales run Sun to Sat, so you have all week to see if there's anything you want.
It took me about 15 min at the store including checking out.  Awesome!

I was a guest blogger on LDS parenting!

http://ldsparenting.blogspot.com/2011/08/pineapple-apricot-freezer-jam.html
Fun, fun site on almost everything imaginable for parenting!  I could spend a long time exploring here!  And they are growing really fast!

Cookie baking in 2 solar ovens

Global Sun oven

SOS oven

Cookies from both ovens

Today I tried chocolate chip cookies in both solar ovens to compare them.
The first thing I noticed is the Global heated up much faster.  It was almost to 100 by the time I'd adjusted the back leg.  The SOS hadn't even shown a temperature rise.  But by the time I had the dough made, the SOS was just over 300, & the Global was near 350.  This recipe I bake in my home oven at 375, so I was interested to see how they did at lower temps.
I baked the cookies in the Global for about 15 min (in my oven inside I cook these 9 min).  They weren't brown on the top, but they were cooked all the way through & tasted delicious.  I baked them in the SOS for about 20 min.  I think they could have used 3-5 more min.  But they were delicious too.  As far as taste, I could not tell a difference between the two.  I think the ones in the Global were a bit less flat.  Both ended up somewhat crispy on the outside after they cooled, just like my oven baked ones, even though they didn't show any brown.  And taste wise, they were just as good as the ones baked inside.  So most of the difference is the speed of baking.   So I would still say, if you're only getting 1 oven, get the SOS.  It's cheaper & fits much more inside.  See my post "solar ovens rock" for info on where to get one.
I also tried some in a glass jar.  The idea being you can put the lid on, & it will seal & keep for several months.  This gives you baked goods to eat on cloudy days.  I will open it in a few weeks & post on how that turned out.
Now I'm going to go eat some cookies!

Good deal on year membership to Aquarium

For Utah readers:

https://livingsocial.com/redeem_invite/16994738-yulebe?ref=lnk

$18 for a year pass to the Living Planet Aquarium for an adult & child.  That is only a few dollars more than it costs to go 1 time.  I love things like this; gets us out in the winter & saves us lots of $!  We can go as much as we want.  Plus, if you use this link, you should get $5 off (if you're new), making it only $13!

My son loves going here & petting the rays.  The penguins are really fun to watch too!