Still loving the food!

So  I saw another person's blog where she had added up her whole harvest for a year so she and presumeably her readers could see what she had gotten for a harvest.  I have decided to do the same.  I plan on going month to month, with a grand total at the end of the year.  So, since I waited till now to do this, I will count the harvest from last month as well.

Sprouts: 6 lbs.
Mushrooms: 1 lb.

So far, so good!  I am hoping to harvest some chives by the end of the month, and next month I hope to have some peppers ready from the hydroponics room.  We are sprout crazy around here, so we have been sprouting alfalfa, lentils, beets, and mung beans.  We use them in eveything from stirfrys to soups to salads.  I didn't know how many different ways there were to use these amazing versitile veggies!

As far as the rest of the house, the girls and I have decided we need new skirts.  Drag out the fabric, drag out the sewing machine!  Hope to have a few done to post pics of this week!  (All of this was brought on by my long lost copy of "Sew What! Skirts")  Can't wait to have something a little different to wear on Sundays!

Food... I love food...

So, along with this growing my own food thing, I have decided to get more into foraging.  It's not as crazy as it sounds - you just eat the delicious things that grow wild in your area!  For example, there is a crap ton of wild asparagus in my area... if I can just get someone to give up the location.  And someone has posted that they had found wild morels around here!  Last year I harvested some wild lambs quarters and sauted them with a little olive oil and garlic.  Mmmmmm!  I have transplanted a stand of chives that had escaped captivity, and am looking forward to eating more of them this year.  The best part is that I don't have to do anything but sit back and let nature grow me a garden!

Along with "nature's garden" I have started to bake again.  Obsesively.  I wish I could tell you why, but it doesn't make sense to me either...  So tonites project was snickerdoodles.  I asked my sister for her recipe, but she sucks and never did send it.  So I went online and found one at allrecipes.com, and they turned out pretty darn good according to the one kid who was still up to try them.  I haven't eaten one yet, as my deal is baking but not eating the product.  That's what makes it even more spastic...

New leaf?

So I am really into my whole growing thing right now.  (I can tell it's almost spring!)  But the thing that really has me jazzed today is that my husband chose to go to the grow room without prompting to check on the babies!  I made sure, of course to tell him how very cool I thought that was, and how I am really glad that he likes something that I am into the way I like the things he's into.  I knew that he would never get into knitting, but I am suprised at how much he is getting into growing food!  And on that note, I need to remind you all that I have the coolest hubby in the world.  And that I am very lucky to have him in my life.  Woo hoo!  Now for some plant porn!  I hope you guys like looking at naked plants as much as I do, 'cause there's gonna be a lot of it coming up!

Happy growing to each and every one of you!

No, I won't grow weed for you!

  So I started growing things hydroponicaly. Rather, I am starting to grow things in a simple deep water culture set up. I am going to grow lettuce and spinach in a small aquaponic setup. This does not mean I will grow weed for you or anyone else. SO STOP ASKING!!!


That being said, I AM growing tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and cilantro in this setup. So far the peppers have stated growing, the tomatillos are going crazy. The tomatoes aren't quite there yet - coming soon. (I've seen root hairs, no top growth.) This is all a part of me trying to do things more locally. I know I can get honey locally, I have a source of meat, and my father in law makes the worlds best artisan bread. I learned to make cheese, and am venturing out to get the supplies to try more than just ricotta. I have made my own yogurt - I have learned that it IS possible to live about 75-80% locally around here. (Locally to me is within 100 miles.)

I wish I could get a share in a CSA, but that is still a dream from here. So I will work with what I've got and be thankful for all of it! Oh, yeah, and I will try to post more often...

Falling off the wagon...

Bet you all thought you'd never hear from me again!  You should be so lucky!  Really, I don't think I've had a week this busy since I moved to Beach.  Even surgery week wasn't this crazy.  So, as you can guess, with a crazy week I haven't had much time for crafting, canning or anything else pertaining to myself or my home.  I did work on a doily I am making, but honestly it could have been done in a day if I had the time to sit down and do it!

I did get to go to garage sales yesterday with Lynn, and had a GREAT time!  I got a real deal on BHG's "Hip Knits" book as well as several others, got a new food dehydrator, some exercise equipment for this winter, and multiple other treasures.  It was really crazy going to some of these sales and hearing people say, "What is THAT?" knowing full well myself that it was a salad spinner.  Who can't identify a salad spinner?!  Is this what it's come to?  C'est la vie!

