At Home on this Mountain
Saturday, July 5, 2008
SWD #2
Outside my window...
the scent of wood burning into charcoal in a can in the side yard. My husband and oldest son working hard to clear the space for our new "firehouse"- the home for his blacksmithing forge and my outdoor earth oven. I'll definitely be posting photos when the time comes for that.
I am thinking...
about getting dressed at some point today. I don't want to rush things though- it's only 3:10 in the afternoon.
I am thankful for...
three-day weekends! It's like getting an extra Saturday. All day yesterday, Honey and I kept thinking it was Saturday and then remembering that it was only Friday; it was great and worth the day of lost pay (as long as it doesn't happen every week :D)
From the kitchen...
wafts the savory aroma of GARLIC- three head of it, to be precise, in the buttermilk brine for my fried chicken. I am testing out a recipe from Cook's Illustrated's American Classics cookbook, a thrift store find from week before last. $2.99 is often more than I want to spend on a used book and if I had noticed the cigarette smoke smell in the pages of this one I probably would have passed it up. I'm glad I didn't now because I don't notice the smell any more and it's a great book. I think I'm going to try the thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe next. I also have peach puree in the fridge and freezer that needs turning into more jam. Not my favorite chore but a satisfying one nonetheless.
In the sewing room...
that baby quilt is still waiting to be basted. I bought one of those new-fangled basting guns at Walmart recently, the kind that insert those little red plastic hang tag thingies into the quilt sandwich. I have to test it still to see if it will make holes or if I can use it. That must get done this week- baby is due on 7/11 and lives 3000 miles away.
I am reading...
Clifton Fadiman this week. Also several volumes on keeping goats, Max and Ruby books, a new-to-me Annie Dillard (we go way back to my high school AP English days) at a leisurely pace, Jeremiah. I always have time for reading- it's not optional. Oh, and Woe is I - brushing up on the grammar I never learned in that AP English class, or any of my other English classes. Blasted school systems anyway.
I am hearing...
the dulcet tones of Coldplay's X&Y album (yes, I still call them "albums") Coming up next on the ole iPod is Death Cab for Cutie's Marching Bands of Manhatten. Man, I love my iPod. Who ever said that was a frivolous gift?? Not me!
Around the house...
the laundry is ganging up on me. I really need to get it under control. I might have to resort to the dryer since my forecast shows a cloud with a nasty lightning bolt for each of the next 3 days.
I am looking forward to...
cooking in my earth oven. It's so hot in the summertime here and I have been really good about keeping the AC off for most of the warm weather so far this year. If I could keep the cooking heat outside with the rest of the heat, I might be able to keep our power bill under control. Despite a rising price per kilowatt in the past few months, I have actually kept the bill BELOW our budget amount.
One of my favorite things...
is folding dish towels, napkins and cleaning cloths. Those are my favorite loads to deal wtih, I think because they stack up so nicely into just a few piles and they all get put away in the same spot. No running hither and yon around the house to put away one measly load.
A picture thought to share...
Don't forget to head on over to Peggy's blog and read all the other Simple Woman's Daybook entries. Maybe you can make one of your own!!
the scent of wood burning into charcoal in a can in the side yard. My husband and oldest son working hard to clear the space for our new "firehouse"- the home for his blacksmithing forge and my outdoor earth oven. I'll definitely be posting photos when the time comes for that.
I am thinking...
about getting dressed at some point today. I don't want to rush things though- it's only 3:10 in the afternoon.
I am thankful for...
three-day weekends! It's like getting an extra Saturday. All day yesterday, Honey and I kept thinking it was Saturday and then remembering that it was only Friday; it was great and worth the day of lost pay (as long as it doesn't happen every week :D)
From the kitchen...
wafts the savory aroma of GARLIC- three head of it, to be precise, in the buttermilk brine for my fried chicken. I am testing out a recipe from Cook's Illustrated's American Classics cookbook, a thrift store find from week before last. $2.99 is often more than I want to spend on a used book and if I had noticed the cigarette smoke smell in the pages of this one I probably would have passed it up. I'm glad I didn't now because I don't notice the smell any more and it's a great book. I think I'm going to try the thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe next. I also have peach puree in the fridge and freezer that needs turning into more jam. Not my favorite chore but a satisfying one nonetheless.
