Thankful

You know you had a crappy day prior when you wake up with one of these stuck to you

I have been missing from the blog as fully intended to post this weekend but was in a traffic accident on Saturday which has filled much of my time since.  Mom and I went to the farmers market in preparation to buy flowers for my friend whom was cooking us Thanksgiving supper on Sunday.  On our way back we were rearended.  Fortunately I was driving our truck (yeah, the one purchased 2 months ago) and apparently the Toyota Tacoma is highly rated for safety.  We have minimal damage to our vehicle, we need a new bumper and the tow package got all messed up. There might be more damage but that can't be assessed until the bumper is removed.   It is still very drivable though and did zero damage to our paint job.

The vehicle that hit us was a Ford Van and it is basically a write-off with the lights being blown out, the hood getting all scrunched along with the front end.  A few days late but I am extremely thankful that I was driving that vehicle at the time of the accident and that Mom and I weren't injured any worse.  She has whiplash and I seem to have something going on with my back and chest.  We went to the hospital immediately after the accident to be checked out but only soft tissue injuries.  This means a lot of Dr appts for both of us.

While we were sitting in the hospital waiting to be seen (I spent 4 hours there, had an EKG and xrays) we both decided no matter what we would drag ourselves to my friends house for Thanksgiving which she was hosting on Sunday.  She is the very best cook I know and I was ever so grateful I wouldn't have to try and cook a turkey.  We managed to get there and supper was all we hoped it to be.

Anyway, we are both upright and moving around and feel very fortunate about that.  There will still be pain and treatment to come but it could have been so much worse.

Moving on.....on October 1 I picked the last cucumber and removed the rest of the tomatoes from the vine.  This is the year totals:

4 cucumbers (plant cost $3) so not a huge money saver but it was so nice to have fresh cucumbers
111 small to medium early girls (way too small for my liking)
60 cherry tomatoes (tomato plants were $9)
4 green peppers (plants were $3)
110 strawberries (plants were $20 and are perrenials)

Not a bad tally but not a bumper crop by any means.  Next year I will forget about growing peppers, they just don't do well outside a greenhouse.  I am not sure about the strawberries but likely will move them to different containers that are more rodent proof in the spring or give them away - will wait to make a decision and see how they over winter.

I will also buy beefsteak and grape or  roma tomatoes as in general I was dissapointed with the amount of small tomatoes, no large ones at all.  My cherry tomatoes were so tiny too, more like large peas.  Oh well, I still have tomatoes for a couple of weeks as they are ripening in the window sill.

Liquor costs alot in Canada due to our "sin" taxes.  They intend to do the same to cannabis when it is legalized here next week (October 17).  As I like to drink wine I decided to try and lower my costs by buying a wine kit.  We have local stores that do the actual brewing once you buy the kit and then you go in to bottle it. Mine is a four week kit and will be ready the first week of November. 

Even the cheapests of wine at the liquor store costs about $10 for 750 ml but I would say average cost is $15-22.  My costs are as follows:

$71.34 for the wine kit including tax.  That will make 30 750 ml bottles.  Normally they have a $55 fee which covers them doing the brewing (or if you have the room and inclination you can do that part yourself at home with some additional equipment, I have nowhere to do this).  Because I am a first time customer they waived that fee (yippee!).  Now I need to come up with 30 wine bottles before bottling time.  I have been scouting craigslist and our Facebook bidding site for bottles for those getting out of do-it-yourself wine.  Even if I have to buy new bottles from them it will only cost $1.28 per bottle and they are reusable an unlimited amount of times.  

This bring my cost to $2.38 cents per bottle of wine (not including reusable bottle) this kit and future kits with the $55 handling fee which includes labels and corks  $4.21 per bottle.  Those are my kinds of prices.  If I choose to later make a more expensive kit with some premium wine those are about $50 more, still extremely affordable.  My best friend is going to have a 1/3 share in this kit just to try it out.  I hope the wine works out as this is way more affordable than buying wine at the liquor store - and I am just looking for a basic table wine as am not a connoisseur by any means.  I miss the really tasty 2 Euro bottles of wine we found all over Europe.

So - in the end we still had a nice Thanksgiving with friends, spoke to most of our family who is all  healthy and happy so we have much to be thankful for, even with an accident thrown in the mix.