Soup

We received our first box of veggies on Saturday. Of course nothing ever goes right for us, there was a small problem with our box as it was missing a number of things. The organization we purchase from said they would replace those items in our next shipment though so everything will eventually get straightened out.

The amount of stuff we did get is a little intimidating. This one incomplete box contained more fruit and veggies than we have purchased in the last 2 months. One of the things I was a little concerned about when we initially signed up for this program was that we would get things that no one would want to eat. The first shipment contained a number of yams and lots of broccoli. Lorna and I like broccoli in Chinese food but we won't go out of our way to eat it, Paul really dislikes it (I think he'd rather eat the horse manure outside), and Malachi hates all fresh veggies.

On Saturday night I made broccoli au gratin to go with some chicken wraps. We are still getting lots of tomatoes out of our garden so I'm still trying to come up with ways to use them up. Amazingly Paul really liked the broccoli. I have never cooked broccoli before so I was just glad it came out okay.

Last night I made a creamy veggie soup that used celery, potatoes, broccoli, and carrots from our box. I've never made soup before and the recipe seemed to be kind of basic, assuming you knew what you were doing, so I wasn't sure I was cooking everything correctly. I thought the cut up veggies were kind of pretty so I snapped a picture.



The soup came out great. Malachi even said it was okay although we did have to fight him to get him to finish the little bit I gave him.



One of the things we've noticed about the shipment we received is that all the produce tastes different than the stuff we buy at the market. The celery actually has a flavor and the carrots are really sweet. I guess there is a very large difference in fresh organic produce when compared to regular grocery store produce. Now I just have to figure out what to do with yams...

More Projects

We are still working through all that scavenged building material we picked up. We skipped a weekend of projects because of rain but last weekend we were back to work.

We finished the washer and dryer enclosure. It needs a few little things like expanding foam in the cracks and handles on the doors, but for the most part it is done. We will get around to painting it soon.




The metal rack we built the enclosure around is large enough that I was able to fit our plastic tubs full of sheets and blankets next to the washer (we only have 1 closet in the entire house). All of our extra possessions (out of season clothes, blankets, Christmas decorations) sit in plastic tubs underneath our deck. The sun has been beating down on the edges of the tubs for 2 years now and the tubs are starting to disintegrate. It makes me wonder about the idea that plastic doesn't break down very easily.

The second project for the weekend was the floor in Lorna's room. Since the room is tiny (9.5x7.5) it only took us 3 hours to actually lay the floor. We finished up the moldings just as it was getting dark.



There are only 2 rooms in the house that are left to be replaced, ours and the bathroom. Because our house has a post and beam foundation the ceramic tile the previous owner put in the bathroom is popping up. Due to the height of the fixtures and the condition of the sub-floor, we've decided to replace the tile with some of the left over laminate from the hallway. We don't take baths (too much water) so it's not like the floor gets that wet. I need to texture the walls and repaint them first so it'll be awhile before that room gets finished.

Happy Birthday

Today Lorna turns 13. Many people seem to dread the teenage years but if the last few months have been any indication of what the upcoming years will bring then I'm looking forward to it.

You win some, you lose some

Yesterday was a day where we made a positive step forward in our quest for eating better and a step backward in not wasting resources.

Our step backward occurred due to a broken printer. It never fails that the printer will break right after you change the ink cartridge. A major paper jam broke one of the rollers inside the printer, part of it actually snapped, and the carriage mechanism that moves the ink cartridges along could no longer move. The printer was only 1 year old. These things are just not made to last which doesn't do much for my desire to not waste resources. Since we scan lots of stuff for both my store and Paul's work we decided to just purchase a scanner and a separate printer instead of getting an all-in-one. Problem is, no where we visited yesterday sold them separately. We ended up with another all-in-one, one that uses different cartridges then the old one. I was really excited to see that HP offers recycling of the old printer until I saw that I not only have to ship it to them but I also have to pay them to recycle it, so it's going to the dump. I tried to shop locally for my new printer but after calling around I found that no place in our valley sells them. I know there are many people up here that don't even own a computer but I'm still surprised none of the stores carry even one kind of printer.

The positive step forward in eating occurred because I signed us up to receive a produce shipment from small farmers. It's a service that is newly available here in our valley and it's cheap! For $33.80 we will get enough fresh produce to feed the four of us for at least a week, it's all certified organic (not that this is a major deal for me), and it's "local" (as local as we are going to get at 50-200 miles from here). The boxes average 30 pounds a week so I'm going to have to change the way we eat in order to use it all before it goes bad. More of our money will be going to small farmers and less to Sam's Club, that alone makes me excited. Since that amount of money is about half of our food budget for the week there will be lots of changes made around here in what I cook. I'm excited to see what our first shipment looks like next Saturday.

Busy

The last week has been absolutely insane with stuff going on. Yesterday was the annual show for the Sweet Adeline's group I'm a member of. This is my first year so I had no idea what a big deal this was going to be. We've spent the last few weeks practicing at the location of the show but we had 3 straight nights of rehearsal before the actual show day. We sold out for the evening show yesterday and everything went really well. I'm really glad it's over though because I'm exhausted! Now we will be getting ready for contest in March.

