Category Archives: Square Food Garden

5 Things Friday

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  1. The schedule- Months ago when I started to plan for my summer break, my thought process was that I would schedule as many medical appointments as I could this week and get them out of the way.  This would free up several weeks of time instead of needing to go out once a week to a different appointment. I did not take in account how tired I would be after the wedding festivities.  I had schedule 1 or more appointments for each day.  Adding in some services such as land clearing and septic pumping that I needed to get done and car sharing that occurred made this week crazy busy! I am hopeful that next week and the following weeks, I will be glad for more time but at this point, I am exhausted and really need a break.
  2. Menu planning-  Did not happen this week at all. I have managed to get food on the table every day and no one starved.   I may start some planning next week but if not we still have a ton of convivence foods!  My logic is that we are cleaning out the freezers and making room so why not!
  3. Gardening-  For the first time in years, we had to water with our hose this week.  I have expanded the garden but we managed to empty out both 55 gallon drums of rain water. It has been very hot and very dry but it was dishearting to hook up the hose.   We did get a storm last night so that will eliminate the need to use the hose at least for the next couple of days.  I am praying for a nice soaking rain over the next week so that things will even out!  I have moved several plants to different areas just to give myself some more space and hopefully get a better harvest.
  4. Chicken- Matt agreed to allow the kids to get some chickens as pets. We had an area behind our house cleared this week in order to make room for the said chickens.  I am expecting a delivery of the first part of the coup this afternoon.  I want to make this a pretty and useful area as well so I have been spending lots of time thinking and planning the landscape around the chicken coop.
  5. Weather- It is extremely and usually hot.  In fact, this has added to my exhaustion this week. I need to get out and get any yard work done prior to 9 am or after 8pm in order to even survive!  I am so looking forward to sitting by the pool this weekend!

Saving On Saturday

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I wanted to update and blog what we are doing and continue to do in an effort to save money. I am watching lots of news stories talking about inflation and how the country is not going into a recession.  Sorry the more you say it does not make it true.   Anyway, here are a couple ways we have found to save money and I will talk a little more about food saving and waste at the end.

  • Running our dishwasher and washer/dryer in the middle of the night. This also helps to keep the heat out of the house so it is easier to cool.
  • Turning off the stove just before food is cooked. For example, I usually cook pasta for 8 minutes to use in dishes. I will turn the stove off after 6 minutes to save just a tiny bit.
  • Using the rain barrels to water the gardens.  This week we have been watering at least every other day so this is a huge saving.
  • Hanging swim suits and towels up to dry only washing one time per week.

Now on to  the food, one of the best ways to save money on groceries is to  eliminate as much food waste as possible. Today, I hope to have gotten at least one step closer to that.  We have a really busy week ahead so I was able to eliminate and use up some different foods this week and prepare ahead.  I have a jar on my cabinet that collects the half containers or less of pasta that does not get used in one meal. It was full of pente, small elbows and medium size elbows.  So today, I cooked it up instead of opening new boxes of pasta.   I used the taco meet from last week, added pasta, the Mexican cheese that had been left open, and couple of other ingredients to make taco pasta. I also cooked a package of Italian sausage I purchased last Sunday to try a new recipe called “Pumpkin Pasta” The recipe made a large batch so I placed half in the pan and froze a bag for later use. I ended up removing the meat from chicken legs that had sat in the fridge to make a Alfredo chicken bake we ate for dinner. This also used up mozzarella cheese that had been sitting in the fridge. We also pulled out watermelon for desert instead of opening a package of cookies.  We froze the remaining grapes in the refrigerator along with the 2 bananas that have been left this week. Unfortunately, I did have to throw out a container of strawberries that were shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten.

Small things do add up!

Wordless Wednesday- Garden

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Photo credit is Lily

Moved the Tomato’s from the overcrowded beds and purchased $10 of pepper plants on Saturday (5/28)

Zuchnnni and squash- second round planted 5/28.

sugar snap peas

 

 

Sunday Catch-Up

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Another busy weekend has come and gone so I wanted to share what we were able to get accomplished this weekend!   I am still overwhelmed so I am hoping that by being positive I can tackle the rest of the list tommorow!

