Hard to believe it’s been two years since my last blog post – new website, new lifestyle, new ways of doing things have all happened – some hard to take, some not so much.
But here I am, still kicking! Two new books since my last blog post – A Book of Shorts – which is shown on the front page of the website. This is a collection of short stories that I have written down through the years, then tucked away in the bottom file drawer. Last fall I pulled them all out and proceeded to type them up – most were still in the original long-hand – unaltered!

The second book, The Belly-Fat Buster Cookbook, is now available. This book came about when my husband had to have surgery (because of COVID lock-down everywhere, he is still waiting), but they would not do the surgery unless he lost 10 pounds – in other words, his belly! Well, to accomplish this they gave him a diet sheet – the Number 4 Reducing Diet – the list of “NOs” was twice as long as the list of “OKs”. What was I to do with no potatoes, no rice, no pasta, no bread, no beans, no sugar, no quinoa, no lentils, no grains of any kind?! There were others too numerous to list. With the few vegetables left us, I had to get creative, and so, every time some recipe worked out really well I added it to the cook book. The recipes (and the diet) really work! Hubby lost 32 pounds, I lost 13 pounds and my son lost about 15 pounds (he and I cheat – his downfall is sweet pop, mine is chocolate).
I’ve had a number of e-mails asking me to start blogging again – some asked for gardening advice, some asked for more wild edible plants, or more wild medicinal plants, and some asked for genealogical research tips. So, going forward you will likely find some of each of these, according to season. I find it extremely difficult to do anything but gardening this time of year, so warm weather months will be focused on gardening, while cold weather months, when we are cocooning, will be dedicated to hobbies like genealogy. This year there will be very little about “out-and-about” events, seeing as we are not suppose to be out-and-about.
Getting “back into the saddle” has been a real chore this year. My youngest son, Kyle, passed away in January, just 5 days after his 45th birthday. I will never stop missing him. So, this year, more than ever before, my garden has been my solace. For the most part it is doing well, but for some reason, carrots wouldn’t grow this year. My friend, Yvonne, had the same problem. We don’t know what the answer is – likely a bad batch of seed (we both bought coated carrot seed – they are so much easier to plant). She gave up and over planted her carrot bed with something else – I replanted with carrots, but nothing came up – again! I’m known for my stubborn streak – I replanted with carrots again – I need those carrots for the winter months. Last year’s crop lasted through to the end of March. I hate to give up on them.
Last fall Kyle made me a ‘box’ – a wooden thing made to fit the corner of the back porch. He put two sections in it – one for carrots and one for potatoes. Since then I have obtained another box with three sections in it – for apples, squash/etc, and onions. So my back porch pantry should be well stocked for the winter this year, provided I can get the @#$%^&* carrots to germinate!
The boxes need to be lined with a bit of carpeting – as insulation – helps keep the veggies from freezing as our back porch is not heated. Glad I saved a bit of carpeting – it just fits!
If you like the idea of a box to store your garden produce – we made ours from 3/4″ plywood with top-hinged lids. The second box I found was an old upper kitchen cabinet turned on it’s side – three shelves become three sections.
Not much else to write about today – next week will bring other ideas. Tune in again each week as I try to keep up the weekly postings.
P.S. – I should mention that it has taken me all summer to get this post published – I’ve just updated and edited it to fit end of September situations – and yes, I will valiantly try to do a new blog post every week.