On The Fox

NEW BLOG!

2010-03-18T10:58:00.004-05:00

Our blog has a new home! You can continue to find our old messages here, but all new messages will be found at our new website.

Please click the link and join us! We look forward to your comments!

Preparedness

2010-02-08T13:56:00.004-06:00

I'm always thinking ahead. What will be my next project? When do we go on a trip next? How should be plan the garden for the upcoming summer? If I;m finishing this, then when can I start that? Well, I'd like to think this is to my advantage (although, possibly this is a disillusion :)). One way I believe it came to my advantage is when we were shopping a fun and learning store in the area. All the products the store sells are learning toys, and also they have a lot of "natural" products. Products made with wood and non-toxic paint, rather than plastic. While we were there, we spotted on display a cute kitchen set up for a child. It was completely wooden (eco-friendly rubber wood) and was on display with some wooden foods that can be cut. Although Flora is only 4.5 months old, I was thinking ahead. How awesome this would be for her to learn and grow with! If this were the right sale price, we should get it now and give it to her a few years from now. I turned the corner and there was one in a box, never opened, and about 40% off the original price! What a deal! However, it was still a bit too expensive. So, I asked if they'd be willing to sell the display item, which was in great condition and no assembly required. She would, and for over 60% off the original price. Sweet! So, we now will have a kitchen set for Flora, along with some fun food to cut with it. The extra bonus is that when we decide to give it to her, no shopping needed for that birthday or Christmas :) Call me a geek, but I love thinking ahead, and being frugal about it :)

Eating a radish.

2010-02-03T11:40:00.003-06:00

My food nemesis was my lunch hour. I would run out and grab something quick - a sandwich, burger, whatever. Now I don't take a lunch hour, so I am responsible for bringing my own lunch if I plan to eat. I have a rubbermaid storage box with several goodies in it. It keeps me stocked with healthy choices when I need a snack. What's in it? Walnuts, our own dried apples, Kashi bars, tea, dried pears and organic instant oatmeal. I certainly need a bit more variety than this, so we decided we'd start doing some heavy shopping in the produce section. Tim has been eating PB & Jelly sandwiches every day at work lunch for the 5 years I've know him, so it would be healthy to get him some variety too. We buy whatever looks fresh and delicious in the produce section. We keep organic and local in mind as much as possible when making our buying decisions. We bring the produce home, wash it really good, and then bring a variety to work each day. Usually it will be a mix of cucumber, green pepper, mushrooms, carrot, apple, etc. Today I had something new in my lunch....radishes. I'll be honest, I'm not sure I ever had a radish before, but something about these little red guys appealed to me at the store. I put 3 radishes in my lunch today. Crunch, crunch, crunch. What yummy, crispy little things. I did a little research and it turns out that these radishes are good for fiber, folic acid, potassium, calcium, and iron. I also learned that if you like sprouts, radish sprouts are great for using the sprouts in salad and give a little different taste than the basic bean sprouts. Having this little something different today gives me excitement to try other new things. And, it also encourages me to research growing some of these goodies in our garden rather than sticking to the staples. It doesn't hurt to try a plant or two with something different. Any recommendations? Happy fresh eating!

Quiet Moments

2010-01-12T12:33:00.003-06:00

The work week always seems difficult for me as a mommy. I am blessed that I can do my 40 hour work week from Monday - Thursday, giving me a 3 day weekend to focus on being a mommy, and of course, get stuff done around the house, errands, etc. However, because of my Monday - Thursday, I only see Flora for about 1 hour each of those days. When I leave in the morning she's still sleeping, and then she goes to bed about 1 hour after I get home in the evening. This morning I was fortunate enough to have a few extra minutes so instead of my quick checking on Flora and giving her a gentle sleeping hug, I sat next to her while she slept and I ate my breakfast quietly. It was a peaceful and loving way to start the day, and even though she probably never knew I was there, it helped me get my mommy time in. I foresee getting up a little earlier now so I can have my breakfast with Flora. :)

Get well.

2010-01-05T12:45:00.004-06:00

For three days now I have been attempting to fight a really bad head cold. I came down with it on Sunday morning and as of Tuesday, still feeling it pretty bad. I didn't go to work for the past two days, and being home by yourself is really boring...even when you sleep half the day away. Being sick makes you realize the freedoms you have when you are healthy. For instance, the freedom of physical contact. Even though I'm living in the same house as my excellent husband and wonderful daughter, I haven't been touching either of them in effort to keep them germ-free. I feel physically neglectful. It's amazing what physical touch can mean to your body and mind. The only cuddling I have is with my furry pals - Quigley and Cora. Another freedom when healthy is being awake :) I have slept so much in these past three days I feel like a lump of uselessness. I have been doing everything natural that I know to get well. Taking my all natural immune booster pills, elderberry for anti-viral, sleeping, drinking hot tea with honey. Either I'm missing something, or this bug is extremely resilient. Next, blending kiwi with orange juice...a Vitamin C kick in the butt to this cold! Any other solutions? Help!

New Year!

2009-12-31T20:07:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year to all our friends and family! 2009 was a spectacular year - the highlights being the purchase of our land and welcoming our wonderful daughter, Flora. The last few weeks have been a nice wind down time. Less hours at work due to the holidays, and I've had a 2 week break from teaching too, which frees up my time after work. In 2009 one of my goals (documented here last January) was to learn to crochet. I started it, but as it goes, it fell to the side. During my pregnancy I vowed to crochet - that didn't happen. During my maternity leave I vowed to crochet, the closest I got was getting the yarn and hook out. It then sat on the end table in the living room for the next 2 months. Frustrating. I want to learn, but time always seems to have the last laugh. I told Tim that during the last two weeks of the year I NEED to crochet....and he made it so! He reminded me and helped me find time. And, I made my most complex project yet - a hat!!! I love it! It's warm, and cute - at least I think so. Also, the great thing about this project is that it gave me confidence I needed to keep crocheting. Another thing is that I feel as though I'm actually "getting" it....before I was just following the instructions, now I get why I'm doing things a certain way. It's exciting to think about new projects - I have a few planned for 2010. Tim has put in a hat request, so I am going to make his next. Here is my project (Tim's won't have the flower):

P.S. The blog has a new look. The white text on blue background got too hard for me to read...seriously, I'm getting old. Hope you all enjoy the new look. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Game/Reading Night

2009-12-03T13:49:00.007-06:00

When Flora was born, we felt our days and nights completely change in pace. As it was, we didn't do much TV viewing during the week. If we are watching the TV, it's either Thursday night "Office" or a movie we've rented from Netflix. But, sometimes we would find we had a moment, and the tv would go on for lack of better things to do. Now, we have a better solution: Game Nights! We are finding that it didn't work to say that these nights are always Monday and Saturday, but we have been trying to spend at least one night a week playing a game together (usually after Flora's sleeping...she's not into Scrabble - yet.) Games are fun, and generally require some thought. Both good things :) We usually end up playing our favorites - Scrabble, Sorry, Spite and Malice, Farkle....this last weekend we played Monopoly for a change of pace. First, I kicked Tim's butt, and then he kicked mine. Here's a snapshot of how the first game went. Me on left, Tim on right.

We hope to keep this up as a family tradition - games, at least once a week! Having wind-down time is so important when it seems like all there is to do is working, running errands, and keeping busy one way or another. Games have been a way to unwind, while having fun, not just sitting in a vegetative state in front of the tv screen.

An Autumn Visit

2009-10-26T12:23:00.004-05:00

Usually during this time of year we take a week long road-trip vacation to celebrate our anniversary. This year, due to our amazing girl Flora, we felt best foregoing the week long trip. Too hard to travel for that amount of time with a 1-mo old, 2 dogs, ourselves and luggage. Instead, we went out for a nice dinner on our anniversary, and then this past weekend, we took our last trip for the season up to White Sky Woods. We did just one night. We left the dogs at home with my Mom who watched them, and we headed out early Saturday morning, all packed up and with baby in the back seat. Since the heat in our camper is somewhat unreliable when it comes to providing a constant temperature, we felt it safest to stay at a hotel, and then spend the days at our property. On the way up, there was snow! The night before had left about 4 inches of snow in central U.P., but once we got closer to the Keweenaw, there was no snow and lots of fall color! Since the climate zone on the peninsula is the same as where we live here in WI, it was prime color viewing for those fall leaves. We headed directly to White Sky Woods. Wow! It looked so different from our last visit over Labor Day weekend. It's always wonderful, but the colors on the trees were just amazing. The color was from the ground up. Lots of leaves on the ground, colorful grasses, and brilliantly colored trees. The most impressive were the tamaracks, which were a bright sunny yellow color. On saturday we hiked our cleared (okay - semi-cleared) trails and spent a little time in the camper for Flora's feeding since it started to drizzle outside. When it got dark, we checked into our hotel. We ordered pizza from a local place - it was delicious...maybe some of the best delivery pizza I ever had. Later, Tim went swimming while Flora and I watched.

The next day we went back to our property and decided to do some off trail exploring. Tim carried Flora in the front pack both days, which worked out great. She loved it, the motion lulls her to sleep. We found some areas of our property that have older hardwoods, along with Cedar and different types of conifers. Tim's eye caught one of our forest creatures. A blue-spotted salamander! Cool looking little salamander. We found a dilapidated hunting shack that a tree fell on. It appeared the shack was built around the tree. Hmm. We then headed back to the camper. While I fed Flora, Tim picked lots of apples! We have tons of apple trees with a variety of apples. The best looking apples were Golden Delicious apples. He also picked a lot of apples that will be better suited for baking. So, this week, I have a project on my hands! I will be dehydrating a portion of the apples for healthy snacking, not sure about the rest yet. Before we left, we also talked to the neighbors for an hour of so. They told us about 2 wolf encounters they had this summer. Overall, it was another great trip to White Sky Woods! Can't wait to go back...

Back pasture.

In the forest.

All bundled up!

Snow! On the way up, but no snow at the property :)

Spotted blue salamander.

Pumpkin Project

2009-10-12T13:10:00.004-05:00

On Saturday we went to out local grocer who annually has Pumpkin Blowout. Local pumpkins for $2 each! We purchased three pumpkins and then planned to carve them. I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin. I painted a pumpkin in college with a little girl I mentored, but that's my most recent memory, and that was almost 10 years ago. We had a carving kit that we purchased a few years ago and got underway with our Pumpkin Project. Tim carved one pumpkin and I carved another, so we each had our own unique design. The third pumpkin became Flora's. She slept through the whole project, but since she's less than a month old, I don't suspect she could have done much with her pumpkin :) The pumpkins turned out awesome! Also, we saved the seeds and roasted them. Yum! Here's some shots from the Pumpkin Project. The final night picture with them light up shows mine on the left, Tim's in the middle, and Flora's on the right :)

Fall Splendor

2009-10-05T16:43:00.004-05:00

Fall is here! The average temperature during the day has been in the high 50's and there have even been 2 frosts overnight. We covered the garden as best we could and seemed to save it. When it hasn't been raining, I've been taking walks with Flora in the afternoon. I love fall! The changing colors and the crispness in the air. When the sun is out, you can almost feel your body soaking it up, regardless of the slight chill in the air. Hands down, this is my favorite season. I was up for the early sunrise last week and captured this picture of our backyard. There is steam rising off the river and the colors on the trees are slightly changed. Beautiful!

Drying Clothes, Saving Money

2009-10-02T13:28:00.004-05:00

Since we live in a village, we have sewer and water. We get a bill quarterly for our usage and it's typically only within dollars of the month prior. We had a bit of a surprise this past bill as it was almost $20 more than usual. Since in the past three months we had baby on the way, we were doing a lot of laundry. All the clothes we received used or new were washed, all bedding, etc. Lots of wash! And, now that Flora is here, I'm still doing just as much laundry. It's amazing how many clothing changes this little gal will have in one day! The bummer about being hooked up to the village sewer and water is that you pay for the water that comes in AND the water that goes out. At this point, I don't see any decline in our water bill.

The good news is that we have a process that helps offset this new cost! This past summer, we purchased an outdoor clothes hanging dryer for under $40. We successfully hung about every load of laundry on it to dry in the warm sun and fresh breeze. Now that the weather has quickly turned from summer to fall, the opportunity to dry laundry outside has pretty much disappeared. Time to move clothes drying inside...without using the dryer. For our baby shower, we registered for a drying rack for drying Flora's cloth diapers. Air drying is supposed to help them last longer. We actually received two racks and were happy to keep both. We can hang more than just diapers! Then, we received another, larger drying rack for Flora - so we have three. I am so happy we do! We have a perfect space for these drying racks right by the patio door where they can get sunlight to help dry. We have enough drying racks to hang 2 loads of laundry. Although you need some patience for the drying process, it saves the cost of 2 - 60+ minutes drying cycles in the electric dryer.

It feels good to offset costs, and be good to the environment. In the process, we are also putting some free humidity into our home now that the heat is on and drying things out. Here's a shot of our drying set up.

Our Baby!!

2009-09-15T14:02:00.007-05:00

WE HAVE A BABY!!

Flora May Reitz

5 lbs. 15 oz.

18.5 in. long

born 09/15/09

at 7:15 AM

To everything....turn, turn, turn....

2009-09-12T18:31:00.005-05:00

The title is appropriate lyrics by The Byrds to sing to our baby, who is still in breech position. Since she hasn't yet turned, we are now scheduled for a c-section. They simply won't deliver a breech baby naturally - too risky. So, unless this little one moves out of breech on her own, she will be welcomed into our big world on Tuesday, Sept. 15th. :) Wow! What an amazing step forward in this process! I guess I never really expected to know in advance what day would be her birthday...but it's now right around the corner! We are so excited to welcome our little one into the world and we have a lot of love waiting for her! Tim has been working on some final things at home and I have been doing as much as I can from the couch or kitchen table. Today I cored and diced about 100 tomatoes which Tim then took care of the rest of the canning. We have just about everything checked off our to-do list...it feels good! For most of Sunday we can relax. Monday, we both complete a full day of work before leaving bright and early on Tuesday morning for the birth of our baby.

Early in our pregnancy we hired a doula to help us with labor assistance. Since it doesn't appear we are going the labor route (not by choice or without trying all other means!), our Doula has given us the option of being there for the c-section and post-op, or for a post-partum trade out. We have decided to have her with us for the c-section and post-op. She will be an extremely important person in keeping us calm and collected while I'm prepped for the operating room. She will be in the O.R. with us, allowing someone to always be by my side and then she will stick around afterwards to get the bonding process going with our little one, help get breastfeeding established, and just help out in general. I am so happy to have someone with us who has supported this type of situation and knows Tim and I. I know the nurses will be simply amazing, but we are really another patient to them. Our doula knows us as people.

I had planned on having music during labor, but since the c-section was planned, I gave up on the idea. Our doula suggested that we still plan to have music and keep the mood relaxed with dimmed lights, etc. for the pre-op. I'm working now on the music compilation. I'm keeping it upbeat/relaxed to stay positive. Between Tim, myself, and our doula - we will make the c-section a positive experience, considering it's major surgery! I pray that all goes safely and well and that the recovery is quick and comfortable. Also, that our little one is healthy and happy when she arrives!

The day is almost here!

Moderate Bed Rest in the U.P.

2009-09-08T17:00:00.002-05:00

Wow - life's plans have taken a bit of a different direction this past week. At my last Dr. appointment my blood pressure was up, so now I'm on "moderate" bed rest. This means that I'm supposed to be at home relaxing, sitting, no errands, no chores, etc. Thankfully, my employer has been so flexible with me and is allowing me to work from home full-time on my laptop. Working from home is actually going very well, feeling productive and accomplished. Also, at the last appointment, we found out that our dear daughter is still quite comfortable in her breech position. We did a lot of homeopathic attempts to have her turn prior to this revelation, and nothing worked. So, our next option was to go in for an external version to have them attempt to manually turn her. They tried with all their might for 45 minutes and she didn't want to budge. So, at this time, she's still breech. Unless she turns on her own, we will be scheduling a c-section. This has been a bit defeating to me, but I understand that we need to do what is the best route for safe delivery and that our goal outcome is a healthy baby! We have all the love in the world waiting for her when she arrives!

