Wordless Wednesday...Basin + Bubbles+ Toddlers= lots of fun!

  My dear beloved Father in law was here this weekend and FINALLY got my camera to download and work with my computer. So for today I thought I would let the pics tell the story of about 45 minutes in the life of my toddlers. :) Have fun. And yes..they keep me hopping. :)

add THIS CHILD to water.......

and get a wet face.........

recycling at its most fun EVER.....

plants are in the garden, which means these are fair game....

add MORE bubbles to the water.........

"MAMMMA! MAMMMA!  See face!!!!!" (in other words, I have bubbles on there, Mom.)

stir it up double time!

3....2....1........Time to be done, girls!

this should be captioned "I have the meanest mommy in the world."

TOTAL TODDLER DRAMA.

 

 

 

Can you tell how wet they were?

Hope your Wednesday was a barrel of bubbles and laughs as well.

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

A Warm Weather Meal Plan

   Good morning everyone!

   It has been quite the weekend around the Welcoming House. We had company for the second weekend in a row, we have had enormous amounts of rain and hail, which pounded a lot of the more fragile plants right into the ground, the Handy Hubby tumbled down the front steps and almost broke his ankle (Thanks to God, he just sprained it--even the doctor was shocked it wasnt broken), and then we celebrated Memorial Day with family and friends around the campfire last night.......thinking of those we have loved and lost, praying for those still serving and their families.

image courtesy

   It was a weekend full of ups and downs, and while all that was going on I was thinking about what I would be posting on next. I know there are a lot of you who have been asking about warm weather meal plans, so today and for the next week I am simply going to be giving updates around the "suburban homestead" and sharing our meal plan for the day with you.
   I am sure if you live in a warm area, you know some of these tips, but bear along with those who may not.
   If you need to do any baking or cooking, choose to do it the night before or right away in the morning. I grew up in the lovely orchard valley of Grand Junction, Colorado, where it can get seriously hot, and I can remember my mother doing all that so as not to heat up the house. I tend to bake things one day out of the week during the summer, and rely on cooler or easily made meals so as not to add to the heat of the house.
   If you can use your grill or an outdoor cooking place at all, take advantage of that source and keep the heat outside.
    We are blessed that the previous occupants of the house had a large, newly built fire pit out back, lined with bricks. We plan on adding a lot more to the sides, because in a pinch, you can actually use a brick lined firepit to bake in if you have the right materials---cast iron dutch ovens. We happen to have two as we have made the switch over the years to using cast iron for most of our cooking. So, although I have not done it yet this summer, I most certainly could bake bread out there and keep the house nice and cool. AND the way this summer is heating up, even here in the mostly frozen northland, I am sure I will be taking advantage of it.
   Also left with us was a very small round charcoal grill, the kind you can find at garage sales relatively often. The Handy Hubby, relegated to either sitting or gimping around a very small area, chose to use that grill and smoke a pork shoulder roast (which should be going on sale throughout the summer as it is a popular grilling meat) for dinner. All the heat and everything for our meal was outside.
   We had:

• Smoked Pork Shoulder Roast
• coleslaw
• a large salad with apples, raisins, and a handful of walnuts from a bulk buy, as well as about 1/4 of a block of cheddar diced really small
• home-canned green beans that were put into a foil package, sprinkled with butter and garlic salt, and placed for about 20 minutes on the grill.
• a "fruit salad", using one banana, one can of fruit cocktail, one package of coconut pudding, about 1/4 cup shredded coconut, and two sugar cookies that were crushed and sprinkled over the top. I also included any fruit we had used earlier int he weekend that was still waiting to be eaten (waste not, want not, right?)

   This meal was satisfying, completely filling, and fed nine people with plenty of leftovers. We made sandwiches with the pork, using home made bread, and everyone really enjoyed our meal. The other great part was we made a wonderful meal without going to the store and dropping a ridiculous amount of money on a single celebration meal as we would have done in the past.

   What did you do for the Memorial Day weekend?

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

image courtesy

 

Whew!---Rain, Rain GO AWAY!

Rain Rain go Away poem

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!

Interesting history behind that poem you know. You should totally check it out. :)

I was just planning on using it to illustrate that with 5" of rain in one week we really dont need any more.

   It has kept me from finishing up planting the garden, until this morning. I wanted to share with you everything that I have finally gotten put in between the two gardens so you can see what we grow and put up every year. Obviously, some things are simply for fresh eating, after all, do YOU know anyone who preserves Kohlrabi> LOL! Not me. We just love to eat it fresh or steamed with dinner.

   Here is a list of the gardens and what we have chosen to put in this year. We always try one new thing a year for sure, last year it was Okra (epic fail here in the north) and Strawberry Popcorn (which was fun and turned out well).

   This year we are growing turnips and rutabegas from seed and we will see how they grow. I have a few plants of each to see which does better in our growing time.

   We chose not to plant potatoes this year because we have a lot put away (canned and dried) from a couple sales this last year, and dont want to waste space on those. If I see a good deal and the Handy Hubby wants to knock together a slatted box so we can try to grow the 100 lbs in one space I might do it, but otherwise it'll be next year.

   Here is the list of what we put in between the two gardens. This is to show some of you who have asked what we put in to make growing 60% of our family's food possible.

• 40 tomato plants: that includes 4 cherry and quite a few roma type of tomatoes
• lettuce, kale and spinach ( in 3 places, I will probably succession plant this so we have enough for fresh eating and dehydrating)
• 6 zucchini plants and 5 yellow squash plants
• carrots, radishes, beets, turnips and rutabegas
• 5 hills of regular cukes and 3 hills of lemon cukes
• onions
• cinnamon basil, and 8 other kinds of herbs in one garden, five more in the other one.
• black beans (Cherokee Nation) and jacob's cattle beans (this is seed saved from last years bumper crops). All are grown in a relatively small area as the black beans go up and the cattle beans are bush beans.
• watermelon, pumpkins, and squash (acorn, butternut, delicata, and blue hubbard)
• sunflowers
• 3 different kinds of hot peppers--banana, jalepeno and chili peppers (and ancho)
• eggplant (4)
• green beans and yellow wax beans (LOTS)
• green, yellow and orange sweet peppers, all grown from seeds
• peas
• ground cherries and 3 other kinds of berry bushes that got put in this year
• kohlrabi
• raspberries, and strawberries (in 3 different places since we dont have the keyhole garden built yet)
• and we STILL have to put in the micro orchard with two apples, pears, a peach and a plum tree. It'll get done. eventually. :)

   So what are you doing this year for a new crop? The okra was the first thing I really had as a fail ever in the five years I have been adding new things in. I just dont think it gets hot enough long enough up here in MN. But boy, was that stuff really growing there for a while! I was kinda bummed since my youngest sister was really excited about having some home-grown okra when she visited, but I guess she understands I can only do so much. :)

    How is the weather where you are?

