Venting

Not sure if its because I'm feeling sick and in a grumpy mood or if its just that time of the month but I feel a rant coming on. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

I decided today that I was going to write everything that is on my mind.  Over the past 3 years I have tried to write about what was on my mind, what products I liked, and what I thought my readers wanted to read about.  It started out as a daily journal of my life and my goal to save money.  In my journey to save money I discovered less packaging, environmental impact of my purchases, and you can in fact live a organic lifestyle on a budget. 

Most the time I get many amazing comments from readers who love what I'm doing and have joined me in my journey.  On occasion I get comments about how disgusting things are, how could I do that, and how I'm going too far with everything. I was alarmed at first and started rethinking everything I was writing.  Well today I decided that I will no longer hold my thoughts back when it comes to living a greener lifestyle. 

To those who find my post a bit too far my advise to you is stop reading this.  Move on to another blog that you feel fits your life.  There are so many amazing blogs out there you just need to find the one that fits you.  I write about my journey and what has worked and not worked. I offer advise which you can take or not take it.  Do with it what you will.  But don't hate on me.  I have so many people who love and support what I am doing and I would rather surround myself with them. 

I read dozens of blogs some of which I love 100% and some of which I love 90%.  Some are religious which is totally opposite of me, and some are just cheesy but I get good info from.  It's not my job to judge them and point out that I don't like about what they write.  Its a free country and people can write what they want.  I can choose to go else where and don't waste my time stressing with it. 

I write for myself and to help others.  I love to show people that you really can save money and live a greener lifestyle.  I love sharing products that are good for the environment.  I love sharing with people.  I love teaching people.  I am who I am take it or leave it.  Because when it comes down to it I don't care what people think about me.  I'm green suck it.

So my question to you is do you have people judge you because of your lifestyle?

Do you lose sleep over what people think about you?

Do you bite your lip instead of speaking how you really feel?

FALL

The earth is changing;

The seasons turn round.

The autumn leaves flutter

Their way to the ground.

My own world is changing;

The seasons conspire

To grand me the peace

of a rest by the fire.

Melissa Pinol

This poem is everything I love about the Fall season.  I look forward to cold dry days when I walk my girls to school.  The leaves changing such bold colors then falling down around us. Hot cocoa in front of the rip roaring fire crackling away.  I am ready for Fall before Summer is even over. 

I tried growing my own pumpkins and squash but it was doomed from the beginning.  I planted them in my yard where my dog has access.  My thinking was that they do not put off a smell when ready so my dog wouldn't be interested in them.  So a week or so after I planted them (and they started growing) my dog decided to dig in the dirt and spread them all over the yard.  I scrambled to find them all and replanted them in my garden where the dog couldn't get them.  They had plenty of water and sun but didn't really grow all that much.  So this year I had only a small amount actually grow. This year we will have to go buy pumpkins to carve.  Were excited because its been a while since we have had the experience of going to a farm and picking our own out while enjoying all the fun stuff that comes along with it. 

I took a trip to one of my favorite farms yesterday.  I was on the hunt for blue pumpkins and was excited to find one with lots of fun markings.  These pumpkins make the best moist pumpkin puree for any pumpkin recipe.  At 49 cents per pound its a great deal!

 

Just look how beautiful these are.  Man I love Fall!

Last night it hit a all time low here in the NW Portland area.  It was 39 degrees! I was worried about my tomatoes all night and actually lost a little sleep over it.  So this morning I panicked and pulled all (5lbs worth) my tomatoes. 

Look how beautiful these things are! I will be putting all these in paper bags to ripen so I can bake them.  Roasted red tomato sauce is my favorite and will probably be put in my freezer for later use.  Yummy!

All Fall I will be saving any and all seeds I get from all the organic pumpkin/squash I buy.  As long as they are organic I will be able to save them to grow my own next year.  Here you see my pink banana squash seeds I am air drying right now.  I didn't plant my banana squash in a sunny enough location so they didn't get as big as they should of been.  Next year I will remember this! Once these are done and completely dry then I will keep them in a dark cool place until January. 

I'm also reading a few books right now.  These are my two current reads which I'm enjoying very much.  My goal is to read one chapter in each book each day.  So far so good.  Today was about fast food commercials and how much our children are actually watching each week.  3 hours to be exact! Also learned about meat and how the food pyramid tricks you.  I know exciting huh?

So what are you reading right now?

Whats going on in your garden?

Are you a Fall nut like myself?

$50 a week

I'm still getting lots of produce from my garden so this is why you won't see any in the picture.  I'm using what I have and getting pretty creative with it.  Also I still have some meat left in the freezer from previous shopping trips so I didn't need to buy anymore.  Right now I'm mostly buying fresh items that I cannot freeze and snacks for my girls lunches. 

