My Gardening Notebook

I am a collector of information.  You've already seen all the books.
I have tons of recipes.  Someday I 'll show you my method for keeping
up with all of those.  I have bulging files on just about every topic you
can imagine.

I love learning.

Lately, I have been collecting lots of information on gardening,
because I'm a novice and I have lots to learn.  The problem is that
I could never find what I needed when I needed it.   I have all kinds
of seed catalogues, notes I've taken, clippings from magazines,
to do lists.......

It was all about to drive me nuts.  So, I decided to put together a 

gardening notebook where I could keep everything in one organized place.

First thing I did was repurpose a pretty pink binder that I had. 

I put lots of tabs in it and labeled them with all the catagories

that I thought I would need.

And then started loading it up. I have a catagory on container gardening.

I took a great class last fall on how to make hypertufa containers and

mine turned out pretty well.  I'd like to make some of these small

square ones at the top left of the page.

I have a section on landscaping with information about trees and

shrubs and things like my beloved lilacs (that are getting ready to bloom!)

A section for fruit trees and berries

I want my raspberries to look like this!

A section on seeds

and another on tools that I'd like to have.

And a few things to dream about.

Isn't this the the loveliest potting area?  (Sigh)

It makes my heart pitter patter.

I have a large section on vegetables.

I have a monthly tabbed section for checklists of things I should

be doing each month in the garden.

Probably the most important part of the notebook is the journal.

This is where I'm recording what I'm planting, where

I'm planting it and when.

The varieties of plants I'm trying

and what I like or don't like about them.

I'm so excited about getting my asparagus bed in this spring.

My plants arrived today!

Experience is the best teacher, so keeping these records will help

me from year to year.  And I know right where to go to find this

information when I need it.

In my gardening notebook on my gardening shelf.

Here's to a happy growing season.

* Goal #43 - Expand my vegetable gardens.

* Goal #5 - Learn to prune berries and fruit trees.

Girls Night Out

What do a nice group of ladies like this do for fun?

How about going to the Taste of Home Cooking School!

An evening of tasting

lots of laughing

Bags of freebies and prizes - yeah!  April won a Rachel Ray bakeware set.

Great recipes and cooking demonstrations for things like

Parmesan, Walnut and Arugula Baskets

Warm mushroom dip

Lemon Cake Roll

and my personal favorite - Chocolate Eclairs

I'll be trying some of these soon and let you know how they turn out.

Friends and Food.  It doesn't get any better.

(Who are the wise guys sitting behind us?)

*Goal # 3 - Do something fun with friends each month.

Goal # 6 - Laugh more.

Goal #15 - Improve technology skills (I'm scanning with my new scanner :)

72 Hour Kit - Week 4

Here we are at week four of putting together these 72 hour kits and

we are almost finished.  At this point we have our bag or container,

food, water, clothing and personal items.  This week we are adding

first aid kits.

You can buy commercial first aid kits, but I am putting mine together
from the odds and ends I already have at home.  I'm going to need to
purchase a few things though. I am not good in emergency situations,
so I hope that if there is blood involved or broken bones there will be
someone else with me and I can hand my supplies over  to them. That
way I can just sit and try not to hyperventilate.  I don't think that first aid
book is going to do a lot of good at that point, but I will volunteer to read
instructions while someone else administers the first aid.
This is the list of recommended items that should go in your first aid kit.

asprin, ibuprofen, acetaminophin

antiseptic wipes

burn ointment

antibiotic ointment (neosporin)

lots of bandaids in different sizes

allergy tablets

gauze

needle

matches (for sterilizing)

elastic rolled bandanges

sterile bandages

small scissors

tube of petroleum jelly

tweezers

antacid

sunscreen

safety pins

triangular bandage

anti - diarrhea medicine

prescription medicines

It is a good idea to take a first aid course to prepare for a

possible emergency and to be certified in CPR.  

Put your kits in ziplock bags and they're ready to go. 

