$25 off $25 Purchase at Gardens Alive

Starting off the new year with a nasty cold hasn't been fun but I've been putting my time on the sofa to good use by going through seed catalogs and dreaming of being in the garden.  I just happened to notice this...right now, you can request a free Gardens Alive! catalog and it will arrive with a a coupon for $25 off any $25 purchase on the back page! 
They're also offering $20 off product orders of $40 or more on their website (limit 1 offer per customer).

I'm thinking about getting the following:

#Organic yukon gold potatoes, $14.95
#67909 Organic Cal Wonder Pepper, $3.10
#3203 Organic Sugar Baby Watermelons, $3.45
#3199 Organic Roma Tomatoes, $3.45
#3197 Beefsteak tomatoes, $3.45

Total out-of-pocket after coupon: $3.40 (+ $9.95 shipping).

Leave a comment and let me know what you get for your $25!

New Goals for a New Year

I want to start by saying that I hate resolutions and I'm not going to make any. I mean, really...how many people find themselves in mid-January having completely thrown their resolutions out the window? No, sir! You won't find me in that crowd.

But I do think it's time to evaluate what we'd like to accomplish next year as improvements to the garden, the farm and ourselves.   Here's a list that I've had in my head for a couple of months:

• Organize the basement, laundry room and pantry, including a database to keep track of what food items we have and their expirations.
• Learn to make our own bread and eliminate store-bought bread from our diet.  J. keeps talking about a sourdough starter.   Bring it on!
• Take a class or read a book on how to use our wizz-bang camera, an older Canon Rebel XTi EOS 400D SLR. I'd really like to improve on the quality of pictures on this blog. :-)
• Finish the renovations on our rental house and get it sold.  Before we do that, I'd like to get our two remaining full-size apple trees transplanted over there so they can provide pollination for our trees.  Hopefully, the new owner won't cut them down.  This goal is very important to our plan of getting completely our debt.
• Finish the renovations on our travel trailer and get it moved up to the real farm.
• Finalize our water management plans for the mini-farm so that we're not using city water for the garden or chickens
• Diversity the plants in the garden to include more varieties of heirloom tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, carrots, garlic and potatoes.  That list may get bigger as I go through all the seed catalogs that are now showing up, but it's a good start.  And I'm going to try to start everything from seed.
• Get healthier.  J. and I have both packed on some mid-life pounds and we need to take some steps to get rid of it.  I'd like to see us get outside more and into a healthier pattern of eating - less processed foods, less eating out (even if it is convenient!) and more eating food that we've grown ourselves or from the Farmer's Market.

That's a pretty big list and it will take us all year to get this stuff done.  Whew!  But I'm excited to get started on that organization item today.  I'll be posting pictures of our progress for you shortly.

I'd love to hear what goals you have for 2012. Please let me know in the comments below!

View more posts just like this on Homestead Revival's Homestead Barnhop #43.

On the Eve of 2012

What a beautiful day!  65 degrees and sunny on the last day of the year is hard to believe, particularly since last year we had snow on the ground and it was only 3 degrees!  As I write this, the wind is whipping around the corners of the house and the noticeable chill in the air tells me that the front has finally arrived.  Our high tomorrow is supposed to be half of what it was today.

I suppose it's natural for us homo sapiens to see the end of the calendar year as a time for reflection on what was and what is to come.  2011 was an interesting year as J. and I started our journey toward building this little mini-farm in the city and long-term planning for our move to our larger farm.  That seems a long way off, since we probably won't make it there permanently until retirement.  But, you know, time seems to speed past me even faster as I get older.  We have been blessed in 2011, though, in that we haven't been impacted by job loss, or serious health issues, or anything major.  And, yes, I am knockin on wood that it stays that way.  It is definitely not something that I take for granted.

If anything, 2011 has been one long learning experience.  And perhaps the most important lesson I learned is what I don't know.  There is definitely so much more.  But we did make great strides this year:

• Built a beautiful chicken coop

• Raised 9 chicks from the time they were 2 days old and they're happily supplying us with eggs and entertainment on a daily basis
• Cleaned out the fence lines and re-fenced the entire back lot\farm
• Planted an organic raised bed garden full of several varieties of tomatoes, jalapenos, pumpkins and watermelons
• Started a small orchard of dwarf apple trees and planted blackberries and strawberries
• I attended an 8-week long canning\preserving class and, not only did I put away some tasty salsa, but I also roasted my own pumpkins and used them to make pumpkin bread.
• Got our water issues taken care of with the purchase of a Big Berkey from Ebay 
• Continued to add to our food stockpile and cleaned the basement out so that we could better organize everything
• Procured a 1988 Terry Taurus travel trailer that we'll be taking up to the real farm next year after we finish renovating it.  That will give us a place to sleep if we want to spend the weekend up there, as well as a much-anticipated bathroom!

Here's our coop and two of our raised beds - new in 2011!

There were some sad moments this year as well.  My boss lost his wife of 40+ years right before the holidays.  And J. and I said goodbye to the first puppy that we raised together.  Chase, a beautiful black lab mix with soulful golden eyes, left us early in the year.  The ground was frozen solid but it didn't matter to either of us - we both shed more than a couple of tears as we labored to bury him in the backyard.  He was a rescue puppy and not much past weaned when we got him.  J. always described him as "sober as a judge" because the odd thing about Chase is that he never wanted to play.  But he loved being near people and was smart as a tack.  Even now, it's bringing tears to my eyes to think of him, and I hope he is somewhere chasing rabbits in the warm sunshine.

