Here in Central Illinois it isn't exactly warm, but it isn't freezing either. When we don't have the usual gloomy winter days, it makes me think spring is around the corner and I'm getting excited.
We have this lovely sunporch on the back of the house. Although it is early to be planting a vegetable garden, I'm getting excited about doing so. Scratching around here, I found a metal pan and asked DH if I could use it to plant some seeds in it and have it on the porch. The porch seems warmer than the outside with the afternoon sun and the way it is built, it doesn't get super freezing cold when the weather is cool outside. So, I bit the bullet, put some potting soil in it and planted some radishes. Hopefully they will come up and we can enjoy some. I saw this dude on Facebook stating you could start strawberries by planting a small slice of a strawberry in dirt, so I did that as well in the plastic containers and those too are on the sunporch.
We've been throwing out ideas on what we want to plant for this year. Last year we tried a few things and some where successful and some were a failure. DH had this wooden raised garden and the soil just wasn't deep enough to grow tomatoes or cucumbers because of the way it was made, the soil dried out so fast. We had some fierce, hot days so it made it tough to keep things alive. We bought one of those small raised metal garden rings too and planted tomatoes in that and they did really well. So, we bought a second one and that's the plan for this year -- 4 tomatoes in the two of them, two each. We are going to till up a spot and fence it in for other things like cucumbers, onions, and other things. I have garlic planted already and a small herb garden in a small area as well as strawberries. So hopefully we will get some good things this year. I'm hoping to preserve some of the things we have. With grocery prices we hope to have some fresh produce. I'm also hoping that the rhubarb and the black raspberries produce a lot too.
Last fall I planted tulip bulbs and I'm looking forward to when they break through the soil. I plan to take a photo of the three spaces in case I need to fill in spots. I can plant things, but we have two dogs who like to dig so I think some of the bulbs have been moved.
I seem to concentrate on food a lot, but since it is a necessity, I'll validate it that way. A few months ago I bit the bullet and bought a large toaster oven. I always had one to use for smaller things to bake, but when I moved out with the divorce, I didn't take the one that was at the house. I missed it. We have a perfectly good oven, but I know ovens are a big energy pull so unless I can bake more than one thing at the same time, I prefer to use a toaster oven to save on electricity. Lunch today was a casserole and heating up a vegetable, both fit in the toaster oven. As I have watched my retirement accounts decrease the past few weeks, I feel a little better knowing I'm saving a few cents here and there. It adds up as we go along.
One thing that probably isn't frugal, but I have been crocheting little items and leaving them with a note that it is a free gift and if the person can, post a photo of it and where it was found. I crocheted bookmarks and left them in the Free Little Libraries in our small town and one person posted a photo on the Random Acts of Crochet Kindness so that was cool. I'm going to leave shamrocks this week around town. Most people who post talk about it being a day brightener. I hope it is.
This has little to do with my post, but I can no longer post photos on my blog. Any ideas on how I can do that? I always get an HTTP 400 error.
March 7th, 2025 at 09:02 pm 1741381340
March 8th, 2025 at 01:03 pm 1741439019
March 8th, 2025 at 08:46 pm 1741466790
Although it isn't exactly the same, you can fix your chicken in a Crockpot with water, herbs, spices, and some vegetables and have very yummy broth. I usually cook it overnight if I want the chicken for chicken salad sandwiches or to make chicken and noodles. The broth is great to use for chicken and noodles and soups. I've also added it to vegetables like green beans to give extra flavor. Since you becoming the Crockpot chef, this might be something you'd like to try.
Thanks LivingAlmost Large. Hope the folks have their day brightened.
March 9th, 2025 at 03:00 pm 1741532450
For pictures, I do reduce the size of the pictures (I use microsoft paint - there is a resize option). I don't think the website tells you what the error is, but a lot of the time when a picture isn't working, it will work when I make the picture smaller.
March 13th, 2025 at 11:41 am 1741866065