Monthly 9 for February

It is that time of the month again (no not that time of the month!) Time to stop and reflect and sort of collect our thoughts.  Did I accomplish my goals - did I remember to have goals!  Thanks to Linda over at Greenhaven  for hosting our little get together.  This has become one of my favorites to do, it feels like being a little accountable!  Do head over to Greenhaven and check out the other bloggers who participate!

Nourish -  Hubby and I are ready to make a few adjustments to our diets, we are both looking to lose a few pounds and take another step toward healthy eating.  We are doing this in a step process so that the thing we do now will become a habit and then we move on.  We are reducing carbs a little bit again and see how we feel.  I made a very satisfying chowder using cauliflower instead of potatoes, it made it into the recipe rotation. 

Prepare - Went through and inventoried the home canned goods from last summer.  We ran short on canned tomatoes but have some left in the frozen category.  This summer we will add a couple of tomato plants and plan on canning more plain sauce/juice.  That turned out to be the most handy stuff.

Reduce - See under create, re-using old patterns, I'm hoping I can make this work, I have lots of old patterns that I would like to be useful again.

Green - I finally tried a laundry soap recipe my daughter in law recommended and has used for quite awhile now, this is the  recipe from Budget 101 and I have used it twice, it made 2 quarts of soap and while mine did not have the goal of  'mayonnaise' consistency it was close (more like a frosting) I am happy now and we will see if it pans out over the long haul - but it felt good to get it done after all this time!

quart number one!

Grow - We are working toward the day the thermometer says we can plant and are getting all the yard areas in shape.  Sometimes that involves cutting things back - See this post for details and photos of my adventure with the electric hedge trimmer - which I found to be an awesome tool!

jacket front

Create - I am still in the putting together part of this project but it involved adjusting a pattern to make it larger.  So far so good, if this method works it will save me a lot of money on patterns as I have a ton of them but they are too small nowadays!  I could of course just lose weight but this is easier!!

Discover - We are making use of our U of I Extension course materials and are diligently studying them, we are going to implement at least 2 of the suggestions about seed starting material and putting them out in the pots in the raised bed under a cover and seeing how the cool weather crops do.

This is an example of the weirs that we will be replacing

Enhance - This month was the annual meeting of our irrigation water association that hasn't taken place in about 10 years!  It was a case of entrenched 'good ole boys' getting by and no one complaining or in some cases knowing that they should complain.  The result is that the system that delivers the water we all use for our yards etc. for flood irrigation is crumbling.  Hubby will be working to take out one of the cement 'headgates' that needs to be re-cemented and we have committed ourselves to be involved in the activities with an eye to perhaps being more involved in the running of the association in the future.  This is a fascinating process and was fun to meet all the people who live near us but not next door.  We are in an area of just under a half (us) to ten acre parcels, kind of a hodgepodge!



Enjoy - We are making plans to go to see the kids around Miss Lily's birthday, cannot believe she will be a year old in a couple of months!  Time really does fly doesn't it.  We will enjoy the chance to visit and cuddle and spoil her so we are already putting together things to take along!

we may need to go shopping!

Have a happy March!

Monthly 9

Did we really get all the days we were supposed to in January?  It somehow felt like a short month and I know it wasn't!

Here is my Monthly 9 Link Up - and don't forget to check out the others here.  This is kind of a fun way to look back at the month and see how we did on our goals and set new ones.

Nourish-  It was January, it was cold and about 3/4 of the month there was snow on the ground.  That means we ate, soups and breads and homemade cookies.  It's not that healthy but it is comforting!  My biggest problem with food in January was trying to fix what went wrong with my Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  This is a recipe I have been making since 4-H and the county fair, we experimented all summer that year till we got a great recipe and then got a first place ribbon!  That was a 'few' years ago (I was 13!) so this is a recipe that I figured I had down pat!  The last 3 batches I had made came out with a greasy texture, so I experimented with adding a little more flour and finally came up with a fix (1/2 cup more flour) but still don't know why I needed a fix after all these years.  I am asking others if they have had a problem, could Crisco have changed their formula after all these years?    (probably some government plot...)

Prepare-  Preps this month consisted of lists, I made lists of things that I want to add to the 'pantry', lists of what was in the 'pantry' and inventoried the freezer.  I also learned to leave a pair of gloves near the freezer as I nearly gave myself frostbite.  (that is only a slight exaggeration!)  I use the word pantry lightly as I just have cupboards and not a pantry as such.

