themartianchick

Awwwww! How sweet that you got to meet eachother.

YAAAYY!!!!

Congratulations to you and your family! Like C4C, I remember the writer's cramp from signing my name so many darn times. By the time the house was ours, my signature didn't even look like mine anymore! On the way out of the building to find our car in the parking lot, I remember me whispering in disbelief to my husband, 'We just bought a house!'

The moment was HUGE!!!

And yours will be, too!

If ya'll didn't realize that I'm a troll... It is just that you've never seen my hair when I first wake up!! I look EXACTLY like those treasure troll dolls. I try to stay inside until I've dragged a garden rake through my hair, so the neighbors don't find out the truth!

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Troll_doll

Like walkin' in the rain and the snow when there's nowhere to go.....and you're feelin' like a part of you is dyin'.

Yep, seriously stuck in my head...I used to sing that song all the time when I was growing up. (I'm more the type to whistle it all day!)

Hope she doesn't have Lucy Riccardo type antics!

 

Can't wait to see her baby.

I am now picturing this:

Congratulations on Lucy! She will be a wonderful prep to have and you can raise up some calves for meat or to sell. I never really thought of doing something like that. I usually shy away from the idea of having a milking critter because I don't want to be tied down to a milking schedule. Your plan would work for me! Er...uh... If I ever move out of the city, that is!

If only my neighbors weren't the complaining type!

My freezers are now full... Unless I start canning some meat, there is no way that I can stockpile any more meat. We have a deep freezer and two fridge freezers that I have gone all out on stocking up during the past month and a half.

A local grocery store with awful prices on everything else has surprisingly good prices on meat, so we've stocked up on hubby's steaks and beef ribs. Our chicken comes from Wegmans at 99 cents per pound. It isn't the best price, but it is affordable for us. We generally don't trust the chicken from the other stores, though it is often a bit cheaper. However, we did catch a sale on chicken breasts at Price Chopper a few weeks ago for 99 cents a pound and stocked up. Now I need to wait for the roaster chicken sales... There are only two left in the freezer and I won't have room for more unless I use up the big bag of ice in the deep freezer. ( I like to keep a bag of ice in case of a power outage.)

Though it was pricey, I stocked up on a couple of bags of frozen shrimp, tilapia and salmon. That will see to our seafood needs and there are plenty of turkey products (turkey bacon, turkey sausage, turkey breast, etc...) Now, it is time to focus on stocking up the dry goods and canned items.

I still believe that there will be a meat deals out there... I think we will have to search for them. I know that there are certain days of the week where my local grocery stores have good sales due to fast approaching sell by dates. There is one type of meat that I only buy during that type of sale. I may invest in a meat slicer so that I can slice my only deli meats and whatever else I can use it for.

I received an email from Organic Garden this morning and it was talking about a tomato/potato plant. Tomatoes on top potatoes at the roots. Has anyone had any experience with this type of plant?

 

http://www.whateverw...8242&ID=50,1967

 

I do know that you can plant tomatoes and potatoes together the they feed each other but never heard of one plant that produces both.

I don't have any experience with them but according to the link that you posted, the plants are grafted so this isn't a seperate species of plant. Bot potatoes and tomatoes are from the nightshade family, so it is probably similar to grafting apples onto a pear tree. It would probably be a way of saving gardening space, but wouldn't help much in a situation because saved tomato seeds would only grow tomatoes and not tomato/potatoes!

Many years ago, (propbably 1998 or so) I discovered the low carb diets. Initially, I lost weight but nticed that my body began to react differently to food and not in a good way. While I felt full most of the time and the diet did dramatically reduce my carb cravings, I found that I dehydrated very easily. Without carbs in my diet, I do not think to drink water or anything else. Since that time, I've had issues with dehydration.

I have found that not all carbs are treated the same way by my body. If I eat white rice or corn products like popcorn, tortilla chips, cornbread, etc... I am hungry for more almost immediately. A pot of dirty rice made with white rice is a neverending meal, but if made with brown rice, I only eat a normal portion.

I lost 13 pounds this summer with very little effort and even less exercise by allowing myself 300-350 calories in snacks scattered throughout the morning and early afternoon. My typical snacks are simple things like a packet of high fiber oatmeal or a Fiber Plus bar. These are things that I keep in my desk because they don't spoil and I'm only there once per week. At home, a snack might be a baggie of baby carrots, a cup of lowfat yogurt, grapes, cherries, strawberries or some other fruit or vegetable that I want. Each of those items have between 100-125 calories each so I usually have 3 of them each day. The nice thing is that if I'm really hungry for some reason, I can have another 100 calorie item without feeling as though I've blown the diet!

I drink a lot of water or unsweetened iced tea all day long and rarely drink anything with calories. Around 3 or 4pm, I will fix a dinner of whatever I want (within reason) and this helps to keep me from feeling deprived. I can have a scoop of ice cream as a treat and not be witchy acting with the family.

I am just now back to adding exercise into my routine. I used to participate in the miles threads, but found that my knee was giving me so much trouble that it was hard to commit to any kind of an exercise schedule. The long layoff seems to have helped. According to the free Nike Running App on my iPhone, I have logged almost 14 miles this week...my first week back to running. This is a combination of running and walking and the app tracks how far you've gone using GPS. It is a fun little exercise tool and I've been sharing it with lots of folks this week. I have my eye on a Nike Training app, but seem to have a problem with downloading it from iTunes.

