How to Dumpster Dive in One Easy Lesson....

Ok...I admit it. I like to dumpster dive. My hubby and I really get into it. Now....just to set the record straight, I don't actually GET IN the dumpster....that's what I have my DH for. In fact, on our first anniversary, we were all dressed up and we drove through a new neighborhood of mansions. I'd say "Mini Mansions" but there was nothing mini about any of them.
There was some pretty usable pieces of wood in the dumpsters so we proceeded to check them out. We hit the jackpot. While the wood was not usable for us, we DID find some pretty incredible ROCKS in the dumpster. We spent the next 15 minutes or so digging them out....with Roger inside the dumpster (With his nice navy blue suit on!) and me outside, making trips to load our tiny car with someone else's "trash rocks." We made QUITE a nice flower bed out of those rocks.......

We get all kinds of things from other people's trash. One time we got an entire wicker set with four chairs and a table...there was nothing wrong with them! We got a beautiful lamp shade (stained glass....pretty old!) and a huge mirror other times.

Lately, we have been looking through Costco for some really nice thrown away items. We got all the cardboard for the bottom of our raised garden beds by going through the trash. Israel has been with us for all of these foragings. We are teaching this little boy well....

However, my all time FAVORITE thing to dumpster dive for in Costco are the nice plastic containers they throw away after giving people samples. (Animal crackers, candy, etc. usually come in these handy dandy containers.)  I take them home, sanitize them, and fill them with things that usually clutter up the inside of my cabinets. I have made cute little "hats" to cover the lids and line them up on the top of my cabinets near the ceiling. Usually they look pretty cute. Right now, they need to be straightened.....

So anyway, my whole point of telling you all this stuff was to tell you about Israel's reaction to his learning to "Dumpster Dive." When I notice that they are giving samples away from something that had come in a nice plastic container, I say that we need to check the trash. Last Saturday, after his soccer game (which he played with MUCH enthusiasm!!) we once again went to Costco.  He RUSHED over to the trash container, peered over the edge and with a huge grin on his face, retrieved a very nice plastic container for me. He ran back to our shopping cart with the smile plastered on his face from ear to ear....and just to "save face", he announced to me...

"Gosh Mom!! You sure are EMBARRASSING!"

A LITTLE BIT OF QUIET TIME (and a little bit of chicken zombies)

I was quietly working in the garden yesterday when Israel sweetly asked, "Hey Mom....do you want me to help you pick the beans?"
"No, that's ok....sometimes I just like to work alone and think."
"Ohhh....are you MAD?" he worried.
"Nope." I said, "Sometimes I just like to think...and I like to have some quiet time. But thank you anyway." I smiled.
"Ok...you just want some quiet time?"
"Yep."
"And just some time to yourself?"
"Yep."
"Oh...Hey Mom?" he started again. "Can we go to my big brother Aaron's house 'cause I have never been there."
"Now Israel....that just isn't the truth. You have been there a lot of times." I scolded.
"Oh. Well, I was teasing." he excused himself.
I looked up from my "quiet" task. "Do you know that sometimes teasing can sound like a fib? Do you know about the Ten Commandments?"
"Yep! That's when the Apostle Paul went up to the mountain and God wrote the Ten Commandments."
"Well..." I corrected. "That was Moses."
"Oh yeah....Paul was the one who couldn't go to the Promised Land."
"Nope, that was Moses, too." I said, throwing another handful of beans into the basket.
"Oh...Hey Mom....Do you know that our chickens are Zombies and I'm shooting them?" He changed the subject.
The chickens were running loose in the yard and I quickly glanced around and saw that he had an empty Nerf gun in his hand. I was relieved when I realized that the gun has NEVER had any "bullets" since we had just purchased it from Goodwill.
"WOW! Chicken Zombies!" I laughed.
"Hey Mom? Are you sure you don't need some help? I hate for you to be working all ALONE!"
"Nope," I sighed. "SOMETIMES being alone is kinda nice...."
At that point, Israel's G.I.Joe...who..."in this episode" was playing the part of Indiana Jones, started "singing" to  an unknown and unseen love interest (possibly the zombie chickens?) "HEY BABY....BABY, HEY BABY...BABY...."
"HEY MOM?" Israel, not Indiana Jones, asked.
"Yep?"
"Did you know that Moses spent 40 days on the mountain and when he came down he wanted to kill all the people because of the idol and then he broke all the Ten Commandments?"
"Wwwell....he broke the stone tablet that the Commandments were written on." I explained.
"Yeah....that's why he couldn't go to the Promised Land, 'cause he broke the Ten Commandments."
"No..." I started to explain. "It was because he HIT the big rock God was going to have water come from. God had told him to just speak to the rock."
He looked at the stick he held in his OTHER hand...the one without G.I.Joe/Indiana Jones.
"Oooohhh....HEY MOM?"
"Yep?" I said once more.
"Where did he sleep?" Israel wondered.
"Wwwhat?" At this point I was getting a bit confused.
"When Paul....I mean MOSES was on the mountain for 40 days....where did he sleep?"
"I don't know...." I started hesitatingly..."I don't think the Bible says. Maybe God made him not have to sleep. After all, he was WITH God. God is pretty miraculous!!"
Another question...."What does Miraculous mean? Amazing?"
"It means that God can do anything...He can work miracles."
"Oh." At this point, he, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones' friends, the big stick AND the zombie gun jumped down from the seat near the garden and ran to the picnic table where the fight between good and evil continued.
"Where's your daddy?" I wondered....
"Ummm...ummm...he's ummmm....he's in the house, straightening the clothes....and making them HOT."
"That's unusual...I wonder exactly what THAT means.." I thought to myself. I had several scenarios run through my head before I realized what Israel must have meant.
"Is he IRONING his clothes for church?" I deduced.
"YES!!!" Israel grinned. "THAT'S IT!"
I was done picking beans. My "quiet time" was over for the day.
"Israel?" I called.
"Yes, Mom?"
"Are the chickens still zombies?" I feigned fear.
"No...I shot them and made them not zombies anymore."
"Oh good." I said, as I opened the garden gate.
"But don't let one of them peck you....'cause if you do, you're in TROUBLE!"
Evidently they still had a LITTLE bit of zombiness left.

