Sunday, August 30, 2009

Food Storing....get it touch with your inner squirrel!!

I have been following some baby steps in food storage, finding myself a bit frustrated at times....moving stuff from here to there. 1. To make max use of available space and 2. I find myself not using a cabinet or shelf just because its hard for me to get to. I am a shorty, and really the shelves that reach to the ceiling are well a pia. great for storage but not everyday digging.3. My jars of canned goods are increasing....they are heavy and I only want to touch them once when putting them away until I need them. I actually found a site where a guy moves most of his food storage from the basement to the upstairs closet every year for some reason to do with heat exposure on the legumes. huh? maybe its a built in workout program. I dunno bout ya'll, I do not want to do that.

So let me introduce you to this wonderful blog I stumbled upon searching for visuals on food storage.....My Food Storage Deals!! Holy Spinnoli Batman, I gasped, I got a bit veclamped. It is exactly what I needed....an actual hard core visual picture of organized, functional food storage. I am one of those visual spacial types, I must be able to see what 400 pounds of bagged flour looks like. Not buckets stacked high and dry I would soon forget what I had and get sick of moving buckets. Go check her out, it rocks! She is listed in the cool blogs to the right. I think the key essential to get off the right foot is good sturdy shelving, like a foundation to success!! Her process is simple, doable and effecient!!

GO SQUIRRELS, GO SQUIRRELS, GET YOUR GAME ON!!!
SC!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Recycled composter

There are some really neat composter's available now with the green movement and the increased interest of gardening. Along with these neato inventions comes a price tag. I remember a comment by whom that I do not remember but it was of this nature "going green is the new green"...the second meaning that is where the money to be made is at. Hmph, that coming from a corporate executive in the energy field just rubs me a bit.
So on the market is a very neat and esthetically pleasing Sun Frost Solar Scrap Eater. Google it, they are indeed very nice and would be great for areas of limited space. However I do not have 600 smackers lying around with nothing to do. Besides its for kitchen scraps, my huge ComposTumbler would have been 500 smackers had I bought it brand new and that baby cooks some serious amounts of 'post.

So I made one of my own with stuff around the yard.
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Now the plan was to show you step by step....but I am about ready to take this computer and introduce it to Mr. Ax. argh!

whiskey barrel planter
5 gallon bucket drilled holes all over the bottom
olive garden "salad to go" bowl for the bubble
flat rock to keep bowl from blowing away

Voila! scrap eater right outside the back door so as not having to trek to the back forty to toss. Nice and easy and within easy reach. So now I have a look out for an acrylic bowl to fortify to the top via drilled holes and some zip ties or even a heavy ish lid.


Happy Gardens
Val





Thursday, August 27, 2009

Chop Chop!!

Some one hand me a tissue please!! My baby baby is officially a kindergartner! Ack! The last five years have zoomed by faster than I ever could have imagined! My nephew is growing facial hair and is now taller than I. My niece and daughter could not wait for school to start. Those heatherites anyways!!

So that leads me to......getting organized, yes we so let it slip in the summer, big deal, its summer. Not only will I be preparing my home manager binder to keep track of all the "stuff" that comes home from school, I will be juggling canning season and harvesting the garden. Today was freakishly quiet, I thought I would really relish this day......so I decided the hum of the new sewing machine would keep me company!

You do not have a home managment binder.....do it, it makes life so easy!

Chop Chop, time to get busy!

SC

Friday, August 21, 2009

Houston we have a problem!

Cruising along with kids in tow we get about 75 miles into our trip to the "hi-line" and I am pressing on the gas peddle and it feels a bit mushy...glance down at my dashboard and both the speedometer and rpm dials are at ZERO! oh $#!*. pull over, rev the beejeesus out of it and a prompt u turn back to B town. Quick call to my hubby to let him know where we are. Drive back switch vehicles, then back on the road. Thank goodness we made it all the way back home. ack, this car is what 6 years old is all. I still will not trade it in, I am keeping my clunker. Its paid for.

The really nice thing about driving Ebe's big pick up...the kids are far enough apart in the back there are no karate chops across the face when the other is touching the others "space". WEll that and all the neato buttons on the steering wheel. Saweet!!

The Hi Line it is, mosquitos and tomatos, wedding cake bound and the camera is charged up for a nother round.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Guarding the Groceries.....link

An elderly gentleman that works at the book store was telling me of this today so when I had time I did a little search of my own. Sure enough...I am not surprised, my hubby was in Detroit about a month ago for business, the reported 16% unemployment is not what he heard while there. The locals were reporting it much higher around 30%. So much that freeway traffic has seen a marked decline and driving to work is not much of a hassle.

It reminded me of Zimbabwe in a way.....its not total out and out devastation like Zim but I am also reminded of an online conversation with Mz. Spider back in December ish...."we are not far behind them". Ya know what Lisa, yer right!!!

I did like the included bit about urban homesteading and folks bucking the tide and growing more of their own food....is this what is going to take to get people to take initiative to that...dire circumstances? I guess so, cus the calvery just aint comin!

