Fun With Food: Making Flat Bread

This summer we made a plan to go with out air conditioning for as long as we could. We made it till the very hot month parts of August and September but still used it sparingly when we did turn it on. The one downside to this plan was, baking bread in the hot days of summer.

I started About 2 years ago I started to grind my own wheat for our bread and baked goods. The benefits of fresh ground wheat are overwhelming and out weigh an extra work it makes. So now I was faced with over heating our house or giving up my baking. I was not prepared to do either and I researched other options.

When I first started my homestead green living lifestyle I was in love with the idea that I could make anything. Our own ketchup, hamburger buns, salad dressing, and laundry soap to name a few of the things we make for ourselves. It was so rewarding to know when we ran out it did not mean a trip to the grocery store but to mix a few ingredients already in my pantry.

I started researching other ways of making bread type items without the oven. I checked out bread makes and bought an inexpensive bread maker that is working out nicely and is great for mixing up dough that I may use for rolls or pizzas! I also found some great recipes that are for making flat breads on the stove top. The kids and I experimented and made a recipe that works for us. It has a good bit of oil in it but in makes a nice dough that is easy for kids to roll out.

Whole Wheat Flat Bread
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour
0.5 t Baking powder
7 T Oil
1 cup very hot water


3 minute of kneading
15 minute to rest under wet warm towel
Form into Golf Ball size balls
Roll out and cook on a cast iron grill or non stick pan

ENJOY!!

Reuse our Favorite R

One of my favorite parts of the 3R's of Recycling is the Reuse! I love finding new life for old things. One of my great loves is lids, yes lids. Bottle lids, jar lids, you name it. Most people may not know that the lid should be removed prior to recycling, and in some places it can not be recycled at all. The lid is normally not made of the same kind of plastic, and if you area only does a few of the plastic numbers then they do not recycle the lids. One very sad point is that depending on your Recycling Centers policy if you do not remove the lids they will put all your recycling in the regular trash and into the landfill. The common answer for this is they just don't have the manpower to do the work required to remove the lids.In any event we find the lids to be very useful items in our household of six From meal times to art time, there are many secondary uses for lids that can add life to the item and ease to your life.

Check out some of the things we use our lids for:

Matching Games for Toddlers

Water or Sand Play

Snack Cup

Holder for ketchup, dip and other condiments

Small Part Holder for Crafting

Glue or Glitter Holder

Lid Cover for Cups

Cooking Spoon Rest

Leave a comment and tell me your ideas for reusing lids or other things!

When I was a little girl, no matter where we lived we always had a garden. No matter the size, there were always certain rules that were followed. One was that Marigolds were always planted with the vegetables. As a little girl I thought it was just to make the planting beds look pretty. Now I am older and understand the relationship that marigolds have in the garden.

Marigolds are easy to grow and they help keep the away aphids, the relationship between plants and insects is known as ‘companion planting,’ and it has been passed down for generations as the safest, most natural way to garden. Our new buzz word for it is organic.

Marigolds were first discovered by the Portuguese in Central America in the 16th century. Marigolds are hardy, annual plants. There are two genuses which are referred to by the common name, Marigolds viz., Tagetes and Celandula. Tagetes includes African Marigolds and French Marigolds. Celandula includes Pot Marigolds. Tagetes are used in the garden to repel insects and Celandula is an extremely effective herb for the treatment of skin problems .

Marigolds can be planted anywhere in the garden to deter Mexican bean beetles, squash bugs, tomato hornworms, and whiteflies. They are also known to repel harmful root knot nematodes (soil dwelling microscopic white worms) that attack tomatoes, potatoes, roses, and strawberries. The root of the Marigold produces a chemical that kills nematodes as they enter the soil.

Other plant that help with pest control:

• 
  Peppermint repels ants, white cabbage moths, aphids, and flea beetles.


• 
  Garlic discourages aphids, fleas, Japanese beetles, and spider mites.


• 
  Perennial Chives repel aphids and spider mites.


• 
  Basil drives away flies and mosquitoes.


