Halloween Eve

It's been a slow and puttzy (word?) kind of day today. T is out till morning and the boys and I have been enjoying a cozy afternoon inside. The rain has been coming down and the fire place has been keeping us toasty. I love fall days! I had plenty to do, but I was a slow mover today. I had a bunch of recipes to make and freeze, but needed one or two ingredients from the store and was just too lazy to get the boys in the car and head down the road a mile. Instead I made chicken stock. It really drives me crazy when I have to pay $10 for 2 32oz. containers of organic chicken stock (and that's on sale). Especially when I use it in recipes I often use two or three, that's 10 bucks I just added to the cost of that meal. It's sad really because it's stupidly easy to make stock. On days I know I'm home I throw the chicken carcass from the night before or when I buy whole organic chicken (which is the only way I buy chicken now) I cut up the chicken and freeze the pieces. I put the wings in a bag and after two or three chickens I have enough to make stock. I throw in s&p, carrots and celery (maybe those slightly sad ones is the fridge), parsley if I have it, thyme and rosemary. I let it go in a big pot all day, it goes between boiling and simmering (keep a lid on it or it will disappear). Then I strain it into freezer containers (Ziplock makes BPA free containers!). I love it because you use the pieces of chicken you would normally just throw away. All day the house smells like the most delicious soup (it reminds me of  Thanksgiving). I tried to satisfy my hunger all day but never could get it right because there was never anything to actually eat. So I snacked on yummy roasted pumpkin seeds from our jack-o-lanterns (they are full of zinc, great for a cold!). Now lets hope I can get the finishing touches on the boys Halloween costumes. Show you next time, Happy Halloween!

Fresh & Clean

I finally got around to making laundry soap yesterday. One of those things that I have wanted to do for years , but never actually did it. I can't figure out what took me so long, it was so easy! I guess I was finally sick of spending over $15 a gallon at Costco for "natural soap" that I don't really know what's in it. The hardest part was choosing a recipe and finding Washing soda (apparently not the same as baking soda). In Washington state the best place to find washing soda is Fred Meyer. I also needed to find a container to hold the 2+ gallons of liquid laundry soap, and old laundry soap bucket with lid worked well. I had a junior high decorating moment, mostly to keep T from throwing my bucket out or using it for something else. I found many recipes for liquid laundry soap, almost all contained washing soda and borax. I used a recipe off  Tipnut.com. After I use up this batch I plan to try a different mix, but so far I really like this one.
Recipe #1 Liquid Laundry Soap

1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.
Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.

Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).

The first time I use a recipe I follow it close to get the correct feel and then play with the ingredients and amounts the next time around. I used Fels-Napths this time, but I think I will use one of my own homemade goat milk soaps next go 'round. It smells like what ever ground soap you use, so keep that in mind when choosing one, I think I might try some drops of essential oils next time too. Make sure and use a large pot to melt the soap on the stove, it will bubble up a lot. I tried to put it all in an old liquid soap pour container, this doesn't work as the soap almost instantly gels after you mix all the ingredients, I haven't figured out the best solution yet. Also, I haven't done the exact math, but I think for 2+ gallons, it cost less than 4 dollars, wow who could pass that savings up! My other laundry savings tip is to hang dry clothes, I only  use my dryer one in every 5 or 6 loads, that's a lot of energy savings and it's as easy as hanging up a shirt. You save more than money and energy, you save wear on your dryer and clothes and you're much less likely to shrink your favorite shirt. Rain or shine I move a folding rack on the deck or into the garage (next to the washer).Well, now on to dish soap.

