Author Archives: Momzoo

Sleeping Beauties…My Carrots

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Last fall, when the weather started to get really cold and the nights were starting to freeze, I had a bed of little carrots, about the size of my little finger. They were too small to harvest and eat. Although I guess they could have been eaten, but I wanted to try something else. I knew that full grown carrots would winter over in the ground and that you can harvest them year around. I wondered if I kept those tiny carrots in the ground if they would start to grow again as soon as it started to warm up, and if I planned everything right I could get three harvests of carrots this year.

I added about 6 inches of straw to help keep the temperatures consistent. I didn’t want the bed to freeze and thaw all winter long. I also covered the whole things with “floating row cover” to keep the straw in place.

Monday was beautiful, sunny and warm. I decided that it was time to wake up my carrots.

Under the cover, and the straw the first green shoots are coming up.

I pulled a couple up, they had gotten a bit bigger, not quite as big as I would like, but in 4 weeks, when it is time to plant the next crop of carrots they will be ready.


The bed was a mix of straw and dead carrot tops, when I was moving all the straw out of the box I found several red worms. That makes me happy, it means the soil is healthy.

Here is the bed all cleaned out, now the carrots will be able to get to the sun better.


All the straw and dead carrot tops were thrown in with the chickens.

They will scratch through it, pick out bugs and worms and eat the dead tops.

The straw will then mix with the chicken’s droppings, making wonderful fertilizer.

I am really happy with how my little carrot experiment worked out, and I can’t wait to start munching on fresh carrots in the next few weeks!

Chicks, Two Weeks Old

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For all of you that wanted updates on my baby chicks, here they are two weeks old.

The adult feathers on their neck and back are starting to come in and they are loosing their cute fluffy chick look and moving into the ugly teenage years! LOL!

K-K-K-Katie

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K-K-K-Katie, Beautiful Katie You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore


When the m-m-m-moon shines

Over the c-c-c-cow shed


I’ll be waiting for you at the k-k-k-kitchen door!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Dadzoo’s Grandma use to sing this song to Katie when she was a baby

Billed as “The Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors”, K-K-K-Katy was written by Geoffrey O’Hara and published in 1918.

Hugely popular it was regarded as something of a ‘goodbye’ song. The ‘Katy’ in the song was Katherine Richardson of Kingston, and was composed at Richardson’s house in 1917 by O’Hara (although curiously Katherine did not actually possess a stutter).

The song was first played at a garden party fund-raiser for the Red Cross in Collins Bay on Lake Ontario. O’Hara himself was from Chatham in Ontario and taught music at Ontario University. He lived until the age of 84, passing away i January 1967.

Apples & Apples & Apples….OH MY!

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My Mom got wind of a wonderful deal on apple last week. An apple grower had a bumper crop last fall and still had about 15,000 (yes that is thousand!) apples left to sell. So we were able to buy them for $0.40 a pound. Yesterday (since I live the closest) I went and picked up 160 pounds of apples for me, my Mom and sisters. They were all in huge bins, and the buyers had to box them, it was freezing cold and snowing, I don’t think I warmed up all day after that! However I had a nice time, the owner of the little shop where I picked them up at was very nice and so were the other ladies who were boxing their apples.

So now, what do I do with 60 pounds of apples? I am thinking maybe apple sauce or sliced apples in syrup.


Although for breakfast those apples told me very loudly that they wanted to be apple crisp.

I thought I would oblige them.

And while I won’t win any awards for feeding my children a healthy breakfast this morning, I might win the award for the “Best Mom Ever!”

Seriously, who can resist hot apple crisp with fresh cream?

Soap For Washing Dishes and General Kitchen Cleaning….(updated)

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(see update at the bottom)

Soap For Washing Dishes and General Cleaning…Momzoo style!

A few weeks ago I did a post on how I use homemade soap. Several readers suggested that instead of shaving flakes of soap off my bar with a knife I use a cheese grater. While I think that is a great idea, found it easier to just grab my knife than get out the grater and do it that way.

Until….

I was making laundry soap and I realized (duh) that the very ingredients that were in my laundry soap were the same ones I used in my kitchen sink every day.

( My jar of laundry soap)


So instead of getting each ingredient out separate and adding it to the sink, I could just use a Tablespoon of my laundry soap.

and to make things better…..


I put some in one of my cute squatty mason jars…


and it now has a home next to the kitchen sink for even easier use.

I love using homemade cleaning products it makes things much simpler, with no dangerous chemicals lying around and there aren’t a dozen different bottles to store.

(P.S. I don’t use this in the dishwasher, it make a film on my dishes I don’t like, I use it to hand wash items that don’t go in the dishwasher ((it makes my crystal glasses sparkle!)) I also use it for basic kitchen cleaning, for example the counters or the stove)

(P.P.S. Also, this mixture won’t produce bubbles…bubbles come from a chemical added to soaps. Natural homemade soaps won’t produce thick lathers like commercial products do. You don’t need lather to clean, that is something we have been trained to expect by commercial soap companies)

More great homemaking ideas at: