Sometimes It’s The Little Things That Make Me Happy
28 May 2012 Leave a Comment
Sometimes it’s just the little things in life that can make me happy.
New shirts for hubby.
My white roses blooming. They smell so good.
Blueberries on my blueberry bush.
Gerbera Daisies.
Pansies
Petunias
Marigolds
Suncatchers
DIL-to-be’s new fish
Sengi and Maya
What things make you happy?
How Does Your Garden Grow?
15 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Gardening
I love walking out to my garden every afternoon when I get home from work. Everything is coming up now and I just like to drink everything in. You probably can’t see them very well, but the spinach is up and the carrots and beets.
I even have a few strawberries.
And the tomatoes are flowering.
The flowers are up and the lavender is blooming.
I love watching my garden grow. What about you?
New Additions To The Garden
07 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Gardening
Yesterday Hubby and DIL-to-be went to the home and garden store and scored me some pretties. Hubby wanted more flowers around the garden to attract more bees this year. Last year was not a very productive year for us in the garden and we think bees were the answer. So, they picked me up some petunias and pansies….
And some gerbera daisies…..
Then hubby also picked me up a blueberry bush. We somehow killed our one supposed fruit tree (although I never saw any fruit on it, just flowers) and hubby felt bad about it. He saw the blueberries and I was instantly enamoured with the idea.
And here, finally, is my first rose of the season.
I’m in a mini garden-heaven. I have vegies, herbs, flowers and even fruit! Yay for me! I love it.
Anything new in your garden?
I’m linking up to Teach Me Tuesdays. Simple Living Wednesdays, Hearts for Home ,
The Garden is Coming Up
05 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Gardening
I’m a very impatient gardener. I think seeds should germinate overnight. Too bad you actually have to wait 1 to 2 weeks to see the precious little seedlings breaking ground. Finally, I see that in my garden.
The beans are up…..
The radishes are up……
The nasturtiums are up…..
Even the irises are in bloom.
How is your garden growing?
New Challenges
25 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Family, Food, Gardening, Thrift Tags: garden, herbs, lentils
Well, the old car needs a new transmission. Rats. I was hoping it was something different. So, I am ramping up the austerity measures a little bit more. Hubby said he would eat more beans each week so I’m taking him at his word. In fact, tonight he is eating lentils for the very first time. I ditched my meat-based meal plans and made lentil stew instead with no meat. Now, normally Iwould cook any kind of beans with a ham hock or pork neck bones, but tonight I decided to try it vegetarian. Here’s the recipe I used:
2 cups lentils
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion peeled and chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth (optional can use water)
1 can sliced carrots
salt and pepper
basil to taste
garlic powder to taste
chipotle chili powder to taste
Boil the potatoes and lentils til just tender
Saute the onion in olive oil til softened
Add the rest of the ingredients and the lentils and potatoes. Simmer for approximately 20 minutes to meld the flavors.
Serves 6 – 8
With the garden pretty much in, I have come to the realization that I do not have enough room anywhere in my yard right now to grow the kinds and amounts of herbs that I want. Plus, the cost to buy enough plants for what I want is just prohibitive at this point even if I had the room. So, I have resigned myself that I will need to purchase my dried herbs for my salves, ointments and tinctures. I made out a list last night of the herbs I will want to purchase. So, sometime late summer or early fall I will do just that. Time to start saving up for it now though. Ahhh. I can’t wait for it. It’ll be fun.
I’m off to look for more bean recipes.
The Garden Is In
23 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Food, Gardening Tags: garden
Except for a few spaces for squash and a couple of spaces for more herbs, the garden is in.
So far we have planted……
tomatoes – cherry and regular
beets
carrots
radishes
bush beans
spinach
bell peppers
hot peppers
cucumbers
zuchinni
strawberries
lavender
thyme
rosemary
tarragon
nasturtiums
marigolds
Wow! Written out it sounds like a lot for such a small area. It’s only 7 feet by 8 feet with a 1 foot walkway in the middle.
I’m not sure how well the strawberries will do in pots and I ran out of room for the marigolds so I have to get more pots for them.
Hubby has the planter box rigged to water on a timer which will help tremendously in this hot, dry climate. Now I just pray everything does well.
How is your garden growing?
Linking to Simple Living Wednesday
Still A Working Saturday
21 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in crafts, Food, Gardening, Thrift
In spite of going car shopping this morning, I still had work to do today. After we got back from getting the car I zoomed through the house cleaning and threw in some laundry so I could tackle a few other things.
Remember the jar of citrus cleaner I was making? Today I strained it out…..
And this is what I now have.
It smells heavenly. I put the old citrus peels down the disposal and my kitchen smells really good too. I’ll be using this cleaner diluted half with water for my general cleaning. I like the way this turned out so much I started two more jars of citrus peels and vinegar. This time I’m using lemons.
