A Yard and a Garden

Our house in suburbia :)

We live in a city of approximately 275,000 people. We live in a neighborhood that is an older established "subdivision" but suburban for sure.  From our backyard, we can see six houses (just those that touch our property or at a corner).  All our neighbors are quite nice, but sometimes you just want a little more "boundary."  We have a lovely chain link fence which keeps the dogs out and the kids in. 

Just last week, we visited some of Pete's cousin's in Vancouver - what a lovely place!  His cousin R & Y have the most beautiful (albeit small) urban yard (garden really) that I have seen by someone who is still working full time LOL! Sanctuary, oasis, cozy... Those are just some of the words that describe their little back yard.  So I come home inspired to develop our yard into a little oasis as well.

However, do not fear - there are still high ambitions for the urban homestead! I'm trying to blend homesteading with landscaping with frugality.  Here's what I've come up with so far...

1. We need some bushes or something for a visual barrier in the back of the yard.  In poking around google, I found some blueberry bushes that can be grown as a hedge.  It will take five years to get them to full height, but they should produce some berries even after the first year.  I love the idea of growing blueberries.  They are so healthy and can be frozen or dehydrated to keep for a while.

2. Creative shade plans.  If we can find some clumping (not hyper-grow-all-over-your-yard runners) bamboo that is affordable, we can plant that on the side of the yard.  It would be pretty beautiful (R & Y have some black bamboo in their yard). Shameless beauty.  Added serenity.

3. Dirt for free.  I need to exercise more. I need dirt for my garden projects.  We have dirt underneath our house.  Yup, that's the plan.  As long as I don't dig close to the foundation, I can dig out some dirt for my garden.  Random, I know, but super frugal.

There you go, the first three items on the list of frugal-serene-oasis-yard-garden.

Other ideas for creating a sanctuary/homestead includes eliminating (or at least greatly reducing) the quantity of plastic toys out there.  Seriously, if I'm all about this natural stuff, our kids should be playing with sticks and dirt. Hmmmm, I kinda like that idea.


Love, Carra

Chicken Story, part two

So I didn't get back to tell you more about chicken. Sorry to leave you hanging! I want to show you the bounty that a whole chicken offers. If you are so fortunate as to have access to a farmer willing to sell you a whole chicken, go for it!
This chicken was raised by a 10 year old boy. He built the pens himself and cared for the birds until time to "process" them. And he helped with that! That is soooo rare - I am so impressed.
Once the chicken cooked for about 24 hours, I strained the broth, let it cool off and picked off all the useful meat. Isn't there a bunch of meat? Here's how I use it:
* Sandwich - isn't that that hilarious? I seriously am a huge fan of a yummy chicken sandwich on some fresh soaked sourdough bread. While the chicken is still warm, yum!
* With warm homemade biscuits, some chicken just pulled off, some of this week's vegetables from our csa with faucette farms.
* With brown rice - I cook the brown rice in the broth - extra healthy, extra flavorful. One of the baby's favorite things to eat:)
* Chicken pot pie. I make a rue using broth and milk to create a thick, rich cream sauce (instead of using canned cream of whatever soup) and mix it with chicken (usually the dark meat), leeks, garlic, potatoes and carrots baked with a biscuit type crust.
* Stir fry - steamed cabbage, shredded carrots, leeks, peppers, zuchini (whatever is in season) sauteed with soy sauce, ginger, etc.
* Chicken soup - make some more cream sauce from the broth, add leftover rice, leeks, shaved carrots and whatever chicken is left.
Seriously, from this one chicken - God provided the base for all of this good, healthy, healing food.

