Mrs. Tips

Practical Life: Laundry -Team work!

2011-11-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

Miss Tips and Tips Jr. wanted to help me do laundry last month and so I made a video to show you all just how well my almost 4 year old and my 1 year old work together AND actually enjoy working together!

Victory Garden 2011: quick update 8/26

2011-08-27T10:46:00.001-06:00

My life has been just a little hectic lately with the garden in full swing, working on the Cub Scout Leader Pow Wow Committee (I'm a sub-committee chair) and having our exchange student Hanna with us this last month and traveling with her. That's not even including the fact that I have two little ones!

I haven't taken pictures of our garden since the 6th of August, but we pulled out our corn stalks a week ago and I am getting ready to pull my bush beans out since they have slowed down on their production and some of the plants aren't looking so great. My project this coming week is to prep those two rows that hosted the corn and bush beans for my winter garden! Speaking of.... I received my seeds for my winter garden 2 weeks ago and I am so excited to get my winter garden in!

I harvested all of the food in this picture almost 2 weeks ago - the morning that we left to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had 5 heads of lettuce that were getting ready to bolt, a gallon of beans and 19 ears of corn that were getting old... not to mention the obvious zucchini. I didn't have time to take the food to the local food bank that day, so I called our ward's Relief Society president (the woman in our church who oversees the distribution of goods to needy members of the ward/neighborhood as directed by the bishop) to see if she knew if anyone in the ward could use the food. She said she knew a few families so she would come over and get it. I think she was really surprised by the amount of food we had harvested in our garden just that morning! She was so impressed I would share it and I thought to myself, 'But it is my surplus and we can't eat it all. Isn't that what we are supposed to do with our surplus? Pass it on to help other people who need it more? Isn't that what the Law of Consecration is all about?"

I was just so thankful that the food would not be wasted and that it would go to someone who truly needed it! We have been so blessed in our garden this year that I know God expects me to share of our wealth! If everyone who could garden actually did and then also developed a charitable heart to share of the abundance from their garden with needy neighbors and others in the community, we would have a lot less hungry people in the world. Perhaps that is the reason some of the seed companies are participating in the "Grow a Row for the Hungry" initiative and encouraging their patrons to grow a row of food specifically for their local food bank.

So next time you are thinking about decreasing the amount of food you grow in your garden because you know you and your family won't eat it, remember that your local food bank is always grateful for donations of fresh produce from local gardens!

Garden Fresh Green Smoothie!

2011-08-26T10:39:00.000-06:00

Our Victory Garden has been in full production for a couple of months now. Home-grown Romaine lettuce rich in iron makes for a delicious green smoothie! After picking the lettuce I only need to rinse the dirt off it. It is refreshing to know I don't ever have to worry about e-coli on my lettuce since I grow it myself and have much more control over it than if I bought it at the grocery store.

After rinsing the lettuce I pack my Vita-Mix full of lettuce, add enough water to cover the bottom of the canister and then puree it until it is smooth, like so:

Then I add a frozen banana or two (peel the bananas before freezing! I made the mistake of not doing that the first time I made a green smoothie 5 years ago!) and pineapple. Fresh pineapple is the best but

Tips has gotten more daring than I have and he will add raspberries until it is a dark red - normally when you add red fruit it turns the green smoothie into a 'brown' smoothie which doesn't look as appetizing as a green smoothie - but by adding enough raspberries to turn it a dark red, it tastes and looks delicious!

This time around we stuck with a traditional green smoothie for our dinner.

Yummy! It was a hit with Tips Jr and of course I love my green smoothies!

Life of a pair of women's jeans

2011-08-12T01:51:00.001-06:00

REpurposing, REusing, REcycling, UPcycling, making do with what you have..... 4 different words to describe the same idea when it comes to clothing.... especially clothing in my household!

Take this pair of jeans my sister bought me about 5 years ago when I was still working full-time before I got pregnant with Tips Jr..... (and she was working at American Eagle)....

They were darker back then and not so faded and raggedy. But I LOVE them! They are so comfy with the lycra woven in with the cotton to give it just a little bit of stretch to the jeans.

I obviously wear my jeans until they literally can't be worn anymore. Check out my awesome knee patch job on the jeans in the picture to the left!

I decided on Monday, however, that once my jeans get holes in the knees a 2nd time that I won't bother patching them up anymore, I will just repurpose them into bermuda length shorts as evidenced below:

Obviously I haven't washed these shorts since I repurposed them. But they are comfy and MUCH cooler than wearing full-length jeans in the summer.

Once these jeans get a hole in the butt (notice the hole near the rear pocket in the left-hand side of the picture) I will then turn them into a skirt or pair of shorts for a child as you will see in the next pictures. I am so grateful for Hanna's insistence that I add back pockets and front pockets to the shorts (Hanna is our exchange student from Germany that is with us for 3-1/2 weeks).

Our exchange student insisted that I put pockets on the back AND the front. I think they look pretty good - they just don't have an even coloring. After catching up on Project Runway tonight I am even more committed to going to buy some Rit dye and dying the shorts to all be uniform in color. We'll see how that goes.

In the end I am left with this:

I can remove the zipper to reuse and really, I could use the rest of the fabric as fuel for my Rocket Stove..... hmm..... interesting idea.

Tips Jr. loves his free shorts! I think I am in love with the idea of clothing my children for the cost of Tips and I wearing our clothes first and then upcycling our old clothes into new clothing for our children. Who insists that raising a child has to cost you $250,000 per child? Not me!

Victory Garden: 7/18-8/9

2011-08-10T12:55:00.000-06:00

Remember this house?

Pretty much the only thing I've 'done' to the exterior is to plant some seeds, water them and tend them and this is the result!

Still a lot of brown dirt - but did you notice we finally have a lawn that is starting to look lush and green? I've been getting at least 2 compliments each week at church in regards to my garden - I'm just thankful the lush, green and beautiful vegetable garden distracts others from the yucky brown bare side yard that has yet to have much planted in it!

This summer as we've seeded, re-seeded and yet again re-seeded our lawn (only to have to buy a lawn patching mix to fill in the last few holes AFTER we weed our lawn yet again), I've decided that I would rather put in the same time, effort and money in seeding a lawn into growing a vegetable/fruit garden because at least the end result is food I can eat as opposed to grass I have to water & mow at least weekly in addition to the regular fertilizing, weeding (putting down something to kill the weeds) and aerating that needs to be done to maintain the lawn!

The benefits to having a full lawn is less dirt being tracked onto my front porch and into my house. The main benefit to having a grass lawn is a cleaner place for my kids to play outside.

Now that we're done with that little vent... onto the update of my garden and what I've learned over the last 3 weeks!

Remember how last time I told you about the PVC pipe trellis we made for our pole beans?

Yeah.... that didn't work out so well since I've gotten at least 4 runners on each pole bean plant and the weight of the vines and leaves alone has pulled down the trellis... imagine if we had left it like that and the beans were growing and maturing!!!

Tips bought some more electrical conduit, corners and rebar at Lowe's last week and we built up a new trellis for the pole beans:

Much sturdier!

Our spaghetti squash was getting out of hand, so I had Tips buy some more electrical conduit, corners and rebar for a trellis for the squash.

Luckily the rest of the trellis netting we had left over from our square foot garden trellis 3 years ago worked on the spaghetti squash trellis since the vines were already long enough to train onto the trellis netting.

We've already eaten 4 zucchinis from our very own plant! I've actually cut off the bottom leaves that were touching the ground to prevent it from getting powdery mildew so I guess you'll be able to see that next time I blog about the garden.

I misunderstood when my mom told me to prune my tomatoes from the beginning. I didn't realize I needed to prune them a couple of times a week!Apparently this is only a concern with indeterminate tomato plants as determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size and stay that way. Indeterminate tomatoes can get very unruly as seen above.

This is after I've pruned back the sucker stems growing towards the ground and/or touching the ground. I've spent an additional 2 hours pruning these plants - it's overwhelming to let them get this out of control!

But here is my first tomato I picked yesterday (this picture was taken on Saturday)! So delicious!!!

The long tomato on the left is the one in the picture above. The small one on the right is a ripe tomato I found yesterday as I was pruning.

The brown on the bottom of the tomato is NOT indicative of the tomato plant being diseased (phew). The brown means that the tomato plant is calcium deficient. I didn't know this at the get-go, but apparently Jim Kennard has talked on his radio show about applying the Pre-Plant fertilizer at the beginning of July to prevent this very problem. Saturday I went ahead an applied 1-ounce per running foot of the Pre-Plant fertilizer to my tomato plants in addition to the weekly feed.

Speaking of plants needing a supplemental dose of nutrients, I finally bought a bag of Potash at the nursery literally down the street from our house for $6. I decided to pull the bushes apart from each other and off the dirt in the trench to make it easier to apply the Potash and the weekly feed (which I did on Saturday) and so that the beans on that bottom layer aren't getting soaked with water every day. I read in Elliott Coleman's book, The Four-Season Harvest, that bush beans were developed for commercial bean growers to make it easy to harvest with a machine. After I read that I decided that this is the last year I am going to grown bush beans so we aren't bending over or crouching everytime we have to harvest - especially after my mom related to me from one of Jim's shows that pole beans actually produce more beans per foot than bush beans do!

