Preparing for the Peak Season in the Homestead without Getting Overwhelmed

It's another episode of the Grounded in Simplicity. 

For today, we discussed how you can not be overwhelmed during the peak season in the homestead. 

It is best to write down what you need to start each week. It's like knowing like what your benchmarks are going to be. If you can have a note written in your calendar to have a roadmap of the things that you are going to try to work on or focus on every week.

The nice thing with having a list is it's pretty consistent from year to year. It makes it easier as you do it more. So every year, it gets a little bit easier, because you can just look back on those notes that you have created previously. May it be in gardening, buying seeds or preserving foods or doing groceries. 

The more stuff that accumulates, the more it's still in our subconscious mind that all of this stuff needs to get done in a certain period of time. It is like our brain keeps a running and the more stuff that goes undone, and the more stuff that starts to accumulate, then the more our anxiety builds. 

Simplify your routine, simplify your life. Figure out what you can take out like, it really comes down to figuring out what your priorities are, what you're going to focus on, what you're going to dedicate your time to. And then figuring out how you can either eliminate everything or eliminate or delegate everything else. Always remember, you cannot do everything on your own.

Links mentioned in this episode:
2022 Seed Varieties
Pampered Gardener Box by Kitchen Botanicals
The Self Sufficient Life
Not So Modern Living

