Road Trip--Day One

Wally loading the car this morning. With all of the room in the van, packing was easy.

You may remember a couple of months ago, we applied for our passports anticipating a trip to Niagara Falls.  Well, the time has come and we began our adventure today. Ward, the boys, and I started out this morning for our long drive to the Falls. The cats decided not to come because they don't like car rides--it reminds them too much of trips to the vet. So they offered their spot to Mr. Readcat, also known as Sneaks as he preferred to called.

Sneaks and Theodore passing time with computer games.

The drive went well. We are not ones to put the pedal to the metal, so our 7 hour drive took about 8 1/2 hours including several stops for food, bathrooms, gas, and driver changes. During the drive Sneaks spent his time watching Theodore play games on the computer and listening to Wally recount many episodes of Mythbusters.

Theodore pulling Sneaks away from the water's edge.

After we gladly checked into the hotel, we had Mexican for dinner and took a walk along the Niagara River. Sneaks was a little more adventuresome than we liked (I think it's because he has nine lives), but we all made it back to the hotel safe and sound.   Now we're looking forward to a good nights sleep before we set out tomorrow. We have a plan to see an old mule named Sal.  Let's see if we keep it.

Food Waste Friday 7-15-11

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 


Here it goes for this week.

We got rid of five eggs and some lemon juice.

The Waste: Five eggs 
 
The Reason: I don't practice what I preach. I have always told my kids when  cracking an egg for a recipe, crack it into a separate dish and then add it in case it's bad. Well, the other day I was cracking eggs into a bowl to make an omelet and guess what? One of them was bad and spoiled the rest.  Five eggs down the drain.

The Waste: Lemon juice

The Reason: My son used some lemon juice to make roasted broccoli and thought it tasted off. He poured the rest of the juice out. I don't think I have ever seen lemon juice go bad, but it was past its expiration date. More importantly, if Theodore is willing to cook, I am going to make sure that he has the ingredients he wants. Because when he cooks, that is one less time we are tempted to eat out which is a lot more expensive than anything we may be wasting at home.

A Second Look 7-13-11

A Second Look around the yard this week provided some disappointment. We have been carefully watching our first tomato ripen. When it was just a few days away from perfection, we found it on the ground with several bites taken out of it. We're not sure what creature helped itself, but we suspect a squirrel. Maybe it was hungry because the cardinals have been spending a fair amount of time on the bird feeder. However, the squirrel still looks fat to me. 

Also, we have seen at least two different fawns, and just recently we have seen one without its mother close by. I guess it's growing up.

Here are some things I found this week around the yard.

Disappointing first tomato

Day lily bud starting to open

Hosta Blooms

Tiger lily

Pink yarrow

White balloon flower with katydid.

Cardinal guarding the bird feeder

Adventurous fawn

Seeing Green

Recently, Ward and I went to an Irish Festival. We browsed interesting merchandise, heard Celtic bands, and observed many hot people.  But mostly, we saw green.

Food Waste Friday 7-8-11

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 


Here it goes for this week.

Over "cooked" carrots

Since joining the Food Waste Friday group, I have been really pleased with how it has motivated me. It's only been a few weeks, but we are definitely wasting less food.  Let's see if I can sustain this momentum.

This week, we only threw away a few carrots. We took a trip over the weekend and had some carrots for car snacks. We forgot about them and they roasted in the car for several days. They did not survive the heat well.

Frozen watermelon

We were also able to sustain a near miss. A couple of weeks ago, we bought half a watermelon, and it was gone almost instantly. Everyone loved it. Next time I bought a whole watermelon, and wouldn't you know, the taste for it was gone. A little was eaten, but most just sat in the refrigerator. So, yesterday, before it went bad, I juiced it in the blender and froze it into ice cubes. I was planning on putting them into smoothies, but the family has discovered that they make good treats all by themselves.