Friends and good times.

I went out last week to a new Indian restaurant with my friend Kathy.  It was wonderful.  Such a good buffet and the company was great as well.  Kathy invited me to her house for Christmas.  She told me not to bring anything.   Wellllll I really think I should so I got her grandkids some little things to play with.  Ha, she can't say anything about that, right?

On Sunday evening I was invited to a Christmas program at the church I used to go to (I'm going to try to go occasionally there but it's 20-25 minutes away from my house).  It was a very talented pianist.  He teaches music at the local college and he is sooooo good.  He did an hour of music and history behind the Christmas songs he played. It was very interesting and entertaining.  The preacher called out Encore, Encore!  He didn't have anything planned so he played an 80's song and worked up a real sweat doing it.

Today I went and took out my friend, Tammy, for her birthday.  I got her a present and she got all choked up.  She said most of the time everyone forgets since her birthday is so close to the holidays.  We went to the Yellow Deli in Pulaski.  If you have one of these restaurants in your area, you have to go.  It's delicious.  They serve just soup, salad and sandwiches.  Reasonably priced and big portions.  We even went shopping afterwards to Regenerations just down the street.  It has antiques and crafts.  I bought a couple of brooches.  We had a good time but Tammy's foot was starting to bother her (she had it operated on last week) and I had to get back to work so we called it a day.

Have you been getting out of the house to enjoy family and friends?  I hope so.  It's important.  Life is short, enjoy it while you can!

Denise

PS:  Oh yeah I started exercising today.  Let's see how long this lasts.

GNOWFGLINS

Have you heard of GNOWFGLINS?  GNOWFGLINS stands for God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.  It's a site that has information and step by step videos on how to ferment foods, dehydrating, etc.  If you click on the link below, you can get a free mini subscription with no obligation.  What do I get if you do sign up for the mini subscription?  Just a little video showing me how to make tea tree soap if 5 people sign up.  Her site is really informative and I have learned so much.  If you do sign up for a full subscription, it's about the same cost of having one of those movie/TV subscriptions.  To find out more just click the link or copy and paste it.  Like I said, there is no obligation and she doesn't share anyone's email addresses ever.  Maybe I'll get lucky and have 5 sign up ;)


https://rl102.infusionsoft.com/app/page/raf?_Ref=218

I'm BACCCCCKKKK!

Surprise, surprise, surprise!  I've been one busy little person what with canning, the holidays, work and being sick for the past 2 1/2 weeks with this cold crap.  Yes I said crap and I'm still feeling a little bit like that LOL.

We got our yearly 1/2 beef and 1/2 a pig this year to go with it so I was trying to clean out our freezer as much as possible (read empty completely).  Surprisingly with all that meat I got it fit into our upright freezer and stashed the bacon in our little freezer.  Boy it was close!  Don't think we will do that again.  At least we could space it out so I don't have such a problem stowing it away.  So we have a lot of meat, a lot.  It should last us a little over a year.  The only problem is they cut the roasts a little too big for us so when I made a beef roast the other day we had to keep eating it and eating it and eating it.  It was huge!  I just put in some salt and pepper and some bay leaves and cooked in the slow cooker. Hubby made homemade noodles to go with it.  Yum.  Then I made some barbequed beef sandwiches today and still I had some left over so I guess I'll be using the rest in a soup of some sort.

So since I cleaned out my freezer I had all these tomatoes, peppers, berries and beef bones (which really take up room in the freezer).  I canned berry jelly since I had boysenberries, blueberries and raspberries; pepper relish; tomato soup and beef broth.  And I had gotten 10 pounds of pig fat to make lard.  I did all that in one week...boy was I tired and so we come to the fact that I got run down and got sick.  Was it worth it?  You betcha cause now we have a whole lot of food stored up.

