Melissa's Ramblings

Been a long time, friends

2011-10-31T11:37:00.000-05:00

Wow - how many cliches could I insert here!

I've deciding to rekindle the old blog - and to start things off, how about a little catching up, shall we?!

(By the way, if you're in my blog feeder, I've been lurking.)

Last we spoke, I was starting seeds from scratch. That turned out well. Very well! We actually were up to our eyeballs in tiny plants. I couldn't give them away fast enough.

But since then, lot's has changed. Here's a quick run down:

My marriage has ended. No need to elaborate. It was a long time coming and something that had to be done. For me and my sanity. For my kids. If you were to encounter us together, we get along fairly well. Dare I say we make better friends than spouses? Yes, yes we do.

I have had another baby - mmm hmmm. Mom of 6 now. Delaney is almost 6 months old.

The kids and I had to move. It was quite traumatic for all of us, yet we had no choice in the matter. 7 months into the "new" house and we've settled in quite well. Sometime soon I'll be writing about the new house and why it's such a blessing. The chickens moved along with us... the labradors didn't. They are happily running on 13 acres - lucky dogs! We do have a new dog, a pug named, Pug. Or Buddy. Or Bugsy. He has many names and responds to them all.

I coupon, a lot. I photograph, a lot. I love on my kiddos, a lot.

Looking forward to getting back to blogging and chatting again.

Seed Starting Basics

2010-03-01T13:02:00.005-06:00

It's nearly spring and everybody I know has Spring Fever. We ALL want to get outside and dig in the dirt. Lucky for us, we've had a lot of moisture, but digging in mud isn't good for the garden or the gardener.

How about starting a few plants from seed this year? It's really not as hard as you might think. Let me share a few tips that I've learned over the past few years.

Step 1: Choose your seeds. I realize this could be an entire blog post and I may write up something. What you need to know is: your growing zone and what you want to grow. I prefer growing Heirloom seeds (i.e. not genetically modified) because I can save seeds from this year's crop and grow them again next year, and eventually, it will be a zero-cost garden.

Most seed packages will tell you if you should direct sow or start indoors. Finding the last frost date for your area is a simple check of google. Count backwards the # of weeks indicated and then you'll know when to start your seeds indoors. Suffice to say, don't wait until May to decide to grow tomatoes from seed - there's just not enough warm season left to do this (well, it CAN be done, but it takes more work!)

Step 2: Now that you've gotten your seed, what do you grow it in? A few years ago, I stopped at the seed store and picked up several flats: sealed bottom, perforated bottom, divided and clear dome lids. Now, you don't need to go to this expense. Prior to that, I started seeds in leftover plastic containers (think salad bar to go boxes) and plastic wrap. ANYTHING that will hold soil will be fine to grow seeds in. I just upgraded so I'd have the uniform flats to re-use. All I need to do is wash them with a bleach/water solution prior to using. For growing medium, I use a mixture of Peat Moss and Vermiculite. You can see that I buy the X-LARGE bags of each. I use a lot of growing medium as we start over 600 plants each year. You may be fine to get the smaller bags, but for savings, get big bags and share w/ other gardeners. I mix at a 50/50 ratio in a large rubbermaid tote and wet it down as I go. TIP: mix outdoors! It's a very dusty!

Depending on the seed, I will use different inserts. For tomatoes and peppers, I prefer the 9-holes. For onions, I prefer an undivided tray. My son prefers the peat pots (we also were intrigued by the cow manure pots - but that's for another year.) After you fill your pot/flat with the peat/vermiculite mix, tuck the seeds in. Spray until the surface is dampened and cover it. I do not use heat mats of any kind as we have a large picture window that is south facing. It heats up quite nicely and I've not needed heat mats.

TIP: Leave one spot open in the middle - it'll be very helpful for watering later on. You can also leave a corner spot open. It's just easier to water this way vs. lifting the edge of the tray. (The growing tray is inserted into a sealed bottom tray to contain the water overflow.)

TIP: Use old mini-blinds for plant markers. Just cut to fit inside the lids and mark with a sharpie.

Step 3: As soon as the seeds sprout, REMOVE THE LID and water from the bottom only! Let the surface dry out. If you don't, damping off can occur. See above plant - the roots are literally growing above the soil line. There isn't much hope of saving plants when this has occurred. It's best to chuck them and start a new batch of seeds. Watering from the bottom will encourage plant roots to grow down. A lot of seed growers use oscillating fans to help keep the surface dry. Fans also strengthen the plant as it gets blown around (similar to outdoor conditions.)

Step 4: Once the plant has it's leaves formed, it's time to get them under a grow light. You CAN grow in window light, but you'll have more spindly plants and you'll want to turn the trays daily to avoid the hard lean that develops.

TIP: You can make your own grow station. I have this wire rack shelf I got from Target for around $35. It hold 6 flats on the 3 shelves with lights hooked to underneath shelf above via S-hooks and tiny chains. I can raise/lower the lights as needed. I set my lights to about 2" above the plants and move them up as needed. I purchased the lights from Walmart and have grow bulbs in them - not florescent bulbs.

In a few weeks, I'll share updated photos as this is not the only grow station we'll have. Our living room gets so stuffed with plants that by April, I'm stir crazy to get them outside. I do have a mini-greenhouse plus a cold frame where they all hang out until it's time to plant.

Happy Growing!!

Happiness Project: Aprons

2010-01-25T18:35:00.016-06:00

Miss Aubrey modeling my fave apron.

When I cook, I make a mess. I don't mean to, but I work in a very small kitchen, usually with a few helpers & various pets wandering about. It's inevitable that I flip around too fast and knock something over. LOL

That's why I started wearing aprons. I have a few I've bought at estate sales (and a few of them have been swiped by the girls). But, my favorite is a cherry red apron with the cutest crocheted cherries on it. Problem is, it's just a half-apron. (What is the correct term?) What I need is a full apron, one that covers my shirt too.

Apron courtesy Flirty Aprons

So, when I saw this contest over at The Suburban Jungle, I knew I had to enter and share my love of aprons with you. My choice, if I were to win, would be the Sassy Red apron, because, I LOVE red and *ahem* have been known to be sassy. :D

Which one would you choose?

Happiness Project: Photos

2010-01-21T19:19:00.007-06:00

It's already 2/3 way thru January. I had intended to post more often *ahem*. Well, let's just move forward, shall we?!

Sticking with "things that make me happy", you may have deduced that I enjoy taking photos... of my kids and pets. What I really love, is taking photos of things people usually don't see.

Radish Flower

As we missed pulling a few radishes, we decided to let them grow, just to see what would happen. These delicate blossoms were the result. They grew on very long stems and waved gently in the breeze. So pretty!

I really LOVE photographing buildings and their details, especially windows & doors. Here's an old warehouse. I always wonder what was manufactured in them. Who worked there? When was the last day of business? What does the inside look like? Who painted the awesome antique themed mural on it's north side? If the building could talk, what would it say?

This is a photo from one of my favorite buildings here in town... it's an old train station. When I was a little girl, our family traveled via train to go to our home state. Plus, my grandpa was a train conductor, so I am still enamored by all things train related. :D

If you've ever traveled via train, you might recognize the platform. This place amazed me with all the people bustling on and off trains, the smoke, the smells and most of all, the anticipation of the trip. Even though we no longer have a train station in Wichita, the platform is still there. :D I think I may have to have this one blown up and hung in my office. Looking at it always makes me smile.

2010: The Year of HAPPY

2010-01-02T11:47:00.005-06:00

2008 was the Year of Loss

The year I lost my idyllic mom-life. The year I lost my business. The year I lost dear friends. The year I lost my trust in the system. The year I lost so much.

(In way way, it was the year of gain: I gained 35 pounds by not dealing with the loss.)

2009 was the Year of Grief

When I suffered one loss after another, instead of dealing with the emotions that surrounded the events, I stuffed it down, way, way down. Buried deeply so I could just motor on, moving thru life, dealing with the day to day stuff that consumed me.

But when you stuff, eventually, it has to come back out. And it did. Hard, fast and overwhelming. Over and over, the grief came out. It made me physically ill. It brought my life to a grinding halt for months. It was the most painful year of my life. One that I vow I will never repeat.

But in the grief, I did find joy. I found many things to celebrate and I found my self. My true self. The one who deserves so much more.

I no longer will be a people pleaser. I will no longer go with the flow, not questioning what my gut is screaming about. I will no longer suffer silently. I will no longer give to others at my expense. I will re-frame my life and my dreams. I will rebuild what was lost. I will reclaim what is mine. I will rise above and soar.

On New Year's Eve, I declared 2010, the Year of Happy
I will only do things that make me happy.

Before After

As a tribute to my resolution, here are a few things that made me happy in recent days:

I re-did my laundry room. No more ugly yellow wallpaper, in stages of removal. No more reminders of the project I abandoned 5 years ago. I chose a gorgeous shade of purple plum, despite what others commented on, because it makes me happy.

I grew loofa.

I took photos.

I raised puppies.

In the upcoming year, I will share other things that make me happy. Stay tuned.

Photo Op

2009-11-03T14:27:00.006-06:00

We have an incredible nature park just a few miles from our house. It's my go-to place for peace and quiet. Stick to the paved path if you need civilization (i.e. other people/dog walkers). Or, do what I do and follow random paths.... randomly. You never know when you might come across a horseback rider or raccoon. It's also an excellent place to go for geo caching.

I took Emma and my camera (that I am still trying to master) and snapped a few pix.

We rested for a bit at the picnic pavilion, couldn't resist this shot.

Here's my sweet Miss Em

Ahhh, the roads these toes have traveled so far...

This one is one of my favorites... total fluke how it happened though...

As we were walking back, I heard a distinct crackling to my left and caught this doe by surprise.

Emma kept chattering away and calling to her even though I was shushing her as loudly as I dared. I was hoping to see a baby, no luck. Just this guy:

Yeah, I KNOW!! What do you think? 6 or 8 points? (I'm not sure how to tell.) Then, I totally missed the next shot, an even bigger buck!! I love seeing wild life up close like this.

What I see Out My Window

2009-10-31T19:26:00.006-05:00

Ah, Fall... such a gorgeous season!!

This is the view out my front window (ahem, it WAS the view, until the wind/rain dropped all the leaves.)

I absolutely LOVE red leaves! We planted a Red Maple and a Red Oak the first month we moved here. 5 years later, the color is fabulous! About the time the Maple looses all it's leaves, the Oak turns. Ah, fall. :D

Public Service Announcement

2009-10-30T14:04:00.004-05:00

When the house gets too quiet, all moms know to check on the little ones. This is why:

Here's the "artist" providing today's makeover to the lovely Honey. (It only took 4 days for the blue to wear off.)

I'd like to thank everyone for their kind emails and comments. I'm doing much better and hope to be back to my regular self very soon. It's been a tough road, but what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. (All props to Kanye for the quote, which has been my song of inspiration lately. :D)

Still here, I promise

2009-06-19T20:00:00.001-05:00

Hi~~ This is me, waving at you!

I've not fallen into a crack in the road - just hit a speed bump that slowed me down a little. :D

Remember when I posted about the volunteer potatoes ~ the ones that came up from last year? Well, I needed to mulch the garden and also plant things that needed to go in, so I dug up the volunteers. 12 pounds of potatoes - all because during last year's harvest, some potatoes got left behind. That's frugal gardening, I do believe!!

I'll be back posting soon ~ thanks for checking in

Independence Day Challenge Week 5

2009-06-01T08:04:00.007-05:00

Raspberries blooming.

1) Plant something:

Okay, I had to re-plant the yellow & butternut squash and the loofa. The ones I started indoors didn't survive the transplant, even though they were hardened off. The ones coming up from seed look 1000% stronger anyway! I also had to re-plant 2 tomatoes that didn't survive. I'm still not done planting tomatoes or peppers because this new garden spot is just not cooperating. Also, another row of radishes (what's the secret to getting them to form a bulb?), lettuce, spinach and my 3rd and final attempt at peas. Plus, sunflowers, watermelon and cantaloupe.

Someday, I'll have a camera that takes amazing shots. Until then, please admire this blurry jar of jam :D

2) Harvest something:

Just a few handfuls of lettuce and all the rhubarb (about 1.5 pounds). OH! And, the meat birds!! 55 pounds of chicken. Jerry, his dad and the boys processed the 10 birds in about 2 hours. Boys said it was gross, nasty and smelly. Jerry said it wasn't too bad. His dad didn't say much, other than my MIL said he better NOT bring home a chicken. Ok, more for us! I refrained from showing you a before and after. I LOVE before & after photos, but I know that not everyone is fond of home grown meat. Seriously though, it looks just like supermarket chicken.

3) Preserve Something

I went to the Farmer's Market in search of strawberries, and I found the last of the harvest. $4 a quart. I really wanted to make jam this year, so I forked over $8, happily. They were so good!! I stopped by Dillon's on the way home and found the above strawberries on clearance for $.79 a pound. I bought 14 pounds. They ended up in a strawberry rhubarb crumble, strawberry rhubarb pie and JAM, glorious, ruby red jam. My children have already tackled the first jar and declare it's the best jam ever. I know it wasn't local (strawberries were grown in the U.S.) but I saw the bargain and had to have it.

4) Prep Something

Remember that giant, 5' x 5' compost bin I had? In the middle of the garden? Well, I was soooo tired of looking at it smack in the middle of the garden. It was too big and hard to reach in and turn the compost. Jerry was convinced that it could be cut down and repurposed. He spent an afternoon chopping thru the free pallets and re-making them into this wonderful, 2 holer!! WHOOT!! I'm so excited!! I've now got hinged doors!! That makes it so easy to pop open, and flip the compost from one bin to another. We still have the old, black composter, sans lid to hold the excess. It's now hidden behind the shed. In it's old place, I planted watermelon. Hope it's not too fertile there. We shall see. :D

5) Cook Something:

Making jam was new to me. First year to harvest and cook the rhubarb. Surprisingly, it was so simple. Why was I worried? The jam set up nicely too! And the crumble? It didn't last long. It was SO GOOD! We are having the pie tonight. It may be all we eat, but that's how we roll. :D

6) Manage Reserves:

Still washing jars in anticipation of more canning sessions. Added more toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant & razors to the stockpile. Stockpiling is so new to me... it feels weird to have excess stuff. But, I'm learning that combining coupons with sales really DOES save a lot of money.

Knee-high by the 4th of July? Yep, I think it will be!

7) Work on Local Food Systems:
Planted extra Row for the Hungry. Donated some tomato plants to community garden.

Chooks in the garden, eating bugs, earning their keep. In a few weeks, I hope to have the garden fenced in so that the free rangers will stop eating the good stuff that I'm trying to grow. Seriously, we've gotten ONE strawberry ~ they've devoured the rest. They'll have 1/2 acre to roam and I do have 2 raised beds full of greens for them that they haven't discovered yet.

Etched In Stone

2009-06-01T07:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, in my fine town, a man walked in to a church and shot another man, in the forehead. He killed a husband, a father of 4 and a grandfather of 10. He killed Dr. George Tiller. An abortion doctor.

No matter which side of the issue you are, this post isn't open to debate.

It is, however, my story. A deeply personal one.

Have you ever heard the theory that we are all born with a chalkboard? Everytime something is said to you, good or bad, it gets recorded. Sometimes, the writing fades over time if you don't hear it enough. Other times, what's said over and over eventually gets etched in, deeper and deeper until it makes you who you are.

I believe this. I've struggled for years to erase things on my slate that others thought about me and said to me, things I know to be untrue. But, there are some things that are etched so deeply, there isn't enough spackle to fill in the fissures.

On an ordinary summer day, when I was nine, my mother turned to me and casually said,

"Did you know that you were supposed to be aborted?"

My earth stopped and I was in some kind of a vacuum. What? What did she say?

"Yes," she went on, "your dad only wanted one child, so when he found out I was pregnant with you, he wanted to have you aborted, but I said no."

She went on to say that there was a doctor who was in agreement. Supposedly there was a sonogram showing me as having no arms or legs - just a torso and head. This was used to try to convince her that an abortion was a good idea.

Knowing the narcissist that is my mother, I wonder if she said it for shock factor (probably) or to get me to hate my birth father (probably), to garner sympathy (of course) or to hurt me.

I didn't know how to respond. I mean, I was 9 and I just heard that I was unwanted and should have been dead. What do you say to that?!?!

Over the years, she has said it a few more times, each time, forgetting that she'd already told me. Everytime I heard it, it etched deeper, and deeper. She even said it to me during my pregnancies.

Had I been aborted, I would not be here. My five wonderful, delightful, blessings from God would not be here.

When I hear the word Abortion, it etches this even deeper into my soul.

I wasn't wanted. I wasn't supposed to be alive. The pregnancy was to have been terminated. I was to have been terminated. Eliminated.

Choices.

I believe that every human is on earth for a reason. It's up to each person to make their own choices and discover what they need to. I'm not here to judge. What you choose is your business.

I just wonder, who was eliminated, by choice? What futures will never be?

I don't wish to open this up to discussion or debate. Yesterday, my world was a firestorm of personal opinions and debates and I sat by, quietly watching, listening and praying.

All I ask, is if you have people in your life that you care about, look deep into their eyes and see what has been written on their slate. See what's been etched and what you can help to erase. It's never too late to change the slate.

Changes

2009-05-26T12:43:00.003-05:00

Jerry changed his work schedule last week and we're just not settling into a routine... at all. His hours are shifted as are his days off. Consequently, all my routines have been thrown into a swirling pot. The kids are out of school for summer. And, for the first time in 8 years, I'm working from home.

It all adds up to upheaval. Not that's it's bad.... I LOVE having him home, even if he is asleep when we're awake. I just can't get a grip on a new schedule.

I'll be back when things aren't so upside down.

Rain followed by Sun

2009-05-19T10:20:00.006-05:00

Less than 2 weeks ago, the potato patch was spotty, at best.

Then it rained and rained. Finally, the sun shone. And, now you can practically watch it grow. Sadly, the weeds are growing just as fast.

Emma turned 3. She has discovered Barney so Gma got her 2 Barney videos. She also noticed, for the first time, that we have a Barney beach towel (was Dalton's ~ 12 years ago!). It's hers now. She's the most singy of all the kiddos, so we belt out the ole "I love you, You love me" song at the top of our lungs, and we don't care how much eye rolling occurs ~ secretly, we know they are singing too. :D

Inspired by Paul, I ~~begged, pleaded,~~ asked to have one so Jerry built this trellis system for the yellow squash, butternut squash and loofah. He used scrap lumber and also t-posts for anchors. I've got to tie the string on, and it's good to go. I have to decide if I'm going to want more for the cucumbers and tomatoes. How does one stake 75 tomato plants while on a limited budget?! Suggestions, please!

I can not stop taking pictures of the chix. They make it easy by hurtling towards me where ever I am. LOL That never gets old!!

Speaking of chicks, I have been letting the meat birds free range outside in the afternoons. What does this shot look like to you?! A daisy? Yeah, me too. One week to go til butcher date.

I should do updates to the challenges, but I don't feel like it. LOL So much is going on right now in the garden - doubling it has been a bit of a pain. Grass turf is a bugger to get thru. The ground underneath hasn't seen the light of day for 35+ years (back when it was farmland/tilled fields.) So, we are transplanting the turf, double digging, adding compost to holes, mulching between plants and looking forward to this fall when we can plow it all under.

