Nice to see things coming together!
And of course our full time employee cleaning up the grounds.
And, it was a beautiful day! Other than the fact that we woke up yesterday morning to -4C (23F), it was sunny and it quickly warmed up. I think the high was around 9C (48F).
But that cold overnight froze a waterline that had already been turned on, and I came out of our house to see water spurting out of a faucet on the side of the office building! The entire faucet had popped off the copper fitting. Doesn't look like it had been soldered on properly. I quickly shut off the valve inside and I'll get that fixed today.
Speaking of water leaks, it turns out there has been one in the house as well. Just a steady drip, but it was enough to soak one corner of one of the bedrooms, and well as the little cubby hole where the hot water heater is. Looks like it's been dripping a long time. I tried fixing the coupling, but it only made it worse. I ended up shutting off the water to the house and had to buy a new fitting. Seems fine now.
In the morning, Ruth and I cleaned out the eaves troughs. They definitely were never done last year, and the one at the back had possibly been longer than that!
There was stuff starting to grow in here!
Yes, I was holding the ladder for her. Only moved away to take the photo!
The stuff on the bottom was starting to compost.
So, we got them cleaned out and now one of the guys is coming with a big pressure washer to finish the job and clean the outside of the house.
At 1:00pm we took off into the big town of Swift Current. The local nickname for that place is "Speedy Creek"! Too funny. Once a week we go and do our grocery shopping there and pick up any items we need for the campground. It's about a 45 minute drive each way.
For the campground, we picked up a chainsaw blade and a new cartridge for the laser printer, as well as some miscellaneous office supplies.
But for us, we needed groceries. Many of you have been wondering about our gluten free diet, so here's the entire list of what we bought. We're still stocking up on general condiments and things as well, so it's a little higher than normal.
2 jugs of 4 litres 2% milk $4.70 ea Fresh tomatoes $0.78
1.75 litre jug orange juice $2.51 Fresh mushrooms $1.27
1/2 litre molasses $2.97 GF Hollandaise sauce $1.27
Small all natural peanut butter $2.64 2lbs lean ground beef $8.50
Zuchinni $0.68 16 Oxo cubes $3.47
Bag of snow peas $2.47 1 lb butter $3.87
Bag of 12 corn tortillas $2.37 3 loaves GF bread $3.78 ea
Boneless skinless chicken breast$10.00 Fresh broccoli $1.56
Bag of roasted salted peanuts $4.00 4 litres spring water $1.73
Bag of frozen blueberries $4.47 2 dozen eggs $2.89 ea
Tinned tomatoes $1.00 Curry paste $5.27
Jar of mayo $3.94 Ketchup $2.77
Lemon juice $2.00
That was all at Walmart. Total there came to $97 or so. The gluten free bread was on sale at $3.78 each and Ruth can't make it for that price. Somebody asked for Ruth's gluten free bread recipe. You can find it here...
Next up was a stop at Bulk Barn, a Canadian bulk foods store.
GF puffed millet cereal $2.01 GF rice flour $3.25
Various bulk spices $2.06 GF tapioca flour $1.14
Sliced almonds $1.37 Ground flax seed $1.43
Yellow split peas $0.95 GF potato starch $3.32
GF pizza crust flour blend $5.19
With our 10% seniors discount (ha!) that bill came to $19.29.
At the Wholesale club we bought
Astro yogurt $3.98 Iceburg lettuce $0.97
Mustard $0.88 6 sweet peppers $3.88
5 lbs carrots $3.28
That came to $13 or so.
Then the local Co-op store had GF Chex cereal on sale at $3.99 each and they have the best deli in town where we bought chicken breast sandwich meat at $5.97. That came to $14 or so.
Then off to Giant Tiger (a Canadian discount store) where we bought
three 1 litre containers of Allen's vegetable juice cocktail at $1.00 ea (unsweetened)
3 lb bag of red delicious apples $2.98.
jar of minced ginger $2.09
Kraft BBQ sauce $0.99
Kraft strawberry jam $3.47
Two tins of tomato sauce $1.15 ea
Tin of coconut milk $1.98
So $17 or so there.
Total of everything came to around $161.
Out of time...gotta go get some things done!
I read that roasted nuts (one of my faves) often contain gluten---so I skipped them on my last visit to the grocery. Are you sure yours are gluten-free?
ReplyDeleteYou are correct Dugg and Kevin didn't realized that the ones we get are blanched, not roasted so the grocery list above should read blanched, salted peanuts.