Over labor day weekend was our last opportunity to go visit our favorite place before baby arrives, White Sky Woods. We left on Friday evening so we would have a few full days instead of traveling Saturday morning. Our trip was so well needed. Since I'm on moderate bed rest, I did nothing but relax. We read, listened to NPR, played games, napped. Tim finished one last thing on the outhouse to have it winter ready. It was a great weekend to unwind, relax physically and mentally, and slow down the pace of life before our baby arrives. Here is my favorite photo from the weekend. I took this when I woke up from an outdoor nap under the apple tree. The sun was shining so brilliantly illuminating the leaf. Oh, we also saw our friend - Paulie the Porcupine! He was chilling out up in one of the Aspen trees.

Blueberries!

2009-08-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

We returned Sunday night from another great, and extended 3-day weekend at White Sky Woods. It was rainy on Friday and a bit overcast on Saturday, but Sunday was simply amazing. 70 and sunny - blue as blue sky. The Sunday theme must have been blue. Blue sky - blueberries. We discovered a month or so ago that there are patches of blueberry bushes on our property...but until they came ripe just recently, we didn't know how many! Wild blueberries - everywhere! They are sweeter and smaller than the grocery store variety - simply delicious. We had a couple of gallon pails up there for just this type of event, so we went picking. After over an hour of picking, we had a full gallon of blueberries. The dogs also ate their fair share - straight off the bush! We have the blueberries home now and all the supplies to make jam. We will reap the benefits from our beautiful day of picking all winter long :) UPDATE: Tim made 10 half-pints of blueberry jam and we still have more blueberries left over which I will make blueberry bran muffins with and freeze so we can thaw and eat as we please.

Cloth Diapering

2009-08-24T13:48:00.007-05:00

Upon finding out we are pregnant, we made the decision to try to keep our earth-friendly practices consistent with baby. She deserves less chemicals (food and body products), more natural remedies in life and also the privilege to leave behind a smaller carbon footprint (in a literal and figurative sense!). One of the decisions we made was to choose cloth diapering. In doing research, I couldn't believe how far cloth diapering had advanced since when I was a kid. There were many options and all different styles. These new cloth diapers are no different than putting on disposable diapers, expect that you reuse them over and over again. No pins, no special folding...just put it on the baby and velcro up. The great thing about the type we chose (BumGenius 3.0) is that they are one size fits all...adjustable to your growing baby.

So, we made the purchase and now we have over 30 diapers in a variety of colors to keep us going. No running to the store because we ran out of diapers. No wasteful piling of garbage. No spending thousands on diapers. It's shown that it will cost around $2,000 to diaper a baby through their time prior to potty training. Our cloth diapers were $500, plus the cost of laundering, which is simply water and slight cost of laundry soap (since we make our own). We have drying racks to air dry the diapers which will keep them in good condition longer - so no electricy costs on that front either. We were excited when our delivery arrived via FedEx! We ordered with a special discount that was running through clothdiaperoutlet.com. The husband/wife duo had excellent service and shipping was free. They have many natural products for baby care and other earth-friendly solutions on her site. There a few more purchases we plan to make with them, including wetbags (nylon bag to put dirty diaper in on-the-go) and reusable diaper pail liners that can be washed with the diapers.

It feels good to be eco-friendly and save money :)

Unique Plants

2009-08-12T11:50:00.008-05:00

We are blessed to have our piece of paradise in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Although we haven't even seen all our property yet (or is it possible to ever!), we've been able to do some exploring! Tim's seen more than me since he's not pregnant and has much more energy and mental-will to take him around :) A few trips back, we had Tim's Mom, Aunt, & Uncle visiting and Tim when exploring with his Uncle while I napped. Tim came back with pictures of plants that many people might never encounter including lady slippers, rare mushrooms, and the carnivorous plant - Pitcher Plant. I've never seen lady slippers in the wild, but last year Tim and I did see Pitcher Plants in a bog we visited in Minnesota. What a unique plant! It produces a sticky type of material which bugs will land in and then the plant digests the bug. Amazing such thing could even grow in Upper Michigan where 6 months out of the year there is snow on the ground! When Tim saw the pitcher plant on our property, he even saw it when it was blooming. What a beautiful sight!

I saw the pictures and knew that next year I would be able to go back and see them with my own eyes. Well, somehow on our last trip Tim convinced me and our visitors that it was a short/easy trip. Not without complaint, we FINALLY got to a pitcher plant (he had marked it on the GPS). I was the only one complaining...my 8 months pregnant body didn't want anything to do with the trip, and my mind really got at me. It wasn't too bad of a hike for our friends or dogs, but was a different story for me! I can't quite paint a good picture of the trip, but imagine being stuck in a dense jungle with no path to follow. That's what this was like...but less tropical :) Looking back now, it was kinda funny...but I definitely pushed myself a bit too much that day. Anyhow, we found the picther plant, and it was beautiful! We also came across many other cool things - living and dead. Several deer skeleton's and also a pretty big pile of poops...maybe bear? We saw Cedar Trees, Spruce, Tamarak, and some hardwoods. Quigley found himself a deer foot to run around with, so he was happy as pie.

It's simply amazing how many different things you can find when you are looking on just a small piece of land in the realm of an entire region, country, continent, world! I recently read an article that reminded me of how cool it is to discover something. Explorers found the largest pitcher plant yet. It can eat rats! Here's the article: Giant Meat-Eating Plant Found

Here also are some pictures taken at our favorite place - White Sky Woods!

Cedar Trees

Pitcher Plants on the property. This is a grouping of several with some of them flowering!

Pink Lady Slipper on the property.

Gourmet by Lisa

2009-07-29T10:55:00.005-05:00

Yummy, easy, quick, and healthy dinner from the weekend.

1.) Set aside 2 large tortillas.
2.) Cut up zucchini and mushrooms. Saute Garlic, zucchini and mushrooms with Olive Oil.

3.) Rinse black beans. Rinse quartered artichoke hearts.

4.) Smear light layer of cream cheese on half of one side of each tortilla.
5.) Cut up into small pieces or shred your favorite cheese.
6.) Put sauteed zucchini and mushrooms on 1/2 of tortilla (on top of cream cheese). Add black beans and artichokes. Top with Cheese. Fold Tortilla in 1/2. Put in toaster oven or conventional oven for about 5 minutes at 350....or until cheese is melted and tortilla has slight browning.
7.) Enjoy with fresh fruit!

The great thing about this meal is that you can really put whatever you want in the tortilla! I also really like artichoke hearts, black olives, tomatoes and sprinkled with basil. Yum. Try your own version. What would you like on yours? Share in comments if you feel so compelled!

Passing it on...

2009-07-18T18:10:00.004-05:00

Through the pregnancy, it's been tempting to buy cute baby clothes, but we've done a good job controlling that. We only have a few pieces. We figured people always like to buy cute outfits, even when what you REALLY need is practical things, so that's what we've avoided buying clothing for her. Well, wow, generosity has taken place in a serious manner. One of my coworkers has a daughter who was born in late August a few years ago. That means that the sizing and season of her daughter's clothes will be similar to our needs. She said she would bring some stuff in that she would like to get rid of. People say these kinds of things, so I wasn't counting on it. Monday when I came in, there were 3 BIG boxes by my desk. All clothes! We are officially set on clothing for our daughter - at least for the first year and a half! She passed on everything from newborn to 18 months! We have lots of great things from shoes to onesies to sleepers to bibs. My mom also had picked up some cute things to contribute to our clothing needs last time I saw her. We are so blessed to have all this wonderful stuff without having to acquire it on our own. Attached is a picture of just SOME the great stuff my coworker passed on....this picture is only newborn to 6 months, huge stacks! Even though she said she didn't want any money, I plan to do something nice for her. This was such a nice gesture and needs to be noticed :)

This is a cool thing about bats and moths if you like that kinda thing :)

2009-07-17T15:15:00.002-05:00

Scifri Videos: Moths Can Escape Bats By Jamming Sonar

Posted using ShareThis

10 Things You Should Avoid

2009-06-30T12:32:00.001-05:00

"What you choose to buy or not buy has a tremendous impact on the world we share. Every year, the average American household will spend $17,000 on basics including food, clothing, body care, housewares etc. Now imagine that every dollar spent went toward promoting healthy, organic food; ending sweatshops and promoting Fair Trade; and creating a national marketplace for green products. That’s what buying green is all about." Read More.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2009-06-28T13:03:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to report that I'm finally on the last pages of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by: Barbara Kingsolver! It's not that the reading was arduous by any means, I just hadn't found the time to read it in a reasonable about of time....instead, it took me about 3 months - haha! Too busy. Anyhow, the book is awesome! I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in local food, sustainability, organics, homesteading, etc. In the book, Kingsolvers details a year of her and her family eating locally. This means producing the majority of their own food, swapping resources with neighbors, hitting up the local farmers markets, and ultimately attempting to eat only that which is grown organically and locally. The book is structured by months, which if you garden is a great way to follow! It gives tips on how to plan meals around what is abundant during certain months (i.e. Tomatoes in September). Also through the book are exceprts from Steven L. Hopp (Kingsolvers hubby) regarding some of the ramifications of our current food habits. He discusses the conditions animals are in prior to making it to the grocery, how far our food travels, the result of pestisides, and lots of cool, geeky science stuff. Kingsolver's daughter, Camille, also writes excerpts from her perspective of eating local with her family. She's in school for biology and has a interest in dietary needs - so she includes many great recipes. I can't wait to try them! That's that for my amatuer book review. I'd rate this 5 out of 5 - great book! You can get more information about the book: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

Hot Hot Hot

2009-06-26T12:06:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a long hot week - I'm convinced it hasn't been below 90 on any given day. Apparently we are going to get a break for the weekend, when it will be REAL summer weather here - in the 70's. Perfect! My favorite!

Things are going great at our house! My pregnancy is still rolling along smoothly. It's been hot, albeit only June! It's probably best I get used to this....the last three months of my pregnancy will be mid-summer. We finally have the rest of our garden planted. We didn't do much for variety this year. We have strawberries, which have provided me much joy of eating! We have around 12 or more tomato plants since Tim's Aunt and Uncle had some extra's to give away. We have two eggplants (one that came up from last year and one gifted). Our garlics are coming along real nice. That's it though. We wanted to keep it realistic since baby is due during harvest season! I'm sure we'll still have our hands full when it comes to those tomatoes. We'll probably do a combination of canning and freezing. A gal I work with roasts her tomatoes in the oven and freezes them. She said it's quick and easy to use when thawed. Might give that a whirl. Sounds good with pasta! I'd also like to try canning salsa this year. Salsa is so great on so many things, potatoes, chicken, chips, burittos, etc. For our strawberries, we ate some fresh, and froze the rest whole so we can thaw and use for pancake topping, etc in winter. I'll have to post some pictures of our strawberry abundance!

Another project Tim did this summer was to let a portion of the backyard grow out. Well, it wasn't exactly a high labor project. He just don't cut the grass there, which has been a huge time and gas saver for mowing! The grow out is getting interesting. Some flowering plants are popping up, including white and purple clover, thistle, and we planted some coneflower and transplanted daisy. It's looking good - but we aren't sure exactly how our neighbors feel about it! We've noticed a significant increase in birds this summer. The long grass is probably a great place for them to hide out and eat bugs of all sorts! We have some really orange orioles, many robins, starlings, grackles, sparrow, chickadee's, and we also have some squirrels and a bunnies. The front yard, which is much more groomed is looking great! The groundcover I have in the beds is blooming, so there is a carpet of white and pink all over, looks great!

Oh, did you hear Michael Jackson died? I'm being facetious of course. It's all over the media. A very talented man with a mixed-up life. I won't be surprised when the autospy comes back stating he had an overdoes of prescription drugs in his system.

On that note, happy Friday and here's to a safe and happy weekend!!

Oracle in the Desert | Craig Childs | Orion Magazine

2009-06-19T13:53:00.002-05:00

Thought this was an interesting narrative about a cop who now seeks solidarity in the desert.

Oracle in the Desert | Craig Childs | Orion Magazine

Posted using ShareThis

Purple Flower

2009-06-16T20:03:00.000-05:00

The Beach

2009-06-15T21:06:00.003-05:00

We spent some time at the beach down the road from the property. There was no one else there - it was about 80 degrees. I take it the beach is rarely frequented since it's completely unmarked and we've only once seen someone there. Tim decided to go in the water. Let's remember, this is Lake Superior. As suspected, it was COLD water. The dogs enjoyed running in the water and of course came back to the blanket I was sitting on to come and shake off - after they rolled around in the sand. Here are some pictures of the beach:

Paulie the Porcupine

2009-06-14T20:44:00.004-05:00

We were up at the property this weekend. It was a wonderful trip! The weather was sunny and 68-75 degrees - beautiful! When we got there, we were surprised to see all the apple (and other fruit trees?) in bloom. Lots of new ground cover and flowers were coming up too. Drawf dogwood, ferns, starflowers, violets, and stagham moss in the wooded areas. Hawkeye, raspberries, possibly a daisy of sorts (hadn't blossomed yet) in the sunny areas. Marsh marigolds, iris (not in bloom yet), unique mushrooms, and more violets in the bog area. Just amazing! We find beauty everywhere on the property. While we were sitting under one of the blossoming fruit trees, Tim spotted something in one of the aspen trees near by. He came running back for the camera, and we took pictures throughout the evening. It's a porcupine! We watched him up in the tree top, sleeping, observing us, and eating. I am amazed by porcupines! I guess I never really seen one in the wild, and up in the tree it was a slow, docile creature. Of course, I would never want a close encounter with one, but I'm happy to have at least one who lives on our property! We named him Paulie the Porcupine :)

We have a doula!

2009-06-09T21:22:00.002-05:00

Since we are going about the pregnancy and our life in general in a natural way, we figured that it would be helpful for us to look into hiring a doula. Most people are familiar with midwives, but since we are seeing a medical doctor through a women's care practice, midwife wasn't much of an option. Insurance doesn't cover midwives, and it would be very difficult to birth anywhere but home with a midwife. We felt safest with a medical setting, but still want to be holistic. We found out that a doula would be a great fit to what we were looking for. For those that don't know, a doula is a labor-support professional who offers emotional, physical, and educational support during pregnancy and labor. The support is for both mother and father. A doula does NOT take the place of the father. The doula will arm Tim with techniques that will be suitable for him to best comfort me, and have a greater understanding of what's taking place. We just felt it would be wonderful to have someone in there that's aligned with our philosophies to help us, explain to us what's happening, and make us comfortable. Years and years of studies show that women who have doula support are less likely to have c-section, have analgesia/pain meds, give birth with vacuum or forceps, and report negative feelings about the childbirth experience. The doula we chose will give 3-4 prenatal visits for education purposes as well as be there for the entire labor/delivery, a few hours afterwards, and provide follow-up support. We are looking forward to developing a relationship with our doula! I feel positive that this support will be one more way to make the labor and delivery an experience as pleasant as it can be.

Update

2009-06-08T19:56:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

It is I, Tim

Just a quick update on the potatoes and the worms. I just added the next tire to my stack yesterday and it looks like everything is going really well. The plants must be 16" or 18" tall now. The taters are growing great and yet the tomatoes are growing poorly. Hopefully we'll get some warmer weather here eventually and they will catch up a little bit. We also have some strawberries that are just starting to ripen up. It will be nice to get some fresh food to eat from our own backyard.