Growing things

So, Abby planted green beans in my window. It only took two days for them to start germinating. Leave it to her, 100% germination rate. Now, about 6 weeks later, we have green beans! Now, this did not go off without a hitch - there was the initial, "Wow, these are getting tall!" Then there was a secondary "Um, these are getting TALL!" Then they climbed the wind chime. And now they are everywhere. BUT TASTY TO BOOT!

So, I don't know how or why, but my bush beans were actually POLE BEANS. Marked wrong in the packet. Good thing it all worked out ok!

The tomatoes have been getting ripe lately, and they also are amazing! My girls sure can grow things! Kali was in charge of tomatoes this year. Can't wait to get Adrian planting this week!

As a parting comment, I thought I would remind you how beautiful sunrise can be... at 5:00 am...  from work...

Holy WOW!

So, the best thing to do when you're naseous is to eat chocolate cake, right?  'Cause that's just what I did.  It tasted amazing, but probably wasn't the right choice.  I had to try it because I just found this amazing recipe at http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#1pSFrD/baconconcentrate.blogspot.com/2009/02/most-dangerous-chocolate-cake-recipe.html/  - Chocolate cake in a mug, made in 5 minutes!  I would suggest if you decide to try this that you whip the egg first, and think ahead of what you may want to top it with...  I was looking for caramel ice cream topping, but found homemade cherry topping that my father-in-law made.  Mmmmmm....  but like I said, not so good on the stomach when you're sick...

Eeewwww... bugs!

So, the bugs have arrived, and I do mean arrived! We had a moth in our house that was just HUGE! I didn't know that they came that big! We have spent a lot of time getting rid of bugs - just in time for the kids to leave the door open for more bugs to come in... grrr...


We haven't been doing much this week in the way of kitchen tasks. (Lot's of visits from family and friends.) I did make some yogurt and also made homemade granola... mmm! I am so glad that I found the crockpot recipes for those items! It made the day SUPER simple, and made it almost impossible to screw it up. (Just what I need!)

As far as crafting goes, I have finished the main piecing part of my table runner - just have to get around to making the bias binding and actually quilting it. I asked Mike what he thought and he said, "It definatly looks fallish." Pretty sure that isn't a word. But I'll let it go.



Gacy and Bundy are doing well - if they could just stop breaking their chains! We had just bought new ones for them - they lasted less than a week. Man do I need a new plan.

Curtains and Quilts

That's right. That's what I'm going to be doing this next few days. Funny how the chill in the air brings on the need to do all things domestic. It has been getting into the lower forties at night here, and staying cool a little longer in the mornings. So, as happens every year, the domestic diva in me awakens! That is why I have spent the last few weeks canning, cleaning, baking, and quilting. I forsee a long and crafty winter.



In the spirit of cooking, I made the worlds best fresh tomato soup last night for dinner. Now I have to figure out how to trick my family into eating it every night until I run out of tomatoes. (That is after the seven thousand tomatoes on my plants actually start to turn red!)

Should have written sooner!

I know, you all thought I'd dropped off the face of the planet. No such luck! I just got very lazy with my posts. So here it is, canning season, and I have been one busy beaver! I have put up Peach Jam, Blackberry Vanilla Jam, Chokecherry Syrup, Sour Cherry Jam and made Refrigerator Pickles. Not to mention the batch of 40 homemade breadsticks. So, yeah, my kitchen has been crazy.


During all of this canning and baking my sewers backed up. SO... No dishes, no showers, no laundry. This is the second time. Lucky me, I have an awesome plumber! He is downstairs as I type cleaning my drains. Thank goodness for awesome plumbers! I can flush again! Vive la toilette!

Other than all of that, school started again for my two oldest kids. Back into the swing of things, and back to learning. I hope everyone has a great school year, and we all remember the last days of summer to hold us through this LONG winter!

