Little Homestead

The Next Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Last week I posted on Facebook that I had been seeing my cousin and my sister pinning quilts to pinterest, and in the spirit of not being outdone, it was time for me to start quilting.

I've been avoiding looking at quilts and patterns because I had a feeling that if I went down that rabbit hole I would wind up buying a lot of fabric... a lot... (have you seen my yarn stash? Goodness...). But I can't help what other people pin and... well...

I ordered a cutting mat, a cutter, and a stack of fabric. It came last night.

Whoops.

Looks like I'm going to try my hand at quilting.

I'm not promising much. I'm not even promising I'll make a whole quilt.

But I'm excited to try.

As soon as the camera came out Munchie started laughing like a crazy person. Apparently all my kids are hams for the camera.

Happy Sewing!
Meg

P.S. A lovely, sweet friend of mine is going through a rough time right now and could use some prayers, if you would be so kind as to send some her way. :)

How We Homestead - Part 5: Looking Into the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This is Part 5 in a 5 weeks series called "How We Homestead" hosted by Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm. You can find the other parts of the series here. Be sure to visit the other lovely women, linked to at the bottom of this post.

Oh how I wish this was our view!

Today, we are finishing up the How We Homestead Series! Today's topic is Looking Into the Future - where we hope to be in 10 years and changes we'd like to make.

Our ultimate goal is to have a chunk of land (I'm thinking 5 or more acres if we can) where we can raise our children "in the country", have animals, and grow as much of our food as possible. We like the idea of being as dependent on ourselves as possible, but are realistic in knowing that we probably can't sever the ties completely.

To be specific, I would love to have chickens for eggs and meat, and goats for milk and meat. (I would love a cow for milk, but I think that might be more milk than we need.) I would like to have some kind of fiber animal, be it rabbit, sheep, or alpaca/llama.

We'd like to have a stock pond for fish, and a water source for ducks. Oh the plans we have....

I like the idea of solar and/or wind energy to get us off the grid and providing for our own energy needs.

We'd also like to have enough land to just play on for hiking and exploring and maybe even camping out in the back. Perhaps a wood lot as well for firewood.

I'd love to have our piece of land by the time the boys turn 10 - which is in just 4 years so we might not make it. Land around here is painfully expensive, and Ben wants to still be close-ish to a hospital in case of emergencies, so unless we get really lucky on price it might take awhile.

We've also gone back and forth on buying raw land and building, or buying land with a house already on it, which I think is what we're leaning toward for ease of finances.

I like to dream about all we could do on such a piece of land. And having the wide open spaces to breath and run and play.

But until then, I'm hoping to at least add some kind of food and/or fiber producing animal to our Little Homestead here in suburbia.

Thank you so much to Staci and the other wonderful women who have participated in this series. I have had so much fun, and it's been a great way for me to get back on track. I've also loved learning about everyone else and making new friends. And I'm a little sad it's over now. :)

~ * ~

Visit the other women of the How We Homestead series:

Staci from Life At Cobble Hill Farm

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
Amber from Making A Home

Today, I am...

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:33:00 +0000

Borage

...Thankful for the break in heat that allows me to open the windows until the afternoon. I love the fresh air.

... Realizing just how big my little man is getting. Daddy put him in a pirate costume last night. :)

... Adding Zucchini Pickles to list of things I have accomplished! They're really tasty too.

... Enjoying how my pantry is slowly filling up with home canned goods.

... Proud of my sister for making her first batch of strawberry jam with me this weekend. I made her do it and she did a great job!

... Happy that the lilies have finally arrived. It's the only part of June that I like! Well, and Duder's birthday.

... Glad that I weeded and mulched yesterday.

... Wanting to buy yarn. But then again, when am I not? :D

Happy Tuesday!
Meg

Things I've Been Doin'

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:32:00 +0000

I've done a lot of stuff lately that I just hadn't blogged about because... well I forgot.

The memory's the first thing to go!

So, in no particular order I've been....

Pickling cherries. Aren't they pretty? I've never had a pickled cherry and I'm very curious about them. I will let them sit a few more days to pickle, then I will try them.

Making Laundry Soap. For the first time, unbelievably! The stuff I've been buying has been going up and up and up in price. What got me to finally do it was my sister, who was going to make her own and was asking me about the ingredients. Well I told her she couldn't make laundry soap before I did! So she got the stuff and came over last Saturday and we made a big batch and split it. We used Staci's recipe for dry soap, and it works AMAZINGLY well!

Makin' more jam! After the apricot jam I made a batch each of Strawberry and Boysenberry. I'll make at least one more batch of each to keep us and family members stocked through the year. I love how quick jam making is.

Making Sauerkraut. I'm not sure how to make funky cabbage look appetizing... I set it to ferment at the beginning of last month and let it go for a few days before I put it in the fridge. Ben finally got around to trying it with bratwurst the other night and said it's very salty, but good. I told him we could just rinse it next time. I haven't tried it.... I'm kind of scared of it. I know it's kind of silly since I made it, but I wasn't super fond of the store bought stuff either so this... Kinda weirds me out! Haha.

Working on my sweater. The sleeves are attached and now I am decreasing for the neckline and working the yoke. After that is just the collar and then blocking! I'm really excited, and my sister has already said she'd like one too if this turns out well.

Finishing school. Today we finished our first year of kindergarten! I'm not quiet sure how I feel about it. Not the school itself, that was great! But the fact that my little boys are now out of kindergarten and next year we start first grade.... Probably doesn't help that on Sunday I put away all the little baby clothes and we set aside all of our baby things for when my sister starts having babies.... I won't lie, I cried. And I still cry a little bit...

My mom-in-love came by yesterday and brought me all of her first grade curriculum, plus some cool books for boys. I'm all set up and now I just have to plan when we'll be starting, and our breaks and such.

I've also been planning a giveaway, in honor of this being my 600th post (wow!) and I now have 55 followers (super wow! You guys are so sweet!).

Things have to settle down a bit, so I will probably announce it next week!

Happy Almost Friday! (I'm in denial that this week isn't over yet.)
Meg

How We Homestead - Part 4: Our Daily Life

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This is Part 4 in a 5 weeks series called "How We Homestead" hosted by Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm. You can find the other parts of the series here. Be sure to visit the other lovely women, linked to at the bottom of this post.