The Whole Chicken

I did not expect so many of my friends to be "turned off" by a whole raw chicken. I suppose if I was dealing with it, trying to cut it up, etc....that could get a little yucky.
But a whole chicken is an amazing thing.
You can buy them at a regular grocery store or your healthfood store (whole foods or earthfare type). But soooo much better are the ones raised even in your county! Find these little (or big) jewels at the farmers market.
So I'm going to share with you a chicken story and how many different (and not yucky) ways you can use this uber- versitile animal.
Begin with a huge stock pot. With my frozen chicken (most farmers market birds will be frozen since they keep better), I added 2 and a half gallons of water. Turn the burner on simmer and leave it for at least 12 hours.
Here's my chicken all frozen and docile. Once it cooked for a few hours, it no longer was weighed down by it's frozenness so it appears to be trying to escape. After it cooks further, it settles back down into the pot. Notice that deep rich yellow broth. That is some excellent-tasting, highly versitile, healing stuff.
That's day one of my chicken story.
Love, Carra

Natural renovations... a reflection of life

I know it's a little 80's... but don't ya see the potential? Pete's not so sure either. Right now campus stuff is just intense and very mentally & physically time-consuming. I think my desire the have a completion point draws me back to the bucket of paint.
What I am so excited about what God has allowed us to do with our lives is invest in college students. It is a privilege (and a rush) to see lives transformed by the true Christ.
Most of my energy is spent handling behind-the scenes things; with Pete in a much expanded leadership role..."behind the scenes" is for a much bigger stage.
So what is it about random ugly pieces of furniture that draws me in?
1. I love watching something beautiful come about.
2. Unlike ministry, there is an end-point. Spiritual growth is unpredictable. But black paint will create black furniture. This provides balance in my life LOL!
3. It reminds me that perfection isn't everything. Each piece I redo has some "uniqueness." So far, I haven't found knobs I like and the thing no longer wants to shut all the way. I'll mess with it more later; see if I can remedy that.
Hope you enjoy a wonderful Labor Day!
Love Carra

Chair Renovation

So while Pete has been upstairs making the kitchen look lovely, I've been working on a project that will hopefully improve our dark den.
Here is one of two IKEA chairs that I bought off craiglist for $20 total. They were in pretty bad shape (as you can see in the blue chair picture). They are only about $79 each new but I would rather save the $160, select the fabric I want and see how I would do in redoing a chair.
So the fabric I found on fabric.com (and got 15% off and 2% cash back from ebates) for about $25. I have enough for both chairs (I've only sewn one chair cover so far) and two throw pillows.
I spend a lot of time in our den (which is also homeschool room, student training room, staff meeting room, workout space, computer lab and game room (well, a shelf full of board games and a foosball table) - as well as a bedroom when my family visits and ironing room for the extremely rare occassions I actually iron something. So I want to have a functional space, but I have longed for a pretty space too. These chairs are another step in that direction.
Next step, a coat of all natural paint for these walls! But that's a post for another day ;)
Love, Carra

Confessions and resolutions

So we are back from Colorado. Some thoughts as I return to a full sized house after living for six plus weeks in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment.
1. We have too much stuff. Granted there were a number of things we missed (cooking equipment, certain toys, etc). However, we do not need nearly the quantities. So this week will be "pay it forward Salvation Army." We can fit more students with less clutter. It says in the Bible that if we're faithful with little, He will give us more. I just don't think that is a hoarding application.
2. We can keep to a solid schedule. Usually my schedule explodes on a weekly basis (that's why we only plan school four days a week). But we had three different places to be & managed to make it. It was good to expeience that and see the wisdom of "your day begins the night before." (flylady reference).
3. We consume too much sugar. I can hardly believe I'm the one (with Pete) that went sugar-free for two years. Now I'm just nutritionally bi-polar. I make my own soaked granola (I should post on that soon), drink filtered water, buy my veggies from our CSA....AND...I love milkshakes from chick-fil-a, mom's traditonal cake from Delicious, iced vanilla coffees, brownies, chocolate milk, etc. What is my deal?
So you sense my frustration as I look into the mirror of reality. This blog is about my natural journey. Well, my journey to the land weirdo natural people took a detour through candyland.
So I'm coming out with my truth. I'm not where I want to be householdwise, schedulewise and foodwise. But gratefully I can't do it alone. I've been talking to God about this. Tonight at dinner, Gracie reminded me that "all things are possible with Christ who strengthens me."
Love, Carra

Natural and Frugal Traveling

So we are in Colorado for six weeks. That's too short of a time to bring the whole world. That's too long of a time to live out of suitcases and eat off of disposables.