This is the first Sunday that I have not had to work because the Guam school year has ended.  I really LOVE working with the students, but I do need a break.  This afternoon Mom and I headed to the grocery store, we both had list!  I was so excited to come home and say that I have finally caught up with the list until Zach announced, “We are out of mustard.”  Yeap the story of my life. In other food related news, we schedule to receive our cow this weekend. We are going to purchase a whole cow. It should be ready for pick up the first week of August.  I am going to plan and not purchase any cow related meat for the next two months in order to finish cleaning out the freezer and make room and also to make sure we don’t have something get buried at the back and wasted.   I have stocked up on 2-Liter drinks with a total of 60 purchased this week. If I chose to go to the store again tomorrow to pick up mustard, I will plan to grab another 10. n I did manage to make pickled radish this weekend to use in salads in the next month.  Food Things I have left to get done-  Menu plan, make French toast for breakfast (bread is cut and drying out tonight), make banana muffins to use the remaining bananas from last week, cut up watermelon and cantaloupe so that it will get eaten this week and freeze more Kale from garden.  I should also prepare myself lunch for several days this week as we are not having alot of left-overs currently.

On Saturday, Matt, Zach and I managed to replace the roof of the greenhouse. This should be a permanent fix.  I purchased and planted 7 additional pepper plants from the farmers market and transplanted 4 tomatoes from a bed that was really reallly crowded.  This should finish my planting until July when I will find space hopefully for pumpkin seeds that I already have.   Now the next several weeks should involve watering and weeding while we wait for the harvest to begin.   Garden things left to accomplish-  Get pictures of the veggies growing and post as well as compare to the last couple of years!

I have not touched the budgeting stuff so that is an good chunk of time but hopefully I can get to it this week

5 Things Friday

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  1. Overwhelmed yeap that is currently how I am feeling!  Today is the last day of school for Kendall and Zach. This means that for the short run 2 weeks or so we will have less to none things happening at night so maybe I can get caught up on the things that need doing.
  2. Garden- I am amazed at how much and how well things seem to be growing.  We have baby tomatoes, squash and snap peas. We are currently harvesting Kale, radish, dill and chives.. I want to get some pictures up soon!    One of the goals for the weekend is to finish planting. Amanda brought over a 8 container garden she built several years ago, I need to fill it along with one more container I found under the house. I have planted additional squash and zucchini this week so hopefully they will grow and produce as well.
  3. Summer project list- I have started working on the list of summer projects.  First up is finding someone to clear the area of land at the back of our house. We will be getting chickens in the near future so this area needs to be cleared in order to build a coop and run.  I also need to schedule our septic tank to be pumped.  After these two items are completed, we would like to get the bathroom floor re-titled and maybe get some vinyl in the kitchen.  That is the short list.
  4. Saturday goal- Replace the greenhouse roof that was destroyed by hail last week. We are going to convert it to hard plastic in order to extend the life and reduce maintenance.
  5. Financial goal- I need to do some serious bill pay and establish the new budget for June this weekend as well.

Did I mention I am overwhelmed?

5 Things Friday

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  1. My initial thought that things should get a little tiny bit easier this week was WRONG! This week has been crazy full and busy. We did add swim team practice 4 nights just for 2 weeks until the kids are finished with school.
  2. My Guam schools end this week. I have a few loose ends to catch up on but that is a huge portion off of my plate starting next Wednesday.

3..  I am so happy and excited about the way that my plants are taking off.. I would love to harvest several hundred pounds of veggies this summer. I have only purchased flowers and 2 cherry tomato plants. I have replanted basil and I directly planted 7 green pepper seeds this week. I am hoping that with a long hot summer and fall  these green peppers will have enough time to produce at least during the month of September.  We also purchased a lemon and lime tree that will leave on our back deck until the fall and hopefully survive the winter in the greenhouse.

