ClassiclyAmber » Homesteading

Fav Gardening Finds + Ideas

classiclyamber — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:30:30 +0000

Who could blog about gardening and not include Grandma Martha? I need to use all of these ideas mentioned here!

1. Garden Tool Container 2. Bucket Hose Storage 3. Magnetic Garden Organizer 4. Garden Protector 5. Saving Seeds 6. Plant Protector 7. Testing Old Seeds 8. Growing File

Here are some flowers that I’ve got my eye on! Aren’t they lovely? I would enjoy having these as friends in our yard:

1. Ice Cream Tulip 2.Pink Sunrise Muscari 3. Sorbet Peonies

Our family practices organic gardening for several great reasons. Because of that, we have to deal with any bug problems in a different way than just attacking them all with harmful chemicals. I am saving these resources:

What have you planted this year? Or if you could plant anything, what would it be?

Spit-Shinin’ the Sink

classiclyamber — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:48:01 +0000

If you haven’t heard of this, here’s a fun, all natural way to clean your sink!

Take a lemon and cut it in half. Spit on it, if you want to. [I normally don't, but what-ev floats your boat]
Sprinkle salt all in your sink.
Then use the salt-crusted lemon as a scouring sponge and scrub your sink down
After your lemon half is spent, then you just chunk the whole thing in your disposal, turn it on and it will clean that, too!

You’ve seen those cleaners at the store that say “Smells like real lemons!” Well, why not just go ahead and clean with REAL LEMONS? Then your sink really will smell just like real lemons!

I try to keep a bag of lemons at all times because we use them so much with both cooking and cleaning. One of these days, we might just break down and buy one or two lemon trees to grow inside since we don’t have the weather for them year round outside.

Doing dishes has never been my favorite chore – but something else that I’ve discovered is that when you keep your sink pretty (in addition to keeping it naturally clean), then you will fall in love with dish washing! [That might be stretching it just a little, right?] I don’t mind it nearly as much when I’ve got pretty flowers to look at – at the same time. If you have a window at your sink, definitely try keeping a little bit of flowers nearby and you’ll be surprised at how it lifts your spirits. Right now, I’ve got some Rosemary and two different varieties of Hyacinths right on the windowsill and the Paperwhites are finishing up. My new goal is to always have some greenery and something blooming around the kitchen sink because I love it so much!

And isn’t this a cool idea? It’s something else that I’m interesting in trying, but am not totally sure which window to do it at. Do you think it would be wrong to put it up at our kitchen sink? Depending on how full the shelves are, it could block the nice view from the sink. However, it would be cool to have all of those fresh herbs right here in the main part of the kitchen! I like that it’s fairly easy to install, too. To get the full instructions, just click the pic!

What are some things that you have done or could possibly do to make your kitchen sink area a more pleasant one to be around?

They’ve Escaped

classiclyamber — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:45:13 +0000

Once upon a time, a bull named Rastus (I just named him) got too big for his britches, so he decided to break free from his pastures. Two daring little calves (too shy for pictures) followed suit.

He began calling out to the other cows that were still in their fence: “Moooooove it on out here! I’m the leader of this gang, and I say we GO!!”

“You are soooooooooo full of CRAP!”, they mooed back. “You are gonna be in big trouble when the farmer finds out! Please come back!”

Well, Rastus the bull didn’t THINK that he was gonna get in trouble. He knew it was he who was running this show after all, and if no one was gonna listen to him, then he was just going to have to show them who was Boss. He decided to…wait! What? Huh?

“Ooooh CRAP!! Who told HIM what’s going on?!? How did he KNOW?!?”

*Runs away.

The REAL Boss and his sidekick show up to settle a few things. (I’ll let you pick who’s who).

Later, everyone was home ‘n happy.

