The Freebooter

Meet "Ruby" the Roomba!

2010-05-05T12:52:00.001-07:00

This is 'Ruby,' our new staff member!

She's short, round and terribly functional: like me, save the functional part.

Ruby, is a Roomba Vacuum Robot-Pet Series 562. She's fairly quiet, roams the house on command (7-day programming) and cleans up all the crud our pets drag in, along will all the other little goodies that end up on the floor and carpet. She doesn't care whether the floor is bare, tiled, or well carpeted... she crawls all over and cleans it! When she's done, she heads home to her docking station to recharge; to return to her duties first thing in the morning... 8:00 a.m., to be exact.

Ruby comes with an extra-large bin to collect the extra goodies found on the carpet that are a part of having pets; especially a cat who is shedding due to the arrival of spring. As I said, she is programmable for all 7 days of the week. At the moment I have her scheduled to get to work promptly at 8:00 a.m. She comes with little tools to clean hair and crud out of her brushes... and she does collect crud... lots of crud! Unlike a vacuum cleaner that uses filter bags and you can't really see what's been collected, Ruby has a nice little drawer-type bin and you can see exactly what she's been doing for the past 1 to 2 hours.

I still need a regular vacuum to take care of the stairs and the few places she cannot get to. The rest of the house is Ruby's domain and she takes care of it well. Take a look at some of the videos that are posted on YouTube and you'll see her in action. To appreciate what she does each day... get a Roomba... you won't be sorry.

I didn't vacuum every day... I hate housework... but Ruby... Ruby vacuums every single day. Ruby doesn't get tired or have mood swings or just doesn't feel like vacuuming... she just does it. It's all she does, save entertaining me and the pets.

The only thing bad about getting Ruby, is that I didn't get her sooner. Maintenance is a snap. Each day when she is done, I pull the dirt bin and empty it. Depending on the amount of hair that she picks up, she needs to have her brushes removed and the hair pulled out that gets wrapped around her rollers. I also give her a nice going over with a dry cloth to make sure her sensors are clear, and she can "see" the dirt, as well as recognize when she's near the stairs. If those sensors get covered with dirt and dust, she'll take a high dive down the stairs. I assure you, that is very bad. Think how 'Rosie' on the Jetsens' would have felt taking such a tumble!

If you don't want to vacuum anymore, or just want a fairly decent respite... get a Rooma!

A Fantastic Spinach Quiche!

2010-05-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

What a quiche! My oh my!

I had half a bag of spinach that just wasn't going to last another day... so I made a quiche using basic ingredients I keep most of the time e.g. eggs, cheese(s), cream, onions, bacon, mushrooms, and pie crust makings. You could say "It was a piece of cake..." but it was indeed a pie! (See image to the right: that is all that was left, and was saved for my husband's lunch.)

If you've made a quiche before... the ingredients follow... use your own method to create and bake.

For those of you who have never made a quiche before... it's easy-peasy and don't be afraid to jump right in. If you've got the ingredients and have a deep-dish pie plate and an oven... you're ready to go.

Spinach Mushroom Quiche

Single pie crust recipe (see below) or just buy one if you're not into making your own

1 cup flour
1/3 cup Crisco (cut into flour mixture, one half at a time)
dash of salt
water to bind (I just hold the bowl under the tap and dribble cold water into the dry mixture while stirring with a fork until the flour starts to turn into a ball.... then stop!' That's all the water you need.

Pat into a hocky-puck sort of shape, and then roll on a floured surface. Flop the crust into a quiche dish, or a deep-dish pie plate and finish the edges so it looks good.

Quiche

6 - 10 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups of cream
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
2 cups of chopped, fresh spinach
2 cups of chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup of chopped onions
1 cup of shredded Swiss Cheese
1 cup of shredded Cheddar Cheese (or use a mix of cheeses that suit you to equal 2 cups of shredded cheese. I like to mix parmesean, mozzarella and cheddar together, although any mix will do.)

Put crumbled bacon in bottom of pie

Mix all the chopped ingredients in a bowl

Stir together eggs and cream in a smaller bowl and add salt, pepper and nutmeg; and then stir in the cheese

Pour egg and cheese mixture into bowl of chopped ingredients; stir well

Pop the quiche into a 400 degree oven for about 35 to 45 minutes, or until it is set nicely and is a lovely golden brown (or at 375 or 380 in a convection oven)

Remove from oven and let cool about 20 minutes before serving.

