We’ve been buying beef from the farmer up the road for so long, I’d forgotten what cooking store-bought beef was like. But last week, we ran out of the good stuff, and we’ll have to wait until he butchers again until we can buy more. So, we bought a few pounds of ground beef from the store. But as it browned in the pan, I noticed that it was quickly swimming in yellow liquid- enough so that I had to pour it off into a jar so the meat could continue to fry.

I’d forgotten about how much grease comes off the hamburger meat you buy at the store! Beef from a grass-fed cow produces almost zero grease. I was pretty grossed out by how much fat was in that meat.

When it was all cooked up, Jerry walked into the kitchen and looked at what was left in the pan and said, “I thought you were frying a pound?” I said, “I did.” He said, “Where’d it all go??” And I pointed to the jar full of grease. And I suddenly had a revelation, for I never before understood what that 80/20 on the package of meat meant!

20 percent of that pound of beef was fat!! Twenty percent! That’s quite a significant loss in meat! And I’d just paid for that grease I was about to throw way. My frugal nature felt robbed.

And it occurred to me that the grass fed beef we’ve been buying from the farmer, with seriously ZERO fat to pour off, was a much better price per pound than we realized. For even though we may be paying about $3.90 per pound for grass fed beef from the farmer, we are eating 99-100% of that meat. As compared to only actually getting 80% of the meat we buy at the store. So for instance, if you buy a pound of ground beef at the store for $2.99, but you lose 20% of that meat, you are actually paying about $3.59 in order to get a full pound of meat. Does that make sense?

And when you consider this, along with the fact that the price we pay per pound for locally raised grass-fed beef also includes steaks and roasts, I’d say we’re getting a pretty good deal!

Just something for you to consider, besides all of the health benefits of eating grass-fed meat, and supporting your local farmers. It just might not be much of a price difference for the good stuff, all things considered!

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I couldn’t wait any longer to show you the progress we’re making on our greenhouse. I’m getting so excited!

It might not look like much right now, but I think it’ll look really nice when it’s all finished up. A coat of white paint, some lattice around the bottom, and a few plants here and there… it’ll be gorgeous.

So far, we have zero money in the project. That’s right, every bit of the materials have been salvaged! The floor of the greenhouse is made from shipping pallets, the windows are the old ones we took out of our fixer-upper house when we remodeled, plus some windows we salvaged from a friend’s father’s house remodel, and the walls are made from scrap lumber we had leftover from some of my husband’s old skateboard ramps. We had the 4×4 posts and some bags of concrete leftover from other projects… so yeah, we’re doing really good so far! We may have to buy a cap for the peak of the roof, we’ll see.

It’s on the south side of the house, so it’ll receive maximum sun exposure. We decided to build it up off the ground to accommodate the crawlspace underneath the house.

We’re totally just winging it. Although I have skimmed my books on how to build a greenhouse, we aren’t following any particular plans. I’m sure we’ll make mistakes, but we’ll deal with that as they come about I guess.

I’d love to put a gutter system on it, and have a downspout into the greenhouse to fill a rain barrel, which could then help water the plants inside. If we paint a plastic rain barrel black, it’ll absorb the sun’s heat and help to warm the greenhouse in the winter. We don’t have any other heating system planned as of right now.

We’re hoping to use the greenhouse to extend our growing season, and to start seedlings to transplant into the garden. And maybe, if we can get the humidity and temperature regulated just right, a few dwarf fruit trees like bananas, oranges, and lemons will be grown as well!!

Anyways, I just thought I’d share how it’s coming along! I can’t wait to fill it with plants!

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A few weeks ago, Jerry took one of the shelves out of the fridge to wash off a spill, and evidently ran the cold glass under hot water or something, ’cause it shattered in his hands.

Thank goodness he wasn’t cut!

But… what to do about that shelf?

I figured it would cost a fortune to replace, so I asked him to do this instead…

Yes my friends. That’s OSB.

And it works brilliantly.

Now I realize there are those who would balk at doing such a thing. Wood? In your fridge? The audacity!

But you know what? I’m proud of my wooden shelf. (Hence, showing it to the world.) You know why? Because it is yet another way of perfectly demonstrating how we all can learn to improvise and be resourceful as opposed to depending on somebody else to fix our problems.

And it was free.

Please feel free to use my wooden fridge shelf as a metaphor for whatever is “broken” around your home. What projects do you have… what broken things need fixing… what is something you’ve been wanting to do but don’t have the money to do? And how can you either: a) fix them with something you have already, or b) learn to live without them?

This is Great Depression Era thinking people. And I have a feeling we’d better start embracing it!

Oh, by the way. I called the repair guy this morning, out of sheer curiosity. Turns out the glass would only cost $13.59 to replace. Even still, I’ll keep my wooden shelf for the time being, thank you.

I’d love to hear how you’ve improvised around your home to save a few bucks!

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Yay! I finished putting the final touches on the boys’ room today, and couldn’t wait to show you how it turned out!

I’ve been dying to re-decorate this room for MONTHS, but I knew I wanted to paint over the green and so I had to wait until I had some spending money to buy a gallon of paint before I could get started. Thank goodness for birthday money!!

