This past fall, my friend Jill gave me some sunflower seeds she saved from her garden. As she filled the little bags with seeds I stopped her and said, “That’s more then I could even dream of planting.” At this point I had no idea when or where I would be able to plant them.
Once we were back in Yuma, Arizona, I realized there would be time to grow my sunflowers before we would be relocating again. I decided to plant them right out our door in front of a brick wall I’ve always thought was rather ugly. Having a wall of sunflowers there will be beautiful!
To prepare the soil, I raked over the area to pick up the dead palm tree branches and other debris. For the past 3 years, I’ve been dumping my old potting soil in this back corner so it was somewhat like a compost pile I guess. I raked this over the area I intended to plant as well. Then I grabbed what was left of my bag of Amend, probably about 3/4 of the bag, and poured that over the area as well. Next I gently dug over the area to loosen everything up and mix the potting soil and amend into the sand. Not much, but better than nothing I figure! All I know is that water drains right through the sand, so I’m hoping the added soil and amend will help to retain moisture between waterings.
9 day later I was feeling a bit anxious about my little seeds. Did I plant them too deep? Did I let them dry out too much? Did the birds get to them after all? I imagine my neighbors thought I was crazy as I knelt over my little square of dirt examining and searching desperately for sprouts.
FINALLY, on day 11 they started to emerge from the soil. Being a teaching day for me, I gave them a good dose of water and then spent the rest of the day in my studio teaching until after dark. After dinner, I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to count my sprouts. LOL! Now I know the neighbors think I must be a crazy women. There were 13 sprouts the first night, 21 the next morning. Then it was 31, 42, 51, and at most recent count there were 60. I’m content now and will wait until I’m sure all have sprouted before I count again! HAHA.
As I sat on my door step enjoy the last Tangelo from my fruit basket I bite into a seed. I stood up and headed for the trash can with that seed and then stopped myself realizing I’m currently living in prime citrus growing country! Wondering if it really is as easy as planting a citrus seed to grow a new tree, I decided to look it up after I finished my snack and saved all of the seeds I found in my last Tangelo.
My research determined that you can indeed grow citrus from seed, but there are a couple extra steps that make the process faster and easier. I’ll share those in a minute. But even more interesting to me was the fact that you probably won’t end up with the same type of fruit as you started with! Citrus apparently cross pollinates very easily, so you never know what you will end up with when growing a citrus tree from a seed. It might be delicious fruit, and it might not be tasty at all! The exception to this is the Meyer Lemon Tree, which is why these are often grown from seed.
Well, what the heck! I’m always up for a gardening experiment anyway. I’ll enjoy a new plant project even if I don’t end up with Tangelos 5 years from now. If I can even keep the thing alive that long! LOL. Gardening takes practice and I’ve never tried to grow a fruit tree before my Lemon Tree that my mother in law started.
First thing to do is float your citrus seeds of choice in a container of water. Supposedly they are only good seeds if they sink to the bottom. 4 out of 5 of my seeds floated on top, indicating they would not be good seeds but, they are all I have to work with so I decided to include them in my experiment.
Next, I grabbed some finger nail clippers and snipped just the pointed end off of my citrus seeds. Then I pried the outer hard shell off of the seeds, leaving only the skin around the seed.
I separated the citrus seeds on a paper towel and marked the one that sunk to the bottom of my container of water as “good” and the other 4 citrus seeds as “maybe”. Gotta give them a chance, right!?
Then, simple as that, I dampened the paper towel of citrus seeds with water, slipped it into a ziplock bag, labeled it as Tangelo seeds, and slipped it into a dark corner of my drawer in my kitchen. Now to see if I get sprouts!
A friend from the local orchestra 🎻 here in Yuma, Arizona invited me to spend the afternoon with her. She asked what I’d been wanting to do in the area, suggesting we do it together. I was all down for this except…🤔 I couldn’t think of anything to do in Yuma! It’s something I’ve struggled with down here. I’m used to day hiking or some other outdoor adventure as a way to spend time with friends and there just isn’t much of that here! There are some amazing hikes in North Eastern Arizona, but nothing close to Yuma.
