because i want playing in the dirt to be as much fun as possible...

it's hard to believe, but this long, cold winter finally seems to be drawing to an end. and with the arrival of DST, we can enjoy the longer days in all our sleep deprived glory!

as usual, we feel as if we're running just a tad bit behind here, but now that we're "almost" over the hump of "finishing" the schoolroom and putting the house back to "normal", I've been concentrating my efforts outside.

*working in the high tunnel

*planting the cold frames with lettuce, spinach and radishes

*supervising the building of our raised beds

*hauling manure hither and yon

of course, the girls are eager and very willing to help. A is 3½ this year, and B is 2. both girls, but especially B, are too young to understand the concept of walking between the garden rows.

as opposed to smashing every delicate plant and seed in sight.

*ahem*

we were working in the high tunnel this afternoon, planting more lettuce, spinach and radishes, as well as beans and peas, and i had an idea. what if i clearly marked the rows where the girls could walk?

i took a roll of orange surveyor's tape and laid it down between the rows in the high tunnel, lining the rows where the girls could safely walk.


this simple idea greatly reduced the frustration level, and enables the girls to be in there working with me- whether planting, picking rocks, weeding, harvesting or watering.


happy little gardeners works for me!

this works great for me!

we love getting all the photographs and yearly updates from far-flung friends and relatives every year at Christmas time. it's nice to stay in touch, and hear about what thier family has been doing, and listen good naturedly to some bragging about their children's accomplishments. i display all the cards in the archway of the living room, and we enjoy looking at them all season long.

but after it's time to take down the tree and pack away all the nativity scenes, it seems a shame to put away all those cute pictures of our friends and their families. (and if their family is anything like ours, i know that it can be a nightmare getting a nice picture of all your children in the very same photograph. someone is either not looking, blinking, or itching their nose...)

in order to enjoy these photographs for much longer, i display them on the inside of my kitchen cupboard. i just taped them up with painter's tape, and whenever i open up the door, some of my dearest friends are there smiling out at me! (i also like to do this because it doesn't clutter up the front of the refrigerator) i've also found that this is a good place to display some of the children's artwork, as well.

for more great tips, pop on over to Kristin's site, and maybe you'll find some ideas that will work for you!

why didn't i think of this before?

Northern PA can be very cold, as we're finding out. tonight the outdoor thermometer reads 24 degrees and dropping! we live in a huge old house, with the heating system still in progress, so sometimes our house gets a little chilly, too. to keep both little girls, A and B toasty warm, I'll often dress them in leggings or tights, even under their overalls.

we have a drawer full of tights, in several sizes, and sometimes it gets hard to tell the difference between the white tights and the cream colored ones. so I've started a system to help me tell what color the tights are, no matter how many times they've been washed, or even if they are hand-me-downs.

all the cream colored tights that i buy (or wear) for the 2 little girls, are either ribbed or cable knit. the white tights are all plain. that makes it so easy to tell the difference between the similar colors! hey-it works for me!

before you dash off, take a moment to check out my bloggy give-a-way. you have a chance to reiceve a handmade gift from me!

enjoying the simple things of life

we enjoy feeding the birds at our house, and have several feeding stations for the birds and squirrels right where we can watch them from the window. it's a pleasant breakfast time routine that we enjoy, and we've seen many different kinds of birds from our kitchen window, including wrens, chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, tufted titmouse as well as our squirrel and chipmunk friends.

this tufted titmouse is enjoying some home made suet that A and i made together. the green mesh bag is actually a bath scrubby puffy thingy. i cut the string that was holding it together, and then cut the long mesh tube into 12-14"pieces. . i tied a knot in one end, spooned in the suet, and tied the other end shut. i also tied a string into the knot so we could easily hang them outside. there are 7 more suet balls in the freezer.

here's the recipe that we used:

1 cup EACH- crunchy peanut butter

lard (i used Crisco)

flour

birdseed

2 cups EACH-quick cooking oats

corn meal (we used the corn we feed the chickens)

Mix together, (we used the kitchen aid, and that worked very nicely) and put into your bags, or whatever you will be using. hang, and enjoy!

we also have some other birds that regularly come to our feeder, but they are not in our Peterson's guide to north American birds book. they are a very large, buff colored bird with red markings on the head. their sound is a soothing "cluck cluck". they seem to be domesticated, as well. if you can help us identify them, just e-mail me at countrybumpkin@clueless.com thanks!

for more great tips, click on over to Works For Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon!

still loving all those flowers!

if you're visiting from shannon's site, thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to have you, and i hope you can stay and visit for a little while. don't forget to vote to save my butler's pantry before you go. (scroll down a wee bit to read the post that tells the history) thanks!

in the midst of all the other projects we have going on around our house, I've been working on my flower gardens, rock paths and rock walls. we moved in with virtually no flowers, and I've been systematically solving that problem all summer. i had a nice assortment of flowers to bring along with me when we moved, i traded some with friends and new neighbors, and i bought a few at the master gardener's sale this spring. we moved in on a Thursday, and Sunday afternoon i was already outside working on making some flower beds. really. that's how much i like flowers!

the whole flower gardening thing has been going so well that i already have some perennials that need divided. and with a pretty tight budget, and lots of flower gardens that I'd like to do, that's definitely a good thing! today i was able to get out and work in the dirt, and i divided and moved mums, asters, lamb's ear, black eyed susan, blazing star, bleeding heart, lung wort, some sort of dusty miller thingy, and coreopsis to the kitchen garden.

now, here's my WFMW tip: a few weeks ago i walked around and looked at my gardens. how were the plants doing? were they liking where i had put them in the spring, or did they need moved to a more suitable place? was there too much yellow all clumped together? then what i did was take a roll of Dave's surveyor's tape, and mark what i wanted to move, and what i wanted to divide. the plants that i merely wanted to move, i tied one ribbon on, but the plants that were ready to be divided, i tied on 2 ribbons. then i was able to observe for a few days, before i hastily dug out my flowers, without having a clear idea where i was going with them. even though i go for the eclectic, Tasha Tudor cottage garden look, it's good to have some sort of plan of how i'd like my gardens to look. also, it goes without saying, that being patient and then dividing my own perennials saves lots of money at the greenhouse!

following are some pictures i took mostly just for fun, though the concept is pretty simple. maybe you can see in the first picture that the lung wort is definitly not happy! i moved it to another shady spot, with more moisture. i think that it will be happier come spring!

thanks for stopping by! happy gardening!

which came first- neat or organized?

our fridge is filled to the brim with stuff- so much so that it's usually a shock and surprise what we find when we clean it out on Fridays. (incidentally, that's one of the weekly dishwasher's chores) i do make an effort to keep our refrigerator clean and organized, and i recently came across an idea that works for me.

on our recent visit to see my great aunts, i noticed something that my aunt mary had done to effectively accomplish this in her fridge. on the top shelf was a lazy susan, and it had the condiments, pickles etc... on it. i said to myself "self, that's a great idea, and one you will implement this week."

so, on my next run to walmart, i got myself 2 lazy susans, and put all those miscellaneous things that we have up on the top shelf on them: relish, beef and chicken bullion, mayo, syrup, mustard, salad dressing... they all fit quite nicely, and our top shelf is much neater, and i even have some room left over!

now i can happily twirl to my heart's content, with all my condiments at my fingertips! for more great hints click on over to shannon at rocks in my dryer to find a tip that will work for you!

Too many tapeworms!

our house is a busy place this summer, and dave and the boys work hard all day long. we have many projects going as we work to fix up our old farmhouse, and prepare for winter. the boys are expected to be up by 7:30 and have their chores done by 9AM, ready to start working for the day. they work until 5PM, and then have free time until bed at 10:30 (if they can stay awake that long!)

someone at our house is always hungry- this is not surprising, considering the fact that we have 3 teenage boys, and that they are doing hard, manual labor most of the day- this makes for some very hungry workers around 3PM. this summer, for the first time, i have assigned someone the chore of making snack. it's usually something simple- cake, jello, bread or buns, crackers and marshmellows or muffins. they all look forward to something home made with love, and enjoy the respite before heading back out to work.

another added (and unforseen) benefit is that i have been able to save on the grocery bill. with a planned snack, we have less foraging and grazing, which means we're not eating as much. we do go through a lot of sugar, flour and eggs, but overall i'm not buying as much, and what i have bought is planned out better.

it's just a small thing, i know, but it works for me!

home series: saving money in the laundry room- and still smelling clean!

i've been thinking about doing a short series is of posts, talking about some of the things that work for me, and how i save money in the running of my household. every one has different things that they do that work well, and i just wanted to share some of my tried and true ideas. most of these are minor, but with only one full time income, every little bit helps!

