My New Blog Is Doing So Well, I'm Offering A Giveaway

Thought you might be interested.  Click here to view the giveaway details.

Here's a picture of the prize.

New Blogs!

John and I have both started new blogs and we hope you'll check them out.

Mine is focused on food storage, cooking, gardening, etc.

John's is focused on the Animation industry (film, tv, games, apps, etc.).

We'd love it if you'd take a few minutes to check them both out.  Thanks!

My Garden Haul

My garden has really started growing, and I've been able to harvest some produce this week and last.  It is delicious!

Gardening

It's been over a decade since I last gardened.  I decided now was the time to take the plunge, so, after I was released as Relief Society President, I planted some vegetables in our backyard (and side yard).  Here are some pictures.  (Hopefully, I will have a wonderful crop, so I can can my bounty!)

An overview of the backyard garden.

An overview of the side yard garden.

Detailed Pictures.

See this huge tomato plant (which is taking over my planting bed)?  (Including the other tomato plant and red pepper plant next to it.)

This is the only tomato on it!  I've been trying a few things I read on the Internet to increase the number of tomatoes, but I guess this plant (an heirloom variety) really doesn't like the hot weather we've been having. 

This much smaller tomato plant (a roma) has over 20 tomatoes on it already.  

I guess the hybrid plants really do produce more in our hot climate.

 Zucchini plant

Spaghetti Squash and another tomato plant.

Pumpkin plant.  (You may be asking, "What's the white stuff on the ground around it?"  Well, pill bugs (roly polys) were eating it.  This "white stuff" is corn meal which they do not like.  So, my plant will hopefully start thriving!)

Another heirloom tomato plant (Mr. Stripey - a cool looking yellow and red striped tomato).

Green beans.  

I have a tomato cage and green "mesh" around it to stop the rabbits from eating it (they love it).  

So far, so good.

Another tomato plant.  

The pill bugs liked this one too, hence the cornmeal on the ground around the plant.

Broccoli (from seed).  

I need to thin it out, but haven't yet.  

Hopefully, I will have some lovely broccoli relatively soon.

 A sweet pepper plant.

A sweet, red pepper plant.

Spinach (from seed).  

A friend of mine said it grows great here in southern California.  

It's doing wonderfully so far!

Another tomato plant. 

Eggplant.

Japanese Eggplant.

I'm having a lot of fun so far tending to my garden.  It's good exercise and hopefully will allow me to have tons of canned tomatoes.  My goal is to have enough tomatoes that I don't need to buy any canned tomatoes at all for the next year (until my crop next year begins to ripen).

Wish me luck!

Making Jam a.k.a. Maybe I Need a Cherry Pitter

I made some cherry jam on Friday.

Unfortunately, I do not have a cherry pitter.  I meant to see if Walmart had one when I stopped by on Thursday, but I forgot.

Why did I not run out and pick one up as I live within 5 minutes of a Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Walmart?  Because our streets were being resurfaced, and I decided I wanted to spend the day at home.  That meant my car was in the driveway and I couldn't move it.

So I made do.  David suggested I use my potato masher to crush the cherries, making it easier to remove the pits.  It worked (much better than pitting each cherry by hand), but my hands still got quite a bit of cherry juice on them.

Food Storage

John and I feel like we really need to get our food storage in order. We've bought a few things recently, including stuff from Emergency Essentials last time I was in Utah (getting David ready for BYU). But we have felt that we need to do more. We just placed an order with Walton Feed (through a wonderful women in Lancaster), but I wanted to see how we were doing after all that food was added to our food storage.

I used Emergency Essential's Food Storage Analyzer today, and it was great! I could put in all the stuff I had, and it told me how I'm doing based on my family. It figured the amount of calories needed for each person, nutrients, etc. It really helped me feel better about where we are, but also to help direct my future efforts and know what I really need to buy.

If you want to check it out, click on the link below. It's quick, easy, and worth your time! Also, if you do, and you review it on your blog, Emergency Essentials will send you a free $10 gift card with no strings attached! What a great way to assess your preparedness and be paid to do so!