Two Frog Home

Plant something - Not much happening here in the way of planting.  All inspections have come back good, so it looks like we’ll be moving in a few weeks! 

1. Harvest something - Dandelions and chives that’s it so far, but mint and rhubarb soon.
3. Preserve something - I canned chicken and beef stock from bones I’d been saving in the freezer (I’m keeping a tally on the pantry building page). 
5. Prep something - I’ve been saving newspaper and finding burlap sacks at the coffee roaster to snuff out grass and plan new gardens at our new place.

Cook something New - Nothing new this week, just lots of old standards and using up things we have on hand so as not to have too much excess when it comes time to move.

Manage your reserves - I started a 2008 pantry building tally to keep track of what I have on hand, and I always label and date jars when I’m done canning.

Work on local food systems - I shared some worm compost water with a neighbor, for their strawberry patch.  That’s about it, I’m not doing well on this Independence Days Challenge.

Reduced Waste - Saving the newspapers for mulch means no recycling necessary.

Learned a Skill - Does learning the intricacies of real estate and mortgage processing/procedures count?

PS: It does look like all is good for us on this house deal, as long as the appraisal comes in like we’re expecting.  Posts may be a little light and because of the move I don’t know that I’m going to do as well as I’d planned on this independence days challenge.

We finally heard from the seller’s bank today, we have their approval.  Now we move to the inspection process and hope we find no surprises.  Thanks to everyone who has been sending well wishes and saying prayers!

Note: I’m going to close down the Simple Katie blog that I kept for several years before this blog, but before I do I’m going to bring my favorite posts here.  The following was originally posted on May 1, 2007.

I’ve written before about how much I adored my grandmothers, my grandparents in general. Months ago, my dad sent me a box of old photos. Some of my grandparents when they were first married, some of my aunts and uncles growing up, etc. as well as ones of my sister and I as children. I just started scanning some of them, however. These two photos particularly reminded me so much of the impact my grandparents had on me.

According to my grandmother’s handwriting this photo was taken in 1979, I would have been about 5. I’m a little taller now, I can do dishes without standing on a chair, otherwise not a lot has changed. I still wear an apron when working in the kitchen, though now it’s a real apron not a dish towel. My grandma eventually taught me how to sew my own aprons. I still wear slippers around the house constantly (I have no doubt that the slippers in the photo were very similar to the ones my grandpa wore and I wanted to do everything like he did). Notice the canning jar on the counter to my right, I was being indoctrinated at that young age about the virtues of home canning. Houseplants on the windowsill as well, just this past weekend, I potted up a ton of houseplant starts that had come from cuttings from other houseplants we have. Our home is full of houseplants, again something that was part of my life from a very young age.

This photo was snapped in 1978, I loved playing with my grandma’s fabric scraps and imitating my grandmother in everything. She hung her laundry on a line outside in the summer and had lines strung up in the basement for winter drying. At the ripe old age of 4 I was learning how to do laundry and line dry. Something I do to this day. I still play with fabric scraps too, thanks to my grandma I’ve learned how to turn them into beautiful and warm quilts.

I feel incredibly blessed to have had has this exposure to old-fashioned home keeping, truly what a wonderful thing it’s been for me. I feel blessed that my grandmother’s shared this wisdom and knowledge with me, that they had enough foresight to know this was important stuff and didn’t let modern notions of what is and isn’t necessary color their worlds. How lucky was I that I had these amazing women in my life? I miss them everyday, but I feel their spirits around me when I use the many lessons they taught me as I was growing up.

First let me say thank you to everyone who said prayers and thought good thoughts.   It’s always hard for me to ask for prayers for something so very material when there is so much real need in the world, but I do so much appreciate it.  So for the good news: It looks like we get the house! 

The counter offer had a contingency that the bank had to approve us as buyers.  No one our realtor or the seller’s realtor sees this as a problem because of our pre-approval letters from our lender.  We’ll know 100% for sure on Monday (barring any disasters that may come up during inspection) that we can begin the whole process to close on June 5th.

At first we were shocked, happy but we were starting to talk ourselves out of it, trying to protect ourselves from disappoint, then it hit us and tears of joy flowed.  There’ll be so much to do in the coming weeks, if all goes well, so I’m not planting anything in our garden space here, which is a bit odd, but I’m sure my time will be full in other ways.

Again, thanks everyone.