• 
  Rosemary and Sage repel cabbage moths, bean beetles, and carrot flies.

Getting to Know You.....

I recently did a produce review for my Tuesday Green Tip on Tricia of The Green Market on Etsy. http://www.thegreenmarket.etsy.com/ I wanted you to get to know her more and thought she would be great for this months Getting to know you.

Tell us a little about yourself and your family.

I am a wife to a wonderful executive city boy and mother to 8 children ranging in ages from 16 to 4 months old. I was born in NY but raised in Miami, Florida and have been planning my escape to the country for 10 years. We finally realized our dream of owning a small hobby farm on 3 acres 2 years ago, called Moss Flower Farm. My J.O.B is cake designing. I can make any cake that my client can dream up, I love challenges. My favorite hobbies include painting, crochet, quilting and designing. We have a very structured but fun family and there never seems to be a shortage of hugs around our home.

My blog is about my life on Etsy but also about my family and living green, so what does GREEN mean to you and your family?

We have been "green" for so long that it is just the way we do things. Being green to me is taking a step backwards. A step backwards is a step forwards. I try to do things like my grandmother would have done it. We do not use reusable or throw away items. If we have an event we use compostable plates or cups. We use cloth napkins, diapers, cleaning cloths, reusable shopping bags, produce bags, all paper goes into our shredder and is used to line our chickens nest boxes, any food scraps go into our compost or earth worm bins (vermiculture). We are in the planning process of going solar powered by installing solar panels to hopefully be mostly off grid. We have a solar oven which we built and are still working on to cook our meals with the sun soon. Water is conserved in any way we can and keep a mind of being wasteful with any resource. We don't have many chemicals in our home, we make our own cleaners, laundry detergent, tooth powder and hopefully soon our own soa
p. We make laundry soap out of greener ingredients and make most things from scratch. For such a big family, I would say that our carbon footprint would be equal to that of a 4 person family.

We are now in summer and gardens are the new/old thing to have, What do you grow and/or raise on your property?

On Moss Flower Farm we raise chickens (Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds and Araucanas) White Drake ducks (Aflac), we have a huge stocked catfish pond and are planning to add a Dexter cow very soon for raw milk. Dexter cows are as big as a big dog and are very gentle, because of their size they require little pasture. We have fruit trees including, peach, persimmon, plum, pomegranate, fig, loquat, all kinds of citrus, apples and mulberries and bananas. We grow tomatoes, peas, squash, potatoes, green beans, all types of lettuce and microgreens, many herbs, strawberries, black and raspberries, garlic, chives and onions. We have a blueberry orchard and are picking wonderful blueberries at the moment. We will probably be done with the blueberry season in a few weeks. Growing food is powerful, if you can grow food you can become free.

When did you start on Etsy? How did you get started crafting?

I opened my shop in June of 2008 and am coming up on my 1st year anniversary on the 20th. Crafting has always been a part of my life. When I was little (I am 36 now, shhh very priviledged info) my family would go to the library and I would go straight to the sewing, crafting section.

What do you make and sell in your shop?

I make all sorts of reusable products, ReYOUsable dusters and sweeping cloths to replace the displosable one in Swiffer products, reusable napkins, baby wipes, sandwich wraps, cleaning cloths. Shopping bags from wonderful designer fabrics such as Amy Butler and Heather Bailey, resuable bulk food bags for grains and flour and produce bags to replace those flimsy little plastic produce bags at the store, they are also great for keeping lettuces from drying out in the fridge. Even though most don't make it to my store because of procrastination on my part, we sell all of our items at the Farmers Market in town and love custom orders on Etsy.


What do you wish you had known when you started out selling your craft ?

That a serger is not an evil monster which should be kept covered in the corner of the sewing room for years before being brave enough to attempt using it.

What are some of you favorite projects that you have done?

I love to paint little people families. Seeing the little wooden dolls come to life and look like the people who will own them is fun.

What would be your best tip for someone starting out?

Think creatively and out of the box. Keep a notepad of ideas as they come to you.

Tell use about your day and how you "do it all" with homeschooling and running your own business?

