Beauty Farming Life

It's time for a giveaway! Enter once in the comments below.   The giveaway ends Sunday, February 14, at 11:59pm. Found this book recently as we were unpacking and realized that we can't have a tabletop garden at the apartment because the cats would think of it as an all you can eat buffet and we can't do it at the farm and not water it for a week so we decided to give it away.   Here is the Amazon link if you'd like more information on the book: Beautiful Tabletop Gardens by Kilby, Janice Eaton (2005) Hardcover The book is by author Janice Eaton.  Create a little garden paradise in every corner of your home and enjoy it year round.  Tips, illustrations and photos showing every step of how to create and assemble small gardens everywhere in your house using cuttings, seeds, rootings, etc.   As always (and for those new to the blog) the rules are as follows: We'd like you to be a friend of the farm" (we love having...

I'm not sure how many of you are watching, but this season of the FOX TV show  MasterChef has been great.  One of the standout reasons to watch is a local favorite of ours, fellow Houstonian Christine Ha. MasterChef, courtesy of FOX TV She is very talented, genuine and kind and she is an awesome inspiration to everyone.  Why is she such an inspiration?  She is legally blind!  Yes, blind.  She suffers from a degenerative condition that is called  Neuromyelitis Optica  and has gradually lost her vision over a period of years.  But that diagnosis didn't and hasn't stopped her from living her life to the fullest.  That means she's not just a nice "feel good story" for the show's backstory, she really is a valid contender and potential winner that we hope goes all the way.  We are continually amazed as week after week she competes with the other home cooks to win the coveted title of MasterChef, which also includes a cookbook deal....

Today was a much better day, weather-wise, than YESTERDAY and would have been a better day to go to the farm...but today was also the running of the annual CHEVRON HOUSTON MARATHON .   Chevron Houston Marathon finish line No, we weren't in it, LOL, but since we've moved, we now live in the MIDDLE of it.  The starting line is a block over on one side of our building, and the finish line is right on the other side.  So needless to say, traffic is an issue with all the roads closed all over downtown.  Most residents say they just plan around it and stay in and since 2nd Man is sick, and I'm just getting over it, we stayed in.   Still, it was fun to watch and cheer them on.  It's not farm life, but I thought I'd share a few pics anyway. Houston Marathon final few hundred yards This is the view from the balcony, the road to the finish line just a few hundred yards away.  Here, they divide the road into two, all the people on the right s...

It's time for a giveaway!   Times two! We found these at the store the other day and they were just too cute to pass up.  They are canning themed aprons.  I even picked up one for myself.  Be sure and read the note below in red, there are special instructions for entering.  This is the first one...showing some canning jars with tomatoes in them and the phrase: "I can...because I can" This is the second one...showing a canning jar with a crown and the phrase: "Canning Queen" (no this is NOT the one I picked up for myself, LOL)  They are 100% cotton, made in China, measure 26"x33" and say "one size fits all".  Nothing fancy or high end but they sure are fun. As always (and for those new to the blog) the rules are as follows: We'd like you to be a friend of the farm" (we love having followers) but that's not required.  Please leave a comment here on  this  thread letting us kno...

A couple of days ago CLICK HERE , I posted a review of the Plant Nanny watering system.   Well, the wonderful folks at  Plant Nanny  sent us an extra set for us to host a giveaway!  Yep, it's time for a giveaway!  Woo hoo! Plant Nanny Recycle a Wine Bottle Their website is  HERE .   As we aren't at the farm during the week, we do have the need for something to water in our absence and they are working wonderfully for us so far. Recycling wine bottles to water your plants is easy with the Recycle a Wine Bottle Stake. It’s a great way to water plants day-to-day, and the perfect solution to keep plants watered while on vacation. As the soil dries, our terracotta stake slowly releases water from the reservoir deep into the soil and directly to the root system.  Plants grow healthier by getting consistent moisture where it’s most needed. And indeed, it's been working for us, for the plants we have on the porch... ...

It's time for a giveaway! Enter once in comments below, giveaway ends  ended Sunday, February 8, at 11:59pm. Gardener's Weather Bible by Sally Roth Found this book at a used book store recently and picked up two copies, one for our library at the farm and a copy to give away.   Here is the Amazon link if you'd like to more information on the book: The Gardener's Weather Bible: How to Predict and Prepare for Garden Success in Any Kind of Weather The book is by author Sally Roth.  It includes great tips on how to use the weather to your advantage in the garden year round and learn how weather affects everything.  For example, when to protect from frost and when not to worry about it...learn how to listen to bird songs for upcoming weather...even how plants can help predict the weather. As always (and for those new to the blog) the rules are as follows: We'd like you to be a friend of the farm" (we love having follower...