I hesitate to write this post because I don’t want to jinx anything (I’ve decided that I don’t believe in jinxing, however; I do believe in prayer) and I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging (and I’m not sure why I feel that way).  Anyway…

Earlier this week, Jeff and I made an offer on some property.  The property is just shy of one acre, level with some mature fruit trees and beautiful garden space.  The yard already has fencing, including some electric fencing for critters.  The house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath manufactured home on a permanent foundation, just under 1,200 square feet, it needs work but all work we can do (replace windows, do some drywall, flooring, painting, etc.) nothing too extreme.  There is a garage with shop that Jeff loves.  It’s perfect for us, and well under what we’re approved for financing wise.  We made an offer and apparently the same day 2 other folks made an offer.

Today all three of us got the counter offer.  Jeff and I immediately signed acceptance of the counter offer and sent back to the seller’s agent.  Apparently, however; we have to wait until Noon tomorrow to find out if we get it or not, that’s the deadline for everyone to respond to the counter offer.  To say that this waiting will be the most difficult for us is an understatement.

We have a lot going for us, the counter offer actually came from the bank not the sellers, meaning the house is close to foreclosure, and one stipulation is that financing be in place by May 15th.  We can do that, maybe the other potential buyers cannot.   The counter offer also stated the sellers would not do any repair to the house, we didn’t ask for any so that was another potential buyer wanting that, hopefully the fact that we are prepared to do the work ourselves and the other buyers may not, will make them not want it any longer…

A long story, short, any prayers and good thoughts would be most appreciated.

Our official spring ritual occurs when we change from flannel to linen sheets and has nothing to do with the calendar.  Despite bits of snow and night temperatures under 30, I decided today was the day to have that little ritual.  With the changing of the sheets also comes the changing of the quilt from:

The quilt I made from old t-shirts and scraps.  It’s a variety of fabrics, made warmer because the “batting” is from an old blanket I got at the thrift store.  This quilt is replaced with:

The treasure made by my grandma.  Each square was hand embroidered by her and hand-quilted.  The amazing thing to me about this quilt is that each block is quilted slightly different than the others to match the particular embroidered design.  It’s not a heavy as my quilt, but it is still incredibly warm because of the quilting.  My grandma’s love makes it seem warmer, too.

We’ve been blessed with another gorgeous, bright day with temperatures near 70.  We’ve been busy, too.  We finished turning over the soil in the veggie beds.  We found lots of worms in the process, and I always get so excited to see that.  We used to have these 3 little boys that lived next door, and the days we turned over soil, they were always watching for worms to pick up - their poor mother would reach into their pockets unaware for a slimy handful often in the spring and summer.  The soil seems light and beautiful, though it did feel like we picked out a ton of rocks.

There are signs of life everywhere.  New growth on the chives, fresh buds on the raspberry canes, rhubarb leaves unfurling, and bits of green and sprouts just about everywhere you look.  Including:

The first daffodil bud.

The first and only (so far) dandelion to appear complete with a little insect life.

I was visiting over at Moonmeadow Farm earlier today, she always has interesting news tidbits on her sidebar.  Today, I read a good bit of the ones she had posted, including several on recession/depression and rising food prices.  All of which go hand in hand with my thoughts on self-sufficiency and the need to be more so.

Do I believe, Jeff and I will see a time where we don’t shop at stores? No.  I don’t know that we’ll ever have the kind of property necessary to raise everything we need, especially grain.  However, I do believe we can work on growing and preserving as much of our own as possible.  I also believe we can work on bartering and buying from within our own community.

The folks over at Path to Freedom, have been doing a lot of writing about the need for a resurgence of the victory gardens concept.  I understand gardening is a lot of work and its not work everyone enjoys (unlike the gardening addict that I am).  However, with the price of food and fuel these days, I don’t know how long many people can hold out before gardening becomes more than a hobby and it becomes necessary for survival. 

For me, everything starts at home.  Home is more than just the building I live in, home is my heart, it is the center of my love with Jeff, simply home is everything.  So what can I do beyond gardening and canning?  Jeff is fond of saying “its time to tighten up the belt,” and while I think we already have the belt pretty tight, we can and should do more.  Frugality isn’t about deprivation in my mind, however; a person does need to learn the difference between deprivation and making do.  In learning to be more frugal and making do with what we have, we can be more prepared to not only help ourselves in times of struggle, but also help others, and donate to more worthy causes.  We can buy more food for the food pantry, spend money on necessities for shelters, etc.  We can grow an extra bit of food and donate the saved seeds.  We can do all this from home and maybe, soften the blow of whatever this way comes for us and those around us.  And if it doesn’t soften the blow, at least we’ll have given it a shot from home and have done our best to take care of ourselves. 