(Yes, I missed an important part of this segment as I had my OWN herd to round up inside!) =-D So I don’t know how they officially got Rastus and the Calves back in the pastures, but I know it involved a couple of trucks and a little motivation. I’ve actually always loved it when one of the cows gets out of the fence! It happens about once every 3-6 months and I like to see the hijinks that ensue as a result.

Forcing Spring

classiclyamber — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:23:16 +0000

I just love it when spring happens and the perfect weather sails in. But since this is only early February, I have a ways to wait before that happens. But who says we have to wait until then to enjoy beautiful flowers? You can force spring in your home by making these bulbs bloom indoors.

Many people are blogging about this now, but I first learned about this years ago when I was watching a Martha Stewart show. She was showing the different types of bulbs that you could force indoors. That was the first day I had even heard of paperwhites – and I loved them instantly! I told myself that I would have some for myself for the next year, but never bought them. Fast forward about 8 years later, and I finally got my first paperwhites!

Can I say two more things about these flowers?

1. I didn’t force these myself. We were shopping at Trader Joe’s last night and they had soooo many flowers on sale! Anyways, to learn more about forcing bulbs on your own, click HERE.

2. Paperwhites are so pretty, but they shoooooooooooooooooooo’ nuff do smell FUNKY!! Yeah, I’m not quite sure what to describe that sniff-sniff as. It’s not quite yucky, but it’s not quite lovely, either. However, the beautiful flowers make up for the funk (in my opinion).

Let’s make this 3 things:

3. Did you notice that several of their centers naturally created a heart? How perfect is that? <3 it!

Oh! And one more:

4. I. Still. Want. A. GOOD. Snow. Day. First!

YMMXEEYQSMBH

Now Performing: Ducks on Ice

classiclyamber — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:35:06 +0000

It’s been so cooooold here, peeps!

The ducks don’t mind. It gives them a chance to show their high performance ice skillz.

Enjoy.

(applause, applause)

MEET YOUR PERFORMERS

You know her and love her – Welcome back Margaret Hatcher!

Daisy Duck

Donald Duck

And – - er, uh…yeah. Who is this again?

Honestly, we have named and renamed this poor fella so many times that we can’t keep up with his actual name.

I feel bad for him. Any suggestions?

Now for the truth – actually the ducks DO mind if the entire pond is ice…and they aren’t happy until the sun melts a corner for them to splash in – or until we break up part of it so they can play ‘n dunk.

And isn’t this cutesie? I’m actually talking about their little feet. They are hiding. Do you see part of ‘em? The ducks actually lay on their bellies and pull their feet up totally off the ground. It looks like they sorta tuck their feet under their wings. Do ducks know yoga?

Goodbye Summer! Goodbye Corn!

classiclyamber — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:54:10 +0000

The following is filed under: “Homesteading”, but has little to do with keeping our home steady. It IS, however, quite the attraction around here when it happens once a year or so.

Sure there are other crops that the farmer harvests during the rest of the year, but corn is usually just once – or every other year.

So the kids hear the tractor start up and rush to the windows and press their faces in close.

…VERY close.

I wouldn’t want to be chased by one of these, would you? And I if WAS chased by one of these, I would hope to not trip and fall down several times, screaming along the way. I suppose that that would be inevitable, though. If you are chased by something freaky, you just HAVE to trip and fall down on exposed tree roots or SOMEthing.

But not here. This dude is friendly. You can’t see in the small picture, but he is actually smiling and waving his hand at us here. See what I mean? Smiling and waving = friendly. Unless it’s one of those weird smiling and waving people dressed up in a funky costume at the corner stoplight, trying to advertise for a local business…then that is just lame. And laughable!

Ah, our modern farming practices! Watch as it takes down a whole bunch of corn stalks effortlessly.

It’s that easy, folks! I laugh at myself because I wasted (?) a few minutes reading about John Deere corn heads and how they work.

But I also have a respect for those who choose not to employ modern farming practices…such as some friends of ours who actually use a horse and plow to get his garden going. To me, that is WAY cool. Maybe I will be able to share that with y’all one day!

