Decluttering The Garage, and Family/Living Room

Bulldog Man and I’ve been working on going through our garage, cleaning things out, to make more open space and workable room.  The garage happens to not only be the place where I do our laundry, it’s a place used for many functions; storing oversized equipment, tools, camping gear, leather works, and reloading supplies.  

On Saturday, we ended up hauling items such as a pair of lamps, critter cart, cooler, books, movies, stuffed animals, metal bowls, utensils, and an old air compressor to the end of our driveway with a sign, “Free Just Take”.  Everything went; we didn’t have to donate the items.  We also hauled off 4 large contractor bags of stuff to the dump.  The garage is really starting to look good.

On the subject of cleaning, I’m also clearing out a loveseat, coffee table, and a leather recliner from inside our home.  I’ve decided to donate them to Habitat for Humanity; this organization does a lot for the local families in our community.  

Recliner not pictured.

There’s nothing better than getting spring cleaning done before working on this season’s garden. 

Have you started your spring cleaning, or garden planting?

Planting Onion Sets

Usually I’ll plant a total of 5 to 6 dozen of various types of onions for the planting season.  This season, I’ve only planted 2 rows of the same onion, Texas Sweet.  

Planting onion sets are pretty basic.  You need to make sure you have a really good soil mixture to include (of course soil), compost and peat.  

Create nice neat furrows (a long narrow trench) for the amount of onions you wish to plant. Once you’ve created nice furrows, make sure to soak water in each furrow.

Then poke holes in the soil with your finger (not too deep) every 4 to 5 inches.

Place an onion set in each hole, gradually pinch soil around the base of the onion set.  

Water consistently, and within a couple of months you’ll have beautiful onions to harvest and put up with your preps.

Cash is King!

Did you know being in debt is robbing you of your future?  How many of you are in debt, because you used a credit card or two, to get out of an emergency situation, or purchased something you just had to have but didn’t really need to survive?  

Life throws us curve balls daily; and to survive, you need to plan wisely.  Part of planning is creating a monthly budget.  Okay, I can already feel you cringing, and see you shaking your head.  Friends, my husband and I did the same thing years ago……that was until we sat down and created our monthly budget.  

This budget gave us a true visual of all monies coming into our home versus all monies going out.  Having a budget provides you with the proper discipline and structure needed to ensure you tackle your debt and create a true savings account/emergency fund to use toward preparing your family for being self reliant. 

You ask me how is being in debt going to rob me of my future? Let me explain by using this example…. You stress about the economy after watching the news and reading Prepping Blogs and decide, instead of waiting until you have the extra cash on hand, you’re going to use a credit card to shop for $200.00 worth of groceries to stock your pantry. When you get home, you unload the groceries, stock up your pantry, and feel physically and mentally satisfied.  You’ve stashed $200.00 worth of preps for your family. Granted, this quick solution feels great; that is until you receive your credit card bill.  Now you owe $200.00, plus 18 percent interest rate for that month (interest rates vary).  The company only requires you to pay $15.00 for your minimum payment.  You opt to pay the minimum payment, because you can’t pay off the total balance. 

The next time you receive the credit card bill, the credit card company hopes you can only pay the minimum payment again, because the credit card company is earning good money off of your measly grocery purchase.  Each month, the credit card company is earning at minimum $3.00 more from that one grocery trip, and if they can persuade you to only pay the minimum payment for let’s say 1 year, they would have made over $30.00 + dollars off of you, for your measly $200.00’s worth of groceries.  That is called robbing your future.  Instead of using a credit card to survive, and paying all that interest on a measly purchase, sit down with your spouse and budget accordingly.

You’ll be surprised how much money you can save, and the debt you can pay off.  

Life is good. Bulldog Man and I have paid off all of our debt (school loans, kids’ emergencies, credit cards, and miscellaneous) and have decided debt will not become a burden again.   Cash is KING!!!

 

Clip Art Source: Classroom Clip Art

Spring Around The Corner, Food, & Inspiration

Sure signs of spring being around the corner, the dogwood trees are blooming, and so are my orchids.  

 

When my sister came down to watch our animals, she brought us this awesome device called the Spiraletti by Farberware; to help shred vegetables in the shape of spaghetti.  We made spaghetti, with zucchini and meat sauce.  My entire family loved it.  The secret is to find other vegetables to replace the bad things we eat :-)

I had one cup of blueberries I needed to use up, so I made this blueberry lemon bread this evening.  I came across Trisha Yearwood’s recipe and decided to give it a shot.  OMG, talk about really good…….Bulldog Man rates it 4 paws up. 

While at First Monday in Weatherford, Texas (kind of like a swap meet), I came across this homemade bird feeder rack and had to take a picture of the birdfeeders for inspiration.  Yet another project to complete using quart canning jars, pieces found at the farm store, and from your own kitchen.