Freedom Acres Farm

Just Popping In...

to say "Hello"!

I've been busy in the garden these days.  The heat has just about done in the green beans and cucumbers.  The squash are holding their own, and the okra and eggplant are just "getting growing" good .  I have lovely tomato plants, but sadly it is too hot for them to set fruit.  My herbs are doing well, and I'm having great fun making herb teas and just smelling them!

When it's too hot to garden, I've been attempting to keep cool by hanging out in the room with a/c and reading lots of books!  My office/storage/junk room does not have a/c, and it's not a pleasant place to be once it starts to heat up outside; which is just about the time the sun comes up! 

Once again for our family.....change is in the air!  We're fairly certain that we will be moving again shortly.  Yes, we've been in this house all of 3 months, and will be on the move again probably in another month or two.  I do seriously think we're nomads!  We'll just be moving "down the road", but even just down the road requires packing, loading, unloading, and unpacking!  The good thing, or really I should say the "God thing" in all of this is we're moving next to what our small group plans to turn into a type of Community Garden!  That will be so much fun.  It is just an uncleared lot at the moment, but the guys have big plans!  For those of you who "know" me, a community garden has been my own little dream for years; and the Lord is not only providing that, but with the added benefit of help from some of my dearest friends.  Psalm 37:4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.  I have to believe that not only did He put that desire in my heart; but He brought it to pass in His timing and by His own means.  God is good!!!

OK, more about our move, gardens, etc. when I have details.  For now, I'm heading to a cooler spot...like out on the front porch for a cup of tea!  The "new" house has central heat and air, oh praise the Lord! 

Herbs, How I Love Them!

I've been having the best time with my herb container gardens this year!  My sweet family bought me lots of new "pets" for Mother's Day-

Applemint

Kentucky Colonel Spearmint

Peppermint

St. John's Wort

Feverfew

Marjoram

Thyme

Lavender

Dill

Pineapple Sage

Rosemary

Pennyroyal

I've probably left out something, but you can see I have quite a collection of herbs now.  It  has been several years since I've had this many herbs to play with.  I'm having fun making teas and just smelling the fabulous scents of them while I water, pinch, and prune . 

I planted Basil this spring, and it not only makes the front flower bed look pretty, but provides a spicy fragrance (and a quick nibble or two) to those passing by.  My Lemon Verbena that moved here with us is growing well, and finding its way into the teacup almost daily.  The Bay tree (it's really a sad excuse for a tree) is holding its own, though still a stunted, tiny thing.  A pretty white Moss Rose somehow sprouted in the pot and is just about to cover up the poor little tree.  I've had that little thing for at least 3 years and it hasn't grown much at all.  My husband teases me and says that it's because as soon as any new leaves appear, I pick them for the pizza sauce pot !  Not so, but I'm obviously doing something wrong.  Anyone have any suggestions???

One more new thing I'm attempting to grow- Malabar Spinach.  I bought a little seedling to try it out, and just put it into the garden yesterday.  I hope it does well because real spinach can't take the summer heat here. We eat LOTS of spinach in our family, and it makes my favorite smoothie! 

OK, time for me to go pet the herbs and see which ones are thirsty.

Garden Blessings,

Catherine

My All-Time Favorite Garden Tool

is the Stirrup Hoe!  I just love mine . 

Weeding  is by no means my favorite gardening activity .....that would be planting, which leads inevitably to more of my less favorite....weeding! 

When I picked up my trusty stirrup hoe at a garage sale for less than $1.00 , I had no idea what a bargain I was getting!  New ones cost somewhere around $30.00, I think.   But, if I couldn't find a great deal on a used stirrup hoe, I would gladly pay for a new one!  

It is simply amazing how this tool allows me  to zip through weeding the garden in a snap.  No bending, squatting, back-breaking pulling necessary.  Just pull the hoe lighly through the soil and it cultivates up all those freshly germinated weeds and they are gone gone .  Our garden is small this year, just about 15' X 30' .  I weeded the entire garden (except for the spot where I seeded some greens) in less than half an hour! 