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

 

One Scrumptious Way to use up some Rhubarb

  Ah Rhubarb..........once famously known as "pie plant" to many of our fore-bearers, and now almost extinct in different parts of the country and many palates in our lovely country.

   After Mulberry, this is very much my Handy Hubby's Favorite fruit to insert into anything. I have been quite happy this last year with the new Strawberry Rhubarb jam we made, and have decided to branch out a little this coming year and make rhubarb chutney (a type of relish) for hotdogs just for that amazing man.
   But today, just to get a good post up and to bless the hearts of those almost too busy right now to properly throw together a pie, I decided to post my Impossibly Easy Blender Custard Pie---with , you guessed it, Rhubarb added in.
   Enjoy! Dont forget to add the sprinkled Cinnamon on top right before you bake, because it adds a wonderful touch and aroma as this amazingly easy pie bakes. :)

Impossibly Easy Blender Custard Pie

2 1/2 cups milk

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick butter/coconut oil

3/4 cup coconut

1 cup diced rhubarb (optional)

Put eggs, butter and sugar into blender and blend on low for about 15 seconds,

 add remaining ingredients and puree until very well mixed. 

Pour into a greased 9" pie pan.

(I actually made it in my largest pie pan as it makes extra,

 but you can just make it into two pies if you want.)

Bake at 325* for 45 minutes after sprinkling the top of the pie with 

cinnamon or nutmeg. This will make its own crust and is 

one of the easiest pies I rely on during summer months.

   There are so many different things you can do with this recipe that I had to share. We have had it cooled in the summer covered with whatever berries are available and ripe. We have added pumpkin in the fall for a pie that is custard-y and pumpkin-y all at the same time, without being similar to pumpkin pie at Christmas.

   I hope that you enjoy this! It has been raining for two days here, dropping hail three different times last night, so I am praying for the garden and those tender plants, leaving them in the hands of the Lord. We have had 3 inches of rain in 24 hours and are slated to get another 2 inches today. As you can imagine things are beginning to really flood, and things to float. :) Praying the sky clears even a little bit so I can get outside and get some carrots in. :)

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

Better Safe than Sorry

   Hi everyone! I am rather refreshed from my week off of blogging, and it kinda gave me some time to get a few things in order and know exactly where I am going for the next couple of weeks with the blog. Mother's Day was a really special one for me because things are starting to calm down with my very busy twins, I was able to get a good long nap in during our afternoon time, and I am just starting to feel like life is settling down again after a whirlwind two years + of one thing after another happening.
   I wonder---do you ever feel like you are finally, in your life, getting to a point where you can handle it if life throws you a few curves? I have hesitated to put it into words before because it seems like when I finally get close to that , something else happens. I mean, we have had medical setbacks, a house fire, carpenter ant invasions, garden/crop failure, job losses, etc, and it just has kinda been one thing after another for a very long time for our family.
   I don't know, maybe you are in the midst of it today. Maybe you are wondering how to pay the electric bill, or if a spouse is going to find a job in enough time for you all to keep a home, worrying about a child who seems to be drifting away from the family.....I just want you to know I am praying for you.
    In my world, my life would be bleak without Christ and the hope He brings in the midst of the fellowship we share daily. My faith has been a mainstay through some very dark and cold valleys....and being in the place where I only have the Lord to rely on to meet and supply my needs, while very difficult times, were learning places in my life where I could see my faith grow by leaps and bounds.

    Where are you today? I would love to hear.

    I have been a rather busy bee the last week with getting a good part of the garden in, getting the new garden established and covered with wood chip mulch, working on catching up on personal things, etc. I feel good about the gardening season ahead, and with the help of a very eager friend who really wants to learn how to do what I do, I am looking forward to this coming harvest and the time of putting everything up for the coming cold months.
   I did have a moment of panic when I counted my available jars and lids and realized I only have enough to process about another 7 dozen Quarts and 5 dozen pints. Now to some of you, that may seem like an enormous amount of jars and lids. But for someone who processed right around 2000 jars last year, and who cans year round----for someone who is blessed to have full shelves but is heading into a productive gardening season and is used to putting up over 100 jars alone of spaghetti sauce........well, you can imagine how much of a shock that was.
   With ripples going through the canning community about a couple of things: the fact that there is a canning explosion going on in our country, with the interest through the roof, as well as a limited availability of jars, there are a lot of people saying get your jars and lids NOW before canning season really hits. Wouldn't it be terrible to have these beautiful tomato plants loaded with 60 lbs of tomatoes....and no way to process it for the winter? Well, I put in 34 plants, and have about six more to go, which is 10 more than I have ever planted in all my years gardening. But I am feeding my growing family, my mother, and this dear friend who is helping me is getting her own portion of the garden as she learns. ;)

   There have been other rumbles as well, quietly of course, and ones you will not hear on the mainstream news media (of whom I am beginning to wonder if they really know anything at all, or if they are just giving people enough information to keep them calm rather than concerned). We all know that the nation is in serious trouble with our debt load, and now with our entire country's income for one year being less than what we spend in one year. If this were a household budget we would be cutting out the TV, turning the heat down, hitting the food shelf once or twice, and figuring out where to cut to get back in the black and not sink further.
    However, it seems like either those who are in leadership don't see the iceberg we are heading for, which is financial ruin, or simply think it is unavoidable, and plan how to pick up the pieces when we hit and sink. There are a lot of normal, everyday, blue and white collar folks who are starting to get REALLY concerned about what the future holds for us this next year as a nation, and as individuals. Consider that gardening in the backyard, preserving skills, raising animals such as chickens or rabbits in your town...all of those things are exploding and  people are showing serious interest in learning how to cope if things get tougher. We are not talking about people just trying to find another hobby, or an interest, or feed a passion to " go back to the country". We are talking about unprecedented explosion of interest and intent by the average American to grow their own, have their own, and learn how to do things that used to be common knowledge.