Whole Foods

$2.50 RBST Free milk-we drink lots of water so we don't need much milk.
$3.99 12 pack recycled toilet paper
$1.78 2 cans of organic tomato paste-I use to make pizza sauce
$1.49 Sunshine Dairy Half n Half (my favorite and LOCAL!)
FREE-They only had one 12 pack left but one egg was broken.  I took it up to them and asked if I they had more.  Took them a few minutes but found some and gave them to me for free for my troubles.  LOVE THIS STORE!

Donated my 10 cent bag credit to a local charity + all my change I had in my purse.

Total=$9.76

Trader Joe's

$1.99 Sour Cream Puffs-lunch snacks for school lunches
$1.99 Ruffled Veggie Chips
$2.29 Fire Roasted Salsa Salt Free-glass jar will be reused. We eat chips n salsa for snacks
$2.29 Fennel Toothpaste -my kids love this stuff
$1.29 Organic Spaghetti Pasta
$2.78 Organic Whole Wheat Pasta Fusilli
$2.58 Pizza Dough Fresh -using to make pizza tonight. I'm no baker...I just cook damn good.
$2.29 Kosher Dill Pickles-OMG are they good!

Total=$17.50

GRAND TOTAL=$27.26 
I have $22.74 left for this week still.  Not bad!

On the way home I checked out a garage sale that was by my home.  I have a rule to only stop by is they are on the way where I am going this way I don't use up much needed gas.  Remember the post I wrote for Retro House Wife Goes Green? Here is a great example of how to save money.

I found these two lovely metal pots for only 50 cents each.  I will be cleaning them up and giving them a new coat of spray paint to freshen them up.  Now that's a score!! These would of cost me at least $10 each if I bought them new.  These will be used on my front porch or in front of either side of my garage. 

Meet Sean Gettings and Lisa Sharp. They are pretty cool.

This week has been pretty good for the blog.  I was asked to guest post in my friend Sean Gettings blog called The Environmental Guy (and part-time background actor!).  Head on over and read my guest post and learn some ways to get your children to recycle. Make sure to become a fan on Facebook of his too. Those little girls in the picture are pretty darn cute. I hear they look like their mama....haha..

This is my friend Sean Gettings. He's pretty cool.  We share a love for the earth and fight to protect it.  If you love getting your nerd on and reading about recycling, solar panels, urban chickens and buying local and eating fresh then you will love his blog. Best part is that he is a local guy here in Portland and knows the in's and outs of Portland. He is married to Amy and has 2 beautiful children who I melt over each time I see a picture of them.  Those curls!!!   Lets give him some love and help him on his way. 

I also guest posted on my friend Lisa Sharp's blog called Retro Housewife Goes Green.  If you do not have a garden, want to start a garden or just don't know where to start then you have to check out my guest post.  I love Lisa's blog and have been a fan of it for a long while now.  Keep her in your favorites and be sure to check her blog out on Facebook as well.  I literally could go on and on about things she writes but just head on over there and get comfy because you will be on there a long time.  Yep she's that good!

My summer pea plants are done producing anything so I decided to pull them and replant peas for the winter garden.  I also dead headed my marigolds and save some of the seeds for next year.  The other flowers you see are a bit crazy looking but I'm leaving them for the birds to snack on.  They love the seeds off of them.

Much better! Chicken wire really is the best for this area.  You cannot see it and the peas love to climb it. 

My scarlet beans are still thriving so I am keeping them for a bit longer.  I pulled my cauliflower out because I didn't pick them in time and they flowered.  Here you see lots of dirt area which I have planted lots of lettuce. 

For fun I planted corn in the garden beds.  One bed doesn't get enough sun so the corn is only about a foot tall.  This corn in the sunny bed is about 6 feet tall.  I will use these to decorate the front of the house in October.  Who knows, maybe I will get some corn out of it.  Its my first time growing corn so I'm enjoying watching them grow. 

These plants died a long time ago.  The wooden box was a goodie I found at my grandma's and I grew some Alyssums in it which have all died.  The pot on the right my daughter Megan planted some pea's which did pretty well.  She was able to eat anything it produced (which was only about 4 pea's but was excited to eat

them).  At this point I'm having fun getting creative with everything. 

I simply took the soil out and added some good organic soil to it.  I planted spinach in the wooden box and pea's again in the pot.  I love this stuff.

Last but not least look who came out to play?  Out of the 3 sunflowers I planted only one decided to grow super tall.  I just love how beautiful it is.  Think I will plant way more next year.  Love love love them!

UPDATE: Less than 5 hours later a squirrel decided to rip the head off of this sunflower.  Don't think it understood that the sunflower had not yet grown any seeds. So now I'm mad and sad.  It's war you damn squirrels its war!

