Recycle and Make it new!

This little piece of furniture was listed on Freecycle.com... headed to the junk yard if no one wanted it. I brought it home and got to work!
I wish I had remembered to take a before photo! This is a mid-way photo. It was really dinged up and drawn all over. I took some wood putty and filled all the holes and sanded it smooth. I taped off the inside that was beat up and trashed and spray painted it white.

This must have been a highschool woodshop project because it had a name and room number written on it. We had to re-allign the doors and drawers, but it wasn't too hard to do. I decided to paint it a shiny black. It didn't look as nice as I had hoped and so I began to sand the shine off to add a flat to it when I realized it looked AWESOME! I left the sanded edges look - you could see some of the burgandy stain on the corners and such! After about 6 hours of effort - and a few more waiting for paint to dry... we added some new hardware and...

TA DA!!! I LOVE IT!

One man's trash is another man's treasure - after some effort and a little love! ;)

TOTAL COST:

Stand - Free

Paint - Free (leftovers in the garage)

Sandpaper - Free (ditto)

Hardward - $10

New TV Stand that hides the games, remotes etc? PRICELESS!

Peaches & Grandma's Preserves

My good friend Maria brought me 3 boxes of peaches last weekend. I have been bottling and drying peaches like a mad woman! LOL Here are some of our favorite ways to use up them peaches! ;)

I blanche them (place in boiling water for about a minute then straight into cold water - it makes their skins slide right off!) and pit them and put them in a bowl full of Dole's Pineapple Strawberry Frozen juice concentrate - made up as if I was going to drink it. It helps to keep them from going brown.

I then put them on my food dehydrator and dry them until they are almost completely dry. My family loves to snack on dehydrated fruits! (and I say the less candy the better! *wink*)
This time while doing peaches, strawberries were on sale at the local market. $6.99 for a full flat! I took half peaches and half strawberries and put them in the blender. We poured the mixture on my drying trays and WALLA! Strawberry Peach fruit leather! YUM! No sugar added! ;)

Grandma's Spiced Peach Preserves

10 cups of peaches

7 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 t. ground cloves

Blanche peaches, remove skins and pits and cut into quarters (I always blanche them a few minutes longer and then I can do all of the above almost in one quick movement! *grin*). In a large pot mash peaches with potato masher. (it's better chunky) Add sugar and spices. Cook on low heat until desired consistency (about 60-90 minutes).

Fill into hot sterilized jars, wipe rim and place hot lid and secure with ring. Tip upside down on kitchen towel to cool and seal (I leave them overnight).

According to extension guidelines it is good to process them in a water bath for 10 minutes - but that is to sterilize - so I just do it how Grandma said to and we have never had a problem! :)Tastes great on sandwiches, sugar cookies and warmed up over vanilla icecream! YUM!

We have made 4 batches of this stuff! LOL! We also made Peach Nectar... To use later it is YUMMY added half and half with orange juice!

Peach Nectar

Blanche, peel, pit and put in blender peaches - make a puree.

For every 2 quarts of Peach puree add:

1 T. lemon juice

1 cup boiling water

1 T. sugar

Pour into large pot and heat on low until sugar is dissolved. Laddle into hot jars, wipe rims and top with hot lids and secure with a ring. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. Cool on a kitchen towel over night.

I am a tired girl! We also canned tomato juice, pear honey, bottled peaches & strawberry jam & strawberry kiwi jam! It has been a long week! *grin*

Fruit Flies

We have an over abundance of fruit flies since canning this whole last week. They are crazy this year!! I was given an idea we are trying this very night!

Take an over ripe piece of fruit and place it on a foil lined cookie sheet. Place in the oven (with the oven turned off) and leave the door cracked over night. In the morning quietly and quickly shut the door and turn the oven on broil for a few minutes.

Fruit Flies should be gone.

This is what my fruit pieces looked like after only 15 minutes of being in the oven! I will update if it solved my infestation or not...

UPDATE: WOW! Hundreds! It really worked! It did not get every last fly... but it works for a large amount of them!

I also have been putting a bowl of cider vinegar and dish soap on my counter and that catched quite a few too! One of my FLYSisters offer advice to put this mixture in a jar and put a baggie over the top and close with a ring and then use a wooden spoon to push a hole in the bag... she said they fly in but can't always fly out I guess! I am modifying my bowl of mixture to this method today! SWEET! Glad to be taking my house back! *grin*

Chickens

This year we have done something that my husband has wanted to do ever since we got married... We are raising our own chickens! He built this AWESOME chicken coop... from plans he created and used out of his own head! It is so cool! We also used almost ALL recycled materials from job site dumpsters or donations. We spent less than $100 on it and we have found similar coops online for $2k! Go sweetheart!

