Answered Prayers...

A month ago I prayed that God would change something in my life. I needed to get out more, be around other adults more, but still have plenty of time with the girls. Ever since, there has been a flood of opportunity around here, and now I find my days full of things that I really enjoy.

• It started with Sherrie and I setting a standing coffee date for Tuesday mornings.
• Then my good friend Dianna invited me to an FCE meeting. So, I joined FCE.
• Next, the girls gymnastics coach offered me a for-trade job one night a week.
• Then I started my website, and it took off, giving me many opportunities to get out & about, and talk with people about eating locally & the local farmers' market.
  
• Last week I started a study for lent with Anna, called The Artists Way.
• Last Thursday, while serving lunch at the Senior Center with the Farmer's Market crowd, Ms. Kathy asked me to be on the board for the center. I accepted.
  
• I became an official Farmgirl through the MaryJane's Farm website, and am already involved with 2 online swaps, and starting up a local group.
• At FCE yesterday, Dianna asked me to give a short presentation at next month's meeting about my website.
• After the meeting I went and signed Peanut up for 4-H, and she has her first cornbread cook-off this morning at the elementary school.
• Tuesday, the girls will begin taking piano lessons with Dianna, which I'll be paying for with eggs, some computer lessons, and maybe a loaf of bread or two.

All in all, I feel richly blessed, and just wanted to share my good news with all of you. Peace~

Adventures in Homebrewing: Part III...

My latest adventure into home-brewing Friday reminded me of our trip to Yellowstone.
Or a bad, comedic play.
Husband: "You should try one of those root beers and a cola with the girls for dinner tonight."
Wife, the gullible fool replies, "Okay, sure."
Husband: exit stage left.
You already know what's coming, don't you?

It started small, seemingly harmless.

And then it grew.

And grew.

Until, Holy Mary, Mother of God!!
Root beer everywhere in the kitchen, and all over me!

(cue laughing children.)
Wife calls Husband, "About that root beer..."
Husband deadpans, "You'd better get that in the fridge."
(fade to black, end scene.)

A slice of my country life...

Today, Saturday, was my first official day as a member of the Farmgirl Sisterhood. In honor of that fact, I thought I'd post about my day. It was, after all, a very farmgirl type of day, as most are.

I snapped this picture because it really sums up my day, from start to finish. First, note my favorite farm boots. I wear them while doing anything farm-ish. I love these boots, probably far more than a normal person should... In the background you can see the chicken waterer that was frozen when I started chores in 28 deg. weather at about 7:00 am. Next to it is the bucket I use to haul water to everyone else. By mid-morning the weather had warmed up to a sunny 65 deg. and I started hanging out laundry. Lots of laundry.

An insane amount of laundry, really, but I loved being outside, so it was okay. Quite a change from the snow a week ago. On top of my boots you can see my well-loved gloves. I used them a lot today. You see, I want a bigger garden this year, and right now the spot I want it in looks like this: (Sorry, forgot to snap the photo until sunset, but I was busy, okay?)

(gratuitous shop progress photo)

See the white tarp on the left? It's covering our most recent wood delivery. If I want the garden, then it all has to go. So, I carted half of it down the very steep hill in a wheelbarrow, 10 pieces at a time, where I stacked it. See? (The wood and the steep hill.)

Somewhere in there I got a shotgun lesson, but took no pictures of that.
Let's just say I hit my target. Dead on, in fact.

At the end of the day, I used my rechargeable lantern to go put my chickens to bed, and collect eggs, which I love to do. I have two birds who sit on the bench on the front porch every night until I come out with the lantern, and then they follow me down the hill to bed. It's very funny.

Aren't they pretty eggs? We get everything from chocolate, to pale pink, to green.
At some point I also cooked 2 meals (Al made breakfast), brushed the two dogs, investigated an injured paw on Wonder Mutt, read a new MaryJane's Farm, organized my hutch, moved our school stuff back upstairs, home-schooled the girls, and found time to blog. (here I am, now!) Before bed, I still plan to do the dishes, put away the eggs, read a chapter in The Artist's Way, work on my website, and hopefully find some time to work on my Farmgirl Sisterhood Badge. I hope you enjoyed this slice of my country life. Gotta go!

A Visitor: (DEBBIE DODD: SKIP THIS POST!)

Let's play a little game, shall we?
Can you find the wildlife in this photo?

How about this one?

Here's the closeup.

Peanut found this copperhead Saturday, about a foot from where they were all sitting playing with action figures. Thank goodness I just told them to watch for snakes, since it was warming up! (I'd seen a black snake near the mailbox the day before.) This one had just crawled out of his hole to enjoy the warm sunshine.

