Lisa's Command Post

A little Christmas bling for the Mustang

2014-12-25T16:13:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying a few days off and spending time with the kids :) We had our fancy Christmas dinner yesterday. Vanessa got me this bling for the Mustang. I love it!! I recieved so many awesome cards and gifts. Thanks everyone for making our holiday so great.

Hope everyone has a nice relaxing holiday :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lisa Heath
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Jalapeno harvest

2014-09-21T09:05:00.001-07:00

Leah picked all the jalapenos for me. She counted 112. I didn't have a plan for this many, so now I have to decide what to do with them.
I was thinking about chopping and freezing them so we can make fresh salasa this winter. I have not tried canning yet. So freezing or drying/dehydrating will have to do for now.

The green peppers that I chopped and froze are wonderful. It's so nice to just take a handful out and toss them into whatever I'm cooking.

I planted some fall garden things: kale, broccoli, leeks, onions, carrots. And the four sunzillas are now open so they will be finishing up in a few weeks. I will save seeds and share some with the neighbors. Then the rest will be for the bird feeders this winter.

I will post more pics later.

Lisa Heath
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Garden update

2014-08-29T22:44:00.001-07:00

Lisa Heath
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Sunzilla update :)

2014-08-25T14:44:00.001-07:00

So tall!! The flower is starting to form now. So exciting!!

Lisa Heath
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Athena laid her first egg

2014-08-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

It's so little and cute!!! :)

Lisa Heath
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Garden update

2014-08-16T22:24:00.001-07:00

Our garden is doing so great. And check out the sunflower, it's called sunzilla. I got those seeds from ebay :)

I did save seeds from our mammoth sunflower so we can plant more next year.

How is your garden doing?

Lisa Heath
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Garden update

2014-08-01T23:42:00.001-07:00

Some pics of our garden this week :)

Lisa Heath
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Our mammoth sunflower

2014-07-01T21:00:00.001-07:00

It's taller than Vanessa now. The flower is still forming. It's awesome :)

Lisa Heath
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Potatoes from the garden

2014-06-27T16:00:00.001-07:00

These are Kennebeck potatoes from our garden. They are supposed to be the best potatoes for making french fries and pan-fried potatoes and hash browns.

This is an early harvest so some are small still. I am pretty happy with the results though. I got three nice big ones, five medium sized, and a bunch of small ones. This tells me that if I wait a few weeks the next bunch will have more bigger potatoes.

I grew these in bags so I just trimmed all the greens off and dumped the bag in the chicken area. The chickens were more than happy to eat up all the worms. I get the potatoes, they get the worms....win-win situation :)

I have three more grow bags with potatoes. I also had a couple Russet potatoes that have sprouted in the pantry, so I went ahead and planted those in the bag I just emptied. So we will see if they have enough time to produce.

I can't wait to cook these babies up and see how good they are!! :)

Lisa Heath
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Chicks and blueberries

2014-05-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

The chicks are almost six weeks old now. They are getting so big. Red started laying eggs again so she will be done being the mama hen soon. We still have them seperated from the rest of the hens so they dont get pecked or hurt.

And we can see blueberries forming now. So I will have to put a bird net over those soon. We dont want the birds eating all of them. We will leave some for the birds though. They have done an awesome job of keeping the yard bug free.

I have also ordered some seeds and will be planting a few buhes called "love-lies-bleeding". These will be unusual and awesome and will be full of bird seed in the fall for our feathery friends. I dont think I have ever seen anyone growing them.

And you all know I like to be different :)

Lisa Heath
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Garden update

2014-04-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

The garden is going to be so awesome this year!!!

Here is what I have planted so far:
Kale
Leeks
Walla Walla Onions
Swiss Chard
Collard Greens
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower
Cilantro
Garlic, regular and elephant
Lettuce, 3 types
Blueberries
Raspberries
Strawberries

What I have started indoors:
Tomatoes, big boy and roma
Green Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
MN Midget Cantaloupe
Dill
Parsley
Basil

What I havent started yet, buy will soon:
Sunflowers, called Sunzilla :O
Cucumbers, 2 types
Marigolds

....I still have some things on my wish list.

Gardening is going to be my hobby when I retire. I'm just getting an early start. Plus it's fun and lowers my grocery bill.

I have the little kids hooked on steamed broccoli, lol. It's awesome.