I did need to apply the potash to my pole beans as the edges were getting the fired edges.

We've already picked about 4 ice cream buckets of bush beans (each bucket is 1-gallon) and of course we have more to pick every couple of days. I canned 15 pints of beans and now I only have 5 empty pint bottles in my house. With the amount of beans we are growing I am going to start canning them in quart jars since we could eat through a quart of beans in 2 days and because I'm running out of options! Guess I need to eat up more of the food we already have canned - which is hard to do when we have so much growing fresh!

The corn is doing so well! That is usually what people at church remark on when they compliment us on our garden. Our exchange student from Germany loves corn so we've been eating it almost every other day for dinner or lunch. Sunday dinner consisted of corn, zucchini and beans - it was so satisfying to have more than half of my dinner from the garden! It would have been more if we had had salad as well but we didn't.

Last year with our apartment garden I envisioned having so much lettuce that I could go out there and pick lettuce for a green smoothie everyday. With this romaine lettuce I have been able to do that even if I haven't actually done it everyday. I've only had one plant begin to bolt so I took it out on Saturday for a salad I made for a family luncheon. We're still eating from that salad in addition to the green smoothies I've been making every other day.

Seriously look at how beautiful this head of lettuce is!

Freshly washed lettuce ready to be made into a smoothie.

In the Vita-mix first to be blended and then pureed down to lettuce pulp.

With the added banana and pineapple and ready to drink!

Yummy!

Future green smoothies coming up. They should be ready by the time we finish the large heads. I do need to plant some more lettuce to fill in the gaps. I actually think I should donate some of my lettuce and green beans to the food bank this week.

Peas and Peas..... A few of my vines have turned brittle and dry and that is why there are more pea plants in the picture above than the picture to the right. The fired edges are again a sign of potassium deficiency. After I applied the Potash in the row above and watered it, Tips said it looked like the Red Sea since the water was so red. I'm hoping to plant some more pea seeds this week in the pea plant rows. The only reason I've left the current pea plants in the ground is because they are still producing pea pods for Tips Jr. to eat AND because there is new growth developing near the bases of some of the plants - so I'll just keep fertilizing, watering and harvesting the peas and encourage some new plants to grow!

This little strawberry plant in the bottom left-hand corner is the one that started to dry out so I dug it out and replanted it and then it completely dried out and I thought it was dead - until I saw the little bit of new growth coming through. Now it is getting bigger and I have no doubt it will be a full size strawberry plant by winter's arrival. Our exchange student has been surprised that we are still getting strawberries on it and I didn't quite know how to explain that we have strawberries because we have everbearing plants, which will produce all summer long, and not June bearing which only produce for about 2 months and then are done. But they are delicious and she has been enjoying the few we have been able to pick while she has been here. I just feel bad I won't be able to use strawberries from my garden to make her strawberry cake for her birthday this weekend. :(

I finally have a few actual melons forming! The variety of cantaloupes (really they are muskmelons I learned a couple of years ago) I grew this year (from seed) are Lil' Loupes, they are single-serving size cantaloupes - so hopefully just the right size for Tips to take to work since he likes cantaloupe. I just hope he doesn't grow tired of having so much cantaloupe everyday!

Last but not least the sunflowers I had to start AGAIN since some insect ate the first seedlings I had planted. The two on the left are doing MUCH better than the other 4 to the right. I think the aphids got to those sunflowers and have stunted the growth so I applied some insecticidal soap on ALL the sunflower plants yesterday. We'll see if the other 4 plants grow some more like my tomato plant or if the damage was already done.

So that's the Tips Family garden update this week! I have some sort of a garden every summer for the last 6 summers we have been married but I am still learning so much every year! This has by far been the best year yet for the Tips Family garden.

Canning Chicken at home

2011-08-05T09:24:00.000-06:00

Last year my mom had me watch Wendy DeWitt's YouTube videos on food storage. She is so classy and funny - definitely not a 'frumpy' like person who is encouraging you to get food storage. I also like how straight-forward she is about not relying on other people in your church, neighborhood or family to take care of you. I grew up in a ward (congregation) where people would always say to my parents, my siblings and I, "We'll just come to your house if there is ever a disaster."

As I have become an adult and built up my own food storage and garden I have people tell me that they will come to my house... and it irks me so much because as my mom has observed, that attitude/behavior is coveting another person's preparation when you won't take the time to get your own food storage and expect others to take care of you should hard times come.

Happily, Wendy DeWitt makes food storage so easy that you will want to prepare your own year supply to ensure that you have the food you and your family likes and is in accordance to any dietary restrictions you may have. If hard times come and you need to borrow a little bit of food to supplement what you already have, then I will share with you if you ask me nicely. :) Her blog is: http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/ and a video of her class is available at Seagull Book.


My first home-canned chicken!

One of the things Wendy talks about is canning your own chicken at home. She said it is much more moist and delicious than commercially canned chicken - especially when you can it raw!

Now I grew up where my mom canned chicken and it seemed like a LOT of work to cook the meat and then fill the bottles and then can them and then to have the sulfur smell escape the canner the entire time you are canning meat. To this day canning meat is not my favorite smell. However, the end result makes up for any inconvenient sulfur smell during the process! I can testify that it is so easy to have home canned chicken - it tastes delicious and it makes dinner preparation so easy when I don't want to cook!

Here is how easy it is to can chicken: buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale. Bring them home, fill your sterile pint or quart bottles. Add some salt but NO water (1 tsp for quarts, 1/2 tsp for pints). Leave 1-1/4-inch headspace for poultry. Wipe the rim of the bottle clean. Put the lids on (pre-softened in boiling water). Screw on the bands. Place bottles in pressure canner (which should already have water in it per your canner's instruction booklet). Secure lid on canner. Turn on burner to high. Begin babysitting of pressure canner - I always have a book to read while I am canning food and just hang out in the kitchen watching the dial pressure gauge on my pressure canner.

I had a friend tell me that she would never can raw chicken because she knows people who have gotten sick from eating their raw, home-canned chicken (which thoroughly cooks during the canning process). When I was telling my mom about it yesterday she said she could see how that happened if the person wasn't canning the meat at the right pressure - but then they would have still gotten sick even if the meat was cooked prior to canning.

Case in point: my mom has a friend who used to live down near the Gulf of Mexico near sea level. She grew up canning food and did it as an adult while she was raising her children. About 10 years ago she and her adult daughter moved up to Idaho where my parents live. My mom asked her to can some green beans while they (my parents) would be on vacation. The friend was surprised because a week before she had canned green beans and it didn't work - the beans didn't cook all the way through. My mom asked her what pressure she had canned them at and she said, "ten pounds" (she has a weighted gauge so it is either 10 or 15 pounds). Therein lies the problem! She was canning food at 4,000 feet altitude just like she did at sea level when there is a significant difference at the amount of pressure needed for each!

The following is a standard guide as found in The Joy of Cooking, pg 891 as well as the user manual for my Presto Pressure Canner

Dial Gauge
0 - 2,000 feet: 11 pounds
2,001 - 4,000: 12 pounds
4,001 - 6,000: 13 pounds
6,001 - 8,000: 14 pounds
8,001 - 10,000: 15 pounds

Weighted Gauge
0 - 1,000 feet: 10 pounds
1,001 - 10,000 feet: 15 pounds

If you don't understand why this is a problem, let me clarify it for you. Pressure canners work by boiling water building up steam in a canner so that it creates pressure inside the canner. The pressure from the steam is what helps cook the food all the way through. Water boils at a lower temperature at 4,000 feet altitude than it does at sea level - so in order to cook the food thoroughly and properly at higher altitudes, you will need to build up pressure in the canner a little bit longer than you would at sea level or lower altitudes than at higher altitudes. This is also why at altitudes higher than 1,000 feet above sea level you need to add additional time for boiling water canning.

If you ever have any concerns about canning at home, be sure to read and re-read your user manual for your canner. If it is your first time canning anything, then follow my tutorial for canning water to test out your water bath canner and or your pressure canner and follow those instructions EXACTLY! When food isn't processed correctly, a bacteria called botulism grows inside the sealed cans of food and it can make you VERY sick if you eat improperly canned food. Botulism can happen in either water-bath canned food or pressure-canned foods when directions are not followed exactly!

If you have never canned anything before in your life using either a water-bath canner or a pressure canner, then read my tutorial on doing a trial run of canning water to get the process down first!

Good luck!

First Time Canning

2011-08-04T12:11:00.000-06:00

One of the BEST tips my mom gave me when I first got my pressure canner for my birthday 3 years ago was to do a practice run with it by canning water. Then if I missed a step in this trial run, there wouldn't be any spoiled food.

I suggest that anyone who is canning for the first time in either a water-bath (boiling water canner) or in a pressure canner does a practice run of canning water first. This will help you become familiar with the process of canning and of using YOUR canner without the added stress of spoiling food if you happen to miss a step the first time using your canner. It will also give you an idea of how long it takes and what your process is for either cold-pack method or hot-pack method. Hot pack method always shaves off a few minutes from the total amount of time compared to a cold-pack method.

This is the difference between cold-pack and hot-pack method for water:
Cold-Pack: clean and sterile bottles and lids but not hot. Fill with room temperature water and place on lids (which need to be softened in hot water per the instructions on the lid box), screw on bands and place in a canner with 140 degree water. Process.