I listed off a few general ideas we could do together; grab coffee, take on a baking challenge, or go for a bike ride. We set a date and time and decided to play it by ear. Friday morning as I was drinking my coffee ☕️, I remembered what I’d been wanting to do in Yuma! Last year, one of our RV renters would pick citrus for a local orchard at daylight. Each morning I’d hear a friendly knock on the door and then be greeted with a huge smile and a bag of fresh citrus…oranges 🍊, lemons 🍋, grapefruit, and tangelos. He kept me well supplied and I returned the favor by baking him a lemon pie 🥧 or two. Well, this year I am on my own for supplying my citrus. So I texted my friend to see if she wanted to pick some fresh citrus with me and we agreed to go together to find a u-pick orchard.
For being prime citrus country, I was surprised how hard it was to find an orchard that welcomed u-pickers! I had done some looking around on Google before we headed out and followed the route to a local farm, only to find that it looked like a private residence with no indication that it was open to the public. On the way, we had passed one sign for U-Pick Grapefruit so we decided to check that out. It was oranges 🍊 I really wanted, but Jonathan loves the grapefruit and really I just wanted to harvest some fresh fruit.
This time we found welcome signs and arrows directing us to the parking area next to an orchard with the biggest grapefruit trees I’ve ever seen. An older man greeted us, handed us an apple 🍎 picker (okay, maybe it’s a fruit picker, but in the PNW we call them apple pickers.) , and told us where to find the best Ruby Red Grapefruits.
We filled a 5 gallon bucket with some beautiful grapefruits for $4 and then I also grabbed some pre picked Tangelos because they are my favorite! It was a simple outing, though hard to find a place to pick, and a great way to spend an afternoon with a friend. I just love harvesting my own food, meeting those who grow it, and knowing where it came from.
I guess the garden bug bites early down here in the desert! Last week, I officially gave up on growing houseplants in the camper. Too much moving them around, the cat steps on them, shoot we were even throwing the covers back on top of them! Not enough counter space for them either so I’m just making peace with it. No more houseplants in this house. Not too big of deal when you think about the fact that our living room is really the back porch anyway and we spend most of our time outside.
Okay, so without my houseplants project, I wanted to try something else with plants. I’ve been told for a while that it is easy to grow your own ginger root! I love to cook with ginger so I’m giving this a try! As I did a bit of reading, there were two different methods advised, so I decided to try both. One method has you get the starts going in a damp paper towel, the other has you just go right to the potting soil and be mighty patient (8 weeks they said!) for the sprouts to show up.
I had a nice piece of ginger sitting on my counter for a while now and it had some nice eyes on it, so I cut it into 4 pieces just as I would if I were preparing potatoes for planting.
Next, I prepared my empty houseplant pot for its new tenants. 😂LOL! I also grabbed a paper towel for the other two pieces. I’ll have to let you know which method does better as the weeks go by!
I like to put a few rocks in the bottom of my pots to keep the soil from plugging up the drainage holes. So far it seems to work well for me so I keep doing it! Then I added some potting soil and laid my chunks of ginger on top, trying to position the eye buds so they can grow towards the light.
Then to bury them with about an inch of soil, and soak thoroughly with water. I set this out on the patio by my other containers so I can keep an eye on it and keep it wet. From what I understand, I will be waiting several weeks before I see anything pushing up to the surface.
As for the paper towel method, I simply set a couple chunks of my ginger on the paper towel and wrapped them gently.
Then, I soaked the paper towel in water which helped the folds adhere to each other and remain folded. Then I slipped the wrapped ginger into a plastic ziplock bag to retain moisture, but did not seal it shut. I set this in the window behind my stove figuring the light will be good for it as well as the heat from the stove.
And then my final project for the day was to plant these Sunflower seeds my friend Jill shared with me from her garden. Jill is a 🎻 violin friend from Instagram that I got to visit in person last November at her beautiful home in Hood River, Oregon.
I’ve always found these brick walls rather boring that surround every lot in the Yuma Foothills. When I open my back door, or look out the window, this wall is my view. So, I decided it was the perfect space to attempt growing a cheery wall of sunflowers! I just really hope they grow!! I prepared the space by trying to rake the sand somewhat level and then adding a bit of amend and potting soil to encourage the sand to hold moisture a little better.
