Monday's This & That

Let's Talk About Give-Aways

We've watched as many bloggers scurry to get the best things to give away then race to see who can get to 100 or 500 or 1000 or more followers or 'Likes'.  There are certain bennies for me if I get to that many followers and the kudos is amazing for the self esteem but frankly I don't have time to even enter all these give-aways.  I entered one the other day and it took me over a half an hour just to jump through all the hoops that I had to jump through to get all the entry done.  Then if I do give aways there's all the letters to send out trying to find sponsors for this give-away and that give away.  WOW. 

I'm just a grandma.  I sew for my grandchildren, grow my own food and pretty soon the baby goats will be coming.  I spend hours a week still trying to learn to be Celiac and making sure that I feed us good, healthy, nutrient dense foods. I've got an empty nest after 30+ years of marriage and frankly my husband and I need to learn to reconnect with each other when we don't have children's needs pressing on us.  I need time for him and for us.  I started this blog because I wanted to share with you, from almost 60 years of life, some things I happen to know about, and that I am passionate about. 

If you want to follow me.....I'm honored.  I hope that you will learn something and in turn you'll comment and I can learn from you.  I'd love it if you'd share my BLOG and my Facebook page with your friends so we can all learn together but I'm NOT going to thrust 5 different give-aways on you every day just so I can get 1,000 fans.  I not only hope you understand but I hope that, like me, you'll appreciate the fact that you won't be getting a gazillion messages asking you to sign up for this or that.  I hope you'll enjoy our fellowship time together.  Now, that said, I will probably do 4-6 give-aways a year and one of them is coming up.  Most of all I hope you'll find the information I gather for you helpful.

Having Trouble figuring out how to get everything done?  Cooking Traditional foods seem overwhelming to you?

Feel like you don’t have enough time for everything?

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Friday, April 15th at 1 pm eastern time.


Have You Noticed?

Have you noticed the cute header and buttons on my BLOG for Grandma Farmer?  They were made by a very talented LISA of www.thesweettalkshop.com.  Visit her site!

Gardening Tips

Get your sheets and blankets out to cover tender things tonight as we are in for a frost!

Wow this has been a weird spring.  It's way to warm and things are growing a popping out at least a month to early.  Now the next several days we are running the risk of frosts that might harm or even kill our plants, especially if you've gone ahead and put out tender perinnials.

Below is a link that should help you to know when the average last frost is in the spring and the first frost is in the fall.  None of these days are absolutely accurate to the day but they will give you an idea of when to expect them on the average.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Keep this link handy.

PLANNING THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

Every year I take my calendar and the Hardzone dates and plan my planting schedule.  I carefully count the days or weeks that I can safely plant seeds and set plants in the ground.  I schedule sucession planting and even some late summer plantings so I can harvest before that expected first hard freeze.  You can do this too, easy as pie.

KEEPING A GARDEN JOURNAL

I also like to keep a garden journal.  In this journal I'll record the temperatures, cloudiness and rain amounts each day.  I'll record when and where I plant seeds and/or plants.  I will especially record names of the varieties that I have planted.  By doing all this I'll be able to note which varieties grew best for me and which ones tasted the best so I can track my favorites.  I can recognize that some plants prefer certain areas of the garden and remember to plant them there again next year, if I can.

Scrappy Fridays!

In the coming weeks we'll be sharing ideas on how to use your stash of fabric candy or your stash of fabric Scraps in quick projects.  CLICK HERE to find out how you can join in.  Best of all....IT'S FREE