A few more things we are doing.

Mr. Fixit and I have been tossing around a few other ideas.

1. A hive. We have been talking about getting a bee hive. Since Mr. Fixit is allergic to bees, I will be queen of the hive. teehee. I am a little nervous about it and know it is not if I get stung, but when. But it will be great to have fresh honey and at the same time be doing our part to help bring the populations of honey bees back up.

I am actually very excited about it and hope we will do well enough with the first hive to expand to two or three next year.

2. Canning and Freezing. We are going to be putting our garden in very soon. We are going to do organic gardening this year. We are going to put up as much food over the Summer as we possibly can. I plan on doing some canning but will also be doing freezing and dehydrating. I want to go into Fall time with as many things as possible paid and done.

3. Grocery bags. We now have plenty of reuseable grocery bags and as long as we remember to always put them back in the car, we are done with plastic bags!

4. We had been talking about raising our own cow organically. I started doing research and by the time we bought the cow, raised it to a size to be butchered and paid for all the food and processing it was getting pretty expensive.

I looked around our area and found a gentleman who raises Black Angus organically. For a side of beef it will cost us around $550.00 depending on what the cow weighs in at. That includes the processing, packaging, and freezing! That will be more than enough beef for a year.

5. Pumpkin patch. We really wanted to grow some of our own melons and pumpkins this year. We debated about actually doing it because of the space it will take and with everything else going on we didn't know if we would have a chance to break more ground to do it. Mr. Fixit, the hardworking genius he is decided that we will definitely do it.

There is a patch below the hill that will be ideal and Mr. Fixit said it would take little work to get it ready. I am looking very forward to having pumpkin to freeze/can because one of every one's favorite desserts is pumpkin bread.

6. Chickens. We are going to go ahead and get our chickens this year. It will be great to have fresh eggs.

7. Trees. We have planted several trees around the house the last few days. I highly recommend the Arbor Day Foundation to anyone interested in trees and shrubs.

We will also be ordering some fruit and nut trees. We would like to have our own little orchard within the next few years.

It's a good life.