June Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

At the end of June Harris Teeter had Super Doubles (doubling coupons of $1 and up).  Usually Super Doubles isn't great for me, I prefer Triples (triple coupons up to $.99), but this time it worked out for me.  I SAVED $57.23 and spent $51.13 and got all this:

Summer Garden and Cat Pictures

Here are some pictures from our garden in mid-Summer and some cat pictures:

A Wedding and a Vacation

One of Chad's oldest friends got married this summer.  Their wedding was the day before we left for vacation, so we were very glad to get to be there for their big day.  Here are some pictures from Butch & Cissy's wedding:

We love going to Wrightsville Beach for vacation and I was really looking forward to enjoying the beach this summer. But, unfortunately we had a pretty bad vacation this year and ended up coming home early.  The place where we stay (and where my family has been staying for almost 20 years) decided to do work to the building in the middle of peak beach season.  After 4 days of drilling on the building (2 of those days were on our room balcony!) we decided to leave early and come home.  Also, Chad somehow hurt his neck, so I couldn't keep going out on the beach and hanging out knowing that he's hurting.  Even though I was VERY disappointed with the place we stay, the bright side was we got some extra time off at home which was nice too.  But, I still LOVE the beach and we did get to spend some time on the beach even with our shortened trip.  Here are the pictures from our shortened vacation:

Canning Class

Chad & I have been interested in canning for awhile now.  We found out that most county extension offices offer the classes for a VERY reasonable price.  The Union Co. extension office ended up offering a class on a day and time that worked for us.  We also invited another couple we're friends with who are also interested in canning, Mike and Leanda.  Leanda and I work together currently and Mike and I have worked together in the past.  It was a lot of fun to get to take the class with another couple who's also interested in a lot of the things Chad & I are interested in.  The class had a LOT of information, but the instructor was great and she made it really interesting and fun.  Here are a few pictures from our canning class:

Barbee Farm Tour May 11, 2013

We LOVE our local farmer's market and are very glad that one of the locations near us is year-round.  We go just about every weekend and even when I have to work on a weekend Chad will go for us.  During the winter months the farmer's market slows down and there are only a few die-hard farmers that come throughout the winter.  Because we were there almost every week, we got to know a few of the farmers a little better.  One of the farms that we buy a lot of our vegetables from is Barbee Farms.  This May they had a tour of their farm that was open to any and all of their customers.  We definitely wanted to be there to continue to show our support to their farm, but also because you get to really see where this food comes from.  When you buy food in a grocery store you have no idea who grew it, picked it, packaged it, etc.  Plus, there was free all-you-can-eat homemade ice cream!  Here are our pictures from the Barbee Farm tour:

Spring Changes at Our New House

One of the things we were most excited about with our new house was the fact that we could have a much bigger garden.  Throughout the winter Chad was working on our garden area - laying down cardboard to kill the grass, building the raised beds, putting up a fence, etc.  So, here are some pictures of our new garden:



Chad also installed a new ceiling fan for our bedroom. Here are some pictures of the installation and our new fan:

We also bought some patriotic decorations for our new house for Memorial Day and the 4th of July:

High School and College Pictures

I love looking through old pictures and so I decided to scan a bunch of pictures from high school and early college.  It was so much fun looking through all those pictures and remembering all the good times with friends.  Here are some of the high school and early college pictures I scanned recently:


Here are some pictures from my high school prom and graduation



These are pictures from the three years that I went with friends to the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois. Cornerstone is a Christian music festival that lasts a week and most people camp out and go to concerts throughout the afternoon and evenings. Going to Cornerstone those three summers were some of my favorite memories! We saw SO many bands and had such a good time hanging out with great friends. My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures and didn't keep a list of all the bands we saw.



These are some pictures from early college. My best friend Nicole and I basically spent all our time together at school and outside school. Then of course I met Chad in 1999 and the rest is our history together!