I wasn't in the holiday mood this year so I didn't even put up our tree.  I did decorate our fireplace mantle and put up the wreath on the front door but that is as festive as I got this year.  But it did save me from having to put all that stuff away too.  It didn't lessen in any way our Christmas though.  We still had our presents to open on Christmas day and we got some Christmas cards too.  Not as many as I sent out but I think it's because it is getting so expensive to mail them.  Postage is going up again in a couple of weeks so I hear.  Hubby got me just what I wanted this year too!  I got an immersion blender (so much easier to do soups with) and a spice grinder which will be nice to grind all those spices and herbs I'm going to be growing this year (maybe LOL).  Hubby was shocked I got him so much but why not, he's worth it.  I got him an old fashioned straight razor shaving kit with everything included except for a sharpening stone which I'll get him later.  He tried it the first time and cut himself all to heck...Geez-Louise.  He said I need your help I cut myself.  I went running and had to put cotton balls and band-aids on each side of his face.  Since he's on blood thinners he bleeds a lot when he gets cut.  He did eventually stop bleeding.  I think a styptic pen is on order for him.  Now he says he scared of it...and hasn't tried to use it again yet.  I think he was holding it wrong and trying to go too fast.  I think he needs to practice.   Cause if I have to put cotton balls and band-aids on him again I'll bust out laughing, he looked really funny.  He even laughed about it.  Looked like a poor man's Santa or  maybe a really weird looking chipmunk :)  I also got him a weather thingy.  It's a tube that is supposed to tell you the weather a couple of days ahead of time.  Don't know if it works yet.  He left it in the package so we can take it to the cabin.  I got him a CD of info on solar power from Mother Earth News and a puzzle.  He said he owed me something else and has decided to get me another gun...not really what I was looking for really LOL.  It will be a revolver cause I really don't like the way the pistol handles that I already have.  I think it will give me more control but we'll see.

The chickens have stopped laying...completely.  No eggs since November.  We have been getting eggs when we go up to the cabin but it's not the same and they don't taste as good as ours were.  I'm still hoping that they will start laying a few when it warms up.  We got a ton of seed catalogs last week.  I love looking through them although I don't think I need any more seeds right now.  Since the world didn't end, I guess I can spend more money on plants and seeds ;)

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Denise

New study done in France on GMO foods.

See article here:


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/09/22/superbugs-destruct-food-supply.aspx?e_cid=20120922_DNL_art_1

Wow...

It's been a while huh?  Well here are some pics for your viewing pleasure and some updates as well.

I had planted walking onions this year and these are the top set onions I had left over after replanting them again this fall.  I thought I would use them in soups.   They kind of look like pearl onions don't they?  I just froze them.  Took me a while to peel these because they are so small.

Here are the sloppy joes that I canned.  Boy are they yummy.  I also canned some regular meat sauce too.

When you have a cat and a box...well you know what happens LOL.  Here is the pic without flash, can you see Tikki?

and here he is with the flash.  

Oooh isn't he spooky LOL.  By the time I took this pic he was ready to get out of the box realizing that he isn't invisible after all ;)

Canning...

I canned up some potatoes and beef broth a week ago.  Here are some pics.  OOOhhhh so exciting isn't it? LOL.

Michigan outlaws pigs

• On April 1, 2012, the Invasive Species Order (ISO), issued by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), went into effect
• The ISO prohibits anyone in the state from possessing what MDNR defines as “invasive species of swine,” which can basically include any type of hog raised outside of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)
• Any farmer or other individual found to be in possession of such a hog could be charged with a felony and subjected to up to two years in jail and a $20,000 fine
• The ISO threatens farmer’s rights and may make sustainably raised pastured pork essentially illegal, and very hard to come by in the state
• The ISO is not a law; rather, it’s an “action” or “order” that’s been taken by a state agency; as such, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has the authority to tell MDNR to rescind the ISO, and your help is needed to prompt this action

Read entire article here:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/21/heritage-breed-pigs-small-farmers.aspx?e_cid=20120826_SNLNew_MS_1

New things...

I got one of these radios from Emergency Essentials.  I was very impressed.  It has AM, FM, 2 short wave stations and weather station.  It works on batteries, solar, electricity or crank.  It has an emergency flashlight, SOS light and reading light.  It can charge your cell phone as well.  And it's not too big and doesn't weigh very much either.