As I said before, we are very structured. Children thrive on stucture (with flexibility) and discipline. The key to our family being able to "do it all" is going to bed early. My children's bedtime is 8 PM which means that they go to bed while the sun is still out. This helps the next day to be fruitful, fun and pleasant. School work is part of our life and my children have never know another way so they love to learn. My studio is where I create and run my business and my children respect that. I do not waste time with TV (not much : ) or phone and unnecessary outings so I have time to work on my ideas. We also schedule quiet time so we can all get to our favorite activities like crochet, reading or whatever.

What tips do you have for parents trying to run an at home business while raising a family?

Moms cannot and should not do everything themselves. Each one of our families members has their jobs which they are responsible for which we keep on a list and it ensures that everything that needs to get done, gets done. Even little children can help mom put the laundry into the washer and use a brush to sweep up crumbs in the kitchen. Children need to know that they are valuable and necessary parts of their families. Home businesses are a wonderful way to involve children and teach them business skills for their future. In our cake business my daughters start by punching out and creating flowers and passing ingredients. My 16 year old is now my soux chef and is getting quite good at baking. Children can help to package items, stamp letters and organize supplies. My kids love our booth at the Farmer's Market. They love to talk to customers and educate others on living simpler, greener lives.

Where do you see or hope to see you business in the future?

We have provisional patents and patents pending on some of our items and I would like to see them in stores outside of our town. It would be wonderful to have a business we can work on as a family when my children are older.

Last but not least, if granted super power what would you pick?

I have always wanted to be able to go back in time and create the things I make now back then. Imagine coming up with Reusable swiffer type products before Proctor and Gamble got us all used to the use and throw away mentality.

Ladybug, Ladybug ...

Ladybug, Ladybug Nursery Rhyme
Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.

All except one,
And that's little Ann,
For she crept under
The frying pan.

We have ordered ladybugs to add to our garden. When gardening in an organic way, we want to work with nature not against her. There are lots of great plants and insects who will happily come work for you in your garden to keep away unwanted dinning guests. Ladybugs are beneficial because they feed on aphids and other soft bodied insects that feed on plants. They feeds on these pests as the adult ladybug and also as the larva. One ladybug can eat as many as 50 aphids a day.

We have also ordered a lovely little house for them, it will be a sweet addition to our garden. A Ladybug House encourages these beneficial insects to take up residence in your garden and provides a safe roosting place during chilly months.

History of the ladybug:
In Europe, during the Middle Ages, insects were destroying the crops, so the Catholic farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. Soon the Ladybugs came, ate the plant-destroying pests and saved the crops! The farmers began calling the ladybugs "The Beetles of Our Lady", and they eventually became known as "Lady Beetles"! The red wings represented the Virgin's cloak and the black spots represented her joys and sorrows. They didn't differentiate between males and females.


For more information check out these websites:

http://www.growquest.com/ladybug_page.htm

http://www.ladybuglady.com/

http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/MQuinn/MQuinn1.htm

http://www.coloring.ws/ladybugs1.htm

Tuesday GREEN Tip

Many people think that going GREEN means the lose of convenience. I hope to show you that GREEN living is a more convenient and cost effective way of life with an added bonus of protecting our Earth. Many of us use or have used these new wonderful cleaning products like the swiffer and other brands of fast and disposable cleaning products. These products make cleaning a speedy process, but the problem has always been the costly and wasteful replacement parts.When I started on my GREEN quest I wanted to challenge myself to prove that going green didn't mean the loss of convenience for myself and others. I found this great seller on ETSY that makes great replacements that are eco-friendly and reusable.

Check out her shop! http://www.thegreenmarket.etsy.com/

Tuesday Green Tip

We started using only rechargeable batteries to save on money but also waste in our landfills. We found it difficult to keep track of what was charged and what needed charged. I came up with this clever idea and it works great with the kids. Red bag is for those needing charged and green is for those ready to go. You can sew your own or get ones like these at any craft store.