The worms also turned out pretty well. A week or two ago I finally got around to separating the worms from the castings. I ended up with a little less than half a 18 gallon bin full of castings. If my estimation is correct, it is about 25 Lbs or so. According to a website, that's about $30 worth of castings. I didn't think I would end up with nearly that much after only 6 or 8 months.

Well, that's all for now. I will write again shortly.

The World Without Us: 11 Fun Facts from a Book about Earth without Humans

2009-05-27T13:18:00.001-05:00

An interesting, thought provoking article by Mother Earth News:

The World Without Us: 11 Fun Facts from a Book about Earth without Humans

Sloppy Joe - Yum!

2009-05-26T18:31:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we made a 4 day trip to our land. What could I pack for food that would be easy and quick? I was craving sloppy joe, so that's what I made! (Well, among other things!) It worked out great. I precooked a double batch and then we took it in our cooler, heating up the serving size for the meal on the stovetop in our camper. It was delicious and easy!

Here is the recipe to give it a try. This yields probably 6-8 sandwiches. (I double batched it from this).

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 can condensed tomato soup (you will add water to make the consistency of the Joe right).
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
6 whole wheat hamburger buns

Instructions: Crumble beef and turkey in skillet over the stove and cook until brown. Drain off liquid. Add onion, pepper, celery and cook until soft. Stir in condensed tomato soup, cumin, worcestershire. Add water as needed to take the thick off. I filled the tomato soup can with water and used about 1/4 to 1/2 of the can. Taste test and add cumin and worcestershire as you desire. Serve hot on top of wheat bun. Get sloppy!

Potatos in tires!!??

2009-05-21T12:55:00.010-05:00

It's Tim again...

In the last post I mentioned "projects" so here is the other one. This one is still a bit of a work in progress.

I read somewhere that potatoes will grow in used tires, and it caught my attention. I decided to try it this year. Fortunately, Lisa needed new tires on her car late last year, and I was able to keep the old ones.

I've not planted potatoes before, so the whole thing has a bit of a learning curve. We normally buy organically grown potatoes to eat, so I just used some of those as my seed potatoes. I let them sit on our kitchen table in the sun until they had started to grow some shoots from the eyes. I only cut about three or four of them up with each piece having about two or three shoots on it. I had so many pieces that I probably planted way too many in my tire.

I filled one tire with a black dirt and peat moss mixture and just stuck the potato chunks in. It's been a few weeks now since I started and for about the first two or three weeks there was nothing happening. I started to worry that something was wrong. But then, low and behold, I happened to be walking by the tire one day and noticed just the tiniest plant starting to grow. I had to look closer now. That day I discovered about three plants growing and within a week there were ten.

As I understand it, once the plant itself gets tall enough, another tire is stacked on top and filled with dirt as well. Apparently, potatoes will grow in each tire and as the tops get taller, you just repeat the process with a new dirt filled tire.

I'm happy that I finally have some plants growing and hope to have pounds and pounds of potatoes by the end of the season. I'll try to give you and update as the plants keep growing.

Stay tuned!

Worms

2009-05-19T20:12:00.008-05:00

Hi everyone, Tim here.

Just wanted to do a quick update on a few of the "projects" I've been working on. Some are turning out well, others are still a bit of a work in progress.

The first project began last year a little before Christmas. We got interested in vermicomposting and decided to start a worm bin. After a little bit of research on the net, we were set to make some bins and buy some worms. I made the bins from some Rubbermaid bins I had down the basement. The one on the bottom is intact and another modified bin nests on top of it. The upper bin just has some holes in the bottom for drainage and some holes in the top for air flow. We put some dirt, paper, and food scraps in the bin along with the worms.

At first, the worms didn't like the bin very much. They liked crawling out all the time. After picking them up off the floors (and sometimes the walls)

I finally called the worm farmer we got the worms from. He suggested a night light so I rigged up an LED night

light to fit in the top of the bin and a little bit of tape got the light to stay on all the time. No more problems.

It's been a few months and after the bugs were worked out (including some fruit flies) we have a whole bin full of worm castings. The castings are great compost for the garden and we'll mix some in with the garden soil when we plant in a few weeks. Hopefully it will help us grow some nice fruitful plants!

Getting the Garden Ready

2009-05-15T07:43:00.000-05:00

Getting the garden ready has been slow going. We were out the other Monday and I was working on some of the flower beds while Tim cultivated the garden beds with the composting leaves we put on over the winter. The garden beds look great, but we still have a lot do with our flower beds. We have about 2,000 tiny trees growing in everything. We don't even know what kind of tree it is. We thought it was probably maples from the two bigs trees we have in front that leave whirly-gig's all over the place, but sure enough, the leaves have opened on these tiny trees and they aren't maple! I guess we have something new on our hands to figure out. Tim took a bunch from the beds and planted them in a little growing tray. They are growing well, but what are they? Huh. We still have our started seeds insides. They are doing well, but nothing like they were last year when we transplanted them in. If the weather is nice this weekend, I might bring them outside to acclimate a little bit. Usually I plant right before Memorial Day weekend, but this year Memorial Day is sooner than usual it seems. I'm going to have to play it by ear.

Rhubarb Update: It's coming in, but not even close to ready. I can't wait to harvest it and try something new! Have a good recipe, please e-mail it over! I still have some frozen strawberries from last (unbelieveable!), so something strawberry/rhubarb would be great too!

What's Up?!

2009-05-14T07:27:00.001-05:00

No excuses, but I haven't posted since APRIL!! That's simply too long. So, what have we been up to? We went up to the property two weekends ago, we simply didn't want to wait too long to go up again so we decided that we would do another quick weekend. It was great. We rode our bikes with dogs in tow (on leashes running next to us) down to Lake Superior. The ride there was good, but the ride back was too much for me. My body said "I'm too tired - you stop now." :) I pushed the bike back the last 1/8 mile. We built a fire and enjoyed nature that night. We chilled out on Sunday morning because we were simply too exhausted. In one day we cleared a path on the front 10 acres. It was a lot of work for Tim because he had to use the machette to clear some areas. We are happy how it turned out and plan to continue making some trails. Our next trip up is a long weekend, so we have more time to do things and more time to relax!!! Ahhhh......relax. We haven't had a day off of work since 2009. It will be nice to have an extended weekend. I may want more after that :)

The next weekend we celebrated Mother's Day at our house. My Mom and Dad and Tim's Mom came over. We had a burrito bar and then showed them the video of our 20 week ultrasound. Oh yea! I forget to mention that. We had the 20 week ultrasound. We found out if baby is a boy or girl. Well, we showed the 4 minute video to our parents and they all guessed boy. Well, SURPRISE - it's a girl!! We were surprised too, Tim and I both felt boy. The ultrasound was great, but she was being a little stinker...turning away and moving all over the place. The Dr. was able to get most of the measurements he needed to be sure she was all on track, but he didn't get a good enough look at her heart. We have another Ultrasound in early July that he will take a better look at her heart.....and hopefully she cooperates! There were no worries, so we are very happy about that. Since she was moving all over the place, from what he could get a look at he felt that baby is a girl! I guess we will for sure know by next ultrasound :) Exciting times! We also showed our parents some video we've shot of the land.

My birthday came and went on Monday, 5/11. I'm 30 now - wow! Shocking, but acceptable. This weekend we have errands to run and will also be going to the Green Bay Botanical Gardens. I recently started working with a gal that works there, she was in my media class. Since Tim and I love gardens, we thought it would be nice to support this local group. This will be our first visit with membership. We haven't been there for about 3 years, I'm looking forward to it!

Hope all is well with our family and friends!

Tweeting!

2009-04-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

Can't say I know much about it yet, but I've signed up on twitter as "onthefox". So, if you twitter, or are interested in twittering, come "follow" me at twitter.com. Hope to see you there and let me know if you have any good recommendations on twitter or if you twitter! -L

Clothing Give In

2009-04-22T21:10:00.004-05:00

After we found out about being pregnant, suddenly baby clothing was looking pretty cute! We've avoided buying any at this point, since we're sure we'll find lot of nice used stuff and have many essentials from gifting. Well, today I gave in. There is a store by my office called "A Better Footprint" and she has all fair trade stuff. Since it was Earth Day today, she had 22% off of everything in store. I decided to check it out and found the cutest shirt and onesie (with hat!). I couldn't resist. I got the onesie in size 6mo-12mo, and the shirt 12-18mo. The Onesie says "Future World Explorer" and the shirt says "Peace, baby". So cute! They are on a unbleached 100% cotton and the sale proceeds go to a group in Honduras (where Tim and I honeymooned) for treatment of women with HIV/AIDS. Here's a photo!

Spring is in the Air!

2009-04-17T15:37:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone! I am happy to report that spring is here! At least for yesterday and today! It's 70 degrees outside and wonderful! I opened up all the windows in the house to get that winter stuffiness out, it's so refreshing! With spring comes blooms. Our tulips are coming up, but no flowers yet. Some perennials are showing their green and the garlics we planted late fall are up and rising! Of course, so are all the weeds. How is it that some plants will die off during a harsh winter....but not weeds! They are persistent, year after year. I have crab grass growing in my strawberry patch, and in random places in the garden. This weekend, some spring cleaning is on the list. We also have to start getting together our camping materials. We found a cheap, retro hardtop camper for sale that we purchased and will be taking to our land next time we are up. It's not deluxe by any means, but has what we need. Bed, storage, stovetop, and heater. The heater was the biggest thing since it will allow us to spend nights on the land when otherwise we would have to stay at another place about 30 minutes from the property. We'll post some pictures once we get it up there, we are pumped to get everything together and go up for our first weekend where we can spend all day and night at the land!

Anyhow, back to spring - here's a picture of the garlic coming up and also of the dogs playing outside!

Cloth Diapering

2009-04-02T18:39:00.004-05:00

We've been doing some research on cloth diapering to decide which cloth diaper to get for when baby arrives. We found a great Pocket Diaper called Bum Genius 3.0. They are affordable, fit all sizes from infant to toddler (with out having to buy a different size for each weight group), and are environmentally friendly because they are washable and reusable. I was reading a local blog that shares a lot of great information about "natural" parenting. She also owns a local shop/cafe: momandpopplace.com

On the blog I found this great information advocating cloth diapering:

Reason Number 1: The Environment

Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer product filling up our landfills today. One baby will contribute at least a ton of waste the local landfill! Not only do disposable diapers take over 500 years to decompose, they require toxic chemicals and vital resources to manufacture.

Reason Number 2: Your Family’s Money

Disposable diapers cost about $1500-$2000 per child. Yikes. You can cloth diaper all your babies for under $500. And you can use the same diapers for more than one child. Even with the cost of water and detergent, you WILL save a ton of money.

Reason Number 3: Your Baby’s Health

Disposable diapers contain polypropylene and other synthetics and chemicals, and dioxins from bleaching. Their super-absorbency encourages caregivers to go longer between changings. Many parents find that their babies suffer less diaper rash and irritation when diapered in cloth. Soft cottons mean healthier bottoms!

Antarctica to Pyramids, lights dim for Earth Hour

2009-03-30T10:53:00.001-05:00

Crowds in Times Square watched as many of the massive billboards, including the giant Coca-Cola display, darkened. This phenomenon happened all around the world on Saturday, March 28th from 8:30pm - 9:30pm local time as a coordinated effort to make a statement about global climate change. Visit Earthhour.org for more information and read full story at link below.

read more | digg story

Planning the Garden

2009-03-27T13:27:00.002-05:00

Last night we started our garden planning (a little later than usual). Tim really wanted to expand the garden this year, but we've decided to stick to our little garden since we have baby on the way during September harvest time. We have to keep the garden manageable. This year we will continue to have our strawberry patch. We'll also grow green beans, cantaloupe, and we're going to try out the seeds we harvested from Roxie and Doug's paste tomatoes and green peppers. I want to try my hand at some more canning this year, and also some new methods of dehydrating. I got a great book, Food Drying with an Attitude, that gives unique ways to dehydrate and use dehydrated food. Maybe we'll also be able to harvest some apples and blueberries from our property! Tonight we'll start the seed indoors in the basement where we have the huge window with the nice hot sun coming through. That worked great last year!

Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Vegetable Garden

2009-03-20T06:40:00.001-05:00

On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut. This makes a great statement to sustainability! See the full article written up by the NY Times.

read more | digg story

We're Having a Baby!

2009-03-16T14:51:00.007-05:00

I suppose the title of this post told what we have to share, but I'll say it again - We're having a baby! We are as excited as any first parents could be, and we are so blessed to have this baby on the way. The picture below was taken at 12 weeks and 1 day. The heart was beating, the baby was moving all over the place, and hands with fingers and feet with toes could be seen. It was simply amazing! I've been feeling really good, and I hope that that stays the case for the next 6 months :) The due date is September 22nd, which seems like a long time off, but I have a feeling it will just breeze by! In just 7-8 weeks we should be able to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. There is a poll on the page here where you can vote if you think baby will be a boy or a girl (to the left). I won't tell you which once I think it is :) What an exciting time of our life!

Baby! Head on left. Legs on Right.

Picture doesn't show, but I saw feet and hands with fingers!

Getting Sunburned in the UP (in March!)

2009-03-15T18:48:00.006-05:00

This past weekend was the best! We decided a few weeks ago that if there was a weekend coming up with good weather in the UP we would head up to the property. We were hoping for anything over 30 degrees, and that happened to be this past weekend! What an awesome time we had! We left at about 6 AM Saturday morning and got up to the property at about noon after we dropped off our stuff at the cottage we stayed at. We drove over to the property and were looking around and checking out the area by the road and out walks our immediate neighbor to the North. We had a good talk with her and her husband and got lots of valuable information on our property and the neighborhood. After the chat, we had to climb over the 8 foot tall pile of snow on the edge of the property. (It was particularly deep there because that is where the plow pushes it all). We thought we walked all over the place on Saturday, but as it turned out we really didn't walk all that far, but it was certainly a work out. Most of the snow was between 2-3 feet deep, mostly hard and easy to walk on with snowshoes except a few spots where you seemed to sink in a foot. We saw probably 20 or 30 whitetail deer throughout the day. (Only two or three on our property, but a herd of about 50-80 hangs out by the neighbors because they feed them). We were tuckered out and headed back to the cottage.

Sun coming up in the east.

Looking South, this is the back field which we think is about 5 or more acres.

Fire that Tim built for us to enjoy lunch over. It smelled so nice like camp and outdoors!

The "tree organizer" - where we hung the stuff we didn't want to carry while we snowshoed.

On Sunday we headed out to the land again. We were a little more prepared to do some walking than the previous day because we knew better what we were getting in to. We found a potential building spot for a house when we move up some day, but we will keep looking as we get to know that land more. The property just seems bigger than we imagined! Everything seemed bigger than our first tour of the property. Since we were planning on staying through lunch, we paced PB&J sandwiches, crackers, and lots and lots of water to drink. Around 12:30 we found a spot to sit. There was a chair we found, and a big bucket that we flipped over to sit on. Tim built a fire and ta-da...we had a camp! We ate and talked about the property. It was about 45 degrees, with a slight breeze, and was just lovely out! On the way out we talked to the neighbor again for a while, which was nice! They seem like very nice people and we are looking forward to getting to know them!

Overall, it was a great weekend and we learned a lot more about the property including more about the trees, landscape and space. Oh, and regarding the title of the post, I am sunburned! Between the sun and the snow, I am a bit red in the face! So, who says you can't get a tan in the U.P. in winter? :) We can't wait to go back!

-L

A Saturday Surprise!