And the chickens get to eat all the garden scraps. They love it too. I hardly have to buy chicken food in the summer.

:) maybe I will do a weekly garden pic to show how everything is coming along.

I need more garden beds....I didn't have room for the zucchini, acorn squash, pumpkins, etc. I could totally fill my entire back yard with garden stuff. But right now the garden is less than half o our yard, the rest is playground for the little kids, and a seperate area for Coco (our dog). And, of course, the hen house is in the garden half for our 7 hens. Love those fresh eggs :)

Lisa Heath
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Our "Baby Tree"

2014-03-13T00:33:00.001-07:00

Yup, that's what we call it...our Baby Tree. It's a flowering plum tree. It does not grow friut, it is just for beauty. It gets these wonderful pink flowers in the spring. Then the pretty burgundy colored leaves until it goes bare in the winter again. So pretty!!

Garden updates coming soon. We will be doing a year-round garden this time. I have the first phase planned out.

Lisa Heath
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Tomatoes

2014-02-27T12:16:00.001-08:00

Here are four of my tomato plants from seed. Three were planted in organic seed starter mix. And one was planted on my chicken compost soil....I don't think I need to point out which one, lol.

And I will be using chicken compost soil for next years starts....for sure!!

Lisa Heath
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Dinner menu for the week

2014-02-11T10:23:00.001-08:00

Leah makes these menus for me. I take a pic on my phone and when I'm at the grocery store it's so easy to just grab everything I need for those meals. Then I also have a list on my phone of other random things we need.

Lisa Heath
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Found kitchenaid at goodwill

2014-02-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

I picked up this kichenaid coffee grinder at goodwill today. It can grind a lot more than my little one. So cool because the grinder part comes off so you can wash it too. I plan to make my own garlic powder and ginger powder this summer. The garlic is already coming up and I have some ginger started indoors.

I made a small amount of ginger powder already and it turned out awesome. It also smells much more than the store bought, so fresh and yummy smelling.

Lisa Heath
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Moved the strawberries

2014-02-02T15:57:00.001-08:00

We will have strawberries on the upper deck this year. No slugs....haha. And we can just go out on the deck and pick them whenever we want. I will probably pick up some more plants when they are available so we can have a bigger harvest. Love strawberries :)

If we have enough I would love to freeze some for winter.

Lisa Heath
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My indoor seed starts

2014-02-02T12:37:00.001-08:00

Lisa Heath
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Planted cilantro

2014-02-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

I planted 8 cilantro... I might share a few. And I can always plant more.

Also, our brussle sprouts are coming up :)

Lisa Heath
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Coco keeping an eye on the chickens

2014-02-01T14:32:00.001-08:00

She is so cute...watching the chickens. I let them out to scratch in the garden. Thats my no-till method...so easy, lol.

Lisa Heath
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Planted some spinach

2014-01-31T12:52:00.001-08:00

I cannot wait until spring!

Lisa Heath
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Made ginger powder

2014-01-31T12:07:00.001-08:00

OMG!!! That is so cool. I made ginger powder from some fresh ginger I had. I love to cook with ginger. We use a lot and it gets expensive. So we are growing ginger this year too :)

Lisa Heath
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Seed sprouting

2014-01-30T12:14:00.001-08:00

The baby choi and kale are starting to sprout. Yeah!!

And today I started some walla walla onions.

Also, I dried some ginger. I want to see if I can make some ginger powder. We use a lot of that stuff and we will have ginger in the garden this year. More on that later.

Lisa Heath
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Planted some leeks indoors

2014-01-29T11:51:00.001-08:00

Hurry up spring!

Lisa Heath
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Leah making cookies

2014-01-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

Yummmmmmy!!!

Lisa Heath
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Apple dumplings and taxes

2014-01-27T23:49:00.001-08:00

I didnt get a picture of these when they were done baking...and they are gone, lol. Maybe next time. They were sure good! I think I need an apple tree in my back yard :)

....and, I started my taxes. I don't know why I dread it so. I always get a refund. It's just that I itemize and it is sooooo much work. Yesterday I finished up my mileage report and meal allowance report. Today I actually logged in to turbotax and did one section. That wasn't so painful. I will do more tomorrow.

And....This year I am "Cookie Mom" that's right...it is Girl Scout cookie time. Get 'em before they're gone.

Now I have a headache....hope it is gone in the morning. Goodnight people

Lisa Heath
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