We LOVE our chickens! They are much like pets! The kids hold them and talk to them... they eat all my compost materials (fabulous!) and just last week...

TA-DA! Our 1st egg!! We will be selling eggs to neighbors that would like some as soon as production picks up... and we can not wait for the fresh omlets and homemade mayo try-outs!

Grandma Stoddard's Chocolate Zuchinni Cake

2 C Sugar
1 C oil
3 eggs
2 ½ C Flour
¼ C Cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ C milk
2 C shredded zucchini
1 Tbsp vanilla

In large bowl mix sugar and oil; add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each. Combine dry ingredients and gradually alternate with milk. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Pour into a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until done.

While baking make frosting:

½ C butter
¼ powdered cocoa
6 T evaporated milk (I just used regular)
4 C powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Mix until creamy – frost HOT cake.

Serve when cooled.

Yummy!!!!!

Bottled Chicken & Beef

Tried something new (beef) a few weeks ago... and something old (chicken)! :)
My friend Amy was moving to the next state, so we needed to reduce her freezer supply. We took a couple of beef roast, trimmed some of the large portions of fat, and bottled it! Here's how:

Cut meat into jar length chunks.

We seared it (browned the meat) on all sides to add extra flavor (doesn't have to be cooked through) Then we packed the hot meat into hot jars.

Add 1/2 t. salt for Pints & 1 t. salt for Quarts

Covered with a broth that we made from adding water to the drippings in bottom of the fry pan and boiling for a few minutes. (It sure smelled yummy at my house!) Shake slightly to remove any air bubbles. Leave 1" headspace and wipe off the tops of your bottles.

Place hot lid (have lids boiling in water while packing meat) and then a ring to bottles.

We then followed the guidelines in the Kerr Blue Book for processing beef for our area.
We pressure cooked it for 1 hr 45 minutes at 15 lbs of pressure for Pints.

Doesn't that look tasty??

BOTTLED CHICKEN

This is one of my FAVORITE old school activities! So quick, so easy, and SO yummy!

Pack trimmed chicken breasts or tenders into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace.

Add 1/2 t. salt for Pints or 1 t. salt for Quarts. Do NOT add liquid.

Wipe rim of jar, add hot lid and a ring.

Process in Pressure Canner
Pints - 1 hour 25 minutes @ 15 lbs pressure
Quarts - 1 hour 35 minutes @ 15 lbs pressure.

Remove and allow to cool on towel overnight. Store in a cool dry place.

** We LOVE having this on hand! We make chicken salad, enchilada's, chili, etc! Anything that calls for cooked/shreaded chicken we use our bottled meat! It saves TONS of time! (And freezer space!

It looks slightly "science experiment-ish" but you can't beat the flavor! TONS better than store bought!

Making Bread

Jess' Mom gave me the best recipe for bread! It is SO quick, easy and so little "hands on" - which for someone with sensory (read:slimy stuff touching my hands!) issues it is PERFECT! *wink*

Johanne's Whole Wheat Bread

(Which tastes more like half & half)

2 3/4 cup steaming hot water

1 1/4 T. yeast

1 1/2 *heaping* T. Dough enhancer

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey (if you do the oil first the honey comes right out of the measuring cup *grin*)

3/4 T. salt

Start adding fresh ground Whole Wheat Four (Start with 6 cups)

Continue adding flour in 1/2 cup increments until dough pulls away from sides. (up to 10-12 cups of flour)

Knead in mixer with dough hook for 10 minutes.

While kneading turn oven on to 170. After kneading completes, turn oven off.

Shape dough into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans (turning over once to grease tops). Place in warm oven (do not turn back on yet) for 30 minutes.

Turn oven back on after 30 minutes to 350 (leaving loaves in oven) and Bake for 30 minutes.

Tip out of pans to cool on racks.

Freezes beautifully. YUM! Bread in an hour! YEA!!

Monthly Laundry Whitener Extrodinaire

Hi! I have done much that I need to post about... but thought I would quickly throw this one out here... it's a favorite trick!

Whiter Whites without bleach!