Can you blame him, really? He was quite attractive, I just wish he hadn't been quite so close to the house. Or my kids! It did make for a great science lesson, though!

I KNIT A SCARF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess this is turning into the year I will be successfully crafty and creative. See that scarf? I knit that! It's the first thing I've ever successfully knitted, and I worked my way through it all by myself. I just got some cool yarn from Wal-Mart, and the biggest needles they had, and followed these simple directions. I did play with it a bit, and settled on 25 stitches wide, but other than that I did what the pattern says. Knit. Maybe next time I'll figure out how to Purl. I started it at Christmas, and finished it for Valentine's day. In the grand scheme of things, that is a pretty good time line for a craft for me. (That is called tooting your own horn, I think!)
Next up? I think I'll finish one of the embroidery projects I have started.
Look out world, I'm on a roll!

More Snow Pictures...

Are you tired of the view off my deck yet? Mmmm. me neither. This is what it looked like Tuesday morning. I love the snow. As long as I don't have to go anywhere in it. I know. 4-wheel drive. But why use it if you don't have to?

See how deep it is on the table? We think this is the most snow we've seen at one time since we moved to TN. It's snowed for 3 days at our place. That's a lot for us. I know, Dad, I know.

Is this not the coolest picture? I always love Cardinals, but you can't beat how cool they look in the snow.

So this is what I've been doing. Sitting inside, warm from the wood stove, reading gardening books, drinking coffee, and counting birds.

The Backyard Bird Count was this last weekend.
We counted 10 cardinals at once. 5 pair. It was so cool!
There are worse ways to spend a February morning.

Peanut is 11!

Can you believe this beautiful girl is my kid? not me.
She turned 11 on Saturday. Friday night we kidnapped her & Grammie and took them to the Circus for their birthdays. Everyone had a great time.

For her actual birthday, she decided she wanted a Luau. So we made tissue paper flowers & decorates with anything we could find remotely luau themed in Feb.

Once dad had left for work we moved the coffee table, cranked up the beach boys and the kids rocked out. (No, I don't have another one, that's my Godson, Russell.) The girls wore flowered skirts to dance in. We nixed bikinis and grass skirts due to freezing temperatures in Middle TN over the weekend.

I was short on time this year, so I confess, I bought the cake. It was a plain "party" cake from Kroger that we doctored with colored sugar and some Polly Pocket beach accessories to make it match our theme. I think it turned out pretty well!

After all, you can't go wrong with Tiki lights and Paper Drink Umbrellas.
Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Feed Sack Market Tote

So, our feed supplier recently switched from recyclable paper sacks to #5 plastic bags. Too bad for us- our small county isn't equipped to handle #5 plastics. If you know us at all, then you know we are fanatical recyclers. Oh, woe is me, what to do, what to do? Not one to be put off by a challenge, I went looking online for a place to recycle the bags. Most of the options in our area were for residents of Franklin County only, although there was an option for a mail-in recycling program. But, I wanted something more creative for the moment. Now, my actual feed bags still had feed in them, but I did have a bird seed bag that was empty, so Sunday night I sat down with my sewing machine, and in about an hour, I had made this:

Tah Dah!! A recycled, extremely durable, funky, good-looking market tote bag! What do you think? I can't wait to make some more bags, now that the chickens got their dinner rations. Stay tuned...

Brew Day: Take 2

Yesterday started out looking like a weird chemistry lab had moved into my kitchen. WAIT! Before you call the Feds, let me explain. It was another Brew Day here at our place, and this batch required extra "yeasty-beasties."

That's what this is. Yeast, in a beaker with an airlock. Oh my. Where's my coffee. Anyway, that was yesterday. So I thought today would be peaceful. And then...
"Dad, can we brew soda today?"

That's right. There's already 2 generations of homebrewers living under my roof. Bunch of bootleggers, if you ask me!

So, in the last two days my Itty Bitty Kitchen has churned out 5 Gallons of Imperial Stout, 3 1/2 Gallons of Root Beer, 3 1/2 Gallons of Cola, and it bottled 150 bottles of beer. Now if I can only get in there to bake some bread...
Cheers!!

Famous me 2

Here's what I got from a different pic.
Told you I was bored.



Brooke Sheilds is a much nicer match than Sally Strothers!
Looks like me & Charlotte Church are home-girls.
She's the only one who showed up in both pics.

Famous me...

Snowed in on a Monday, with nothing better to do while Mr. Incredible brews beer...
Here's my celeb. look-alikes: Whatcha think?

I have to confess I left Sally Strothers off the list.
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, you know what I'm saying??