Earth Day, a little late

My post for Earth Day is a little late this year. I must say that I am steamed, mad, and downright ready to rant. Over the past three months we worked on our Earth Day project. Our plan was to see how far we could reduce our water usage and in doing so, reduce our bill and prove how living green is better for your green (money).

We did our part with things like:

• Using one cup a day per person


• Saving water from cooking to give to the plants


• Make sure nothing was leaking and toilets were running properly


• Adding water bottles to the back of the toilet to reduce tank water


• Flushing when needed


• Reduced letting the water run during cleaning and teethbrushing


• Heating water for cleaning, not letting it run to get hot


• Cooling water in the fridge, not letting it run to get cold


• Reducing the kids amount of clothing changes in a day, reducing our laundry


• Cleaning stains right away and then only doing a full laundry load

We recently got our latest bill, and at first I was excited! We brought our water use down to 7 ccf for 3 months ( our highest use on record being 16 ccf), that translates to 5236 gallons for the quarter and 1745.33333 gallons a month.

Now, we are a homeschooling family, so 5 out of 6 of us are home full-time most days, which means our water use may be higher than some other families. Using these numbers, you can see that our use per person per day equals a little less than 10 gallons.The average home in the U.S. consumes about 69.3 gallons of water per person per day, according to a 1999 survey of 1,200 homes by the American Water Works Association. The average family of four consumes 6,300 gallons of water per month for indoor use.

So, knowing all these facts, I was ecstatic to see how far we had come. However, then I see that the bill amount was not reduced and at the bottom was a note, " ATTN: YOUR BILL INCLUDES A 40% WATER RATE INCREASE."It takes a lot to get me mad, and I am mad! This also came on the tail of our gas & electric being deregulated and therefore also increasing. I have a hard time enjoying the State and City I live in and this just makes it harder!

Family Work

This past weekend we enjoyed some official Family Work. It is a time when we work together, even the little ones to clean up or help improve our family in some way. This weekend we worked on our garden and planted strawberries.

Everbearing strawberries to be exact; they will produce from spring to fall and come back stronger each year! In the past we have always spent Mother's Day or what ever weekend they were ready, at a local pick-your-own farm. Last year they started charging a picking fee per person no mater what size the person. Well for a family of six those ended up being some very pricey berries. Now we will have our own strawberries all season long.

Next week we will put in our other seeds and look into container blueberry bushes. Each week we will add more stones and more items to the garden. I love the idea of Edible Landscaping!

Want to know more? Check out these links.

Websites:

http://www.ediblelandscaping.com/

http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/

http://www.plantea.com/edibleland.htm

Books:

Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables by Fred Hagy

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn by Fritz Haeg, Diana Balmori, Rosalind Creasy, and Michael Pollan

Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather Coburn

Simple Fruit Salad

This is a family favorite! I like to use a mix of canned and fresh fruits.

1 can of diced pineapple
1 can of pears in juice (dice if needed)
1 can of peaches in juice (dice if needed)
1 can of mandarin oranges
1 package of blueberries (washed)
1 package of strawberries (washed and diced or sliced)

Mix all together in a large bowl making sure to add juice. Enjoy!

Getting to Know You.....

This month we will be meeting Rob Sandall. He is creator of my wonderful product tags you see here. I love getting to know about the other crafters and suppliers on Etsy.

Tell us a little about yourself and your family.

I'm a 42 year old kid who spent his entire life in a 3 square mile area of Portland, Oregon. I had a solid family upbringing, did pretty good in school, and failed miserably in college (long story). I am lucky today to have found my soul partner loving wife. We met just 4 1/2 years ago, and together with her daughter, my incredible stepkid, we have a humble, happy, cute little home. Our girl is on the 7th grade honor roll, my Wife has a great job that she loves, and I am pursuing my dream of working from home. I worked for 18 years in an engraving shop prior to starting Bullfrog Graphics in 2007.

My blog is about my life on Etsy but also about my family and living green, so what does GREEN mean to you and your family?