The second half of the show featured Ready, Willing, and Mabel. This group was absolutely incredible, I can't say enough good things about them. Paul and I enjoyed them so much we purchased one of their CDs. If you like acapella vocal jazz with 4 part harmony you should check them out.

Fear

I told myself I wouldn't write about the election anymore but I just had to write about something that came to me today as I was responding on another blog.

As the election draws near I've noticed the arguments for a particular candidate are increasingly focused not on what he will do for the nation but what he will not do. We are being asked to vote for this candidate because of fear. Fear of what the opposing candidate will do. All that matters to some people is keeping the other guy out no matter what their supposed "lesser of two evils" will actually accomplish while in office.

I constantly read blogs bemoaning the state of our government. Freedoms are being eroded and the government just keeps growing. Taxes keep rising and socialism abounds. Is it no wonder these things are happening when people refuse to vote for the candidate that they believe will to do the best job and instead vote for the "lesser of two evils"?

Voting

Since we live in a rural area we are automatically sent absentee ballots. I really like voting in this manner. We can take the time to look at the issues and candidates with the ballot in our hands. Once we make a decision, we vote, seal it up, and have the option of either mailing it or dropping it off. We always drop the ballots off at the elections office for our county to make sure they aren't lost in the mail.

Usually Paul drops them off while out and about for work but today I had a few errands to run in the city so we went with him. As we walked out of the office Paul was stopped by the local news station who wanted to ask him a few questions. He said it was really difficult to come up with answers off the cuff but I think he did a good job. They asked things like why we were voting early and if we thought this election was more important than any other. They mentioned the record number of people who have registered and asked if we thought the lines would be long on voting day.

I'm not sure that his answers were really what they were looking for. We didn't vote early in anticipation of long lines. We really don't think this election is any more important than any other. All elections are important and I feel that as long as people keep voting based on who might win as opposed to who really reflects their beliefs than things will never really change for the better. I know those of you who think the world is going to end if your candidate isn't elected are probably shaking your head right about now, but I really believe there isn't much difference between the 2 major candidates. It was interesting to be asked these questions though and good to see so many people taking their civic duty seriously.

Flooring

If you are tired of reading about home improvements and my scavenging go ahead and skip this post.

Since we don't have a garage to store our recent finds in I feel this pressure to get things installed or used prior to the next big rain. Luckily we live in the high desert so rain isn't all that common. The October gymkhana was canceled due to an outbreak of pigeon fever at the facility we use, so I figured this was a good weekend to install that flooring we scavenged.

Here is a picture of what our deck looked like right after my wonderful stepfather closed it in for us.



It was really nice but since we were replacing the carpet I wanted the siding taken off the outside wall of the house. A number of months ago we found nice wood siding under the vinyl and had decided at that point to remove all the vinyl siding. Luckily we never got around to it. You are probably wondering why I said luckily, well when we took the siding off in the deck this weekend we found this.



The siding has holes in it from woodpeckers and the paint is really peeling. We figured we would have to sand and repaint but due to the age of the house I figured I should test the paint first. Of course it is painted in lead paint. So we decided that we had no choice but to cover the siding with plywood. We had taken apart a plywood covered wall in the same building where we pulled up the flooring so we had more than enough nice 1/2 inch plywood to cover the wall.



It actually looks really nice and will look even better once it's painted sometime in the future.

We spent a day and a half prepping everything and we haven't even started the floor. Well it took until 8 pm yesterday night but we finished the flooring. It looks wonderful! It really takes the enclosed deck and makes it look more like part of the house.



As we were working on the floor we talked about a number of ways to rearrange the furniture to give Malachi more room but still leave us with enough room for the dinning room table and all my sewing stuff. We turned his bed around and put it against the wall which really opens things up. It will also mean that I can easily see into his room so he won't be able to pile stuff all over the floor.



We still need to put in moldings but that will have to wait awhile. I'm so pleased with the way everything turned out and even more pleased with the cost to us which was $0!

Frugality vs. Green Living

I've taken to reading a lot of "green" blogs to fill time freed up by permanently unsubbing from Loopers and also to get away from all the political "the sky is falling" kinda posts on the other blogs I frequent.

I see being frugal and being green as two things that don't always go together. Turning off lights and buying less stuff certainly fall into both categories but that seems to be where the similarities end. So I was really excited by the title of the book Go Green, Live Rich. I wasn't looking for a book to tell me how to become rich but I was looking for some advice on how to be both green and frugal. I saw the book mentioned on a few of those new blogs I've been reading. It was a complete waste of a library request, although I did get a few chuckles out of it.

The book mentions things like CFLs, buying a hybrid vehicle, getting rid of a second vehicle, walking/biking to more places, etc. Like buying a hybrid vehicle is going to do us any good when Paul's commuter mobile gets 35-40 mpg. Not to mention the fact that buying a brand new vehicle when you really don't need one isn't green because of the resources used while building it and it certainly isn't frugal. The other ideas like taking a vacation and volunteering at the same time were interesting but hardly useful for our family. Maybe we aren't average but we don't take yearly vacations, in fact we've taken 1 family vacation together in the last 13 years we've had kids. All total that vacation didn't cost even 1/4 the amount this book was advocating for a less expensive vacation while volunteering. Maybe we aren't an average family but still the ideas were next to useless.