I will warn you right now... if the whole thing isn't eaten and there are leftovers... the leftovers become dangerous... it becomes "finger food," as it stands up nicely to being cut into slivers and popped into the mouth... and, you won't be able to stop at one sliver!

Be very, very careful! Eating over half the pie by yourself will make your hips and thighs grow to enormous proportions!

So, to nip this right in the bud, invite over several people when serving quiche for brunch or dinner, if only to ensure it is all consumed, leaving no leftovers.

You've been warned!

Garage Door Woes.... No more!

2010-05-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well... the garage doors guys did it up right!

The manufacturers of said door are the ones who screwed up. They failed to ship the door at the proper time. So... the garage doors guys fired up their own truck, drove all too many miles to the manufacturer... collected the door and installed it the next day!

The door is magnificent! These guys installed the door in a rather 'trapizoidal' space that this old house provided and made it look fantastic. It was rather a puzzle to make this beautifully squared door fit in the dumb opening and managed to make the opening look square as well.

The door runs smoothly, quietly and is perfect.

I am a happy person!

Why Are Our Young People Dying

2010-03-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

I am so sad. I just learned some old and dear friends of mine have recently lost their son to diabetes. That young man has been bed-ridden now for some 3 years, losing both his legs over the past few years. He was 38 and died on February 27, 2010.

On February 10, 2010, my eldest sister lost her son to a heart attack; he was only 37.

Just a few years ago, my workmate and friend lost her son to heart failure; he was 34 or 35, I just don’t remember.

The same happened to my friend and co-worker David, who died in his late 30’s of a similar malady.

I nearly lost my own son to cancer just 5 years ago, we didn’t think he was going to make it to his 25th birthday, but he survived.

My best friend who lives in Rhode Island nearly lost her son to cancer last year, he is nearing 30 years of age.

I hear constantly of my son’s generation and their children having nothing but sickness after sickness… ear infections, allergic reaction, diabetes, cancer… the list just goes on.

We are of the Crest generation and most of us drank mother’s milk, or evaporated milk mixed with corn syrup. We are now in our late 50’s and up… but we’re hanging in there.

Our children are of the baby formula and junk food generation… is there a connection? I think there is.

What are your thoughts? I am so upset by this.

Garage Door Woes

2010-03-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Heavy sigh!

Our ancient garage door came crashing down, nearly on our heads, three weeks ago. The bolted on mechanism which was attached to the opener had pulled out and through the old steel. That's how old it was.

In any case, instead of running to a "big box" store, we chose to go to a local business... keeping the dollars in our county, and all that. Their representative was out here in cracker-jack time the next morning. We put down a deposit and placed our order the following day, and were told that the door would be here and installed, in two weeks time.

As of this past Friday, well over two weeks later, we had heard nothing from the business as to the date of install, so we called them. On Saturday, although they were open, we were not able to speak to anyone, merely leaving a message. At least good on them, I received a call just an hour ago.

Sadly, the door hadn’t even been shipped from the manufacturer and looking at another two weeks before the door was delivered. I voiced my displeasure at the prospect, but said fine, and wrote down the installation date as they 'expected' it to be... two weeks from now.

After hanging up the phone, I wandered around a bit with much disappointment running around my thoughts. I decided that this serious change in dates was not good enough. The door had been ordered in good faith with a showing of approximately $1,500.00 down.

I called the business back up and let them know that I was not very happy with the situation and asked if the door had even been built. It had. Had it not, I was going to cancel the order and go to another business. The old door, as it is, fairly holds me prisoner as I am not strong enough to open it. Should my husband not leave the door open in the morning when he leaves for work, I am not able to get my car out.

In the meantime, the business owner was very concerned at this change of date, and learning from his representative of my disappointment, had called the manufacturer. Apparently, his call initiated action and the door will be picked up by said local business this coming Thursday, after dispatching their truck. We now have a promise that said door will be installed this Friday.

I'd like to think that had I not called back, I would have received a call letting me know that they had taken the situation in hand. Sadly, I think my calling back and stating my dissatisfaction is what truly made the change.

