Why do I Blog?

     Good morning.  Yesterday evening I planted more sunflowers and I also planted pumpkins. I would love to have pumpkins to carve for Halloween. I am not sure about making pumpkin pie, I hear its a lot of work. I also have birdhouse gourd seeds soaking so I can plant them this evening. I am running out of space to plant. I would so love to buy a few acres somewhere that I could just put a garden on. Even just one acre without a house sitting on it, I could grow so much. Just dreaming. Back to the real world now.
     So I have been asked why do I blog. Well there are many reasons. First I do it as a diary so someday I can look back and remember life in the last years with my mom. Also its a good resource for me to look at and see what worked and didn't work in the garden. And I try to write respectfully about my mom but truthfully so that anyone who reads this will know what my life is like when living with someone with Alzheimer's. I write in hopes that something I say will reach someone who needs to hear it. I write to share ideas and hopefully get some ideas from some of my readers. I write to share my prepper experiences and information. I write to encourage others to think about prepping themselves. I write about my happiness and sorrows. I write my truth. I do not get paid for anything I write. I do not at this time have advertisers on my blog. Not saying that someday I wont but for now I am satisfied with just sharing freely my thoughts and opinions. I am enjoying building friendships and a reader base that enjoys reading about my life. My writing sometimes includes friends and family members that are part of my life. They all know about this blog and I have never yet heard from any of them anything negative about it. I rarely write there names in the blog posts so as to protect their privacy. My husband is my main supporter in this life, as it should be. He has stood beside me in bad times and in good. He always seems to be by my side in all the adventure I come up with. Sometimes shaking his head at my random crazy ideas and sometimes coming up with his own. I write about him as truthfully and respectfully as I can. I do not nor will I use this blog as a way to air dirty laundry. All marriages have good days and bad days. Ours seem to have much more good days than bad. And for that I am greatful. Not every man would give up his home to move in with his mother-in-law to help her have a happy and safe last years on this earth. There will be great rewards laid up in heaven for him. I have wrote some about my religious life. And I am sure there will be more posts in the future where I share more of my thoughts and feelings about that subject. But as for today I must go, the day is slowly slipping away. I have so many things to do.
     Have a good day.

                                                                   April Whitehair

RIP Baby Strawberry Plants

     Good morning. I am having my first cup of coffee this morning. I recently bought Chock Full of Nuts brand of coffee. I use to drink it years ago. And thought it would be a nice change from the normal Folgers or Maxwell house coffee. The new coffee was more expensive but I waited till I had a coupon before I bought it. I only make it when I am awake early, before anyone else in the house is up. I just love it.  A quiet house, birds chirping outside, and a good cup of coffee. I don't have one of those new k cup coffee machines. I don't see buying something new when what I have works just fine. I don't have that feeling that I need to keep up with the Joneses. I am blessed with all I have am glad for it.
     Well after all the work I have put into the baby strawberry plants I have now killed over half of them. Even after my cat laid on them and I stuck sticks in the box to prevent anymore cats laying on them I put them out in the sun and forgot about them yesterday and when I remembered them over half were cooked. It makes me so sad. I tried so hard to keep them alive. I had started them from seed along time ago and they were so small still. The ones that are left I hope will make it. If they do they will be the strongest strawberry plants ever. 
     The store bought strawberry plants that are planted outside that have strawberries ripening continue to be eaten by something. We need to get some kind of net to put around them. It doesn't look like birds but maybe small rodents are eating them. I am not sure what to do for them.
     Well I need to go get my day started. I have a lot of cleaning to do. Have a good day.

                                                                         April Whitehair

Just another day.

     Good morning. Yesterday we had a nice visit by my sister and brother-in-law. My mom loves to get company. She loves my brother-in-law, even though she doesn't know who my sister, her daughter is. We had a good time just sitting around and talking. We need to get together more often. They have a house boat on a local lake and we all love to go up and swim in the summer. They are such good hosts and after they left yesterday all I could think about is that I forgot to offer them something to drink. I need to work on my hosting skills.
     Yesterday my husband was bound and determined to kill what ever kind of bug that is eating the garden plants. So he went back out and bought a new kind of bug killer. He bought Ortho Bug-Geta Plus Snail, Slug, and Insect killer. And I am happy to report that this morning there are lots of dead slugs in the garden. So I guess the problem we had was with slugs. The other problem we are having in the garden are cats but there isn't much we can do about that. I found my cat Itsy Bitsy laying in the flower box with the baby strawberry plants, I thought I would die. I have been growing and babying them for so long. Anyway there doesn't seem to be any damage to them. And as per my husband's instructions I put sticks pointed up in the flower boxes to keep the cats out and so far none of the cats have laid in them again.
     We actually went across the creek again to check on the watermelons that we had planted over there. And no I didn't fall in again. The watermelon plants are doing good. The ones we planted in the roots of an up rooted tree are doing very well.
     We got the rock ordered for the driveway. It should be here this weekend. My husband has been working very hard at killing all the grass and weeds that are growing in the driveway. I tried spraying it with vinegar and that didn't work, he bought some stuff that didn't work so yesterday he bought different stuff, Roundup weed and grass killer. He put it on yesterday evening and this morning we have a lot of brown grass and weeds but there is some green left. It did work better that the other stuff we have been trying. There is some left in the bottle so I expect that my husband will spray it again today.
     We had a planned power outage yesterday evening for maintenance. Even though they said it would be shut off at 5:30 it was actually shut off at 3. I thought it was nice to know ahead of time so we could be prepared. We did learn something during this temporary outage, my husband is addicted to electric. He doesn't know what to do with himself when he cant get on the computer or watch tv. He couldn't even take a nap because it was to quiet. So I must figure out some things to put in my prepper supply to entertain my husband. But I figure if/when the SHTF happens there will be plenty for him to do.
     Have a good day.