This brings me to the blog that I've been following that said it was going to prove that going green could be frugal. The very first post in the series talks about how this family purchased a dining room set used from someone in their area. They figure they saved around $6000 because they only paid $2300. Wow, I don't think we've paid that much for all our furniture combined but I do have to commend them for buying used since that is a frugal and green thing to do. But the rest of the post talked about how using dishes to eat off of is green and frugal. Ummm, isn't this how most of America lives though? Does the average family really eat off of paper plates and use plastic cups everyday? How can you prove to doubters that going green can be frugal when you use examples that just don't apply to the average person? I'm still waiting to be convinced that being more green can be frugal.

If you have any great ideas how we can be more green and still be frugal I'd love to hear them. But please don't include buying less stuff and turning off the lights because I think I've got that down.:)

Bricks

I finally remembered to get outside during the day to take a picture of some of the pavers we picked up. I know it's really abnormal but I'm excited about our find. We still have at least one more load to pick-up.



Here is a picture of the wood holder we built out of old recycled plywood we had lying around and one of the industrial racks I mentioned in my last post. Now it's Paul's job to split enough wood to fill it.

Scavenging

I've been so busy scavenging things for the house that I just haven't had time to blog.

Of course, I'm now sitting here ready to blog and it's dark outside so it's difficult to get pictures of all the things we've acquired. I'm on this kick to clean up the property and the house. At the same time I just don't think it's a good idea to buy new stuff to do this with. I joined the local freecycle community in the hopes of getting an old bathtub to use as a water trough. At the same time the opportunity arose for us to get some free stuff around here. Being part of the freecycle community really made me think outside the box.

We got 4 industrial racks with 3/4 plywood. The racks are or have become: a firewood rack (it can hold up to 1.5 cords), a washing machine enclosure, and a storage shed for all the extra clothes and bedding that are currently under our deck. I'm very excited! The fourth rack is either going to become a greenhouse or a chicken coop. Maybe I'll combine the 2 ideas and put a green house on the roof of the coop.

We also picked up 2 truck loads of brick pavers. Those are going to become a new patio under the carport.

We were able to get an awesome vanity, mirror, light fixture and toilet.


Our last load of stuff out of the building we cleaned out was a heavy shelving unit that is destined for our shed and 400 square feet of high quality laminate that will replace the cheap stuff we currently have in the house (the old flooring will be moved to the bedrooms).

The only cost for all this was time, labor, and fuel for the truck.

I've also redone our closet and my sewing area by reusing stuff we already had lying around. The plastic shelving that was sitting mostly unused by the washer was put in my closet to hold clothes. The hooks we've moved from house to house during the last 4 moves were hung in the back of my closet to give me more hanging space. The hope chest that was originally sitting in the closet has been moved to the sewing area to hold fabric and stuff I use for my business.



The house is beginning to look like a whole new place. I'm really hoping to have a number of projects to blog about over the coming months. The hardest part will be to keep the momentum going and actually complete all these big plans.

Coupon Codes

This is a great site I've used a couple times recently. I was able to find coupon codes to knock $10 off of an order at an online equine store a few weeks ago and today I used it to buy new checks for less than half the normal price the company charges. As opposed to other similar sites these codes seem to be current and there are lots to choose from.

Dan in the Real Life

We watched this movie this evening and I have to say that I was really disappointed. The story could have been good if not for the large part the main character's daughters played in it. They spent the entire movie being rude, argumentative, and just generally horrid. Their father and their entire extended family encouraged them in their disrespectful behavior. I spent the most of the time ignoring the plot because I was in horror at the way these girls were speaking to their parent.

Differences

There is something that just jumped out at me as I've been reading blogs over the past week or so. There seem to be huge differences in the blogs of people who support McCain and in those who support Obama. Now this isn't a scientific study but I read a number of blogs that fall into the camp of one or the other based on the banners I see. In fact I think I read more blogs of overt Obama supporters than I do for McCain supporters. The difference is that McCain supporters seem to be more vitriolic in their writing. Political posts seem to be more prevalent and they want to point fingers more. They seem to think that life as we know it is going to cease to exist if Obama gets elected. Obama supports don't seem to see it quite the same way. They may occasionally post a link to an article or make a statement or two, but they post about a multitude of other things. They don't seem to be pointing fingers as much and they certainly don't feel that life is going to change much if McCain gets into office. They just seem less in your face. I find it interesting that the current talk about the economy has less finger pointing for Obama supporters and focuses more on changes that should be made to fix the economy. As anyone who has read my posts here knows I don't support either of these candidates so I'm not leaning toward either camp, I'm more a third party voter. Just something I found interesting...

No good reason

I'm going through one of those spells where I'm unhappy with almost everything for no good reason. Many times I get a pile of fun books with little substance and just immerse myself in those for a few weeks and the feeling passes. Unfortunately I can't seem to find enough books to keep me immersed this time as the interlibrary loans are really slow in being processed, budget cutbacks are the reason.

We finally started school last week and I'm ready to just give it up. It was a long and difficult week which added to my feelings of unhappiness. I just hope this week goes more smoothly.

The one really great thing right now is that our garden is producing lots of tomatoes. Last year the tomato plants died before we got anything off of them. This year we can barely keep up with eating them before they go bad. Since they are ripening at the pace of 1-2 a day there aren't enough read at one time to can them.

Since I don't want this to solely be a whiny post...

