Category Archives: Providing

I don’t provide monetarily for my family, but I have found many ways to ease the burden on my husband. Among those are food storage, gardening, and budgeting.

Combating Boredom

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BoredIn an effort to get out of debt, we have given up on eating out, buying new clothes (unless absolutely needed to protect from the elements), and shopping in general. In doing this, we realized that these are the things we do when we are bored. We spend money when we are bored. So, together, my husband and I came up with a long list of things to do if we are bored. This list could, also, apply to anybody trying to break a bad habit they developed out of boredom, such as boredom eating or face-stalking. If anything on this list doesn’t help you achieve your goal, simply cross it off. There are plenty of other things to do. Feel free to add any ideas you can come up with to combat boredom in the comments below.

  1. Go to the temple.
  2. Do the dishes.
  3. Read a book.
  4. Do a puzzle.
  5. Play a board/card game.
  6. Go to Trafalga. (with the passes we already bought)
  7. Go on a hike.
  8. Organize a room.
  9. Sweep the floor.
  10. Build electronics.
  11. Sew a dress.
  12. Play the piano.
  13. Dust out a computer.
  14. Fly a kite.
  15. Go for a walk.
  16. Ride a bike.
  17. Mow the lawn.
  18. Take a nap.
  19. Watch a movie. (instead of TV, because it ends and you can get on with your life)
  20. Prepare meals for a week.
  21. Read to kids.
  22. Build with blocks.
  23. Play house.
  24. Crochet a scarf.
  25. Plant seeds.
  26. Dust a room.
  27. Vacuum a room.
  28. Weed the garden.
  29. Play at the park.
  30. Cross stitch.
  31. Play a video game.
  32. Do charity work.
  33. Go to the library. (but don’t be late returning books)
  34. Go to bed.
  35. Make play dough.
  36. Paint/color with kids.
  37. Throw stuff away.
  38. Start a conversation on the ham radio.
  39. Write a book.
  40. Read scriptures.
  41. Draw scenery.
  42. Play the guitar.
  43. Practice Spanish. (or any language you want to learn)
  44. Visit friends and family.
  45. Make new friends.
  46. Learn what all the camera settings do.
  47. Pick up a new skill.
  48. Sing a song.
  49. Write a poem.
  50. Call a friend.
  51. Write a letter.
  52. Go to a museum. (the free kind)
  53. Build a paper airplane.
  54. Make paper snowflakes.
  55. Make a kite.
  56. Jump rope.
  57. Organize digital pictures.
  58. Make a digital scrapbook.
  59. Fix garbage disposal. (or whatever part of your house is breaking down)
  60. Write in journal.
  61. Write music.
  62. Do yoga.
  63. Do zumba.
  64. Learn to run.
  65. Play soccer.
  66. Start a quilt.
  67. Go stargazing.
  68. Make dessert.
  69. Build a fort.
  70. Do laundry.
  71. Make cardboard stuff.
  72. Give a massage. (you might get one in return)
  73. Remove slats from blinds.
  74. Dance to music.
  75. Give yourself a manicure.
  76. Give yourself a pedicure.
  77. Organize closets.
  78. Organize bookshelves.

Complimentary Breakfast

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Breakfast this morning was courtesy of our chickens and our garden.
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Our Buff Orpington started laying this last week.
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We gathered six tiny eggs from her, and decided that might be enough to feed all of us, so we cooked them up this morning.
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Then we got our first Hamson tomato, and diced it to add to the eggs. I scrambled the eggs, added a little salt and pepper, and then added the tomatoes. The juice from the tomatoes made the eggs cook for longer, but, also, kept them moist.
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The scrambled eggs with tomatoes were delicious. We ate every bit of it.

Sweet Pea Tomato Plant

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Sweet Pea TomatoesIf you recall, back in May, I wrote a post about the ten different kinds of tomatoes plants that we planted this year. I was very worried that I would get overwhelmed by so many plants, but so far by pruning and trailing them, they haven’t gotten out of hand, and I have a lot of green tomatoes waiting to ripen up.