I am so tired of shoddy workmanship and lack of good business practices that seem to show themselves so often. No pride in workmanship, ownership or honor. We have our children to distress us, disappoint us and break our hearts; we surely do not need strangers to do this.

So, if promises are kept this round, a door, opener etc. will all be installed to our satisfaction, by Friday afternoon. We shall see.

I will follow up on this posting with the results.

Urban Chickens for Bremerton - Now on

2010-03-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

Today the Bremerton Sun posted an article about Urban Chickens and skirting the Bremerton Council via putting it to a vote! Yeeha!

Here is a link to the article by Steven Gardner: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/08/chickens-charter-changes-could-be-on-future/

Do check it out if you are interested information having to do with chickens in Bremerton. They are making it very clear that roosters will not be allowed. The noise of roosters seems to be the greatest concern. There are many people that think a rooster is necessary for a hen to lay eggs: this is wrong, wrong, wrong.

If you can help in any way, please go to the Facebook page "We Want Urban Chickens in Bremerton"

Urban Chickens

2010-03-07T15:32:00.001-08:00

Urban chickens have been up for discussion in our little burg; Bremerton, WA. As of this past week, our Town Council voted having urban chickens down; without any real discussion or input by those of us who live here. For whom are these council members working?... certainly not us... save one, and that would be Roy Runyon.

As far as the council goes, they feel the issue is dead. Wrong. We can put this issue on the ballot. Let our citizens know about the issue and have the opportunity to vote on said issue.

There are many cities in this great country of ours, including Seattle, that allow residents within city limits to have chickens. So what is the problem with our council members? Here is a link that lists cities that allow chickens by state... and what the restrictions are. http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/chickenlaws.html

Check it out.

I would like to hear from as many people as I can, who live in the City of Bremerton, and how they feel about having chickens (no roosters). I'd also like to hear from folks from other cities that allow urban chickens.

Return to: http://www.ostrichbay.com

The Greenhouse is happy and full of seedlings!

2010-03-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of transplanting all the wonderful little seedlings, that I started in January, into larger pots. So far, petunia, lobelia, four different types of tomatoes, red, green and yellow sweet peppers, daisies, marigolds and geraniums are all well and happy.

I'll be starting the squash-type plants in about a week, so they will be quite strong by the time of our spring sale.

Spring sale: The time of our sale is different every year; it all depends on Mother Nature. Please feel free to send e-mail to check on the date. Right now, it seems that our plants will be ready to go to their new homes in early May. I will post the date of the sale here, as well as on Craig's List.
Return to www.ostrichbay.com

Bacardi Rum Cake From Scratch

2008-11-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

The holidays are coming up and there's nothing like a moist and yummy cake to share with friends or give as a gift. This cake is a doozy, whether you make it via the box mix recipe, or from scratch. I prefer to make it from scratch.

I pulled this recipe from the web ages ago, and don't recall from where. Whomever it was that put this recipe together, I thank you!

BACARDI RUM CAKE (from scratch)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup Bacardi Gold Rum
3 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans
Rum glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. Combine flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Add butter and mix on low speed until butter is worked in completely; the mixture will have a sandy appearance.

In a small bowl, combine milk, rum, and eggs. Whisk to blend. With mixer on low, add milk mixture to dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in 1-1/2cups pecans. Pour batter evenly into pan. Bake 55 to 60 minutes, until top of cake springs back when touched.

When cake is done, remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes in pan. Invert the cake onto a rack with a large plate underneath.

Rum glaze

1/2 cup Bacardi Gold Rum
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in sugar, water and Bacardi Gold Rum. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Prick top of the cake with a fork. Spoon and brush glaze evenly over the top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until all glaze is absorbed.

Place about a half cup of pecans on top of cake for good looks and charm!

Note: The cake can be baked and soaked several days in advance; store it wrapped in plastic wrap.

Making Sausage

2008-11-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

We spent this weekend working for ourselves, starting on Friday by putting down 15 gallons of our home-made wine “House Red.” Right now, all three five-gallon buckets are bubbling away converting sugar to wine; wine which will be ready to drink in about a year (earlier if we want something a little ‘spirited’ to drink). Age is the ticket with wine.