What's In the Canner?

These days are getting busier and busier with the garden produce coming in! I'm planning to can green beans today. It is amazing that  I pick and pick and pick green beans and then snap them ALL....but I never have as much as I think I do to fill a canner! I think that our green beans must be just about the most expensive green beans in the world...IF you count the hours that I have put into them! They had better taste GREAT!! I think that part of the reason it is taking me a long time is that I have stringed beans instead of stringless. However, they are producing way more than the stringless bed is producing and I am grateful for what God is providing. I am sure I didn't appreciate the hard work my Mom did all the time I was growing up as she was canning so much food for her less appreciative family. I certainly didn't make it easy for her when she told me to help with the green beans!!
After I get the green beans in the canner, I am planning to can some more tomatoes. The jars are in our dishwasher now. I went out to the mini barn to get out some more jars and I find that a little mousy or two have visited them....yuck. So I scrubbed them and am now disinfecting them further in the dishwasher. I don't know WHY I thought it was necessary to share that with you.....but I did!!

Becca started her homeschool classes this week at the big church her classes are held. She is a junior in high school this year AND she is also getting college credit for what she is taking! So far she loves it and is also taking a Photography class that she is really going to enjoy.

Israel is still homeschooled as well and is doing a good job, especially in Math. He still struggles with Reading but I keep telling him that he has only learned the English language 3 years ago and had gone from home to home until he finally got to us, his forever home. He is about a year behind in Reading. But since he is at home learning, it doesn't really matter, does it? He had SEVERE lead poisoning in Africa and it may have affected his attention a little bit. He should have been really been disabled with the conditions in which he lived but as always, God is good and protected His Israel.

We have been telling Israel about the story of Joseph in the Old Testament and that at one point he told his brothers that they meant what they did to him for evil but God meant it for good. So we have paralleled it with his life. God meant for all the bad things that happened to him for good. It wasn't easy to see that but it has worked out for good. Now every time I have something unfortunate happen to me or us, Israel says to me, "God meant it for good."
Soooo....for instance,  we were driving home from an exhausting camping trip/wedding where we were making the wedding cake and the outside wedding was interrupted by a HUGE storm.. I lost my cellphone IN THE STORM. As we were heading home on a Sunday evening, the camper we were pulling had a flat tire and of course, we had no spare....God meant it for good? Of course He did!!  I don't know God's Mind but He had a reason for that to happen to us. Maybe He was saving us from an accident that would have happened if we were not delayed. Maybe He was teaching us to be better prepared the next time. Maybe He wanted me to be able to spend time with my adult nephews, sister, and brother in law who "happened" to come along at that time.  Maybe THEY needed to spend time with us....????

That was all for free....I don't know why I wrote that but now that I have, you're stuck with it.