In the sewing room...
that baby quilt is still waiting to be basted. I bought one of those new-fangled basting guns at Walmart recently, the kind that insert those little red plastic hang tag thingies into the quilt sandwich. I have to test it still to see if it will make holes or if I can use it. That must get done this week- baby is due on 7/11 and lives 3000 miles away.
I am reading...
Clifton Fadiman this week. Also several volumes on keeping goats, Max and Ruby books, a new-to-me Annie Dillard (we go way back to my high school AP English days) at a leisurely pace, Jeremiah. I always have time for reading- it's not optional. Oh, and Woe is I - brushing up on the grammar I never learned in that AP English class, or any of my other English classes. Blasted school systems anyway.
I am hearing...
the dulcet tones of Coldplay's X&Y album (yes, I still call them "albums") Coming up next on the ole iPod is Death Cab for Cutie's Marching Bands of Manhatten. Man, I love my iPod. Who ever said that was a frivolous gift?? Not me!
Around the house...
the laundry is ganging up on me. I really need to get it under control. I might have to resort to the dryer since my forecast shows a cloud with a nasty lightning bolt for each of the next 3 days.
I am looking forward to...
cooking in my earth oven. It's so hot in the summertime here and I have been really good about keeping the AC off for most of the warm weather so far this year. If I could keep the cooking heat outside with the rest of the heat, I might be able to keep our power bill under control. Despite a rising price per kilowatt in the past few months, I have actually kept the bill BELOW our budget amount.
One of my favorite things...
is folding dish towels, napkins and cleaning cloths. Those are my favorite loads to deal wtih, I think because they stack up so nicely into just a few piles and they all get put away in the same spot. No running hither and yon around the house to put away one measly load.
A picture thought to share...
Don't forget to head on over to Peggy's blog and read all the other Simple Woman's Daybook entries. Maybe you can make one of your own!!
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Friday, July 4, 2008
Hair of the Week
Inspired by She Does Hair (thanks Chas, for sending me there!) I have been fixing up my girls' hair every single day this week! I didn't think Baby Girl even had enough hair to fix up, but I've been pleasantly surprised by what I can do there. It's still pretty limited, but in 6 months we should be doing quite a bit. And she is SO GOOD about leaving it alone once it's done. She hasn't removed a single band, bow or clippy yet.
I have taken photos of them every day, mostly for my own reference, but I want to share one from each of them this week. I am going to restrict myself to just one per girl, otherwise we could end up with an all hair blog really quickly. So here are my favorites from this week:
I had two different women comment on how much hair Baby has while she had it like this:
And this is Big Girl's 'do for today. Each of the 4 small ponies is done in a flip through/knot/bug and then another one for the full pony at the bottom. I also broke down and trimmed a full inch off of her bangs. We'll just wait until she's older to grow them long. Or maybe she'll always wear them.
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Simple Woman's Daybook
Outside my window...
the magnolias have been blooming for over 2 weeks now and I have been in the throes of a particularly heinous allergy attack for about 2 weeks; ya think there's any correlation? It's cool out there, for now, and the sun is shining (again, for now) It makes me want to go work in the garden.
I am thinking...
about writing, of all things. I have always been more of a reader than a writer. I think I have addressed that here before. Lately I have been reading essays, which I never realized existed as a genre, outside of high school English classes, and I am really intrigued by them. I think I would like to try my hand at writing something other than a grocery list or an inane blog post. We'll see.