So my many years of diligent practice in thrift stores are paying off. The entire table set here has been purchased from Goodwill (no Salvation Army Family Store in Fort Collins) and yard sales. The tablecloth is actually a fabric shower curtain! I did purchase the food at a real grocery store LOL!  My top five favorite finds have been:
 5. The cool green napkins I found at Goodwill (I plan to take these home)
 4. A tiny lamp that works as a nightlight that has a little brown elephant on it (also coming home with us)
 3. Several long sleeved t-shirts that I just found a t Walmart for $2 each for the girls (organic cotton no less)
 2. A VCR at a yard sale for $4 and a TV at Goodwill (27 inch behemoth) for $7 (cable is included no extra charge)
 1. An "under the bed" plastic bin *filled* with clothes hangers (enough for all our clothes) for $1!

I miss blogging!  I would say I was committing to blogging more frequently again, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep.  I do have huge intentions of sharing lots of stuff.  I still need to share about my natural make up, immune boosters, and what we are learning about lately.  Thanks for visiting your sporadic blog poster!

Love, Carra

Taking things apart...naturally

I know this may not seem very "natural" in terms of soaking grains, cloth diapering or wrapping mattresses.  However, I want to make a case of the granola-ness of taking things apart.

Personal example: We have two vacuum cleaners.  One we recently bought with a hepa filter for all the lead dust we are likely putting into the air as we remodel our 1962 house.  The other we have had for 10 years (wedding gift from my parents).

The other week I was using the 10 year old vacuum when this horrible noise came out.  I admit, it startled me and I screamed.  When Pete came home I described the horrible noise to him.  He went to investigate, turning the vaccum back on.  I know I should have been prepared, but it scared me again (yes, I screamed again). Thought you might appreciate that :-)

Well, the vacuum seemed quite dead.... But then Pete took it apart. Though the vacuum is old after a bit of investigating, Pete was able to locate the broken part, ordered it, put it back together....all for under $20. See the cool chunk missing from the wheel of suction?  I don't know the technical term, but wheel of suction just sounded cool.

I love what can be learned from taking things apart.  Not everything can be fixed of course, but there's all kinds of options for repairing things that save us money, let us learn something and keep our landfills a little less "full."

And when things cannot be repaired (such as a broken cassette tape), we give them to Grace with a set of precision screwdrivers.  She is diligent to take every bit apart and not let any of it go to waste...for example, here's what Zade would look like as a brunette.

Love, Carra

Kitchen Reno - Before and During

Here I'm letting it all hang out. Here is my kitchen when we purchased the house. The next two pictures are photos taken three days ago. We are repurposing and finding materials. Habitat for Humanity Restore has been a great financial blessing (albeit an extra challenge for size and type).

We purchased two used kitchen cabinets that Pete will be resurfacing the drawers and adding doors. It has been fun to see how Pete and I work together. The last picture is showing the current "functional" cleanish kitchen as it is right now. It is quite a project and we would happily appreciate prayers for all the come together.




After the cabinets are created we plan to ceramic tile the top. This will likely be a fairly long process. And I'm already tired. LOL. I'll keep you posted!

Invest in your local Farm

This spring we joined a CSA. (Yes I'm from South Carolina, but no - this CSA is not the Confederate States of America, LOL). A CSA is Community Support Agriculture. It is a really awesome, really fair way for those of us who are not in a position to grow all our own veggies to partake in the farming world.

So we joined a new CSA with Faucette Farms in Greensboro. If you're in the area - I highly recommend them. Basically, I pay quarterly (equals about $23 a week) and receive whatever vegetables they have in season. Here's the veggies I got one week in May. Don't they look yummy?

In a CSA the risk of a hard year is spread across many people. By investing in the farm - I get really fresh vegetables, local and organic. I think my favorite part is feeling less like a "consumer" and more like a part of the farm. Now it's summer we're getting fresh corn, cantaloupe and blueberries! I am so grateful that God has blessed us with the Faucette's organic food.

