One of My Many Goodwill Finds

I shop at Goodwill almost every week. I LOVE Goodwill with a passion. It amazes me what all you can actually find there. Just today I went there with my mom. Sunday is by far the best day to go if you want to find the best deals. Sunday is the day their 1/2 off tag color changes. But, mom and I were out today, so we stopped. I found three tops, a dress, two movies, a cd, and three books and I only spent $16.00. Did I mention how much I love that place????

Here's a gorgeous plaque I found awhile back. It was solid white plaster and only cost $1.99 at Goodwill. I took it home and painted it and put it outside in my landscaping. I painted it with acrylic paints and coated it with two coats of polyurethane to protect it from the weather.

Here you can kind of see it in the mulch by the sidewalk. It looks very "Welcoming" there.

Click on here: http://locator.goodwill.org/ to find a Goodwill near you!

First Harvest of the Season

My garden(s) are looking beautiful if only I had more time to pull the weeds! I picked my first few things this week. Sunday, I picked the first cucumber. I didn't have a chance to take a picture of it since we ate it immediately with our lunch. And it was delicious! Later that day I went out picked the first small batch of green beans. There weren't many but enough for me and the kids to eat one night while my hubby is in class.

Last, but not least, I picked the very first banana pepper. I usually can these. My hubby loves them on bratwurst and hotdogs. But, I'll have to think of something to put it in since there's only one right now.

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Family Trip to the Farmers Market

Every Saturday our family takes a trip to our local Farmers Market. We usually ride bikes there. It's about 7 miles round trip, but today it was raining, so we drove instead. We stopped at the credit union to get some cash and headed over. We've now realized $20 isn't enough to buy everything we want.

We bought some squash, radishes, blueberries, raspberries, and honey sticks. We also got some yogurt from Traders Point Creamery. At this point we realized we didn't have enough money to get everything else we wanted. On our way to the car to run back to the credit union we walked by our favorite booth. The lady there is so sweet. They were starting to pack things up, so I told her we'd be back next week since we only had a dollar left. She then starts grabbing stuff out of her boxes and hands me some onions and zucchini. We of course feel guilty so my hubby throws our only dollar on her table, which of course she refused to take. So we left it laying there.

This is just one of the reasons we LOVE going to the Farmers Market. I love feeding my family food that is healthy and free of chemicals. And I love helping out those that can make that happen. Having someone as sweet as this lady just makes me want to give her all my money for this cause.

Mini Pop Bottle Garden

I have to thank my daughters pre-school teacher for this wonderful idea. And she has many of them. Here's her blog if anyone's interested: http://marquitastewart.blogspot.com/





My daughter came home from school one day with a pop bottle that had been cut in half and had some dirt in it. It now looks like this:

You take a pop bottle (20 oz. or larger) and cut it in half. Take the cap off and puncture a hole in the middle . Tie a knot in a piece of yarn and feed it through the hole. Tie another knot on the outside, so that there is a knot on both sides of the cap and extra yarn on both ends. Screw the cap back on and fill the top half of bottle with potting soil. Plant your seeds according to their packet. These are marigolds, but you could do anything. Fill the bottom of the bottle with water, but keep the water level below the knot. Take a spray bottle and wet the dirt pretty thoroughly on top just on the first day. After that you should only have to water it from the bottom. When the plants get bigger you can transplant them outside or to a bigger pot depending on what flower you've grown. If you leave it in the bottle the roots will eventually become too much for it and it'll become pot-bound or bottle-bound in this case.

I'm thinking of planting all my starters for my garden this way next year.

Gardening in a Small Yard

I have always loved to garden, but my small yard now is making that very difficult. Here's a picture of my garden at our old house. I would've still liked it to be bigger, but this was good enough for living in a duplex. We had corn, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, squash, zucchini, and onions.




Now, I'm trying hard to do what I can in our new yard. Our yard is extremely small and has a large pond in the backyard. The entire backyard slopes down to this pond making it difficult to find a level spot for a garden. Right now I have two small gardens.

Garden #1 has tomatoes, green peppers, and banana peppers in it.

Garden #2 has cucumbers, onions, strawberries, and green beans in it.

I have many other plants placed around in my landscaping and in pots. I have zucchini, squash, cayenne peppers, yellow peppers, cucumbers, okra, bush beans, and cherry tomatoes.

I'm having trouble right now with rabbits and sunlight. Our house sits at an angle so there isn't full sun anywhere in our yard. I've tried surrounding things with dead thorn branches from my rose bushes to keep the rabbits away. So far it seems to be working. I'll write more as the plants progress.

Saving the Environment One Reel at a Time

Last summer we needed a new lawnmover and decided to go with a Reel Mower. As long as we keep up with it and never let the grass get very long then it does very well. We're still searching for a more environmentally friendly weedeater, but have yet to find a good substitute.

Here's a picture of my hubby mowing the lawn. And yes, he can listen to his Ipod while using this mower without worrying about going deaf. Also here's a great review on the Reel Mower: http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lawns/gr/reel_review.htm