Garden Update

Well, the garden is starting to take shape. I added a few broccoli plants, a couple of cauliflowers, and a cabbage.



I have about given up on corn. Only four came up and only two of those are of any decent size. I replanted in the four squares that didn't even come up, but once again - nothing. Someone may have had a hand in their demise.



I planted some corn during the spring and ended up with two rotted, stunted ears. Corn may not be my thing.

The cucumbers are getting going. There are even the beginnings of buds.

The beans, though looking anemic and quite pitiful, are growing pretty well and starting to bloom. I hope to see some little beans soon.


You can see my neighbors pool through the fence. It is a saltwater pool with a little fountain. I have noticed that sometimes my car gets sprayed over the fence. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps my little beans may be suffering from some saltwater exposure. : (

It's still early yet. All my babies are being nourished with John's Recipe. I'll keep you posted.

I Read a Book!

Sadly, it doesn't happen as often as it should.

Thanks go to sweet Lacy over at Razor Family Farms who had a giveaway that I won!! The prize was this delightful little book.

I thought it was going to be a novel, but it was actually a collection of memories of growing up in the Depression. It blessed my simple-living heart. I'm sure I romanticized it in my brain that so longs for life in the country, but I was continually touched by the simple, hard-working, family-oriented life she led.

One anecdote that I just loved was one she told of when she was grown and all citified. Her two year old son swallowed a bobby pin. As the doctors mulled over the possibility of surgery to remove the pin that was slowly losing its plastic tips, the only things preventing the child's insides from being shredded, Mildred called her elderly aunt. I won't share what happened, but you can bet her aunt's idea was a lot less invasive and equally effective.

It was also a great book for me to read during this particularly busy time as I could read a chapter, put it down, and not be lost whenever I got the chance to pick it up again. Each chapter focused on a different aspect of their life.

This really is a charming little book that I highly recommend. It was a hard life during a hard time. She could have walked away from it wishing never to look back. Yet she shares her memories with a sweetness and even fondness that proves to me that we have gotten too far away from how it really should be, even if it was hard. Hard can be good.

The Fall Garden

When it became evident that we probably weren't going anywhere for awhile, I decided that I would try my hand at a fall garden.

Hurricane Ike coupled with the lady next door really wanting some sun on her pool means that my trees are a bit thinner than they used to be. I actually have a decent amount of sun on the side of the driveway. That has been the biggest problem with growing something other than pecans and figs on my little patch of urban frontier: no sun.

I had the hubs build me a raised bed.



Then I took a page from the Square Foot Gardener and laid it out thus.



That will give you a pretty good idea of how big it is.

I have already planted my pole beans and fall tomato plants. There were some squash type plants that the lady at Buchanan's swore would grow now, so I am trying a cucumber, zucchini, and a yellow squash.



I planted 3 hybrid and 4 heirloom tomatoes. They are already growing. I'll keep you posted on their progress.


I also have plans for onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuces, but they will have to wait until the weather cools a little. I may even try some sugar snap peas, but you can't plant those until December in these parts.

Any other fall garden attempts out there?

While I Was Away - 4

One of the things I tried to do this summer was complete some things that I had left hanging.

My dad gave me my grandmother's outdoor furniture. It wasn't in bad shape, but it needed cushions.

I gave it a quick spray coat of black satin paint.



Then I scored some outdoor canvas from the sale table at JoAnn's. I made some cushions for the chairs and the seat of the couch.


Now we have a lovely place to sit on the back deck - once the temperatures dip below 95 degrees. : ) I still need to make the back of the couch, but I need to get a big piece of foam first.

Over the winter I also found this pair of rockers at a garage sale. They were naked and in need of a good bath. But they were $7. Not being able to pass up a good deal, they came home with me. This summer they came to life. I stained them with a red oak stain. A couple of coats of poly later, we have a nice addition to the porch swing area.