Blackberry and blueberry bushes arrived, yet to be planted.
Lettuce is slow coming up, so are radishes.
Peas are a total loss thanks to the chickens for scratching them up, twice.
Rhubarb should be harvested.
We got asparagus in small spurts, never enough all at once, but I planted 10 more.
Planted another peach tree ~ Elberta.
Jerry & I shared the first strawberry of the season.

Cole, Braden & Dalton

The boys had a Father/Son fishing trip this past weekend. While they were gone, the girls painted nails, went shopping for coloring books & stickers and had a sleep over in mom's bed.

We have an entire week of balmy, breezy spring-time-in-Kansas weather forecasted (which translates to highs of 80, lows of 60, winds 10-25 mph and low humidity.) Paradise on the prairie!

Adopt a Soldier

2009-05-15T13:08:00.004-05:00

Do you remember the movie Pay It Forward? The premise was to do a good deed for someone and they will pay it forward, creating a ripple effect and the good deeds would just keep on being done.

I love that idea. I'm always on the lookout for a way to 'pay it forward'.

A website was sent to me recently that has a daily good deed report. Check it out. Every month, they tackle a new project.

Reading their site led me to Wish Upon a Hero. Of course, it's been televised several times, but *ahem* I don't watch much tv so I missed it. Anyway, the premise there is you can be a wish grantor or wishee. So many of the wishes are for card showers ~ for a great grandma celebrating a milestone birthday or a recent graduate who has no family or for a child that needs a pick me up. Yes, this I can do! I signed up and have been having a blast sending out cards. (Although the website is painfully slow ~ not complaining, just saying.)

Of course, that website led to me the best one yet Adopt A Soldier. I signed up a few days ago and today I got an email with my soldier's info. That was FAST!!

My soldier is a 39 year old gal from California. Now, when I think of Soldier, I think of my nephew - young, 20-something, single guy. I don't think of someone who is my age!! I didn't get much info so I don't know if she's a wife or a mom. All her request said is that she'd like some personal care items. She misses being in familiar places (home!) and whatever she gets (cards, letters or packages) she will share with the other soldiers there.

That made me tear up. She's a gal after my own heart!!!

I know that with summer upon us, this will be a fun project for our family to work on together. Gathering little items and making cards, letters and pictures to send to Colette.

So, won't you take a minute and go be a hero?! Let's pay this one forward!!

72 Eggs, Scrambled

2009-05-13T08:13:00.004-05:00

What do you do when your hens are producing 10 eggs a day? You find recipes that use up lots of eggs! We decided to make breakfast burritos.

Recipe:

6 dozen eggs, scrambled
3 pounds sausage, browned
Onions
Green Peppers
Cheese (we used 1/2 slice of American cheese but shredded works too.)
Tortillas
Aluminum Foil

Next time, I'll know to not try to cook all the sausage and eggs all at once. Or, I need to find commercial sized pans and stove to cook on!

The kids can easily pop 1 in the microwave for a minute ~ 2 for 1.5 minutes. We like ours with salsa and sour cream. Our recipe made 80+ burritos. Had we had more tortillas, we'd have come close to 100 burritos. But, we decided to make breakfast bowls out of the leftovers. Delish! Next time, we may add shredded potatoes or more veggies.

Next up, Egg Noodles (frozen & dehydrated) & Batches of French Toast for the Freezer

If you find yourself with a lot of eggs, try some of these links to recipes using a lot of eggs.

Indeterminate or Determinate?

2009-05-12T10:54:00.003-05:00

Can't wait to pick something!

I am so impatient to plant the rest of my garden that I decided to toss 10 tomato plants in the ground last night. If they don't make it due to this chilly, wet weather, well, I've got hundreds more. At least I feel a little more productive right now.

When I started them from seed, I just wrote the name of tomato on each stake and failed to include any info. It's important to me to have determinate & indeterminate tomatoes planted in specific places in the garden, more for the difference in staking than anything.

What's the difference? Well, Determinate will set fruit all at once and then they're done. So you can pull the plants out and do something else in that spot. Indeterminate will continue fruiting as long as there is favorable conditions (not too hot, not too cold.)

Rather than have to dig thru the seed packets, I turned to Wikipedia and found this table of Tomato Cultivars. It came in pretty handy.

On a side note, I'm glad I didn't plant last Thursday when all my neighbors did. We got hit with penny to nickel sized hail and they've all lost their tomatoes. I haven't had much luck with having tomatoes bounce back after being destroyed by hail. Other plants/vines come back, but not the tomatoes. Now, they're all in a scramble trying to find more. I have plenty to share of certain varieties, thankfully.

When I plant my tomatoes, I put about 1 tablespoon of Epson Salts in the bottom of the hole (our soil test shows we're on the low side for Magnesium). Add a little compost, then set the plant. I actual bury my tomatoes up to their uppermost leaves. A past neighbor of ours actually laid his in the ground horizontal and gently bent the leave up above ground. Either way, it seems to help the plant set out additional roots. More roots = more stability in these winds.

I am listening to the thunder as I type this, thankful that my collector hubby has a large supply of milk crates. All the maters have their milk crate armor on ~ hopefully this will ward off any hail/dogs/chickens/kids. LOL What we gardeners go thru, huh?!

Someone Special

2009-05-11T11:02:00.005-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! I did. Above is a lovely card made by Cole. Inside, he shared several sweet sentiments and the back was so cute too.

It shows a chicken eating a worm and it's from his line of "Hungry Chicken" cards. LOL

Every Mother's Day (and Christmas too) someone very special has helped in choosing my gifts. She is a creative, kind and compassionate lady. My children enjoy spending time with her and talk about her almost as if she's a dear auntie. But, she isn't a relative. She's the art teacher at school. Mrs. H has a knack for leading the kids in art that allows them to be creative but the art is useful. I mean, who else could have the kids make a ceramic bird feeder (complete with drainage holes!) for Mom's Day?! Every year, I look forward to receiving more goodies that she had a hand in. My dear hubby isn't much of a shopper and really, doesn't do gift giving. That's a whole 'nother post, but suffice to say, it's taken me a lot of years to be okay with not getting gifts from him. Yes, I know gifts don't equate love, but that's not how I was raised and it took a lot for me to overcome the disappointment of not getting store-bought gifts. The artsy, homemade gifts that I LOVE and CHERISH come about thanks to Mrs. H. So, Mrs. H, when I'm 85 and still admiring these lovely gifts, I will be thinking of you and praising your goodness!!

Aubrey and I attended our first ever Mother ~ Daughter Tea. It was so nice! Muffins with Mom Day complete with songs by the Kindergartners. She painted the darling heart shaped dishes (thanks again Mrs. H). They remind me of friendship charms - one for me and one for her and when we look at our hearts, we think of each other. I have some fun little things planned to use these. Oh, and the tea pot has a poem that slides out and a tea bag ~ so we're going to have a tea party the next boy-free weekend we get. (Thanks to Boy Scouts!)

The gifts just keep coming! Someone else at school had the great idea to sell these little plants in coffee mugs for $1. And, Jerry got me the pink flowers. Plus, he made me a wonderful french toast w/ sausage breakfast to eat in BED with a newspaper and birds chirping outside my window. Who could ask for anything more?!

The afternoon was spent with Phelan and family. Cole got to ride solo and the girls got to ride with Phelan. And hold tiny kittens. And eat delicious, fresh-from-the-oven bread. And play with the not-so-tiny goats. And see Courage up close (she is a beauty!). And talk about plans for beef cows. And hang out with friends. And so much more. A very nice afternoon in deed. Even with the cold, windy day. The bonfire was excellent. I don't think I've ever had a bonfire on Mother's Day before. Seeing my kids so happy is truly a fabulous gift. Spending time with people I admire and appreciate is just the icing on the cake.

On the way home, I saw several Cardinals. They remind me of my Texas Grandma. Whenever I see them, I know it's her way of sending me love. I love you too, Grandma.

Oldest son and about 90 kids from his school, spent Friday night sleeping in boxes & Saturday raising money for a homeless shelter here in town. They got a surprise donation of a $200 check from one gentleman. I have no idea who it was, but Sir, you ROCK! You were the talk of the day! The kids had a good time, learned about a very real need in our community and discovered that 40% of the homeless are under 18. It's events like these that get them to see the world out there is really in their own backyard.

We had a great weekend ~ hope you did too.

Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-05T12:43:00.005-05:00

Thanks to my web friends for providing recipes for tonight's feast. We are not Mexican ~ although I was an exchange student to Mexico City in high school ~ and after touring that beautiful country, I often times wish I still lived there. Let's not debate that remark - just know that there are some incredibly beautiful places, free of signs, telephone poles, wires & consumerism etc that I fell in love with. Plus, it's warm & sunny. Unlike here, where it's chilly and cloudy and I'd swear it was October.

Anyway, on with the link love:

My frugal resolve caused me to buy a large bag of pinto beans for $1.59 instead of the can of fat free beans for $.65. I used a fabulous recipe from a Year of Crock Potting and next time, I'll definitely double it so we can have beans in the freezer.

J&J have a really good tortilla recipe and tortilla chips too!

Plus I made some taco seasoned ** hamburger and we are cracking open the very last jar of salsa made with last summer's produce. *SOB* It seems like fresh tomatoes are so far off in the distance.

We'll pull out the fabulous blanket (pictured above) that I brought back from Mexico and have a little carpet picnic. Ole!

**I do think that he meant to put 1/2 tsp on the cumin - as much as I love it, 12 tsps would've been a bit much. LOL

Mending A Sheet

2009-05-04T08:40:00.002-05:00

Last summer, our fitted sheet ripped - from top to bottom. Normally, I'd run out and buy a new set of sheets and I did ~ flannel sheets. They came in sooo handy during the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge and $15 for a set of king-size flannels seemed to be a good bargain. Now that spring is here, flannel sheets are getting a little too toasty. So, what to do with the ripped sheet?

I could go out and buy a new set ~ but that would invalidate my No Buying New rule. (I did look at the few garage sales I visited last week, but no one had king size sheets.) I didn't want to waste the gas to run to thrift stores and I haven't noticed sheets in them before anyway.

Instead, I opted to mend the sheet. Problem is, I wasn't sure how! I looked at a few sewing options ~ most suggestions were to zig zag stitch it several times. This would be a great if my zig zag stitch was working.

I looked into no-sew options and found that I could use fusible interfacing to cover the rip on both sides. I didn't have any in my meager sewing stash and I asked around my circle of friends - but no one had any either. I had to break down and spend $1.06 for half a yard. It was plenty.

I cut the interfacing into strips. I ironed the sheet, put the interfacing down and ironed it. I did both sides.

Funny, but now it looks like we have the "stripe down the middle" ~ you know ~ like kids that share bedrooms do so each person has to stay on their side of the room.

I got the bed made and also decided to switch out the down comforter to the lighter, summer weight one. Guess what I found?! Yeah, the old set of sheets. The ones I replaced 2 years ago because we'd had them for 5 years and I was tired of the pattern. Sigh. Sometimes my "organization" makes me crazy. If the iron on patch doesn't hold, I now have a free back up plan.

Potato Admiration

2009-05-02T16:32:00.007-05:00

I was reading ATW's post about how he and his wife are having an herb contest and I can so relate! My husband and I disagree on just about everything (when they say opposties attract, we took it to the EXTREME). Usually with us, the person with more experience gets his/her way... not so with the garden.

Take the above photo. It is of my good neighbor's potato patch. See how close the rows are? See how close the plants are? SIGH. THAT's how I wanted MY potatoes to be planted. Why? Well, it works for my neighbor and it's space saving.

This photo is of 1/2 of our potato area. See all the missing holes? Complete missing rows ~ okay you don't know what's missing, but I do! I told my husband that we should plant like good neighbor, but noooooooo... we have to do it well spaced out. So, now? Now we get to double the size of our garden because we're out of room. (And, if you're wondering why I didn't plant the potatoes myself, well, we were working "together" that day and I let him have his way.)
It's somewhat hard to see, but Jerry is scalping the lawn about 15 feet out from the current garden. This will give us roughly 35' x 75' plus several raised beds that are in another part of the yard. I had wanted to enlarge it last fall, but it didn't happen - we were debating the merits of enlarging it... suffice to say, he came to my conclusion. *ahem*

Since you're here touring, let me show you what's growing...

See all the greenery in the rows between the raised beds? Can you guess what they are? If you said potatoes, you are the Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! (what does that mean, anyway? lol) When you don't harvest 100%, the ones left in the ground will grow the next spring. So, we have about 25 bonus plants growing in all kinds of odd places. If they survive the traffic patterns, we'll harvest them too.

Raspberry bushes are looking quite flush. Only 1 failed to sprout so back it goes for an exchange.

Broiler chickens are huddled together in the revised chicken tractor. It's chilly and drizzly today, but they are fully feathered so should be okay. At night, their tractor is covered and stays very warm. I only wish we knew how old they were - we bought them from Atwoods & all they could tell us was they were between 1 - 4 weeks old. So, they are now somewhere between 5 -8 weeks. We plan to butcher around Memorial Day weekend.

Strawberry beds are not as assalted with the poultry netting on, but the Chickens still get in and create havoc. We'll be ordering the electric poultry fencing. We'll either put it around the garden to keep the girls out or create a run to keep them in. It's being debated. :D
Speaking of keeping things out, I don't know if I shared a photo of the rhubarb rescue Jerry built. It has worked great at keeping the horses from eating the stalks to the ground. They keep trying, but they can't quite reach the edge to pull it over. Ha ha ha ~ foiled you!

There She Blows

2009-04-28T09:23:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the winds, the mini-greenhouse got blown over, spilling dozens of plants. I was able to salvage most of them, but I did lose about 2 dozen tomatoes. Not to worry ~ I have hundreds more growing. But, what a mess! It happened during the rain that dumped 5 inches on us.

Question: What would a reasonable budget for food be, for a family of 7?

My Answer: $400 a month.

Let me explain. We are in the process of eliminating debt using Dave Ramsey's proven method. We have a long ways to go, but we're dedicated to the mission. We decided to see a financial counselor to get a check up, so to speak. She went over our budget and suggested we cut the food budget in half. Um, WHAT?! 7 people should eat 100% of their meals on $200 a month? I have a pantry, but it's not THAT well stocked right now.

We didn't guesstimate correctly last fall when we were canning. It was the first year we decided to actually can enough to last us until this year's harvest. We under estimated on everything. So, I'm shopping more than I thought I would.

Also included in that budget are seeds & plants that will produce (raspberries & blueberries to name a few.)

I'm a very careful shopper and have a price book plus I'm now couponing in hopes that I can save money every place I can. (I used to just buy the store brand or at Aldi's but I'm discovering that I can often get better deals on the name brands by using coupons during a sale.) Also included are the products I use to make my own laundry soap, shampoo, conditioner and cleaners.

What isn't included in that budget is the cost of feed for the chickens, cats, dogs, and other pets. She insinuated that we might want to get rid of all the pets in order to apply that money to the debt. Again, I see her angle, but the pets (and chickens) add to our quality of life and we won't be getting rid of them. Plus, my chickens feed me. :D

I don't know why this is still rubbing me the wrong way (we met with her in Feb.) but it is. I guess I'd just really like to know how a family of 7 can eat 84 meals on $200 a month. I do buy 25 pounds of rice at the Chinese market and I am growing beans, so heck, we could do the beans-n-rice meals that Dave always spouts about, but I'm sure that we'd be sick of them by day 3.

We eat a ton of veggies. In the summer, we eat stir fry nearly every night. If it's not stir fry, it's grilled veggies. We love them. In the winter/early spring, we don't eat as many because it's not in the budget (have you SEEN the prices at the stores lately?)

The other thing we do to help offset the budget is barter. I have swapped eggs for Elderberry plants & baked goods. One of our sons helps a neighbor in his garden in exchange for veggies. Bartering is a great way to get more food without paying for it.

What do you think? Is my $400 a month too much?

Party of Seven

2009-04-25T10:03:00.005-05:00

When Jerry & I were engaged, we went shopping for a table and chair set. This was the nicest one we could afford. At the time, with just the two of us, it seemed like such a HUGE table. It has a leaf that folds inside, but the photo above shows the leaf IN, so this is the table we use everyday to seat 7. Yeah, it's a squeeze. 2 people sit on folding chairs and Emma still uses her high chair, just without the tray on it.

We've had a lot of laughs at this table. I grew up in a family that rarely joked around or enjoyed meals together. Not so in MY house. We all laugh, joke, snort and share good times. We are silly and loving and US. I've wanted a bigger table for so long, but it's not in the budget and really, not a huge priority. We've talked a little about getting a bench for one side but we just haven't gotten around to it.

Let me present to you the new-to-us incredible blessing that we've received this week!! This table is amazing! First off, with it fully extended, it can seat 12, TWELVE. That's five more than we need! OH, and it comes with SIX matching chairs, so still using the high chair, we have seating for us all. Divine! Truly divine! It also stores the extra (2) leaves inside, but we opted to have 1 in and 1 stored. It's so much wider than our old table. It's weird to not be able to reach A L L the way across the table anymore. LOL

My dear friend K is moving to a smaller home and this table wouldn't fit. She offered it to us... free. I'm still in shock and just feeling incredibly grateful for her generosity. She could've sold it and made some cash, but instead, she chose to give it to us.

We got it home last night and I just marvel at it's size. There's room enough for all of us plus the meal too. Our old table didn't hold much, so we often prepared the plates in the kitchen and just ate at the table. Now we get to truly know what a family does - Pass the potatoes! Pass the salt and pepper! Oh, the fun times we're going to have at this beauty. I can't wait. Thanks again K ~ you know we love you and appreciate all you do for us!! Come join us for dinner, we've got room.

Make your Own Bags

2009-04-22T05:37:00.004-05:00

I've been hunting for reusable bags to use for veggies at the Farmer's Market. I found a few on Etsy but what I wanted to find was a pattern to make some. Alas, I'm not a great seamstress and the thought of trying to sew with a "holey" (netting) fabric made me cringe.

Well, here's the Eureka moment! Thanks to The Frugal Country Mom I no longer have to contemplate this and I already HAVE some of these bags including my old dip bag (for dishes) from Girl Scouts. {smacks forhead for NOT thinking of this already}. LOL

But, if you'd like to make some bags, check out this site GreenBagLady. Now I can sew straight lines, so I'm going to whip up a few bags today using her patterns. What a cool site!

All of this started with a comment by Marianne on Down To Earth. So, thanks again for the awesome bunny trail to follow. Another thing crossed off my to do list (find bag pattern.)

As soon as I whip a bag up, I'll post a photo of it. :)

UPDATED: Ok, now you see the bag I made! It was pretty simple even for someone who hasn't sewn in ages. I do have an issue with my sewing machine - it won't "keep" a zig zag stitch. It'll go for a few inches, then drop back to straight stitch then go back into zigzag mode.

I inherited the Singer from my husband's grandmother. She sewed all her families clothes on it! The first thing I made was a Log Cabin quilt for my husband as a wedding gift. Honestly, had I known what I was getting myself into, I doubt I would've tackled that as my first real project! LOL But, it turned out great as did all the other quilts I made on it. I may try to find someone that has a serger to do the handles for me - that's my only concern that the zigzag will frey and the handles will come apart.