Pruning and staking and babying has given me a decent tomato outcome so far! Now if only they would ripen...

This week's topic is Our Daily Life - a look at how our days work related to homesteading and how we keep everything balanced.

My homestead related chores really change depending on the season. If I had posted this a month ago, I would have said something along the lines of "Well... I did laundry, and made some bread..."

But now that summer is here and the produce is starting to flow, and the canning jars have come out of the pantry, my life just got a lot more hectic. But I'll try to give you the general idea of how our little homestead works.

We don't have animals (yet, I'm working on convincing Ben to get ducks, since chickens are out while we're in suburbia....), so I don't have the chores associated with that. But there is still plenty to do!

Most of my chores are food related, but I still have the cleaning of the house as well (which is a constant battle with 4 very messy little boys).

Typically our day consists of getting up and doing our morning routine. Then one of the boys empties the dishwasher while I make dinner (or shortly after breakfast). This is one of the very important facts about homesteading to me - if you have children I firmly believe they need be participating and helping in the chores. Actually, they should be doing that regardless of homesteading, and I think the severe lack of making children do chores is a huge contributing factor the degradation of our society and a nation that would rather be on welfare than get up off their butts and work for their food... But I digress.

Anyhoo, we do our chores and eat breakfast (hot food, not sugary cold cereals!), and then we will do school. After that it is on to whatever is on the list for the week.

For this week, and I'm sure a lot of the weeks during the summer my lists looks like this:

Make Strawberry and Boysenberry Jam
Make Firestarters (I'm trying them out with lint. I'll let you know how it goes)
Make dryer balls
Scrub kitchen floor
Make bread
Pickle cherries
Dry apricots
Dry Zucchini
Put away winter cothes
Freezer inventory

The food items will be more in number as the summer goes on.

I also go around my garden every other day or so and pull weeds, tie up the vining things that need to be tied up (cut up pantyhose from the dollar store work great!), harvest what's ready, reseed what hasn't come up or has been munched, etc. During the spring a lot of my work includes digging and prepping beds, mixing in compost, starting seeds, setting up trellises....

During the winter/spring the list consists of things such as planning the garden, purging things we don't use/need, stocking up on the holiday sales (like hams and turkeys), and making things like mittens and blankets. Our winters are actually very quiet as far as homesteading goes, since we are still in civilization sans land and animals to take care of.

I try to stick to the "Monday is for..." list, mine being Mondays are for washing, Tuesday is for folding, Wednesday is usually some sort of scrubbing activity, and then I try to get our baking done on Fridays before the weekend so we have bread for sandwiches and dinners. I will usually need to make bread again on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how much we're eating it. I also make snacks like muffins and cookies and granola whenever there is a request for it, or I've run out of things to feed the natives.

Gosh, I wish I could tell you I get up and feed the goats and collect the eggs every morning, but I don't and I kind of feel like a poser homesteader with my sad little list. But it is what it is, and hopefully we can add more as the years go on.

~ * ~

Visit the other women of the How We Homestead series:

Staci from Life At Cobble Hill Farm

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
Amber from Making A Home

What's Cookin': Zucchini Bread & Apricot Jam

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 04:21:00 +0000

Sorry this is not a sexy picture. And yes, it's half eaten. My sister helped. :P

My brother's girlfriend's sweet and always smiling mama asked if I could share my recipes for zucchini bread & apricot jam, as she is also drowning in produce. Because it's southern California and that's what happens in June. By July we are sick of produce! Haha. So here are the recipes for her, and anyone else who would like them!

The zucchini bread recipe is from my mom, who made it my entire childhood and we're all kind of attached to it. The apricot jam recipe is just from the little insert that comes with the liquid pectin.

I made a few modifications to the bread and the jam, so I will post the recipes as they read, and then give you my notes at the end.

Zucchini Bread
3 C flour
1 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C olive oil
3 C shredded zucchini
3 C raisins
1 C chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350*. Whisk together first 6 ingredients. in another bowl beat together the eggs, vanilla, and oil. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour the wet mixture over the flour mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

You could also divide the batter into lined or greased & floured muffin tins and bake about 25 minutes.

~ This time around I used 2 C AP flour and one cup of whole wheat. I think I might use 2 cups whole wheat next time. I also only used 1 cup of sugar, as well as only used 1/2 C olive oil and used apple sauce for the other half cup. (Did you know you can use apple sauce in place of the oil in most baked goods? Some things turn out a bit denser, and some don't, but either way it's very tasty!)

Apricot Jam - makes 7 cups (I got 5 half pints, see my notes)
3 1/2 C finely chopped apricots (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1/3 C fresh lemon juice
5 3/4 C sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin

Wash your jars and boil them in your water bath canner to sterilize. Place lids in a saucepan. Leave jars in the hot water until ready to fill. (I just turn them down to simmer after about 10 minutes of boiling.) Ladle enough of the boiling water onto your lids to cover them.

Add chopped apricots, sugar and lemon juice to a heavy, 6-7 quart pot and bring to a full rolling boil (one that won't stir down), while stirring. Add liquid pectin, return to rolling boil and boil for 1 minute.

Ladle jam into hot jars to within an 1/8th inch head space. Lid and band them, tightening bands to fingertip tight. Process 10 minutes.

~ I have this little naughty voice in my head that says it's really wrong to put more sugar than fruit into a recipe. I'm a terrible person. So I only used 3 cups of sugar, and that's why I only got 5 half pints. I know that this means my jam will probably not set, especially since apricots are particularly low in natural pectin. Shame on me. I guess I'll just have very tasty apricot syrup! :)

When I finally get around to making strawberry and boysenberry jam (hopefully this week, if I can get to the store and get more pectin), I will post the recipe for those as well!

** Ok funny story before I go. Ben left when I was starting this post to go hang out with one of his buddies. I needed a picture of the zucchini bread for the post and since the lighting in the kitchen was giving me a yellow tinge, I decided I would go out into the garage where there is better lighting... Well while I was standing there the garage starts opening and I freeze, holding my camera (he had forgotten something and came back to get it). He hops out of the truck, starts laughing and asks me what on earth I'm doing.

*ahem* I am NOT taking pictures of the zucchini bread on the washer.... You saw nothing. Get back in your truck... (now I feel really weird!)

