Do you eat left overs?

I was just reading something about this, and have often talked with people about what do they do with their leftovers from meals.

I can not get over how many people say, "Oh, my husband won't eat leftovers".  Or "My children won't eat leftovers".

Have you ever told your husband that by not eating those leftovers it's like throwing $30.00 away from the $100.00 you spent on groceries that week?  Maybe if you put it to him like that, he'd get it.

Also, when I was brought up, we had dinner at the table, together, or as together as the family was going to be that night, and you ate what was there.  The only choice you might have is what to drink, which was usually milk or water, or how many of the vegetable choices you wanted.  If you didn't "like" what was there, you didn't eat.

My father often said, and still does, "take what you're going to eat, and eat what you take."

There was always more than enough food on the table for seconds if you wanted them, but you had best finish what you took.

Now, I'm not saying and I don't want to debate this, I'm not saying we were FORCED to eat every morsel on our plate, no, that never happened.  But, we also knew that we shouldn't take more than we felt we were going to eat at the first serving.

Now, was there always "leftovers" in our house after each meal?  No, not usually.  Somehow, it seemed that my mother had a pretty good gauge on how much to make for our family.   And usually, there was just enough for the dinner or there would be just enough for dad to have a sandwich for lunch the next day at work.

Otherwise, my dad took peanut butter and jelly every day to work, on Wonder bread.  There was no eating off the lunch truck, or going out to lunch, or stopping for coffee.  Dad never spent any money for meals or snacks at work.  A peanut butter sandwich and a piece of fruit were his lunch.

 

Do you have rules at your house for what you fix and what your family will eat?

Green Tomato Cake?

 

Here are just a few of my green tomatoes from the garden.

 

I hadn't really thought much about what to do with them, but since I've taken on the idea that we should not waste anything, especially food, I went to allrecipes.com which is my favorite website to hunt for recipes.

 Here is the recipe that I decided to try:
Green Tomato Cake
Submitted by : Glenda

4 cups of chopped green tomatoes
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon of salt.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Place in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).  Grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking pan.
Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and beat until creamy.
Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Add raisins and nuts to dry mix., add dry to creamed mixture.  Dough will be very stiff.  Mix well.
Add drained tomatoes and mix well.  Pour into prepared 9 x 13 pan.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes in preheated oven until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I did not have regular raisins, so I used golden raisins and I had no walnuts so did not use them.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written.

Here are the tomatoes once chopped.  Small pieces, not puree.

 

As you can see, it doesn't look very pretty at this stage,

 

 

 

 

I am very lucky that Dear Darling will try anything, at least once.  But I knew that if I told him right away it was green tomatoes it might cause him to have a preconceived idea of what it would taste like.  So, I decided to ice the cake with a white, homemade icing, like his grandmother used to make. Recipe to follow.



After dinner, I served the cake and spoke about making the icing and how I had not gotten it quite right, but that I was on the right track and that it tasted good.

After he had finished his piece and asked for more I told him what the cake actually was.

He liked it.  Said he never would have known, thought maybe it was apple cake.

Now, I can't wait until next years green tomatoes arrive to make more of these to put in the freezer for winter treats!

White Frosting
Submitted by Sierra

1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, combine the milk and flour.  Cook over medium high heat until boiling.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

When the milk mixture is cool, add the butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer for 10 to 12 minutes, scraping the bottom of the bowl occasionally.  Keep frosted cake in refrigerator until half an hour before serving.

(I actually halved the originally recipe, which is what I posted above, because I was doing a 9 x 13 cake and the original recipe was for a layer cake)

Now my tips about the icing.  You want the milk/flour mix to be smooth so you have to try to get all the lumps out.  Add the flour slowly to the milk.

Don't let the milk mix cool too much, you need some of that heat to melt the sugar, and yes, it's white sugar, or your icing will be gritty.  But you don't want it so warm that you melt the butter and the shortening.

And yes, you beat it for 10 to 12 minutes because you are using the white sugar and not powdered to help break down the grittiness of the white sugar.

It's not overly sweet and a nice addition to any cake.

They say you need to keep your cake refrigerated because of the milk.

I hope if you give it a try that you'll let me know your thoughts.

Making Bread

 

The ingredients

 Today, let's talk about making bread.

