A Year's Worth of Carrots

After planting three rows of carrots in mid-April, I didn't have the heart to thin them. Kind of silly, I realize, but it feels like picking who lives and who dies. As a result, I ended up with some pretty strange looking mutant carrots, they still taste good, but growing twisted around each other gives them an alien vegetable appearance. I've since planted another row of carrots and took the time to space those seeds so that thinning shouldn't be necessary. All in all, we pulled out about 12 pounds of usable/edible carrots - based on the price per pound of carrots at the farmers market or at Trader Joe's right now, that's a little more than $30 worth of carrots.

The planting and growing parts were pretty easy, most of the work was watering and weeding. The real work started when we took the carrots out of the dirt...Then came the stemming - not actually that was kind of fun, and then the cleaning. That part required rinsing the carrots in 5 sinkfulls of water and then each one. Honestly by the end I was ready to be done with carrots completely...I still can't believe I have more growing outside - at least it won't be as many to deal with. Looking at those three gallon bags filled with carrots that we'll be eating over the next year gives me a sense of pride. It feels good to provide in this way. In the next month or so I want to go through the same process with the peas and the zucchini. We also should have plenty of onions and potatoes to store for [hopefully] the next year, or even just to get us to the beginning of next spring.

I Did It - Shampoo Free!

Back in May, in this post, I mentioned that I was thinking about going shampoo-free, but I wanted to wait until the school year was over so I didn't have to go to work with possibly greasy hair through the adjustment phase. Instead I decided to try an intermediate product. Mostly I wanted to get used to the idea of using something other than shampoo in a bottle to wash my hair. So when I found this shampoo bar at a nearby food co-op, I decided to give it a try. It is made from natural, recognizable ingredients...fitting well with my desire to begin limiting the amount of chemicals I put on myself each day.

I like that it is minimally packaged, and it has a nice simple appeal.The folks who make this shampoo bar state that most people won't need a conditioner, I found out that I'm not most people, my hair would have been beyond dry had I not continued to use a conditioner while using this bar.The bar lasted about a month, being used almost everyday. When it was just about gone I had to decide whether to go get another or if it was time to switch to baking soda and apple cider vinegar as I'd been reading about...Because I was feeling brave, and because I've been off of work and therefore able to withstand a few days of potentially greasy hair, I decided to go for it with the baking soda and vinegar. I re-read the facts and bought the ingredients of my new hair care regimine. I didn't make this switch for fiscal savings, but seeing that the the baking soda and vinegar together totalled less than $2 was kind of nice, I'll definately save money.

Lest I forget to mention it, I put about 6 drops of lavendar oil into the baking soda mix and into the vinegar mix, mostly for the pretty smell, but also for the moisturizing benefit.

So here's how it works...my shampoo substitute is 2 tablespoons of baking soda into a plastic water bottle that has a volume of a little over 16 oz, the ratio is supposed to be 1 tbsp to every 8 oz. of water. Because I make the mix before I get into the shower, I wait until the water coming from my bathroom sink is warm, I didn't do this and I found out that unless it is a warm day, cold water on your head in the shower doesn't feel too great. My hair is fairly long, so having twice the amount gives my scalp and all of my hair a really good rinse.

The conditioner substitute has the same ratio of apple cider vinegar to water, 1 tbsp to every 8 oz of water. I have to admit that I had my doubts, I must have had the husband sniff my hair/head about 20 times at first to make sure that it didn't smell funny/odd/dirty. Also, to be honest, I am still a bit nervous to go see my stylist next month for a haircut. She'll be the best person to tell if this new method is not working for me, she's done my hair for the last two years, and she deals with people's hair daily. I think she may still occasionally read this blog, so she may already know even before I go to see her. (Hi Michelle!)

It has been strange to do this little daily ritual differently. It is a bit of a bump to just accept that my hair is clean from using just these basic ingredients. I also think that my hair looks great. I am used to having to wash it daily, the oils in my hair have made this necessary. Lately though, this has not been the case. If I am working out everyday then I have to wash it everyday, or if I use a ton of product on it to style, then I have to wash it. On other days though I don't find it necessary to do anything more than a quick rinse - or even nothing at all.

I am happy with this experiment. As long as nothing strange happens or changes with my hair, I will keep with this routine.

I hit the fabric jackpot tonight!

I went up to Bellingham with the husband for a burger at Fiamma - their burgers are all natural, made with local ingredients, and yummy! But before we went there we stopped at my favorite place to buy fabric. I was soooo excited to find out that they are clearing out their home decor weight fabrics - the gorgeous stuff that normally goes for $17.50 a yard was being sold for $7 a yard!!! I had walked into the store with a $10 limit, but that changed quickly when I found out about the sale. They were going to close soon, so in about 7 minutes I picked out four of my favorites! It was a good night! There were other good things about tonight, we made a stop at Trader Joe's after dinner to pick up some groceries (a treat because there isn't a Trader Joe's super close by), and when we made a stop at the farm supply store for chicken feed we found that they were clearing out vegetable starts, 4 for $1, so I picked out 4 pepper plants that are different from those I've already planted. I have room in the raised beds since I picked some more cabbage today. It will be fun to have peppers to spice up our food.

