Our Garden!

I'm so excited to finally have a yard to garden in! I have big plans for our yard. This year we won't be able to have quite as big of a garden as I would like, but we've got a few little plants in the ground and plans to get ready for next spring!

Here is where I plan to build our raised beds.
I'm leaning towards using cinder blocks for the bed. 

Here is our persimmons tree. It had fruit on it pretty
well into the winter. I'm hoping it'll liven up again soon.

Eventually I will clear this out and use this bed as well.
I'd like to try some hardy herbs in this spot.

This bed was cleared out and is home to our
little garden for this year. Next year I'd like to make this the
boys' plot and let them pick what they'd like to grow.

Here's Alex with our little garden!
We've got two tomato plants and four pots of leaf lettuce.
We got the plants from a local nursery: Deep Roots Nursery
which uses heirloom seeds and natural growing methods.

What's going into your garden this year?

Compost!

As part of our gardening plans and attempts at a more sustainable lifestyle, we've started a compost! Now, at first, I really liked the idea of a simple, open air compost, but then Alex hit the toddler stage and I realized I wouldn't be able to let him in the backyard without worrying he'd come running up with some rotting banana peels.

So I started looking at composters and oh my goodness were they expensive! I can't believe people pay over $100 for a box to put trash in. It just blows my frugal little mind! Obviously, the commercial composters weren't for us. Luckily I come across several others who seemed to have the same problem as we did and had found a solution!

After reading multiple articles and blogs, I had a plan, and my husband had a job to do! :) We (and by "we" I mean "he") made a compost bin out of an old storage tub. Bonus: the tub has locking handles!

It really is simple, though maybe a bit time consuming.
Take a dark colored plastic storage bin and drill holes in all
sides, bottom included. This allows for proper airflow and drainage.

I can't wait until we have usable compost! Does your family compost? What kind of container do you use, or do you?

Bacon Pancakes!

When a post about bacon pancakes came across my husband's Facebook feed, it was determined that I must make this coupling of his two favorite breakfast foods. I'm pleased to say that it was rather easy and tasty. We decided it could use something a bit sweet to match the bacon's saltiness (we don't generally use syrup) so next time we're going to add chocolate chips to the pancake mix first.

Cook the bacon as you would normally, try to keep it flat.
Mix up your pancakes using whatever recipe/mix you like.
After the bacon is fully cooked, lay it out on the griddle
(you could use a skillet but that would take much longer).
Then pour your pancake mix over each slice.

Flip the bacon pancakes and keep cooking until the pancake is done.
Whole foods- use a homemade pancake mix with whole flours
Vegetarian- use a meat-less bacon
Vegan- meat-less bacon and a vegan pancake mix
(non-dairy milk and egg substitute)

Enjoy! 

It really was that simple! These would be great for potluck brunches, breakfast after a little kid sleep over, Father's Day treats, really any time you'd like to serve bacon and pancakes and make it just a little fancier.

International Women's Day

Check out today's Google Doodle for an awesome tribute to women! I love that the doodle includes women of all different backgrounds! The theme of this year's International Women's Day is "Inspiring Change" focused on encouraging positive moves towards equality.  I'd like to encourage you to embrace International Women's Day and celebrate the women in your life and their contributions to our collective life. Consider ways that you might help to make your home, workplace, or church more equitable between the sexes and then take action!