Hot-Pack: clean and sterilize bottles - either put the bottles in a deep pan of water in the stove to keep them warm if your food isn't ready to load into the bottles OR run your dishwasher on a hot cycle and have it finish just as the food is ready to load so that you put HOT food into HOT bottles. You will need to already have water in the canner that is 180 degrees and then top it off with boiling water.

Some foods HAVE to be done with hot-pack while others may safely be done with cold-pack. As always consult your local extension office associated with the state agricultural university in your state OR your canning cookbook. The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving is a great resource of recipes that are safe to can and step-by-step instructions!

Here is an excerpt from The Joy of Cooking about canning:

"Canning recipes have been formulated for sea level. At higher altitudes, the temperature of both boiling water and steam is lower. This means that, in order to can food safely, the processing time must be increased when boiling-water canning and the pressure must be increased when steam-pressure canning." (Rombauer, Irma S., Becker, Marion Rombauer, and Becker, Ethan. 75th Anniversary The Joy of Cooking. New York: Scribner, 2006.)

The following is a standard guide as found in The Joy of Cooking, pg 891

Boiling-Water Canning
1,001 - 3,000 feet, add 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet, add 10 minutes

6,001 - 8,000 feet, add 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet add 20 minutes

Dial Gauge
0 - 2,000 feet: 11 pounds
2,001 - 4,000: 12 pounds
4,001 - 6,000: 13 pounds
6,001 - 8,000: 14 pounds
8,001 - 10,000: 15 pounds

Weighted Gauge
0 - 1,000 feet: 10 pounds
1,001 - 10,000 feet: 15 pounds

My suggestion for processing time to use is to use the same processing time of whatever food it is you want to can after your trial run of canning water.

For example: if I wanted to can applesauce for the first time ever tomorrow and use quart bottles, then today I would can water in quart bottles today as a trial run to make sure I knew how the entire process works.

I would fill the quart bottles with water up to 1/2-inch below the rim of the bottle (the suggested headspace the cookbook instructs me to leave), place on the lids (softened in hot water per the manufacturer's instructions), screw on the bands and then place the full quart bottles in the water canner, add additional hot water to cover the quarter bottles and then turn on the burner to high.

Once water comes to a roiling boil start the timer. Since I am at 4,000 feet altitude, I would need to add 10 minutes of processing time to 20 minutes of processing per the applesauce recipe - that means I would process my quarts of water for 30 minutes (start the timer for 30 minutes once the water gets to a roiling boil). When the timer is up, then I turn the burner off and lift the entire canner off of that burner and place it on a cold burner on the stove. Then I pull out each bottle with a bottle lifter (best idea ever for removing hot bottles from canners!) and place it on my prepared counter-top surface (I place cardboard on my counter and then put towels folded over at least once over the cardboard to protect my laminate surface from melting from the hot bottles!)

As the bottles cool the lids will make a popping sound - this is completely normal as it means the bottles are sealing. If, after the bottles have completely cooled and some of the lids haven't sealed fully (the center section of the lid will 'bounce' or pop back up when you push down on it), then if those bottles had food in them you would need to put those bottles in the fridge and eat up that food as soon as possible! But since we are canning water as part of this trial run you don't need to worry about refrigerating the bottled water since it won't go 'bad'. :D

If you have used a water-bath canner before but this is your first time using a pressure canner, then I would go through these same steps as they are the same. The only difference is the type of canner you use (you HAVE to use a pressure canner to can meats, beans and vegetables) and that the processing time remains the same across the board - the only thing that changes is the pressure you have to get the food at before you begin the processing time if you are higher than 2,000 feet altitude. So if I was going to can green beans in my pressure canner as the first real food I canned, than I would go through a trial run of canning water but following the green bean protocol so that I knew how the entire process works.

Good luck with your first time canning! I hope that this tip of going through a trial run of canning water helps relieve some of the stress that accompanies canning food for the first time!

Baby Gear: Baby Bjorn Bib, Bumbo and Boon

2011-07-30T16:07:00.000-06:00

Baby gear.... for some new mothers they think they need to get everything that is suggested on the baby registry. Other mothers want to keep simple either out of necessity (poor college student perhaps?) or out of respect to the environment. As a first time mother I wanted to keep it simple out of necessity - I didn't have very much money. This time around though, I've realized some items that I think are SUPER helpful for moms... especially moms that already have one older child like I do!

The first one up is the Bumbo, out of South Africa! My sister-in-law had this for my niece when Tips Jr. was born and although I thought, "That seems nice," I also thought, "I can't afford that yet." When Miss Tips came around almost 3 years later though, I realized there would probably be some used ones out there on craigslist.com or on our local newspaper online classifieds. Sure enough, there was one for $25 when I looked in January. I called the woman up and went and bought it. I thought saving $15 was a good deal, especially since it was in really good shape! Then I bought two $50 shopzoolu.com vouchers from eversave.com (and only paid $45!) - so since shopzoolu.com sells Bumbos, I bought the Bumbo tray as part of my first shopzoolu.com order.

We LOVE both the Bumbo and the tray! We haven't used the Fischer Price 3-in-1 booster chair once since she's been born since the Bumbo is much more comfortable for Miss Tips and just as convenient.

Plus, I don't have to have it strapped onto a kitchen chair all the time. It's much more convenient for me to put the Bumbo on the counter or the table and sit right in front of Miss Tips and feed her. Granted that goes against the suggested uses of the Bumbo - but if I am right in front of her feeding her and she tries to squirm out of her Bumbo (which she HAS done on the kitchen counter/bar before and it was a good thing I was so close to catch her before she rolled/crawled off the counter!) then I can prevent her from falling.

Bumbo Safety Tip... do not EVER leave a baby unattended in a Bumbo! Because they can and DO squirm out of it! Even with the tray on it!!!! The other thing babies can do if they are on a slick surface (kitchen floor, table, counter) in a Bumbo is to push it with their feet. Miss Tips has completely turned her Bumbo around when she's been on the counter in it AND she's pushed her chair a couple of feet (before I kept an eagle eye on her - now I get ALL food and feeding utensils out for her before I put her on the Bumbo so I don't ever turn my back on her!). So again.... DO NOT EVER LEAVE A BABY UNATTENDED IN A BUMBO IF YOU PLACE IT ON A COUNTER OR TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure a high chair is the equivalent of being at eye level with your baby when you feed them, but we didn't have room in our apartment and we don't have floor space in our new kitchen for a highchair. So the Bumbo is what we use.

Anyway, we love it and so does Miss Tips! She's almost too big for it so it will be going into storage until we have baby #3 (no announcements here).

Next up is the Baby Bjorn bib! I received it as a baby shower present from my friend Shannon. I seriously need to give away all the other bibs I have and just buy one or two more of these bibs! It catches all the food and it is so easy to clean and so durable! No laminated fabric falling apart on this baby! I also love how easy it is to adjust the neck to fit the baby. Shannon said her oldest son used it until he was about 3! We'll see how long Miss Tips uses it!

Last up, which I don't have my own picture of, is Boon's Squirt spoon! My friend Nadia has one of these and she would feed her son baby food in church with this. I decided that when I had baby #2 I was definitely going to get one of these! It is awesome for when you are out and about! You just prepack it with babyfood and then when it's time to feed baby you take off the spoon cover, squeeze some food into the spoon and feed it. Some reviews I've read of it talk about how the food doesn't necessarily come out very easily, but my experience with that has been when I've made the liquidy baby food too thick with baby cereal - then the spoon will sometimes fave a 'fart' when an air bubble comes out and food will literally squirt everywhere. Overall though, sometimes it's so handy we use it at home too!

That's my baby gear review today. I have one coming up on Ergobaby Carriers, but I like the alliteration with this post. :)

Victory Garden 2011: 7/12-7/17

2011-07-28T22:38:00.001-06:00

Now that it's been 11 days since I last took pictures of my garden, I'm finally getting them up. That's what happens when you are trying to finish sewing an American Girl doll dress for your niece's birthday present AND get your house ready for your German exchange student (she arrived today!)

So here's the update on the garden, and I'll make sure I take new pictures tomorrow and write an updated blog on what's been cooking (literally) this last week!

This is the view I see everyday when I come out of my front door. Now that the garden is thriving so well I don't mind that the rest of the yard looks so barren. At least now we can start focusing on the rest of the landscaping and start thinking about our fall and winter garden.

My sunflowers are doing a LOT better now that some grasshopper (or whatever it was) isn't chomping on them as seedlings! I did transplant them a few days after I took this picture - so they are doing even BETTER now that they are in the ground!

Here's the zucchini plant doing very nicely! I forgot that zucchini don't vine like pumpkin and other squashes do!

The spaghetti squash plants.

Our pole bean plants and trellis. We rigged this trellis up with some PVC pipe, 2 rebars, twine and floral wire the night before I took the picture. We already had the two lengths of PVC pipe for the height and the twine - so the total amount we had to spend on the rest of the trellis was maybe $7.

And our peas! I can not tell you how happy I am that these actually are producing in mid-July!

The first pod of the year! Picked on 17 July 2011.

Tips Jr. eats these like candy and asks for peas everyday! Of course he won't eat them cooked, but he will eat them fresh out of the garden any time of the day. Just another reason why we have a garden.

See how excited he is for his peas!?!