    There are a lot of people who are worried about the economy tanking further, who are trying to find ways to make the budget work with inflation on the rise, and incomes staying the same or being limited.
    My heart goes out to them. I want to help as many as I can learn how to do the things that I know how to do and show them IT IS POSSIBLE to hang in there, be successful, and live on a very tight income in a good way of life.

   If I can encourage you in anything, folks, this is what I would say.

   Now is the time.

   It is the time to buy seeds. Time to break ground and start a garden. Time to start a real attempt at food storage pantry in your home, with meals and foods your family will eat. It is time to find out if your city or town allows things such as chickens, or rabbits, and learn about how to raise them and keep them for the sake of some fresh healthy meat. It is time to purchase and learn how to use canning supplies, to learn how to even air dry foods, and to put them away for storage and this coming winter. It is time for you to figure out where you can allocate money to have an "emergency plan" if things get much worse, and talk honestly with your family about it. I liken it to when my oldest was little and we would practice a fire drill at home. Stop, drop, and crawl to the nearest outside exit and then meet at a place we agreed on outside and down the street. There was no fire, and I thank God for that. But we were ready if there was. And that is what I am cautioning you to do today. Even if there is no fire, even if the Lord steps in and gives this amazing country another chance to start back on the right path, everyone is going to be on the same page no matter what. And you know your family is safe.
   I am not a gloom and doom kinda gal, and if you have read my stuff, you know this. My faith is in God alone to save me, and keep me. However, I do believe He gives us a heads-up sometimes to do what we need to do and KNOW what we need to do....He gives us that drive to sit back and think, to do, and to spring into action when needed.

    For four years I have felt like the proverbial ant working and putting away because one day it would all make sense. Like Joseph and the dream of the Pharaoh, I have been walking in that even when it is an unpopular view. And now I feel like we are seeing the writing on the wall as the story is being laid out in front of us, and we need to think about what we can do for our families.
   So take what I am saying to you today and think about it. Since January I have done more than enough posts on learning how to live on a budget, garden, preserve, etc. You will find enough on there to keep you busy for a couple weeks.
    I decided that one of the things I want to talk about is how to make your own cleaners for cheaply, that work amazingly well, and give you some ideas to work on for shaving money off of your budget. I also have lots of recipes and storage ideas, so I cant tell you what each day will bring, but it will be something to help you along  the path. :If you have anything in particular that you are most interested about, please let me know via the contact me button, through the FB page, or just comment on here. I want to know what I can do to help others reach success on their paths in life.

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

SO Much to do and SO little time!

   Normally I love this time of year. 

   The rush to get things tied up for the school year, Spring cleaning, the rush to get the garden in. Getting my daughter's year-end testing set up knowing she is going to do amazing, as always, and reconfirm why we chose homeschooling as an option for education. Putting away all the winter clothes and getting to run around in tank tops and shorts without freezing my tail off in MN. All the planning and scheming, and concentrated perusing of seed catalogs pays off in one glorious swoop this month as I place my carefully grown choice seedlings into the ground.

   But this year, it seems there are more things on my plate than normal and that joy is not quite there like always. I think we accomplish something, but it just takes a number off of a list that seems to stretch a mile long.

   Have you ever felt like that?

   We bought our new home in October, at the tail end of the season, and moved in after six grueling weeks of remodeling that would be better termed as "demolition and recovery". Due to the weather and having to go back to real life, many things were left unfinished, and now that the weather is good, we are trying to tackle everything.

   However, there is such satisfaction in working on your own home, isn't there? For someone who has rented for nine years, it is such a blessing to slap paint on the wall without calling and asking for someone's permission on the color, or break ground for a garden without passing off detailed specs for it.

   We put on a new deck out the back door today, and while it still needs railings, it is LOVELY to be able to open that door and step out like a Queen surveying her kingdom. Before the stairs were falling apart, leaning precariously to the side in a tilt, and we would not even allow the kids to go over there. Now in a few days we may actually have a place they can sit and play on, or eat a picnic lunch on.

Blessings upon blessings.

So why am I not brimming over with joy?

 Maybe because I feel like over it there is a hint of dark cloud on the horizon? 

Not really a silver lining to a dark cloud... 

but more like the sparrow must feel when a storm is coming, 

and it knows all it has for protection is the scanty cover of a tree's leaves and branches, 

or its own two feet to hold on, or perish.

   I have prayerfully taken it to the Lord, and my devotions have been Spirit-led, but the passages don't do anything but confirm we must stand fast, hold to the faith, do what we can, etc. That God rewards the work of our hands, but is our mainstay in times of trouble. 

So I just keep plugging away.

   We also got the ground broken and ready for a long asparagus bed next to the garden we finished a couple days ago. I have not planted it yet because I just didn't have any more oomph.......until I walked in the house and realized with two days spent outside the house looks like a bomb went off. :) So the dishwasher (aptly named Helga) and my HE front loader (named Gertie) are humming away as I write, multiplying ME into three people at once so I can write on here and give you an update on the activity happening here at the Welcoming House.
   I was blessed to see that some new friends (and old) have taken me seriously on starting a garden and saving seeds. I am serious, folks, I just think we are backpaddling above the rapids leading to the waterfall, with a spring surge coming right behind us. I pray for those that would read this, looking for some help and answers.