Back in December, when Dear Darling found out that he may be let go (from the third job in five years) I decided that we had to go back to cutting corners where we could to put our energies into areas that we really needed the money, our savings.

Since I try very hard to NOT eat too much bread, I dragged out our bread maker and decided to make a loaf of bread each week.  Certainly that had to save money, right?

 

 

 

Here is the recipe that I use each time I make bread in the bread maker.  Easy peasy.

 

 

Country White Bread

 

1 cup warm milk (110 - 115 degrees F)

1 and 1/2 tablespoon of butter or margarine

1 large egg

1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons active dry yeast



 

First, after assembling my ingredients, I make sure the paddle is in the pan of the bread machine.  Let me tell you!  It can get pretty interesting when you look to see how your bread is doing and it's not moving!  Putting that in while all the ingredients are in the pan is fun.

 

 

 

Be sure to use the right tools while making bread.  Liquid needs to be measured in a liquid measuring cup, seen here on the right, and the flour in a dry measuring cup, seen on the left.  I forgot to photograph the measuring spoons.

 

 

 

First, I warm the milk in the microwave for about 1 minute and 30 seconds.  Then I put into the bread pan, next the butter, then after a few minutes, the egg.  You don't want to put the egg in right away, because the milk is a bit warm at first.  I usually put it in after having measured the flour into an old pie pan.

 

After the egg, I put the flour in to cover the liquid.  Next is the salt, sugar and lastly the yeast.  You don't want the yeast to touch the wet yet.

 

Then I put the pan into the bread machine, close the lid, touch the start button, and three hours later we have bread!

 

I buy King Arthur flour now, all kinds of it, but I use their bread flour for our bread.  I like that is it milled here in the USA and it is made using wheat grown in the USA.  That is important to me. When I see it on sale, as it was this week for $2.99, I purchase at least 4 bags.  I also got an unbleached white all purpose and an unbleached white whole wheat, also $2.99.  I figured out that we get about 5 loaves of bread out of each 5 pound bag.

The  milk is from a local dairy.  Their milk is a bit more expensive than the grocery store, but here I know where it was raised and how, and it is days old when I get it.  Cost approximately $3.00 depending on the kind of milk, sometimes less.  That's for a half gallon.

 

The egg I use is from a local farmer, free range egg, those are $2.50 a dozen.  Yes, more than the grocery store, but at least I know where it's coming from, that it is days fresh and it supports a local small farmer.

Butter, I try to buy on sale from what ever grocery is having the best deal when I need it.  Usually at $2.00 to $2.50 a pound.  (I am going to try my hand at making my own though.

 

The sugar, now there is an item whose price seems to be driven by the season.  AND if you haven't noticed, they aren't 5 pound bags in the grocery store anymore.  They are 4 pound bags.  This last bag of sugar I got was from SAM's club and it was $4.98 for a 10 pound bag, a very good price.

 

The salt, well, I don't use much and haven't bought a jar of salt in years, so I don't know how much it currently is.

 

The yeast I buy when I see it on sale and check for a long expiration date.  I can usually get the jar seen for about $5.00 sometimes less with a coupon.

 

So, how much does my bread cost?

Approximately:

 

Bread flour  .60

Milk             .38

Sugar           .02

Egg              .21

Yeast           .27

Salt              .02

total            1.50

 

Now, could I buy a loaf of bread of a $1.50?  Yes, I could, but I wouldn't know where the ingredients came from, or when it had been made AND it would have preservatives in it.  Plus, the bread we used to buy would run about $3.99 a loaf.

So our savings is about $2.25, I left off .25 for electric use.  Savings is about $120 a year, and that is at just one loaf a week, sometimes I make two.

Be sure to remove the paddle BEFORE cutting the bread!!



Our house

Our house, is a very, very fine house.......

The beginnings of new front landscaping.  Only one half is done at this point.

I'm not sure what made me think to write about our house today.  But, it's the topic of the day.

Our house, our home, is located on a hill, as I've mentioned before.  I wouldn't call it the perfect house.  I wouldn't say we want to stay here forever.  It's a nice enough home for this point in time.

The side yard as seen from our deck. At the tip is where the hugel is.

We've already been here longer than we had planned when we moved here.  We had a five year plan then, and the economy tanked and dear darling has lost his job 3 times in the last 5 years.  But, we've managed to hold on.  Bills paid every month, never late.