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Transcript

Danielle McCoy: 0:01

Welcome back to Grounded in Simplicity, where we are helping moms get back to basics and learn to find joy in being less busy. I'm Danielle from the Rustic Elk, I'm joined by my good friend Bonnie of The Not So Modern Housewife. And today we are going to talk about preparing for peak season on the homestead without getting overwhelmed. So I think maybe we'll start off by talking about kind of just having a roadmap for the season ahead, you know, depending on what you have, coming along, whether it is planning out your garden planning out, you know, your chickens or anything like that, kind of knowing like what your benchmarks are going to be. Because I, I don't like saying, Okay, I'm going to do this on this day. And, you know, like planning out everything, because that never works. And in my opinion, really just leads to the overwhelm. But I think if you have kind of like a note written in your calendar, saying, Okay, this week, you know, the focus may be this or this week, the focus may be that. So for instance, with the garden timing is everything, at least, especially for Florida gardening. And so we'll have different seeds that need to be started every month of the year. And we need to have kind of a plan ahead of time of what seeds are going to need to be started. So we have the seeds on hand. But then also like knowing kind of where they're going to go in the garden beds so that we make the space ahead of time or, you know, add garden beds are harvests something else that we need, you know, need to plan when things are going to be harvested. And so even though I may not be able to say, this is the day I'm going to do it, because obviously I don't know what the weather's going to be, I don't know, everything that's going to be going on. But I can at least kind of have a roadmap of the things I'm going to try to work on or focus on every week. And then even if I do get a little bit behind, it's a lot easier to work that into the schedule than if I planned everything out. And then I have no wiggle room. Right, I know up here for me, I will pick what I want to plant and kind of try to decide how many I think I want to try to grow and all of those things. And then I will, of course buy seeds, make sure that I have everything. I usually buy seeds in December, for the following year, whatever I don't have in my mess of seeds. And then I will I'll count back from our last frost date for each week. So you know, like our last frost date is May 10. I usually go all the way out to May 20th. And consider that our last frost date because the last few years, it's been later. And it hasn't really.. Yeah, I should tell that I think the guideline is to actually plan like a 14 day window to make sure you're out of that danger zone. Right. So I usually plan like May 20th, in the middle middle part of May, maybe even a little bit later, depending on what it is. But I'll count back and I'll make a list of you know, like this is two weeks before three weeks before etc, etc, until I get all the way back in February where we start onions that you know 12 weeks or whatever. And I'll keep that list in my garden binder. And I'll write down what I need to start each week. So it doesn't have to be exact, but since we have to start a lot of seeds indoors here we don't have nice Florida weather. I'll I'll make a note you know like okay, I need to put onions and or you know lavender or yarrow or I need to start my peppers or tomatoes or anything like that. And try to keep an eye on that list as we start getting into gardening season. And also I'll write down well it should be safe to start peas outside because they can handle a little bit of frost and the ground should be thought enough that I can work the soil. And I don't want to put my tomatoes out until at least May 20th. Because I don't want them to freeze and trying to cover them as a hassle. And last time I tried to do it, they died. So I make I make a running list and then I'll just you know every week once we start in, you know like the middle part of February I'll start going through that list and making sure that I'm getting my seat started on time. Well the nice thing with having a slight hardening and all that stuff. Yeah, the nice thing with having a list like that is it's pretty consistent from year to year. So once it's done, it's done and yeah, you just keep it in your gardening binder and you have you have it as a reference, you know, for every year and you can even make notes you know alongside of that like okay, this took longer to mature so maybe I need to start it further ahead of time. Or maybe you know, we got a late frost and you know, make notes like that. But yeah, I think that's important to, to have some kind of a reference guide there that is, you know, doesn't change too much from year to year, because it's been, it's less work you have to do every year. Right. Yeah, I think a planner or journal or something and taking notes, and, you know, you can even keep track of the pests that you, you know, really struggled with. And when you really struggled with them, and what you tried and what worked and what didn't work, and what your yields were, and, you know, all those different things so that you can, it makes it easier as you do it more. So every year, it gets a little bit easier, because you can just look back on those notes and be like, Okay, well, I grew this variety, and it was crap in my area. So but I grew this one, and it did really well. And I started it then. So let's do that. Yeah, that'sum, I was gonna mention like with your list is if you have another column that kind of has, you know, the best variety you found, and do it in pencil, so you need to erase it and, you know, replace it with something else that you can, but I'd say the only are you have you had any struggles? I know you were pretty good on seeds for this year. But have you had any struggles finding like the specific varieties that you were looking for, with all of the seat shortages last couple years? I didn't this year because I got ahead of the ball and made sure that I had had kept track of what I had. And I bought onions last year, I could not find onion seeds to save my life. Yeah, they were hard to find finally found some. And I didn't pay attention to the seed count. And I got them in the mail. And they were like 20 bushes. Oh, right, everybody onions. And they're I will not mentioned the seed company, because they're a seed company that I like. But I was shocked. I went to start sprinkling them out into my hands so I could put them in my trays. And I'm like, That's it. And I'm like, Well, I really, I really wonder if it was because it was so hard to find onion seeds, they probably wanted to make sure that every customer got some. But yeah, it's cuz that's not theirs. I mean, like there's one. I really like tasty green cucumbers, they do really well down here. Like I found them to be the most pest and disease resistant for Florida. But there's like five seeds in a packet. And they're twice those five seeds are twice as much as the regular cucumbers with 10 seeds. And I'm like, so you're paying like four times as much proceed. And I mean, you know, and then I went and got because I'm a I'm a seed nerd. I went and got the Crimson giant tomato seeds from my gardener, which at this point, I think I'm actually going to save all, all the seeds that I got until all because I'm really, I'm afraid that I'm going to start them now. And then I'm going to lose them to summer because it's just I don't know, anyway, that's another story for the day. But since it just gets too hot, you can't grow tomatoes there. It gets too hot. And we have too many fungal issues. I mean, most of what I lose is to preserve them well. And I mean, the stink bugs get really bad too. And when you're talking about a large heirloom tomato variety, it takes them so much longer to ripen, that it leaves too much time for the it leaves too much time for the bugs to find them and get them. So spring is usually a better time for Roma tomatoes. Some of the smaller slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and you know some of the hybrids that that grow faster or determinant varieties. But the large heirloom tomatoes are better for our fall season. And then we have to keep them increasing. Yeah, right. It's, Florida's weird. None of our, like, our gardening does not make sense, like logically. So I've been listening to Down to Earth by Monty Don. And it's a fascinating book. Like I love listening to him because it's like talk. It's like listening to a hobbit talk about gardening. But he's talking about English gardening. And so much of the stuff that he talks about with gardening in England does not apply to Florida because our climate is so different. Now, I think my goal is going to be to kind of take his like, philosophies that he talks about. And because I like I like a lot of what he says because he's talks about finding balance in the garden and really like creating environments in the garden that are really beneficial to your beneficial insects. He doesn't he doesn't spray anything even for the bad pests. You really Like, he just, he provides enough environmental areas for the beneficial insects to live. But then also, he plants stuff that is more appealing to the pests so that they leave the vegetables alone, I still think that it takes time to find that balance. And until you can, you know, build up the ecosystem for the beneficial insects and draw them in, I think you're going to have to do some, you know, damage control with the pests. Because I know for me, I mean, our bugs don't die. And so if I just left it to nature, I wouldn't have a garden. I mean, I've had cucumber beetles come through and literally wipe out everything in like a week. So I'm not willing to leave that to chance. But I still, I would love to take his his cottage garden concepts, and just make them more Florida friendly. So getting back to planning, I do think that staying ahead of the curve is a huge part of not getting overwhelmed. Because the more stuff that accumulates, the more it just like it's still in our subconscious mind that all of this stuff needs to get done. Like our brain keeps a running tally. And the more stuff that goes on done, and the more stuff that starts to accumulate, then the more our anxiety builds, and, you know, and then that leads to overwhelm. I think if we have it scheduled out, it kind of helps our brain to go, Okay, I don't need to worry about that yet. Because I worry about that next week, because it's on the schedule for next week. This week, I can just focus on this, right. But if it was on the schedule for last week, and it's still not done, and now we also have this week stuff to do. Which again, is why I don't like scheduling stuff out. I like having like benchmarks, like I said, and don't don't put too much stuff as your focus for every week. Right. But at the same time, I think I know, we've talked about establishing rhythms and routines before. And I think that is very, very important. When you get into I don't know what I guess I call it the busy season. You call it a busy season, but we didn't refer to it as that. But when you go season, they're very, very important. Right. I mean, there is there's good busy, there's bad busy. There's busy for the sake of busy, which is what we're trying to avoid. And then there is actively working to accomplish our goals and our priorities. That sometimes makes us busy. Right. Well, when you're working on being a producer and sort of a consumer, it kind of you're going to be busy, for lack of a better word, but it's a different kind of busy than just like you said, Being busy for the sake of being busy. But I'd like as far as the busy season of gardening and chick raising and all that stuff. You know, set yourself some rhythms doesn't have to be like a scheduled thing. But you know, like every morning go out in your garden before it gets too hot and pull some weeds, you know, do like a whole row or whatever it is. And, you know, set the rhythm of, okay, I need to feed the chicks. And I need to check on everybody and make sure nobody has pasty but if you're you know routing your own chicks and all that stuff, you know set so the rhythm of what time works for you to do that once or twice a day or you know, however many their feeder is or whatever. And set the you know, like a weekly rhythm of cleaning other brooder until they get a little bit bigger and then you have to do it more often. And if you have ducks and you're gonna do it every two hours How many ducks did you buy last week? We have 11. Well, some of them will be meat so because they're straight runs so all the males. I know but it's still I mean it's it's gonna be cold there for a while and they're not gonna go to go outside. I guess you do have a garage. So worst case then go. Yeah, there. That's that's where they're at. My two options are outside or the bathtub. And so but yeah, I need to I need to have stock tanks. Right. Yeah. So, no, it's not so..

