Gardening While on the Road

What? No garden? I just don't know if I can REALLY live without something growing. We're probably not going to be growing our own tomatoes this year, but there are a couple things that we can grow while we're traveling around the country.

First, and really the easiest thing anyone, anywhere can grow are sprouts. While I'm not going to make a big salad out of sprouts, they are a great, tasty veggie to add to sandwiches and salads.

Spinach. Easy to sprout and quick to grow. Spinach is a very easy veggie to grow and fast to harvest. Really, an old bowl with some decent soil will make for a nice growing medium.

Next - lettuce. Sounds harder. I'm thinking though that I will start out with some of those "6 packs" you can buy at the local hardware store. They will be organically fed and set in a sunny window. They will be transplanted into 4" pots and when traveling, can be set in the sink to be safe. When we're at a destination for a bit, they get to go outside in the sun and grow a little more naturally.

What are some other fast growing veggies that I'm forgetting about?

First Signs of Spring

Flowering currant

I love to see the first signs of spring around the farm. This year, although it is very late, it is also a bittersweet feeling.

Chives getting ready to flower

Seeing things starting to bloom is a reminder of a budding future growing season and yet, we won't be here to see so many of the plants come to full bloom with our upcoming move. 

Perennial Pansies

And yet, here I am, sharing one of my loves with you. Seeing them bloom just can't be kept all to myself. I am taking pictures all around the farm so I will have a focus and drive for the next farm. Are yours blooming late too? What do you have in your yard?

Library Book History

Did you know you can look back at your library book checkout history? You ask, "what does this have to do with farm life?" Give me a minute and I'll share.

We have an amazing library system for King county and online, I stumbled onto an area where I can look up and see my book checkout history. It's funny to see the list because, just like our checkbooks show where our finances go, my library record show a true accounting of where my heart really is. Family, faith, homeschooling, business and ... farming. Agriculture to be a little more specific. I'm looking back as far as 2005 and see books on square foot gardening, raising beef cattle and more about chickens. Lots of books on farm living and the animals that come with it.

I realize that no matter how long I live, there will be a piece of my soul that has farming in it. All I have to do is take a little walk through history to know that it won't change. Mom. Grandpa. Great-grandpa. I'm researching now to see just how far this disease goes.

In the meantime, take a look here on the blog and you can see some of my latest favorite books (to the left).

Planning for Life on the Road

While we have been closing down the farm and packing things up, we keep thinking of things that we will need to take care of a whole lot differently living life on the road. Little things like mail. No big deal, right? You go down to the mailbox and grab you mail, recycle the stuff you don't want, read things you do and life goes on. We've already started by canceling a lot of  what most people might call junk mail (horse people call catalogs Christmas in ... name your month). A post office box is next in the line of business.

Finances. Deposits can be made online with the click of the camera phone. Transfers between banks with the click, click of the mouse. Most of the bills can be paid online and banking can be done anywhere these days. Sheesh, you can download your statement and never see another piece of paper again from the bank. I guess that was one of the easier things.

Other things we've taken for granted over the years include stockpiling. A term used by many coupon shoppers I guess, but we've been doing it since before it became cool and trendy. Hubby turned an old, un-used mud room into a big, wonderful walk in pantry for me (a Mother's Day present I still cherish to this day) where we got to stockpile items when they went on sale. By the way, our new home on wheels has a ton of storage for a camper. Stockpiling will not be completely eliminated but will be a little more of a challenge.

Schooling. Now we've almost exclusively home schooled our kids, but it's been with the help of video "tutors" as well as specialty classes. Life on the road seems to eliminate some of the fabulous classes we've had and at the same time opens an entire world of learning opportunities around every corner for the entire family. US History; hands on. We are going from home schooling to road schooling.

Most things we've got a pretty good grasp on alternative ideas but then there is Housekeeping. Hmmm. My biggest question for all those pro RV'ers out there...how do you vacuum and mop the floors? Do I pack up my new vacuum to go on the road with us? What about the vinyl flooring? I'm not going without, I do know that much, but really, how do you do it?

We are under no grand illusions that everything will be a cake walk. Heck, we know there will be days we'll want to walk out while the car is moving. We've got some special things we have planned for the boys on the road ... we'll share that another day.

Any of you camp? What are the must have items you take with you?

