Author Archives: Maridy

About Maridy

Hi, I'm Maridy. I have many interests in life. Right now, my husband and I and our two girls (ages 14 and 7), along with a couple of dogs currently live in a 33ft trailer while we build our house on our homestead property in Northern Nevada (Castle Rock Homestead). Follow us on that journey to building our high desert homestead from the ground up! I also have a passion for hiking and have a blog for that, too. (Journey in the Wilderness) Join me there as I explore the beautiful outdoor landscapes of Northwestern Nevada and Eastern California. And finally, I love historical costuming. Though I haven't been able to do much of that in recent years, I'm hoping that "once the house is built" I'll be able to get back into it more. See what all we've done with that on my Yesteryear Productions blog.

Stressed

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Hey there.

How are ya?

It’s been a while, I know.

Sorry about that.

Been a little crazy in our life lately.

In fact, I just added it up. In the last 6 months, I’ve traveled back to Nevada 5 times. That’s traveling nearly once a month! And they weren’t weekend trips either (well, one was). We’re talking about being gone from home for over a week, sometimes closer to two weeks!

In fact, I’m sitting in my mom’s living room in Nevada right now. Been in town three days already, and not leaving for another week.

Why have I done all that traveling? Good question. All but two of those trips were for work. But even when we came back down for other reasons, I still managed to get in some work days.

Normally I can do most of my job (about 5 hrs a week) from home on the computer. But every once in a while, the ropes challenge course I work for in Nevada needs their office manager actually IN the office. Or on the course. So the girls and I, and sometimes the hubby, pack up and make the 12 hour drive back to our second home. Who ever heard of a 600 mile commute?

To say that I’ve been busy this year is an understatement. No wonder Princess Girl got behind on her book work in school.

But, we’re trying to build a house, right? So’s I gotta make some money. Could I find a job in Oregon and cut out the monthly travel? Sure, but the ropes course needs me, and we want to see friends and family anyway, so here I am.

But it does get stressful being gone from home so much. Or is it that I like being in Nevada better and hate having to go back to Oregon after every trip?

At any rate, here we are in Nevada once again. The other evening, Flower Girl and I went up to Castle Rock with 7 gallons of water to put on our trees.

The trees were fairly stressed after having gone nearly a month in the middle of summer without anyone but God watering them. Considering that, however, they actually looked pretty good.

I thought they’d be crispier than they were. But then, it has been an unusually wet summer here in Nevada (while the Pacific Northwest is drying out in a particularly dry summer. Go figure!)

As the water jug was emptying onto the trees (slowly so the water would soak in, not run off), I took a hoe to the house pad. Weeds were starting to pop up quite a bit and we want to keep a handle on them.

I felt bad knocking down the Blazing Star flowers. I love their delicate beauty, yes, but more than that, I saw quite a few bees buzzing around them. And we all know that bees are our friends. But we are pretty serious about wanting to keep the house pad weed free, so I was merciless. Besides, there are plenty more lining the driveway.

And speaking of the driveway, I attacked it a bit with the hoe, too.

All those weeds in the right hand tire track used to be in the middle of the drive. I cut them out with the hoe, but I didn’t have the energy to come back and throw them all over the hillside. Not to mention the fact that I did not have gloves and these are nothing but green tumbleweeds (ie pokey!). They’ll dry out and the wind will take care of them for me. 🙂

And then it was time for “The Show”. That’s what my parents always called a particularly spectacular sunset. And, boy, was it ever spectacular!

Flower Girl and I were only on the homestead for about an hour, but it was enough to help ease the stress I’ve been feeling lately. (And, of course, the stress of the trees, too, since they finally got watered again ;-). )

Just wishing the Hubby and Princess Girl could have been there with us. They both stayed back in Oregon since we don’t want to leave Mom and Dad totally alone again so soon after our last time gone in July, and Princess Girl went to summer camp for her first time (how is she so grown up?)

And speaking of the homestead (’cause, ya know, that’s what I’ve been talking about this whole time), look what we got!

