Garden Update - Late July

 The garden is growing well.  Though honestly, I wouldn't be able to tell you if it was truly thriving.  But, from what I can tell... things are starting to happen.

My herb table is looking lush and green.  We pluck something from it almost every night.  The pot in the center is mint, peppermint, and pineapple sage.  After I took this picture I decided to split them up into their own pots.  They are doing much better now.  I can't believe how big they got.  I need to learn to dry these herbs to use them in the winter.  Especially for tea.

As you can see my tomatoes are doing well.  I'm actually quite surprised.  On my big tomato plant I have about half a dozen 1" or so tomatoes growing.  I seem to find a few more itty bitties every day.  I can't wait until they get big and red!  My cherry tomato plant is also going strong.  There are a few dozen tomatoes started.  Ray is sooo excited about these.

My hanging cucumbers are starting to grow too.  There are many 1" cucumbers started.  I've never seen them grow before so this is exciting!!

I've harvested two 4-5" green bell peppers so far.  There are 3 more on bush and the red bell pepper plant is just starting.  Hubby says that the bell peppers that we've eaten so far were't to great.  Hmmmm.....

The zucchini has 5 started and lots more flowers.  2 are not going to make it, but the other 3 are looking good.  Some of the leaves are turning yellow.  I think I need to fertilize with something.  I will have to look that up.

The green beans, strawberries, and blueberries are very uninspiring.  Very small strawberries, only a few very small green beans so far and only a dozen or so blueberries that may ripen up.  Hopefully they will get better as the weeks go by.  No photo of these as they aren't that interesting right now.

All in all we are having lots of fun with our garden.  I am loving seeing things grow that we can eat.  Very satisfying.  Next year we will definitely be planting more variety.

Happy 11th Birthday Alaina!

On the 13th my oldest turned 11.  I can't believe how fast she is growing and changing.  Being in full "tween" stage she is now all about nail polish, clothes, earrings, makeup, etc. Her favorite activities are reading, riding her new bike (even though it's pink), playing board games, coloring (she is currently doing fun geometric drawings with some "nice" colored markers), shopping and her new love... photography.

She is just as sweet as they come.  She is kind to everyone.  Polite.  She wants to learn pretty much anything that she can.  She is very interested in all things science and math.  And, likes to be called Alicat.

Being very much her fathers daughter, she wants to be involved in everything that her daddy is doing.

My daughter is turning into a wonderful young lady.  With a very open heart and a kind soul.  We love her dearly.  Happy 11th Birthday Alaina!!!

Butter Making In My KitchenAid

Something I thought I would never do is make butter. I do all my baking and cooking from scratch, so we use a lot of butter.  But, with the price of real butter at almost $4.00 a pound, I was kinda forced to "do something" about it.  I saw a post here and decided to give it a try.  (there are some video tutes on youtube as well)  I bought the cheapest whipping cream I could find. (hopefully next time I'll be able to get some on sale) and I put it in my KitchenAid.  Turned it on and let it go.  It took about 15 minutes total and my splash guard really helped.  The kids thought it was "awesome!"  It was very interesting to see it go from cream, to fluffy "whipped cream", to butter & buttermilk.  In the end I spend $3.25 on the carton of Whipping cream and I got 11.5 oz of butter and 2.5 cups of buttermilk.  The butter tasted amazing and the buttermilk whole wheat oat pancakes that we had that night were equally amazing.  The kids are now asking me for more!  I'll definitely be making more when I need butter and it's not on sale. 

The Start Of My Edible Container Garden

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a black thumb.  You may remember my post from last year about planting seeds.  Yeah... they all died.  We ended up buying two tomato plants and a strawberry plant.  Planted them in those upside down thingies.  Yeah.... those died too.

This year is they year! I am going to grow food.  I will not let my plants die of over or under watering.  I will produce something edible and yummy.  I started with some good container potting soil.  I bought some 10" tomatoes and some smaller bell pepper plants and a cucumber plant.  Some tiny herbs and strawberries and a blueberry bush.  Here are my tomato plants!

These pics were taken about 2 weeks ago.  The tomatoes are now about 8" taller than pictured.  They are doing great!  I've been keeping them watered and fertilized.  I've been pruning anything that is looking wilty and I've been making sure the stems are going over the wires for support.

Here are my other goodies.  In the blue pot are some  red and yellow bell pepper that are newly planted. Next to that is my green bell pepper plant.  I've had this one for a month or so now.  It currently has a 5" and a 4" bell pepper growing as well as a few 1" ones!  The small plant next to that are some zuchinni squash.  Next to that are green beans.  In the larger white pot in the corner is my blueberry bush.  I'm not expecting this one to do much in the way of fruit this year.  But, as the years go by it should start producing nicely.  In front of the blueberries are my strawberries.  These are growing like mad.  We've only had a few very small berries so far.  But, we all agree that they are the best berries we've ever tasted. - Just a note that the picture was taken 2 weeks ago.  All of the plants have grown quite a bit since then!

 And finally I have my herb table.  Missing in the front left is my basil.  We LOVE basil.  In the back left is cilantro and chives.  In the middle green pot is peppermint, sweet mint, and lemon something... In the back right is oregano.  This one came up from last years oregano.  And in the front right is Italian parsley.  Again, it's been 2 weeks since this photo.  All my herbs are doing great.

#10 Cans Of Long Term Food Storage at Walmart!

I just got back from my monthly shopping trip to wallymart.  They are now carrying #10 cans of all kinds of goodies including egg, butter, honey & milk powders, tvp's, some fruits & veggies, oats, wheat, bisquit and pancake mixes, and a few other goodies.  I saw a few different ones a month ago, but now they have a good selection.  They even have a dinner set case of 6.  I purchased 12 #10's and a 10# bucket of oats.  I would have loved to buy them out, but I couldn't.  I'm hoping that next month they will still have some available.  Edit to add:  As a side note I just want to say "Is someone trying to tell us something buy selling this stuff at the local grocery store?  I'm personally not stocking up for dooms day or even a major economic crash.  I'm doing it for more immediate / practical everyday reasons.  With the rising cost of food it just seems right to prepare some.  But, seriously.... maybe I should be more worried?  I don't know....

Where's the photo!?  I went to take a picture of my haul only to notice that my camera seems broken.  (trying hard not to cry right now)  The screen / view thingy is just pixely green & purple lines.  I sure hope it was just the batteries and not something more. Granted, we've had the camera for 7 years now... but I really don't want to have to be without a camera right now.  Let alone try to save for a new one.

Happy 8th Birthday Rachel!

 

I can't believe your 8 already.  You've been so very proud today.  When asked if you felt any older, your answer to daddy was "Oh yeahhhhh!!!!!"  Your so wonderful in so many ways.  Your smart, loving, compassionate, curious, always moving, always thinking and creating, and most important.... Your so very very loved.  No one can make your brother laugh the way you can and no one can make me smile bigger than you when you tell me a crazy story or adventure you've just had.  You bring so much joy and love to our lives.

You see the world in such a beautiful way.  Your always willing to give someone another chance and your always willing to forgive.  I am honored to watch you grow and learn.  And, I can't wait to see what you do next!

Altering The Fattycakes Diaper Pattern To Be Front Snapping

My hubby hates side snap diapers but I love love love the fattycake as a cover. So I altered the wings to be front snapping. Here is a picture of the altered pattern.

It was pretty simple really. I added about 1/2" to the length of the wing then found the center point of the wing. Then I maked 3/4" from both sides of my center mark so the wings would be 1.5" wide at the ends. Then I just tapered down the top and bottom of the wings all the way to the end. It looks a bit funny... but it works great. I then just put a single row of snaps across the front and two snaps on the wings. (I added a second snap to the overnights pictured below after the photo was taken) Let me know if you have any questions!

More pics of finished diapers. These first two are overnights that I made with 4 layers of ZorbII. They are awesome!!

This one is a cover. Love it! I also think this would be great as an AI1. I'm going to try that soon.