I am also thinking about how much time I spend on the computer and how it affects the way I spend the rest of my time. There is much to be found online that is lovely and good, and I enjoy the time spent being inspired and refreshed by other homemakers and their endeavors. But I also can relate to what's being discussed in this blog post and I don't want to fall prey to that. So I have taken my nightly computer shut down one step further (the lady at Apple Care told me a few months ago that turning my computer off at night, rather than putting it to sleep, would help keep it in tip-top shape, and it has!) and actually started shutting it down during the day. Granted, it only takes 2 minutes to boot it all up, but that's about 1 minute and 55 seconds longer than waking it up, and sometimes that's all my laziness needs to just go do something else.
I am thankful...
for interlibrary loan. A little prosaic, I know, but I really am. I borrow so many books this way and even when I don't get them read through, I can get a feel for whether it's a book I'd like to buy and I get to know the author's name and the physical feel of the book. Then when I am browsing through piles at thrift stores I am more likely to notice that book and buy it, if our visit together was a positive one.
In the sewing room...
more peace than in the whole rest of the house combined. My decluttering efforts have been especially strong there and it shows. Now I can go in and immediately start accomplishing things instead of spending half an hour clearing a space in which to work. So this week I made a quilt top for my sister's soon-to-arrive baby boy. I am really pleased with it and today I will get it basted together and maybe start quilting. I have several other projects in the planning stages, so I have lots to choose from once this has been finished.
From the kitchen...
wafts the scent of nearly overripe peaches. I am making more jam today. I even bought new jars yesterday since last weekend I had to empty out 4 jars of last year's apple butter to make room for peach-strawberry jam. Not coincidentally, I also have nearly 4 laoves of apple butter bread in the freezer.
I am wearing...
a gianormous gray tee-shirt nighty, covered in ice skating penguins, which belonged to my Grandma Joyce who passed away more than 5 years ago. I wore it a lot during my last pregnancy and I unearthed it yesterday in one of my decluttering forays.
I am reading...
Anne Fadiman's At Large and at Small, Job, Acts, The Last Battle (aloud with kids) and several goat care books
I am hoping...
that I can withstand the heat today and leave the AC off. Not likely with jam-making in the works, but a girl can dream, no?
I am hearing...
the 3 rooster-boys are crowing for all they're worth, letting the other neighborhood roosters know they're back here and they're not taking any bull. Also Pokemon on the tv. Early mornings are tv time here. It helps me to distract the children while I drink my coffee and wake up a bit, so that I am less grouchy once we turn it off. 15 more minutes until that happens.
One of my favorite things...
is hearing my husband drive up and sneaking outside before anyone else realizes he is here, so that I can get a kiss before anyone else.
A few plans for the rest of the week...
include killing the last 25 chickens tomorrow and going to church on Sunday. We will probably go to the Farmer's Market after church; I think I'll pack a picnic lunch to eat in the car on the way to that. I've been saving up our "eating out" money each week to go to the drive-in when something we want to see is playing. Eating out money because the drive-in has the best junk food in 3 states. Even though they're an hour behind us, we wait until we get there to eat supper (usually around 8 pm our time) and Honey has fries with his burger and later on, more fries. Yes, they're that good.
A picture thought to share with you...
this is the sort of thing you can expect when you turn a 7 year-old loose with a camera of his own. That's our chicken coop out there beyond the window screen. I love to see what he finds snap-worthy. A lot of things fall into that category.
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Banned book meme
No one tagged me for this meme but I am playing anyway :)
These are the top 110 banned books. Bold the ones you've read or partially read.
#1 The Bible - of course and I'm still reading it...
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#31 Analects by Confucius
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal - read it in French and wrote a Thesis on it...
#36 Capital by Karl Marx
#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (this is on my "recently-acquired" pile and next up after I finish Light in August)
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
#60 Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
#69 The Talmud
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
#75 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
#80 Satyricon by Petronius (just heard of this while reading Francis Schaeffer and decided I need to look for it)
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - I've read all of Vonnegut's published works - loved them all, no matter how weird.