Fill your washer with hot water.
Add about 3/4-1 cup powered Cascade Dishwasher soap while filling.
Add whites.
Run agtation for wash cycle, but STOP before draining.

Let soak overnight.... or even just a few hours.

In the morning let cycle finish it's draining and rinsing etc.
Add your favorite laundry soap and wash one more time, full cycle.

If you have a front loader, you can soak them in your bath tub... you just need to be sure the soap is fully dissolved as it may eat holes in fabric if it is not.

I do this to my white ninja's (*grin*) and other whites once a month or so. It really brings back the white!!

I AM the mill!

So... I bought my own wheat grinder over a year ago, soon after my heart surgery, and put it in the pantry and forgot about it. (silly me!) My MIL (Mom-in-law) makes the best wheat bread ever...so I decided to pull it out and give it a try!

After reading my instructions, opening a new can of wheat I have never used, putting it together, I then loaded it up and pushed the button!

Oh boy! I felt like Tim Allen on Home Improvements!! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! The power!! What a rush! I felt more like my grandma would be proud of me than ever before!

Grandma ALWAYS had fresh wheat ground for bread or cracked wheat cereal w/ honey (YUM!) I even got a lump in my throat as I thought back on her... and on her having me "watch the wheat" :).

I would post pictures of my bread... but that is one disaster not worth remembering. *blush* I will do my "first batch of bread without a breadmachine" again later in the week! ;) ha ha

Bottled Butter

The instructions are adapted from this article and from http://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html (thankyou!)

1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #6 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands. (I used Western Family Brand - no name)

2. Heat pint jars (I used 13 half-pint jars) in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals. One pound of butter fills slightly more than one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. (I melted 6 pounds and used 13 half-pint jars.) A cookie sheet works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven.

3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes at least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #6 below) and it will be frothy and yummy.

4. Place the lids in a small pot of water and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed.

5. Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave 1/2" of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.

6. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool.

Once a few lids "ping," shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom if you don't. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.

7. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars in the fridge, if desired. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 15 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour. (I just let them harden on the counter top - less shaking but longer set up)

8. Canned butter should store for 3-5 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf. It does last a long time. Canned butter does not "melt" again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.

Just a note: You can cook and bake with this butter! It is already soft, so it's perfect for cookies and other recipes that require softened butter. It's also great on bread or vegetables! (We take it camping - less in the cooler & no need to refridgerate *grin*)

Cloth Diapers

Hello World, It's Me....

...That crazy cloth diapering mama!

Okay, because of the lack of time, I am going to copy and paste a post from my personal blog. And then I am going too, over the next few weeks, talk about all the different aspects of cloth diapering, like types of diapers, covers, fasteners. How to launder and take care of them. Price comparison and I am also going to entertain you with a pictorial of me going to a neighbor's house that is going to teach me how to sew a pocket diaper. That should be fun!

Without further adieu, here is my post:

Title Suzie Plays With Poo!

Got ya with that title didn't I!

When I first started thinking about cd'ing (cloth diapering) I never thought that I would actually find joy in it, I thought it would be something that would save me a little money, but that it would be a pain. In all actuality I thought that I wouldn't fully commit to it and that I would have spent money on something that I hated and gave up on and in the end LOST money on. I didn't realize that I would actually like it. I love looking at my kids in their cute diapers. I love how soft they are. I actually love doing diaper laundry, some how it has become rewarding to figure out a wash routine that works for me and our hard water. I love having stain-free diapers. I love that I have learned so much about doing laundry - I always thought that laundry was as easy as whites on hot, dark's on cold and everything goes in the dryer. I never worked at keeping my clothes stain free or following label directions. I love that it has brought out a different side in me, I like that I am doing a little something to help the planet. I like that it has challenged me to pick-up a sewing machine. I like researching all the different diapers, the brands, styles, materials. I am even having my sister knit me a couple of wool soakers (they are going to look something like this) so I can try out the au'natural approach. Yes, my husband thinks I have a OCD problem, he might be right, LOL!

I love my new hobby!

Here is a picture of my stash:

3 Bumgenius
3 Cherisa made diapers (a friend in my ward)
7 Coolababy diapers
4 DryBee's All in One's (2 for Jack & 2 for Addy)
12 pre-fold diapers (3 are embellished by me) and one Snappi (I am getting another one for Jack)




Inserts - They go inside a pocket diaper, this is the absorbent part of the diapers. I actually really like the micro-fiber towels, I buy them at Wal-Mart in the auto section, they are $5 for an 8 pack. I also bought some Zorb and have made a few of my own inserts (they are the pink/green polka dot ones). I also have a few other micro-fiber inserts from cotton babies and other various places.

