This year's goals 2016

1. Recycling.

I made my on vegtable bags to us in the stores to eliminate the flimsy bags that are really no good use that I found as of yet.

2. Composting 

Throwing a lot of peelings I don't use for other things like potatoes and onions carrots and such for composting as well as the plants that have ran their use in the season like tomatoes peppers and peas. 

3. Making my own socks and sweaters as I found what fits me better. 

4. I enjoy making my laundry soap, shampoos, Herb rinses as well as pain relievers and other things.

When I go shopping I find myself walking down the ailses saying "I make that". And leave the store with more whole foods. I shop McKay's in Gold Beach on Thursdays for meat I've used during the week and add one more item for stocking.

This has been the first time in a long time that I haven't had to be creative with rice and bean dishes!

I am really liking and enjoying my life!

Fall/winter canning season 2015/16

Since I started doing random canning it's not unusual for my hubby to see the canner on the stove at any time day or night. Got the time down to if making chicken broth its 40 min for pints if chicken is added its 70.

Doing a lot of soups now

Canned Split pea and ham 4 pints on Saturday night.

Made a chicken noodle soup that I am going to freeze in smaller containers.
I used  4 pints of broth one that I made from the broth when I did a chicken Adobe (yum!) and also one where I made a raspberry vinaigrette. Soup was very flavorful and added dried celery leaves from my celery plants that I restart.

Really enjoying this journey of making my own recipes on a budget.

Starting Paleo cooking

I think this fits best for any of my blogs in that I'm back to eating healthy and making my own recipes  Paleo/frugal style.

And yes it becomes a bigger mess.

Tonight I decided to do Paleo tortillas.

I made the first try with coconut Flour. Not a good idea.

I did go against Paleo Mom's suggestion and used tapioca flour. This time they did make nice dough balls to roll out, rolled out nicely and even came off the top layer of wax paper smoothly. Getting it to the pan proved to be more difficult as they fell apart.


Will try again. I did use PaleoMom's recipe with the exception of the flour she used for both tries. The tapioca was texture was good but felt starchy. Will try a combo of a little coconut flour next time.

The coconut flour smell I didn't like so it won't make a good main flour for this project.

There was another coconut flour tortilla but it was a batter and to me that didn't seem quite right.

 Shampoo recipe from Natural Beauty and Bath book.

 Egg shampoo

1 egg lightly beaten

1/2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup Castile soap or glycerine shampoo

Using a whisk mix all ingredients together for one minute apply and massage gently into hair rinse thoroughly.  

This recipe can be kept in the refrigerator for about  1 to two weeks just to make sure to whisk the ingredients for about one minute prior to use.

Dish Soap Recipe

I don't know if I tried this one or not. Hubby wasn't fond of the last one as it seemed to leave our dishes greasy and there were no bubbles.

http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/09/homemade-liquid-dish-soap-that-really/

Cheryl's version of the coconut milk soap

I grated a bar of Kirk's Castile Soap

 put it in the top of my double boiler and added 2 cups of water t

o melt.

I added a few pellets of bees wax also.

When melted I poured 1 cup of the soap in a mixing bowl 

and added some left over hair conditioner and coconut oil and some lavender essential oil.

Pour in a bottle and you are done!  Save the rest of the soap in a jar for later use for other projects.  

Canned yesterday

I found some great produce at a great price to start canning my corn and green beans.   I did them up yesterday and since I'm turning into a Waste no more type person (that is a slow work in progress!), I am using the corn cobs today to make jelly.

Here's the website if you want to make it yourself.

http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/how-to-make-corn-cob-jelly/

Already before its made I've given two half pints away!  But I'll be making more in the next few weeks.

I've got another crop of peas coming up for the fall, and I planted White and Red Chard last weekend for a couple of clients that love the stuff.  I also replanted a couple of herbs that I'll keep indoors during the winter and also sprouting my basil for a winter crop too.

Today my pastor talked about gardens and having to till the soil and work it and tend it and water it. I've done all that and its the bugs this year that got my beans and my squash.  I'm not giving up on this.  I will concur my garden woes,

Here's a thought and somewhere in the Scriptures it talks about how in addictions and such that if by the third generation it has not been practiced that the addiction is out of the family scenario.  I believe that our God does the same with the ground we sow our seeds.  That which we plant that is chemically protected, and then take the seed from the plant, resow it and do it a third time by the third time it will be rid of the chemical as long as the soil was prepared with natural resources.

This year, I've been saving seeds from a few things I've grown mainly the snap peas, and also done it with the potatoes, and a couple of onions and celery.  Its amazing to see what comes about.