I don't know what my problem is lately but I have been really slacking.  I bought 2 dozen packs of Pepsi because we were craving it.  Although they were aluminum which can be recycled it was just a bad choice on our part.  I should of just bought one can and left it at that but no the sale price got me. They are all gone (off to recycling) and were not buying anymore ever again.  Well hopefully.

School has been going for two weeks now and I'm just now getting into the groove of things.  Its the first time in 13 years that I have had a few hours to myself.  Instead of taking advantage and cleaning my house I decided to leave the house each day and hit the thrift shops.  Well now there is no excitement while shopping because I have been to each one way too many times.  Today has been the first day where I have been cleaning and actually getting things organized. 

I did manage to go to the store and bought myself a few packs of bulbs.  P.Allen Smith has a line of bulbs at Fred Meyers and I wanted to shout out to the world when it saw them.  I normally do not buy bulbs because its always the same old boring plants for sale.  P.Allen Smith has the best assortment of crazy beautiful plants. 

This pretty plant is called Allium Schubertii.  Seriously how wicked is this plant?

Who doesn't love a flower ball? What a beautiful plant. Its called Allium Ivory Queen.   This will be a plant people will stop to look at. 

Last but not least this is called Allium Purple Sensation.  Just look at the deep color of these. Gosh I'm in love!

I plan on putting these in the best show I can.  My yard will be the one that people on walks stop and look at.  Love crazy colors and crazy shapes. 

Any of you have plant suggestions for me? Do you grow a crazy beautiful plant? Share!

Winter garden already?

I am so glad Fall is here. This week in Oregon the weather is getting a little colder and I am dreaming of hot soups and hot chocolate. In the garden its getting not so pretty because the summer growing season is coming to its end. Each week I go through and compost plants that are not producing anymore. My handy Northwest Garden Guide (available locally at New Seasons) tells me I need to start planting for the winter garden.  Why do I love this book so much? Well I could go on and on but its basically gardening for dummies. This book is well worth the $14.95 price tag for gardening goofs like myself. This book includes a detailed monthly gardening calendar that shows you what's happening in your garden through the seasons and when to plant vegetables, herbs and flowers. Here are more goodies.

-Maritime Northwest Climate Zone Map
-Techniques to extend the growing season
-Vegetable, herb and flower variety recommendations
-Month-by-month gardening tips
-Beneficial insect identification
-How to beat common plant diseases organically
-Getting organic outside the garden
-Ideas for gardening with children
-Seed and compost resources

Need I say more? Go grab this book for yourself!

My second crop of beans are doing very well.  My first crops were grown specifically to put in the freezer so we could enjoy these beans all winter long.  We have about 15 pounds of beautiful burgundy, scarlet and blue lake beans.  This crop will be for eating fresh each night and sharing with everyone.  Just yesterday I was able to pick about 4 pounds of beans which I donated to a local senior center that distributes food to locals.  I was also able to give some to my neighbors Jim and Hazel (HI!!!!) who we love dearly.  They are allowed to pick anytime they want and take anything they want. 

For some reason the big black bumble bee's LOVE my bean flowers and do not like when I'm picking them.  I have to be real careful not to make them mad. Sorry bumble bee!

I also have a few second crops of burgundy bush beans.  These are my favorite because of how beautiful in color they are.  My kids love them and call them magic beans because when we cook them they turn green.  Another great reason I love them is that you can plant them pretty much anywhere.  I usually plant them randomly in flower beds, along walls, and just about anywhere.  They are a small plant that gives and gives.

I also planted yellow wax beans for the first time this year.  I would recommend these for people who love a mild flavor bean.  They add such beautiful color to our meals so these will be in my garden from now on. 

My tomatoes are still giving even in September.  This is a speckled Roma plant and I cannot wait to see the end result.  I had way too many starts and instead of just throwing them out I decided to plant them everywhere in hopes of maybe getting something from them.  Looks like I will!

Kale is a favorite of my girls so I decided I would go kale crazy.  I planted them in pots...

In anywhere and in between that I could stuff them....

and anywhere I pull a plant I toss some kale seeds in.  Kale grown in your own garden is so much better than anything I have found in stores.  So tender, so flavorful and can be used in so many ways.  Kale chips will be requested from my girls but I dream of kale in soups. Yummy!