And then there is this bench. I bought it at JoAnn's a couple of years ago. Last summer, the girl and I put it together. This summer, I stained it. It is pine and the rockers are oak. I was a little disappointed that the stain I used on the rockers didn't look right on the bench, but I think it looks nice just the same. I got the bench for about $12, so I really can't complain. And with over 500 sq. ft. of porch, we really need places to sit.


What have you been up to?

While I Was Away - 2

Do you know what this is?



It is a fresh from the wall of a house honeycomb.

Do you remember our friend the Bee Wrangler and the adventure we had here at the house? Well, she has those kinds of adventures all the time. And one day this summer she had a big job not too far from our house. We kept her kids all day and she brought us the honeycombs from the job.

She instructed us to freeze the whole mess until it was solid. This keeps some potential worm from growing. We froze it for several days. Just to be sure. Really sure.

When you are sure it is thoroughly frozen, thaw it out. Then all you do is squeeze and let it drip. Our mess looked like this.



And let me tell you, it was a mess. A sticky, sticky, sticky mess.

But it yielded us 2 full quarts of deliciously mild, golden honey. We will be using it for awhile. And we did it ourselves which was really cool.

I also learned an interesting bee fact from her. Did you know that it is not all the bees that are Africanized. It's only the queen. If you have an Africanized queen, remove her from the hive and you can requeen them with a nice queen and they will be nice bees. Who knew? An evil queen. Why hasn't Disney been all over this?

Making Do

I have a cold. A miserable, awful, snotty head cold. And we had a cool front roll in this morning, so it's a bone-chilling 50 degrees outside. (Sorry. A little Houston humor there.)

Even though it is not too cold outside, I wanted some soup for lunch. Some onion soup. While I often make a big pot of soup and freeze it into individual portions, I didn't have any onion soup. I'm not even sure if I have ever made onion soup. But I have eaten plenty of it and, well, there is a first time for everything.

No one else wanted onion soup, so this was going to be a small pot of soup. What sounds good? I know, start with some onions and garlic. You can't go wrong there. I sliced some onion very thinly and added it to a giant, minced clove of garlic in a skillet with some butter. Mmm. Smells good already.



Since this is my soup and I can make it anyway I want, I decided that I wanted to add some sliced, golden fingerling potatoes that I had on hand. As soon as I noticed a little brown showing up on the onion, I threw them in, too.


Looking good. When I was convinced the potatoes were tender, I added a little of the leftover beef broth I had in the fridge. I just wanted to get up all the yummy brown bits from the bottom of the pan.



I had the rest of the broth in a pan already. Just wanted to heat it up and add some thyme. When all the brown bits were up, I added it to the rest of the broth and let it simmer for a few minutes.

I took one of my little Corning Ware bowls and grated a little Gruyere cheese in the bottom. I had some leftover from a holiday meal.


I added the soup to the bowl.


Now, I didn't have any French bread handy, so I just trimmed a regular piece of whole grain bread to fit the bowl and made do.



Then I sprinkled some more cheese on top.



Put it in the toaster oven to broil.


Doesn't it look all toasty and warm in there? Watch it carefully. It doesn't take too long to brown.

And here is the finished product.


It really hit the spot. I will say that, if I ever to do this again, I will leave out the potatoes. They didn't add anything to it and their texture probably took away from it. But it was good and warm and soothing.

Go forth and make do. And make soup.

Bleach Alternative

You know I am always looking for ways to be less toxic and all. Well, Sweet Miss Lacy over at Razor Family Farms has posted a safe alternative to bleach over at Grit.com. Go check it out and let me know what you think. I can't wait to try it. It's right here.

The Challenge

Yeah, I've been playing with the blog. It's been fun. I love the new button down near the bottom that tells me who just got here from where.

You will also notice the cute little chicken button. Lacy made me do it! OK, she encouraged me to do it. OK, OK, I try to do it anyway, but I had avoided the button because I don't always do a good job. Perfectionism strikes again.