Homemade Yogurt

Sunday night I made my own organic yogurt, and it was SO easy, and turned out great. I found the directions in the Tried-and-True issue of MaryJane's Farm. (Oct/ Nov 2009: p.87) I used my crockpot to keep it warm, but if you do this, monitor your water temp (too hot will kill it) Mine was too warm to leave it on, so I heated it to 110 deg, turned it off, covered it, and draped it with a towel. I let it sit overnight, and then 8 Cups of organic milk, and 2 5.3 oz containers of Greek-Style Organic Yogurt later, I got 6 pints of yummy, thick yogurt. Some of this I will save for my starter next time, so all I will need to add is milk. The rest we're sweetening with a dab of Freezer Jam here, or a dash of homemade vanilla there. It's been good in Crepes, and with Carribean Jerk Pork Loin as a dipping sauce. I think it will be great this summer with some cucumbers and Gyros. Or in smoothies. Or on waffles. The possibilities are endless. Yum!

An Ode to Anna...

Have you ever met Anna?

She is my amazing confidant, partner in crime, my mentor in all things internet. My children's godmother. My husband's antagonist. My friend.

She is an incredible photographer, an animal lover, a foodie, and a hopeful romantic.

She did a TON of design work for me on my new blog yesterday. Look.


That's my nifty new logo she made me. And my cute tomato favicon on my eat local site. Go look. It's cute. Trust me. She gave me a great Twitter page, too! She's working on T-shirts, and tote bags, and other cool designs for me too! I can't thank her enough. But I can try.

Anna is the kind of friend I can talk to about anything. Church. Our faith. Our lack of Faith. Kids. Homeschooling. Husbands. Life. Big Schemes, and Little Dreams. We spent the ENTIRE day chatting and working on the website together. The only way it could have been better was if we'd been less than 2 hrs from each other while we did it. A virtual coffee date, that turned into lunch (when I moved to the coffee shop) then dinner, then a few beers after hours. Great stuff.

We never run out of things to say. If I'm sad she cheers me up. If I'm UP she celebrates with me. She's a great encourager of all things I try, and a sounding board for the things I haven't tried yet. She stretches my mind. I only hope I'm half the friend to her that she is to me. Thanks, Anna.

Go tell her you think she's great, too, okay? Thanks.

EAT LOCAL TN!!

Today is THE day.

Here it is, Whether I'm ready or not...
my new website:
eatlocaltn.com
THE online source for where and how to eat fresh, green & local in Southern Middle TN.

This map shows the area I'm focusing on;
Marshall, Bedford, Coffee, Lincoln, Moore, and Franklin Counties.
(between I-65 and I-24 east to west, and 840 to the AL state line north to south)

Here's the deal. We started the 100-mile diet challenge last month.
The more I looked for local food, the more I realized there was no one place to find the information I was looking for. I also discovered that much of the food being produced locally was being taken into Nashville to market. I want to help fix that. It's still a work in progress, but I'm very happy with the response I've gotten from it so far. Now it's your turn to check it out and let me know what you think.

Now you know what I've been doing for the last month! (I seem to have tied myself to a runaway train.) I'll still blog here about other stuff, but my search for local food will now happen over there. That way, those of you who are family & friends out of state no longer have to hear me wax poetic about where to find a good tomato in TN. Well, not as much, anyway. I y'am what I y'am, you know!

What I've Been Up To...

• I joined F.C.E.
  
• I got a job. (receptionist one night a week at Tumble U Gymnastics)
  
• I'm building a Local Food Website. (Almost... come back on Monday for the big reveal)
• I've almost finished knitting my first scarf.
• I've been reading, reading reading, reading... (gardening, local, fresh food, self-sufficiency)
  
• I'm planning the new garden we hope to get in this year.
• Homeschooling the girls (of course.)
• Looking for next year's books used and/or cheap.
• Oh, and in my spare time I chat with Anna about all of the above topics.

I'm insanely busy. I can't wait for spring. I'm very excited & happy about everything I'm up to. Life is good.

My Favorite...

This spunky little female cardinal, hands down.
She doesn't let those showy boys push her around.
Might be why I like her.

Bird Traffic...

Overheard from Curly Sue (an avid birdwatcher, too):
"WOW! Mom has some serious bird traffic!!"

This was on Saturday; we counted 10 types of birds at our feeders on the back deck:
Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mockingbird, Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, House Finch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, & Carolina Wren. Since then we've also had Dark Eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves, a Rufus Sided Towhee, and Yellow-Rumped Warblers.
I LOVE living here!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Work on the shop has been called on account of inclement weather.
The girls couldn't be happier.

It made a great base for a snowball fight!

What do you think she's gonna do with that snowball?
Doesn't get any cuter than hot pink mud boots.
Even if they are a woman's size 6!