The housing market in our area is great for home buyers, but not sellers.  So that is why we are waiting, and hoping that the market will recover enough and that the other houses, of which there are 5 in our block, will sell and we can begin to look for a small home that we can live in forever.

The other side of the back yard.

For me, the perfect house would be small.  Two bedrooms, with a basement and if no garage, at least a yard big enough to build one for dear darling to have a nice sized workshop or man cave.  I would love to have a yard big enough for a nice garden to provide the food we need to feed us and also to have some chickens.  I am also not sure that I would want to live in a neighborhood or out in the country.

Do you live in your forever home?

Don't have one? Borrow it.

I don't have my own sewing machine,

anymore.

There, I said it.  I don't tell many people this story, but I'll share it with you.

My parents gave me a lovely Singer sewing machine when we were first married.

One year my brother made for me a lovely sewing cabinet that you could store your machine in and that opened out to work on when you sewed.  It was lovely.

I'm not much of a sewer, but I did curtain hems and made some pants for our little boy, when he was our "little" boy. 

It moved with us to the mid west and I am not sure that I sewed at all when we lived there.  But I did use the cabinet as a buffet table on several occasions.

When we were moving back east, our home is smaller here.  SO, I had to purge an awful lot of stuff.  We had too much to begin with, and we just had to purge.  I had decisions to make on some things that were very difficult and I agonized over them.  Sometimes, I still do.

About two weeks before we were to leave my very, very dear friend and neighbor and I were having a visit with one another when she mentioned that her sewing machine had broken beyond repair after many years of service and she couldn't afford to get a new one right now.  She sewed a lot, for crafts and for her grandchildren.  Plus, her daughter used it to sew.

So, after nearly no thought at all, I knew I could give her my sewing machine and cabinet and that it would be well used and loved forever.  And I made her promise, should she ever not want either anymore she had to ask her daughter if she would like them and if not, she would need to contact me so that I could help her decide what was to be done with them.

She didn't want to accept my gift.  She felt it was too much.  But she accepted because, I like to think, she knew that I wanted her to always remember me.  She had helped me through some of the most difficult situations in my life and this was just a small token of my appreciation for all she had done for me over 10 years of being neighbors.

Now, onto the borrow it.

It's been seven years since we've moved and I finally have a few jobs that I could use a sewing machine for.  I have my mothers 1955 Singer, but it needs a good going over and I haven't found anyone yet to do this job with confidence.

So, I don't want or even need to buy one.  I have my mothers.  So I asked a few of my girlfriends and one of them has graciously loaned me a spare of hers.  It's a Singer, so it wasn't hard to learn how to use and it works very nicely.

Next time you "need" something for a job to do, don't just go out and buy one, ask some friends,  ask some family.  Perhaps they have one you can borrow, or buy from them. 

Most of us have too much "stuff".  And most of us don't know what to do with all the "stuff" so it just kind of sits there, waiting, taking up space and making us feel guilty.

Sweet Potato Vine

I wish that I could fit the whole thing as it is into one picture, but I just can't.

This is one plant, in the pot with the coleus.  It grew to cover this whole area and then some.  It just did wonderfully here and I have enjoyed it so much this summer.

I decided to try to propagate some to have for next year so that I don't have to buy it.  One plant runs about $2.50 to $3.00 for a 4 inch pot.

I read that you could propagate them by making a cutting, removing the bottom most leaves and sticking it in a jar of water.

What could be easier?!

So I took five cutting from this vine and put them into a quart milk jar and waiting until the roots were about two inches long and then transplanted each one into a pot of potting soil and put them on my counter behind the sink. 

I know they like a lot of sun, and this window is just above where the vine grew all summer.

Have you tried to save money by propagating your plants?  I'd love to know how you made out or any tips you might have, leave me a comment.

Propagation

I decided that I wanted to try to save a few of the plants I grew on my deck this year that did really well.

My mother often saved her geraniums from year to year by bringing them in and putting them on an easterly facing window in our basement and neglecting them.

So, I looked up some information on propagation on the Internet and here is my beginning.

I wanted to save a scented geranium, citronella.  It is the one with the more lime coloring and the other is a geranium which I think is Martha Washington.  A lovely pink.

