I made an Outpost.

If you haven't gotten MaryJane's Outpost book yet, scurry over to Amazon.com and buy yourself a copy for $19.80 or go to MaryJane's Website and order one for $30. Why the price difference? The one you get from MaryJane is autographed! How cool is that?
So after reading this gorgeous book, I felt like living inside all summer was just about going to kill me. I went out garage sale-ing yesterday with the intent not to buy something to make an outpost, but rather to find bookshelves and a dresser for Nora. Garage Sale after Garage Sale was disappointing. Everything was astronomically expensive and while I saw a few cool items- there was no way I was going to blow my whole $20 budget on one item. Nope. Not gonna do it.

I am sure there were some really great ones out there, but I was limited by only going to the ones that I could find. I still am only comfortable with about half of Billings. And the side street are a mystery to me. I had forgotten my computer so I couldn't mapquest them and I didn't have a city map.

So I see one that I know where it is, and it advertises that it is a day care going out of business- Lots of kid Items! YES! Sweet! Hold on Nora! Here we go!

So the first thing I notice when we get there is not the kid's toys, or the power tools, but a free standing hammock for sale for...$8!!!! The ONLY thing that is wrong with it is that it has some rips in the top fabric. I am a farmgirl! I can fix that!! So my next thought is...How am I going to get it home? Sure enough, it folds up and even come apart into 4 pieces!

So once Nora and I get home after buying her a temporary dresser and a few toys, I set up my new hammock. But it was missing something... So I stung a cross line to my clothes line, stringing up a spare sheet and this is what resulted!







Isn't it great?! I even ran an extension cord out so I could talk with my friends on the MaryJane's Farm Chat Forum

Farmgirl Blog-a-Thon- Bliss in the Kitch

Since becoming a Stay at Home Mom, one of the joys of my day is to make sure I am feeding my family nutritious, wholesome, homemade food- on a frugal budget of course! We are on a bare-bones budget, so many times I have to forgo buying the organics that I normally would, but that aside, our food is quite wholesome.

I taught myself how to can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and spaghetti sauce this last summer/fall with the help of the ladies at The MaryJane's Farm Chat Forum, and with the aid of the Ball Canning book. I would have probably never had the courage to try had it not been for the lovely articles about canning in the MaryJanesFarm Magazine and the encouragement I received on the Forum.

Yesterday I made homemade bread, today I made another batch but to be used as the bread to surround my famous cabbage burgers (recipe below). I also made a MaryJane's bake over with her delicious budget mix! If you haven't tried it, you really should! It is so versatile and you know it is great because MaryJane only sells organic! Check her products out here: MaryJanes Farm Product Directory

A Healthy In-Hand meal is a traditional German Cabbage burger. Now before you shy away because you don't like cabbage and goodness forbid _cooked_ cabbage! Ick Ook Ugh! Actually- the cabbage absorbs the meat taste and adds a little spice but affidavits from sworn cabbage haters say that there is no cabbagey taste to these yummy burgers at all!

Cabbage Burgers:

(1) Make your favorite plain bread recipe
While your bread rises, start cooking the filling

(2) Scramble hamburger till browned, add minced cabbage- about half a head, add minced carrots, celery, onions, garlic and spice to taste. I like to add a little Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and leave it at that. Doug likes a spicy Mexican taste.

(3) After dough has risen, punch down and roll as thin as possible. Put cereal bowl upside down on the rolled out dough. Cut out circle, using bowl as guide, but cut 1 inch away from lip of bowl.

(4) Lay dough circle over bowl like lid. Use slotted spoon to put a dollop of meaty filling in middle of dough circle. Bring sides in and pinch bottom closed until you have a bread encased circle.

(5) Place roll pinched side down onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake according to bread directions until done (meat filling is already cooked). Enjoy! Great with ketchup!

My Poor Baby Nora!

My poor baby Nora! She is having a wicked time with this most recent round of teething. She is not only getting her front two teeth in, but the ones next to them and possible the ones next to them! I can't quite tell because she hates it when I look into her mouth. I know for sure that she is getting four teeth in at once and possibly two more. One has cut through already and I am just waiting for the rest of them to hurry up and grow in.

It seems that once the teeth do cut through, they grow up pretty fast. Is that just me or is it like that for every kid? Or is it just that crawling/cruising babies who are into everything keep up so busy that time just flies by?