The remainder of our weekend, Jay was cutting up free wood, to heat our house, greenhouse and wood fired hot tub, while I was making about 40 pounds of sausage. It was a fine and productive weekend.

All three projects made for wonderfully cheap and useful items; wood to heat, wine to drink and sausage to enjoy for the entire year. This entry I’ll speak of sausage; the ease in making it and the money saved by making it ourselves; not to mention the fact that we know exactly what is in it… no creepy additives, preservatives and coloring to make it look good in the grocery store cooler!

Later, I’ll talk about how we make our wine and where we get our free wood, along with information about our wood fired hot tub. Now on to some sausage talk!

At our local Cash & Carry, I picked up three nice packages of pork butt, for 99 cents a pound, along with pork belly or fat back, as some folks call it; both the main ingredients in most sausage recipes. I ended up with 30 pounds of pork and 3 pounds of fat back per 10 pounds of sausage; ratio needed to make good sausage, as pork alone is too lean. By the time I was finished, our sausage cost us about $1.20 per pound, as opposed to nearly $3.00 a pound at the store (Navy Commissary). I’d say, that is a fair savings!

Out of the pork and fat back and about 6 pounds of beef, we made Bratwurst, Italian Sausage and two different kinds of breakfast sausage. I put about 10 pounds by of the breakfast sausage loose, to use as patties; the rest was stuffed into casings, as were the brats and Italian sausage. Why more people don’t make their own sausage, is beyond me, as it saves quite a bit of money and frankly, is fun to make.

To start, as I mentioned above, you need about 3 pounds of fat back to every 10 pounds of pork butt for a good sausage base. Any less fat mixed in with the pork butt makes for dry and crumbly sausage. The brats call for veal, but it’s hard come-by and is really too expensive, so I use a cheap cut of beef.

Making the sausage is very easy: grind meat, add spices, and stuff into a casing… that’s it. No secrets and no hocus pocus. If you don’t have a grinder, buy ground pork from your butcher; it costs more, but not that much more. I grind our sausage with a cast iron hand grinder (you can usually find one of these at your local St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army or local junk store, for a couple of bucks. If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer, you can buy a grinder/stuffer attachment.

Some sausage can be left loose, such as the Italian and breakfast sausage and cooked as patties or made into meatballs. The brats, on the other hand, need to be stuffed in casings. For this you need a sausage stuffer. You can use the attachment for the Kitchen-Aid mixer, but it tends to turn the sausage into a pasty pâté-like substance. It’s better to use a stuffer that uses pressure instead of an auger to push the sausage into the casing. I use an Enterprise cast iron sausage stuffer. If you can find one, it’s a jewel. It doesn’t do much of anything except stuff sausage, but it does it beautifully. If you’re lucky and find one with a basket in it, it also works as a fruit press. Look on e-bay or in a junk store. If you find one for $100, consider yourself lucky, as they go for around $550 new. If you’re truly lucky you inherited one.

To stuff the sausage into casings, you obviously need casings; we use natural hog and sheep casings, which we buy on-line from Butcher & Packer Supply Company, because we can’t find them locally.

Once you have these items, you are ready to roll. Again, even if you don’t have a sausage stuffer, try one of these recipes and don’t bother stuffing the sausage into casings…you’ll be glad you did.

Recipes:

Breakfast Sausage
10 pounds pork butt
3 pounds fat back (or substitute bacon)
2 tablespoons curing/canning salt
4 tablespoons rubbed sage
2 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
3 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
3 medium onions chopped fine or ground
4 full heads of minced garlic

Gourmet Country Sausage
(This one is based on a recipe I dug out of an old issue of Mother Earth Magazine)
10 pounds pork butt
3 pounds fat back (or substitute bacon)
4 teaspoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons curing/canning salt
8 tablespoons rubbed sage
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons nutmeg
3 whole heads of fresh garlic, minced

Italian Sausage
10 pounds pork butt
3 pounds fat back (or substitute bacon)
2 tablespoons curing/canning salt
2 ½ tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
2 ½ tablespoons ground coriander
4 full heads fresh garlic, minced
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
½ cup paprika
1 cup dry white wine (don’t use cooking wine-if you won’t drink it out of a glass, don’t cook with it)

Bratwurst
6 pounds pork butt
4 pounds veal or beef
3 pounds fat back (or substitute bacon)
4 ½ cups red wine (don’t use cooking wine-if you won’t drink it out of a glass, don’t cook with it)
3 tablespoons curing/canning salt
1 ½ tablespoons onion salt
1 ½ tablespoons ground white pepper
1 ½ tablespoons marjoram
1 ½ tablespoons parsley flakes
¾ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons mace
2 teaspoons cardamom (or substitute same amount of cinnamon and ginger)

These are just a few recipes to start with, and are ones we use. Look around your local library or check out recipes on the web for an outstanding variety of sausage recipes.

