Downton Abbey humor

Half garden planted

I already had potatoes, peas, several different kinds of cabbage, celeriac planted.  Today I planted seeds for kale, sunflowers, several different kinds of beets (a lot), carrots and hubby planted his tomato plants.  I'm going to wait until it gets warmer to plant some cucumbers, melons and such.  I'm trying some companion planting this year.  We'll see how it turns out.  It is such a pretty day out.  Rain is on the way tonight and all day tomorrow.  Nearby farm has fresh strawberries.  I need to get me some...yum.  Other than that, not much going on here.  I hope it's warming up where you are.

Another site for graph paper

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

This one has triangles and hexagons too for paper piecing that hexagon quilt you always wanted to do.  Now you can make multiple hexagons on one sheet of paper.  Really a great idea.

Yarn for life!

Here is a link to enter a contest through Fons and Porter's Love of Knitting magazine.  You can enter for free no obligation although they do ask for your email and address.  You (or me, please be me ;) could win yarn for life.  First prize is yarn for 20 years and second prize is yarn for a year.  Remember, yarn is a good insulation for your walls LOL.

http://ck.upickem.net/r/2JgyxwCnh3h?r=898791

I found some...

I was looking for graph paper and found these free ones here:

http://donnayoung.org/math/graph-paper.htm  

She has multiple sizes.  I printed out the 1/4 inch size.

I'm mapping out where to put everything in the cabin before we move in just to save some time and swearing LOL.  Cause there's nothing worse than moving somewhere and trying to fit your stuff in and finding that something doesn't fit.  We have to get the water well first though so this will give me something to do in the meantime and we can see how much stuff we need to get rid of too.

Interesting article to read

http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/the-it-cant-happen-here-syndrome/

Gardening update

Hubby finally got the garden rototilled and then I planted my potatoes.  Then I planted some peas in between the potatoes (they are supposed to be good companion plantings together).  We have cabbage, celeriac and tomato seedlings almost ready to go in.  Have to wait another couple of weeks to be past the last frost date here.

The chickens are really putting out the eggs.  This is their third year.  Hoping they live and lay for a while since we don't plan on getting any chicks for a year at least.

The blueberries and cherry trees have lots of buds.  Keeping my fingers crossed that we will have lots of cherries this year as last year there were lots but they all dropped off...:(  Not too worried about the blueberries, they are soooooo prolific every year.

I been knitting

Here is a little sweater I made myself.  It is a short one but I loved the pattern.  It was very easy.

I usually use a pin to close it (not the clothespin pictured LOL).

Here is a close up of the lace pattern:

The yarn was a wool/acrylic blend.  I think I might  do another one but lengthen it cause Lord knows I don't need to show off my butt ;)

I been quilting

No I didn't do this top but I bought it on Ebay and then put it together.  I just fell in love with the background fabric.  Here is the back I put with it:

It's just a lap size quilt.

This is a table runner I made using precuts, 2 1/2 inch ones and 5 inch ones.  I didn't even buy them together and they are from different manufacturers but the look good together don't they?

Here is the back:

I had this piece for a while.  I thought I could flip the table runner and use this side for Christmas if I wanted to.  Here is a close up of some fancy stitching I did on my machine for it:

It's just the feather stitch.  I used a variegated thread.  It goes from off white to a light brownish color.

Here is another table topper.  I now have this backed, pinned and ready to quilt.  And I did iron it after this pic was taken ;)

A short video

This is a short video on Monsanto's seeds.  Gives you a little bit of history on the company and what they are doing now.  If you ever wondered about GMO's, check out this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=htt91SjI7uY

Heads Up!

Just wanted to let everyone know that you can view for free the Food Matters movie.  Here is the link:

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/free-worldwide-online-screening?utm_expid=56511667-2

If you haven't seen it, you need to because it is very informative and they are giving away 500 DVD's of the movie and you get free recipes.  I've seen it before and signed up to see it again.  Yes, it's that good.

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

Fracking Our Farms article

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_27073.cfm

Interesting story on Fracking Our Farms.

