I'm Back.....

Wow! I haven't posted for over a year. Where has the time gone?!

Well, friends, I've been busy. I've been working on a number of projects, but today I want to address the one that has been the most challenging to me. This project actually began in earnest last summer and was continued into this summer.

I was raised in the country. Think fields, barns, farm animals and gardens. I currently live in a small town, but am still a country girl at heart. So it should be no surprise that I still think gardening is a good thing. There is just something about watching your garden grow and produce tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. It's very satisfying to see shelves of mason jars filled with the abundance of a well tended, productive garden. So last spring I decided to plant a garden rather than just a few tomato plants around my patio.

In the early spring of 2009 a friend came with his tractor and broke up the ground in our little back yard and my gardening began. I planted. I hoed. I weeded and watered. I made a nice little border around the parameter of the garden with bricks and landscape timbers. In short, I worked my butt off, and the garden grew! What a delight!

At the appointed time, tomatoes began to appear on the vines and shades of yellow and red began to peek through the foliage. Ahhh. My garden was producing and my mouth was watering. Time to begin our succulent and tasty harvest. Life was good.

As I began to pick tomatoes, I noticed that more than a few had already been sampled. A bite here, a half-eaten fruit there. Not only that, but the plants were beginning to die from the ground up. This I attributed to some sort of blight or other plant disease, and I made haste to harvest what I could before the whole garden succumbed to whatever this was that was attacking it. Maybe I would have better luck next year. I had all winter to research and find out what the problem was and how to avoid it in the future.

During the course of my research, I ran across what seemed like an excellent form of gardening in small spaces. Thanks to amazon.com I soon had my copy of 'Square Foot Gardening' in hand and a whole new plan forming in my mind. What a great idea! Raised boxes of a special soil mix that was practically guaranteed to grow the finest produce imaginable, and with very little effort after the initial set-up and planting. Hurry up spring!!!! This is my year for the best garden ever!

The rest of the story?......Later. I'm tired.

Susan Boyle

OK. I think she is awesome! How refreshing to see a real person get a little recognition for a change. Her voice is stunningly beautiful. Her manner, refreshingly transparent. Her perfomance, bold and passionate. There is nothing fake about this delightful lady. I hope success doesn't change her sweetness.

If you haven't seen her, check her out on youtube. You will be amazed!

Living Frugally

Well, it has been awhile since I posted here. Things have been very busy. With warm weather approaching, I have been into spring cleaning and fix-up. My hope is to get things ship-shape inside and then concentrate my free time and energy on some yard work and a small backyard garden.(yum!)

With the economy in it's current state, it seems prudent to me to start cutting back in areas where I can. Being a hands on, project oriented person, this has become my new past-time.

I started with cutting costs in the laundry room. Rather than use the clothes dryer, I began hanging clothes out to dry whenever it is not raining. I guesstimate that this will save us around $30 a month on our electricity bill. I still use the dryer briefly for fluffing a few things and for our permanent press items. (I'm not particularly fond of ironing.) I also purchased a folding wooden drying rack for drying smaller items indoors on rainy or very cold days. And a couple of lines put up in my back utility room help with larger items if I can't hang them outdoors.

Next I searched the web for a recipe for making my own laundry detergent. With just a few basic ingredients and a few minutes of time I had approximately 2 gallons of liquid laundry detergent for an average cost of 5 cents a load. After using this for about 3 weeks, I have found it to be as effective as the Tide I formerly used.

Fabric softener was my next goal. Hanging clothes out does leave some of them feeling rough and stiff. Too bad we're such pampered folks. Our ancestors never gave such things a second thought. But I do like my laundry to be soft and cozy. My daughter gave me the solution to the fabric softener, though. She read somewhere that white vinegar in the rinse cycle would do the trick. I was afraid that this would make my laundry smell like vinegar, but had to give it a try. I am still experimenting with how much to use, but at this point I am filling my Downy ball with it and it is making my clothes much softer. And it leaves my laundry with no odor at all! What a great thing for those with allergies to fragrances.

So my quest begins. I will keep you all updated from time to time as I come across more ways to live frugally. Now in case you are thinking that I must be building up a fantastic savings account, the answer is 'no'. My main agenda is to have money for the things I want by cutting back in other areas that don't matter to me that much. I consider it a challenge, and I believe we all need a challenge routinely.

I am searching the web and blogs for more thrifty ideas. If you have any, I welcome your comments and your help.