Uncharted Territory

While I plan to spend most of the time on this blog writing about how to go green at a decent price, there are a few other interest that I'd like to mention. Besides, a one dimensional blog would be boring.

There are a few things I've learned from my husband since I met him; one is the joy of gardening. This is the first year we are able to have a rather large garden: peppers, chives, various mint, rosemary, oregano, thyme and lavender plants, and last but not least, a whole lot of tomatoes. We now have a tomato jungle.

SO MANY TOMATOES!!!

With this in mind, we began thinking of all the ways we could use the tomatoes. We soon realized in a few weeks we'll either need to give a lot of tomatoes away or attempt some form of preservation.

That's where my lovely mother comes in. Whenever she visits us, she spoils us rotten. Among the various purchases that make us more adult-ish (I finally have a real ironing board!), she bought me a canning starting kit.

Great Canning Starting Set from K-Mart!

And while I'm so very thankful we can now can... I don't quite know what to do next. I've never canned before in my life. I don't even know if this is a "good" kit. It's made by Ball; that makes it good, right? So in the hopes of getting a few good cans this year, I better start researching.

I know this is not the best "challenge" but it's still a challenge. And I plan to share my trials and tribulations right here. Maybe someone else will learn from my failures. And as always, who ever has ideas or tips, please share, I'd love to hear from you!

Speaking of which, I'm happy to report my homemade laundry detergent is catching on among the masses! A friend at work made her own the other day and I took some of my detergent for my in-laws to use. In the next few weeks, I will post the recipe I used that started my journey into DIY green projects.

On one final note tonight, we had an amazing experience during our mini vacation. We went with some of the husband's family to check out some land that (a portion) will eventually be passed to us. It was amazing: beautiful land, healthy ponds & forests, I was called a "plant person" while the hubs was called a "city slicker", and we even saved a calf that fell into a cistern!

Chester H. Fell Into a Cistern from an Old Homestead.

Visiting that farm also helped encourage my support for local ranchers. The family has about 50 cattle and the calves go to market when they are old enough. But that does keep the family from loving these guys every possible moment. They are grass fed; and the owners give each and everyone a name. As for the lil guy who fell (Chester H.), he will actually live a long and happy life as a farm pet. And even though it was a hot, muggy, stressful day, I wouldn't of wanted to be anywhere else.