Some spring garden pics 2014

Okay, now you have to know ahead of time that this is early for my garden and so not everything is as visible as I would want it.  I am sure, if I have time, I will be able to post more pics later, but here we go for now:

We have harvested an estimated 21 heads of broccoli, equivalent to 3 bags of lettuce/spinach(maybe more), and these 6 beets. 

This is my young little garden.  In the back row you might be able to see some young tomato plants.  Next bed up contains beans and tomatoes.  The beds in front of those are my mystery squash plants, and in front of them is my oldest bed of corn.  Anything in front of that is too small to see, but it consists of corn as well.  Aunt Peggy and Uncle Tom there is the compost bin and turner being used as we speak!  Thank you very much! 

This is the right top side of my garden and it contains broccoli, cabbage, beets and butter beans (the butter beans are babies so you can't see them."  The bed in front of that has peppers and I have a baby pepper.  Saw him to day.  Sooo cute!  In the bed in front of the peppers are my watermelons and in front of that are egg plants. 

In the top of the picture left to right we have tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, and butter beans and a volunteer mystery squash.  Bottom of pic left to right is cabbage with a few herbs, and my herb bed with herbs,peppers, a volunteer squash, and once again butter beans.  I know seriously I love butter beans!  To the extreme right you can see two beds not in cinder block.  Those are my sweet potato plants.  Thanks again Jimmy!

I know it seems like I have a lot of tomatoes, but that is only cause I have a lot of tomatoes.  He he!  I'll use them!  How do you like my rock walk way?  I mean it isn't something to grace the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, but I would say it deserves an honorable mention in this months Redneck Gazette.  The Frugal Farming and Fashion section.  Not a beauty, but practical and free.  These are rocks I have collected over the years from digging, as well as some broken cinder blocks carelessly tossed aside years ago when we got a foundation. 

So there you have it!  More to come I hope.  I also hope your garden adventure is going well.  Feel free to tell us about it!

Not all sugars are created equal...

Over the years I have tried to incorporate more healthy alternatives to our diet.  While I am not slim by any stretch of the imagination, I feel like the choices I have made have helped our family over all.  Unfortunately over the years the damage of highly processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and junk have taken their toll.  That is damage not overcome over night, but I am satisfied in that over all I am in better shape than I was.  What changes I make, or have made, have to fit in our limited budget and give me the most bang per buck.  Things I can't change I can't worry about.  It is just a process, a journey if you will.  Changes I have made over the years are: more whole grains, less processed items, more lean meats, etc.

One of those changes has been incorporating raw honey into our diet when I can.  I use it in granola, my bread, and as a topping for peanut butter sandwich, toast, etc.  I first looked into the benefits of raw honey because of Rubic, my youngest son.  Poor guy has so many pollen/out door allergies, spring can be a misery for him.  This year has been worse than others.  As a result I am looking for more ways to incorporate raw honey.  Why do you ask?  Well you probably have not asked, but what other lead in do I have.  I am gonna tell  you anyway.  Raw honey, bought local to you, is great for helping with outdoor allergies.  It is full of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, and it also has antibiotic, anti fungal and anti viral properties.  Cool right?  You can also use it for wound dressings.   Now the same can't be said for pasteurized honey.  If you are using pasteurized honey you might as well use sugar.  It's cheaper.  Another interesting tidbit.  If you are diabetic, raw Tupelo honey is a good sweetener to  use.  A good way to have a little sweet and not use anything artificial.  Now honey is still a carb and so a diabetic will need to figure that into their daily allotment, but Tupelo Honey has a lower glycemic index than sugar.  Ask your doctor or dietician about it and get their OK before trying it.

 !!!!  Now fair warning here, Raw honey is not and I do mean NOT appropriate for children under 2 years of age.  It puts them at risk for infant botulism. 


All that being said, I tried something new tonight.

1 quart of raw honey
2 tsp of butter flavoring
1 tsp maple flavoring
1 tsp vanilla

Warm your honey, then whisk in the flavorings.  Makes an awesome pancake/waffle syrup.  Try a half recipe if you don't want to commit so much raw honey.

Call your Mother!

Grown and Raised or still on the apron strings, we kids have it good.  Let me tell ya!  Bless the Lord for inventing Moms cause they are awesome.  Who else can kiss a boo boo away, sing a lullaby in just the right tone to make you sleepy, make you eat your veggies, etc.  Some moms have to work outside the home; while some work all day in the home,  and still after a long day will be home fixing dinner, doing laundry, etc while still making time for their wee ones (who may not be wee anymore).  As we get older they are a phone call away and still can make the hurts better.  They are the Therapist, Nurse, Financial guru, cook, party planner, seamstress, maid, CEO of the home.  A fierce combination.  There are no paid days off.  Even vacations are working. It is hard work, exhausting work, but the impact you have on your children is everlasting.  To all moms, you affect more than you know.  To all children:

CALL YOUR MOTHER!  I am. 