Next I decided it was high time to bake some brownies. Hubby loves brownies and I’m kind of partial to them as well. Remember the cake mixes and frosting tubs I bypassed yesterday? Well, today I pulled out all my simple ingredients (including my vanilla sugar I’ve had curing for a couple of weeks – yum) and actually baked from scratch.
It didn’t take any more time than using a box mix and it was definately cheaper. And while they aren’t particularly “good” for you, they are immensely better than the i-can’t-pronounce-the-ingredients box mix. Don’t they look yummy?
Here they are with the frosting setting up nicely.
I also planted marigolds and nasturtiums in some pots to put around the garden to hopefully draw the bees. We’ll see how well they work.
Dinner (Moroccan Meatballs) is simmering on the stove and I’m ready to put my feet up for a bit. Hope you’ve had a wonderful and blessed Saturday.
Garden Center Danger
15 Apr 2012 6 Comments
in Gardening Tags: gardening, lavender, rosemary, texas tarragon
Really, my husband should know better.
Lavender
He should know better than to SEND me to the garden center with money in my pocket.
Texas Tarragon
Really, not a good idea in the spring when the weather has been so unseasonably warm.
Rosemary
I just couldn’t help myself. I had to get some herbs and some seed packets for my flowers.
Now I’m gonna have to baby all of them until I know for sure it’s ok to leave them outside.
I will be linking up to Barn Hop, Simple Living Wednesday
Projects
10 Apr 2012 3 Comments
in crafts, Food, Gardening, Thrift Tags: homemade cleaners, homemade hot chocolate, homemade vanilla, vanilla sugar
I love projects. Sometimes I think I live my life by my projects. It doesn’t matter what kind of project – crocheting, sewing, cooking, cleaning. As long as I have a project in the works I’m happy. And once one is done, I’m looking for another one.
I’ve been saving the peels from a bag of Cuties and finally had enough to fill a quart size canning jar with the help of a few limes.
I covered everything with white vinegar. I’ll be shaking it every day and in two weeks it should be ready to use for cleaning. It’s already smelling very citrusy. I can’t wait.
I had ordered a small package of vanilla beans and they arrived yesterday. Having never worked with real vanilla beans I was surprised at their texture. They were very moist and not dry like I expected.
I pulled out the bottle of vodka I bought over the weekend and poured off a bit of it.
Then I sliced open 14 of the beans and popped them into the bottle of vodka.
This will get shaken about once a week and stored until October when it should be ready to use. Christmas baking here I come!
I had two beans left over, so I decided to make some vanilla sugar. I filled another quart size canning jar a little over halfway with sugar and opened up one of the beans. I cut the bean into four pieces and stuck them into the sugar.
I filled the jar the rest of the way up and put the last bean into the top. This will sit for at least two weeks and then I will have lovely vanilla sugar to bake with.
Next up, I mixed up some homemade hot chocolate mix. I mentioned in
another post that hubby puts hot chocolate in his cofffee every morning. It
can get a little pricey to keep buying it in the little packets even if you buy it at your favorite big box store. So, I found a relatively inexpensive recipe and mixed it up.
The recipe is…..
2 cups dry milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer
The recipe makes about 15 cups. I tripled it to fill up an empty coffee can.
This should last at least 6 – 8 weeks depending on how much coffee hubby drinks.
So what’s on the horizon? Oh, loads of new projects to tackle. There’s the garden to put in, my flowers to plant, my herbs to plant. Then there’s vacation week when I plan to do my spring cleaning ( a little late, but oh well). After that there is the harvest of the vegies and the harvest of my flowers and herbs. This fall/winter I will be making herbal oils, vinegars, ointments, creams and tinctures. I’m still gathering the items to try soap making too. Wow, I sure do have a lot to do. It’ll be fun! It’ll be even more fun to bring friends along for the ride.
Little House in the Suburbs Book Review
30 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Books, crafts, Gardening, Thrift
My books came in yesterday and I have already devoured them both! My brain is overflowing with ideas for projects and must-do’s.
Little House in the Suburbs would be an excellent addition to anyone’s homesteading library. There are chapters on gardening, keeping chickens, goats, bees; recipes to stock your pantry, your cleaning cabinets and your bath cabinets. There are even sections on building co-op and swap relationships. It is absolutely chock full of information.
I have to say, there is a lot of information in the book that can be found on their website, however, it is bundled into a nice format and all in one location for use. And, you don’t have to surf through the website to find that soap recipe you know is on there somewhere. It’s in the book!
Speaking of soap, I am completely psyched to try their soap recipe using just lard, lye and water. How simple is that! Most other soap recipes I have found call for expensive ingredients that you can only find online. This recipe also only makes 20 oz of soap. Perfect for a beginners batch. It can even be molded in a potato chip can. No need to buy expensive soap molds. No need to be inundated with a bad batch if it doesn’t quite turn out right either.
I will still be visiting their website regularly, but Little House in the Suburbs is a great book to have for beginners and seasoned homesteaders as well.
I am linking up with Barn Hop.
