A new Food Dehydrator...FREE for you!!

Last week I mentioned what happens when opportunity knocks.

Today I'd like to help it knock on your door.

Part of what I told the representative from CSN stores was that I was not willing to endorse a company to the people that trust me enough to take the time to invest in what I have to say, without having any experience with their company. Well, I did. I ordered the Dehydrator you see on the right from their housewares store and have actually been amazed with the service. After the order was placed, I received quick confirmation. Then, shortly after, I was informed of the shipping schedule; order would ship in 3-5 days... I figured I'd have it this week some time. What surprised me was the notification that I got the next day that my order had been bumped up (free of charge) and was on it's way. The next day it was on my doorstep! I would never have thought it would come so fast.

So then, the next part of what I arranged to do was to pass on the giving to you! If was happy with the service, then I was willing to share that with you in the form of another FREE food dehydrator. It's my first give away, and I can't think of a better item. With the upcoming season upon us I just know there has to be someone out there that could use one of these babies. After all, it may only come with 4 trays but it's expandable to 12!

So here's what I'm asking for from you. Don't just leave a comment on the post, share a little something with me please. If you've been a reader for some time, let me know what you enjoy about my blog. If you're a new reader, I'd love to know what led you here or what you're looking for. Help me be a better blogger and get a chance at a FREE FOOD DEHYDRATOR!

I'm Looking forward to it. Share with your friends or link to this post if you like, but either way one entry per person please. I'll announce a winner in one week, so that's March 11th.
Good luck!
Paul~

A word on consideration

A~ had her shoulder surgery today. She has a very hard time with medications, particularly narcodic ones. We try not to take drugs here other than the occasional ibuprophren or Acetomeniphen for the standard aches and pains so she's very sensitive to them. She came through the surgery alright, they found a bone spur, scarring and tissue inflamation and her joint was "loose" and they "tightened" it (don't ask... it's kinda gross.). The hardest part was waking and being able to eat/drink. She made it and I love her for how she pushed through it in her own time.

I have to ask as a result of today though, "What has happened to consideration?" I can understand the other patience in a room being a little loud or loopy, they're on God knows what kind of drugs. But while A~ tried to deal with nausea and falling in and out of sleep, she was jerked awake more than once, or thrice for that matter, by loud laughter and talking. And I'm not just being sensitive because it was my sweetheart. It was ridiculous. People talk and laughed behind the curtains like they were in their own rooms! And here's the kicker; the nurses and doctors were the loudest. I know all about where one doctor likes to vacation with his family down in southern Utah, and where another nurse used to live on the east side of the valley. Oh yes, and let us not overlook the nurse who felt the need to sing happy birthday to some other nurse over the PA system! Yep, that was one of the times A~ jerked awake and looked at me like I'd just shaken her bed.

I'm sorry to have to subject you all to this rant but honestly, I just had to get it off my chest. I'm so tired of the prevalence of inconsiderate people! It's a sad commentary... isn't it? Or am I just a whiner who's over reacting? Are people more and more inconsiderate of others around them or is it just me? Maybe I'm just out of the loop because I don't use a cell phone normally so I'm not used to thinking I'm always in a "private" conversation. Who knows?

In the end, I just thank the lord my wife is well, I pray she heals quickly and I thank you for letting me vent!

Peace all...
P~

When opportunity knocks.

From time to time offers and opportunities come our way that sound good but we're just not sure. Perhaps they're too good to be true, perhaps we just never give them a try so we can't really say?

That's kind of been the line that I've taken on supporting advertising here. I've had offers from companies before and, whether it's because the person contacting me just seemed "pushy" or maybe it was a company that didn't really have anything to offer my readers, but for whatever reason I just never made the commitment to dip a toe into that world. It's something that I've thought about doing a little of this year, but wasn't sure how I was willing to do it.

Well, yet again the world seems to be pointing me in the direction I have decided to move and opportunity knocked...err.. emailed as it were and I find myself prepared to test these waters. The company that contacted me provides, from what I can tell, everything from Bar Stools to Writing desks and very seemingly everything else in between. They're called CSN stores and I have to say, I've been impressed so far with my dealings with them.