No, not really official blueprints yet. More like the preliminary plans just to see it on paper. But it’s from a real residential designer and looks all official and everything! It’s an big step forward in our plans for building on Castle Rock. We’re hoping that the next time we come back to Nevada we’ll have actual, real live, ready-to-take-to-the-building-department blueprints.

Exciting stuff right there!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Not all what you see

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I read a great article from Mother of a Hubbard today that really spoke to me. Here on the internet, it is so easy, and really kinda necessary, to present our selves and our situations in the best light possible while still being real (at least I try to be real).

But all you ever see is half the story. The good side. After the mess has been cleaned up – or at least hidden from view.

I, on the other hand, have to live with the other half as well. I have to live with the messes and tantrums and stress of not having enough time in the day. And sometimes, it seems that the other half – that oh, so messy half – is closer to the whole than a half.

But then beauty happens. And when beauty happens, I feel the urge to share that with everyone. So, all you ever see is the best picture out of the 20 I took. Or the fun times. Or the happy, helpful kids. Or the successes in the garden. Because, who really wants to talk (or read) about the not-so-fun stuff anyway?

But you know what?

Even though there are times that are messy and chaotic with dishes piling up in the sink, poopy diapers which need to be changed, chicken coops needing to be cleaned, children waiting to be taught, all-natural DIY everything to be made, gardens to be tended, family and friends to cook for and spend time with, etc, etc, etc – it is still so very much worth living this lifestyle.

Because beauty happens. All you have to do is look for it.

And suddenly, the other half of life – that oh, so messy half – tends to not seem quite so large afterall.
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Just a few things over the last week which have been beautiful.

And just as a small insight to what you see online, here’s the picture I eventually posted on Facebook a couple days ago.

But in order to get that one picture, there were many that looked like this….

And this…

And even this…

Or this…

Because, let’s face it, a 2 year old is not a very good photographer.

But then again, considering it was my 2 year old taking the pictures, maybe they are beautiful after all. Thus why I have such a hard time deleting them. 😉

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Blessed Saturday

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Been out working in my garden this beautiful Saturday morning. Moving containers around, watering, thinning, etc. All while still in my pajamas. 😉

Now I’m getting ready to plant some more bush beans and a few other things in containers. And finally pot the rest of the petunias which were supposed to be Princess Girl’s but she lost interest.

Flower Girl has been helping me water.

And eating some more carrot thinnings. 🙂

It’s a glorious day here in the Pacific Northwest. I hope your Saturday is blessed no matter the weather where you are.

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Homemade Laundry Soap

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Soooo….I’m a horrible blogger. I made about a year’s worth of laundry soap a couple days ago. I meant to take pictures so I could post step by step photos. The last time I intended to do a DIY tutorial, I ended up in the Emergency Room. This time, I got half way into the process and forgot to take pictures.

I’m horrible, I tell ya!

But enough about me. Let’s learn how easy (and cheap!) it is to make your own laundry soap.

There are about a bajillion different diy laundry soap recipes out there. I’ve been using this particular recipe on our clothes for at least two years now. Why did I choose this one?

Because it was the one my cousin gave me back before I really got into this diy journey.

And because it’s simple – only 3 ingredients besides water. Washing soda, Borax, and Fels-Naptha soap (all can be found in the laundry isle of most large grocery stores).

That’s it.

Truly.

I know, right?

And the process is just as simple.

Step #1: put 4 cups hot water in a pot.

Step #2: grate the Fels-Naptha into the water.

Step #3: stir and then gently (gently!) boil until the soap is all melted. Don’t vigorously boil unless you don’t mind suds all over your kitchen.

(And that’s all the pictures I got till the next day.)

Step #4: add in 1/2 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda (this is not baking soda – there’s a difference!) to the pot and stir till dissolved. (Note: this time around I doubled the amount of borax and washing soda to see if there is any difference in the long run.)

Step #5: fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with hot water. Pour the soap contents from the pot into the bucket and stir well.
Step #6: fill the rest of the bucket with hot water, stir and set aside until the next day to let it set up.

See, told you it would set up.

Step #7: now stir, stir, stir! It would be awesome to have one of those paint stirring attachments for a power drill. That would make this part super easy. I thought we had one of those somewhere. Hmmmm… it’s probably still in our shed back on the homestead. Since I didn’t have one of those stirrer thingies, I just used a big slotted spoon.