Back to reading my new garden book....How to Grow More Vegetables. Its a plethora of info on biointensive gardening, really maximizing what you have available, by enriching the soil to the point of saturation of luscious nutrients just waiting to be soaked up by plants bursting forth with edibles. Why did I buy it? the remineralization section....now I replenish my soil with lots of good stuff but this is like a tried and true science of absolute incredible fruiting porportions, Mr. Donohue my Junior high science teacher would be so proud of me.....he was and still is I am sure a total granola, lord board wearing science geek, him and his beutiful bride had kick ass garden way back them, I am sure they still do!!. I routinely challenged him in class and occasionally got kicked out as well. and the section with the varieties of edible landscape trees, bushes etc. so detailed and perfect for what I want to accomplish here at home and in the landscape world I step in and out of in the summer.....thats a hint for you Scotty, its edible landscaping I am betting on it. Manicured grass is soooo last season.

WATCH WAITIN FOR....THE CALVARY? GET THEE TO THE GARDEN AND GET'R DONE!!!

ObamaCare in Montana

Well he hit in on the head Americans are being held hostage by their insurance companies, but he missed a few other key points. Single payer coverage is the same thing only worse!! Ask any vetran. Its true those of us that do have coverage are still being rationed what is covered and what is not. Case in point. Our insurance premiums are covered by our employer, they are up to $1,092 per month per family. My son just received immunizations to go to kindergarten. Wanna know what the bill was. Keep in mind this is considered a well child visit, and state law requires that they have the immunizations and the total premiums for one year is over $13,000. What i pay in co payments IS NOT applied to my deductible. Our deductible is $1,000 per member or $2000 per family, then I get to fork over $4,000 after that in 80/20. Now this does not include any services like labwork. So we estimate having at least $8,000 in a medical savings account if and when we need it. well gosh darn Sally I think we are over $21,000 for medical coverage for one year!!!

Total provider charges 247.25
Total allowed amount 223.73
Total Applied to the deductible 0.00
Total Coinsurance/Copayment 89.49
Total Amount Payable by Plan 134.24
My total responsibility to the provider 89.49

ITS EXTORTION! coming up with a new single payer plan is just running neck and neck with the current insurance companies. Insurance companies need to be held accountable for what they are doing to their clients.....its charging for a product and not following through on their commitments. Why do they do it? Because they can! If we do not have coverage we face high medical bills in case of a hospitalization, if we do have coverage we face paying high premiums and still have substantial bills to pay.

Tort reform and frivolous lawsuits MUST BE ADDRESSED!! Its absolutely ridiculous for doctors and surgeons and hospitals to "have to" carry malpractice insurance that is expensive. How about paying back 289,000 in university bills along with 125,000 per year premium on insurance so you can be a surgeon....... That gets passed on to us the consumer. Its not a matter of "if" they get sued, its a matter of "when".

Another thing to consider is if we reduce our doctors to general lay people, we are asking them to not practice their skill. No they are not better than us but they are different from us.....think about what it takes to actually cut another human being open and find the problem and correct it, if they can. Fair income for doctors, you betcha. Transparency in the bills we receive, you betcha. BTW, we were charged twice for nursing services because it was 2 different shots. huh?

knew a doctor once that carried zero insurance.....and it was posted in the waiting room. He put it all out there for the world to see, he even went as far as to say he owned zero assets so suing him would be pointless. His mission statement had the message that he became a doctor for the passion he felt about helping people blah blah blah and essentially the point came across that his vocation was not about getting rich but doing what he loved to do. take it or leave it. How is that for transparency!!

Its time we clean up this mess of health care and its not by offering a "new plan" that essentially rivals the current plan but by weeding out the low life, scum sucking ambulance chasers and the laws that support them and holding insurance companies accountable for fraudulent practice. Doctors need to stop excessive runabout for this and that oh like 5 MRI's for what ever, and hospitals need to stop charging $5 for a damn aspirin! People in general need to be accountable as well for themselves.....lay down the fork, lay off the booze, lay off the McDonalds and fried chicken! Patient accountability, hmmm there's a thought! Don't even get me started on the psychiatric mental health debacle that is essentially putting billions in the pockets of the Pharmaceutical companies......which are traded on the stock market!! gee I wonder what their mission statement is? The ridiculous bullshit practices where Viagra is covered by scrip plans but birth control and hormone replacement therapy is not. WTF? Seriously its all snowballing out of control and sooner or later we are all gonna get rolled on.

G'day ya'll
S.C.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Saurkraut

This is so darn easy to make!
All you need is cabbage, salt and some tools.

Shred the cabbage, mine was 4 heads out of the garden
Salt
food safe bucket
wooden tamper
plate to fit inside bucket
weight to hold plate
panty hose or cheese cloth

Layer shredded cabbage and salt, I used about a Tablespoon of salt per head of cabbage and let it rest in food safe bucket to sweat, once the sweating is good and going, go out to the garage and find a wooden 2x2 so you can start tamping the cabbage to form a brine. You will want enough liquid to cover the cabbage during the fermentation. Add a bit of salt water (1 tsp to 1 qt of water) if you just cannot create enough brine. Once ya got that done, place a plate over the cabbage in the bucket and weight it down with a clean rock or just a canning jar filled with water(lid on). I used a pair of CLEAN panty hose to cover the top of the bucket to keep flying critters out. Set in cool dark place and let it do its biness. It will stink for a few days kinda like a cabbage fart....just sayin. Its been 5 days and that farty odor is no longer. A few more days and it will be ready to eat.
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The BEST Bacon

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I am not kidding, just look at this bacon!!! Good ole Montana Made Bacon!!

