Resolutions Or Something Like That.

For the last 28 days I have read so many great blogs, and Facebook posts about New Year Resolutions that my head is spinning. Don't get me wrong, I love them and plan never to stop reading them.

 No, don't do it, don't write about resolutions, keep writing about gardening, no, don't do it! You can't possibly have anything new to add to the long list of how to lose weight, have the perfectly organized, beautiful home, or have the wholesome,non-processed, homemade meals ready for your family on the table every night! 

I know, I know. But I did do it. See, with it being the dead of winter AND fast becoming a record breaking drought year, sadly there is not that much to do in the garden besides watch everything turn an even darker shade of brown.

Seriously, we folks on private individual wells in Northern California are in for big trouble if we do not get rain soon and a whole bunch of it. We are in the process of buying/installing a 5000 gallon holding tank for our property to hopefully store water from our well and if our worst fears are realized, a way to store purchased water to get us thru this drought.

While I felt obligated to do my annual New Year's resolutions, I set myself up in the usual ways. I signed up for a free 10 day online workshop about how to stop procrastinating. That was over 2 weeks ago and I have not done a single lesson......hah! The irony! But all is not lost. I also signed up for another free 30 day workshop on taking control of your life and I am only 15 days behind schedule on that one. Progress, hah!

Then something happened that never happened before in the predictable guilt ridden January. No resolutions......just a promise to myself to change a few things that make me unhappy with myself. No promises to anyone else, just me.

I promised myself that I would read a book again. I read this one,

It was a short, easy read. It inspired me to try harder. It got me out of myself and it made me feel hopeful.

I promised myself that I would clean out my beautiful bathroom vanity that I did not like anymore. Not because it wasn't beautiful anymore, because it was cluttered, messy, and wasted my time every time I opened the doors to look for something.Which was alot since my toothbrush, hair brush, and every personal item I own was behind those doors.

Before:

 

And as long as we are being honest here..........

I realized that I had almost 30 of these scattered all over the back of the shelves in the vanity.

Why, oh why?

 

And as long as we are being really honest here........

Calamine lotion circa July 1998. I am embarrassed.

And the "after"

I know! Looks great! 

I love the Dollar Store baskets. So cheap, so........cheap.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, so? What is the big deal here, the baskets don't even match. But what you do not see ( besides the empty spots, which are a first in our house ) is the sense of accomplishment I feel. And the great feeling I get when I get up early, it is still kinda dark out, and I can find my toothbrush and toothpaste on the first try without even really looking inside the cabinet....nice.

Trailblazer I am not, but now I am excited about possibly losing a pound or two, or ten; loving my house again, and trying out a few new, healthy, homemade recipes for my loved ones. And best of all, I cannot wait to promise myself a couple more things to change for the better.

 

P.S. Pray for rain!

Iris Winter Clean Up

I am way behind on winter clean up around here so I am working overtime to catch up!

In the front of our property, next to the dirt road, is my Iris garden. This little plot of dirt was originally just a temporary place to plant my Irises until I could properly prepare a spot for them. Well, that was 16 years ago. Not only did I not move my original tubers, I have added many more over the years.

Little did I know that they would thrive under the shade of our Maple trees and survive the regular potty visits of my neighbor's dogs. Grrrrrr.....

Now at this time of year they look pretty sad. Last year's growth is long been dead, weeds and random seeds dropped by birds have grown in the bare spots left by the pink Verbena that share the Iris bed.

Here is another "before" picture.

So I got busy the other day cleaning up. I raked up the dried Maple leaves, cut off  last year's growth, trimmed the new leaves that had brown tips from our hard frost we experienced a couple of weeks ago, and picked up dog poop.

  

Every year while I work on this particular clean up project, I feel guilty about leaving my beloved Irises outside the protected, fenced garden where they could get the respect that they deserved. Then I remember how this neglected plot of dirt looks in May and June.  

And I remember how fun it is to be surprised by the new tubers that I acquired in a trade with a neighbor. I remember how all my neighbors ( even the one with the wandering dogs ) comment about the beauty of this little dirt plot, that they also look forward to seeing these hard working, neglected tubers bloom.

Then I remember that sometimes leaving things alone to flourish without me fussing on them constantly is the perfect way to be.

Fre....Fre.....Fre.....Freezing!!!!!

For the last few weeks we have been experiencing a cold spell. Now, normally it is cold this time of year, even freezing for a night or two. 

