Merry Christmas

Another Christmas is over and I am just worn out. We had a good one albeit slim. This economy has everyone in a tight spot this year.I did get a really cute pair of cowgirl boots and some Farmgirl apparel.

Lliam received mostly what he had asked Santa for. I think his most favorite thing was the Wii Harry Potter game he received from my mother. (see the expression on his face?)It was the very last thing his grandpa bought for him before he passed away. When I told Lliam this, he nearly burst into tears and ran to my mother for a big hug.

My grandpa is so very difficult to get gifts for. He is 92 years young and always says he doesn't want us to spend our money on him. Well, I just cannot justify this as he has always done so much for us. He had made a comment a few weeks ago about his bedroom being cold and having a hard time falling asleep between the icy cold sheets. He had thought about getting a small heater to put in there and then decided against that as it would increase his electric bill. So I thought and thought and thought about how to make is room warmer. This year I gave him flannel sheets. He said in all his 92 years, he had never had a set of flannel sheets. After I was sure he liked them, I put them on his bed (along with another blanket) and washed and dried the sheets I removed. I do hope it helps.

We are planning on starting a new little country market in 2009. It won't be much to start with as we won't have much to put in it. We are going to offer soaps, lip balms and other bath type products that are organic or mostly organic. We are also still shooting for the horse hotel. I am also going to offer upcycled aprons and other cutsie farmgirl things.

Budgeting help for organic shopping

Today, I actually got to go to rummage sales and take my time looking. I didn't buy too much. I found a couple of Pampered Chef things that I can use and 1 to give as a gift to my mother. I also found a shopping tote that says right on it "Organic". Of course I couldn't pass that up for only 25 cents. That was all I bought at that particular sale. After we got back to my friends house - I decided I needed to go to the store.

I grabbed my little shopping bag and headed in with my hastily written list. ( I wrote it in the parking lot) Even though all I really needed when I entered the store was cat food, litter and those dynamo label cartridges, I decided to revamp the household with some new organic/natural items. We as a family are also trying to find gluten free foods for our son.

I headed to the health and beauty aisle first. Even though Meijer is getting more natural and organic items, Tom's of Maine is most familiar to me. Purchased toothpaste-4.69, bar soap-3.49 and aluminum free deo-4.99. I have a bar of "crystal deo", but I am nervous about using it. I am sure some of the truck drivers I deal with daily wouldn't even notice, but I would know if it wasn't working.

On to the groceries. What follows is a list of current Meijer prices for anyone looking to change their eating habits. I realize there are probably other places I could have gone and may have gotten better deals, but Meijer was on the way home and we don't have a Whole Foods Market near us. (nearest is 30 miles) I have included the name, whether it is organic or not, quanity and price.
Florida Crystals organic cane sugar, 2lbs @ 5.58 on sale 2/5.00
Wholesome Sweeteners (fair trade) organic sucanat (dehydrated cane juice) 1 lb @ 4.09
Meijer Organics EVOO 17 oz 7.99
Meijer Organics Crumbled Feta 6 oz 4.79
Meijer Organics trad. refried beans 15 oz @1.19 each got 2 for 2.38
Meijer Organics Tomato Sauce 15 oz @ 1.39 each got 2 for 2.78
Meijer Organics Golden Sweet Corn 15.25 oz @1.09 each got 2 for 2.18
Meijer Organics Tomatoes with Basil 28 oz @ 1.59 each got 2 for 3.18
Meijer Organics Tomato Paste 6 oz @ .75 each got 2 for 1.50
Bob's RedMill GF All purpose Baking flour 22 oz 4.99
Bob's RedMill GF Almond Meal/Flour 16 oz 13.99
Bob's RedMill GF Tapioca flour 20 oz 3.89
Bob's RedMill GF Bread Mix 16 oz 5.39
Bob's RedMill GF White Rice Flour 24 oz 5.79
Bob's RedMill GF Creamy Rice hot cereal 26 oz 4.89
Tinkya'da GF Brown Rice Pasta Shells 16 oz 3.89
Blue Diamond GF Natual Almond nut-thins smokehouse flavor and cheddar flavor 4.25 oz 3.39 each on sale 2/5.00
World's best kitty litter (made from whole kernal corn) 8 lbs @ 8.25 each got 2/14.50 with coupons.
Meijer reusable shopping bag .99

The only non-organic/natural purchases - mailing tape, dynamo label refill cassettes, and cat food for the barn cats.

Total for the organic/natural items is..................112.54

This includes the bag and the kitty litter. That may sound like a lot, but if you think about it, the flours, sugars, cat food, litter, toothpaste, deo and soap don't have to be purchased every week.
That would lesson the bill by more than $85. This money could then be used to purchase organic cheese, meat and veggies. If you find a good deal on the meat, you can freeze it. This blog is merely here to help someone who might not think that buying organic is affordable when in fact it is. You have to shop wisely (it helps to have a plan). Still don't think you can revamp all at once? Then don't. Start small with 1 or 2 things that you think you might like such as EVOO and the canned veggies. Also remember that I am leaning toward a gluten-free diet as well. You can find organic regular flours, crackers and other goodies that might be a little bit cheaper. Gluten-free foods have to be processed and packaged in separate facilities to prevent cross-contamination. This means higher overhead and higher prices.
I will leave you with this thought - It is better to pay a little bit more money now for organic/natural foods and products than to pay with your health later because you didn't.

Greetings from Alex!

