Yup, I used to love it. I remember when they opened a Super Wal-Mart about 20 miles away from where I grew up. It was the new cool place to go. After all, they were open 24 hours. That was when I was just starting to do my own grocery shopping and buy my own stuff. I would always get nervous at the checkout trying to organize my coupons and find my debit card, and I remember more than once having to put something back because I had miscalculated and gone over my meager budget. For all those reasons and more, my favorite time to shop was the middle of the night. I would go to bed early and get up at 3 or 4 to go. Besides, you couldn’t beat the traffic. I remember getting e-mails way back then encouraging me to “boycott” Wal-mart because of their crappy treatment of workers. I even read a great book in which the author experimentally tries to live on the wages she makes working for Wal-mart. That was awhile ago but I remember liking the book and would recommend it if you’re interested in such topics. I’m still not sure that I
Continue readingMonth: October 2008
Independence Days Challenge Update
Okay, time for an update: 1. Plant something. Well, I should be planting garlic. Instead, I’m about to order some. I kind of forgot now was the time to plant it until I saw the post about it over at Children in the Corn. So that’s next for planting. 2. Harvest something. We’ve been busy lately harvesting our cash crops (soybeans & corn currently) and doing all the fun stuff that comes along with that, such as paying crop insurance and deciding when to sell our bounty. Crop prices have been a big roller coaster with the economical issues going on lately.In my home garden I have vegetable spaghetti that needs to be picked and probably some peas. Our apple trees are finally done. 3. Preserve something. Ugg. I didn’t know canning season was so long. I’ve made a big dent in my apple stores but bought some more the other day. I’ve got 2 dehydrators going making apple chips and their is no room to even make a sandwich on the counter with all the cans of applesauce and pie filling. The end is near, I hope. Then I’ll be canning pumpkin. 4. Prep something. I finally got Brian
Continue readingHarvest, My First Farm Meal, & Pictures!
Okay since my memory card is full I think this is going to be picture week around here. I tend to snap pics with the intent to share and then never quite get there. But first – guess what!!? We harvested our very first soybeans on the new farm! We had 30 acres of them and they went 61 bushels to the acre. For those who aren’t familiar with farm terms: 1 bushel = 60 pounds 61 bushels to the acre is a very good yield, we haven’t heard any higher in the area so far, but there are lots of soys left to come off. I can’t help but think of the part in Omnivore’s Dilemma about yields increasing astronomically in the past 100 years. I am breathing a big sigh of relief because the payment from them will cover about 1/2 of our mortgage this year. If all goes well with the corn we should be just fine. So Saturday since Brian and the guys were working on our fields I felt obligated to make dinner for them. Normally the senior farmer’s wife provides meals for everyone who helps in the field. These meals range from ordering pizza
Continue readingGreening Your Dishwasher
So a little more than a year after moving in and rearranging our kitchen to make room for a dishwasher, it is finally up & running. And I sure am loving it. I have lived without a dishwasher for most of the past 4 years and I really thought that maybe I wouldn’t use it much once I had one – WRONG! With all the baking I do now I still have quite a few things to hand wash but it is very nice to just put the rest of the dishes right in there and have it all done for me. However, I was a little worried about how environmentally friendly this was going to be so I thought I’d do a little research. Please see the links to my sources thoroughout. Apparently, if your dishwasher is more than 10 years old it is worth investing in a new one. The energy cost of running such an old machine is prohibitive. One article I read mentioned possibly donating an old machine. In my opinion it would be much better to call someone who will cut it up for scrap and find uses for the motors, fans, etc. Our dishwasher
Continue readingBreaking Bread
Unfortunately I’m not referring to socializing or dining when I say “breaking bread”. I’ve finally turned out two good batches of homemade bread and plan to stop buying the store bought stuff all together. There are a few problems though. First, my hubby noted that the bread, although soft, is very crumbly and therefore is hard to eat while driving or even while sitting and reading a book as I like to do on my lunch break. We both end up with crumbs all over the place.Second, we tried to use this bread in place of a hot dog bun, which we usually do with store bought bread. I’ve found buns usually go stale before we use them. This bread just broke right in half instead of folding nicely around the hot dog. Now I’m sure I could come up with a recipe for homemade hot dog buns but unless they freeze well, we would never use them in time. The final problem, again related to the bread’s form, was found this morning when I pulled a couple pieces out of the bread bag I had reused. They broke in half just from that. What a mess!As I said, this
Continue readingI’m Back! I’m Back!!!
Yay! Although I have been actively lurking (if that makes any sense) I haven’t been ready to jump back in to blogging until now! Things were so crazy all summer planning the wedding and then playing catch up. I started making a list everyday of 3 or 4 things I wanted to get done that day and updating here finally made the list. I spent most of the time making the new banner at the top and updating the sidebar but I just wanted to post quickly and let everyone know that I’m back!! Look for a more compelling post soon.
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