If you are interested in joining a CSA, check out Local Harvest or Slow Food. They have searchable databases you can hopefully find a CSA in your area. Happy healthy day!

Seriously! I haven't shared the money story???

One thing I know for sure - going natural is a whole-encompassing process. you think you're just changing your eating habits to be healthier. Then you realize that how you clean affects your health. Then you realize how you sleep (what you sleep on) affects your health - sometimes critically. I would like to propose that how we use and view money and material possessions is just as critical to living a natural life.

In the Dr. Pepper years, my husband and I enjoyed the fruits of our careers. We spent money, borrowed money and lived highly off of "cream of something" casseroles and eating out. In one year of marriage, we created close to $70,000 in debt (plus a house purchase). Oh yeah, we had school loans, borrowed a down payment from parents and of course, we accidentally bought a timeshare.

Seven years later (yup, doing the math - we've been married eight years) we are debt free! It was not easy. We sold our house and now we rent (which we really love renting). We were both working for the first part of the journey so everything I made (after giving to the church) went against the debts. Later, when we went into the ministry, we were still not out of debt, but we kept saving what little we could to put toward the debt. Our main resource was Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. We highly recommend!

Our pursuit of natural living fits so well with a traditional view of money. I like the depression-era saying of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." Every time we "repurpose" something we already have, or find something cool on freecycle, or discover a treasure at the Salvation Army - we are living that natural life. Our great-grandparents made butter, wore all cotton clothing, used cash to buy things. That is beautiful picture of where I want to be.

So here's a little bit of practical to go along with the inspiration. We use cash for most catagories that "get out of hand. As much as possible goes on auto billpay and the debit card is hardly used except for gas (safer to pay at the pump with kids in the car). Each of us "manages" certain envelopes for the areas we use the most.

My envelopes: groceries (our CSA prefers cash anyway :-), home furnishings (aka Salvation Army & craigslist), children's clothing, Hair/ grooming (I manage three heads of hair), supplements, gifts (I am the primary shopper, but I just hand Pete the money we had budgetted when my birthday, Christmas or Mother's Day comes up) and my personal money which goes for my clothes and whatever I would like (magazines, coffee, etc).

Pete's envelopes: Home maintenance (we rent, but there are always "projects"), car maintenence, technology (in our house there has to be a technology budget ;-), dating (pays for babysitting and eating out), activities/trips (we go visit family 3+ hours away fairly frequently), vacation, and his personal money which is the same as me - clothes and the occasional indulgence.

We like each having oversight for the envelopes. If we make an online purchase or accidentally forget our cash and we use the debit card, we have to put the cash into an "Oops" envelope. That cash is then recycled to the next pay period when we refill the envelopes. Just starting out, it took a while (months) to work out the system to function and make sure we had the right amounts in the envelopes. We're still tweaking things and as "seasons change" so do our budget lines and amounts. Happy natural finances!

Going all natural...in BED!

I know what you're thinking...nope - not what you're doing in bed - what you are sleeping on!

Three years ago we became completely debt free!!! That's an awesome way to go natural. And the first thing that we "saved up first, then purchased" was a new mattress. Ours had been a showroom floor discount and after five years was completely shot. As we pondered finding a wonderfully comfortable mattress, we were made aware of an interesting reality.

Mainstream mattresses are full of chemicals. The process that makes foam (which many beds have) breaks down over time and releases CFC's and more. So we started researching and found the option of a natural latex. It is not chemically created and lasts for 30 years! We bought our bed though a local distributor with Savvy Rest.

Honestly - we don't care for traveling too much because the best sleep is right here at home. You can pick your level of firmness and your husband (or wife) can select their firmness. Oh, it feels so great to sleep so well!

The two best things about our bed: I could sleep on my stomach way into my pregnancy. If you have been pregnant and are a stomach sleeper - you know what a pain it is to be big as a house and not able to sleep! LOL! And because it naturally keeps away the dust mites, we were breathing better.