So then, what's the rub? What do I get in return for my endorsement? First off, re-read what you just read. See any endorsements? Nope, not yet. Links maybe, but heck those are a dime a dozen. One of the things that I did like about this company, was that when I told their rep that I wasn't willing to give an endorsement of his company blindly and told him that I can't offer my opinion to my readers without experiencing that company myself, well he thought that was a perfectly reasonable position to come from. I respect that.

To that end, I went about searching their extensive catalog. I was pretty surprised actually at how easy the site was to navigate. As a full time web developer I can definitely appreciate an easy to use web-site. At any rate, I found my self lost in the food section (surprise!!) and found something that I am willing to test my user experience out on. A food dehydrator. It's something that I need terribly anyway and if I'm going to check out a web-site they darn well better offer something I'd be interested in anyway right? Right!

There's also another reason that I decided to try out this product. It's a pretty good reason, but one that I'm going to have to make you wait for. After all, I did say I wasn't willing to stand behind anyone that I didn't have experience with right?
So just a little bit of patience and hopefully if all goes well I can have some good news for you next week... about the Dehydrator... and what I think of it... and what I think of CSN stores. Till then, I'll just be watching my dried tomato stash dwindle knowing next year I will have many many more!!

Wish me luck.

The lone survivor.

Last fall I embarked on a new experiment. Cloning Tomato cuttings from some of my favorite tomatoes from last years garden.

The going was great to start with. I was able to get all the cuttings to root nicely, they all transplanted to soil with no rejections and all was going along like I'd done this for years. And then old man winter snuck up and clubbed me over the proverbial head with weather that stayed in the teens and twenties for weeks and weeks. I was able to cover the transplants with some plastic, that helped a bit. I even brought an electric heater into the greenhouse to keep the chill off under the plastic overnight by running it with an on and off schedule using a timer, that helped too, but just not enough, I kept loosing plants here and there through the winter.

Sadly, I finally met my match with a final hard cold spell some time in early January that took nearly all the rest. But one hearty little guy held out. He was scrawny and a little cold burned on the tips but with some love I've been able to pull it through!
It's one of the heartland tomatoes that I grew last year and lucky for me that was at the top of the list of tomatoes that I wanted to be able to keep over the winter.

Right now, this little Heartland tomato is about eight inches tall and starting to fill in a bit more. My hope is that I can let it grow for another couple of weeks and then split it again from this stock and get at least three healthy plants from this lone survivor. This is a known to be a particularly good patio tomato variety, meaning that it can do well in pots, and I plan to try my hand at growing a few of them that way this year. Because they are also indeterminate (meaning the harvest doesn't come all at once, but rather trickles in all season.) the plan is that if I have them established well in the pots come fall, I can move them into the greenhouse and have tomatoes well into December.

Of course I've had these grand ideas before and they didn't work out as planned, but since when has THAT ever been a good reason to quit?
Wish me luck!
P~

For the love of "Scratch"

I've been meaning to put this post up for a week but just haven't had the time to crop photos and make the post. I just can't let my wife go un-heralded though. She starting working this year, and has been recognized for all the talents that I knew she had which has led to more demand for her at work. The best part is that she's working with me (in a way) so I get to hear all about how great she is to which I look at people and say " Um, yeah?!! I know!".

Yet even with that, and a shoulder that is still giving her pains from our car accident a few months back, she continues to bless us with such good food... and so often from scratch!

Like these cheese rolls:
They're a big time family favorite. How could you not love homemade bread wrapped around a tasty cheesy middle? And if you glaze the top with salted butter it leaves the golden brown color with a just a hint of saltiness. MMMmmm MMMmmm good!

They're great with a bowl of homemade chili too.And I can't say enough how nice it is to make chili that just screams from flavor because its made with canned tomatoes and tomato sauce from your own homegrown tomatoes, fresh onions from the cold storage and green chili's that we picked from a local farm and canned ourselves. If you haven't had the pleasure of fresh food from ripe ingredients you have not lived!

