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Ahhhhhhhh

November 14th, 2013

Yesterday was a busy day for us, we left the house early in the morning (after feeding all the animals and walking the dogs).  We spent all day running here there and everywhere.  Our first stop was a restaurant supply store because we needed to purchase a few supplies for our pig slaughter (which is scheduled for this weekend).  Next we stopped at a trailer store and purchased a small utility trailer which we’ve been sorely needing with our small cars.  We then headed up to the grain mill to stock up on animal feed, 1000 lbs of which was loaded up in the car & trailer.  While there, I stopped by a small yarn shop to pick up a few skeins of yarn.  
grain in car
We then headed down to the hardware store to purchase a few items needed to turn our back porch into a slaughter house.  When we finally arrived home late at night a quick supper was in order since Mr Chiots had a fire dept. meeting. Thankfully I was able to finally get my feet up not much after that.  Dexter also wanted to help wind the yarn I purchased, but he didn’t quite understand how to do it.
rest
dexter and yarn
We like to maximize our trips for gas and time and thus about once a month we have to spend an entire day running errands to get supplies like feed and other necessities.  It makes for a long day, but it does save from having to make shorter trips more often. The gas savings are also appreciated!

Do you like to make errands weekly or do you like to save them up and get them all done at once? 

18 Comments to “Ahhhhhhhh”
  1. daisy on November 14, 2013 at 6:20 am

    We do try to condense our trips to save on gas and wear-and-tear on our older van. Plus, it’s just nice being home. ;0D

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  2. kristin @ going country on November 14, 2013 at 6:37 am

    I used to try to do everything in one trip. Post-children, I do what I can in an hour with as few actual stops necessitating hauling kids in and out of car seats–with a half hour drive each way to get to and from the Small City, an hour of errands is a two-hour trip–and get my husband to do some stuff when he’s there for work. It’s kind of frustrating. I don’t like doing anything piecemeal, but children are terribly fragmenting, I’ve found.

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  3. Jennifer Fisk on November 14, 2013 at 6:58 am

    I try to multi task. My grocery store, bank and hardware store are all withing sight of one another in my small coastal community. When I have to go to the mainland I try to stock up on animal feed, hay and straw. I too purchased a utility trailer this fall for the same reason you did. I plan to transport my turkeys to Albion in it.

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  4. Adelina Anderson on November 14, 2013 at 7:43 am

    I practically live out of my car. Between work and shuttling kids to and from school, dance, sports, and music lessons – I try very hard to get most of my stuff done at once, but something always slips through the cracks and I have to head back out.

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  5. kathi Cook on November 14, 2013 at 7:45 am

    I live in town, so am not as careful about consolidating errands as I should be. I run most of my errands on the way home from work. Your account of your day sounds like a page out of Little House on the Prairie when the family went to town to re-supply. :) Good luck this weekend.

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  6. BJ on November 14, 2013 at 8:32 am

    I dislike leaving the house for only one reason so I like to maximize me trip too. That being said I usually have to make a list of all the places that I am planning to go while I am out otherwise I may forget to stop at a one of the locations.

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    • Susan Ingle on November 14, 2013 at 11:47 am

      I like to consolidate trips so that I only have to go to town once a week. I live in the country and it just doesn’t make sense to make multiple trips. I try to map out my list of stops and what I need at each place as well. Our local supermarket charges a small fee for doing the shopping for you, so I make my list on their website and commit to a pickup time (usually after I know I’ll have finished my other tasks because it’s on my way home) and it saves me so much time and money too. I’m not picking up stuff that isn’t on my list that way.

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  7. DebbieB on November 14, 2013 at 8:38 am

    Definitely prefer consolidating errands. My husband’s office is next to a grocery store, so if I need something between errand days, he can pick it up by walking next door rather than wasting gas.

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  8. whit on November 14, 2013 at 9:30 am

    We try to condense, but as Kristin was saying, kids throw a whole new element into the mix. We Homeschool, and we are constantly going here and there to field trips that she would normal be on a school bus for. Twice a week we head 20 miles away for Irish dancing school. That is when I try to build shopping trips into my schedule. Thankfully most of the groceries and chicken feed are delivered to the house.

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  9. Ann on November 14, 2013 at 9:32 am

    We live 30 miles from where I can do any real shopping. So 1 trip into town a week is all I care to do. I also have a very small car, a Honda Fit. So I stop at the feed store first to get those big 50lb bags loaded in on the bottom of the stack. Then Lowe’s. Gee, I would love to be able to go even 1 week without Lowe’s or Home Depot!! Then all the other misc places I need to go. If I forget anything I have learned that we can make do without or substitute til the next big trip. We have a very small town 6 miles away that has a small but decent hardware store and a generic grocery so if I am desperate I can run in there.

    By the way…how do you store all that animal feed without worrying about rodents getting into it? I am slowly buying galvanized garbage cans for each of our feeds. But I want to start mixing my own feeds and fermenting for the poultry. But all the items I want to use will take their own cans. If I wasn’t afraid of hawks getting an outside cat, or the cat eating baby chickens maybe I could use a good barn cat to keep the rodents down.

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  10. Nebraska Dave on November 14, 2013 at 9:32 am

    Susy, I live in Urban town USA and really don’t have a errand day. My life between caring for an aging mother in law, helping to raise a grandson, and trying get a daughter started in life is not on a schedule. Things happen on the fly most days. A general idea of what the agenda will be for the day gets changed more times than not. Moments of rest and relaxation are pretty few and usually only after the household has gone to sleep for the night. I wouldn’t change it for any thing.

    Have a great errand free – chore rich day. :-)

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  11. Amy S on November 14, 2013 at 9:33 am

    oh how I wish I didn’t have to drive as much as I do but it’s what I do for a living. I drive and drive. My poor VW has 98,000 and only 3 years old. I always run errands while I’m out because once this gal gets home..I’m not going anywhere! Don’t get me wrong I LOVE what I do (a home health RN) but the driving can get to me. I think about all the time I spend in the car but luckily I have your podcasts to keep me company :)

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  12. Joy Giles on November 14, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    We make one big circle — first and last stop closest to home with all the others in between. I love days when we don’t even leave the house.

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  13. KimH on November 14, 2013 at 11:04 pm

    I save em up if I can.. and spend a good half day at least running around..

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  14. Rachel on November 15, 2013 at 12:22 am

    We both work from home. I am lucky if I get out once a month to do errands but when I do, I try to do everything in one day. DH likes to run out every other day or so even to just chit chat with the folks at the local grocery and hardware store.

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  15. Robin on November 15, 2013 at 6:53 am

    I grocery shop once a month. If we run out of something we can’t do without before it’s time to shop again Steve stops at the store on his way home from work. Thank you, garden. I try to set an appointment day so that when I’m out I’ll have a long day but don’t have to leave home again soon. There’s no place like home.

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  16. Karla on November 15, 2013 at 7:51 am

    I try to have at least two reasons to drive to the nearest bigger town before I make a trip.

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  17. Jaye on November 15, 2013 at 8:11 am

    I’m getting better and better about making one trip out, it’s just practical! Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way :)

    Work is different though, as I work from home, when I do have to leave for work, there’s no question that I’m headin’ out.

    I have noticed over the past handful of years that I enjoy being home more and more and while I once thought nothing about several trips out a day, now I dread it if I have to do so. I do live on the outskirts of a city, so it’s not terribly bad of drive, but still!

    p.s. If that’s the skein that Dexter rolled, I’d say he has a pretty good handle on it ;-)

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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