But this cold spell has been going on for weeks with the average temperature at night being 25-30 degrees! Now that is cold for us folks in Northern California! I mean really, if I wanted to deal with frozen pipes, hoses, and chicken waterers all the time, I would move to the East coast! Joking........I dare not complain too much since others are really suffering with severe cold weather right now.

I was worried that the hens would stop production so that all their energy could go into staying warm the last couple weeks but I have only experienced a small decrease in production.  Way to go girls!

I never get tired of seeing all the different colors and shapes of the eggs that I gather.

On the down side, this cold spell has killed off all my winter veggies. When it became apparent that it was going to be real cold for a long period, we covered everything to prevent damage. Unfortunately it did not work. I will replant most of my winter veggies when I get back from Southern California. I am so excited to be going south to see my family, but that is another post. Back to our cold spell.

On the left of this picture of my raised bed garden you can see what is left of my Cosmos. I always leave them alone even when they are done blooming because the little Chickadees love them! In this picture they are frozen solid and need to be pulled ASAP.

This is a picture of how the Cosmos looked before the cold spell. Still pretty but almost done. Just waiting for the birds to enjoy.

That is my Bougainvillaea plant that I have been babying all year. I was convinced that if I placed it in my greenhouse I could triumphantly say that my Bougainvillaea is NOT an annual and survived  to bloom another summer. As you can see, it was not to be. Frozen, even in the greenhouse! I guess I will have to leave these beautiful plants to my little brother's green thumb. He grows the most gorgeous Bougainvillaeas you have ever seen!

So enough of my complaining about the cold and the negative effects it has had on my garden. As I crunched around in the our pasture one frosty morning, I found some very pretty sights that I usually don't get to see. 

Sparkling ice on an old barn door.

 Frozen buds and leaves on some of my fruit trees.

 And some pretty frozen water drops on my big metal flower structure that stands in my Sunflower bed.

I am still not a fan of cold weather, especially hauling buckets of warm water to the chickens, but I really enjoyed the new sights and sounds it offered to me once I just took a moment to notice.

Share Your Christmas Card and Link Up!

Today I am co hosting a link up with Kara from Ramblings of a Marine Wife to see all of your Christmas cards.

It has been more years than I want to admit since I have sent out a Christmas card. We receive so many wonderful cards every year from friends and family from all over, sometimes from around the world. We always enjoy them so much, especially the ones that have a picture on them. So I thought, why don't I order some cards and send them out this year.....So I started searching our pictures trying to find one that would work. Found nothing taken recently that would really work. Forget asking the teenager to pose for a new picture just for a Christmas card, no way, such a rebel, cough, cough..... I decided that a card, even without a picture, would be better than no card. Now to find one....Oh boy.... I found one that I really liked, simple, the graphics and the colors used were nice so I ordered them. When they arrived, I did not like them at all! Too simple and did not convey our message. Now what????

After getting reassurance that they were not THAT BAD, I decided that they would work if I wrote a little something on each one. So that is what I did and now I am glad that I sent them out. A new tradition is born!

Bloody Mary’s Count As A Salad

I am so happy and excited to be the special guest co-host for the Bloody Mary's Count as a Salad blog hop! As you know, I am pretty new to the blogging world and I honestly am having so much fun learning how to blog, finding new things around Maggie's Garden to blog about, and the best part, I am realizing, is meeting all the wonderful fellow bloggers out there! Thanks again to my wonderful daughter-in-law for encouraging me to try again and stick with my blog. Be sure to check out her blog, Ramblings of A Marine Wife So make sure that you visit all the blog hosts, enjoy their musings, and say hello!

Welcome to Bloody Marys Count as a Salad # 23

<center> <a href="http://www.aboyagirlandthemarinecorps.com/bloody-marys-count-as-a-salad/" target="_blank"><img alt="Bloody Marys Count as a Salad" src="http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag87/imjust_agirl1/BMCSHOP_zpse77a7000.jpg"/></a></center>

What's with the name?  We named it Bloody Mary’s Count as a Salad, because anything goes in this hop! Need to vent? Go for it! Need to say something snarky? DO IT!  Or do you just want to share your blog and/or a specific post?  We'd love to read it!  Anything you want to share, we want to see it!

And introducing a social aspect of the hop!  Each week we will feature a different social media linkup.  This week is Instagram!  Link up your blog in the first linkup and your Instagram URL in the second linkup!  

Of course, there are a few rules, we aren't going for hop chaos here!

