God Bless America

happy independence day!!! we had a great time at the town parade....ice cram social, snow cones, raffles, games, crafts, rides on the vintage fire truck, decorated bikes and wagons!!!fun fun fun hope you had a great one too!!!

aahh...the joys of camping!

KIDS + DIRT + SMORES + GOOD FRIENDS = WONDERFUL MEMORIES

Its funny, that we want to be out in the great outdoors, enjoying nature, but we bring almost our entire household when we do it. It took me forever to pack up all the food and necessary items for our camping trip. (i thought "this is so much work"). We did have a great time, and the kids were entertaining themselves without any help from me. I can't believe how 4 children could get so dirty, and go through all their clothes on the first day. But the most important part is memories made with good friends, that will last forever!!!

Happy camping!!

I am about to shed a tear!!!

OK, i really like to garden and i would love to feed my family, wholesome, organic homegrown fruits and veggies. Here in this state, the state that has is own sun that is hotter than everywhere else...except maybe this year(we have had a wonderfully cool spring and summer actually just started here, which is super weird, but nice, usually its been in the high 90s and 100s all June)anyway, I have tried to garden here for years...and its either, i have to water the garden like three times a day because is so hot, or the grasshoppers eat it all up, or ... something else disastrous happens... well, this right here is why I'm about to start crying... i actually grew something!!!!! i can not believe it, i was just jumping for joy!!!

isn't it beautiful!!!I am very anxious to see if anything else grow... i have planted artichokes, cantaloupe, tomato, basil, lavender, green beans, pumpkins, bell pepper, pickling cucumbers, marigolds and the lovely yellow crook neck squash. Happy gardening!!!

backyard chicken farming

First of all, look at the size of this moth... I know its really hard to tell how big it is in this picture, but it was HUGE! It was on my kitchen window screen, so I grabbed my sewing measuring tape to measure its body, let me tell you... it was 2 and 1/2 inches long, just the body. It is very buggy where I live and if you leave your porch light on for a couple of hrs, you have to hop inside like a bunny unless you want a million bugs flying in. well thank goodness for these gals, since we have had your chicken, i have noticed less buggyness. We are new to this,backyard chicken farming. We really are not even supposed to have chickens in our neighborhood unless you are in 4h. But our neighbors don't mind. So we got 4 baby chicks in march, and oh they were so cute, then we found two in our driveway(our town gives away baby chicks at the town Easter egg hunt, and they have been dyed, bright colors, before they had hatched... i know i know real smart)someone had got them at the egg hunt and obviously was not prepared to have baby chicks(i.e. a cage, heat lamp, food)... anyway they got loose or let go and ended up in our drive way. one was bright orange and one bright yellow.. so now we have 6... they are fun, and i cant wait to start getting their eggs.... i just hope that the two we found are not roosters.... does anyone know how to tell a hen from a rooster at this age???

Happy chicken farming!!!

life is just a bowl full of cherries????

I just love summertime cherries....except when you have 16lbs of moldy ones!!! Here in our area they have this great volunteer program where you can get a basket full of vegetables and a basket full of fruit for $15. Such a great deal... and oh... how I love a great deal. Its called Bountiful Baskets food co-op, and its growing rapidly, if your interested and you live in southern Utah or Arizona, you can check out their website, http://02b8ce3.netsolstores.com/

Well you can also get extra yummies, and this last week I bought a 16 lbs box of cherries for $14.50, which is about 90 cents a lbs. great deal.....IF..... you have time to do something with them. I mean after you have eaten your fill.

Its not such a great deal if you leave to go camping and come back to about half of them moldy....NO NOT MOLDY CHERRIES... so when i got back, I had to try and salvage what was left and sit for hrs and pit them and put some in the freezer(for cobblers later on) and dried the rest in the dehydrator. So much for a great deal....here is a great (sort of secret ) super easy cobbler recipe that you can use any fruit. My mom taught me how to make this and its been a favorite of mine.... i mean i could eat the whole pan.

The name officially is Lazy Women's Pie..... although we changed the name to Busy Women's Pie.... I mean who's lazy around here, anyway???

So, heat your oven to 350 and get out your 9x13 baking dish, and melt 1 cube (I will be taking a poll on this later) butter in the oven while your mixing up 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 cup milk..... OK then after the butter is melted(be careful not to burn the butter) then dollop the mixture in the butter, it won't cover the bottom, but its OK just dollop it around, then take 3-4 cups of fruit(you can sweeten it with honey or sugar, if its not real sweet fruit) then dump that on top and bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes.... and you can serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.... this is so good!!!!

try no to eat the whole thing...share, I know its hard!!!!

sorry, I do not have a picture of the busy women's pie.... We ate it!!! you will just have to make it yourself!!!

ok so I am very curious to know how many people say a cube of butter or a stick???? I have always said cube, probably because that is what my mom always says, but its not really a cube, its more of a rectangle... any way is it a regional thing... let me know what you call it!!!

re-purposing

I really need to get some new clothes, but I just refuse to pay retail prices for clothes, there are just to many bargains, just waiting for me to find them. so what to do...why not "recycle" my old ones. Some people call me crazy... but not my soul sister over at andthelaundrywaits.blogspot.com she did the same thing on the same day, without me even knowing... crazy we are... so i bought this shirt at a yard sale for $1, because I liked the print but it was way to big, so i tried to take it in, but it never looked right.

So i thought why not recycle it and make something new out of it... here it is be fore

and there you go, a new skirt, from a shirt, that cost one buck...yeah!!! feel free to show me what you have been re -purposing

http://cyclo-6-aventure.over-blog.com/

Here is the French families blog if you want to follow them!!