If you love gardening, but not the weeding ; try a stirrup hoe, you'll be glad you did!

Wild Wednesday

We're finally moved into our new home.  This move was frustrating and just crazy start to finish, but it is behind us now, Praise the Lord!  There is much that must be done before this resembles a peaceful Home Sweet Home, though!

I honestly had no idea that we had accumulated so much "stuff" until I attempted to move a large 3 bedroom, two bath, with a storage shed household, into a small (very small) 2 1/2 bedroom, one bath (that is taking some getting used to), with no storage mobile home .  I have thrown or given much away, and still have more waiting to be taken to the local homeless shelter. 

I still have most of my kitchen things in boxes, due to a "critter invasion", yucky...you really don't want to know... and the cabinets still have to be repainted and caulked before anything goes in them. 

Cooking is quite the adventure with having all of the food and cooking utensils stored in totes, just finding the correct spices can be almost maddening  .  I also had no idea how much I used my oven- until I didn't have one.  This is a temporary thing, just until my overworked dh finds time to find out what's wrong with it and repair it, or have it replaced.  I honestly think that I used my oven every day- Oh to have a fresh-baked biscuit or scone!

These are the normal "everyday" things, but today has had it's own store of "stuff" for us to deal with:

1.  To start off the day on the wrong foot, my dh announced "Time to GET UP!"...which I did, of course, and went into the kitchen and started coffee....only to realize his alarm clock and his wake up call were ONE HOUR EARLY !  Oh well, 4 a.m., 5 a.m. what's the difference? Ha!

2.  8:00 a.m. my phone rings,  my friend (actually 2 friends within 5 minutes) called to tell me our kitty cat had been hit by a car and was in the middle of the road.....he is now in a box awaiting my dh to get home and bury the poor creature.  NOT a good second start for my morning .

3.  Before 10:00 a.m. the toilet overflows (for the second time in 2 weeks) and soaks all of the towels I could find, runs under the unfinished linoleum and into my bedroom carpeting .  Which means my first load of laundry......which brings us to:

4.  I cleaned the lint filter on the dryer (my dh would be proud, since I usually forget) and when I tried to put it back in it wouldn't go.  I finally located the "battery free" flashlight (made a mental note to get a "real" flashlight asap) and discovered a purple pony bead lodged in the space where my lint filter should slide.  I tried every kitchen utensil imagineable and a piece of wire coat hanger all to no avail.  It is STUCK!  Is it safe to run a dryer without that silly little filter thing??? (another mental note- clothesline asap)

5.  I am having no luck reserving a park pavilion to have my littlest Love's birthday party at this weekend, soooo..... it may be a mad dash the rest of the week attempting to create enough order to actually let friends come near this place !

OK, those are the not so good or terribly sad things...

But, there are always more good than bad, right?

1.  Being awake an hour early gave me more time to snuggle with my sweetie and to pray.

2.  It was a kitty and not a kid who was hit by a car!

3.  Fans dry out water...even toilet water.

4.  DH does industrial maintenance for a living- a stuck pony bead should be no big deal.

5.  A crockpot does a pretty decent job of cooking a roast, and uses less energy, I'll bet.

6.  Cooking simple meals has quickly become a habit, and at this point my family is thrilled to have anything besides Taco Bell and Jack in the Box .

7.  The garden should be tilled today.

8.  I have seedlings just itching to be planted- tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, squash, and seeds for lots more! 

9.  My children are apparently not allergic to Poison Ivy, as they've been in enough of it lately.  (Poison Ivy spray added to the shopping list)

10.  The sun is shining (for the moment) and the birds are singing.

11.  I can always find the tea, honey and a teacup.

12.  HIS Grace is sufficient, and HIS Mercies new every morning.

Blessings,

Catherine

Simply Wonderful Gift Away

Oh, I could use this one today !

Sweet Peggy is having another of her lovely "Gift Aways". 