2009-02-28T16:23:00.004-06:00

Today for whatever reason we were up and at 'em by 6:30. This isn't very unlikely for me, but for Tim, he doesn't even get up this early on the weekdays! So, we decided that we would run our errands in Appleton this morning rather than later today. We went in town for breakfast and then quickly realized that retail doesn't usually open until 9 or later. When we finished eating breakfast it was only 8:30. We ended up having plenty of places to go, including groceries, new glasses for Tim, and searching for a handheld GPS unit so we can use it while we navigate our new property.

We came back home, had a yummy lunch, and then I had plenty of grading to do for my teaching gig. I worked for several hours and completed my tasks so we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and take the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood. On our way in we grabbed the mail. To our delight there was a package in the mailbox. Since most the mail we get is bills or junk, we were fascinated....who could it be from? To our surprise it was from the previous owners of the property in Michigan! We weren't expecting anything from them so it caught us off guard. We couldn't wait to get inside and open it. I quick got in, changed into my slippers and took of all my winter layers so I could open the package. Tim was just poking along, yet making me wait until he was with me to open the package.

We opened the package and out came 3 books, a handwritten letter, and a magazine article. 2 of the books are about Isle Royale, a National Park which has ferry access from the Keweenaw Peninsula. We can't wait to go explore the island once we have been up to the property several times, or when we move there! The Magazine article was also about Isle Royale. The 3rd book is the History of Jacobsville (where the property is). I am so pumped to read this! I am intrigued to learn more about the history of Jacobsville, and possibly someday more history about the original use/owners of the property. The letter, shared a bit of insight about their love and memories of the property (for the last 30 years I believe). She also wrote "p.s. the blueberries are great in August." We suspected their MIGHT be blueberries on the property because of the back bog, but didn't know for sure. We are excited to search out the blueberries! Blueberries are one of my favorite berries (nothing tops Strawberries), and the leaves can be dried and used for a delicious, all-natural, hot tea. Yum!

We are so excited and feel so blessed to have this property. We are looking forward to visiting it throughout the seasons, and eventually, making it our full time home! Thank you to our new friends, for sharing your great books with us! It was a brilliant surprise and we look forward to having more letters or e-mail between us!

-Lisa

OUR Property

2009-02-23T19:20:00.004-06:00

We are now the proud owners of 80 acres!

I'll start from the beginning. Last year some time we started looking for some land to relocate to in the future. We were looking for a larger tract of land with no improvements so that we could build a new house and have some extra land as well. We started looking in the same area that we live in now, but didn't find much in our price range. One day we stumbled across some property on the internet in the Upper Peninsula and noticed that the property up there was much more affordable. We were originally looking for at least 20 acres, but now realized we could probably afford more.

After months of searching, we hadn't found anything that really peeked our interest too much. We were planning a trip in the early part of this year and were hoping to have a few properties to look at when we visited. Then, one day we stumbled across 80 acres in the Houghton are of the UP and it looked pretty good. It was mostly wooded and had some more open areas and some wetter sections. We had just a few questions, so we promptly emailed the listing agent and found out that the acreage is on a dead end road and kind of in the middle of nowhere, yet still has electric by the road. And, to top it all off, they actually plow the road during the winter. Suddenly, we thought we might have found what we were looking for.

We did a little more investigation on the location and the surrounding areas. The property is about 10 miles from the modern conveniences (gas, grocery, hospital, etc.) in Lake Linden and about 20-30 minutes from Houghton. The property is literally in the middle of nowhere. The dead end road that the property lied on was sort of the dead end of the area, there's nowhere to go beyond that. What's very cool is that across the way is state owned land with a road on it that's about 1/2 mile long and leads directly to a beach on Lake Superior! So, we get privacy, low traffic, and easy access to water! We had some concerns about the weather, as most of the UP gets lots and lots of snow. Later we found out that the area where the property is doesn't really get all that much snow because of the land topography in the area....but, it still gets more snow than we're used to here!

Next thing to do was to motor on up to the UP. We took a couple of days off of work and in addition to the weekend we had four days in the area. It took us about four and a half hours to get to the general area and we found a cheap cottage to stay in for a few days. We looked at the property on a Thursday afternoon and walked on about a 1/3 of it with snowshoes. There are two open meadow areas and most of the rest is trees. The south/north boundary of the property is a half mile long and the other side is a quarter mile. We were in heaven (or as close as you can get on earth). The property is just beautiful. There are tons of white and red pine, some aspen, and many spruce trees. There aren't really many hardwoods but there are some planted apple trees and one or two cherry trees. As it turns out, the western quarter is a bog. It is full of tamarack trees and, according to the former owners, there a pitcher plants growing as well. We had about an hour on the property before it got dark and we walked the length of the property from north to south and that's about all we had time for. On Friday, we drove around the area and got the lay of the land. We also went all the way to the tip of the peninsula to Copper Harbor and saw all kinds of things.

When we got home, we had to decide what we wanted to do. We found out that there was another couple looking at the property the weekend after we were so that created a really stressful week since we were very interested. As it turned out, the other couple wasn't in a position to buy. We put in an offer on the property right before Christmas and got a counter offer the same day. We settled on a price and had an accepted offer for our Christmas present. We decided not to close until the middle of February so we would have a little more time to save up some extra money before we had to start the payments. We just got the closing all wrapped up on Friday and are really excited.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to visit until it gets a little warmer. We will go up to visit over Memorial day weekend (if we don't figure out some way to get up there earlier). Stay tuned for some more pictures once we visit again and have more time to get around on the property.

- Tim

Here are some pictures that were taken by the realtor and then some that we took in December:

Apple trees in fall and building left from original homestead.

Part of the front 20, it's snowing!

The property is outlined in red and you can see how close Lake Superior is on the bottom right corner!

Organic Milk Does The Body Better

2009-02-11T13:01:00.001-06:00

Organic IS better! When you drink organic milk you get more vitamins from it and less pesticides than non-organic. Although the price is higher, in this case, you pay for what you get! Tim and I have switched to organic milk. Although I'm not much of a milk drinker (not by the glass), Tim loves milk and says that organic milk is better tasting than non-organic. Give it a try next time your at the grocery!

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Snowshoeing

2009-02-09T20:31:00.005-06:00

Well, another few weeks has past and I've been absent again. It's been busy, we've been running around the state. 2 weekends ago we were down by Tim's Mom and I visited some friends, and then the next day my parents came up and we had some delicious Papa Murphy's pizza. Mom made Pumpkin pie for Tim and Banana Cream pie for me - we are so spoiled! This past weekend we got some stuff done around the house, went snowshoeing at my favorite local nature trail, and also took a trip out to Colby to see Tim's cousin perform in a community play called Bull in a China Shop. It was the first time I've seen him perform and he was excellent. The play was very funny!

I wanted to share some pictures from our snowshoeing on Saturday, it was absolutely beautiful as the sun was setting while we were walking. Here are some scenes for you to enjoy.

Moon over the path.

Sunset over the valley.

Sunset by the bird house.

Distracted...

2009-01-26T11:33:00.002-06:00

I thought last night about the blog and I realized I hadn't posted in a while. I feel distracted by nothing. I know, that probably doesn't make any sense but let me explain. In winter, there just isn't much going on, and I get distracted by the fact that I can be lazy and let it take over me :) Let's just say, when it's -10 degrees outside, it's hard to muster up any motivation. The dogs have shortened their potty breaks to a mere minute long. When it's nicer, they will stay outside and spend some time sniffing around. Not lately! It seems like even some wildlife have disappeared into some warm spot. The bird feeder at home and at work have been rather inactive. The feeder here at work is next to the East River, and about 3 feet from where I'm sitting, just outside my window. Usually it has Downy Woodpeckers or Chickadee's getting at it. I have even seen a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker at the work feeder. Very cool! But for the last two weeks, nothing. I do agree with the birds though, it's just too cold to be outside! Yesterday, we took advantage of the cold weather and did a lot of cleaning at home. That felt nice. We are efforting to keep the house more "tidy." That helps with my mental state too. I like organization! I hope everyone is able to keep warm. This "arctic blast" is ridiculous!

What I like about Winter

2009-01-18T13:39:00.003-06:00

This past week it was VERY cold out. Negative 30 - 40 with the wind chill, and just plain negative 20 without the windchill! Everyone complained. I agree, that is too darn cold! But, in lieu of the miserable temperature, but I'm going to come up with some good things. I complied this list in my head on the way to work because I was inspired by the great things I was seeing. I take the "back way" to work which allows me to avoid the highway. This is a great thing for my sanity and my safety!

Thing #1 that I like about winter: Getting bundled up! Winter is a time of comfort food and warmth. I like getting bundled up with my hat and warm scarf and sweater, it makes me feel so cozy (regardless of how I feel when I actually get outside :))

Thing #2 that I like about winter: Wide and open sunrise! The sun rises over the river, and it is just beautiful. Since the leaves are off the trees, it really allows for the colors and beautiful display to be seen. There is also a great spot on my drive into work that has a view of the sun rising up over the Niagara Escarpment. In the forefront is a farm homestead, and then stretches of wide open field.

Thing #3 that I like about winter: Since there is less vegetation, you see more wildlife! The other day I was driving I saw 2 eagles over the river, a hawk swooping out of a tree, and a red fox trotting through a barren corn field. It was magnificent! Even though I was driving, I felt like a silent observer of nature.

Thing # 4 that I like about winter: Relaxing! Sometimes it's just too cold to be out and about, and when that's the case, curl up to a good book or watching a movie!

I figure, why complain when this weather is what we'll be dealt. Might as well find a way to enjoy it! I look forward to it warming up a little so we can go snowshoeing again!

-L

In this case, deer are people too.

2009-01-14T16:10:00.001-06:00

Have you heard the story out of Waupaca, WI? Three deer were found dead in a field and 2 others needed to be euthanized because they were mortally wounded. The culprit - some idoits on snowmobiles who herded the deer on their snowmobiles and them proceeds to brutally kill the deer. What on earth is going on here? The fact that one person thought that it was okay to do this is just disgusting, but then you think of a group of people playing along with it? Warning, the article has explict details about the deer. Very sad. I hope that if these idiots are found that they can pull out every possible offense so that losers pay heavy fines and spend a ton of jail time.

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I made a flower!

2009-01-10T07:36:00.005-06:00

So as a mentioned a few posts ago, I am resolving to craft, in particular - crochet. I completed a plain 'ol scarf with single crochet stitch. It is just one color, bland, and has some obvious areas that aren't quite right :) Next, I wanted to learn the double crochet. So, using the same yarn, I have made a long skinny scarf with the double crochet stitch. I have to say, I was pretty happy with how quick I picked it up, and before I knew it I had my scarf done. I looked back at it, and noticed one spot that I must have stitched a few too many across and it was wider than the rest of the scarf. I wanted to make the scarf wearable since I worked so hard on it, so I decided that I would figure out a way to cover up the flaw :) I decided to make a large crochet flower, and then cover that area of the scarf with it. I have obviously never made a flower, so I was a bit intimidated by learning it. I followed the youtube instructions from a channel I subscribed to. The lady who does the channel has dozen's and dozen's of helpful and easy to understand video's. She also has a blog, which is very helpful. I followed the youtube video instructions and ended up with a beautiful flower to attach to my scarf. The flower is finished and I have it attached now. It's in the perfect spot of the scarf, where you can wear it kind of like a tie, and right at the top there is a beautiful crocheted flower! I'll hopefully post a picture of me wearing it, but for the meantime, here is a picture of the flower only. I am so excited about this :) I can't wait to wear the scarf out. Hopefully today we'll go to the craft store and I'm going to pick up some more hooks (different sizes) and some different yarns to try out. I bought only 1 hook and 1 acrylic yarn just to see if I could figure it out. I didn't want to waste a lot of money if I wasn't going to be able to figure it out. So far, I have found crocheting to be fun and personally satisfying. I like having something usable to end up with.

Put Your Life on a Diet

2009-01-09T14:45:00.001-06:00

Living with less stuff means living a better life. I like this. Let's be sensible...living in our means, not above them. A part of the article for your flavor:"To begin, let’s compare the American standard of living today with that of half a century ago. In 1950, the average household consisted of almost four people. Most new homes were less than 1,200 square feet (62 percent) and had one or two bedrooms (66 percent), fewer than two bathrooms (96 percent), and no air conditioning, according to the National Association of Home Builders. A “dishwasher” meant two hands in the sink; most families had only one car (if any); and television was a newfangled idea. Yet many folks thought they had achieved the American Dream.By 2003, the average household size shrank to 2.6 people. Only 5 percent of new homes built now are less than 1,200 square feet, but 37 percent have more than twice that—with at least four bedrooms. About 95 percent have two or more bathrooms and 88 percent have central air conditioning. And practically everyone who builds a house—93 percent—installs a dishwashing appliance. Americans own twice as many cars per person, plus multiple TVs, computers, and cell phones."

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Resolving to learn a craft

2009-01-07T18:35:00.005-06:00

Have you made your New Year resolution, only to already fail it by day 7? I've never been much for resolutions. I feel like they are a good way to set yourself up for failure. I'm not sure if this is a negative, or realistic way to look at it! This year I am resolving something, but it's probably very different than most resolutions. This year I resolve to learn something new. I thought to myself that I would like to learn a craft. This really is stepping outside the box, because I don't really feel I'm very creative, and I have shown to myself that I am by no means a "natural" at crafts. After doing much research, I decided on 2 things. 1.) Get more familiar with the sewing machine and making useful things. Tim is so good at sewing (he may not be happy I just reported that here :) ). I just don't get it unless I think really really hard. On one of my holiday days off of work, I decided on whim to make a purse. There was a bit of trial and error, but I ended up making a cute small tote/purse. I was VERY happy with myself. Admittedly, I had to take a bit of advice from Tim. I don't want to be a master at sewing, I just want to understand the basics. I think I'm on my way. 2.) I decided I would like to learn to crochet. Like sewing, it is a practical and useful craft and not expensive to get into. I have officially learned 2 crochet stitches! Single crochet and double crochet, which seem to be the staples to crocheting. While learning the stitches, I made the obvious...a scarf! I have one thin scarf created with a single crochet and half of a scarf completed made with a double crochet. I am so eager to learn! I have two books that show the stiches, and I've found youtube to be a great help. There are many people who have posted their instructional videos of different crocheting stiches. It's just awesome! I hope that my practicing will lead to the ability to make useful items like hats, scarfs, mittens, socks, etc. Based on the research I've done on crocheting, I am amazed at the amount of things that can be made! Can't wait to make them!

Good luck to anyone who made resolutions. I hope that you will find yourself successful! Happy 2009 Everyone!

Mercury, arsenic, and lead - oh my!

2008-12-30T14:25:00.001-06:00

Need one more reason why we need to develop green energy for the U.S.? Environmental Spill Disaster Devastates Tennessee. Approximately 500 million gallons of coal ash sludge has broken through a holding pond at a coal-fired plant.

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Easy Turkey Chili

2008-12-28T16:09:00.003-06:00

Yum, nothing says hearty-winter meal quite like chili! Here is a tasty and easy recipe I use, making it in a crock pot, which cooks in the flavor, nice and slow. This is a double batch. We eat half over several days, and I freeze the other half. It makes a great, easy meal for a party. I've served this straight out of the crockpot at a party putting onions, shredded cheese, sour cream, and crackers on the side as a "build-your-own chili bar." It was a real hit!

Here's what you need:

2 pounds ground turkey

4 (10.75 oz) cans tomato soup (or just purchase the BIG size, 55oz. which is usually cheaper and then I use the whole thing).

4 (15 oz) kidney beans, drained

2 (15 oz) black beans, drained

1 medium yellow onion

1/4 cup chili powder

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 pinches ground black pepper

As with all my cooking, I use organic with as many ingredients as I can.