Empty into the trailer and head back for more!

Before ya even knew it, we were totally cleaned out of our extra privacy and beautiful corn stalks. This is the one crop that is the hardest to roll with. They plant it and spray it with all kinds of nasty chemicals to make it grow unnaturally fast! I STILL wonder what that is doing to our water supply…and the pond…and the ducks…and everyone! (Hint: to all of the organic farmers out there looking to rent land – - call me!)

Anyway, within just a few weeks of planting, the corn is already fairly tall. Not long after that, it has grown even bigger and you can no longer see the neighbors homes across the fields. Then when it’s over 6 feet tall, you start to feel closed in and private and start to really like it! It stays like that for several months until…this. It’s suddenly all harvested one day and you have to get used the new landscape all over again.

But these pictures so remind me of fall – which officially begins in only 2 days. 2009 is passing quickly! It’s only 2 months until Thanksgiving, folks! Wowza~! So are you ready for fall – and then the end of year with the rush of holidays? Is your fall/winter garden planted – and your summer canning done? – and your seeds saved for next year? – and your wood chopped and split for warming your home this winter?

Yeah, me, neither. But – I’m learning all of this stuff and will have it ALL down pat one of these days~!

Candid Clothesline Construction

classiclyamber — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:34 +0000

It’s here! I can’t believe it’s happening!

It’s something that I’ve been talking about for nearly 2 years…Yessiree, 2 years!

I can’t believe this is happening… *fans face furiously – Miss America-contestant-style.

Yes, some people dream about shopping adventures and Star Trek conventions and weekend parties with co-workers…but me.

Me? I dream of simpler things…like freshly cleaned laundry blowing dry in the summer’s breeze, and yummified baked honey wheat bread hot out of the oven, and cleaning my babies down in our big farmhouse kitchen sink.

Let’s go back and talk more about that freshly cleaned air-dried laundry: Two years ago, I wanted this so bad that I set up two volleyball poles held down by cement blocks – strung up some twine as tight as I could betwixt them and then happily clipped up my baby’s cloth diapers to air dry naturally. Wow! I had ingenuity! Did it work? Heck yeah! For at least 2 or 3 weeks, pride emanated from my face. Was the line pretty? Not at all! It was a sight to behold, and something that I didn’t mind at first, but then became more and more embarrassed. The twine stretched out and began losing interest as it let our clean clothes seep further and further down to the ground. The whole thing ended when the winds of change came in and blew down the volleyball poles. I resigned the clothes line for then. What sense does it make anyway when the clothes are getting a brush with the dirt like that? I knew in my heart that we would one day have a clothes line again and that it would be better than before.

That day has finally arrived.

Aaaaaah! Looks so fresh! Smells so charming!

Wait…scratch that. Reverse it. Or maybe it actually DOES work both ways!

My days of hanging all of our laundry up to dry inside are officially over. …Okay, maybe not totally. I know that every now and then, the weather won’t agree with me, so I will still hang dry some things indoors, and I have another project in mind for air drying…but for the most part it will all get the nicest outdoorsy treatment I can give ‘em.

Towels, sheets, cloth diapers, donkeys…whatever we want to hang out to dry in the sun, we now can! We have 4 lines on this thing with room for more, should we need it in the future. Hubby built the poles from wood posts and basically made a “T” out of them with diagonal supports underneath the arm. He dug holes in the ground that were about 2 feet deep.We have really rocky earth here that is chock full of clay, so I can tell you that it was a whoooooooole lotta fun for him to dig such deep holes!

Our kiddos certainly loved him for digging deep holes, though! Here’s Nolan, our 4 year old boy, showing his hole sitting skillz. Do try this at home!

After you get your holes dug and “T’s” in place, all you need are some eye hooks and line and you’re good to go!

Line drying your clothes is a natural way to get the stains out of fabric and is a good second step to cleaning your laundry just after using your Homemade Laundry Soap. Yeppers – the sun ‘bleaches’ any mess outta there!

