Big Universe, Small World... ©2013-2020

I had a plant holder that I have not used in a long while. I actually have two of them. I had placed them in the recycling long ago. The recycle men kept taking it out of the recycling and leaving it on top of the mailbox. After three times of this, I brought them back to the garage and porch and there they have sat for well over a year.  Today, I had an idea. This project happened in between the pallet wall project .   This is one of the baskets.   I suspended with two nails from a board on one of the pallets of the wall. It is actually between the red tip and buttercrunch lettuces.  I cut a coconut fiber thing to fit the basket.   Romaine lettuce was transplanted within the basket.   :)

We made a garden wall from reclaimed pallets about two seasons ago. All winter, I have been looking at these pallets and thinking about things to do with them...So, here is what some of the wall space has become...  This is where I started. I did not use this specific pallet for the first set of planting. Although, it is the same idea.   Weed control fabric was doubled and tacked in the space to hold the plants and still allow for proper drainage. The excess was trimmed back some.   Buttercrunch was transplanted into the space and dirt was placed around to fill the space.   This is another shot of the buttercrunch area.   This is a second space of red tipped lettuce. 

I made clove oil last week. We have used it this week for topical pain application. It was effective and it worked well. I wish I had known of the uses of oils AGES ago!! Some of the pictures are sideways, but you will get the general gist of what to do. :)  Crush fresh cloves.  Use a coffee strainer and a string.  Place crushed cloves in the coffee strainer.  Tie up with string.  I did trim the excess of mine off.  Use EVOO - does no have to be this brand. :)  Place oil in jar and submerge clove sachet. It does want to float. I used a wooden spoon handle to push it in a bit. This is a jelly jar.  Place a small square of tin foil over the top of the jar.  Shape the foil concave to the jar lip.  I firmed it up to the lip for better sealing and trimmed excess foil away. This will allow any oil steam to not escape, but to stay in the jar. It keeps all the goodies where you want them.  Set up a double boiler situ...

I had a friend at produce co-op ask me the other day how we recycle onions for regrow, so I decided to post this. In another note, I also reuse the skins and onion waste to keep with things like potato skins and the like when I make bone broth. Back to recycling/reusing onions... When cutting up onion, save the bottom inch or so. Place in a shallow dish with water and wait for the roots to grow.  These have been in water for a few weeks now and have started to sprout, so it was definitely time to plant them.  You plant the onion start like you would any other plant start and leave the new leaves exposed.  This is one planted previously by the garden wall.  There is one onion in the foreground here and three more in the background. One of them is very small.  And, three more planted before along the garden wall.

The Adam Quest:  Eleven Scientists Who Held on to a Strong Faith While Wrestling with the Mystery of Human Origins By Tim Stafford Published by Thomas Nelson Book Description Science and faith should be allies, not opponents, in the search for truth. But when it comes to understanding the very beginnings of life, it is no easy task to reconcile the history taught in the Bible with the discoveries of the scientific community. Author Tim Stafford watched the tension between the beliefs of Darwin and the teaching of Genesis shake the faith of his family, ruin friendships, and leave Christians in the field of science feeling as though the doors of the church were closed to their profession. He believes this civil war can stop. The scientific record and the truth of the Bible aren’t mutually exclusive.  The Adam Quest  offers a compelling new look at the beginnings of life as Stafford puts questions of dinosaurs, genealogy, and the age of the earth to eleven ...

Tunnel adventure number 3 and walking through the underground mall!! In the early part of the 1900s, South Carolina had an underground area with stores and restaurants. There is an open mall area, now mostly offices and small boutiques, above the underground mall.

Yep - there are several really OLD OLD tunnels under the city...Yep - we found them!  Yep - we explored!   

This is what we do for field trips at times...  :)  We went looking for the tunnels that went under the nearby city for the early 1800s. We found them!

Because climbing on the train is what you are supposed to do when you go to view one. :)

My older son moved back in for a brief while and it was bittersweet to see him go out into the world on his own again. We used to babysit the little girl who lived next door. These are from when she was over at our house one afternoon last spring, before my son moved out. He has his own baby now and this seems like a brief memory. :0)

Minding Molly by:  Leslie Gould series:  The Courtships of Lancaster County About the Book: Molly Zook Has Everything Planned Just Right. Or So She Thinks!   Molly Zook's always liked being in control, so she's struggling with her mother's wish that, to save the family farm, she marry Mervin Mosier. Especially after Molly meets Leon Fisher. He's from Montana but is now training horses at a nearby ranch. He's tall and muscular and confident--Molly has never met anyone like him and she's sure he feels the same about her. Determined to let nothing get between them, Molly tries to coax Mervin into falling back in love with Molly's best friend, Hannah. A weekend camping trip in the Poconos could be just the place...but things quickly go awry, and it seems Leon and Hannah might be falling for each other instead! Will Molly keep struggling to control everyone and everything around her? Or will she learn to let God handle the twists and turns of her...

This recipe was an instant hit...  :) Things that make a mommy smile....   Bell pepper boats were made and put onto a buttered dish for the oven. Ground sausage and beef were combined with minced onions and garlic, sage, basil, egg, and cheese. Boats were stuffed and baked at 375* for about thirty to forty minutes.  The peppers were sweet and the dish was yummy!