Reduce-  I cleaned out my scrap basket that contains the bigger scraps that could still be useful. I got enough out and cut into squares and neatly stacked that the cat could use the basket as a nap spot!  Cats do not like snow but they seem fond of the woodstove and warm boxes.







Green- Speaking of cats, we have had an issue with one of the cats that felt the need to urinate on the couch and hubby's chair.  I have put down plastic and some covers and am experimenting with homemade cat repellent spray, vinegar and citrus.  The jury is still out and I will keep you posted.  The cat never marks my chair - I tell hubby he is afraid of me!  :)

Grow-  We are not growing right now, we are cutting, when we have a chance.  The cherry tree that was here when we moved in, that is the biggest one I have ever seen, had to be topped as it was getting to the power lines.  When we had a day of no snow and unseasonable highs (10 degrees above freezing) we did it, we will see if it recovers, I hope it will, but there really was no choice.  We have measured the bottom that is left and the part we cut off and the silly thing was 30 feet tall!   We were just growing half the cherries for the birds!

Create-  I am on my second set of slippers this winter as I am playing with a double thickness of slipper.  I will show a halfway photo here and then when I get them all done will do a full post on them.  The premise is that I would start the slipper, get to the back which then becomes the center - (follow along here!) and then continue on doing the opposite so that I end up with a one piece that I can put together and have a double layer for warmth and strength.  I have done one pair already but they ended up too loose, so this next one is adjusted.

Discover- I like to sew as a rule, just not for myself!  It is silly I know.  I have had some fabric that I found on the clearance rack at Joann's for $2 a yard.  I have a skirt pattern that fits and a sleeveless top that fits, but I wanted a jacket.  I have a ton of patterns for jackets from the 80's (hush - quit laughing) that of course are no longer the correct size!  I had recently pulled out and gone through a box of books and found this old Coats and Clark's sewing book from 1967 (I think learned to iron on one like that).  The book had a chapter on making patterns bigger and smaller (like I'm gonna need that!) on a fairly large scale.  This has been really fun and now that I remember it's here I've been looking through at some of the things I got lazy and skipped in recent years, this is going to take my seamstressing up a notch I think!










Enhance-  We have had an elderly friend who has had the flu and various complications since Christmas, her husband has Alzheimer's disease and can't be left alone, so we have stayed with him and taken food and helped in any way we can this month - she asked how she could repay us and I laughed.  I don't live close enough to my mother to help her when when is ill but there are those who do help her so I will help Pearl and someone will help my mom and the world goes round.  I may need help one day too you know!

Enjoy-  I really do enjoy the cold days of winter.  I love the feel of warm clothes, gloves and wooly scarves.  I like the crawling in a bed under quilts and layers of blankets.  I relish the time to do things in the house and sew and crochet etc. to my hearts content.  Soon enough the garden will start making demands and it will be too hot to have yarn on my lap so I am soaking up the fun of winter while I can!  Besides it is beautiful!

Bears have been much in the news here in Idaho lately and so I am sharing this with you all as it makes me laugh every time I see it.  Have a wonderful February!

Monthly Nine Link Up

December is such a busy month and hubby added the flu to his list of things to do!  Set us both back a little.  We did not go to see the kids so we had to get gifts ready to mail in time for them to get to them.  Here is how it went-

Nourish- 

We did the same thing for Christmas this year as last and had invited a group of 'orphans'; friends of ours who weren't getting together with family on Christmas over to eat dinner with us.  The flu bug ravaged our area recently and so we were just 5 of us but we had a wonderful time of visiting and laughing and eating.  We had ham and scalloped potatoes and a lovely salad and herbed rolls with herbs that all came from the garden!  We had 3 kinds of pie and 2 kinds of cookies and fudge!  I agree with Linda - you can never have too many desserts!

Prepare- We have finally gotten enough meat in the new freezer that  we could survive a blizzard/power outage/emergency of some sort for awhile.  There of course are also veggies and stuff but the meat was taking time and money and had to be done a little here and there.

