My Garden this past season

My first square foot garden we built last year. This one has sage, onions, strawberries, and "what was I thinking mint".

My garden this year! Green beans, tomatoes, onions, herbs, squash, and 1 praying mantis!

A close up after the onions were pulled and the herbs trimmed back. I dry the herbs and prep them to use in the kitchen. Another post for that though.


A small bit of my first harvest. Patty Pan squash, green beans, and yummy carrots!

This is how I water my garden. Yep! Rain water. Water here is so expensive AND so polluted due to the fact we get our water from the Ohio River (joy! huh!?) I refused to shower, drink or use the tap water (since the state has issued a failed EPA test for the watere here for the past 7 years!) So we bought these from the County Ag office, cheap. C used his talents and built a stand for one so the pressure pushes the water out quicker, and excess runs from a small hose on the side down to the barrel below.

See? You would think I water with Miracle Gro when I use rain water. You should try it! Even if you catch it in 5 gal buckets, try watering your houseplants and see what happens. (PS Don't drink rain water unless you purify it first. Just my tip for the day)

My compost bin, brand new and just started to compost when the weather turned. I've stopped for now, I don't know about throwing scraps in the compost with 2 inches of snow on it.

So there's some of joy from this summer and fall. I never knew how much I LOVE to garden. I'm always out there. And if I'm stressed, anytime of the day or night...I'm in my garden piddlin' around. There is something soothing to the soul with mixing dirt and tending to the creation that God is growing. I'm just the gardener, He is the Creator. When I pull in the crop that is ready or just water and tend to it lovingly, it brings me so much joy.

Here's a funny image. Snow all over the garden and ground and I'm standing at our glass door in the kitchen looking out at the garden saying "come back...come back!" LOL. I know, soon enough. I actually need this resting time through the winter to learn more about composting and gardening. This is the time to pull in, rest and restore.

So, would making paper rings up to the first planting be wrong! :-)

Reviewing the past two seasons

I have been out of the blogging world for sometime. Circumstances have been such that my mind and heart have not been in it. But as I regain ground and I look to myself and the things that bring me joy or things in the past that have brought me joy...blogging is one of them. I have just a few blogs I enjoy and read often, it's funny how I consider them friends even though we've never met.



In light of looking back through some of my pictures I have a handful of events over the past few months that I really would like to share. I hope you enjoy them and I will try to keep it brief (Me? brief? my husband would fall over laughing. But shhh, don't tell him I said I can be brief.)

Enjoy~

C's birthday! We had BBQ Beef ribs, and he was one happy camper!

Our windows before the replacements were put in. Wood frames, counter weights in the side soiled with soot from a past coal heating system (before we owned the house). They were beautiful, built in 1927, but leaked air like crazy. Last winter I watched my blinds move on the INSIDE of my house when the wind blew outside. Praise God for the money to buy new windows! My house is warm this winter thanks to Him and C's hard work.

Out with the old leaded glass windows.


C holding a counterweight before it was taken out.

There's the new. Oh I could just hug them!!!

Have you ever seen a house with NO windows?

Tad-da! Brand spankin' new, no leaking, warm, lovely windows! Can you tell I like them. I thank God a lot for them.

Me and my lap buddy (or so he thinks) during morning prayer time.

Fall colors on my drive to Amish country to get some meat.

This was cool. Exact replicas of the Nina and Pinta, the two of the 3 ships Columbus sailed on, docked in Steubenville. They sail around the country so people and kids can see what it was really like to be on the boat he came over on. There is a man and his family in Africa I think, that still knew the trade for how the ships were built. So these were done the exact way, pine tar to make them float and all. It was really neat to be on, but I could never sail on one. Sea sickness is not my cup of tea. You can search for their web site, they take volunteers to sail with them. Each ship has a captain to guide the volunteers (no experience required).

I hope you enjoyed the journey over the past few months.

Peace,

Dee

For Unto Us a Child Is Born...