Also, your home dryer is one of your biggest energy producers. With the price of everything skyrocketing – including electricity – do yourself and the environment a favor, and build yourself a nice clothesline. It’s a step in the right direction and you won’t regret it!

Be sure ‘n check here for the whole Lovin’ Your Laundry series!

All Natural Gnat Catch

classiclyamber — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:17:21 +0000

Let’s start off this not-so-pleasant post with something a little more…pleasing.

Take a look at THIS:

These are some beautiful faux tulips that I am planning on using in a creative project. But I’m not here to talk about that right now. I just posted this picture of them so you won’t be inundated with totally yucky stuff here. When you see the pics below, think back and remember this something beautiful.

Now, let’s begin.

It’s that time of the year where you are gathering yummies from your fruit trees and vegetable plants and bringing them to the kitchen to await tasty cookups. Some of this stuff attracts nasties, though, and we’ve gotta deal with it without spraying down your kitchen in harmful pesticides!

First, get an old jar that you were about to recycle and make sure it is washed clean. Screw the lid on tight.

Now punch in tiny holes all over the lid. I just used my paper piercer that came with some scrapbooking tools. If you happen to have one of those lying around, use it because it is perfect for the job! Otherwise, find anything sharp with a small point to it. And um, do be careful, okay? We don’t want any bloody fingers…or dirrrrrrrty diapers…(does anyone else remember that stupid ghost story from their childhood?).

Take the lid back off. Grab some good apple cider vinegar and pour in a good bit. For this size jar, I filled it up about 1/3 of the way full.

Now set your homemade jar trap somewhere in your kitchen where the little critters like to hang out. I chose to put mine beside my sink.

If you were to step back a little and watch, you will see the suckers drawn straight up to it. They can’t get enough of the stuff! It’s like one big Drink Fest and they think they are really living it up. Little do they know how bad this really is for ‘em! HA!

Thankfully, gnats are not the sharpest knives in the shed – wait…what? Anyway, they aren’t too smart, so what happens here is they crawl in to the party but they can not remember how to crawl back out. Thus, they fly and crawl around inside until it drives them crazy and then – I guess – get too tired, fall into the drink and die. You will see all the dead gnats floating around in the vinegar in several hours.

Try it! It truly works! Now that we are finished with that grody stuff…let’s go back and think about something pretty:

Ah yes! Beautiful flowers in my gnat-free kitchen! Glad we could end this thing on a happy note! <3

Lovin’ Your Laundry Pt. 3

classiclyamber — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:30:15 +0000

Continued from Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 2…

Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff! Mmmm, smell the yummy freshness!

Now let’s have some good, clean fun! Since your curiosity has been piqued about the ingredients in natural cleaners – let’s talk about how to make them happen for your laundry. All you need is a good recipe or two for Good ‘Ole Laundry Soap. I’ll just share a really basic one with you that I’ve used before:

1 Cup Soap Crumbles (ground lye soap)
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
Several drops of your favorite Essential Oil (some to try are Lemon, Grapefruit, Lavender)

Mix it all up really well with your hands. Yes, it’s messy – and yes, it’s fun to do.

You will have the cleanest hands and fingernails in all the land!

See how it starts to break up the soapy clumps? It’s almost like working with a flaky pie crust dough. Almost.

I guess at this point, you should store it in an airtight container if you want to preserve the essential oil part of the recipe, but I’ve just got mine dispensed in this glass jar with a not-so-tight-fitting lid.

We use 1-2 tablespoons per average size load. For cloth diapers, I tend to use more like 2 tbsp. but I also have to make sure to add vinegar to the rinse so that it doesn’t cause breakouts on my baby’s tushi! Remember – the vinegar helps all the soap rinse back out really clean.

Some notes about homemade laundry soap:

First- Don’t expect it to be bubbly and sudsy because it won’t! That’s okay, though, because we don’t want the chemicals that cause the sudsy action in the first place – and it’s not suds that get your clothes clean. We now have better ingredients for that!