  1. This weekend is busy with a baseball game tonight, graduation party tomorrow and Graduation Sunday at church on Sunday.

5.  I officially have 3 weeks or 15 school days standing between me and summer break. I really want it to hurry up and come but I also need things to slow down so I can finish up on everything I need to before summer break

Wordless Wednesday- Square Foot Garden

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Above are my “green stock” vertical planters.  We have close to 100 “pockets” planted between the two of these!

Front of house beds- 2 tomato beds and a “cooler” plant below

Tomato bed #1

Tomato bed #2. Marigolds are to help with disease, and I have also planted a row of basil in this bed!

Zucchini on both ends with kale, cabbage and broccoli in the middle with at least 30 bush green beans as well!

These are the beds that we moved behind the house.

sugar snap peas
Watermelon
peppers and squash
Peppers
more peppers
cucumbers and green beads
Green beans, zuccni and marigolds

I am super excited about how everything is growing this year!   My goal is to harvest 100 pounds of food.

This does not include the galloon size ziplock bag that is in the freezer of Kale for smoothies!

 

Saving on Saturday

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Today has been a very busy but productive day!

Garden/ Yard

  • Used pavers that we had stored to make the boundary for the new Raspberry bed, used the 2 large bags of dirt and 7 small bags of dirt from the greenhouse in the raspberry bed.  We decided to use some stakes and string that we already had as well so we ended up spending  ZERO on the new bed.
  • Purchased 3 raspberry stalks and 25 bare root strawberries from Stark Brother’s nursery for 1/4 of the cost of what I saw locally.  I ended up planting all of these today!
  • Purchased 3 zucchini plants for $1.50 and a 6 pack of marigolds($4.50) from the local farmer’s market and planted these today.

Food/ Meals

  • Made breakfast bowls for breakfast, used left-over KFC gravy on top. We made 15 breakfast burritos and placed them in the freezer to use as a quick breakfast in the coming weeks.
  • Made a batch of cowboy beans in the crockpot.  We had these for dinner, froze one additional meal and have 4 lunch bowls in the fridge
  • Used a pound of ground beef given to us to make stuffed green peppers for a meal this week. I will need to top with cheese before baking. This should be an quick and easy meal.
  • I found 1 pound rolls of sausage priced at $1.99.  I purchased 15 rolls with most going in the freezer for future use.  In comparison the next cheapest option as $3.49 for a roll and this was a sale price. I will likely be stopping by Food Lion again to see if they continue to carry the sausage at this price. If so I would like to collect about 30 rolls for the freezer in anticipation of prices continuing to rise.
  • Used the chicken legs from dinner this week to make chicken enchiladas that even Lily will be able to eat.
  • We have made at least 10 full meals today and did not need to purchase one single item! In fact our grocery spending for the month is at $60!
  • I was able to find a source to purchase a whole cow from this summer. The price per pound it $4.80 which is $1 higher than we paid 3 years ago so I am super excited to finish cleaning out the freezer so we can order the cow!

Zach discovered a water leak under the house this morning. Matt was able to fix with items already on hand. This saved us not only on the cost of calling a plumber but it will also help reduce our water bill as it was a major leak.

Matt purchased new tires for the camper from Amazon ($250 for 4). He took both the old tires and the new tires to a local shop and had the tires mounted for $40.  I am going to estimate this saved over $300 on tires. He did purchase a special tool that he needed. But this will be used in the future as well.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Barely survived this week with 2 ballgames and 2 doctors appointments.  Not sure what will happen next week with 3 ballgames, 1 chorus concert and 3 nights of work.
  2. The garden is growing!  I am super excited to see how everything is starting to take off. I am hoping for a nice harvest this year.  We are spending about 5 minutes a day pulling weeds so far so good.
  3. I want to get a couple of meals made ahead on Saturday in order to make things go a little smoother.
  4. Sunday we have all day plans which include Cracker Barrel, shopping and a trip to Durham.
  5. Lily has finished the spring semester at DDCC, Zach and Kendall have 3 weeks left of school and I have 6 weeks between me and summer break.