Earlier today I spent several hours completing the washing, cutting and freezing/storing of our carrots - after everything was said and done, there were 12 pounds of edible carrots. Including the carrot greens and inedible pieces, it was much more. All of the excess ended up in the compost pile and the chickens have been picking away at it, they are growing bigger and bigger by the day. Posts about the chickens and the carrots are to come in the next few days...Here is a little peak at what I've been doing in my sewing room lately, getting ready for this weekend's farmers market....AND another fun bit of news is that I'm going to have a vendor booth at the Stanwood-Camano Fair at the end of this month. I've been feeling a lot of self-induced pressure to get ready for that, it lasts 3 days, so I will need to have lots of items made and ready to sell. The next few weeks will be busy but good. I may not get around to posting a lot, but I'll do my best to squeeze it in with everything.

Visit from Amber and the Kiddos

The kids made flags with fabric pens and muslin...Then the flags were attached to sticks and put into place on the island to "conquer" it. Because of the warm and sunny weather Washington has been lucky to have in the last month, the pond is almost totally dried out...the husband also recently cut down all of the weeds that had been growing up there, so walking onto the island was easy.

These two loved each other, I think she made Bambino feel like a "big" dog...they were too cute together!Both nights that they were up we roasted marshmallows, something I hadn't done in years!

The boys pulled out the croquet set and played a couple of rounds.It was interesting to me how my home felt different to me with kids filling it, things I take for granted look different when they are being enjoyed by a child.

We headed down to Seattle Center for some fun rides.Not everyone was tall enough for all the rides, so we made sure to find alternate rides that were just as fun.An old favorite of the locals, Dick's Burger...not my favorite, but everyone seemed to enjoy the junk food!Hundred of kids having fun in the fountain under the Space Needle, that's not something you get to see every day in Seattle!The youngest sat out from the water fountain and spent time chasing after birds with the husband instead. I think he liked hanging out with a cute little girl, kind of a change of pace, we both fell in love with her.A ride on the monorail.A trip to Pike's Place Market isn't complete without a stop by the original Starbucks, you can't really tell in this photo, but their logo was less modest before she became an international chain! Chalk drawings are effective advertising when it hasn't rained for a couple of weeks.

Street performers are everywhere at Pike's, this one played "America the Beautiful" on his saw.This guy let one of the boys hold that crab! Again, it's kind of funny how things are way more fun when kids are around to share their enthusiasm. Watching cheese being made.

Fish from the "flying fish" stall, always a fun spot to visit.A few action shots, though there's nothing like being there in person and feeling the bits of ice hit you when a fish is tossed through the air!

Someone said that the actor Jack Black was in the crowd, so my inner papparazzi took over and I snapped a picture. That is (supposedly) him in the grey shirt with the cain...I guess even celebrities get a kick out of seeing fish fly through the air.

Sniffing goodies from a local lavender farm.

It was a short visit, but we fit in lots of fun. Amber and I had the chance to have late night girl talk time...something I've missed a lot in the last few years.

Farmers Market on Independance Day

First of all, Happy 4th of July! I am resting at home after doing my 2nd farmers market today. This past week I found out that the town I live in, Stanwood, just started to do their own farmers market. While the one I participated in last week was okay, I really want to be a part of the market in my own town. It is brand new this year, today was the third week. There were about 10 vendors there, and the market is in a shopping center parking lot on a pretty busy road. The market is in Stanwood, but Camano Island residents drive through Stanwood to get on the island, so they are able to come to the market easily as well.

I had a good day, it was sunny and beautiful, I put up the sides on my tent to keep from getting too baked in the sun, last week I got a slight sunburn. I earned about twice what I earned last week, which is exciting! Another vendor that sells jewelry was saying that it seemed slow to her this week, so maybe next week will be even better. I acquired another table this week at Costco, so now I have the original two 4' tables and a new 6' table. I tried to keep a list of what I sold so I can have an idea of what is popular.

I did not have a ton of time this last week to sew, we were pretty busy with Amber and the kids. (I'll post more on that fun visit in the next day or two, we really had a blast!) But for the next two weeks I don't have much planned, so I'll be able to focus on getting stocked up on more things to sell. I've got more space to display now with the third table.

I also ordered business cards this past week. Several people last week had asked if I had one. This prompted me to set up an email specifically for business puposes: DeetlesBird@yahoo.com as well as finally opening up an Etsy store (though there is currently no products posted, I hope to change that this coming week): www.deetles.etsy.com For today I made up a quick card with my information, I was suprised at how many people took them, I printed up 3 sheets of 12 and probably had about half of them taken by the end of the day.

I have a mental list of things I want to make before my next market day...that mental list needs to make it onto paper in the next day so I have some specific goals for the week. Right now I'm just tired and need to take the night off. The husband came out to help me set up the tent this morning, then he had to leave for a post-hole digging job way out in the mountains, someone wanting to put in a horse pasture hired him. Lately he's been doing everything he can to keep things going financially for us. I can't imagine being with someone else right now, the stress we feel with the economy changing and my lack of a job is more than unusual. I feel lucky that it has brought us closer, I know that in many marriages that isn't always the case.