Money Savings

2009-04-20T11:18:00.004-05:00

Years ago when I was a newlywed, I clipped coupons and used them. Not like some people (click on her Past Deals tabs - it's AMAZING!), but I did use them. We always eat out with coupons (well, on the rare occasions that we actually eat out, lol). Recently, I've been reading blogs about money savings using coupons, store rewards (cash back receipts), double/triple couponing and other strategies.

I've never gotten into it as a way to save mega bucks because I shop at Aldi's, the bread store, food co-ops and of course, the other favorites (Farmer's markets, Farmers, gleaning, craigslist, freecycle etc.) I tend to buy the store brands when they're on sale, and store brands usually don't have coupons.

Well, this past weekend, I was surfing around and came across a few blogs that boasted of buying $100 of grocerries for a mere $10. Right, I said, like everybody can do that. But, as I continued to read, I found out that a lot of people are really scooping up some good deals out there.

Just to see if I could do it too, I flipped thru the coupon section from Sunday's paper. I clipped a $.75 off Colgate coupon and headed to Walgreen's. They have these deals where if you buy certain products, you'll get the same amount of money back to use on your next purchase (store credit receipts) and of course, they have stuff on sale. So, I bought a shaving cream for my husband and the colgate. I used the coupon. Here's how it worked:

I bought shaving cream which was marked down to $2.99 ~ got a $3 store credit
Colgate was on sale for $.99 ~ had a $.75 off coupon ~ paid just $.24 for it

So I spent out of pocket $3.48 (includes tax) but I have a $3 coupon to use on the next trip.

I've put the word out that I'd love to have other people's coupon papers if they're not using them. It'll be interesting to see what all I can purchase for a reduced amount. I've set a goal of spending less than $200 a month for our family of 7. Between the sale shopping and the garden, I'm sure I can do it!

As a side note, at Aldi's, the green beans which were $.29 a can are now $.49 a can! Brown sugar which was $.79 in December is now $1.19. So, even at the low cost stores, prices are rising at a very fast pace!

Also, if you are into coupons and weren't aware, K-Mart is doubling coupons up to $2 in my area and even more in other areas. Our local circular didn't show this!!! I went online and still didn't believe it so I called the store and she said, yes, they are doing it too. When I got there, I snagged a coupon booklet at the front door (under the circular rack) and it has some good stuff in it.

When I used to travel for my job, I always hit the CVS as they have stellar deals. I'm not prepared to drive 2 hours just to get a good deal but if you have one near you, check it out!

Here's a few sites I found that got me started in my path to savings this one, this one , this one and this one.

If you are into couponing, how do you stay organized?! I knew what I wanted to buy so I didn't take all the coupons with me, but at Walgreen's they have unannounced in-store sales that I could've taken advantage of had I had the coupons with me.

I did see a few people who have taken this to an extreme and seem to be hoarding a ton of stuff. I still can't imagine getting things I won't use (like the lady who has cases of cat food, but no cat!) I guess you can donate it? Or swap with someone for stuff you do use?

Tiptoe in my Tulips

2009-04-14T14:19:00.007-05:00

Red Tulips now, Red Geraniums to come

My front porch has been converted into a seeding station. I found the mini-greenhouse at Lowe's and it works GREAT! Not all of these flats actually fit in there, some stay indoors at night. Even with yesterday's 50 degree, cloudy day, inside the greenhouse, it was a balmy 62. I do have to keep a close eye on the temp though and unzip it and roll up the one side just about the time the sun starts hitting it - it heats up quick!

Future red raspberry plants hanging out until the ground dries out enough to be planted. Buds are already appearing on them. Oddly, the nursery didn't send the blackberry plants at the same time, but the blueberries have shipped.

Last Friday, Emma and I went to the feed store to check for seed potatoes - we couldn't resist looking at the ducks and chickens. And, wouldn't you know, 10 Cornish Rocks ended up in our shopping cart. These are the trial run birds -the big order shows up next month. Trial run as in: we-don't-know-how-to-butcher-but-heck-we're-gonna-give-it-a-whirl.

I'm not grooving on their disposition - if you've ever seen the movie Wall-E, they remind me of those humans - completely uninterested in moving around on their own. They lay by the feed trough and eat, LAYING DOWN. This isn't okay with me! (their bellies are featherless and dirty, ugh!) I'm used to free-ranging, independent beauties that spend all their time foraging, dust bathing and dashing all around the yard. These birds? L A Z Y. I did read a good article about an alternative to Cornish Cross for meat birds. After the next batch comes and goes into the freezer, I think we'll give an alternative a try. Meanwhile, I put the birds in the chicken tractor on nice sunny days in hopes they move around a bit more.

Besides, sunshine is a great boost for whatever ails you, right?!

The free rangers chose one strawberry bed as their own personal dig zone. They ignored the fencing and my hollering and chasing. They waited until my back was turned, and IN they'd go. Now, I know the bed has juicy worms and other yummy bugs, but I'm trying to grow enough berries to actual put some up this year as in jam and P I E. So, I took a great tip from Amy over at Twelve Acres and I put poultry netting out. HaHaHa - foiled the birds. I let my netting float on the main part of the bed and just have it pinned on the corners. I ended up having to do this on all the beds - too tempting for the chooks. As much as I love them and their free ranging ways, I have to have food this year too. They decimated the broccoli and cabbage beds before I got the netting on. Sigh. As an aside, do they make a netting to keep kids out of strawberries?

Here are some of the lovely Ladies in action. Yes, I know they look innocent, but those feet can dig like you wouldn't believe! In the background, you can see the absolute BARE earth that is their run - they took it from luscious grass to bare earth in a mere 3 days. This bit in front of their run is on the thin side, but it's a good fescue blend and should bounce back with enough sunshine and rain.

Rhubarb Pests

2009-04-14T14:13:00.003-05:00

This is what one of my Rhubarb plants looks like (by the way, is that a SEED STALK shooting up? If so, what do I do with it?)

This is what my other Rhubarb plant looks like.

This is what is eating my Rhubarb...

time to call their owners and ask that the electric fence be put back up and turned on.

For the Bag Ladies

2009-04-13T10:23:00.005-05:00

Okay, I read on $5 Dinners about Kroger's design-a-bag contest. Just for entering, you can get a free bag. A FREE BAG! I designed my bag - I'd love a vote from you. You can design your own bag. All the participating stores are on the list like Dillon's, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyers and others.

I may use their upload-a-photo option to create another one. Or, I might just buy my design. I think it'd look better on a black bag though.

IDC Update #2

2009-04-08T10:21:00.004-05:00

1) Plant Something

I planted the broccoli and cabbage out in the new raised beds. There were 24 plants each that I had started from seed. 2 days after planting, we had a hard freeze. They were heavily mulched, but time will tell if they survived. I also planted 180 onion bulbs and hundreds of potatoes (we quit counting after 160). Peas are up and have survived 2 snow days plus a couple of freezes. Lettuce, carrots and spinach are planted but have yet to appear. I did start several new flats of seeds and I'm most excited about the tomato seeds Judy sent me. Thanks Judy!!

2) Harvest Something
We ate the last of the indoor grown lettuce. This was the 5th cutting on it and what's left got sent out to the chickens. We picked and ate the first onions and garlic from the garden. I've got to be patient and let it continue to grow - but boy, is that hard.

3) Preserve Something

I made grape jelly from frozen concentrate. It was so easy! I'm looking forward to having our own grape juice from the bartered vines this summer. Here's a link to the grape jelly recipe I used. I did go ahead and can the jelly. We got 6 jelly jars. Next time, I'll skip the cutie pie jars and just use the pint or even quart. The kids eat jelly and peanut butter like crazy. I also made up the last batch of peanut butter. Find that recipe here. Good neighbor gave us dozens of loaves of bread, some of it ended up as bread crumbs and others as dried bread for stuffing.

4) Prep Something
More work on the canning shelves and the jars themselves. Since I'd bought so many off Craigslist last summer, I didn't get around to washing them all up. I'd rather do a batch a day now then when canning is in high gear. I think I've got about 400 more jars to go. Also, we re-worked the shed so one side is for potting. I re-potted 200+ tomato plants as well as basil.

5) Cook Something

I've been cooking dinner every night. Jerry and I can't remember the last time we ate out! I did find a recipe for Papa Murphy's Garlic Chicken Pizza that we'll try this week. I love cooking and eating at home but every now and then, I miss certain dishes.

6) Manage Your Reserves

Our canned reserves are nearly gone. Last count we had 4 quarts of pears left and 6 pints of apple butter. I have put together a list of what I'd like to can this year including meats and it's pretty extensive. I better get the core workouts in now for those long days of standing on my feet. LOL If anyone knows where to buy canning lids in bulk, I'd love to have that as a resource. The first batch of meat birds have been ordered and will be here in May. Jerry found out that a neighbor's uncle has a plucker that we can barter for. Yes! Plucking seems to be the hardest part of butchering.

7) Work on Local Food Systems

I attended the Delano Neighborhood meeting last week where they discussed their plans for the community garden behind the Senior Center in conjunction with IGO. I was there to get more info about being a vendor for their Farm & Art Market. It seems they have a lot of good structure in place and I hope they go ahead with the Market. We are now yard sharing nearly 4 acres of garden spaces across the city. Susan with IGO said they have a few spots we could adopt too which I'm very grateful for. I drive around town and see all the spaces and think "Boy could I grow a lot there!". I had contacted The Lord's Diner to see if they had a community garden where I could volunteer, but was told that they were unable to have one or even accept locally grown produce as their status didn't allow for that. I've sent an email to a few places that have food pantries (churches) to see if they'd like a community garden started or if they have one, we could volunteer once a week. No word back yet.

8) Barter

I have discovered how much I enjoy bartering! There are many things I'd like to have, but I just don't want to spend money on them when I've got stuff I could swap. For example, we swap eggs for milk, sourdough bread and cookies. I swapped Irises for some garden pots. I've got a gal who'll buy me canning lids in exchange for the abundance of rings I have. I participated in the seed swaps and I'll be swapping tomato plants for some pepper plants.

9) Misc

When we got the current month's electric bill, I looked at the usage comparison for last year to this year. We are down nearly 100 kwh!!!! This is HUGE! It's amazing that we did that as I now work from home (with a computer on all day long plus printer) which I thought would use more electricity plus we've been running a heat lamp for the chickens most of the winter. We did switch out most of the light bulbs and we quit using the dishwasher in January. We also sealed up the exterior door in kitchen to stop the air loss and installed the new dryer vent. I have hung laundry out several times this winter, but often it was too cold or humid so we opted to use the dryer. I guess all the little changes added up. I wish I could say the same for the gas bill. It was down (thanks in part to the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge) but not as much as the electricity.

However, I'm still annoyed that the water company charges us a minimum use instead of actual use. We could save $ there for sure. Every little bit counts when you've declared war on debt!

Needs vs Frustration

2009-04-07T09:07:00.005-05:00

I've been reading some blogs that seem to be in the same boat as me. Maybe this will help somebody.

I haven't shared a lot of personal life here because, well, it's personal! But here goes: 2008 was, by far, the WORST year of my life. My kid's lives were so heavily impacted that for 2 months I waivered on the brink of needing to be put into a mental institution. I've always felt I was born to be a Mom and I take that job very seriously. My kids mean the world to me. So when they hurt, I hurt too. The enormousness of what happened was so huge it was crushing.

Then, my career suffered blow after blow after blow and the fall out of that is still impacting us. Then, a dear, dear friend was killed in a freak accident doing what he loved (he died with a smile on his face and that gave me peace.) Less than a week later, another friend was killed. In October, my chronic illness went beserk due to the stress (it's in remission when I remain stress free) but with all that was going on, I wasn't able to stave off the flare up. It nearly put me back in the hospital.

But, I survived it all and now am sweeping up the pieces of my shattered life and trying to figure out what to do next.

I was hunting in the library for a book when I saw this one: The Secret Laws of Attraction by Talane Miedaner. What caught my eye was a small note about take the quiz inside. I like these kinds of quizzes - they often give insight or confirm what you may have already known. If you want to take the quiz, here's a link to her site. (As an aside, I didn't read the subtitle close enough - the book is about getting the relationship you want - a dating book. *ahem* I'm married - but there still is good info in the book that can be applied to any relationship.)

My results were as I already know:

1) Need for Peace

2) Need to be Heard

3) Need for Control

4) Need to be Independent

What does it mean? Discovering my needs isn't anything new, but what she says is that if you can find out how to meet your needs yourself, you will stop looking to other people to fulfill them and you won't be as disappointed or frustrated. Hmmmm, she may have a point there.

Last year, I wasn't in control of anything that happened. I had to learn to roll with life and stop fighting for control. Everything that happened was completely out of my hands. I had to find other outlets for my control needs. My Peace was blown to the winds. No longer did I have refuge in my job or in my home - there was chaos everywhere I went. And, through it all, I felt like no one was listening to me/us. It took nearly 8 months before we found an advocate for us and we are finally on the road to recovery.

I guess my point is this: know who you are and what you need. If your needs aren't being met, you know it. You'll feel frustrated and angry. You are unsettled and everything seems so hard. But, life isn't meant to be hard, IMHO. Keep looking, keep fighting. You will find the solution. It just might take some time.

Seed Swap

2009-04-02T14:05:00.003-05:00

I joined Howling Hill's seed swap because I knew I'd be introduced to new stuff. The envelope arrived yesterday from Mindy and I was NOT disappointed! Before I even opened it, I could smell something delicious - even the mail lady asked what it was.

As it turns out, it was Garlic - several cloves.

As I've never done a seed swap before, I wasn't sure what to expect. Take a close look at the photo - there are dozens and dozens of different seeds in there.

Part of the instructions said "No GM" (genetically modified) which is awesome. Up until very recently, I was completely unaware of the impending status of our seed sources here in the U.S. If we don't do something about it, soon the availability of seed plus the sheer amount of different types of seed is going to be gone.

When I started blog reading, many people said they bought their seeds from one company or another, mostly based off of price or customer service. However, I discovered this list which should help you to find more heirloom, non-hybrid seeds. If you're like me and you have some of the hybrid GM seeds, use them up or give them away. If you do use them, don't bother to harvest the seeds.

I joined the Seed Savers Challenge a while ago and I hope you will to. We all need to do our part to save heirloom, open pollinated, NON GM seeds.

Okay, off my soap box and on to the seeds!

There were so many incredible options to choose from. It was a seed buffet in that overstuffed envelope!

I took pinch amounts of seeds except for one package which only had a few seeds and I took them all. So here's a sampling of what I pinched:

Moon & Stars Watermelon

Speckled Limas - okay, confession time - I don't like Limas but the seeds look COOL

Nu Mex Big Jim chili pepper

Green Culinary Sage

Garlic cloves

Gold Nugget Squash

Banana Squash

Parisan Pickling Cucumber

Bushel Gourds

Sweet Fennel

Rhubarb (I had no idea it went to seed!!!)

Lumina White Pumpkin

White tipped scarlet Radish

Coriander (Cilantro before it bolts, right?)

Long Purple Eggplant

Fava Bean - again, NO CLUE why I took 4 beans except they are COOL looking

Dill

Mustard Greens

I put in:

Mortgage Lifter Tomato

Arkansas Traveler Tomato

Super Sioux Tomato

Chives

Stevia

Sweet Majoram

Zinnia

Marigold

The flowers were the only seeds I'd saved from my own garden, the rest came from a reliable source for non-GM seeds.

I was lucky enough to live close to the next participant on the list, Phelan, and I hand delivered the package to her earlier today, although I did offer to mail it :D

Thank you Howling Hill and Mindy and all the other swap participants! This year, when I'm working in the garden, I'll think of you.

If you haven't participated in a seed swap, I highly encourage you to do so!

Raw Milk Enthusiasts

2009-03-30T16:20:00.004-05:00

Photo from www.Raw-Milk-Facts.com

I think I may have shared on here about my love for raw milk. Yes, that's right - we drink unpasturized milk. I'm telling you, if you've never tried it, don't knock it. :)

My kids now prefer raw over pasturized (and so does hubby.) Me, I can go either way, but what I LOVE about it is the skimmed-off-the-top cream and it's lovely by-product, butter. Oh, the butter!! You can NOT get butter that's better than this. Days after we made some, it still spread so nicely, cold, from the fridge. Now, show me what store bought butter can spread across toast, and I'll eat it too. LOL

Today on Twitter, I got a message from @herdshare posting a link to MSN Green (okay, who knew MSN.com HAD a green section?!)

Check out the milk article. I love the idea of a cow share - in some states, laws are causing folks to get creative about selling and buying milk. You own a cow, that lives with the farmer and you get the milk because it's your cow... farmer just takes care of it and harvests your milk. Pretty neat!!

Next up at the homestead is going to be making yogurt, cream cheese, mozzeralla cheese and ice cream. I'm glad my milk maiden has gotten another cow... now I need a pontoon to get to her place to collect the milk and I'm back in business (darn winter storms!)

How do you prefer your milk?

If I could live in a blog...

2009-03-30T06:50:00.004-05:00

I found this blog by following bunny trails and I loved it...

Now, she's gone and upped the delishiousness of it all. I can almost SMELL those pies cooling on the window sill. And, the milk bottles and aprons, oh my!

You have to check out Sugar Pie Farmhouse.

It's not a homesteading blog, but it's a Farmhouse crossed with Martha Stewart, in a GOOD way (I know there's people who see no value in Martha, but sometimes pretty is nice!)

Snow Shots

2009-03-29T10:31:00.005-05:00

The chickens don't seem to mind the snow... as long as they have a warm compost pile to sit on!

Peas, garlic & onions before and after snow.

We DID get snow!

2009-03-29T10:08:00.004-05:00

This camera doesn't capture falling snow at all, but trust me, this looked so much more fierce than the pictures shows. LOL Jerry just can't stand to see snow pile up, so he prefers to shovel multiple times during snow storms. Luckily, there was 3+ inches of ice pellets underneath, so it was easy digging. We ended up with 6" of snow on top of the ice. On Friday evening, he had to run to the groccery store for junk food. I rarely buy it and he didn't think he would survive a blizzard without it. LOL He came home with 1 bag of chips, 1 package of oreos and 10 snack size candy bars plus a 2 litre of pop. Oh, and 6 cans of mandarin oranges. So much for the junk food run!

I don't like cold weather, so I was content to snap photos from my front door - this in my neighbors house across the street. The camera eliminated the blowing snow that I wanted to show. Oh well.

Every window on the north side of our house was encased in ice like this one. Once the sun came out, the whole house lit up! The ice has since melted from the windows, but we still have snow on the ground. It won't last long. Temps will be back above freezing today and tomorrow predictions are it'll get above 50. That's reason #847 of Why I LOVE Kansas - the snow does NOT hang around long. :)

How did you do? I was watching tornado warnings as well as flooding stories all weekend long for parts of the midwest. It looks like a wave of rain is going to deluge those areas again on Tuesday...

Batten Down the Hatches

2009-03-27T09:37:00.004-05:00

This wind... this W I N D is driving me nuts!!

I'm noise sensitive - meaning, I have super sonic hearing. I can hear what people are saying 2 rooms away. And, don't even think about whispering because I'll still hear you. Being noise sensitive is interesting with 5 kids as I tend to crave solitude and silence. I rarely watch tv. I don't have a radio on in the car - when my kiddos were little, they were taught to be quiet in the car - and other carpool moms would comment on how well behaved they were unlike their own screamers. Well, I just can NOT handle loud noises or sustained noises.... like this wind that sounds like my roof is going to be airborne any second. It's blowing so bad I woke up in the middle of the night. I have an incredible headache from listening to the sustained winds.

