Monday, April 15, 2013

Blog Update


I know I'm not posting here much, but I have been posting items to my Pinterest pages. Be sure to check out the Homeschool Helps and Children's Art sections. I've been posting pictures with links fairly often. My Gardening pins are here.

 We continue to use the same money saving ideas that I've listed throughout this blog. The only new items are an ongoing DIY powder room remodel which I'll update when we finish. 

Both children are still being homeschooled, and loving it.

The only thing that I wish for is money to travel. Otherwise, we have a roof over our heads, food, and love. It's all good. :)

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Concrete and Wood Deck Resurfacer



What a great concept for saving money! I may try this on my concrete floors, if I can apply it over the paint.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Art and Math Coin Counting Fun

Cute idea for learning coins, counting, addition, and even subtraction . Give child a specific number of coins, have them design shapes or things while counting the total. Art and math!  For subtraction, maybe this caterpillar could eat shapes that you've made with coins. Make it fun and imaginative.
Source.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Alternatives to a Grass Lawn


Our backyard has a good number of oak trees, which is wonderful during our hot summers, but means growing and maintaining a grass lawn is quite labor intensive. We gave up watering the lawn years ago, and now there are bald sections due to droughts. I decided to grow something green that would be helpful to the wildlife and be low maintenance. I chose white clover . I put down about a pound of the seed two weeks ago and already, with all the spring rain, it is coming up.

 There is also an "estate lawn" mix - grass and clover that looked interesting: Ecology Lawn Seed- 10# Low Grow- No Mowing

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Free Food: Eat Your Weeds


Source: bhg.com viaAlexandra on Pinterest


Great photo identification slide show for "weeds". Identify them and then find out if they are edible. See here.  See here too.

Weeds have many vitamins and minerals, and they are free for the taking. See here: Five Healthiest Backyard Weeds.

   The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The Longest Sun: American Indian Cultural Studies



Story in Tewa language with subtitles. Tewa is the dying language of Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Restore and Clean Grout Product

Something to try, maybe. Check out the link here.

Slow Cooking Outside

With found curbside logs from downed trees, leaves, twigs, cardboard boxes, and a little charcoal to get it started, I was able to cook an 11 pound turkey and 10 pounds of chicken outside in my cast iron lidded pot. I found it cooked better after I added rocks up around the pot to keep the heat in(not shown in picture). I made this fire pit with chunks of found concrete and an old oven rack. The bottom is lined with pebbles and smaller concrete chunks.

It took many hours, but while it cooked I was able to clean up and compost all those leaves! ; ) The fresh air and sunshine was nice too.

The turkey turned out moist and delicious! If you have a day to do this, it's fun and produces a great result. You can't leave this like a crock pot and come back. The fire and food must be tended and watched the entire time. It certainly makes me appreciate the labor that goes into cooking on an outdoor fire for a family.

A more efficient and environmentally friendly option would be a rocket stove which maximizes combustion requiring very little fuel.This one is portable, but you can build one too with 16 bricks. Rocket stoves burn without smoke which makes them better for maintaining air quality. That's a project for another day.