And, more done on the sweater, one sleeve down one to go!

table top jungle

What a difference I couple of weeks makes. I was feeling stressed about not having the garden ready to plant yet so I relived it with some improvised seed starting. Even though we still have stacks of boxes and our living room looks like a storage locker, that all can wait (yes I know I sound a bit nuts), but the summer garden calls the shots in this house. The boxes are not going to sprout in a week when the weather gets sunny, although it does seem like they are multiplying, but my beets and cauliflower will. Before I could get into the garden I started some seeds on a table by the window so I wouldn't be too far behind. Zucchini, winter squash, crookneck squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatillos and basil and dill. It's really easy to start seed on the table, you need to remember squash and cucumbers do not like to have their roots disturbed, so that's why I used the peat pots, you plant the seedling and pot in the ground together. There is no need to spend the money on those pots for other seeds. I use the large trays with small individual seed cells year after year for herbs, cold crops, and anything that isn't too sensitive. A window will start your seeds just fine (assuming your house is warm enough, 65-70 degrees), you may find your plants getting "leggy" long and skinny. Most of the time they grow out of it, if they don't they will not be able to hold up the weight of their own fruit. They best thing for indoor starts is a grow light. Keep the light an inch above the plants, as the plants grow move the light up. The small, standing, shelf green houses are great, inexpensive and for most people plenty of room for all the starts you want. I bought my tomatoes this year, I bought small plants, you usually get three for $2ish, I replanted them into larger pots and put them in the window (it's too early here to put them out). Remember when repotting tomatoes and tomatillos to pull off the bottom leaves and plant as far up the stem as you can, leaving three or four leaves on the top. It will help make strong thick stalks. In two weeks you have a whole garden that cost a lot less then buying all those starts, not to mention family and friends love the left overs! Did you catch the little garden helper in the pics? My boys are excellent garden helper, we will see if I say the same when all the garden goodies disappear before making it to the table.

P.S when using basil off a grown plant snip a whole stalk off, cut the stem right above the bud above the dirt. Your plant will spout many more stalks off this cutting. If you your plant starting to go to seed (flower columns coming off the top) snip these off.

Great Idea

You never know where each day or weekend is going to take you. You make your plans and to do lists, but if you're anything like us, you rarely stick to them. We are always flying by the seat of our pants, where ever the wind blows!

On Friday evening we cut the garden space and berry beds out of the lawn with a sod cutter, which worked great by the way! Anyway, Saturday morning we had a surprise visit from a couple of friends and after feeding them and chatting a bit about what to do with all that sod someone had an epiphany. Who am I kidding, I'm not going to be modest in the least, that incredibly creative idea came from yours truly (only I was half joking when I said it). I was teasing when I said lets make a play house for the boys out of it. Boy, did that get the ball rolling, the ideas just came pouring out (not just mine anymore). After we make a house, let make the three section compost bin I've always wanted (thanks Alan!) and then lets make the goat shelter out of sod and... Now I don't think we have enough sod to cover all those project, but doesn't it all sound cool. As we cut, hauled and stared to build the boys' play house someone said " you know, this is just what the settlers did" minus the gas powered sod cutter, the truck to haul the sod and the rebar to hold it up. We did have lots of sod, dirt and help,which I am sure is the way the settlers did it, thanks guys!

You know I just love the idea more and more, a living structure could be so much more beautiful and inconspicuous in our backyard. By no means are we finished yet so we will have to let you know how it all turns out (keep your fingers crossed). Here's to shelters growing every bit!

From Grass to Garden

It may not be garden yet, but it is much closer to pouring out fresh lettuce, tasty zucchini and juicy cucumbers this summer. Some might say we have our priorities skewed since we are still living amongst towers of boxes, but it's so exciting to be almost ready to have my own garden at my very own house. I have done lots of gardening, but never in my own garden where I call the shots (or at least I think that's how it's going to work). While speaking with one of our neighbors and talking about gardening, she suggest a sod cutter because the our entire yard is grass. So on Friday night Ty rented a sod cutter and Voila! we have a start to our garden. I know, it's not ready to sow any seeds yet, but at least we can see where it's going to be.

To get the most out of the rental fee we also cut out our blueberry patch and flower beds. We have a whole lot of sod. I wonder what were going to do with it?

