What's up?

Radish seedlings, the first of the summer garden!




The garden. Go to flickr for details.



What's growing...
pears

raspberries

peaches

irises

strawberries

Promises

The problem with having so much to blog about is I'm too busy to actually blog about it.

I know I've been scarce lately. It started at the end of April when Frugaldad went to Singapore for 12 days. Since I'm not crazy enough to announce to the internet when my husband is out of the country, I kept my mouth shut. There were no major medical emergencies (one of the girls kicked the other in the mouth the last time he was gone and I almost had to make an emergency trip to the dentist) and no major catastrophes (I even started two irrigation turns all by myself), but by the end of his trip I was really tired of being the only responsible adult around here. I was mostly tired of doggie duty.

I have some great pictures of the stuff that is starting to grow in my yard, and I have spent the last couple weeks working in all my spare minutes turning my garden from a weed-infested wasteland into a beautiful plot of seed-planted goodness. I tell you what, it is a crying shame that I didn't take any "before" shots, because it was almost too depressing to even start the job. Thanks to a Mantis, and some carefully placed sprinklers, I was able to get all the weeds out.

I hate to toot my own horn, but this is the first year in seven that I have had my entire garden planted this early in the season. Usually something gets pushed to the bottom of the list and either doesn't get planted until mid-June or doesn't get planted at all. This is also the first year that I did ALL of the work myself. Frugaldad usually helps with at least the bed prep, but between the trip, the illness that plagued him when he got home, and taking Frugalboy on the Father/Son camp out last weekend, he wasn't available. So I did most of the work during the heat of the afternoons because that is when I was home. I got all the weeds out. I raked all the beds smooth. I put hay down on all the pathways (well, I guess Frugalgirl2 helped me a little one morning with the hay) I spread all the mulch (minimal kid help there, too) and I planted all the seeds (I guess the girls helped a little with that, too. But in all honesty, it would have gotten done faster if I had done it myself, so I ought to get extra points for letting them help me.) And in seven years of gardening, for six of those years I have started in either new ground, or rearranged the planting beds enough that it was like starting over. We decided to change the direction of the beds again this year, so I was starting over. Again.

I have worked hard, and I am proud of myself! And I know I will be even gladder in a couple months when I am able to start eating beans and squash.

Tuesday was Frugalgirl2's birthday and she is quite a beautiful ballerina.

Stay tuned for pictures!

Saving time and money

Yesterday I mixed up seven pounds of meatballs. I froze them individually on baking sheets and they'll go in ziploc bags in the freezer to be used as I need them. I used my Bosch mixer with the dough hook to mix them up really quick, and a scoop to portion them out. So basically, in the time it took to make one dinner, I made seven. This will save me time in the future, and also some moo-lah because I won't have to order a pizza or drive through McD's. I just threw them together without a recipe, and they turned out pretty good.



Meatballs
For each pound of ground beef, use one egg, about 1/3 cup of either bread crumbs or oatmeal, a couple tablespoons of dried minced onion, 1/2 tsp salt, and some pepper.

To cook them, I either put them in a baking dish and pour some sort of sauce over them, and bake them at 375. Or, I put them in a skillet, start to brown them, then pour in the sauce, cover, and simmer them until they are done. I use an instant-read thermometer (160 degrees) but it takes around 25-30 minutes total.

For sauce, you can use sweet and sour, barbecue, or tomato. My kids love them almost every way.

Busy hands

I've been busy, lookie, lookie!

I am so pleased with how these shoes turned out! They are actually getting swapped, though, to Stacy.


I made two versions of Katja.


The pattern is actually quite flawed, however. A quick search of a couple knitting forums has confirmed that everyone had the same problem. Basically the garter stitch at the top of the body gapes because of the nature of the stitch gauge. I compensated by weaving elastic through the stitches. There's a couple more pictures of both tanks on flickr. When Frugalbaby wears them, though, it's as a top layer over a shirt. I'm teaching modesty at a young age. No bare shoulders at the Frugal Farm!

I'm also attempting to get back into my household cleaning routine, and attacking little household projects one at a time. Monday I reorganized the laundry room cupboard and today I did some pantry organization. One of these days I might even get to the sewing table.

Make your own yogurt

While I still buy those outrageously expensive individual cups of yogurt on occasion, I almost always have a quart or two of homemade yogurt in the fridge. I use it mostly in fruit smoothies. Some frozen fruit and some yogurt, blended up, makes a delicious and nutritious breakfast drink. It is super easy to make your own yogurt, for a fraction of the cost of store-bought.

Things you will need:
Milk
Saucepan
2 tbsp plain yogurt (with active cultures) per quart of milk
candy or instant-read thermometer
quart jars and lids
small cooler
dish towels



Heat up the milk in the saucepan until it is 180 degrees.