The tomatoes are doing fabulous - even the one on the far left is recovering from the battle with the aphids!

The tomato plants still have some distorted leaves - so I'll need to ask Jim Kennard what is wrong with these plants.

The first tomato of the year... I've been watching it closely since I first noticed it forming. I can't wait to eat it!!!

The bush beans are doing really well.

For example, I've never had bush bean plants with leaves THIS large! They are larger than my hand!

The largest cantaloupe plant is starting to vine out!

Our romaine lettuce. Green smoothie season is upon us friends!

The strawberry plants are sending out shoots - we will have a VERY full bed next year!

Obviously we've been eating the strawberries as they have ripened. They are so delicious! Store-bought strawberries can not hold a candle to home-grown, ripe on the plant strawberries!

This poor little plant was drying out and I realized that it's root ball had gotten exposed to be above the ground. So I dug it out and replanted it a few inches deeper. The rest of the plant died but I've left it alone (save watering and fertilizing it) and I'll take a picture tomorrow of the new growth on it!

Hoover Scrub Spin Steam Vac doesn't suck (in the literal sense of the word)

2011-07-27T09:38:00.000-06:00

I'm cleaning my carpet today to get ready for our exchange student's arrival tomorrow. I got 2-1/2 rooms cleaned and then had to refill the tank and empty the return tank. I put it all back together, and went on my merry way.... but wait! It's not sucking up any of the water!

After trying all the trouble-shooting problems in the user manual and searching online and trying those different tips to no avail, I finally checked to see if there was a blockage on the bottom (rather than in the tool on the end of the hose as the user manual suggests), I found a wad of hair. Whaaaat???? How on earth did my regular vacuum miss that much hair?

The other bizarre thing is that it wasn't even blocking anything, it probably just made it so the two brushes it was in between couldn't rotate - which in turn probably made it so the machine automatically wouldn't suck up anything.

I removed the wad of hair and now my carpet cleaner sucks once again (sucks in the literal, good sense of the word). Simple. Easy. Success!

Love, Light and Forgiveness

2011-07-24T02:08:00.003-06:00

Last week a sister in my ward (congregation) asked me to substitute teach her lesson this week (today). I felt guided by the Spirit in my preparation of this lesson and felt that I should share it here. I do not take credit for this lesson as it was given to me by the God through the guidance of the Holy Ghost. This lesson was most likely meant for me and not so much for the other sisters in my ward. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to prepare this lesson and for the opportunity I will have in 11 hours to teach it to the other sisters in my Relief Society.

Guided by the Holy Spirit, Boyd K. Packer. 24 July 2011 Relief Society Lesson

"Every one of us can be guided by the spirit of revelation and the gift of the Holy Ghost."

I had to read this talk 3 or 4 times before I understood what the title and the tagline had to do with the rest of the talk, since in my initial readings I only saw him mention past revelations and then talk about it for a little while. When I got half way through the talk, the entire talk seemed to take a whole new direction and focused on the story of the patriarch whose wife passed away a few days after she gave birth to their first child from the same disease the country doctor had been treating another patient right before he came to deliver the baby. As a young widow, this man became embittered and as his grief festered, his bitterness became threatening... until one night a little girl knocked on his door and said, "Daddy wants you to come over. He wants to talk to you." "Daddy" was the stake president - and his counsel was, "John, leave it alone. Nothing you do will bring her back. Anything you do will make it worse. John, leave it alone."

I understood how this was another example of someone (the stake president) being guided by the spirit of revelation and the gift of the Holy Ghost - but when President Packer went on finish his talk on this note:

"If you are carrying some burden, forget it, let it alone. Do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting, and you will be visited by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and confirmed by the testimony that you did not know existed. You will be watched over and blessed—you and yours. This is an invitation to come unto Him. This church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth,”²² by His own declaration—is where we find “the great plan of happiness.”²³ Of this I bear witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

So as you can see.... I had somewhat of a trying time figuring out what the title and the tagline to this talk had to do with the actual text of the talk - especially since I recently was offended by my brother-in-law. I had a really hard time forgiving him and even after I learned the rest of the story behind his actions and realized it was a COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING. As I read this talk over and over and listened to it a couple of times while driving around running errands, all I could think about was, "Great. This is the lesson Cheryl had me substitute teach - obviously God is trying to tell me something. But how is this going to benefit the rest of the sisters in the ward?" I began to really pray to find out what Heavenly Father wanted me to focus on in this talk.

The next night as I was reading through this talk yet again (I had read it once that night and then immediately started over to read it again), I noticed for the first time the paragraph that directly precedes the story of the patriarch who, as a young widow, was counseled by his stake president to 'Let It Alone'.

"Latter-day Saints are taught to love one another and to frankly forgive offenses."

Since I had just read the article before re-reading it, I remembered what it said in the closing paragraph and finally saw the connection between the two: if we want to experience fully being guided by the spirit of revelation and the gift of the Holy Ghost, then we MUST truly love one another and 'frankly forgive offenses'. If there is a burden we are carrying, then we need to "Do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting, and you will be visited by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and confirmed by the testimony that you did not know existed."

The phrase that just popped into my mind after I typed the last sentence was, "cease to find fault one with another." I did a search for it on lds.org and along with that scripture, two more came up:

D&C 136: 24 "Cease to ^acontend one with another; cease to speak ^bevil one of another."

AND

D&C 42: 27 "Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm."

Over and over this week as I was preparing this lesson it has been drilled into my heart and my mind that we can NOT receive a full measure of the Holy Spirit and his attendant guidance and spirit of revelation if we harbor dark, ugly and mean thoughts about or towards another person or incidence. I want to bear a simple testimony to you sisters that I know what I have prepared to share with you is what the Spirit guided me to share. My first hope in the outcome of my lesson is that the Holy Ghost will be your teacher and that you will let him teach you the lesson you need to learn in Relief Society today. My second hope is that you will immediately act on any promptings or inspiration you receive during this lesson. Please write down any prompting that comes to mind during the lesson so that you do not forget it after our block of meetings today.

Now, for the rest of the lesson, I want to focus our attention on scriptures found in Doctrine & Covenants section 88 that really seem to drive home the eternal importance of loving one another and frankly forgiving offenses.

To start off, in the first 4 verses the Lord talks about the Comforter he has sent and that it is, "even the Holy Spirit of promise". Then for the next 9 verses he talks about the Savior and how he is the light of truth - verse 12 says, "Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space."

Jumping over to section 50 for clarity on this of Christ being the light and the idea that we should not hold onto grudges or past offenses, verses 23-25 teach, 

"And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you;

Back to section 88, verses 49-50:

The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless, the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God, being quickened in him and by him.

Then shall ye know that ye have seen me, that I am, and that I am the true light that is in you, and that you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound.

When we hold onto grudges we are filling our souls with darkness. Darkness and light can not occupy the same space - that is true in the spiritual world just as fully as it is true in the physical world.

Verse 62 seems to be a preparatory instruction for the next chunk of scriptures:

And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts, with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall call upon me while I am near—

Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Verses 67-68 and 74-75

67And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.

68Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.

AND

74And I give unto you, who are the first laborers in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and sanctify yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean;

75That I may testify unto your Father, and your God, and my God, that you are clean from the blood of this wicked generation; that I may fulfil this promise, this great and last promise, which I have made unto you, when I will.

In the next chunk of scriptures, some of the events of the Second Coming are highlighted in which the 7 angels each 'sound his trump in the ears of all living, and reveal the secret acts of men,' during each of the angels' assigned dispensations, culminating with the seventh angel, who: shall sound his trump; and he shall stand forth upon the land and upon the sea, and swear in the name of him who sitteth upon the throne, that there shall be time no longer; and Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years. (verse 110)

Sisters, may I postulate the idea that we do not have to wait for the 7th angel to sound his trump before Satan is bound? By refusing to gossip about, contend with or speak evil about one another, we will bind Satan because we choose to not sin.

The last chunk I want to focus on is from verses 118-126. In the beginning of verse 118 it identifies why the Lord is giving the following counsel to us. It says, "And as all have not faith..." I find this an interesting identifying factor as to why the Lord gives us the counsel in the ensuing verses. I will not go into detail about each of them, only the verses that seem pertinent to the lesson. In regards to truly loving one another and frankly forgiving one another, here is the list of counsel I have surmised from this section of scriptures:

And as all have not faith cease from all your light speeches.

And as all have not faith cease from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.

And as all have not faith see that ye love one another; cease to be covetous;

And as all have not faith cease to find fault with one another.

And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.

Sisters, I know from personal experience that it is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ to let go of past grudges, hurts and offenses. Not only is it possible to let go of these dark and ugly feelings, but it is also possible to have pure charity for the person who offended us. When we give our burden to the Lord, he will change what was once black, dark and ugly into pure snow, " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1: 18. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Cookies and Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer

2011-07-13T10:52:00.002-06:00

A couple of months ago after making cookie dough one Sunday afternoon, Tips put our burnished beater blade in the dishwasher. We didn't realize it would take the finish off of it until after I was emptying the dishwasher and noticed it was missing its finish. Then I looked it up and it specifically tells you to wash by hand. I've had my Kitchen-Aid mixer for 5 years and this was never a concern because we never had a dishwasher - but now we have one and now we've already ruined something that wasn't supposed to go in the dishwasher.