For dessert we feasted on a brand new recipe for scratch made yellow cake made bright yellow of course with the dark golden yolks of our back yard chickens eggs.A~ found a new way to make the chocolate frosting that is the creamiest and tastiest that we've had.

It's one thing to talk about eating from the storage cabinet and survival food has it's place, but honestly, the best gift gained from building the habit of growing and putting up your own food and learning the ways of preparing it on a regular basis is really just in the enjoying of your labors and the flavors that they bring.

Hmm, I think I'm getting hungry again just talking about it. Life is good. Some days better than others, but days like this are among the best!
Best to you all.
P~

Knock knock knockin...

On Springtimes dooooor....
Oh man! Can I tell you how bad spring fever has kicked in with me? It's crazy I tell you, I can't wait to get growing!

This afternoon, I ended up having to come home early because I had a hurt little one. (He's 14 but hey they're ALWAYS your little ones right?) Anyway, when we got back to the house, the sun was out and it had to have been a balmy 45 degrees (F) out. Now I grew up in Southern California and in years past I would have been coated up on a 45 deg. day but today I just had to get out and fork some dirt!!

I was able to get our whole potato patch forked over along with one of our back yard raised beds and another smallish bed that's along the house. It felt soooo good to see the rich black soil turning over. Getting to reach down, pick up a healthy sized clod and easily crumble it in my hand. I found the clippings and chicken manure that had been turned in last fall was making it's way nicely into becoming nourishing humus for the upcoming years garden and had helped to grow an incredibly healthy population of earth worms over the winter.

Soon I'll be setting the seed starter up in our east facing sliding door window and getting things started there too. Then in another couple of weeks things will be filling the greenhouse in preparation for planting. In fact, A~ and I had wonderful Valentines day together and then treated ourselves to a breakfast out together on Monday morning as we were both off from work, and being the the madly in love, nano-farming couple we are what do you think we did? We ate breakfast, chatted about exactly how in love we are, and then whipped out our garden journal from last year and started hammering out our list of things that we'll be growing and where we want to put them of course! What? Isn't that what you'd call a romantic morning out? I mean what can be more romantic than talking about your goals together, planning for the things you want to do together and then working out the details of how you'll get them done together by working side by side? Ha! got you thinking now don't I?

Well anyway, I suspect this is just the beginning of the suffering that is Spring Fever in the inter-mountain west. Today will be warm and inviting then tomorrow it'll rain and snow but by evening it will all melt off and be warm again but too wet to work. Oh and I wish I were kidding, alas, I am not. But never fear, Spring is on it's way, so if you haven't started planning your attack you'd better start thinking about it soon.

Best wishes and Bring on the Spring!!

Paul~

Yeah, we got skills...

The wife and I that is. We make a heck of a team.

You see, she comes up with these great ideas for how we can make use of a particular area, and I build the solutions for her. Then, When I'm done, and there's this kinda OK looking piece of wood sitting in some room, she comes along with a gallon of paint and a truckload of creativity and **POOF** "Dang that looks good honey!!"

Case in point, She decided that the open area just under our railing in the front room needed a nice bench to sit on while we change shoes and that we could maybe store backpacks or blankets in.

A trip to the hardware store, some doodles on a scratch pad and a few weekend days later I built her a bench.... with storage of course.


In fact, she liked the idea so much she decided we needed a matching piece for the library that we finished almost exactly two years ago.


Yep, more storage, can a growing family ever have enough?


But what I built her in wood was only half the project. She went in, painted and "aged" it...


...and then sealed it with multiple coats of protective clear coats and we now have a great looking bench in the front room.


And an equally good looking mini bench/ottoman for our library.


And there you have it, if you can't find what you want, or if what you do find just costs too darn much, give building your own a try. The first few times they may be a little skewed or wobbly, but each time you'll get better and better. Pick up a good how to magazine like "home handyman" for example at the library and do your research. It can be done and let me tell you, there's no better feeling than showing off your own creations.

Now, I hoping the "if you build it they will come" rule will apply. Think the bench in the library will get the kids reading more?
We'll see.
Best
P~