WARNING!!! Man bashing will commence below:

You have to forgive your hubby for that... He is a man and cannot help it. My hubby immersed my crockpot in a sinkful of water to allow it to soak. He did the same thing to the one that I bought to replace it. Hubby is no longer allowed to touch the new crockpot!

Thanks, Miki & Mt Rider! I have essentially rehydrated but hubby and I are now wondering if we picked up a trace of norovirus or food poisoning. It hit me around 2 am, but now I'm fine. It hit hubby around 5am, though he is already on the mend. I am leaning towards food poisoning, but we really didn't eat anything that was the same. Hubbby is staying home because his job is very physical, but I'm going to work to put in my one day for the week.

Did you see the other link, Martian. The first two alternate egg-layers were ours - ducks and quail.

 

MtRider

Thank you ladies! I may have to wait until tomorrow to drink any adult , Jeepers. We spent the day at Niagara Falls (on the NY side of the border) and it was really HOT!!!!! I'm a little too dehydrated for alcohol, I'm afraid. The good thing is that alcohol doesn't spoil!! I'm still pondering how you can get dehydrated while surrounded by all of that rushing water...

Hubby and I spent a wonderful day visiting the aquarium at Niagara Falls, walking through the park and across long bridges that take over the Niagara River and taking photos. While most people go gaga over the Canadian side of the Falls because they have a lot of touristy things to do, we also enjoy the beauty of the American side of the Falls. It is maintained as a pristine park, so things are kept in their natural state. We always try to imagine what it must have been like to be the first person to ever discover the Falls. It must have been absolutely amazing!!!

It was so nice for the two of us to take a road trip together. For years, our kids went everywhere that we did. I'm starting to feel as though I've gotten my favorite date back...and that is the best gift of all!

That is odd to find in a grocery store egg, Arby. It is pretty common to have a spot or two of blood in an egg on a farm, though.

Most commercial eggs are candled with a light to make sure that they are deformity free. With my chickens, I sometimes get an odd egg that has a spot or two of blood. My original flock had more spotty eggs due to the fact that they really weren't an egg producing breed. They were valued for having very dark shelled eggs and the breeders don't pay too much attention to the egg quality! My current flock includes one of the darkegg layers and two production hens (Hylines) The Hylines will lay a watery egg once in a while, but I've never had blood in them.

What a scary situation! I'm so glad that everyone is okay. Hubby and I just had a minor fender bender an hour and a half ago. The young man that rear-ended us was terrified. It was his first accident and he was driving his sister's car with only a learner's permit. He was trying to do a favor for his co-workers by transporting them home. We felt sorry for him...but we are extremely glad that the car was insured.

........................... Poor Michael

waiting for it to come out in paperback so he can read it too.

Guess what, Michael?

Christmas in Bystander is now out in paperback!!!

(I thought that you should be the first to know!)

Darlene, you know I don't have an accent! Why are you misleading these poor folks.

 

Dear Lord,

 

Please open our dear Stephanie's blind eyes that she might see the extremely souuuuuuuuuuuuuthern accent she is blessed with...

 

lolol

 

((((stephanie))))

It is funny but I have always "heard" Stephanie's posts in a heavy Southern drawl in my head. Since I've never met her in person, I don't know why that is...

We got some rain last night and the ground was still wet this morning at 7:30 when I went outside. I just don't know how much rain we actually got, to know if it will have any real impact.

We got some rain overnight!! It is hard to figure out how much we actually got, but the ground didn't seem to be quite so hard when I went out to take care of the quail & chickens. In fact, the ground was still a little damp. I'm hoping that it was a significant amount.I spent this morning in court and am spending the afternoon tending to book-related stuff. I hope that everyone has a marvelous day!

It does sound like a lot of work, but I'm so glad that you enjoyed yourself!

I think weather.com is just putting up pictures of rain to keep our hopes up that this dry weather may end. But seeing every day they post rain and we don't get it maybe they are just rolling dice to post weather each day?

 

Was at a picnic on Sunday and someone stated that Weathermen are the only people they know that can get things wrong EVERYDAY at work and STILL have a job.

I think I should subscribe to your theories, Michael! They make more sense than most of the other things that I've heard, lately! Still no rain here. It was cloudy for awhile, but nothing ever came of it. Sunny skies are practically blinding me and the temperature is 88 degrees.

No rain yet... Lots of lightning last night. Rain is forecasted for today...We shall see...

The one advantage that I see to quilting versus knitting is that you can quilt with recycled scraps and clothing. In my mind, that makes it quite useful in a situation. I hope that you are able to take a quilting class soon. (But don't stop practicing the knitting!)

They called for rain tonight but here I sit Dry as a bone?

Had a nice 'day trip' today visiting different Amish Shops in area (120 miles).

Everywhere we went they were talking about how dry it is and IF we don't get long rain soon.......................

 

I went outside at 5pm yesterday to trim back the only vegetation that continues to grow despite the drought...Trumpet Vine! Anyway, I could feel the ocassional sprinkle on my arms as I worked. I worked quickly because I didn't want to be caught out in the rain. 15 minutes later I was done and so was the sprinkling. I don't think that I felt more than one sprinkle per 30 seconds.