We returned the rental Jeep yesterday. I must say, it is weird to realize you prefer your 8 year old car to a brand new car. The Jeep Liberty is a nice enough car. I liked having power everything, the car key lock beeper thing, you could adjust the volume of the stereo from the steering wheel and so forth. I liked all those things. I especially liked the color and the fact that it was all nice and shiny. BUT... it has a weird center of gravity. I never felt like I could relax while I drove because it felt kind of "swishy" going around corners. It did not like ice. Maybe it was just too much power for me after my little Sunfire. Luckily, the Sunfire is getting it's new front end this morning and I should have it back by this afternoon.

Sure, the Sunfire might be old. The upolstery might be a little torn on the floor on the driver's side and it might have a few dents (okay a few big dents). But, it handles great in the snow and I have never gotten stuck while driving it. It has needed a few minor repairs, but over all it has taken one heck of a beating and kept on going! Here's to hoping it can make it for another few years.

I am definitely going to want a new car in the next couple of years, but I am going to be so picky. Driving the Jeep really has shown me a few things. For example- I will never buy a car in Spring, Summer, or Fall. I want a nice thick layer of snow, ice, slush and black ice on the roads when I am car shopping. That way I will know that the new car can handle it. Then as soon as I buy my car- the roads can clear up and the good weather can come back! :D

So back to Nora. We do cloth diapering as I think I already mentioned. When she was born she fit into the the "new born" diaper wraps for a long time and then we moved up to the next size. I'm not exactly sure how big they are supposed to fit, but I think we need to go buy the next size up. When I put her in the velcro ones and then sit her down, one side is popping open! So most of the time when she is just in her diaper- I will look down and realize she is only in her diaper and the diaper wrap is...somewhere...

Good thing we have a great Natural Living store here in town. It's called the "Natural Abode". I suppose if I didn't want to sew my own diapers I could buy theirs. They look nice, but there is something so nice about sewing your own diapers.

I think the thing I love the most about being a farmgirl is what I learn through my association with the ladies on the Farmgirl Forum. They inspire me to become a better me. And to learn more of the "lost" arts.

Before becoming a MJF (MaryJanesFarm) Farmgirl I hadn't ever really sewn before, I had never canned, and I honestly didn't think much about running up to Wal-Mart for every little thing. I must admit I was starting to get wrapped up in the "Keeping up with the Jone's" ratrace.

But I am now sewing my first quilt. I have been doing embroidery for several pillowcase swaps, I sew Nora's diapers, make my own soap, sell hand made items at the farmer's market, and I canned tomato sauce and homemade Spaghetti sauce this year. I also picked about 10 gallons of blackberries and made some wonderful blackberry pies.

I no longer run to big box stores for every little thing. I have found some great treasures at GoodWill. I feel so smart and happy when I find a perfectly good sweater or tea cup, and I know I am making those goods have a longer life instead of going to the land fill. And I save money. Also I have gotten some pretty nice designer clothes at goodwill for cheaper than I could buy a tee-shirt at Wal-Mart. Funny- Our GoodWill is right next to our Wal-Mart too!

Happy Christmas Eve!

There's my adorable Farmerette Nora sitting infront of a toasty warm fire a few days ago. She is getting be such a big girl! Can you believe she is officially nine months old now? I know I can't! When I pick her up, she is a heftly 20 pounds, a far cry from the miniscule 5.5 pound baby that she was when she was born.

Let's see... some of the changes she has gone through: She crawls, pulls herself up and cruises along furniture, she practices "talking", she has two bottom teeth and has two top teeth just coming in as I type. Sometimes I forget how little she was when she was born, and then I will come across one of her recieving blankets and I will remember how they were the perfect size (or even too big!) and now they are more snuggle blankets for her!

She still nurses, though she loves to each our food. One of her favorite foods is Grilled Cheese sandwiches. She also loves meat and fruits and veggies, though the fresher the veg, the better. I don't blame the least on that! She really doesn't like baby food.