1.) Brown turkey in skillet until cooked evenly, drain.

2.) Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and mix well.

3.) Cover and cook in the slower cooker on the 6 or 8 hour setting.

Serve with freshly shredded sharp or medium cheddar cheese, sour cream (or organic plain yogurt as a substitute), and crackers.

The recipe also includes onion. I like to brown the onion right before serving and add it in, mixing it up in the chili. Or, you can simply cut it and serve it on the side to add on top, or cut and throw in the chili at the beginning, prior to slow cooking.

Enjoy!

Snow, Rain, Snow

2008-12-28T12:22:00.003-06:00

The weather has been so strange here. We have record amounts of snow in December. I don't mind the snow, I just hate the freezing cold - like a cold weather warning of -20 degrees with the wind chill. Even though we've had a lot of snow, we've still had some super cold days. The opposite happened over Christmas. It was chilly on Christmas day, and then got progressively warmer. It got into the mid 40's, the snow started melted, a dense fog rolled in, and then it began to rain. In some spots of the yard, the snow was melting away completely. In the front yard, we can now see a flower bed that has been covered since early December. Last night the temperature dropped and we got several more inches of snow overnight. It took Tim and I an hour to clear the driveway this morning. Some spots had drifted to 2 or more feet, which our little snow blower just can't get through. So between me shoveling and Tim snow blowing we got it done. I'm glad some of the rain melted the snow away because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to lift the snow on top the huge pile accumulating at the bottom of our driveway. Here is a picture that shows how the snow melted away from the flower bed, but is a gigantic pile at the end of the driveway. If I were to be standing behind the big pile, you'd probably only see my face, the pile is about 4 feet tall. I'm interested in what the rest of the winter will bring!

Snowshoeing

2008-12-27T17:34:00.002-06:00

Today we went snowshoeing at the Ledgeview Nature Center in Chilton. It was a nice day for it. The sun wasn't out, but it was warm and not snowing or raining. We went to the Ledgeview Nature Center this past summer for an annual event they have called the Fall Harvest Fest. We decided to go back since we saw on their website that they have snowshoeing. We enjoyed our time! We were out there for about 1 hour and it was fun! Toward the end I was getting pretty tired, realizing that we were going mostly uphill was mentally defeating! I'm looking forward to getting out on the snowshoes again. We got our WI state park pass for Christmas from my Mom and Dad like I asked, so we hope to get to a park where we go snowshowing, and attempt to bring the dogs with us. Snowshoeing is fun! I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life and have always complained about the winter. I figured I'd better find a reason to enjoy winter, and I think snowshoeing is it! -L

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-12-24T19:03:00.003-06:00

To our friends and family and blog visitors - MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope for a happy holiday time with family and friends, and a peaceful 2009!

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." -Indira Gandhi

Delicious Shrimp Dip

2008-12-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

Ready for a tasty, calorically sinful shrimp dip recipe? Try this (makes a BIG party sized batch):

Mix together until smooth and creamy:

24oz. cream cheese (lowfat is what I use)

1 - 6oz. can tiny shrimp with liquid

2 - 6oz. cans tiny shrimp, liquid drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion

1 fresh lemon squeezed

Refrigerate.

Serve on whole wheat crackers, or your favorite cracker.

Say "yum!"

The World's Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

2008-12-22T20:31:00.002-06:00

I know that I've posted on this before, but I think it's so important for people to understand this. Here's the story: Floating in the Pacific ocean is a massive island of trash. Now, researchers have decided to map the size, content, and density of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

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A simple idea...

2008-12-19T19:42:00.001-06:00

Although some people might describe me as a little on-edge (admitedly I have been in the past!!!), I truly feel that over the past couple of years I have just calmed down. I think most of this is thanks to Tim, who is the yin to my yang! For my level of anxiety, Tim has just that much calmness! I think it's finally rubbing off :) I feel more relaxed. I was just thinking how many people I know are caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. They aren't "done with their shopping", they have so many parties to attend, they dropped $200 on gifts for ONE child...and all of it sounds like work, rather than fun. How miserable, living your life caught up in the expectations of everyone else. My mindset is that we should just keep it simple. Life doesn't need to be complicated and stressful. Let's volunteer ourselves for Simplicity! We should live our lives in a deliberate fashion, in which we make educated choices that are based on what is best for not only us, but for the people around us and the environment! The more simple we are, the better off things will be - at least for me. I don't need to spend a lot of money to feel happy. I don't need to be stretched in several directions in one time, meeting the demands of everyone but myself. I will take life at the pace it delivers, always trying to remember that life is best when it's SIMPLE! -L

Subway Reefs

2008-12-18T18:25:00.001-06:00

Subway Reefs - what? I just read an article at NY Times about how we are destroying cold water reefs, which are necessary reefs for sealife reproduction and habitat. Here us humans go destroying things again....but wait?!?! We have a solution. It might sound weird, but what if we sink a bunch of old subway rail cars in the ocean, giving back the sealife a habitat. Apparently after some scientific study the state of Delaware decided to drop 48 old rail cars in to the ocean. I'm being a skeptic about this, but I think that there are probably chemicals galore on these subway cars from paint, etc. But, who am I to judge this to be a bad idea? I'm not a scientist afterall. Well, now Delaware has another problem since they dumped these rail cars into the ocean - growing pains. The good news is that the sealife is actually increasing! However, the area where the rail cars are has a growing traffic problem with fisherpeople. Commercial fishers are are dragging nets across, and their nets are tangling with local anglers who are MAD! Surprisingly, someone must have asked some questions about the asbestos found in the old rail cars. State and Federal officals state that asbestos is not a threat to marine life, and has to be airborne to pose a threat to us innocent humans. Yes, and haven't they also said that DDT was safe, only to change their minds after our countries symbol, the eagle, starting dying off at a rapid pace - directly related to DDT? Yuk! I am so disgusted by the idea of dropping human junk into the ocean. Although the ocean DID need repair, is this really the most reasonable solution? I have an idea, let's put all our old cars, ships, airplanes, buses, and other forms of public transportation in the ocean too. Then we can watch the poison take over the sealife, while we continue to consume it and wonder why we are dying of cancer and other diseases.

I hope you can sense my sarcasm here, I'm feel a bit cheeky today! :) But seriously, doesn't this just seem absurd?! Funny thing is, the place this is all taking place is appropriately called "Slaughter Beach, Del."

Due North!

2008-12-14T17:34:00.005-06:00

Tim and I just returned from a little escape to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I have been to the U.P. before, but wasn't there long enough, nor was I quite mature enough to understand the true beauty that the U.P. has. Where we went was a very northern area of the U.P. - the Keweenaw Peninsula. It was just amazing! Pretty much the entire time we were there it was snowing, but it was a light, gentle snow fall - lake effect. The peninsula has Lake Superior on the west, north, and east side. We spent time outdoor snowshoeing as well as spending time in the Houghton/Hancock area. My favorite areas that we visited was the north west and north east side of the peninsula. It was so beautiful! Since the population is smaller, taking in the scenery was easy...we didn't have to fight for a picture, and we rarely crossed paths with other people on the road. When we did, they were locals and usually raised their hand to wave. Some day, when we achieve our dream of having a homestead, we would like to make it in the northwoods (WI or MI). The Keweenaw Peninsula was surely a fit for our goals. To the right are some pictures from our travels of the Lake Superior area. Our trip was the perfect scenery of snow, trees, water, and peace. -L

Getting excited about what we don't know!

2008-12-11T17:51:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! It seems like a lot of the eco websites and blogs I read are a lot of doom and gloom. There is no doubt in my mind that we are doing bad things to this planet, but we have to remain hopeful for improving our ways, as well as remain hopeful for that which we do not know. I was recently reading the December issue of National Geographic and they had a snippet about some of the fieldwork that is being done by scientists, archeologists, and the like. I read about a group of scientists on the island Vanuatu (which is in the South Pacific). Over 5-months 150 scientists went over the island studying species. Over 10,000 species were found, 2,000 of them may be completely new to science. It is quoted by French mollusk expert Phillippe Couchet that "80 percent of the world's species remain to be discovered." What an amazing thing to think about since most of the animals, plant life, etc. we hear about are going extinct! Hopefully we can continue to discover WITHOUT harming natural habitats. Reading that article made me hopeful for what our future here on earth holds.

In effort to be green...

2008-11-30T12:07:00.002-06:00

Funny story about this weekend. It was an extended weekend due to the Thanksgiving holiday. So, we had to keep ourselves busy. One project for Tim was to add insulation to our attic. It's currently insulated, but no as up to par as it should be. The insulation up there is something from the 60's. We decided we would get "Green Fiber" which can be blown in, or dropped in by hand in selected areas. It's completely recycled material...basically looked like pocket lint. Why didn't I think of that? Anyhow, I was taking a shower. I heard Tim up in the attic and a big noise, but thought nothing of it. Well, Tim knocked on the bathroom door to inform me that his foot slipped and that it when careening into the attic floor, which happened to be the ceiling in our kitchen. I looked on the floor, there was a pile of the old insulation on the floor. Then I looked to the ceiling, where there wasn't a clear break, but obviously sustained some damage due to his foot slipping. Thankfully, he didn't come crashing through the ceiling, but the work that came next would have been pretty much the same. Since the ceiling was cracked Tim had to cut it out and replace the hole with drywall. Nothing like looking at the ceiling in your kitchen and seeing right into the attic! As an after thought I should have taken a picture of the damage, but all I have is a picture of the drywall replaced, taped, and putty. Now Tim has a week long project of finishing off the ceiling. Funny! It's laughable now, but neither of us were very enthused about it in the first place.

Whatever happened to anti-litter campaigns?

2008-11-26T14:49:00.007-06:00

I have a recollection of some anti-litter campaigns, maybe in the 80's? Maybe some of you readers remember. I specifically have this memory about learning about cutting the plastic of six-pack beer or soda rings so that they six-pack rings don't get washed out to waterways and strangle birds and fish. Seems like I haven't even seen those plastic six-pack rings in ages. I also haven't seen many environmental campaigns as of late, including anything about not littering.

Lately I feel like I've had this extra awareness about what littering does to the environment. I have the benefit of working on the East River, where I watch fish, waterfowl, woodchucks, squirrels and some feral cats enjoy the environment. However I wonder how much they are enjoying the environment since I also have watched plastic bags, balls, shoes, and a Labatt Blue cooler float up and down the river for the past year and a half since I've worked at my window. At home, we live on the Fox River, where we've had deli containers, balls, styrofoam, toys, and other junk wash up on our shoreline. Yesterday on the East River I saw a dead goose float by...maybe it was a natural death.

Today, I was more disturbed. I had a half day at work and I decided to take the dogs for a walk mid-afternoon down our road which parallels the Fox River. About halfway through our walk I heard some fluttering from above. I looked up and gasped. I saw a bird's nest and hanging from the bird's nest was a blue jay, completely wrapped up on fishing line which was wrapped around it's head. It was flapping it's wings, but couldn't go anywhere because it was being strangled by the line. I looked like a bird had made a nest in spring, partially with fishing line instead of grass. The blue jay was by the nest and an unfortunate comedy of errors took place. I didn't know what to do. I'm not sure if somehow cutting it down would allow it to survive? It was in a tree in someone's yard and they are people I don't know. I continued on the walk just a little more and turned around to go home and call the village offices. Upon calling the village, I explained the situation and she transferred me to the police department. They said they would send someone out. I'm not exactly sure what they ended up doing, but I did see the police drive by. If some idiot wouldn't have littered fishing line behind, this situation never would have happened.

In present time humans are littering in ways beyond the obvious. An obvious way of littering is leaving your trash behind, or throwing something out the car window. We can see the result of this. Now, we even litter in ways we are unable to see (and have been for a long time). We recently watched a PBS special about a nonprofit that treats sea lions and seals that are left to die on the California coastline. They have researched these animals that are coming in with similar problems like seizures and brain damage and have found that all that exhibit this behavior have a levels of an acid (that develops by chain reaction) which is essentially caused by fertilizer and sewage that flows into the ocean from area rivers, mostly along the shores where the seals lives. It is just absurd that although fertilizers are clearly deemed as hazardous chemicals continue to be legal, consumed by people, and dumped all over the environment.

I wonder what it will take for people to realize this planet is not invincible. For people to realize, this is not OUR planet...we share it will all kinds.

Winter - On the Fox

2008-11-24T20:15:00.004-06:00

It's here! A shot of our backyard upon waking up this morning. We didn't even know snow was in the forecast. This is the first snow of the year that's stuck, just 3-4 inches. What a beautiful surprise. Outside it was warm, 32 degrees, and so silent. Peaceful.

Go Further

2008-11-23T19:36:00.005-06:00

Go Further is a movie that was made in 2003 starring Woody Harrelson. Tim and I just completed watching it. The movie is a documentary focused on the idea that a single person can make large-scale change. Basically, Woody and some friends rode their bicycles followed by a biofueled bus down the west cost from Washington through Oregon and California and stopped at local colleges along the way to raise awareness about the environment. Although it wasn't a big learning experience for me, it was great to see people who have positive mindsets about how to save our environment. Some of the topics explored were paper, meat, milk, renewable energy, vericomposting and organic farming. The whole trip they ate following a raw food diet (yum, lots of fresh veggies and fruits!) I found much about their eating to be inspiring. I mean really, some of the food we consume we can't even pronounce the ingredients on the label! And supposedly 2/3 of all the food on the shelves at the grocery store has some sort of genetically modified ingredient(s)...and it's not even required by law to label them saying so. Scary! In the Extras of the DVD, Woody read a poem that he wrote that I think is nicely done. The poem is too long to post here, but here is an excerpt:

Thoughts from Within by Woody Harrelson:

..."I sit on the grass under a tree

dreaming of the way things used to be

Pre-Industrial Revolution

which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted

before Parkinson's, and mad cows

and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas

like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers

like Monsanto and Dupont had their way

as they continue to today.

This was Pre-us

back when the buffalo roamed

and the Indian's home

was the forest, and God was nature

and heaven was here and now

Can you imagine clean water, food, and air

living in community with animals and people who care?"

...

On spending...

2008-11-18T17:55:00.003-06:00

So, we all know the economy is in the pits. Lately, I've been hearing the media pushing people to get out, start spending for the holiday season, and give the economy the boost it needs. Although I understand the reasoning for this, I'm not sure it's quite the final answer. I do know I won't be "playing along." Each day, I am surrounded by people who believe that the holiday is about gift giving, and gift giving means spending money. I just think that if we will be spending money this holiday season, we should be aware of where and how we are spending it. First off, if you believe that shopping will give the economy a boost, please SHOP LOCAL! This doesn't mean driving to your nearest wal-mart. This means supporting the shop who's owner lives on your block. If you want to gift a tool, instead of going to wal-mart, go to Bob's Hardware. Bob lives in your town, and therefore you are supporting your local economy. Or, what about gifting a used-item? I know, this is absoultely absurd!! Heaven forbid we RECYCLE rather than demand for greater production of cheap plastic crap (equaling greater consumption of energy, resources, etc.). If you know someone who likes teacups and saucers, would it be wrong to find unique one at the local thrift shop rather than buying one from Macy's that is just like the other 500,000 teacups being sold at Macy's all over the country? Personally, I would prefer the unique one that shows, "this made me think of you!" Here is a last idea. What about instead of buying gifts for people, decide with them use the same amount of money to donate to your favorite cause. That way you avoid spending $20 on a crappy gift for them and they avoid spending $20 on a crappy gift for you. This year at work my department (3 of us) are chipping in $10 each to purchase hats, mittens, and scarves at Goodwill that we will donate to underprivledged kids who don't have these needed goods for the winter months. I'm glad we are doing this rather than a secret santa type of thing. What's the point of basically trading up money for something you probably don't want from someone that doesn't really know you? I just don't understand. If you do have to participate in a a secret santa, what about donating the $ to some special cause (like a local society that raises money for children) under the secret santa's name?

