Grape Expectations

Recently I've written a couple blogs related to my locavore habit. More than a few folks have asked me about it. Even though my husband calls me a closet tree hugger, I assure you I am not. I do not recycle. I did not use cloth diapers. I do not drink wheat juice. I do what I can though! I am however in my own way, concerned with the sustainability of our current agricultural practices. Our population is exploding and in order to meet this demand for food, we spray more chemicals, mow down more forest land, and pollute more rivers and streams. Imagine if ALL of us grew just a LITTLE bit of what we consumed, or if we bought it from a farmer down the road rather than having it shipped here from China. What a difference that would make!  Fewer lung paralyzing fumes on the road, fewer pesticides running into streams, MORE nutrition for our own children.  We haven't bought eggs ONCE since Pete built the poultry palace out back! It's a win win situation. Anyway, with that being said, we have planted grapevines this past weekend! Well, let me clear that up. PETE planted grapevines this weekend. Anyone who knows my husband knows he does NOTHING half way. Oh nooooo.... we have the kind of grape vine trellises they probably have in the Loire Valley of France. We have grapevine trellises that will sustain wine grapes! They really do look nice in the side yard!

We planted Cowart and Triumph varieties of muscadine grapes today.  Cowart grapes are reddish colored and are great for both table grapes as well as wine making. Triumph varieties have a greenish bronze tinge to them and make huge bunches of table type grapes. Both are low maintenance varieties and are suitable for all zones in Georgia.  Both are self pollinating as well. If you choose a grape variety make sure they either self pollinate or if you get female cultivars, you need at least one self pollinator for 4 female plants.   Pete built a three row trellis for the grapes, simply because I want it to serve as sort of a living fence. Many commercial growers only use one row. 

Pete also planted some thornless blackberries and there are blueberry bushes waiting in the pots to be planted on the next beautiful day. I am also hoping to plant a couple pear trees and maybe a plum tree in the orchard area in the side yard.  Can you tell I'm losing my MIND waiting for spring to get here??  Pete insists I have seasonal affective disorder. I tend to agree.  Thanks for all your hard work this weekend!! I love it!!!    Have a great week everyone!

Got Milk?

A few weeks ago my dad mentioned that one of the farmers he knew in our community was going to start bottling and selling milk straight from the farm. This caught my attention because as I've mentioned before, I am really really stoked about the local foods movement. I think it helps sustain the local economy, is generally healthier, and more environmentally responsible.  Dad didn't know much about it but after a little asking around and checking it out I found out some information.


The Frank family has farmed this area for almost 20 years and owns the largest Brown Swiss herd of cattle in the state of Georgia.  According to the local paper,  the Franks built a bottling plant on their dairy and began selling their milk locally last month. There are only three such farm-based bottling plants in Georgia and none in this region.  


When I found very appealing beyond my growing locavore habit, was that the dairy produces top quality milk without the help of rBST, or recombinant bovine somatotropin. rBST is a synthetic hormone which increases milk production in dairy cattle. While I was a student in the college of agriculture at UGA, the use of rBST was a hot topic. While I'm not completely opposed to genetic engineering, I like to have other options available. 


I am also encouraged by the fresh factor! The Franks say that the millk you buy this morning came from the cow YESTERDAY!  I like to know where my food comes from when possible. When you buy milk in the store, it came from all over the country and was pooled at large plants before it came to the grocery store. I'm not at all railing against milk you buy at Kroger. I just think the Frank Farm option is a cool option. They sell straight from the farm as well as in a few local stores.   Of course the price is a little higher at 4 dollars a gallon but I feel good about giving this money straight to the farmer and not to a huge conglomerate like Wal Mart.  The milk is branded as "Southern Swiss" and the only down side?? It's not homogenized...so you have to shake it up or you'll have a big blob of milk fat flop out in your cheerios. Not cool. Definitely not cool. I am planning on getting some chocolate milk this weekend at the farm. Hope it doesn't disappoint!

My fellow finally finished the tea room yellow!

We were cleaning up literally 15 minutes before our weekend company arrived this past weekend, but Pete finished Addie's room!  We like the Tea Room Yellow much better than the Quaker Beige that colors most of the rest of the house. She really likes it. I am so glad I got a good suggestion from a friend (thanks Tammy!) regarding color. I used the same color palette and just chose a slightly different shade. 