Happy Eating,
Meg

P.S. For those of you who go to the recipe page, I am working on relinking everything and redoing the list since it all broke when I changed the blog name. Please be patient with me as I (slowly) try to get it all back to normal. :)

Today is Friday - And I'm Talking About Food!

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Fri, 31 May 2013 17:30:00 +0000

And aren't you excited?!

I am swimming in produce!

Yesterday my grandmother texted me (my over 70 year old grandmother texts. It makes me giggle) and said they were picking the cherries and did I want some?

Umm, YES! I love cherries. They are my absolute favorite fruit. Even more than strawberries. So I was very excited when she asked, and I we rushed right over.

When I got there her and Poppi had gotten the tree about halfway picked, leaving the stuff that couldn't really be reached from the ladder. With a little thinking we were able to bend the limbs over and Poppi held them down standing on one ladder while I climbed a ladder a few feet away and picked the branches clean. It worked great! And the only one we couldn't get was the limb in the middle.

They also have an apricot tree that is so full of fruit it's ridiculous. So many apricots!

So I brought home 14 pounds of apricots and about 8 pounds of cherries. I have two trays of apricot puree drying in the oven to make fruit leather.

I just stuffed my food processor of pitted apricots, added a little lemon juice to keep the color, and pureed. Then I added honey until it tasted right then poured it into a baking sheet that I lined with plastic. The oven is supposed to be at 140* for drying, but mine only goes to 170* so I crack the door to let out the extra heat and any steam that might come off the fruit.

I also made 5 half pints of apricot jam this morning after breakfast. I've had one single pouch of liquid pectin and I have been saving it for something that really needed it. This was the thing! Now I just need to get more pectin for the berries, heh.

I was naughty though, and only used half the sugar. I don't like my jams overly sweet, and wanted to be able to taste the fruit. I figure if it doesn't set all the way, oh well I'll just have apricot syrup.

Last night I made some stewed cherries to serve over ice cream. I just pitted them, put them in a saucepan with a little bit of water and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Covered them until they came to a boil, then took the lid off and let them simmer until they became soft and saucy. Oh my goodness. They were so good. I love warm fruit over vanilla ice cream, and these were especially good.

The rest of the cherries and apricots will probably be halved and dried to snack on.

Mimi also gave me a few very large zucchinis, so I guess I will be making zucchini bread today!

Last night I picked our first cabbage! They've taken insanely long to grow, but it was finally big enough last night to pick. It wasn't huge - maybe 2 pounds at the most - but it was delicious!

I also picked my first two garlic scapes. I've heard of how good they are, but I have never had them. I sauteed them in a little butter and we just ate them like that. They are really good! They tasted like roasted garlic - that soft, sweet, lightly garlic taste.

I also got my first three tiny cherry tomatoes last weekend and I made them into a delicious bruschetta on toasted french bread. Now I am waiting for my other tomatoes to ripen so that I can have more.

I'm so excited that summer - and all of it's bountiful goodness - is finally here!

~Meg

How We Homestead - Part 3: Real Food

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This is Part 3 in a 5 weeks series called "How We Homestead" hosted by Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm. You can find Part 1 here. Be sure to visit the other lovely women, linked to at the bottom of this post.

Homemade apple pie

I have to admit, I was so excited when I saw Real Food in the list of topics that Staci gave us. This is something I am very, very passionate about and if you give me the chance I could go on and on and on about real food and what it means for your body. (Seriously. Just ask Ben... And my sister... And my sister in law... And my mother in law...)

My journey into Real food sort of started out of necessity early in our marriage and parenthood. The pre-made food was just too expensive. We were spending $600+ a month... for two people (the boys weren't eating solids yet.) It got to the point where I really needed to look at our budget and how we were spending money on food.

While I mostly cooked meals - as in, not just microwaving TV dinners, but actually using a stove and more than 5 ingredients - I was still using processed and boxed/canned ingredients.

I think not only being a mother opened my eyes to food and nutrition, but being the mother of preemies was an even stronger factor. I not only had new little lives to take care of, but new little lives that were fragile and sensitive, and needed strengthening.

So I started watching our budget, shopping carefully, and cooking things mostly from scratch.

Then I found this book.

I threw away our shortening and kicked as much soy out of our house as I could. I returned to the goodness of butter.

And then I found this book.

I bought lard, and removed (almost) the rest of anything processed and fake.

Homemade granola

I have been trying to cook with raw, simple, basic ingredients ever since. Some things we can't quite do because of expense (I still buy pasteurized milk and meat from the store, raw and pasture-fed are too expensive), and some things I am getting better about (I'm now buying organic just-plain-peanuts peanut butter, and I've moved from regular all purpose flour to at least unbleached as well as adding in whole wheat), and some things we're doing pretty darn good (I am trying to grow most of our veggies, and those I don't I now get from the farmer's market.)

Nourishing Traditions really opened my eyes. It is food and facts that make sense. I believe that we should eat food in the purest form possible, as close as possible to the way God made and intended it. And the current state of the nation's health is a good indicator that what the smarty-pants doctors are saying isn't actually good for us.

And cooking real food is fun! I love being in the kitchen chopping and stirring and boiling and tasting and knowing that what I am making is not only good tasting but good for us.

Drying plums in the oven

I can tell you, that since we have changed our diet to real food that we are very rarely sick now. And the times we do get sick? We've either been naughty and gone on a fast food binge for a week and/or our bodies have been weakened from being over stressed and over tired.

It is more work, I won't lie. It's not easier. It takes a bit more effort - either to find the good ingredients, or to prepare them (although it doesn't take all that much longer). But it's worth it. Cooking with real food, to me, doesn't just feed the body.

It feeds the soul.

And isn't feeding the soul what homesteading is about?

~ * ~

Visit the other women of the How We Homestead series:

Staci from Life At Cobble Hill Farm

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
Amber from Making A Home

How We Homestead - Part 2: Living Simply

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:08:00 +0000

This is Part 2 in a 5 weeks series called "How We Homestead" hosted by Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm. You can find Part 1 here. Be sure to visit the other lovely women, linked to at the bottom of this post.

We found this spot on a trek in the mountains. I wish it was my view!

This week's topic is about living simply and how we've tried to simplify our life.

This is such a regular, ingrained part of my life that it's a little hard for me to think of specific things we do. We just do it!

