husband boyfriend preschooler and 3 cats who hog the bed.
About Me:
Been recycling newspaper and aluminum since before I could stand (mom and dad took me on their paper routes when still a babe in arms, both delivering and collecting). Been living the frugal life for as long as I can remember (grew up needing AFDC, know what it's like seeing parents work opposite shifts, was caring for siblings during the gap hours as early as 10, and went to college only because of an academic scholarship). Helped mom tend back yard veggie gardens growing up - horribly clay soil near the beach in SoCal. Got a degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering and then proceeded to not implement much of the data at home because of inertia after so much time living in dorms/apartments. Am now entertaining my friends and family by becoming increasingly "hippified" as I finally fulfill on a personal level the vocation I originally chose, despite having retired from the workplace to be a mom over 3 years ago. My hubby is a highly supportive jack-of-all-trades so once I come up with a design, he's right there helping me with the nuts and bolts of implementation I find intimidating. My friends joke about me using AutoCAD to map out my garden (they're only half right - the new bed layout was drawn in AutoCAD for accuracy of dimension, but the map of what's where is merely an Excel file! :P )
Plum, tangelo, lemon, rosemary, thyme, lavender. Building a raised bed to start on veggies this fall. Veggies so far in the ground are: peas, carrots, turnips, beets, spinach, garlic, soybeans, thick-root parsley, green onion, and some marigolds for fun. Planning on adding parsnips, cilantro.
Hubby's been using the 5-minute/day recipe recently posted in Mother Earth News for the past couple weeks and loves it. Takes up a fairly big chunk of my fridge, but I get bread almost daily, so I can cope with that. Even our friend Eain started doing it at his house - pulls a lump of dough out of the fridge to warm up while he showers in the morning, bakes it while he's having breakfast/doing his pre-work computer routine, and then takes a fresh baked loaf with him to the office. They offer suggestions about whole wheat and other varieties of bread.http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx...
*I* remember those flavor packets with instant oatmeal! In fact, swirling stuff in oatmeal is one of the biggest ways I use the gallons of jam I preserve every year. Honey also makes for an easy locally available topping/seasoning, rather than the brown sugar I grew up with. I also use fruit preserves as an ice cream topping (ice cream being one of those foods we've yet to be able to "give up", really, and since I'm not making my own dairy yet, making it at home would still feel like "cheating"). Boiling oatmeal with some dried fruit also makes for tastier oatmeal - used to do this all the time with raisins, but I'm betting it would work with darn near everything.Just last night I made some pudding to help cope with the milk starting to turn. Tossing it in breads is also a good way to handle it. The cooking helps re-pasteurize it and any flavor shift isn't as noticeable. Dried fruits (usually soaked/rehydrated first) also make for tasty, tasty breads in these months when our bodies are inclined to pack on the calories - the men in this house have been baking at least a [small] loaf of bread a day lately. It's been HEAVENLY - bread with butter. Bread with honey. Bread with fruit preserves...This being my first year working on this stuff, and a low yield ear with homegrowns, I've not had much time to practice, really. But vintageflapper's "buy no groceries" challenge for December is still in effect here - still buying mostly just dairy/non-comestibles at the moment - the pantry never seems to get any emptier! I'm guessing it's because I'm getting better at figuring out how to use things up. I am getting low on meat, though, and since we're definitely omnivores here, that'll start creeping back into the shopping list....
5 day(s) ago
stacymckenna is making chocolate pudding (the milk was starting to turn)
Jordanne - cena's issue looks like the one I mentioned just a few days ago at http://www.freedomgardens.org/forum.php?c=topic&op=index&cid=26&tid=4541It's an intermittent problem for me, so I can see where reproducing it would be tough.I also have several journal posts already created, so I don't see the "You don't have a journal started" link she mentions to induce the 400 error....
My poor hubby has been enduring acorns cluttering up his office for weeks now. I finally got them all moved to MY space - the sewing room. I figured while I...
Thanks to info from fellow FGer, AnimalRsq, hubby and I have IDed Lamb's Quarters on our property recently. Sadly, mere days after we mowed most of it ...
I need to quit reading this site before bed. Half an hour checking up on forum posts and group discussions and my head is inevitably filled with so many ide...