And eventually I even just used my hand to reach in and mush up all the gloppy clumps. It was strangely satisfying.

Step #8: fill a container such as an old laundry soap dispenser or large jar half full with your soap, fill the rest of the way with water and shake. Use approximately 1/4 cup for a front loading washer (you lucky folks) and about 3/4 cup for a top loader. Shake with each use.

That’s it. See, told ya it was simple. And yes, with 4 people in our family and a top loading washer, this amount of soap will last us approximately a year.

So, how does it work? You know, I have to be honest, it’s not the greatest on stains. But it does a good job keeping things generally clean.

It is gentle enough that we used it on Flower Girl’s clothes when she was a baby and suffering from bad eczema and it did not irritate her condition.

It does tend to be clumpy when I pour it, but then, I’ve never taken the time to really, really stir it up well either. I’m sure that would make a huge difference.

As we travel on our journey toward all natural products, I like that the majority of ingredients in this laundry soap are all natural. I did however, read the ingredients on the Fels-Naptha soap and it does have some perfumes and unpronounceables. It’s diluted quite a bit in this recipe, so I went ahead and used it this time. I think by the time we need another batch, I will try to find a more natural soap. I have heard you can use Ivory soap in place of the Fels-Naptha. I will have to look into it more.

But, I’ve got a year to do it. 😉

Have you ever made your own laundry soap? What’s your favorite recipe?

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

My groupies

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I went out to feed the chickens this morning and decided to let them out of their run since I finally got some bird netting around my small garden.

The three hens who were not busy laying quickly headed for the compost heap on the other side of the yard. I put some feed out for them in their run and made sure they had water, but I had forgotten to bring out the kitchen scraps. I brought those out and emptied them in the big tray in their run and then went to stand on the back deck admiring the wisteria.

Soon, however, Scaredy hopped up an the deck with me. I shooed her off. Then Pepper hopped up. I shooed her off. Then either Sugar or Salt (don’t know which is which) joined the crowd, and I think Scaredy jumped back up as well.

What are these chickens doing? They hardly ever come up on the deck, and here they were, all very insistent to join me up there. Over and over, no matter how many times I chased them off.

And then I realized something.

Just to test my theory, I walked over to the compost. My three groupies followed me. I walked across the yard and they quickly made their way over.

What did I realize?

That’s right, I realized I was still holding the scrap bucket!

The empty scrap bucket.

But they didn’t know it was empty. They kept waiting for me to empty out it’s bountiful goodness.

So, I walked to the chicken run where I had already dumped the contents and in no time at all, the girls were happily munching on radish and carrot tops from the garden.

As I walked away with the bucket in hand, no one followed me. They had gotten what they wanted. My groupies no longer cared about me.

And that is as it should be.

PS, I posted this on Facebook this morning. Four eggs yesterday! First time having 100% lay rate since the young ones started laying. Hopefully that will become the norm. 🙂

And look how dark those brown ones are. Absolutely beautiful!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Reduce, reuse, recycle…repair

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Several years ago, we bought an outdoor chaise lounger when we found one cheap at the end of the summer. After sitting outside for several years, it got a tear in the fabric. We were able to live with it like that for nearly an entire summer just by being careful, but the rip kept getting bigger and bigger. When we moved to Oregon, we decided it was time to do a repair. Being the seamstress that I am, I decided to sew it. But the fabric was brittle and we still had to be very careful with it (ie, SOMEHOW keep the toddler from using it as a trampoline!). The repair lasted the summer, though, so I was happy. But over the winter, the repair failed.

As the weather warmed up this spring, and we desired to sit out on our back deck more, we needed to do something with that chaise lounge. Replacing it was out of the question. The prices they charge at even the discount stores are astronomical. Besides that, we try not to waste things that can be recycled, reused, or repaired. And this qualified as something that could be repaired. Or at least fixed to a point that it is usable again without fear that the bottom is going to fall out on you at any moment.