   When I can get my camera working I am going to be doing a short series on homemade cleaners, and possibly even some sewing things I have learned over the years. Anyone have anything they are interested in? Where are you at in the gardening possibilities? Anyone harvesting anything yet? Or how many of you have decided it is time to start canning? I guess even the Food Network has caught wind of the surge in canning as the "new trend". Who knows what reason they will come up with for explaining it? However, it does mean that jars are going to be in more people's houses, so I would encourage you to get yours now before the craze hits. LOL! :)

    Anyhow, to all of you, many many blessings to you and yours.

Heather

What to Do When the Wheelbarrow is Full of Zucchini.......

   Good morning everyone!

   I know that up here in the frozen (mostly) North, we are just getting our gardens in, but so many friends are trying to figure out what to do with their abundance of zucchini and yellow summer squash, I thought I would share what I do every year with mine.
   I dont know how many plants you put in every year, but we have 10 in this year--5 of each type of plant. I am trying to feed five people in my family, my mother, and am also sharing with a neighbor who is learning how to garden on her own for next year.

   I try to put in enough that I have an abundance, because I use zucchini in a lot of dishes. Same with the yellow Squash.

   If you have a dehydrator, you can make some seriously amazing squash chips for snacks or easy meals with a bean dip---delicious and frugal, folks. I personally like to make my squash chips with a lime/cilantro/garlic salt seasoning, or a BBQ Spice rub for the Handy Hubby. However, sea salt and a little pepper are just fine too---think of what some of your favorite chip flavors are, and try to replicate it using the squash slices. Dry them at around 115* in your dehydrator after spraying the trays (they wont be for long term storage, so a little oil will just help them to not stick), and let them go around 8 hours.Some places make take longer due to high humidity or the strength of your machine as well, so keep an eye on them. :)
   I also can up a sweet relish that uses my extra zucchini every year--it is our hotdog/brat/ hamburger relish that we use on everything, including adding to things like sweet potato salad, or macaroni salad. Now remember, when you home can things like relish, it will not be the bright green of the grocery store--they achieve that color with lots of preservatives and food coloring. If you want to have a brighter green, add a few drops of green food coloring if you desire. I have done the recipe for three years, and each year decreased the food coloring until now my family is used to the darker green brown color of the relish. And any guests who are a little curious at first are raving after tasting it. Win win situation. :)

   I do have a friend who is allergic to zucchini--swells up like a balloon-- so I am careful to omit it from anything when they come over for dinner. However, I have used frozen, shredded zucchini in almost everything, not just limiting it to sweet breads, or baked goods. You can also dehydrate zucchini shreds, just be sure to use a silpat, or non stick sheet like you would use for fruit leathers, or you will find it almost impossible to collect all the itty bitty pieces of dried zucchini that fell through the spaces in your sheets.. It is an easy veggie to rehydrate (or use frozen), and puree up for a great vitamin boost to many foods, such as spaghetti sauce, hidden in pizza sauce, added to mac and cheese (such as Cowgirl Mac and Cheese that uses salsa and burger). I have also re-hydrated slices and used it on veggie pizzas outright or veggie lasagna in replacement of the noodles. Very similar texture and of course, healthier for you. :)

   Here is my Cuke/Zucchini sweet relish recipe:

   (makes one batch. I personally double or triple this when I make it since I have such an abundance, and the cucumbers get replaced with more zucchini if I have it, or more cukes if I have it (in other words, what you have the most of you use up, and fill in the rest with the other)

•    6 large or 9 medium cucumbers (or part of this replaced with green zucchini, just use similar sized)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large red and 1 large orange or yellow sweet peppers
• 2 medium or 4 small yellow squash

          *Dice all of these small by hand or in a food processor.

1. Add to a heavy stock pan, 10 drops of green food coloring (optional of course), 1 tsp each of the following: Nutmeg, mustard seeds, tarragon, cinnamon, crushed red pepper flakes. Add in 1 TBS of sea salt, 1 1/2 cups of sugar or honey, and 2 cups of vinegar.
2. Cook until thickened, which make take a couple hours. This can be water bath canned due to the acidity just like pickles. Water bath in pints for 20 minutes while water is at a rolling boil. :)
3. I have added many other things to this recipe--relish is very forgiving, and it is a great way to use up the odds and ends of veggies from the garden, such as carrots, or green peppers. We have "chunked" it up with more onion and added garlic, we have also added caraway and dill, lowering the sugar content. Either way, start with this recipe and try to think outside of the box. What does your family like? And what is their favorite type of relish?

   I hope this helps some of you who are a little overwhelmed with the harvest this year! I will be posting more recipes as we come close to our harvesting time! My personal zucchini favorite is a simple ground turkey and summer squash saute over homemade noodles, but with a little time and herb knowledge, it becomes an out-of-this world dish fit for company! :) :)

Many Blessings to you and yours!!

Heather

How much is a Good Character Worth?

   This morning I am terribly disappointed, and growing a little more jaded the older I get. I have a story to tell, and hopefully, like the storytellers of old, you will see the moral behind it when I am done.
As well as know a little bit more about rabbits. :) LOL.

http://www.glimmercroft.com/Rabbits.html

   Arent these rabbits beautiful? This is a breed (Creme D'Argent) I have wanted to raise for a couple years, but sadly, they are rare and one of the breeds, while ancient, are in a restoration process, meaning there are only about 3000 or less here in the US at this time. Thanks to some wonderful and dedicated breeders, such as the rabbitry breeder above, they are becoming more and more available on the market. Here is a picture of a doe like what I want:

http://www.glimmercroft.com/Rabbits.html

   So here is where the story starts.
   About a week ago I was scrolling through ads here on Craigslist for my area. I live in a notoriously difficult area to find anything within an hour. I was SOOOOO excited to see an add for this same breed, as well as a note from the breeder that she had them available. Sure it was a two hour drive from my home, but to get my rabbitry started, I was just excited to see that this person was close enough for an afternoon visit, and pick up.
   I contacted her, and a flurry of emails came back and forth as I  tried to arrange times, cost, reserve the number of animals I wanted, etc.
   In the second or third email she stated that they were leaving on a vacation this Friday and would be willing to go down to $5 per rabbit if I were able to pick up before then.
   First lesson: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You would think at 36 that is a lesson I would have learned. However, I am also an incurable optimist who approaches everyone on the premise that they are good-willed people who care about relationships to some extent. Most of the "rabbit people" I have run into over the years have been amazing, honest, down-to-earth reliable kind of people.
  Another flurry of emails went back and forth, we changed some scheduling with schooling and such to be able to make such a long trip with the kids. My husband downloaded plans for expanding the rabbitry we have so we would have cages. We borrowed kennels so we could pick them up.
   Then I opened my email last night at around 9:30 to find an email from this person. Roughly paraphrased, this is what it said: " You know, before you drive all the way up here, I want to tell you that these rabbits are not purebred D' Argent. They are mixed with English Lops, and they all have the ears and such as English Lops. (in other words, I would have been able to tell immediately that they are not purebred D'Argents as she hoped to pass them off as)." Just for kicks and laughs, here is a picture of an English Lop:

http://www.infomascota.com/articulos/generales/pmamiferos/2002/12/9/conejos_grandes_1/

   Now, am I going to argue with someone that this rabbit is cute and would make a good pet? nope. Not at all. But we are talking about a HUGE difference between that rabbit and the ones I want to breed for show and meat purposes. These rabbits, while the sweet icon of English childhood books, are a lot of work to take care of, their ears double each week from birth to 16 weeks, and frankly are what I would term "high maintenance". Not anything I am looking for, in any way.
   I searched through every email, clicked on the original ad in the listing, etc, and not once was this mentioned. I showed it to my husband, and he agreed it was incredibly deceptive and that we can only be thankful she actually owned up to her duplicity before I made a four hour round trip with two two-year olds in the car, as well as my oldest, who was also very excited about the new additions.
   So I sent her a polite but firm email telling her that while I appreciated her honesty, now, that I felt her original ad was not accurate, and that this is something that should have been revealed in the beginning, as well, as mentioned in the ad. The saddest part of the whole thing is that there was no remorse on her part, no agreement that perhaps she was blurring the lines a little bit. What her statement was :"Well, there is not a market for English Lops, but many people are looking for the Creme D'Argent" rabbits, and they ARE half Creme D'Argent".
   Wow.
   It is amazing to me to see how far people will go to convince themselves and others that taking the high road of honesty in all things is way too much work.

   For a $5 rabbit, she will never get my business, and she sold her good character.

Personally, a good character and good reputation is far harder to repair than maintain.

So next time you want to make a small decision and just blur the lines a little bit, 

remember this proverb from a wise King from many years ago:

 "A wife of noble character is her husband's crown,

 but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones." (Prov. 1:24)

or this one:

"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies."

(Proverbs 31:10)

or this one:

A good name is better than fine perfume...." (Ecc. 7:1)

   So, disappointment reigned last night and my husband and I talked it out, prayed about it, and I went to sleep. I do not have to do anything to bring destruction on another person like that, because they are their own worst enemy, and the truth will eventually come out. However, I also believe that good-willed people will lead me to those who are genuine and honest, and we will get the rabbits we are looking for.
   Have you ever had an experience like that with someone? Seems they are getting more and more frequent in my life. :(

Hope you all have a lovely Thursday,

Many Blessings,

Heather

Catching up Can be Hard to Do!

   Hi everyone, and first let me say thanks for being patient as I made it through the last couple weeks. My family had been sick, then I began struggling with feeling under the weather. Next came the piano recital, trying to tie up ends for school for the year (we home school) and finalizing all the things that need to be done before I can start the potty training of my littlest ones around here next week.
   So as you can imagine, trying to find time to sit down and blog when I can barely find time to finish my coffee in the morning was mostly a challenge that got the better of me this time.
However, a few things got moved off my plate, and now it is just catching up on household stuff and pressing forward into the summer.
   Lots of things have happened for the good around here in the last couple of days.
   We are blessed to have met a new friend, another homeschooling family in the area with six boys (cant imagine how that must be since I have three girls) and those amazing kids raise rabbits both for 4H and for fun. For a long time we have been trying to raise meat rabbits, for many different reasons, and to have finally found someone local, with the ability to walk us through steps needed when we ask, is an awesome thing. I can not wait until next Spring when the two does, who we are now calling Mamie (sweeeeeeet natured bunny) and Dipsy (the not so sweet and rather empty-headed bunny), are able to be bred and kindle litters for us to process. This is somewhat familiar territory for me since as a kid we had rabbits, but still, it is a great project for the whole family.

    If you are wondering why anyone would choose to raise rabbits and process them for meat, let me take you back to WW2 when the government actually ENCOURAGED families to raise them. Two does and a buck can keep a family of five in fresh, locally grown meat at the rate of one meal of rabbit a week, or more. I grew up eating rabbit, and it is leaner than chicken, but a very similar taste and texture. It is perfect for crockpot dishes, pot pies, etc, anything where it will be cooked slowly over a long time with some liquid. It can also be canned and used as a substitute for chicken in many recipes.
   A New Zealand doe, which is what we have, can have an average of 8 kits per litter. They are relatively inexpensive to feed once weaned at 5-6 weeks, and you can actually feed them for relatively free using that great crop of lawn that most Americans have. There are many instructions, videos, etc, out there, that show you the basics, and for the yield, rabbits are one of the best cheap meats out there. Just like any animal, though, you have to go into it knowing that certain bunnies can be the "pets" and others are just plain Dinner #1 and Dinner #2. :)
   Also, rabbits are very quiet, sweet-disposition animals that can live out their entire lives in a rather small space, happily...which is not what the requirements are for chickens.
   The other VERY BEST thing about raising rabbits is that their output is seriously gold for the garden, and can go straight from the pile of bunny berries into feeding your plants in the garden.
   So that was the first good development around here. We are waiting for a larger buck from a NZ/ Flemish Giant litter that they are going to have available later this summer to round out our trio of rabbits for breeding. :)
   Second was that this morning I was finally able to get some plants into the ground, filling out 2 1/2 of my 5 raised beds over at the big garden. All of my plants were grown from seeds, either heirloom or ones I saved from last year's plants. I cant tell you how amazing and healthy some of those plants look---or how they make me REALLY hungry for the gardening season coming up. I still have lots of room left in the raised beds, and since we tilled up and covered a large garden here at the new house, I am realizing it has been about 3 years (pre-Twin-era) since we have had this much space to put up as much produce as we have this year. That is an exciting realization because a couple things come to mind:

1. We can really ramp up the producing and canning of things that we have not had the time or space to put up in the last couple of years. If you have never had to go from eating home made spaghetti sauce back to the stuff you purchase in the stores, you will have no idea what I am referring to. Once you grow it, make it, and preserve it...then run out of it....it is really hard to head back to the store and pay through the nose for a seriously inferior product.
2. it gives me more room to experiment growing a few things I just dabbled in a couple years ago, such as eggplant, kolhrabi (the Handy Hubby's favorite), expanding my herb garden, berries and more heirloom beans.
3. I did not really blog a couple years ago, and this will absolutely give me an opportunity to show you from a first hand standpoint how I keep things rolling around here. Now you can just pray that I can get my camera to download onto the computer. First it was the silly phone, and now the camera program is not working properly. While I have been blessed to see some amazing photos and share them with you, it would be really nice to be able to show you everything from around here in detail.
4. I have SO MANY new recipes that we have made in small batches that I would really like to start filling shelves with in groups of 12 or more, that having that extra growing space will enable me to combine both the first and second reasons I just listed. And Let's add in number three--because believe me, I will be showing you some great stuff step by step this coming year! :)

   So anyhow, lots of excitement around here with those two additions. Add that to the excitement of piano lessons in full being over until next fall, school drawing to an end in another two weeks, getting odd things done around this place that we could not complete since we moved in during the cold month of October, a bathroom complete with laundry area being finished upstairs in my new house sometime this month, etc etc etc...this old house is practically jumping for joy.

   In finishing up the gardening series, I wanted you to know I am simply going to post tomorrow on what I have done to keep my garden larger each year, and how to grow things as cheaply and prolifically as possible. I will write all that down and post it for you tomorrow as I already have it framed out and just need to plug in a few spots with pics and such. Then from here on out for a month or so, I am going to be taking a break from writing another series as I plan on just keeping you up on what is happening here and showing you what I am doing. For example, the other day I got a killer deal on jars and lids, and put up a bunch of stuff, but didnt want to interrupt the gardening series to talk about that. I would kinda like to be free to roll as the feeling moves. :) I also understand most of the rest of the country has had their gardens in for a while, and I dont want to talk about gardening when everyone else is already ahead of me and has to bookmark it for next year. We will see how the Spring goes.
   Well I am looking into the sleepy face of a just-awakened toddler who is hoping Mommy will get up and give her a snack, so I have to sign off for now. See you all tomorrow. :)

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

You Gotta Start Somewhere...So Take.Baby Steps

Good morning everyone! How are you today?

This morning I am sipping my coffee staring out the back window at my new tilled garden plot right out in the backyard. It wasn't here in the morning, and it wasn't there when I came home after a grueling day of field trips with my children. But when I came back from running through my piano students' recital pieces, there, in the back yard, neatly between the posts I laid out a couple days ago,

is my new garden.

Can you hear me smiling? I think my teeth are creaking. :)

Now I know some of you are going to holler and howl and wonder why in the world I had someone till up a spot in my backyard when I declared that the Back to Eden film had revolutionized my way of gardening, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Well it has.
But this is the very first step for us because we don't want that land to lie fallow all summer when it can be producing goodies for this family and others, so we are tilling it, then mulching it with a heavy load of fine grade wood chips. Within a week, that baby will be planted and ready to go! For this year it will host all my squash, eggplant, pumpkin, and etc varieties...anything vining is heading in there, because it will provide a large crop that will squeeze out the weeds for me. :)

Anyhow, today we are talking about baby steps, and that if you are just getting in started in gardening, there are some ways to have a good yield from a small space. I wish someone had laid some of this out for me when I was first getting started, because it would have saved me a lot of time and energy trying different approaches (not to mention cash output).

I want to talk with you about the five best things you can grow in a container, or in a very small space to yield the largest amount of produce for your time and money. If we are looking at methods, I am absolutely going to point you straight to the post I did last week on raised bed/Square foot gardening and container gardening using Global Buckets. I don't care where you live, those avenues can be used, and the second was developed for use in places where either the soil could not be used, or there was little space that needed to produce a large amount of food for hungry people in third world countries.

Click HERE to head over to that and read if you have not been there already.

Now for the top five things you can grow in containers, 
and how much they will produce.

1. Obviously one of the highest producers that you can raise are tomatoes. I don't know how much you pay for tomatoes where you live, but when you consider for the cost of a plant, the container, and a little love, sunshine, water and care that a single tomato plant will produce 30-40 lbs of tomatoes by the end of the season, well...you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you to grow a couple of these. I would say a single plant makes two to three batches of spaghetti sauce for me, or a plant and a couple pepper plants and onion plants make a couple batches of salsa. Even if you purchase those things cheaper than I do, since I live here in the mostly frozen North, you will be saving upwards of $40-$60 PER PLANT. Tomatoes can be planted and trellised, meaning they can be trained to climb or tied to something that will keep them going upwards instead of out in a big bush, but to do that you need to have indeterminate plant types (read the labels on the plants or seeds you purchase) which simply means it will keep growing and producing until frost. I saw this idea the other day and wanted to post it for anyone who is looking at growing in a small space: 

http://www.pvcplans.com/trellis.htm

As you can see---these plants are grown using buckets, and while this is a larg(er) example of what I am talking about, it shows how a little creativity can go a long way in making use of the space you have! I will be posting other ideas having to do with container gardening today on the FB page for those of you who are interested. Please bop on over there using the ribbon link on my picture to see more.

            2. Pole beans: these can also be trained to go up instead of keeping in bush form, and a single seeds that sprouts will produce up to 20 lbs of green beans from one plant. They flower in when setting the pods of beans, and so are also beautiful in the Spring or early summer as well. They make a nice privacy screen between balconies in apartment buildings, and the best part is, you can eat dinner on the patio, with your food source for dinner right there at hand! Beans will grow in almost any soil as long as they are given sunshine and a good watering now and then, PLUS they contribute back to the soil, leaving it richer for the next year's plants. SO get a couple small containers, and give it something to climb up, and plant some pole beans!