In other news, Addie Belle turned five on Monday and we had a wonderful weekend celebrating! Gran and Papa came along with Emma, Sarah, David and Jess. The Mennonite bakery made a wonderful cake and God made BEAUTIFUL weather!

 

Addie also enjoyed a visit from her best friend in the world, Mary Will. Addie sort of pronounces it  "Mer Will" but it's quite endearing.

Sunday was so beautiful, that after church I had to have the horses out.  Peaches is about to wean her colt and she has been acting nutty. She STILL acted nutty Sunday, but after a few suggestions from Ali's riding instructor, I lunged her for a few minutes and the next time I ride I'm going to do that after I saddle but before I ride. We'll see if that works. Her colt is aggravating the stew out of her, jumping on her, biting at her, and he's under her feet ALL the time. She's about to go all MAMA wild on him I'm afraid and I really hope I'm not in the saddle when that happens!  

And lastly, Addie got her hair cut this week. She's been asking for awhile to get it cut and since she's SO tender headed I relented. I'm tired of tears every morning. After she had it cut, I really liked it and so does she!

 Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Tea room yellow almost killed my fellow!

 Since we have family coming in for Addie's birthday this weekend, I've been pestering my husband constantly about getting finished with Addie's room painting!  Poor Addie has been sleeping on the sofa for  over a week because all of her room furnishings are piled on her bed in the middle of the floor. Pete will probably be paying for it tomorrow but he did finish the bedroom and the yellow is really pretty. He didn't get her bathroom or her closet but that's a good rainy day project I guess. Tomorrow I'll be furiously moving her furniture back into place before Addie's cousins, Emma and Sarah arrive.

I bought new Clinique makeup over the weekend and though I used to use Clinique, I'm not sure I like anything  that you can fit 200 dollars worth of in a package not much bigger than a shoebox. I haven't tried it yet. Maybe it will make me look so radiantly young and beautiful that it will be worth it. Something tells me I may be disappointed. :)  Clinique online is really neat though. The online consultants are REALLY good. They don't work commission so I didn't feel pressured to buy things I didn't need. I'll report later on whether the money was well spent or if I'd have been better off just ringing up the local Avon lady.

Let me say THIS about THAT...

Let me say THIS about Valentine's day.. I abhor it and think it is a manufactured holiday contrived to guilt men into using absolutely no thought, spending money on junk just because the TV said so.  Hint for the men...if you REALLY want to impress your wife, surprise her with a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates on a day when you aren't guilted into it by the Hallmark commercials on TV. Even better, clean the house, mow the yard, fix something that's been broken for months- that's the real way to a woman's heart. That's all I have to say about that.

Let me say THIS about the latest CRCT cheating scandal... I am disgusted. Imagine this- our idiotic governor has a wonderful pay for performance plan based on the improvement of students' test scores. I teach my butt off, neglect my own family looking for new and varying resources for my students, spend an inordinate amount of my own family's time trying to remediate the students who are unbelievably below grade level, only to see my PAYCHECK decrease because my students did not improve substantially over last year. Now, that's all well and good. But, what if the teacher they had last year "cooked" their test scores????  As I've ranted about in my previous blogs, my 3rd grader already spends a ridiculous amount of time learning to take a test at the expense of substantial physical education and recess. This state is totally out of control and all the folks in Atlanta just wring their hands and act as if they have no idea why. I could tell them why in about 30 seconds.

And finally let me say THIS about buying steamed crab legs with your Food Stamp card. It ain't right lady...I know that Harvey's steams them for free, but your food stamp card was not meant to buy prepared food. I know the high school kid at the cash register was having a hard time explaining it to you. I have an even harder time explaining why I am in line PAYING for 3 chuck roasts that have been marked down due to an approaching expiration date and you are in line using tax money for crab legs.

Totally random thoughts.....

So much for my recent attempts at willing in an early spring! We had about 5 inches of snow on our back deck this morning. But, this was MY kind of snow! The kids had a wonderful time watching it come down last night and really enjoyed playing in it this morning. Now, by afternoon it's almost all gone. Yes, my kind of snow! This was the girls' first "Georgia snow" and the first snow we've seen since we moved to Burke County several years ago.  I was amazed that the grocery store still had milk when I finally ventured out about lunch time.


 Anyway on to my latest musing. My husband's cousin Rachel is a fabulous new mom. She is also an elementary school teacher and I admire her efforts at frugality. Recently she introduced me to the site www.southernsavers.com  I haven't had a chance to thoroughly check it out but it does look interesting! It reads sort of like a blog with people contributing information about good deals they've found in local grocery and department stores.  There are also a number of printable coupons available there.  Rachel is still trying to recruit me into the world of coupons but I haven't taken the bait as of yet. 

On another frugal note, I was browsing the Limited Too website, and did not realize that Justice has completely replaced Limited Too. While I did find some good buys, and some of the clothing was cute, the vast majority of it looked trashy. A friend reminded me the other day about the great and wise Celia Rivenbark. I read her book "Belle Weather" and loved it. We were talking about the difficulty in finding decent girls clothing and she mentioned Celia's book "Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank". I still ponder why moms pay top prices for such trashy clothes. You could find more class at Cato.  

Spring Fever

What always makes my husband crazier than a wife with the winter blues is a wife with spring fever. In about a month I will go completely crazy cleaning every nook and cranny, opening windows and patio doors to let the cool fresh air in and packing away every single shoe that ever thought of covering painted toenails. A thousand pairs of flip flops make their way back into my closet and there is always a sun 'n sand Yankee candle burning.  

This year, in order to save a little cash, and in order to be "frugally chic", we are going to Jekyll Island rather than the Caribbean.  I know the muddy waters of the Georgia coast aren't quiet equivalent to the turquoise waters off Virgin Gorda, but I am looking forward to showing the girls all of the historical sites on Georgia's barrier islands.  I am hoping to get to Cumberland, since I have never been. We are also going to take the girls to Sapelo to see Hog Hammock and The UGA Marine Science center.  I don't even know how long we'll stay, but I'm hoping to see as many of the barrier islands as we can, maybe doing a little kayaking, put my toes in the sand and hopefully the girls will learn a little along the way.

4 ingredient recipes and a case of the winter time blues....

Call me lazy but I am just too tired to cook much during the week. I always have good intentions but when I get home, I'm so exhausted, both mentally and physically, that frozen pizza sounds more and more like a viable option.  It takes quite an effort some nights to put a decent supper on the table. A dessert during the week? Fuggetaboutit!  Recently though, my mom bought a cookbook from the Midville Garden Club called "Ogeechee River Cooks". There are some GREAT 4 ingredient recipes for desserts in there! Now I'm not saying I'd take these to a church dinner or anything, but for a middle of the week dessert they really sound great.  Yesterday evening I was in a winter funk and wanted to make something quick and easy since Bonnie and Carlos were coming over for dessert and coffee after supper. I looked up a 4 ingredient recipe for Key Lime Pie.  The only ingredients are cool whip, condensed milk, limeaid and a pie crust. I was really impressed by the outcome. Nothing fancy but everyone really liked it. 

I went to Kohl's today and found some great deals on early spring clothes. I bought some springy pastels to help lift my mood! I definitely have a case of the winter doldrums and retail therapy is an acceptable treatment for this affliction. Catching a glimpse of my narcissus bulbs coming up in the front yard this morning helped even more.

My dad left today to go to the North American Livestock and Farm Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm sure farm chores will keep us busy this week.  I hope being busy makes the week go by quickly. I am REALLY looking forward to a long holiday weekend.  Oh, and I'm posting a pic from our trip to Jost van Dyke. White Bay Beach is breathtaking if you ever get a chance to go.

It's a good thing grandchildren don't stay young forever...there's only so many pony rides a man can give!

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.  Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." ~Alex Haley

On the seventh day God rested.  His grandchildren must have been out of town.  ~Gene Perret

What is it about grandparents that is so lovely?  I'd like to say that grandparents are God's gifts to children.  -Bill Cosby

We were really bummed about Cindy and Chuck getting stuck in the "Snowpocalypse" in the DC area. But, Aunt Bonnie and Carlos did a pretty good job making up for it. The girls have had a fabulous weekend in spite of the terrible weather and mucked up plans. It's always good to have a plan B!


       The girls are so fortunate to have two sets of grandparents who are very different from each other, but who add so much richness to their lives.  The more people you have out there to love your children in this world, the better off they will be. I really believe that. As icing on the cake, my mom's twin sister, Aunt Bonnie, may as well be a THIRD grandma. When Aunt Bonnie's first grandchild, Julie and Goran's daughter, Anneli is born in the spring,  Aunt Bonnie will already be well versed in the art of grandmotherhood!  My children adore her and she and Carlos rank right up near Santa Claus! In fact Carlos dressed up like Santa at Christmas this year and the girls thought it was hysterically funny. They came over for dessert and coffee after dinner tonight and spent the evening playing Ali and Addie on the Wii. My cup runneth over. 