But not to fear readers! Anytime something 'bad' happens there is always a way for improvement or even the idea that something better will come about!

When I e-mailed Tips at work that Monday and told him about the finish coming off of the beater blade and that I looked it up on Kitchen-Aid's website and it says that the burnished beater blade is NOT dishwasher safe his exact words were,

Oops.

Alright let’s find one that is dishwasher safe.

So I searched and I found one that is not only dishwasher safe, but also scrapes the sides and bottom of the Kitchen-Aid bowl! WIN!

Fellow Kitchen-Aid users know that the beater blade that comes with your Kitchen-Aid doesn't fully mix in the ingredients on the sides and bottom of the bowl. I've known one or two people who actually sold or traded in their Kitchen-Aid for a Bosch mixer so that their doughs and batters could finally be thoroughly mixed! When I saw that this beater blade was only about $25 for my Kitchen-Aid, I knew we needed to get it! It didn't take long for Tips to jump on board either.

I have nothing but praises for it! It works and it thoroughly does its job of scraping the sides and bottom of your Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer bowl AND it is definitely dishwasher safe!

Check out this dough and how well it mixed in all the ingredients! No flour stuck on the bottom of the bowl. So very pleased with this purchase!

FYI: the exact beater blade we bought was the: New Metro Design Beater Blade for KitchenAid 6-Quart & 5-Plus Mixers for about $25 on Amazon.com.

3M Command Strips and Evaporative Coolers

2011-07-12T16:47:00.000-06:00

My sister-in-law uses the 3M Command Strips for just about every picture she has on her walls. She loves them... so when we bought and moved into our new house, I bought them too. My sister-in-law has central air - which I now see plays a HUGE part in how well the strips work on the wall.

My strips have worked well for the most part. I put them up in March when we moved in and they- that is until we turned on our have done well holding up our pictures - that is until this last week. We've had our evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) turned on for the summer for about the last month. Apparently having moist air circulating throughout the house for a few weeks, especially in the hallway where said pictures are hung, is not good for the adhesives found on the 3M Command strips. Now it looks like I'm going to have to put holes in my walls to display my pictures! Argh!!! Talk about frustration!!!

Summary of my decorating tip for the day? If you have an evaporative cooler (or swamp cooler) and you want to use the 3M Command strips to hang pictures on your wall, be very cautious as it may cause the strips to loose their adhesiveness and pictures to fall off the walls!

Victory Garden 2011: 7/1-7/11

2011-07-12T00:20:00.001-06:00

You know, I really thought I was going to get around to blogging about my garden every single week.... but it hasn't panned out that way exactly, has it? On the upside, updating it every 10-14 days shows an enormous amount of growth!

Check out my corn plants (I took all these pictures tonight in the dark)!

The week before the 4th July they were up to my knees. Last Tuesday it was up to my thigh and less than a week later it is up to my chest/shoulders! (I'm about 5'4") It must be the unusual summer rainfall and subsequent humidity we are experiencing in Utah right now combined with the warmth. This spring and summer have been unusually cool and wet.... I know 98 degrees is still hot but it actually cools down at night right now but it feels a bit more muggy than is standard for the arid desert Utah normally is.

My plants probably enjoy getting their Mittleider Magic weekly feed every week! 1/2 oz per running foot! No harsh chemical fertilizers here, only 14 of the essential nutrients ALL plants all over the world need and in a completely water-soluble form so that when you water your plants it gradually dissolves the fertilizer and takes it down to the roots every-time it is watered.

Ideally the Mittleider Method uses a modified drip irrigation system, but with the purchase of a new house and all the accompany expenses that incurred, hand watering with the flood irrigation system of each trench/row seems to work well.
As I stated last week, my plants are thriving now that I am finally giving them enough water! Too bad I didn't do it earlier so that more of my pea plants would have survived the increase in temperature.

At least I have some pea pods forming!!!!

I JUST decided as I've been typing that I will plant carrot seeds in between all the sparse areas of my garden so that I have food to donate to the local food bank. "Grow a Row for the Hungry" is a program that I know Territorial Seed Catalog supports as they sent me a packet of carrot seeds with my order a year ago - I never did plant carrots last year, but the seeds seem to be pretty good seeds! I re-seeded my carrot row (after realizing most of my carrots probably didn't come up because I didn't keep them watered enough) and they had sprouted when we returned from our weekend at the cabin! Much earlier than I expected!


(The larger carrot tops are from my first planting, so if you can see the grass-looking seedlings, those are the 2nd round of carrots)

Our strawberry plants are doing well - as you can see they have sent off runners and the first 3 strawberries we have harvested have been so juicy and sweet... so delicious! MUCH more flavor than store-bought strawberries that have to be picked before they are fully ripe on the vine.

This poor little pumpkin plant is not growing so well.... perhaps I should have realized it was going to be quite shady where I planted it - and that the aspen trees would probably suck up more of the nutrients in the soil than the little pumpkin plant could.... but I guess when you are still in the 1st year of living in your house you don't quite know all the ins and outs of it, right? Maybe I'll give the aspen trees a couple of the fertilizer stakes I bought for the peach trees and see if that helps the pumpkin plant get enough of the nutrients/minerals it needs.

My other 2 pumpkin plants on the west side of our lot are doing quite well! They definitely get a lot of sun and no nearby vampire trees to suck away the soil nutrients.

My sister-in-law should be very happy that the zucchini plant I planted especially for her is doing so well!

Next up... the new spaghetti squash plants I replanted from seed after realizing that I should stop being a 5 year old trying to see if my seeds are growing by digging them up!

The bush beans have regained some ground! I bought a bottle of ready to use insecticidal soap at the nursery the morning we were heading up to the cabin, so I didn't get a chance to spray them for aphids until last Monday - and even then I only had enough to spray one of these half-rows of beans. I thought I would see what the difference is and I can't even remember which one I sprayed and which one I didn't. Eek! Guess I'll just have to go buy more concentrate and respray BOTH rows this week! The plants are flowering and I am guessing we'll have beans ready to pick within the next two weeks.

Unfortunately it looks like I'll need to reapply straight potash to my bean plants to help make up for the potassium deficiency they are still obviously struggling from:

Speaking of beans... my pole beans sprouted over the holiday weekend and seem to be doing really well. I told Tips that we need to get a trellis up for them THIS week! Looks like a shopping trip to Home Depot down the street is in order for this week!

The tomatoes seem to be rebounding from the aphids - even my little plant on the end is starting to recover, which I am very happy about since it looked like it was going to lie over and die on us last week!

I even have a tomato forming already!!!

And in other garden news, my sunflower seeds have sprouted much faster in the little potting soil and seedling starter thing than direct sowing did to them. I'm just waiting until they are a little bit bigger to transplant them so that bugs don't think they are a tasty treat just for them! Perhaps it was a caterpillar who chomped off the stem of my first sunflower seedlings!

I forgot to take a picture of the entire garden - but I'll add it on after I take one in the morning (it's midnight as I write this - so later today I'll get a picture up of the entire garden!

Solar Oven Cooking Part 1

2011-07-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

My mom gave each of us 6 kids Global Sun Ovens for Christmas 5-1/2 years ago. Some of my siblings weren't overly excited (as was I when I opened it), but I've grown to be really appreciative of it over the years.

For one thing, you don't have to heat up your house in the summer time and make your AC or Evaporative Cooler ('Swamp Cooler') work double time if you want to bake cookies. For another, you aren't using any electricity so that saves on your electric bill.

Oh yeah, and baking in it doesn't add any carbon to the earth's atmosphere if you care about the environment at all.

If you are worried about the zombie apocalypse - no need to fear! I'm pretty sure the walking dead only come out at night so you are safe to cook in your sun oven during the day.

Now onto the serious business of just what you can cook in your sun oven! I've actually baked in it quite a few times, it just wasn't every convenient since I lived in an apartment building most of the time we've owned it and there were quite a few large trees at our apartment building that shaded the yard and most of the parking lot. Plus, when you have something this expensive you don't want to leave it unattended for very long.

But now that we own our house with a fenced yard and we have a deck right off the kitchen that receives direct light for 75% of the day, it's almost as convenient as if I was baking cookies right in my kitchen! So I set up the oven on two TV tables last Monday and started baking!

What exactly can you bake in a solar oven? My mom has experimented with hers a lot more than I have with mine, but she has cooked roasts, bread, cookies, brownies, cake, microwave pizzas, frozen pot pies, etc.

I've cooked/baked brownies, cookies, frozen pot pies, microwave pizzas, and dinner rolls over the years. I think I'll try baking a casserole in it next!

I volunteered to make a treat for the young women in our church to take with them to girls camp last week so I baked cookies last Monday afternoon for about 3 hours. I used about 3 of my dark silicone cake 'pans' and I only burned one batch of cookies (although some of them got pretty close to burning).

After baking the cookies last Monday I realized it was 4pm and Tips would be home from work in just over an hour and the oven was still over 300 degrees - so I hurried and threw together dinner of taco soup. Luckily it was all about opening cans and dumping them in!

Here is my thrown together from food storage, but quite tasty recipe:
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can corn (drained)
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1/2 - 1 lb ground beef
about 1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

And here it is fresh out of the sun oven.... granted I forgot to take a picture of it while it was actually in the sun oven, but we weren't going to eat dinner outside so I brought it inside and set it on the stovetop until Tips got home and we could serve it up and eat! It was still boiling when I took it out of the sun oven and brought it inside!