I should add that this morning as I was eating my grapefruit that I had a peel to use for my spice scented cleaner I use.  I really like this stuff!  If you haven't used it yet, try it.  In a jar you place your peels, a couple of cinnamon sticks and cloves and pour vinegar in it to fill the jar.  Let it set for about ten days.  I've reused this a couple of times as the vinegar is a preservative and the peels do not rot.  I have sprayer that had like the original spray cleaner in it, rinsed it out and poured that in it.  The vinegar smell is what you smell first but after a few minutes you smell the citrus smell from the peelings.    Let me know what you think!

A few websites I have on hand

I haven't tried this one yet but if you do and like it leave a comment!

http://www.organicauthority.com/delicious-beauty/homemade-shampoo-and-conditioner-recipes-for-natural-hair.html

Here is a web site that I go to on occasion.  Will be pursuing it more often in the next few months.

http://frugallysustainable.com/

A website with lots of products is 

www.mountianroseherbs.com  

The prices are reasonable but its the shipping that is costly. 

For making oils to get started on some of the projects. 

http://www.ehow.com/how_5352082_make-essential-oils-home.html

For some of the things that you make 

Bentonite Clay, Coconut Oil, Witch Hazel and Castor Oil, and beeswax pellets as well as Carrier oils of Sunflower, Almond Olive and Aloe are what are mostly used when making some of these.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5422101_homemade-liquid-castile-soap.html

I am going to try this some time.  However the Potassium Chloride is no longer OTC and is only by prescription.  I was told that there is an OTC Potassium vitamin that can be used as a substitute but I don't know what the difference would be in the measuring.   

http://www.ablossominglife.com/  is a good one too.

Homemade pain reliever Creme

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/09/make-your-own-homemade-pain-relieving-cream.html

This does work.  However I melted it and made it into a bar as its is rather hard to get out of the dish.   

http://omirus.tripod.com/1hydrosols.html  For making your own hydrosols.

I've been finding some great websites online from frugal living to diy's that I'll share periodically.  Since we have an infestation of dandelions in my yard that get out of hand this one has some great things to do with them.

http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/

I'll add others along the way. 

Starting the Garden!

Dale and I worked in my garden area this afternoon.  Was so grateful for a helping hand as we leveled the ground on the side of my garden area for cinderblocks to be laid out to hold my container gardening that I'm doing as well as the ground. 

I planted six Early Girl tomatoes, two pickling cukes and six pole beans.  I've got at least one pea plant coming up but will have to do more in the next week.  I've been saving my eggshells to plant some of my seeds in this year to help hold down the slug population.  I may have to put slug bait down in the next day or two as well. 

Here are the first pics!

In the front of my "plant stand" I may be putting down my mulch bark I bought and work it around the walkway I'm building that goes into the garden area.

 

something I'll look into

Making oragami pots out of newpaper to plant seeds.  A great idea. 

I did start my peas and beans in egg shells this past week end.  When they are ready to transplant, I just have to put the whole eggshell in the ground.  It will keep the snails away too. 

Will be looking at making the newspaper pots in the next few weeks. 


http://naturemoms.com/blog/2013/03/26/10-steps-to-planting-organic-veggies-in-newspaper-pots/

Starting early.....

So I'm more scoping then doing at this point.

I did start my "Lasagna Garden".  Its where you start with either cardboard or newpaper (Newspaper ink has vegtable oil in it) and then do a layer of dirt and debris such as leaves.  From the continue as you would a compost pile and add the other refuse from the kitchen that would be biodegradable.  The newspaper will tone down the weeds from underneath. 

However the weeds in the lawn and surrounding areas of the garden is another issue that I'm working on.

I posted a pic the other day on Fb of some ideas with making the garden more presentable and not looking like it does now.  Mostly in the outsides of the garden beds I built.  Not sure how I'm going to proceed with the root garden yet on the weed issue. 

The plan is to go completely organic this year. I'm going to put black plastic down inbetween the garden beds and between my stepping bricks in the walk way.  I'll either do wider bricks and gravel inbetween the beds or just gravel, haven't decided yet.

I think I'm also going to redo some of the other walkways and patios I've done in the last couple of years with the plastic.  That will stop some of the weed population. 

I've got some time until May when I start work again so I'm hoping to get most of my garden together so its easier to manage.

Working on some other crafts as well for future things. 

Here are updates to my backyard.  The patio is Phase one of project one and the cinder block table under the window is Phase one of project two.  Ejoying the nice weather we've been having to start these projects.

Hubby informed me today that I was using the wood to make my beds in the garden that for the last several months he'd been using as lifts for working on the cars in the driveway.  He was feeling bad to buy new wood for the work on the cars as I used the junk wood for my garden beds.  I'm not worried as I was trying to keep the costs down on the garden.  Thats been my goal all along :)

This morning I was listening to Kim Clement as he spoke from his prayer garden.  While listening to him, God showed me that for years He has been trying to put my backyard into His sanctuary, and my home to be His home.  It makes perfect sense when you think that when we bought this house, it was because the pastor of the Foursquare Church bought the church across the street from us.