More Childhood Pictures

For Mother's Day this year I was going through some old family photos looking for one of me and my Mom to make my profile picture on Facebook.  Of course every time I go through old photos I end up with a pile I want to scan and add on Facebook and this blog.  Here are some more childhood family photos:

Sea Shell Wreath

One of my goals for 2013 is to work on craft projects more.  I have a great space for sewing and doing crafts set up in our new house, but I need to carve out more time for things like this.  I got the idea for this wreath from an L.L. Bean home catalog - this is a much more simplified version, but I like simple designs.  It was pretty easy to make this wreath and it all cost less than $15!  Here is the sea shell wreath I made:

Josh & Kelley's Wedding Weekend

Chad's good friend Josh got married on April 27, 2013.  While we were obviously happy for Josh and Kelley and were excited for their wedding we also got to see a lot of old friends we don't see regularly anymore.  I was especially excited to see Jame and Hamilton, two of Chad's friends from college that we rarely see.  Jame was one of the pastors who married us and Josh's wedding fell on the same weekend as our 13 year wedding anniversary.  It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends, celebrating Josh & Kelley's wedding, and just overall a great time.  I told one of our friends at the wedding that the whole weekend was like a family reunion - in the best sense!  Here are some pictures from the wedding weekend:

Spring Cat Pictures

Here are some more cat pictures from this spring!

Sandy and Roxy love to snuggle together.

Roxy threw up on the comforter so I had to wash the edge.  Before I could put it back on the bed Sandy decided it would be a good place for her to nap!

Roxy sleeping beside me on the couch.

A close up of Roxy sleeping.

Promoting Libraries and Summer Reading

Starting last year the library system where I work did a photo shoot for staff to help promote Summer Reading.  I didn't participate last year, but this year I decided I would.  I wanted to choose a very meaningful book too, so I chose The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which I've written about before on this blog about how reading that book was a lightbulb moment for me.  And as much as I love Michael Pollan, I really wanted to use one of Joel Salatin's books especially since I got to meet him last year, but my library system doesn't own his books and since this photo shoot was to promote our libraries I went with Michael Pollan.  So, wherever you live support your local libraries and READ!

More Coupon Savings

In the month of April I scored some really good coupon savings on two different occasions.  One week there were just some really good sales going on at both of the grocery stores where I shop so I went out after dinner to both grocery stores to take advantage of all the deals with my coupons and on that trip going to two grocery stores I spent a total of $53.74 and SAVED $54.65 with my best deal being two bottles of All detergent for $1.27 each!

Later in the month, Harris Teeter offered triple coupons.  I didn't get a lot of great deals because their sales didn't match up with coupons as much, but I did get everything in the picture below for $23 and SAVED $25!  My goal for 2013 is to break $2000 in savings by shopping sales and using coupons, so I'm trying extra hard to get the best deals I can!

More Animal Friends

I love seeing all the wildlife at our new house!  Recently Chad was sitting on our deck in the morning when he noticed a box turtle making it's way through our yard.  So, of course I had to run out and get a few pictures of it before I left for work that day!  The turtle had walked up to the fence of our garden and the next day Chad noticed he was inside the garden area so he took him back out to the yard near the woods.  Here are the pictures of our turtle friend:

Wicked the Musical

Chad got me tickets to see the musical Wicked for Christmas this year.  We got to go in March and it was definitely worth seeing!  I read the book probably 7 or 8 years ago and I remembered really liking it and since it had been so long since I read it I decided to read it again before we saw the musical.  But, I could barely force myself to get through it the second time.  After I finally finished it I thought, "why did I like this book again?"  But, I knew the musical was only loosely based on the book and that's a good thing because the book is very dark and violent with a LOT of political intrigue and details.  And after re-reading the book and seeing the musical soon after I can definitely say it is very, very loosely based on the book.  There were a few aspects that were wildly different in the musical than the book that I didn't like.  But, overall the musical was good and the actors did a phenomenal job.  Chad & I both very much enjoyed it and it gave us a reason to dress up too!  Here are some pictures of us getting ready to go see Wicked:

February Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

I love couponing and so I'm always excited when Harris Teeter offers triple coupons or super doubles.  I usually save more when they have triples, but this time I did pretty good with super doubles.  I got all the items in the picture for $32.25 and SAVED $39.90!

February 16, 2013 Snow Day

We got a surprise snow day right after Valentine's Day this year!  On Saturday it started out snowing, but not sticking to the ground and Chad checked the weather report and they were calling for it to change to rain later in the day.  We were out running errands and around 3:30 it really started snowing hard and sticking to the ground.  As we were driving home everything was just blanketed in snow - it was so beautiful.  When we got home we immediately went out in our neighborhood to take pictures and enjoy the unexpected snow.  It was so nice and I wish it would have snowed more, but by the next day the sun was out and it was a little warmer so all the snow was pretty much gone by lunchtime.  It was nice while it lasted though!  Here are our pictures from the snow day:

January 2013 Animal Pictures

We've seen so many birds and animals at our new house, but it's hard to get pictures - either we don't have a camera handy or they are so fast you don't even have time to take a picture.  But the first week in January a huge hawk came and hung out in a tree in our backyard for close to 30 minutes before he flew back into the woods.  I was so excited to get some good pictures!