I have also started using cloth wipes, mine are just baby wash cloths, but they work GREAT! So much easier than trying to pile poopy wipes on top of eacho ther and then transferring them into the garbage. Now everything just goes into the wash basket.

I have tried using Bummi's liners, I thought that it would be nice to be able to flush all the mess down the toilet, but they just seem to bunch up and not really help anything, so I had Hal make me a diaper sprayer!



Hal followed this tutorial on how to do it.


Addy just grew out of her All Together Diapers AIO's She had 12 of these, so I am needing to replace them with something else. My friend Cherisa, she is amazing, she has a great pattern for diapers and has found all the wonderful places to buy materials for them. She is even making little packets of diapers ready to be sewn! And she is willing to teach me how to sew pocket diapers, I have 6 that are going to come from that project, althougth I don't feel confidant in my sewing skills, so I have enlisted my step-MIL's help with these, she is a seamstress, so she should have NO problem whipping me up a few. I think they will end up costing me about $3 a diaper!

My wash routine is pretty simple.

First I pull out the inserts and then I rinse poo diapers with my diaper sprayer (Jack's only, Addy's don't have to be rinsed). I toss them into a bucket in my laundry room where I forget about them until it is time to do laundry. I then toss them all in the washing machine making sure that the Velcro laundry tabs are secure and all the snaps have been undone. Then I run a load on cold using Allen's Naturally, but this is going to change, I am going to start using Purex Free & Clear, it is cheaper and from what I understand it does just a good of a job. I also fill a downy ball up with vinegar and toss it in the wash. I run the wash with the extra rinse at the end, when it is finished I pull out the coolababy diapers because those aren't supposed to be washed on hot. I then run another wash cycle using HOT water and no soap. Then I throw all of the diapers (including the coolababy's) into the dryer, unless I notice a stain, if it is stained, then I lay it out in the sun, a sunny window works GREAT! The sun is magical, it makes those stains literally disappear before my eyes! When the dryer is done the pre-folds and AIO's are not dry, so those get laid out on a drying rack and I stuff and fold the rest of the diapers so they are ready for cute little bums.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

Here is a photo of what you will need... (I dont have one of the White King Water Softener, I have a water softener so I dont use it ;) )

1 cup grated Fels Naptha (found it at Macey's for $1 a bar - have also used homemade soap found at Cracker Barrel - though this stuff cleans the best)
1/2 cup washing soda (found in the laundry isle at Macey's too)
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup White King Water Softener (needed if you don't have a water softener)

In a clean 5 gallon bucket: add 6 cups of boiling water to the grated Fels Naptha and mix until the soap is all melted. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Add 26 more cups of cold water to reach a total of 2 gallons of water. Mix well and let cool and gel for 24 hours before using. The mixture will have the consistency of egg noodle soup, just mix a little before each use.
USE:
1/2 cup per full load of laundry

I also put distilled white vinegar in my fabric softener cup for each load. It works well as a fabric softener and you cannot smell the vinegar when your clothes are clean!

Welcome!!

HI! Welcome to my place to "play"! Here is a little background & the reasoning for this blog...

Just in the last 6 months I have been being led, so to speak, to researching and finding new ways to take care of my family without relying so much on outside sources. This began, to be honest, with one of my DS's (darling son) who needed more than he was getting at school. Without going into too much detail, I began a journey that led me to eventually bringing all my kids home for school.

This opened a whole new realm in my existence of empowerment and excitement in the realization that I was not as dependant upon others as I thought I should be. I realized how much more actively *I* could be living my life. One friend suggested trying homemade laundry soap (loved it), another suggested discovering bottling my own meats (bottled chicken is to die for!) and the yet another wonderful person in my life gave me an article on bottling butter (What? really?)... and well... the rest is history. I have other friends that I will be adding to the author list... as they too have experiences to share! Any and all we can bless with our blazing this trail in our lives we are happy to do it!

I am not a fanatic. I am not an expert. I am learning as I go. And I am sharing this journey for all of you to see! Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions. This is a learning process for me... and I am loving all the different angles there are out there to look at life and the world around me!

I know my Father in Heaven meant for me to care for my family... and I am finding great joy in learning and expanding the different ways I can meet their needs! Join me! Comment! Enjoy!