Then move it off the heat and let it cool until it is about 115. Yogurt needs to incubate at 108 degrees, so by the time you get the starter mixed in and the milk poured into the jars, it will be the right temperature. Put your plain yogurt into a bowl. (the picture shows the jar)


Spoon a little of the warm milk in to bring the yogurt's temperature up. Then pour the yogurt mixture into the milk, stir it thoroughly, and pour it into your jar(s).


Put the lid(s) on loosely. Put the jar(s) into the cooler, pack the extra space with dishtowels,


then put the lid on, and let it sit for 5-8 hours. Voila! Homemade yogurt, so little work!




What kinds of milk should you use? Any kind. The higher the fat content, the creamer and richer the yogurt. I recently have been making whole milk yogurt because it makes the smoothies very rich and filling and almost like milkshake. But I also make skim milk yogurt from powdered milk. When making it with powdered milk, I often add extra powder to add extra protein. The advantage of using powdered milk is you don't need to heat it up and cool it. I mix the powder with 120-degree water and proceed as usual.

To flavor your yogurt, stir in some jam, or some vanilla or lemon extract and a little honey or sugar.

Want organic yogurt? Use organic milk. It makes your cost savings even more!

When you get to the end of the jar, save the last 2 tablespoons for your next batch. It's called chain yogurting. You can chain yogurt for a long time before the yogurt won't set up well. If you buy a big container for your starter, you can freeze the excess in ice-cube trays and thaw them when you need fresh starter.

Finally! Off the Needles

I cast on Flirty Skirty so long ago I can't even remember. It was at least two weeks before we left on vacation. Then one afternoon, it was a Tuesday, I had walked the 1/4 mile to the corner to meet the kids' school bus. I brought my knitting with me to knit in the few spare minuted before the bus got there. When the bus pulled up, I carefully set my knitting in the back of the stroller. I didn't have point protectors on my needle tips. Should have, though. Frugalboy got off the bus, shoved his backpack down on top of my stuff, and started pushing the stroller home. Well, when I pulled my knitting out, at least 5 stitches had come off the needles and started unravelling. The lace pattern at the bottom is kind of complicated, with yarnovers and knit-2-togethers and I was very distraught. I didn't have time to sit and fix it for a couple days. I was able to fix all but one column, and on Friday morning I went to my LYS for some help. The lady was able to fix it, hurray! But I was like 4 days behind.

I planned out my trip knitting because I knew I'd have 60 hours in the car. I knew I wouldn't be able to knit the entire time, but honestly, I thought I'd get more done than I did. On the trip, I barely got halfway done with Flirty Skirty and I started a sock on the day I got to the part where I needed lots of light and no bumps to pick up waistband stitches. So even after all that driving time, I did 2 inches of sock ribbing and didn't even finish the project I took with me. Well, this morning I finally finished Flirty Skirty. It's drying now. I'm a little disappointed that it turned out so large. "Didn't you knit a swatch?" you ask. Why yes, I did. And if you measure my gauge on the finished project, it's right on. So it's just big. Whatever, she'll grow.







I took a skirt-knitting break for a couple days last week, though, and knit this up for Erika's baby shower. I love this yarn. It's TLC Cotton Plus. The drape of the fabric is so nice. It's a cotton blend. The burp cloth started as a bib, but I cast on more stitches than I wanted to, and I had recently checked out a book from the library with a blanket pattern that had hearts and stars, so I used the star chart to put the star in the middle. I think it turned out pretty good!




Today I cast on Katja in more Cotton Plus. It is already turning out to be a quick knit.

What I did on my Spring Vacation, Chapter Two

We left our house at 8:22 on Friday morning. Saturday, Sunday, and the following Friday, and Saturday, we also left at 8:22. It seems that it takes us approximately 82 minutes to get ourselves going in the morning! Because we all wake up naturally around 7. The only reason we didn't leave at 8:22 the last morning, was we went to breakfast. But we actually left for breakfast at 8:23.

Riding in a van with 4 kids is quite an adventure! We have a portable DVD player and we strap it up on the ceiling of the van with velcro. It fits perfectly in the storage compartment with a flip-down lid that is there (where a factory-installed DVD player would be). We bought 8 new movies for the trip. I left the seat next to the baby's empty so I could climb back there to sit by her. (If you are a car-seat nazi, quit reading now.) I would take her out and nurse her and cuddle her and then put her back in while she kicked and screamed. (ok, you can start reading again. And don't judge me...it's actually legal to nurse a baby in a moving car in some states, and I don't do it in cities, or when there is traffic, only on the highway)

We drove about 600 miles each day. The first night we slept in Moab, Utah. The next night we slept in Vega, Texas, which is a little before Amarillo. Between the 90 minute stop in Albuquerque to see my sister and the time change into Central time, we just didn't feel like going all the way into Amarillo. Sunday night we arrived in the Houston area around 7:30pm.