Creamy, Double Meat Rigatoni

As I've said before, I like to experiment with food. I've also said that I win some and I loose some. I think that the more you experiment, the more you get a feel for what will go together and what won't. It just takes time, patience and a loving family. :-)

So here is a new one and I will post the ingredient list at the end. I had some lean, natural beef along with some of our pork in the freezer waiting to be used. Grabbed them both and straight from the deep freeze and plunked them into the pan on med-low with a lid. The lid not only helps keep the heat in, it keeps the moistness in the meat and from scorching as well. I check on it every 3-5 minutes and "scrape" off the cooked portions and flip the meat over. When about 3/4 of the meat is cooked, give it a teaspoon or so of some good seasoning salt. Time to start a pot of water for the Rigatoni.

Meat Tip #1: If you don't do this, you end up with a super large and thick hamburger patty. It actually cooks pretty quickly with this method, so rarely will I take ground meat out to defrost if I'm just going to be cooking ground meat.

 This makes for a lot of meat, which I will only be using about 1/3 of for this recipe. The rest, I'm going to save. Meat Tip #2: Save your meat and have a little less grease the easy way - put a folded paper towel in the bottom of your bowl and it will soak up a lot of the extra grease.

I drain the meat remaining in the pan. If you are very concerned with fat, here is Meat Tip #3: Take a wad of paper towel and wipe the pan with the meat in it and it will absorb more fat still. To the third of the meat I have left in the pan, I add 3/4 of a quart of tomatoes that had been canned with garlic and basil. I don't worry about draining this though. I want all the flavor from those liquids. I also add about 3/4 cup of frozen peas and carrots. If I had just peas, I would have used that, but the carrots did add a simple sweetness. Hopefully your water is now at a boil, so add some salt and your desired amount of noodles. Personally, I use half a box for 4 of us. Set your timer!

This does NOT show the full 3/4 of a quart of tomatoes

Here is the full tomatoes - you can see all the liquid.

Let this simmer on med to med-high. We want to reduce the liquid, while keeping the flavor and nutrients from the water. Don't think you'll miss much? Take a spoonful of the liquids and taste it....you'd miss it. Promise.

You're going to stir this mix every couple minutes - more as it thickens. What you want to get to is about this consistency (mine took about 12 minutes):

Now for the creamy. I used one half package of light cream cheese, break it into smaller pieces and place the chunks around in the sauce.

Let it melt for a minute or two and then stir. Is your mouth watering yet? YUM! Mine is again as I write this down. Noodles should be just about done - drain the noodles when your timer goes off and add your fabulous sauce.

Now it's time for eating. D decided to me my sampler. He's become more adventurous as the experiments have gotten better. That and the promise that if it's bad, he doesn't have to eat it.

Thumbs up from D-man.

Now for the ingredient list.
Creamy, Double Meat Rigatoni

1/3 lb ground beef
1/3 lb ground pork
Rigatoni - good quality
1 tsp. seasoning salt
3/4 c. peas (or peas and carrots)
3/4 qt. stewed tomatoes with garlic and basil (or add those later)
4 oz (1/2 package) cream cheese

Try it, you'll like it. Let me know what you think.

In Search of Greener Pastures

One of our reasons for the big trip is searching for the next "Willows Edge Farm" location. We've grown so much and done a lot and so well where we are here in Bothell and yet we have a strong desire to grow and add more in the food department. Particularly grass fed beef that actually tastes good.

me at my home in Seattle with the folks

We, well actually, I, would really like a little more warmth and a little less rain. I am a Seattle girl from the beginning. I was born at the little Group Health hospital and taken home at 10 days old (in a cardboard box, might I add) to our home in north Seattle. I truly am a Seattle native. And yet part of me has always loved the sun and despised the rain.
Yes, I know the rain is what gives the great Pacific Northwest such lush beauty and green pastures. I really do understand that in my head.

My heart (and my arthritic back) though, longs for a warmer locale. A place with big oak trees to sit under and sip some lemonade. A place that has rolling, dry pastures that go on and on. A place for the horses to run with big, long strides. A place to watch our children grow, play and learn. A big red barn. I love those old, big, red barns.

Don't know where it is yet. Thought we had found it a couple times, but it has been elusive so far. This time though, we feel the urge to press on and truly move forward, and take that leap of faith. Spend some real, dedicated, quality time searching for the greener pastures.

