The Box

A few months ago I heard about a CSA that was actually in our area. When I lived in Anaheim there were several as well as many farmers markets. Where we live there are not nearly the amount of fresh fruit and vegetable options. Abundant Harvest Organics is the company that I learned about. In December I signed up and we have been picking up a box every Saturday. This has greatly expanded the variety of vegetable we have been eating as well as just being food that actually tastes good. Their citrus is amazing.

Here is what the box looks like, I picked up an extra leek this last weekend.

Now lets look inside

The first layer has a variety of citrus, lavender

Below that is some cabbage, broccoli and potatoes.

And finally there is another leek, shallots, butternut squash and carrots.

Each week the box contents changes and it is seasonal. They also have add ons which I have gotten a few time which add a little extra to the box and usually disappear fast, we have added grapefruit, beets and oranges so far. The web site has recipes for most of the items you could get in your box which help with a some of the more obscure items and gives ideas for new things to try.

Our House

After spending a large amount of last year looking for a house, bidding on houses, moving our belongings around and living out of suitcases Katie and I finally moved into our house in October. I have already posted a picture of the front of the house so now lets take some time to look around a little more.

This is the back of the house, you can see in the bottom of the picture part of the sand and gravel circle where there used to be an above ground pool. This is where our garden is going.

The pomegranate tree, definitely a selling point, this is located in the corner of the back yard.

This is the large side yard, these trees have been cut down, they were a little out of control. I still have not decided what will be happening here.

Here are a few inside shots before we moved in.

Both showers looked pretty nasty and discolored. They had been scratched, patched and everything else you would expect from showers installed in 1989. This needed to be fixed so I had them resurfaced before we moved in. Here is some before and after pictures. It was a total transformation.

Another large change to the house was to replace the entire heating/air conditioning system with a new energy efficient system. This was necessary when the heater died this winter and hopefully not a cost I will have to face again for a very long time. Also the electrical wiring in the house has issues, its one of those things they notice in the home inspection but might be a little problem or a big problem. We got a referral from a friend for an electrician who was at a loss for what was happening. After two days of work we eventually had power in all but one outlet in the house which is great. Small changes included door knobs and light fixtures. The house is always a work in progress but I can never say I have nothing at all to do. 

The garden is one of the main upcoming projects as it will be taking up a large section of the back yard. We (we being mostly my brother)  have been removing a lot of the existing plants that were beginning to damage the house and working on adding new ones. I am trying to incorporate edible landscaping, the plants I am adding will hopefully produce fruits or vegetables as well as look nice. These are all things that will be covered in upcoming posts.

Big Girl Bed

With my back problems and Katie's desire to try and sleep in my bed I decided that for her 2nd birthday Katie would get a bed. I figured I might as well skip the toddler bed and go for the regular size. After much deliberation I picked out Ikea's Hemnes Daybed. It took less then a day to put it together with myself, Katie, my Dad and Brother working on different parts of it.

Here is Katie hard at work.

She was ready to sleep in it even before I got a mattress.

Of course if she is going to have a big girl bed she will be needing a quilt to go with it. I found a pattern for a basic pinwheel design twin size quilt so we went to the store and picked out Katie friendly fabric which was cut into 10"squares. 

Next I cut down the center of the square.

The triangles were sewn together to make squares which were sewn into rows. The rows were then sewn together. I did the fabrics randomly but if I had arranged the prints the pinwheel affect would have been much stronger.

Once the top was done I again sent it to the longarm quilter hoping to get it back before Christmas. The quilted pattern on the quilt is a design of ladybugs and flowers. It did arrive in time so Katie got it between her Birthday and Christmas. The finished quilt came out cute I think and looks good with the bed. 

I also put a bedrail on her bed so she would not fall out. She has fallen out once but I know it would have been a lot more without it. She really likes having a big girl bed and soon I will probably take the crib out of her room for good.

Quilting Class

Last August I signed up for a month long quilting class at Jo-Ann's. It consisted of four Sundays and by the last one I was the only person left in the class. We made a king size quilt, here is a picture of it on the last day of class:

The first class consisted of cutting. The second class was starting to piece the squares. The third class put the squares into rows then connected the rows. Finally at the fourth class we made the quilt sandwich. The quilt was laid out with the backing, the batting then the top. This is the point where I decided I should take a picture.

The next step involved putting a few hundred safety pins in the quilt to hold it together then quilting it, stitching the layers together. I started this process but after I got home decided it was too much and sent it out to a longarm quilting service that quilted and binded it. When discussing the project with the teacher we both agreed that making a king sized quilt as your first quilting project was probably not the best idea and that next time they would make them smaller. After the quilt was finished I wrapped it up and gave it to my Mom for Christmas since I have a much smaller bed and thought she might like it. Of course I never took picture of the final product but you can get the idea.

Changes

A lot has changed since I was last posting on this blog.

First off Katie and I bought a house:

This is from when we first bought it, the tall juniper trees are now gone. Last month it snowed.

We also got a dog, her name is Olive:

Olive was a rescue. She was in a shelter with her puppies and all of them were going to be put to sleep when they were rescued. They kept her and puppies together till they were weaned. A few of the puppies went to new homes the same day Olive came with us. They think she is a poodle/schnauzer mix and is a little over a year old. She and Katie love to terrorize each other but she is a welcome addition to the family.


And Katie is now all grown up having turned two in December:

She loves music, playing instruments, singing, having people sing to her and playing cds since she can do that by herself now. This is a keyboard I had when I was little, some new batteries and now its hers to play.

Katie also likes to sit at the table with her babies to eat and drink. Elmo is pretty much always invited. The felt food I found at Ikea and it has been pretty popular, we just have to keep it away from Olive.

Katie likes to call Grandma, this usually occurs around 7am.

We are also learning to cook. Katie seems to prefer to do it naked when we are making pancakes in the morning. Usually she does wear clothes, she likes mixing, pouring, scooping and basically anything else she can do to help.