Last weekend, the impending doom and gloom forecasted by the local weather gurus had us pegged for HAIL! LIGHTENING! THUNDER! TORNADOES! THE END OF TIME!! Just kidding, they'd never predict the end - the chance for drama would be over. Ironically, the only thing we got here was wind (and a lot of it) and some rain. That's it. No drama, no hail or tornado ~ not that I'd want any!!

Now, they are predicting that tonight into tomorrow we're going to be in a BLIZZARD! OF! EPIC! PROPORTIONS! Like nothing we've ever seen before! Anywhere from 1 to 12 inches! Blowing and drifting snows! White outs! Etc! ETC! ETC!!! Oh, and Sunday, it'll be above freezing and the GREAT MELT will begin!

Cole, the 10 year old, isn't a lover of winter. He prefers spring and summer and wishes we lived in New Mexico or at least Texas. Or heck, if we'd consider it, how about Hawaii?! So, this morning, he was grumbling about how ticked off he was that THEY were gonna cause us to have a blizzard RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SPRING. Okay, that was too funny. We've had some spring-like weather, but it's not spring yet. I asked him who "they" are that he thinks makes the weather... he stared/glared for a while and then admitted that no people made the weather but he was tired of hearing doom and gloom weather reports.

I agree, I'm tired of it too. I say, let the chips fall where they may, we'll survive. All the news folks are saying to get to the stores to shop because you just don't know when you'll be able to get there with this blizzard bearing down on us. Ha! I don't have to run to the store to stock up for the 24 hour blizzard - heck we could eat like kings for about 3 months on our stockpiles.

But, in true Little House on the Prairie fashion, we'll be stringing a rope up from the back porch to the chicken coop, just in case, you know, it IS a blizzard and we gotta have eggs.

PS I just checked out the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz from the library. I'm interested in trying some of the great recipes in it. If you enjoy fermented/probiotic food, enter to win delish Salsa by visiting Drews site. (If you Twitter, I'm @mschnieders. )

Update: Okay, so it started off doing some spitting snow/rain with brief showers of hail. Mostly, it's just been ice spitting out of the sky. Makes for some slippery walking in the yard. I did go pick up the kids early - I prefer to beat the rush. :)

There is hardly any snow in any of this mess - just ice, ice pellets and sleet. This is our older dog Lilly, who doesn't mind the puppies as long as everything is done her way.

Oh, and my puppies are part kangaroo! LOLOL Whenever I move, they are hopping in front and all around me like little spring loaded cutie pies. Totally cracks me up - surprised I caught the image as they bounce like Tiggers. Currently, nothing is falling from the sky and the winds have thankfully calmed down!

To Do List is Shrinking

2009-03-23T09:22:00.004-05:00

My office is just inside the sliding glass doors off our deck. It used to be the dining room, but whoever built this house must've thought nobody used dining rooms anymore. It was so small that when our family was at the table (every night for dinner) people were trapped until the first person was done. LOL So, we put the table in our family room (hearth room?) and made this into my office. The point being, I work from home and from my desk, I see the patio all day long. The patio is our junk drawer. We have several projects that are being worked on plus stuff being stored and it just becomes a mess. It's depressing to look at a junk heap everyday. This was near the top of the list to be tackled this week. I'm happy to report, the shed got cleaned out & painted, and became my potting shed. So, all the gardening equip is now in the shed! The chicken brooder is completed and awaiting meat birds. The horrid shrubs got pulled out and in their place will be the raspberry bushes. The smoker found a new home. All the other projects got relocated so now we can use our patio for meals and relaxation ~ as it was meant to be!

I've been collecting materials to make more square foot gardens. I like the look of the concrete block beds. You can grow flowers or herbs in the blocks and veggies in the bed. We got these free off Craigslist. Lined with cardboard to kill the grass, filled with top soil mixed with compost and leaves. I tucked in the rest of our seed potatoes and onions around the perimeter. I plan to grow tomatoes inside it and basil in the blocks. You just can't have too much basil!

Here are 4 more new SFG beds. One for green beans, one for carrots (the deeper one in front), one for spinach/lettuce/leeks and the 4th one for cabbace and broccoli. We have enough lumber to make 3 more beds. If we measured correctly, this side of our yard can hold 15 raised beds total.

Also found on CL - 3 water barrels! They appear to be soap barrels, maybe from a carwash? The concrete pad was here already. We found a shed on CL and took it apart, moved it home and put it back up again. It wasn't as big as the concrete pad, so there's about 4' of concrete on the backside of the shed. That's where Jerry is going to install the rain barrels - one for intake, 2 for overflow. These bushes have to go to. We've been slowly removing them and replacing with edible shrubs.

Oh, and can't forget the curb find. A perfectly good double sink with legs that Jerry is going to rig up to be our outdoor sink using rain barrel water. The drain will empty into the garden.

We got the yard picked up and the first mowing of the year done. It's always so nice to have the brown gone and green grass appear. Tonight, we are expecting severe weather - 1" hail, thunder, lightening and wind. Oh the wind! It's been gusting so much it's hard to get anything done outside. Tornadoes are also a possibility - so I'm off to prep our tornado kit. I learned from a good friend who survived her house being blown apart (she was under it at the time) to ALWAYS make sure to have tornado preps in place. Ah, spring in Kansas. Gotta love it.

Wah! Spring Break is almost over!

2009-03-20T15:11:00.003-05:00

This year, Jerry took a week of vacation during spring break. It was SO nice to have him home to help wrangle the kids as well as put a major dent in the to-do list. I just wish every week was spring break ~ okay, maybe not, but it sure is nice to have a week off together.

Rhubarb plants have put on a nice new growth. The one on the lower left is in it's 3rd year. This may be the year we actually get to eat some! Neighbor's horses got it all last year. Sigh.

Peas, garlic and onions hanging out in a SFG. I stuck a trellis in that we got last year at the Hayes Company sale. The wire fencing was such an incredible bargain. TSC had it marked for 10 cents a package on clearance last fall. We bought 2 boxes ~ approx 50 packages. I doubt I'll ever be that lucky again! Fencing is a MUST with free rangers - they eat whatever they can find. The missing peas on the left side of the trellis were dug up by the chicks who hop over the fencing. We've got to work on their obediance training.

Potatoes are in - alas, I ran out of garden before I ran out of taters. So, I'm tucking the rest in wherever I can find a spot. The chicks are happy to patrol for bugs and worms... but I think we may have to fence them out once things get growing.

Here's the inside of the cold frame. Jerry re-inforced the top with wire before re-doing the plastic. I've got 3 flats of tomatoes, broccoli and cabbage hanging out. There is room for 30 trays which will be great as long as nothing is too tall.

The chicks have their own water dish that is cleaned and refilled daily. But, for whatever reason, they prefer the dog's water. There is at least 2 or 3 of them having a cluck and a drink whenever I look outside. I love my back patio - it's where I work on new seed flats and is the staging area for all gardening projects. However, I may have to ban the chicks because I found peck holes in several seed potatoes and they discovered a package of seeds and were attempting to peck it open. Helpful they are not, but oh they are so entertaining!

Independence Day Challenge

2009-03-13T07:01:00.003-05:00

Honey & Molasses are growing! And, *ahem* bad doggies ~ get off the couch!

I read blogs that participate in the Independence Day Challenge and I find it inspiring. I went searching for the origination and found this blog: Casaubon's Book.

I think that I'll throw my hat into the ring and join in. Care to join me? Here's the scoop:

Plant Something

Harvest Something

Preserve Something

Prep Something

Cook Something

Manage Your Reserves

Work on Local Food Systems

How often to do it? Some do it weekly, others do some parts daily and other monthly.

I know myself well enough to know that I won't be able to stick to a schedule - life around here happens and some days it's full tilt. I just like the idea of adding structure so that I can see results of my efforts.

Here's an idea of what I've been doing so far this week:

1. Planted: started hundreds of seeds as our frost date is April 15th. I plan on gardening in several locations this year plus having extra plants to sell.

2. Harvest: I've had tubs of lettuce and spinach growing all winter long in my living room and I do harvest from them weekly.

3. Preserve: I found organic veggies marked on clearance that I chopped up and either popped in the freezer or dehydrated.

4. Prep: Jerry has been bringing home various pots for our market plants so I've been busy prepping them (removing labels and cleaning them.)

5. Cook: See my last few posts - I've definitely been in cook mode. I'm so excited to have found a great recipe for homemade noodles ~ now I know how to make lasagne, ravioli, angel hair etc.

6. Manage: Cleaning the freezer and pantry this week to take inventory.

7. Food Systems: I registered myself at Urban Chickens and already had a fellow Wichitan contact me for info on establishing a flock. She and I both are trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the new restrictions our city council has recently imposed on animals including the fees to register your flock and where to place your coop.

Of course, this isn't all I'm doing. I still am decluttering like mad and we put our debt reduction plan into high gear. I'm doing research into alternative utilities like tankless water heaters and outdoor wood furnaces because I do not want another gas bill like the one I just got!!

What are you doing to be more Independent? I'd love to know.

Chicken & Homemade Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

2009-03-12T18:16:00.002-05:00

One of this year's goals is that I want to cook more from scratch to

reduce the amount of manufactured food we consume
reduce the amount of packaging we throw away
make better tasting meals
prove to myself that I can

This is the result of today's attempt:
Chicken with homemade noodles served over mashed potatoes.

Okay, first I browned chicken breasts in olive oil. I put them in a bowl to cool. I sauteed chopped onions, garlic, celery and carrots. Added a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan. Then, poured in 3 quarts of homemade broth plus chicken seasoning, salt, pepper and 2 bay leaves. I brought it to a boil, then turned down to simmer for 2 hours. I would've used a whole chicken, but I only had breasts left. (Later this year, I'll be able to use our home-grown chicken and veggies. But, I did use our home grown eggs.)

If you read my last post, I had found a website that showed how to make egg noodles. I like the idea of a pasta roller, but I don't have one. Rolling pin worked just fine! And, I found a different recipe that I wanted to try instead. It's pretty simple.

2 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1 T olive oil

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the eggs, milk and oil. Mix the wet ingredients together and slowly incorporate the dry ingredients. After it's mixed well, knead for a few minutes, adding flour as needed to reduce stickiness. Divide dough in half. Roll out. Then, cut noodles. I had read on another site to roll the dough into a log, cut a long noodle and then cut into shorter pieces. At this point, you can let them dry, freeze them or just use them.

I turned the chicken "soup" to high to get a good rolling boil. Then, just dropped in the noodles. After a few minutes, I realized it wasn't going to thicken on it's own so I stirred in some cornstarch paste (cornstarch mixed with cold water.) It did thicken, but next time, I'm using less water.

Meanwhile, my mini-chef was peeling potatoes and discovered a heart shaped potato. Aww.

Once the potatoes were cooked, Jerry mashed them with butter, garlic salt and some cream. Then, we scooped some potatoes into the bowl, topped with chicken and noodles.

If you've ever been to the Kansas State Fair and had the church ladies chicken and noodles, you know the taste I was going for. I think I achieved it.

Oh, and for dessert, made from scratch yellow cake with chocolate butter cream frosting. I don't eat chocolate (don't like the taste, I KNOW it's weird - I hear that all the time) but the family all went back for seconds (and thirds) so it must've been good.

Found a new blog today

2009-03-09T14:43:00.003-05:00

I was hunting for an egg noodle recipe - yeah, I know, it's basic cooking but I've never made my own noodles before. Anyway, I stumbled on this blog: How To Cook Like Your Grandmother.

And, while poking around, I found this: Eat Real Food.

I think I may be cooking several recipes off his site this week. First up, egg noodles!

Delish Dish

2009-03-09T13:57:00.004-05:00

I love to eat pasta ~ especially pasta in a creamy, garlic sauce. Toss in some chicken and broccoli and I'm over the moon!

Last year, Olive Garden had a dish called Chicken con Broccoli. It was incredible. I rarely eat out, but on occasion, I had the good fortune to eat there and both times, I got that dish. It was a specialty item, so it's gone from the menu ~ and, with our current Dave Ramsey budget, it wouldn't matter ~ I don't splurge on dinner out anymore.

But, I still wanted that dish! I tried to remake it - but I'm not super good at figuring out the hidden ingredients or the spice combo. Saturday, at the chess tournament (1 more to go!) Stacy was surfing the net via her phone and we happened to be talking recipes. I mentioned that I'd tried to find one for this dish, but hadn't been successful... a few clicks and voila! She had it!

So, here it is - and yes, it was over the moon time for me! Exactly how I remembered it!

Chicken w/ Broccoli
I doubled the recipe for my family size and we had enough leftover for lunch the next day.

1.5 pounds of chicken breast, thinly sliced
2 tsp Olive Oil
4 oz dried Orecchiette pasta (I used a full pound)
1 c heavy cream
1/2 c chicken broth
4 T salted butter
2 tsp garlic, sliced
1/2 c shredded green onions
1 c sour cream
1 1/3 c broccoli, fresh, cut into small pieces
1 c sliced mushrooms
2 T flour (I used cornstarch instead)
2 T water
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp Garlic Salt
Salt & Pepper to taste
Shredded Parmesan Cheese (I left it out as we didn't have any)

Season chicken w/ Italian seasoning & garlic salt.
Cook in olive oil & garlic until brown.
Stir in mushrooms & green onions; cook 2-3 minutes.
Stir in broth and broccoli. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
Mix flour into water. Make sure there are no lumps (this is why I used cornstarch.)
Pour flour/water mixture into chicken, stirring until sauce thickens.
Slowly add butter, cream and sour cream. Season with salt and pepper.
Cook on low heat while pasta cooks.
Drain pasta; add to sauce. Remove from heat. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
Serve and Enjoy!

It seems like there are a lot of steps involved, but it went together in under 3o minutes. Everyone gave it a "10" and it's going onto the must have rotation. Oh, and I did use low fat sour cream because I bet the calorie count on this one is incredible!

Wichita Garden Show

2009-03-08T18:34:00.008-05:00

I love, love, LOVE the garden show.... except the price to get in. This year, it was $11. YIKES! I decide to go about every 3 years or so, and that seems to even it out a bit. Since I tend to be a veggie gardener and the show seems to favor grandiose landscapes and spic n span flower gardens, I don't feel like I'm missing much.

For whatever reason, I had the urge to go this year and I'll share some of my "finds" with you!

Okay, you know I have chickens and *ahem* chicken predators. Also, I'm a big fan of Polyface Farm and their rotational patured methods of raising livestock. I would love to have an Eggerator, but it's not exactly conducive to the urban backyard. We do have a home made chicken tractor, but it's not predator (or puppy) proof and anyway, our chicks free range. Okay, so much to my delight, there was a super duper high dollar ($1200) chicken tractor that is designed to rotate to fresh pasture every day and is predator proof. I present, The Egg Cart'n:

It can easily be moved by just one person - uses hydraulics and has several other nice features. But, yeah, the price is pretty steep. The sides are made of corrugated plastic, which doesn't seem to be very stable. The interior of the larger coop (says that it holds 12 hens) is pretty small. Overall, I'll pass - but it's AWESOME that it was there. Too bad there weren't any real chickens! Or a sign with the benefits of raising your own chickens/eggs.

Over at the Sedgwick County Master Gardeners booth, they had a complete veggie garden growing, in square foot frames, raised beds, pots and hanging baskets. They had a way to garden for anyone!! I loved it!! And, the luscious veggies were just begging to be picked, but I resisted. This mini-hoop house looked interesting. It's far sturdier than our pvc pipes wrapped in plastic.

Cole and Dalton were able to pot up their own Cherry Tomatoe plants, free. They made newspaper pots - seems the evaporated milk cans were perfect sizes. Master Gardener explained that the "soil" was actually 100% compost and the tomatoe plants were just 3 weeks old... and TALL. Over twice as big as mine - which are 6 weeks old. She said that the compost plus grow lights probably made the difference. I have plain shop lights - I didn't want to spring for the more expensive grow lights - and everybody said they weren't necessary. Hmmmm, may have to look into it for next year. Over at the Derby KS booth (combined with Arbor Day) we got a free Chikapin Oak seedling. I've got the perfect spot for it. Oh, and a free package of wildflower seeds.

Okay, this is a dream veggie garden. Hong's Landscape had recreated his grandfather's hut and veggie garden, complete with woven fencing. It was serene and gorgeous. And weed free. I dream of weed free gardens.

I couldn't figure out what the huge crowd was oogling - even when I got up close. Can you guess? Yes, those ARE candles. Filled with olive oil and fruits/veggies. They sure looked interesting -and it seemed to be a big hit, but I wasn't too sure about them. It would look really out of place in my non-frou frou house. LOL

This is another example of why I love to go to the show. Mark & Lalanea Moore of Scenic Landscapes (I'm biased ~ they're my favorite local garden shop to visit as I love ponds) took trees that had been uprooted and used them upside down all throughout their display. Some were left bareand some were used as giant planters. They were so beautiful and majestic. Cole thought they were creepy ~ ah, well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm a card carrying member of the tree hugger club.

This is a wheeled garden cart made of black walnut - so gorgeous! It has 3 pots growing lettuce, herbs and flowers. Perfect for someone who can't stoop to garden or it could be put it out on a patio. I loved the wood - it was left natural and I don't remember seeing black walnut in person before.

Who can resist this scene?! I didn't take photos of everything, but I did see several other things that show me more people are interested in my kind of gardening:

worm bins
rain barrels ($100 a pop ~ NOT cheap~ but the paint jobs were cool)
city of Wichita water dept had a rain barrel display, but the gal working the booth has no idea where to get the barrels :(
multi purpose benches that can convert to a picnic table
pasta (that I thought was locally produced only to read the fine print and see its from Colorado)
Farmer's market schedules
recipe sheet from a local herb farm
I met the Farmers Market basket weaving instructor
master food volunteer info (teaching others how to cook and preserve food)
and much more.

It was a delightful day spent with my boys - and the highlight for them? Riding in the Party Bus.

Help a Newbie Gardener

2009-03-05T14:36:00.005-06:00

I twitter... or do I tweet? I'm not sure, but I do follow some interesting folks. I try to keep it local (why would I care what someone was eating for lunch on the other side of the world?) However, I do follow gardeners from all over. I find my passion for this hobby is just growing - pun intended. LOL

I enjoy feeding people - I love to cook and I volunteer to make meals for our church all the time. Having a baby? I'm on the way with 5 different casseroles. Put that together with my love for gardening (and helping new folks get started) and this tweet piqued my interest:

hyperlocavoreWe need seed angels! Do you have extra seeds - Get a newbie garden going! http://tinyurl.com/ajh8pj 24 minutes ago from web

Dang it if I only knew how to cut and paste so it'd look like a Tweet. (Karen, I need lessons!)

Anyway, head over to her website and check it out. If you don't feel like joining, maybe there's a newer gardener in your area/church/group of family or friends that would love some seeds. Share some and spread the gardening fever.

Hit By a Farm

2009-02-27T11:21:00.006-06:00

After my post about butchering our pig, I realized I still was struggling with the issue surrounding the fine line between a pig and pork. When I find myself in a quandary, I head to the library, knowing that there will be a book that will help.

This time was no different - I found a perfect book, The Compassionate Carnivore or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old Macdonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, And Still Eat Meat by Catherine Friend.