This soup was completely from our existing food storage! I even canned the kidney beans myself a week and a half ago.... but that's something I'll blog about at a later date.

Happy Birthday to the United States of America!

2011-07-04T18:24:00.000-06:00

We got home from Tips' grandfather's cabin about two hours ago. After watering the garden, spraying on some insecticidal soap on half of my bush beans - I came in to go through my e-mail and upload these cute pictures of my family!

Yesterday we attended church in the hometown of Tips' great-grandfather and where his own grandfather spent his summers as a boy. Then this morning we watched the Fourth of July parade in Mount Pleasant, Utah. It is definitely a 'small town' USA type of parade - but almost every parade entrant throws candy out to the spectators - so it is a LOT more enjoyable for little kids than the Freedom Festival Parade in Provo, Utah (Provo hosts the Fourth of July Parade and Salt Lake City hosts the Pioneer Day Parade on 24 July - so both parades are equally huge!). It is also a much shorter parade so we were done after an hour. Next year we'll be in my hometown for the Fourth of July - which is somewhere in between the Mt. Pleasant Parade and the Provo Parade.

Enough of future plans for the Fourth of July! I need to get going on sharing my thoughts and feelings about this hallowed day in which I celebrate the freedom my ancestors fought for in liberating the 13 colonies from British rule. Ironically, I am going to share two paragraphs concerning Patriotism by C.S. Lewis as found in his book, The Four Loves, pages 27-28. 'Ironically' because C.S. Lewis had a great love for his nation, England which my country won its independence from 235 years ago. :D

Finally we reach the stage where patriotism in its demonic form unconsciously denies itself. Chesteron picked on two lines from Kipling as the perfect example. It was unfair to Kipling, who knew - wonderfully, for so homeless a man - what the love of home can mean. But the lines, in isolation, can be taken to sum up the thing. They run:

If England was what England seems

'Ow quick we'd drop 'er. But she ain't!

Love never spoke that way. It is like loving your children only "if they're good," your wife only while she keeps her looks, your husband only so long as he is famous and successful. "No man," said one of the Greeks, "loves his city because it is great, but because it is his." A man who really loves his country will love her in her ruin and degeneration - "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still," She will be to him "a poor thing but mine own." He may think her good and great, when she is not, because he loves her; the delusion is up to a point pardonable. But Kipling's soldier reverses it; he loves her because he thinks her good and great - loves her on her merits. She is a fine going concern and it gratifies his pride to be in it. How if she ceased to be such? the answer is plainly given: " 'Ow quick we'd drop 'er." When the ship begins to sink he will leave her. Thus that kind of patriotism which sets off with the greatest swagger of drums and banners actually sets off on the road that can lead to Vichy. And this is a phenomenon which will meet us again. When the natural loves become lawless they do not merely do harm to other loves; they themselves cease to be the loves they were - to be loves at all.

A friend of mine is a dual Canadian-US citizen. She was born in the States but grew up in Canada. After her marriage, she and her husband (also a dual Canadian-US citizen) moved down here to Utah. She wondered a few months ago why there is so much patriotism for the US when our government is a mess with scandals and corruption and no real progress being made to actually FIX our nations myriad of problems. She said, "What is there to be proud of?"

Having been born and raised in the heart of America by very patriotic parents who are well-read on the history of our nation as well as an understanding of God's hand in the founding of our nation, I told her, "I am not proud of what the United States presently is, but I am proud of the Founding Fathers and the men and women who sacrificed, some even their very lives, to ensure future generations all the blessings that accompany living in a free nation. I am deeply grateful for their foresight and for the hand of God in guiding their drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America - for it was only in a free nation such as this that God could restore his Gospel in its entirety through the Prophet Joseph Smith." As a fellow Mormon, she understood my point.

While reading the words of C.S. Lewis today, it really struck home. I love the United States of America because it is mine. It is my home, my heritage and my children's future. It is my hope that my efforts will ensure that future generations will have the same freedoms I enjoy. I am deeply indebted to all the armed forces and their families throughout its history that have sacrificed so much to ensure that America remained a free nation.

I will end now with the Pledge of Allegiance which I first learned as a 5 year old in public school kindergarten and which we will begin teaching Tips Jr. tonight as part of our weekly home evening:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

Wedding sewing

2011-07-02T08:00:00.003-06:00

Per comments I've made on Facebook - I'm now going to show you all the other reason I haven't been posting as often over the last couple of weeks (aside from the madness I call my garden and yard!)

TaDa!!!!

Baby girl dresses for my sister-in-law's wedding this September. Her colors are red, white and black and me being the type of person that offers to do much more than she ought to... I offered to make matching red dresses for Miss Tips and my niece. I've had the bodices done for a couple of weeks but it was this last week when I got so frustrated with my garden and the aphid infestation that I decided to work on the baby girl dresses that night and got everything you see below done that night (Wednesday night to be exact). Plus, I had it in mind all along that I would finish these dresses by 4th July (America's Independence Day) so that Miss Tips could wear her dress to match her brother and daddy wearing their matching red ties (also made for the wedding and also made from the same fabric).

Tips Jr. in the first tie I ever made!

Thursday morning I sewed the buttonholes and then sewed the buttons on and heading to JoAnn's to buy some white grosgrain ribbon for the trim on the hem. At first I couldn't decide between the 3/8" ribbon (as the pattern called for) or the 5/8" ribbon. I obviously went with the 5/8" ribbon and I am so glad I did. Friday morning I sewed the ribbon on both dresses (but forgot to take a picture of them next to each other - guess you'll have to wait until September to see them next to each other). I love the bold white across the hem! Sooooo cute!!!!

For those who are interested, I used Simplicity pattern 4711 dress A and SewClassics Linen Look in Amaretto Red from JoAnn's - although we omitted the applique on the bodice front per the bride's request and I used piping in the bodice/skirt seam rather than just sewing the seam and then sewing ribbon over the seam as the pattern directs you to do. I felt that since I was sewing piping on the arms and neck to finish them, then I may as well do piping in the bodice/skirt seam.

My goal for this weekend is to finish pressing, forming and hand-stitching the other 5 ties (2 are already pressed, formed and pinned and just waiting to be sewn) for the little boys.

Then next week I can begin on MY skirt for the wedding.

But before I forget, here's a picture of little Miss Tips in her dress. All that is missing is the big red gerber daisy hair clip that my other sister-in-law is going to make for the baby girls.

Mrs. Tips First Giveaway! Second attempt...

2011-07-01T22:48:00.002-06:00

Apparently I don't know two cents about doing a giveaway. It's been 6 weeks since I first posted about my first giveaway. Six weeks later and aside from my own comment there has only been one other comment to that original post and my number of followers or fans on both Google and facebook have consistently stayed at 25 on Facebook and 14 on Google. I guess I'm still on the learning curve of what it means to be a blogger!

First of all, let me tell you how awesome Amanda's book is! When I first read it I thought to myself, "Great.... one more thing I 'need' to do to be a good mother." But then I realized upon pondering it and re-reading it that the thought came to me that the way Amanda nurtures her children's creativity isn't the 'only' way to do it - she just has some great ideas about making materials and projects available to her children to foster and nurture their innate creative ability. What I've really taken away from her book is the importance of finding whatever outlet helps you feel 'centered' or at peace as a wife, mother, sister, friend, aunt, or grandmother and doing that on a daily basis. Whatever you start doing for yourself will naturally influence what you do with and for the children in your life.

So here you go, new rules to my giveaway (which is still going to be for the book, The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule.

Initial entry: leave a comment as to how you try to encourage creativity in your own life/family OR what you do on a daily basis that helps you feel centered and at peace.

Additional entries:

subscribe to my feed
follow me on twitter
tweet about the giveaway with my link

After each additional entry requirements are completed, leave a comment here. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator from all the comments on THIS current giveaway post and announced here in this post by the evening of Saturday 9 July 2011.

The winner will then have 72 hours to contact me at mrstips(at)gmail(dot)com with their mailing address so I can mail you the book!

ETD 11 July 2011 (just after midnight): A day late with the announcement, but since there was only one entry then the winner of Mrs. Tips' first giveaway is Britt! E-mail me your address and I'll send you the book Britt!

Victory Garden 2011: weeks 6/15-6/30

2011-07-01T22:07:00.003-06:00

It's been a heart-rending last two weeks in terms of my beloved garden. I had such high hopes for it when I started out and the last 2 weeks felt like a breaking point for me.

Two weeks ago I realized that something definitely was wrong with my peas, bush beans and tomatoes. I took the following pictures of my peas & bush beans and posted them on the Mittleider Yahoo Group asking if they were deficient any minerals and Jim Kennard e-mailed me back with an answer.

bush bean plants

bush bean plant - brown & shriveled leaf


pea plant

He told me that dry, rough leave edges are often associated with potassium deficiency so he suggested that I apply some potash if I could find some at my local nursery. He also told me it was really unusual that I would have this problem when I did the correct pre-plant mix before planting and I have done the weekly feed every week since planting my food. I actually had some Dr. Earth Organic fertilizer that had a fairly high potash count so I applied that to my beans and peas. Wow! What a difference that made!

bush beans

Peas

So although some of the leaves are still dry, rough and brown - those are from when I first realized I had a problem on my hand. Since then they have grown so much and their coloring is so good (as you can see above)! It also helps that for the first time since learning about the Mittleider Method I finally understood per Jim's e-mail that I wasn't giving my plants enough water. They need about 1 inch of water in each row a day - I was just watering it until it looked like it had enough, I wasn't really filling up the row (or trough, because my soil beds really do look like troughs) with water. Had I realized THAT small,minor detail earlier, I'm sure more of my seeds would have sprouted and/or my seedlings wouldn't have died on me!