Bonnie Von Dohre: 14:26

We use we use Rubbermaid containers but I have I have four chicks in the bathtub right now that are they're in a Rubbermaid container in the bathtub but they need to go outside they're almost fully feathered. No, but yeah, and and also like the speaking of the rhythms is not not trying to add too much or do too much at one time. Like I've run into this problem with seed starting is I will try to start all the things all at once. And eventually those things are all going to need to be transplanted and they're all ready to be transplanted all at the same time. And then the first few trays go really well. And I get those in the ground and they flourish. And then by the time I get to the last tray, it's the stuff is either dying or stunted, because it stayed rootbound too long. So I really, I limit myself to how many trays I will start each week. Unless it's stuck. Like if I did start a lot of trays, because I was doing like half. About half of it was peppers. And peppers take a lot longer to grow anyway. So I wasn't as worried about needing to transplant them right away. In fact, I mean, that was like, a month ago when I started those, and they are just starting to come up. But yeah, just

Danielle McCoy: 15:51

Mine got ruined. So.. I did you restart on now? Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I started I want to start the onions. Since they take so long, because it seems like every year I started when the seed packet tells me to, which I think it says like a six to eight weeks as well. It's not near long enough. No, like they're finally starting to have peppers when I'm, you know, starting to pull the garden up. Right. And it's my gardener may or what is his name is Luke, I think he made an interesting comment on his Facebook page, which of course got like mixed results, because some people were like, oh, yeah, I totally agree with you. And then there was, you know, the haters on Facebook, that you can't say anything, right. And he made the comment that like, all this stuff that's on the back of the seed packet. And, you know, planting for your zone is really a bunch of rubbish. It's like, your zone is not as important as your frost dates is the point he was making. Right, but also, knowing your and I mean, this is gonna be based off your frost dates, but the most important number to really pay attention to is the length of your season. Because yeah, if you know, if you don't, if your season is only 120 days long, and you're planting something that takes 120 days to get to maturity, then you either are, are not going to get the results that you want. Or you need to start it you know far enough in advance that you're still going to get fruit that season. Right, I think that there's helpful information on the back of the seed packet. And you can definitely use all of it as a guideline. And, you know, if a seed packet if you've never gotten before, and a seed packet says to start indoor six to eight weeks before your last frost date, then do that. And the next year, you know, if you realize it's peppers, and you weren't pulling peppers off until late August and or late September even and it's going to frost the first of October, the next year, you just start a little bit earlier. And you start to learn and you put notes in that garden journal so that you can you know, each year you'll learn a little bit more, it'll be a little bit easier, but I definitely think there's useful information on the back seed packet. Yeah, I think I think it was more you know, like in I've noticed, at least the high end seed companies are getting away from having the map the USDA map on the back of the seed packets, I really only see that and like the the seed packets, you see the big box stores. But I see it all the time in my garden in my Florida gardening groups is you know, people are starting stuff based off the back of the C packet and all the C packet said started start this in May or Florida and it's like yeah, no don't like do the opposite of what the C packet say if you're guarded for Florida. So you know they try to do it as a blanket statement. And it's the same thing like if we're talking about so nine gardening in Florida versus zone nine gardening and Texas, it's not gonna be the same. We've just we've got totally different environments. Don't garden based off your zone if you've got nothing out of this garden garden based off your last frost date and there are places we can link in the shownotes where you can type in your zip code and it will be far more accurate than just your zone. And another thing you can do is check your local nursery usually they have pretty good information and most of them are pretty helpful on helping you if you.. If you're gardening in Florida message me over at kitchenbotanicals.com but I will say for gardening by frost dates doesn't even make a difference in Florida. We garden based off of when it stops being 90 degrees and when it starts being 90 degrees. Well yeah but you're right. So your your hot baits instead of When does it stop feeling like we live in the rain forest When your frosty. does it start feeling like we live in the rainforest. That's what we go bass.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 20:05

