We had a busy and interesting weekend -- I'll post about it here, since we started on the 25th. My two older daughters were both here over the weekend, partly overlapping. Cedar came down from her home in Ohio, about four hours drive, after work on Friday, and had to go back Sunday afternoon. Maranatha flew down from her home in New Hampshire for a business conference in Nashville, then drove up here (about two and a half hours) Saturday afternoon. We all went to church together Sunday, for the first time in many years! Saturday, Cedar (with a little help from me) totally reorganized the front porch, which seems to be where most of our tools have come to roost, as well as boxes of canning jars, and the cat food, and so on. Animal leashes, a stand for my canes and crutches and an umbrella, and a galvanized basin full of slippers and house shoes for whenever anyone comes to visit and needs to put something on their feet, all find a home on the front porch (which isn't that big, only about 5'3" wide by about 19' long). The cats had knocked things over and it was a mess. She first reorganized the big unfinished closet in my office (which is going to be turned into an audio recording booth so I can make talking books), and took one of the shelf units from there out to the porch. With that, cleaning up the porch became much easier.
Then, after church, they stayed for a bit and talked to various people while I took a very tired youngest daughter home to start lunch; they came in beaming and excited! After telling the church people what we needed, they got eager volunteers to bushwhack the yard (badly needed), and someone made a phone call and arranged for a big dumpster to be dropped off yesterday (also badly needed). I've been trying to find a dumpster, and was very frustrated at not being able to locate one. It will be a bit expensive, but well worth it to get the piles of junk on the property picked up. One of the older men from church came over with his tractor yesterday and today and brush-hogged the yard, and also helped finish picking up most of the rest of the junk from the yard. So things are looking a lot better around here.
Also, someone was able to locate someone to install the propane lines for the wall heater, and for the gas range I'm going to buy. I know the plumber I've used several times does gas lines, but I'd left several messages on his phone and he hasn't gotten back to me. So in about a week we should have heat (other than little electric space heaters). I talked to the electrician and he is planning to come out and look at the house this week, but I don't know how long it will be before he can actually do the job. Soon, I hope!
Maranatha and I did some more cleaning, took out to the dumpster a big old dresser that smelled badly of mice (I have traps out, and have caught six mice just in the last four days), put up some shelves, moved some furniture around so when the electrician comes he will have access to the walls, and did a few other odds and ends. Right now the house is a little discombobulated because most of the furniture is pulled away from the walls, but I still feel like a lot of progress has been made.
And really good news -- I'd bought ten fruit trees last spring, and (with Cedar's help) got them planted. I was really afraid they might all have died of neglect and the long hot dry spell we had in August and September, but I went out and checked them this morning, and I think all of them are still alive!
Spent an hour or so in Lowe's this afternoon picking out new appliances (all on sale, some on very good sales). A new washer and dryer (which I hope work better and last longer than the last set); a new gas range with a self-cleaning convection over -- if we have a power outage, I'll have to light the burners with a flame, but they'll still work; a new refrigerator, french doors with a big bottom freezer; and a fairly good-sized (15 cu. ft.) chest freezer. I already have a small chest freezer, and between the two chest freezers, and the bottom freezer in the frig, I should be able to buy half a beef once a year and still have plenty of room for other things.
SouthernBreeze, I have a Coleman folding camp oven. It will work just fine over an open flame (I've used it on coals alongside a campfire, and on a gas stove-top). It doesn't hold a big baking pan -- it works with pans about the size of an 8 by 8 or 9 by 9 cake pan -- but it's certainly better than nothing. It will work on top of a wood stove, too, or outdoors on a BBQ grill.
Kathleen
I taught my daughter, and have now taught my grandsons that if they get a bug bite, sting, or scrape to crumple the leaf a bit and rub it on the area. I have not made salve, so I will try that - I picked up a bit over a pound of coconut oil at the Amish store the other day, so will use that.
The grandsons have been hitting them pretty hard - I'm guessing that is why a jar of peanut butter has also disappeared! They are getting pretty handy at using the apple corer/slicer! I have to admit that apples have been showing up on the dinner table pretty frequently as well - baked apples, stewed apples, cinnamon apples, fried apples.... Wednesday, I went back up to the local orchard and purchased another bushel of 2nds to use in canning, plus a half bushel of #1's to wrap in newspaper and put under the basement stairs to hold for a bit. 