I have had to get rid of four of my "chickens"....who turned out to be very good crowers. I gave two of them to a cousin and her neighbor and then I found on Craig's List a lady who wanted some for her property. I drove about an hour and 1/2 to deliver them but not before one of those feisty roosters grabbed hold of my arm and would not let go. I thought I was literally going to kill him before he released his nasty and sharp beak.That rooster is about the size of a young turkey. He is huge!!  I have a lovely bruise. (I'm trying to figure out how God meant it for good....but I haven't quite got an answer yet. I guess I don't need to know, right? Maybe He was telling me to wear gloves and long sleeves when handling a "honked off " rooster.....) Anyway, I drove to the area where my son is a police officer and truly enjoyed seeing our old town/hills again. I think I wouldn't mind moving back in a few years. Give me a little cabin in the woods anyday, right??

My green beans and 'maters are calling me and I am blessed to be planning to babysit two of my grandsons tonight so I have a lot to get done today! Blessings to you!!
Beth

Time to Catch Up

Wow. I had no idea that it has been since May that I have posted anything. My days are incredibly full, it seems....just like everyone's! My garden is doing beautifully and I have been busy canning and dehydrating produce that the Lord has been good to give us.

My chickens are betting big! However, the six expensive and beautiful hens I purchased at the end of April are a story in themselves. I have been babying these hens and they have been following me around all over the place. I've given them good food and all along I was excitedly thinking about the good eggs they would all lay. However, it is difficult....if not impossible....to get eggs from roosters. Yep! Believe it or not, Roosters are NOT good layers. Five of my "hens" started crowing. I keep telling them if they just put their little bird brained mind to it, they could do it!!!! But they refuse and instead, most of them try to peck me. That's gratitude for you.

I have given two of my beautiful "hens" away....they are happily married now to other chickens.

I have one favorite rooster in with my little hens....I am beginning to fear that one of my baby hens may turn on me and become a rooster as well. Turncoat.....
The other two roosters are just beautiful but they are being kept away from the rest of the flock. I don't need to see anymore fights between the roosters! They are looking for new homes but I don't think they are trying very hard....

On a very sad and serious note, the terrible church bus accident was in our city. We live in the country but the accident site is on my husband's way to work. The church that the bus was from is amazing and if I ever decide to put our little Israel into school instead of homeschooling him, that is my first choice....they have a good Christian school. We have extended family members who attend there and I have often wanted to attend there myself. I am amazed at the testimony the pastor and his wife, and his late daughter in law's parents had at their press conference. Our local news channel 8 was equally amazing as they covered it. They talked about faith and Jesus, etc. It is a horrible thing to happen but the Lord is getting a lot of glory through this and if people can come to faith through it, it is a good thing. Our little Israel always tells me "God meant it for good...." anytime something bad happens. Out of the mouth of babes....
I feel so sorry for the family who lost their wife/mother. She had five children and was on the trip to be with her Down's Syndrome child while at camp. Very sad....such a hole left where she was......

Back on fun topics....I have tomatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini, and yellow squash in the canner right now. I think I will use it for vegetable soup this fall or winter. I have never canned that before but I think it will be good! A few days ago I canned salsa and also some green beans. I have figured out that I won't have enough to can for our entire winter's worth of vegetables, but I can make a dent in our budget this way. Hopefully next year I can plant even more. I should have enough tomatoes or tomato juice for the winter though, my 'maters are growing like crazy!!

Well, blessings to you!
Beth

Gardening, Canning, and the Chicken Whisperer

The raised bed garden has been growing very well on our little "homestead"....can you actually call our little place a Homestead since it is a little less than an acre? Well, it's what God has graciously given us and I LOVE IT!! Our house is teeny compared to what we used to have when we thought we had to have "more." (about 2000 square feet smaller...)
But our yard is wonderful and backs up to a gorgeous woods. Just to the east of the woods is a huge farm field and across the road from us is more farmland. It is lovely and we have beautiful mature trees!!

I have built and filled 8 raised beds and they are pretty full of growing things. I have around 30 tomato plants and more to plant yet. I had started some from seeds and they are very slow growing...so hopefully I can plant them somewhere once they take off and we can still have some wonderful tomatoes in the fall.

I planted beans, beans, and more beans. I have 3 4X8 beds full of them!  I think I have....don't start laughing...around 860 bean plants. I'm gonna be in trouble in the summer. I think I MIGHT need some more canning jars.....square foot gardening MIGHT be the death of me!! Haha...Seriously.