Let's talk about climate. Here in Idaho, it's barely spring. This morning I had to remove ice from the chicken's water and I'm afraid we may have lost fruit blossoms. The peas in my garden are barely coming up. In Houston, we just about suffocated from the heavy humid air, and we didn't stop sweating. It was only in the 70s, but my parents keep their thermostat at 78 and we were still accustomed to our house at 67 degrees. Finally on the third day, my mom had the air conditioner people come and do their inspection so she could turn on the air for us. My aunt told me later that she and my uncle felt sorry for us because my parents always keep their house so warm! It was better with the air, but it was still humid.

Monday we took the kids to the park near my parents' house. Can you believe the size of this play structure? I have never seen one so huge. But then again, everything is bigger in Texas.


One of the things I like about Houston is it's always so GREEN! We live in a desert and are lucky to see 12 inches of precipitation in a year, so it's a stark contrast.

That afternoon we went to the arboretum. It's a garden-type place with lots of labelled plants and koi ponds and stuff. Cool place.

A lizard I saw on the pathway



Tuesday morning we drove downtown to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We went to the Cockrell Butterfly Center and to the current Frog exhibit. It was really cool. Here's the pictures we took. If you want descriptions and stuff, go to flickr.




On the way home from downtown we saw this car in front of us. Thought it was strange that they weren't using their own cars for the shuttle service.


Wednesday morning we spent at this place called an antique mall. It's a big warehouse with booths where different dealers sell their stuff. Didn't find anything we couldn't live without. When I was a senior in high school, my mom and I found this set of antique china in a little shop is Groene, Texas. It was a huge set, 100 pieces, and was only $425. I didn't love the pattern, though. It was a pretty plain set, though the flowers were pink roses if I recall correctly. We didn't buy it since we didn't love it, and have regretted it ever since! So I am always on the lookout for a fantastic deal on antique china. I don't have any fancy dishes at all and someday would like some.

Then Wednesday afternoon, we got lucky enough to get a personal tour of a historic farm. The area my parents live in was originally settled by German immigrants and a lot of their land was donated/sold to the school district so lots the schools are named after Germans. My aunt is a docent at the farm and though she usually only gives tours to 4th graders learning Texas history and it's only open to the public one Saturday a month, we got to come and see.



Thursday we drove to Galveston. It is almost a 2-hour drive from where my parents live. My kids had heard that "there is a BEACH by Grandma's house??" so this day was what they had been waiting for. We started the day at Moody Gardens in the Aquarium Pyramid. Now, you all know that I am a tightwad. I love a bargain. And tickets to Moody Gardens are not cheap. I had found coupons for $2 off the adult tickets and the two younger kids were free, but it still cost our family $47 to get in for the day. But it was worth every penny. We don't have anything like this anywhere near us in Idaho. It was such a cool place. We saw all sorts of tropical fish, seals, penguins, sharks, turtles, rays, and starfish, err, sea stars. It was interesting for all the kids, and for the grown-ups, too.

I am not even an amateur photographer and I don't have a steady hand for the no-flash shots, so this one is blurry, but there was a big seal swimming behind them.




In this one, the kids are wet because they had just stuck their hands in the water to feel sea urchins and sea stars (which we were informed by this weird dude that worked there, they are NOT starfish like everyone incorrectly calls them)


After the Aquarium we ate lunch at Benno's. The fish was great. Then we shopped a little on the Strand where we saw a cruise ship in the port. Then we went to the beach.

They aren't the cleanest beaches, but the kids didn't know the difference. They each filled up a plastic cup with shells and played in the surf a little.

Frugalbaby made it a full-body experience.


Right before we were about to go, a big wave knocked Frugalgirl1 down and soaked her to the bone. She didn't even complain!

They really had a good time. Everyone had a bath when we got home and we managed to not get too much sand in the van!

We left to go home the next day. I was so glad we were in Texas during the bluebonnet bloom.



It had been flooding the night before in area of North and East Texas, but luckily we missed it. But boy, did it rain. I spent a lot of that afternoon scanning the horizon for tornadoes. Seriously. There were warnings and watches all through the counties were driving through.


One of the flooded areas we drove by.


And here's one of those you just can't resist.


We ended up driving 750 miles the first day, and about 600 the second, so we got back home in time to retrieve our dog from the boarding kennel, which closed at 6. We got there around 4, and everyone was glad to have the dog back!

All in all, we had a great trip. We put almost 4000 miles on the minivan but hopefully it will be a trip that the kids remember for a long time.