This holiday season we are limiting our spending and we are staying local with our purchasing. Between Tim and I, we will chose to spend time together rather than buy a gift for each other. This is always nice, and more memorable.

I recently learned about an initiative that a group in the UK has. A coliation group in the US called AdBusters also has run a similar thing. It's called Buy Nothing Day. Although this is an interesting campaign, it's not practical. Today, we live in a mode of ease and immediacy. I can't imagine the buy-in for Buy Nothing Day is very good.

What are you doing for the holiday gift giving? I think it's hard to break out of the excessive gift giving rut, but a few of us can help break the cycle. This year Tim and I have 1 thing on our list. A year pass to the Wisconsin State Park system. -L

Learning about Permaculture

2008-11-13T19:39:00.001-06:00

As Tim and I continue to realize our dreams of someday having a large property where we can be mostly self-sufficent, we have been researching many things, as well as learning them by doing them. We have several reference book about homesteading, country living, gardening, land management, and so on. Through the reading and research I've recently been introducted to the term "permaculture." One of my goals for the next months will be learn more about permaculture. What is permaculture? Well, in a nutshell I guess you could describe it as the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds. However, permaculture entails much more than just food production. Energy-efficient buildings, waste water treatment, recycling, and land stewardship in general are other important components of permaculture. The key is sustanability and harmony with the land. You could call it earth ethics. We hope that someday we will be able to practice the type of land management that is suitable not only for the earth, but for us! Right now, we do it on a small scale...consider it practice!

Seasons-a-changin'

2008-11-09T11:26:00.004-06:00

We sit here helplessly as winter ushers itself in. Only a few remnants of fall remain and that's the wet leaves on the ground and a few trees that franticly hang on to their last brightly colored leaves. We have done the majority of the work to get prepared for winter, including pulling the garden out, bringing in all the patio furniture and we still have some pots to bring in. Strangely, I have 1 geranium that refuses to let go, it's hanging on with 30 degree weather and frost, I can't believe it! Tim is outside winterizing his motorcycle and the lawn tractor. Friday night and Saturday we had snow, but nothing stuck. Now, there is a flurry coming down again. Although I truly love the first winter snowfall that sticks to the ground, I hope we have a mild winter, at least not one with the amount of snow we had last year! -L

Fall On Your Knees

2008-11-02T20:42:00.002-06:00

I'm not exactly sure how to describe the feeling, but it is always heartwarming to finish a good book. I just finished reading a well written story called "Fall On Your Knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald. This is the book that I started on our Minnesota trip and wanted to finish it during that trip too...that obviously didn't happen since it's two weeks later. :) The book was wonderful, in my opinion. The author developed characters that were engaging and real. The story has many twists and turns, all within 5 generations of one family. All the way to the end, secrets are revealed and as the reader, I felt more and more involved. This isn't the kind of book you can read a little of here and there. You have to sit down, and read large chunks at a time, it reads like an epic novel. If you are interested in reading stories about the human condition, family ties, and tragedy, I would highly recommend this one. It is 500+ pages of small text, so be ready for a commitment to it!

Last Chance for Survival!

2008-10-29T12:37:00.005-05:00

Over lunch while surfing the web I ran across an brief write up about Axolotl, the "Mexican water monster." Although I have never heard of this creature, I was sad to find out that it is salamander that is close to extinction. Due to human disruption in the axolotl's natural environment, it is predicted that in five years this salamander will be extinct. In further research, I learned that the International Union for Conservation of Nature recently put out their 2008 Red List. A list of endangered species around the world. Some species you may be familiar with like the African Elephant or the Tasmanian Devil. Many of the extinctions are noted to be due to human interference. Others might be due to disease within the species community. The list is long, but here is a link that includes a much shortened list including pictures and a brief description of the species. The full list is 1,642,189 species. To the right is a picture of the Axolotl...what a happy looking guy! Although I believe that some extinction is likely inevitable, I also have to ask: what are we doing to this planet?

Making Clothing Detergent

2008-10-27T20:37:00.007-05:00

For the past year or so we've been buying earth friendly, chemical-free detergent for washing our clothing. At first, it took a little getting used to because there was some sort of temptation over the synthetic fragrances like "Cool Breeze", when washing clothes. Once I got over not having fake scents on my clothing, I realized that the eco-friendly detergents were just fine. The brands that we've purchased that have worked have been Seventh Generation or Ecos detergent powder (cheaper than liquid). They are non-toxic, biodegradable, contain no chlorine, artificial fragrances, or dyes. At around $8 for a box, I felt it was kinda pricey. I decided that after using up the last bunch, I would make my own. We feel that whenever possible, we should be using products that are as natural (from the earth) as possible. So, instead of using a synthetic fragrance with a lot of words we can't pronounce in it, why not just use an essential oil, which is plant derived, non-chemical? So, for the first time I made our own clothing detergent. I am very happy with the final product! It took just a little bit of work and it's great! The first ingredient for the detergent is baking soda, which is a very safe product used in many "green" cleaning products. It has been used for ages in cleaning and baking! The second ingredient for the detergent is borax. Borax, although sounding a bit scary, is a naturally occurring mineral in the earth. Borax is bad if you eat it, but safe for cleaning. It softens, disinfects, and deodorizes. The third and final ingredient is castile soap. Castile Soap is a soap that is made exclusively from vegetable oil. I used Dr. Bronners Magic All-One Hemp Lavender Pure Castile Soap (organic). It's vegetable base is Hemp oil and it is all natural and organic. Since my detergent is a powder, I had to grate the soap to make it from bar to powdered form. The differences are clear!

Here is the list of ingredients from Dr. Bronner's Soap: Saponified Organic Coconut, Organic Palm & Organic Olive Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Water, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Lavandin Extract, Organic Lavender Oil, Salt, Citric Acid, Vitamin E

Compare that to a soap that is touted to be the most "simple", Ivory Bar: Sodium Tallowate and/or Sodium Palmitate, Water, Sodium Cocoate and/or Palm Kernelate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Fragrance, Coconut and/or Palm Kernel Acid, Tallow Acid, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Yellow 10, Green 3.

Compare that now to yet another soap, Irish Spring Bar: SOAP, SODIUM TALLOWATE, SODIUM COCOATE, SODIUM PALM KERNELATE, WATER, STEARIC ACID, COCONUT ACID, PALM KERNEL ACID, GLYCERIN, FRAGRANCE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE, PENTASODIUM PENTETATE, BHT, D&C GREEN 8, FD&C GREEN 3

Here is the detergent recipe if you are interested in trying it out. I have been satisfied with it! The clothes come out fresh smelling, wrinkle free, and clean!

1.) In large bowl, grate down 1 bar of Dr. Bronner's Castile Bar Soap (I picked Lavender scent, but the clothes come out fresh, but not smelling distinctly of lavender.)

2.) Add 2 cups Baking Soda.

3.) Add 1 cup Borax.

Mix well. Store in plastic bag that can be sealed and reused for the next batch. I use about 1/4 cup per Large load of laundry. It will not make bubbles in the laundry, but it will clean it! I have stopped using laundry sheets in the dryer, and the clothes have been coming out wrinkle and static free! Enjoy!

Sour Cream Apple Pie

2008-10-26T21:50:00.001-05:00

One of my coworkers has too many apples on his hands so he brought in a large amount of HUGE Macintosh apples. I brought a bunch home and dehydrated the majority of them, but still had a few left over. I decided to make the following pie with what I happened to have on hand, it was good! Below is the altered recipe. I lowered the sugar, used egg beaters, used whole wheat flour and more apples than the original recipe. The altered recipe goes as follows:

Amish Sour Cream Apple Pie

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sour cream

1 egg (I used egg beaters)

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 cups diced apples (your preference to peel or not peel)

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

CRUMB TOPPING

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1 Beat sour cream and egg together.

2 Add flour, sugar, salt and vanilla.

3 Mix until smooth.

4 Stir in apples.

5 Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

6 Mix the crumb topping ingredients until crumbly.

7 Remove pie from oven and spread with crumb topping.

8 Bake 20 more minutes.

Our Vacation Photos

2008-10-19T21:56:00.004-05:00

Since we have so many vacation photos, I figured I'd post them online so all can see. Please visit our Minnesota Photo site for the opportunity to see most of the photos we took. minnesotareitz.shutterfly.com Enjoy! Here are a few of my favorites as teasers!

Day Eight - Goodbye Minnesota, Hello Wisconsin!

2008-10-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, we packed up on were on the road by 9am. We were sad to be leaving our vacation, but we had a great time! The place we stayed was a fine retreat while we weren't on the road. The 8 state parks we visited were great! Here is the list in order of visit.

Crow Wing State Park
Itasca State Park
Lake Bemidji State Park
Mille Lacs Kathio State Park
Carlos Lake State Park
Glacial Lakes State Park
Charles Lindberg State Park
Buffalo River State Park

We are pretty sure we visited more State Parks in Minnesota than what we've visited in Wisconsin! We feel one of our plans will be to get a Yearly Permit for WI State Parks in 2009 and start going to those. I can't say enough about how much I learned visiting the Minnesota state parks as well are how enjoyable it was to be outside, getting exercise, and being able to do so with our dogs.

One of the things we enjoyed most about our vacation is that the places we visited felt like there were reserved just for us! We rarely saw other people in the parks, and all other places were not crowded. We visited many nice antique shops and 2 used book stores. We also got a sense of local personality and flair at local restaurants (non-chain). Since over the past 3 married years, and year prior to being married we've done some good regional traveling (and Honduras for honeymoon) we plan to get a wall map of the U.S. so we can start pinning where we have been. Each trip we take we bank more great memories and learn more about how we like to travel and what we like to do. We are blessed to have each other, our dogs, a reliable car that gets us around, and the financial ability to do our traveling (although we are frugal about it!). I'm already thinking about where we could go next!

Day Seven - Minnesota Trip

2008-10-17T21:52:00.000-05:00

Friday was the final day of our trip where we are actually vacationing, rather than traveling home. It's also Tim's Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM! We hit our last State Park (#8) on our way to our final destination - Fargo, ND! The State Park we visited was Buffalo River State Park. We really enjoyed this park, it ranked at the top of both Tim and my favorite's list. This is the first park where there was no lake, just river. We did a mile walk or so with the dogs on an interpretive trail, learning about the geography of the river. The other unique feature about this park is the prairie, which we didn't really see too much of in past parks. It was interesting driving out toward Fargo because we watched the land flatten out right before us! We spent an hour or more at the park and then hit the road again to North Dakota.

I have never been this far west by car before, so it was cool to be able to travel to both Minnesota and North Dakota during our trip. We crossed the Red River of the North into Fargo and drove out to West Fargo (yes, Fargo is actually big enough to have a WEST Fargo!). Here we went to Bonanzaville! I guess this whole time I misunderstood what a Bonanza was. I thought it had something to do with the Wild wild west, but a bonanza is actually a farm that is over 3,000 acres. We toured a museum where we learned about the history of the bonanzas in Cass County, North Dakota and then toured many of the preserved buildings from that time. We were the only ones there, so it was pretty cool to have the entire place to ourselves! We learned a lot about how the railroad was an important part of farming back then. We also found out that Fargo, ND is named after the Fargo of Wells & Fargo. The history was remarkable. I love imagining how life would have been back then. What a different time from now for folks of all walks of life! It was interesting to learn some of how women kept the home back then. We spent several hours at Bonanzaville and were really hungry afterwards so we drove into Fargo headed toward our next destination when we stumbled across a restaurant called Space Aliens, Bar and Grill. Fargo is indeed a strange place now that I've seen this. We decided to eat there. It was like a TGIFriday's with a space theme. Food was great too! We left with our bellies full to the Fargo Walk of Fame. Can you imagine on even exists? Well, it does, it's on display at the visitors center. Musicians like Metallica to celebrities like Dr. Ruth have their signatures on the Fargo Walk of Fame. It's probably as close as we'll get to seeing the Hollywood one, so I was satisfied :)

We left to take the dogs down to the city park by the Red River of the North. We haven't figured out why yet, but the river was severely flooded. It didn't look like the surrounding neighborhoods were affected, but at least half the park was underwater. We walked the dogs around for a while and looked at the flooded area. Since it was a long day and we had about a 2 hour trip back we went on our way. We left going through Moorhead, MN which is just across the river from Fargo. That night we had dinner at the rental and watched one of my favorite movies that I haven't seen in a long time - What's Eating Gilbert Grape? It was a great trip, ending all too soon!

Day Six – Minnesota Trip

2008-10-16T20:26:00.001-05:00

Our vacation is coming to an end too soon. I am surely not ready to leave in 2 days. Today was another fun day! We visited three more state parks in the area. First we headed to Carlos Lake State Park. The fall colors are disappearing now, but the park was still beautiful. We are feeling all the additional exercise we’ve had in the past days in our legs now. When we were walking, I just didn’t feel as “robust” about it. Since we’ve had more exercise than usual over the past 4-5 days, it doesn’t surprise me that we are feeling this way!

After Carlos Lake State Park we went into Alexandria, MN. We went through the downtown area which seems to be thriving. We got lunch and then had enough time to check out a used book store (which of course we found 3 books!) and also stopped at a large antique store. We left and went on our way to Glacial Lakes Park. Along the way we noticed an extreme change in geography. We went from flat roads, lined with hardwoods and pines and sandy soil to rolling hills, black top soil, and more farm field than trees. We learned at Glacial Lakes State Park that we were in an area that was created by glaciers that came down out of the north a hundreds of thousands of years ago. I learned the difference between a kettle and a kame and how they were created. Although the lesson was interesting, this park was just okay. We left, got ice cream cones from Dairy Queen (circa 1956) in Starbuck, MN and headed to our third stop, Charles Lindberg State Park.

Along the way we went through Sauk Centre, MN where we saw a clock shop. As many know, we have a cuckoo clock and Tim has found himself interested in cuckoo’s since we bought that one (on our 1 year anniversary oddly) so we quick stopped at this clock shop. Upon entering we found the clockmaker/repairman and a room full of clocks, clock parts, tools, etc. We talked to the clock man for some time and found out that some of the clocks he handcarved, one was selling for $10,000! (It was about the size of a grandfather clock.) He took us into another room with many more clocks…it was his living room, the shop was part of his house. It was interesting to talk to him, however we didn’t buy. We went on our way to Lindberg State Park where we hiked some more and saw Lindberg’s home. We were pretty tired, so we came back to the rental had dinner and are watching “The Office.” Tomorrow will be the final adventures of our trip – we are going out to Fargo!

Day Five – Minnesota Trip

2008-10-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

Today, October 15^th is our 3 year Wedding Anniversary! We started the day at The Shanty, which is a coffee shop in Pillager about 10 minutes down the road. Since we were supposed to but don’t have access to the internet at our rental, we thought we should probably get over to the coffee house for free Wi-Fi to check e-mail. We got breakfast there and sat on the comfy couches and got caught up on e-mail and posted some Day 1 – 3 on this blog. Afterwards, we drove out to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park where we walked through areas where archeologists have recovered Indian villages and homesteads from the 1800’s. We also saw the Rum River.

The morning was cold and overcast so we were moving quickly on our walk to stay warm. We headed out to Crosby, where much antique shopping was to be had. I think on two blocks there were about 6 antique shops. We were in 4, since the other two were open. Although we didn’t find anything to buy, as always the antiquing was interesting! By then we had worked up a heck of an appetite, so we headed back toward the rental and ate at Poncho and Lefty’s, a tex-mex, Mexican style restaurant. The food was very good. We took a moment to go to Crow Wing State Park down the road since we already had our $5 day pass and then went back to the rental. We fed the dogs and went for a walk down the dead-end road our rental is on. Since we’ve been doing so much activity outside, we came back to relax. We watched the final presidential debate and will be in bed soon. The dogs are completely sacked out. Maybe, just maybe they will sleep in tomorrow. On Day 5 we plan to go to 2 or 3 more State Parks. I’m pumped!