I've been reading a number of "green" blogs lately. I really want to do more in our home that is environmentally friendly. We conserve water and electricity, I recycle as much of our garbage as possible even though it's not convenient, and Paul does most of our errands after work to cut back on trips to town. But I'm running into a problem, how can we be more environmentally friendly without going over our food budget? We buy most of our food from Sam's Club but the over packaging is just horrible. Many times the items in a case are individually wrapped. I'd love to buy more of our staples from bulk bins at the store we purchase other things from but it would be much more expensive. We try to buy local produce that is in season but sometimes it's a lot cheaper to buy what's on sale. It's tough to balance my desire to cut our waste and still put good food on the table. As we change more and more of our habits I find that the changes are becoming smaller and more difficult but I never fail to find more things to work on.

September Gymkhana

I hadn't realized how much I missed having gymkhana shows over the summer. It was a good first show of the season. We had almost 40 riders so it was a long day but the weather was nice.

Malachi and Amigo did great, completed every event and even earned a few ribbons.





Lorna and Ginger did well even though they had a few minor stumbles. They improved a number of their times which bumped them up into the next division in most cases.

Planning

I finally got the school planning done, it took 4 days because we had some unexpected stuff come up. I tried to avoid planning much on Fridays so it's still our free day to finish things up and do some fun projects. The planning sheet looks like there are a lot of subjects but when I tallied up the number of hours we will actually be doing school each day, it is still only 2-3 hours. I'm planning on starting school next week which is really late for us, but life just got in the way.

I have good news for those who are missing all the horse photos, there will be more after tomorrow. The first gymkhana of the season is tomorrow. We are all really excited and Malachi is very nervous since it will be his first time riding. Lorna has some times to beat and a title to uphold. She was #10 overall in our club last season, she won High Points Champion in her division, and she won awards for the best times in 7 events in her division. She walked away with a plaque, a new breast collar, and lots of gift certificates. Her goal for this season is to beat her own best times and, of course, her little brother :)

Vacation

Two weeks ago the kids and I left for Washington to visit my mom, stepfather, and grandmother. We had never been up there so even though we had seen pictures we weren't prepared for how beautiful it really was.



I just loved the trees and all the green everywhere. It is such a contrast to our area with it's sand and scrub. We spent a week and, except for missing Paul who had to stay home to work, I didn't want to come home. The weather was spectacular with temps in the 70s and 80s, Paul was stuck with triple digit temps while we were gone.



We took a train trip, visited a wildlife sanctuary, saw a grist mill that is powered by water, and drove up to Johnston Ridge to view Mount St Helens (which was awe inspiring). Of course we also spent lots of time visiting and just enjoying being with family.





When we were at the house visiting Lorna amused herself with painting and Malachi just had to run. He drove the tractor, ran around, welded a bit, and ran some more :)





The week flew by for us but Paul was very happy to have us back. This was the first time in the 14 years we've been married that the kids and I have left without him for more than a night or 2, it was hard and not something we are going to repeat.

Weird Advice

I had an interesting doctor's appointment this morning. I generally stay away from doctors unless I'm really sick but once a year I have to have blood work done in order to get a prescription for the medication I'm taking.

The doctor was a bit sneaky the last time I saw her and did a few extra tests. She was very unhappy with my results, to say the least. Her answer, I need to eat more meat and less rice and pasta. When was the last time you heard of a doctor telling you that you aren't eating enough meat, specifically red meat? To my surprise she also insisted I start eating 3-4 eggs a day.

She said to cut out all cereal, chips, candy, etc. Which is hilarious since I don't eat those things on a regular basis. She didn't expect or really appreciate my honesty that my diet won't be changing.

Over the last few years I have cut almost all processed foods out of our diet with the exception of rice and pasta. I have increased the amount of fruits and veggies that we eat and I have cut my portions in half. At the same time I have decreased the amount of meats we eat to about 2 ounces in the evenings. I don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol and only have one caffeine-free soda a day. Those are changes that I'm really happy with. Our grocery bills fall within our budget pretty easily these days so I'm not enthusiastic about making changes that will impact that.

So when asked what types of things I should substitute for rice and pasta, the doctor responded with zucchini and cauliflower. That's not exactly realistic in my mind and I told her so. I guess she doesn't get a lot of honest people that walk through her door since she didn't seem to know what to do with me :)

Election

I was tired of hearing about the election last year, so the increase in the frequency of it is being mentioned now is even more frustrating. I'm tired of hearing about the fact that you have to vote for one of the two major candidates or you are wasting your vote; and I'm tired of people who are supporting a candidate not because of their platform but because they dislike the other guy.

I will be voting for a third party candidate. I think the only wasted vote is one that isn't cast. I going to vote for the presidential candidate that has a platform closest to my beliefs on what I'd like to see happen in this country. So I'm going to vote for someone, not based on their likelihood of being elected, but on what they want to accomplish while they are in office. Then I'm going to sit back and relax because ultimately God is in control and will use whoever is in office for His plans. If God can use Pharaoh, He can use anyone.

They arrived

This is what arrived just a few minutes ago.



It always feels a little like Christmas when I unpack the school books. The wonderful smell of new books. The pretty new covers that will look great for about 3 weeks...



I told each of the kids to pick their favorite thing.