It is Super Bowl weekend here in Houston.  Yep, we are hosting it for the first time in more than a decade and we must say, Houston has done an OUTSTANDING job... We have had so much fun going to events here in downtown (we are practically at ground zero for the bulk of the events and celebration).  We've been a few times since we can just walk to it. Super Bowl LI NFL Experience  The George R. Brown convention center is host to the NFL Experience, a ticketed event featuring Football in all it's glory, celebrities, interactive events, autographs, merchandise, etc.  It's really neat to see in person, even if you aren't a huge football fan. Enchanted Promenade  Discovery Green is an incredible downtown park which sits along the front of the Convention Center, and it hosts all the free Super Bowl events.  There is a lot to see.  For example, at night there are these incredible giant flowers (an art installation) that light up...

And the winner is... Congratulations to Chickie Mama Linda from  Practical Parsimony ! Your name is the one we pulled from the basket.  I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to this, as you all know, it was a crazy month or so for us. But now we're starting fresh for the new year. Please email me directly with your address (you can use the 'email me' button), and I'll get your book packaged up and mailed out Monday. And stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon! Thanks to everyone, we appreciate you!

And the winner is... Congratulations to Chickie Mama Linda from  Practical Parsimony ! Your name is the one we pulled from the basket.  I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to this, as you all know, it was a crazy month or so for us. But now we're starting fresh for the new year. Please email me directly with your address (you can use the 'email me' button), and I'll get your book packaged up and mailed out Monday. And stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon! Thanks to everyone, we appreciate you!

Went ahead and drew a name tonight, just couldn't wait! Drum roll please... The winner of our first ever blog giveaway is... GRAFIX MUSE! Click  HERE  to visit her wonderful blog. And in the meantime, Grafix, email me and let me know where to ship your Farmhouse Cookbook and I'll get that out to you.  Congratulations! Thank you all for your entries. Gosh, I can't tell you how sweet all the comments were and how they lifted my heart.  And thank you to the new followers who became "Friends of the Farm".  Please stick around the best is yet to come! Honestly, I felt guilty just pulling only one name out of the box.  I wanted everyone to win!   So, that being said, watch the blog, because we're going to start something new next month.  I'm working out the details now.   *cough* monthly giveaway *cough*

It's time for a giveaway! UPDATE:  We're going to give away THREE of these, so be sure and enter below by commenting and letting us know to enter your name. Ball Infuser I recently stumbled across this new item (new to me anyway) from Ball Brands.  It's a Mason Jar Infuser.  It lets you turn a canning jar into one of those infusers that puts the essence of fruits and other items into drinking water. I bought one for our own use and so I picked up a second one to give away. Mason Jar Infuser You simply fill the infuser section with the fruits/veggie combination of your choice (the back of the package, photo below, has some suggestions) and then screw the infuser piece into the lid.  Lastly, the whole unit is screwed onto a widemouth jar filled with water.  Pop it into the fridge and let the flavors infuse the water.  You can even drink directly out of it, like a sippy cup.   If you don't win one and still wan...

One of our local TV stations was giving away some Red Cross Deluxe Emergency kits for the beginning of Hurricane Season.   KHOU.com .  You could enter online daily and so most nights, while watching the news and getting the reminder, I would enter. Red Cross Deluxe Emergency Kit I kind of forgot about it for a bit.  Then the other day I got an email that said I was chosen as a winner!   WOO HOO! Above is a picture of what all it comes with...including a backpack filled with all sorts of items.  A first aid kit, bags of drinking water and ration bars, a crank radio, flashlight, duct tape, and more...even a collapsible 3 gallon water bag.   We'll keep this in town for emergencies, since we have some supplies at the farm, plus I'm working on a better first aid kit for out there as we ll. We've ordered some cool  things  for that at Amazon and will have that in an upcoming post.  Of course today is the second annual AMAZON PRI...

When I started this blog, I did it just to document the process of us buying the property and starting to remodel it and trying to turn it into something.  I never thought I'd have anything to say that would get people interested and coming back day after day.  But then I started getting a few followers.  And then a few comments.  And I was thrilled beyond words. But never did I think I'd get 25, or 50 or even 100.  Now, thanks to newest friend Chuck Mallory, we now have 200! A couple of weeks ago, I mulled over the idea of having a giveaway of some sort and I had come up with something.  Now with the 200 followers milestone, I think it's perfect timing. One thing we enjoy are books.  Cookbooks, gardening books, farm books, it doesn't matter, we have a lot.  I figured it was time to pay it forward and share our love of books with all of you.  So for this first giveaway, I'm going to give away a copy of one of our favorite cookbooks. ...

It's the holiday season and time for giving, so we're going to have a giveaway! A couple of weeks back, I blogged HERE about starting our composting adventure for the farm.  I found this book the other day at lunch and since it's geared toward beginners, I bought two so that we could give one away. This is the GREEN GUIDES edition of COMPOST by Rachel Strauss.   It covers 'how to use', 'how to make', 'everyday tips', 'why we should compost', 'what you can and can't put on your heap', 'different types of bins', and more. It's 256 pages long and full of information. So who wants to join us on a composting adventure? As always, and for those new to the blog, the rules are as follows : You need to be a "friend of the farm" (follower) and then leave a comment here on this thread letting me know that you want to be entered, because after all, it might be a book you already have. T...