This book really helped me to answer the dilemma I was struggling with. So much so that I sent her a thanks via a blog comment. Yes, she blogs!

To start off, she is a carnivore. She gives background info on how she came to want to make better decisions about buying meat.

It's that mindfulness that I went through that caused me to switch from factory meat to local, farm produced meat. No Farm, No Food. However, I will choose local farm over factory any day.

The book provides good definitions between factory farms, conventional farms, organic farms and sustainable farms. She then goes on to point out why we need to know the difference. I felt she did a great job of going in depth on each one without boring the reader or providing so many stats that you never finish the book. She is witty, engaging and real.

I give it a 10 and it's on the buy-it list for my personal library.

I had read her earlier book, Hit by a Farm, and loved it, too. It's a novel that follows her family's entry into farming. Hilarious and touching but it also shows the hard reality of leaving a 9 to 5 job and becoming a 24/7 farmer. She shares so many funny animal stories in a way that you get a sense of exactly what it was look, good, bad and ugly. I read it non-stop and laughed, teared up and got mad right along with her. I wondered how they had come to terms with the farm and each other. The Compassionate Carnivore does wrap up some loose ends I felt were there. I was very happy to know they are still farming and still together.

I'm grateful for TCC and it's message. It's given me a lot to think about and I think I'm much better able to handle the future butcherings. Her writing style is what I liked the most. I tend to read mostly non-fiction because fiction can be so... elementary/juvenile sounding, in my opinion. I love it when a book increasing my vocabulary - she did with the word ganglia.

No matter if you're wanting to read more about being a mindful carnivore or if you'd like a humorous look at farming, both books are awesome!

Can't pick your neighbors

2009-02-26T08:33:00.004-06:00

When we moved into this area several years ago, we noticed that the house to the east was nice, but junk everywhere in the backyard, including a lot of parked cars/lawn mowers/campers. Now, I'm not one to judge another's yard or lifestyle and hey, maybe they are into the three R's. (that'd be reduce, REUSE, recycle).

For the last 3+ years, we've done our best to be neighborly. We wave, we visit and we do our part to keep the neighborhood up. These neighbors don't wave back and in general, piss a lot of people off. I'm of the "live and let live" mindset, so I don't get my panties too twisted if they drive on the corner of my lawn repeatedly or they have inoperable cars on their driveway. As the HOA President, I field these type of complaints about them weekly, again, I assure people that life is too short to get high blood pressure over the bad apple of the neighborhood.

All of my laid back niceness has now been chucked out the window.

Their dog, a black lab, is an escape artist. She jumps the fence, walks thru open gates & sections of fence that were taken down. We have taken her back home numerous times. She barks, incessantly at nothing. I, too, have labs. They only bark if someone approaches our fence or if they see a dog on the road (lots of dog walkers here.)

I've put up with the escaping. Even have put her in our yard several times until they got home (didn't even get so much as a 'thanks for helping us out'). I've put up with the barking, even though it's outside my bedroom window day and night.

I love labradors. It's my favorite breed. A breed I understand and can deal with. The dog is bored. She isn't worked with. She isn't handled. She is smart and neglected.

Last Monday night, when she dug under the dividing fence and killed 3 of my free range chickens before we could stop her, that's when I got mad. Enough is enough. I held onto her collar until my husband could go and get the neighbor. All neighbor said was that he'd be out later to fix the fence. He didn't. Never offered to clean up the carnage. Never offered to pay for the replacement hens. No apologies. Nothing. He could hear my daughters and youngest son shrieking hysterically in the house. Never said a word.

A week has passed. Jerry decides to go over and talk to them again about the dog - barking, digging under the fence and the cost of the hens.

Mrs. Neighbor is the one who he spoke to. She is not a nice person. (I'm choosing my words carefully here.)

She said she doesn't like us having chickens (we have 10, totally within the legal limits and we don't have roosters. Hens are quiet, unless they are laying - then they tell the world. Our hen house is at the very back of our property. You have to be in the yard to even hear them as we all have 1 acre lots.) Her point is that people who have chickens are bad, poor and red neck. (Sorry, but when is poor or redneck a problem? Last time I checked, 21% of the world's population lives on less than $1.25 a day - that's poor.)

She said her dog is a lab, and labs attack birds, so too bad for us. I have labs too. 1 was a farm rescue (that caught his own food for months) and even he didn't attack them. The puppies are being trained, so far, so good. Our contention is that had our chickens flown into THEIR yard, yep, it was bound to happen and sucks to be us. But, her dog dug into OUR yard and that's where the problem lies.

She said it's ridiculous for anyone to pay to reimburse for the chickens and that $20 was asinine to pay. Uh, no, these were 6 month old, laying hens that were killed. 2 were leghorns (nearly daily layers) and the other was a Plymouth Rock. What if it had been a $1500 pure bred dog? Or doctor bills for an attacked child? Yeah, you're still responsible. You're the owner and what your animal does, has consequences.

He asked that they do something. There are options. Get rid of the dog. Train the dog. Install an electric fence or an underground fence so she stays away from our yard. Install a privacy fence she can't see thru - right now, it's chain link. Move. (yeah, I voted for that one.) Pay for us to move. (now we're into crazy-talk-territory.) Oh, and do something about the freakin non-stop barking. She said no to everything. Said her husband was sick and when he felt better, he may want to talk to us.

Jerry feels a fight is brewing. We've gotten a lot of advice - that we should've shot the dog (can't legally discharge a firearm inside city limits) and various ways of getting rid of their dog. Uh, NO, I'm an animal lover. It's not the dog's fault that it's doing this out of boredom and lack of interaction from it's owners.

I've reported it to the city - didn't get anywhere. Nobody showed up. Today, dog is indoors, but for how long?

Yesterday, it was nice - temps near 70 degrees. I let the chickens out to free range (what they're used to doing) only I had to stay outside with them the entire time as the dog was barking and digging like mad. Okay, I had some yard work and garden prep to do, but still, I can't be out there all the time. Because we raised them to be free rangers, they are used to it. They hang out in our backyard - it's almost half an acre. Plenty of room to run, scratch and do their chicken thing. Now, they can't free range without supervision. Correction, I don't supervise them, I'm supervising the dog. I tossed it's tennis ball multiple times and I talked to her. I petted her and worked on trying to get her to sit - kind of tough with a fence between us, but I do feel sorry for her. She doesn't deserve a life like that.

I guess there's no point to the post other than I'm frustrated. It's not the only thing going badly right now, but dammit, it's my yard and I ought to be able to enjoy it without fearing the neighbors domesticated "pet".

As a side note - if/when TSHTF, how much ya wanna bet they'll be lining up to buy my eggs?! Sheeple who buy into the "if it's not store bought, it's inferior" are never going to realize the incredible damage they do to themselves with all those store bought chemicals they ingest. I keep reading about how antibiotics are becoming less and less effective while virus are gaining strength. Did you know that 70% of the antibiotics despensed in this country are for animals?! That is shocking! I could go on and on about this as I'm very passionate about being mindful of what we consume and knowing what's in your food stream.

Enough for now. I've gotta go catch a wayward hen and put her back in the chicken run. Sorry sister, no free ranging for now. :(

Why I Love Summer

2009-02-24T08:48:00.003-06:00

Doing a quick poll of a few friends revealed that most people like the season they were born in the best. I guess it's no surprise that summer is my favorite season with my birthday in August.

Okay, here's a few more reasons I love summer:

Socks - or lack thereof. Since 6 of us are anti-shoes in the summer the only socks I wash and hang out are Jerry's. During the winter, we fill an entire drying rack with them.

Sunshine and heat.

Going out to the garden to grab dinner fixins.

Eating ice cold watermelon on a hot day.

Braden's birthday on the 4th of July.

Spending entire days outside. Only coming in when we start falling asleep.

Hearing the distant sound of the ice cream truck.

Butterflies and bumble bees.

Birds splashing in the bird feeder.

Eating breakfast on our back patio.

Mowing the yard.

No school drop off and pick ups.

Summer seems a long way off ~ so until then, I'll enjoy spring.

We had our first daffodil on Sunday, spring can't be too far off.

Busy Weekend

2009-02-23T12:45:00.005-06:00

I woke up this morning with such a deep sense of peace and I felt really refreshed and grateful. Why? I had a fantastic weekend.

Friday night, we went to Blessed Nation Ranch to pick up our pig. My hubby had helped their family and Phelan's family to butcher their pigs and now it was our turn. Our pig turned out to be bigger than we expected ~ 260 pounds. We didn't know how to load her in the horse trailer (which sits higher than livestock trailers so she had to step up to get in.) It was really hard to get her corralled and into the trailer. She didn't like it at all. Near the end, the pig was so upset, I told Jerry to hold on, give her a minute to calm down. Once she was loaded, she rode just fine up to Phelan's place.

Saturday the boys had a chess tournament. Usually, these are l-o-n-g affairs and it can be very tiring on the parents to hang out all day. I got there midday and was very happy to have several awesome moms to chat with. I don't often get chit chat time with these folks and it was just nice to be able to sit and enjoy each other's company.

Then, we dashed home to put on our layered clothes for the night of butchering. **Note to self: Get warmer clothes and BOOTS before next winter**

Jerry had already gotten there with a load of wood. We got there just as her hubby arrived home from work with a barrel. I don't know if I would've volunteered to help with butchering after I'd worked a full day, but I so appreciate that he did!!

As the barrel hadn't been used before, it needed to be scrubbed and prepped and it took some time. Time well spent. My kids got to help milk a cow. Jerry got to see a farm in action (he grew up on a corn and soybean farm ~ no livestock.) We enjoyed meeting the horse neighbors and borrowing their Ford tractor (yep, I have tractor envy. lol). Oh, and we got to hang out with the new triplets. Have you ever noticed how goats always seem to be smiling? Even the babies smile early on.

Now here's where I'm going to insert my opinion on the subject of butchering.

I was raised by a Vietnam veteran who believed all killing was wrong. He didn't hunt and he didn't fish. He rarely talked about his time in the service, but I can remember the terrible nightmares he suffered from ~ screaming and fighting in his sleep. I remember my parents talking about PTSD and he didn't get help for that but worked thru it on his own. I did ask him why he didn't go hunting - he said that once you look into another man's eyes and then have to shoot or be shot, it changes you. I felt so bad that he had to serve his country and to be put in the position to kill or be killed when he strongly believed that it is wrong. In his mind, he had no other choice and so he did it.

Fast forward to meeting my hubby. Jerry does hunt and fish and he believes that it's okay as long as it feeds your family. He does not belive in hunting for sport. He rarely hunts but when he did, he never got anything, which was a relief to me.

I've been pro-farm for as long as I can remember. I prefer shopping at Farmer's markets and roadside veggie stands. I want to know where my food comes from and how it's been raised. I want to ensure that my family isn't getting hormone laden meat or veggies with salmonella. Then I read Micheal Pollan's books and I tried to became a vegetarian, until 4 days later when the intense beef craving caused me to nearly inhale raw hamburger. lol I'm not quite cut out for a 100% plant based diet.

I put in an order for a pig to be processed at the meat locker in May. I've been saving up because it'll be several hundred dollars. But, when my path crossed with these two ladies, the talk of home butchering seemed a better solution. We could do it ourself and save quite a bit of money. A few weeks ago, I found myself saying, "yes, we'll buy your pig and butcher it ourselves." Jerry helped them in exchange for them helping us. Part of the deal was that I had to help with our pig.

So, standing in Phelan's backyard about midnight, 22 degrees, I find myself completely shaking. Not just from the cold, but from what I'm about to do. The guys had worked quickly to get the pig ready for evisceration - which is when I was to help. Phelan hops to it and I kind of freak out just a little. Once she got past removing the anus (please, visit her blog to read all about it - she is MUCH more technical and has awesome photos) it was my turn to help. I stepped up to the pig and helped to remove some connective tissue and then, following her instructions, stuck my hand inside the pig, feeling for the lungs, trying to pull the organs forward. The first few seconds were okay - I was freezing and it was warm inside that pig - but then, my brain freaked out and I just about lost my lunch. So, I remove my arm, shake my head and say, " I can't do it" and step back. Even now, as I'm typing this, tears are welling up.

I know where this pig came from. I know it was raised well and had a good life. The meat from the pig is going to feed my family for a very long time. It's just that I want meat without having to have an animal die. I know how strange that must sound, but it's how I feel. And, yes, I know that it's not possible.

Okay, so they keep working and I rinse my arm off and put my jacket back on. They make quick work of the rest of the butchering and we go home with 6 huge sections of pork needing to be processed.

Sunday, Jerry decides that we'll do a side first. Ah, yes, bacon! He brings in a large slab of meat and looks at me and asks if I'm okay. Yes, I am. I really am.

I don't know how to explain it but this is the best I can come up with:

I don't like the killing or evisceration, but I'm totally fine with cutting the large slabs into usuable cuts of meat and obviously, I'm fine to eat meat. I don't know if I'll ever figure out how to be at peace with the killing part. How does one overcome a lifetime of deep seated beliefs?

I'm glad I didn't send the pig to the meat locker for processing. I wanted to be there, to be a part of it. It was a time to face my fear and move beyond. And, besides, I've got to get over this because soon, I'll be helping Jerry to process our chickens.

This morning I woke up at peace ~ because I did something that I didn't think I could do and I lived to tell about it. I got to spend 36+ hours with my husband ~ which is huge because we rarely get an hour or two together, and I really like him. He was kind and gentle with me when I was shaking. He even whispered that he was proud of me... I so needed to hear that.

Lighten the Load ~ Update

2009-02-18T20:40:00.006-06:00

I knew that if I joined a challenge, the hardest part would be posting about it. This is an update for the past few weeks. Hopefully, I'll remember to update on Mondays.

Our first recycle pickup was almost 2 weeks ago. We have been ~~hoarding~~ stockpiling several months worth of material. According to the trash company, if your bin is full and you have more stuff, the driver should weigh the bin, empty it and then re-load it with the excess. Well, I happened to be home at the time of pick up. I watched the collector weigh the bin and just toss all the extra into the trash truck without weighing it. Meaning, we didn't get credit for the extra stuff. I was a little annoyed! He must have felt me glaring at him because he turned and grinned when he saw me in the window. Hmph. My husband works for the same company so I asked him later if it was worth pursuing. He said to let it go, so we did. ANYWAY, it was 72.5 pounds of items in that one pick up. So, that's awesome! I did see on the website, they limit you to a maximum point value you can earn in each month. With as much as we've been saving, we may have gone over the limit had he weighed it.

Here's the update:

72.5 pounds into the recycle bin
15 pounds to Goodwill & Paperback Swap dot com
500 units of debt paid off
3 pounds of weight loss for me
350 pounds of stuff sold thru Craigslist (fireplace insert plus fencing)

So, drumroll please: 940.5 units gone!

The next project to tackle is to convert last year's office files from paper to pdf and save to Flash Memory stick. In prior years, I've saved copies to disk, but I'd prefer having 1 stick per year than the 35+ disks. I've been told I need to keep copies of the files for at least 7 years, maybe even 10. That's a LOT of paperwork taking up space in my basement. Every time I go into the storage room, I feel claustrophobic. I think I'll do a box at a time - each box is approx 25 pounds and there's over 15 boxes there, plus more at the office. Yikes!

Please Share Your Wisdom

2009-02-17T14:19:00.003-06:00

I am bartering with a super nice lady. She has 3 flower beds to be maintained and in exchange for the weeding and mulching, I get free use of a garden bed, all the fruit and nuts I want from some trees and bushes plus free horse manure. It's an awesome swap! Found it on Craigslist. :)

She has 2 things that I've never taken care of before. Since wise people keep telling me that I can't learn it all thru just reading about it, I thought I'd ask for advice from the 'net.

The two things are: grape vine and blackberry bushes.

The grape vine is growing on a very sturdy fence and has 2 main branches going each direction. Off of each of these main branches are tons of smaller branches plus, one end has grown so long, it's now sticking up out of the top of a nearby apple tree. I'd estimate that it's about 15' past the end of the fencing structure.

Question: How much do I prune back? Can I take the prunings and dip it in root stimulator thereby propogating new grape vines? Does it need any other care?

The blackberry bushes appear to have been whacked accidentally with a weed whacker, causing some damage.

Question: Should those canes be pruned? If yes, what time of year are they pruned? Before fruiting or after?

I wish I had taken photos when I met with her, but it was an incredibly windy day. I will next time I'm out there. Oh, and there are pecan trees. What do you know about them? Thank you!!

Seed Starting

2009-02-10T07:56:00.004-06:00

I started 12 flats last Thursday. By Sunday, some of them had sprouted. I have broccoli, cabbage, onions and herbs going. A few tomatoes too but I think it's a bit early for them as I tend to wait until May to plant tomatoes and peppers.

What I noticed was a huge difference in the soil-less mixes. On the left is Bacto and on the right is the Miracle Grow Seed starting mix which appears to be just peat moss with vermiculite/perlite in it. Both of these flats are broccoli. As is recommended, I wet the mixes then put it in the flats. I put in seeds and covered with plastic. The Bacto held moisture while the peat moss didn't. I've had to spray the peat moss daily. I've even watered the holding tray hoping that the bottom wicking would help, but I don't see any improvement. It is a little early to tell, but I'm not convinced that the peat moss mix will do anything as it just doesn't retain moisture.

So, I'm going to re-use the peat moss and mix up a batch of Paul's recipe. This peat moss mix was something I had left over from last fall. It was a small bag that has a price of $6 on it. However, the large bags of peat moss are just $9 ~ that's about 3 cubic feet! Yowza! I'm glad I only bought that one small bag.

I found the Bacto at Valley Feed & Seed. They swear it's the best. The 50 pound bag filled 8 trays and I've got enough left to do at least 5 more.

For the basil and onions, I just sowed a tray with seeds. I'll transplant them into bigger pots later.

I've got these all on a 6' table in a south facing window. It's been pretty good so far, but I will either hang lights over them (to keep them from getting too leggy) or move them out to the cold frame when they're bigger. Since it's mostly cold weather stuff, I think it'll do okay outside.

2009-02-09T17:40:00.008-06:00

Chris over at One Acre Homestead posted this new questionnaire. Visit his blog, leave a comment and play along on your blog.

Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle? To be self sufficient

2-When did you start this lifestyle? Summer of '08

3-What was your main motivation? Michael Pollan's books and my need to do things myself.

4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now? I've grown a garden every year for about 18 years now. I was an avid Girl Scout earning nearly every badge they had.

5-Does your spouse/significant other (if you have one) share the same ideas? He could live in the woods by himself just fine. He isn't as far along in the need to prep as me, but he is much better at being a survivalist than me. He has an iron stomach whereas I wouldn't eat a bug unless I was starving. Also, I haven't been able to get involved in the butchering chores but I'm working up to it.

6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids? Friends and family don't understand ~ they're asleep in my opinion. Kids, yes they do. All 5 of our kids wish we lived out in the country on a farm so we could keep more livestock.

7-How happy are you with your achievements so far? Absolutely! I have realized that I didn't can nearly enough food so I adjusted my garden plans to accommodate more production. Best choice that I've made so far: getting chickens. EASY and man, those eggs are delicious.

8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health conscience, "green"' or a combination of several? I think I was a gardener first, moved to homesteader and am now a beginning prepper. I would say I try to make green choices (especially when it comes to utilities) but prepping is far more important to me right now.