Hanging clothes

Note to self:  Hanging clothes on the line in 33 degree weather is not a great idea.

Not much happening here.  Can't wait to plant our garden.  How about you?

Long time no see

Yep I'm back again.  I've been busy just doing day to day things.  I've been selling things on Ebay and getting rid of other things just to get ready for the cabin adventure.  I've been sewing a lot and knitting a lot too.  Here are some pics:

Some socks for me.

Thought I better start making some socks as ours are getting rather hard to mend anymore what with all the holes :)  Next on the needles are some socks for hubby.  I also have on the needles a sweater for hubby and another one for myself.  Yes I multitask LOL.

Don't know if you can see this but I wanted to show you how to piece batting on something you are quilting.  You line up the pieces and sew them together.   

It's an excellent way to use up scrap batting for small wallhangings or table toppers.

This is the batting all sewed up and ready for my table topper.

And here's the top of the table topper.  I have since finished this.  Need to get a pic of the finished topper for you.  To make this topper you need 5" squares and 2 1/2" squares.  Place the smaller squares on opposite sides and sew from corner to corner (you can mark them on the back but I just winged it).  Cut off the excess triangles.  (Don't throw these triangles away.  I have an idea I'll share in a later post)  I squared them up to measure 5" and then tried out the placement on the table to see how they looked the best and then sew them together.  I used a 5" border. I used two packages of precuts for this and had plenty left over to make another one plus.  The squares I used weren't even from the same designer but I think they look great together.

On the home front, our chickens have started laying again.  Boy did we ever miss our home grown eggs.  We were getting them from an Amish farm but their eggs just didn't even compare to ours.  They keep their chickens penned up and ours have access to fresh grass - big taste difference!  We've been juicing and drinking our green juice every chance we get.  I give the pulp to the chickens.  They do not like carrots and their run is looking a little orange ;) but they do like the greens.  I even had some chard and parsley growing in the garden so pulled some chard leaves for the chickens and juiced some of them for us too.  I picked a little bit of the parsley (left some to grow) and dried it.  mmmm parsley potatoes mmmm.

I started some seeds and the plants are up and just waiting to get bigger and the weather to cooperate so I can plant them.  The weather today is pretty yucky.  It's turning colder and it's raining.  Last week we were over two inches above normal for the year.  Hope it keeps up and we have no drought this year.  I have to wait for a sunny day to hang my clothes out on the line so I did them yesterday since it was so beautiful out but the week before I had almost two weeks worth of laundry.  No fun doing that much laundry.  Took me all day.  

Cabin News-  We burned a lot of brush and small twigs.  We pulled up some rotten tree stumps but need to take our saw with us next time so we can cut some of them out.  The wet weather does help with this kind of job.  It would have been so much harder if the ground would have been really dry.

I guess that catches you up on my life, how's yours been?

Something's not right...

It's 70 degrees here today!  I looked in the garden and I had parsley growing from last year!  And I saw bees, BEES...that's messed up.  It's January....

Barbecued beef sandwiches

1/2 bottle of ketchup
1/2 cup berry jelly
small amount of water
1 lb of leftover cooked beef roast shredded

In a saucepan add ketchup and jelly.  Stir until jelly is dissolved.  Add a little bit of water to thin if needed.  Add the beef and simmer until hot.  Serve on buns.  Makes at least 8 sandwiches.

This is a great way to use up jelly.  It adds sweetness to the sauce.  You could even start with tomato sauce instead of the ketchup and/or add onions and peppers and then add your spices to taste.

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

You may not like guns...

Thomas Jefferson

Our third President, Thomas Jefferson, had some good advice:

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny."

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

One of my very favorite presidents is Thomas Jefferson.  He was a very interesting person and I would have loved to have met him along with Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.  I'm going to be reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.  I understand he like to take air baths in later years.  Sitting nude in front of an open window...Hmmm I wonder if that was on the first floor or second of his home LOL.  Gave those faint of heart ladies something to see I'm sure :)