Simple Raw and Natural

The weatherman was wrong, and we did not have storms last night or this morning.  It was a pretty day to work outside.  Travis and I worked on the strawberry bed today.   I got it all cleared out and put mineral supplement on it.  Then Travis gave it some fertilizer.  Then we put on compost and mulch.  It's should be all ready for new strawberry plants.  There are already a few strawberry plants in this bed from a couple of  years ago.  Removing the red pump water feature from this bed was the hardest thing.  It had pea gravel in it that made it too heavy to lift.  So I scooped out the gravel a little at a time. Travis fertilizing the strawberries. I put some more compost and mulch around one of the apple trees that got short-changed the first time around.  The apricot tree is blooming so pretty. I listed a silver cup trophy and a set of Pearl S. Buck books on Ebay.  I listed the set of books on Abe Books,...

Lunch Menu Green Smoothie Grapefruit Half with Honey Avocado Mango Goody Balls Dinner Menu Green Salad w/Romain, Mushrooms, Cucumber, Sprouts, and Tomato Lemon Juice and Olive Oil Salad Dressing Sauerkraut Steamed Cabbage seasoned with Butter, Bragg's Seasoning, and Pepper Walnuts I went to 270 Farm Supply with my soil analysis report to see if they had urea and muriate of potash which the Cooperative Extension Service had recommended for my garden beds.  They gentleman at the farm supply said that every single person with a soil analysis from the Extension Service is getting the same recommendation.  I'm just an amateur, but based on that feedback I decided to follow what I learned from John Fielder in Australia and build up our soil with the mineral supplement, organic fertilizer, compost and mulch.   So I came home without urea and muriate of potash.  On a positive note, the man at the farm supply said that they were back-ordered on most of the organics they hav...

The Hot Springs Flute Ensemble played for the morning service at Westminster Presbyterian Church. It was my second performance with them. We played The Heavens Declare by Benedetto Marcello and Ave Verum Corpus by Mozart.  Warming up before the church service. Today my sister bought my lunch to celebrate my birthday.  She, Mom and I went to Ruby Tuesday's in Benton.  I had the salad bar, and it was very good.  Sheila gave me a gift of an inspirational calendar, too.  After lunch, I took Mom to Walgreens to get snack crackers and to Backyard Burgers to get a strawberry shake.  What can I say.  She's almost 91 years old. I stopped at Cox Family Gardens on the way home and bought some seed potatoes.  I told the lady at the nursery that every peach tree that we have planted so far has not made it.  She told me that we were just a little too far north to grow peaches.  I didn't know that.  They grow them at Alpine which isn't far ...

Today is my daughter Molly's birthday.  It was a perfectly beautiful day for her celebration.  I called her to wish her Happy Birthday, but I won't get to see her until tomorrow.   She wants a camera for her birthday, but she hasn't picked it out yet.  Once she picks it out, we'll contribute towards it. Happy Birthday, Molly. It was a nice spring-like day to work outside.  I finished mowing around the plants around the arbor.  Travis had picked up some more Ironite Mineral Supplement.  The minerals are the first step in feeding the plants.  I put the Ironite around three trees and the berry arbor.   I'll put the fertilizer, compost and mulch around them next chance I get to work in the garden. I mowed around the berry plants around the arbor. Ironite Mineral Supplement First step in feeding the plants....Minerals.  Today was Travis' day with Karl and Arthur.  He and Arthur went to Little Rock today to meet Karl. ...

Today was a beautiful day.  It got up to 73 degrees.  It was a perfect gardening morning.  I cleared around four fruit trees and two blueberry bushes.  A couple of them I cleared out with a hoe, and the others I mowed around with the lawn mower the way John Fielder taught me in Australia.  We fed two blackberries and an apple tree with Ironite mineral rocks, fertilizer, compost and mulch.  The others will have to wait for another day. Travis is applying the mulch around the apple tree. Blueberry bush all fed and mulched.  Travis picked up compost free of charge from our city compost facility.  It is free to residents that load it themselves.    He got mulch from the POA of Hot Springs Village.  They are grinding all the trees that were uprooted during the tornado last year and offering it to the residents at no charge. Compost from the city compost facility. Mulch from the POA made from trees blown down during the torn...