Day Four - Minnesota Trip

2008-10-14T22:00:00.005-05:00

On Day Four (postdated) we spent the most rewarding $5 ever, and we’re going to do it again! A daily pass to the State Park system in MN is $5 and on Day 4 we went to two wonderful State Parks. We left our rental around 8am and headed north to Itasca State Park. Since State Parks allow dogs, they came with (in fact, they were with us the majority of the trip except yesterday). I had never heard of Itasca until I read about it in our travel book I am borrowing from the library. Itasca State Park is home of the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The park is a massive 32,690 acres (2^nd largest in MN). We spent a while walking around and observing the humble beginnings of the Mississippi River. There was a part that is about 8 feet across where you can walk down steps and walk right through the Mississippi River. If it wasn’t so cold out, we would have done it, but we reached down and put our hands in the water and it was to cold to be walking through barefoot! After leaving the headwaters, we took a 10-mile Wilderness drive. I’ve uploaded a video so you can take the drive with us. It’s a minute of footage from the drive. (Find it below, turn volume down since the sound is WIND mostly.) Along the way we stopped and took a one-mile walk out to a bay area of Lake Itasca. The walk was serene and calming. The leaves were bright to our eyes and crunching under our feet. The air was cool and crisp. After walking back and getting back in the car we finished the 10-mile Wilderness drive, stopping along the way to see the largest white pine in Minnesota.

We spent a lot of time at Itasca State Park, so we had to get on our way to our next stop…Bemidji. Now, the reason we ended up in Bemidji is because I wanted to go since I heard of it when we were in Red Wing a few months ago. I thought Bemidji was a funny name and worth checking out J We turned the GPS to “shortest distance” rather than “fastest route” and took a very scenic tour of the countryside on the way to Bemidji. I think on day four we saw more bald eagles than ever before. We made our way into Bemidji, quick stopping for lunch, and then heading to Bemidji State Park. Bemidji as a community didn’t seem very impressive; however we were just driving through. We got to Bemidji State Park which lies on the north shore of Lake Bemidji. We got a map of the park and the lady at the park office recommended that we take the “bog walk.” I am so glad she did, it was a great hike. We parked and headed out on what we thought was going to be hike one-mile each direction. It seemed like we had been walking for sometime before reaching the bog, so we looked at the map again, realizing it was 2-miles in and 2-miles out. The trail we were on was an interpretive trail, meaning that it was designed to be educational. We learned about the history and geography of the area we were walking through. Besides the scenery being magnificent, I believe the educational experience was even greater (at least for me). We continued on our trip and reached the tamarack bog and finally Bog Lake. The bog was wonderful and we saw many unique flora features, including the carnivorous Pitcher Plant (picture on right). By the end of Day 4 I felt so impressed by the State Parks in Minnesota I wanted to see more. I can’t believe that it was only $5 to help support this magnificent park system where we got fresh air, exercise, and a learning experience - all this and we got to have our dogs with us! By Day 4 we’ve seen 3 Minnesota State Parks. What a great day it was! Upon getting home we were tired and so were the dogs. The moment I hit the pillow and shut my eyes, I was out.

Also on Tuesday, my bestfriend Jen and her husband Don welcomed their baby daughter into the world! I totally had a sneaking suspicion that she would have the baby while we are gone, and sure enough, that’s how it happened. Congrats to Jen and Don! We can’t wait to see them and baby when we get home!

Day Three - Minnesota Trip

2008-10-13T21:54:00.001-05:00

Day 3 (post dated) - Monday we went to Little Falls, MN. It was about 30 minute drive South of where we are staying. Little Falls is the home of Charles Lindberg. We didn’t explore much about that; we were busier doing other things. First we say an outdoor mural painted on the side of an old building. Then we headed to a local antique shop. We found a couple of cool things there and everything over $10 was 20% off. After the antique shop we went to Maple Grove Park. It is a park next to the falls, which is actually an operating dam. Since I was expecting natural falls, it was a bit disappointing, but beautiful fall foliage nonetheless. We then traveled just south of Little Falls to an area off the beaten path. The place was called Blanchard Dam. Supposedly you can find incredible rare and expensive rocks there so we went looking. We didn’t find any of the rare rocks, but it was beautiful! Both damns are on the Mississippi river. We have encountered the Mississippi river many times along the trip. It is quite winding up here in North central Minnesota. After this we grabbed a bit to eat at a place called Royal diner (wouldn’t recommend it) and then headed over to the Pine Grove Zoo. By now the weather had improved a bit. It was raining all morning and now the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out. At the zoo, we were the only people there! It was great! All the animals were active and we got to see some animals in action or up close more than most zoos. Although the zoo was small, I think it was one of the best times I’ve had at a zoo. We spent a good amount of time by two bears that were playing and very photogenic!

After the zoo we went back home, picked up the dogs, and went to our first State Park on the tour. Crow Wing State Park. We went back to an area where they had a historical trail. It was a learning experience I didn’t expect. Where we were standing was once an Indian village and then became a major hub in historic Minnesota. The town was called Crow Wing. The place we were was where the Crow Wing River met up with the Mississippi River. There was a combination of Pine forest, hardwood forest and prairie in this small area. We walked around for a while and then checked out different areas of the park including the Chippewa lookout. Wow! We are definitely here during the right time of the year. The views are spectacular!

Day Two - Minnesota Trip

2008-10-12T21:51:00.007-05:00

Day Two (postdated) - The morning started out early with the dogs waking up. Of course, once they were up, I couldn’t fall back asleep! I feel that this is a sign of age…I don’t have the sleeping habits nearly like I used too. Seems like I’m more of an early riser now. I stayed up and put together breakfast. At the rental, we are supposed to have Wi-Fi, but no network is being found on the computer. The recipe for the breakfast casserole is on the internet, so without access I was doing it on a whim. I thought it turned out tasty, but I must have had the cook temperature not quite right because it took forever! We called the owner (who happens to live across the street) and she came down, but the Wi-Fi situation hasn’t been fixed yet. (I’ve post dated this blog.) Monday she’ll be calling the provider to see what can be done.

In the meantime we drove into Baxter and found a Starbucks where it said they had Wi-Fi. After ordering a drink we found out that we actually had to buy a gift card for a minimum of $5, register it with Starbucks, register it with AT&T and then we get 2hours of Wi-Fi at Starbucks free each day. After this whole ordeal, we found out that Culvers offers Wi-Fi for free. Damn! But, the good news is that I managed to get online and copy/paste the recipes I had planned from the net to a word .doc. It has been raining on an off all day so we decided to stop at the Tourism Center and pickup some tourist stuff.

Then we visited an antique shop in Pillager. We didn’t find anything of interest to buy, but we did get a good story about the store. The owner saw me taking a picture of the outside and asked why. “For our vacation album.” She explained to me that we were standing in the oldest building in Pillager, built in the early 1900’s. Some of the shelving in it was original. It was interesting to think of the history of the building, and that some of the “antiques” she was selling may have been sold in that same store as new items. Today we lay low as the Packer game was on and it’s raining quite heavy now. Seems that the rain will keep up through tomorrow and then let up. Sounds like I might have the opportunity to read more of my book! Time to make dinner. –L

Day One - Minnesota Trip

2008-10-11T22:00:00.002-05:00

Day One (postdated) was a day of travels. We started out at 7:20 a.m. leaving home. About 3 hours later we arrived at Roxie and Doug’s. We were just there 2 weeks ago. It’s a little funny how patterns of seeing people tends to be either feast of famine. You know, how you don’t see someone for a year, and then the next month you see them repeatedly? Strange how that happens. We were just stopping there to drop off our mouse, Alice. Someone had to take care of her for the week and they didn’t mind. We stayed for about 1 hour to run the dogs around and also steal some yummies out of their garden! Carrots and an onion, and a large jar of freshly pressed apple cider. Delish!

We set off for the rest of our ride, about 4 hours or so to our final destination. Pillager, MN. Prior to this trip, we had never heard of it, but it seemed like a nice place to go so we booked a vacation rental for a week during our anniversary and Tim’s birthday. The drive seemed long…and a bit frustrating. The road we were on was a highway with stop lights. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but they’d get you going up to 60mph for about 3 miles and then there would be stoplights. Probably not very good for the gas mileage. We arrived finally to our home for the week, a small stucco home on 40 acres.

During the ride up, the tree colors seemed to be transforming from greens to reds, oranges and yellows right before our eyes. It was very beautiful most of the time except where there where patches of conifers or what looked to be some sort of oak tree that was neither green nor leafless, but some mundane shade of tan/brown. Later in the day the rain came in. Since we were tired from traveling all day, we went to the grocery store to stock up (I pre-planned some meals) and just decided on a low effort meal for the evening. Pizza. When we arrived back we ate and got comfortable on the couch with a movie. Tim fell asleep around 8:30. I stayed up and watched the movie (“88 Minutes”, it was horrible). I was a bit restless so I stayed up and read for a while. My goal is to finish this book and start and possibly finish another by the end of our vacation. This book has about 300 more pages, so to start and finish another after this may be a bit lofty goal. We’ll see. By 11, the bed was too comfortable so off to sleep I went. –L

Real Patriots Don't Spend

2008-10-07T12:04:00.005-05:00

While scanning through the most recent issue of Time magazine I stumbled across a "commentary" titled Real Patriots Don't Spend. Since Tim and I try to be as thrifty as possible, I was immediately interested in the article. Without becoming zealous or political, I'd just like to say that I think this article makes a brillant point! Click Here.

Homesteading...away from home!

2008-10-02T19:19:00.003-05:00

It is officially fall here in Wisconsin. Blue skys, sunny days, but blustery with a temperature hanging in the 60's during the day. Perfect in my opinion! Last weekend was probably the last chance to do some unoffical camping. As you know, we've had a few staycations this summer, camping in the backyard. This time we took it offbase, and went to visit family in Western Wisconsin. We were really looking forward to it since they have something similar to our dream property. I believe it's 80 acres that they have. It's part farmed/open area, part forest/treed area. They have groomed trails throughout the property and ponds with wildlife. We camped by one of the small ponds. The dogs absolutely loved exploring the property, and so did Tim and I! We walked the trails several times and got a good tour of the property, describing much of the work that went into creating it and developing it to the way it was today. We also fully enjoyed the garden! A little bit to a lot of just about everything was growing! They have an area of fruit trees, grape vines, turkeys, and they even bee keep!! Wow, Tim and I were in heaven, dreaming of our own real homestead we plan to have someday. We came away with many practical ideas!

Roxie and Doug were very helpful in sharing a lot of what and how they do things on their organic homestead. We were really spoiled, eating several wholesome meals while we were there. We were only there from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, but it felt like we accomplished so much more. Not only was it great to visit and learn so much about homesteading, but also to see family! Also, Roxie sent us home with fresh foods from the garden that we helped pick. Tomatoes (which we made 4 jars of sauce with), carrots, jalapenos, raspberries, and eggplant. We have been eating well this entire past week, cooking together the tomatoes, eggplant, and carrots, and serving it over bulgar, or whole wheat pasta. Yum! Since we have quite a few eggplant, I'm also going to try something new. I found a recipe for "Eggplant Meatballs", so I'm going to give it a whirl tonight. I'll post the recipe if it's anything worth sharing.

It was a great weekend away and we look forward to visiting again! It was helpful to understand their homestead so we can help plan ours. -L

Going Wild at the Weidner Center!

2008-09-21T17:56:00.006-05:00

A while back I "splurged" and bought 2 tickets to a show at the local performing arts center in Green Bay (Weidner Center). I did this without consulting Tim, which is something neither of us do. The tickets were $45 a piece and I wanted to surprise Tim with the show that I decided to go to. Well, I had the hardest time keeping the secret, even only 4 hours into it! I couldn't stand it, so I played the guessing game with Tim and made him narrow it down for himself. He figured it out eventually since this is an unlikely thing to see at a performing arts center. Well, if you've seen the picture below, you've probably already figured it out. We went to see Jack Hanna!!!

I'm sure that I've been watching his show since a young kid and being that both Tim and I love nature and animals, what a perfect show! Well, it was great! Prior to the show we briefly

met Jack, which was not something we expected. In the picture Jack and Tim and talking and I'm trying hard to look good for the camera. Haha! Our seats were in the 5th row, so we had a great view. Jack's show was entertaining as well as a learning experience. Of course there were lots of parents with their kids, but I don't think the kids could have gotten nearly as much out of the show as an adult. Not to mention....$45 for a 3 year old to sit and eat cherrios and fuss the whole time except for when there was an animal on stage?! Dang! Between showing some very cool animals including two-toed sloth, albino wallaby, python and cheetah, Jack showed his favorite clips from some of his shows, talked about wildlife conservation, and showed a video of him with his wife and 2 daughters coming upon a family of mountain gorillas (very endangered). He also showed a blooper reel, including an episode with David Letterman where Jack was milking a goat and squirted the milk all over Letterman's pants. It was a good show, and worth the$45 per ticket splurge! Jack has two shows on TV, Jack Hanna's Animal Adventure's and Jack Hanna's Into the Wild....shows that are meant for educating kids, but is equally as good for adults! -L

Are you registered? Now you don't have to be!

2008-09-19T07:59:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Prior to today visitors would have to sign up and log in to leave comments on the blog. It seems that maybe this has turned people away from leaving comments. The comment function is now open to all visitors of the site. We hope that you will leave yours. Thanks as always for visiting!! -L

Canning Pic's

2008-09-18T22:02:00.001-05:00

Here are pictures from our canning experience so far!

Huge stock pot of cut up tomatoes! All these make....

6 pints of yummy tangy tomato sauce!

Dehydrating Apple Slices. First we had to peel them all and then we sliced them.

Here they are soaking in lemon juice and then getting loaded onto the dehydrator.

All the peels from the apples!

Canning Tomatoes

2008-09-18T19:48:00.001-05:00

We now have 8 jars of home canned tomato sauce. This year was our first attempt at canning, and I have to say that so far it has gone really well! We decided to can for a few reasons. 1.) Saves money. We'll probably get another 8 jars once the tomatoes are done ripenening. So let's just say that in the store a jar of sauce costs around $2.50 (or even more expensive if you buy organic). If we get 16 jars, that's a savings of $40. Doesn't sounds like a lot, but the more you can, the more you save! 2.) Convenience. So many times we wonder what to make for dinner that isn't going to be a lot of work after a long day. Now, we can pop open a jar and have "fresh" tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, etc. 3.) Organic! Who knows what's in some of the stuff you buy at the store. Preservatives. Pesticides. When you are putting your own tomatoes into the sauce, you know exactly what you are putting in. Just plain 'ol yummy tomatoes! 4.) Local. Imagine the amount of energy it takes to get a jar of Ragu on the shelf at the store? First the tomatoes have to be picked, then transported to the Ragu factory (energy). Then, they have to go through an entire huge process to be made with machines, etc. (energy). The sauce has to be put into jars with more machines, and then the jars have to be labeled (more energy). The labels were made from trees which were cut down, shipped, processed, printed on with ink (chemicals) and then have to be stuck with some sort of glue onto the jar (energy, resources). Then the jars of sauce have to be driven around the country to get to their destination. More energy. You get my point. Our tomatoes grew from a packet a seeds that cost $1.50. They grew from water, sun, and nutrients in the dirt. The energy it took to make them was physical labor on our part and a bit of stovetop time. And, after we use the sauce, we get to save the jar and reuse it! What an efficent process! Maybe I'm a geek, but that get's me excited.