Let me start with a little background. I grew up in a house in I guess what you could call the middle of town. It was my grandparents house, and it housed them, my parents, by brother and sister and I, and my great-grandmother. Starting when I was about 8 and continuing over the years, my grandparents converted a one story, 3 bedroom house (I think it was a 3 bedroom) to a 3 story, too-many-rooms-to-count house. On top of that my grandmother loves to buy people things, so if we ever mentioned anything that we might or might not have wanted at one time, she would get it for us.

Needless to say, I did not grow up very simply. I grew up in abundance and consumerism, and in the end I think all it really did was stress me out. You know all those stories you hear about people who had everything they ever wanted but still weren't happy? That was me. (I am very thankful to my grandmother. She was very sweet and just wanted to make us happy. It just didn't feel right for me.)

I don't like clutter, and over the years I've realized I don't like having too much stuff because it takes up space in my brain thinking about caring for it. It's more stuff to clean and find a place for. And while I'm not a super hippie, there is the part of me that says "this is so wasteful and unneeded."

Another place I wish was my view. :)

So part of our homesteading journey has definitely included living simply. I'll explain how we live simply in certain areas.

Simple Living in our Finances:
As of 2011, we are debt free aside from our house. I can not begin to tell you how this has given both of us a sense of freedom. It has given us the opportunity to pursue whatever we please, because we do not have to worry about what we owe to people. It has also made our actual banking much easier, because I just pay our few utilities at the beginning of the month and then things like gas and groceries come out when we need them. It's also allowed us to look into the future without worry or stress.

Simple Living in our Home:
We try to live very simply when it comes to stuff. For little purchases we usually ask ourselves (or each other) "Do we really need this? Will we actually use it? Does it serve a purpose?" before we purchase anything. This really helps in keeping the clutter and excess at bay. For the big purchases we make sure we save and budget for them, which in itself is a good deterrent for keeping unneeded things out of our lives. We have just enough clothes for each of us to wear, and a few special outfits for everyone. We don't have a ton of stuff, and the things we do have are things we love. We are fairly minimalistic and just like having our special things, not just things that fill up the empty spaces.

We also like to make a lot of the things we have or use. It allows us to spend less money, while opening our creativity at the same time. I can food, bake, and knit. Ben is an artist with metal and can make just about anything, or make some broken work again.

Add to all that the fact that we don't spend a lot of time out of the house doing things - we'd much rather be home, enjoying sitting together on the porch and watching the kids play - and I would say we live a very simple life indeed.

~ * ~

Visit the other women of the How We Homestead series:

Staci from Life At Cobble Hill Farm

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
Amber from Making A Home

A New Day

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Thank you all for the sweet, wonderful, encouraging comments you all left yesterday. I try not to be whiny on the blog because... well, honestly who wants to read whiny posts? But it felt good to get it out, and it was so nice to hear you all say you've been through the same, or you understood, or you just sent hugs. Thank you so much. (And extra thanks to Misses T - I got your hug via my brother! :) )

Today is a new day! I feel so much better today. With all your comments I was on the mend, and once Ben got home I was starting to feel better. And I have decided that I will let go of the things that are not super important right now. I was starting to make myself crazy. (Like dealing with the berries. They are in the freezer and can stay there until I have a chance to do something with them.)

We got the kids over to Mimi's house and she watched them while we went out. We went to the bank and were able to get new cards for our main account without any hassle. My business account will take some time because I have to dispute some of the charges. So am without a bank card until that is over. Thankfully I still have PayPal if I need it. So, that is taken care of.

We went to Home Depot to get new toilet parts, and got a new seat while we were at it since the hinges were broken on our old one. It looks like a brand new toilet! (Is it weird I'm kind of excited for a fixed toilet? haha.) Ben even scrubbed the whole thing, and I told him it was the best anniversary gift. He's very good at cleaning. Better than I will ever be!

After we ran our errands we had a wonderful, delicious dinner at Olive Garden. I had an amazing Lobster & Shrimp stuffed cannelloni. It was SO GOOD. I highly recommend it.

Then we went to Goodwill and got Ben some new jeans and a belt. By the time we got back with the kids, it was bed time so straight to bed they went and we got to keep our evening going with quiet (and toilet fixing, lol) until we went to bed and I passed out and got a full nights sleep. I haven't slept that well in over a week. It was a wonderful evening.

Today, I am baking, which always seems to take the blahs out. It's faster than knitting, and I get to eat stuff when I'm done! :D So far I have sandwich bread rising, and a loaf of applesauce bread in the oven. I think I will make granola and maybe a sweet as well. I also pulled some pumpkin out of the freezer just in case I want to make pumpkin bread as well.

Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next installment of the How We Homestead Series!

Happy Tuesday!
Meg

In Search Of Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:49:00 +0000

This is how I feel.

Warning: I'm feeling whiny today.

Would you like to hear about my weekend?

On Thursday we spent the afternoon at my in-law's house to start setting up for the wedding (it was in their front yard). Munchie didn't get a nap. Bad mojo.

On Friday morning I was updating our check register and doing online banking when I found a charge for $353 dollars that I didn't recognize. A call to Ben said he didn't know what it was either. A call to the number on the charge told me it was for a skateboard (that I certainly didn't order) and I found out that yay, someone had stolen my bank card number. Woo.

A call to the bank got the card blocked and out-of-service so that left us with the few hundred dollars in my account that I used for my business, and the little bit of cash we had in the house. Ok, not a super big deal, we didnt' have big spending plans for the weekend. Just needed diapers really and we got that with cash. The bank told me that since the skateboard company was refunding the money, all we have to do is come get new cards (rather than file a dispute over the charges and go through some big fight before we can get new cards.)

Friday night, more setting up, the rehearsal and dinner, and Super Angry Munchie of Doom who had yet again, not had a nap. Super Bad Mojo.

On Saturday morning our toilet broke. Thank goodness we have two bathrooms.

On Saturday evening we pulled off a beautiful, wonderful, sweet, flawless wedding. It was amazing and it was so sweet (and a little sad, in a good way) to see my sis-in-law take the next step and get married. She was a beautiful bride, and if I get a hold of pictures and permission, I will share them later.

On Sunday morning I thought maybe I would feel better now that it was over. I've been crazy stressed out the last week (I know, kind of silly since I wasn't getting married, but I think we've all been a little edgy trying to get it all done). Sadly, I woke up Sunday morning not really feeling better, but worse. Maybe I am just trying to come down from it all.