9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality? We went to the grocery store today to grab some potatoes as our stockpile is gone. I realized that we have been shopping just the produce section. We make our own bread, buy milk fresh from a cow (thanks Phelan), have bought meat from local farmers, make all our own cleaners including laundry and dish soap. It's freed up money that we can put to paying off debt.

10-Has it changed your view of your life before? Well, I've always considered myself frugal, but now I'm hyper frugal.

11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay? You can't convince people to see things your way when they're spenders. They'll come to the conclusion eventually. I have friends who are losing their home, but their car's payment gets paid every month. Hardly any food in the house, no garden plans but they eat out a lot. I don't get it, but to each his own.

12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentence, what would you say? That's a tough one.... Prep for a rainy day because the rain is on the way!

Other Questions-
1-How large is your vegetable garden? I actually have 4 gardens. One at my house which is 25' x 50'. I have 3 other gardens tucked in friend's yards since they don't garden. Total: I have over 1 acre in gardens.

2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many? Trees: apple, pear, plum. Bushes: raspberry, boysenberry. Plus strawberries, grapes and rhubarb.

3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets) 10 Egg laying hens and 25 meat chickens.

4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce? Yes I do all of those. This summer will be our first summer to have an outdoor canning kitchen.

5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...) My husband has chainsaws that makes getting free wood easy. We use hand tools in the garden at home but did use a tiller to prep the new gardens at the other locations.

6-Do you compost? YES! We have rabbits and chickens which give great compost.

7-Do you recycle? Yes

8-Do you consider yourself energy conscience? (conserving to save $) Absolutely

9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners? Yes

10-Do you make your own bread? Yes

11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year?? We easily can do it for a week and once we get the hand pump for our well water, we could do it for a month and even a year. We have a few other items to get done with on the prep list to ensure the one year plan but we'll have them within the month.

12-Are you tired of answering questions yet? Ha ha, um, yes. But this quiz is better than other ones I've done before. I'll really be interested to read other peoples answers too.

13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items Water bath canner and pressure canner. Husband says his gun and a good knife (or two).

14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil? Yes!

15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity? Yes, inside and outside of the house.

16-Again, if in an emergency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.) Only if husband was there. He is a necessity in my prep plan. LOL

17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test) We lost power a few years ago during an ice storm. That was the first challenge but we sailed right thru it for 5 days. Boredom and cabin fever set in though.

18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food? Yes, but fishing would be tough as we live in the middle of prairie land.

19-If you don't prep, why not? I think Depression era folks called this saving for a rainy day or "you'll never know when you might need it" mentality. Everybody should prep!

20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding? Yes I can although hubby is a better hand sewer than I am.

21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? No on the deer, coffee and cig. I don't drink coffee or smoke and um, see the first #9. But, yes on a cell phone and light a fire using flint (skill hubby taught me) and yep, I can answer questions all day long. :)

lol thanks for playing!

It's Spring Feeber I tell Ya

2009-02-06T11:21:00.004-06:00

Kids have the cutest ways of saying things.

Yesterday, the afternoon high hit around 60. Okay, YIPPEEEEEE. When I picked the kids up after school, they started saying how HOT they were and they were THIRSTY. Oh puhleaze!! I casually mentioned that I wasn't hot or thirsty but that the fine weather gave me spring fever. The kids busted out with Mom has spring feeber. (Are we the only family that breaks out into made up sing-songs?)

This morning, all Emma could say was "mom, you got a feeber?" Over and over again. LOL Yes, I do have feeber... warm weather in Feb does that to me. In honor of my feeber, I hung the first load of wash out on the line today. I planted peas. I started more plants from seed (up to 450 now). Pots of lettuce and spinach I was growing in the house got moved to the cold frame (where it's nice and toasty inside.) I washed the patio table off so we can have dinner outside tonight. And, I shut off the furnace. Let me see what else I can come up with before we plunge back into winter.

Emma has been wanting to gather eggs. I put a lawn chair out for her to climb up and get to work. She will probably insist she is the new egg gatherer. There's always competition from everyone to see who can get to the coop first after school and retrieve the eggs. Funny, but when we cleaned the coop out, no one was running to help.

Speaking of coop clean outs, I snagged 10 bags of leaves off Craigslist. I'm experimenting with leaves as bedding in the coop. The hay just mats down really badly, forms a carpet like density which leaves all the dropping on top of it. I wanted something a little more compost ready than that. We'll see how the leaves do.

Cold Frame Built

2009-02-02T12:34:00.008-06:00

Ignore the bits of lunch clinging to her sweet face.

She was too busy to wash up ~ she wanted to get out into the snow.

Photos to follow: the dear, sweet, 2 year old resident "borrowed" the card reader. Ahem. She isn't sure what she did with it... but she usually remembers. If not, she's heading out to buy momma a new one later.

UPDATE: Big sis found it tucked into the sliding door on the front of the computer tower.

This lovely assistant is showing how the venting portion works.

Reading over at Garden Desk, I was especially eager to get the book Marc recommended, The 12 Month Gardener, Simple Strategies for Extending Your Growing Season by Jeff Ashton, because that's where they got the plans for their wonderful greenhouse. I've wanted a greenhouse for a while, but more so since I started reading Fast Grow The Weeds blog.

I ordered the book and read it cover to cover as soon as it arrived last week. It certainly lives up to the great reviews. When you want to try to grow year 'round, you'll need season extenders. Some of them can be extremely pricey, and when hunting for DIY projects, there's just not a lot out there for sturdy greenhouses. Beyond the greenhouse, the book has plans for using basic floating row covers, constructing tunnels, stoop and hoop houses, plus info on using cloches and of course, building a cold frame. I had been saving old windows, but as the book points out, they might not be safe to use with pets, kids and even adults. We'll repurpose those for smaller cold frame projects (straw bales come to mind) that won't be in use where someone could get hurt.

Building the frame took about 4 hours from start to finish. I was really surprised at how big it turned out to be. For some reason, I have a terrible time picturing a completed size. I guess we could have marked out the frame before we built it but really, the book assures us that had we gone smaller, we'd have regretted it. Thankfully, we have lots of room in the yard. All that's left to do is staple the greenhouse wrap on it and start growing. Now that it's done, I'm not so sure that I need a greenhouse after all. I mostly wanted one to start seeds but this cold frame can do that and more. We laid out every flat we have and we only filled it halfway. That leaves plenty of room for moving plants into larger pots and even just growing directly in it.

The book does suggest painting the interior white, which will help to add extra light bouncing around in there.

I'm really excited to get started... and just in time for the weather to be predicted for mid 60's this weekend! Isn't it still February? That's Kansas weather for you.

Honey & Molasses ~ 6 Weeks Old

2009-02-01T08:37:00.004-06:00

Meet the new additions to our family, Molasses (Mo for short) and Honey, 6 week old Labrador Retriever sisters. We got them from a neat urban homesteading family about 45 minutes east of us. Their mom is a 7th generation Chocolate Lab and dad is also a Choc lab. They were part of a litter of 10. Their home had dogs, chickens, cats, rabbits and kids - hmmm, sounds very familiar.

The boys decided on this ones name first ~ Honey. She is super sweet, but much more adventureous than Mo. Honey is the first to explore and she has an amazing vertical leap!

Since they had already decided on Honey's name, we needed a name for this sweet lady. I suggested Molasses, Mo for short. It seemed fitting. She is also very sweet, but a more laid back, slower temperment. She is the snuggler of the two and when you pet her, she sighs contentedly.

This is a photo of our 4th Lab, Bo and me. He was abandonned on a farm and rescued at 6 months old. He and his brother had to fend for themselves, so he was used to hunting up his own food. He hadn't had a lot of human interaction until we adopted him. He immediately fit right in with our crazy crew. The best part of adopting an older pet, is that they have moved beyond the chewing, not-housebroken, crying-at-night stage. If I remember correctly, it doesn't last long. (fingers crossed - I'm a bit tired right now from the midnight dashes out to potty.)

Bo was our first Choc lab. He was just the most happy-go-lucky, mellow and loving dog. He had the cutest face he'd make when he wanted to be extra loving ~ he'd scrunch up his nose and wiggle like crazy. It was his signature move! He did really well when we got the chickens last fall. I was a little concerned he'd resort to his hunting days, but after a few sniffs, he left them alone.

He was just 7 years old when his hips starting showing signs of giving out. (Labs have this common ailment - 3 of our 4 had their back hips give out.) Then, cancer took over. Just 10 days from the cancer diagnosis, we had to have him put down. His spirit was still strong and vibrant, but his body was so far gone that he had paralysis in his legs and he had stopped eating days earlier. It's never easy making the decision to let go, but part of pet ownership.

This picture was taken three years ago - he was just 4 years old. I have an entire series of shots with him not being a good model ~ i.e. licking, rolling, walking away, playing etc. He was already up for whatever we wanted to do. He loved going to the lake and swimming. He loved being off his leash to run and run and run. He loved doggy treats. He was easy to train and was like sunshine on four legs. He loved life so much and I'll miss him dearly.

Another Blog Gone

2009-01-30T12:00:00.002-06:00

Since discovering the wildly amusing (and addictive) world of blogs, I must admit that there are some I read daily.... even if they don't post daily. These are the ones that I feel like I know them so well based on their blog alone, even if they do use fake names and I have no idea where in the world they are. Who cares? They're my blog friends (okay, they may not know me, but I know them and therefore, we are friends. ha)

I'm assuming that with the giant ice/snow storm that has much of the eastern U.S. shut down, that bloggers from the affected areas aren't posting. Which gives me time to flip thru and check on some of my fave blogs. ( I allot myself 1 hour a day for blogging - and spend 99% of it reading.)

Anyway, another one of my favorite blogs has bit the dust. Domestic Accident is no more. Her blog was eye candy... pink and black with a vintage looking avatar. She talked about her kids in a way that I can totally relate to mine. There was just so much to her blog that I loved... and now, poof, it's gone.

Lisa, I hope all is well in your world. I'm gonna miss ya.

Peanut Butter ~ From Scratch

2009-01-25T22:12:00.004-06:00

In light of the recent peanut butter snafu, I decided to adventure into making our own... as a prelude to maybe growing our own peanuts this year. My kids eat nearly 60 pounds of peanut butter a year. I have no idea HOW they consume that much, but they do. I've been tracking it.

We started with a a 2 pound bag of roasted, unsalted peanuts from the Seed & Feed store. It was $4.45 for the bag. Emma, Aubrey and I had fun shelling them. We opted to remove the red skins too, but you could leave it on. (I have a few picky eaters and I wasn't sure what they'd say about red flecks in the PB.)

I weighed the peanuts after shelling - 1 lb 6 oz. Popped it into the food processor and added about 3 TBS of oil. Most recipes I've seen call for peanut oil, which I didn't have. So I used canola oil. Veggie oil would work too. Just be aware, you'll need to store it in the fridge. I also added a pinch of salt and about 1 TBS of honey. (The kids are so used to store bought PB which is sweetened, I thought a bit of sweet would help ease the transition.)

I processed it until the processor starting whining, loudly. Spooned it into a container and noted it was about 2 cups. We all did a quick taste test and decided it was VERY peanuty in flavor and sticky too. Reading online recipes comments I discovered that store bought PB has oils as well as other additives to ensure it's not too sticky. Also, if I had opted to process in a blender, it would've been smoother.

Overall, it was very easy to do. But, in the future, I'd like to find a much cheaper source for peanuts. I did pick up a 3 lb bag of shelled, roasted Spanish peanuts for $6. I'll use them to make PB too, but I may opt to not remove all the skins.

Incidentally, in my hunt to learn how to grow them, I read that Virginia peanuts are the largest sized and what is typically found in a grocery store. You can buy raw peanuts and plant them in the spring. I'd like to know if anyone has grown them or have a thought about buying raw to plant. I did several searches for heirloom or organic peanuts, but didn't find exactly what I was looking for. And, I'd love to get info on yields too.

As a bonus, I read that a peanut plant can process nitrogen from the air and deposit into the soil, so it would be an excellent crop to put into rotation following corn.

Seed Savers Challenge

2009-01-23T17:12:00.004-06:00

I've committed myself to starting all my veggies from seed this year. Some are already started and others will be direct sown. As part of this plan, I've bought exclusively Heirloom seeds for the express purpose of being able to save them for next year. Thus, my intention is to not have to buy new seeds/plants ever again. How's that for frugal?!

Join in the challenge by visiting here.

In a future post, I'll list my garden plans... although, I want to do it in a non-boring way. I've tried so hard to read what others are growing this year, but the super long plant lists just make my eyes cross. Maybe it's just me?

Cha Cha Is Magical

2009-01-22T20:17:00.003-06:00

My oldest son is hard wired to find fun things to do with his cell phone. The latest and greatest is Cha Cha. If you have ever found yourself needing an answer to a question RIGHT NOW and your go-to person wasn't available, Cha Cha to the rescue.

To try it out, I sent in a silly question and had a response in less than 2 seconds. A correct response, I might add. It's not mobile search, it's mobile answers, according to the website. Basically, on your cell phone, you send a text message to 242242 and put your question in the body of the text.

The funniest thing we've done with Cha Cha is settle an arguement. It can explain a phrase or quote. You can get current weather stats anywhere. I asked it to find me the closest gas station that was open on a Sunday evening in rural Kansas.

Regular text fees from your carrier apply, but the Cha Cha service is free. I think you can only ask 4 questions every 72 hours. Be sure to check out the website and the Tips & Tricks section. It has shortcuts for jokes, stock quotes, movies etc. Oh, and the confessions page is the great testimonials from other users.

Two other helpful services I have in my cell phone's speed dial list:

Google via text is 466453 ~ I use this when I need an address or phone number and I'm not close to a computer. Much faster than accessing the web via my cell.

Mapquest 1-800-373-3411 - gives you voice activated directions for free (also has a free download for blackberry users - from your blackberry, go to it's web brower and visit m.mq4m.com)

Nesting Boxes Done

2009-01-21T11:06:00.005-06:00

After several days of head scratching, Jerry figured out how to build and attach the nesting box to the coop. YEAH!! I'm so excited! The chickens figured out pretty quickly what they were for and we had our first 3 egg day. Having the box outside the coop makes for easy egg collecting and cleaner shoes. All that's left is the siding and a paint job, and our 6 month project will be completed.

Here are two of the lovely ladies, Pot Pie and Chipmunk. They are on the outside of the chicken run looking into it. I do think the phrase "bird brain" is right on the money. Sometimes, it takes them four or five tries to figure out how to get back inside the run - and it's a 6' opening.

Well, I never said the bird feeder and bird bath were off limits, did I?

This is our original chicken tractor. Made out of wood from pallets and a few repurposed 2x4s. It's covered in plastic chicken fencing (NOT a good idea - it breaks easily). It does have a door on one end. We put the flock in here during the day, covered with the tarp as the direct sun was pretty hot. Now that we have the coop & run, this has been delegated to the rabbits and guinea pig to hang out in. It's light weight and easy to move. It was designed to fit over a raised bed but actually stays on the yard. We are going to build an enclosure on one end so that the rabbit can have permanent residence in it. Or, we might use it to raise a small flock of meat birds. Hmmm, we'll see.

267 pounds down ~ 9,733 to go

2009-01-20T09:23:00.005-06:00

For this last week, I sent a large bag of misc clothes to D.A.V. I also freecycled a few things. I sent 7 books out thru paperbackswap.com. And we paid down $250 on some debt.

If you're working on debt reduction, I highly advise Dave Ramsey. Get the books from the library, listen to him via internet or just check out his website. He has various ideas ~ not all will work for everybody, but something might spark you. I personally like the giant poster of debt reduction. It's a big spreadsheet that I bought at the school supply store. The debts are listed on the left side and we designated each square to be 'worth' $50. So, we'll highlight as many squares as needed to represent the debt owed. Then, as it's paid (we do the snowball method too), we black out the squares to show the debt going down. It's a very visual reminder of where we stand. I have a smaller sheet for the immediate debt, the full sheet is for the long range debt.

We also have one for savings that we color in as our savings grows. My only caution is if you have people over, they may stand around and read your charts. This bugs me like you can not imagine. So, now I take them down if we're expecting company.

The "Have-More" Plan

2009-01-20T08:57:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, I was reading the comments section of Tiny Farm Blog and a Sharon posted 2 links to books free to download. I clicked on The Have More Plan by Ed and Carolyn Robinson and decided to go ahead and print it too. It has so many wonderful things I wish I'd known before getting started. In general, it's a homesteading primer. It has how to lay out your homestead, a really nice barn plan that houses a milk cow or goats, chickens, rabbits and storage too. A well thought out kitchen plan. Fish ponds and fruit orchards. It has good ideas on just about everything you could need in your homestead.

I enjoyed the "quaintness" of the prices listed throughout.

I do see the cyclic nature of the back to the land movement. I think the gap in the cycle is closing though.

Who Loves Compost?!

2009-01-19T14:25:00.004-06:00

Jerry built me these 2 compost bins that are 5' x 5'. A bit bigger than what I had intended, but they work well. The chickens spend a great deal of their time scratching and pecking and even the horse neighbor stops by to sniff.

Before chickens, it took about a year for us to turn garbage into compost. Now, it's right about a month. I clean the chicken's coop out every other week and add it to the bins. It breaks down faster than I ever thought it could. We are considering doing away with the bins and just heaping it into the garden.

We have a friend that has dozens of rabbits, but doesn't compost or garden, so her bunny poo is heading our way too. And, driving down the road, I saw 3 bags of leaves dumped in a ditch that I snagged. Into the compost it went.

At this rate, we'll have to start giving it away or selling it!

Stop the Draft In Your Laundry Room

2009-01-15T07:55:00.003-06:00

When we moved into this house, it was the fall. That first winter, if you stood in the kitchen, your hair would move due to the excessive amount of air coming in thru the backdoor casing, window & dryer vent. (Our laundry room is just off the kitchen.)

We fixed the window & door, but didn't know what to do about the vent. Then, we went to one of our favorite internet sites, searched and found this: replace your dryer vent. I ordered the vent, it was about $25 with shipping & handling.

When it arrived, Jerry took the old vent cover off and found quite a bit of lint for something that was so drafty. I had been keeping the door of our dryer shut and really could have used it as a second fridge it was so darn cold inside.

Anyway, it didn't take him too long to install it. Handyman skills don't come naturally to him but he said it was pretty easy, even with our uneven siding.

It works by having a floating part inside. When the dryer is on, heat forces the floating shuttle up, when the dryer is off, the shuttle is down and vent is sealed from air exchange & pests.

It's even paintable. And, cleaning lint out of it is pretty simple. Just twist off the cap.

Photo source: www.GoodCommonSense.net

The Eggs Have Arrived!!

2009-01-12T09:36:00.003-06:00

Last Thursday night, I was dropping D off at a friend's house when I got a text from Jerry saying he had found something in the chicken coop, and could I guess what it was.

I had just been saying how I hoped a snake or rat or other varmit wouldn't get in there (we leave it open during the day) so I didn't even consider it would be an egg.

The text came back in all caps "CONGRATS U HAVE EGG". I was so excited I started jumping up and down and laughing. Now, if you have raised chicks from a day old, only to watch them eat tons of chick food and wait, day after day to get that first egg, you totally know the feeling I had. It was so exciting!