With our family, living GREEN is an ongoing goal. It starts with our recycling efforts - we have 3 recycling bins in our kitchen that are working out great. Other simple things include using eco-friendly weather sealer on our picnic table out back, washing laundry in cold water, and our latest project is replacing all of the windows in our home which should save quite a bit in wasted heating energy. I also hope to retrofit our backyard flower garden with rainwater supplied irrigation some day soon.

We are moving into spring and everyone is getting their seeds and gardens ready, What do you grow and/or raise on your property?

We have a perennial flower garden. I never dreamed I would be a "flower" guy, but now every day I look for our flowers to begin showing themselves in the springtime. It's so cool! I feel like a little kid waiting for the ice cream truck to come around the corner. This year we also want to grow some vegetables - at least some tomatoes and peppers. We have one blueberry bush in a large cedar pot that is amazingly productive. In August it's cool to walk outside in the morning with a bowl of Wheaties and pluck blueberries right off the bush to top it off.

How did you get started in woodworking?

I had some woodshop in school, and my Dad and I built a few bird houses and pinewood derby cars when I was in the Boy Scouts. I was never terribly interested in woodworking until we got our first laser engraver at my engraving job in 1994. Wow - the creative potential was unlimited! My boss, a very cool lady, would let me come in on weekends and tinker with ideas. I never dreamed I would own my own laser, but thanks to my Wife's support and encouragement - here I am, waking up every day with a goofy smile on my face as I head downstairs to my dungeon...er...workshop to burn things with my laser....

What do you wish you had known when you started out ?

I thought I would be the most organized guy to ever work from home. No lost paperwork, never forgetting things, never putting off answering questions for a blog ....... - but jeez! I do the family grocery shopping, household maintenance (this weeks job is a leaky shower), pick up and delivery to 7th grade soccer practice - all things I am grateful to be doing, but in the background there is always (fortunately) emails to reply to, engraving ideas to design, shipping, filing, paperwork, cleaning the laser optics and exhaust fans, keeping computer files backed up - oh, you all know how it goes - so many things! But again, I'm very blessed to be in this position. I wish I had known that I'm not superhuman.

Tell use about your laser woodworking and how it works and the other materials you use?

Here's the technical description of the laser system I have: "55 watt co2 air cooled laser engraver with 24x18 inch vector cutting table, air assist, and heated leather seats" Well...Most of that is accurate. The graphics and text used for engraving are generated with CorelDraw, a graphics program that works with both vector and bitmap images. Mastery of CorelDraw makes operating this laser system amazingly flexible. The machine itself is about as big as the bottom half of a refrigerator. Inside are 3 axis - XYZ - an arm with a mirror that travels the Y, a mirror and lens that travel the X, and the engraving surface raises up and down for the Z. When focused on the wood, the laser beam literally vaporizes the area the beam comes in contact with. But this little beam is 3/1000 of an inch in diameter - really tiny! So it gives amazing detail, but has to travel really fast to get any work done efficiently. To simplify the description of the process, think of it as a huge inkjet printer that fires a laser beam instead of ink, and only through one tiny little hole. Wow - I'm getting wordy here.... Besides wood, I can cut and engrave acrylic, leather - almost anything porous. Metal, on the other hand - no can do.

What are some of you favorite projects that you have done?

I love everything I make for my Etsy store. I really do! If I have to pick a favorite, it's the 4 and 6 pack beverage racks. I think it's because people have been so incredibly creative with their engraving ideas! I've engraved famous quotes, robots, dinosaurs, trees - so many things! People really enjoy giving these as gifts with their personal, thoughtful ideas engraved. I've had some very rewarding feedback! I make things for myself once in a while that turn out pretty cool. I made an acrylic charm for my wife that I had cast into pure silver (thanks do my Dad who works with precious metals). She wears it all the time! I also make little boxes and tools that I use every day in my workshop - it's so handy to see a need for a specific storage box, and be able to fabricate it on the spot. Lucky me!


When did you start on Etsy?

I started in....July 2008? I think that's it. It was my Sister's suggestion - bless her! She buys from Etsy often, and thought I could fin a niche.

What would be your best tip for someone starting out?