Playing Guitar

So, I don't know if you knew, but I am a musician at heart. I love to play any musical instrment I can get my hands on, no matter how poorly. So about a year and a half ago my hubby bought me a guitar. And I fell in love with it. Shortly after he purchased the guitar, I bought the "Learn and Master Guitar" series. It has been an awesome help in learning to play this wonderful instrument.
!
The problem is, I can never seem to carve out much time to practice. As a mother I find it hard to pull myself away from my kids! So I guess in the grand scheme of things, I will never be a rock star. (Not that that was ever my goal...) The reason I am writing about this is because even now I feel guilty for taking the time to blog instead of practicing. So if I don't write here regularly, just know that I'm am trying to balance all of the things that I have going on in my life right now. If you have any suggestions on how to juggle all of the little things a mom has to do, let me know! Don't keep those tips to yourself

NIN!!!

I saw the most awesome concert - EVER - last night! Mike took me to see NIN at the Metra last night as a late b-day/ anniversary gift. It was absolutely AMAZING. Hands down the best concert I have ever been to. And I have to say, having bought tickets through NIN.com, I didn't have to wait in line for anything - we were totally treated like VIP's. I love the way everything was handled.





The only complaint I have is that a LOT of the people who attended this concert were complete jerks. The opening act was "The Bug," and the singer happened to be a Jamaican immigrant to London, singing in America. So, being the closed minded retards we are up here, they pulled out the total white supremacist attitudes and booed The Bug. Yeah. REALLY grown up, right? And when Trent tried to play some of the songs off of his "Ghost's" album, they started yelling, "We want our money back!" I thought it was common sense to see what the content of a concert is before buying tickets, but apparently some idiots don't use that thought process.... Oh well! It still rocked HARD! Even being stuck in a mosh pit was worth it to see Trent 20 feet away...




These are a few pics from someones cell phone - he happened to be right behind me taking pics, so you can see the back of my and Mike's heads... and one from another fan. This was after we stepped away from the pot smoking retard in the mosh pit, so we were a little further back in these - but still amazing! (If you have never been to a NIN show, you should check it out on youtube - it is an awesome experience, and the light show alone was worth the money...)

Also, It was Adrian's birthday, so we went to "The Reef," a water park in Billings. It to was amazing! Adrian got to bring Robby along with him, and Abby came to. We let them play and swim for 4 hours before we took them to Toys R Us to pick out Adrian's B-day gift. Man did we all have a fun and busy day!

The car works again!

Stupid car anyway... But Mike fixed it for me! I can't wait to have my heated seats back for the ride to work! Other than the car drama, there hasn't been much going on here at all. Abby is just getting into hair and stuff, so we've spent the last few days figuring out what kinds of "hairdo's" we can give her. She's really pretty good with a curling iron and a straightening iron, so that's awesome! Makes it easier if they're good to start out with! So if you've got any ideas for hairstyles, or beauty websites that she would be interested in, let us know!


Jason and Christina were married on the 19'th of this month... guess they couldn't wait for December! I am happy for them, and wish them the best. I just hope they can be as happy as Mike and I are in our relationship!

Well, it sounds like I'm going to be in Glendive for Thanksgiving, so if ya live there, maybe I'll see ya! (And yes, I'll bring yarn...) Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Mawwage...

I am so excited! Jason and Christina are getting married in December! I won't be the only daughter in law anymore, but I'm willing to share my title as long as it's with someone cool... lol! But really, It hasn't been an awesome week - the car died (again), my furnace is broken (again) and I am nervous about my "employee review." But getting the news about the marriage just made my YEAR! I am very happy for both of them, and for little Mackenzie.

I really hope it all goes well for them! Meanwhile, back at the farm (ha,ha) I am baking up a storm to try to keep the house warm. And I am venting the dryer into the house. All showers are to be taken with the door open and anything else I can think of to keep it nice and liveable in here... It's not really as bad as it sounds - the really nice MDU guy came and brought me two space heaters for us to use over the weekend... Thank goodness for the power guy!

Keeping Us In Stitches

We spent a wonderful weekend in Glendive visiting family and friends. Jason came down to Glendive to help his girlfriend, Christina and her daughter Makenzie move into his mom's house, so we planned an impromptu trip. We all spent the night at mom's, and everything went very well... Until we went home.

About 3 hours after we got home, Adrian cut his foot open. The cut wasn't long, but it was DEEP. Like bones and muscles deep. EEEWWW. So, I had to call Mike at work to come and give us the car so we could go BACK to Glendive to the ER. IN THE MEAN TIME, there was all sorts of drama at work with the kids, so the night just never got any better. Since I had the car, I had to go out to pick up Mike and Gno. Needless to say, there was much talking and general carousing going on at work, so I didn't get home and into bed until midnight. And then got up at four to get ready for work... The girls thought I was going to pass out during the breakfast prayer... Al because of a couple of stitches... (ONE, actually.)

