I Built A Screened In Porch! :)

Hi Everyone!! :)

It is raining pretty hard today so I had some time inside to catch up with my blog friends and post an update. I have to say it's been a challenging week! Alex is still pretty sick and spends most of his time in bed, he has no energy. But he is gradually healing so we're both really happy about that! His insomnia is gone thanks to passionflower tincture but he still sleeps pretty much all day and is up all night. He's trying to shift his schedule by staying awake an extra hour each day, he should be back to his usual sleeping schedule in a few weeks. All of the household and pet responsibilities have fallen on me so I've been a wee bit overwhelmed! We had some really hot weather to start last week, but I'm shivering as I type this today. 

My seedlings are doing so well...too well to stay in this window! Look at the pumpkin...the leaves are too tall now, but it doesn't look like we'll have warmer weather until the first week of June. I can probably start to transplant the lettuce, spinach and beets, but the rest will have to patiently wait!

The last hold outs were the carrots, and finally they are starting to sprout! I planted them April 29th.

Despite the cold weather, the lilac tree is starting to come alive! That's good news! So...how have I kept busy, besides caring for my home, pets and boyfriend for the last week? I decided to build my screened-in porch on my own. Bug season is upon us and I need my sanctuary!

Alex wanted to do it for me and asked me to wait, but you know what? He's just too sapped of energy right now and we don't know when he'll be healthy and energetic again. Plus, I wanted to see if I could actually do this on my own. I didn't buy the best material, knowing it would be temporary for the next 2 years. I started with 2 x 8's and sanded them all, all 30 of them.

Then I stained them what I thought was the same colour as the fading brown on the current porch!

Not a bad match! But my colour is nicer. :) I took advantage of the sunny beginning of the week to build the frame on one side and screen it in. Thank goodness I have that arnica gel for my hands!

I finished TODAY. For someone with zero carpentry skills, I'm really proud of myself! Remember I talked about that silly space where I hang my garden tools? I was going to completely block that off because it's about 1 1/2 feet wide and you can only walk sideways on there - such a wasted space!

Instead, I decided I needed the space, but also needed access so I built a screen door. That was my "guinea pig" because I've never built a door, door frame or hung a door before, so it was a learning curve!

This was the real challenge. The front screen door. OMG...the challenge...mistake, fix mistake, mistake, fix mistake...I was so frustrated at the end that I was in tears! But I got it all done. It hangs perfectly, has handles, a lock, and even magnets to keep it shut when I go down the stairs. Alex came out to help me hang it. After just half an hour, he was out of energy again, but I couldn't have finished it without him!

I'm pretty proud of myself. Now I just have to hope that Charlie won't barrel right through the screen on her way to the yard...I think when I go out next time, I'll have to stop by the hardware store for some kind of "kick guard". The only thing left to do is lay down the carpet. I bought some of that green fake grass carpet!!! I love that stuff! :) I'll do that tomorrow, then I can sit and rest my weary muscles!

That porch was a heck of a lot of work for me. Mama Pea, you said your ankles hurt one day after you were gardening...well, my ear lobes hurt, how's that? Lol...The dogs got their walk in the woods each morning still, that was kind of my "nature therapy" helping me through this challenging time! See Jack? He's "pointing" because he saw a rabbit. He's got some hunting dog in him that's for sure!

And look what I got in the mail the other day! Alex ordered this book for me because he said he wanted me to have some fun "porch reading". Even though he's quite ill, he's still spoiling me. Meals have been all over the place. I'm making very bland and healthy food for Alex and by default I've been eating a lot less and have been losing weight. I need my comfort food again! :)  No skinny minny in this house!!! Tomorrow will be warm and sunny again, so I'm going to try to do some work in the garden after I lay down my fake grass carpet. :)  I saw Charlie sniffing and eyeing my seedlings when I brought them out...so I don't need convincing that my container garden will need to be fenced in, I'd like to do that this week. 

I hope the upcoming week will be a little easier but you know, I love Alex so much and I love my little fur family, so even though it's exhausting, I thrive on taking care of them. I just can't forget about myself in the shuffle!

Gardening Season Is FINALLY Here!!! (I HOPE)

Thanks to all of my Blogger friends for your lovely comments and friendly advice! Just wanted to send that positive message out. :)

Yesterday I didn't end up outside at all because about fifteen minutes after posting that I had a window of opportunity...it rained! Ugh! But I did get ahead on my menu planning, got 17 dinners planned and worked on my shopping list for Monday.

However...when I woke up this morning at 6:30am, it was actually sunny! I looked at the radar, and the rain was supposed to start around 3pm, so after a walk with the dogs, I was out. I "rebuilt" so to speak, the lattice fence we have on the side of our yard where the icky neighbours are. Despite all of our efforts, the village did NOTHING about the loose dog situation, in fact, they don't even reply to us anymore. Whatever...we aren't planting roots here...anyway, this fence was put up last fall in a hurry and on a very tiny budget, now it's secure and I even made a gate so that we can bring the lawnmower up and down without having to walk all the way around the house. This took a long time, but I'm so proud of my skills! :) And it only cost me about $25 in total to buy those green T-posts. The lattice was given to us by the lumber yard, they had scraps of it, lots damaged, but we salvaged what we could. I love making frugalness work!

I also extended my pumpkin patch and covered my carrots and radishes with chicken wire - those Blue Jays were hovering this morning...I also started to measure, saw and sand the framing for my screened-in porch. The skies started to get dark around 2pm so I came in, stretched and re-hydrated. The Arnica gel is being tested right now!

Now it's time to plop! My dear Alex is sick, and he has insomnia. He can't seem to sleep at night and was usually falling asleep at sun up...but the last few days, he can't even fall asleep at all. I am going to spend my days out in the yard and garden, and taking care of him too. 

I've been posting almost daily for three months now, but I can see a slow down imminent. Just wanted to mention that so nobody thinks I've disappeared! But I'll be lurking lol! I'm so excited that the warmer weather is here. It's still going to rain for a few days, but that'll give me time to plan my monthly meal plan and shopping list. But as of Tuesday, I'm in the dirt! I'll probably slow down the posts to a few a week and I still need to catch up on everyone's blogs! 

**I just re-read my post and it seems rushed...funny how that happens, I need to breathe, I'm overstimulated by being out in the garden and in the sun lol...**

🌄🌄 HAPPY GARDENING SEASON!!! :))) 🌄🌄

Window of Opportunity

Looking up into the sky today...something was tugging at me. I had to delve deep into my subconscious to figure out what I was looking at. The memory came back slowly. That's it, blue sky! :) Could it be? Is it possible that the sun will make a show-stopping appearance today??? Well, the good news is that the possibility of rain is only 30% today so I'm heading outside, sun or not!

I'm going to work smart today though...no overdoing it. (ahem) The weekend promises a deluge of rain, so I want to get what I can done while I have better weather! 

Homemade Chicken Broth and Radish Sprouts!!

Proud of myself #1: The last sunny day we had was May 4th. Isn't that crazy??? Anyway, that was two days after my fall, and also the day I overdid it again in the garden. I planted carrot and radish seeds in big containers on April 29th, and look! Look!! :))  I have radish sprouts, despite the crazy cold weather and not having watered them more than once since I planted them. They actually have been covered 99% of the time with the lids of the containers. The only time I took the lids off were when we had tiny pockets of sun, so I'd say in the last 8 days, they got 1 hour of sunshine. The carrots haven't popped up yet. I'm so happy to see these little radish sprouts!!!

Proud of myself #2: I made 5 liters of chicken broth yesterday! Whole chickens were on sale the other day for $1.79 a pound so I bought 2 of them. 

Our combined digestive issues have Alex and I at the end of our ropes. We love to eat and there are things we won't give up...but we are striving to eat better food. After reading some labels, we decided it was time to try our own broths. This is the label of the Bovril chicken broth. I got some great advice many years ago "if you can't pronounce it or don't know what it is, DON'T eat it." with regards to label ingredients! Besides all the other crap in this bottle, there seems to be chicken used in making this lol...but that's not good enough for us. 

If anyone has recipes or tips on a really amazing broth (chicken or beef) please share btw. I'm always looking to improve!

So...I roasted the two chickens I bought, then de-boned them and kept the meat. You never saw bones so empty let me tell you, I got every piece of meat off those birds! Then I pulled out my only two big pots and in each I put one carcass, 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks, an onion and some garlic; then covered it up with water. I added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 2 bay leaves and a bunch of parsley - aah, I found a use for my parsley after all!

