Monday, February 25, 2013

Good For The Gardening Soul

I put the seeds in a few weeks ago and things are popping.  I'm looking forward to harvest time already.





This bed is already showing onions and lettuce.  Well, a mix of lettuce and mesclun seed.  Munchkin likes salads and a variety of greens so I'm making sure that we have plenty this year.




And the little spots of green here are a mix of garlic, peas, and lettuce.

I'm still waiting for the spinach, mache, and nasturiums to pop their heads up.

And mother nature has gifted me with the following beauties.  I should be getting spring beauty up soon.






Resurrection Lilies.  I have multiple bunches of this surprise down the side of the house.




Daffodils.  A simple beautiful spring flower that has been presenting us with lovely blossoms for a few weeks now.



And in this scraggly that desperately needs prepping for this year's garden - those are the onion and garlic bulbs that I apparently missed harvesting last year.  An early harvest for this year.


Has spring been bringing you any gardening gifts?

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Good For The Canning Soul






I got a lot of canning done yesterday.  Three loads through two canners - over 50 jars.  I was doing the bean mixes for recipes that we use on a regular basis.  Oh, and a few jars of lamb stock.  It was the simple joy of listening to jars ping yesterday and knowing that we'll be stocked up on prepped beans for another three months or so.  Although I still have at least one more canner load of black beans to do.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Simple Things

Life goes so much easier for us when I stick with simple things. 

First "simple" thing is the garden beds.  I sat down weeks ago and planned them out.  Each bed has at least 3 crops growing in it.  Generally an underground, low ground, and climbing crop.  So a few weeks ago I started cleaning and planting seeds.  Three of the garden beds are done.  Cleaned, seeds in, and frost covers on.  In those beds I've already got plants popping.  It's a wonderful sight!

A fourth bed is now cleaned and waiting for it's seeds which will most likely go in next week.  Then on to the rest of them.  And fingers crossed that the gardens do well this year.

Second "simple" thing was insulating a leaking hole in the wall.  When the cable guys ran new line for the internet they ended up knocking loose the insulation that I had surrounded the wire with.  Since I was being dense I didn't realize that was the source of the new cold draft through the living room for a couple of weeks.  The brainstorm hit this past Tuesday.  Wednesday I bought a can of spray foam insulation.  Today I moved everything out of the way and refilled the hole in the wall, and put a bunch on the surface as well.  It looks ugly but no one can see it so I don't care.  What I do care about is that the room felt warmer very quickly.  Within an hour I was turning down the thermostat which will do wonders for our electric bill.

Third "simple" thing (for now) was the couch cover.  I've been using woven cotton blankets as couch covers and they do well.  Unfortunately my son likes to pull them off and curl up under them, along with the half dozen other blankets he finds and pulls to the couch.  He's got a real blanket fixation.  Originally I tried to stop this by using the elastic clips used to secure sheets to beds.  One of my blankets now has two big holes from where he kept pulling until he popped them off.  Not good.  So today I took the other blanket and attached ties made out of 1" grosgrain ribbon at each end and again at approximately every foot in between.  It was six ties per side in all.  Each is very securely stitched to the reinforced edge seam.  This should do the job.  Now I just have to pick up the materials to fix the other blanket. 

I've truly found the woven blankets to be a reasonable couch cover for us since the couch frame is wood.  And because of child accidents I can use another trick to protect the cushions.  I put a shower curtain under the blanket on the bottom and then slightly up the back.  It keeps liquid accidents out of the cushions.  And it's not visible at all.

Well I'm off to the kitchen because I've got beans getting ready to go in the pressure canner.  I hope you have simple things that help make life easier!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

I Disappeared.........

Yup.  We lost internet access at home for almost six months.  And do to computer problems I could not get Windows Live running so I couldn't really post anything.  My only access was at the library and it was only for about fifteen minutes a day.  So I disappeared.

And recently internet was offered locally at a price I could afford.  With no penalties for not getting all the other stuff they offered as well.  So I'm back.

Life is changing.  I can't say it's an upturn because, trust me, there's been plenty of things blind siding me.  But I think my mental attitude is more positive at the moment.

For now, I'm getting garden beds cleaned out and seeds in the ground.  I have fingers crossed for at least a halfway decent harvest from the garden this year.  It would really help things out.

So, off to finish laundry and make a bed.  I hope any of you that are still watching this blog out there have a good and peaceful night.