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I have read the whole series at LEAST 10 times since I got them for my 9th birthday)
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
#102 Émile by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Émile Zola
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
I marked ones I know I have finished with bold print- 12 in total, although the Bible really should count for more than one book :) Titles in italics are ones I have started but never finished. There are 18 of those. Sheesh. I really should work on finishing some of those. Maybe I should dedicate the rest of the year to finishing those books that I have often started but never finished.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
Happy Birthday to TH!
Thursday my oldest "baby" turned 7 years old! How is that even possible?? We had a little outing last weekend to a local park where we were able to swim with Granny and Poppy and have a little hot dog cookout. The great-grands came too and a good time was had by all. TH got a GIANT ant farm, remote control car and $10 to spend. Oh, and The Waterhorse DVD. That was a big thrill :D Saturday Ms. Chas
left him a surprise gift in our car while we were at a church party. It contained two t-shirts, one of which has a map of the US colored in like an American flag. TH is "a big fan of America" so that was just perfect for him.
Here are some pictures of the big day.
At the pirate park. Isn't he handsome?
Enjoying his "best gift EVER" a backscratcher. The picture is a bit blurry but I just couldn't leave out his expression of glee:
The "best birthday cake ever"
And finally, all the young'uns (and all the gifts, at TH's insistence) on TH's "best birthday ever"
I guess I did all right.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
A new friend
A post about our new critter pal over at our Homeschool blog here.
That is all for now. I do have a post brewing with birthday pictures and other goodness but it will have to wait a bit.
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
Jambalaya and the first garden veggies
Last night's supper:
I bought the yellow squash from the vegetable stand, as our squash plants are still just a small green dream of suppers to come. The rest came from the garden- the first of the peas, mostly in the pods, some lamb's quarter (also known as a weed) and a bit of swiss chard. I had never eaten swiss chard before. It's tasty. I just sauteed the squash in a big bit of butter for 3 or 4 minutes then added the green stuff and some salt and pepper for another 2 minutes and chucked it in my pretty new bowl.
All the things on table are from my yard sale trip with Chas last weekend. The doily, the bowl and the platter were 50 cents each. That was the average price of all the things I bought actually.
The jambalaya is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything although I used kielbasa instead of shrimp and 2 CANS of tomatoes instead of 2 cups of fresh ones (that was a bit of a whoops but it worked out well) I also used brown rice which extended the cooking time to at least an hour (and I put the lid on for a portion of the cooking time). In lieu of fresh bell pepper (which I should have in spades in a couple months) I used a pickled pepper from last year's bounty. My garnish is a few leaves of wood sorrel which has a slightly tangy taste when eaten alone but adds only color to this dish. Honey said it was the best jambalaya he has ever eaten (because growing up north of Seattle you know he's a serious authority on Cajun food) which made me happy. We'll definitely be having this again, much to TH's dislike. I used a whole kielbasa (1 pound) but half would have easily sufficed. This dish would double nicely for a bigger crowd- we had plenty of leftovers as it was.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Productivity
Well, sort of.
Honey and I made a list as long as my arm on the way to Dollywood last Thursday of things we wanted to accomplish this weekend while he was home for 3 days (woohoo!!) and we did get some of the biggies checked off. He was able to get 4 more 100-foot rows of corn planted (for a total of 8!) and 2 densely planted rows of okra (we'll be doing some serious thinning there). Those were really the biggest items on the list....besides this thing of beauty and wonder!!
It's our spanky new grape trellis! The photo just doesn't do it justice! It really is beautiful. He took the plans directly from Build It Better Yourself and did not deviate therefrom, except that he was unable to find the stainless steel eyebolts and had to substitutezinc-plated. The copper caps on the posts were his own idea. The California redwood that he used is not only resitant to rot, but it's also resists cracking and warping because it apparently expands and contracts less than other wood. Oh, and it smells nice too. A thing of beauty and a joy for (nearly) ever! I almost don't care if the vines ever produce, as long as they keep looking pretty on the trellis.