Reduce- We just don't generate that much trash between the two of us these days.  I will share our winter toilet paper roll using - in the winter when we have the wood stove going all the time, it hardly goes out but when it does  (or when we need to clean out the ashes and restart) hubby takes some newspaper, rolls up pine needles inside like a burrito and puts them inside the toilet paper rolls that are empty that we save all year.  Pine needles are great tinder items and hubby rolls up a bunch of these and we have them in a Rubbermaid bucket near the wood so they are made and handy.  This is especially nice to have handy in the morning when it is 48 degrees in the house and hubby wants to run out and stoke the fire and run back to the bed!

Green- I don't know if it counts if our motives are not pure - we reuse Christmas bags!  It started when the kids were in grade school and we started buying gift bags instead of wrapping paper, then it became a joke to get the gift bag back with a new tag and then it became a contest to see who could get the most gifting out of the bags.  There are bags that have assumed legendary status as they were given first by family members no longer with us. We now have bags that have been 'in circulation' for nearly 20 years.  That is reusing!!!

Grow- Since it is the middle of winter and it is cold and I view this as my season to sit and craft to my hearts content we are trying to not grow! 

Create- 

I got all the kids gifts made this month and wrapped and in the box for the last day to mail for guaranteed delivery and realized I had forgotten to take photos!  So I will list - 2 shutterfly projects, 2 pairs of pj pants (suitable for wearing to Walmart), 1 pj pants and 2 little shirts for the grand-baby, crocheted hair scrunchies, a warm vest to wear under shirts at work outdoors, and a kilt.  (that last was a special request and the oldest kid will probably wear it!)  I will also re-share my 'grandma afghan' from my last post cuz I'm just so darn proud of it.  The story that goes with it is in last post listed.


Discover- Sigh... the first seed catalog came in this December, many happy hours of searching out the next years garden are in the offing.

Enhance- We were able to take food to several of our housebound, sick friends - the sort of ring the bell and set it inside the door so as to avoid germs thing, hubby made his famous chili and we had cookies to go along.

Enjoy-  My dear friend Anita took our Bible study group to a Saturday matinee of a local theater group that the rest of us didn't even know was there and we had a huge amount of fun.  The play was fun and the actors were great and the company was of course terrific!

I am hoping that next year we will go to see the kids (ok the grand kid!) for Christmas but this year we had to be content with photos.

At least Miss Lily enjoyed what we sent, even if not quite the way we anticipated!  Ain't that just the way it goes - you buy 'em gifts and they play with the boxes!





Don't forget to check out the other bloggers in our little group here Monthly Nine Link Up



Thanks for stopping by!

Monthly 9 Link Up

I missed this link up at the end of October as I was busy getting ready to take a little trip.  This then will encompass two months!  I too am having a hard time believing that once again December snuck up on me and now I will spend every spare minute getting ready to send gifts to the kids and Mom since we are continuing with the handmade Christmas this year!  (I still think someone is removing a few days from my calendar as my years are getting shorter!  It's probably the government!)  So here goes for October and November -

Beautiful pine tree after the frost.

Nourish- Ahh, the weather gets colder and my soups get thicker!  I confess we are soup lovers even in the heat of the summer.  Summer soups though are clear broth or cold soups.  Winter soups are thick and chunky and sometimes even creamy!  I try to make it through the whole summer without turning on the oven and then the minute it gets cold the oven begins to call to me and urge me to use it!  The bread dough comes out of the machine and goes into the pans in the oven, cookie dough is in the freezer just waiting for an excuse to come out!  I also took bags of home canned goods to the kids this month.

Prepare- Oct/Nov was rotate month for us.  All of our canned goods that we keep on hand for emergencies like snowstorms and bad roads and power outages  (and EMP's - we are those kind of people!) need to be rotated in and out of the storage.  We like to pull them out before they get to the use by date.  This has become an annual thing and it works well to do it in November as it helps to kind of save money on food in December when something always comes up!  So we have eaten a lot of canned veggies and some canned meat.  We buy new all during the year so it is not a huge expense to replace.  Each year we have less and less store bought emergency food and more and more home canned and preserved.  During this last storm when it fell so hard and fast the road crews never caught up, we didn't want to brave the treacherous icy roads and didn't leave the house for a week.  What a good feeling to know we didn't have to worry about food (and toilet paper - always have extra of that) and just concentrated on staying warm and snug!