This episode was brought to you by Kitchen Botanicals, your sustainable gardening headquarters. Stop by kitchen botanicals.com and get a look at our 2022 seed varieties as well as supplies and pest control products to help you with your organic garden 2022 is a great time to take care of yourself with our pampered gardener subscription box. Every month you'll receive all natural self care products untreated heirloom seeds, high quality garden tools, organic garden amendments, cute impractical supplies and fun products that we know you'll love. This is your opportunity to take care of yourself in the garden, I started the pampered gardener subscription box, because I had gone through a time of not taking care of myself and dealing with the stress that it put onto my body I was ill I was tapped out and I felt like I couldn't possibly pour any more out of my empty cup. So I created the pamper gardener subscription box for women like me who wanted to get back to what they enjoy, but also wanted to love themselves. So we've put together this collection of gardening and self care products that are geared towards women who love to garden will get things such as gloves, lotion, bags, hats, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, things that you can actually use, but also things that you'll enjoy. And don't worry, there will still be plenty of gardening tools, seeds, we've created a subscription box like no other by gardeners for gardeners order your own box today. And I guess going back to like, so we were talking about having rhythms. And yes, a lot of like, a lot of your rhythm is going to be like having developing habits for each day and having a routine that you go through each day. But also, like I've talked about before, you know we have certain times of the month when we have more energy, less energy, guys, if you're listening or your ears because you're going to be weirded out about this. But when you're planning out your month, you have the follicular phase and which is really like right after the bleeding stops. And then you have the ovulation phase. And those are the times like the two weeks that you're gonna have the most energy. And then luteal phase is your PMS week. And then you also have your menstruation week. And so those are going to be the two weeks when you have you have the least amount of energy. Also, you're kind of the moodiest and everyone pisses you off is to hear me. So those are the weeks that have bettered like stay in and do your planning and things like that. But if you're if you have big projects, like, you know, starting all of your seeds transplanting stuff outside, if you, you know, so if you need to weed the entire garden, save it for those two weeks when you have the most energy, and then do your planning the other two weeks when you're more introspective, and incorporate help like your husband and ask for help.

Danielle McCoy: 23:01

Yeah, and your children.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 23:03

Henry was actually my 11 year old was doing a really good job of helping me granted, I was paying him. But I was he was helping me with the garden and with the business and filling orders and all of that. And then he saved up enough money for whatever game he wanted to buy. And then all of a sudden, he wasn't helpful anymore. So he's going to be helping me again, even if I have to pay him, and he's going to get over it because I need the help. And unfortunately, like the younger to try to help, but I spent so much time supervising them that it's really not help. Because it's you know, it becomes more work. Which isn't bad. I mean, I can there's a time and place for that, like, you know, so I can train them so that eventually they will be more helpful. But the 11 year old is at that point where I could just be like, Okay, this is what I need to be done this how you do it now go do it. Right. And then and then I don't have to hold his hand the whole time.