I helped, by the way. I carefully arranged a blanket on the ground near the worksite and made a pitcher of lemonade. Honey says it was my presence that kept him at it all day instead of taking a nap halfway through. In the end he was able to finish the entire project in a single day, mostly because he's awesome. Here's a great shot of the other "helper" who actually got her first grass stain after this photo was taken (after a nap and some clothes) What a momentous weekend!
On my own list for the weekend was to do all the laundry. I didn't quite meet that lofty goal but I did get enough done to get us through the rainy middle of this week. I will be busy as a one-legged man in a bum-kicking contest on Thursday or Friday.
I did get my pantry all tidied up but I still need to straighten up the "battery center" next door in order to make the photo a decent one, so watch this space for further details there.
I have some other photos and things (the zoo, our first garden bounty of the year, my beautiful sister) but I think I'll hold on to them for a few more days, until I get to feeling bloggy again. Until then, ta-ta!
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Saturday, May 17, 2008
I'm still here
We're just having a busy time right now.
We went to the zoo today with my sister and her girls, Mom, my brother and his girlfriend. MJ's 3rd birthday is Monday and I haven't finished her gifts yet (although I am getting close!) I'll be finishing those tomorrow. Nearly everyone is coming up for the birthday and we have a Scout activity as well.
Tomorrow is church. We're so excited for Sunday mornings lately- it's a wonderful feeling! I am actually worried when someone sneezes on Saturday- please don't get sick!!
We have big doings on Thursday with the visiting relatives. Then I think things will settle back down. The pantry will have to wait until then. I know you're all on pins and needles but you'll just have to wait. So calm down.
Did I mention we have 50 half grown chickens? They've been moved out to the chicken coop as of this evening. They were driving us out of the house while they lived in the playroom. Breathing is much more pleasant now.
I have some goodies from a massive bout of yard saling on Friday. I was gone from 9 am until 5pm :| I got some fun and some pretty and some useful things. Hopefully I'll be able to share photos soon.
Good night!!
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Stay tuned
Posted in RamblingI am going to turn this into something I won't be embarassed to post on the internet. I really am.
And yes, that is lard. What about it?
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
MJ's birthday wish list
This is as much for my own benefit (because my memory is lame) as for your enjoyment. This is a list of the things I can currently remember, that my oldest daughter wants for her 3rd birthday next week:
* a purple flashlight
* macaroni and cheese
* party hats
* duh-woons (you know, the rubber things that you put air into and tie onto the end of a string)
* pink cake with Dora and Marianna
* pink ice cream
* a new pony
* farina
* pineapple
* apples
* a calendar just like Mom's
* a skirt just like the one Mom is wearing today
* new crayons
* pretty lips like mama's
* an apron
* a sketchpad
* a ruler (now she is just naming what she sees around my desk as I type this
)I will add to this as she fills me in some more.
Here's what she's actually going to receive (from Mom and Dad anyway):
* a doll sling
* a set of wrought iron keys that she saw and fell in love with at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago
* a pillowcase dress from the fabric she picked out months ago (and a matching one for baby sister)
* a purple flashlight (because she has to get something she asked for!)
* farina and fruit for breakfast
* macaroni and cheese (along with other KFC delights) for supper (Cub Scout picnic and we'll be busy all day beforehand)
* I will probably wangle some duh-woons and party hats from the budget as well
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Monday, May 12, 2008
Thanks (and so much more!)
Posted in RamblingThanks for all the help with my crazy plants. I bought them at a little tiny nursery in a lady's backyard. She is very knowledgable about plants but her knowledge somehow doesn't follow one home from the greenhouse. I know that I do indeed have cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. The nursery lady told me that if I plant the melons close to the squash ( I think!) that the melons might taste funny because they may cross-pollinate. Honey says that the melons are pretty much an exercise in futility anyway so just plant them and don't worry about how they taste because "they" probably won't grow at all. I prefer to hold to the belief that this just may be our year for serious melon potential (people grow acres of them up here every year!) and I would hate to grow 15 watermelons that taste like squash.