The week has flown by.  On Monday, I made a batch of Goody Balls.  Travis had bought two bags of black walnuts a while back.  Since we weren't eating them, I decided to use them in the Goody Balls in place of the almonds.  It worked okay, but they have a definite black walnut taste.  These are Black Walnut Goody Balls.  I like the almonds better. We had a tiny little snow.  It is the only snow of the year thus far.  It has been cold enough that I have neglected getting outside to walk for several days.  This morning I finally got outside and walked for 30 minutes and then fed one of the blueberry bushes with mineral rocks, fertilizer, compost and mulch.   Snow on the garden. Snow beside our house.  Travis and I cleaned out our closets and a few other things from the house.  There are half as many clothes in our closets as there were before.  Big Brother and Big Sisters came and picked up the boxes of clothes and h...

There was an interesting article in The Sentinel Record today about a college class at the University of Pennsylvania.  It is a class in religious studies called Living Deliberately that is taught by Justin McDaniel.  I jokingly said that I took this class under Dr. John Fielder in Australia.  The experience in Australia exposed me to many of the disciplines taught in this class.   The purpose of the restrictions is to bring awareness of yourself and others.   I am still trying to incorporate more of these disciplines into my everyday life.  At the farm in Australia there were not all the enticements and distractions there are here. I am gaining weight.  That means I am retaining toxins.  I need to make some changes immediately.  It's time for me to live deliberately regarding diet...again.  In the class at Penn, they restrict eating anything after dark.  It was the same in Australia.  We ate dinner at 5:00 and that was the l...

It's cold.  The arugula is frozen, but Travis still used some of it in our green smoothies today.  The green smoothies were really good.  He made them with arugula, pineapple, banana, apple, kiwi, dates, lemon and chia seeds. Yummy.   Here is Travis making green smoothies in the Vita-Mix We usually eat fruit and nuts for lunch.  We ate the last of the goody balls yesterday.  I am going to have to make another batch next week....just as soon as I can get the time.   Here are two of the lunches we have had this week. Lunch:  green smoothie, grapefruit with honey, honeydew, pear, avocado, goody ball, and almonds. Lunch:  green smoothie, grapefruit with honey, cantaloupe, avocado, pear, goody ball, and nuts (not pictured). When Travis pruned the fruit trees he brought in some pear branches to force.  They are starting to bloom in a vase in the living room.  You can see one of the garden beds out the window.  It won't...

I like my new stainless steel water bottle.  Travis ordered one for each of us from Sportsman's Guide.  The name of the water bottle is R3...refuse, reuse, recycle.  Drinking from stainless steel is healthier than drinking from a plastic bottle.  I seldom buy bottled water any more because of the plastic pollution in our oceans and landfills.    New stainless steel water bottle. I potted some sage and parsley.  The herbs have all been moved out of the future strawberry bed now.   Travis and I bought an full-size electric keyboard for both of our children's homes.  At Molly's house Braeden is the primary user.  He's pretty good.  Harris' family just received theirs today.  Caleb has it set up in his room.  I expect he will be playing good, too, before long. Lunch:  Green smoothie, watermelon, avocado, goodie balls, and walnuts Travis and Arthur went to Little Rock to visit Karl today so I had to make my own ...

I have been doing my walking in the mornings.  Sometimes Travis walks with me, and sometimes I walk by myself  I don't listen to music or anything when I walk.  It's just me, God and nature. Spring is coming!  We moved the cilantro, rosemary and some other herbs into pots.  Our plan is to make the current herb bed into a strawberry bed.  There are more herbs to be moved. Rosemary There a few little plants trying to make it in the greenhouse.  Our greenhouse is not heated, so they probably are not warm enough.  Maybe the ones that made it will take off in the spring.  I hope so. Little tomato plants growing in the greenhouse. Only three little lettuces made it this time. The flute is taking a lot of time, but it's so worth it.  I have two teachers now.  Harriet is helping me learn the flute ensemble music, and Jackie is helping me with my technique.  Flute ensemble is quite challenging. Since we enjoy goi...