What a difference Sunshine makes...

Our Family started it off Saturday with a little community service for Earth day...picking up trash around town with a group of kids from the high school and Jr. High. It's amazing how much garbage is just laying around town and  how quickly it can be picked up with a group of energetic kids.

Did you do anything special for Earth Day?

After we got home, Corbin surprised me with these beauties.... I just Love a teenage boy who is cool enough to bring his mom a flowers!

We also got the Peas in. 

Sunday was our Play in the dirt day!

Onions, Leeks, Broccoli and Cabbage are also in...

I love the soil Blocks...

They made planting the onions a breeze... I just set the blocks to the spacing I wanted, and then covered with dirt :-)

Easy... Peasy!

Troy pruned trees and did all the manly chores...like driving the tractor around, weeding and playing with his Mad Max Flamo torch thingy.

Tia and I raked, composted, and planted the garden today.

We both needed a bath at the end of the day.

The Boys went to work for the neighbor, doing yard work.

and we mulched the pathways with aged straw to keep the weeds at bay.

With the weather in the 70's today...
We were finally able to hang the laundry out to dry!

 what a difference Sunshine makes.....Life is good!



weekend garden prep

The snow has finally melted and we are about 3 weeks behind last years schedule for garden clean up, tilling and prep. The chickens have been happy to pick bugs and grubs in the messy garden. After this weekend they will not be allowed back in until Fall.

We decided to finally remove the railroad tie walkway and weed the garden.

The garden has been freshly tilled

mulched straw walk ways have been added

 The yard has been thatched...and now we are waiting on Sunshine!!

Gettin' Soapy with it

With the set back of the fire behind me, I am finally able to get soap production up and rolling again!

Yay!

A beautiful and delicate Lilac Soap....still in slab form

Fresh Cut soap Logs of Lilac, Cucumber Melon, Crazy In Love, & Mandarin

A batch of Fish A'lure (Anise) Soap still in the mold waiting to be cut into 168 little bars.

fresh cut Lilac Bars....smelling divine!

Big guy turns 15

By big guy I mean....  6'2" size 13 shoe!

Somewhere along the way, my sweet baby boy grew up!
We celebrated his 15 birthday this week....

 He recently finished drivers ed and now chauffeurs me around. Funny how fast life seems to be flying by...I'm going to hang on tight and enjoy the ride!

Bring it on !!!

Garden Harvest 2012 that is!

With temperatures still dipping down in the 20's at night....  It is impossible to get  gardening full steam ahead. For now I am content with my seedlings happily growing under grow lights in the house, all safe and sound.

The onion and lettuce seedlings have been tucked in the cold frames.

The other two frames have been planted with King Midas Carrots and Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

I also checked in on my garden conditions yesterday and found a sweet surprise...Parsnips!  Evidently, I missed a few this last  Fall.  I now have quite a few parsnips trying to raise their heads in the garden....totally unexpected, but purely welcomed!

It was like striking gold!!!!

Lucky me :-)

This one was a shocker and tipped the scale at 1 ¼ lbs. Can you say Hello Big Boy?

Freshly bathed and ready for dinner!

 Total first Harvest of 2012 .......a whopping 2 and almost a ¼ lbs.

Happy Easter

Hope you all had a Beautiful Easter... We sure did!

( Easter egg dye)

(dyed Farm eggs)

(Easter cupcakes)

And in North Idaho we never did spot the Easter Bunny.... However, we did locate the Easter Moose ;-)

HAPPY EASTER!

Fire and a set back

Well, I managed to finally set the Soap shop on fire this week!  

I had a small amount of coconut oil in the bottom of a pan that I needed to melt and weigh. 

I turned the burner on the stove and completely forgot about it.... I went next door to get some coffee, visit with mom and ....something just donned on me..........the BURNER!

I could see it as soon as I stepped out the door heading for the shop ...flames shooting from the pan had caught the valance above on fire. Then quickly caught the ceiling on fire... the smoke was so thick and heavy you couldn't reach the fire with the extinguisher from the door. I ended up having to break out the back window and extinguishing the flames from there.

If I had been only a minute or two later, the shop would have been a pile of ashes...The old gal is insulated with sawdust!

I am extremely lucky and am counting my Lucky Stars that the only damage she suffered can be fixed with a new coat of paint and elbow grease.

My punishment for being so stupid.....10 straight hrs of cleanup to get rid of the mess from the extinguisher.

We are hoping to get the painting done this week and the shop will be back open once again!

:-)

Food Challenge * Update *

If you haven't given up and are still following along....Surely you all think we starved to death by now...

Well, we didn't!

We have survived, all though not as gracefully as I had hoped. 

I took on this challenge as sort of a stress test for our family, a test to see where the cracks are, to see where we could improve, what we could live without, and what we could make do with.

I have to say that my family are troopers.
They embraced the challenge, never complained and supported my madness....

Week #1 groceries

Week #2 groceries

Week #3 groceries

What did we learn from the challenge? 

We learned to be more creative with meals, be  more conservative with what we have, be less wasteful, more mindful, shop smarter, make our money go further and most of all.....

we have learned to be more Grateful!

Did we succeed and make it perfectly through the challenge?

No we did not.. 

Along the way we had Corbin's 13th. Birthday to celebrate (what is cake without ice cream?) 

and unforeseen cold and Flu  season running rampant through our house (sometimes only NyQuil does the trick) . For the final 9 days of the challenge we only had $6.00 remaining, we purchased milk.

Although the challenge blatantly pointed out our flaws, we are happy that we took it on and will be making different choices in the future.