We were talking about how our car needs gas, and Ben was stressing about it a bit (remember, our bank card is blocked) and I said it's ok, I have a little bit in my knitting account that we can use.

I decided to access my account online to see just how much I have in there...

It's.

All.

Gone.

All but $19 left in my savings account. Wiped. Completely.

I just started to cry.

(I'm pretty sure it happened because of this, since it is the only place that I have used both of my cards. I am extremely ticked off.)

It was a whole bunch of charges to Experian and Transunion (the credit unions)...

A call to Experian yesterday resulted in them very nicely refunding me all the charges (and I found out that whoever this (pardon me) douche bag is thankfully doesn't have my social. They were all for a different name, just using my card to pay for it.)

A call to Transunion this morning left me with nothing but them saying that they are sending me an investigation questionnaire in 7-10 business days and they won't refund me anything until they get that back and go through it. Thanks.

I didn't sleep for crap last night. I feel like a bundle of nerves and stress and I'm on the edge of breaking.

So this afternoon we get to go down to the bank and get new cards for our main account. But I won't be able to get a new card for my business account until those charges are refunded. Oh and a new float thing for the toilet.

I want to crawl in a hole and hide.

Forever.

I feel like I have no peace. I have been so busy for 2 months, doing something nearly every weekend, and our schedule isn't going to let up until at least the end of June, and now this stupid crap on top of it all....

And guess what? Today is our 7th anniversary! Not the way I wanted to be spending it... At least I get to go to dinner with Ben for a bit (after the bank and getting toilet parts) and try to forget about all of this for awhile.

I hope this week gets easier.

If not, I'm going to run away.

Garden & Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:26:00 +0000

My sister (in-law, but just as close as my blood sister) is getting married this Saturday.

That's three days.

I'm in the wedding.

I've also been dubbed the official coordinator.

My kitchen table has been covered with my computer, clip board, and lists upon lists for the past week. We have a very busy three days ahead of us, starting with making centerpieces and flower arrangements tonight. That is why you get nothing buy glaring, unedited pictures of my garden.

On top of all that summer is creeping upon us and the gardens are producing and I have so much to do here at home. And not enough time. All of my delicate greens are starting to bolt, and I will have to just sadly let them go as I don't have time to mess with them. The cilantro I will just say was intentional, with the idea that I will get coriander. ;)

I spent two hours on Tuesday picking berries. 10.5 pounds of berries for that day alone. There are more ready today.

Here is my berry trellis. I wanted you to understand the full, behemoth madness that we planted. This trellis is eight feet long and over 6 feet tall. This year after the harvest it is getting hacked back to just a few canes.

Oy.

I need to make jam. I am just putting the berries in the freezer until next week when I can get to them.

I just finished cooking beet greens that were on their way out.

My grandmother gave me a gigantic bag of basil last night, so I need to make pesto today.

I can feel the panic of too many things and not enough time creeping in, but I am working hard to keep it at bay.

My hair is up.

My apron is on.

Let's go!

~Meg

How We Homestead - Part 1: How It All Began

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

This is Part 1 in a 5 weeks series called "How We Homestead" hosted by Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm. Be sure to visit the other lovely women, linked to at the bottom of this post.

~~ Before we begin I want to say Welcome! to all the followers that have joined me in the last week. I'm so glad you are here! I also want to say thank for all the sweet comments on yesterday's post. You are all so wonderful and encouraging. I am so blessed. Now, on to the post! ~~

I think homesteading for me began a long, long time ago. I've always had a love and desire for "the old ways", simple ways, and doing it myself. I love the idea of farming, raising your own food, and living off the land as much as possible. Thankfully, I married a man who shares my desires and love of old ways and things.

Honey Whole Wheat bread

I think it officially began when I made my first loaf of bread. The twins were little little, we were in our second place, our second year of marriage, and we didn't have a ton of money. We ate a lot of bread between toast and sandwiches and I realized it would be a lot cheaper if I made our own bread. It was all downhill from there!

I loved it! Getting my hands into the sticky dough, kneading and punching and working, smelling that intoxicating, heavenly aroma as it baked, and finally tasting the sweet, chewy, scrumptious end product of my work. "I made this, and this is awesome!" I was so proud of myself. And I couldn't help but think of all the woman of generations before me who did the same thing, providing food for their families. It was just bread, but it sort of grounded me, and encouraged the part of my soul that said homesteading was the way it should be. This was right.

Blueberry Freezer jam (I was feeling lazy that day)

A little while later I decided to make and can jam. We had been using store bought grape jelly and I was kind of sick of it. I grew up with a grandmother that put up a lot of stuff every year when I was younger, so I was no stranger to canning (well, the idea of it anyways) and I wasn't afraid.

And it helped that I had a box full of plums from my mom-in-love and I had to do something with them.

That first batch was an interesting experience. My pot wasn't big enough, so the jam boiled over and made a mess of my stove. I didn't having a canning pot, so I had to make do with my large stock pot and a towel on the bottom to prevent the jars from breaking. I didn't have a canning funnel so jam dripped all over my jars, and I didn't have jar tongs, so I ever so carefully and precariously lifted jars in and out of that pot with regular cheapo tongs, which resulted in a lot of burning of my hands. But I made jam! And it too was awesome. All the work and pain was worth it. (And we haven't bought a thing of jam since then.) A little while later my grandmother blessed with me a brand new pressure canner (which I can also use for water bathing) and the tongs and funnel. I was one step closer!

Our first three years of marriage were spent in an apartment. I can not even begin to describe the ache I had for a little bit of dirt to grow a garden. It was painful. I wanted to plant. I needed to grow something. I'd never planted anything in my life, but that didn't matter. I had watched my grandmother's luscious gardens produce more veggies than she knew what to do with. I wanted that.

The before. Everyone thought we were crazy for getting such a fixer upper.

In April of 2009 we bought our little house, on our little 6500 square foot lot (actually I think it's less than that), and a year later we had our little garden and raised beds set up. I haven't been able to grow much, as I work ever so slowly to improve our dismal soil. But I was growing something. (If you want to feel accomplished, plant a zucchini seed. It will grow anywhere, in any soil, and you will start thinking you're living out Little Shop of Horrors.) And it was wonderful.