Anyway, I think I have a consensus on which ones are the melons so I will plant those at one end and the squash at the other (with the cukes somewhere in between maybe, because I don't remember where they fall in the making-each-other-taste-funny spectrum) It's really still too wet out there to run the mantis with the furrow attachment right now. If it dries out today we may do it this evening after supper. Otherwise I will do it tomorrow. I do love to run that tiller!
We also have the hot pepper plants to put in the ground and we need to plant some okra. Honey also wants to put in 4 more rows of corn (in addition to the 400 or so feet we already have!) Corn, okra, tomatoes and yellow squash are my favorites from the garden (yes, I honestly prefer them all to the melons, when they grow) so I just hope we get a decent crop of those things. And of course some good hot peppers for salsa and sweet peppers for the freezer. We have discovered a TON of blueberry bushes in our woods so I am keeping my fingers crossed about those. Have to beat the deer and birds to them. Do deer eat green blueberries?? I don't believe we're going to have nearly as many blackberries this year as we did last year (I still have enough blackberries in the freezer for one last coffeecake or batch of muffins!)
I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day! I really did although I didn't get to see my own mom. I do see her quite a lot (especially considering that we live 120 miles apart- we see each other twice a month on average) and next weekend all three of her children will be together for the first time in over 2 years. We're all going to the zoo together with her on Saturday. The following week we're all going to Dollywood together- even Dad gets to go to that one (he has to work on Zoo-day) and all 6 of her grandbabies (plus the bun in my sister's oven ;)) I am so excited to see my baby sister and her babies again! It has been FAR too long.
Speaking of my mom, please go visit her brand-spanking-new blog right here. Be sure to tell her I sent you!
I'll leave you with another kitten picture. I will shamelessly call it mother's day-related because they are with one of their mommies. I put all 8 kittens in the same box with both mamas. There's more room for the babies now and the mamas can take turns feeding them. It seems that Roxy has more "turns" at mothering than Tinkerbell has. Her kittens are only 3 days younger but Tinkerbell seems to think that makes Roxy the more necessary mother.
Honestly, y'all, I am not normally a photos-of-kittens kind of gal. I have never owned a photo of cats or other animals wearing costumes (or babies playing jazz instruments for that matter) I am no Angela Martin, but I can't seem to resist pulling out the camera at least once a day to snap a pic of these little critters.
And now, I must feed my children and continue washing my eighty-eleven loads of laundry. I was actually ready to start putting stuff in the dryer this morning if the weather didn't straighten out, but my computer tells me I can dry stuff outside today and tomorrow so I should be able to get all caught up- hooray!!
Have a blessed day!!
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
Name these plants, please?!?
I bought plants for the garden the other day but they weren't all marked and I don't know which of these is which. I will just post the photos for now and not the possible answers. Let me know if you'd like a little hint :D
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
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Friday, May 9, 2008
I am the tooth fairy!!
Wow. Talk about a milestone. My oldest child lost his first tooth this week. He was really upset when he discovered it was loose (really loose!) He was afraid of looking silly. As if a missing tooth or so is going to hurt his 6.5 year-old cred. He has been stressed out about losing teeth for about a year, ever since he realized it was going to happen to him eventually. He cried himself to sleep the night his got loosened.
The next day he had reconciled himself to the situation and realized how silly he had been. Then he bit into an apple and the tooth came out and he helped me make a tooth pillow. Then he got $5 in said pillow (first teeth are much more valuable than any others) and that REALLY cheered him up. He hasn't spent it yet because his birthday is next month and he will probably receive a money gift or two. $5 can go a lot further when it's teamed up with $20 or so of its fellows.
Here's the proud owner of a hole in the mouth:
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Friday, May 9, 2008
Birthday season is upon us!
I am trying to prepare for it. Our first springtime birthday (AC's is in the last week of winter) is a week from Monday and it's my big girl who turns 3 this year! She is so much fun to sew for and I am trying to use that as a good reason to get back in my sewing room. I have done doodly squat in there the past few months and that needs to change. I find that a bit of creativity most days helps keep my bluesy tendencies at bay.
