Garlic Harvest

Garlic Harvest
Wednesday July 1, 2010



The garlic harvest was plentiful this year.
I will be tying the garlic next. The best
thing about growing your own garlic is
not having to go to the store and buy it.

I love growing my own food.
I have always like how when you
need something for dinner you
go see what you got stored.
Storing food is not hard, it
just takes a little planning.
You must always need to be
thinking about the next growing
season.

What's Blooming

What's Blooming
Friday June 25, 2010

The orange and yellow mixed in this flower
gives it a nice sunny look. I planted them
last summer and here they are when
there's not a lot of time.

This is the stately Wine Red Hollyhock,
that's what Rachel calls it. This plant
has climbed to 6 ft tall.

The raspberry's are coming. Slow and steady
that is . I had to revamp the whole bed
early this spring. Luckily I had some good
chicken manure.

This is one of my favorite flowers,
Zebrina.
You get thousands of seeds from
these little flowers. The flowers are
small but the plant is quite tall.
You will get many flowers on their
tall stalks. These were my
volunteers this year.

The Black Eyed Susan's.
Which it seems I have
everywhere.

Once you have them, they
are here for good.

Happy Blooming Days!

Bringing in the Wheat Harvest

Bringing in the Wheat Harvest
Wednesday June 23, 2010

Most people assume growing wheat
is left to a large farm operation.

It is really about changing the way
we think about growing food.

If you think of farming on
a small scale we would start growing
plants they grow in the field.

Growing wheat has been a great experience.
I started out with a seed and went to a plant.
Then I waited and watched.
It has been 9 months since planting time.
Last week we started cutting down the wheat.
You may laugh, but here it goes. I did not have
a tool to cut with so what did I use.
Scissors.
I usually carry a pair of scissors in the
garden as you never know when your going
to need them.
I then wrapped them with twine and left them
in bundles.
Now they are drying.

Till next time we will be threshing.

Traveling to Kentucky

Traveling to Kentucky
Friday June 18, 2010






We went on a road trip. Rachel got to spend
some time with her cousin in Kentucky. We
got to spend some with the family, it was a
great trip.
God has led us to an open door.
We are going to be property owners
in Springfield, Kentucky.
God is good! His timing is perfect!

Hand Sewing

Hand Sewing
Thursday May 20


Hand sewing is something I love to do.
Last night I worked on Rachel's new tiered
skirt which is a nice light weight linen material.
I am hand sewing the tiers together. I like
how the gathers come out when they are done
the old fashion way.

When I go on trips with my husband
I can still work on my sewing projects. Last
weekend I went on a road trip to Hartford, Conn.
I finished all the of the tiers, but one.

I did get to go look at some historical dresses
at the art museum.
I love studying historical dresses.
So much more detail went into their garments.
It was a true inspiration.

Cool Season Vegetables

Cool Season Vegetables
Tuesday May 18

Cool season vegetables are plentiful.
We are enjoying some very nourishing
food, which is great after the winter.

Due to being one of those people who try
to only eat whats in season. It sure was
nice to eat these vegetables. I am starting
to understand how great food taste when
you have to wait for its season.

We put most of these crops in late October
of last year. This is called overwintering,
which makes your spring work a lot easier.

The Iris's are Blooming

The Iris's are Blooming
Wednesday May 12

My yard is full of color. Most of the Iris
flowers have bloomed. I plant them amongst
the vegetables in the garden. It gives you a
nice splash of color early in the season.

Tulips

Tulips
Friday April 30





The love of flowers,
brings me joy!


Tulip is probably one of my
favorite flowers.

Frugal Tip

Frugal Tip
Tuesday April 27



Frugal tip of the week, making waffles.

My family loves waffles. This is our
typical breakfast. Our biggest expense
is the syrup. In the spring when the
strawberries come into season I will make
strawberry syrup. Then in June blueberry
syrup will get made also. These are my
substuites for the maple syrup.

I can make these in large batches and
put them in the freezer.

Starting Seeds

Starting Seeds

Monday April 26

This is how my husband started our seeds.
Amongst all the wedding activities he sat
down and began planting. This all happened
one day before the wedding, while I was
finishing my dress.

In a small amount of space you can start about
200 plants. We have two lights on top of our
refrigerator which helps with the germination.
Your biggest job at this stage is spraying the
soil with water. We also build our own soil,
using deyhdrated cow manure, peat moss,
triple phosphate.
These squares are called the mini blocks.
You can buy the tool from Johnny Seeds.
All the information came from Eliot Coleman's
book The New Organic Grower.

