Monday, August 13, 2018

My Life of Inconvenience

I took advantage of yesterday's sunshine and scorching heat, and dried my laundry on the line.  While TBG doesn't like his clothes stiff from the line, I do.  As a result, I did a load of my clothes and then hung them out.  When I do loads with his clothes, I give them a quick tumble to soften them up.  However, I prefer saving energy by using the power of the sun.  It's a lot more effort than just throwing the washed clothes into the dryer, but it's economical and environmentally friendly so I am up for the extra work.

Yesterday I purchased a tray of four large chicken leg quarters.  The .53 cents per pound fryer deal was past but I still knew we wanted meat.  As soon as I got home from work, I put the four quarters in the pressure cooker with some liquid, celery and spices.  After 25 minutes, I took them out and set them to cool while I walked the dog.

Once at home, I pulled off the skin and set it aside for the pup.  Then I pulled the meat off the legs.  I dumped the bones back into the pressure cooker and added more water, then set it that to cook.  Since the meat still needed a little more cooking, I cut it into slices and tossed that with lemon and garlic, then convection roasted it for twenty minutes at 325.  Once that was done, I set aside the larger slices for TBG to use in wraps and for me to make meals with during the week.

The smaller bits (to the right) went into a black bean and chicken chili tonight.  I added celery, onion and red pepper and a little bit of tomato sauce.  It was very yummy.  In the past, I would have made bread but TBG and I are trying to drop a few pounds and I also knew we would have the rest of the homemade blueberry pie for dessert.

The stock was enough to fill three sauce jars. I plan to freeze two of them.  Since summer is not really hot soup weather, there is no need to have three jars in the fridge.

Making up stock from scratch, cooking up chicken in bulk and getting it ready for other meals is not convenient.  Convenient would be to buy boxes of broth in the store and bags of chicken strips by Perdue.  Unfortunately, that would be expensive and the products would be super high in sodium and other additives.

I don't have apps on my phone, our cars are not "smart," and very few things I do outside of work are technology-centric.  The manual nature of my life would drive the average American crazy, however, I like doing these basic things.  We don't need the latest of everything and we don't need things to be easy.  What we do need, is time to get to do these things that take more time.  For me, part of the way to get that time is to ignore FaceBook and use my phone for phone calls (and sometimes text), and that's it.

The world is trying to sell us all more technology to save us time, in order to use even more technology.  Seems pretty stupid to me!

12 comments:

  1. Two things to get the stiff out. Give the clothes a good pop to fluff up things like towels. And, for anything don't overdry. that makes them hard and stiff. Try it and it might work for you as it does for me. A good spin in the dryer might help, but I never do that.

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    1. I get side-tracked and the stuff ends up staying out longer than it should. It is always better on a windy day...

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  2. I don't use phone apps, or social media either. I find things like that actually complicate, rather than simplify my life. Recently, DD and I spent an entire morning dismantling her outgoing boxspring, and sawing the frame to turn it into kindling for our woodstove. We used pliers to pull out the staples, tore off the fabric, and sawed the frame into appropriate sizes. The kindling now sits in a basket by the hearth, and looks rather homey! I know I will remember the time we spent doing this when we light the stove this winter. There is a satisfaction in looking at that basket full of wood that can't be replaced by an app.

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    1. I so totally agree! I get a lot of satisfaction out of not letting something go to waste, so the act becomes therapeutic.

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  3. A great post, thank you. My life to a T!
    I find that the sheets soften when I iron them anyway.
    xx

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    1. I always take them off the line and put them right on the bed. I don't get as much flack from TBG from the sheets, but he is particular about his clothes. I might try liquid fabric softener for that (he hates vinegar).

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  4. I hate floppy clothes, ours are line-dried in the summer and dried on a wooden dolly that hangs from our ceiling in the utility room in the wetter months. xxx

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    1. I remember the hanging rack Jon made! I do plan to put up extra clothes lines in our basement. Clothes actually dry well there because that is where our furnace is.

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  5. "The world is trying to sell us all more technology to save us time, in order to use even more technology." I LOVE it! I think you've just about summed up modern society with that sentence.

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    1. And it's all designed to suck our money out of our wallets!

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  6. I live exactly the same way and I am proud of it. It horrifies me when I hear that a kids favorite foods, are macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets.

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    1. At my last job, one girl was talking about how old-fashioned I was because I refuse to Uber places that I have already driven to. They drive to a restaurant, meet friends, then Uber to other places, then back to their cars. I own a car so that I can drive it. Then again, she also told me I needed to buy newer cars. As for food, I would love to be able to eat that stuff and stay healthy, but since you can't, I'll stick with the wholesome food choices.

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