I just saw an important announcement on HomesteadBlogger.com's Front Porch.  If you are a writer who submitted something for publishing on HomesteadBlogger.com or own/work for a company that was promised a product review by them, get over there and read the post so you can see if it pertains to you!

Nancy Carter sent me an email letting me know that there's a fun contest going to find the 1,000th blogger over at HomesteadBlogger.com.  Both lucky number 1,000 and the individual that refers them to HomesteadBlogger will win goodies from Dahlem's Soapworks. 

Trust me, folks, this is something you want!  Shoot, it's something I want!  Last Christmas I received a gift set from Dahlem's Soapworks and I loved it.  So get over to HomesteadBlogger.com and create your account, then make sure to list your referrer's username in your very first post.  (In my case, you can use my HomeschoolBlogger or HomesteadBlogger username [MelM] or blog names [Raven Writes or Going Green].  Nancy knows who I am!)  The webmaster will let Nancy know who creates the 1,000th account there at HomesteadBlogger, and she'll get in touch with both winners.

As some of you know, I prefer to plan ahead and prepare for emergencies.  Dealing with food storage issues isn't always easy, and I'm on the light end of the "storage" concept, as opposed to those who are saving up 100 pound bags of wheat and other such necessities. 

Today I received an e-newsletter that included an ad and coupon for something called a "CanSolidator"...okay, so not only did the food rotation concept intrigue me, but the name is rather punny.    So of course I had to check it out. 

What a neat concept!  The company, ShelfReliance, offers a handful of other products such as food storage systems, water filtration products and 72-hour packs.  Their site is just beautiful, too.  Wow!  Needless to say I signed up for their free e-news and can't wait to see what they have to offer in it as well. 

Those of you interested in this topic and affiliate ventures will want to get some info about that program from them as well.  All the links are on their site; pop by and check them out for yourself.

I just received the following information via an email from my friend Harriete.  Please note I have not researched this info or these links yet myself.  I am posting them, however, because it sounds incredibly important and timely.  Read below and please take the time to investigate further...I will be doing so this weekend as well.

~Melonie

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My friend and colleague Patricia Hunter (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/patriciawhunter

sent me this video link...it had me ROARING with laughter.

http://home.swbell.net/khavens/vid-blondeslacountyfair_fk_.mpg

Oh my...this is so VERY appropos! 

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/tn3jcarter/25625/

Go visit Nancy Carter's blog about farm life...you'll get your money's worth in a good giggle.

I guess I'm headed in the right direction...I've already got that full-size truck, a little organic garden, the dog and a rabbit.  Now if only the dog wouldn't get car sick, and the rabbit were, um, edible.  ;-)

Our best afternoons this summer were the ones spent eyeballing those $1 chicks at the feed store. 

And the turkeys.

And the geese.

And the guinneas.

SEE HOW THAT HAPPENS???? 

It's that time of the year again...no, not the Harvest Moon (although that is incredibly gorgeous this week too!)...it's time for the trees and flowers at my local nursery to go on sale.

Get this: my local garden shop sells Jackson & Perkins bare root roses during winter for about $10.  Figure February or so.  Within a month they've stuck them in some dirt in a plastic pot and they are charging DOUBLE the cost.  For crying in the mud, as Gena likes to say...I'll pot the stinkin' thing myself for that much of a difference!  Even J&P themselves don't charge that much, although by the time I pay shipping I'd be close to the same. 

BUT...this time of year, when the roses no longer look quite so purty and fresh...this is the time to get in there.  My nursery is now putting all their trees, bushes, roses, THE WORKS, on SALE.  Last weekend I headed to the shop with my best friend and she got 2 potted grasses, a small tree and 2 bushes for less than the cost of ONE of the bushes' original price.  That included 8.4% tax on top of it all! 

And guess what I picked up?  A Jackson & Perkins "Ronald Reagan" rose bush for $8.99 plus tax.  YEAH BABY!  I've desperately wanted a "Ronald Reagan", a "Nancy Reagan", and a "Barbara Bush" for years.  Mr. President must be happy with the weather still, because he's got one bud about to blossom and several more where those came from.  My other roses (in-ground, including 2 Mister Lincolns, a Veteran's Honor, a Memorial Day and a John F. Kennedy) are all still happy with things as well.  The lavender is about shot, the cosmos have almost given up, and the burning bushes are beginning their change to flame-colored leaves...but the roses are still thumbing their figurative noses at Old Man Winter and pushing out more blossoms. 