As I started to plant my seeds, I noticed more and more birds excitedly gathering around. 🤣 So I decided I best wait until sundown to do my seed planting!!
I’ve developed quite the traveling garden over the last few years. Being able to take full grown plants with me helps me establish the feeling of home faster when we set up in each location. My plants are pretty happy about all the sunshine down here in Yuma, Arizona so I snapped several pictures of them the other day and thought I’d share them with you.
This purple heart was gifted to me by our schoolie neighbors. I bought the Lavender while we were in Utah as well. The mini lemon tree came from my MIL while we were in Salem, I adopted it from about 8 that she had grown from seed. Here’s to hoping I can keep it alive!! Love my new watering can Jonathan encouraged me to get for myself when we got down here this year.Thyme and a cactus I started while we were here last year.I grabbed two tomato plants and two bell peppers when we first got here. Wanted them to get an early start before the heat sets in.Last year my peppers and tomatoes actually got too much sun, so I put them under the pergola for extra shade this time.I’m growing some cat grass for Kitty and a bowl of lettuce and some cilantro.These flowers blossomed right back out when they got in some sunshine!Love using this crate Jonathan built to add dimension to my plant display on the patio.The sign is too big for the plant but I still like it.I just trimmed this Oregano up this morning but I’m so happy my purple flowering grass is happy again!
As we head into 2020, I thought “A Fresh Start” quote was fitting for our chalkboard refrigerator.
I’m taking a few days off of social media and my violin business work over the holidays and have had a hard time adjusting to the slower pace and disrupted routine. While I think it’s super important to take a break and intentionally disrupt routine, it’s not easy for me. I find the need to replace my “work” with fun projects or homemaking work that I don’t normally take time for. I’m also using the time to reflect on this past years accomplishments and consider my goals for the new year. I’m ready for some fresh ideas, fresh projects, fresh perspectives, and basically a fresh start!
When I was looking for a chalkboard art design to freshen up the chalkboard on our refrigerator (working on those homemaking projects!), I decided this quote “Each day is a fresh start”, along with the citrus fruit was perfect. It matches the season in every way! And, btw, I’m super excited for citrus season to be in full swing here in Arizona. I will have to hunt around and find some orchards where I can pick.
As the rain decided to pour today, and I’ve run out of coffee creamer, I made myself a lovely cup of hot cocoa instead and got right to work. (Didn’t think running to the store the day after Christmas for coffee creamer sounded like a good idea!) I found this design on Pinterest to work off of and then started in. I decided this was too busy for my taste so I simplified it a bit and didn’t put quite as much fruit in my design.
I used to say that I couldn’t draw. I still don’t generally think I’m very good at it. But it’s good for me to try and practice and I had fun doing this. It took me well over an hour, which is probably why the refrigerator didn’t get any fresh art for over a year!!
It occurred to me the other day that I haven’t done near as much creating since we started living Tiny. I used to be a hard core DIYer and tried my hand at everything I could think of. There’s something very satisfying about making something yourself instead of buying it at the store, especially if it ends up saving you money. But with no workspace to leave my projects out, I’ve pretty much quit creating altogether. With the exception of cooking! I would definitely have to say I’ve improved my cooking and baking skills quite a bit since we started living tiny. My current kitchen is one of the nicest kitchens I’ve ever had!! Custom built to my cooking style by my husband.
Where I got my sourdough starter
While we were in Utah, my gardening friend and co-worker gave me a jar of her sourdough starter! This being my second try to keep a sourdough alive, I was determined! (The last sourdough starter I had was given to me by my brother and it died/spilled in transit between Oregon and Arizona.) I added sourdough feeding to my plant baby care routine. LOL! I figured that since I always remember to check on and care for my plants, this would help me keep a close eye on my starter.
Learning to bake the things we already buy
I’ve tried a few common things with my sourdough starter (bread, cinnamon rolls, and pancakes) and they’ve all turned out amazing!! So I thought it was time to bake something we actually use and buy regularly – English Muffins!! My husband loves these for breakfast, it’s definitely a go-to breakfast for us. But sometimes, depending on the stores available at our current location, we can’t even find a healthy English Muffin option in the stores! We are very careful to avoid GMO’s and the generic English Muffin brands definitely have GMO and other garbage ingredients.