Enjoy making your sausage. Now, I’m off to cut apart all those links of sausage, and get them packaged and in the freezer!

A Penny Saved

2008-10-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

The old adage, “A penny saved, is a penny earned,” coined (no pun intended) by Benjamin Franklin, means that by reducing your spending, you are increasing your income. It is a truth, to be sure. If you don’t spend the money in the first place, you don’t have to earn it again, to replace it.

There are so many ways to do this that it actually makes my head hurt that more people don’t do more to reduce their spending, when it is so easy. These folks certainly complain about the lack of money and how everything has spiraled out of their control, when in fact, they have let their spending spiral out of control and aren’t willing to do anything about it!

How many people do you know who don’t turn off lights when they leave a room? How many people let the shower run long before they jump into it and actually bathe, or leave the water running while they brush their teeth? You can probably name a few in your own home. It’s all money, literally, going down the drain.

If you are out of control in spending and think, “What the heck, we’re so far in the hole, what’s one more dollar here and there gonna make?” and then go out and spend more money so you feel better; you need to get a grip. Spending more money is not going to get you out of debt. You need to start saving and make it a habit.

An excellent start, is to pay yourself first. It doesn’t have to be much; just doing it is a great leap in the right direction; and most importantly, the beginning of a good habit.

Most of us have a checking account and a savings account. These accounts are usually attached to each other and you can transfer money back and forth at any given time; and for most folks, they can even do it on-line via home computer. If you happen to have this computer in front of you, which is likely the case since you are reading this on-line, go to your bank account right now, and transfer just $5 from your checking account to your savings account. Most of us can afford that much and won’t even miss it. Do it right now!

Okay, you now have $5 sitting in savings that will earn interest; maybe not much on such a small scale, but it will earn interest. Now, if you do this every week, at the end of the month you will have $20 in your savings account. If you do this every month for a year, you will have amassed $240.00 and it didn’t even hurt.

The second way to get spending under control is to not spend the money in the first place; and there are many ways to do that.

Consider this; do you go out to lunch every day at work? Odds are you are spending at least $5.00 for your lunch. Instead of eating out, make your own lunch, or better still, toss the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner in a container and eat that; you just saved $5 and gave yourself a nice little raise.

Each day, after not spending that $5 on lunch, go to your computer and move that $5 into your savings account; do that 5 days a week, and by golly, that adds up to $20 a week, which in turn, is $100 a month, and makes a total of $1200 a year. It adds up pretty quickly, doesn’t it?

A really easy and benign way to not spend money is to not consume as much, e.g. using electricity and water. Turn out that light and don’t let the water run.

If you are like us, you pay a pretty healthy water bill. We have good water where we live and the city thinks very highly of this water and as a result, charge a fortune for it. As soon as the tap is on, we’re spending money, so we make the most of it. We paid for that water and we’re going to use as much of it as we can before it goes down the drain.

Look out your window; see all those plants on your balcony or just outside the front door, or the plants on the shelf in your living room… they need water. Now, remember all that water that went down the shower drain this morning; a whole lot of it while you were just getting the temperature right to step in. Get yourself a nice little bucket or container and put it under the tap when you start the water running, and capture it. It’s clean, and it’s good for watering your plants. Why let it go down the drain? If it goes down the drain you will have to draw more water later to pour on your plants. You paid for the water; use it!

Did you know, you can also flush your toilet with a bucket of water? Take said bucket of water that you rescued from going down the drain, and instead of whipping around and whapping that flush handle, pour that bucket of water, all at once (not slowly), into the bowl of the toilet. Poof, the swirling action starts and down the drain it goes. You just saved money by not flushing the toilet using the tank water.