After a long day, I love coming home to a nice meal and my sweetie.  Who doesn’t?  However, cooking a nice meal after a long day, isn’t always my favorite thing to do.  I love to cook but sometimes I just want something to fill my stomach and fast.  A little planning and a well stocked pantry can be saviors on those nights.  Thankfully, my sweetie generally arrives home just a few minutes after me, so that part is a given.

Thanks to some planning and a well stocked pantry, our good meal was quick, filling, and healthy.  Yesterday, I made some food for the week ahead, including a big pot of soup and Cheddar, corn, & herb muffins for our lunches.  I also made some meatloaf muffins and cooked up some mexican rice that were perfect with a jar of green beans heated up for dinner.  I’m not a huge fan of the microwave, rarely use it in fact, but on nights like this one, it was perfect to reheat a quick hearty meal.  Dinner conversation was light and cheery.  After dinner, we took a quick trip to the library for new reads and now I’m settled into the recliner, with a heating pad trying to relax some back spasms getting ready to curl up with my latest book finds.

These are the moments when my body just relaxes into the joys of home.  These are also the moments when I realize, I’m getting older (a heating pad and a recliner, for pete’s sake).  Most importantly these are the moments when I just feel loved and safe because, in the end isn’t that what home is about?

Over the weekend, I was listening to an older Greg Brown album and was inspired.  The particular song that got me thinking was If You Don’t Get It at Home, if you’re not familiar with that particular song, the chorus is basically this, “if you don’t get it at home you’re going to go looking.”  “It” in the song is love.  I got to thinking about everything else we going looking for if we don’t find those things at home.

Think about it, as a society, everything we go looking for: nutrition, love, acceptance, faith, education, etc.  The list goes on and on, and we go looking for it in a variety of ways from shopping to drugs, from cults to sex, and everything in between.  I realize, many folks have homes that are full of unspeakable horrors and those inside have to look elsewhere to find what they need to fill up.  So, how I can help those folks?  How can I make sure those inside my home, get what they need and don’t go looking?

I know that Jeff and I both, find our home to be a refuge from the world.  It is a place of peace, comfort, and love not just for us, but also for everyone who comes visiting.  We strive to have a place that people enjoy being and I know that we’ve succeeded simply by the number of people who feel comfortable enjoying a meal and then taking a nap on our couch.  People feel comfortable to just drop by without calling first, I count these as blessings (most of the time), and am glad people think of us as great company and dependable friends.  Both Jeff and I love being at home, there simply is no other place we’d rather be most of the time, and even those times when we do want to be somewhere else, we quickly look forward to getting back home.  I feel pretty confident those people in my home, get their fill and won’t have to go looking elsewhere for it, however; I know that I must be vigilant in making sure to keep the home full of love and joy.

How can I help those folks who don’t get these things at home?  I’ve spent some time over the last few days thinking about this, in depth.  I do believe, that my primary responsibility and focus should be on my home, however; I’m not a hermit so I do have contact with lots of people.  I’m going to make it part of my focus, to bring home with me whenever I leave my home and go out into the world.  I can carry a welcoming, loving attitude with me at all times.  I can be sure to bring those manifestations of home to gatherings or as surprises and gifts, in the form of meals, bread, treats, offers of just idle chit chat, gardening help and more.  Can I help everyone?  No, I’m a realist.  Can I help stop a hurting soul from turning to drugs or some other harmful choice?  Maybe, I can’t and won’t underestimate the power and impact of a kind word or simply taking the time to care enough to listen.  I also believe that the sense of home can be very healing.

Maybe, just maybe, I can help others create a home that is a place of comfort and not one they have to leave to find what they need.  Maybe, just maybe, I can encourage people to make their home, theirs, and a place that is nutritious to their hearts, minds, and souls, even if they live there alone.  I’m an idealist and a dreamer to be sure, but I do believe I can make a difference, and it seems that home and homemaking (even if not in the most traditional “homemaking” sense) are becoming the callings of my life.  More than anything, I believe most people feel disconnected and alone these days, and if I can spread these feelings home, perhaps I can help people feel less alone and in turn spread that around a little more.