Choosing a recipe
After reviewing a few recipes on the internet, I decided to go with the one from Food.com because it allowed an overnight rise and I was ready to mix my dough around 7pm. 12 – 16 hours of rise time would put me to cooking these bad boys about the time I finished my morning routine the next day. So I mixed up my dough and put it in a warm place to rest all night.
The next day I just kneaded a few ingredients like salt and baking soda into my dough and then rolled it out, cut the biscuits out with a drinking glass, and sprinkled them with cornmeal. I have no idea what the cornmeal does, but I know there’s always cornmeal on store bought English Muffins so I went with it! LOL!
The hardest part
The hardest part was definitely cooking these things. How in the world to get them to cook all the way through to the center! To my surprise, I learned that you do NOT bake English Muffins at all!! They are pan fried bread. So I heated the electric skillet and decided to try a few in my cast iron skillet over the gas stove as well. They cook for 3 – 5 minutes on each side. It took me a lot of testing to figure out what worked without burning their bottoms. The recipe said I should smash them down after flipping them over too but I found that not to work so great. What I concluded was that they cooked best on high heat on the electric skillet, covered with an airtight lid, and I did not smash them down after flipping them over.
Keep them fresh by freezing
One other thing that surprised me is that the recipe said they would only keep on the counter for one day. So I put two full bags of these away in the freezer…and we’ve already been grabbing them for snacks because they really are quite tasty. I’m not sold on the taste yet though; they taste good, but they don’t have that distinct English Muffin taste. I definitely plan on trying a few more recipes before I decide on my go to favorite.
Back in December, I did a full body reset cleanse called The Ultimate Reset. My husband and I have done a handful of cleanses over the years and this was by far the gentlest, and least disgusting (LOL), cleanse I have experienced. Jonathan just recently decided to try out The Ultimate Reset as well so I thought I’d share how I prepared for him to do this cleanse.
Meal Planning for The Ultimate Reset
No matter what you are trying to incorporate into your eating habits, I think meal planning is key. The Ultimate Reset comes with a meal plan all laid out for you, shopping lists to go along with each of the 3 phases, and recipes as well. I sat down with the guide book and customized my plan based on foods we already had on hand, meals we already know we like, and recipes that looked interesting to try. I also took mental note of the general concepts so that I could swap food items around a bit if I found good deals at the store.
My favorite tool for meal planning (and ALL other types of planning) is Trello. I literally organize my life with Trello! If you’re a sticky note person, this free tool is for you. You can create checklists, to – do lists, schedule tasks, add attachments, collaborate with other people…all in one place. I seriously recommend checking it out!
Finish up any foods that aren’t on the plan or get them out of the house
The day before I did the reset, I baked an entire batch of Cinnamon Rolls! Maybe not the best decision in the world, but I wanted one more splurge before going on such a strict diet for 3 weeks. What this meant? I got to watch Jonathan indulge on those rolls every single day until they were gone! This time around, Jonathan wasn’t as dramatic. He didn’t ask for any special treats. We just picked a start day for him and then finished up whatever we had around the house that wouldn’t be on the cleanse.
Biggest challenge is going to be snacking; find healthy options
This is not a starvation cleanse. However, as your body adjusts to a new way of eating, you will feel hungry and you will want to snack. The meals are laid out for you pretty well, and they provide snacking suggestions as well, but I still found snack time to be the most challenging. Make sure you have nuts, a little dried fruit, hummas dip with veggies, and other healthy options ready to go! You don’t want to end up hungry and find that the only easy to grab items are not cleanse approved.
Decide you’re going to do it and don’t decide again
Honestly, if you’re going to invest in a cleanse like The Ultimate Reset, you really don’t want to throw that investment away for the sake of a few tasty bites of food. About a year ago I read “Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives” by Gretchen Rubin. The best thing I learned from this book? The hardest part of creating a habit is the decision. Deciding over and over again to do the right thing is EXHAUSTING! So, decide not to decide…..and don’t decide again. Just do it. Do it for you.
