My persistence finally paid off big time - been searching for eight months. Our monster tree removal job got quotes from $5K to $2.5K at best. We were ready to go for the middle quote of $3.7K but I searched one more time and found a young, hungry company to do the job for $1800.
They did a good job too.
We keep taking advantage of grocery coupons wherever we find them, BOGO's and going to Aldi for groceries. We've been waiting for the Jumbo Tiger Shrimp to appear again - not cheap but oh so good and well, jumbo, they taste sweeter, amazingly more like lobster.
Scored - my favorite perfume - $10 coupon - just in time for Christmas:).
Finally received our coupon from Nellie's eggs for a free carton of eggs. (Saved the UPC codes and mailed them in - netted us only a couple of free cartons a year, but hey:).
From the garden:
1. Harvested limes off my lime tree yesterday. YAY!
2. Celery is almost ready - I keep on harvesting the leaves to throw in all the veggie dishes and salads - the flavor is so much stronger than store-bought, it is almost spicy. The next roast will have the first young celery stalks.
3. Harvesting Swiss Chard to go with the roast today - along with free homegrown sweet potatoes from Mr. R.'s colleague's dad at work.
4. I'm thrilled I got new baby plants for free from my African Blue Basil - they don't seed at all, but I laid a low branch into a pot and weighted it down with a stone, watered well and voila - six weeks later a fine healthy plant. Doing the same with the Lavender right now.
5. Had some old Dill seeds - varying types some going all the way back to 1998 - lo and behold - they all came up. I'll give some to my friend for pickling and enjoy the rest as a pretty garden plant as well as dry enough to fill my empty old spice glass jar from McCormick. Free spices is always a good thing.
6. Trying endive and leeks for the first time - so far it is all doing well.
7. Tomorrow I'll pick peppers to freeze - peppers freeze astoundingly well and keep their flavor.
The garden will also provide a few Christmas presents for some of our friends and family.
1. Freshly harvested organic produce for a talented cook.
2. Moroccan Mint tea - Lemon Verbena tea - It will be fun to present in a cool package. I happen to have a lot of cardboard jewelry boxes, and once the leaves are dried I can put them into a mini sealed bag for freshness.
3. May try to make Aloe Vera lotion and Lavender sachets this weekend.
4. A planter box filled with Endive - Dill - Lemon Balm - for a young couple taking a stab at going Vegetarian/Vegan. All cold-weather plants that will do well in Florida only until the end of spring.
Found a three-pound bag of coffee beans-yay on clearance while I was X-mas shopping and scored on some lovely, fancy windchimes for my garden friends.
Speaking of X-mas - we are eliminating one-third of the gift-giving this year as we agreed on last year and going to one less gathering. Less stress, more like the holidays I know from my childhood.
It is so nice to get away from the craziness and excessive gifting of just that one extra gathering. A huge relief, I like for the holidays to be a calm and relaxing, reflective time.