Peruse the guest comments about direct health related experiences with all kind of mainstream mattresses at Chem-tox. Then read some more details about what our mattresses are made of. Watch out - my next blog is going to be able baby mattress toxins!

Coupon Follow Up

Okay, I did try the grocery game, and I also tried going online to find and print coupons. I want to say that if we weren't so far off the end of normal - those would be valuable pursuits. But we are, so they are not (for us). I was talking to a friend about Mambo Sprouts and their coupons you can find a Earthfare and Whole Foods. And because we avoid the refined sugars, a lot of the bars and things you can get in there are still outside of our diet. So....drumroll......I am giving up coupons.

I'm trying to learn where God wants me to place my energies. (caution, rabbit trail) I have been reading Strong Women, Soft Hearts (amazing). This book, added to several other awesome God--given inputs into my life right now, has been challenging me to focus on my real dreams and desires.

Since I really dream of eating all natural food obtained from local farmers, I realize that to save money I need to learn to eat more "in season," put things up for the winter, and make more frugal recipes. It feels good to let the coupons go. ;-)

Remodeling a Rental

Okay, is it silly to fix up and "remodel" a house that is not even yours? Probably , but I have a very tolerant and understanding husband. Mostly we have painted ugly wallpaper nice, neutral tones. Then I realized that there was more that paint can do.

BEFORE: Dining Room "gold" chandelier














And with a little paint: AFTER: ta da!

















Classy, elegant, neutral, very, very cheap and not too much time.

Even though I really love a beautiful room, our bodies are too precious to needlessly expose to harmful toxins. Gratefully there is a low to zero VOC paint available at a very, very reasonable cost. Lowe's Home Improvement's Olympic Paint (more or less their generic brand) is one of the best. Sherwin Williams has the Harmony brand, but by far the Olympic is the most cost effective. Happy decorating!

Menu and Spending

Okay, I love the title of fellow blogger - frugal granola - if I had thought of it first... ;-) We are in the mission field and we are not rolling in money by any means, but we do have a fairly predictable income. We did the "Dave Ramsey get out of debt thing" a few years back, but never took the leap to use cash inside envelopes.

Well, last fall, we did take "Financial Peace University." I totally recommend it. We were already debt-free (don't own much), but taking the class was very inspiring. We decided to take the leap and use cash envelopes. The cool thing - it coincided with my discovering the bounty of our local farmers market. They prefer cash anyway ;-) My goal is to get 80% of all our food from local farmers. I need to develop a way to track that ;-) So here's a glimpse into my budget and coordinating menus for the week.
This week's grocery shopping / Cost of my meals

Slow Food (local farmers) - all organic and/or natural

• Milk gallon - $8
• 2 lbs butter $9 (will last two weeks)
• One block of Munster cheese - $3.50
• Two loaves bread - $8
• Two pints yogurt - $5
• Head of cabbage - don't recall exactly - $.69 lb?)
• Carrots $5 (discount for bulk - 5 lbs for $1 lb)
• Potatoes $5 (for two meals)
• Roast, 2 lb - $12
• Green peppers (usually can get even in winter) $2
• Ground beef (1 lb) - $5
• Tomatoes (4 large) - $6
• Garlic - don't recall at all
• Lettuce (loose bag) - $4
• Chicken legs (for lentil soup) $5 (I'll be able to buy more in a few weeks - the chickens aren't ready to process yet)

Mainstream Grocery Stores: (Lowes Food / Harris Teeter / Fresh Market/ Super Wal-mart) - mostly organic

• Frozen bag organic veggies - $1.50 each (on sale last week)
• Frozen spinach - $3
• Natural tuna - $2
• Macaroni noodles - $1 (mainstream)
• Dried beans - $2 (kidney beans for chili, lentils for stew)
• Egg noodles - $2 (mainstream)
• Organic applesauce - $5 (Two six-packs at $2.50 each)
• Sour cream - $2 (mainstream)
• Talapia - $15 (wild caught after that nasty "Dirties Jobs" episode we just can't mentally accept eating farm raised)
• Celery - $3
• Bananas - $10 (we buy mainstream b/c we understood that organic has to be sprayed to be brought in to the US, so we just peel them for the girls and wash our hands so (mainstream))
• Chicken breasts - $20 (for Bahmi -$5 lb)
• Leeks - $4 bunch, (I cut up and freeze, so one bunch will last two weeks)
• Tortilla chips - $3
• Expeller pressed mayo - $8 (lasts long time)
• Almond butter - $7 (lasts two weeks, sometimes longer depending on how many leftovers we have for lunches)

Menu We eat pretty much the same breakfast and lunch everyday unless it is a special occasion.

