G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Wooly Moss Roots for

 

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

My gratitudes this last week:

-Blue sky!!!! Although we still have some forest fire smoke, there were a few days where it cleared out enough to see a little bit of blue sky. One morning when I walked outside, something just didn't seem right but I couldn't figure it out at first. Then I realized there was a clear blue sky and thought how wrong it was that the smokey air had become the new "normal" around here!

5 Reasons to Buy Local and a Buy Local Cash Giveaway

 

Buying local is something that is near and dear to my heart. After working my first season as a vender at our local market this last summer, I can honestly say that I am extremely grateful for the folks who shopped at our local market. When they made a purchase at our stand, it helped to support our family. 

I was thrilled when I found out I had the opportunity to share a generous giveaway with you all to help promote buying local: $50 to one lucky winner to spend in your local community!

But first, why should you buy local?

Foodie Friday: Becoming a Food Snob and Canning Sweet and Spicy Plum Sauce

I am a food snob. I’m probably no different than many of you in this way. I’m sure we can all agree that eating healthy, wholesome, homegrown, locally grown or organic foods are much tastier than highly processed foods from the grocery store. I strive to preserve and can as much of our family’s fruit and veggies as I am able throughout the year. We also hunt and wild harvest the majority of the meat we eat throughout the year (read more about that here).

So how did I become a food snob? Today I am guest posting over at Frugal Foodie Mama so you will have to hop over there to find out!

I’m also sharing a REALLY tasty recipe for Sweet and Spicy Plum sauce and how to can it so make sure you check it out by clicking here!

 ***If you enjoyed reading this post, please join our other regular readers and subscribe to this blog by clicking here and find us on Facebook here. Thank you!

We're linking up here

Women in Hunting Series Part I: Thoughts on Being a Woman Hunter and Mama

When people find out that I hunt, they’re typically surprised and stand there gaping in disbelief. The response is always positive but range from comments like “No way! I never would have guessed you hunt!” to "Really? You look like you'd be a vegetarian or vegan" or “What? You hunt? You don’t look like a hunter.” I guess I don’t fit people’s idea of what a woman hunter should look like. I’m not sure what they expect, maybe to look more like a cave woman? Definitely not a skirt loving, crunchy mama like me!

I’ve been an avid hunter for the last 10 years.  I hunt primarily for deer, elk, grouse and bear during archery and rifle season in Montana. We love hunting so much that we actually planned to have our first baby in the early fall so I would be on maternity leave throughout hunting season. Not exactly the first thing most folks plan a baby around huh? 

Since our little nugget arrived in late August a few weeks before her due date, that meant that we had to shift our plans a little. Instead of figuring out how to go archery hunting for the first few weeks of the season at 9 months pregnant, we were figuring out how to schlep our weeks old baby on our hunting trips. 

And schlep her along we did. At two weeks old, she was there when I harvested the first grouse of the season with my bow.  

How to Get New Things Without Spending a Dime: Barter and Trade

These days since I'm more of a stay at home/work from home mama, money is a lot tighter than last year when I was working full time. I've been enjoying the challenge of finding ways to save money, live more frugally and be creative about how I get new things for our family.

One of my favorite ways to acquire things is to barter and trade. Back in my college days I used to barter with friends, mending pants in exchange for things like a fly tying vice or help fixing up my bike. I currently don't have a lot of extra cash but I do have time to craft and create so my creations have become my goods to barter and trade to get new things for our family without spending a dime.

Bartering and trading goods is an ideal way to get new, useful things for our families and with no exchange of money. I even added a note about bartering/trading to my Etsy shop banner and also on our blog "shop" page to share with folks that we are open to this method of commerce.

Here are my top five recent trades and barters:

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y 

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

It has been a challenging week with increased forest fire smoke causing my allergies to really flare up, headaches almost everyday and having to stay cooped up indoors most of the day since the air is too unhealthy to be outside for more than a few minutes. Taking time to focus on my gratitudes each day has helped me to find some positives in a very tough week. Another mama friend said it perfectly this week that this forest fire smoke is really testing our sanity. I think we're all hanging onto our sanity by a small thread after several weeks of thick, smoky air.

My gratitudes for the week: 

Solar Lantern and Upcycled T-shirt Bag Giveaway: Fall into Green Blog Hop

I am so excited about this giveaway! Why? Because the giveaway items in this hop are all "green" eco-friendly items. Everything we create and sell in our Etsy shop are eco-friendly creations for babies and families so I figured this giveaway hop was the perfect fit to giveaway some of our creations!