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said bacon, chopped up and added to a pile of freshly steamed garden green beans.....lip licken goodness. Gobbled down, no picture just trust me.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Heifer International

Just wondering? If Heifer International is based out of Little Rock, Arkansas then is it safe to say that there would be no food to plate issues in Arkansas? Just a question I was wondering about in lieu of food security issues......does any one know the answer? Anyone? Anyone?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

testing 1 2 3

hmmmm, hmmmmmmmm,hmmmmmmmm how do I get music video posted where you do not have to click a link? This is what I am wondering. How do I get a music playlist on my blog? This is what I am wondering. HMMMMMMMMMMM.
OMG I figured it out!!!! well the first part, now the playlist.





In the garden....I just recieved a call back from a gal that has an organic farm/garden here in our county. I saw a picture in our monthly Food Co-op of her gardens, I called her to see if they do "tours". From what I could see the place is like my shangri-lah. No tours, they are busy busy with all the work they that do to keep it running at close to peak harvesting right now, just the 2 of them. To be quite honest I am seeking support for us garden gnomes, kind of like a 12 step program for gals with dirty fingernails. So we chatted a bit about organic gardening and this slow weather pattern, CSA and the like. It was good.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Back to School

crayon. Pictures, Images and Photos

Before shopping do an inventory of what they already have......and make darn sure they can see the supplies they have, such as pencil boxes and backpacks!!! I know sounds simple but if they don't see it, they will talk you blue in the face trying to convince you they need the newest and coolest pencil case, back pack or whatever.

1. Do not wait til the last minute.
a. and before the county fair, when the entire southeast Montana population has come to town and ravages the aisles.
2. If at all possible, take one kid at a time and squeeze in a special treat time.
3. Scour the thrift store first for needed items. Now is the best time to scoop up clothing that does not get the heavy wear and tear as some other items. Such as vests, hoodies, sweaters, and shirts and snow pants of all things. Understand not all the items are in top notch quality so do check them over well. No holes, no stains, not too faded a bit we can live with that. Jeans will be hard to find for primary boys....if they are anything like my boy....the knees are ripped out. Khaki shorts galore. Ya win some ya lose some. I found half his shirts at goodwill along with some much needed swim trunks. I also stocked up on winter clothing, even though its hovering in the 80's, cold weather is right around the corner.
4. Create a realistic budget.....I admit I was being a bit cheap at first then when I thought about it some more I realized I had not purchased clothing in quite some time, heck the last time I bought shoes for my daughter was last year during school shopping....and I sewed up her skirts this spring and stashed them so they would avoid popsicle stainage. We are lucky because she
has tiny feet that do not grow very fast at all. I did come in under budget as it turned out anyways. I have a separate budget/savings stash for the "supply list issued from the school"
5. Do the best you can with what you have. Quality over quantity and find your middle ground somewhere in between. Seriously do our kids need to have 30 complete outfits for school?
6. Take a clean pair of socks with you for your kids to try on shoes!!

and for some humor......who knew crayons would be so gangsta fab!!!

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August Garden

Our Gardens are looking pretty good considering the whacky weather.

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I put up a new trellis after I pulled the spent broccoli, planted with a second round of snow peas, lettuce, spinach.

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Said broccoli, actually a few weeks back.

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Patty pan squash....this thing is loaded to the nines
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Snoozing lil bumble bee.....I had been walking past him all morning. Totally konked out.
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Gorgeous Sunflower
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Monday, August 3, 2009

liar liar pants on fire!!

click the title

enough already! I am sick to death of the hogwash back and forth wishy washy crap you proposed during your campaign....bait and switch at its finest!!!
Insert a few choice cuss words here! Who am I kidding, its not a few, its alot!

TODAY I HAVE HAD IT *UP TO HERE* WITH BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL ASS CRAP!!!

SINCERELY,
ONE PISSED OFF COWGIRL

Boot in the Ass, cowgirl style

Dear Trina Thompson,
Wow? REally? what I find most interesting about your lawsuit....and for those of you that do not know what I am talking about....Trina Thompson is suing the bronx college she obtained her degree from, because she has not obtained employment in her field 3 months post graduation.

Puh LEASE!! We are in a recession, thousands are losing their jobs everyday, along with facing some serious financial woes. Did it ever occur to you to look elsewhere in the interim until you find the job you want? In fact we have experienced this very thing some 16 years ago, my husband did not land the "a foot in the door job" for what? almost 3 years!! What he did not do however is lay down and play victim and blame everyone else for the circumstance!

Disgraceful! Nothing unusual in this day and age when everyone wants a bailout for their situation!!

Your life will not change by much if you do not learn to take responsibility for your SELF!!

are you by chance related to Octo Mom?

S.C.