It’s not much, but you do this at least once a day and after awhile, you’re talking real money and it didn’t even take that much time; just effort.

Do you wash your dishes by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher? Well save that rinse water and pour it on a bush in your yard or on your garden; don’t let it run down the drain. If you do use a dishwasher, make sure it is full before you turn it on; and then, don’t let it go through the electric dry cycle. Instead, just prop the door open and let the dishes dry on their own. By doing this, you’ve saved electricity and water, but you’ve also put a nice amount of moisture in the air.

If you look around your house, you will find many a way to cut down on using electricity and water. Let’s move on to the laundry.

Another old saw goes “It takes money to make money.” One way to put this nifty little adage to work is to hang up your laundry to dry. We do this all year around. We put up a nice clothes line outside, and found a dandy of a clothes line to set up in the spare room, during the winter. Obviously, you are going to have to spend some money to do this, and it doesn’t have to be big money either. In the long run, you are going to save some serious money by not running the dryer. Even if you don’t like some of your clothing hung on the line, at least do it with the sheets, dish towels, socks and so forth. We dry everything on the line, save what needs to go to the dry cleaners. We haven’t used the dryer in so long, I can’t tell you if it even works anymore. I do use the top as a work surface, so it’s good for something.

Any one of the above methods isn’t going to result in you becoming a millionaire, but they will leave more money for getting those bills paid and getting out of debt, or increasing your savings.

Here’s another adage that covers the whole lot of the above drivel I’ve been spewing, “If you find yourself in a hole; stop digging! That’s the crux of it right there. If you’re not in a hole and you do the above, you will quickly find yourself atop a large pile.

If you think I’m living in dreamland here, think again. Not many years back, due to life and its twists and turns, ‘J’ and I were in that hole; and we stopped digging. It’s a long story, as good as anyone else’s, but in the end, like many other folks, that hole could have gotten a lot bigger and deeper.

At the end of 5-years, not only did we not have any debt, we had over $30,000.00 in the bank. That’s a ‘no shitter’ folks.

So, take a look around you and get to work. Use that elbow grease and a little time… it costs you nothing, and it will save you a lot.

To read a bit more about saving money by not eating out, follow this link. This lady has a good handle on the subject. http://www.notjustbeans.com/articles/stop-eating-into-debt.html

Pumpkin People

2008-10-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Each fall, we put up our 'Pumpkin People' in our front yard. We don't have many, if any, kids show up on Halloween, but we do live next to a park and there are a lot of walkers who enjoy the display.

The pumpkins are grown from last year's pumpkin seeds, and we get their clothes at St. Vinney's (St. Vincent de Paul). We have a marvelous time picking the outfits and then putting the people together. J, my partner in crime and in this life, built the frames out of 1"x2" boards... (the cheap ones you can get at the lumber store), and the frames are based on a stick figure drawing. One main stake about 3 feet long, pointed on one end and a small board on the top with inverted nails, to hold the pumpkins in place. This stake serves as the spine and gets pounded into the straw; the arms are cut in segments and held together with screws, so the arms bend. Next put the clothes on and stuff with straw. Poof, you’ve got Pumpkin People!

The really neat thing about the whole display is that everything is either used when we got it or will be used after the display comes down. The straw we get each year to cover our garden and flower beds for winter. It protects the garden as mulch and feeds the dirt as it composts through the winter. The stick frames were made from left over wood from another project and we use the same frames year after year. The clothes we buy at the thrift store, as I mentioned above. The thrift store makes money to help their cause, and we get neat clothes for the pumpkin people, which in turn, become cleaning rags. The pumpkins go back out to the garden as compost, while the seeds germinate and grow more pumpkins for next year! It really is a nice cycle that makes for no waste and is very cheap to do. Another goody is that if your pumpkins just happen to be sweet pumpkins, you get a pie or two out the deal as well.

Happy Halloween Folks!

The Set-up!

2008-10-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day with this blog. I've pictures to take and thoughts to gather before I really get started. There are so many projects on my list to share and hopefully help folks out with saving a dime or two and have fun in the process.

We make our own wine and sausage, smoke our own salmon, make our own noodles, run a greenhouse, sit in a wood-fired hot tub, and make our way in this world without huge bills. It's an adventure worth sharing.

I hope you visit from time to time to see what we are up to.