What I really wanted from Emergency Essentials though was a solar cooker.  Here's the one I got
It was on sale in June so I had to get it.  It is very easy to use and wonderful in the summer.  No heating up the house!  It came with the two little pots shown, a thermometer, cookbook and a water pasteurization indicator and reflector.  The body of the cooker is plastic which makes it pretty light weight to carry but not too light weight that is going to blow away in the wind.  So far I've made  roasts, chicken and potatoes in it and today I made chicken, potatoes and meatballs.  Figured it wouldn't take too long to do all of that so we have enough for a few meals.  It is like a slow cooker really.  The meat comes out moist and tender and oh so flavorful.  I'm going to try to make some bread and see how it turns out.  The only thing that is difficult about using it is deciding what you want to eat 6-8 hours before it's cooked.  The potatoes don't take as long only 1-2 hours and the meatballs only took about 2 hours.  You don't add any water to the pan when you do the potatoes either.  I think it will be a wonderful thing to have if the electric goes out, of course only if it goes out in the morning cause it does take a few hours to cook everything and it works best on sunny days with little or no wind.  I did set up the reflectors on the first try but found I didn't need them down here in Alabama.  They are sturdy too.  The clips that hold on the plastic cover on the cooker though are hard to get on there but if they were too easy they wouldn't keep the cover on and I really don't want to be running after a cover after it has been pulled off by the wind LOL.  Plus with the clips on I'm sure that the animals can't get into it.  The cats really liked smelling the meat smells coming from it ;)

I was really pleased on how fast the items were shipped and the shipping charge was only $6 on my order which I thought was very reasonable.  Now anyone out there have any solar cooker recipes?

Assorted pics from June and July

Here are some of the girls, furred and feathered.  Yes Penny thinks she's a chicken now.  She cries to go out with the girls.  Maybe they have meetings? LOL.  That bush on the right is a cherry.  Had lots of blossoms and even had some cherries but they all fell off. :(  The building in the back is the chicken feeding center.  The girls use it in the winter to get out of the cold too but just the feathered girls, Penny stays inside if it's too cold ;)

Here is Roxy and Penny looking to get in.  

Here are some of the blueberries and potatoes fresh from the garden.  You know how I was complaining of too many blueberries, well I should have kept my mouth shut because then we went into a severe drought and all the unripe blueberries wilted and died on the bushes.  

I canned some pickled beets.

This was the sky one afternoon.  So pretty I had to take a picture of it.

We had lots of grapes.  These are concords.  Hubby had fresh grapes for a couple of days.  What he didn't eat we gave to the chickens.  No I'm not too crazy about grapes.  I did make three quarts of grape juice though and it turned out pretty good.

What I did on my summer vacation...

We went to Pulaski and did a little sightseeing one day, bought some corn and tomatoes from the Amish and then came back home.

No we did more than that LOL.  One day I did six loads of laundry, canned spaghetti sauce, tomato juice and the next day did corn.  We ripped out the carpet in our bedroom and laid down laminate flooring which took two days.  And now we are sore, all over and tired.  I think I need a vacation from my vacation ;)  I did  laundry yesterday and it rained...thought it was going to just be cloudy.  Oh well it did dry and now it is rain water soft LOL.

We're still on vacation so we'll see what else we can do...and keep ourselves out of trouble we promise :)

And still more pics!

I think this is the last of them on my camera for now.

DH on the mower.  This part of the land is really stony.  He's already hit a few rocks and will need to sharpen the blades soon.   Oh for you guys out there, it's a John Deere.

Two views of our new land the second time DH mowed.  We've been going out every other week.

My Christmas cactus blooming in May.  I put it outside on my porch every year for the summer.  It loves the heat and humidity but has never bloomed out there.

This is my other lavender.  This is what I use for my lavender jelly.  If you look really closely you might see the bees.  We have a lot of mason bees but not too many honey bees.  That's OK we love all the pollinators ;)

Isn't this pretty!  The blooms have just started on this.  I will try to get a pic when all the blooms are out.