The Simple Woman's Pampering Gift Away is filled with lots of delightful things sure to pamper you:

Lavender Chamomile bath goodies from Bath & Bodyworks

White Chocolate

A cute little book & bookmark

Even a 1 year subscription to The Simple Woman's Gazette.

Pop on over to The Simple Woman to enter this gift away today!

Moving this Weekend!

We will be finishing up some work on our "new nest" this week, and plan to move in on Saturday .  I have mega-packing to do because I promised my dear hubby I'll be done by Thursday !  Now the pressure is on... I think maybe I should have said, "It'll all be packed by the time you are ready to load the trailer, honey."

I'm seeing lots of things that are headed for the "give away" area, if I can just keep the children (and my dh) from picking up on my ruthless purging plan .  I even tried that with the bookshelves, but my husband vetoed that one .  So, I went ahead and packed all of the excess homeschool books, and after I've gotten settled in, those will be posted for sale.  I purged my closet and filled a large garbage bag with clothes, especially those that have "shrunk" ...and the ones I've had since before my oldest dd was born! 

OK, I've got to get busy with more purging and packing.  This morning we're packing the kids' rooms (oh boy), and if I have any energy left, this afternoon we'll tackle the kitchen cabinets.  

First things first, though- I'm going to check on my newly sprouted seedlings and have a cup of tea .

OH, I almost forgot, I was given a greenhouse!!!!!   Our friends who are renting us our new nest also gave me their old greenhouse.  I can't wait to have a place to start seeds and grow things all winter long!  God is Good!

Spring Nest Cleaning Giveaway!

Peggy at The Simple Woman is having a Spring Nest Cleaning Giveaway!

Pop over and sign up for a chance to win a lovely gift- one that just might jump start your own Spring Cleaning!

Amid the boxes and stuff of preparing to move, I could use a little incentive to clean, too .

Toothpaste- Not just for pearly whites!

Actually, I don't use storebought toothpaste these days.  Baking soda with a few drops of Peppermint essential oil works great. 

But, I learned a few months ago that a bit of toothpaste takes the sting out of an ant bite .  Living in Texas, we are harrassed by those horrid Fire Ants, and someone inevitably gets bitten now and then.  My girls have learned to quickly go to the bathroom and get a little dab of toothpaste and rub it on for quick relief.

I also read today that toothpaste will remove permanent marker stains .  I don't have any (thank goodness) to try it out on at the moment.  But, if it really does work, and people say it does, that is good info. to have....sure wish I had known that when my oldest daughter drew all over the wall with a broad-tipped permanent marker when she was just a little thing- especially since the wall didn't belong to us, but to a friend we were living with at the time ! 

But......I do wonder if something that removes permanent marker is really good for our bodies???  I'll stick to baking soda for brushing, I think .

Still no moving date.......  I started packing, and then had to dig into boxes that were packed ;  so now I'm just decluttering and purging, and making less to actually pack ! 

Well.....

see what playing around where you have no business will get ya???  I decided to change my template....and now my cute little buttons and blogrolls are history .  I do believe I saved my old template once upon a time...if not, I guess I'll just start all over...someday!

I'm supposed to be packing ...but I needed a little break from packing box after box of books.....

See how quickly I get in trouble around here .  Well, unless the template fairy blesses me by making my things magically reappear, it'll just have to wait until after I get moved, I suppose.  It could take me hours, if not days, to figure out how to put them back....I'm not even sure what all of them were .  Oh bother. 

I'm off to find a cup of tea....THAT I shouldn't mess up! 

Moving Day.....

is coming soon!

We still don't have a definite date, but know it will be within the next 2 weeks.  That means I have to get super busy this week packing. 

Our new home will be much smaller than where we are now.  That isn't a bad thing at all; but it will take some getting used to. 

The back yard has space for a garden, and I can have herbs and flowers in the front, too; as well as my containers that go "wherever I can find an empty spot".  There is a small patio under a beautiful old Oak tree in the back.  The girls quickly decided that was the best thing of all about our new home. 

I'll be back to post photos and share more about our "new to us" home when I can.

Blessings,

Catherine