So today I made a doll sling for one of the little girl cousins in Washington. Their birthdays are in May and July but they're coming to visit next week (along with my baby sister, their very pregnant mother!) and we're all getting together several times. We're going to give Cousin J her birthday gifts while she's here and I will either send Cousin D's home with them or let her open it here too. I can't help myself- I love to watch people open gifts. I also don't mind being watched while I open gifts. It's more fun that way! Here are MJ and Gigi modeling our first attempt:
And here is Gloworm, showing how a smaller baby can fit between the folds (which sort of forms a pouch) This is the best way for most stuffed babies to ride so they don't fall out. You can't really tell that he's all tucked in between the two layers (which are not stitched together at the length). She really likes it and she'll be getting one for her birthday too, she just doesn't know it.
So with that bit of crafty goodness under my belt this morning (and still feeling the urge to do more!) I decided to sit and blog a bit. The weather is sunny (for the moment) and extremely MOIST. It's not raining but it did (hard!) yesterday and probably will again this afternoon. I have the dining room window open so I can hear the big 3 in the front yard while Baby does the NAK thing that my babies have all done so well. Here's the view, if I should choose to glance ever so slightly over my left shoulder:
I have been doing a bit of decluttering. Nothing major or with any kind of plan, just trying to eliminate
a few "hot spots." This week I cleared off the top of our dining room bookcase. This bookcase is ANCIENT. My mom grew up in an old farmhouse in Northern California and when my grandparents moved in in the 60s there was a good bit of furniture. They rented the house for over 25 years, until it was sold and moved across town to make room for a Super China Mart
That was almost 20 years ago (which makes me feel incredibly OLD). This piece of furniture is about all that's physically left of our family's memories of that house. It's not a fancy piece of furniture. I believe it was built of scrap wood like you might get off of a pallet behind the grocery store. It has been painted at least half a dozen times. Most recently was probably 15 years ago when my mom had a cute apple-themed kitchen and painted it this cheery green. It is really, really heavy, even when it's empty. I love it. This is its third location in our little house. To the right you can just see the corner of our "breakfast" nook bench (where we eat all our meals) and to the left is our battery and tool center (which is next on the list of things to tidy up in this room) This is where we eat, do formal lessons, use the computers and generally hang out, unless we're reading aloud or watching tv (those happen in the living room). Oh, our pantry is in the room too. That's the subject of another decluttering post, hopefully in the very neat future- it's a WRECK.
It holds our schoolbooks, my favorite cookbooks and our homesteading/farming/building/animal books. The set of plastic drawers on top house our notebook and printer papers and cardstock. Until Monday the magazines on the left were stuffed into a basket and in various nooks and crannies throughout the house. I have 2 more of the cardboard magazine files left to work with (thank you, Ikea!) Until this morning the drawers had a teetering tower of paper junk on top. Now I can breathe when I look at it. I still need to find/repurpose a plastic under-the-bed container for artwork. I have several LARGE pieces that need a permanent home now that they're no longer on display. I figure that 1.5 years is long enough to display the same Thanksgiving posters
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Sunday, May 4, 2008
Babies, babies everywhere!
Insert nice quote about babies and springtime here.
This post has been brewing in my mind for a few days. We are currently surrounded by babies and I have taken pictures of all of them this weekend!! We have baby trees which Honey planted a few weeks ago. They were all sickly looking twigs when they arrived but he dutifully stuck them in the ground with their "pep-start pellets" and here we are with green on every single one! We have apples, pears, plums, almonds, hazelnuts, grapes, pecans and chestnuts. There may be a few more but I can't quite recall. Most of the nut trees and the grape vines are elsewhere on the property. This is just the fruit patch.