I definitely didn’t want to spend money on anything else though. Remember my Zero Dollar Laundry Room Makeover? Time to put those creative juices into high gear again!

I think the last time I posted pictures of Ty’s room was before baby Elias came along, and it looked something like this…

The Froggy Room. Green and blue, and Ty still in the toddler bed.

Well, once Elias was born, we moved Xia up into the toddler bed so we could use the crib for the new baby, and we put the twin bed that was in Xia’s nursery in Ty’s room to be his new “big boy” bed.

Poor Jerry. I don’t know how many times I’ve had that man move around our furniture.

Anyways, I had to make room for a twin sized bed, a crib, a dresser, and a changing table in what was to be the boys’ room. I think it worked out well.

Here… come on in!

I’ll give you a clock-wise tour around the room.

I loved the idea of a pennant banner draped across the corner of this room. So, I’ve been saving old clothing and receiving blankets, and any other materials of coordinating colors that I could get a hold of to make a banner without having to buy any materials.

This was my first ever sewing project. Well, not counting the pillow I made in home ec. in 7th grade. My mother-in-law (what would I do without her) came over a couple of weeks ago and showed me how to thread my sewing machine, and guided me in practicing using it.

It was so FUN sewing this thing!! Okay, so it isn’t exactly perfect. But hey, it works… and I love it, so that’s all that matters, right?

Next, I needed to accessorize the dresser. I remembered we had two old lanterns out in our building, so I dug them up, washed off an inch of dirt and dust, and stuck them in the room. I was so pleased that the colors worked so well!!

I found a few more little accessories laying around the house and stuck them with the lanterns. It was tricky trying to mix rustic elements with our very traditional furniture, but I think it turned out okay.

Alrighty, moving right along…

I love this photo. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE!!

I took this picture on our property a month or so ago. And I got it printed on a canvas… for FREE! Actually, you didn’t know it, but you got this print for me. If you signed up for Eversave through my referral link, you helped me earn enough points to get one of these.

So, thank you!

I got the biggest canvas I could, but it was still too small by itself on this enormous wall. It needed to be bigger. And I had the solution.

Armed with two of my husband’s hammers, I got busy prying apart some pallets we had laying around. After brushing off the dirt, I had my husband cut a couple of pieces and hammer it all together. It looked great!

Only one problem.

Every time my husband would hammer in another nail, he heard a faint buzzing noise coming from within one of the boards. Upon a closer look, we saw a hole in the board… evidence of a carpenter bee living inside.

A quick google search for how to remove the bee led me to discover that it could be a female in there with eggs… eggs which would be hatching in approximately three months! The image of carpenter bees swarming the kids’ room was enough for me to kindly instruct my husband to replace that board, asap. Please and thank you.

And here are the beds.

If I had a nice camera like all the cool bloggers, you’d really be able to see how pretty these colors are. It really is bright and cheery, I promise.

Like the stars I made from sticks which I’d gathered in the woods? I just chopped ‘em with my handy ax, and nailed ‘em together.

And the pennant banner I draped across the window? I kinda messed up on it, but it’s better than nothing! I used a shoestring to sew the flags onto, and since it was stretchy it got a little weirded out. Oh well.

I clipped an aged clothespin to the top of each pennant, to try to continue that rustic feel.

I knew I needed to fill this space, but I had absolutely nothing to hang on the wall over the crib. Luckily for me, a little crafting went a long way!

After pulling out my scrapbooking supplies (and dusting them off), I found a few cute patterned papers I used to fold into these barn stars.  I stuck them to the wall with a straight pin in the top of each star, so it wouldn’t be noticeable.

I pulled together a few clipboards, and printed off the ABCs from my computer, using a neutral shade that would compliment the wall color.

And… the rest of the room. I was finally able to hang those personalized license plates I’ve been holding onto!

So, there you go!! I am so in love with this room. I love the neutral color on the upper part of the wall. Much mellower than the green. And I feel this is a decor that will work as the boys get older, so I shouldn’t have to do much redecorating for a while!

Now… on to Xia’s room!

Ummm… maybe after Thanksgiving

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If you don’t mind… I’m working on a project at the moment, so I might not be in for the day.

I’m busy working on decorating the boys’ room, which I’m very excited about!  Spent yesterday painting the walls. And today… accessories!

But no, I’m not out shopping.

I’ve actually been busy pulling apart old pallets, hammering, SEWING (my first sewing project!), gathering sticks… you know how I do it around here.

F.R.E.E.

Can’t wait to show ya how it looks!!

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I never really used baby powder until recently, when I discovered how essential it is to preventing diaper rash from cloth diapers. This stuff is AMAZING. But I use a lot… as in, I really cake that stuff on… with EVERY diaper change.

It would definitely be costly if I was buying bottle after bottle of Johnson’s baby powder.

I have a secret though. Some of you may already know this…

Pure cornstarch, the stuff you cook with, is the SAME thing as baby powder. Sure, it doesn’t have any aloe or scent added to it, but neither did the original stuff. It was straight up cornstarch.

I have a little baby powder bottle that I just keep refilling with cornstarch. It’s much less messy than trying to sprinkle it from the box.

And it’s so much cheaper.

And that’s how we do things around here.

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