This stayed on the stove simmering for 5 hours while I baked my bread. Alex was starving at that point so we strained and jarred one of the pot's contents into 4 Mason jars and made a chicken rice soup with the leftovers. We had soup and fresh bread for dinner. By the way, we both have noticed that we digest bread and pizza dough much easier with unbleached flour vs. regular flour. I can't wait to see the difference when we buy organic. Though the bread isn't as fluffy...but I read that bleached flour makes baked goods fluffier, so I'm guessing it must be true since I used the same recipe I always use.

After tasting the broth, we both thought "chicken water"...the recipe I used said minimum 4 hours. At this point, this process had been going on all day and I was pooped. But while I slept, Alex decided to work on the second pot of broth and he strained half of it after 10 hours, and the rest after 14 hours.

Both the colour and flavour difference was amazing. The longer the better it seems! How long do you simmer your broth? We are having some broth each day and so are the pets. The dogs LOVE it and one of our cats does too, but the 2 other cats turn their noses! The health benefits are great - boosts immunity, helps with intestinal inflammation, heals the gut and provides lots of minerals. And MY label reads: "chicken bones, fresh vegetables, apple cider vinegar, water"...we can pronounce all of THOSE ingredients! It might take a while for our palates to get used to this real food. The broth we've been used to was so laden with salt and msg...no wonder we have poor digestion considering all that nasty stuff the companies add to the "food". (or as the makers of Cheez Whiz refer to it "processed food stuff", shudder!).

Today I'm working on beef broth. I got some soup bones at the butcher when I bought the chicken the other day. That will simmer all day and night! I'm really proud of us for taking these steps gradually. I think it would be an interesting exercise to see what kind of processed foods we still use vs. what we now make (and soon grow!) on our own.

I love being in the woods with the dogs. I discovered a new trail today which links to two of the others. I actually stopped to take a picture of that moss-covered rock, but the dogs ran ahead. They were watching a set of squirrels running up and down the trees.

I got my latest book in the mail today! :) I love real books, especially biographies! Alex and I have a used book budget every month, we love to read and sometimes E-books don't cut the mustard. It's unfortunate that we can't get English books around here, but the used books via Amazon are pretty reasonably priced.

The cereal box I read this morning wasn't much better than the chicken broth...so I'm making my own granola. Have you ever dehydrated frozen fruit? I mean, FROZEN...I was too impatient to actually thaw them lol...I had a few bags of frozen strawberries, so I decided to give it a try! I'll report the results tomorrow! I have to bake those pretzels today and also the dog cookies! Then I have to run outside and do some kind of sun dance...as the British comedies say..."I'm starting to get prison pallor!"...

Meat and Potatoes; A Wee Snowstorm

I made a "Hungry Man" meal for Alex last night, a big honkin' sirloin steak with potatoes and beans. I had Teriyaki Tilapia and my side salad is hidden from view, but Mama Pea, I assure you, I had my greens!!! :)

Alex and I both have lots of food sensitivities and allergies. We have very sensitive digestions and when we're under stress, we always feel it in our stomachs! So once a year or so, we go on a somewhat clean eating two-week detox. It started a few days ago. I have more liberties than he does because I did my 1-year elimination diet and found out the worst culprits. His vary unfortunately, so a yearly detox always helps. We are gradually transitioning our diets though. We've already eliminated most processed foods. Now we're going to tackle the baking ingredients. When my unbleached flour is used up, we'll go to organic...then I'll have to do some more research. It'll be the same with sugars, yeast and all other baking supplies. It's going to take a while because eating well isn't cheap unfortunately! So we're tackling one step at a time. Even the cheese at the grocery store is tasteless now...we may have to buy better quality and just eat less of it...oh the horror...less cheese, boo hoo hoo! :)

If it were December, I'd have been thrilled to see this yesterday morning!

It was pretty in the woods though!

I don't know if the Canada Geese were coming or going...

But by this morning it was all melted and I got a little tease of sun for just over half an hour. I'd say my seedlings really needed it, but they are all doing so well in my window! 