I tried to post last night but the server failed (again). I am loving the MaryJanesFarm.org site. It's heavenly. I have learned so much and am learning more everyday.

I would like to take a stand tonight about our food and where it comes from. Did you know that MONSANTO is trying to control our seeds? In a nutshell, they want to make it illegal for seed banks to sell organic seeds. They want to be the only provider of seeds to the world. They already have seeds that will not germinate if you save them, so that means you have to buy more of their seeds the next growing season. What a crock. MONSANTO can kiss my big rosey red behind. To them I say "You will not tell me I can not save seeds. You will not tell me what food I can grow. If you think you can, you are wrong and can go straight to hell!" Please go to MaryJanesFarms.org and look up the "Danger of Extinction" thread. It is so important. This is our food, people. Still don't know how dangerous MONSANTO is? They invented PCB's and Agent Orange. Need I say more?

Now some other things I need to vent about.
1. Our roof. 3 years ago we hired a contractor to put a new roof on. It has leaked ever since. He came out several times and slapped some crap on the roof but it didn't help. I think it made it worse. I filed suit and it is still pending. I have mold growing from my bedroom walls and ceiling, my walk in closet ceiling and my bathroom ceiling. I have since hired another company to proceed with the repairs, but the mortgage company is dragging their feet. Yes, I had to get a mortgage on a house that was completely paid for to get the roof fixed. Doesn't that suck? Here's why: To take off the new crappy roof, put in new insulation, new decking, and standing seam steel, gut the bedroom, closet and bathroom, repair other places in the house, remove everything from the house and demold it, demold the house, carpet included is going to cost around $60,000. All that for a $7000 roof that ended up costing $16000 because of Hurricane Katrina (at least that's what he said). Had to pay it - he had the old roof and decking completely off the house when he raised the price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have to move out of our home into a camper for 1 1/2 months to 4 months while this is going on. The camper is borrowed from a co-workers brother (God bless them). I am dreading it though. We have 2 dogs, 1 inside cat, and 3 of us. We can't feasibly leave the property because of the livestock.
After new contractor and his crew (Servicemaster) clean our belongings, they will be stored in a POD in our front yard until we can move back in.

All of this was supposed to be done over the summer while our son was not in school. Now it looks like we may be spending our Christmas in a camper in front of the garage. I am trying to see the bright side of this, but haven't been able to get through the crap stuck on the glass.


2. IVY TECH college. I was supposed be taking classes this fall, but since IVYTECH changed data bases, they lost just about everyone's financial aid info, mine included. No classes for me. I may never get that nursing degree!

3. Work. Need I say more? Sure - I drive a squad car that has 161,000+ miles on it. I have the highest miles in the district so I've been told. They have supposedly ordered new cars, but they won't be in for 60 days then they have to be "put together". Given that time line I am guessing I will have about 167,000 miles racked up. My last car quit about 168,000.
I have a pair of uniform pants with a hole in the back pocket. Hope I don't have a complete blow out while inspecting a truck!! I have another pair with white paint that I have colored over with a black marker to hide right in the middle of the butt seam. That's what I get for holding the door for one of my elders, huh. Thanks to the painter at McDonald North in Anderson for that. They didn't have any wet paint signs posted and I didn't see that it was wet.

4. I sincerely hope WAMU goes under!!

5. Medicaid. Wow that's a touchy one. I work for the ISP and still my son qualifies for this benefit. That's sad. However, the lady at the office is being rather pushy. She called last week and wanted us to get some papers filled out by his psychitrist as to the extent of his condition. And she wanted it done before she called about it!!! When I took the papers up to the doctor's office to get this done, the dr. said he would not fill them out because they were for a medical doctor, not a psychitrist to fill out. Ok - now what ms. medicaid lady?


I'm done for tonight. There's more, but it can wait!!

Greetings to all

Well isn't this nice. I am new to this blogging thing so bear with me as I learn by making mistakes.

I am a farmgirl from Indiana and am learning the organic way of life. I have always liked the outdoors and animals. We have 2 horses, 2 dogs, 13 cats, several chickens and 2 ducks.
Our horses are Doc, 15 y/o Arab/Morgan pony (1 inch from being a horse) and Rocket. Rocket is a 4 y/o quarter horse that was a rescue from an abusive owner. He is from the "IMPRESSIVE" bloodline and had the blood disorder that is famous with that line.

Harvey is 7 y/o black lab and Henry is a 6 y/o Finnish Spitz/Chihuahua (looks like a fox).
Zeke is our 7y/o house cat adopted from an animal shelter (the same one Henry came from). We have 12 more barn cats: Tippy, Momo, Skippy, Shadow, Smokey Joe, Chesapeake, Dobby, Betty, Frostie, Cujo, Junebug and Rajah.

Bubba and Duck Tape are the two ducks and the only chicken we have left that is named is the rooster, VADER. We have several hens, but none named.

My tractor is a 1941 Farmall M in great shape except that we can't get it started right now. My husband is not much of a mechanic and I haven't had time to look at it. My 92 y/o grandpa told me several things to check and hubby has, but he still can't get it going. I think it may have moisture in the gas.....(to be continued)

I have been married for 15 years and we have 1 child together. Lliam is 8 and is a high functioning autistic also known as Asperger's Syndrome. He is a very bright child, but socially backwards. Looks a lot like Opie.

Well, I guess this is enough to start with since I am tired (1230 am and I have to work tomorrow!!)

Good night.