Free Giveaway - 1 Pair of tickets to Opening Day at Emerald Downs

 

REALLY cool giveaway ... we have two tickets for Opening Day at EMERALD DOWNS to give away. 

 
For each new person you have 'Like Us' on our Facebook page, you will get an entry - NO LIMIT! Your friend will also be entered into the giveaway. 

Have your friends put your name in a comment along with EMERALD DOWNS. You can post one yourself saying EMERALD DOWNS. 

We will pick a winner from a random number, scroll down the list of entries and see who the winner is when we stop at that number. We will let you know on Thursday morning and you can make plans for Friday night! 

BONUS: If "Grandma Karen's" horse wins on Opening Day, you can join us in the Winner's Circle for a rare photo opportunity!

Happy Birthday Evan

Happy 7th birthday young man! I wanted to share with the world what a joy you are to your mom and dad. We are so proud of the young man you are growing up to be...much like your amazing older brother. You do know that when he picks on you, it's because he adores you so much, right? Loving you tons!!

Happy birthday little man.

Minimalism. Life in 240 sq ft. The New Normal.

In the last post, I said we were going from about 2400 square feet for our house (doesn't include the garage or the pump house where we store all sorts of things too) all the way down to 240 sq ft! From this: 

To this:

Some of the comments we've heard so far range from:
Wow, that's really cool, where are you going to put everything? "How are 4 of you going to actually survive in such tight quarters [yes, there are 5 of us but our oldest is staying with grandma and continuing her work]?" "What are you going to do with all your stuff?" "You can't possibly go on the road for more than a couple
weeks in such a small space."
To: "You are such an inspiration to our family." "I am so excited to see how your family does." and "We wish we could follow along behind you".  Yep, it's run the gammet for questions and ideas. But what it comes down to is: What will we actually bring?

Well, here we will start to share a little of our New Normal.
The boys. They have each had their own room in the past. A lot of time, they ended up sharing a room because they love each other so much (or really, truth be told, like to get in trouble together and see if they can torture their mom). One of the rooms look like this:

 Nothing fancy, but it makes do for a boy's bedrooms with plenty of storage. They will be going to this:

Bunk beds for the boys!

The top bunk with a nice picture window.

Storage for both of the boys

 They each have a bunk bed area that is about a full size bed area. They have a small cubby in the wall to hold a couple books, magazines, etc. plus their sleeping space. They each get two drawers and two shelves in the cabinet above. And yes, that is a TV. I'm not expecting it to work for actual television often as I'm guessing we won't be plugged into cable TV hook ups. Hopefully, we will run across some Redbox or Blockbuster kiosks to catch up on some movies we haven't seen over the last few years.

So, I will be brave tomorrow and share more of our new normal. Like the living/dining room combo. Big for a RV ... not so much in comparison to what we've had. And the "master bedroom"? Yikes. Not ready to share that one yet. :-)

What do you think? What have been some great adventures you've been on?

Scaling Down

Well, we are less than a month out from our move and are at the point of scaling down. The farm part had to be the first to scale back - what exactly do we have to keep and why.

Elsie Rose

We ended up deciding that we had to keep 2 horses ... Elsie Rose, who is my little princess. Right there almost with my oldest daughter. She was my first Fjord and although she has her little "horse moments", she is still one of the great horse loves of my life. And then there's Ole. While we've toyed with the thought and even put him up for sale, we really can't part with him. How can you replace a stallion of his quality and temperament for the price we did have on him? Between training, long hours and entry fees alone, it would cost double his pricetag. That doesn't even include trying to find the right bloodlines and purchase cost orginally. They are keepers.

While we truly love and adore the other mares, we could not justify trying to keep them all while we are on the road. They have found amazing homes and are going to do great things with their new owners.

We've also decided to keep most of the tack. We'll have a tack & yard sale to get rid of a few extras, but with horse gear continuously increasing in price, it really is not a bad idea to keep the great stuff.

Now for the house and the rest of the property though ... we've lived here for 15 years. Talk about accumulation! Craigslist has been a great friend for us. We've been able to sell quite a bit of good stuff. You know - that stuff that sits around and is too good to just throw out or give away? OK, time to let go! It's also given us a little spending money that we didn't know we'd have. Bonus!

For now, we're going through, room by room, to see exactly what has to stay. Next post will be about what we are going from (the house) to what we are going to (the 5th wheel). 2400 sq ft to 240 sq ft.

Ready to join us for the adventure?