Breakfast: Banana for each person (occasionally two), oatmeal (real, cooked on the stovetop) with sea salt and maple syrup (we try to eat it just soaked and raw - but I forget), and many days - a boiled egg for each person.

Lunch: egg salad or almond butter and honey sandwiches, we have tuna noodle casserole with green peas (when Pete's away b/c mayo allergy), sometimes a green salad with some chicken on top, or leftovers from the previous night's dinner.
Dinners
Monday: Chicken lentil soup (really a thick stew) - enough for two meals
Tuesday: Chicken legs, macaroni and cheese, green peas, leftover lentil soup
Wednesday: Talapia, spinach, mashed potatoesThursday: Bahmi (stir fry of cabbage, leeks, carrots, chicken, celery with egg noodles)
Friday: Chili (beef, kidney beans, peppers, tomatos canned from my parent's garden, leeks, garlic)
Saturday: Roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes - one of our favorite meals
Sunday: Chicken stew (chicken, potatoes, carrots)

And on Fridays - I make a 8 x 8 pan of agave brownies. We try to make it last the whole weekend - it's hard. Sometimes I make hot chocolate to go with the fabulous agave marshmallows I made (they're still some in the refrigerator). Sometimes on Wednesday, I do a mid-week treat of blueberry muffins (blueberries frozen from summer).

To Coupon or Not to Coupon...

Okay, you may be familiar with the Grocery Game already. I was not until our Mops group had a speaker come tell us how amazingly cheap we could buy things by using coupons combined with sales. I was both inspired and skeptical. Since I buy most of our vegetables, dairy, meat and eggs from our local farmers market, I wondered if this thing would work for us. The speaker shared exciting bargains on a lot of items we don't use.

It does irritate me to run out of toilet paper, paper towels and kleenex, so I thought - it's worth a shot. The grocery game gives you a list of all the things you can get free or cheap for a few bucks a month and it's $1 to try. So I bought a paper (for the coupons) the last few weeks and signed up for the trial online. I did really well - saving about $14 at Harris Teeter last week on some staples. We'll see if we can get these type of deals on organic and sugar-free foods. I'll keep you posted. Sidenote: the beef gelatin is on the way (I have a tracking number) so we will soon have a marshmallow report.

Moving toward the Marshmallows

WARNING: Please read this post on the use of agave nectar before pursuing this recipe. I'm planning to attempt honey-sweetened marshmallows in the near future - so in the mean time - try organic cane juice.

Okay, I did participate in Black Friday. What an awesome, hilarious, adventurous day. I was up around 3:30 a.m. and found some excellent sweaters at J.C. Penny shortly after 4:00 a.m. I hit K-mart, Walgreens, Walmart and of course - Denny's for breakfast. I really didn't buy that much and spent very little (compared to previous years). This year I was about 90% done with Christmas shopping before Friday and now I'm around 95%. So what does this have to do with marshmallows? I bought a stand mixer for $15! It was about a $50 to $70 mixer so it is not a "top of the line." But I've never had a stand mixer before and I didn't want to invest an amount close to $200 on a try-it-out kitchen appliance. The instructions for marshmallows call for mixing for 15 minutes straight and that is a long time. I get tired from making whipping cream. That just reminds me - how cool will it be next time my mother-in-law visits and I don't have to stand there and whip the cream. Cool. So I just ordered beef gelatin powder from Lucky Vitamin (good prices). Agave marshmallows here we come. Watch for news!