Winner

Since I can't figure out how to just add the generator here is the whole screenshot for you!
Skippy was the 7th person that entered the giveaway!

Skippy, please send me your address so that I can get the book in the mail for you!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Lost information

Facebook is going to be getting rid of their old groups... you know the ones that don't follow the new and improved look! Anyways, alot of that information is going to be lost. I went through one of the groups last night and copied down some of the links to share here.

Where to buy local foods in Ontario
15 fall squash recipes
4 simple tips to avoiding GMO's
How to make fruit leather
Simple Food swaps for a healthier diet
Fat's and Cholesterol

Here is a link to Tigress in a Jam: Rhubeena
Its some type of syrup you all sparkling water to. Since I have a stupid rhubarb plant that is flowering again.... I think I need to cut it down and out... But I will use the stalks to my advantage first!

I will be trying my hand again at Kefir. If your interested in starting your own Kefir, and have no friends that have extra grains then you can order them from Cultures for Health. I have seen several reviews online from other bloggers about this company... All good! When they get here I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully, better then the last time.

Happy Simple Living has a recipe for Make your own amazing homemade cheese crackers. They look so yummy! I need to see if I have sharp cheddar in the fridge.

Since it is still a rainy kind of day, I need to get some baking done.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Two posts in one day

See what happens when the rain doesn't stop... I am computer bound... LOL!

I wanted to share with you a couple of things that happened here today.

First are the two things that I found on line that I thought were interesting.

5 reasons high frutrose will kill you

&

Celebrate Sustainablility.....On Food Day 2011

I had to be the great hunter today and kill the biggest centipede of my life. Now I'm no little girl when it comes to bugs. They may startle me if they catch me unaware. But this thing was like dinosaure huge. And of course it is running around the bathtub, I had to hit it twice before it died. LOL! Sorry no pictures I was to busy yelling for someone to get me a shoe!

Picky wanted to help warm up the house.... heat has been off for almost a month now and my bill reflects it....Yeah! But anyways, she decided to make whoopie pies... it was from a mix and I had bought the pans a couple months ago and never used it. They didn't taste to bad but you can definately tell that it was from a mix. I figure by next year she will be ready to take on cakes without a mix. Plus, that gives her time to bake through all the mixes I have in the cupboard.

There are only 27 days of school left! Can you tell who is happy school is almost out! Yep, me!!!!! Cause once school is out I only work 1 more bingo and I am done for the summer.

With not going to the gym and tweaking my diet, I think my body is leveling out. This morning I am down 2 pounds from where I was a week ago. This past week my weight was going all over the place. But that's what happens when I eat garbage. and try to do to much at the gym. I just can't believe how much weight I have already lost! 20 pounds!!! I also got the lastest blood results

May

211 total 266 in Jan

120 triglycerides 150 in Jan

37 HDL 30 in Jan

150 LDL 160 in Jan

Last time the total, HDL & LDL were all bad. Now the triglycerides and the HDL are in the normal range. And I am just borderline for the total and LDL. She wants me to come back in.... in 6 months to have more blood drawn. By then I should have lost at least another 26 pounds.... And hopefully, then I will only need to be checked once a year to see if there is a problem. Wow, I can't even picture myself that skinny. I haven't weight that much since about 3 months into my first pregnancy. Over 17 years ago.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Reflections 5-15

Outside My Window...
is a rainy, cold, dreary day

I am thinking...
how to accomplish the dream of one day owning my own farm

I am thankful for...
for my children and my husband

From the learning rooms...
Still trying to figure out how to make socks... loom and 4 needles

From the kitchen...
Tropical Fruit Smoothies

I am wearing...
Jeans, socks, t-shirt and zippered hoodie

I am creating...
a mess from the yard sale that got rained out

I am going...
to work on cleaning my half of the bedroom

I am reading...
new issues of Hobby Farm Homes, Woman's World and Organic Gardener

On my mind...
finishing up planting the garden and cutting the grass

Around the house...
sopping wet laundry out on the line in the rain

One of my favorite things...
a fridge full of healthy foods

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:
cleaning house, ordering kefir grains, sewing up more aprons

Gotta Run,
Yart

Just another day

Good day to everyone in blog land... Blogger seems to be having a temper tantrum... So like any good mother I keep checking in on it but continue about my day! And let me tell you this has been one busy day. When I got up I decided that the gym was of no use to me today. My diet has hit a snag and this time it only took me one week to see the damage I was doing. After the monsters got dropped off at school, I went to the Farmers Market Store. I spent $75 on fresh fruit and veggies. I know it sounds like a lot and it really is... LOL! But this is for the week and there are 5 of us that will be eating it.

  

Now for that type of money you want to know what I got. Well, here goes:

 

• 3 heads romaine lettuce

• 1 bag radishes

• 2 bunches of green onions

• 2 cantolope

• 2 broccoli

• 1 cauliflower

• 3 packs of mushrooms

• 2 bags of green grapes

• 2 green peppers

• 3 lemons

• 5 limes

• ½ watermelon

• 10 ears of corn on the cob

• 1 pineapple

• 1 package of roma tomatoes

• 3 yams

• 2 bags bananas

• 1 bag oranges

• 1 pound of healthy ham

• 1 pound of healthy turkey

• greek yogurt

• cottage cheese

When I got home I cleaned and cut up the cauliflower, broccoli, 1 head of lettuce, the lemons and limes, and the watermelon. I will wait to cut up the cantalope until the watermelon is gone. The funny thing is after I got home I got the list of what is coming in the CSA tomorrow. It is everything that I bought today. LOL! I guess that I was suppose to do this today.

