Patience with Myself

Long ago in a galaxy far far away....

(Ok, maybe not but it sure feels like it.) I learned some basic sewing skills. I made some pillows, skirts, shorts, and other simple pattern projects. I thought that it would be easy to pick back up what I once knew and start again. Not so...

This morning I found myself in an unusual position. I had a bit of free time. Thanks to a short, but very strong storm last nigh, the gardens were too wet to work in. The house was reasonable. The laundry was not piled to the ceiling. A perfect time to do a little sewing.

The first project I attempted was to cut off and hem some old jeans for play shorts for Lydia. In the back of my mind, I was also hoping to create something from the legs of the jeans we were cutting. She had three pairs. I got them all cut, and pinned one pair. I almost had them hemmed when I broke a needle. Luckily my machine came with extra needles. I had to pull out the book to figure out how to change the needle. A small set back, but I had sewing on the brain. 

I finished the first pair of shorts, pinned the second and began sewing. Then broke another needle. At this point it dawned on me that I might need a heavier needle to accomplish my task. I refused to be deterred. The machine was out. There were several hours in the morning, and Lydia had some cute fabric Delilah had given her. I would make a dress. 

Never mind I had no pattern. The Internet would tell me how. Oh, I found patterns, but I felt like I was trying to read a foreign language. A few hours of searching yielded many patterns that were well beyond me, and a few I might be able to accomplish if I could get the kids to give a whole morning of quiet to concentrate on the sewing language.

No "perfect" dress idea. No pattern pinned. No cuts made. Nothing sewn, and lots of frustration. 

A lovely way to spend a few free hours in the morning. 

After I neatly piled the supplies I had out, and walked away from the sewing machine, I had to laugh at myself. I had forgotten how frustrating new (or relearned) skills are to acquire. I'm in my comfort zone when it comes to food related skills. New skills in food related areas come easily to me. In fact it struck me the other day how many of my waking hours involve growing, preparing and other food related tasks, but that is a subject for another post. 

Sewing and crafting are not in my comfort zone. Others of you, I know, can pick up a piece of fabric, have an idea in your head, and whip out something beautiful in a matter of an hour. Or at least you can read a tutorial and have it make sense to you. 

My family is on a journey that involves learning new things. We are motivated by frugality, self sufficiency, and simplicity. We have skills and talents in some areas. We have things we would like to learn, but I think the most important skill I need to learn is patience ; patience with myself.  Expecting to pick up a new skill, outside my comfort zone, in a matter of hours is foolish. Allowing myself the time it takes to learn new things, and the grace to make mistakes along the way, would save me a lot of frustration and grief. 

So, while I'm learning this lesson, could any of you point me in the direction of good sewing sites for non crafty beginners? 

Garden Freebies

Thought I'd pass a long a few helpful garden freebies I've seen lately.

Companion Planting Chart

Thanks to the wonderful ladies at Little House in the Suburbs for this easy to use resource.

Outdoor Planning Table

Thanks Crystal for the heads up on this resource. Type in your zip code for a chart of planting dates including favorable moon dates. 

Free Garden Journal

Thanks to Sandra on the WVAHS yahoo group. This is a great way to get started on a garden journal. It has space for a lot of information. 

Helpful garden resources for free? It works for me! For more helpful tips and ideas see Works for Me Wednesday. 

You may have crossed the line

You may have crossed the line between frugal and cheap when eating out if you

1) Order water to drink, and ask for a small bowl of lemons for your water, then proceed to squeeze all the lemons into your glass, and add a two packets of sugar...

2) Order a kids sized meal, and then proceed to eat half a dozen of the "free" biscuits. 

You have definitely crossed the line if you do both at the same meal. If you can't afford to go out to eat, then stay home. 

Just sayin'. 

Feeding Six from the Garden

I've used my last quart of apple sauce. 

Last September my kitchen was full of apples, and I was getting rather tired of processing them. We processed so many apples that I lost count somewhere around 77 quarts of apple sauce, 18 pints of apple butter, and 25 quarts of sliced apples. 

I truly thought that we would have an abundance of apples to last to the next season. Yet, the apple butter is long gone, and I ran out of applesauce about three months before we will have apples again. There are still some of the sliced apples left, but only because the variety of apples I used last year did not can well this way. I plan to turn them into more sauce and butter.

Feeding my family of six takes an ever changing, and growing, amount of food. I could tell you how many loaves of bread or gallons of milk we need between grocery trips, but I had no concept of our food consumption in annual terms until we began gardening and preserving. 

I keep record of how much I preserve each season and this record helps me to plan for the next season. So how much food did this family of six go through last year? 

Green Beans - We had about 40 quarts from the previous season and canned an additional 55 quarts. There are still about 20 quarts left until the beans start producing in late June. So, in a year we eat about 90 quarts of beans. 

Tomatoes - They did not produce well last year. We canned 17 quarts of sauce. It has been gone for some time. I'd guestimate we need triple that, or 51 quarts. 

Corn - We froze 18 1/2 quarts of corn. This did last us until about a month ago, but only because I rationed it, knowing there wasn't much. Even though we could eat a lot more corn, we've decided to not plant as much. It takes a lot of space for what it produces. Someday we'd like to make another large space  just for corn, until then we are only planting enough to eat in the summer. 

Apples - I think we could easily eat 100 quarts of sauce in a year. 

That is a lot of food, and it doesn't even count all that we eat fresh during the season.

Those are the staple items that we preserved last summer. This year we've added a few more vegetables for variety. Hopefully keeping this in mind will be a good motivator come August and September when I'm tired of picking and tired of canning. 

Fruit Tree Clearance

Got this in my email this morning, and thought I'd pass it along...

Gurney's Seed Company is having a clearance sale on their fruit trees. They are marked up to 60% off, making prices for many trees around $10 per tree when you buy two or more. 

Plus you can save an additional 8% by using Ebates. Simply go to the Ebates page (sign up is quick and easy if you are not already a member) search for Gurney's, and click on the link to earn an 8% rebate on your purchase.