On one side of the street it is zoned for residental and business.  Buying  a property (an older mobile home to boot) near a commercial property isn't the best investment at times.  We didn't want a lot to be where a lot of traffic would be going on down the street and really liked that it was a quiet neighborhood. 

We knew when we bought our home it was to be a place for God to dwell and for us to serve Him.  It kind of lost that over the years due to different legs in the journey that we as a family have been on and I can see that God has had enough and is working to get us back to where He wanted us to be in the first place. 

So as I'm listening to Kim speak, I'm hearing "keys" and "prayer" which means that my prayer garden is expanding.  God wants His property back and in the service He's set it up to be in.  Its my goal as a wife, as a mother to do that by prayer and supplication.  He promised to provide all I need to have that happen.  I need to learn what a blessing is and not turn it down when it comes. 

The past week when I've opened my front door, I really haven't known what I was going to do until it has opened.  I've had plans as I take my first step, but it changes on the second step.  Yesterday was a good example.

I was getting ready to go out and work on the patio when my friend who gave me a pressure cooker last week came over with the pressure valve to it.  In fact I hadn't even opened the door yet and she had alredy knocked when my hand was on the handle.  I went to show her what I was doing and she told me I could take the sand she had as she wasn't going to be using it.  So while she gave me her shovel and a bucket and I was carrying out out to the piles of sand she had, she looked at me and said "I have a 50.00 gift card from Home Depot.  I'll get you your sand." So we got in her car.  I had also shown her another section I'm putting together and trying to find cinder blocks for it.  She asked me how many I needed.  I said nine. She bought that for me also.  

Please note how hard this was for  me. I knew it was a blessing that God was bringing me and I really had a hard time accepting it for a while.  Then I remembered something I learned in my Bibical Foundations of Freedom class on rejection.  "It is a sin of idolalitry to put words or actions of another person above God." ( page 152, Bibical Foudations of Freedom).  I could not reject the blessing my friend was giving me by listening to things from the past.  If God was giving me a blessing through her I needed recieve it. 

Later I went over to help her out with a project she has and we had some things in our wood pile that she needed also.  God is so good as I shared things with her that I knew she needed to hear about God and who He is.  At the end of the day, I felt the presence of God as He showed me things in my life that still need correcting.

I also discovered my new occupation title.  "Prayer and Benevolence."  I kind of like that!

Here are some updated pictures of the garden area. 

I'd like ot put some flowering plants in the front area to brighten it up, but I'm running out of plants to transplant. 

My Garden area that I've been working on

Here are updated photos of what I've been working on the last couple of weeks. 

The war is on!

I'm declaring war on my garden.  Last year, what the deer and I'm assuming slugs didn't get get from the top, the gophers or moles got from the bottom.  I'm making boxes with hard cloth either stapled or tied to the boxes on the bottom and I'm going to make a cage at the top with a way to open that will have to take a security code to do so.

I'm taking on a project (why I keep doing this  I don't  know!) of making a garden for my kids club kids to have also.  The plan is to make birdhouse gourds to sell at our craft fair out benevolence group is putting together in September to raise funds for the club so it doesn't come out of the church fund.

I'm also having to do this by way if whatever I have and can find to use here or what other people are throwing out in the driveway for those driving by to pick up.  I'm really turing into a DIYer and I'm loving it!

So let the war begin!!!!!

My commitment for spring and summer 2012

My commitment is to make improvements from last year in my gardens.  I usually start out with a grand scale of things and by July (or the first snake in the yard), I retreat.

This year I'm going to try to commit to it.  Was playing Hidden Chronicles and got into the scene of "Bessie's Shack".  Was looking a little too much like home.

Getting an early start on some late start on others

I started planting my seed starts about a month ago and found old plastic containers to use for "Hot beds".  We've had several storms in the last three weeks that have caused a lot of rain fall and some chilling nights.  I went out to look at the  "beds" when the sun started peaking through the sky and saw some starting to sprout up. 

I'm thinking of finding someone one with a rotertiller to dig up my garden this year. Once its dug up I can work in it.  I'm getting a late start on that as I want to put some screen under about 6 in of dirt before I start planting or transplanting to keep the gophers from digging it up.  I have old pallets that I can tear apart to make larger beds to screen over my beans, peas and tomatoes.   I still want to do the square gardening as I get more room in my small space. 

A new concept in gardening

A film on using your own resources that God gave us to produce a garden by nature.  Very cool!
http://vimeo.com/28055108