Danielle McCoy: 23:59

And I think that, you know, establishing those rhythms with your kids is also incredibly helpful. You know, like, my kids know, they have to get up, they're going to help feed the animals, then they're going to sit down and we're going to eat breakfast. And then we start school and you know, you start to establish those rhythms. They know that after school, they have certain chores, they have a list for each day of the few chores that they need to do. And then they have free time. And so I know that during the gardening season, they will definitely be going out and helping me keep the garden weeded. Because it's so large, right? They will not be getting paid. If they want to eat, then they're going to help with the garden. My son is extremely money motivated. And so I've found that it's just that's just the easiest way to get him to actually do things. Right. That makes but he has started investing in the stock market. Well, whatever work though Whatever. I'll take it. I mean, I will say He's like, he's being really good about setting money goals. And if he knows there's something he wants to save up for, then he's like, he's setting his money aside and saving up for that. And then he knows he's buying that himself. But, and I'm trying to, they actually have their own accounts with debit cards now. So like, if they want to buy little snacks or whatever, when we're out at the store, they're going to use their card to buy it. And it takes the pressure off of me because I'm tired of constantly having to tell them no, I'm not buying that for you. Right now. It's, if you want that that badly, then you can use your money to buy, right, so You know, money or something really and Right, right, like meal planning. And you know, like utilizing crock pot eating like fresh foods regarding salads and stuff where you don't have like, extra prep work and stuff. I definitely think that that helps during the busy season more so than it does, You know, well, and I do a lot of like, cook once eat for a few days. Right? So we did it, it kind of accidentally this week is I was cooking something for a class, I teach my homeschool Co Op. And the kids ate all the rice and only like half the vegetables. So we have a ton of steamed vegetables now. Um, but I mean they they're good. So I can't complain too much. I mean, it's it's like bok choy and green beans and bean sprouts. And I'll probably make some more fried rice and then I can happen. I need to actually fall out a chicken and then that can be a meal. But you can. But yeah, it's A rubber chicken. Where you take a whole chicken and you make it into like four meals. Oh, yeah. We eat too much. That was a lot of rows. Yeah, I mean, you can do just about any roast though. Because I can roast it. And you have whatever meat you eat that first day, or do it the crock pot or whatever. The second day, you can turn around and you know put, like put that meat into a casserole or into tacos or something like that. And then third day, especially if it has a bone in the roast, you take whatever meat scraps were leftover, and the bone and you turn that into soup, right, you know, add some vegetables and some beans in there. Yeah, it's really, really good. But yeah, you can do the same thing with chicken. I mean, really just Yeah, any. It's it's better to, to do that, just from a zero waste perspective. But right. I just like, I like not like only having to reheat food and not having to completely cook a meal saves so much time. Well, I mean, because you're not only not doing all the cooking, but you have half as many dishes and all of that. So Alright, that's why I like it. Because especially like the dump meals where you just put a bunch of stuff in the crock pot and turn it on, and then you just eat dinner later, Right. You don't have you know, you don't have to make sides or anything because everything's just in the crock pot and cooked all day.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 28:13

My trouble is, I will forget to turn like I will forget to start it early enough. Because I'll you know, I'll get up and I'll get started with all the other things that I seem to need to do every morning. And then before I know it's like one or two o'clock in the afternoon, I'm like it's not going to have that time to cook. So if I have the fridge space, which can get tricky because my fridge is tiny, but I will preload everything into the the crock pot crock the night before and put it in the fridge. And then all I have to do is put it in the warmer.

