Hunting Season!

Black Powder season has come in for our area, and my Dad is like a kid on Christmas Morning.

I also love deer season.  While I don't often find myself in the woods, I have a deal with my Dad- I will pay for processing if he's willing to use one of his tags on a deer for me.

I got a call this morning that he had a doe down!  With a bit of debating, we decided to have the meat processed as hamburger, minus the backstrap which is too delicious to waste in mixing up.  We are going to split the meat from this doe, that way we both have delicious, healthy, clean meat for a reasonable price.

I teased my Dad that he needs to get back out there and get us another- I'd love to have the second cut in to steaks and sausage!

Hunting is such a great way to provide cheap, healthy meat for your family.   I'm thinking that later on this week I may join my Dad in the woods.  Even if you don't bring home dinner, it is absolutely amazing to watch these animals out in the fields.  I wish I could take my camera, but I don't want to risk spooking them!

-Kristen

Gift of Summer

Give the delicious gift of summer this Christmas.   As we are are gearing up to enjoy the summer months, stop and consider how they can help you gift this Christmas.

If you are anything like me, you end up with more garden produce than you can use.  Even if you don't garden yourself, produce is plentiful and prices are low at your local Farmer's Market.

Consider canning extra- whether it is salsa, plain tomatoes, beans, applesauce, stew ingredients (just add meat!)- whatever you want to share.  You already have it on hand anyway, all you need is a few jars and canning apparatus.  This may not be the cheapest way to go if you don't already have a pressure canner on hand.

You could also freeze excess to be used to cook special treats in December.

Jams and jellies with a fresh loaf of bread or a fun recipe for bread could make a delicious and inexpensive gift basket.

During apple season, why not use a dehydrator to make some homemade apple chips?  You could even give a gift basket made up solely of dehydrated food- fruits, veggies and beef jerky! Just plan now and make sure to seal everything in good quality foodsaver bags.   Consider home made trail mix for any "outdoorsy" friends and family.

If you can make it, you can gift it.

-Kristen


Catch up on all the 12 Months of Christmas posts here.

Finding the Beauty in Winter

Why, Hello there November.   Are you here so soon?  It seemed like just a few weeks ago I was seeing the back end of you and your vicious cold weather friends December and January, yet here you are again.


Today is cold.  It's also the first time I've seen most of the sky a color other than gray and it is beautiful- a beautiful "Carolina" blue with wisps of gorgeous white clouds dotted here and there.   The air is crisp, but it's clean.

I'm trying to learn to appreciate winter- to find the beauty in it. 

It's easy to find Spring beautiful.  There is a riot of colors as the flowers bloom and the trees bud.  The weather warms, the grass comes back and of course, the wild animals wake up, the birds come back and everywhere little creatures emerge.

It's easy to find Summer beautiful.  The skies are blue, the grass is soft and green under bare feet and it's the time to play.   Days are long, temperatures are warm and we still have flowers to enjoy, not to mention the beautiful colors of a garden ripening.  We are treated to such beautiful, golden sunsets.

It's easiest to find Autumn beautiful. The temperatures are perfect, the skies are still blue, the gardens are winding down, but they are still producing.  The colors of the trees rival the beautiful range of spring flowers.  The wild animals are everywhere as they prepare for the winter.  The sunsets come earlier, but they are still beautiful- not as golden as those in the Summer, but fiery in their own right.

It's hardest to find Winter beautiful.  A newly fallen snow beautiful- but it is soon melted and muddied, it's pristine beauty ruined by dog tracks and people tracks.  The winds are harsh, the temperatures cold.  The animals are gone, hibernating or in the warmer places they've migrated to. The colors are gone- the only greens the evergreen trees.  The rest of the trees are stark against the cloudy skies, bare of leaves and birds.  It seems like the world is painted in muted tones and gray.

This year, I will find the beauty in winter.

-Kristen

Please Autumn, get here soon!

We had a bit of a teaser weather wise, with some beautiful days in the mid-70s.  It was the kind of weather where you walk outside to perfectly colored blue skies, piled high with the fluffiest white clouds you've ever seen.  Your heart literally just soars at the joy of being outside, of being alive.
It was glorious.

So, forgive me if I'm not totally excited that the week of perfection has been followed by humidity so thick it feels like you need a knife to cut through it.  I love walking outside and instantly beginning to sweat, while my hair curls in it's best Medusa impression.  Oh, the overcast skies and intermittent rain that actually only makes it hotter on a 90 degree day have really just been icing on the crap-cake.

Please, Autumn.  Get here soon. I'm longing you with a desire that is almost unholy.  Why do you never come early and stay late?   I miss you, Fall.  I miss you bad.

-Kristen

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have a lot of our garden items purchased this year! Just waiting on getting the tomatoes and perhaps a cantaloupe plant.

It made me think (after we checked out at Lowes), is it really worth it to grow your own garden?  I plan on recording what we spend here on the blog, then comparing that to our harvest/prices at the time.  So if we get 5lbs of tomatoes, how much would it cost us to go to Walmart and purchase 5lbs there?  We'll see what we see.

Plastic Sheeting- $10.98 (too lazy to weed this year)- Lowes
Stakes to keep the sheeting down- $2.98- Lowes
Peas & 2 packs of onions- $4.20- Walmart (planted 100 onions)
Broccoli- $2.98 (9)- Lowes
Cucumbers- $.98 (3 plants in one cup)- Lowes
Hot Banana Peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Green peppers (7)- $20.86- Lowes
4 inch stakes (2- reuseable) for the peas- $3.96- Lowes

So far, we are $46.94 in the hole and don't yet have our tomato plants, which are the core of our garden.  I know, I know- we could save a lot of money by buying seeds and starting our own plants, but for some reason  I have never been successful doing that.  The only thing that has ever done well for me was corn! I do still have some corn seeds from last year, so I may stick a few out and see how they do.

We also could have saved 20% of our bill this year by not going with the plastic sheeting.  However, the jerk that mows the yard (we have no control over him, by the way and we are not paying him out of our pockets) likes to mow around the garden in such a way that all the clippings fly in to the garden.  It's impossible to keep ahead of the weeds and I don't even want to try this year!

Hopefully a nice big yield will show that we are truly offsetting our costs. At least we will know!

-Kristen

Allergies

It appears that I finally have developed Spring allergies.  Oh joy of joys.

Even though it is March, Spring is in full bloom and has been for weeks.  With temperatures ranging as high as the mid-80s this "winter",  the bugs are out and about- being obnoxious, as per their purpose in life.  I even had to dodge a lazy bumble bee yesterday, who came out to investigate our beautiful buttercups.

For several years I've dealt with the vague feeling that spring allergies were going to start appearing in my life- the occasional itchy eyes on a particularly high pollen day, a sneeze or two more than normal... but it's sad to see them finally here.

Oh well, it's a small price to pay for the beautiful, depression free, 60-80 degree-days winter that we just experienced.  I do have a feeling that bugs and allergies are going to be particularly bad this year.  I hope Summer comes in like a lamb and we get more mild, beautiful days than we do scorching hot ones!

-Kristen

Eek!

I just found a fun website:  Sprout Robot! You go on to the website and type in your zip code and it will tell you when to plant and what to plant!

This is a fantastic resource for planting!  You can purchase a package of seeds more cheaply than starter plants at the nursery.  However, if you have a "black thumb" or you don't think you can keep up with seedlings, then just use the website to learn when to transfer your plants outside. 

You don't have to start your seeds in special, expensive containers.  Anything will do- last year I cut down "Simply Orange" orange juice containers and started corn in those! It worked out perfectly well and was no extra cost for me, since I wanted the orange juice anyway.

By the way- Sprout Robot will also give you information on HOW to plant your seeds and the best way to get your garden going! Exciting!

-Kristen

Snowpocalypse 2012

On Saturday, I was outside in a t-shirt and shorts.

On Sunday, we were accumulating snow.  Fairly decent amounts of snow, considering how unseasonably warm it has been this winter. Beautifully, wonderfully warm.

It makes the low temperatures even more painful.

River is enjoying her first ever snow. I would have loved to have been able to share a few pictures, but since she is incapable of not running around like she has lost her mind- they were all super blurry and awful.

Picture of me? No... no I don't think so.

Today, all the snow is gone.  Well not all of it- there is a little still on the deck and in the shadow of the garage.  Other than that, the yard is just one big squelchy mess.

-Kristne

Seasonal Affective Disorder

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is episodes of depression that occur at a certain time of the year, usually during winter.  It can also be known as the winter blues, winter depression or seasonal depression.

I suffer from SAD.  It was never bad enough that I really noticed it until we moved to the mountains and were in a place full of horrible people who seemed to suck the joy and happiness out of everyone around them.  We have been away from them for a year and a half now and it's still painful to talk about.

This post isn't about them though.

I finally figured out (after two years of fairly severe depression and a brief stint of near-alcoholism, that will come into another post) that what was happening to me was seasonal depression.  It helped to have a name for the problem, but it didn't make things any easier.

Whenever I started feeling really low, Tim and I would try to take a little day-trip somewhere.  We'd spend a whole day exploring parts of nearby towns, shopping and having a nice lunch or dinner out at little hole-in-the-wall places.  It would help a bit, the planning of the event and then the event itself would buy me three or even four days of feeling almost normal, then it was back in the dumps.

Last year, we moved to where we currently live.  My SAD wasn't nearly as severe.  I attribute that to being happier in general- we're around kinder people, closer to my family and we have friends nearby.  However- I wasn't without depression.  I posted before that I am an extreme worry-wart and that seems to make my problem worse.  This year I'm already worrying about January and February, the months that seem to affect me the worst.

However, this isn't just a depressing post.  I've been researching Light Therapy for several months and I am about to take the plunge and buy a device.

While full sunlight is preferred for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), light boxes may be effective for the treatment of the condition. Light boxes for seasonal affective disorder are designed to filter out most UV light, which can cause eye and skin damage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of light boxes to treat SAD due to unclear results in clinical trials, but light therapy is still seen as the main form of treatment for SAD. ^{(Thanks Wikipedia).} 

It's hard to know exactly which box to buy.  The most affordable are very small, however I think a perfect time to use a device would be while on the computer- blogging or checking emails.  It would be nice to have a portable system to take on trips, which argues against a larger box.

When I do purchase one, I'll be sure to post the details here, as well as a review of my results.   I'm hopeful that I'll have found a cure for my winter blues!

-Kristen

Where is Fall?

I check the calendar and it says October.

For me, October is the quintessential fall month.  Fall produce like pumpkins are everywhere, the leaves are changing on the trees, the days are cool, the nights are crisp and summer's heat is finally only a memory.

However, this year it seems like October is battling the unseasonably warm temperatures of September by dipping down directly into November's chill.  As I told a friend recently "It feels like we went directly from mid-August to mid-November!"

As I sit here in my office, my nose and fingers are freezing.  Refusing to admit it's so cold so quickly, I am of course dressed in a short sleeve shirt, jeans and a t-shirt.  If I don't dress in warm winter clothing, I can deny that we've skipped Fall...right? That's totally how that works, I'm sure of it.

At least it seems that we will be having some warmer temperatures later on in the week.  Maybe I'll get my Fall after all!

-Kristen