Having that problem 'fixed' it only took about a week until this week while pruning my tomato plants that I noticed my tomato plants have an aphid infestation! Seriously bad news- my poor end of the row tomato plant below USED to be the largest tomato plant, but I am afraid the aphids have stunted its growth (it's a good thing I have 7 plants!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can revive the tomato plant and that the aphids don't wreak havoc on my other 6 plants!

My poor end of the row tomato plant - can you see how shriveled and dry it looks compared to its neighbor?

I did try putting some of my ladybugs I bought a few weeks ago (and have kept in the fridge rather than letting them all go at once), but about an hour later when I went back to see if the ladybugs were feasting on the aphids, I found that the ants that protect these aphids had ganged up on the ladybugs and killed them and were dragging them back to their nest! I don't even have red ants - just plain old carpenter ants!

This meant war on the ants! Ants farm aphids for their honeydew like humans farm dairy cows for their milk - and they will protect their food source at any cost! Kill the ants and the aphids lose their protectors. I've increased how often I head out at dusk to sprinkle ant bait and water it as the directions state. I'm sure the kind we are using (whatever was at the Big Box Blue or Orange Home Improvement stores) is working - because I found an ant hill littered with hundreds of dead ant bodies pretty far away from anywhere we have spread the ant poison. That taught me two things: 1) the commercial ant bait was finally proving its effectiveness and 2) rather than having 10 ant colonies, it is more likely that I have 1 huge metropolis ant colony in my entire yard (front, back and side yard!)

My friend Doug sent me this link on facebook when I updated my status with the fact that I had an aphid infestation. I am going to try the honey dish/tray idea next time I put ladybugs out. I also had 2 friends comment on facebook to buy marigolds and plant those around my tomatoes. I may try that now that I am running out of options to keep my plants healthy and pest-free!

Now that all the nitty gritty details about what I feel are my failures in the garden - here's the bi-monthly photo update the garden:

The overall garden picture - see that patch of grass coming in nice and thick finally? I think one more seeding will do the trick!

My strawberry plants are not only producing fruit, they are sending out runners!

Pea plants are sparse due to not enough water and potasssium, but I am hoping to still get some pea pods even though it is July.

My canteloupe is growing up nicely and you can finally see the lettuce growing in size! I re-planted more lettuce seed and hopefully I can keep it moist enough that it will sprout and grow!

"Knee-high by the Fourth of July" is the old farmer's saying for corn. Looks like my corn is doing well although I am worried about the aphids attacking the corn next since they are already in the bush beans at the end of the row.

Here's the tomato row with peas at the head of the row. Pruning my indeterminate tomato plants sure helps to keep the stems and leaves off the dirt!

Carrots are sparse, but I re-planted these as well this week. I also planted pole beans in the half closest to the camera.

And here is my zucchini, spaghetti squash and pumpkin row. I inadvertently killed a pumpkin seedling since it seemed to be in the same position for the last 2 weeks. I also inadvertently dug up a spaghetti squash seedling that hadn't broken through the ground yet. Perhaps I did plant the seeds too deep the first time. Oh well, since I uprooted them I had to replant them.

My landscaping pumpkin plants which seem to be doing the best with the least amount of effort on my part. Although it does appear that an insect is snacking on the leaves of the plants. What insect eats pumpkin plant leaves? Anybody know? Please leave a comment below if you know what insect is snacking on my pumpkin plants!!!

I received my Winter Territorial Seed Catalog this week and I started to get excited to start my kale and broccoli seeds this next month in preparation for an August transplanting. It also got me excited to even consider doing a winter garden this year -but I may as well try building some row covers to try to extend my growing, or at least harvest, season this year.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the Victory Garden update - I hope that if you are experiencing gardening troubles it makes you fell better that I struggle with unexpected gardening struggles as well.

Friday night pizza: homemade Pepperoni Pizza

2011-06-22T08:28:00.007-06:00

The last two Fridays we made homemade pizza using the no-rise pizza dough crust I posted about 2 weeks ago. A week ago Friday it was Pepperoni - this last Friday it was Hawai'ian BBQ Chicken Pizza (which consisted of adding canned pineapple bits to the BBQ Chicken pizza made in the first post about Friday Night Pizza - pretty good but no pictures of that masterpiece, next time though!)

This post is a cross over with our regular Friday Night Pizza and the Montessori Method since we are really working hard to engage Tips Jr. in becoming a contributing member of our family (and society at large). He helped put the pepperoni and the shredded cheese on the pizza once the sauce was on!

For this pizza dough I used 100% whole wheat and only used about 1 tablespoon of white flour to knead the dough on. It turned out great! I definitely felt MUCH better serving this family since it wasn't empty carbs from 'enriched' white flour. It has all the nutrients, vitamins and fiber from freshly ground 100% whole wheat flour! I even got more creative with the crust and folded it over like I learned to do when I worked at Papa Murphy's Take-n-Bake pizza 11 years ago. It looks so much prettier this way. After I master it I'll post a video of making the crust all fancy like this (you know, after my boring crust on the first pizza I posted about 2 weeks ago).

Tips Jr. really enjoyed participating in putting the pizza together! Currently he pronounces 'pepperoni' as if it is 'pupperoni' which reminds me of the dog treats I see commercials for occasionally. :D He did a pretty good job covering the pizza with pepperoni and we only needed to add a few more slices to fill in the gaps.

Also, as you can see, we are re-using the parchment paper from 2 weeks ago. It has now been used 3 times to bake pizza and we think we can get another 2 uses out of it. We'll see how long it holds up, especially since only the exposed edges/corners are getting burned.

Where did I get such awesome pepperoni from? You can read about it from yesterday's post here!

Canning Food at Home: Pepperoni

2011-06-21T17:17:00.002-06:00

Tips and I used to buy the large bags of pepperoni at Costco and then freeze them to add extra pepperoni to our frozen pizzas or for the occasional times we used to make our own (which has now become a weekly occurrence as of 2 weeks ago).

A few months ago, I pulled out our frozen pepperoni and it had turned green while in the freezer! Yuck! I did not want to even try using the rest of that pepperoni so we tossed it out.

Last fall my mom shared with me that some of the people in her online preparedness group can fresh pepperoni and/or fresh salami at home to make it shelf stable. She had tried it and both she and my dad liked the result.

Of course I felt so overwhelmed with a new baby and my toddler that I didn't think much of it until after my pepperoni turned green in the freezer - something I never even considered would or could happen to me! It was then I decided I should try canning it so that if the power ever went out for an extended period of time, my meat wouldn't be among the first foods to go bad in my freezer!

I had some regular mouth tall pint bottles and also some regular wide-mouth pint bottles that I thought I would use - and I really like the fancy tall regular-mouth bottles since the pepperoni looks so pretty in it.

At my mext Costco trip I bought the pepperoni and brought it home, all 3 pounds of it! I then set to work sanitizing my bottles and lids and then filled them full with the pepperoni and placed the lids on each bottle (after softening the rubber in hot water first), screwed on the bands and placed them in my 23-quart Presto Pressure Canner. It is important to make sure your pressure canner gauge and rocker are working well and that everything is clear and functioning properly per the manufacturer's directions.

I poured in water up to the line and locked on the lid and made sure the canner was level on the stove burner and then turned the burner on high (setting 10).

The thing about canning meat is that the time is the same no matter where you live, the only difference is the pressure you need to can the meat at. Since I live at 4800 feet above sea level and I have a dial gauge pressure canner, I needed the dial to reach 13 pounds before I started my time - which is universally 1 hour 15 minutes for pints (what I canned my pepperoni in) or 1 hour 30 minutes for quarts (per Joy of Cooking, 2006 edition, page 902).

Pressure canning does require vigilance and 'babysitting' but I believe the results far outweigh the time investment. Canning fresh meat at home surpasses commercially canned meats - and I didn't believe that until this last year when I first started canning meats at home.

For a first-time meat canner, fresh pepperoni is definitely the easiest meat to can as it does not require any pre-cooking. Just make sure your hands and bottles are clean and begin filling the bottles with the pepperoni until you can't fit anymore slices in it (I thought I had filled mine, but as you can see the pepperoni compresses down during the canning process). I was able to get about 1/2 pound into each bottle. That means I only filled about 6 pint bottles with pepperoni and you need to can at least 7 quarts or 14 pint bottles at a time in order to make sure the heat in the canner is uniform throughout the canning process. I ended up canning ground beef in the other 8 bottles - which I'll talk about another time - but this was a good 2nd meat to can to make sure I had 14 pint bottles since it didn't require any pre-cooking like other meats do.