Our grapes.  We need a few more rains for them to plump up.  These are concord grapes.

This is my frog I have in with my lavender...DH got a little carried away with the weed eater.  He came in and said he took the eyes off my frog.  We have a little toad that lives in our backyard and I thought he meant that he had hurt the toad.  I was very upset but then when he showed it to me I just laughed.  The frog is just a decoration, the toad on the other hand eats the bugs.  I love my toad but only like my frog.  Guess Mr. Froggy is going to have to visit the garbage can...LOL.  (Oh and I don't know what happened to his eyes, I couldn't find them.  Maybe the weed eater pulverized them)

Here are my sunflowers.  These are the first ones that I have had that are short and stocky.  I didn't plant them.  These are from the sunflower seeds that the chicks didn't eat.  We had about six come up.  These ones here and three in the chicken pasture.  Needless to say the ones in the chick area did not make it.  They ate them down to nubs.  When these get big enough and start to dry out in the fall, we'll put the seeds into the chicken feed.  I might scatter a few in with the oats DH grows.  Amazing he didn't mow these down LOL.  

These are our blueberries.  They are starting to come off now and I am overloaded with them.  Whatever we don't eat fresh will be frozen to be canned later.  The branches are so loaded with berries they are hanging on the ground.  I pick them every day.

Raspberries in April.  I have picked most of them  now.

Roxy.  He's our oldest now and a very good mouser.

Blueberries in April.  I just started picking them this week and boy are the branches loaded this year.

These are the boysenberries in April.  I have picked all of them and the branches were really full of berries and this is only two bushes!  These have really big thorns on the branches too.

These are my walking onions with scapes on the tops.  You just pick those off and saute them in a little butter or oil.  Very light tasting onion flavor.  Yum!

My lilac bush (really a tree) that my mom brought  me from PA a couple of years ago.  This is what happens when your DH mows it down the first year you have it LOL.  It actually is about 7 foot tall and has leaves down on the lower half not shown in the pic.  It got flowers on it for the first time this year but they didn't open up.  I think it got a bad frost this spring and it killed them before they could open up.  I'm hoping to get some more branches on that bare middle.  Poor thing she's kind of top heavy and bottom heavy not unlike me rotflmbo....

This is a bush I got at Tractor Supply one year.  It's about three years old now.  I pruned it back this past winter and it really gave me beautiful blooms.  I think it is a weigela (sorry not sure of the spelling).  It blooms in April.

I would have...

posted a pic of the wonderful beef barley stew I made yesterday for supper last night but it seems like it's all gone...I only had two small bowls so some mice must have come along and ate the rest of it cause I know my hubby would not have eaten the rest of the crockpot full....

Here is the recipe so you can experience it for yourself:

2 carrots diced
2 celery spears diced (are they called spears? I dont remember I'm having a menopause moment)
1 small onion diced
Stew meat (add as much or as little as you would like, I used 1/2 lb)
Stock beef or chicken (I used chicken) enough to cover
1/2 cup pearled barley

Put all in crockpot and cook for 8 hours on low.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now I must admit I screwed up my chicken noodle soup when I canned it.  I didnt know you werent supposed to put the noodles in too so needless to say the noodles turned to mush (another menopause moment ;)  So I just drained off the broth and used it in the beef barley stew and threw the noodles away.  It worked great!  See I didnt waste too much...Ok you can stop laughing now.  Now if you put the barley in first thing it will be big and soft so if you like your barley a little bit more al dente (oooh big Italian word) add it during the last hour of cooking and it should be fine. 

By the way the stewing meat we got from Trinity Farms not far from where we are.  It was pasture raised and the meat tastes great so to give them a plug...check out their website http://www.trinityfarmsofalabama.com/  They also raise pigs for slaughter as well.  I got some pig fat to make some lard from them.  Half a side of beef filled our freezer so we are set for meat for the winter, and spring, and fall and winter...two people just dont eat that much in a setting well unless it's beef barley stew LOL.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

How to clean and store garlic bulbs

This is a bowl of garlic that I harvested from my garden.  Garlic is very easy to grow.  I took some pics on how I clean it up to store it.  You dont even have to wash the bulbs off either.  First take a bulb and

cut off the root end.  Then

start taking off the outer layers of skin.  Some of the outer layers will have mold.  See in the pic?  Just take as many layers off that have the mold on them and

look at that!  It looks just like store bought but much better tasting.