I took cuttings from the mother plant, and used perlite/vermiculite and some potting soil.  Put the cuttings into some rooting hormone after removing the bottom most leaves from the stems and then made a small hole in the soil and put the cutting in.  Then, I watered and put a Ziploc bag, a used one, over top to act as a small green house and left them on my deck, partially shaded from the sun.

That was several weeks ago and they seem to have rooted.  If you give them a small tug, you can't pull them out of the soil.  There is some new growth, so the roots must be doing their job and I think I successfully did mine for this propagation.

By propagating your plants that you have, you can save money the following season, because you don't have to purchase new plants.  At least, that is my hope with these plants for next year.

I am not the best "indoor" plant person, so we'll see if they last the winter.

Something for nothing

Sometimes you just need to network.  People do that when they are looking for a job, right?

Well, sometimes you just need to put out there a need you have, or you just need to listen to what people have that they want to get rid of or trade for something that they need.

Dear darling works with a fellow whose sister owns a bagel shop.  Every Thursday morning she drops off the day olds to her brother and he brings them to work for anyone who wants them.  Sometimes it's a few, sometimes it's a dozen or more.

Dear darling, being new to this job, didn't really know "joe" well so he didn't want to take any bagels the first few weeks, but noticed that they usually got put into the shop frig and no one took them, they got forgotten and got thrown out.  What a waste!

Now, each week, if no one has take them, or some, dear darling will put them in the freezer and bring them home and we put them in our freezer.  Unless he picks and chooses, which he doesn't have time for, we do end up with bagels we wouldn't normally buy, like Jalapeno, which thank goodness they color with red dye to warn you, they are HOT!

Some will be eaten for breakfast, some will become a bun for a sandwich or burger and some will become bagel chips or croutons.

Another thing that we get "free" is our aged compost.  Our county has a composting program that is open to anyone in the county.  You can bring your yard waste in.  Townships bring in their yard waste, and the program processes it.  Anyone in the county can go in during operating hours and take as much compost as they want for free.  Residents only.  No contractors.  The program is also run in part by one of the local colleges and the Department of Natural Resources.

Now, is this compost "organic"?  No, I don't think it could be classified as that because it has yard waste from anywhere and everywhere and lots of home owners use chemicals on their lawns.  So in this case, you need to use your best judgement as to where you want to use this compost.

My last item is "almost for nothing".  Dear darling has a friend with a tree business and in exchange for free firewood that's already been cut and split, dear darling helps him out with odd jobs he needs done in his down time.  So, basically, we have heated our home for the past four years for free.

Ask around, you may be surprised at what good things are out there, free for the asking.  I'd love to hear about what you find.

I made yogurt

In my crock pot for the first time this week.

I have made yogurt before, years ago, with a nice Salton yogurt maker, but, when we moved, it didn't come with us.  I didn't want the expense of buying another one.  On eBay they start at about $20.00.

I did some research on the Internet and found a recipe for how to make yogurt in my crock pot.

Very simple.  1/2 a gallon of whole milk in the crock pot on low for 3 hours.  Turn off for three hours, keep covered and let sit on the counter.  Take a 4 or 6 oz container of yogurt, if this is your first batch and you don't have starter from a previous batch, and 2 cups of the milk from the crock pot and mix it together.  Then take that and mix it back in to the milk in the crock pot and put the cover back on and cover with a bath towel or two for about 8 hours.  DONE.

I found that this yogurt came out just fine, but different from the "Greek" style yogurt we've gotten used to eating.  Here is what I did.

I got some cheese cloth from Joann fabrics, 50% off with a coupon, and I put a small grid strainer over a bowl and lined it with two layers of cheese cloth, put in some of the yogurt and then covered and put in the refrigerator for about an hour.

I was shocked, honestly, about the amount of liquid, whey, that came out of the yogurt.  I put that into a mason jar to use later.  From what I've heard, you can use that in your baking instead of water or milk.  I have to research that further.

Anyway, dear darling liked the yogurt before I strained it and made it thicker.  I liked it better afterwards.

It was so easy to do.  Took nearly no real time or effort on my part.  And didn't make too much of a mess.  Win. Win.  All the way around.

The extra thing of it all is, there are no additives.  Have you looked at some of the yogurts you've been eating?

ps. Please excuse the photo of my crock pot.  It is well loved.  My mother used it for many years and now it is mine and works fabulously. 