We also have onions, rhubarb, lots of peppers, yellow squash, spinach, cucumbers, and a lot of herbs. I may have bitten off more than I can chew this year....since it is our first year for this. Well, I can always share.

Speaking of canning, I have canned more chicken breast. It is sooo easy! I buy it when it's on sale and then just can it. It is way more convenient than freezing and doesn't take up our limited freezer space. We have a big freezer in the garage but the electricity isn't sufficient to run the freezer. Hopefully we can get that taken care of soon! Harvesting would be a lot simpler IF I had the freezer space. Fresh then frozen green beans would be nice as well as having a lot, (and by a lot I mean a LOT) of beans canned.

Our little chickens are really growing up! We have six of them that are about 11 weeks old...one or two might be a rooster. OR we have a pullet that is really confused. We had to move them back to the back of our property in their runs. Originally we had them close to the house but we decided that we would just admire them from a bit farther away.....yeah, you get the picture. I might end up planting more garden in the area...after all, it is now already fertilized. Yuck.

Our other six chickens that I bought as tiny little chicks are getting big too! They're probably about 5 or 6 weeks old. They are pretty tame.

I've been letting them all out to roam around our yard. I have to let them out in two different groups because the bigger ones bully the tiny ones. Sibling rivalry.
If I walk past the group to go to the house or the garden or wherever, I turn around and see all those little chickens following me. I'M NOT EVEN WEARING A CHICKEN SUIT! If I plop down in the yard, pretty soon, I have a group of chickens around me. So, instead of being called the Mother Hen, I prefer to call myself the Chicken Whisperer. That's a little bit more up to date...kinda. Or I could be the Pied Piper of Chickens....

One of my poor little chickens, a Plymouth Black Barred, had a nasty run in with the bad black puppy. "Annie", the black lab mix is doing very well after her near death experience just after we got her. Evidently, she wanted to share the near death experience with one of the chickens.

It was really hot here the other day and I had been working in the garden. I decided to go in an cool off a little bit. So I let Annie off her chain and we started to go in when Annie noticed that we had left the gate to the chicken run open!! Before I knew it, she was in the little house and had a squawking terrified chicken in her mouth. Feathers were everywhere. It was awful. I had no idea that this chubby mommy/grammy could run as fast as I did but I got there just in time.  The poor chicken is ok....a little "plucked" but she is just fine. Whew!! Bad Annie...she's so cute!! She knows she did a bad thing but I don't think she really has a repentant heart yet... Have you ever seen a chicken pant before?? She just stood in the corner of the house and panted...poor little dumb chicken....Oh, wait, maybe that was me.....

Sunday afternoon we went to a relative's house to celebrate her high school graduation. The Mom also gave me some tips about graduating from homeschooling...something we will be facing in a few years. Anyway, we stayed quite a while and visited with them and all their farm critters. When we were about to leave, we were given a bunch of crackers and bread to give to our chickens. (The chickens loved it, by the way...) The crackers had been displayed circling the chicken salad so they were not able to be kept. They asked if we wanted to give the chicken salad to them, too....but I thought that was a little bit warped.....and passed on the offer. Cannibalism is not a pretty thing.

Well, that's the update. As soon as I get the area around my little garden mowed again I will try to take some pictures to post!

Have a wonderful day....
Blessings,
Beth

Trying Times....

Good Grief, it has been a rough few weeks around here. God is still Good and looks out for us but we have had some trials come our way lately!
(Some of this may make you laugh....so bear with me.....)

A few weeks ago, I decided NOT to share a "roundabout" with another car and ended up denting my precious "Denim"...my new to me Ford Flex....I WAS there first, after all, and I preferred using BOTH lanes!!

A week ago, Roger (a.k.a. precious Hubby...) decided to become sidetracked and disregard a red traffic light, thus rendering his little car and the unfortunate recipient of his accidental blunder, undrivable...(I don't think that's a word?? Spellcheck doesn't like it....) Roger's car is totaled.

That gave Roger a broken hand and a torn muscle in his hand and lots of discomfort. We spent most of Wednesday afternoon and evening in the ER.

Friday Roger became violently ill....he was shaking so hard that I thought he was having a seizure. We assumed it was just the horrible stomach flu going around....thus I avoided him like the plague as soon as I could.....(I know....that wasn't very nice and I DID bath his poor little head with a cold cloth and emptied what needed to be emptied...if you know what I mean....but then I escaped into another room......SO I'M NOT FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE!!!)

Saturday was much the same and since my dear older sister had asked me out for lunch for my big birthday (turning 30 is rough! I'm a liar, too....)....I happily took her up on the offer...a.k.a....fled the scene......I really thought it was the flu!! Stop being so judgmental, ok????