This has nothing to do with the winter garden but I wanted to show you something that makes me smile each day.  Fred Meyers was having a 50% off plant sale and I picked up two jasmine plants for only $10. One plant had a small starter so I'm actually getting 3 plants. What a deal! These beautiful plants were in tiny tiny pots and the poor plants were so root bound. They only had 2 blooms because of this.   I quickly separated the start from one plant then transplanted all 3 into very large pots and watered well.  I don't want to plant them into the ground until I find a perfect spot for them.  My goal is to plant them near a window so the beautiful smell will come right into my home.  They will live in the greenhouse this winter if it gets too cold.  I think they were thanking me by giving me such beautiful flowers this week.  Your welcome!

Here is a list of things you can plant this month here in Oregon and Washington.

Sow Outdoors

Carrot Family-cilantro, chervil

Mustard Family-arugula, cabbage(for spring harvest), first early market springtime.
Cress-broadlieaf, landcress
Mustard-gai chi, giant red, green in snow, green wave, mizuna
Radish-misato flesh

Beet Family
Spinach-winter bloomsdale, giant winter, skookum, tyee

Sunflower Family
Endive-frisee, green curled, perfect, tres fine maraichere (often damaged by winter weather but some still try)
Lettuce-bronze rodin, brune D'Hiver, little gem, perella red and green, rougette du midi, rubens red, winter density

Late September (all overwintering)

Carrot family-caraway
carrot-merida
chervil-brussels winter
sweet cicely
Grass Family-gramineae
Overwintering Grains-barley, rye, spelt, tritcale, wheat

Mustard Family brassicaceae
arugula
arugula, rustic arugula sylvatica
mustard-green in snow, green wave, mizu-na
radish-misato rose flesh

pea family fabaeae
peas, snow-chinese snow
fava beans-aprovecho select, aquadulce, banner, sweet lorane

beet family chenopodiaceae
beets-chioggia, lutz green leaf, winterkeeper, yellow intermediate mangel
spinach-winter bloomsdale, giant winter, tyee

sunflower family compositae
lettuce-brune d'hiver perella, red tinged winter, rubens red romaine, winter density, winter marvel

pea family fabaceae
peas, snow:chinese snow

grass family gramineae
overwintering grains-barley, rye, spelt, triticale, wheat

$50 a week

It's been a long time since I have shared my $50 a day.  I get so much stuff from my garden that honestly you would get bored of just seeing a picture of milk and butter consistently. But the growing season is slowing down and I am now having to buy many things. So here we go.

Mark's NW Fresh Produce

$5.00 ($2.50 each) 2lb bag of sweet peppers. I bought 2 bags so the girls can have them in their lunches for school.
5 Tomatoes
broccoli
2 local apples

TOTAL-$7.50

Plate in picture is of things I picked from my garden. Enough green and yellow wax beans for dinner tonight and a handful of broccoli spears that needed to be used.  I pulled the broccoli out because it was done for the season. 

New Seasons

$1.99 Woodstock Crushed Tomatoes
           I usually buy Whole Foods but wanted to try these out because they were the same price.
$2.59  Milk 2% rbst free hormone free
$2.50 Organic Franz Bread
$1.38 Organic Celery

Whole Foods

$2.99 Yellow Banana's Fair Trade (.69 per lb)

$1.49 Sunshine Dairy Half n Half (lowest price around & my favorite!)

$3.39 18 ct vegetarian fed free range chicken eggs

$1.68 Gran Queso small wedge of cheese (wanted to try something new)

I'm stocking up on items for making tea this Fall and Winter.  I searched for name brand tea's that were specifically for colds and immune boosters. I found a few good ones and wrote down their specific ingredients that I knew I didn't have which were not too many.  The ones I didn't have I looked for in the bulk spices/tea aisles.  My girls love hot tea when they are sick and prefer it over any medication you can buy for colds.  Today I found a few items I didn't have.

.83 cents Lemon Peel ($20.64 per lb but you don't need much so worth it)
.12 cents Lemongrass ($11.52 per lb)
.30 cents Licorice Powder ($14.99 per lb)
.65 cents Orange Peel ($12.99 per lb)
.08 cents Fennel Seed ($7.99 per lb)
.12 cents Clove ($21.49 per lb)

Don't let the price per pound scare you away.  These items are just things you don't need to add much.  The base of tea's are usually raspberry leaf which is pretty cheap.  All bulk tea's are cheaper by the pound rather than prepackaged tea's.  They taste much better because they are not steeped in paper bags which you can taste.  Try it out for yourself!

Also I picked up some seeds for next year at 75% off.  Pink Cosmo's were only $1.25 and the sunflowers were only 47 cents so I couldn't pass them up. I usually get as many seeds as I can the year before and on sale. Otherwise I couldn't afford to have so many different beautiful and unique items growing everywhere. 


GRAND TOTAL=$29.36
This is with a 5 cent bag credit because I always bring my own fabric bags.  Also not pictured or priced is a cheese stick that I bought and ate.  They are so yummy!!!