Danielle McCoy: 28:48

Yeah. Another option is when you're establishing those rhythms that we're talking about to do your meal prep like write down if you menu plan, even if you don't know exactly what you're going to cook, say, I'm gonna make something with red meat and potatoes tomorrow. And so you make sure that you have your meat out. And it's thought at the beginning of the week, and then you write down you know tonight I want to have that red meat tomorrow. So tonight I need to make sure that I do any of the prep work like if I have vegetables that I need to chop up or anything like that then you don't have all that extra stuff to do. And you're not trying to do it during you know, like witching hour at my house is when I'm cooking dinner. So So I try to it doesn't always happen but I try to establish a rhythm so that if I have vegetables that he chopped up that got done the night before when my husband was here before we went to bed and then everything got thrown on the fridge and then all I have to do is pull it out when it's time to make dinner. If it's marinate then I already have it marinated I don't have to worry about you know doing the last minute are doing it first thing in the morning because I did it all night before that's just you know, part of that whole getting ready for the next day type of thing. Well, the way I'll try to do it is I will plan my grocery shopping for like Saturday. And then I'll do my meal prep stuff on Sunday. I cannot do my grocery shopping and meal prep on the same day, I'm just, I'm so exhausted by time I'm done with the grocery shopping, if I have to go to the store, if I have, if I'm doing grocery delivery, it's a little bit different. But still, I'll plan it for a weekend because then my husband is home to wrangle the children. And then I can just focus on that without having to worry about them, you know, being underfoot or anything like that. Right. And then everything is done ahead of time. That's another time saver, though, is when you do get groceries, which we only do like once, maybe twice a month in the summer, I don't even think we go that often. But you can get pickup or delivery, which saves so much time. And, you know, just make sure you plan out if you're using fresh produce. Then plan out your meals so that you know you're using that fresh produce in the first part of the week instead of you know, a week and a half from now. When right it's not any good. And you get in your crisper drawer and you have a bunch of you know, really gross Yeah, I don't know how many times over I'm gonna buy parsley and cilantro. And then throw it away a week later. I did that with you think I would learn by now? I don't even think You would think you would think that I would remember that. I bought it since you can smell it. I don't often look at it. But see, like, I don't You don't smell dill. It smells like well, but I still buy fresh stuff. Oh, well. I use dried. Um, I don't like I don't smell the parsley and cilantro dying. Oh no, it doesn't the crisper drawers. But and that's why I really can't use my crisper drawers for vegetables because out of sight out of mind. Right? Like it's just if they are in that drawer they don't exist. I usually use those drawers for like shredded cheese. And I'm trying to think what else? I do have some vegetables this short right now. I do have like I've carrots and celery in there. But yeah, and um, so I have been doing a lot of grocery delivery one because it does. I mean, I it saves me at least four hours a week. Between like, going to having to plan everything out going to the store, actually doing the grocery shopping, driving back home unloading everything. It's just Yeah, especially if I have to add kids into that mix. Forget it. But I, for the most part, it's actually cheaper for me. And maybe this is because Publix is so ridiculously expensive. I love Publix to death, but they're overpriced. And so Kroger delivered is cheaper than Publix in store. Except for like I don't like doing the delivered produce because a lot of times they're charging you per item, which is a horrible way to buy produce. Oh, they don't do that here. Oh yeah, they do like it pretty much all of the vegetables. I've seen a bid per item rather than per pound. So and we have a really Oh yeah, no. Now there's now they do the meat by pound, but not the vegetables. And I we do have a farmers market nearby that I like to go and get produce from the only thing is it. It doesn't last as long so and they're only open like half the week now. So if I don't like they're only open Sunday through Wednesday. And so if I'm out of something on Thursday, then I'm out of luck, I guess or go somewhere else but . One day here Saturday . That's uh Oh, yeah. Well, this is this is on farm. Like, I have a couple of places that do that. But their hours are like really wacky. Oh, yeah. really wacky. We had a really good one in Ohio. They had really good you pick. They had, you know, pretty convenient hours. I don't even know if they're still in business. But Well, so many farms have gotten away from the Yupik thing because of rising insurance costs. And the Well yeah, I mean, this is we're talking 20 years ago, but right that's, we have a few that still do that stuff too. And then we have I think you peg is really big down here. I think the best way to do it up here where I am is, I mean we have farmers markets, but almost all of them are one day and they're only on Saturday, they're only for a few hours. Go to a couple of those so you can find the farm so that you can talk to the farmer and maybe get stuff on a different day locally or see if they have some kind of CSA or other kind of share available. And that is definitely the best way to get food around here. We have a lot of CSA is a delivery. Oh nice. So you don't even have to go anywhere like our milk, raw milk delivery, all the way up from Decatur delivers all the way down here every week so you don't have to drive and get it you know you can go to the farm and check it out of course but you don't have to Go get milk every week, you can just, they'll just bring it to you. Yeah, there's a girl here who she started a business because the pandemic of just going around to different farms and then delivering the stuff to customers. So she would go and pick up the milk and the produce boxes. And like, we've got one, we've got one farm that pretty much all they sell sweet corn. I mean, they have a produce barn. But their bread and butter is sweet corn. So she goes to all the farms and picks it up, and then she goes and delivers for people. So it's definitely that's convenient. I mean, it's for me, I would I don't mind going to the farms because excuse to get out of the house. And I usually go and like talk to the farmer and stuff like that. Right. But it's a different. It's a different vibe than going to the grocery store. Oh, yeah, definitely grocery store. I'm just trying to keep my head down and hope no one notices me or recognizes me. I just want to get done with it. So I was really, really hesitant to do the whole pickup delivery thing for groceries because I don't want people to pick my produce, because I just don't know how to pick produce, but knock on wood. The gals that usually because it seems like it's always the same people that are picking my groceries because I go at the same time. And they're super nice. And they actually know how to grocery shop. So I don't usually have that problem. Nice. I would try it if you are hesitant to do it just because you know, I'm I like the whole old fashioned thing. But we still go to the grocery. I don't know anybody that doesn't use the grocery for at least some things. And right, nobody's making toilet paper. Sorry, folks. And I'm know there's family cloth thing. I draw the line. I was actually having the whole conversation about cloth diapers with somebody at our homeschool Co Op. And she was debating on sticking with the cloth diapers with her youngest because it's just she's feeling overwhelmed. And she's like, she's like the disposables are just so cheap. And, and Amy, he was, you know, he was in that newborn stage. So the diapers that she had weren't fitting real well. And I don't know, she's just, it's just I think it's been a kind of a frustrating learning curve for her. But I was like, you know, I really couldn't, I had to get away with it with my youngest because I had really so many health problems after he was born. And I fell behind on laundry. And it just I just, I needed to get some stuff off my plate, I just there was too much. And I I had to accept that I couldn't do it all. And so you know, and it was also most of our cloth diapers I had bought with my oldest. And then I was able to reuse most of them with my daughter. But by the time I got to my youngest, most of them needed the elastic replaced in the light bands. And like I had zero time or energy to sit there and replace the the elastic in the light bands. Like I these moms telling me just do it when you're watching TV. I'm like, when do I sit down and watch TV so it just I was like, just I have to let this go. And that's another tip though, you know, when the weekend? Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, you know, you have to let some stuff go.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 38:26

