Garage Sale Time (Finally!)

We so enjoy going to garage sales.  Here in Central Alberta the season is short, so we try to get to some while we have a chance.  In our town, garage sale season kicks off with a huge one at the local Legion and it never disappoints us. So, here are a few of the neat things I found today;

I got this outside table, a sprayer, 1 1/2 bags of bark mulch, 2 garden gnomes, metal garden flowers and the awesome sled (that we pull behind our tractor in the winter) all for $9.

All the items below were free. The record is "Perry Como Sings Christmas"

I got the set of 2 cast iron frying pans for $4(so now I have an 8", 9" and 10") And all the things on the top shelf were $2, which included storage containers, 2 mini loaf pans, a little whisk, a liquid measuring cup and a Pampered Chef salad dressing mixer (which is why I bought that box of stuff, because I want to start making big batches of salad dressing to go on the lettuce we will soon be enjoying from our garden). Oh ya, the shelf was $2 for more storage for my canning.

And lastly, I bought this old window frame mirror. I have so many old window frames that I want to make into mirrors and have only made 2, but this one is all done for me. All I have to do is paint it black and it will be done!  And it only cost me $1.

Daniel Boone Unit Study Week 11

Ben had started sewing a pair of suede moccasins awhile back and was ALMOST finished, so this week for our unit study, he finally finished them.

Here he is sewing one of them.

And here they are! They look super comfy and he did a great job.

And here they are close up. These came as a kit from Vision Forum and were fairly easy to put together. Ben did get frustrated a few times, but then again, sewing is really not his thing. So I am very happy he finished them.

Our Day's Activites

Today was the day we finally started some seeds!! Yay!  I have been waiting and waiting. We usually can't put anything out in our garden until about June 7th and I find if I get just too anxious and start seeds any earlier, they just get all long and leggy and usually die.  SO, this year, I used some self restraint.  Here is the list of what we planted today;
Tomatoes;
15 Early Girl
14 Manitoba
12 Cherry
  8 Starfire

28 Cauliflower
27 Broccoli
15 Cucumber
10 Ground Cherry (I can't wait to taste these. I'm hoping we can eat them like a fruit)
  6 Dill
  6 Zucchini (I always start squash in the garden, but I can not grow zucchini!!! I know, EVERYONE can grow zucchini. Well, not me.  Hopefully this year.)

Here are the kiddies planting some seeds.

I have been inspired by Crystal over at Homemaking on the Homestead She has been doing a lot of freezer meals.  So, I thought of something we could make for the freezer to enjoy on busy days.  With Larry gone at work,  I find I need little things for the kids and me. So, we made pizza pops.  I just used the recipe for pizza dough that I posted a while back. Then I rolled it out and cut circles. We stuffed them with a mixture of Ragu, shredded mozzarella cheese, diced ham and chopped green peppers. We sealed them shut and cut small slits in the top. I put them on parchment paper lined cookie sheet in the freezer and when they are frozen, I will put them in a ziplock bag. We baked some tonight to try for 20 mins at 375 deg. They were good and great for a quick lunch.

Here is the assembly

And the final product.





New Rooster Picture

As posted on Rebekah's Blog Country God Girl here is the picture of the Rooster picture Rebekah painted for 4-H and has now given to me.  It is an awkward size though, 9x12. I will have to get a bigger frame and a mat.

Daniel Boone Unit Study Week 10

I may as well keep posting. I'm on a roll now!  So this week for our unit study I found an amazing website for free lapbook material.  I mean, it is really cool and you have to check it out! The website is http://www.dynamic2moms.webs.com/ They had a lot of things for Daniel Boone, but I only printed off some as kind of an ongoing review. 

Here, you can see the Map of Exploration, Who is Daniel Boone?, The Wilderness Trail, "Ticklicker" his gun and my eggnog latte that I made with some eggnog I had frozen at Christmas because I LOVE eggnog lattes. (Anyway, back to the subject...)

Here are those page elements cut out and glued on the pages.

And here is the "Wilderness Trail" page.

Some Goings on Around Here

I finally was able to hang our wash outside to dry today. I have been drying it in our dryer all winter. I'm not as hardy of a stock of a lot of you out there that hang out their wash even in the freezing cold and I didn't have a place for my drying racks inside without driving my hubby nuts! So to compensate, I started using cold water to wash our clothes instead of warm.  Even still, our electric bill went up $900 last year because of rate increases, so outside it is with our clothes!

Also this week I have been making frozen shredded hashbrowns out of some potatoes that were really sprouting from our neighbour.  I used all the directions from this link for frozen shredded hashbrowns (Rebekah taught me how to rename a link! I am so excited to finally know how to do that.) These hasbrowns are SO good. They fry up so crisp in about 2 tbsp of oil, then, just before I flip them, I smear about 2 tbsp of butter all over the top. Our potatoes are so big, that I only needed one to make enough hashbrowns for all of us.

Unexpected Blessings

I have just had a wonderful day! My cousin Amy and her family had a last minute trip out this way and were able to stay the night at our house.  We had such a lovely day of fellowship.  I told her it was like "medicine for my soul".
Our kids were happy to see each other and spend some time together too.  Here are some pic's of some of them having fun outside.