What will my day looks like

I read only one blog currently, Down to Earth, by Rhonda Hetzel.  She has also written a book by the same name and she lives in Australia.

Anyway, while look through her blog she posted once about how her day looked and she wanted to know what others, who read her blog, looked like as well.

So, here is what my day will look like.

The alarm goes off at 6:00 am and I call to wake my husband up.  Then I get myself out of bed, wash up and get the coffee on.  My dear four legged is getting older, he will sometimes follow me out of the bedroom, or come behind me a bit later and want to go out.

It is fall weather here, or at least it is trying to be fall and it's still a bit dark at 6 am.  Sometimes he will want to go out right away, sometimes not.  Most days we will go out on the deck together and enjoy the morning quiet together.

Since we are an empty nest now, the mornings are much more quiet and slower and I take this time to knit on projects that need to be done for work.  I knit samples for a local yarn shop and when they want something I put in the time to have it done in short order.  If not samples, I work on what ever project needs to get done as I usually have more than one going at a time.  It may seem silly to sit and have coffee and knit just after getting up in the morning, but it really helps me look at my day to see what needs the most attention.

Today I will dress twice, once for working around the house and once for doing errands.  I always like to look nice when I go out and don't want to dirty those clothes with house chores or yard work.  First I will dress for chores.

Today is Monday and that means get the garbage ready as tomorrow is garbage day.  Glass and Aluminum will be picked up as well.  So I will clean up the yard of dog droppings, a daily event, and take that bag down to go out tomorrow.  I will look in the refrigerator and see if anything made its way to the back to be forgotten and dispose of that.  I try VERY hard to not let that happen.

Today, I will be going to a friends house to pick up her sewing machine.  (The story of mine is for another post.)  She is so kindly lending it to me for a week or so, so that I may do some curtain alterations and I would like to make some personal wipes and some grocery totes.  I don't really sew very much, haven't in more than 7 years now, so I don't really need a machine, but they sure do come in handy when you have several projects to work on.

While I am out today I need to go look for a new dehumidifier and hopefully I will be able to find one.  Ours has been recalled and from what the website says they will reimburse you, but not send you a new one.  You have to cut off the cord and send that and the front label plate to them with a form and they send you a reimbursement in 4 to 6 weeks.  So, it will be Christmas at that rate and I really can't wait that long.  Fall and spring the dehumidifier runs almost constantly to keep control of the moisture in the lower level of our home.

Also, today is hair day.  I will go for a hair cut and a color, which I only do about 4 times a year.  I have tried several times over the past 20 years to let my hair go without the color but I just can't seem to get to that point  yet.  Vanity.  Well, to a degree I guess it is.  But does it make me feel better and good about myself?  Yes, so it is worth it. 

This afternoon I will work in the yard.  As I said it is fall and over the weekend a lot of leaves fell from our birch trees.  The leaves this year will be going into my compost pile.  My first one while living here.  I think of all the years I could have been growing my own soil......  But, everything starts with the first step, right?  So next year I will have some good compost of my own making.  Up until now, our yard waste went to the local composting center and helped to make compost for everyone.

Something I noticed this morning is that one of the birch trees fell down in the wind, so I will have to see if I can manage that on my own, or wait until the weekend.

This evening there will be more knitting.

There are tons of things in between that I will do, but they are just the daily things that anyone does.

I have a confession to make.

 

I knit socks.

 

There, I said it.

 

My Aunt taught me to knit a number of years ago, and I made simple prayer shawls for years.  Knit three, purl three, with Homespun yarn by Lion Brand.

 

It filled a need for me.  I would sit in the morning, before the rush of the day and knit and contemplate my day.  It was soothing to me.  The rhythm I created with the needles.

 

 

socks made of Opal

 

 

Then in 2007 I decided I wanted to learn to knit socks.  I didn't have anyone near me to teach me, so I began to search the Internet and found several places to watch videos.  And I watched and re watched.  I was so proud when I knit my first sock.

 

 

I have made MANY pairs of socks since then and my favorite yarn is Opal, made in Germany.  Some of my socks I have been wearing for 6 years with no issues.  They haven't worn out, or worn thin.  AND because I have a small foot, I can usually get two pairs of socks out of one skein of yarn, which is a big plus.

Knitting socks is one of the things I do that I feel is duel purpose.  I knit them to make a functional piece of clothing and to occupy my time and feel useful.