Merry Christmas to you!

We have had a great day. We each have been blessed with gifts from family. Danielle's bo' must have been really good this year, he got 2 stockings!! (She helped Santa out with one of them). Christmas was really nice and dinner was way cool as my sister would say. We chose to have steaks for Christmas dinner. Something different yet something C and I really enjoy. Especially a good grass fed, slow cooked or seared steak. I was online looking up the right way to cook grass fed beef. I've learned DON'T cook it fast. You will end up with some of the toughest meat that would fatigue anyone's jaw muscles, trust me on this and don't ask why!

So I ran across a website that sells grass fed beef and they are gracious enough to have a chef on staff that posts articles and recipes for cooking grass fed beef. I found an article about cooking them in cast irons the way the pioneers used to. They didn't have refrigerators (?) to keep their beef cold, or lovely ovens to cook in or fancy grills. It was hot coals and a good iron! So this guy walks you through step by step and here's how it goes (trust me when I say keep a fire extinguisher near by, but trust in the technique. You won't be disappointed):

* Heat your oven and your cast iron (from here on out called "iron") on Hi broil for 15-20 min. Now I didn't do a typo and I haven't lost my mind. Oh wait, I'll hold that until the end.

* Now with welder's gloves pull your iron out and put it on the burner, that is already on high, for 3 minutes. Right before you put on the steaks put some oil in it that is NOT flameable, like coconut oil or we used bacon grease. Warning: do not use olive oil per chef.

*Now put on your steaks for 30 seconds each side. TIME IT!

*Take the whole iron & steak and put it back in the oven and broil for 3 min, each side. Believe me, it is worth the work.

*Pull it out and put it on the plate. The most important part that people don't do: DON'T cut it for 3-5 minutes. Let it rest so the juice stays in it.

I have never had a tastier, juicier, fantastic steak ever! Even all my years in Okinawa, and some of the best steakhouses. Never! Now I will say, my oven is a mess and the kitchen was smokey so we had to open up the windows, but will I do it again? You bet! Soon? No way!

We even made Danielle's bo' nervous, Ha! I'd say we did a good job. I think God was patient while C and I experimented. :-)

We have much to celebrate on this Christmas day! Things like a good steak that God gave us, family arrived safely, good health, a roof over our head and shoes on our feet. And windows (see post above).

I wish you a Merry Christmas and God's peace, mercy and loving forgiveness to be with you.

~ Dee

Howdy! Today is a nice day here. The sun is out and the snow is bright. It's only 28 degrees outside, but Koda and I went for a walk anyways. I believe it's good to get out in the fresh air. It does something for the mind and heart.

I've had time today to mess with my blog and get it updated. I'm going to try to go back in all my posts and get labels on them. Can't promise anything, but it's something I've always wanted to do. So it's under a bit of construction. Most of the changes are done. I hope you like them.

Danielle and her bo, Justin, drove in this morning from North Carolina. They drove all night...and now are sleeping. That makes me tired just thinking of it. Deliriously tired. Though I remember when C and I used to do that from 29 Palms to NM just for a 4 day weekend. Going home was that important, especially when you are active duty. All went well, they did see 1 drunk driver. The guy was driving down the middle of the highway and took out the left rear hub cap of a FED Ex truck! Thank God they drove really fast past him before he could swerve over to there lane.

Today I am focusing on, um, well..today. :-) Today is Wednesday and all my chores are done. The pie is baked, the cookies are done, the house is clean, the family is here (though sleeping) and I have nothing to do...scary! Feels kind of neet!

I do hope to hem the curtains in my dining room and living room that I bought some time ago and just haven't taken the time to shorten them. Maybe after lunch. I like days that I can meander through the day, with no rushing and no real agenda. It's peaceful, albeit difficult to just sit still, but still peaceful. Maybe I need this. It's Christmas, a great reason to sit back, relax and "take some tea".

Peace,

Dee