Right. And I mean, and that's why I don't, I don't stress about the grocery delivery because I'm, I've got too much on my plate. I've accepted that I'm delegating that that piece right now. I mean, you know, we can see if it was super expensive, that might be a different thing, because I realize a lot of people are gonna see it as a luxury. But I weighed the cost, it was actually this is actually cheaper. For me, we're saving on our grocery bill by doing this. Not to mention, I'm not taking my kids in the grocery store. So I'm not getting nagged to buy all the extra crap that we don't need.

Danielle McCoy: 39:02

Right well and you're providing someone with a job right? We don't do delivery we do pickup so it's actually free for us to do it. And it is cheaper simply because I guess technically I pay a membership so I can have free delivery but Right but weit's it's cheaper because I'm not going in the store and impulse buying things that I don't really need. I try to stick to a list regardless but if I take my kids in or buying something that is not on the list, we're probably buying several things that are not on the list. So and you know we live in the modern era where we can some conveniences are good and that is convenience that I consider good because like I said it saves me time instead of it taking me four or five hours to go to the grocery store. i It takes me an hour because it takes me about a half an hour drive there and a half hour drive back and they load everything in my car which takes like five minutes so right you know, I mean it's it doesn't take any time at all and if I have other errands that I need to run while I'm in town, then I can get get those done at the same time. And, you know if Yeah, I will do pick up if I'm already going to town for something. Or if I'm trying to find something very specific, there's only this one store that has, like I've done pick up to target a few times because I couldn't find the stuff anywhere else. And I know what happens when I walk into Target. So I used to make it simple. But um, yeah, I will do that. I loathe walking into Walmart. Mainly because Walmart I refuse. There, there are a couple of things I will buy at Walmart. I'm only because they're the cheapest. And they're the only places that I can find like the bulk size. Otherwise, I, I will do I will go out of my way to not shop at Walmart. But if I'm going to do that, I'm going to do it because I'm already like, on my way home from Co Op or, you know, something like that. And I'm just I'm picking it up on the way home. Right if we drive to Fort Wayne and we go through Wabash, that's like the only store to go to other than Kroger and Kroger is expensive. So yeah, that's the only time I will go to Walmart and I have to really be hurting to need to go. Really close Kroger's expensive you would really hate to see Publix. Yeah, I think her it's definitely well, there's another grocery and Wabash it's just like a little like, Mom and Pop type place. So I'll go in there and pick up some stuff. But it's just because I like to support that it's a little mom and pop shop. But right. She didn't really $5 Anymore. Well, right. And I actually haven't our ketchup has been really cheap that I've gotten from Publix or I mean from Kroger, but most the time I'm getting not my friend, this mom and Pop shop. I well, because it was on my way home. And I was like, wow, I see that again. With their meat prices.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 41:56

Yeah. That's good. Well, yeah, there is a like, mom and pop shop Meat. Meat Market, I guess. Yeah, they're not a butcher shop. They're bringing it in, you know, but anyway, I will shop with them, because they've probably got the best quality meat and their prices are comparable to the grocery store. So if I'm like, if I want a nice steak or something like that, or sometimes I'll do one of their, they'll do like these bulk family meat packages. And so that way I can kind of get a variety of things. It's not too bad. But yeah, I mean,

Danielle McCoy: 42:32

Local farm or whenever you can

Bonnie Von Dohre: 42:34

Well, right? Yeah. Like I said, I prefer to get my produce from them anyway. Stop beating yourself up. Right? Be like it is okay, to let some stuff go and delegate stuff. You know, it's, like we've said before, doing everything yourself is not sustainable. Ideally, yes, we want to, if we're going to outsource it, if we're going to delegate it to someone else, we're going to do it within our community. But I mean, honestly, even these, even these companies that are national brands are employing people in your community, right?

