Harvest Celebration Confusion

Three bales of straw
Last Saturday night (Dec 4th) hubby took the kids and I driving to look at Christmas lights and we passed a pile of Halloween decorations--pumpkins, squash, 3 big bales of straw-- on a neighbors curb, waiting for trash pickup. Of course, I could not let this treasure go to the dump so poor hubby--all dressed up from the Christmas party we just left, hoisted the goodies into the back of my van.

I will use the straw bales as mulch for my summer garden in 2011. The golden color of the straw will help to reflect heat away from the soil, keeping the plants roots cooler (a definite concern in a Texas summer), the straw will help to keep moisture in the soil from evaporating, and it will also shade the soil and prevent the weed seeds from germinating--saving me time at my weeding. Free and pretty mulch, and all packaged in three tidy bundles. Until it is needed in the garden, the bales will act as a backyard climbing and jumping platform for my kids.


squash with straw mulch


I did not pick up the pumpkins from the curbside pile, but I thought about it. We already have about a dozen pumpkins in our backyard now from our own decorations as well as the free 'after holiday cast offs' from a friend's fundraising event selling pumpkins at her church.


Kids helping me to sort pumpkin seeds for roasting

The smaller pumpkins can be peeled, cubed, and cooked for pies, or the cubes can be roasted in the oven with salt and olive oil, the seeds can be salted and roasted for a crunchy snack. I still have 1 bag of pumpkin puree in the freezer from last years pumpkins. Pumpkin muffins were a real hit with my kids (and high in beta carotene). Even if you don't want to eat pumpkins, they are great food for the chickens. At the very least they are compost pile fodder. Nope, instead they were tossed to the curb to head to the local dump.


pumpkin squash muffins, ready to bake

How funny that the image we have of the bounty of "Harvest Time" and richness of fall with piles of rich golden pumpkins and squash, shocks of dried corn, and bales of golden straw--which used to mean a winters worth of food for the family and livestock-- are now seen as a disposable decorators item. Thanksgiving used to mean the end of the growing and harvest season, a time when families would gather to share in the rewards from a years worth of hard work in the fields.

This is not the first year I have collected hay bales from peoples trash, and it won't be the last (if you want to see a funny sight, picture tiny me, dressed in a skirt and heels for work, attempting to hoist a wet 60 pound bale of straw into the back of my minivan without getting dirty). For some reason this year it made me sad to see the wastefulness and the backward way of looking at things in our society.


So what are we really thankful for today (a bit late, buy HAY)? Thankful for good jobs that allow us to earn plenty of money to maintain a lifestyle? Thankful for stores full of goods, even those that are only used to be visually pleasing for a time? Thankful for a beautiful home to decorate for the various holidays? Thankful that we don't have to hack open a pumpkin each time we want to enjoy a pie?

I don't mean this to condemn anyone, I really am thankful that we live in such a rich and blessed society that allows us the choice to spend our money how we choose... and I'm even more thankful that the life my hubby and I share allow us the ability to see a treasure like this on the curbside. I'm thankful for the knowledge I have on how to use this bounty. I'm thankful that no other 'dumpster divers' got to this gem before me!

If you want to destroy my sweater...

Pull this thread as I walk away... (Weezer song "Undone")

I had a very nice Alpaca sweater. It was hand carried home from Bolivia by my sister in law after a mission trip. This poor sweater got attacked in the most unfortunate, obvious spot by a single moth and that one hole, right on my chest, was enough to keep me from ever wearing the sweater anymore. Rather than just trash it, I decided to recycle the yarn.

Once I figured out how to get the parts apart, it was a quick and fun process. Hubby even helped, he said it was fun in a bad sort of way "like picking a scab". huh.



I first attacked the seams and un-stitched the thread holding the parts together.



Just the front yielded a nice ball of silver yarn.


I got a little sloppy and cut a few of the decorative bands, only to realize that I could unravel those too. In the end, there was very little waste, just a few yards of yarn that had to be trashed.



I'm not sure what this will be in its new life, but I feel better (and a little bit nuts) about recycling the sweater.

