In my last blog I stated my purpose in writing this thing. Number one being that I am a near empty- nester and feel my past life slipping from my weak and useless hands. Number two, It is something that is deeply ingrained in my by my Nanny who lived during the depression. Number three, I am pretty sure that we are headed for major inflation, global civil unrest, and basic overall catastrophe. Cats and Dogs living together!!!! Ok that may be a bit of overkill.,but what I am telling you is that I am looking for some type of purpose in my newly found boredom. I am also looking for an outlet for this squirrel type mentality that I have had almost my entire life. I don't stuff my mouth with acorns or try to live in your attic, by squirrel mentality I mean a save and store state of mind. My favorite hobby is canning. My favorite thing about vacation is coming home with money left over. My idea of a perfect date is going to the grocery store. I love to store up for ............ what? I have no idea. I just have this little thing inside me saying don't throw it away, your gonna need that, and, don't buy just one buy six. You might be wondering if I am a hoarder. I am not. I don't believe that I have crossed that line into the darkness where there is not logic involved. Everything I save or store has a purpose or will be consumed. I still have empty shelves in my house and you can see the floor. One good stomach virus could wipe out my toilet paper stores, and things are pretty well organized. I realize that some people have a real problem with this and I don't want to become one of those. I want to use logic and reason to simply save and recycle as much as possible.
Now that I have that off my chest, here is my tip for the day. I live in the country. It is easy for me to take my fruit and veggie scraps and just throw them out my back door into my garden plot instead of running them down the garbage disposal. I have not always lived here. I lived in the city for 40 years before I moved here. I am not a good gardener. I don't have the patience for it. I did however always have the nicest flower beds on our block. I have actually had people pull into my driveway, knock on my door and compliment me on my yard. You know what the secret was? Scraps and worms. Both of my Grandmothers were scrap gardeners. They threw their kitchen scraps directly into the flower beds, smashed it into the soil, and let the worms do the rest. It takes about 2 years to really see the good it does but it is well worth it. A lot of people think you gotta have an expensive composter to do it right but that is poppycock. Just throw the crap in the yard and cover it up every once in a while. Good things for scrapping are egg shells for calcium, coffee grinds for the worms, filters and all, any fruit or vegetable peelings. Try not to put fruit or veggie seeds in it or you will have stuff growing like crazy. I threw a squash seed out in the flower bed once. This humongous plant grew. I chopped it down three times and couldn't kill it. I had to dig a foot and a half to get to the base of it. A nice bonus of this is when you get ready to go fishing, you won't have to buy worms. If you do this for a couple of years, you will have worms as big a snakes. Also, don't throw cooked scraps in the flower bed. They don't decompose well and they draw flies, dogs, and cats. If you want a real jump start, Starbucks will give you giant bags of coffee grinds for free. They are happy to get rid of them and it really attracts the worms. A little known fact is that worms are coffee snobs. They prefer Starbuck's grinds.
Consider planting only perennials if you want a truly carefree flower bed. They cost more up front but they will save you money in the long run.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
I don't know what I am doing
Well, in true blond fashion, my daughter set up my first blog spot and 2 weeks later I couldn't remember any of the info we used to get it started so...I had to start over. Talk about waste, my brain cells are flying to the wind at an alarming rate. Anyway, I am ready to start my year of doing my best not to waste a thing. By that I mean food, money, time, or the all important aluminium foil. I paid 8 dollars for a roll of foil the other day!!!
I will start with food. What I mean by not wasting food is that I will try to control my guilt feelings that I get in the store when I realize that there is only one vegetable in my shopping cart. I am sure that the checker has better things to do than to count my vegetables but, I can not take any chances so I go back down the fruit and vegetable isle and buy things that I know I will be throwing out in a week and a half. Scraps, as my Nanny called them, meaning what is left from dinner, will be made into something else or fed to one of my thousands of animals. There is also the possibility of freezing,but at this time my freezer is full of those cinnamon rolls you buy from kids at Christmas time at Church.
Money will be next. I clipped coupons for the first time in a long time Sunday. I used to let my kids clip them and if we used them, they got the money, and that was their allowance. We were much poorer then and my older kids were glad to have the 3 dollars, or what ever they could get. My youngest has lived a life of ease. She wouldn't even clip her own toenails for 3 dollars. My husband is the other spoiled one in the family. We have 6 televisions in our house. Only 3 people live here. I think that is insanity! Now I will admit, he does not buy anything new. He waits until someone who is sicker than he is that is ready to upgrade and then he makes his purchase. He informed me that he was hot on the trail of a "sick man" about to upgrade after only 6 months. He is ready to pounce! My first inclination was to say NO WAY! but, I have learned that when I say that to him, it is interpreted "Now you have to do it to prove you are a man". So I tried reasoning with him. I was given no response but I will not be surprised to see him drive up the driveway any day with a new TV in the back. Needless to say, I just don't want to buy anything this year that we really don't need.