Knitting isn't hard, it just takes patience and practice.  You could do it as well.  Start small.  Learn to knit a scarf, learn to knit a dish cloth.  Don't be too hard on yourself.  You will rip things out sometimes for one reason or another.  It's a part of the process.

Give it a try, I know you won't regret it.

Small things can save you big!

There are tons of ways to save money, but are you willing to do them?

Some people feel that they will be depriving themselves.  Says who?  OH, that's right, the Jones' or the advertisers.

When did we stop thinking for ourselves?

Sure, everyone likes to have a big house, a big car, a big boat.......  And they also have BIG BILLS to go along with them.  Don't think because someone has more than you, nicer than you, or bigger than you that they are not MORE in debt than you.  And why should you try to keep up?  So you can look as happy as they do, and once the doors are closed, be miserable?

We all lead the life we want.  We all make the choices we do.

We have chosen, after some curve balls, to live a bit more simply.  To not have the newest, fastest, brightest, biggest ______.  (You fill in the blank)

We want to be happy with where we are at.  We want to continue to pay down our debt and enter into the stage in life where we can put a little something more away for a rainy day.

As a couple, we decided that I would stay home and work at making our home a nice place to come to.  To have a garden, to make bread, to have healthy meals on the table.  To knit items for ourselves and as gifts.  To take care of the dog.

How do small things save you big? as the title of this post states.

Well, sometimes it's the little things, done over time that save you money.

Take the time to reuse containers.  They could be glass jars that your spaghetti sauce came in, or the containers that your vegetables came in.

Take time to remember your handmade grocery bags.  They save the environment, which is big.  You are doing something, not just for yourself, but for the world as a whole.

Before you throw something away, think if it could be repaired, reused in another way or recycled.  Such as my trough garden.  These items would have been thrown away into recycle yes, but they will have a much more productive life as a garden.

Look around your home for the appliances that you do not use everyday that are plugged in.  How many do you see?  If they aren't important, meaning the freezer, refrigerator or an appliance you can't unplug, unplug them when you aren't using them.  We have three in the wall air conditioning units.  In the off season, I unplug them.  Do I know how much this saves us?  No, I've never actually worked that out, I suppose I should, but I know that there is a little green light on the plug and it has to be using some electric if it's lite all the time.  I do the same with several lights in rooms we don't use often, as well as the coffee pot and the toaster. 

Give it a try, it's a small thing to do, but can save you big over time.

Bare with me, I'm new at this

I admire so many out there who have these great blogs.  You can spend hours looking at them and they give you a glimpse into their lives that you might never have known.

Kind of like years ago, when we wrote letters, and waited day, weeks or a month or more for a reply from a pen pal.  There was no email, no text message, no twitter, no Internet.  You wrote out a letter and mailed it and hoped that it got there.

I used to love to write letters.  I still do.  The sad part is, most people don't write back.  They email you or text you.

So this blog, for me, is kind of filling that need, and I'm not sure whose looking or listening, but maybe something I share will mean something to them.

I'm also going to try to get better with my photography so that I can share some nice pictures on here.  That's another thing that has become a dinosaur.  Picture albums.  You can do everything on your phone, your camera or your computer.  No more Kodachrome.

Why do you blog?  What kinds of blogs do you like to read?  How did you end up here?

Thanks for visiting.  Until next time.

Snow Storm

No, not where I am.  In South Dakota.

They weren't expecting this early fall snow.  They hadn't brought in the cattle from the range. Estimates are some ranchers have lost 50% of their beef cattle.

16,000 people are without electricity.

The price of beef will now go up, I am sure.  Maybe even milk as well.

It seems retailers will try to gouge people anyway they can. The ranchers, I'm sure, won't see the higher beef price, it will be the stores.

This is just one reason why it's always a good thing to have food in the freezer and the pantry.  It can hold you over when there is an emergency, whether it is in your immediate family, or if there is a natural disaster near you, or even one that didn't directly affect you, but you feel the ripples.

My heart goes out to the ranchers who are affected by this storm.  I hope once the snow clears they haven't lost as much cattle as they are currently thinking.

Next time you go to do your grocery shopping, think about the farmer/rancher/producer of the item you are purchasing, and be thankful.

Are you prepared?

There have been a few natural disasters in the past few years that makes one wonder, Am I prepared?

