Broadening Horizons

Composting/Repurposing/Recycling

I started a compost pile. It is mostly pine needles and dead rhubarb. Through the winter and into the spring I wish to deversify the contents. My Mom has a wooden bin that she says I could use. After the coming snow melts and it is nice to work outside, I am taking that bin and using it for the pile. So now I have two garbage piles. One for the chickens which contains pastas, meats, dairy and other products that cannot be composted. The other will contain spent coffee grounds, untreated paper/cardboard, produce/garden scraps, peelings etc. Then whatever paper we cannot compost we will use in our woodstove.  

Other ways I conserve/repurpose are 

• Using glass jars (alfredo/beans) to store pantry staples, herbs and spices
• Using cottage cheese and sour cream containers for tupperware
• Using old juice containers for next years cider pressing
• Using old lundry detergent jugs for my (future) homemade laundry detergent
• And finely recycling anything I have no use for or have too much of
• And what can’t be recycled I throw away in the trash

Green House

My mom plans on buying me a greenhouse as a very early birthday present. I am so stoked about this because now I have a place to start my seeds and keep my starts while it is still cold out. And who knows maybe I can experiment and try avacadoes or artichokes. Hmm. 🙂

Cape Dress

On Thursday I cut out my first cape dress with Libby. The fabric is 100% cotton, and the print is a calico- medium mauve with black sprigs everywhere. I am very excited. I bought enough material to make six dresses, which I need desparately. With each dress I make I want to get rid of at least one article of clothing I have.

 

That’s all for now! I will post more when I get back from Kentucky!

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Current Events, Cookbook review, and this coming Winter.

Yesterday I went up to Clare to a flea market with the Lang’s and the Taylor’s. There was so much to see. There were rows and rows of vendors. At one of the tents there was this butter churn that I would have bought if I had more spending money. But I settled for a dollar package of nail brushes and a dollar package of pot scrubbers. Jimmy bought an old sturdy ice cream churn. The girls chipped in and bought a little gumball machine.

When we go next year, I will know to bring more money in case I spy a steal. After that we went to the hardware store, bulk food store and ding and dent store. I bought castor oil, soap, and the Healthy Choices Cookbook, of which I am so happy I bought, because it has recipes for REAL food, not 705 recipes for grain burgers and granola. If healthy food has left a bad taste in your mouth, then I suggest thumbing through this cookbook and seeing if you find anything that you’d eat.   At the bulk food store I bought iodonized salt, wheat bran and wheat germ. At the ding and dent store I stayed in the car with Carmen, Bekah, Abigail and Hosanna. Hosanna ate and fell asleep, while the other girls listened to Odyssey.

Aaron and I went shopping last night I told him that come this winter I would like to start sewing dresses. But first things first, I need to make myself some bloomers, patch his jeans and work on his ripped coveralls.

I am starting to look at canning less enthusiastically. I have been doing it for weeks, and now that I have both kinds of canners in my possession I will be doing it at home. Having a small kitchen has been kind of hard for me. Space gets taken up so quickly. I am trying to keep in mind of how my work will pay off in the winter when the ground is covered with snow and I will again be itching to do some gardening.

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Provider.

The Mennonite church that I visit once a month for quilting cleaned out there kitchen and was giving away items for donations.

Today I got about a dozen plastic cups (which we don’t have yet), a handful of mason jars, and two large blue and white serving platters. All of it I purchased for five dollars. We had a family donate scrap material in boxes and trash bags. I helped Betsy sort through them. The a large quantity of the contents weren’t worthy to be called “scrap material”. They were as good as rags. I took a bag of scraps I am going to put to projects that I can donate to Haiti relief. I am motived to make a difference and help by working with my hands. After church I received a pint of garlic in olive oil, the product of an overabundance of garlic.

This morning Aaron and I lay awake in bed listening to NPR news. So depressing and a little scary.

Jimmy (I guess I should call him Brother Lang, I don’t think that I have even called him that yet…hmm..) did a sermon on Revelation. We are in chapter 2 and we covered the first two churches. Ephesus and Smyrna. I was really blessed when I read that even those the church in Smyrna was dirt poor, they were actually very rich in faith!

God proved to me today, that even though I may be uneasy about the future, He will provide. Now, do I need a pint of garlic and material scraps? Not necessarily, but if God can bless me with things that I can use to bless others, and He can fulfill my every need.

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A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Although, I am still displeased with the way my blog LOOKS I am still going to update it.

I updated my gardening page.

I drove to the farm today with seed packets. I left with pots and containers filled with dirt and hopefully successful plants with a good yield. The seeds I did were Brandywine Tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, spinach, ever-bearing strawberries, oregano, broccoli, shasta daisies and dianthus. Mom Cook and Naomi advised me to be careful of my oregano plant because it will take over. I plan on having my herbs in hanging baskets. So if my oregano wants to have room to stretch it can do so. Doesn’t that sound pretty? My oregano draping over  the sides of it’s pot.

I mended my leggings (I wear them in the winter) the other day. The holes were getting bigger and they could not be ignored any longer. They are a spandex and cotton blend so we will see how they hold up. If not I will just throw them away, and look for a bloomers pattern (never in my life have I ever thought I’d want to be wearing bloomers). After getting help and pointers from Libby on a skirt that I did a few weeks ago, I am really excited about sewing. I went to Wal-Mart to see what they had on their clearance and I ended up getting 9 yards of material for $15.90. I think that those are going to end up being skirts.

 

Monday, Betsy and I are going up to Clare to do some shopping.  I have a little list going. Clare has Amish stores, I went with some of the Cooks and Nelsons (Wendy’s side of the family) at Christmas. I really enjoyed it. Some stores that we are probably going to stop at are the hardware store, the bulk food store, and the ding and dent store. We’ll see what other mischief we can get into. Have a blessed and restful Sunday everyone.

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