I'm an addict...

Recently my sister in law introduced me to vinyl wall stickers. This was a mistake! I've spent too much money and my house is starting to look like a freeway overpass with all the writing everywhere. Seriously, I've toned it down a little but I really do like them!

Our butler's pantry/wet bar area has pictures of good times and good friends and  I bought a John Lennon quote "I get by with a little help from my friends". I put it above the door  across from the wet bar. Each time I open the wine chiller, I think of all the times good friends in my life have helped me get by, and there have been a slew of 'em!

I also got one for above the sofa in the living room. I'd been hunting a painting or something to go there for awhile and never found anything that really struck me. I decided on the Thoreau quote "Live the life you've imagined".  How fitting, as I am living the life I imagined as a little girl playing house. Not everything is quite as rosy as I once naively thought, but generally life is incredible. Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Lastly, I got one for the entryway from the garage. This area has been a wasteland since we moved in. In fact when we built the house, Pete and I fought over that crazy mudroom! He insisted that there be a shower in there. Totally useless, but I finally relented! There is a hallway from the garage and the first door is the mudroom and the second is the laundry room.  It's so utilitarian, we've neglected it. I've just started trying to do something with it. I've always wanted to display the girls art in some area and thought this would be perfect. So, I bought a Pablo Picasso quote "Every child is an artist" and I've put some of the girls' framed artwork under the quote. I really like it!

I got them all from etsy.com but not all vinyl stickers are created equally! BEWARE! If they are not great quality then they are a nightmare to pull of the paper and stick onto the wall. I bought great ones from "letterexpressit" on etsy and I'd recommend their products.  They will do custom orders as well. You can pick your font and size.  The greatest thing about them is that when you get sick of them, you just pull them off the wall. The down side is that if you're not careful you'll get the graffiti effect in your house!! Ali got a Miley Cyrus "The Climb" quote to go above her bed and since Addie is totally indifferent, I got her one that says "For this child I prayed and God has granted me what I asked of Him".  I think it will be really pretty on her yellow walls. Yes, the graffiti syndrome, I have it. Admitting it is half the battle.

Green Acres...It really IS the place to be!

It was about 4 years ago to the month when Pete and I decided to dig up our roots and move to the country. I grew up on a farm, and Pete grew up on various Air Force bases. I thought I wanted to live in a subdivision and I had wonderful images of my children playing with other neighborhood children in the backyard. That's not really how it worked out at all. We moved to the golf course and since Pete loves golf, we thought he'd be able to play more often. That's not how it worked out at all. :)  

Our house was on a quarter acre. It was a nice brick home but it was almost cookie cutter like the next house.  Teenagers drove golf carts so fast down the road that I didn't dare let Ali ride her bike. The neighbor's yappy dogs barked constantly if we ever grilled out in the backyard. It was time. We were hearing the call of the wild! We put our house on the market and sold it right before the bottom fell out of the real estate market. We lived in a townhouse the last 6 months we were in Effingham, and finally moved to "our little patch of heaven" in the early summer of 2007.

Truly we loved Effingham County. I still miss it a lot of days. I made wonderful friends there and deciding to leave was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I had a great teaching position there and Pete was teaching Agriculture, his first love. We would have to take one heck of a paycut to move here. But, we started to realize how important it was to raise the girls in the country, or at least at a slower pace in a smaller town. Even though it took me a couple of years before I didn't have spells of homesickness, we have never regretted moving at all. In a culture full of plasma televisions, cell phones and xboxes, we feel the importance of small town living is more relevant now than ever. Yes, we miss being a hop skip and a jump away from every restaurant imaginable. We miss taking day trips to the beach and the convenience of having a wal mart literally within sight. But the bucolic setting of our current location is just what the doctor ordered for most of society's ills I think. The girls love digging potatoes in the summer. They think swinging on the farm gates are akin to a ride at a theme park. We love it here. And while this area is not without it's problems, we feel so blessed each time one of the children says, "can we walk over to nanny's and make tea cakes?".  It is worth it. Verily.