You know what she really loves? MaryJane's Outrageous Outback Oatmeal. It has currants and SunFlower seeds in it. But babies don't digest currants and sunflower seeds all that well. Yeah....I didn't know that. Sometimes you can get a little too much information about your baby's digestive system when you change a diaper! LOL

Speaking of diapers, we still do cloth diapering. I was once the woman who proudly declared that she would always be the "Fun" Aunt and never wanted to have kids of her own. One of the main reasons? Diapers. Diapers are really not my favorite thing. That is until I started doing Cloth. I make my own which is it's own joy in of itself. I love going down to the fabric store and picking out the cutest flannels for her bum. Okay- so I know pure white would be best because it absorbs more- but who can resist flannel with sleepy elephants on it? Or teddy bears in pajammas that are sleeping on the moon? So cute!

We do flat fold diapers, though I did make some contoured ones. Making contoured diapers for a 5.5lb baby is just not worth it. Now that she is bigger though- I might try it again. The flat folds are really nice though, because I have only had to make two sizes- a 22 inch square that lasted until about 6-7 months old and now I am doing a 30 inch square. The best part of using cloth, though isn't just the monetary savings (which save us hundreds of dollars a month) or the evironment savings (disposable diapers are toxic to produce and take over 500 years to biodegrade) but the best part is that our house doesn't smell like stinky diapers. Since I wash diapers once a day, they never sit around long enough to get funky. We have never had to bother with a Diaper Genie or even special diaper pails. We even travel with them! We travel to Wyoming by car and plane a few times a year and even on the plane we used cloth diapers.

We went to Spokane yesterday to visit some Farmgirl friends. I got to meet Audrina (Farmgirlwannabe) and her lovely mother. I also got to spend time with Teresa (Lavenderfields Dreamer) and her mom Carol Sue (Carol Sue). Sky-dog came with and had fun exploring the house and cleaning up the crumbs that Nora dropped everywhere.

On the ride up, I knew Nora was going to get hungry so I thought up a (I think) rather clever rig. I had a container of milk for Nora to drink and a long skinny length of plastic tubing. So she in effect has a really long straw. So I set the container of milk in the cup holder by me and she got the end of the straw. It worked perfectly! Yay! Next time I am going to get a clothespin or some thing to clip the straw down though. She did pull it out and fling milk everywhere once or twice! LOL

We will probably head out to the horse ranch today (http://www.rockinheart.com/). You have got to see these horses! They are so beautiful! This is the one I want to someday own. Her name is Talla. In this picture is was about 3 months old and now is about 9 months. Nora and Talla were born just a couple weeks apart! She should stay this beautiful bay color and I love the white markings on her face. She has the sweetest temperment and literally floats when she moves. She is so graceful! I will have to see if I can get permission to upload a video of her for you!

My First Posting

Hello All!

Many of you might know me from www.maryjanesfarm.org (www.maryjanesfarm.org/snitz)

I guess to start of my new blog, I should let you know a little about myself.

I was born in a small town in Wyoming where I had a wonderful childhood in a loving family. I have 3 older sisters who I count as some of my best and closest friends (now that we are all adults) and two wonderful parents.

I was very much the tomboy when I was younger. I hated dresses, my knees were constantly skinned, and I loved roaming around half wild more than anything.

I have always loved the outdoors. I have a natural affinity with most animals and have always dreamed of somehow incorporating something to do with animals to finishe the sentence "When I grow up I want to . . ."

I "helped" my dad and grandfather build our smallish log cabin as I grew up. I remember lots of weekends ending with coffee and cherry pie at a local restraunt. It was lots of fun. Usually my "helping" was really me roaming the woods. I learned to read deer tracks and entertain myself with a (if I may say so) fantastic imagination.

Once I learned to write- no piece of paper was sacred. I love to write down stories, poetry, draw or paint. My mom is a wonderful artist in just about every medium possible. I someday home to be able to come close to some of her skills in the artistry department.

Currently, I live in the Pacific Northwest. I am hoping to move closer to my hometown soon, though. We moved out here for college (my husband and I). But we are finding that our hearts want us to be closer to our family.

We had a wonderful thing happen to us this year. Our daughter entered our lives and has changed everything for us. She is a constant joy and source of great entertainment.

So on this blog, you will probably find me posting a lot about those things that are important to me. Watch for posts on how to be frugal, practical natural mothering, gardening, organic and responsible living/eating, crafting, and farmily adventures. Please post comments and suggestions for future posts! I always love feedback!

I will probably host give-aways and drawing occasionally, and with an pending move I will probably be downsizing! Stay Tuned....

With love...

Farmgirl Alee