1. Follow your hosts and each weeks special guest co-host.
2. Link up your blog or specific blog post.  Whatever you’d like to share is ok with us!
3. Visit 3-4 other blogs and say hello!  Try to be nice and follow those who follow you.  And don’t forget to say hi to your hosts if you are new!
4. Grab the link up button and put it in your side bar, in your post, or put our link on your link up party page.
5. Not mandatory, but we’d love to have you share our hop with others.  Tweet it, post about it, or share it on Facebook.  We’ll love you forever if you do… And it might help you grab a co-host spot next week.

Don't Forget to follow your Hosts and special Co-Host:

               A Girl                                                                           Erin                                                                        Kara

A Boy, A Girl, and the Marine Corps                 Unconventional Mommy Tails                             Ramblings of  Marine Wife

Special Guest Host: Maggie- Maggie's Garden 

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Thanksgiving Table

This year for Thanksgiving we  headed up to my husband's Godparent's house for some wonderful food and company. We are never disappointed!
We also got to meet a special new guest at the ranch that day. Meet Vinnie. What a cutie pie!

 

 The Godparents live on a 40 acre ranch about a 45 minute drive from our house. When I met my husband 23 years ago, he lived in a caretaker's residence on the ranch.
We got married there and lived the first year of our marriage in that caretaker's residence. Loving, happy memories are happily relived when we go visit.

But I am getting way off subject here.........Our family celebrated Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day so that all of us could be together. Reality of blended, divorced families. I say whatever works for us to be together!

 So, hubby smoked a small turkey and a ham. I made a pumpkin pie and all the usual side dishes. Everything turned out delicious and we had a good time being together as usual.

This year I wanted to do something a little different. We usually all sit around, eat way too much, then do not want to do much after that. Big E, our 9 year old granddaughter always wants to play games while all the adults are sitting stuffed around the table talking. I decided to make it so everyone was happy. I printed out some crossword puzzles, word search, and word scramble pages related to Thanksgiving with prizes for the person who got the most words correctly in 5 minutes. It was a big hit, especially with Big E!

Here is the link if you want to take a look and save for next year.

http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/crafts/fun-and-free-printable-thanksgiving-games-for-kids/

I also wanted to do something a little different for my Thanksgiving dinner table setting. While I love my farmhouse table, I have wanted to change the top for a long time. I plan on removing the existing top and replace with pine plank boards. Until then, I wanted something different and fun.

  It has been used and abused over the years and looks worn and dirty, not distressed like I want. Water spots and stains are an eyesore. As you can see from this picture. I usually hide this under a table cloth when company comes.

So I used a new product for me called Klean Strip Sander Deglosser that I purchased at Home Depot. I liked how I did not have to do any sanding to remove the shine finish and water stains.

After I wiped this off, ( I recommend using TSP if you have alot of built up on your project ), it was ready to paint. I wanted to have a chalk board surface so that family and guests could have some fun while sitting at the dining table.

I applied 3 very thin coats of chalk board paint with a small roller letting each coat dry for at least 4 hours.

After letting the paint cure for 3 days, I then used chalk to cover the surface to "season" it and make it ready for writing on.

 

I also found a table runner on Pinterest that I liked and it looked simple to make. Check it out on my Pinterest Board, "projects I want to try"

I purchased some burlap. I already had the stencils and black paint. Then I did some research on how to "wash" or prepare the burlap for my project. So many sites said to wash the burlap in the washing machine, and an equal amount of sites said to never wash burlap. Now I was really confused. Then I found a wonderful site that explained that you can remove the odor of the burlap and "wash" it all in one step by ironing the burlap on the highest setting with alot of steam. It worked great!!

Now I wanted to add a frayed edge to my table runner. Just gently pull out a few of the strings of burlap on the edge until you have the look you want. Easy!!!

Then I aligned a straight line with painter's tape on the burlap for my stenciling. Once the letters were exactly where I wanted them to be I used a small sponge to dab the paint on the burlap to form the words THANKFUL and on the other end of the table runner GATHER.

I was really happy with the end product and it was so easy to make!

Here are some pictures of our table set for Thanksgiving.

 

And of course, the table would not be complete if it did not have a special place setting for our military who could not be home for Thanksgiving with their families. All gave some, some gave all. We will never forget.

As I said before, we played the word games after everyone was finished eating. I also made circles under each plate and once the plates were taken away, I set out chalk and asked everyone to write what they were thankful for in the circle. I took pictures to keep them forever.

By the end of the day, the table was a big hit with the family. We sat around and laughed, told stories, gave each other a bad time ( especially the oldest grandson ), wrote out our blessings, doodled, drew pictures, and loved. 

 

What a wonderful day.