Every time we move, our schedules, routines, responsibilities…just our pace of life gets all switched up. It takes us a few weeks to settle in to our new normal. During the transition, it’s harder to get adequate sleep, make healthy food choices, and just stay healthy. We both noticed some symptoms of getting sick a few days ago. Of course, this cold weather that has greeted us up here in the mountains isn’t helping in that regard. So I decided it was time for some Chicken Noodle Soup. BUT, this time I decided to try putting an asian spin on it because I had some bok choy in the fridge that needed using.
A quick search on google brought up Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup with Bok Choy Perfect! We love ginger and as I skimmed this recipe, I knew it would be great. I’ve pretty much decided that if you want to make something taste asian, you need sesame oil or ginger. I used both in this recipe! Since I didn’t have any sesame seeds, as called for, I substituted sesame oil for for the olive oil to achieve the same flavor benefits.
I also added carrots to this recipe and used Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of Soy Sauce. For the broth, I just boiled a chicken with all the veggies and spices like I normally would to make the base of chicken noodle soup.
It’d been on our list of places to visit for several years. We drove close to the Grand Canyon a few times, but never felt like we had time to actually go in and visit. Finally, when we headed to Utah to workamp, we gave ourselves a few extra days to stop and visit the Grand Canyon.
We always think we’re going to stop at RV parks for the night, but then we look at the price and decide boondocking is totally doable for another night. LOL! We didn’t head out of Yuma until about 5:30pm. After having spent most of the day loading everything up to move, we found ourselves exhausted by about 8:00pm before we even made it to Phoenix. So we found a recreational area to pull off the road and parked next to a sign that said “No camping without special use permit”. No big deal, right? We’re just parking our house here. We’re not camping. I don’t know, I hate breaking rules and I hate it even more when I can’t decide if we’re doing things according to the rules or not. But we were extremely tired and there was no where else to get off the highway so we went with it.
The next day I enjoyed a long awaited trip to Trader Joe’s and a delightful snickerdoodle latte from Dutch Brothers!! And then as we drove off towards the mountains sipping good coffee I thought, “I’m not sure my day could get any better!” Once we got outside of the Phoenix area, the scenery just kept getting better and better.
I had been planning to share tidbits from the trip on my IG stories, but just outside of Flagstaff, AZ I lost data service on my phone due to roaming. So I’m sharing it now, with you. Jonathan had looked up an RV Park he was considering staying at in Cameron, AZ. There was also a trading post there he wanted to check out. I was SO impressed with this souvenir shop! They had some great items in there. Jonathan spoiled me with a matching bear necklace and bracelet set as well as a necklace pendent that read “Brave”.
Good coffee and headed to the mountains
My favorite Trader Joe’s snacks
My souvenirs
We decided not to stay at the RV Park and drove on to a boondocking site I found on the Campendium app which was within 5 miles of the park entrance. We used our money to pay the $35 entry fee to the national park instead. I think we ended up with a much more enjoyable night on the road as our site was private and tucked off the highway. Kitty Macchiato was able to run around and explore freely, we built a nice camp fire, and we were able to unhitch and leave the cargo trailer behind for our day trip to tour the Grand Canyon the next day.
I’m not sure what I expected from the Grand Canyon, but I have to agree with Jonathan…it would be better to take a day hike or some other form of adventure down into the canyon. Just driving around and looking at it from the view points is impressive, and I’m really glad we did it, but I still don’t feel like I’ve really experienced the Grand Canyon. But for the short amount of time that we had, we both enjoyed the views. We entered the park through the east entrance, which is the least popular from what I understand. My favorite view point we stoped at was Grandview Point. There’s a hiking trail there which I wish we had time to explore, but another time. The views from here were the best in both directions!
We spent about 5 hours exploring the park and then headed back to our boondocking site to pick up our cargo trailer. Yes, we were nervous about people possibly bothering our trailer while we were away. But it was perfectly untouched when we got back and it was really nice to be able to leave it behind. There were several parking areas that were not big enough for our full load. This has also been one of the reasons in the past that we don’t stop and tour much while we’re making a trip.
With the Grand Canyon behind us, we set out towards Utah and turned our minds to our new work opportunity at the Ranch. We agreed that it would be important to stay in an RV Park that night, before arriving at the ranch, to give us a chance to clean up the camper (and ourselves) before showing up at our new position. I also wanted to use the wifi to catch up on some work before getting distracted by settling in at the Ranch.