But I'm going to step up my efforts to live locally and support the organic farmers. Will you join me? You can read more about Lacy's challenge here.

We already have two chickens in the yard. We eat a lot of eggs, so our poor chickens only supply about a third of what we eat. We also have fig and pecan trees. They supply all we use of figs and pecans. I have citrus trees in pots, but they haven't really produced much yet. I have one enormous lemon I can't wait to show you.

There are several farmer's markets (like this one, and this one, and this one) in our area. I don't frequent them like I should, but I'm going to make an extra effort to check them out. Maybe I'll take you on a field trip!

In any case, I hope you will join me as I try to support my community and try to live the way God intended us to live.

What do you do to support local growers?

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: do away with the fabric softener.

There was a time when I decided on what washer to buy based on whether or not it had a well in the shaft for my liquid fabric softener. Those days are gone. I no longer even use fabric softener.

First of all, most fabric softeners are really toxic. They are full of chemicals that we really don't need in our homes or on our bodies. You can read a little about it here or here.

Secondly, does it really make that much difference? Really? I haven't missed it at all. In fact, when I am out on my walk I can smell everyone else's dryers. I don't even like the smell any more. Too much "fragrance".

So save yourself some money. And do without.

But if you can't, there are other options. Of course, I'm going to say it. Ready? Make your own! I can't really speak to how well this works, but I looked it up special for you. Give it a try and let me know how well it works out. Maybe you can persuade me.

Homemade Fabric Softener

You'll need:

• 1 cup vinegar (white)
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 cup water
• Drops essential oil (good choices include lemon, lavender, mint, geranium)
• Bottle for storage (flip-cap if possible)

1. Assemble the items from the Things You'll Need section.
2. Mix together the washing soda, white vinegar and water.
3. Add a few drops of essential oil. The scent is up to you. Or, you might wish to leave it scent-free.
4. Stir together one more time.
5. Bottle the fabric conditioner for storage. A bottle with a flip-top lid is good for ease of use but any bottle with a lid is suitable.
6. Use the fabric conditioner in the same way that you would use a commercial fabric conditioner.

If you try it or have your own recipe, let me know. I'd love to hear your results.

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: try something new with your laundry detergent.

While I was away. I made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. I had been using a pretty expensive brand trying to cut down on the amount of chemicals that my family is exposed to. That was getting old. Fast. I combed the web looking for a simple recipe. I'm not nearly as ambitious as Lacy, at this point. Maybe someday. I really wanted powdered detergent.

I found a simple recipe and went to work.

First, you grate a bar of Fels-Naptha soap. Surprisingly, I found this sitting on the shelf in the laundry aisle of my local Kroger. I just grated it by hand using the small holes on my cheese grater. It yields about 2 cups of soap.

Then I took a cup of borax and a cup of washing soda and added it to the grated soap.


I mixed it all together and ended up with 4 cups of laundry detergent. While that doesn't seem like much, it only takes 2 tablespoons per large load of laundry. And it cost me less that $3.00 to make that batch.

Of course, the big question is, does it work? As far as I can tell, it works fine. While I'm not doing Pioneer Woman's manure soaked laundry every week, my crew can do OK. I have only been using it for a little more than a week and everything comes out clean and fresh and quite satisfactory. I'm pleased.

I'm Baaaack!

So, how was your August?

Mine was...interesting. It was mostly good. I'll spend the next couple of posts updating you on where I have been and what I have done.

I will start with this week!

I went to dinner with my dear friend, jac. (I would love to highlight that and send you to her blog, but SHE WON'T START ONE!!) Our birthdays are right next to each other. Hers is the day after mine. We go out every year to celebrate "our birthdays". We were both swamped this year, so we didn't get to go out until this week.

We went to a lovely restaurant called Shade. We had a de. li. cious. meal. And some lovely adult conversation. How rare is that?