I do believe I'll be scrounging up another $9.00 from somewhere, ANYwhere, and getting one more Ronald Reagan rose.  I found some gorgeous red planters for the front of the house a couple months back, one for each side of my garage door, and they were deliciously priced in the clearance shelves at Target.  Unfortunately the sweet peas we planted in them didn't fare so well...the hazard of being under the eaves and only being watered if the rain blew right or I had a water bottle in the truck that needed to be drained.  Oops!  I think we'll head back, see if there's another Ronald Reagan that wants to come home with me, and they'll be twins in the pretty planters.  And come the day this house goes on the market, if nothing else, those two fellas will come with us. 

If I truly had my way all my other roses would be pulled up this winter while they are dormant and put in containers as well...but between the cost of containers and the time spent on labor (not to mention filling the gaps in the butterfly garden back IN to sell the place)...naaahhhh.  I think we'll just make a list of what to get for ye olde homestead when I can. 

In the meantime, I'll be saving my pennies for Mrs. Reagan and Mrs. Bush.  I wonder when Laura Bush will pick a J&P rose.  Gotta keep it in the "family", ya know.  ;-)

(PS: In case you're looking at the names of the roses I own and want to own, and you're thinking..."Wait a sec, John F. Kennedy doesn't fit in there with the Reagans and Mrs. Bush!  He was a razzafrazzin Democrat!" Calm down, it's okay.  Choosing that rose had nothing to do with the political bent of said former President and everything to do with these 2 factors: 1) My maiden name is Kennedy and 2) my Nana thought it looked pretty with the Mister Lincoln she bought me as a housewarming gift.  LOL  Now if only they'd come out with a Condoleeza Rice rose.......)

Well, it's been a while since I hauled you out into the backyard to take a "look" at my garden. 

In case you're wondering, so far (total) we've harvested:

several bowls of grape tomatoes, about a bowl of strawberries, three spaghetti squash, two eggplants, five pods of peas, a handful of radishes, several zucchini squash, and two bell peppers.  The most recent haul was half a bowl of strawberries (which Bekah ate all in one sitting), the peas (again, eaten in one sitting), almost a full bowl of grape tomatoes, two of the spaghetti squash and one of the eggplants.

Still growing are three (!!!) ears of corn, more bell peppers, more strawberries, a few more pods of peas, two cantaloupe, a couple more zucchini, the pole beans (which are flowering now, having climbed up the corn stalks quite nicely) and probably more than 50 grape tomatoes that are ripening as we speak. 

The butterfly garden out front is beginning to wind down...the chocolate cosmos have pretty much given up the ghost, the rudbeckia made a second valiant attempt at blooming (although not as strong as their first showing) and the roses have been pruned and are determined to make a third showing for the neighborhood.  The lavender have been all but extinguished, but the recent rains are bringing out the last of their scent as well. 

Ah yes, the rain.  "Here comes the rain again."  (That'd be the Eurythmics, for those of you who didn't rock out in the '80s like us cool people.)  Last week was sunny and in the 70s, then Friday night the temps dropped and the rain has set in.  We're back in WA again, folks.  Today was nice though, as was yesterday.  Rain during the night and mostly sunny during the day.  *phew*  I love the cooler temperatures but don't mind if the rainy, grey days hold off a bit longer.  They come soon enough and last all too long, and I loathe to have to turn that furnace on with the price of natural gas scheduled to go up yet again in a few weeks.  Had I realized that natural gas was MORE expensive than electricity I'd have requested a pellet-burning fireplace insert when we built this house instead of sticking with their standard gas fireplace.  And that furnace...ugh, don't even talk to me about how much it costs to heat this house.  The kidling and I will have to stock up on sweaters; if this winter is a cold one, I am afraid to see the utility bills.  Truly, honestly afraid. 