Once we moved here and I was able to really dig in, that was it. My heart was gone. Forever in love with homesteading and doing things ourselves. Over the past four years I have read and researched and thought about this way of life and how much I love it. It feels good to work hard and provide as much of our own food and things as I can, even it means still having to buy the ingredients, but making the end product myself. I've picked up soap making, sewing (a bit), cheese making, and a few other skills.

As I said, I was blessed with a man who has the same thinking, who shares my dream, and I've been doing this since the boys were babies, so getting my family on board hasn't been hard at all. Ben's mother, my precious mom-in-love, did all of these things before me - she baked and ground her own flour, canned and put up food, made soap, and sewed. His dad builds and fixes things and does it himself most of the time. They aren't ones for waste. He grew up in that, so that is just "normal" for him. (In fact he told me the other day that I am severely under quota for soap. I didn't even know there was a quota. ;))

And here we are now, a little ways in, with so much farther to go!

~ * ~

Visit the other women of the How We Homestead series:

Staci from Life At Cobble Hill Farm

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
Amber from Making A Home

~Meg

It's A Wonderful Life

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:22:00 +0000

This past week has been extremely frustrating in the emotional department. It seems like nearly every person I've talked to (who isn't family) has said nasty things about their own children, or been shocked and disgusted when they have found out that I have four and I stay at home.

The protective side of me wants to yell at them and tell them how awful they are and that I love my children deeply and wouldn't trade anything. But I know that arguing with these cruel people won't get me anywhere.

So instead, I'll just say

You sad people have no idea what you're missing.

~Meg

The "How We Homestead" Series

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:06:00 +0000

I'm so excited to tell you about a project I am going to be a part of!

Staci from Life at Cobble Hill Farm had the idea for a little series on Homesteading and I will be joining her and 3 other women in sharing our journey, how we do it, and where we are hoping to be in the future.

We are starting next Wednesday, the 15th, and will post each Wednesday for the next five weeks.

The other wonderful women who are a part of it are

Daisy from Maple Hill 101
Tammy from Our Neck Of The Woods
and
Amber from Making A Home

I'm so honored to be a part of this and I can't wait to learn about the others and their stories!

Meg

The Picking and Eating of Berries

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:35:00 +0000

The boysenberries are upon us! This morning I picked two and a half pounds, and that is just the first harvest of the season. There are SO MANY more to come, all in various stages of ripeness. This is when I start picking berries every two to three days. I think they are better this year than they were last year. They are so sweet and tart, I think I ate a half pound just while picking.

I have many plans for berries this year! I will be making jam, both with and without seeds, and I would like to make some syrup as well. I'll be freezing some for cobblers later, and I think I might make a tart or galette for dessert tonight.

The berry plants we have are Thornless Boysenberries. This is what Wikipedia has to say about their origin:

In the late 1920s, George M. Darrow of the USDA began tracking down reports of a large, reddish-purple berry that had been grown on the northern California farm of a man named Rudolph Boysen.^[4] Darrow enlisted the help of Walter Knott, a Southern California farmer who was known as a berry expert. Knott had never heard of the new berry, but he agreed to help Darrow in his search.
Darrow and Knott learned that Boysen had abandoned his growing experiments several years earlier and sold his farm. Undaunted by this news, Darrow and Knott headed out to Boysen's old farm, on which they found several frail vines surviving in a field choked with weeds. They transplanted the vines to Knott's farm in Buena Park, California, where he nurtured them back to fruit-bearing health. Walter Knott was the first to commercially cultivate the berry in southern California.^[4] He began selling the berries at his farm stand in 1932 and soon noticed that people kept returning to buy the large, tasty berries. When asked what they were called, Knott said, "Boysenberries," after their originator.^[5] His family's small restaurant and pie business eventually grew into Knott's Berry Farm. As the berry's popularity grew, Mrs. Knott began making preserves, which ultimately made Knott's Berry Farm famous.

Fun Fact: My dad used to work at Knott's Berry Farm when he was younger! I have still yet to visit that theme park.

Finding the perfect time to pick a berry is hard. I've found that they are perfectly ready when they give a bit of resistance, but still come off easily. If you are smashing the little cells when you pull, they aren't ready yet. Give them another day or two. If they cover your fingers in juice when you barely touch them, they are past their prime.

When you bring them inside fill your sink or a bowl with water and a splash of white or cider vinegar. Let them soak for a bit, swishing them gently as you put them in the water. The vinegar will kill a lot of the little bacteria that accelerate spoilage, making them last a bit longer in your fridge. When you do store them, place them in a shallow dish so that you have only two to three layers of berries. Any more and the ones on the bottom will crush. They should last a few days that way, maybe a week if you are lucky.

One of my favorite ways to eat berries is fresh, and maybe with a bit of sweet whipped cream if I'm feeling naughty. ;)

Are you harvesting anything yet?

Meg

The Big News, And Other Things

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Morning Glory

Blueberries

Boysenberries

"Mmm mmm"

Well, I meant to post our big news last week but we got caught up in Life and Stuff! It's probably not as awesome to everyone else but:

Ben got a new job! He started this morning! Hurray!! If y'all have been following for awhile, you know that he's been working 10's and 12's six days a week for nearly three years now, and we finally couldn't take it anymore. There was no end in sight.

And this new job? 40 hours. Period. They even say that if you get called in on a Saturday, you get Monday off.

Even better? We found out Thursday that during the summer they change their hours to compensate for peak energy hours. So instead of getting off in the early afternoon, he's getting off even earlier than we thought! He'll be coming home while the kids are still taking a nap! I'm so, so excited to finally have him back, and awake. It's been a very hard past few years of him falling asleep as soon as he sits down after dinner and being exhausted and at work all the time. I'm very thankful for this new job and I hope it works out as well as it sounds like it will and he will finally have time to rest and relax.

We were at the beach over the weekend, for the "men folk" in my family to take my grandfather on a fishing trip. It was his Christmas gift from my brother-in-law. It was a nice little trip and the weather was beautiful.

We came back to a monster dust and wind storm. On the stretch of road from the freeway back into town the dust was so bad you couldn't see past maybe half a mile. It was crazy. I have never seen dust that bad. Once we got into civilization the dust wasn't as bad, but the wind was still whipping things around. My poor grapes are so wind burned and sad looking. I think I lost most of my bunches that were blooming. I'm really bummed about that. But today is beautifully breezy and cool, with puffy clouds floating through the blue sky.

