Wash, wash, wash.

No, I’m not talking laundry, I’m talking veggies.  Well, fruit and veggies really. That was what I did this morning, wash a whole batch of fresh stuff.  I’m always happy when I do that, because then it’s in the fridge all ready to go and I think I’m so clever.  Then when it’s dinner time and I go to get the salad, there’s the lettuce or spinach sitting all clean and crisp. Clever girl.

Doesn’t this look so yummy!

mmmmmmm

 Mmmmm, peppers, nectarines, apples, spinach, it all looks so good.

The blueberries are in the bowl, you can’t really see them I guess. I’m going to freeze some of them to make muffins and such later on. Blueberries are soooooo good for you,  I encourage you to find a way to eat them. 

The canteloupe is washed first too before I cut it up. You need to give the skin a good scrub before you cut it. If there’s any bacteria on the skin, e-coli or whatever, and you slice it without washing it, you’ve basicall just spread the bacteria into the fleshy part. Wash it first.

I know, I’m bossy.

spinach, apples, nectarines

This is a bit fussy to wash which is why it is good when I do it all and right away. Otherwise at 4:45 I think it’s a good idea to have spinach salad for dinner, but I don’t feel like washing it. So I store it in the fridge until it goes bad, then throw it out.  Probably no nutritional value in that.

green onions and romaine

Green onions and romaine.  Green onions are another slightly fussy but good to have done job. They add to everything.  And romaine, well that’s a staple in our house. I use it in salads, sandwiches, whatever. It’s all good.

Meet Abby

This is Abby. Isn’t she just the cutest thing! I just adore her.  She’s so small, so good, so funny and such a part of our family. She is almost a year now, (might have to think about a birthday party). Does that make me one of those weird dog owners? Kidding, I’m kidding.  She is a good girl though, she does deserve a little something I suppose. Hmmmm, might be a good excuse to have people over for a potluck dinner.  Sounds like a plan.

Abby

Look over here Abby!

over here!

Good girl!

good girl

Let’s not get confused.

I guess I should point out that I don’t actually live on a farm, no, I don’t. I live in a regular, normal house, on a street, off another street, and those streets are in farm country.  I wouldn’t mind living on a farm, but with the price of land and all, well it wasn’t meant to be. That and all the work associated with a farm.

I also should point out, that I live minutes from the ocean. I truly have the best of both worlds. I am surrounded by farms and all the benefits of them, fresh produce, animals to watch, beautiful scenery, but just a short trip away, is the ocean.  It is really something. Sometimes I even forget how amazing it is, but then I make a quick stop and it all comes flooding back. Water as far as the eye can see.   Look and see for yourself.

the pacific

Amazing isn’t it.  Here are a few more shots for you.  This is a heron having his breakfast.

heron

Beautiful isn’t he.   If I turn and look down the beach, this is what I see, it goes on forever.  It’s quite protected in here as far as the water goes, the tide is out in these shots so you can see rocks and things that are normally covered by water.  A good time to stroll along and look for treasures.

beach

So that will be it for today. I think I’ll work on a few more links for you,  see what other interesting things I can find. Enjoy your day!

Here we go!

I’ve decided to move all my non scrapbook related items to this blog, make things a little more organized and a little simpler.  At least that’s my thinking so far, we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve got to spend some time getting it all set up, but once I’m up and running, it should be good.  Now if I could just get a couple more hours in the day, it would be perfect!   Until then, here’s a farm shot for you to look at, and yes that’s my mirror at the bottom, I took this picture from my car.

farm shot

Recycling project.

So I’ve found a way to recycle even more than we do. We already have a blue box program here which means we can recycle newspaper, paper, hard plastics, aluminum cans and glass. We simply put our blue box out and it gets picked up just like the garbage, nice and easy.  But I wanted to recycle more.

I found a company that recycles almost everything else! It’s perfect. I take my stuff to them, and I pay a drop off fee, but if I get good at this, I will eventually cancel our garbage pick up and spend that money on the recycling! Very exciting. I can drop off once a month and I’ve only been once so far, but it went well.

They take:  foil lined bags,

soft plastics,

milk cartons, and waxy lined papers

styrofoam cups and trays, tin cans, etc.

So I still need to compost more to get our garbage down but I’m working on that too.  There will always be bits of things that we can’t recycle or compost I suppose, but hopefully we will drastically reduce our garbage. We’ve switched to cloth bags for our shopping (although I do forget sometimes!) and I’m try to pay attention to the packaging of items I buy.

Try looking up recycling places in your area, you can probably google them, and get an idea of what is available.  Perhaps your local government has some facilities or even your garbage dump, see what you can do.

MMMM, butterscotch oatmeal bars.

Here is what I made this afternoon, yum yum. Don’t they look good, all that marshmallow and butterscotch.

They were quick and easy to do too.  Here is the recipe.

Cream together 3/4 cup margarine, and 1 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy. Combine 11/4cups flour, 11/2 cups oats, 1/2 tsp baking soda,  1/2 tsp salt and add to creamed mixture. Mix well.  Set aside  11/2 cups crumb mixture. Press remainder on bottom of greased 13×9 inch pan.  Sprinkle with 4 cups mini marshmallows, 1 cup butterscotch chips and saved crumb mixture.  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes until golden brown.   Cool, cut into squares.  Here is an upclose shot for you too.