Malachi absolutely loves encyclopedia type books. He has looked over our Usborne history and science books so much the covers are falling off! He wanted to show that he was crazy about history. I think the fact that he is crazy may have come across really well.



Lorna loves science kits. This year I splurged on a Chemistry kit that looks like it will be a lot of fun. Can you tell she hates having her picture taken?

I admit just seeing the books makes me a little more happy about starting school, although I did cringe a little when I took the writing book out of the box. I really do think the kids will learn to write just fine by reading lots of good books. But I caved into the pressure of buying something a bit more structured :(

It's funny, this will be our 8th year of homeschooling and each year my orders get smaller and smaller.

I don't want to!

I just don't want to start school. I put off ordering books until last week, they should arrive either today or tomorrow. At least I ordered books this year, last year I never got around to it! I'll have to spend a whole day doing the planning for the year once they arrive. I figure we will have to start the third week of September after we return from visiting my mom in Washington.

This is the first year I'm just not excited about doing school though. As I read various blogs in the morning I have to say I feel so guilty. Everyone seems to have either already started school or they have these really intensive schedules. I've really relaxed the way we do things over the last few years, so it takes 2-3 hours to accomplish everything I plan for a school day.

Here is our short list of subjects per kid:

Malachi

Catechism
Math
Handwriting
Spelling
Grammar
History
Science
Dictation (this is a new addition for him)

Lorna

Catechism
Math
Vocabulary (new this year)
Writing (new this year, although I have doubts that I'll actually follow through)
Grammar
History
Science
Logic (new this year)

I don't count reading or exercise as part of school since I don't generally do anything special. The only structured thing the kids do is ride their horses once a month in gymkhana. They ride at home just about every day so I figure that's enough exercise. We all read constantly, I do add certain books to the kids' piles but that's as structured as we get with that. Lorna would like to start learning more about singing and music so we may work on those things on Fridays (our free day). You'll notice there is no foreign language in those lists. Lorna has done Latin for the last 5 years or so but she just doesn't want to continue and neither do I. Every year I have these hopes of studying famous artists or composers but we never get around to it, I'm not even putting it on the list this year.

Farmer's Market

I've been lamenting the lack of a Farmer's Market in our valley for a couple of years, so when I saw the notice in the paper last week about an informational meeting to get one started I had to attend. I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted one in our valley! There was at least 40 people there and they've decided to start one this weekend. We already had plans to expand our garden for ourselves but this gives up that much more motivation to expand it a bit further next year. Also they are looking for people to sell handmade crafts that are "green" or eco-friendly. I have doubts about whether the items I sell on my store would actually sell but I thought I might give it a try in a few weeks. I'm thinking that reusable cloth grocery bags might be a good thing to add to my line-up.

Pitas

I wanted to share a link to this recipe for pitas.

I tried them a few days ago and they are wonderful! I've made 2 batches and they are almost gone. Malachi and Lorna have used them for pizza crusts and I've filled a number of them with fresh veggies. I love the fact that they are so easy.

What now?

Why does finding a church have to be so difficult?

I think we must be too picky but I don't have any idea how to change that. The church we've been attending for the last few months just isn't working. The past 2 sermons we have heard have contained things that just aren't Biblical. There is always little to no law and lots of fluff. That combined with other less important things is just too much. None of us want to go to church anymore, we all dread what will be said or happen next. We are already driving over an hour and I don't want to even consider going any further. Our best options are 3+ hours away but when church starts at 8 or 9am that option becomes too much for even once a month, and that's not even taking into consideration the cost of fuel. I know I'm whining but I'm just so frustrated!

Caffeine Free!

I've been caffeine free for one whole week. This is a major accomplishment in my life. It took 4 days for the headache to go away but it's finally gone. Yeah for me!

Apathy

The following images my be a bit disturbing, so don't say I didn't warn you...

Have you ever wondered what apathy looks like? Have you ever driven by a house and thought to yourself, "How do they live like that?" If you have, then you may have driven by mine. Here are some pictures so you can get the full effect, I didn't pick up anything so it looks just like it normally does.







Does it look like no one in this house cares? I do but I need help. We don't have a garage which is a big part of my problem, there is nowhere to store those things I would normally put out of sight. Beyond that I just can't seem to keep up with both the inside and outside. The inside of the house is somewhat cluttered but clean. I can see the surface of all workspaces and there are no piles of papers or books. It is all the energy I have to just keep the inside looking that way though.

It never works for me to tell the kids to go outside and pickup trash that has blown on the property. I can give specific instructions to put the stuff in the carport away but it is just thrown somewhere else. The front "porch" is only as clean as it is because I've made a concerted effort to keep it cleared off the last 3 weeks. To be honest I can't even step into the shed you see in one of the pictures because something fell over in there. I've cleaned out that shed at least 4 times this year but it seems that it's impossible to keep it clean.

So I need some constructive thoughts on what I can do to get this place cleaned up. I'm having a difficult time motivating myself and my family. I would love to build another shed or something to contain some of the mess but we just don't have the money right now. We have to get the washer into an enclosure by winter so all of our monetary resources need to go towards that project.

Catching up

Why is it that when you get sick for just a few days it seems to take a week or more to catch up?