Reduce- I am going to share a little of what my mother is going through right now and for that last couple of weeks as a cautionary tale.  My mom and her two sisters have to go through Grandmas house now to get it ready to sell.  They are cleaning out every nook and cranny and it turns out Grandma and Grandad may not have ever thrown anything away!  Canceled checks from 60 years ago, a bank book from before they got married in 1931!  So there are my mom and her sisters going through all this collection of stuff - Mom says she will go home and immediately start going through her drawers and only save things that are valuable from a monetary or sentimental view AND she will write down why they are important!  Let this be a lesson - make it a habit to look at all the things you keep and imagine someone going through your house saying "Oh my - why do you suppose she kept all this?!"  :)

This is the barn on my great grandfathers farm!

Green- I have eliminated all but a couple of my industrial cleaners in favor of vinegar, lemons and vodka (not to drink!) mixed together in various incarnations and strengths. 

Grow- Although growing season came to an abrupt end this month I managed to get to my friends house as she was going through and thinning her flowers, she gave me peony roots, day lily bulbs and hollyhock, morning glory and sunflower seeds!  We expanded the garden this year so next year I am hoping we will work more on landscaping and adding some flowers.

Create- The creative process is all secret this month as I have no time to do anything but gift work until it all gets done!

Discover- This month I am reading "The Makers Diet" by Jordan S Rubin and his journey from health to illness and back again.  It is a real eye opener on how sick processed foods can make you if you are susceptible! 

The Mausoleum

Enhance- When my friend and I were in California we made an effort to continue our Find A Grave work and took photos of several headstones in cemeteries that their relatives will never get to visit.  We had fun and did our part for family history!

Daddy (holding her), Miss Lily and Uncle Niel are dancing!

Enjoy- My trip to California was the highlight of my month, getting to see the kids and the lovely granddaughter, traveling with my good friend and doing the tourist thing in an area we both knew fairly well.  We even went to the awesome Mennonite Central Committee Quilt shop in Reedley CA, it is definitely worth a stop if you are ever in the area!






Well that about catches me up and be sure to check out the other blogs at this link HERE and see what everyone is doing.  Onward to December, and it is now time for Christmas Carols!

Slow Living Monthly 9 Link Up

I am so pleased and grateful that the monthly 9 link up will continue even though Christine is in need of a break. I have enjoyed reading Linda at Greenhaven's blog and am looking forward to her hosting our little party!  Thank you to Linda for stepping up!

At the risk of sounding like an old folk song - My bags are packed and I'm ready to go....  :)  I leave in the am to go to my grandmothers house, my mom and I will take care of her together for a month and then we will see what happens.  The goal is that she gets to stay in her own home till the end. I have my laptop and hope that I will be able to keep up here but if not - you'll know why. 

This month has just seemed crazy busy!  Sorry for the 'no photos stripped down model' (!) I'm running out of time but didn't want to miss out on the first month at the new home!

Nourish - It is summer, we are eating out of the garden!  Neither of us is very hungry in the evenings so we just have a salad, lots of meatless days as well.  When it is hot we just eat light!

Prepare - We finally got a freezer so we will start filling it with corn, Hubby has taken a crash course in canning and freezing, he is a little nervous but will do fine I think.  I have done as many pickles as I think we can eat and now we are freezing tomatoes and corn, I have two more sets of corn planted that are not tasseled yet so hope to still have fresh corn when I get back.

Reduce - Ha! I have reduced the amount of stuff I packed to a reasonable amount!  :)

Green - Can't think of anything green but my feet and the knees of my pants! 

Grow - Garden has been in charge of my days this month, between weeding and picking and preserving it really is a full time job!  Tried broccoli for the first time this year and it will be back, very yummy, would like to try cauliflower as well.  the beets and turnips were awesome this month no matter that I am the only one who cares!

Create - I worked on a different branch of the family tree (genealogy) this month and was able to follow it a very satisfying distance into the past.  Knowing that I might be going to Missouri in August I wanted to have it done to take along to share.

Enhance - I have started helping and older woman friend to get herself organized.  Her husband has Alzheimer's and she is still learning to deal with that and still get the bills paid.  It is a very rewarding partnership so far.

Discover - I have written a couple of posts about our trips around our area to discover the history and cemeteries; these have really been fun and our little impromptu group is just about ready for another, they may even wait til I get home!