This hop is hosted by Happy Mothering and Happy Green Mama through the Green Moms Network. All of the blogs participating in this hop have giveaways worth at least $25 so check out the list at the bottom of this post to hop around and enter them all!

We make these really fun Mason Jar Solar Lanterns that are perfect to use on your deck/patio, as a nightlight inside and we even take them camping. The solar panel on top of the cap pulls in the sun's energy and stores the power in a battery that runs two LED lights that have an on/off switch.

Upcycling Sewing Challenge: Meet Punk Rock Petunia

I'm not sure if it was because I spent a little too much time on the Punk Domestics website earlier in the day or I was going back to my roots of being the lead singer in an all girl punk rock band as a teenager, but out of a pile of "trash" I created Punk Rock Petunia.

When I signed up for my first Upcycling Challenge through Upcycled Stuff earlier this month, I had no idea what to expect. I was being set a box of "trash" in the mail and needed to create something with it and sew part of it. I'll admit I was a little nervous. What if I couldn't think of anything fun and creative to do with my "trash"? What if I couldn't finish before the deadline less than a week away? This is a competition with a great prize at stake so I was feeling the pressure to make something unique.

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

My gratitudes this last week:

-Getting back into the habit of writing my gratitudes each day. Last week was such a crazy busy week that I didn't write much and I missed it.

-A fun, successful day last Sunday vending at the Hip Strip Block Party. I was really nervous since it was my biggest vender event to date but it went well. Our little nugget also did well in the fashion show (no cranky baby meltdowns!). Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures to share since our friends had to leave before it started.

-A big crate overflowing with organic veggies, a gift from my dear farmer friend. I was busy all week preserving and trying out new recipes to use up some of these wonderful veggies. 

Foodie Friday: Kohlrabi Coleslaw

This summer I've written about Kohlrabi several times. There was the traditional kohlrabi soup recipe and then the post about how to preserve kohlrabi. I've heard from a lot of folks who had never seen a kohlrabi before but were curious to learn more and give it a try. Kohlrabi is my new favorite veggie so I'm excited to be sharing yet another kohlrabi recipe!

I love the unique flavor of the kohlrabi, somewhere between a spicy radish, raw horseradish and an earthy root vegetable. As I was cutting up kohlrabi recently, it had that wonderful spicy smell similar to wasabi. Curious, I hopped online and guess what I found out?  Wasabi, kohlrabi, cabbage, radishes and horseradish are all in the same family, Brassicaceae!

DIY Upcycled/Repurposed Sweatshirt to Baby Sleep Sack Tutorial

Making your own upcycled baby sleep sack is so easy! If you have an old sweatshirt you can easily repurpose it into a fun sleep sack to keep your baby warm and cozy. Plus it will save you money by not having to buy a new sleep sack! 

Fall is definitely in the air. We woke one morning this week to a chilly house and we already had our first light frost a few weeks ago. We normally heat the house with our woodstove but it’s not cold enough to do that yet.  Until this week, we hadn’t thought about was how we are going to keep our little nugget warm at night now that she sleeps in her own room.

All last winter we co-slept so this was not an issue for us. We were given several baby sleep sacks as baby gifts last year but only one of them is big enough to fit our little nugget now. These are great to keep baby warm with a regular pajama underneath but we don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on buying new ones right now.

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

My gratitudes for the week:

5 Easy Tips on How to Salvage Wormy Fruit and Make Applesauce From Wormy Apples

In the last few years, I’ve become a free foraged fruit fanatic! Since we don’t have our own fruit trees, I’ve found others giving away some of theirs for free on Craigslist, Freecycle and putting the word out to friends and neighbors. I also began scouting the area around where we live and on the drive to town.

So far this year we’ve foraged for free:

-10 gallons of locally grown cherries

-4 gallons of locally grown organic plums

-20 pounds of organic, locally grown wormy apples

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Today we are joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Highlights of what I was grateful for this past week:

- A successful first day of archery season! I harvested a nice sized grouse which we cooked up for supper with a side of fresh beans from the garden and a tomato basil salad from the garden. It was such a delicious meal and we savored every bite knowing we wild harvested and grew our food for the meal.

  

-An amazing bright orange/red moon. When the smoke is really bad in the valley, the sun and moon often appear in varying shades of orange and red. I haven't seen it this dark in years, it was breathtaking. I was delighted to be able to capture it in a photo to share with you all.