Energy...alternative energy...energy efficiency.  Those of you who know me know I'm all about efficiency.  If I had my way I'd have a Sola-Tube in the master bath so I would rarely need the lights on in there.  Solar panels on the roof, a portico on the back of the house to shield us from heat gain in the summer, an on-demand hot water heater instead of the gas-fired one I have, a pellet-burning fireplace...forget Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart, call me Solar Susie.  Or something along those lines.  ;-)

No, I don't mean anything naughty by that, I mean CORN SILK!  That means corn on the way, baby! 

I have developed this little habit of staring out the window at the corn when I think (soon to become staring out the upstairs window at Mt. Rainier) and today happened to actually FOCUS while looking at it and saw, yeppers, CORN SILK.  (Or would that be cornsilk?  Can we get a spellchecker here please???) 

Two lovely little handfuls of cornsilk (I think I like that way best, don't you?) are peeking out of one of the cornstalks, about halfway down the plant.  WOOHOO! 

Pulled 3 little grape tomatoes off the plant, have an eggplant I have to figure out how to harvest (do you cut them off? pull them off?  HELP!), and another one forming.  There are 3 spaghetti squash that look about done (those I know to cut off, thanks though) and the zuchini are setting up more blossoms.  Get this...yesterday I received the new issue of Organic Style and they have a recipe for Squash Blossom Saffron Rice.  I think I NEED to try that.  (That and using the blossoms will mean I'm not swamped with more zuchini later this week.  Have any of you noticed those are the hardest thing on earth, after fruitcake, to get rid of???) 

But the primo of it all...CANTALOUPE.  I can see several little melons forming.  And the peas are blooming.  YEEHAW.  Y'all.  Ya'll.  WHATEVER.  YEAH BABY!  The garden is not only surviving but thriving.  So to speak.  *dancing around the room*  I didn't kill anything yet!  (That's not counting the romaine that didn't germinate, okay...let's not go there.)

Well, I know I've been rather silent these days (aren't you thrilled?  LOL) but I just had to pop in and share some joy about the garden.  Nothing's dead yet!  WOOHOO! 

Today I went out and added more stakes to the tomato plant and harvested 3 grape tomatoes, 3 zucchini, and 2 strawberries.  We're raking it in now, baby! 

The cantaloupe is setting flowers and the spaghetti squash has several, um, squashes, growing.  I snipped off two small ones today that some birds pecked...apparently my little friends are wanting me to fill the feeders again, because they usually leave my plants alone, except to eat bugs they find in the containers.  *sigh*  We still need to get those pumpkins and carrots in, and the sunflowers too.  It's actually so very easy to plant things like this, I just hate being out in the heat.  Tonight though, when the sun goes around the other side of the house, I MUST get them in or the pumpkin fairy will be buying pumpkins in a couple months and "planting" evidence for harvest.  Whoops! 

On the other hand, I'm already dreaming of what I want to put into the garden NEXT year.  So far I'm thinking we'll keep the peas, carrots, tomatoes, pole beans, peppers and radishes.  We'll see how I do with the cantaloupe, corn and eggplant.  Those might be repeats too.  Zucchini squash, we'll just do one plant next time instead of two I think, unless I somehow find someone who really likes zucchini.  I'll change around how I did the strawberries for the next track also.  I'd like to put in 2 kiwi (you have to have 2, a male and a female, to pollinate...that makes sense, eh?), apples (same thing, you need a second tree), some berries, okra, cucumbers, broccoli and a mesclun salad mix.  I better find that homestead soon!  Either that or start saving for containers now...hmmmm. 

I have to say, the best part of all this is being able to pull fruit or veggies off the plant, hose them off while I'm watering anyway, and put them right on our plates.  I don't use any chemicals on these foods, no pesticides...so I feel comfortable letting my daughter even eat something right off there, although the grown-up in me says "UGH...I gotta rinse it, that's still kinda gross.  There could be dirt or *gasp* bugs on it."  LOL 

One other thing I've learned...having corn growing behind the back window of my family room means that I enjoy looking out the window when I'm at my desk and need to stop and think.  This week I will be moving my office upstairs to an extra room, where I will turn it so I can see out the window to Mt. Rainier.  We'll see how much work I get done then.  LOL