The other benefit to canning your pepperoni is that all of the grease squeezes out of the pepperoni during the processing so that when you open the bottle to use the pepperoni and you get down to the pepperoni below the solidified grease line, you can easily scrape off or wipe the grease off of the pepperoni - that makes your home made pepperoni pizza much less fatty for you!

Surprisingly, the pepperoni doesn't feel or taste like it's been 'cooked' during the canning process. The texture feels very much like it did before it became 'canned pepperoni'.

Family Reunion idea

2011-06-18T09:14:00.023-06:00

Today we are at a family reunion for my grandma's family (her brothers and sisters).... so in honor of what we are doing today, I'll share with you what we did at our family reunion in 2007. My dad helped organize the program and he thought it would be a great idea to spotlight the veterans in the family. He got in contact with his uncles who were still alive and arranged for them to bring their military uniform from when they were in the service. My own grandfather passed away in 1972 so my dad arranged to bring his father's uniform from my grandmother's house. Another one of my great-uncles who was a veteran passed away in the 90s, so my dad got in contact with one of his children to have them bring their dad's uniform.

Then my dad got a grandson or granddaughter from each of these veterans to put on the uniform and then had each of his living uncles talk a little bit about their military service in the armed forces. My great-uncle on the far end enlisted and a month after enlisting World War II ended. I had another great-uncle who was too young to serve in WWII but served in the Korean War. My own grandfather was in the army during WWII (my younger brother is the first boy in from the left and that is my grandmother standing next to him in the blue).

It was a great way to honor our family armed forces veterans and good visual aid in learning a little bit more family history. I can't wait to see what the program is today at our reunion!

Practical Life: Sorting Family Silverware

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

As part of Tokens for TV Time, Tips Jr. now sorts the silverware from the dishwasher after the cycle is done (and the silverware has cooled down a bit!)

Here is a video of him putting the silverware away:

Victory Garden 2011: week of 6/6 - 6/14

2011-06-14T16:48:00.001-06:00

A week ago we were having a LOT of wind! I happened to be on the phone with my mom at the time and she was telling me what she had learned about tomatoes during this stage of development - they need to be kept at 70 degrees and they are really sensitive to the wind. And while she was sharing all of this with me, I kept watching my poor little tomato plants getting whipped around!

As soon as Tips got home I went out there and began to build a protective plastic wall around my tomatoes to block out most of the harsh wind. I wasn't able to handle all the plastic by myself, so I went back in and told him to come help me.

This is what we built using 4 three-foot long rebar, twine, plastic and rocks:

Hopefully I can give a decent tutorial without step by step photos! So Tips drove the rebar further into the ground than I did so that only the top 2/3 of each rebar was above ground. Then we strung & tied the twine from rebar to rebar at the top and at the bottom of each rebar. We cut the length of the plastic as long as the tomato portion of the row and folded it around the bottom piece of twine, stapling it with our regular stapler from the office desk. Then we wrapped the plastic up over the inside of the twine and back over to the ground, where we secured it with large rocks. I also sliced some lines from top to bottom along the plastic to let some wind through (or else it would have turned into a large wind sail!). We then recreated what we did on the long side at the end of the row since that plant was still being beaten about by the wind. Can you believe how much these tomato plants have grown in the last 13 days! I took the pictures in last week's post on 1 June, so for my tomatoes to more than doubled in the last 2 weeks seems incredible to me! I guess protecting them more from the wind has allowed them to actually grow!

Since my peas seem to have stunted growth and I noticed a couple of them were completely dried out and burned this last week - I decided to use the row covers to cover my peas. Peas really are a cool weather crop and I really hope that by covering them (like at the end of the tomato row) with the row cover and giving them some shade they will do better. If they don't make much of an improvement in the next 2 weeks I'm going to rip them out and plant my pole beans in their place.

The pea plant in the bottom right hand corner is the largest.

Strawberries look the same except now I finally have a new flower on one of the plants! This is the first flower to form since I transplanted them!

The corn and bush beans have come up and seem to be well rooted - I haven't noticed any crows in our garden pulling out corn seedlings - so covering them with the row covers seems to have prevented that early feast of the corn!

I finally have a cantelope seedling! I don't know why the other 2 haven't emerged - I'm really hoping the seeds didn't rot in the ground, especially since I waited to plant them until after I had started them in a wet paper towel in a ziploc bag and they developed early roots!

The row closest to the house has 2 pumpkins, 2 spaghetti squash and 3 zucchini plants - but only one of the zucchini plants has pushed through! I hope the spaghetti squash and pumpkin come through soon!

I planted half of a row with lettuce seeds and the other half with carrot seeds - both were some older seeds my mom gave me. None of the lettuce have come up, but my carrots seem to be doing pretty well:

I guess I'll just need to replant some NEW lettuce where the old seeds didn't come through.

I also started some pumpkin seeds from 1994 that my mom gave me last year. They actually sprouted when I started them in the damp paper towels in a ziploc bag, although it took a week longer than the newer seeds (unlike the 1974 pumpkin seeds my mom gave me at the same time she gave me the 1994 seeds) - and since I had already planted my pumpkin seeds I decided to use these pumpkins as my landscaping plant in our flower bed closest to the house this year. Cheap AND it will cover up the bare ground pretty quick and thoroughly once it gets going! I'm also going to do this in the flower bed closest to my neighbor's house where I planted the sunflowers.

One of the 5 sunflower seeds I planted directly in the ground has already sprouted through! Yay! Hopefully the others start coming up this next week!

And since it has been over a month and most of our grass seed did NOT sprout, I decided to weed the entire patch, loosen the soil with my rake and re-fertilize and re-seed (with probably 3 times as much seed as it tells you to use) yesterday. Then I called Tips when he was on his way home from work and told him he needed to go buy some mulch after he got home since I had re-seeded and it was windy again last night. We thought it was going to rain and it sprinkled a little bit while we were putting the mulch down over top the grass seeds (we didn't use mulch the first time we seeded), but the clouds passed so Tips put the sprinkler on last night when I was reading a bedtime story to Tips Jr. I think it was a good thing I had soaked the grass seeds pretty good before Tips got home from work though.

I anticipate that a month from now this little patch of our front yard will be green with lush Kentucky Blue Grass!!!

And here's an overview of the entire garden:

Victory Garden 2011: week of 5/30-6/5

2011-06-07T08:22:00.003-06:00

I guess I should share what we are doing for our garden this year. In past years I have tried the Square Foot Gardening and it didn't work as well as I anticipated it would. Plus, buying all the soil for the boxes was a bit expensive. We just bought a house that needs a lot of TLC on the outside so don't have the money for soil. Plus, as my mom has explained more to me about the Mittleider method, it just makes so much sense! Give the plants the exact minerals they need and they will be healthy, produce a lot and be more nutritious for you than the produce you buy in the store! Plus, it doesn't matter what kind of soil you have and you don't have to add anything to the soil - just use the fertilizer mix and you are good to go. Heck, you can even use SAWDUST as your growing medium - and as long as you water it everyday and fertilize it once a week, you are good to go!

You can learn more about the Mittleider Method at foodforeveryone.org. It is a blend of hydroponics and organic gardening. You fertilize every week with a specific ratio of the 14 minerals all plants in the world need. Some older people in nursing homes have claimed that the food grown in a Mittleider garden taste as good as the food grown in THEIR grandparents' or parents' gardens tasted. That says a lot when you consider that food is 30-50% less nutritious than it was 70 years ago when our grandparents were children.

Also, my mom told me that a member of the yahoo group who lives in upstate New York grew three 30-foot long rows (mine are 15 feet long) last year and he got 2,000 POUNDS of food out of his garden! My garden has seven 15 foot long rows and one 10 foot long row.... if I can get 2,000 pounds out of my garden this year I will truly be amazed! I'll be a lot healthier if we eat mostly out of our garden this summer too!

Here's what our garden looked like last Tuesday (5/31).

The rows are all formed and all but 2 of the rows are planted!

Tomatoes - an organic striped roma tomato from Territorial Seed Company that I started from seed myself! This is the first year my own tomato seedlings haven't died! Definitely making progress!!! The other half of this row are peas that were left over from chitting the seeds this spring.

We got the corn and bush beans planted on Saturday (the 28th May). I still had some garden fabric (row covers) left over from a couple of years ago, so I put them down to keep the crows from eating my corn and bean seedlings like they did last year! It's interesting how within a week most of the corn seeds underneath the cloth has already sprouted while the corn under the chicken wire (left side of the picture in the 2nd row back) hadn't yet sprouted. As soon as the seedlings have roots deep enough that crows won't pull them up, I'm going to plant my pole beans and cover them with the row covers to keep the birds from eating my planted seeds and seedlings!

Can you see my little pea plants popping up? I've had some people comment that it may be too late in the season for me to grow peas, but on the Mittleider yahoo group a man in Arizona grew cool weather crops such as spinach without it bolting - so perhaps my peas will do well this year with the Mittleider method!

My 10 foot row of strawberries.

This corner of our yard is going to be the sunflower corner. Our neighbor removed her 60 year old lilac bushes that were mostly old growth a couple of weeks ago and so now I finally have sunlight in this corner of the yard!

Tips Jr. wanted to water the garden last week when he found his dragon watering pail so I had him plant some sunflower seeds in this corner of the garden. I am a bit impatient for my 7 foot and 12 foot tall sunflowers to be in bloom! Sunflowers are so fun to watch since they really do follow the sun.