There's Never Been A Better Time to Start A Garden!

With all the craziness in the world right now, there has never been a better time to start a garden!  Now, you don't have to have a green thumb...all you have to be able to do is read.  Read seed packets, read plant tabs on starts, read a book about beginner gardening, or even just look up back yard vegetable gardening on Pinterest.

Some soil, a seed, a little water and sunlight will give you food for your family without having to rely on anyone else for your survival.  It's an amazing feeling to grow your own food!  And now that we've seen how quickly the store shelves can emtpy, it's has become a necessary skill set as well. 

I wrote a blog post a while back about how we made our raised beds for gardening.  You can read all about it HERE.  
We grow food all year long from just a couple of beds for our family of seven.  And even though we can sustain ourselves with our raised beds, I thought it might be a good idea to expand our growing space just a bit more during this uncertain time. 

I don't need anymore permanent garden beds, but I can increase our growing space temporarily by growing plants in five gallon buckets.

Our back porch will hold several buckets with tomatoes, squash, chard, and a few more bean and pepper plants.

It's a super simple process.  Just head down to your local big box store and purchase your buckets.  Drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the buckets for drainage.  Fill the bottom fourth of your buckets with yard waste: sticks, rocks, leaves, whatever you have to encourage drainage.  Next, fill buckets with a good potting soil and then plant your seeds or plant starts.  Make sure your plants get 6-8 hours of sunshine daily and water as needed.

I pray we are never in a true food supply crisis, but if we were, this set up could supply you with a safe and reliable source. If nothing else, try your hand at growing a tomato and/or a pepper plant in a couple of buckets and see how it goes...a home grown, vine ripened tomato tastes better than anything you could buy at the store anyway!

No Bread in the Stores? No Problem!

In case you’ve been living under a rock lately...

People have been losing their minds!

The Covid-19 virus has the general public bum-rushing the stores and clearing the shelves. Now, we live on the Texas Gulf Coast and are used to having a yearly stockpile for hurricane season.  We have a large pantry (and a large family) so stocking up is something we’ve always done. But it’s pretty disturbing when you go to the store for your normal weekly purchases of milk, bread, and toilet paper and the shelves are empty.

Trying not to panic myself, I walked over to the baking aisle.  I found full shelves of flour, baking powder, and yeast and I knew I could make my own bread for just pennies. 

Panic averted!

So I’m going to share with you two easy recipes for bread that anyone can make using just a few ingredients each. The first one is great for tacos, folded sandwiches, literally anything!

Flatbread

(makes 6)

2 cups of flour

1-1 1/4 cup of warm water

1 Tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs oil, butter, or shortening

Mix dry ingredients and add almost all of the water.  Mix until you have the consistency of tacky pizza dough, adding the remaining water as needed.  Knead for 3-5 minutes. Let dough rest in greased and covered bowl for 30-60 minutes.

Divide into 6 pieces and roll out on a floured surface 

about tortilla thickness.

Heat a skillet with oil to med-high heat.

 Cook dough until you have golden brown spots on both sides.

The next bread is a recipe I have made no less than a thousand times!  I posted this easy no-knead bread waaay back in 2007. It takes a little more time to develop, but the payoff is a delicious crusty loaf that stores really well.

Click HERE to check out the post!

Making bread is easy and it’s such a comforting thing to make in crazy times as these. So while we’re all home practicing social distancing, try your hand at making bread if you’ve never done it before. Make a batch with your kids, take a loaf to your neighbor, or just eat half a loaf by yourself right out of the oven 

slathered in butter!

Stay safe, stay well, and let’s pray for each other!

It’s Deja-vu All Over Again!

In 2-3 weeks I am going to have to re-live one of the most painful events of my life:

A Triple Arthrodesis Revision

I had a triple arthrodesis a year ago.
It was done grossly incorrectly.
Now I get to have it done all over again.

In layman’s terms, my *new* surgeon will remove 
the six screws in my foot,

break my foot in several places, fill in the breaks and screw holes with harvested bone grafts from my shin 
as he rebuilds my arch and ankle, 
then reinstall all the hardware to secure it all.

It’s a big deal, y’all!

And I’m seriously getting PTSD because I know what’s coming. 

So being the little control freak that I am, 

I've turned my anxiety into productivity. 

At least that’s what I’m telling myself!

My nest is ready!

My cozy recliner, quilts, side table with a comfort basket, elevation pillow, and heating pad. Because it’s not only your foot that hurts during this recovery, your whole body hurts when compensating for your non weight bearing leg. 

The freezer is full of meals that the kids can dump in the crockpot.

It’s so nice to not have to worry about feeding the family, especially when you can’t even drive to the store!  Plus, there’s something very comforting about the smell of food simmering all day long. 

I’m revisiting my mobility aides and there are some things that I’m definitely going to do differently this time. 

I’ll plant my garden next week.

I’ve got my Netflix binge list ready.

Books are downloaded on the iPad.

And I’m deep cleaning the house room by room. 

I did all of these things last time in preparation for my surgery, and while they really don't mean a lot in the whole scope things,

mentally they helped me cope.

So it's deja-vu all over again!

But it's going to be ok this time, y’all....

It’s just got to be.