Not much is going on around here but sewing, cleaning, sewing, and sewing. You notice I only mentioned cleaning once :) The house wasn't in the best shape before I got sick so I'm only attempting to get it back to that "okay but not great" level. Once things slow down in the sewing department I have some major cleaning and decluttering I want to get around to. It's probably just wishful thinking that I'll ever get this place to be uncluttered since it's so small.

We got our first cucumber out of the garden but the skin was really bitter. I'm not giving up, this is the first time I've ever had a cucumber actually grow in any garden I've planted. There are now lots of little green tomatoes all over the plants which is also really exciting. I know that in town people have already had ripe tomatoes but since we are 1500 feet higher in elevation we are slightly behind them in the ripening process. We still haven't had any green beans and the plants seem to be dying so I think I may have to give up on the idea of ever growing them here :( The squash plants are limping along as well which may actually be a blessing since I have way too many plants. We are getting just enough squash to keep us happy but not so much that I'm stressed by some of it going bad.

I spoke too soon...

We spent the last week without internet. We had our new system up and running for one whole day before it went down. Last Thursday night the modem just suddenly stopped working. We were able to finally get a new modem yesterday only to find out the problem was with the power cord not the modem. The installer was able to get us a new cord today.

I learned some things about HughesNet...

They outsource all their tech support to India. I spent over an hour talking to various people who couldn't help me. It was more than a little frustrating to have to decipher what they were telling me. I spent lots of time asking them to repeat what they had just said since some of the accents were so thick.

The company cannot overnight parts because all their tech support people are not in this country. There is a really long convoluted process that takes place when they need to order spare parts.

They don't really care whether or not their service works. At least they were willing to credit us for the time we were down.

I learned some things about myself...

I spend way too much time on the Internet :)

I can get lots done when I'm not sitting here wasting time, like I am now.

It's really difficult to pay the bills when you don't have access to the internet and you have opted for paperless billing.

Hello HughesNet!

We took the plunge yesterday and had HughesNet install a new dish on our roof. As some of you might remember we already had satellite internet with Wildblue. I'm glad to be rid of their horrible service. The connection they provided was never all that great and the slightest little cloud would knock our connection out. The speeds we received were almost always a small fraction of what they advertise. The final straw was when our TRIA went bad, an ongoing problem for Wildblue customers. With that little piece malfunctioning it was impossible to stay connected for any length of time. They offered to fix it for $120 and a new 12 month contract. Since the last thing I wanted was to be stuck with them for another 12 months I figured it was time to switch!

So far our connection seems incredibly fast. I normally spend 2 hours in the morning reading various blogs, it took me only 45 minutes this morning and I even got to see all the pics and videos I usually have to skip. All satellite internet companies have a max you can download in a given period, one of the great things we found out was that we have unlimited downloads between 12 and 3 am. Since we are "night owls" this works out well :)

Debbie's Giveaway

Debbie over at Debbie's Quilts and More is doing a very generous giveaway. Head on over and check it out. And while you are there look at the stuff she has for sale, you may find that perfect gift for someone!

Jam

Marie's comment on my last post suggested I make jam, it sounded like a good idea so I gave it a try.

I have only canned once before, about 4 years ago. At the time we were living in IN and a neighbor brought over tomatoes and all her stuff and I gave it a try. Everything went well that time. When we were living in the yurt I needed a big pot so I could heat water on the wood stove. I purchased a water bath canner because of it's size but I never canned anything with it. It came in handy yesterday though.



I don't have a pot large enough for the amount of jam I was making so I had to do it in 2 batches. The first batch is darker than the second, I have no idea why, I heated the mixtures to the same temperature and used the same amounts of all the ingredients. The taste seems to be the same so maybe it was just a difference in the color of the fruit. All 5 jars sealed so it looks like we will have enough jam for at least a year :)

Apricots

This is our tree after the birds ate about half of the fruit and I picked and ate a bunch.



It seems I'm the only one who likes apricots in the family but by the time I'm done trying to eat all the fruit before it goes bad I may not like them anymore either!

Rain

Since we live in the desert it can be months between rain showers. The last time we had rain was sometime in March. The last few days we have had showers in the afternoon. The first day was a good amount of rain but not too much. Of course we all went to the windows to watch it fall for the first 10 minutes of so. Yesterday we had even more rain, enough to realize we have a leak in the ceiling above the couch :) The clouds are rolling in again today and I hope we get as much or more than yesterday.

The air over the past 4 days or so has been really humid as well. Between the humidity and the clouds the temps have stayed in the high 90s, a huge improvement over the really dry triple digit temps we had before this weather system moved in. When it's really dry I find myself laying around a lot more, unable to do very much. The high humidity leaves me with more energy so theoretically I can get more done. Of course that's all theoretical, all I seem to be doing is reading more and sleeping less.

Amigo's First Lesson

Amigo and Malachi had their first lesson together.



It started out a little shaky since Amigo is not sure whether he likes the trailer or not. The entire drive he kept calling to Ginger and looking over the partition making sure she wasn't going anywhere without him. By the time we got to the instructor's home he was shaking like a leaf. He calmed down as he was brushed and saddled.

We are so blessed to have such a great instructor! She helped Malachi with his new saddle, punching more holes in the stirrups since they weren't short enough. She is always full of positive comments and help, going out of her way to make sure the kids are happy.


Amigo and Malachi playing with the ball.