Be honest with your customers, and always do what you say you are going to do. Stay in communication with them - if you see you might not meet a deadline, let them know right away. Offer to pay extra shipping if needed - throw in something extra if there's been a snag. Always see the transaction from the customer's view, and you will be generously rewarded with their esteem. Be a good person! Don't get greedy, but keep in check with the fact that you (if this applies) are doing this in part to support yourself or your family.

What tips do you have for parents trying to run an at home business while raising a family?

This one was hard for me, but I've learned to do it. Force yourself to quit at dinner time! Don't work weekends! There will always be exceptions - occasionally I will underestimate how long a project will take, and I'm committed to a shipping deadline. I try to do my catching up in the early AM when the girls are sleeping, but once in a while (like before Christmas......holy cow) I have to go back to the dungeon after dinner for a few hours.

Where do you see or hope to see you company in the future?

I hope to make enough income to pay the house off early, take my family on a few vacations (nothing fancy - maybe Disneyland or Yellowstone), and have a secure "golden years" plan for my wife and I. I can't imagine not working - I really like this job! If I can cut to part time when I'm over 55 years old, that might be ok. I want this company to have a solid, dependable reputation that maybe some day I can pass on to my Daughter, Niece, Nephews - who knows!


Last but not least, if granted super power what would you pick?

I'd like the power to be able to pick out clothes that my wife agrees "match" That would be impressive. ;)

To find out more about this Etsy seller go to:
http://www.bullfrog-graphics.com/
http://RobertoSand.etsy.com/

Green Homeschooling

Using energy and making waste is what humans of the 21st century are known best for. Well, being home with a family of 6 for a good part of the day everyday can make you see that truth.
We have worked hard as a family to reduce our energy use. We bought GREEN light bulbs. We have reduced our phantom electrical use, and we are tracking what we use each month so we can make improvements. Now for the waste--that's a hard one with a large family. We precycle, buy items with less or recyclable packaging, use less when we can, recycle what is allowed, and reuse what we can. Homeschooling is sadly adding to our waste and so this year we have started taking these steps to reduce.
We start by using recycled paper and recycling our paper and art work. We have a bin in the dinning room, also our homeschooling room, to "file" old art work and busy school work. We also looked for items to reduce our need for paper. We do work on Magna-doodles, chalk mats, and wipe off practice sheets.

Here are some great Etsy finds to help you reduce:

http://www.whimseys.etsy.com/

http://www.mamaslittlemonkeys.etsy.com/

http://www.itsthesmallthings.etsy.com/

http://www.itsthesmallthings.etsy.com/

http://www.flipskipjump.etsy.com/
PDF Pattern

Getting to Know you.....

As you may remember from my list of Etsy items we got for our kids for Christmas, there was this lovely doll bed made by this wonderful lady on Etsy. Karen is the owner of the shop, http://www.mimas.etsy.com/ . I wanted to start having some personal knowledge of the crafters that I love, and I thought you my readers might like to come along. I want to know more about their crafting but also what GREEN means to them. Here is my interview with Karen...

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am married to a wonderful man who is not only my best friend, but my beacon. We have 5 grown children combined with 3 wonderful grandchildren. We live on 13.3 acres on the McKenzie river, where we live a simple life.

Have you always lived on a micro farm?

For the most part. My mother was a gypsy, and we traveled a lot. But we always lived "simple" -- never in a hurry, no stress, no hassles.

What do you grow and/or raise on your farm?

We have 2 large gardens; adding a third this season. We also have an orchard with 2 pear trees, 2 plum trees and 8 apple trees but only 7 now produce fruit. We live 30 feet off of the river so we catch a lot of fish and we are hunters as well. I would like to have a goat and some chickens in the near future; the goat would be as a pet and friend to our black lab "shadow".

Do you sell your extra produce?

We don't sell any of the produce; we give it away. This is why we are adding another garden area, to help our friends and family. I am unable to eat the meat from the deer I hunt, so I also donate that to family and friends. It is such a wonderful feeling to share the fruits of my labor. I think, if we all would just help one person in need, there would be no hunger in our world.

What do you wish you had known when you started out farming?