We don't usually exchange gifts, but this year we did. You'll never guess what we spontaneously gave each other. Preserves! I gave her figs and she brought me some of her yummy orange marmalade. I'm already almost halfway through the first jar. She is my big-city-simple-living buddy. She named our chicken, Scarlet. She lives but a mile down the road and we hardly ever see each other. : (

But we saw each other this week and it was fun!

Guess what I had for breakfast this morning.

Mmm. Yes, yesterday was fig day. I put up almost 3 gallons of fig preserves. When the figs start ripening, I pick those that are ripe each day. After washing them, I cut off the stems and maybe cut them in two if they are large. I then place them in a freezer bag in the freezer each day until I finish harvesting.

Thursday I took those bags out of the freezer and let them thaw on the counter for awhile. Then I put them in two bigs bowls and poured sugar over them. No, I didn't measure, but I'm guessing it was around four cups. I then put them in the refrigerator over night.

Friday morning I dumped the whole sugary mess in the stock pot and started cooking.

I squeezed a few lemons and added the juice to the pot. I don't use pectin. I don't know why. I just never had. It makes the preserves a little runny, but I've never had any complaints. They still taste good.

After they get going for awhile, foam rises to the top. I just skim that off.

I fill my sterilized jars and processed them and look what I got.


My little figgy army. Now I get to make my dad, my FIL, Aunt Sarah, and a few friends and neighbors very happy. There are actually more jars that that. They were still processing when I took the photo.

Figs are the only thing I have ever grown enough of to actually preserve. I'm quite proud of my little figs. Someday, when I have my orchard and big garden, I will have shelves full of jellies and chutneys. For now though, I am feeling quite content.

The Toys of Summer

We live in a big city. My kids are city kids. They are quite accustomed to big crowds, lots of traffic, and being able to do all the city has to offer. They are also spoiled at home with toys and electronic devices to keep them as lazy and slovenly as anyone can imagine. And yet. And yet, they are really very simple kids. They would much rather play outside than just about anything.

There is sidewalk chalk.


Such masterpieces.

Roller skating. Of course, it helps if you wear a tutu.


But, really, the highlight of this summer is this:

For those of you who don't have Scouts for sons or engineer/carpenters for husbands, this is a push cart. Hubs and the boy made it a couple of weeks ago. It has seen a lot of action in those couple of weeks.

The steering is accomplished (or not) by the passenger's feet on the front axle. The power comes from whomever is behind it running. Like so:

Poor thing hasn't gotten the steering part down just yet.

No motors. No plugs. No screens. And although they sometimes scare me to death, I can't tell you how pleased I am that they can have so much fun playing like this. This is what childhood should be like.

Urban Homemaker's Challenge

Let's just make it official. I was scooting around the Internet and I found Sylvia who has officially challenged us to:

reuse when you can

make do with what you have

seek out and use local agriculture

to make what you can for home use

make everything you can from scratch

to seek out and learn new ways to be frugal

to develop a spirit of creativity in managing your home

to feed and clothe your family well, but to live within your means.

Use it up! Wear it out!
Make it do or Do Without!

That's pretty much the way we live around here anyway. And while I do every now and again, I haven't really made a point to blog about it. I will try to do that more often. Notice the cute loaf of bread on the sidebar and go check her out.

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: Hang your clothes on the line to dry.

I'm not sure why, but I just really wanted to say that today. It's not going to help you lose any weight. It's not going to make your life any less toxic. I don't think so anyway. But I really like to do it.

Drying your clothes outside uses much less energy than the dryer does, so it is good for the environment. I usually dry them on the line and then fluff 2 loads together in the dryer to get rid of the fuzz and dog hair. We have a lot of that. Labs. : )

It makes everything smell really good. Your sheets and clothes smell like sunshine.

It gives you an excuse to go outside every so often. If nothing else, you appreciate the a/c that much more!

Oh, and hey, lugging that laundry basket around is good exercise! There, that's a healthy aspect of line drying your clothes.

And yes, we have an extension ladder on the top of our clothes lines. Doesn't everyone?