1000 miles or Our Hopefully Brief Dip into Antifrugality

The garage is on hold. And once again, a vehicle is to blame.

When our Subaru, our one and only vehicle, was wrecked last summer, we scurried to find a replacement. We didn't do as much research as we should have or we would have found out that the 2013 Equinox we bought was named in a class action suit against Chevy which was settled last fall. The problem? Excessive oil loss via the piston rings.

Supposedly, this is a piston ring gummed up with oil.

Guess whose car was just diagnosed with excessive oil loss?

This is not a cheap problem to fix so Mrs. Squeaky Wheel Rasely got on the phone with the dealer and after a few back and forths it was determined that an extended warranty will cover the fix. IF that is really the problem.

The real snag is proving it. For that, we had to have a dealer oil change and now we have to drive it 1000 miles in less than a month, then have it assessed.

Putting in that kind of mileage flies in the face of our skinflint lifestyle. We normally go out about 2 or 3 times a week (less during this pandemic) and make sure to group errands together. Now we are trying to find excuses to drive. Not easy when many places are still closed and in-person visits and activities are onerous.

We expect to hit all the Habitat ReStores within a hundred miles and any relatives in the state may be getting a visit, whether they want to see us or not. 

This does make the next few weeks a pain but at least the budget is freed up without the garage expense! 

Maybe I can, if I am very, very lucky, score that freezer at last.

TEFR: Out in the Cold

This is our new freezer.

COVID-19 and the ensuing shutdowns and shortages didn't catch us out like it did many people.

We have always tried to maintain back-up supplies of groceries and sundries (when folks were trading their firstborns for toilet paper, we had our usual 40 rolls on hand). We have shelves of home canned goods but were hoping to stock up on local produce and milk, We also planned on layer chickens this year but with the talk of possible meat shortages (and I won't even get into the duplicitousness of the meat packing industry in this regard), I picked up 6 Cornish Cross birds and planned on maybe more later.

We needed a freezer.

We found a place in the kitchen that would accommodate a small freezer and blithely set about pulling out the existing, cruddy cabinets.

That's when we discovered we were not alone in hoping to preserve summer's bounty. Nary a freezer, new or used, was to be found.

With a little rearranging, I did manage to squeeze the processed meat chickens into our fridge-top freezer and even a small amount of u-pick strawberries but soon cherries and blueberries will be ripe, to say nothing of tomatoes and herbs and beans and peas and etc. etc.

So, before we locked down the checking account completely, I bought this freezer-substitute.

As a certified tightwad, I have in the past dried food in the sun and in a closed car. Neither method worked particularly well. This inexpensive little dehydrator does a better job.

Here's some of what I've dried so far:

These will be repackaged in the right size jars with oxygen absorbers added.

Herbs, greens, celery, radishes, lavender, strawberries, apples.

Like many folks stuck at home, I too tried my hand at sourdough. My starter grew fine but the bread wasn't as good as our regular homemade loaf. I scored a pound of yeast that will last me about a year but didn't want to discard the starter.

Therefore, in the spirit of waste not, want not, and in case yeast once again becomes scarcer than hen's teeth, I dehydrated the sourdough starter. It should keep until the next pandemic (or phase 2 of this one!).

Dehydrated food can be used as is or rehydrated. It is a real space saver for those of us without cavernous pantries and the process is uncomplicated. 

I'm still hoping for a freezer but for now I'm glad our prep options didn't just dry up.