There is rain in the forecast again until next Tuesday, eegad. Really...it's not normal for this area of the Laurentians!! But we make do right? I'm spending the day in the kitchen, making bread and chicken broth. Since we got rid of all the high-sugar, high-salt snacks lately, I'll try my hand at hard pretzels for something to munch on! I do wish for sunshine because the outdoor "to do" list is getting very long now; but the overcast dull days just mean more cozy time in bed with Jack and the rest of the fur kids...oh and of course with Alex too! :)

Of Pizza and Pumpkins

We've been grazing the last few days because Alex has had insomnia again, so we're on completely different schedules. He can only seem to fall asleep when it gets light out and that's when I'm usually getting up! So we've been eating mostly from the freezer. But last night he got a second wind so we had dinner together, what better than comfort food? :) I made our version of a "Meat Lover's" pizza with ham and bacon; and that three-cheese pizza we loved so much from a few weeks ago (Feta, Mozz and Parm). We watched a few episodes of The Boonies. One of our Blogger friends commented about this show (sorry I can't remember who!) and I had to check it out. It's about people who live off the grid, in treehouses, nomadically off the land and even in a cave! It's quite interesting if you can find it. So far there are only 8 episodes in the one season, I hope they make more!

Check out my pumpkin seedlings! I have two pots like this...they will soon be too tall for the window...but this morning it actually snowed so it's nowhere near warm enough to try transplanting them...there is another 5 cm of snow in the forecast overnight, but it's "May snow" which means it'll all be gone the next sunny or rainy day, but still, I wish it would get slightly warmer. Growing my pumpkins reminded me of when I lived on Prince Edward Island. I went to a Giant Pumpkin Festival.

It was October of 2009. This was the first time I'd ever seen giant pumpkins and squash!

914 Pounds - Third Prize Winner

933 Pounds - Second Prize Winner

1036 Pounds - First Prize Winner

800 Pound Squash - First Prize of the Squash Contest

Weighing Station

What the pros referred to as the "Amateur Area" lol

I was so excited about pumpkins that when I got home that day, I knitted one lol...I remember being so proud of myself, finally figuring out what to do with that orange yarn! (sorry, I do not know where I found the pattern, it was 8 years ago and I don't have it bookmarked!) When I'm all settled into my property in a few years, I will have a nice big pumpkin patch. It's always been a dream of mine to grow giant pumpkins too. Just for the challenge! 

It's been a long stretch of overcast skies and I decided to use my time wisely! I'm a very big fan of self-improvement and self-healing. I did have a rough life, and for the most part, I went the traditional route of meds and therapy; but the most success I've had in turning things around has been to abandon traditional healing methods. I feel so much better when I do things on my own. I'm re-reading this book at the moment and it's so empowering. Does anyone else love these types of self-help books?

And in my quest to always help myself, I'm taking this workshop that I found online. Get Rid of Your Anxiety for Good! is a 4 lesson workshop from the website The Daily Om. I go to this website every morning for some motivation and inspiration and last summer I took a few of their workshops and they helped me tremendously. They're more on the New Age side, which is totally me, and I relate to them a lot. I did the first lesson this morning and I have to say I got some amazing insight. I have homework to do for the next week until Lesson 2 arrives in my inbox. It's a "pay what you want" type of cost, the minimum is $10 per workshop, so it's really affordable.

I also enrolled in their workshop Overcoming Self-Sabotage. This one is 14 lessons and I'm going to start lesson one today or tomorrow. I'm not above trying to see if I'm actually doing something without knowing it to sabotage my motivation or my goals! I could even be doing something subconsciously that is contributing to the anxiety. Who knows? I'd like to though! :)

Something can be learned from everything in life right? I'm not promoting these books or workshops, just sharing what I enjoy! And this is good food for thought during a very soggy and cold May while I wait for the warm weather!!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :) It's Monday right? ;)

Something In The Woods...

It's a very rainy Saturday today. You know what's funny? I thought yesterday was Wednesday...time just means very little to me these days! Anyway, I'm grateful for the rain because it keeps the loud weekender neighbours in the city! I was walking the dogs and wanted to stop to take a picture of them (as usual!) and they all suddenly stopped and looked in one direction. They heard something...

We were kind of at the end of the line for now because both trails turned into rivers overnight. I don't walk in this part of the woods too often because it gets kind of wild, though the snowmobile trails make nice walking trails in the summer. It was so quiet! I noticed even the birds stopped chirping...usually a sign of a predator near. The dogs kept staring and listening and I was staring and listening too! It was quite early, about 6:15am. I then heard some ruffling and what I thought was a growl. At that point all three started barking. That was my cue to take the reigns and hurry back to the road! I admit, I had that pit of fear in my stomach, and I don't get that often when I'm in the woods. I think that I'll stick to the trail that isn't so deep in the woods from now on!