That there is no 9-5. LOL! Just kidding, I wish I would of paid closer attention to my dad. He is close to 80 years young and is still farming. He is full of information that I could of tapped into long ago.

What are your thoughts on GREEN living, and what does your family do to help protect Mother Earth?

I love Mother Earth, and I can honestly say that I do something everyday to help my "footprint" get smaller. I think our society has become lazy or maybe just comfortable, but neither one is good for our children's future. Plastic lasts a lifetime in our landfil. Cigarette butts leak toxins into our earth. They take up to 12 years to decompose. I teach our grandchildren and our children to leave this earth better then we found it; that it is on loan to us.

Have you always sewn and crafted?

I have always crafted and sewn. We always make our gifts and still make our gifts. My grandchildren know that we don't buy gifts. We not only make something for each other but we make for other children. We had so much fun this year picking names off of the giving tree and making baby beds and doll diapers for little ones who would have no gift.

When did you start on Etsy?

April of last year I joined etsy. The creator of Horse & crab creations on etsy happened to be the person that came out to fix my phone line and she was kind enough to tell me about Etsy.

What would be your best tip for someone starting out?

I always tell people to start small, everyone can cut down on and recycle paper products, plastic. We can all be mindful of what we place in the trash. Share, trade, barter, clean out and down size your closet. It doesn't take much to make a big difference.

What tips do you have for moms?

Enjoy the moment, they grow so fast. Our children won't remember the Nike shoes or the designer jeans but they will remember all the times we weren't there. My goal in life is to live to 130 years of age in good health and great spirits. I am blessed to be able to grow and hunt for most of my food, I don't have a cell phone. We have one vehicle, I up-cycle, re-purpose, and I love to barter. I don't like to buy new. Heck I don't like to spend money at all. When it is my time to go to a higher place I would like to be remembered as a kind, loving, simple lady that was not only blessed by mother earth, but a blessing to mother earth. As my dear granddaughter Kelea said to me one day "Grammy you're a hippy!” Oh yes I am. :) and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Why I am The Reluctant City Dweller

Growing up on the top of Sunshine Mountain in PA, I spent my time in the woods and on the farm.  I lived a good life, it would now be called GREEN living.  My parents farmed to feed our large family.  I remember my mother baking and canning.  We milked the cows, collected the eggs and had animal "friends".  We made our own butter and ice cream.  Berry bushes and apple trees were everywhere in those Pocono mountains. 

We spent the summer playing,  I loved living in the woods amongst the fairies, and I lived to frolic in the trees.  My cousins and I spent hours in our tree houses by the creek.  I never worried about trolls and goblins, because I always had a bowl of skunkweed soup waiting for them.  The pungent smell mixed with a sugar cube or two would make them be my delightful guest for a few hours.  All this wonderful enlightened play was mine at least until dinner time, when I had to leave my world to be a normal girl again.

I grew up with finding ways to invent new things to play with.  I was always making something, and I never remember being board.  My parents encouraged creativity.  I loved kids, and there was never a short supply in my big and extended family.  I always had someone around to try out my new game.  I felt blessed by our life back then.

I went off to college to follow my art ability but my heart always wanted to be a nanny.  My mother grew up with one, and I love those stories she told me about afternoons at the beach in Australia with her sisters and the nanny.  I followed my dream, and in 1991 I went to The English Nanny and Governess school.  I had many wonderful years living that dream being the enchanted Nanny I always dreamed I would be.

Years later I found a Prince among men and married him.  We started our family in 2000 and now have 4 beautiful, wonderful children for me to create for and dream with.  I am now a happy housewife, SAHM/Homeschooler trying to find ways to bring that same enchantment to my children. We live in a city in Central New Jersey, 45 minutes from the shore, NYC, and Philadelphia. Although it is a great place to live my heart hungers for a "greener" life for my family.  So, until we buy the farm, I will work to balance this chapter in my life.

I hope you enjoy the time you spend with me here.  I hope you join me as I try to find a balance in my life here in the city.  I think you will find, as I have, that although I am a reluctant city dweller you can always take a piece of the farm with you.