We have 10 hens, most of which should lay brown eggs. But it was a white egg. So, I suspected it was the Leghorns. On Friday, it was warm, sunny and just a wonderful day. D and I were outside watching the chix when one of them started making quite a racket in the coop. We looked and sure enough, she was getting ready to lay. So, I actually saw her lay egg #2. Saturday, no egg, but Sunday, another egg. So, we are up to 3 eggs. I thought it was too early for them to be laying, they're only 17.5 weeks old, but hey, I think I have an overachiever in the bunch. And, it was the the smallest chicken in the flock that laid first.

After she laid on Friday, I watched both roos go into the nest and mimic her... which was pretty funny. None of the other hens seemed interested at all.

Now, if Jerry would just get the nesting boxes done, they would have a proper place to lay.

Lighten The Load Challenge

2009-01-11T09:21:00.003-06:00

You may have seen the challenge over at The Sustainable Backyard. I'm joining in too. This will be my first challenge to undertake and I'm excited.

The concept is simple enough. Set a goal to reduce your clutter. Clutter can be debts, excess body weight, clutter in your house etc. For each pound you get rid of, you get to remove a point. Each $1 of debt reduced is equal to 1 pound.

My goal is huge, but necessary. I won't go into details of exactly why I set my goal so high, but it's attainable if I stay focused. My goal is to reduce 10,000 pounds of clutter this year.

Want to join in? Post a comment on Anajz's blog and you're in.

Local Eating

2009-01-07T12:13:00.002-06:00

I meant to share this a while back.

When our Farmer's Market closed for the winter (they're shut down from Oct to April) I had to find a source for meat. I went to www.localharvest.org and found a wonderful source for pork and beef. I can buy it in small quantities and it's GREAT!!

My 3 youngest peeps went with me this past Saturday to Faye Farms in Udall KS. Heather & Mark were so nice and friendly. They showed us the 2 week old piglets and the month old pigs. I was in awe at the size of the mamas ~ 600 pounds! We also saw the calves, some of which are for sale. (If I could figure out the room needed for a cow to pasture, then I'd know if we could get a family milk cow ~ but aren't they supposed to stay in a herd?!) Oh, and their chickens! What a hoot!! We already love the flock we have and we got to see Black Astralops & Mad Hatters both of which we now want. Why are chickens so addictive?! They told us about their turkeys and chicken meat birds for sale. Plus we saw grouse and even a peacock. Sadly, they can't sell milk to us ~ their milk co-op rules don't allow that. But, I think we found a milk source in Clearwater.

We bought hamburger as well as pork chops plus some pork sausage and 2 dozen eggs. I showed our chickens the eggs, but they don't appear to care that I'm getting eggs from other hens. LOL Jerry declared the sausage the best ever ~ he is from Iowa and it reminded him of his farm life.

We definitely will be back to shop for more. We're now on the list for a whole hog in May and will more than likely be able to get a side of beef too. Gotta get more freezer space!

Also, on the local site, I found a homesteader that does sell produce from her garden which has me thinking about that option (selling the surplus) because when I checked into the Farmer's Market, I found that there was a bit of paperwork and approvals had to be met before you could sell there. I don't think we'll be at the production level to really warrant selling at a market, but we might be able to do it on a smaller scale.

The other site I like to browse is www.pickyourown.org Another great source for local fresh veggies & fruits. I have been to several of the growers and found them all to be top notch.

$7 Breadbox

2009-01-06T13:37:00.003-06:00

"Hey Mom, where's the bread?"

"In the breadbox"

"The WHAT?"

"Breadbox... that green box on the counter that says BREAD on the front of it."

muttering heard: "who knew there was a box just for bread. MOST people keep their bread in the sack from the store."

Yep, I've been out treasure hunting again. One of my fave antique stores was having an end of season sale with most things being 20% off. So, off I went dragging my oldest son with me. Ok, he went willingly, but only because we were going to the movies later.

This store is huge! It's in an old bowling alley, game center, skating rink warehouse type building. I can't even tell how many booths are in there, lets just say hundreds.

I have been hunting for a bread box for a while now as storing homemade bread in plastic containers doesn't let the bread breathe... and it shortens it's lifespan (IMO)

The first one we spotted was red and $25. Not in great shape but I liked the color and size. I have funky cupboards that hang down low, so not a lot can fit under them... not my bread machine, or the Kitchenaid mixer. Geesh, the papertowel holder barely fits. The next one was wooden, $30. The 3rd one was all rusty, $15. We saw several more, but too banged up, too expensive, or just not right.

Then, I spotted this one on a low shelf behind some other things. Priced at $9 but with the holiday discount, it was just $7. Woo Hoo!! What a find!! And, I do love the color green! Goes great with the super dated green & yellow wall paper (soon to be painted over!).

Where do you keep your bread?!

Refried Bean Bread

2009-01-06T12:00:00.003-06:00

This recipe comes from Dec/Jan 2009 issue of Healthy Cooking mag. It's a TOH spin off.

I'm not a bean fan. As a matter of fact, I only eat one kind of bean, the green bean. I don't even like jelly beans! When I read the recipe, I thought, no way can you use an entire can of refried beans in a bread and not have a bean flavor. Well, yes you can!

Southwest Surprise Bread

2 pkgs active dry yeast

2 cups warm 2% milk (110 to 115 degrees)

1 can (16 oz) fat free refried beans

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS butter, melted

2 tsp salt

5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour (I did half white, half wheat)

1. Dissolve yeast into milk. Add beans, sugar, butter & salt. Mix well. Add 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add in rest of flour to form a firm dough. (Well, mine wasn't firm, but I didn't want to overflour it either.)

2. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth & elastic - 6 to 8 min. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

With our cooler indoor temps, the warmest spot in the house is in the slightly preheated oven.

3. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Shape into loaves. Place into oiled loaf pans. Let rise 2nd time, about 30 min.

5. Bake at 350* for 40-45 min until golden brown. Remove from wire racks to cool.

It does make a softer bread and while there are bits of beans in it, there really isn't a bean taste to it. Yeah! I do like the fiber though - 1 slice is 104 calories, 1 g fat, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein. That's if each loaf is 16 slices each.

Better OFF by Eric Brende

2009-01-02T12:53:00.005-06:00

I admit that the cover really drew me in ~ I do love fields of waving golden wheat!

The book is well written and easily engages you from the first page. Eric Brende, the author and MIT grad, and his wife, Mary, choose to live in a Minimite community, unplugged from everything. The book gives you a brief backdrop for the decision and then devotes the rest of the pages to the actual living a very rural, off grid experiment. The book covers the farming cycle from planting through harvest.

Minimites are an old Amish order. According to the book jacket, even Amish groups consider them to be so primitive that they are antiquated. Interestingly, the author rents a house without running water, but eventually, the owner convinces them to try to install running water. It's a very elaborate process to get water uphill using a self pumping ram, not electricity. Even Minimists enjoy indoor running water.

What I like the best was that nothing was left out. Every detail was covered (to the point that I'm now seriously considering buying an Amish wringer washer) so that the reader could actually implement the lessons learned and shared. I also liked that the author shared technical information in a straight-forward way.

The book shared quite a bit of self discovery such as when the author was tired and hungry and got into a fight with his wife over being hungry and wanting to eat. Neither one were very adept at cooking and without refridgeration, 3 meals a day had to be made completely from scratch. There was no way to store leftovers (well, they hadn't considered it yet.) What followed was a discovery of a local cookbook and better ways to store food. It reminds me of the phrase, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

As I read the book, I referred often to the hand drawn map included. I found myself wanting to know a lot more, about the people and how they lived and what they thought of modern day "improvements". I would love to be able to purchase some of the Amish made tools that seem to be better made and longer lasting and of course, see the gardens & barns in person. I appreciate how things are built and I'd love to see some of the structures that they built.

I also like reading about the various gardening, livestock and community ideas that are presented. There are Amish and Mennonite communities within an hour of Wichita, but I don't suppose I could just show up and hang out for a day or two, learning from them, so this book was a great insight to a simpler life.

I won't be shutting off our utilities anytime soon, but the book reminded me of the cost involved in having conveniences, and it's obviously not just monetary. This book is a keeper ~ so while I'll return the libraries copy, I'll definitely be getting one for myself.

2009 Goals

2009-01-01T10:36:00.004-06:00

I don't usually set goals on Jan 1st - instead, I update as I go. However, now that I'm in Homesteading mode, I think that setting goals now will make the process smoother during the year.

Our chicken coop is the perfect example. We bought the chickens knowing we'd have to build a coop. It took us weeks to figure out how to build it and where to find cheap/no cost materials. Then several more weeks to make it while the chicks spent time in the chicken tractor. Today, Jerry is outside STILL working on the coop. Sigh. Luckily, the chickens don't seem to mind the work in progress. Hopefully, the nesting boxes will be done today! Lesson learned ~ most large building projects can't be completed in a weekend by us.

Remove overgrown Cottonwood trees to make way for peach trees.

Start seeds indoors for the garden.

Purchase & plant Raspberry bushes and more peach trees.

Paint shed & chicken coop.

Rain barrels installed on house, chicken coop & shed. (Need gutters on shed & coop.)

Plan the garden based on consumption needs (fresh eating & canning) instead of wileyniley.

Wash the 400 canning jars bought off Craigslist ~ a few at a time.

Continue our Dave Ramsey inspired financial plan.

Spackle the kitchen & laundry room walls where I attempted to remove wallpaper 3 years ago. Paint both rooms.

Put trim back up in the kitchen ~ removed 3 years ago when new floor was installed.

Remove overgrown bushes by back patio for a small kitchen garden.

Relocate large, overgrown flower bed as it's spot is better suited for veggies.

Expand my canning recipes. We love the salsa, spaghetti sauce, chicken stock, peaches, apple & pear recipes. But, there's a lot more we could do.

Learn to make cheese ~ and find a local source for fresh milk.

Go in on a bulk meat purchase - pig & cow. Jerry is talking about building a smoke house. Hmmmmm Is that a LARGE project, honey?! We better start it now.

Help Cole finish building his bee hives to be installed on a friends farm.

I think that's about as grand as I can imagine for 2009. How about you?

Treasure Hunting

2008-12-31T14:38:00.007-06:00

I love hunting for old stuff that is FUNCTIONAL. You won't find a lot antique knick knacks in my house since I don't like to dust! LOL I found most of these at antique stores in Eastern Kansas (I travel for my job and when I have the time, I hit up the antique/junk stores.) We've also discovered that some old things do a much better job than their modern couterparts. Jerry is the king of mashed potatoes. I mean, that is one "meal" I'll always come home for :) Yet, he has destroyed several mashers (could be that he's crushing the mashers, but we disagree on this). I had a 1950's masher for years until it couldn't take any more mashing and completely broke. I bought a new one at Tarjay, only he broke it the first use. Same thing on multiple other new ones. So now, when I find good ones at the treasure stores, I buy them up. You just can't have too many mashers hidden in the cupboards. LOL

I adore these aluminum cookie cutters. I have a set from my childhood. And, now I have Chicken & Bunny!! Plus, I bought a star & 2 tin men for the kids. The colandar was just $4 ~ and what a buy! It's super large and pretty too. The egg basket was just $6 and I love the green wooden handles. If I spot another one, I'm getting it for Patrice ~ reading about her carrying eggs in her pockets, only to have them break over her cell phone convinced me we need egg baskets!!

Over at Suzanne's I learned another bread recipe and her love of glass baking pans. I snagged these for $2 each. And, on someone else's blog, I read about putting leftovers in glass dishware instead of plasticware since glass is see-thru and chemical free. The small box in the middle is part of a set. And, again with the green theme in the pickle dish. I LOVE green!!

I started reading gardening blogs this fall and was amazed at the totals posted. So, we needed a scale. I totally splurged on this one ($24) but it is a Hanson and it is in great condition. Oh, and the pie book ~ yep, had to have that now that I can make a great crust!

Theme of my current life

2008-12-29T16:23:00.006-06:00

In an effort to decrease stress and increase joy, I've been hunting for the simple life. I discovered a series of books by Elaine St James that really hit home to me that life should be easy, not hard, if I make a few changes.

Her Simplify Christmas book had several great ideas. I used a variation of one tip and created a survey for my brood to give me their top 5 things they love about Christmas and top 5 things they didn't like so much.

So, the tallies are in. We have our top 5 loves:

Christmas Music ~ local radio station plays just that from Thanksgiving til Dec 26th.
Food ~ dinners, cookies, candies etc. Making it, gifting it and eating it.
Fire in the fireplace ~ well it didn't happen this year. Our fireplace was determined to have a major safety flaw that could potential catch on fire ~ so we've ordered the new parts but they didn't make it in time for Christmas. We are so grateful to an HONEST chimney sweep that explained the problem and didn't charge us for his time so far. But he'll be back to clean it and repair the problems when parts arrive.
Seeing the looks on people's faces when they open their gifts.
Getting exactly what you want for Christmas and nothing else.

Okay, number 5 was the top choice for all 4 guys, which I found very interesting. Seems in years past, they got various gifts that were "fillers" and didn't get the one thing they wanted. The point of the survey was to simplify. To honor them and the new spirit, I vowed to only get them exactly what they had asked for. Nothing more, nothing less.

Look what I found on the tree

Dalton, age 15 asked for several things. But his top items were some new clothes and cologne. He got to go on a shopping spree (how I HATE shopping) but he chose wisely and picked things that were on super discount. He was happy even though he didn't get that thrill of being surprised, he said it was better to have exactly what he wanted then to have to return things or pretend to be happy.

Braden, age 12, asked for 2 video games and a bible. Luckily we live in an area where used video games are plentiful so by buying used, we got both for him. The bible he asked for is one of those huge, leather bound, heirloom type of bible. I'm certainly not opposed to him having one, but the budget didn't allow for it. He did get cash from grandparents and also a neighbor so he will be spending his money on it.

Cole, age 10, asked for 3 things. A pocket knife for whittling, money to buy books and a puzzle.

Aubrey, age 6, asked for a Princess Barbie, clothes and anything I liked to buy for her.

Emma, age 2, saw a baby doll in the store a while back that she asked for. It looks just like her ~ brown hair and blue eyes. She also needed new clothes and she got a new board book that I couldn't resist.

Emma and Baby Emma

Jerry didn't ask for anything, but Dalton and I saw the Discovery channel's Planet Earth DVD game and knew he'd like it.

All in all, the gift shopping was super easy, but I found myself fighting the impulse to buy other things. And, when I was wrapping gifts, it felt weird to be wrapping so few things. I was worried that on Christmas morning they'd be sad or disappointed. I was so wrong.

Christmas morning I was so excited I had to wake the kids up at 7:30 just to open their gifts. Sorry Braden, I know that was on your "what I don't like" list ~ but honestly, who sleeps in on Christmas?!

It was a wonderful Christmas. Everybody was happy with their gifts and what they had made/gotten for each other. Not one person said, "Is that IT?" or "Please tell me there's something else" or "I didn't want THIS". (All have been uttered before.) I was delighted and felt a real sense of peace. It was what I secretly put at the top of my list: to ENJOY the day together. And, that's just what we did.

PS the Top 5 List of what we didn't like:

Feeling rushed
People being crabby or fighting with each other
Useless gifts
Faking being happy
Shopping

My personal don't-like-list includes decorating the tree. This year, I told the kids to have at it. They had a blast. They used colored lights (never before seen in my house!) and only a handful of ornaments that they each liked best (usually we try to cram them all on.) Oh, and tons of candy canes. I vote they take over all the decorating from now on.

R.I.P. Lucy

2008-12-23T10:54:00.011-06:00

Last week, we had snow. And, temps that were just short of bone chilling. I decided to keep the chickens in the coop - not that they would have gone out anyway!

Jerry had to replace the heat lamp bulb and he made sure to do a head count before shutting them in on Monday night. Tuesday they stayed inside.

Wednesday morning, Cole comes shrieking in the house while I was in the shower saying that Lucy was under the coop (it's built 2' off the ground - for shade in the summer time.) I told him to grab a broom handle and see if he could scoot her out. A few minutes later, he's back screaming and crying hysterically.

I tell him to come into the bathroom because I can't understand him thru the door. He rushes in, holding Lucy. She has congealed blood all down the side of her head and body. She is blinking but it didn't look good.

I told him to put her in his bath tub because it has glass doors we can shut. I was afraid the dogs or cats would try to get at her.

At this point, I'm freaking out. I don't do well at the sight of blood. At. All. In case of emergency, I am NOT the one to call. I witnessed violence in my family as a tiny child and even though the adults say it was nothing, it really made a horrible impression on me. To this day, I feel very helpless and scared at the sight of blood. Even minor injuries flood me with overwhelming emotions.

I did marry someone who is calm, rational and rock steady thru any bloody crisis. So, I called him (he goes to work early). And, I called and called and called. All the while just freaking out. I mean, she was a white Leghorn and now is obviously in major distress, because you couldn't see any white - only red.

He finally calls me back and I'm beyond control. All he understood was "blood" and "get home NOW". So he does. Meanwhile, Cole is unconsolable. I ask him gently if he knew what happended. If he knew how Lucy got out. Our coop is like fort knox - you just can't get out. A human would have to open the door. He said that he opened the door for just a minute then shut it again. He didn't see her come out. (It was pitch black and he doesn't carry a flashlight.)

His eyes and sobbing tell me that he feels very responsible.

Jerry gets home and checks on Lucy. He says it doesn't look good. He asks the neighbor to come take a look. The neighbor, in my opinon, is more of a rancher than farmer. I don't think he ever had chickens, but he is older and wiser and we value his opinion.

He says it doesn't look good.

By the scene in the coop, it looks like Lucy got trapped outside in the dark and snow. She tried to get out of the run thru the lattice holes. Somehow, she tore her comb in the process. She lost a lot of blood and was barely breathing. Her comb was almost 100% torn off.

Jerry and neighbor decide it best to end the suffering.

I cried like a baby for my chicken. All my life, I've always wanted chickens. I've always lived in a city environment (but longing for the country). City people just don't understand having a chicken for a pet. I've gotten a lot of grief over the years for this little dream, but finally, this year, for my birthday, I bought myself something that has just meant so much to me. I can't even put into words how much healing took place in the last 4 months that I've spent with these silly birds. I never do anything for myself and this was a huge step in the right direction. I, too, suffer from depression. There are times when it comes up on me with a vengenace and this fall it returned, deeper and blacker than anything I've ever experienced before. Yet, I could get up, go out and sit in the yard on a sunny day and just watch the chickens be chickens. And, now Lucy is gone. Yes, she was a rooster and I knew I'd have to give her away, so I was prepared for the letting go... just not this way.

Ah Internet, How I've Missed You!

2008-12-23T10:39:00.003-06:00

After 9 days of no internet at home (No thanks AT&T, we cancel you!) thankfully, Cox Communications to the rescue.

For the record, AT&T, my network interface card IS fine & dandy. So is my whole computer and all it's other parts. So, please, remove those canned lines from your "help desk" scripts.

Oh, and thanks so much for shutting off my cell phone just because we switched internet providers. That was nice of you. Where's my $$ for the interruption of service and the 42 minutes we spent on the phone with you before Charmaine finally understood that WE DIDNT CAUSE THE SERVICE INTERRUPTION and had the intellegence to turn the cell phones back on! Seriously, the 4th phone on this plan is the only source of communication I have with 1 person ~ don't mess with that!