Sunday morning, very early, Dear One woke me up and told me that he thinks he needs to go to the E.R.....he has the symptoms of cellulitis which has afflicted him several times in the past, always making him go to the hospital. Sooo....as I felt incredibly guilty, I took him to the hospital and they prescribed meds and I took him home.

Today, Wednesday, he got feeling worse and I suggested I take him to the hospital right away...so we did.
He is now in the hospital and I have just come home.

I came home to an incredibly incredibly incredibly stinking house. (This is the funny part....)

We have never had baby chickens live in our kitchen before, so I thought that the somewhat nasty odor was just the little chicks and their "residue"....although I have been cleaning the cage out daily.
The girls have had two or three candles burning to make the place bearable and the chicks and the cage were outside!!
STILL....stinky stinky, stinky!!!!!
Something had to be wrong.
Then it dawned on me that while all this other crazy stuff was going on in our lives this week, I had needed to can some ground beef and onions that I had bought on superduper sale! I had no room in our freezer so I had to can it. I had 15 pounds of it....So I did that Sunday afternoon. All that was good except that one jar exploded when it was being processed. I washed all the jars and put them away and thought I had done a pretty good job! Someone else.....I have no idea which of the five other people in this house did this.....removed my canner from the stove, replaced the lid....and I thought that that nice wonderful person had cleaned the canner out!! OH BUT I WAS MISTAKEN.......

You can imagine the rest.
Are you laughing? I am, because laughing is better than crying...and we are all fine and comfortable, usually happy, and alive. We are blessed. As soon as my hubby gets home, we will be even better.

I am writing this because I spoke to my ex husband today...who has also been in the hospital .  I called him because I am kind of a nice person sometimes....and I told him I hoped he felt better, etc....he knew what had been happening with us and I said, "Oh, it's ok, it could be worse!"
He said, "But it could be alot better, too."
And I said, "But we are fine, we are blessed, we could have lots more problems than we do and I prefer to look at it in this way."
And HE SAID, "AAALLRIGHT............." in kind of a nasty tone....(yes, I know, I didn't need to say that but sometimes....................)

It DOES make a big difference how you look at things! I think having our little Israel in our lives opens our eyes to just exactly what our lives COULD be like! He was starving....and now God has blessed him AND us.

So, there you go. More information than you really wanted to know but somehow I just wanted to say it and to praise our Savior through it....even though I can be a catty, selfish person from time to time...our Savior still loves and provides for us!

Blessings....I hope your week goes better than ours has!!
Beth

Busy Days and Chickens!

Wow....central Indiana, particularly the county in which I live, received a tremendous amount of rain yesterday, last night and into this morning. The county road in front of us was completely flooded and our front yard, up to and surrounding our house, was also flooded. It was up to knee height in some areas. I'm not sure if the water got into the cars or not, the water was up to the hub cabs at about 2 a.m. when I remembered that we keep one of our doggies in the crate in the garage. I ran out there barefooted (because I couldn't find my rainboots at 2 a.m....) and rescued poor little Bella who was standing in about 2 inches of very cold water. She is a pug/beagle mix. She spent the night very happily tucked into her crate in our living room close to Annie puppy (who has never had a sleep over before!) and an irritated Precious (over 15 years old....and not in the mood for a sleep over....). OH....she's a dog, not a kid.

We didn't get any water in our house, thank the Lord, but we were really worried about the girls' bedroom that used to be the attached garage. Our neighbors got a few inches in their house/converted attached garage.

The rainwater is slowly subsiding but the public schools here have closed for the day. Unfortunately for Israel and Becca, no such luck for our homeschool academy....

Sooo....I am baking cupcakes for the "end of the homeschool co-op" school year celebration tonight (which I can't go to because I am hosting a wedding shower for my niece Heidi.) I'm also making cupcakes for the shower.

But first, before the shower and celebration night, we are going to go get our chickens!! They will be black and white....but I can't remember the exact name of them. I will have to write it down from the breeder so that I can tell you what they are.....Anyway, we are getting six, I think, to start with. We are keeping them for pets and for eggs! I can't wait!! All of my adult life (and it has been a fairly long time at this point....especially with a very big birthday coming up on Monday.......ahem......old age.....) and I just can't wait to get them! They are about 7 weeks old.

So, busy busy day today and I need to go get things done!

Blessings,
Beth Bower
p.s.....does anyone have an ark???? But perhaps the rain has stopped for the day???