Danielle McCoy: 43:16

Which is something you're still gonna go like Walmart, but know that it is something to take into consideration when you're thinking about, you know, like, I don't really like to support big corporate business. But, you know, we all do it by default in some way, shape, or form. You know, we all drive vehicles. We all have internet, or we wouldn't be listening to this podcast. We have computers and phones and all of those things. And those are all big, large corporations. And that's just, you know, the tip of the iceberg. And we all use toilet paper. Unless most of us use, I can't do a family cloth thing. That's just No, I said, my kids, by the way. Right. Alright. So yes. Simplify your routine, simplify your life. Figure out what you can take out like, it really comes down to figuring out what your priorities are, what you're going to focus on what you're going to dedicate your time to. And then figure out figuring out how you can either eliminate everything or eliminate or delegate everything else. Right. And when it comes to the busy season, you're you're just gonna be you're gonna be busy, and you just have to realize that, number one, you're not going to get everything done in one day. You're not supposed to and you know, don't let it overwhelm you and stress you out you just you know, take a break, take a minute if your garden has massive amount of weeds, just weed one little section and if the rest of its and weeds then Well, the bugs will eat the weeds instead of your produce, hopefully, I mean, You know, or the weeds will create a place for them to hide so they can easily get to your produce but well yeah. I'm not saying you have to go and like, Right, do a little bit every day. Right? You know, just go out and do a few Now I really like my stirrup hoe, because I can knock out a lot of weeds, and I can really get in close to the plants. But I'm not down there hand weeding everything. And it's really made it go a lot faster for me. Right. So I mean, we could probably have a whole other episode just talking about ways that we can simplify our gardening and automate Oh, yeah, definitely things are less time consuming. The busy seasons only a season, right, it's only going to last for a little bit of time. I mean, really, like, we have this huge push to get everything and get everything started and get everything into the garden. And then it's really about maintaining for the rest of the season. I mean, yes, the growing season has its own set of issues and, and projects and, you know, things that we need to do. But again, it comes back to, there's a lot of things that we can automate to make that easier for us. Right. So just, you can take it as a Session plant, so that you're not, you know, don't start the entire, even the entire tray of seeds. At the same time, if you're just starting one tray of peppers, or whatever, you know, start a few, and then start a few more the next week. And that way, you don't have to plant them all at the same time. So I mean, even if you're working on preserving, like don't have your cucumbers, your tomatoes coming ripe at the same time. That way, this week, you can focus on preserving your tomatoes. And this week, you can focus on preserving your cucumbers. But a trick for that is that you can actually I mean, you have have freezer space for it, of course, but you could actually just freeze your tomatoes they can be. That's what we do. We keep all of our tomatoes, we pour them and I peel them and then they go in the freezer. And then we go back in a big food safe bucket. And then we go back and we will do like big batches of tomatoes, sometimes even in the winter. So yeah, so that we don't have that, you know, during the busy canning season. Cucumbers. You can't really do that with so right. So the good news is it's pretty easy to do dill pickles, but yeah, right. And you can leave those tomatoes, you can leave them home if you want to. It's just easy, right? For me, if you at least corps them before you

Bonnie Von Dohre: 47:06

Yeah, if you've got if you've got the freezer space, right? That's usually half the battle for me either have in the fridge or the freezer space. Right? And same thing with green beans and carrots and potatoes and anything else that you want to preserve. Right? Okay, sure.

Danielle McCoy: 47:22

They don't all get ready at the same time. Yes, which, if you're following your guidelines for your last frost date, honestly, they shouldn't, right? Just look at the back your seed packet, see what the date to maturity is and work from there and realize that your date to maturity is from the time you put the plant outside, it is not from the time you start to see it inside. Right.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 47:45

Like and if it's yeah, like it. And that may be when you first start seeing fruit, you can still have a harvesting season beyond that, right? Because it really becomes about how how long can you extend that into the fall, you know, and continue harvesting. So, right? If you haven't yet go and check out our Patreon grounded simplicity, you can see all of our amazing bloopers and also ad free versions of our podcasts. And please like and subscribe so that we can reach more moms who need help feeling overwhelmed. If the review give us a review, we should well actually we haven't really had any reviews to read. So please leave us a review and we will read it on the air because we could all use a good laugh Alright, that's it for today. We'll talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Grounded in Simplicity podcast. If we were able to help you in any way, please share this episode with a friend. And also leave us a review on Apple podcasts. You can also join us over on Patreon at grounded simplicity and help to support this podcast as well as become a patron and get a behind the scenes look at the creation of our podcast and even have some input on future episodes.