DeleteYou know what I like about you guys - YOU GET THINGS DONE! Gutters - yuk - we go thru that at our summer cottage in Delaware - dang pine needles anyways!!! Thanks a bunch for sharing your grocery list. It gives us an idea of what to buy for a gluten free diet. I often look online for recipes and ideas but it is nice to hear from someone who actually does it. Looks like I'm going grocery shopping!!!
ReplyDeleteYep, it was a pretty icky job but it really needed to be done and once they get pressure washed they will be so much better. During the summer I will try to share some of my gluten free recipes and also let people know what we eat at some of our meals.
DeleteMy wife has decided that she and her sister are doing their shopping on Thursdays now that she's retired. Only thing is, I'm more in tune with the prices of stuff. So I told her, "don't buy milk if it's over $4.55." She had no milk when she came back, so that's OK.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing there aren't that many choices in Swift Current, but if there's a WalMart, then there's probably some other competition as well. Your prices on groceries seem pretty much in line with what we have around here.
Bundle up.
Actually the Walmart here isn't a true, true superstore but it does have a full grocery store, it just doesn't have one that has a butcher, deli, bakery and such in it and we find it doesn't have a wide variety of goods in it either. Their are other stores here like Safeway but we find it expensive unless they have a special. Co-Op has some choices as well but you really have to pay attention to the prices and know what the prices are at the other stores. We have now realized that Giant Tiger has slightly cheaper milk $4.51 so that's where we will buy it next time. Luckily all the stores are close by so we aren't wasting gas driving all over the place.
DeleteGuess you don't have your coffee grinder but ground flax seeds should be refrigerated as they go rancid!
ReplyDeleteNo we don't have the grinder it is back in the motorhome. I remember you telling me before about refrigerating them and that is actually where they are. :-)
DeleteThose sound like pretty reasonable food prices. Here in Reno, Nevada I think things are higher. We spent $60 yesterday at Walmart and WinCo and didn't get much.
ReplyDeleteWe still get sticker shock looking at the prices but they probably haven't changed much since last summer and you have to eat so we have to buy them. We definitely watch the flyers and buy items that are on sale and but if we need them.
DeleteLooks like some sensible shopping. Saw the molasses on your list and reminded me I have to add it to MY list too! Thanks!
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Karen and Steve
(Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com
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We think so! Glad we reminded you of the molasses.
DeleteThanks so much for doing this. You guys sure do shop around. Not sure I could do 4 different stores, I'm such a bad shopper. :-) I thought those prices looked very reasonable in comparison with what we have found on the road in the US especially the 6 peppers for $3.88. That's a serious deal. I have trouble finding the specialty flous on the road and have never heard of pizza blend. I'd love to find that. I am amazed that you can find this stuff in Mexico. Looking forward to your menus and recipes. I've tried every version of diet trying to have some effect on my constant throat clearing and too frequent coughing. I thought dairy free would do it but nope. Crossing my fingers for gluten free. Doctors say it's allergies take this pill and this spray and............... But it's everywhere I go and started within the past couple of years so that seems like a 'take and aspirin and call me in the morning' response to me.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't much into shopping either but we do want our money to go as far as we can stretch so we check out the flyers and plan our route accordingly. Luckily all the stores are very close, four of them in just one mall, then the other ones just a little way down the road. By the time we are at the last one we have had it and just want to leave. The 6 peppers were on sale and I knew right away that they were a good deal.
DeleteNope, can't find most of the gluten free stuff in Mexico and if we do it is really, really expensive so we just don't buy it. I had the motorhome well stocked before we went down and a year ago we brought down more in the little blue car.
I found that Walmart has some gluten free products, sometimes they are spread about the store and sometimes they actually have a small section in one of the isles. Whole Foods is another good one to go to, as well as any health food store. The pizza blend is something that I get at a bulk food store here but I have seen boxes of gluten free pizza crust in stores in the States.
Kevin's sister has a problem with her throat too, and it is getting worse. She has something wrong with it but I can't remember what it is called. She had a blood test done for allergies and found that she is very allergic to eggs, not sure if that has any kind of play on her throat thing or not but just thought I would mention it to you.
Nice to get stocked up with some pretty good prices. And getting those extar jobs out of the way too.
ReplyDeleteHopefully our grocery bills will be a little bit more normal now that we have most of what we need on a day to day basis.
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