Then we have baby corn! Honey planted this exactly a week ago and today the first few peeked out their little pointy heads:
Baby grass, planted last fall but just now starting to do much. For perspective- those are bits of wheat straw in and around the grass and dirt:
Our two cats had babies, 3 days apart last week. We had 9 but one died after 2 days so now we have 8. The bigger mama keeps moving hers around and the rest of them nearly died on Saturday but I happened outside to get something out of the van and heard the pitiful mewing. They're now safely ensconsed in their new cardboard and flannel house on the screen porch. The only exit is just big enough for a cat to fit through, NOT a cat carrying a baby in her mouth. So here are Tinkerbell's babies (we're keeping the white one):
and Roxie's babies (who barely fit in their home when mama is with them):
Friday our meat babies arrived at the post office. This is from Friday evening, before I changed out the newspaper for pine shavings. They smell much better now. I love this one because the chick on the far right has just taken a drink of water and has his head tipped back to swallow it. There are 50 of these cuties:
The neighbor's red calf. I tried to get one with a big cow for perspective but the big cows kept standing between me and the calf. Pills!
And finally, the cutest baby of all, in the garden this evening with her handsome daddy:
Aren't they all sweet?? Aren't I blessed?
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
10 things I say every day
Inspired by Jenny's post, I decided to think of 10 things from my own every day vocabulary. (Warning, some portions may not be suitable for certain readers!) In no particular order:
1. I love you!
2. Talk to you later (or "ttyl" in the case of my online conversations with Mom, Granny or Chas, because that is how we roll.)
3. Did you poo or just pee??
4. How many times have I told you...???
5. Go wash up.
6. No, you don't need a snack right now.
7. Please remove me from your call list (sometimes prefacing "before I contact the FCC!!)
8. Oh! No poo!! (with a big smile, upon opening a diaper)
9. Please give the baby a toy from her basket.
10. God bless you!
Anyone care to share your own list? I had absolutely no trouble coming up with these. That tells me just what a broken record I am most of the time. Sigh. I think it's the fate of all mother-kind.
By the way, did you know the phrase is, "all of a sudden" rather than "all of the sudden?" I did not. I have often wondered but today I finally took the initiative to look it up. There's my "learned something new" for today. Was it yours? If not, please don't tell me. I would hate to know how ignorant I have been, not knowing which was correct, for so long. Just pretend you didn't know either.
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
10 Things
Trying to do enough today to not feel like the whole week was a total waste. So I decided on 10 things. Here they are in no particular order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. bank deposit
9. April menu plan (started but not yet done)
10.
These are of varying difficulty and range in time frames from 10 minutes (vacuuming, cleaning bathroom) to an hour or more (bank deposit and menu plan). Most fall in the half hour range. I have not included ('though I was sorely tempted!) lessons, cooking meals, starting bread for tomorrow or basic child care stuff.
Now I am off to feed the baby so she can go down for her morning nap and I can get started. I could get most of it done before lunch if I focused. Is that even possible for me any more?
Oh, I have already planted a row in the garden this morning so I feel pretty good about that.
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Preserving the Harvest 2008
June 22nd
11 half-pints
honey-sweetened peach-strawberry jam
June 27th
7 half-pints and 2 pints
honey-sweetened peach jam
June 28th
24 home-grown chickens in the freezer
7 whole, 17 cut up
July 6th
8 pints and 14 half-pints
honey-sweetened peach jam
What I'm reading
The Bible- currently in the book of Acts
At Large and At Small by Anne FadimanThe Last Battle by C.S.Lewis
Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson
Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (for the 12th time or so)What I've Read Recently
How To Be Good by Nick Hornby
The Book of Joby by Mark FerrariThe Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
World Without End by Ken FollettWhat I Watch
The Office
30 RockDoctor Who
HeroesEureka
Scrubs2008 Crafty Stats
Yardage In:
13.5 yardsYardage Out:
3 yardsItems Made: 2
Money Spent:
$58.06
Recent Entries
SWD #2
Hair of the Week
Simple Woman's Daybook
Banned book meme
Happy Birthday to TH!
Blogs I Read
Money Spent:
$58.06Recent Entries
SWD #2Hair of the Week
Simple Woman's Daybook
Banned book meme
Happy Birthday to TH!