All In A Week

It was a wonderful week chock full of little adventures.  A day in Okiboji, a day at the zoo, and special moments here at home.  Little bits of joy!  Enjoy the pics!

I am almost ready to reveal my latest project.  I am down to figuring out postal rates for shipping to customers.  The suspense is killing me.  I can hardly wait!    See you soon!                                                                                                                                       

Moments

Sunday was a wonderful day after two weeks of intense, oppressive heat. My sister and I took advantage of such a pleasant day and went to the farmers market where I found, among other wonderful purchases, these delicious peaches and this beautiful bouquet.  We had such a lovely time and stopped for iced coffees before heading home. Later, Charlie and I went to the bookstore, our after church ritual. I love the feeling I get when wandering through the stacks and perusing new releases.  Unfortunately, my Crohn's began to bother me, so we cut our visit short and left for home. This was followed by nap time around our house. We had a late dinner of grilled steaks, served with fluffy baked potatoes and finished the day on a dusky walk with the dogs.

I am working on a new item which will soon be available for online purchase.  Can't wait to show you!

Beef Stew Day

I realize temperature can be relative, but today called for a -30 windchill factor.  So cold, they called school.  I had ratatouille on the menu, but beef stew sounded warmer.  I have had a Tasha Tudor craving lately, and decided to use a beef stew recipe from the Tasha Tudor's Cookbook. It was delicious!

Since the weather was predicted to be so cold, I didn't have any grands today.  Yes, grands! Believe it or not since my last post, I now have 4 grandchildren!  I have been babysitting the first 3 and now with the birth of the latest grand, I'll be keeping all four!  Our life has been so blessed and we're expecting a fifth grand this summer! But back to no grands. I decided to de-clutter a few things today. For those of you who visit my home, no, not the knick knacks, as you remember the last time I got rid of knick knacks, Charlie thought I was leaving him!

I spent fall making the cutest little soft stuffed animals for the grand's Christmas gifts. You can find the patterns here. They gave me such happiness while making them.  Alicia Paulson is so talented and it is a joy to create from her patterns! I also made the cutest lamb softie from this book.

Between sewing the little softies, I have been knitting for the grands and the softies. Little sweaters, dresses, and scarves. I'm actually working on something for myself right now.  A Through the Woods hooded neck warmer in honor of Into the Woods movie release.  I bought the pattern and yarn here.

Just so you know, I don't receive any compensation for including the links, I just like to share my finds with you.
See you soon.

Operation Rain Barrel

Pamphlet from Omaha Storm Water Program

That First Cut

Flipside

Ali and Charlie removing the gutter

Spigot

Aren't we cute!

Ready to install

Minor adjustments

We have always wanted a rain barrel here at Melia's Urban Farm, but didn't have the know how or the proper barrel.  We found many videos online with everyone's opinions of how to do it, cheaply or otherwise. Check them out, some are pretty funny!  It was one of those thing you put on the back burner.  Last year we almost bought a rain barrel at our local lumber store, but found it expensive and missing important components for filtering out sediment, maple tree helicopters, and the like.  We didn't want to go the trash can route, as we felt the plastic was too flimsy.  So, back on the burner.  I was either paying a utility bill, reading the paper, or just surfing the web, when I found out about the Omaha Storm Water Program.  You place an order for a free barrel on the site, and they email you with the location to pick it up. I immediately placed my order. Ours was at Under the Sink, an organization that disposes of the things that you should never dispose of yourself, paint, chemicals, cleaning supplies, etc, therefore not harming our very fragile environment. You take a copy of the email, or as Charlie did, drove there and told them "my wife has one on hold".  They looked me up and home he drove, proudly presenting me with our barrel!  I cannot say that the items we needed to complete the rain barrel were cheap, but we did call around for prices.  We spent $60 and that has mostly been covered by donations from my children for Mother's Day. As much watering as we do here at the farm, we will re-coop any costs with the savings on our water bill, not to mention the benefits to our planet.  Many states outlaw rain water collection, so I feel proud that Omaha is supporting this program.  Here is the final product. 

 It was nearly filled last night by a rainstorm that produced an inch of rain in one hour!  We are ready to rock!  For those of you that live nearby, here is the link  www.OmahaStormwater.org or call 402-444-3908 and order your barrel.  Who knows, you may have some of the items on hand or know where to source them before you have to buy them.  Happy watering!