                                                                      April Whitehair

Do you know any good bug repellant for the garden?

     Rain again. I am so tired of rain. I know that in the summer I will be wishing for rain. I was hoping to hang laundry out on the line today but I guess that is out of the question. I guess I am lucky to have a dryer that I can use. I have been trying to use less electric and gas lately. Just trying to save money. I made my own clothes line out of wire, but the first try I used a thin nylon cord and that did not work. It stretched. So I switched to the wire. I looked at the ones the store was selling and I did not like any of those. So I made my own with what I had on hand. I don't understand paying money for something that I don't have to.
     I just walked through the garden and more of the plants have been eaten by bugs of some sort. I just sprayed seven dust on them again yesterday. It seems to be attracting bugs instead of repelling them. I was at first just my beans being eaten but this morning my sunflower, cucumber, pepper, and peas all have damage. I will have to go buy something else. I wish I knew what to buy that would work. I have never seen any bugs on any of the plants so I don't know what kind I am dealing with. I will have to find one that repels all kinds. Any suggestions?
     Have a good day.

                                                                   April Whitehair

     Good morning.  Its raining again. All this rain is driving me crazy. But I think the garden likes it. Everything is growing. The beans look so sad. The bugs have ate the top leaves but they are still growing. I used the seven dust spray last week and they don't look any worse. I hope they continue to grow and over come the damage. Yes I know that seven dust spray is not organic but I had to buy what I could find and that is all I could find that day. My plans for next years garden is to go all organic and gmo free. I never thought about it this year when I bought seeds. Live and learn or plant and learn. The lettuce is growing so good. It wont be long now and we will be eating salad or maybe some BLTs. My favorite thing to eat from the garden is fried green tomatoes. I wait all year long for them. I will eat almost all the tomatoes before they turn red. I don't eat red tomatoes, I just don't like them but I will eat all kinds of tomato sauces and products. But I do have to let some ripen for my mom and husband. At this point both of the tomato plants have a couple blooms. The plants are still small but growing every day. My sister/neighbor's garden is doing so good. She already has baby peppers growing on her plants. I have to admit I am a little jealous. I hope that she doesn't have a green tomato before me because I already told her that I would steal it. I probably wont but it will be very hard not to.
     Have a good day.

                                                                   April Whitehair

Vacation Planned

     Good morning. I am awake early and have my coffee in hand. It's Sunday, church day. I have to get moving and get ready.  Frost warning again last night. So I had to tuck in all my garden again. I cant wait till all these cold nights are gone. It's almost June shouldn't it be getting warm. Oh well I am gone to try not to complain, I will do enough of that when it gets really hot. I would rather be cold that hot. You can always put more clothes on but you can only take so many off.
     My husband and I have booked our vacation. I am so excited. Every summer we go camping at the beach. I love camping and so does he. Actually we got married at the beach and spent our honeymoon in our tent. I am a low maintenance kind of girl. We go to a great campground right on the beach. The other families at the campground are nice. I love to spend the day laying on the beach and swimming in the ocean. We go to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and a pizza place called Chichos for dinner. They have the best pizza ever. We dream of that pizza all year. We sometimes make a fire to set around and make smores for desert. I love going on vacation and getting away from all the stresses at home. My sisters will take care of mom while I am gone. Last year we were gone a whole week this year we will only be gone about 4 days. I am so grateful for having good sisters that help so we can get away and recharge. Love my sisters.
    Well I have to go get ready for church. Have a good day.

                                                             April Whitehair

Homemade Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener

     Good morning. Headache from yesterday is finally gone. It lasted for over 24 hours. I thought that I was going to die. I hate headaches so bad.
    It is cold out. The thermometer on the front porch says 30 degrees. Good thing I went out last night and covered up all the garden. My yard looks like a linen closet exploded. Oh well as long as my garden lives another day.
    Today I have a lot of cleaning to do. Not my favorite thing. But with not doing much yesterday I have a lot to do to make up for. I always seem to have lots of laundry.  And I will have even more with covering the garden with sheets. Its a good thing that I make my own laundry detergent. It really does save me lots of money. I am not good at math so I have never done the math on how much I have actually saved by making my own. But others have done the math and it is a lot of saving. I thought I should show you my recipe. I hope it saves someone else some money as well.

Homemade Laundry Detergent 

4 cups hot tap water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar or Zote soap bar

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (not baking soda)

1/2 cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap is melted.

 

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

 

Makes 10 gallons
 5/8 Cup per load

Homemade Fabric Softener

1 cup hair conditioner, any kind, what ever you have
1 1/2 cup white vinegar
3 cups hot water

Mix together.
Pour into an old fabric softener bottle.
Use the same amount of this as you would the store bought kind.

I hope to hear how this works for you. It works for me. The laundry detergent is not sudsy. So don't think it is not working.

Have a good day.

                                             April Whitehair