With spring in the air, plotting vacation getaways and day trips becomes a compulsion. Since I am currently unemployed and broke, the challenge increases. So I go for the cheap, camping. I have all the gear needed. Activities include hiking, fishing, swimming which can be obtained for free or low cost depending on your campsite. Now for the hunt for a campsite. Has to be fairly close as gas is not cheap. Went online and to the local library. The library had a lot of useful books on travel in florida. Found a nice florida camping book that listed campsites that a free to low cost and also listed the activities that can be found at said campsite. Made a list of ones I would like to visit and now it's a game of planning the date, making sure I have some emergency money for gas, and calling friends to see who wants to join in on the escape. Everyone talks about vacations in foreign places while I am thinking of all the possible new places near to home that I can explore. It's always nice to learn more about your home (call it bragging rights ^_-).

Winter Update

Well it's been a cold winter here in Florida. The frost has killed off our tomatoes and peppers but the root vegetables have survived as well as cabbage. So we will have to start over for a tomatoe/pepper harvest. I have been keeping busy crafting christmas/yule gifts and even joined a couple of craft swaps that have send out dates in January just for the crafting fun of it.

Yesterday was profitable in that I came across one of those curbside alerts where someone is cleaning out a rental house and throwing out the previous tenants stuff that was left behind. I missed out on the rattan loveseat (someone snatched it before I could get a friend to come help lend a hand) but I did luck out on a 100 gallon aquarium setup, only thing missing is the stand which I can make for around $90. I hate waste but love it when I come across some wonderful freebies because someone does not know how to donate to local charity/thrift stores. And living in a college town definitely has it's dumpster diving perks. I have so far gotten every tv I own from a dumpster, furniture, antiques, camping gear, and my friend got a brand new iPod just because someone did not know how to charge it first and threw it away thinging it was broke. NUTS! All they need is a little TLC and some repair and bammo you got yourself a cheap addition to your home. I have taken old gym equipment that someone has thrown in the dumpster, cleaned it, then taken it to a resale sports store and made some money selling it. Someone else will get it cheap to use and I got some easy free money. So as much as they annoy me with their wasteful ways I gotta be thankful for them for the free bounty they have provided me throughout the years.

Harvesting

Recently I have been enjoying the produce from my very own garden. First it was sweet potatoes. I planted some sweet potatoes plugs and forgot about them. When I finally remembered that I planted sweet potatoes and went digging, had a lovely harvest and delightful mashed sweet potatoes side for dinner. Wonderful thing about sweet potatoes, they will grow just fine neglected. I plan to save some plugs for my parents so they can let them grow wild on the back section of their property. The arugula is now ready for harvest but unfortunately I do not like to taste of arugula, so my friends who do like arugula have hit the arugula jackpot. The radishes are ready as well and was a delight to eat tonight after sauteed in butter with salt and pepper. In about a week, the beets, lettuce, and possibly cabbage will be ready and now I must scavenge my old cookbooks for recipes to try. The tomatoes and peppers have flowers or tiny fruit growing, really look forward to that harvest.

Given this economy you would think there would be more pushing for people to grow their own food like they did in the depression era. Most I hear is a little news bite here and there. I think a tax break for people who grow their own food and free classes and materials to get started would be great. They have this wonderful program called GIFT Gardens that was here in Gainesville. It was a program for low income families to get a free square foot garden stocked with vegetables and a experienced gardener to help supervise and teach the family how to grow and maintain their garden so that people can have healthy meals for free. Not only would the families have this tasty garden that they can reuse over and over again and save money buy not buying vegetables but growing their own and encourage healthy eating. Unfortunately it seems our local government decided not to fund the program this year but instead put all the money toward food banks. So it looks like they will not be able to give any more gardens away. I really think this is bad promoting or something because how can this program NOT help. Food banks provide food true but the families will have to continue going back again and again for the food wheres this gift garden will enable them to get food and then proceed to grow their own again and again. It's like that saying about how you can give a man a fish and he can eat once but teach him how to fish and he will never starve.

Fishing... low cost and Fun!

I have recently been taking up an old favorite hobbie of mine, fishing. It's cheap which makes my wallet happy. Relaxing to get out into nature and enjoy the scenery which makes my mind happy. And if I catch something, free food which makes the stomach happy. The only thing not happy about it right now is the lack of funds for gas money to get to the fishing spots and no boat. I plan to one day own a Kayak (Hobie!) but until finances get better it will just have to sit in the dream category. I have been having fun relearning all those camping and fishing knowledge that has fallen to the wayside due to disuse. Pulled out a lot of fun old camping books that talk about hunting and survival. Also pulled out the old fishing books that talk about bait and tackle. I was fortunate in that while searching for some supplies at the local thrift/pawn stores I was able to come across some lovely local finds.

At the local pawn shop I got a nice salt water fishing rod for a good price. My current collection of fishing rods happen to be geared toward freshwater fishing and just was not strong enough on the previous fishing trip on the coast. Had a devil of a time reeling in a red drum that I caught. I had a heck of a time finding some crab traps, luckily one of the bait and tackle shops that I use had some and I was able to bring home some blue crab for dinner. While going over my fishing supplies and making a list of items that would be nice to have I thought about supplies I could make. I had a bait bucket but it was small and did not keep the bait alive long since it had no aerator to get oxygen in the water. I remember seeing a youtube video some time back about making a live well out of an old cooler. My landlady had a cooler out by the side of the house near the trash that looked like she was throwing away so I called her up and asked her if I could take it to try and make a live well out of it. I got the ok and within less than 30 minutes and $8 on an aerator I had myself a homemade cooler turned livewell. It worked great! The only downside I could see was that the cooler was not one of those wheeled versions so I had to carry it which was a little heavy when you add water and the catch. I'm thinking if I come across another cooler with wheels to try again but until then will look for a luggage carry rack at the local thrift stores. And last but not least, the prize find.. a late 60's Duel fuel coleman 2 burner camp stove mint in box with some camp cooking pots and pans which looked to have been never used all for $3.00, talk about a deal.

I was hoping to get out again before scallop season ends so I can do some scalloping. Unfortanately, cannot afford gas. Oh well there is always next year. Until then I will just have to keep an eye out for some more lovely old camp gear and wait for another opening to get out and fish.

Do not adjust your television...

After much discussion with my fiance, we decided to turn off our cable. I had no problems with this as most of the shows I watch on cable I can see for free on Hulu.com (yea hulu!) and we needed the money to be put to better use. No sooner than we turned off the cable my laptop blinks out. It seems the monitor is fried. Thankfully, the rest of the laptop is fine and as I always keep my leftover electronics (thanks dad for passing on that habit) I just pulled out ye olde monitor and plugged it into my laptop. Tada for temporary fixes until finances are better.

This weekend I hit up the local thrift stores looking for some clothing as mine is getting a little raggedy. As far as clothing goes I only found a nice pair of jeans but ran into the problem of either it being not my size or too pricey. I did luck out in other areas. I got a lovely toaster to replace the one that broke down, what looks to be a brand new 70's green fondue set, an American Gothic puzzle, a batch of thank you cards for the wedding next year, and last but not least the other love of my life (other than my fiance, cat, and crafts) some books. I got an 1878 Home Economics book which is full of all kinds of information on how to run a 1878 house. A 1943 book on knitting and a 1935 book on crochet. And last but not least, 5 cookbooks to add to my cookbook collection. I love thrift store scavenging. Too bad the ones around here seem to be hit up hard. Really picked thru.

Another postive note is that in two weeks from now I will be getting a raised bed garden and look forward to growing tastey food and learning about canning.

Now I am off to play with my fondue set, mmm tastey beef fondue.

Unpacking at a snails pace..

Well I know it's been a while since I last posted. I have moved into a house. I am really loving the house. Lots of space and oppertunity to have friends over. One thing I am greatly looking forward to is having my own craft room. I will even have a sitting room/library to put all my books in order. My only problem is that while I have the space, items, and know what I want that space to be in the end I am having trouble getting to that final stage. It's like I know what A and C is but have no clue about B and how to join them all together. End result, unpacking at a snails pace. Very slow and unsure. I believe I will just toss my hands up and kidnapp my mother to help me organize. She is good at that. Until then, unpacking at a snail pace one box at a time.

One of the fun things about this is finding items that have been buried away and being able to pull them out and put them on display. Current find, my grandmothers Smokey Moutain Pottery souvenier that she bought while on vacation in NC back in 1943. That belgium waffel maker that I did not have the kichen space for back in my tiny apartment now has room and I do believe I know what I will be making for breakfast tomorrow morning. Belgium waffels with strawberries and whip cream.

Car troubles and naughty temptations..

Well my trusty rusty finally died on me last week. And with a limited budget I have been car hunting. While searching for a car, I came across a very tempting ad. The ad was for a 1945 Dodge Coupe for $1,500. The body needed a new paint job and this was definitely a fixer upper but darned if it wasn't one heck of a naughty temptation. In the end, I was a good girl and purchased a used 2006 Mazda5 that was in great condition and had excellent milage.

But still the mind likes to dream and that 1945 Dodge Coupe is certainly playing a large part in it right now.