Spring Cleaning Planning with Evernote- Kitchen

Admittedly, my gusto for spring cleaning has sort of peter'd out. Between some health drama that cropped up last month, a minor surgery last week, and the fact that it's beautiful out and I just want to play in the garden ... cleaning house is the LAST thing on my mind. Thankfully I had this list done before the snow melted, so I'm able to just check items off as I complete them. As unmotivated as I feel about cleaning right now, it really does feel good to get some things done that I've been meaning to get to! Here's my Spring Cleaning- Kitchen Edition list (You can find the bathroom checklist right here):

Spring Cleaning Planning with Evernote - Bathroom

We’re past the midway point in the month of March, and this is the time of year when I start getting antsy to be outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s still extremely cold here, although the snow does seem to be starting to melt some. Yesterday the hubs was able to get outside with the kids and clean up the yard a bit since it was around 40 degrees. He got a bon fire going and burned some of the brush and branches that have either been trimmed, or fallen of its own accord. It’s kind of a huge embarrassing mess right now. Living in the suburbs, there’s a bit of pressure to have your yard looking presentable. Reason #2123432 why we don’t belong in the ‘burbs. Who has time to keep a clean yard with small kids, house work, homeschooling, volunteer work, homeschool co-ops, extra curricular activities and … oh yeah, trying to grow as much of our own food as possible. People! I belong in the country where a messy yard is not only acceptable, but kind of expected. But, this is where God has planted us. And so we will do the best we can. :)

The messy yard has me thinking about spring cleaning. We’re going on vacation at the end of next month, and I’d like to come home to a nice clean house (and yard), because when we get back, I’ll be diving right into gardening season (a few things will be planted before we leave, but mostly it’ll ramp up after we get back).

I use Evernote for a lot of my planning, including lesson plans, grocery lists, meal plans, garden notes, so I think I’ll use Evernote to plan a Spring Cleaning checklist for myself. My house is different from yours, so your Spring Cleaning may look slightly different, but I can post my checklists here in order to help spark your minds for your own homes. 
 

So what about you? Doing any spring preparations?

Technorati Tags: Spring Cleaning,Cleaning,Organization

Homemade Hamburger Buns

I think bread making in general is one of those basic skills that every wannabe homesteader tackles at some point or another. I know that, for me, it was a long road with many failures before I finally got it right. It was really almost laughable. I couldn’t get a dough to rise to save my life! But once you figure it out, once you know the feel of a good dough, the possibilities are endless! Here’s a really easy hamburger bun recipe that I’ve been using for years. It yields 12 buns, which is great for a larger family!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. white sugar
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 5 1/2 c. all purpose flour (feel free to sub in a few cups of whole wheat flour!)
• 1 envelope of dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 T. water

(BIG T = TABLESPOONS. little t = teaspoons).

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, combine the first 5 ingredients. Stir to combine so that the sugar doesn’t just settle to the bottom. Bring to a boil, and then remove from heat to cool until lukewarm. A temperature of about 105 degrees F to 110 degrees F is good. Any hotter and it could kill the yeast.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the flour and yeast. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until the dough starts to pull together. With your hook attachment, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes (if you’re just learning the art of bread making, I recommend kneading by hand on a floured surface. It helps you get familiar with the way everything should feel). You can stop kneading when the dough feels smooth, not too sticky, and when you poke it, it bounces back at you a bit.  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover with a damp towel to rise for 1 hour OR until the dough has doubled. The doubling of the dough is more important than the time. So if it takes longer than 1 hour for it to double in size, that’s okay. Patience. ;)
• Punch down the dough and divide into 12 portions. Make tight balls by pulling the dough down around itself and pinching at the bottom. This helps the gluten develop ---> good texture. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Let them rest for about 10 minutes, and then press down to flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover once again with a damp towel to rise for about 40 minutes OR until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix egg yolk and water in a small bowl and brush onto the buns. Bake for 10-12 minutes. They’re done when they have a nice golden brown color and they sound hollow like a drum when you tap them with your fingernail.
• Now slather those babies with some butter and enjoy. I mean … wait patiently until the burgers are done grilling and make sure you share.

(Original Recipe Source)

I've linked this post over at: Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Saving with a Pellet Stove

I know that among homesteaders, a wood stove is generally the way we want to go. You can harvest your own fuel, and woodstoves don’t require electricity. The thing is that they’re also extremely expensive to have installed, especially if you don’t have the know-how to do it yourself. We had a quote done, and found out that it would cost us upwards of $7,000 to have a stove installed (including the stove, parts, and labor). I would be okay with investing that much into a house we’d be staying in forever, but we hope to move within the next five years. So, a pellet stove was much more reasonable for us at this time.