 

I know the gym is doing its thing but the diet has really suffered. I have been at the gym an hour a day and the weight is creeping back on. So that is why I need to better monitor and have better choices on hand. My diet and inactivity has gotten me to this weight and if I don't do better then it will continue to affect my health. Let me tell you the last thing I want is to get what I want and not be able to do or enjoy it!

 

While I was cutting up veggies, my long lost brother calls and asks if he can come over. Now mind you I haven't seen him in over a month.... maybe longer... in his defense he has been working. But the free time is now being spent with the guys he works with....ahhhh, I digress! We had a nice visit. After he left I needed to take the scraps out to the compost.

 

As I was walking down the side of the house I smelled the loverly scent of lilac! I stopped to smell them and scared a ginormous bumble bee. While I watched him I started feeling something fall on my head. I looked up in time to see a robin bathing in my gutter. Guess they are full of leaves again... HONEY!!! LOL!

 

Tomorrow is the city wide yard sale. And I couldn't miss the opprotunity to get in on the action. So this week I have been pulling out stuff to sell. A lot of it needed to be cleaned up. That is what I have been doing this afternoon. I hope to sell enough stuff to buy new lawn chairs and a hammock! Now I just need the monster help to get it all out to the garage. My house is trashed. I hate when I clean like this... my poor house always suffers. But I will have less stuff to trip over in the long run!

 

Gotta Run,

 Yart

Tons to do

The past couple of days have been super busy.... First let me say that Mother's day was a joy. I hope that you all had a wonderful day as well. I got a made to order smoothie in bed, tons of cut flowers, cupcakes and a trip to the place.... It is a place that in the spring carries flowers and in the summer they become a market. So it is the place to be... Just not with three monsters on Mother's day. The place was super packed. But this year they opened up an outside register. The monsters got me dahlia's, daisy's, lavender, honeysuckle, gerber daisy's, fushia & 2 other hanging baskets. And I had to get tomatoes (romas, 4 types of cherry, Mr. Stripey, and a purple Cheroke), bush beans, cantelope, watermelon, cucumbers, a few more stawberries ( the patch was starting to thin out).

I got the fence half painted. The garden side still needs to be done. The garden is really taking shape. All the tomatoes are in, the bush beans, watermelon, radishes, beets (red and golden), red onions, carrots. I need to get out there and plant the cantelope, cucumbers, pole beans and I think pumpkins (not sure what type they are as they are the only thing that survived that I started from seed. I know crazy.... I tried to harden off the tomatoes and they all died again. I think I will start them in December this year so that they are bigger when I harden them off. Live and learn.

With all of this crappy weather that we have been facing around the country and the fields that have been destroyed, the news saying that wheat, corn and rice are going to go through the roof. I can say that I'm not feeling so good. let me explain. We are ok, as far as food goes, that isn't what bothers me. It is the cost of everything else. Like underware and socks... do you stock up on these?!? I know I didn't... (looking for a sale). Nope not being a doomsayer. Just a little bothered... and I look around at my neighbors and real life friends and they don't seemed fazed?!? It really boggles the mind.

Enough of that, there is nothing I can do about anyone else. I can only do the best that I can for my family and have a little extra for times of great need. I have already put in my request for my birthday... Mid-June.... I will be getting rabbits. Once we get the fiber bunnies situated then we will talk more about getting meat bunnies. I have been doing a lot more reading about meat rabbits. They are really worth thier weight in protien... LOL! Just don't know if I can do it... You know harvest them. But I guess that the time is coming for me to have to do it either with rabbits or some other animal. Yep, we are still dreaming of getting land and doing the whole farm thing... LOL! I know that it sounds like I'm being a smart butt about the farming thing.... I understand that it is a lot of ball-busting hard work to not only get a farm off the ground but to keep it going.... Did some of my youth on my Aunt and Uncle's farm... (haying, milking, dealing with chickens, getting chased by the geese, fearing for my life around the pigs ;o). Right now it just seems so far off that sometimes I wonder if it will ever happen.

See what happens when we don't talk for awhile... I just ramble on.. LOL! I really have a ton of things to do and they ain't getting done with typing to all of you....

Gotta Run,
Yart

400th Post & Giveaway

Before I get to the giveaway... Let me introduce my namesake

This is Yart, she is the newest edition on A Homesteading Neophyte's Homestead! Isn't she just the cutest! Thanks again Phelan, this is so kewl!!!

Wow who knew that I had that much to say... LOL! So to honor my 400th post I will be giving away a brand new copy of MaryJane's Outpost Unleashing Your Inner Wild.

Now for the rules:
Must leave a comment so that I know you want to enter
Please only US residents
I will draw the winning name on Tuesday May 17th

Gotta Run,
Yart