Time. Now many of you might say that blogging is a waste of time. At one point in my life I would have agreed with you. However, In the past 2 years, my life has changed dramatically. At one point I had my 21 year old son, his 21 year old friend. my 20 year old daughter, my 19 year old nephew, and my 14 year old daughter living at home. In one swoop, whoosh, they were all gone but 1. My baby girl who informs me on a regular basis that she does not need me. What am I going to do? I have decided to replace my brain cells that I lost as a young mother with what I have hear called "adult conversation".
Now on to aluminium foil. I was very lucky growing up to spend a lot of time with my Nanny. She was my maternal grandmother. She lived during the Great Depression. She lived every day after that living with the reality that tomorrow it could all be gone. She instilled in my a strong desire to not waste food., which might be the reason I am 50 lbs. overweight, but she also taught me so many things that I think in this time can be useful. The reality is for all of us, it could all be gone tomorrow. You don't have to be a genius to know that our government has got us in quite a pickle. Even if we are able to put a stop to some of the madness that is proposed by our government, we have a ton of stuff that has to be undone. In the background at my house John Boehner is saying " We can no longer kick the can down the road" It is time to fix this thing. We are all going to have to work together to get America back. My Nanny's made many sacrifices to help her family, her neighbors, her church, and her country get back on track. It started with the aluminium foil. It is a small thing, but it was a start. I am going to follow in her footsteps and take what "Bob" calls baby steps.
I will start with food. What I mean by not wasting food is that I will try to control my guilt feelings that I get in the store when I realize that there is only one vegetable in my shopping cart. I am sure that the checker has better things to do than to count my vegetables but, I can not take any chances so I go back down the fruit and vegetable isle and buy things that I know I will be throwing out in a week and a half. Scraps, as my Nanny called them, meaning what is left from dinner, will be made into something else or fed to one of my thousands of animals. There is also the possibility of freezing,but at this time my freezer is full of those cinnamon rolls you buy from kids at Christmas time at Church.
Money will be next. I clipped coupons for the first time in a long time Sunday. I used to let my kids clip them and if we used them, they got the money, and that was their allowance. We were much poorer then and my older kids were glad to have the 3 dollars, or what ever they could get. My youngest has lived a life of ease. She wouldn't even clip her own toenails for 3 dollars. My husband is the other spoiled one in the family. We have 6 televisions in our house. Only 3 people live here. I think that is insanity! Now I will admit, he does not buy anything new. He waits until someone who is sicker than he is that is ready to upgrade and then he makes his purchase. He informed me that he was hot on the trail of a "sick man" about to upgrade after only 6 months. He is ready to pounce! My first inclination was to say NO WAY! but, I have learned that when I say that to him, it is interpreted "Now you have to do it to prove you are a man". So I tried reasoning with him. I was given no response but I will not be surprised to see him drive up the driveway any day with a new TV in the back. Needless to say, I just don't want to buy anything this year that we really don't need.
Time. Now many of you might say that blogging is a waste of time. At one point in my life I would have agreed with you. However, In the past 2 years, my life has changed dramatically. At one point I had my 21 year old son, his 21 year old friend. my 20 year old daughter, my 19 year old nephew, and my 14 year old daughter living at home. In one swoop, whoosh, they were all gone but 1. My baby girl who informs me on a regular basis that she does not need me. What am I going to do? I have decided to replace my brain cells that I lost as a young mother with what I have hear called "adult conversation".
Now on to aluminium foil. I was very lucky growing up to spend a lot of time with my Nanny. She was my maternal grandmother. She lived during the Great Depression. She lived every day after that living with the reality that tomorrow it could all be gone. She instilled in my a strong desire to not waste food., which might be the reason I am 50 lbs. overweight, but she also taught me so many things that I think in this time can be useful. The reality is for all of us, it could all be gone tomorrow. You don't have to be a genius to know that our government has got us in quite a pickle. Even if we are able to put a stop to some of the madness that is proposed by our government, we have a ton of stuff that has to be undone. In the background at my house John Boehner is saying " We can no longer kick the can down the road" It is time to fix this thing. We are all going to have to work together to get America back. My Nanny's made many sacrifices to help her family, her neighbors, her church, and her country get back on track. It started with the aluminium foil. It is a small thing, but it was a start. I am going to follow in her footsteps and take what "Bob" calls baby steps.
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