Okay, while I've been stuck in the real world, wondering and thinking about all my virtual/real friends, I've composed a few posts. I hope to get them copied and pasted in between the baking and nursing (Emma is sick ~ day 4 of yuckfest and now Jerry has it ~ but like all tough guys ~ he went to work and is now wishing he was home, close to a bathroom.)

Anyway, I hope you are doing well, these last few days before Christmas. Don't worry about what didn't get done, because it doesn't matter. Family matters. Spending time together is what it's all about. Hugs to all of you!

Recycling Pays Off

2008-12-15T01:14:00.006-06:00

Our trash company, Waste Connections, has partnered with Recycle Bank to offer a rewards program for those that choose to recycle. I am SO EXCITED! I have been an avid recycler for years. We have a sorting station in the garage and every so often, we take a few hours and go drop stuff off at the various places. Not anymore ~ we're going curb side baby! (Even though we participate in the current program, WC doesn't pick up everything ~ but they will starting in Jan.)

The biggest plus to this program is: NO MORE SORTING! Woo HOO!! Just dump it all together and away it goes to the MRF. (We also will get a rebate (based on pounds of materials) to spend at various places online, including some green stores.)

Our new bin hasn't arrived yet, so in the mean time, we are using our old laundry hampers and just dumping everything in them. We now have a trash can, compost bucket and the recycling bin in our kitchen. LOL Our recycle bin fills up daily while the trash bin takes three days to fill, so there's progress.

J is trying to find out if we can get more than 1 bin ~ they pick up every other week and 1 bin just won't be enough.

Although, now that I see the materials on a daily basis, I may want to rethink what we are recycling. It appears that we have lots of newspapers ( I still read the daily paper) as well as magazines and junk mail. Maybe we should try to stop it from coming into the house, so we don't have to recycle it. Food for thought anyway.

Last I heard, there are only 3,000 households going to participate. Come on Wichita, this is a no-brainer. I have non-recyling friends who are now on the band wagon. Once they see how easy it is and that they'll get a cash reward (avg family earns $20 a month) they are excited.

Now, off to convert my office to this program and maybe even the kid's schools....

Food Co-ops

2008-12-15T00:54:00.004-06:00

In the last week, I've been asked several times about the different food co-ops that my family buys from. So, I thought it might be helpful to others to share the info.

Years ago, we belonged to Heartland Shares, which had a basic food package plus add ons. The caveat to join was that you needed to do at least 2 hours of community service a week.

Now, we rotate thru 3 different ones. None of them have income guidelines, and only one has the volunteer requirement. My favorite one lets us buy a "pantry box" that is perfect for donating to food drives (seems like between Scouts, 4H and school, somebody is pilfering the pantry for a donation.) They all have a basic box plus add ons. Angel Food now has a Senior box which has fully cooked meal, nutrionally balanced that is just heat and serve. Our neighbor get this for his MIL and she has been really pleased with the variety.

We participate in Angel Food Ministries at Tyler Road Baptist Church, Prairie Land Food in Goddard and Share Colorado with a pick up at Salvation Army.

We have enjoyed everything (especially the fresh fruit and veggies in the winter). Our only complaint is that they all tend to deliver on the same day of the month, which can be pretty hectic! (It used to be that it was an every other week thing.) As one who dislikes shopping, I certainly appreciate having our groceries already boxed and ready to go. And, often times, there is some kind of extra treat on pick up day for the kids. Now, if I could find a local CSA to join....

If you have other programs that you know about, please share.

1st time Pie Maker

2008-12-02T14:17:00.004-06:00

I've never made a pie crust ~ EVER! In fact, I don't even remember ever trying to bake a pie. I bake lots of other things, but pie has never been on the to-do list. We have a wonderful family owned restaurant here in town that makes the best pies ever ~ Strawberry Rhubarb is my fave. So, I never felt the need... until I read the easiest pie crust recipe ever by Tomato Lady. Thanks TL!!

For 16 years, my husband has pined for a home made pot pie. Since the first crust went together so nicely, I whipped up a turkey pot pie for him.

I think the proof is in the photos! I should've taken pix of the empty pie plates. This was truly an easy-to-make pie crust and just delish!

Oh, and the unique design on the top of the pot pie is compliements of the kids. For some reason, I couldn't roll a circular shape crust and I gave up. The left over, trimmed off dough was plopped on top for dad to enjoy ~ he said it was the best crust he's ever had. And, I got to finally use the pie pans I bought years ago.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

2008-12-02T09:12:00.003-06:00

We are a crafty family and usually make several Christmas Gifts. Here's a list of past gifts:

Baked goods ~ Cookies, breads & candies

Canned goods

Frozen meals ~ for families with new babies & older relatives that live alone

Paint by number kits - then we framed them - choose the pattern wisely - ours took 5 weeks!

Rice trivets with cinnamon & cloves - makes your table smell yummy!

Cookie of the Month Subscriptions ~ Which could be expanded to anything

Mini scrapbooks

Pictures of our family

Lap quilts

Light up pot pourri jars

Layered ingredients in a jar - cookies and also soup mix

Themed Kits ~ movie night, art, office, new cook ~ endless possiblities here

Personalized stationary & note pads

Dress up trunk ~ mostly old prom dressers & costume jewelry found at thrift shops

Packets of greeting cards with perpetual calendars

Tons of stuff we found on Family Fun site

Dog biscuts

Suet cakes for birds

Okay, so we are running out of ideas and went to the library to find books. We found a kid's wood working book that inspired Cole. He is going to be making a rope ladder for the girls, a CD holder for a brother and he even found a wooden cat toy that I'm hoping he makes because it's so darned cute! We got a kid's soapmaking book and have found several recipes that we'll try

So, last night, I was surfing around, trying to find more ideas and I wanted to share a few websites I found. Some are blogs I follow daily ~ I'm totally making a spa kit for a friend from all the cool stuff on Little House in the Suburbs. Aubrey wants to make lip balm and also a loofah soap for her teacher. (Instead of pouring soap into molds, you pour it into the end of a loofah. A variation would be to take a bath puff, put it into a cup or bowl and pour soap on it ~ kind of like soap-on-a-rope but with a bath puff inside.)

http://www.skiptomylou.org/

http://motherletter.blogspot.com/

http://homesteadinghousewife.blogspot.com/

http://www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/

http://www.livingonadime.com/blog/

http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/50-homemade-gift-ideas-from-around-the-web.html

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/homemade-gifts/

Okay, off to craft & bake.

Chix On Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T23:27:00.007-06:00

Okay, first of all, I'm not the world's steadiest camera gal... so apologies for that. And, when my son dubbed over the video with my life's theme song, you don't get to hear me begging the chickens to come out from under the coop!! Only Lucy/Larry ventured out ~ until about the 2:10 ish point in the video. If you can stand to watch it that long, you will see the flock on the run... but honestly, this post is all about the song!! It's called "Simple Ways" and it's by a good friend's son, Matt. He goes by the name Human and he's with the Human Revolution. I enjoy his music, but for some reason, this is the song that says it all for me!!

Oh, and the girls had fresh cranberries, cabbage & spinach for Thanksgiving.

Gonna Get me a Flour Sack Dress

2008-11-16T21:09:00.004-06:00

Does anyone else remember reading Lois Lenski books like Judy's Journey, Cotton in My Sack or Strawberry Girl? In Judy's Journey, she had a goat and she begged her father to stop at a feed store to buy goat chow. As they were very poor, he wasn't often able to do it. They did stop once and spent a quarter (wow, cheap chow!) The clerk told Judy to come back in a few days and he'd give her a flour sack to make a dress. They were migrant farm workers, so she wasn't able to go back to get it, but she always dreamed of having one. Every time I visit my local feed- n- seed store, I'm reminded of that story ~ and I wish I could have a flour sack ~ for my girls, to make them dresses.

Valley has feed for all our critters - hamster, guiena pig, rabbits, chickens, dogs and wild birds. We've even bought fish food for the pond dwellers. This time of year, they have bulk nuts available which is great for fall baking.

I've been trying to find a local source for Mortgage Lifter tomato seeds, and was delighted to discover them here and at the bargain price of 40 seeds for $1.50. I also picked up a package of Roma seeds ~ 500 for $.99!! I also bought Beefsteak & Arkansas Traveler. Closer to spring, we'll go back for some of their many lettuces, potatoes and onion sets.

If you're in the Wichita area, check out Valley Feed & Seed at 1903 S Meridian. They are open Mon - Sat. And, feel free to ask questions. They are a weath of info. I inquired about finding a processor for my roos, and they had a source in Yoder. I don't think they'll process just 3, but they also have a poultry auction the last Saturday of each month, so we might consider putting the roos in the auction or trading for some hens.

Viewed from Another Angle

2008-11-16T20:33:00.005-06:00

I asked Jerry to take some photos while he was roofing the coop... just to see the yard from another angle. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where/how to plan the new square foot beds. On paper, it all looks like it will fit, but when I walk in the yard, it's a head scratcher. Honestly, we have a 1 acre yard, albeit a little oddly shaped. We should have plenty of room for everything, I think!

This is the space between the coop and the shed. At the top of the photo, we have 3 strawberry beds, asparagus, boysenberry, rhubarb and several smaller 3' x 3' beds that the kids have claimed. Next is the extra large compost bin, open space for potatoes (can't bear to grow them in the square foot method - we aim for at least 300 lbs of potatoes). In the middle of the picture, the fuzzy green stuff is the other asparagus bed, 2 more small square foot beds and the very long bed is slated for corn. Hopefully, it's far enough away from the fence that the lovely horses do not eat the stalks like they did this year.

Oh, the "ghost" is our attempt at wrapping one of the 4' x4' squares in plastic to extend the growing cycle. Even with our whipping winds in Kansas, the plastic was holding up okay. What has been a major pain is the temp fluctuation... from lows in the 20's to highs in the upper 70's. We have to put it on and take it off so, for now, it's off. All I have in there is spinach, carrots, greens and radishes.

So, this is the view from the rabbit hutch towards the coop. See the tiny little Jerry in the pix on top of the coop? I dare say, we have PLENTY of room to grow a lot more...

Speaking of Confetti Flocks

2008-11-02T20:12:00.008-06:00

Today, J finished putting the shingles on the coop. YEAH!! While he was banging away, I let the chicks run around outside the coop. This is what a confetti flock looks like... That's farmer Cole in the background. Or Chick Wrangler.

To the left in the photo is the horse fencing. We are incredibly lucky that our backyard neighbors are 4 horses, on 7 acres. So, we get a sense of wide open space and all the horse love we want without the work. *grin* And, whenever the girls ask for ponies, we just point over the fence and say, "There ya go!"

My Favorite Red Head ~ Lucy

2008-11-02T19:59:00.007-06:00

When we ordered our chickens from My Pet Chicken, I couldn't really decide what kind to get. I'd promised the youngest son that we were only going to get hens ~ egg consumption is okay with him, but NOT eating pets. His therory is that if you name it, you can't eat it.

After much debate, we settled on a confetti flock of White Leghorn, Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Barred Plymouth Rocks and New Hampshire Reds.

When they arrived, I was beside myself ~ giddy beyond belief. The were so sweet, fuzzy and just C*U*T*E. I was in love, with all of them. But something funny happened, once they started growing, one in particular just endeared herself to me. She was sassy, bossy and noisy. She was the biggest and the first to get her comb ~ which came in bright red... hence her name.... Lucy. She is still the biggest, sassiest and one with the most personality... but now we wonder, is our Lucy really a Larry? And, if she is a he, what the heck are we gonna do? Roosters are NOT allowed within the city limits... and apparently, if we try to eat him, our youngest son is going to run away and take Lucy/Larry with him. *Sigh* Anybody know for sure if this is a boy or girl? She/he is about 2 months old now.

Book Review: The Organic Food Shopper's Guide

2008-10-30T09:30:00.006-05:00

I checked out the book from our library. I rarely buy books - I wouldn't have room to keep all the ones I read!

I was looking for a field guide to buying veggies. I just grabbed this off the shelf, not realizing that it was going to be a gem!

Okay, it's organized alphabetically. For each item, it lists when it's in season, varieties, how to select it, how to store & prepare it, nutritional highlights and what it goes good with, organic advantages and uses (ah! not just for cooking/eating!!) As a bonus, there are recipes galore!!

This book is going on the shopping list. I think it's something I'd love to have on hand while planning my garden as well as shopping. It's a smaller size so it'll tuck into a basket or purse.

For example, I'm on a quest to grow my own garlic after I tried my hand at making roasted garlic (super easy) for homemade hummus (also, super easy.) We hit the Farmer's Market and found the Garlic Lady (I wish I knew everyone's name, but I just call them by what they sell...) We bought 30 cloves of garlic. Some got roasted ~ YUM! Others went into the spaghetti sauce that I canned. The rest will be planted. I've got the spot ready, even have a ton of shredded paper.

So, that brings me to the book. I have no idea what kind of garlic I had. Until I read the book, I didn't recognize that there are 2 main types: hard-neck and soft-neck. Now, I know that I have white skinned, soft-neck garlic. So, I can check into other varieties next year.

What is even more amazing is to find out that once you find a type/kind of garlic you like, you can grow it from the original clove until you have the abundant bumper crop you need for eating and planting. (That I learned in another book ~ stay tuned.)

Bad Seed Farm Bee Class

2008-10-29T12:14:00.003-05:00

The boys and I motored up to KC this past weekend to attend a Bee Keeping Class at Bad Seed Farm Market. Chris, the bee keeper, brought a lot of things to see and a wealth of info.

We've been thinking about adding bees to our little homestead, but DH has been concerned that bees and little people/dogs/chicks/horses aren't a good match. Well, it seems that others have blended the bees right into their suburban backyards with much success.

We had researched hive box building and found severl great online references to the Emile Warre method, but no place to buy them. Sooo, DH has offered to assist us in making our set up. We have plenty of time, bees don't arrive until April.

One class member (sorry, I didn't catch your name) gave info as to building a house for Mason Bees. Apparently, they are just as good or even better pollenators as Honey bees, and they don't need a hive. So, after hunting thru some library books, we found a simple design for a bundle of bamboo that will be easy to construct.

Really, all we want is to add bees to our homestead, whether they are honey bees or mason bees, either way is just fine.

By the way, the above photo is one box from Chris's hive. It contains about 25 pounds of unprocessed honey and honey comb. It even had a stowaway bee that zipped out during class.

Thanks K's Dad

2008-10-10T14:53:00.006-05:00

We have a wonderful family friend, K, who's dad is a fabulous gardener. Someday, I'm gonna grow up and be just like him. So when dad of K called her to offer her a bushel of apples, slightly spotty, she declined. Then dad & mom went on vacation.

She relayed the info to me and I immediately begged for the apples, spots and all. My garden produced, but not enough for me to be tired of canning, and I haven't done apples yet. So, she calls her folks on vacation and inquires if I may have the apples. Yes!

Now, we got the spotted orbs of goodness several weeks after picking, so some were a bit mushy, but we processed all we could, nibbling as we went. We fed the chicks some peelings, fed the worms some mush, fed the horses some cores and the rest we dumped into the compost bin.

I found a great recipe for cinnamon apple sauce and we made 7 quarts.

Does anyone else have kids who insist on eating what you just canned?! It doesn't matter if we have fresh stuff, they just want what's canned. It's like they cannot believe what we just made. So, we ended up eating 2 jars already. Sigh. At this rate, we will be staring at empty cupboards in November, except for salsa, which they do not eat with gusto.

My birthday wish came true

2008-10-10T14:06:00.004-05:00

I've always had a fierce love for laundry hanging on a line, snapping in the breeze. My great grandma used to babysit us and she actually let us play in the laundry. Well, not the just washed stuff, but she would hang up sheets and blankets and we'd play for hours.

Fast forward to my newlywed years. My DH and I rented our first "house" that came complete with a laundry line in the yard. It was a square affair and dippy and crooked and it was just mostly a pain, but I did use it. Then, we moved into our next house that was built in the '50s and it had the more traditional T-posts with lines strung between. That house saw plenty of cloth diapers and baby stuff added to the usual 2 loads a week. Our next house also had a laundry line, but it ran in the midst of cedar trees. I'm sure when they were planted, no one ever thought they'd grow so wide. I implored my DH to dig them up and move the posts, but alas, he wasn't ever able to do that. He did put up some new wire between trees which worked nicely.

After 13 years of marriage, we finally bought our first house. It had everything on my list of wants/needs except the clothes line. DH promised he'd put one in for me. Every year for any gift giving holiday, I asked for a clothes line. Dozens of holidays have come and gone and this year, in honor of my birthday, I bought myself the cadillac of clothes lines, the Breeze Catcher 140.

It has all the best features: tons of hanging space (holds 3 full loads of clothes), spins with the minimum of breeze (we have plenty of that), folds down like an umbrella and if need be, can be removed from the ground and stored during the winter. OH, and it's rust proof.

The only trouble we had is that it's so windy here, that we ended up cementing it into the ground (after we had it inside the recommended cement block). And, that's really no trouble at all. They even sell the pipe that goes into the cement, in case you ever want to move the system and re-install it somewhere else.

All in all, truly one of the best gifts ever!

Gardening

2008-10-07T10:53:00.003-05:00

We've always had a garden. Some more successful than others. Some years it's just a few tomatoes, others, it's a sprawling tangle mess of weeds and struggling veggies.

When we moved into our current home, we were extremely blessed to inherit a wonderful garden spot that still had growing produce in it. I'm sure the former gardeners must have spend a lot more time than we do, because in just a few months, we had transformed that beautiful plot into a weed infested wasteland. Sigh.

Every fall, we'd vow to do better next year. We'd burn off the stubble and plow it under. Spring would come and we'd begin planting with hopes and visions of bumper crops of glorious veggies. But, when the heat of summer hit, we'd abandon the mess and just wait til fall to burn and turn it under.

Until this year. We got smart and decided to have our soil tested. Yes, I realize it wouldn't help with the weeds, but it surely would address why we had such spindly plants and little yields. DH dug up several spots and mixed the soil together. Then took a sample to our local Extension office, paid the $ and we waited.

A few weeks later, we got the results back. While we had a wonderful mix of soil and compost, we were severely lacking in nitrogen. We also had a pH of 7.2 while most vegetables prefer 6.3-6.8, so sulfur was recommended to drop the pH.

We had very high levels of phosphorus and potassium and organic matter.

I highly recommend if your garden is struggling, get the soil tested. You will receive a summary report as well as detailed report on what you have and what you lack. Based on their advice, we added nitrogen fertilizer found at local garden centers. And, it worked! This year, we had a much better crop.

It all started with a bag...

2008-10-07T10:41:00.003-05:00

This past spring, I saw a few earth friendly (i.e. re-usable) bags in various stores, so I started collecting them. At first, it was just the utlitarian ones from Walmart and Dillons. Then, I found artsy ones at Pier 1 and super huge ones at Aldis and pink ones at the Komen race and well, now I'm hooked. I seriously have a bag addiction. I have fold up ones, zippered ones, water proof ones and ones for frozen items. I keep them in my car, but I have noticed that nearly every member of my family has at least one bag in use in their rooms. My youngest, Miss Em is a lover of bags too. She is always filling them up and dragging them around the house. Right now, she is grooving on the Paris bag from Pier 1.

Anybag, this obsession quickly gave way to other earth friendly ideas and fast forward 5 months and we now have chickens, in a coop, in the yard!! Yes, friends, I have fallen hard for urban homesteading. I'll post several blogs about how I got here and what we're doing.