Second- Feel free to skip the essential oil part completely. It’s not a necessary component. When you don’t use it (and I frequently don’t) then your laundry will simply come out smelling fresh and clean with no unnecessary fragrances.

Third- While your newfound ingredients are natural, you still want to keep them out of reach of children. It wouldn’t be fun to ingest some of that stuff…

Fourth- You do the math and see how much money this will save you! When you start making your own homemade laundry soap, it is VERY cost effective!

Anyway, I’m telling you – there is something about making your own laundry soap that is entirely satisfying. I’m not quite sure what it is, but it really makes you feel like you’re the greatest wife and mother around. Maybe it’s because it’s something that you will use all the time and that your family constantly needs…and every time you go back to your jar or tin with handmade laundry soap that you made, it’s another pat on the back. I did this! Wow! “Oh cool, Mommy! I’m glad you washed my favorite shirt!” They love me! They really, really love me! – And my handmade laundry soap, of course! “Ethan? Please go start loading those clothes into the machine.” “Mmmm! This soap smells really great!” Yeah, doesn’t it? I made that myself! See? It’s laundry soap that is good for your self esteem.

So talk to me! Have you tried making it yet?

Be sure ‘n check here for the whole Lovin’ Your Laundry series!

Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 2

classiclyamber — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:21:23 +0000

Continued from Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 1…

Speaking of clean, what are you cleaning your laundry with? Are you still using those harsh detergents from the store that contain dangerous chemicals? Okay, I’m quite surprised that a lot of those big time companies aren’t out of business by now. I mean, this isn’t news that it’s unsafe to use these chemicals in our homes, so I’m not sure why people are still buying these products! For instance, if you use something like Bounce fabric softener sheets, then you are coating you and your kids’ clothes with a layer of toxic chemicals. When you put the clothes on, your body moisture causes your body to absorb those toxins – going directly into your bloodstream. Does that sound like a good idea? But that’s only ONE example. I will stop here so this post isn’t 347 pages long and plus, I think you get my point.

So throw out all of those chemicals from your laundry room and first off, it will smell better (no more laundry cleaner-induced headaches!) and secondly, it will be better for you and your family’s health. If you’re new or WANT to be new to the World of Natural Laundry Cleaning, then let me introduce you to some mighty nice friends:

All natural goat milk soap – Go on Etsy.com and locate someone who makes this by hand. This soap is usually cold processed and contains lye. This is the way your ancestors cleaned their clothes back in the good old days and it’s good stuff that works! You can do a search and find Soap Crumbles, which is basically the bars of soap shredded up in a food processor in small bits. Crumbles are good when you don’t make your own soap but DO want to make your own laundry soap. You can find it very reasonably priced, too!
Washing soda or baking soda – Washing soda is sodium carbonate – it’s a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It is used to soften the water and soak up the extra magnesium and calcium in the water. It’s good at removing oil and grease stains. Washing soda and baking soda are very similar in their makeup and either one can be used in laundry soap recipes.
Borax – a mineral and salt of boric acid and dissolves easily in the water. It helps brighten and whiten your laundry!
Essential oils – this could be lavender, lemon or even tea tree oil – or whatever your favorite scent is as this is used purely for the fragrance. You can experiment and come up with your own favorite mix. Note that this will not leave an absurdly strong fragrance on your laundry like the store bought chemicals, but it will leave your clothes with a hint of sweet smelling freshness.
Vinegar – use this to help get your clothes cleaner and use it as a rinse. It’s wonderful for cleaning cloth diapers, too! It also helps with softening your clothes, which is especially a nice bonus when you line dry your laundry!

Besides the goat milk soap, all of these ingredients can easily be found at most grocery stores. Check the cleaning aisle and there ye shall find it. So go gather your ingredients and come back soon for the rest of the laundry lowdown!

Tune in for LYL Part 3!