The first year, it was a flood.  Thank goodness, we live in and on a mountain, and the water didn't come near us, but within 2 miles the river rose.  It rose to a height higher than the government had ever recorded.  The bench mark was always "Agnes".  Agnes happened in 1973 and was the flood to end all floods.

Hhhhhmmmmm.

Then we had September 2011 happen, and the flooding was worse.  The rain was bad, and people were evacuated.  People weren't prepared to be without.

How can you be hearing about a storm for days and not have water, extra batteries and some canned goods in the house?  How can people expect someone else to care for them when a natural disaster, with warning, happens?

Every person, I don't care where you live, or what your means are, should have SOME ability to have the bare necessities available.  You can have some candles, whether it's just for an emergency or for everyday.  You can keep some matches handy and dry.  If you can, purchase a decent flashlight and an extra pack or two of batteries to keep on hand.  Make sure you have any medications that you need.  Keep them in a water tight container that is handy to get at.  If you should need to leave, you are prepared to grab it and go. 

On your next grocery trip, you don't need to spend a fortune, but you can buy a jar of peanut butter, a couple can's of tuna and a box of crackers to keep on hand should you need them.  OH, and a can opener, or be sure that the tuna has a pop top.

Some people will go to the extreme and be prepared in many ways.  Or at the other end of the spectrum, you have those who think, "oh, it will never happen."  Then, they can't understand how it happened to them!

Now, I'm not saying don't use extreme caution.  If they are telling you to evacuate, EVACUATE!  You are not only putting yourself in harms way, but the people who will have to rescue you when you finally decide to CALL FOR HELP.

But, when you evacuate, you need a plan?  Are you prepared for that?

There are many places to look on line for how to prepare for an emergency.  Take the time to look at some and decide what is appropriate for you and your family.  Also, don't forget your animals.  They can't fend for themselves at home.  They may not be admitted into the shelter closest to you.  Perhaps there is someone you could stay with in a safe place, or perhaps you need to leave yourself some extra time to get farther away.  Don't wait until the last minute.

Everything you have is replaceable except your family, that includes your animals.  Be prepared to take care of them and yourself.

Some things we always have on hand and have made preparations for an emergency.

When we know we may be losing power, I fill the tub with water for flushing the toilets.  I also purchase a case of bottled water, or I put water bottles that I've filled from the tap into the refrigerator.  Plus, I keep some empty milk jugs handy and fill most of the way with water and put them into the freezer so they can freeze before the power goes out.  It does help.
Batteries in all sizes that are used in our flashlights and radios.
Stick matches - during hurricane Sandy you couldn't FIND ANY for weeks!! We have since gifted boxes of stick matches to friends who were without power for nearly 10 days.  They LOVE them!
Canned goods and a can opener - most canned goods you can eat cold, they may not be pleasant, but when you are hungry, they are better than nothing!
Extra blankets - They could be old, they could be wool, they could just be extra material
An alternate heat source - if you are staying in your home.  We heat our home with wood so we could also cook on this stove if need be.  If you have a gas stove in your kitchen, NEVER run it without cooking, it can be dangerous.  If you need to use it to heat, cook something, bake something, boil water, then turn it off.  You don't need the fumes to kill you should the flame go out unnoticed.
Cell phones may not work.  OR the battery in them could go dead.  ALWAYS have an old fashioned, non cordless phone to plug in.  You remember, the kind that you grew up with, and if you are too young, the kind at your grandparents house....  A cordless phone will not work without power.
For cooking, you could use a camp stove or your grill OUTSIDE!  DO NOT use it in the house or the garage as it is EXTREMELY dangerous.

Edited:  Something I forgot to mention was MONEY.  Make sure you have cash, perhaps enough for a week.  If there is no electricity, you can't go to the ATM, you can't use your check card or your credit card, and depending on your bank and their emergency set up, you may not even be able to go to the bank for money.

Do some research of your own to see what kinds of things you feel would make you most comfortable in a disaster situation.  Then take the time to prepare.

Perhaps, for you, it means having candles, lots of candles handy so that you aren't in the dark.

Or, maybe it means having a few good books handy, or to have your Kindle or Nook fully charged so that you could read something you have on there.

Maybe it means making your favorite hot beverage and putting it into a thermos so that it is hot or warm in the middle of the night.