Here are a few cat pictures of Sandy and Roxy to start off the new year! We got them a new toy bin and so far Roxy has enjoyed getting inside the bin and pulling ALL the toys out!

Bigger is NOT Always Better

I just finished reading this book Greenhorns: the next generation of American farmers edited by Zoe Bradbury, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, and Paula Manalo.  The book is a collection of essays written by new farmers.  The book overall was very interesting and it makes me happy to know that this is only a sampling of all the new people who are choosing to be farmers despite the many obstacles they face.  One essay in particular really jumped out at me.  Samuel Anderson is the livestock coordinator at the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project in Massachusetts.  The essay describes him going to the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta, GA.  Because of the growing problem of small farms trying to find access to local and small-scale slaughterhouses, Anderson was working with mobile poultry-processing units that his organization trained farmers to use, so they could kill and process their own poultry for sale at local markets. 

"It's a foregone conclusion in the big poultry industry that, as the University of Georgia's broiler information web page bluntly puts it, 'Having an independent broiler-growing operation is no longer feasible.' In fact, according to the site, there is actually no such thing as an independent chicken farmer anymore; 'approximately 99 percent of all broilers are produced under contract, with the remaining production occurring on integrator-owned farms [those that are owned by the same vertically integrated company that owns every stage of production, including the processing facility and the retail brand].' The argument is that small-scale production can't compete with the low prices of the ultra-efficient industrial operations...As it turns out...there are still independent chicken farmers in the world, and they've proved that it can pencil out. In 2010, three Massachusetts producers utilized a mobile poultry-processing unit to legally process their chickens. Each raised, hand-processed, and sold between eight hundred and twelve hundred, all grown on pasture. Through farmers' markets, restaurants, and presales directly to consumers, these birds fetched from four dollars and fifty cents to six dollars per pound. Some of those chickens topped thirty dollars each. Compare that to contract chicken farmers. They get paid between 3.8 and 4.6 cents per pound of live weight. That means that a particularly efficient producer might gross a whopping twenty-five cents for each bird. During the ten to fifteen years it takes a contract producer to pay off the hundred thousand dollars in up-front cost of building and outfitting a poultry house that meets Tyson's or Perdue's standards, the farmer needs to grow well over a hundred thousand birds a year just to net five thousand dollars. The savvier independent chicken farmers are making a hundred and twenty times more than the gross per-bird return of a contract broiler. One of these producers calculated her annual net return at somewhere around ten thousand dollars - raising fewer than 1 percent of the birds it would take a contract grower to get there." (p. 149-151)

I love how the University of Georgia is basically telling future or current farmers that it is impossible to be an independent chicken farmer and basically go big or go home - when I'm sure they are NOT telling them they will make a whopping quarter ($.25 cents) per chicken they raise commercially and they will have to take on a HUGE amount of debt to get started.  This book and many other local, small farmers are proving this wrong every day.  

This reminded me of what Joel Salatin says in The Omnivore's Dilemma when he compares the industrial food system to the Protestant Reformation.  When people could read the Bible for themselves they didn't need a priest or someone else to tell them what to do or how to live - they could read and interpret Scripture for themselves.  They didn't try to outlaw Catholicism or close down all the Catholic churches - they just chose to go a different way for themselves.  It's the same way with the industrialized food system - we don't need more laws to ban chemicals or outlaw non-organic food.  We vote with our fork and our money three times a day with what we choose to eat and if we want we can opt out of the industrialized food industry.  That analogy in The Omnivore's Dilemma was really a light-bulb moment for me - I clearly saw how I could make the changes in my life that would eliminate dependence on the industrial food industry.  I definitely think that despite the contrary claims of the industrial food system - bigger is NOT better when it comes to food.

One last quote from the book I loved "The best things in life - growing your own food, living and working with your neighbors, being outside in an open space - are being lost." (p. 113)

Top 10 Books of 2012

So, in 2012 I read 93 books!  Here are my top 10 picks for 2012:

Fiction

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson
Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Non-Fiction

Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook
Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson
Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss