The Death of Writers Block

Writer's Block has been slain like the demon it is!  Things around here have been busy, both in the yard and the house.  We are working on redecorating the inside and have painted the dining room and kitchen, my son's room is next.

Out in the garden, we turned new beds, lined them with black garden fabric and planted tons of stuff!

This is 6 tomato plants (1 mortgage lifter, 1 black prince & 4 rutgers, 1 sweet basil, 1 hungarian hot pepper & 2 tomatillos. We have since finished laying the fabric

The left section with the planter is the herb bed. The top tier of the planter is greek oregano, the bottom of the planter in this pic is sage but we moved it to the ground in front of the planter since they get 2-3' tall. Now there is french tarragon and sweet marjoram in the bottom of the planter.

The bed with the trellis in it has 2 ambrosia melons against the trellis and 2 bush crop cucumbers in front. The larger bed at the time of this pic was 3 chubby checker corn plants, 2 sweet banana pepper plants, 2 each of zucchini and crookneck squash.

Since taking these pictures, we have lost 1 tomatillo to a badly placed husband's knee, all 3 pepper plants to a hungry hen, all 3 corn plants to either a scratching hen or a digging dog..c'est la vie right?!

Ooh, also found out you can regrow things like celery, bok choy and romaine lettuce by putting the 'butts' in warm water!  After 2 days I am seeing new growth on my bok choy!!!

Regrowing Celery 

We are also hoping no crazy weather hits, it is already warmer than normal and we have already seen days creeping toward 90 degrees. April is usually a month of wild electrical storms and some tornadoes for us, so here's hoping we miss it this time around, although the occasional shower would be great! 

Check out what the Almanac says about the past couple and next couple days:

10th-12th Barren Period. Do No Planting.
13th-14th Favorable Days For Planting Beets, Carrots, Turnips, Radishes, Onions, And Root Crops.

 Glad I saw that ahead of time!! Thank to Tim at Oleo Acres Farm for sharing these tidbits from the Almanac on his Facebook page. Be sure to click the link and like his page!!

Other than gardening and painting, I have been canning up a storm, gotta love the clearance produce from Kroger and Easy Way! So far in the past couple weeks I have put up half pints of strawberry preserves, sugar free raspberry preserves, mixed berry jam, sriracha, pickled green tomato relish, and pints & quarts of glazed carrots and cajun spiced yellow squash. i need to get some pics up of all the pretty jars. sorry i'm a slacker without a camera at the moment.

In keeping with the topic of store sales, we have also stocked up on what we can for an emergency situation. It's good to keep at least a month's worth of food on hand in case of an emergency or unexpected situation like loss of income.  My friend's think I'm nuts, but 3 of them have already said "I know where I'm coming when SHTF." I said "Oh really? What are you bringing with you, ain't no free rides here?"  LOL  By the way, scroll back to the top and check out the ZA counter..only 8 months and such left, be prepared people!!!!!
Prepared Pantry - 30 day supply


So my questions for you all are, what's going on in your garden? And what are you doing to prepare for an emergency situation? (This is especially for my TN friends, cuz you now the weather here in April is CRAZY!)

Ok, I think I'm done ramblin' for the night. I'm going to bed now.

Pepper Joe's & Penny's Tomatoes Seed giveaway!

FREE SEEDS CONTEST: 6 Big Winners will win EIGHT Freebies each...(pack of myco blast and Soil Blast soil conditoners, 3 packs of Tomato seeds and 3 packs of Hot Pepper seeds)....$40 value. WOW. 1 Grand Winner gets a 'Volcano in a Box"...$45 value 7 winners in all.

HOW TO WIN: Easy. We give you one entry for everywhere you place a post/plug for Pepper Joe's and Penny's Tomatoes. Place a post on your Facebook page...1 entry. Place a post on your Twitter...one entry....place a post on a Gardening site...one entry...Linked in...one entry. etc. Postings can be on ANY site out there. You decide where. No limit to how many entries you can have. Post a listing on your webpage... and you get THREE entries. Or on someone elses Website. That's right 3 entries! We love being on websites.

The BEST Website post/plug wins the Volcano in a Box. Please include our website addresses on all postings--->>Pepper Joes and Pennys Tomatoes

HOW TO ENTER: Send me an email to pepperjoe@sc.rr.com with CONTEST in the Subj. Tell me how many places and where you did a posting. We'll give you the right amount of entries. Please list the WEBSITE ADDRESSES so we can take a peek at them. List your mailing address to receive the Free Prizes. 

TIP: The more places you post us, the better your chances are to win. Anybody with FIVE or more postings...we'll DOUBLE your entries. I.E. give us 6 postings...you get 12 entries. 

Grey Water

First off, let me steal the definition from wikipedia..

Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands. Greywater differs from water from the toilets which is designated sewage or blackwater to indicate it contains human waste.   Greywater gets its name from its cloudy appearance and from its status as being between fresh, potable water (known as "white water") and sewage water ("black water"). In a household context, greywater is the leftover water from baths, showers, hand basins and washing machines only. Some definitions of greywater include water from the kitchen sink. Any water containing human waste is considered black water.

Since I have yet to incorporate this into my home, I will be link sharing, hope you don't mind  :)

Rain Barrels & Greywater Diversion

Now, for places like Memphis that don't get near enough rain in the summer, I think this is a wonderfully awesome idea!  We are checking around with locals who have similar systems and comparing prices for different materials. Over the next couple months as we get beds positioned and dug, I will be posting picture/video updates of the progress. I'm hoping for a mister and underground soaker system.  Am I ambitious?  YES!  Will I find a way to get it done on my non-existent budget?  YOU BET!!


Do you reuse greywater or know anyone who does? Have some great resources to share with us? Please post them!!!!

Monday means weekend updates!

Well, thanks to Mother Nature, who has blessed us with decent weather this weekend (its in the 60s now) we got quite a bit accomplished around here!  Had a friend bring us some deer meat Friday, so we got that cut down and vaccuum sealed and in the freezer.  The biggest accomplishment being the chicken coop (it's now shingled. planning a raised bed on top)

Then, we rehung the 2 long clotheslines, turned the compost, turned a patch of dirt where I am planting beans, added compost to that patch and turned it again. I started some turnip and beet seeds using a method I found on Wintersown, I can't wait to chart their progress! Hmm...let's see...oh, while digging in the dirt with the kids, I found quite a few purple sweet potatoes that were hiding from me when I harvested.  Most were molded but  few pieces were good enough to save to root and plant.  Pics to come soon!

What's going on on your homestead?

Change of plans & My first GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

So yo know that big post I did the other day about all the seeds I was about to order, well the budget got re-appropriated for a more important bill.  But no fear, I found this wonderful site called Listia (thank you Adventures of a Thrifty Mama for sharing the link!) where I have won jerusalem artichoke seeds and mustard green seeds and have bids out on a few others including blackberries and strawberries.  The best part?  They are all free and all the ones I have bid on are free shipping also!!

And now for the giveaway!  It's a really cute tomato planter with a bag of organic growing medium (ain't it funny how they make dirt sound fancy?) and a package of tiny tim cherry tomato seeds!!  I'm asking you do 2 things to enter:

-share the link to the blog on social media and leave a comment here with a link to it
-leave a comment here on what you plan to grow this spring

I will then leave it up to a random number generator to decide who wins!!  Good luck to all that enter, you have till January 31st to get those comments in!!!

Pic to come as soon as my connection stops being so fickle and lets me upload!

My favorite cold remedies

Well, here in Memphis, its sinus/cold season from October-March/April and cold medicine is yucky and expensive.  So here are my favorite recipes for colds & sinus:


Homemade syrup:
1 cup honey
1/2 onion chopped
1 inch ginger grated
dash of cayenne pepper

cook the onions & ginger in the honey till they are translucent, the longer the better.  I dash in the cayenne right before removing from the heat. Strain out the solids.  Take a tablespoon as soon as its cool enough to take. store in a honey bottle or mason jar.  It tastes pretty bad but if you are sick enough to want to take meds, you aren't gonna care how it tastes.  Chances are you are so congested you won't be able to taste or smell it anyway.



Tea:  ( per 1 cup)
1 teaspoon dried catnip
1 teaspoon dried chamomile flowers
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 bag green tea (or your favorite hot tea)

brew in a teapot or cheat like me and make it in the coffeepot.


I hope you feel better soon; please share your remedies with us!!

Prepping for Spring - Part 2 Seed Inventory & Selection

With the unseasonably warm weather we are having, I have been having thoughts of spring and planting.  I decided to pull out all the seeds I have and was surprised to find I have a good bit!  Not all the heirloom I want, but I gotta start somewhere, right?  So here is the list of what i currently have on hand (that I have collected and packets from friends):

• 100s of bell pepper
• lots of jalapeno and other varieties hot peppers
• canteloupe & honeydew melon
• eggplant
• heirloom broccoli (waltham 29)
• heirloom soybeans (thanks to Tim from Oleo Acres)
• okra
• 2 varieties of beets
• carrots
• squash
• 2 varieties of lettuce
• royal burgundy bush beans
• roma bush beans
• turnips
• pumpkin
• shelly beans
• peaches n cream corn

I think I am off to a pretty good start!  But I really want to expand this year and thankfully have the help/muscle of a couple family friends.  Here's the list of what I want to buy from Baker Creek heirloom Seed Co:

• sugar snap peas
• costata romanesca squash
• tomatillos
• yellow & red cherry tomatoes
• calendula
• catnip
• chamomile
• feverfew
• scullcap
• swiss chard
• kale
• 2 types of eggplant
• asparagus
• bok choy
• fennel
• wild rocket arugula
• bee balm
• cilantro
• sage 
• horehound
• amaranth
• italian pepperoncini peppers
• parisian pickling cucumbers
• berries & grapes

Sounds like a lot, I know, especially for my yard, but I will be utilizing the beds in the front also and the east side of the house.  most of the herbs will also be in pots on a shelf.  I already have the egg crates ready to start seed and am thinking of starting some lettuce now. The bug has bit and man it bit hard!!!  I'm ready for spring!!!!  All the seeds I am ordering are going to cost about $50 and that doesn't count the berries, grapes and fruit trees I want..

You know what excites me most about this list?  The amaranth.  Don't know what that is? Amaranth is an 8,000 year old crop called the “super food” by the ancient Aztecs.  Once an abundant part of the empire’s crop base, Amaranth was fed to runners and warriors because of its reputation for providing large bursts of energy and improving athletic performance. The crop was regarded so highly that each year bushels of Amaranth were presented to their leader, Montezuma. Because the crop figured so prominently in Aztec culture and religious ceremonies, the conquering armies of Cortez burned the fields to the ground. As European crops replaced indigenous ones, Amaranth slowly fell out of use. Twenty years ago, the “ancient crop with a future” enjoyed a renaissance when the National Academy of Sciences recommended Amaranth as one of twenty foods to be re-introduced into the American diet.

 Amaranth contains large amounts of dietary fiber, iron, and calcium as well as other vitamins and minerals. Amaranth also has naturally high amounts of lysine, methionine and cysteine combined with a fine balance of amino acids making it an excellent source of high quality, balanced protein (about 14% by volume), which is more complete than the protein found in most grains. In addition to Amaranth’s outstanding nutritional value, it is also very low in sodium and contains no saturated fat. Another outstanding feature is that our Amaranth is organically grown and is naturally Non-GMO.