WE GOTS A BROODING LITTLE CHICKEN MAMA!

Shhhh!  the babies are a sleepin. 

So here is the whole sordid story for those of you with nothing better to do than read my blog.  We collected 12 eggs over a 5 day time period to put in an incubator a friend (Jimmy) loaned us.  Things were going well, but being new to all this incubating things I was nervous and when I found the temp was lower than ideal I turned it up a little.  I mean little.  Barely move the darn thing.  I checked the temp once and it was fine.  I got busy outside doing chores and forgot to check it for a couple of hours.  Yea, came in and checked the temp and it was 120 degrees!  YIKES!  I really quick took the lid off to get the temp back down to 95.5, but pretty much felt the chicks were lost.  I am still beating myself up on that one.  The eggs are still in the incubator.  I am keeping a sharp eye on the temp now and it is staying at the 95.5.  I have probably lost them, but will give them a chance in the hope I might get one or two. 

So we started collecting eggs again.  First day was 2 eggs.  Then on day two DH went out to the coop to gather eggs and found they were clear on the other side of the coop out of our reach unless we detach the run.  Our little white hen

has been sitting on them.  This afternoon we took the first two eggs and added them back into the clutch.  I was afraid she would ignore them, but it was so cute to watch as she nudged the eggs all together and sat on them.  We have 6 right now under her.  I am sure they will hatch at different times.  Each egg that is laid she takes under her whether it is hers or not.  I am actually glad this is happening because I knew if the eggs hatched with a brooding hen, that hen would watch out for them and it might be easier keeping them as part of the flock.  I was not looking forward to introducing chicks to hens and a rooster that don't know them.  KWIM?    So alls well that ends well.  Now watch, I will have chicks in the incubator and under a hen.   That would be a blessing for the wallet one way or the other.

In the garden front, I was mistaken with my tomato plant tally.  I thought I had 71 plants.  Well I have had some volunteers in the garden.  My tally now is 90.  Yep...90.  Will I plant them all?  You betcha.  I also have 2 potatoes, 7 sunflower, and 8 squash type mystery volunteers.  I can't wait to take a picture of this years garden.  It is coming along.  I am hopeful in maybe two weeks to take and post a pic.   Blueberries and blackberries are happily growing as well as my herbs.  I still have more corn, lima beans, and okra to plant.  I will also succession plant more green beans, squash, and lima beans.  Make the most of my little garden. 

So anyone else got their garden off and running?

Whew! Dodged a bullet with this surprise frost.

Now yall tease, but this past winter has been a pretty cold one for our area.  We had the bitterly cold days, snow, and wind all at some time this winter.  It began a bit early and lasted a little longer.  This is a problem for a woman (Me) who begins thinking of gardening around Dec 26th(smile).  Once we entered April I was feeling like we had passed the coldest part and it would be safe to start planting outside.  This year I am trying to go exactly with the Farmers Almanac in my planting dates.  According to them that was this past weekend.  The advantage would be we would be planting right before rain.  So this past weekend Dh and I got out in the garden and got everything turned under and all the seeds planted.  I also had about 8 tomato plants planted.  Yay right?  Well then we have rain come in but then I find I am faced with another hard freeze.  Like 28 degrees for more than 4 hours.  Yikes and Yikes!  I wasn't worried about the seeds in the ground.  We had covered the rows with straw, but I was facing my little, now transplanted, tomato plants and my blueberry bushes (covered in now open white blooms) freezing overnight.  Talk about your fly by the seat of your pants situation.


Don't they say necessity is the mother of invention?  I think I heard that somewhere.  Well that is what I did.  Come up with something, anything that would work. 

So for my blueberry bushes:  All I needed was to keep the temp around the bushes above the freezing mark.  There was no way I would be able to cover them completely because they are some pretty good size bushes.  I have two lighted boxes my dad made.  They have two light bulbs each and plug in to an outlet to generate warmed for seed starting.  I would be using them as a heat source.

 I laid one box on the ground under each group of three bushes.  Then I covered the bushes as much as I could with a tarp.  I had to string the tarps on rope and stake them down due to high winds.  Had it been the winds would last all night I wouldn't have minded the cold temps as much, but the winds were due to die down after sundown.  So the plan was that the box would heat up the area and the tarps would hold it close to the bushes.  It seems to have worked.  We will see how my blueberries produce in a few months.

For my tomato babies I took a quart size mason jar and put it over each plant.  These plants are already surrounded by a cage, so I filled the cage with pine straw.  This morning seems to be the best time to remove the jars and see how my plants fared.  Well they are all alive.  I can say with confidence.  Which is huge.  About 40% are "what just happened?, where am I ?", but the other 60% are happy as clams.  I am hoping the shell shocked 40% bounce back, but if not, a 60% success rate beats a 0% success rate.  These were tomato plants that weren't happy to begin with so for it to be that positive an outcome makes me happy indeed.  The rest of my plants that have yet to be put in the garden were brought in for a few days.  Last night was their first night outside again and they have fared well.

Today is my birthday and so it is off to thrift store shopping.  Yay.

Frugal, effective skin care...nah...seriously?

Yes seriously.  Move over Lancome, Clinic, Etc,  There is a new Sherriff in town.

Winter is extremely hard on my skin.  It gets so dry and no amount of lotion seems to help.  In fact, my face will get so dry I will have dry patches and bumps kinda like acne.  I know pretty right?  Hey I wear make up so DH is the only one to see me in such shape (poor man).  Anyway, I have tried lotions, even the name brand to no avail.  I even bought a face wash and moisturizer from Oil of Olay.  Then I had then fun of finding out I was allergic to it.  My face broke out even worse.  This was not cool.  So I stopped using it and went back to my Dove bar.  Before I used my Dove Bar,  I was thinking how would be the best way to get any residue of the face wash off my face.  I thought of my old stand by of Baking Soda.  It is great for washing hair.  You would think it would dry the hair out, but the exact opposite is true.  So I thought why not try it to exfoliate my face.  Well let me tell you it worked like a charm!  My skin wasn't dry afterward.  In fact it was so soft and smooth.  Yay! 
I still had this sore place why my skin had gotten so dry it had actually cracked.  What to do about that?  I started using clear aloe vera (the 100% kind) as a moisturizer. It helped some but I needed a real moisturizer.  Well I had a friend(Hey Lisa R) tell me one time she uses a small amount of coconut oil as a moisturizer.  So I picked up some at the store (you will find it in the baking isle with the oils).  You can get the organic, cold pressed, etc if you want, but I just picked up the ole Louana brand.  This was a test and I try to not spend a lot on tests.  Well it worked!  Boy did it ever! 

So my new routine goes like this:

Every other day, usually while in the shower, I make a paste of baking soda and water and scrub my face.  Just like if you were washing your face.  I don't use soap on my face that day.  The other days I use my Dove bar.
When I get out of the shower, I will take a little aloe vera and coconut oil and mix it together in the palm of my hand.  The warmth of your hand will melt the oil and so they mix well,  Then I apply it to my face.  I have been doing this routine for about 5 days.  The bumps are gone, the dry patches are gone, and best of all the sore place on my face is healed!  I have started using the aloe/coconut mixture as an all over body lotion as well and for the first time this winter I am not itching!

The Coconut oil is $7 for  a quart size jar.  The Aloe Vera I bought at Doller General for $1 and the baking soda is .50 for a 1 lb box.  $8.50 for a good skin care routine.  I will take that any day. I am planning on finding a larger bottle of the Aloe to get a discounted price.  We will see.  The one I got was I think 12 oz.   Try it.  If you don't like it you can use the coconut oil for baking, the soda for a zillion things, and the Aloe for sun burns. 

Wouldn't want to leave you hanging....

I know my posts have been few and far between.  It's mainly because A) Busy, busy, busy, and B) nothing really earth shattering to share.  I don't want to just leave you guys in cyber space, so I thought I would drop in and say Howdy........Howdy.  Okay see ya later.  JUST KIDDING!

My business comes from trying to get the garden in.  Little by little it is taking shape, but doing it with a shovel and pic axe is slower going.  I have to say I like my tiller.  Blooms are on my berries and fruit trees.  I might actually get a couple of peaches, but I don't want to hope yet.  We'll see.  I have managed to harvest a little spinach and lettuce, but I think I should have planted more.  The broccoli and cabbage are coming along, and I have 62 tomato plants (Unless I inadvertently kill them lol). 

On the frugal front this week, I

1. Have hung 2 loads of clothes each day on a newly restrung umbrella clothes line I have.
2.  Re strung a clothes line (huh, I guess that should have been first).
3.  Harvested spinach from the garden
4.  Cut my hair. 
5.  Got a good deal on loaf bread (wheat no HFCS) at Aldi.  .65 a loaf.  Bought and froze about 6 loaves.  I don't do as much bread making in the summer due to it heating up our house so much.  This is a good deal.
6.Went thrift store shopping with hubby and the young men (trying to not say boys anymore).  Got some books, Hubby found some CDs to download on his MP3 player, got some terracotta pots for .50 (Big ones), a looks new granite ware stock pot for $2.50 for my daughter, fabric, and some other things.


Full confessions here, DH and I have been married 21 years this past Monday, so we went out.  That isn't the unfrugal part.  We took the guys out the next day....and the grandsons the next day.  Now in our defense, we take the grand boys to church while their mama and dad work.  After church we go to the restaurant where they work and have lunch.  We get a discount, she gets a good tip.   So now you know.  All my deep dark secrets.

So now that I have bored you to tears, I am going to get ready for work.  What are you people doing up and this time of the morning anyway.  Go back to bed!