The sod cutter makes the activity of sod cutting manageable, don't get me wrong it is still a chore (just look at all the work Ty is going through), but doing it by hand with a shovel would be out of the question, believe me I tried and last about 5 minutes. This cutter cuts about a 12 inch row, you can get up to 18 inches I don't think it makes it any faster. After you cut all you do is roll it up into a roll you can't lift (now what do I do with it?). The trick is cutting straight so you minimize the little slivers of grass that are still attached to the ground, you have to remove these with a shovel. We did find out that you should steer clear of wet areas for sod cutters don't come in 4wheel drive and are darn heavy. The whole thing worked well and made life a little easier, of course easy for me to say you don't see me in any of the pictures do you.

Sauerkraut

4 gallon crock + 2o pounds of shredded cabbage + pickling salt = A whole lot of sauerkraut!

This was my first time making sauerkraut and after reading many recipes I decided on the old fashioned way to do it. I used the recipe out of Putting Food By, by Janet Greene and made it in an old family crock. My Dad gave this crock to me not too long ago. I'm sure he intended as decoration or storage (it came with 35+ year old news papers of the moon landing and other major headlines). I don't think he had intended me to use it for a more practical purpose and maybe after the 5Th quart of gifted sauerkraut he'll hope he had never given it to me. I just love the idea of using it for like they did back when it was made in 1908.

I shredded cabbage from the garden using my Kitchen Aid mixer attachment to do all the shredding, it work fabulously and went really fast! I layered two pounds of shredded cabbage in the bottom of a 4 gallon crock with a 2 1/2 teaspoons of pickling salt. I then packed the cabbage down with the bottom of a jar and repeated until I reached twenty pounds of cabbage. The cabbage leaches water and creates a brine with the salt (this happens astonishingly fast).
I covered the cabbage with a cotton cloth, placed a plate that fit snugly in the crock and put a gallon jar full of water on top to keep the plate under the brine level. It is important to change the cloth and clean the plate everyday, the recipe says to scrape the "scum" of the top, but so far I have not seen any, only yellows brine.

Twice I have had to make a week solution o brine to

add to the crock to keep the liquid above the cabbage, 11/2 teaspoons of pickling salt to 1 cup water.

A few of the recipes I have read disagree on the time to let it ferment, 10 days to 4 weeks is what I am going with.

The fermentation period also depends on the temperature at which you keep the sauerkraut. The lower the temp the longer the process, the most important thing is to keep the temp as constant as possible and never above 72 degrees (it will spoil).

I am going to can mine once it is ferment because I could never use 20 pounds of sauerkraut fast enough (I can't even imagine trying) and it would be nice to give some away (isn't it just what everyone wanted). You could keep it in the crock and use what you need as long as you keep the brine level about the cabbage. I'll let you know how the canning goes.

A Cake To Remember

Happy Birthday Boys!

My boys have their birthdays with in weeks of each other, so to make life a little easier on myself and my family we gathered their birthday celebrations into one smashing day. I know this won't go over well every year, but since they're 1 and 3 they don't have much say or care.

And of course we were doing two in one, it had to be good. The whole family was invited and we did a BBQ on the deck and totally lucked out on the beautiful weather.

My three year old is really into trains, especially "Tommy" (Thomas the Tank Engine), yes we are on a nickname basis we know him that well. So I had a simple and sweet idea, to incorporate a vessel which uses locomotion, into the commotion, in the form of a train cake.

What you see was not my first idea. Note the 30+ individually decorated cake pieces, hand laid candy track surrounded by coconut grass, all laid out on a 2 X 4 foot board covering the whole dinning room table.

My mother had come home the week before with a cake pan with 9 individual train car cups, what fun! It looked like a great idea. After baking 4 pans worth of snickerdoodle cake the morning of, just to get enough for the party (not counting the practice run to make sure I could get the cake out of the pan) By the way, on a side note, for situations such as these baking spray with flour in it (yes it exists) is worth the small investment. I and many others (Thanks everyone!) were busy decorating each train car with frosting and candy as guests trickled in.