Whats coming up in the garden?

Whats coming up in the garden?
Wednesday April 21

Red leaf lettuce

Rhubarb

Our two ducks

I have Iris's, daffodils, tulips and

apple trees in this bed.

These are my prize tulip this year.
They were the first to come up.
They open very large.

Enjoy spring!

Cutting Food Costs

Thursday April 15
Cutting Food Costs

This is the time of the year where our food costs
start to decline. My husband and I love eating our
own produce. We are eating greens we planted
last fall, that we grew in our cold frame. This is
what I call the salad season, which means we are
eating local produce from the right season.
We are currently munching on broccoli we
put in last fall, it is quite tasty.

The Freedom Harvest Challenge that the Dervae Family
did last year I am attempting to do this year.
Click on the title for a link to the family site.

The Dress

The Dress
Monday March 29

The Dress for the mother of the Groom.
The wedding has come and gone.
To accomplish my goal I had to focus
on what I had to accomplish. I choose
only to have a small amount of outside
distractions to get my goal accomplished.
The goal to make my dress.

My dear daughter in law helped me
pick out the material back in January.
Then I found a pattern on ebay for the
what I was looking for.

A friend of mine helped me work
on putting the dress together.
The dress is lined along with the
bodice. We then decided to add
some glitz which is the jacket. The
sleeves have the scalloped edges
the same as whats on the edge of
the hem. The picture is below.

The waistline we added some jeweled ribbon.
This is also around the neck line of the jacket.

My dearest brother is standing next to me.
It was such a joy to have my family with me.
The wedding was just beautiful.

Frugal Tip

Frugal Tip
Tuesday March 2

Reading is one of my great joys
in life. Due to being a person who
always likes a new book. Being a
frugal woman, I buy my books used.
There are many sources of buying
books used. Half.com, ebay, and Amazon are
three places I buy from.
I do love to go to the bookstore and
look through books but rarely do I buy
from the store. For the price of one book
in the store, you might be able to buy
many used from another source.
Your local library is also a great place.

There is a giveaway that I thought I would mention.
A Joyful Chaos has a giveaway.



http://ajoyfulchaos.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway-time.html

Daily Sewing

Daily Sewing
Friday February 26


Daily Sewing is something I have
been thinking about this week.

If you think about the amount of
sewing women used to do, it was
a lot!

I am setting aside my afternoons
for sewing projects. It also serves as
a resting time. Resting is something
we should do especially so were not
so worn out.

Becoming organized in my activities
during the day is especially important.
That way dinner time still can go as
planned.

Daily Sewing is a blog I follow.
I like her idea.
Check out the link by clicking
the title.

IF

Wednesday February 24
IF







If my attitude be one of fear,
not faith, about one who has
disappointed me;
if I say "Just what I expected,"
if a fall occurs,

then I know nothing of Calvary love.

written by Amy Carmichael

Frugal Tip

Frugal Tip
Tuesday February 23


Stacking Wood
Burning wood is one of the biggest
way we save money. When we moved
to our home in Jackson we payed for propane
to heat our house. Then one day we decided
there had to be a better way.
Burning wood seemed more economical.
Even if we don't cut enough wood ourselves.
We can buy wood since we live in the woods.

Keeping a fire going is something that
is part of my daily routine.
My kids call me the fire queen.
Thankfully, I have a house full of men.
The men chop the wood in the summer
and split it and stack it for the winter.

Thank you Lord for giving me boys first.

Wednesday February 17

If
I cannot catch"the sound of noise
of rain
long before the rain falls,
and, going to some hilltop of the spirit,
as near to my God as I can,
have not faith to wait there with
my face between my kness,
though six times or sixty times I
am told" there arises a little
cloud out the sea,"
then I know nothing of Calvary love.

taken from If by Amy Carmichael

Tea

Tea
Tuesday February 9

Chamomile is far my favorite tea to drink.
So instead of buying it in a box, which's cost
about three dollars . I bought the tea loose in bulk.
No packaging to throw away, and quite economical.
I am now learning drinking tea in this way the
flavor is much stronger.

A Shawl

A Shawl
Friday February 5




A simple shawl for Rachel.
This has to be one of the easiest
pieces of clothing to make. I made
this shawl late one evening after dinner.
The fabric has such a softness to it.

Of course you know this has brought me
to looking for some more patterns for
shawls and capes. Since, I have not
accomplished making jackets for us
yet. If you have never tried one you
must consider this shawl is a great
beginner project.