Something Light

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So the other day my little brother was at my house begging for free food (he is going to BYU and is a starving university student, I just had to feed the poor kid!) he was playing around on his computer with some Weird Al songs. He started playing this song and he and Dadzoo started laughing, saying this was my theme song. Those stinks! So here you go, Momzoo’s theme song.
Now I would like to say that I don’t mean to make fun of the Amish, I am completely fascinated by their lifestyle. Someday when I have the means to do so I am going to live a more agrarian lifestyle, and my family thinks that is just hilarious!

So I figured if Dadzoo was going to make fun of me I could do the same. Here is the White and Nerdy video from Weird Al. Dadzoo fits this to a T! I am not kidding or exaggerating!

Right back at ya babe!

Beautiful and Lovely

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It is so easy to get bogged down in life. It seems like my days are endless rounds of dirty dishes, laundry, cleaning up messes, homework, then more dishes, messes and laundry. It is really easy to let myself get tired, bored and ornery.

This morning I had a moment of quiet. The kitchen was picked up, the 4 oldest punks were tucked away at school and baby boy was playing quietly.

I had just picked some peaches off our tree and I was slicing one up for my breakfast.The sun was streaming in my kitchen window across the bowl I was slicing into. It looked so pretty. It was one of those small, priceless moments that is sweet and beautiful.

I sprinkled a little sugar on my peaches and I felt the cool morning breeze on my face. The quiet home, the clean kitchen, happy baby and a bowl of sweet peaches.

It was one of those beautiful moments that brushes out the cobwebs in my brains and flexes my creative muscles.

I think in this busy, busy life we need to look for the moments the fulfill us. Those moment that make us pause and remember how beautiful, how wonderful this world around us really is.

Keepin’ it real

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Ok.
So.
I have a confession…

I haven’t been totally honest with y’all

See I post these beautiful pictures of my yard

and well
I only post the pretty parts of my yard.

I completely,

completely
ignore the ugly parts
(and as you will see, there are some ugly parts)
and the ugly parts that creep into my pretty parts
well…

I (gasp) photoshop them out!

yes,
the crop tool is my favorite.

So, in the spirit of honesty

and keepin’ it real
here you go
the ugly pictures
uncensored
uncut
uncropped…


oh, wait, this isn’t one of the ugly parts
he was the only thing pretty about my yard that day…
(gotta love that hair)



no those bushes aren’t turning color because it is almost autumn time
they are dieing.
(see the big thistles under the bushes, it takes heavy duty leather gloves to pull those suckers out)

um, yea…I forgot to water
for about 3 weeks….
oops

and something got my day lilies

or maybe lack of something,
we have been having water issues
(that is another post, for another time)


this is what happens when squash bugs find your squash plants

they die!

this is the lovely view from my back door
and empty rabbit hutch
(this also is another post for another time)

so, I am having a problem growing bushes in my yard

a big problem and see we have this little family of squirrels that scamper around the yard
and they love to dine on my sunflowers

by pulling them down to the ground and eating the seed!

ARGH


the entrance to the shed
don’t trip


dead flowers


and
weeds
weeds
weeds!



No wonder I have so many darn weeds
When there is a zilllion acers of weeds bumping up against the back of your yard what can a gal expect!

Herbs

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I have always had herbs growing my garden, and I sort of, kind of used them. In the summertime mostly I would go pick them occasionally to go in a dish or something. When I decided that I wanted to try to have a more self sufficient life I took a hard look at my gardening and my herbs. I was wasting the good herbs in my garden and buy them from the store. Not very self sufficient or frugal. So this summer I decided I was going to harvest, dry and store herbs for use during the winter. This is the first time I have done this, so it is still a bit of an experiment. I don’t have a lot that can be stored and used for cooking, but next year I plan to add more herbs to my garden.
I have two little patched of Chamomile, one of these I just planted new this year. As long as you keep the flowers harvested they will bloom all summer. I like this plant because it is so pretty, it blends in easily with bedding plants.

That little bushy thing is some coconut thyme. It really doesn’t taste like coconut, it just had a little white variegation on the leaves. I would have rather harvested “Mother of Thyme”, but for some reason those plants didn’t do well this year, so I decided to leave them alone. I love Thyme, there are so many different varieties (the creeping thyme is only used as an ornamental plant) and they are so beautiful in a landscape.


That is Sage. I like to harvest the top leaves that are small and tender. There are many different varieties of Sage also, they are beautiful as regular landscape plantings too.


Good old Parsley. I have gotten tons of this bush.

This is Basil. I don’t use Basil very much, I really should learn how. Basil is a very tender plant and doesn’t stand up to cold weather very well at all. A light frost will kill it dead. Needless to say, this is not a perennial in Utah.


This is a handful of Chamomile blossoms I just harvested. I drink a lot of Chamomile tea in the winter and I was hoping to get enough to support my habit, but I didn’t. Next year when the new plant is in full bloom I will do better. This winter I am going to crush them and add them to homemade soap along with some Lavender I got out of my yard this June.

I laid them all out on my back steps on top of a clean flour sack towel. I covered them with another towel and weighted the edges down with rocks. When the afternoon temps are in the high 90’s I can expect the herbs to take a day and a half to dry. Now that things are a tad cooler it is taking about 2 and a half days.


Here they are after they sat out all weekend. We had a busy weekend and they sat outside a little longer than I liked, so the color washed out a bit.

Usually the basil is still a bright green, but being in the sun so long bleached them. The sent and flavor is still good.

Parsley

Chamomile

I have been storing them in old jars that I have been collecting.

I think they look rather pretty

I have been putting the jars in my pantry where it is cool and dark to preserve color and flavor

It has been kind of fun collection and preserving my herbs, I plan to do more next year.

There are many different ways to dry and store herbs. You can use a dehydrator or tie them in a bunch and hang them upside down . Some people will freeze their fresh herbs in ice cube trays, or just freeze them in zip lock baggies. There are many different methods, and they all are very rewarding.