It turned out great, better than I had expected, each person and child could pick the car they wanted and it took every kid there to help blow out the candles. I can tell you this though, it most defiantly will not be repeated every year.

plant labels

It is just amazing how one day can be lusciously beautiful weather and the next turns to torrential down pours all day. I had the garden all ready to plant corn, the ground was tilled the rows were marked and hoed, all I need to do was soak the corn, plant it and watch it grow, but the rain beat me to it. Now I have to wait for another window of opportunity to get it in the ground. We did manage to find an opening in the rain , all though very brief, to get out, blow some bubbles and hope that summer is really on her way.

A fellow gardener and I were discussing plant tags, plastic or wood? I label seeds I have planted in the greenhouse or plants in pots, but I don't put the labels in the garden. I usually can remember what went where or I draw a map. As long as no one else tries to do any gardening it's not usually a problem. For my tags I like to cut up plastic milk jugs to make my plant labels, but since we don't drink milk out of plastic jugs at home we have to acquire them some where else (family members).

You can buy the plastic tags at a store (they work great), but who wants to spend the money. This is just the place for my motto "I can make that", I don't like using plastic that much, but I figure I am adhering to one of the three "R's", REUSE!. I always use both sides of the tag and recycle the plastic when I am done.Many gardeners do like to put labels in the garden though (it makes sense doesn't it). I do understand that if you put plant labels in the garden you wouldn't want the plastic tags everywhere because you would have to pick them up at the end of the year (hunt for the plastic tag game), so cardboard tags will work for the season (the do get lost easy), or those large craft tongue depressors work great, they're wide to give you plenty of room to write those long plant names.

The wood and the cardboard will just grind up with a pass of the tiller or mulch into the soil when you put you garden to bed for the season. (Of course that's not grass you see growing in my garden rows, you must be imagining things)

We did had a little fun earlier this year making decorative garden signs. My mother is the artist who panted plants pics on Fir rounds that Ty cut from the back pasture and stakes he split from some fire wood. TY then screwed the round to the stake (nailing it will split the wood), then he sanded the surface of the round just a little to make it easier to paint. After it was painted we then sprayed a sealant on it to protect it from the weather. I think they turned out really neat and would make a fun project for older kids. Now if we can only keep the dogs from pulling them out and chewing them up.

Well off to re-pot tomatoes. Remember, "someone made it, why not you".

think art

I just had to add my Lilac pictures and this very neat tree growing in the side of a cliff on the beach, to go along with the Lilly of the Valley pics. I want to take a few more flora and maybe some fauna pictures, frame each of them and hang three on chain down the wall. If you need help imagining here's a sample.  Alright not the three images I was thinking about, but I haven't gotten all of my pictures taken or put together yet, but you get the idea, just imaging the pictures framed and adjusted to relatively the same size and shape hanging like this down a chain on the wall. I think it is a really simple way to add some art to your walls that you did yourself.   

On a completely different note, yesterday my sis, a friend and I went some place amazing. First, happy birthday to them both (the reason for this awesome outing) it was so much fun. Every woman should have this experience at least once in her life, but probably more like at least once a month . The worlds problems could be solved and I guarantee that world peach could be achieved if everyone spent one day a month to go here. Are you interested yet? We went to the Olympus Spa, which is a Korean day spa and wow is it great. There are multiple relaxing pools of varying temps, steam rooms, dry rooms and you can use all of it for a totally reasonable price. As a treat we splurged and added scrubs and moisturising treatments. Let me tell you I have never been pampered like this before and I have never been cleaner (shinny new penny I think was the term used). Just so you know, it is nick named the naked spa for a reason, no swimsuits allowed in the pools, but men are not allow either so birthday suits it is. They have these places all over the US, so find one and us it. I have been asking myself how I never knew about this heavenly place before, but I am sure glad I do now.