 As a matter of fact, put as many things in your kits in ziplock

bags as possible. (clothing, food, etc.)
 Wet supplies may not be so good.

 I'm also adding a few other things this week.

Plastic garbage bags, rope, water proof matches and money.

So many people don't use cash anymore and in an emergency situation

you probably won't be able to get to a bank or use your debit card.

Cash is what you need and in small denominations.

The emergency whistle is pretty cool.

This one has a compass

Not sure I really know how to use it.....

and you can store your waterproof matches

in the end of it.

The matches and the whistle came from Emergency Essentials.

I'm going to make a shopping list of a few things  I need to complete

my first aid kit and next week I will finish off this 72 hour kit project!

*Goal #18 - Work on storage and preparedness goals.

Project Simplify - Week 4

First lets talk about Week 3 - Organize games

They were a mess and in several locations in the house.

I decided to make this corner cabinet in the basement the designated 

game and puzzle home.  I cleaned everything out and moved

it to the basement.  

Top shelf now holds puzzles, rhythm instruments and a cool

rock collection.

Middle shelf has some board games, bingo, twister , a giant checker game

and a barrel of monkeys that have been around a long time!

More board games

I realized as I cleaned and organized that I miss playing games!

I have some great memories of game nights with friends

and game night "fights" with the kids.   I'm not sure why my

kids couldn't play games together nicely, but there was usually some

arguing involved.   It's been long enough now that I can say even

those less than peaceful times are a good memory. 

I remember playing Life with my sisters when I was growing up

and we loved it.  One vivid memory I have is playing board games

in the tent on our family vacation at the beach on rainy days.  I was

excited to buy this one for my family, but disappointed in how cheaply

the board is made now.  And the little cars were a disappointment too.

They just don't make things like they used to......

I am not so good at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, but my boys know

all the answers!  I can't tell you how many times they have watched 

the Star Wars trilogy.  They can totally quote the lines and Kenzie,

being the only girl in the family grew up watching them with her brothers.

 She was into Star Wars and Lord of the Rings more than the 

Disney princesses!

I especially like games like Sorry and Trouble.  Games of chance

that require basically no skill.  No brainer kinds of games.

Backgammon is fun too.

I tried to get the boys to teach me how to play Chess, but it requires

too much thinking.  At that time in my life, I didn't have any brain

space left for learning chess.  Maybe I should try it again.

Travis is a good one to play Scrabble with and I 

like Parcheesi too.  Pictionary....well lets just

say I'm pretty awful at it.  Can't draw a thing

that anyone can guess.  My family used to play

games when we would get together for the

Sturdivant Christmas party and they are still making fun of 

me for the pictures I drew.   We would laugh soooo hard. 

 Mostly they were laughing at me, but that was ok.   I miss doing that.

Now our gatherings are shorter and there doesn't seem

to be enough time for games or really anything except

eating.....hum...I think we need to rethink our holiday gatherings, folks.

We are missing out on some fun things.  

I'm a big fan of Uno, Rook and oh, my gosh, Blink!

Love, love, love a good game of Blink.

So there you go.  You've seen my clean and organized games

cabinet.  Now, all I need is someone to play some games with.

Let me know if you are up for a game night!

Now for Week 4 - Clean out refrigerator and Pantry

This weeks  project is one that I really need.  You can go to this

website to learn more and get some great ideas.  Tish goes

into much more than just cleaning out your food stuff.  It's a good

discussion on what we have in our kitchens, what we are choosing 

to eat and why it might be good to make some changes.  She has

a good reading list that I also recommend.  I have copies of most

of them myself.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ( I reread this every year)

Fast Food Nation

The Omnivore's Dilemma

And more......

 The Documentary -Food, Inc.  ( If you watch this you will never think about

food the same way again.  I promise.)

Next week, these cabinets will not look like this.

And if you are still with me and really have nothing better to 

do than look at the inside of my refrigerator.......

Does anyone need some eggs?

*Goal #36 - Organize each room in my house.