Solar Clothes dryer

Today I used our solar clothes dryer and used ZERO electricity to dry 5 loads of laundry; including our sheets. Yep - A CLOTHES LINE! I absolutely love how clothes smell that have been dried by the sun and knowing that no money will come out of our pockets to pay to dry them was even better.


When I came in from hanging the last load I was nearly caught by the nap attack team....



BUT... I managed to escape.



Today I also cut off some of the larger collard leaves and plan to cook them up tomorrow. Here they are getting rinsed in the kitchen sink. We will have these as well as some of the sweet potatoes that we grew last Fall and some pork chops. YUMMY! Lunch is looking good for tomorrow.

Have I mentioned....

I absolutely LOVE the magazine Quilts and more? It's National Craft month and I am thinking that I will work my way through this issue and make everything in it this month. Perhaps I could post a picture of everything I made at the end of the month; that would be fun. And I could use items ONLY in my stash - that would be GREAT! My colors will be different of course. I think I will get started right after supper - homemade pizza.

Book Worm Attack

I've been doing something I haven't been able to do in YEARS - enjoy a great book. I'm nearly finished reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diane Gabaldon. I have read ALL of her Outlander series and I have the next book waiting... An Echo in the Bone. I have thoroughly enjoyed hiding in a book again. She really draws you into the story so you HAVE TO keep reading to find out what happens next and every once in awhile she will create a scene that creates side splitting laughter. I'm not so sure Scott has enjoyed these sections as I've interrupted his thoughts on numerous occasions.

Yesterday I cleaned up under the chestnut tree in the back yard and it looks a good bit better. I still have some trimming to do on volunteer trees and plants that have invaded my flower bed under the tree but that will have to wait as it's raining here today.

I was also able to get all our taxes done yesterday and thankfully it was about evened out between what we owed the Federal Government and what we are getting back from the State; which was a GREAT relief as we were quite worried that we would owe more than we could ever come up with right now.

On a bright note Scott has been called back by the company he had a phone interview last week and they want an on-site interview this week. YEAH! We are so hoping that this will be his next job and that we will have health insurance once more. And most importantly income. I will be doing my best to manage the money better so that we can get out of debt faster so if this happens again we won't be in such a pickle. We definitely spend less with me at home instead of working as I'm cooking most of our meals, I'm able to watch sales more closely and clip coupons and grow vegetables in our back yard. I'm sewing again and that has brought in a little money but I'm wanting to create and sell things on Etsy more than taking in sewing. But for now it does help some to have the little sewing jobs so I will do them.

Time to get the laundry done...

Tea

My Sweet Husband bought me a collection of loose leaf teas for Christmas and we are both enjoying them immensely. I make a pot of tea nearly everyday sometimes two pots. My favorites so far is the Orange Dulce and I am hoping we will be able to find it in a cannister of it's own to have on hand all the time; I like it THAT much.



It's a clear breezy day today with it getting down to the 20's tonight. Oh I am SO ready for Spring and days in the 60's and 70's. Not too much longer until Spring is actually here so I will wait and find creative things to do indoors.

Wonderfully Rainy Morning

We were awoke by the sounds of a tremendous down pour. The garden and all the yard will thoroughly enjoy this rain and it won't be long until we are seeing Spring all around us. Perhaps today I will bring that shelf in from the shed and plant the peppers and tomatoes that I was going to start last week but put it off because of the snow that we got. We are really enjoying planning this years garden. Right now we have Lettuce, mustard greens, onions and collards growing well out there.


I'm going to harvest some of the outer leaves from the collards when there is a break in this rain so we can have some for dinner tonight. I filled one of our new beds with compost from our compost bins. It will be ready for some plants or seeds next month.



In this picture you can see the section where we will be adding one more long raised bad; it's where the Rosemary is growing right now. I've got to decided where I want to put a perennial edible garden to move the Rosemary and have ready for the horseradish, rhubarb and asparagus that will be arriving at the beginning of next month. I should make a list and make up a schedule of tasks to get done around here. There are a lot of plants that I would like to get cuttings started from as well. Always so much to get done.

Scott painted on the legs for his saw this weekend and got to use a new paint gun. Once he figured it all out it worked great.





Doesn't he look happy - he has ALWAYS loved paint.

Sneaking a peek at Greg's pictures

He took some great pictures in Gulfport as well as some I WILL NOT be sharing.

Previous Post should have said....

Greg is in South Carolina because he definitely has NOT been "home" much. LOL! He is catching up with his friends here; Didn't get home until about 4 AM this morning. Oh well - he is 23 searching for purpose and a partner as everyone does at that age.