I'd like to hear your ideas on what being prepared means to you.

Monarch butterflies arrive!

 

One of my favorite things has always been butterflies.  When we would vacation in the fall in Cape May, New Jersey the hotel had dozens of Butterfly Bushes on their grounds, and it was the time of the year for the annual flight of the Monarch.

 

I could sit for hours on our balcony and watch them.

This is actually two, facing each other

 

This spring, when we started to remodel the front of our homes landscaping, I decided I wanted to have some butterfly bushes at the one end that I knew would get enough sun light to grow them well.  And, I was correct!

 

All five have grown well and now I will need to do even more research on how to prune them to keep them looking nice and not getting too out of control.

 

I purchased all five plants from a local grower who sells plants out of the front of her yard during the spring as a project to teach her children, whom she home schools.  The children come out and help you with your selection, are very knowledgeable and will place your purchases into your car, and they also take care of adding your purchase and your change.

The Monarch has suffered over the last few years.  Between the change in the habitat along their long journey to Mexico, to the cold spell they had that froze hundreds of them.  They need our help.  So I was very happy to plant some lovely food that will help them along their journey this fall.

In November, I am planning to plant the Milkweed seeds that I purchased from
Butterfly Encounters and I hope that they will grow to feed the caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly next year.  Butterfly Encounters helps you choose which seeds will grow best for your area.  A very nice website that I enjoy using.

Such a small thing that one can do to help our environment and a species.

Have you seen any Monarch butterflies this fall?

Hugel update

 

 

Well, I do have to admit, it doesn't look like anything has happened, does it?  Since the last time.

 

Believe it or not, I have put on that whole layer of aged compost and put on another cover of straw.  PLUS, I was fortunate enough to find a farmer who would give me some chicken manure!!!  For free!!

 

We just had to ride up to his farm and we were able to get two recycle containers full of fresh chicken manure.  Let me tell you!  IT SMELLS!!!!!

Now, since we aren't planting in this hugel until the spring, I knew it would be okay to use fresh manure.  You need to be careful about that, as it is very high in nitrogen and would burn any plants if you were to use it directly in your garden, you need to compost it first.  That is my idea behind doing this hugel for the fall, as by the time spring rolls around, enough of everything will be well on it's way to nice compost/soil that planting should be fine.

Also, this past weekend, we stacked some of our firewood, and you see the bark that came off of it on the top of the hugel.  That will compost down as well.

I have begun to put a layer of pine needles on top of the hugel and once I have that covered I will add another layer of aged compost.  Then, all I will need to do is water occasionally to keep the pile "cooking" and to encourage all the ground creatures, microbes and fungus to do their work to "grow" my soil for me.

And, as always, my faithful four legged gives his approval.

Use what you have

 

We have always tried to Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle whenever we can.

 

Meet my new planter.

 

 

 

This started out as two containers for hose on a fire truck.  They were being thrown in the trash and my dear darling asked if he could have them and was given them.

 

What to do with them?  Certainly there had to be a new purpose for these.  They do weigh a considerable amount, so they can't be moved around much.  And the corners do have small drain holes. 

 

We are always looking for new ways to grow our garden, since our yard is so steep, that we thought this would work great as.......

 

A new planter for the deck. 

 

Dear darling screwed them together and then made the base out of some wood and I painted the wood to help protect it from the weather.  We chose this spot because of the good amount of year round sun it gets.

 

 



 

 

 

Next, I put some straw in the bottom and mixed peat moss, used coffee grounds and aged compost and filled in each trough.  Then, I had some peas that I had started in a container to be transplanted into the garden that I transplanted into the top trough.

 

 

Then, in the bottom trough, I decided to try to plant some very LATE season lettuce, carrots and spinach.

 

It is all an experiment at this point. I am not really sure what will work here and what won't, but I won't know if I don't try.

As you can see, I am recycling some plastic containers from the grocery store to use as little greenhouses over the seeds that I've planted.  Which, really worked out well, because not only did they help to keep the soil moist, but we had a few evenings of temperatures into the upper 30's and these little covers helped a lot.

Plus, because this planter is a manageable size, I can just throw a tarp over it when the nights do go low enough for frost.  We will see how this planter works at helping us to extend our growing season.

What types of things do you reuse, repurpose or recycle to help you along with your life of simplicity?  I'd love to hear them.