Tonight, we try Apple Butter. More updates to come...and pictures too!

-L

About books!

2008-09-05T18:00:00.006-05:00

Tim and I love books! We enjoy reading both fiction and nonfiction and our book shelves show this. I have to admit to even having some what of an addiction to buying books. I look at the amount of books we have an wonder how I will ever get through them all?! (maybe winter?) I do have to say however, that we are "smart" book shoppers. Rarely do I spend full price on a book, or even CLOSE to the cover price! Most of the books we have (including best sellers from favorite authors) are hardcovers and cost a mere 99 cents! Now when you read a book that you didn't really like, you can't feel guilty about spending the money on it. You can't really go wrong since the book only cost a dollar! Here is where I get to make a plug for the place that we get the majority of our books from. :) Goodwill. Have you visited your local Goodwill lately? We are so lucky to have a Goodwill down the road (in Darboy) that has a "GoodBooks" department. It's like a small bookstore in there! You can find anything from cook books, to travel guides, to kids books, to best sellers. The majority of the books are at least 1/2 price from the cover price. They have both hardcover and paperback. Where you'll find me is in the clearance section. In the clearance section - all paperbacks are 49 cents, all hardcovers are 99 cents. Fiction to nonfiction, best sellers to obscure. I have seen plenty of really stupid books in that section, but if you just spend some time, you can find a variety that may fit the type of book you like to read. So, before you go and buy a book online or spend full price at a store like Barnes and Noble...try Goodwill! By purchasing, you are recycling a book that someone else didn't want AND giving money to an organization that helps your community! Oh, and you walk away with a something to read! It's a great thing all around!

Your brain on happiness!

2008-09-04T19:19:00.005-05:00

Have you ever had to do something that you were just dreading? You say things to yourself like "this is going to be horrible" or "I wish I didn't have to." Then as it turns out, it was a horrible as you suspected? I can be blamed of this type of behavior or thoughts just as much as the next person. I have often enjoyed learning about human psychology and I recently stumbled across an interesting article about the placebo effect. "Your Brain Is A Pharmacy" at utne.com brings up the idea that you will believe what you are told, and therefore react appropriately. In a study Utne references, participants were given two glasses of wine. The glasses had the same wine in them. The drinkers were told that one glass had a more expensive wine than in the other glass. The wine that the participants were told was more expensive taste better to them. Are you surprised? We really are very complex as humans, but yet it is so simple to talk yourself or be persuaded into believing something is a certain way. Do you think you could change the way you feel just by how you think?

Ripening

2008-08-27T20:08:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that Labor Day is almost here, signaling that summer is coming to an end. I have some bitterness toward this since like most summers, I feel like it was just so short! This year, however, I believe there is some truth to it. Our winter lasted longer than usual, flowers came up late, and grass didn't need to be cut. I did get my garden in around the same time I did last year...right before Memorial Day. Last year, I had tomatoes like you wouldn't believe. So this year I scaled back by one plant, and grew from seed all one type of tomato. I grew them inside and transplanted them at a healthy size. I read that this tomato that I picked (can't recall the kind) was excellent for canning. They all would come in around the same time so that canning could all be done in large amounts rather than a little here little there. Since this is my first attempt at canning, I am looking forward to it!

I really should start keeping a garden diary, because I am pretty sure that by end of August I had tons of tomatoes last year. This year....none. They are there on the vine, and they look great, just one problem - they are all green! Just this week did we notice a few tinting to red. Maybe this is my motivational push to diary the garden! As we continue to try new vegetables, new types, and different styles of gardening, I'd better get my act together.

I am happy to report that the zucchini are done for the year and provided us with much good eatin' for winter. The Green Beans are still pushing some new ones out, but their flavor is becoming less desirable. I think it was just too hot for them the last few weeks. I'm surprised they even hung on this long! The broccoli is faithfully regenerating itself and giving us a little more now and again.

I'm not sure if I will do broccoli again next year. Seems like they take a lot of space for not a lot given back. We will easily eat through the broccoli I've been able to freeze. Maybe next year I will do eggplant or another type of squash in its place.

The good news about summer coming to an end is that my favorite season, fall, is on it's way!! That means time to harvest apples (going to try some dehydrating this year) and that yummy acorn squash will be in the stores soon. It also means soon I will be counting down to our annual anniversary trip!

I'm hoping that in the next week these stubborn tomotes will ripen up. I'm looking forward to the canning and recipes I've found. More updates on that when I start! -L

Red Wing Continued...

2008-08-23T10:19:00.008-05:00

Our weekend in Red Wing was a short 2-nights, 3 days. On day two we did some of the best vacation exploring that we could have done. We also had more physical activity in 12 hours than cumulatively in the last 30 days! The morning started out by going to a State Park just 1/2 mile down the road. We checked in at the ranger office and then followed her suggestion to head up to the bluff were there was a beautiful overlook and some trails. We spent some time at the overlook which was indeed beautiful and then took a brief walk on the bluff trail. Since we were on the trail for some time and we were going down down down on steps, we decided it to be best to turn around and head back up before we went too far down. After we reached the top we drove back down to an area not in the park, but just down the road. It was called the boardwalk, you can see why in the picture. It was so cool. It was about a mile out to the cove it took us too and it was a pretty cool walk! There were cool frogs, unknown wildflowers, and some beautiful, huge trees! When we got to the cove, it was a light colored sandy beach with a slight tide coming in. There were several boats out on Lake Pepin, be we were the only ones on the beach. It was fun! We took the mile hike back and then headed into Red Wing.

We were a bit disappointed by the shopping and dining choices in Red Wing. The shops all had tourist prices on their product, and the dining areas were all kitschy overpriced cafe and coffee shops. We decided to eat at a pub - hey, we are from Wisconsin! The food was good and hit the spot after all our activity in the morning. At the Staghead - I enjoyed an excellent burger topped with Gorgonzola cheese and with a tasty chipotle sauce on it. Tim and his mom

enjoy a local bottled beer with their meal. After eating, we went to the old Pottery Place, where Red Wing Pottery was made. It was renovated into guess what? Shops. Mostly antique shops, and a shoe store. We found a fun retro cookie jar for $7 at the antique shop and then we moved on to the Red Wing pottery shop. We watched while some of the potters made product to be sold in the store. They had some very nice stuff! By the end of all this shopping we were ready to relax. We went down by the waterfront where the historic train station was and many boats were going up and down the river. We found a shady spot and relaxed. Later that afternoon we enjoyed "Pork in the Park" by the church and then headed back to the rental house for more adventure.

After we relaxed for a short time, we went for yet another adventure on the bikes! This time we went a different direction and ended up by a cemetery. We spent a little time looking at some of the gravestones in the new part of the cemetery. Then we decided to move. Although we though the cemetery was small, we hadn't yet found out that it went back into a whole other stretch of cemetery, which was very historic. We winded back to the oldest part which had a sectioned off area. There was a historic plaque that described the people buried there as the settlers of Old Frontenac. Many of the gravestones in the area had birthdates from the early 1800's. It was so cool. My imagination ran wild thinking about what the people were like, what kind of clothes they wore, what they did to survive.

We left and headed back to the home. That night we also encountered 3 deer that we watched for some time and also went on the swings by the nearby park. It was a blast!

On this vacation I learned how fun it can be to explore - off the beaten path! More importantly, sometimes you can find the coolest things...if you are just willing to go on a whim. I doubt I would have been able to find many of these experiences we h

ad by searching the internet, or looking at a library book. It was a great vacation! Thanks for reading what I have to share. -L

Red Wing, MN

2008-08-19T20:19:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! I apologize for the delay between posts, I have missed posting greatly, but like it often can, life got in the way! There just has been too much to do in early August and then last Friday - Sunday we were in Red Wing, Minnesota. We went out there with Tim's Mom for the 150th Anniversary of the church/school she used to teach at. My Mom, bless her heart, came to our home and watched our three dogs for the weekend.

Red Wing, MN is a historic town, best known for Red Wing Pottery and Red Wing shoes (that's a lot of things to be famous for this size of town!). As we normally do, we found a vacation rental home. We very much enjoy staying at vacation homes over hotels. First, it's much easier to do with dogs (which we didn't bring this time) but also it tends to be more relaxing, homey, and sometimes more cost effective since you can buy grocery rather than eat out all the time like you might have to if you stay at a hotel. There are countless benefits, but my favorite is being in a home rather than a large, noisy hotel.

The vacation home was in a historic village called Frontenac, about 10 miles south of Red Wing. Frontenac has all gravel roads,

historic homes, and is on the high bluffs overlooking Lake Pepin (part of the Mississippi River). Some of the homes closer to the bluff have been there since the 1800's. One had an amazing old stone fence around the property. On the first night we stayed home to have dinner. We also discovered there were some bicycles in the small shed outside. There were 2 adult bikes and 2 larger kid bikes. Since we were 3 adults, we faced a bit of a

predicament. It didn't take long to determine that Tim's Mom would be on the kid bike! Since this was a fairly odd site to see, I was laughing so hard! After we all tested out our bikes, we it the road and found our way around a portion of the town. Since you wouldn't drive through the town to get anywhere, there wasn't any traffic except for a golf cart. We made our way to the bluff where we discovered a beautiful view. We viewed Lake Pepin from the bluff, looking all the way across to the Wisconsin bluff across the way. It was a beautiful sight. It was the first of many beautiful sights we had that weekend. On Saturday, we did the best exploring...the off-the-beaten-path type. I'll share more about that next post. Above is a picture from the bluff. Here is a photo of the living room of our vacation rental. So comfy! Enjoy! To be Continued. -L

Rain Barrels

2008-07-31T19:51:00.006-05:00

Hi everyone!!

Just wanted to offer a more in depth writing on the rain barrels I made. I acquired three 55 gallon drums from a place that does business with my company. It was nice that the barrels were free, but they came from a place that does uniform cleaning and as such had a fair amount of thick detergent left in them. This added an hour or two to the amount of time it took to prepare the barrels because they needed to be cleaned out.

After the barrels were clean, it was time to put in the spigots. Basically I went to the Home Depot and said I wanted to put a spigot in a barrel. Stan (the plumbing guy) said, "Well, this is what you need." The part that fits into the barrel is threaded on the end in the barrel and has a female end on the outside. The particular barrels I used made things a little more difficult. My barrels have no removable cover, and are completely sealed on the top, except for two bung holes. If I had chosen to cut the tops off, or had removable lids, it would have been much easier to affix the spigot because a nut and rubber washer would have held it on sufficiently.

First I drilled a hole that was appropriately sized for the treads. Then I used a liberal amount of two part epoxy on the treads and on the barrel where the fitting would attach. After letting the epoxy set up for a few hours, I put in a bushing that fit the female end and then screwed in a pipe bib for the spigot.

The next step was to cut a hole in the top where the downspout would enter the barrel. I used a chunk of downspout and traced the outside of it with a marker. Then I drilled two pilot holes and cut the piece out with a saber saw.

After this was done, it was time to get the barrels in place outside. I used some cement blocks that were in my basement to raise each of the barrels high enough to fit a watering can underneath. I detached the downspouts and cut them shorter and added a few elbows to get the downspouts to fit into the barrel.

All in all, it took about 6 or 7 hours to get the project done, but the reward was nice. After the first rainfall, the barrels were all full!! (and none of them fell over)

I additional problem I didn't foresee is that the barrels get full and the extra water needs to go somewhere. I drilled a bunch of holes around the top, but when the water gets up there, it shoots out and sort of makes a mess of the surrounding landscape. I haven't fixed mine yet, but the same fitting as was used for the spigot can be used near the top with some pipe attached to run the excess water down on the ground.

Have fun saving water!!

Tim

Hot....humid....and PLENTIFUL!

2008-07-31T18:38:00.002-05:00

For someone who lives in Wisconsin, you think I would enjoy the hot humid weather we have been getting these past 3 weeks. Beats the cold of winter, right? Well, give me warm, but that's about all I'd have if it's my choice! 72 degrees, sunny, white puffy clouds in the sky, a slight breeze from the west, and no humidity please. Well, that's not exactly what we've been granted with here. Instead, 85-90 and HUMID! The good thing out of this, the garden is ripening up something real good!

Today after arriving home from work, we went out to water (we've officially almost tapped our rain barrels dry after 2 weeks without rain). In the process of watering, I noticed how plentiful the garden looked. To my surprise we had a few more zucchini's. I'm not exactly sure how well the zucchini will continue to grow. I'll be honest, I tried too many zucchini in a small raised bed and they are kinda choking each other out. Well, lesson learned.

Then I moved along to the broccoli. 4 out of 7 generous heads have started. In a few days, they'll be ready for harvest and will keep regenerating. The tomatoes are also coming along. Lots of green, nothing ripened to red yet.

Next, I got to the green beans. Now, our garden takes up a very small area of our yard. We had to keep the garden close to the house for watering purposes, so we have 4 raised beds that are about 15 sq. feet of planting area each (3x5 beds) and another that's about 3x6 (18 sq. feet). The beans are planted in rows in a 15 sq. feet bed. All of the planting I choose this year is based on it's ability to be preserved, in effort to help feed ourselves over winter. I planted tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, strawberries, zucchini & a sugar snap pea bean pole (these snap peas go straight to our stomach & never make it out of the garden).

Anyhow, I digress - back to the green beans. So I could see there are plenty of green beans to be picked. I grabbed an ice cream pail to put the green beans in. I decided I would count the green beans, you know, just a challenge to see how many green beans I would find! Well, 2 ice cream pails later and drumroll please.......371 green beans! Wow, from my tiny 15 square foot bed. I probably pulled out about this many between the last two times I picked too. Talk about return on investment, I'm sure that pack of seeds cost a mere $1.29.

I'm in green bean heaven! -L

How does your garden grow?

2008-07-24T20:58:00.007-05:00

Well, I guess it's mid-summer already! I can't believe it, but our garden is proof! It officially looks "overgrown", and is producing very well! The green beans are coming along well! We've frenched, blanched, and frozen about 8 servings so far, with many many more to come! We also have 3 large zucchini that we will be cutting tonight and using a borrowed dehydrator to dehydrate them with. I read that if you dehydrate them and freeze them, they can then be eaten as "chips" (not sure I will really like that so much) or better yet, when you cook with them, they will absorb the liquid and regain original form (but cooked). I can think of many many yummy things to add zucchini to in winter: stews, slow cooked meals, soups, and baking with (zucchini bread and more!). Yum! We will also cut some of our zucchini to blanch and freeze. I read that you can also shred the zucchini and blanch and freeze it. This would be ideal for baking...since you need to shred it anyhow! Here are some pictures of what we've taken out of the garden.

Unfortunately we have some sort of grub thing eating the leaves of our broccoli. I heard that using soap, oil and water will get the pests off. Since we do not use any sort of chemical on our garden, I'm going to try our ecosafe dish soap mixed with water and oil and spray it on the leaves. Thankfully the grub hasn't eaten the broccoli itself, but I'm afraid it will go to that next. Yuk! I just hope it's not too late. -L

Where does your garden grow?

2008-07-23T20:35:00.005-05:00

When you have a moment, check out: eattheview.org. This is a great non-profit organization with a purpose - a campaign to plant healthy, edible landscapes in high-impact, high visibility places, whether it's the "First Lawn" or the lawn in front of your child's school. In regards to the "first lawn" they are referring to the White House yard! You can log on and sign a petition stating the following: that "the next President of the United States to plant an organic food garden on the White House lawn, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. The White House is "America's House" and should set a positive example for the country and the world. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change, food security, and fossil fuel dependence."

Cool! I'm on board with this. Click here to sign the petition, and then also check out what else they have going on.