Enjoy -I have enjoyed seeing the pictures of our Miss Lily this month, she is growing so fast and has discovered her hands!  This is a huge deal my friends, there are so many avenues open to a person when they discover they have hands

My Aunt and her husband took care of grandma for two months so my mom could have some time at home.  So Great Grandma got to get to know Lily as well!  I will leave you with a photo of Great Grandma and Lily practicing another new skill - the smile!

I can see already that standing up is in our future!

Be sure to check out the others who link up each month!

Slow Living Monthly 9

May has almost been an overload of happenings here on the scant 1/2 acre!  We became grandparents for the first time, were getting ready for our trip to California to see the new celebrity (granddaughter), and getting the garden in and trying to keep the weeds out!  This link up has become one of my favorite things to do each month so please follow the link back and check out what the others have been doing as well.

Hubby's wildflower pot

Nourish - Not sure that Chocolate chip cookies and Oatmeal cookies count technically as 'nourishing' (except for the soul!)  but I made about 6 dozen cookies worth of dough to take on our trip to see the kids.  I froze it and put it in the cooler with ice for traveling. It is cooking from scratch though! (grin)They all also got their semi-annual stock up on pickles etc.

Prepare - Since we were trying to travel without going over on the monthly budget, we decided that this was a good month to look at our emergency (earthquake, snowstorm, ice storm, any reason we couldn't get to the store) food stores and rotate out the stuff that had gotten a little old or past the 'use by' dates.  This is a really important part of being prepared for life's disasters - we just usually make sure it coincides with a month that we are trying to be especially frugal!  Killing two birds so to speak

The center is the old fabric

Reduce - This month this category became re-use.  I crocheted a hat and blanket set for Miss Lily and then I also made myself a new purse.  On the hat I used a button from the huge stash of vintage buttons (some from the 30's) my late mother in law gave me, it gives the hat a vintage aspect and also

my friend did awesome embroidery work for me

something from a ggrandma this little girl will never know.  For the purse I used fabric I purchased in 1982, started a jacket and then got pregnant -  the jacket was not finished and has been laying in a pile all these years, the floral is new from Wal Mart (on sale - $1.29/yd) and the green is the oldie from the stash.  The brooch from my vintage jewelry collection.

OK it's a little large but by football season.....

Green - Nothing really new here, I have a goal of getting rid of all the commercial cleaners but it is still just a goal.

this years salsa crop :)

Grow - The garden is just exploding.  The tomatoes have already started looking kind of rainforest-y (?) The black beans have come up but not the greens - go figure.  The corn is about a foot tall already and I will see how this goes growing it in 2 ft squares. I also managed to take 4 bundles of herbs (mint, lemon balm, oregano and thyme) to my son the guy who will try anything and loves cooking organic and whole foods, I must admit that it is a cool thing to take something for him and have him be so excited.

Create - Someday I will develop the knack of doing things ahead of time! (not!) I spent May finishing up all the projects I had going for Miss Lily for months!  I did make a really cute pair of 'gladiator' sandals to go with the hat and blanket and I think they came out really well.  It was my first attempt to make something I had in my head without a pattern and I am pleased with the result. 

These were so cute I almost pinched them

Discover - This month my new YouTube addiction moved me on to "Terry Jones - Medieval lives".  If the name sounds familiar he was one of the Monty Python troupe and a historian.  This series then is real history with a humorous side, it was fascinating!

Enhance - So... I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was going to start another blog for my family history and the stories that I had found, and I did that.  I had not even gotten around to telling family members (the only ones I thought would be interested) and I already have 3 followers and have been featured as a new genealogy blog on two sites that highlight new blogs once a month!  I'm pretty sure that Pulitzer prize is not that much nearer my grasp, but I am a happy camper anyway!

Stained glass window in the mirror in the dining room

Enjoy -  The girls and I went to the 'Morrison House' auction walk through, we got to see all the stuff Velma Morrison had in her mansion that was going on sale including a 6 carat diamond ring.  (Her husband was the builder on things like the Hoover Dam and the Oakland Bay bridge.)  Fun day (we included the Chinese buffet!) and interesting history.  We all also commented on the fact that no matter how wealthy and fancy your life, when you die there are strangers going through your stuff and making comments - we were very motivated to keep down the clutter in our own homes when we got done!







 Remember to check out all the other blogs in this link up