WOW!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We had a great time at a friend's Halloween party - for preschoolers, of course! Kali got to play with her friends Ki and Jackson for a while, along with several others from nursery at church. (She sure made a pretty princess!) Now it's off to trick-or-treat! Have a safe Halloween!

Trunk - Or - Treating!

We had so much fun at the church last night trunk or treating! And the kids had a GREAT time eating (and sharing!) all of their candy! I really love this time of year - when people seem to be getting together more for parties and just plain get togethers.

Mike and I talked about our favorite church gatherings / parties that we have been to in the last few years. He decided that his favorite is the New Years Eve party where we all get together and play games, dance snack and ring in the new year with breakfast at midnight. I really love all the time we share together with our ward family. It's hard being out in the middle of nowhere without a church building in our town.

So, back to the kids - Kali was a fairy, all dressed in beautiful pink. Abby was a witch - good thing she's not every day! Adrian wore a black gown and had cuts, scratches and scars on his face. I was the lunch lady. (I figured it was fitting...) Mike wasn't able to go this year, but we took a couple of friends in his stead. It all reminded me of how comercial things have gotten, and I can honestly say that it was great to let that go for this party.

I Forgot To Tell You!

Sorry to post twice in one day, but I forgot to tell you about this really cool idea I got from a friends blog! I made a mosaic of pictures using the answers to the twelve questions below. I had a lot of fun, and when I was done we did my kid's mosaics. It makes me smile just to look at it! Thanks for the idea, Ashley! (http://blessedbarnharts.blogspot.com/)

To make your own:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php.

The questions:

1. What is your first name? Erika

2. What is your favorite food? vegetables

3. What high school did you go to? ccdhs

4. What is your favorite color? purple

5. Who is your celebrity crush? billy corgan

6. Favorite drink? soda

7. Dream vacation? ireland

8. Favorite dessert? cream puff

9. What you want to be when you grow up? old

10. What do you love most in life? family

11. One Word to describe you. LDS

12. Your flickr name (or your blog name or handle or whatever) better-than-ewe

I'm Back

Wow! It's been a long week! I can't beleive all of the car business and family "stuff" that has gone on!

My aunt Cindy in OR got ahold of me yesterday and we were able to visit for a little while. It was awesome to hear from her, since we don't get to see eachother very much. (It's been a couple years...)


I've been trying to work with my guitar a little more - progress stalled a couple months back, and I have since decided that I need to get back on the band wagon. I bought the "Learn and Master Guitar" series from Legacy Learining. VERY worth the money. Steve Krenz is AWESOME to learn guitar from. My falling off the band wagon was NO fault of his, or of the instructional material. I just got lazy...

Tommorow is "Trunk-Or-Treating" at church, and I'm really looking forward to taking the kids. I have to get their costumes ready tonight, so I guess that means it's time to commit to something.

Work, family and friends.

Well, on my way to work this morning, the car overheated. This was of course due to the loose radiator hose which I had assumed my hubby fixed yesterday. (He did spend half an hour with the hood up on the car, after all...) Guess I was wrong! So, after I finally made it to work, the day went very well. I finished the things that needed to get done, with time to spare! I spent an extra hour there to make up for the time I missed yesterday when I was at home, sick. So overall, things went very well!

Fast forward to after school, my daughter got a ride home from her friend and her parents, which left Adrian alone at the afterschool program. On the ay home, he stopped at a friends house to see if he could come over. The friends older brother and the older brother's friend proceded to repeatedly hit my son. Then then convinced two other boys, including my sons friend, to hit him also. We had a problem last year with one of these boys, but now it seems to have progresed. So now I have to call the school and make them aware of the bullying that has been going on. I am not writting this to proffess his inocence, but rather to ask, what would you do if it was your kid? I know that my son is different than the other kids. I know that he is one of the "newer" kids here, even though we have been here two years. But is that enough reason for the parents of these children to turn their heads while their children bully others?

(This goes as far as the parents of one of these children telling my kids that she was going to call the cops on them for walking on her sidewalk.) What kind of world are we living in?