So, I had the great idea to use twine to do the repair. Since the ripped area is at the foot of the lounger, not a lot of weight with be put on it, generally. And I wanted to do the repair as quickly and cheaply as possible. This package of 100 feet of line was less than $4. I tied it off and started wrapping around the whole bottom half of the lounger.

I was surprised at how far 100 feet of rope didn’t go. I had to space out the wraps more than I thought I was going to have to. But, it worked out.

Once I had it all wrapped, I took up any slack in the line. By doing this three times, I was able to tighten it up quite tight and gained enough length at the end to go around a couple more times.

I eventually got everything all tight and spaced out and I tied the end off. All that was left was to put on the cushions (yes, two!) and give it a test.

I’ve used it quite a few times in the last week, and I have to say that it works quite well.

What do you think of my cheap fix?

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Fresh salad!

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Fresh salad, straight from our garden/yard. Yum! I needed to thin out the lettuce from the small garden, I picked some of the over-wintered-but-not-doing-so-well spinach from the big garden, and I found some dandelion greens in the yard. I had a head of purchased iceburg in the fridge and add to all that some borage flowers which just started blooming and you have a gorgeous salad almost too pretty to eat. Almost, but not quite. 🙂

I love that dandelions are considered a weed, yet they are edible and good for you. And the borage is a volunteer which comes back every year.

Edit: For the health of you and your family, be sure if you are harvesting any wild edibles that they come from a trusted source not treated with any harsh chemicals! We don’t use any herbicides or pesticides or even any fertilizer on our lawn, so I know the dandelions are safe to eat.

It begins!

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I’m so excited. We got our first egg from one of our pullets. We received the chicks in November at about 3 weeks of age. I figured they’d start laying in April sometime. Looks like I was right!

I just love the deep brown color of this egg. The only brown ones we've ever gotten through the years have been light colored.

Our English Game Hen (who is about 2 years old) started laying again a couple months ago after the winter. But she only lays about 4 eggs a week, and since she is Princess Girl’s pet chicken, the eggs were reserved for Princess Girl to eat. So I’m very excited to start getting eggs from our other girls for the rest of us to eat. With only 4 hens, though, they won’t produce enough eggs for all of us on a regular basis, but they’ll offset how many we have to buy. And we buy a lot of eggs!

Dreaming of the day when we have room for a larger flock. 🙂

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Garden Update

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So, I went away for 10 days and came back to some radishes and lettuce ready to pick, or at least thin out (and eat the thinned one’s 😉 ). And just about everything too tall for the glass cover.

Princess Girl was excited to pick some of her radishes, even though she’s not even sure if she likes them.

I’m not quite ready to leave the garden completely open to the cat, though. He likes to curl up in the warm sun, right on top of my baby onion plants. So, I’m thinking I’ll put another level of boards up around the garden and raise the glass that way. Then we can continue to let the chickens roam free too. Yeah, the chickens would decimate the garden right now. In fact, they were out and about while I was checking on the garden this morning and were VERY interested in what was in that box!

In other news, the spinach in the pots on the deck are doing much better than the boxes on the fence. I’m thinking the fence boxes might be holding too much moisture. Need to drill a few holes in the bottom and see if that helps. And I need to trim the honeysuckle already. It grows so fast, but I knew it would. Hmmmm, looks like I have some gardening work ahead of me tomorrow. Ahh, shucks! 😉

How to preserve marigolds the “easy” way

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The no-work, no-fuss way to get perfectly preserved marigold blooms:

1.) Have a child

2.) Grow Marigolds or otherwise acquire them

3.) When child is around 2 – 3 years old, buy said child a clear plastic beverage bottle

4.) Leave said child, in possession of said beverage bottle, in the care of husband

5.) Find said beverage bottle in toy box two weeks later with perfectly preserved marigold blooms inside

*Disclaimer: Author does not claim that step #1 or the intervening years between #1 and #3 is easy, only the end result of having preserved flowers, without having the do the work yourself. The author does not know why you would want to preserve your marigold blooms in such a way or how long they will last, she is just offering a unique and easy way to do it. 🙂

(This article first appeared on Maridy’s personal blog in 2008.)

About Maridy

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