Shedding the "All or Nothing" Mentality

I think a lot of us who aspire to the frugal lifestyle sometimes get caught up in the idea that our efforts have to be all or nothing.

This applies equally to those of us who are trying to eat "clean" and keep our homes and gardens as chemical-free as possible. We begin to think that anything less than perfection is a compromise. We let perfect get in the way of good, and best get in the way of better.

Well, let me tell you, I'm not perfect, you aren't perfect, and neither is anyone else.

• So far this month, I've baked several loaves of homemade bread, ground my own wheat, and even made homemade flour tortillas and saltine crackers.  But I've also bought bread, tortillas, and crackers, and used store-bought white flour.
  
• I've dried clothes on my drying racks, but I've also used my dryer.
  
• I bought farm eggs and local honey, but I forgot my jugs when I went for raw milk and rather than drive back out to the farm, I bought big-dairy milk at the store.
  
• I try to consolidate errands as much as I can to save gas, but I warm the truck up on cold mornings.
  
• We harvest rainwater for our gardens to conserve water and save money, but I take a deep, hot bath whenever I want one.
  
• We make our own bath soap, laundry soap and toothpaste, but still use Dawn for dishes and commercial deodorant (for now, anyway).

We have given up striving for best and perfect.  But we do try to make better choices and execute better practices, and will continue to try to improve.  We don't let the idea of perfection stop us in our tracks.

That's good enough for us.

Time For A Garden Update

Good morning and I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day yesterday.  We had planned to go the the Kansas City Zoo, but Shane woke up not feeling well.  He went back to bed twice during the day -- unheard of for him -- so I knew he was really feeling yucky.  He's better now, though.  I ended up spending the day reorganizing my kitchen cabinets and going through my recipe files at a leisurely pace.  Not at all what I had planned for the day, but it was a nice day all the same.

I haven't done a garden update for a while, so I think that's what I'll offer you this morning.

My throwback flower child.

We've been getting a cup or two of strawberries every couple of days.

Pyramid of lettuces, beets, carrots, etc., is looking a little wild. 
We already cleared out all the radishes.

Radishes in another bed.  Overcrowded, but, oh well...

Ground cherries.  Not sure what to expect with these.

Kat's cabbage from school is growing very well.

Kat's "Moon and Stars" watermelon, also growing well.

Spinach not doing well this year.  I think it'll get cleared out to make way for
peppers or cucumbers. (This spot is sunny after mid-morning.)

Peas took their sweet time, but are finally growing.

Turnip beauty.

Swiss chard is ready!

We thought our kohlrabi and other brassicas were goners,
but they have finally shown signs of growth.

We still have tomatoes in the freezer from last summer. 
This year we are growing only eight tomato plants.

Blackberries starting to get some color.

We won't get more than a few raspberries,
but the plants are healthy and growing.

This bed needs work.  Onions near the fence, garlic toward the yard.
Fourth year blueberries in the middle haven't produced yet;
they will be replaced with more blackberries, we think.

Taters.

Jerusalem artichokes...

will eventually tower over this fence and block us from the view of
ever-barking dogs at the house behind us.

The last of the irises.

Wild columbine.

A week or so ago, I was ready to say screw the garden.  I was in a funk, Shane was working overtime and/or out of town for a while, plants were growing slowly, yet there was still so much to be done out there.  But things finally broke loose -- the weather, the overtime, the mood I was in -- and now we are feeling encouraged again.

And just when I think we're done planting, we're not!  We put green beans and sweet corn in late last week.  When the corn is a few inches tall, we'll plant pinto beans, some zucchini and some butternut squash in with it to follow a Three Sisters planting.  Also, we still have to plant bell peppers and cucumbers.

Stick around and see what happens.