           

            3. Lettuce or Spinach: Really, this depends on your taste and which one you like more, but we have found growing a couple varieties of salad greens, and a ton of spinach work best for our family. In a single window box, or larger growing container, you can grow the equivalent of 60 bags of salad greens, which would cost you an arm and a leg in the grocery store. If you use a method such as successive planting, where you sew a new row of seeds every few weeks, you will have more than enough salad greens for yourself, family members, and even neighbors for  as long as the season is warm enough for them to grow. Some of these will bolt in high heat, though, so be sure your "salad box" is not in the direct sunshine for longer than 6-8 hours a day. Otherwise, if you are planning a small, in-ground garden instead of container gardening, you can plant lettuce and spinach under a frame covered with chicken wire, and grow beans over the frame which will shade the lettuce and spinach from the hot sun, giving you more use and yield from a smaller space. :)

             4. Zucchini or Yellow Summer Squash: yep. You knew it was coming. And if you have ever had the "misfortune" of planting a few too many of these plants at once, you know how incredibly prolific and abundant the yield can be from a single plant. You will know what it is to wrap zucchini in a blanket and leave it sitting on someone's doorstep in the hopes they think it is a baby, and take it in. :) One year we had run out of zucchini a little earlier than normal (I freeze and dry it for use throughout the year), so I got ambitious and planted ten zucchini plants. We normally use three. I cant even tell you how much zucchini we had that year--enough I have not grown it for two years and now this year I am finally planting some this year. Give it a good pot and some water and lots of sunshine, and these babies will give you up to 2 zucchini every couple of days for two months. Go ahead. Add it up in your head, and know how much you need to plant for your family. We will be doing ten plants again this year, but our family has grown by two people, and we also are planting for my mother and to help another family. So we should be back to planting every year from here on our without getting another zucchini overload. :)

            5. Bell Peppers: I don't know, again, how much you pay where you live in the grocery store for bell peppers, but here they are normally 2 for 4 or even on sale sometimes for $1.50 each. A single bell pepper plant will give you between 12 and 18 peppers per plant, and they are good container plants that love lots of sunshine and grow well with other shallow root plants like lettuce or spinach, or even some herbs like basil and oregano. Cost for purchasing it versus growing it is significant, so it is definitely one we want to include in the top five easiest and most productive plants to grow.

   So those are the top five VEGGIES that I would choose if I were looking in gardening in a small space, and they are relatively easy ones to start out with! Others that would round out the top ten would be planting potatoes in a garbage can with holes and filling with more dirt each time the plant gets 18" tall (but you have to use certain varieties so they will keep forming potatoes.). Some varieties are supposed to give you up to 100 lbs of potatoes in a small space! Otherwise, things such as onions from onion sets are easy and produce well, or any herbs because those are SO expensive for a small bottle in the store, and yet, one plant will yield up to a pint of  dried herb for you with a little care. Be sure to check out the ideas over on the FB page, and we will be talking tomorrow about the next step up in gardening and how to begin to plan for a real way to begin to ease your family's grocery budget using gardening. :)

 Many Blessings to you and yours!

Heather

Mary Mary Quite Contrary...How Does Your Garden Grow?

image courtesy

Boy. Sure would like to know her gardening secrets!

Gardening has had quite a learning curve to it for me. 

I wish, dear readers, you could have seen my first garden or two.

Forget the cockle shells and silver bells.

Instead, imagine a thorny jungle filled with every kind of weed imaginable, so thick that halfway through the summer I gave up and decided to abandon the single watermelon that grew, or the lonely tomato plant that valiantly tried to outgrow the surrounding weeds, only to die by a stray rabbit. To enter was to take your life into your own hands, and if you forgot a tool, well, you would never find it again. Seriously.

Yep. It was not exactly what you would call a success.

   And then, eight years ago, God brought a lovely lady named Mary into my life. I think she must have had a million interesting thoughts as she watched me struggle to till, sow the seed, weed the ground, and then harvest with her. To her eternal credit she was never anything other than gracious, although I do now understand her occasional chuckling she would do when working with me. If it had been me I would have been howling on the ground, rolling in the dirt with tears coming out of my eyes. Ah, the blessings of ignorance in certain circumstances!

   But because of her, and a few other women who have graciously poured their knowledge into my life, I am able to now pour into others and tell them how to get started, what to do, and what has worked for me over the years. It has enabled me to understand more and more how things work, and that gardening really isnt as hard as getting through Geometry or Biology. It really is forgiving in many ways, and when you have God himself leading you and teaching you, if you have a curious mind and a willingness to learn by watching how things work in the real world, then you will do just fine.

   I want to talk just a little bit about what we covered last week for those of you just joining us today. We covered DIRT and how if there is anything you learn how to do right from the beginning, that this is the one thing that is crucial to success with gardening. We talked about different Options on how to get started, such as what kind of gardening you want to do, from container gardening all the way through a relatively  new concept called Keyhole Gardening, which is a brilliant way to garden if you have poor soil, or want to have a raised bed garden on a budget, with great results. I cant tell you tonight how, as we sat outside and watched the fantastic thunderstorm that passed south of us, how many times I must have mentioned that I want the half-dead trees cut down in front of the house so I can get my keyhole garden up and running. I only mention that because my  Handy Hubby told me if I keep talking about it he is going to start wearing ear plugs when we are outside in the front yard. oooops. Yes, if I am inspired about something I just cant be quiet about it. Sorry. Guess in some ways that makes me a good blogger! :)

   Last of all I again encouraged you to watch the Back to Eden film that is revolutionizing the concept of gardening for many folks all around the globe. If you havent seen it, AGAIN, I want to encourage you to click on the link at the bottom of the page and at the very least bookmark it to come back to when you have time. It is beyond amazing.

   So now lets talk about how to choose what to grow.