It was a great lesson. Amigo spent about 45 minutes trail riding with the group and the rest of the time running gymkhana events. The flags were a bit scary for him but he will get over his fear of them soon enough. He even did a few low jumps!


Malachi and Amigo jumping.

Ginger and Lorna had a great lesson too. Ginger jumped a few low jumps. Considering that she used to just plow through them, knocking everything over, it was a dramatic improvement. Lorna has come a long way and not just with her riding. She got up the courage to ask her instructor if she could ride one of her Chincoteague ponies and she was rewarded with a long ride on Gracie :) This particular pony is green broke, having been under saddle for about 30 days, and is doing wonderfully. Lorna was so pleased that she was trusted to ride her.


Lorna and Ginger jumping.


Lorna on Gracie.

Hoof Trimming

I tend to post in spurts, since it's been so hot here we haven't been doing all that much. That means I don't have much to comment on :)

The last 3 days we've been working on trimming Amigo's hooves. When we got him his hooves were horribly overgrown, he hadn't been trimmed since February. Since he was living on very soft dirt he wasn't wearing them down very fast, once we got him here he started wearing them down much faster. We called our farrier the day we got him and then proceeded to wait for 2 weeks. We still haven't heard back from him and no one else has time to add new customers. We decided early last week we would get some tools and try to trim the horse's hooves ourselves.

I read up on a number of different types of trim methods and settled on the "wild horse" trim. It seemed to best mimic what Ginger's hooves do between trimmings. After looking at and reading a bunch of sites I decided that this was doable.

Here are a few pictures before and after.



This picture shows one hoof done (the one on the left) and the other one waiting to be worked on.



This is the bottom before.



This is the bottom after. I know I could have gone down further but I was afraid of making him sore. I want to see how his hoof wears down in the next week or so before trying to go any further.

Amigo's hooves still don't look perfect but they are much improved. I figure we will look at trimming them again in 2 weeks, after that he can probably go 4 weeks between trims. We even did Ginger's hooves which were much easier. It's nice to have a horse who's hooves look like the pictures on the trimming site, it makes for a nice comparison as we go along. The reason it took us 3 days was because they were so overgrown and the heat was really bad. After working on 1 or 2 hooves I was done for the day. Since we finished we have already noticed a difference in the way Amigo stands, he is more square and seems much more comfortable.

Garden

I thought I would post a few pictures of our garden for this year. We have a 4 x 8 raised bed and a few rows next to it.



Last year the only things that lived were the squash and zucchini plants. This year we've had a small amount of peas and a few squash with everything else still growing and really green. I have high hopes for the tomato plants, they are already bigger than last year's plants ever got. It's been really hot the last few weeks so I've been waiting for everything to die. I've been watering every two days and that seems to be sufficient while we have triple digit temps, when it was cooler I could wait another day between waterings.



If things work out well we will be adding one more 4 x 8 bed next year. Since we have to be very careful with our water usage we can only add one bed at a time until we are sure we have enough water to keep the plants alive.

Tagged

I've been tagged so here it goes...

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had a 2.5 year old and a newborn and was working at an insurance company as an underwriter. It was a bad time for us since we were living in a dumpy rented house in a less than great area. I went back to work when Malachi was 6 weeks old so I was often depressed.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

I'm supposed to have a list?
I need to sew, the stock in my store is really low (which is a great thing!)
I need to get in touch with the farrier for Amigo
Laundry
Sewing
Sewing :)
It's too hot to do much else :)

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Most things milk chocolate, peaches, any type of bread

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Move
Get rid of all debt
Support missions of my choice
Get a few more horses :)
Help out some friends

5. Places I have lived:

Newport Beach, CA
Lake Forest, CA
Amboy, IN
Hotchkiss, CO
Lake Isabella, CA

6. Jobs I have had:

Waitress/Trainer
Gallup Poll interviewer
Newspaper delivery driver
Insurance underwriter
Math teacher

7. 6 Peeps I would like to know more about (in no particular order)

Marie
Cheryl
Elizabeth

I'm not sure who has already been tagged so I'll leave it at 3 :)

Amigo

We have a new addition to our menagerie. Amigo is a 10 year old Arabian horse.



He belonged to an older woman who recently died and her grandchildren didn't want him. He is gentled and did well during the hour Lorna rode him this morning. Even though he hadn't been trailered in 3 years he walked right into our trailer for the long ride (90 miles) home. The guy we bought him from breeds and trains quarter horses and didn't want this particular horse since he has little use for a gelding. He was open and honest, answering each question we had and riding the horse so we could watch what Amigo could do. He was quick to point out all of his horses' faults. It was a great buying experience for us.



The guy wasn't able to catch Amigo but I was able to walk right up to him and Lorna put the halter on him. Amigo gets along great with Ginger and he enjoyed the first of many grooming sessions when we got home. Lorna will start working with him tomorrow since it's been about 3 years since he's been really ridden. He needs to build up some more muscle and get used to being ridden daily. Once we know him a little better Malachi will be able to ride him.

No Reservations

We watched this movie tonight and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It was sweet, simple, and clean. There was no nudity,no bad language, and only one scene that alluded to the couple having a physical relationship outside of marriage. Since it was about cooking it made me really hungry :)

We really needed to watch something fun and uncomplicated since we spent the day sitting at a yard sale in triple digit temps. The kids only sold $9 worth of junk for all that effort but strangely they are ready to do it again next Saturday.