a room that most of us probably spend alot of time in is the laundry room. with 6 children, cloth diapers, and a dirty work crew i average about 4 loads of laundry a day. i've come up with several areas where i've decided that i can save money.

the first, and most obvious, is to hang laundry outside. it's the green thing to do, and your clothes smell really nice and fresh. (preaching to the choir here!) with an elcetricity bill last month alone of $185, i've been much more diligent about hanging out our clothes. also, i've found that it's a really good excuse for me to get outside. some days i don't get out as much as i would like, so it's a welcome respite.

several years ago, a friend told me about economical detergent from sam's club. i've been using it ever since, with no complaints. however, after moving to the country, which includes having our own well, i'm observing that our water is too cold to dissolve the powdered detergent. regular liquid detergent can be expensive, so i decided to make my own! i'm not the only crazy stay-at-home mom out there, and i found a recipe for it here. this is a very informative site, and will answer all your questions, should you decide to try this. i made a double recipe of this soap yesterday, in an old wind fresh bucket, and i am pleased to say that it turned out well, and it even smells nice! crystal did the math for the per load cost, and came up with $.01 a load. by making the detergent myself, and not having to buy the store-bought liquid, i'm saving about $.17 a load, or $224.64 yearly. not a phenomenal savings, i'll admit, but i have to start somewhere!

the third thing i do to save money in the laundry room is rags. as in make my own. old t-shirts, sheets, towels and flannel shirts are especially nice, and fair game. however, i do draw the line at old, used cotton underwear. i have a vivid memory of helping my grandmother dust her house, using a rather large pair of old underwear. i still cringe at the memory! (maybe that's why i have an aversion to dusting. i'll have to explore that further another day.) as for washing the rags, i do them in their own load, so don't worry- no nasty things floating around with our delicates! i've never bought paper towels, so i couldn't say how much we're saving, but judging how my gang goes through stuff, i'd guess it's a nice little chunk of change.

recently i've read how to save money on some of the other laundry products that i use: dryer sheets and fabric softener. since the dryer sheets have way to much chemicals and stuff in them, by cutting them in thirds, i'm still getting nice smelling, static free laundry, for (drum roll please) 1/3 the cost! also, for the liquid fabric softener, the rule of thirds still applies. using the concentrated softener, dilute it with equal amounts of white household vinegar and water. tada- another savings of 1/3. i'm just amazing you will all my frugality and mathematical prowess. i have noticed that since i've diluted the liquid fabric softener, and added the vinegar, our laundry acutally smells better then when i was using the softener alone.

finally, another thing that i've been doing for awhile is buying all my household cleaning supplies at dollar general. i'm getting name brand products for a fraction of the price that i would pay elsewhere. i just made a dollar general run last week, but when my cleaning supply runs out, i'm considering making my own stuff, with recipes i found here and here. for just a small amount of extra work, i can get the satisfaction of helping our house and family run just as smoothly, while saving money.

i realize that none of these ideas is particularly earth shattering and probably not even original. you may be doing some of these things already, but all of them together can really start to add up. i'd like to do some more posts about saving money in other rooms- the kitchen comes to mind- i have a few ideas and strategies for in there, too.

if you've stopped by for a visit from kristin's site, take the time to look around and visit for a minute. i bet we have lots in common- homeschooling, scrap booking, knitting, quilting, canning, remodeling and gardening, not to mention my desire to serve God in all I do, and raise children to love and serve Him, too.

it almost makes it worth it!

I've come up with an idea to save money on groceries that has been working well for our family. when i go shopping, i buy enough milk to last us 8 days. we mark it for the appropriate day, (that way the milk really does last that long!), and i theoretically don't go grocery shopping again until we've run out of milk. I've been doing this for several months now, and i can honestly say that it's really cut down on my running to the store for every little thing. especially with groceries being so expensive around here, that can make a big difference in our budget! it works for me!

if you want more great tips on what works for other moms, on all kinds of topics, head on over to shannon's site. every wendesday she hosts "works for me wednesday" (WFMW") and you'll find lots of great ideas- and something sure to work for you!

A is so cute with this little cart- it almost makes me want to go grocery shopping more! she loves to put stuff in the cart- apples, cookies, more bananas, yogurt... on and on. i really have to watch her- no telling what we'll end up with!