My grandparents offered us their pellet stove which they no longer use. We installed it for a little less than $250 worth of supplies and 3 hours of labor. I was also able to find a nice hearth pad on Craigslist for $80, which saved us another $300 or so. Installing a pellet stove is much less involved than installing a wood stove. Much more newbie friendly. It’s so easy that my husband and I were able to do it ourselves. That’s saying something, especially since neither of us are particularly handy. We’re learning, but it’s a process. How did we learn to install such a thing? YouTube of course! What can’t you learn on YouTube? Here’s the video that we followed:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/blZHAsDmVMc
Part 2: http://youtu.be/4IVHbXlbUDg

Cool. But do you really save money?
This year has been extremely cold. We’re in NY, so a harsh winter is a given, but the subzero wind chills are happening to a greater degree, and more frequently than typical thanks to these polar vortex thingies that keep coming down. With that in mind, we’ve been saving $60-$100 per month off of our utility bill, including figuring in the cost of pellets ($4.50/bag, and we use about 1 bag per day).  So, yeah! We’re saving! On the sub zero days, the pellet stove acts as a supplement to our furnace. It doesn’t get quite as warm. On the days when it’s in the 20’s or 30’s, our house 1,800 sq ft house gets up to 77 degrees with just the stove, no furnace. I’ve been impressed!

What if the electricity goes out?!
We actually have a converter on our van that would allow us to run the stove using our van as a power source. We also have a huge generator. This should get us through a few days if needed, though we don’t typically lose power for more than 12-16 hours a time. The last time we had a long term power outage in my area must have been 1991. Hopefully the S doesn’t HTF before we move onto a dream homestead with a wood burning stove.

I'm linked over at the Prairie Homestead Barn Hop and at Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

2014 Garden Plan and Hopes for Spring

“The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

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Here is a list of what we will be growing in the gardens this year. In addition to this, I also have some blueberry plants and some blackberry brambles. I’d like to find a place for a dwarf peach tree, perhaps. I'll start winter sowing sometime this week. Last year I'd already begun by now, but it's been a crazy few weeks. Another advantage of winter sowing is that you have a little more wiggle room in your planting times.

(P.S. I figured out why I couldn't upload pictures before. Technical issue resolved. Regular stunning sub-par photography will resume moving forward.)

We have had a great deal of snow and freezing temperatures this year. It’s not abnormal for New York, but I think we’ve been colder and snowier than recent years for sure! Thankfully we’ve had bits of sunshine to help keep our moods up. The children and I have enjoyed sitting by a sunny window watching the winter birds out by the feeders. We’re working on learning to identify common birds. We’ll start reading the Burgess Bird Book and following along with the Great Backyard Bird Count in a couple of weeks. Even winter has opportunities for enjoying God’s creation around us!
 
 
Cool Weather Crops:

• Mesclun
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Cabbage 
• Peas

Warm Weather Crops:

• Butternut Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• 3 varieties of tomatoes (a beefsteak, a paste, and a cherry)
• Peppers (Bell, Hungarian Hot, and Jalepeno)

Herbs:

• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Basil
• Lemonbalm
• Cilantro

 

Flowers (these plans are still coming together):

• Calendula
• Nasturtiums
• Sun Flowers
• I'm thinking I'll order the Cottage Garden flower mix from Botanical Interests
• Maybe more? I might have my hands full already with the veggie garden. I might keep the flower garden small.
• I would LOVE to do a Mary garden in the front yard, though. Hmmm…..

I posted here and here about how to create a garden plan.

The biggest little doing some nature sketches from a sunny window

I shared this post at the Prairie Homestead Barnyard Hop and Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days Blog Hop.

Garden Planning Series, Day 2

***Note: That time you tried to start a blog, and then as you’re getting ready to upload pictures for your 4th blog post, your computer and/or camera goes completely wonky. And your computer says that it can’t recognize what you’ve plugged into the USB port. So then you try slipping that little SD card thingy into the front of the computer, and it does … well, it does absolutely NOTHING.

 

Yep. That’s me right now. I’m sorry! I will remedy this ASAP. But in the meantime, here’s how I map out my garden:

 

Last post I discussed the what, when, and how much of garden planning. Now I’m going to introduce you to my super high tech, madly complicated, highly sophisticated method of planning out my garden.

 

Graph paper. Pencil. I know, I know.

 

Mind. Blown.

 

Also, this book is a wannabe homesteader’s BFF. I reference it constantly throughout the year. Everything from how/when to prune your brambles, planting dwarf fruit trees, to brewing your own beer, to gardening (soil prep through harvest!), to small scale livestock. It’s the bee’s knees.