Arggg!

I keep wondering how many things can go wrong in one day...

I ordered some fabric for my store back on May 12th; it shipped out 2 days later and I still haven't received it. It was coming from Canada and got lost somewhere. I called the fabric place last week and had them put a trace on the package. They promised to call back on Friday but didn't. I called Monday to see what was going on. I got a call later that day from Canada Post who asked if I had received my package. The guy was really nice and said he would let the shipper know the package was lost. I talked to the owner of the store on Wednesday who said she would be shipping out a replacement order yesterday. We decided to try UPS this time so I gave her my street address. Today I received an email from Canada Post saying they received a package for shipment. Problem! The address is the one for UPS and not the post office since they refuse to deliver here! I called the shipper again and explained the problem, they were hoping to catch the package. I'm thinking I won't be ordering from them again unless I can't find what I want anywhere else, their customer service is horrid!

Not 2 hours later I received a UPS email for a different shipment from an Ebay seller, the address was wrong! They forgot the street name. When we called UPS they said we had to contact the shipper since the package hadn't been picked up. We didn't catch them in time so I'm really hoping UPS gets it here. We are in their system for address problems, and misaddressed packages usually get here okay, but it's frustrating!

There were a few more minor hiccups today that were added in. I figure I've had my share of frustration for the month so it should get better :)

June Gymkhana Video

Paul finally got the video uploaded as you can see. I had no idea the camera picked up sound as well as video so just ignore the commentary in the background :)

June Gymkhana

Saturday was the last show of the season. The next season begins in September so we have 2 long months without a horse show.



Saturday had it's ups and downs. Lorna and Ginger did great overall. They got 5 first places in their division and one no time. The no time was for a broken pattern, that was the down of the day. Since Lorna had enough rides as of the last show to earn her belt buckle for the year she was able to concentrate on just having fun and improving her times and control. I know that next season she will be working on cleaning up her rides, the faster she goes the more difficult it becomes.



Malachi added to his stash of money from manure scooping and is now seriously considering the purchase of his own horse. The horse market may be soft but we haven't been able to find anything that would work for him in his price range. We are considering adopting a mustang since the kids' riding instructor also trains horses. The adoption fee added to the training fee is within his reach and he would have a great horse that would serve him for many years. We still have a bit more considering to do since we would have to build a special corral to comply with the BLM regulations.

I learned how to record videos on our digital camera but haven't been able to upload it as of yet. Our connection is too slow so Paul is gonna try it at Starbucks later today :)

Comfort

There is a great comfort in attending the Divine Service and knowing the liturgy being used. We found a church that we feel we can live with. We've attended a number of times but yesterday was the first time I've really felt comfortable there. The church uses different liturgy settings depending on whether they are celebrating the Lord's Supper or not. Right before we started attending, the pastor and organist decided to teach the congregation a new setting to be used on Communion Sundays. For the past couple of months they have been learning the first setting in LSB, yesterday they went back to the setting from TLH.

Even with stumbling over the changes in the confession and creed, it was so comforting to use something familiar. Instead of wondering what was coming next I was able to concentrate on the words. Since the pastor doesn't want any one setting to become rote he will be using this setting on the 2nd Sunday and the other one on the 4th Sunday with something else on the rest of the Sundays.

Since this church is still over an hour away we cannot attend every week. We've been attending twice a month, on Communion Sundays, and I can now look forward to the 2nd Sunday of each month.

Another Dress

I've had this fabric for a couple of months but just got around to finishing the dress.



It's the same pattern as this dress with the new bodice supplement I purchased. This one closes with two drawstrings instead of buttons. I have to admit that I prefer sewing this bodice over the one with buttons; I just don't like doing buttonholes even though my machine basically does them itself.



Lorna was able to wear it to church this morning and we found that if you slouch while sitting the bottom drawstring likes to pull open. Since you are supposed to wear period correct underpinnings you don't have to worry about exposing yourself but it still looks bad. I added an hook and eye at the bottom drawstring to alleviate this problem. It also keeps the dress from opening when little brothers pull on the ties :)

Car repairs

The timing belt in Paul's car broke without warning yesterday. After having it towed to a mechanic and having it diagnosed, it looks like the belt took out a couple of valves as well. Of course it's not covered under the warranty. This is after we payed for the yearly registration, replaced the windshield, and fixed a leaky oil seal over the last month. The car was still a great deal but I wish we could spread these repairs out over a year instead having them all happen at once.

Thankfully we have had 2 calls on the old horse trailer we recently listed for sale. I'm hoping to have it sold before the repairs on the care are finished. Our life is never dull :)

Passions

We all have our passions, things that we believe really strongly in and want to share with others. Over the years I've learned that instead of telling people you know the answer to their needs you can only offer what has worked for you. You offer it without making any assumptions about whether it will work for them or if it is the best course of action in their particular situation. You don't denigrate their current practices and dismiss what others have found that works.

We all have differing resources and abilities. The perfect solution for one person isn't going to necessarily work for another. Assuming that there is only one solution is naive at best.

Those of you on Loopers understand what I'm talking about. I have to say that I'm happy I finally said something and I now know for sure that I'm not alone :)