Our Garden

We have taken the plunge again and are planting a garden.  We still don't have our raised beds built, so we improvised and planted in the flower beds (that's what they're called anyway...haven't had any flowers in them for a while :0)  ).  We'll see how well our veggies grow this year.  This is mainly an experiment with the kids in taking pride in growing their own food.  We decided we would plant a "salsa garden".  We all love salsa!   

In case you do not know, we live on a hill in the trees.  A space that gets plenty of sun and has no rocks is rare around our house.  A garden a long way away is just not feasible for us right now. So, we are planning to build some raised beds where we get full sun in one place in our yard--where the trampoline sits.  Sorry kids!  We'll find another place for the trampoline.  Anyway....so as I mentioned earlier we planted in the flower beds right at the house.  David is planning to trim some of the trees this week for me, so the sun will shine on these areas a little better.

We've had some great rain since we planted our little garden and are excited to see each plant grow.

We have 2 dogs--one is a puppy! So, we decided to just hunt down lots of sticks and make a barrier around each plant to keep the dogs from trampling them down.  I think it was a GREAT idea that Hannah and I came up with as we planted our tomatoes.  A frugal idea at that!  

These are our tomato plants--6 in all--1 cherry tomato

 We just improvised with some rocks to kind of make a path.  This way the kids won't step on what's growing!

 These are the pepper plants.  We have jalapenos, cayenne and a Thai hot pepper.

This is really hard to see, but really there is nothing to see, since they've not come up, yet. lol!  These are our onions.  Hopefully, they will come up....I've never planted onions before.

 Ok, it was supposed to be a salsa garden, but I just couldn't resist some other plants....who gardens without cucumber and zucchini, right?  :0)

 This is one of 2 black zucchini plants

This is one of 2 cucumber plants--one has already been trampled by either a kid or a dog.  Guess our stick barriers aren't as effective as we'd hoped! {sigh}

   We bought these plants from a new farm in Woodbury--Coldwater Farms. They plant all heirloom non-GMO seeds.  Yay!  We like to support our local farmers!!

So what do you plant in your garden?  One day we will have a huge garden again with all the wonderful plants like watermelon and cantaloupe and potatoes....and the list goes on and on.  Keeping it small 'til my raised beds are built.  The Christmas trees are priority right now and they get most of our time and attention!

Thanks for stopping by!

Dawn  

Dawn's Cheesy Biscuit Loaf

 I thought I'd start sharing some great recipes with you!  This first one is new to my family.  It's one I've been testing in my kitchen.  We'll see if 3 different tweakings is the perfect fit...

 and...

  YES!  It was Yummy!

It started out as two different recipes that I found here:
Jim & Nick's Cheesy Biscuits 
Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits (I did not originally find it here...I first saw it on Facebook and shared it to my timeline and printed it out and several people even commented on it....now, it has disappeared--so can't really give credit.)

Anyway....

Dawn's Cheesy Biscuit Loaf
3 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1 heaping tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. black pepper
3 T Sugar
1 1/2 cups grated Colby/Monterey Jack cheese
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3 T melted butter
1 egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl including the cheese.  Mix wet ingredients in a different bowl.  Then, add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Do not overmix.  Place in loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

We waited 10 minutes and dug in!  Enjoy!

Please comment when you make this and let me know what you think.  Also, if you made any changes.  I love seeing what others like!  

I just linked this post to the Weekend Potluck
Click the box and go find some more yummy recipes.

I also linked up here:  


There are some great posts on this blog and all the ones linking up.  Grab some coffee and go look at the Farm Girls and all they have to offer.  Thanks for joining us!!
 
Dawn    

Dawn's Bug Beware!

I made my own insect repellant with essential oils.  So excited to give it a try.  We are about to go 'sploring on our 40 acres looking for a flock of turkeys we've been seeing around our house.  Sadly, we think our Australian Shepherd puppy, Middie must have scared them off the other day and they've not been back.  We need serious insect repellant around here.  The chiggers and ticks think they own the place.  We don't seem to have much trouble with mosquitos although they are around, because we have a pretty healthy bat population that keeps the mosquitos thinned out.  We love to sit at my in-love's and watch the bats fly just at dusk during the summertime.

I am not very good at taking pictures for ya'll. Thought I'd use my Modern Essentials book and the current book I'm skimming that I borrowed from the library (Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens--can you guess what's in our near future??) for the background.  Also used my new rolls of washi tape that I love!  Thanks for the idea Camp Wander

ok, back to the insect repellant :0)!

I found a recipe at two different places on the web.
Natural Homemade Mosquito Spray

and

DIY: Insect Repellant

So, I tweaked them and came up with my own.  Here it is:

Dawn's Bug Beware
12 oz Witch Hazel
15 drops citronella essential oil 
15 drops lemongrass essential oil
10 drops peppermint
10 drops tea tree (melaleuca)
10 drops eucalyptus

I put these into several different size glass spray bottles. 

2 - 4 oz. bottles    One for the front door and one for the back door.
1 - 2 oz. bottle      For the van
3 - 1 oz. bottles    For the car, truck, and my purse.

So there you have it.  We will be giving it a try and I will update in a few weeks or so and let you all know how it's working. 

All essential oils can be purchased at Spark Naturals.  Be sure to use code "sonshine" for a 10% discount.


I've shared and linked this post over at Sustain Create and Flow  for
Wildcrafting Wednesday  and Natural Living Link-up  Please stop by and check out some awesome posts by other bloggers.

Please leave a comment!  Thanks for stopping by!

P.S.  I did not name it until after I'd already made the labels...next time!!
Dawn