 

1. Make a list of what you’re going to grow. As you order seed, put a little check mark next to it.

2. Get your graph paper and map out your garden space. This goes for you too, container gardeners. Measure your containers if you have them already and figure out how many square feet of growing space you’re working with. On the graph paper, I use 1 square for each foot of gardening space. So on my main bed, I’m working with about 12’x17’. On the graph paper, that means I’ll draw a 17x12 square. Does that make sense? Hopefully my highly detailed sketches will clarify.

 

3. Are you doing square foot gardening or traditional rows? I do a hybrid sort of thing. I section off rows or sections of my gardens and then use a square foot garden approach within that space. This chart rocks for figuring out how many plants you can fit into each square foot. Once again, if my babbling is not making sense, I have pictures to help. But if you’re still completely confused, send me a message or leave a comment.  So I have 2’x4’ sectioned off for cauliflower, and according to that handy dandy chart I linked above, I can fit about 6 cauliflower plants in that space. So I draw 6 evenly spaced squiggly circles to remind myself how many cauliflower seeds to plant. I’ll probably sow 10-ish to cover any failures, and then give away or sell whatever plants I don’t have room for.

4. I do mostly winter sowing, so I get to skip over the riveting task of figuring out when to start each seedling. I mean, I know I’m really missing out there. Because what newbie gardener doesn’t like to go back and forth between seed packet to frost date calendars, trying to figure out what date you should start what seeds in order to be on time with starting 4 weeks before first frost date if sowing indoors, but 2 weeks after frost date if starting outdoors? Right? I know. Too lazy, too tired, too busy for that. People, just winter sow. It’s easier. Especially for those of us who are just starting out. Some day when you’re a rock star gardener, totally go ahead and mess with frost dates and grow lamp set ups. Til then, simplify. Ok? Simplify.

 

That’s really it. Do you have questions about garden planning? Leave them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to help!

Garden Planning Series, Day 1

There are a few things to consider when planning a garden. (By the way, I've decided to break this garden planning thing up into a few different posts to save you the riveting experience of reading a garden planning novel. I think it’ll be easier to follow this way).

1. Are you going to start from seed, or purchase seedlings? Consider winter sowing as a frugal approach to starting from seed (allowing you to avoid the hefty price tags of grow lights).

2. Are you doing raised beds, container gardens, or a traditional garden in the ground? A combination? Pinterest houses a wealth of ideas on container gardening and raised beds. Go there and browse!

3. How much growing space do you have?

4. What are you going to grow this year?

A lot of garden planning articles will tell you to start small. Learn how to grow a couple of things, then add more next year. That's cool. If you're patient. I'm not. So, I say go big or go home, baby. That may or may not be the advice of a Type-A, overachieving, run-yourself-into-the-ground, kind of person. I like to just go for it. Some of your plants may not thrive. So what? You'll still learn something and gain wisdom to use next year. Failure is okay. It's actually guaranteed in the world of gardening. You just have to learn from it, apply your new knowledge to next year, and carry on. Each pack of seeds costs a couple of bucks. You probably won’t even use an entire packet in one season for most things, so really, you don’t have a whole lot to lose here.

Watchya gonna grow? Grow things that your family enjoys eating. That's a given. 

Another important tip is to use your space efficiently. Last year I allotted a lot of garden space to growing onions and carrots because we eat a lot of them. In hindsight, organic onions and carrots are one of the most affordable organic produce items at my grocery store and at the local farm stands. I'd rather use my limited garden space for things that are extremely expensive to buy, or that I can't find locally. Butternut squash costs $1/lbs around here (and that’s for conventional, GMO squash that is probably not grown anywhere near me). I was able to grow 60-70 lbs of squash, it was heirloom, it was grown organically. All from 2 vines. I spent about $2.50 for that pack of seeds and I have plenty left for this years garden. That’s a solid investment of my time, money, and space.
 
Plus, I kept pulling my carrots too early because I was too impatient. I wanted to see my beautiful multicolored carrots!! My impatience basically meant a waste of seed money and garden space.

Oookay. Welp. That is one cute kid holding some seriously beautiful, albeit tiny, carrots (those are the caliope carrots from Botanical Interests, btw!). Maybe we’ll grow just a few carrots this year.  
 
How many of each plant should you grow? I always use this chart as a guideline. It's for a family of 4, so I adjust as necessary. Plus I like to grow extra for freezing and canning.

Once you have a list of what you're going to grow, you can choose varieties from your seed catalogs and place your first order! Read the descriptions and take the length of your growing season into consideration (find your first and last frost dates by zip code HERE . I like to break my seed orders up so that it's not a significant strain on my budget to order all at once. I'll start with ordering the first few crops I plan to plant, which would be things like your brassicas, lettuces, carrots etc. Then with the next paycheck, I'll order a few more seed packets.

Alright, that’s it for now! Adios muchachos.
 
Next up: Mapping it out.


I shared this over at: Frugally Sustainable