Handmade Holidays Part III--Superhero Masks

On a whim, I made superhero masks for the kids for Christmas gifts. Boy is a big fan of The Incredibles, a super-hero family who all have secret powers and wear masks when saving people. Andrew will act out scenes of the movie as we watch it, very cute.



They are made of felt, and the applique is hand stitched on. The head strap is a piece of black elastic cord that held boy's Christmas boots together at the store.


Girl has hearts on her mask, and she is not too happy about wearing it...


Boy got lighting bolts on his mask, and he loves it.




He kept on wearing it, even at breakfast later.




I made a template of the shape of the mask on folded copy paper (to get a perfect match left to right)



I tested the size and eye hole placement as I went.

I then pinned the template onto a folded piece of black felt and cut carefully along the edges of the template.

Cutting the eyes was the trickiest part, I ended up folding the half mask in half again lenght wise and cutting a slit, then opening the mask up to widen the eye slit.



I cut the applique pieces out of yellow felt, doubled so they would match perfectly and hand stitched around the edges of the applique with yellow sewing thread.




Here is the super hero in fireman boots with McQueen PJ's, how is that for mixing up the idols?

Cloth Diapers

We started using cloth diapers when our son was born in 2007, it has been a huge money saver and I think it is better for their skin because you have to change diapers more frequently. We have used the same diapers and wipes when our daughter was born a few months ago. I do not exclusively use cloth diapers, only when we are at home and on quick errands. I have found that both kids knew very quickly when they were wet with the cloth diapers, so I have to change them frequently. With a newborn, I use 12-15 diapers a day and as they got older it decreases how many are needed. By about 9 months of age, I found that my son was only going through 5 or 6 diapers a day, it took too many days to get up enough diapers to make a full wash load and the diapers got stinky in those few days. At that point, we quit using cloth diapers; however the cost savings in those nine months was amazing.



Materials:
24 prefold diapers (best quality Chinese cotton)
48 flannel baby wipes
6 Dappies diaper covers
3 Snappie diaper closure
Diaper pail
heated wipe warmer

To get started, it cost more than disposables, but after that, it has been essentially free.

Costs:
Diapers $1.67 each = $40
Flannel 2 yards = $5
Dappi covers $3 each = $20
Snappies $2 each =$6
pail = $8 (needed one for disposables anyway)
Wipe warmer = $20 (would have bought it anyway)

For just the cloth diapering stuff, it was about $75, the same cost as 5 packs of regular diapers, but it is a one time cost. Yes, you do have to do more laundry, but I found that I only need one small sized load a day, and that is about the same amount of water as a few flushes of the toilet--hardly a big waste of water compared to the bags of dirty disposable diapers that would be trashed. We also use a plastic trash bag liner to keep the sides of the pail from getting dirty, I can reuse this plastic bag for several days, if the pail starts to stink, the liner gets thrown away.

Diaper Wash Routine:

Soiled diapers and wipes are put into a diaper pail. Our pail has a lid, but I found that the pail actually smells better if you leave it open. I think it allows the diapers to dry out a bit and keeps the stinky bacteria from growing. I do a diaper load each day, so this also helps with the odor.

Just before bed, I fill with wash with hot water on the smallest size load and dump in the pail of wipes and diapers. With a breastfed newborn, the poop is very runny so pre-rinsing is not needed, I just let the washing machine handle the first rinse, rather than me. I allow the washer to agitate for about 5 minutes, then drain off the water and refill with hot water and a scoop of detergent, leaving the washer lid open. This water soaks the diapers overnight. In the morning, all I have to do is close the lid and allow the wash cycle to do a full run. Most days, I am able to hang the diapers out on the clothes line to dry. On rainy days, the diapers go into the electric dryer and often take more than one cycle to dry. Since the dryer is one of the bigger power users in our house, I hate using it to dry diapers.

We were so pleased with how well cloth diapering worked for our first child that we have happily used the same setup for our second child. The biggest draw back is what I call 'mushroom butt' not a gross fungus or anything, but just the giant padded butt the kids get while wearing the cloth diapers. Both kids needed a full size larger of clothing if they were weraing a cloth diaper instead of a disposible.