Well, the new year begins in just one short hour.  I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring us here at Cranky Puppy Farm and to you as well, my dear readers.

Wishing all of you a good night and nothing but happiness in 2012,

Now We're Cooking: Cast Iron

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year?  A 12" Lodge cast iron skillet.  Made in the good ol' USA, yes sir.  Just seeing a cast iron skillet stirs up memories of heavenly smells emanating from the kitchen as my grandfather fried up sliced potatoes for dinner. 

The skillet came pre-seasoned and J. also gave me some cute stocking stuffers to go with it - some silicone scrapers and a handle cover.  I questioned the pre-seasoning, though.  If you're familiar with cast iron, it has to be properly seasoned and that means it gets better the more you use it.  It's practically non-stick once it's seasoned and it heats so evently that it's very easy to cook with (unlike some of my cheap non-stick pans).  So we got to work on the seasoning by making...you guess it....fried potatoes!

I had been looking for used cast iron all over the place last year - at auctions, estate sales, etc.  I saw one Lodge skillet at an auction but we didn't stick around long enough to see what it sold for.  It was the middle of summer and we had gardening to tend to.  People hold onto these things, because they will last a life time.  But if you do find one used, you can bring it back to life even if it's been let go to rust.  Just take some steel wool to it to remove the rust and the start the seasoning process again.  

So how do you season cast iron?  It's easy:

1. Rub the entire skillet with oil.  Canola, vegetable oil, or lard is fine, but I'd stay away from olive oil.  If your skillet has a lid, cover the lid as well.  Don't soak it so that it's dripping- just rub the oil in so it's uniformly covered.
2. Put the skillet (and lid) in the oven and at 300 degrees and leave it for an hour.
3. Remove the excess oil, either with a paper towel or rag.  Some folks say to rub it with coarse salt, but I don't do that every time. 

So what interesting things did you give or get for Christmas?  Any I the only one that got cookware?  (LOL)  And if you have any favorite cast iron recipes and are willing to share, I'd love to hear them.  Please share!

And All Through The House



Is this Prancer permanently preserved in ice? 



I confess...I cannot resist Victorian ornaments.

Happy Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Visions of Sugarplums

O Christmas Tree

Our annual tradition (if you can call it that) has been to make hot cocoa and decorate the Christmas tree while we listen to some beautiful classical Christmas renditions.  J. hauled the tree up from the basement for me and, while it's been much too warm outside to stir up the cocoa cravings, we still had a good time decorating.  My other tradition has been to buy or create one new ornament every year and I think this is the first year that I haven't gone out on my annual ornament hunt.  I am having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit - possibly because of the weather or maybe it's the economy that has everybody down.  But the tree always helps my mood and I think it is beautiful.  Someday, *crossing my fingers*,  we will throw away this fake tree and replace it with one grown on our farm.

Giggles on Aisle 9

Sometimes in life you encounter those little things that just make the corners of your mouth turn up into a little smile. You know what I'm talking about - those random little funnies that are completely unexpected unserious acts in an otherwise serious world.

I had one of those moments in front of the meat counter at Hyvee today and ended up giggling like some demented crazy woman. And this is why....

Yep, no need to check your glasses.  That's a pig's head made entirely out of ground pork sausage.  I guess it was a slow day in the meat department.

Lovin' This Weather!

It's almost 60 degrees today with less than a week to go before Christmas.  It certainly seemed odd to be out shopping today in short sleeves and no jacket. But I'm certainly not complaining - in fact, sorry to disappoint all you snow lovers, but I'd be perfectly happy if it stayed this way all winter.

J. and I spent the day shopping and fixing the gutter on the girls' coop.  We had never finished the downspouts and, with all the rain and snow forecasted for next week, we thought we had better get it done while the weather was cooperating.

Then it was off to organize for our Secret Santa giveaway next week and start wrapping.  Looking at the pile of stuff to be wrapped, I think we might just get done by Christmas if we start now.  I'm worn out already!

Merrily yours,

Today is National Poinsettia Day

We've always enjoyed having poinsettias grace our mantel, so I was looking for a great deal on these.  I can't believe some places want anywhere from $7 to $13.99 (Hen House Market!)  This year, we lucked out and found some coupons for $2.00 off any holiday flowers so I snagged two beautiful poinsettias for just $1.99 each.  One will go on our mantel and I'll take the other to work to brighten up the office.  And now how about some fun facts about this Christmas plant? 

Did you know.....

• They are native to Mexico and the Aztecs used them to produce a red dye?
• Poinsettias were introduced to the U.S. in 1825 by Joel Poinsett, hence the modern-day name.  Poinsett was an American botanist, physician and Minister to Mexico who sent cuttings of the plant he'd discovered in souther Mexico to his home in Charleston, South Carolina.
• 90% of all poinsettias are exported from the United States?  They are commercially grown in all 50 states and contribute $250 million to the U.S. economy.
• There are over 100 varieties?  My favorite is the peaches and cream.
• December 12th (today!) is National Poinsettia Day.  The day was established in July 2002 to honor the Poinsett's death.
• It is completely untrue that they are poisonous to pets and children?  In fact, according to the American Society of Florists, no consumer plant has been tested for toxicity more than the poinsettia.

Wow, I certainly didn't know all that.  Did you?  Does the poinsettia have a place in your home for the holidays?

I Guess It's Official

Oops...the Farmer's Almanac said our first snow wouldn't be until the week of the 17th!