Here are some walking onions I also harvested.  Boy are they strong.  Dont need much in any recipe...

And here is all of them cleaned and stored in a mesh bag.  I saved the bag from some onions I had gotten at the store.  Now just put your cleaned garlic in a dry, cool, dark place.  I store mine in my pantry.  This is my whole harvest and should last us until next year.  Any bulbs that we havent eaten get replanted next year. 

Are you eating irradiated foods?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/05/why-are-your-spices--seasonings-exposed-to-half-a-billion-chest-xrays-worth-of-radiation.aspx?e_cid=20111105_DNL_art_3

Check out the article to see the symbol they use for irradiated foods...

Blog you need to check out!

http://www.radicallynatural.com/2011/10/salatin-on-value-of-real-food.html

I have to agree with her on this.  It just irritates me when I see people say that they have to stop at fast food restaurants because they cant afford to buy real food in the supermarket...  It is really easy to fix meals at home and it's not cheaper to buy fast food.  Food tastes better when you make it yourself and if you think that the produce is more expensive in the supermarket then grow your own veggies.  It's not hard.  Anyone can do it.  You dont have a backyard just grow some veggies in a pot on your back porch or front porch. You would be surprised how it tastes.  Supermarket veggies taste like cardboard.  I guarantee if you taste a real tomato that you've raised yourself or bought from a local farmer you will  be amazed at how it tastes.  As for the ones who say they have no time to cook, I really dont think you have time to be in the doctor's office either.  You get more vitamins from food you cook yourself.  That fast food that you love guess what,  it doesnt spoil.  Take a burger and let it hang out a while.  You'll see.  It doesnt mold.  You're putting that in your body.  Gross!  The cheese isnt real cheese.  And if you grow your own food you wont have to worry about salmonella.  It just makes sense to grow your own.

This is just my opinion, any one else have anything to say about this?  Just leave a comment - glad to hear from all of you out there! ;)

Keep Monsanto's sweet corn off your plate

Subject: Keep Monsanto's sweet corn off your plate

This fall, Monsanto, the corporation who produces roughly 90% of the world's genetically modified seeds, will try to bring their new, GMO sweet corn to a grocery store aisle or farmer's market near you.

Unlike Monsanto's other GMO crops -- which are primarily fed to animals -- this sweet corn is intended for direct human consumption.

This is the first time Monsanto has engineered a vegetable that could be served straight to your dinner table. And if this unlabeled, and potentially toxic crop succeeds, Monsanto is sure to bring us even more.

As an activist and consumer, we are in a powerful position to pressure leading U.S. grocery stores to reject Monsanto's new GMO corn.

I just signed a petition telling major grocery stores around the country that I don't want Monsanto's sweet corn on the shelves. Will you join me and help stop this unsafe food?

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/gmo_corn/?r_by=-4506352-nxzEzYx&rc=paste2

Ancestor diets

Our ancestors ate nearly four times the amount of vegetables and fruits as we do today

In ancient times fruits were higher in antioxidant content because they were smaller, like blueberries, with more skin, which is where the antioxidants are located

The modern American diet has substituted cereal grains for fruits and vegetables, lowering antioxidant intake significantly

Interesting huh?

Monsanto strikes again...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/low-fat-gmo-soybean_n_943149.html?ir=Green



The reason their shares went down is that people do NOT want GMO foods.  How about growing some real food GMO farmers?  By the way if you didnt know almost all of the soybeans out there are GMO now.  One reason we stopped drinking soymilk and eating all soy products in our household.

Blog I love!

http://radicallynatural.blogspot.com/2011/08/fda-lunacyattacks-on-real-food-and-real.html

She makes a wonderful argument for less government in our lives.