The first tomatoes to ripen come from my Sweet Pea. So many people get confused when I talk about this plant. It is not a pea plant; it is a tomato plant that produces tomatoes the size of a pea. The plant is very bushy, having seven main stems, even with excessive pruning. I prune this plant the most out of all my tomato plants. The plant is only about two feet tall. I have not pinched off the top yet, so I am curious to see if it will get any taller, but to already be focusing its energy on ripening tomatoes, I don’t think it will grow much taller.IMAG0700

I planted this in a pot, which might contribute to its small size, but it has thrived in the confined space, and remained movable if needed. As more and more fruit has grown, it has become necessary to support some of the main stems with bamboo rods. The tomatoes are fun to snack on and the go very well in a salad.

My Mini Rose Bush

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IMAG0694I have loved mini rose bushes since I was a little girl. My mom has two of them in her yard. Last year I bought two of them, and never managed to put them in the ground. They died over the winter. So, this year, I saw a mini rose bush on Pro Flowers.com, and strongly hinted to Michael that I would love to have one. It was delivered just in time for Mother’s Day, and I actually kept it alive this time. I planted it in my front yard, too late to see all the beautiful blooms, I thought. Today, while inspecting my garden, I discovered a beautiful tiny rose on it! I am so happy that it is thriving, and I can’t wait to see it grow over the years, and watch the tiny roses every year.

Why is Red Cabbage Called Red Cabbage?

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IMAG0697This is a totally awesome answer. Red cabbage is known for its ability to indicate different pH levels. My sister-in-law and I discovered this while naturally dying Easter eggs, and my sister did an elementary school science fair project about it, and won! Basically it comes down to this, red cabbage, when in an alkaline (basic) solution turns blue, but when it is in an acidic solution, it turns purple and can even go as far as red.

Different soils have different pH levels. It’s why we planted our blue berries in a pot with only Mel’s Mix, which is more acidic than alkaline, while our native soil is very alkaline and would have produced terrible blue berries. The different soils around the world, and their pH levels, effect the color a red cabbage grows. In very acidic soil, a red cabbage is actually red; in neutral soil, a red cabbage is purple, and in alkaline soil, a red cabbage can go as far as turning green.

Red Cabbage

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IMAG0698My red cabbage is finally ready to pick. I planted it as a start all the way back at the beginning of April. It survived frost after frost and heat wave after heat wave (yeah, that’s Utah for you), and now I finally get to devour it. This was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever grown. It’s taken such a long time to grow that I’ve never had to worry about it going to seed, and I just watered it everyday to get it to grow. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to cook with it, possibly a coleslaw, but I’ll be scouring Pinterest to find exactly what I want.

Eggplant Blossoms

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IMAG0707I am not a fan of eggplant. I have tried many times to find a recipe that I like it in, and every time I receive the confirmation that I do not like eggplant. Even still, I planted it in my garden this year. I have heard and read many times that it is a beautiful plant, so when given two for free, I decided that at the very least, I would get the joy of seeing what an eggplant plant looks like. Today, while inspecting my garden, I was graced with the beauty of the eggplant blossoms. They are the most beautiful purple color I have ever seen, and it’s almost a shame that they will eventually turn into eggplants, but hopefully I will be able to find a recipe that I like or someone that will take them all off my hands.

Pruning Tomatoes

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I wanted to post this yesterday, but then I realized that I hadn’t introduced my tomatoes, and I definitely wanted to do that, so I saved this until today. Our tomatoes are about 1-1 1/2 feet tall right now, so I decided to prune them a little. It’s really easy to do, and I’m glad that I’m starting them this young, because the “wound” that is created is small enough to not cause problems, and the suckers are really easy to pick.