   You need to decide why you are gardening in the first place. Are you doing this for fun? To be a little more in charge of what your food sources are? To cut back on the grocery budget? To learn a new skill?

   Those are some of the most important questions you are going to have to answer, because then, and only then, can you move forward and figure out what you need to plant, and how big of a scale you are going to plan on.

   I'll be honest with you. When I started out I went head first, pell-mell, sink or swim because I had a family to feed, and we needed that food NOW. I have always approached life in that way, (just ask my mother) and it works for me.

   But it may not work for you. You may not be able to focus the time and energy into making it work no matter what it costs you in time, energy, or money.

   So decide how much time committment you want to put into it, how much food you want to get out of it, and what you plan to do with it all in the end. After all, it isn't a very good plan to jump in headfirst and plant a garden to feed five people for a year if you have no way, and no skills, to preserve that food for the time ahead of you. If you are one of those people who are looking at gardening as a way to seriously shave money off your food bill, or to learn a skill that puts you more in control of what you eat and feed your family, please please please head on over to my first series Making Do Without Missing A Thing and read up on how I feed my family of five, plus my mother a couple meals a week, on under $200 a month in groceries. It will hopefully inspire you and give you a whole new perspective on how and WHY to garden, and learn to preserve the harvest each year.

   So starting tomorrow I am going to cover each of the reasons you would garden in depth with a plan on which plants you would plant. Tomorrow we will begin with the "Baby Steps Plan", which will include ideas on how to container garden, what plants are best, how to utilize space and ideas for growing up instead of taking up larger spaces, and not going whole hog into providing more than a small portion of the food for the table during the summer. However, there will be something for everyone, because even if you are like me and want to provide as much food for your family as you can, you will learn something from tomorrow's post that hopefully you will never have heard before, even if you are going to have a large garden. Later on this week, we will cover the "Get Your Hands Dirty" plan for those who want to start somewhere, and who have the space to have a good size garden, and then finally the "Sink or Swim" plan for those of you who have the heart's desire and drive to just jump in and do what you can to provide the most for your family. I would encourage you to read all the posts, because not everyone's situation is the same and you may find something in each one that inspires you or gives you another idea to utilize in your garden!

   So until tomorrow, many blessings to you and yours! 

Baby steps tomorrow! :)

Heather

one of my favorite bees. :)

A Very Busy Day

   Good morning everyone!

   I had a very productive Monday---how about you?

   AS many of you know, my family was sick over the weekend, and that caused a lot of stress in the household, and lots of mamma time was needed. A couple things that happened over the weekend reminded me just how important I am in their young lives.
   In the past when I have sat down, it is only to get up again in a couple minutes, so I have learned to just keep moving.

just imagine two of these!

   However, when you have one toddler holding onto a pant leg with both hands, crying her eyes out (even though you just really had one too many cups of coffee, and needed to go RIGHT NOW), and the other is literally sitting on your foot so you have to drag her everywhere anytime you need to move more than an inch or two.......

   When you serve something as simple as chicken noodle soup and applesauce for lunch, only to get the glorious experience of chain reaction gagging and then.....well, you guessed it.........by all THREE children around the dinner table.....(no I will NOT eat either of those foods for a while--like maybe, my lifetime??)
   When you do finally sit down at the end of the day and immediately find everyone AND the cat in your lap while your husband looks in vain for ANY spot on the couch, because he is sick too and just wants some love......
   Well, those are the kind of days you know you are never going to look back on with fond memories.

But you do realize just how important you are in all of those lives you are blessed to be a part of.

  Thankfully those stressful days are past and today I had toddlers running around chasing one another, chasing the cat, chasing the stray moth that made it in past the screen, along with the cat, etc. We ate a happy lunch and everyone smiled and laughed through the day. Today both learned that if they burp they need to say "scooose me".....which of course led to them trying to burp all day long (and causing some momentary worry in Mom when she would hear a particularly yucky one since the last yuckies are very recently in the past).

   However, today, I am thankful when I say I got more than a few things done. 

   I got my twine grid for the peas  up and the peas planted. I got all the borage and six tomato plants plus six basil plants into the ground. We purchased all our asparagus and rhubarb plants today, which makes me happy, because they are two year roots, meaning we should be able to pick starting next Spring. I talked with the man who is going to be tilling up the main garden here at the Welcoming House, and we got the plot staked out for this week when he comes over. While we are following the Back to Eden plan, we do not want to wait a whole year for the land to sit, so we are tilling it right now and immediately covering with a thick layer of wood chips.

   We will be doing something similar to the postage stamp dwarf orchard in another couple of weeks, but one thing at a time. I checked on and weeded my strawberries--looks like only a couple survived the crazy up and down temps of winter, so I will need to replant those. I may just go ahead and not replant until this fall when we build our keyhole garden in the front yard. I plan on combining herbs and strawberries in there to see how well it will do.
   Which of the ideas I shared at the end of the last week did you like the best? I love my raised beds, because I can plant so much earlier, and they drain really well. I also like the idea of no-tilling as well, and am really looking forward to incorporating more of that this coming year. I have to tell you, the soil in my beds from the no tilling, and then covering with wood chips, is amazingly lovely. I kept running it through my fingers and just marveling. I cant wait for a few years down the road when we really get to see the results of this developing.

   I also wanted to tell you, if you happen to live in an area where there is a Menards, you really should RUN not walk over there before the 6th of May. As I have shared with you before, I can A LOT and they have just killer deals on canning jars right now. I think the average was about $2 off per case, but some were as much as $4 off. I use a lot of jars, and with our canning growing more and more each year, as well as our dry storage, it just makes sense to really hit the sales when you can. Also, their lids were $1.29 to $1.99, which for our area is just super cheap. My husband and I could not believe what we walked out of there with for $50, and plan on making another trip before the sale ends on the 6th. If you can, dehydrate, or use food storage, folks, this is one sale you just plain don't want to miss.
   I will be back again tomorrow with more planting advice. Thanks to all of you for hanging in there with me as we walked through all that sickness and I pray you are all happy and healthy as you are reading this!

   Many blessings to you and yours,

Heather