The blueberries and boysenberries started ripening over the weekend. The boys and I wandered around after school this morning and munched on berries. Munchie loves berries. I would say "Do you like the berries? Are they good?" and he would reply with grunty "mmm mmm"s. The first week or two of boysenberries is wonderful. The weeks after that are a little tiring once we're swimming in berries. And there are a LOT of berries coming this year.

I didn't get a lick of knitting done while I was gone. I spent our sitting time just relaxing, doing crosswords (my brain needs exercise haha) and enjoying the weather and the company. We squeezed 15 people into a tiny little two bedroom house. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and it was nice to have so many people around to play with the kids, so I could really unwind and not be on alert.

Well, I think that's enough babbling for now. Ben will be home in a few hours! :)

Happy Monday y'all!
Meg

Knitting and Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:52:00 +0000

Sorry I've been so quiet lately... Just not much to post about! We've been busy with life and play, and working through the rest of our school year. Only 6 weeks left and I'm so excited!

I have been wanting to knit myself a sweater for a very long time, and for whatever reason, it just never happens. Well I finally purchased yarn exactly for this purpose, picked and bought a pattern, and I'm about 7 inches in! :D The pattern is the Woodburne Cardigan by Carol Feller. I am loving it so far. There are just enough cables to keep me interested, but not so many that I can't pay attention to anything else while I'm knitting. I also love the yarn (Cascade 220) - I've never tried it before! It's really nice to be knitting on something with larger yarn and needles after so much of that lace shawl (which, no, is not done). Plain ol' wool is my favorite fiber. It is just cozy and warm and I feel so down to earth when I have it in my hands.

The reading is Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I just picked it up from the library yesterday and started reading it late last night, so I am only a few pages in. I have been wanting to read it for a long time, as I've been curious about it, and I am excited that I finally get a chance now. I'm also reading a book called Good Food Revolution by Will Allen. It's been a very thought provoking book as he tells his story, the story of others in his life, and how he has gotten to the point of being in charge of Growing Power.

I was finally able to get a picture of one of the babies. They are getting so big. Mama is starting to teach them to flap their wings and get them ready for flying. I am so glad she made her nest in that flower basket. I can watch them from the kitchen window as I am working at the sink. It's been so much fun to watch them as they grow.

I have some wonderfully wonderful, wonderful news to tell you - but I can't until it's officially official. (It has nothing to do with babies, just in case you were wondering.) But it has me very excited!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.

Happy Wednesday!
Meg

Thankful

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Today I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of you sweet, wonderful ladies who have been through it all before and are such an encouragement to me. For understanding about kids, and housework, and life and telling me to keep going and not give up. You've been leaving such sweet comments and they make it so much easier and make me smile. I feel like I've been blessed with a bunch of extra moms and some really great friends and wonderful mentors.

I never thought I would get this kind of support and love out of blogging. I've thought many times about stopping, because I think I'm silly for just talking about myself. But then I would lose my connection with all of you and I would hate for that to happen. I'm so thankful for everyone of you who visit and talk with me all the time. :)

And now the boys want a tent, so I guess I'm done being sappy, lol.

Happy Saturday!

~ Meg

Going on Around Here

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:03:00 +0000

This is half ours and half from the farmer's market

First thing from the garden this year: sage and a head of lettuce, plus two tiny little radishes! We also got an artichoke the other night that Ben and I split.

The garden is... well it's coming along. I'm still waiting on sprouts from a lot of stuff, and I'm battling slugs and reseeding on other things. See the headless sprout in back right there? Yeah... This is going to be a year of war!

Draining curds

I made some Farmhouse Cheddar last week, and after it sat over the weekend to develop a rind...

It was waxed on Monday. Now it needs to sit and age for at least two months. I'm pretty excited about this. I've done a hunk of Parmesan that won't be ready until October, but I'm afraid it won't turn out because I didn't have optimal conditions for it's rind developing process. It got a little cracked and dried, so we'll have to see what happens.

I have no idea what Jack is doing

Mr. Munchie has been walking more than crawling now. This is one of my favorite stages, because he looks so adorable in his awkwardness. This little montage is what I call Baby Jaws. ;)

After my woe-is-me post about aching for land, I've been gently reminded of my post about blooming where I'm planted, and to be content where I am at the moment. You know who you are, and thank you. :) It was also reinforced when I got to the very end of my current Countryside magazine with a tiny little article entitled "Being Content Right Where I Am... For Now".

Yep, message received! I will try harder to be content with where we are.

I've been researching places to find lard for rendering. The few places I've called have just said I can get some if they happen to have it that day. So I will have to get lucky. I need to make good friends with a butcher and have him hold it for me.

I've started the edging of the shawl, which is good since it's due next week. The last part of the pattern is a little shorter than I had planned, but I ran out of yarn. I think I might release this as a mystery shawl pattern at first... We'll have to see.

And, I may or may not have ordered a plethora of yarn... I'd like to make a sweater (you know, cuz summer is coming...) and I thought it would be good to build my worsted weight stash... and Webs is having their Anniversary Sale... Which might have been the thing that swayed me.

And today, it's Friday!

Huzzah!

~Meg

A Mini Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:18:00 +0000

Sorry for the grainy iPod pics - forgot my camera

I just got back from this. And it was wonderful!

This was the first time Ben and I have been away by ourselves in 3 years, and it was very much needed. Nana kept the kiddos while we went and recharged. I feel so much better. My mind is clear and I am so much more relaxed.

On Saturday we decided to go walk around and visit all the shops we've never gotten to before. So we parked at one end and walked up and down the streets looking at all the different little places. I found a nice little health food store and I am still kicking myself for not buying the raw milk I saw. I have still yet to taste raw milk.

One of the shops was a big antique store and I found this beautiful, gorgeous, well used and loved hutch/work space.

I wish I had a place to put it (and that it wasn't so expensive) because I would have snatched it up right then... And gotten it into the car... somehow. It was so beautiful and all the dings and scratches made me wonder what its story is.

I've enjoyed being away from the internet and electronics so much for the past few days that I think I will keep avoiding them for awhile. It's good for my brain. :)

Happy Monday,
Meg

Links For You

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:13:00 +0000

I've been finding a few nice things over the past week and I thought I would share.

Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living is participating in a series called "Get Real", where her and a few other ladies are sharing how life really works for them in different areas like dinner time, gardening and homesteading, etc. They started last Tuesday with dinner time, and will continue for the next few Tuesdays. It's been really nice to read from other women how their lives aren't as perfect as we think, and that I'm totally not alone in the craziness. I've found some other great blogs through it.

One of the other women is Aubrey at This Blessed Life at Rootsong Farm. I had to share her Get Real on homesteading, because it was so inspiring to me. It was so wonderful to read about their journey, and to be reminded that it really can happen, it just takes some patience and trusting. I have been going back and reading it and looking at her pictures. (I've also been looking at real estate in Idaho... *cough*) Some days I get so frustrated being stuck here in between our neighbors (sweet as they are) and their noise and their cigarette smoke, dreaming and aching for land. It really does honestly hurt some days, I yearn for it so badly. But I know we will get there eventually, and homesteading is not just about place, but about one's heart and attitude.

After reading and hearing about soil blocking, and noticing that all of the information was very positive, I decided to order myself one of these. I'm curious to see how they work. I am excited about it for the money saving alone. I wouldn't have to buy little peat pots anymore! (Yeah, they're cheap, but they add up.)

I've found a great site/blog that offers free Photoshop actions. It fuels my laziness in actually learning how to doctor photos myself. ;) (I used "Golden Afternoon" and "Boost It" on the picture above.)

While looking up inspiration to design my own canning jar labels, I found these heat shrink ones, which I thought were totally cool.

That's all for now!

Friday's almost here!
Meg

Blooms, Buds, and Doves

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:16:00 +0000

Apple Blossoms

Cherry Blossom

Grape Buds

Boysenberry Blossoms

Tomato blossoms

Funny - I didn't notice the other little unopened buds on the tomato until I looked at this picture.

Things are blooming! The blueberries are completely done with blooms, and the little fruits are forming and becoming round. Hopefully I will be making jam and muffins and freezing blueberries here in a few weeks. Or just eating them all off the bush.

I was able to see yesterday that Mrs. Dove has two little eggs in her nest. I am hoping we get to see the little ones hatch and grow. I am wondering if I can set up some kind of Dove cam... I will have to figure it out. She's up just high enough that I can't see without climbing on something. I can zoom in pretty well with our video camera.

I should be cleaning, but I am dreaming of land...

How is your Tuesday?
Meg

Easter Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:28:00 +0000

I hope y'all like pictures of my kids... ;)

Mrs. Dove has taken up residence in one of our hanging flower baskets. She lets me get fairly close because she is sitting on eggs, but her eyes get very, very big.

We had a wonderful, lovely Easter weekend. How was yours?

My long weekend started Thursday when I got all my seedlings transplanted into the garden. Then on Friday I got all my seeds except the corn and green beans planted. I need to rework and add compost to the bed the corn will go into, and I need to set up the green bean trellis and dig the ground.

On Tuesday we found out that Ben would be getting Saturday off, so we got our Farmer's market and grocery shopping done quickly Saturday morning, then we came back and Ben put a corned beef into the smoker to make pastrami. Then we spent the rest of the day being lazy and hanging out. It was so nice, and dinner was delicious. Did I tell you he is back down to 10 hour work days? He was able to talk them into letting him go down, since he keeps up with his work and is not as busy as everyone else. It's been so nice having him back and alive because he is actually getting sleep now.

In the morning the kids got up and found the baskets that the "Easter Bunny" had left them at their spots at the table. They were really excited. They had a few pieces of candy and some plastic eggs filled with a few pennies. Munchie got his own basket with some graham crackers and eggs filled with raisins. He enjoyed that.

We had a very tasty breakfast of pastrami hash and scrambled eggs, then Ben hid eggs and the kids got to hunt. The boys are old pros now, but Munchie had a good time finding his two eggs, and then spending the rest of the time trying to devour them. Then they convinced daddy to hide them again.

We spent the afternoon/evening with Ben's family having dinner, communion, and egg hunts. It was a very nice weekend, and we even got some rain in the afternoon which was so nice. We're supposed to have a fairly warm and cloudy week, so we will see how all the plants do.

How was your Easter weekend? Did you do anything special?

Happy Monday!
Meg

Yarn Along

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:02:00 +0000

I have been so busy lately, but I've had nothing to blog about! I figured I can only give you step by step of my garden progress a few times before you get bored. ;) Thankfully, there are wonderful people like Ginny who give me things to post about!

We are on spring break this week, so I have been prepping and digging and getting ready for planting on Friday. I got my bean trellis set up and planted all the tomatoes I can stuff into my garden yesterday. I have 6 plants left over so they will have to find a new home. I will ask my neighbor next time I see him.

My grandmother (we call her Mimi) told me that her mother (Great Grandma Lola, who passed away early this year) used to plant on the Thursday - and I later confirmed Friday as well - before Easter. Mimi said Grandma used to call them "Twin days" and she always had very lush and productive gardens. That is when Mimi plants, and I decided it would be good to stick with family tradition and so I will be planting on Friday as well. I like the idea of planting on Good Friday, and the thought that my harvest will be blessed from the beginning. :)

It is also good information for next year, in that now that I know when I'm planting I can better plan my seedlings.... and not have three foot high tomatoes because I started way too early.

Anyways, back to the point of the post...

For knitting I am trying to work on the shawl for the auction. I think my deadline is the middle of April but I need to double check on that... I was about half way through when I took a good look at my design and really, really didn't like it. It just didn't look good. So I reworked the design... and ripped back a lot. =\ It might put me behind and cause me to miss the deadline, but I would rather contribute a shawl from my stash that is already finished than to contribute something that I don't feel good about. No half-arsed work here!

The reading is, among other books, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I am about three chapters in and so far it is very interesting. There has been a bit of history on the life of corn, how it got to this point of being processed and reproccessed and is fed to both animals and humans, and how big industry uses it for... well for evil. Haha. Those are my words, not his. The point of the book is for him to try to follow corn from the farm to the end product, and the journey on which that takes him. I am enjoying it, when I find the rare moments of quiet to read it. I hope I can finish it before it is due back to the library.

Well, for not having much to post, that sure was long...

Linking up to Ginny's Yarn Along

Happy Wednesday y'all!
Meg