SuckersPruning is definitely scary the first year around, but if you educate yourself and then trust that you won’t pick off good, strong, fruit bearing stems, it’s not so bad. Some people like to prune their tomatoes to only one main stem, and others like to have a few main stems. It really is up to you. Just know that pruning creates bigger, stronger, tastier tomatoes, so even just a little to start with will be beneficial.

I’m not going to go into the details of how to prune, because this You Tube video does way better than I ever could. Plus, the accent is fun to listen to. I just wanted to get fellow gardeners thinking about it.

Tomato Plants!

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Our tomato plants have been in the ground for almost two weeks now, because the weather was unusually warm for this time of year. Even with the recent cold spell just last week, it was still warm enough that none of our plants needed covering, particularly our tender tomato plants. While I was only planning on eight tomato plants this year, which is way more than enough for our little family, my supplier, who just lives down the street, was very generous and provided us with two extras for free. Since I don’t have room for them in my yard yet, they are in the biggest pots I can spare until we find space for them.

Sweet Pea Opalka

To make space for the eight that are actually in the ground, my amazing husband pulled up all the grass three feet out from the house along the West wall. It was no small task to be sure, but I am so grateful he did it, because it looks amazing, and is a perfect spot for growing tomatoes. We choose the West wall, because it gets tons of sun in the afternoon and evening. Tomatoes need warm roots and plenty of sun for photosynthesis.

West Wall

So, let me introduce you to our tomato plants. First, we have a Sun Sugar and a Golden Rave. The Sun Sugar is a cherry tomato that tastes like candy in tomato form. The Golden Rave is a paste tomato, which means it as more flesh than juice. Like the name says, it’s going to be a golden color, and it will be the shape of a Roma.

Sun Sugar and Golden Rave

Next in line, we have a Paul Robison, which is a black tomato, and a Monica, which is another paste tomato and essentially a Roma.

Paul Robison and Monica

Then we have a Hamson. I am super excited about this one, because it was designed specifically to do well in Utah. It can be whole packed, which means canned as a whole tomato, instead of sliced or diced. The Caspian Pink is a large Russian tomato that is pink!

Hamson and Caspian Pink

And, finally, we have a Black Krim, another black tomato, and another Sun Sugar. We have been called crazy for having two Sun Sugars, because one plant produces a lot, but I now they will all be eaten.

Black Krim and Sun Sugar

The tomatoes in pots are a Sweet Pea, a tiny cherry tomato, and an Opalka, a large paste tomato.

Plant Protection Barriers

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We live very close to a mountain. So close, in fact, that deer wander our neighborhood. It’s a bit of an adrenaline rush to watch deer racing up your street and through the vacant lot at the top. So, on top of bugs and birds, we also have to protect our garden from the deer. They love to eat my tulips. Combine that with having two kids, and I am thoroughly deprived of their beauty. They, also, love to eat strawberry plants! Thankfully the few plants that were nibbled on recovered, but I wasn’t about to chance loosing twelve strawberry plants. So, we built protective barriers to put around our garden boxes. The instructions that we followed came from The New Square Foot Gardening book, and proved to be very simple and very light. We can move the barriers whenever we need to access the plants, and we can water right through them so that we aren’t constantly moving them.

Making Covers more zip ties

 

To make them, we used 1″x2″x8′ boards, cut down to the sizes we needed, 1 1/2″ screws, 2′ wide chicken wire and 4′ wide chicken wire, a staple gun, and zip ties. For the strawberries, we needed a 2’x4′ cover, so we cut the boards accordingly and screwed them together. Then we stapled a 4’x4′ piece of chicken wire on one of the 4′ sides, and stapled a 2’x 8′ piece around the other three sides. We folded the 4’x4′ piece in half to form the top of the enclosure, and then zip tied all the edges together. Leah enjoyed handing us the zip ties, sometimes one at a time, and sometimes all at once.

zip ties Baby Trap

We cut off the extra part of the zip ties, so they wouldn’t get in the way when gardening, and for aesthetics. And, we discovered that these make great baby traps. Even the trapped enjoyed playing in it.

Adorable Cutie