If you’re reading about the Independence Challenge for the first time, you can click here to read more about what it is.
Even though it’s Independence Days Friday, I thought I’d share what a great day I had on Thursday. I took the day off from thinking about writing a blog since it always takes so much out of me mentally. Two Thursdays a month Dom has off and yesterday we got to go out for breakfast. It was nice sitting at Sopa’s Restaurant across from my lover while we were thoroughly entertained by the waiter. We sat not too far from the fireplace and talked intimately as only lovers do. My lips are sealed! 
We came back to the house for a few hours, collected Simone and took her to the park. The photo on the left is from our outing at the park. Can you tell she loves her Poppie? God…I love Poppie too! Dom has a way of making each moment seem magical and special.
Okay, onto the Independence Days Challenge:
1. Plant something:
This week 98 Camilla Sinensis seeds (tea seeds) were planted, Hardy orange seeds, Paw Paw and lavender were all started in two 72 cell flats. Currently they are sitting in our kitchen, and I’m eagerly awaiting the completion of the greenhouse.
2. Harvest Something:
Our harvest included 34 eggs, with the majority of eggs coming from our ducks. Can you tell which eggs belong to the ducks? LOL If you guessed the mucky nasty looking dirty ones, you guessed correctly.
Preserve Something:
Even though we do have a pressure canner now, we don’t have a good hot plate to use with it yet. The All American pressure canner does not recommend using a glass cook top while canning. We can however, freeze our awesome bone broth soup stock in ice cube trays until we get a hot plate. Three quarts of bone broth stock were frozen and stored until we want to use them.
Waste Not:
In the hole where a tree was planted is our compost. Each day Dom is faithful to collect all the food scraps we have and it gets turned into the most beautiful compost we have. I suppose I could start weighing out how much kitchen scraps goes into the compost pile as well as what goes to the chickens. We do have plans of blending everything up fine and giving it to the ducks as well. Our use of plastic baggies is dwindling down to almost nothing. Our plastic wrap is almost to its last few feet, and once its gone, there will be no more plastic wrap in the house.
Want Not:
Each pay period Dom brings home a few items to store in our emergency kit. This week it was peroxide, baking soda, Kiss My Face Lavender soap, washing soda, rubbing alcohol and bleach.
Eat the Food:
We’re big on trying new recipes, because the last thing in the world we enjoy is BORING food. Last night we cooked a turkey that was given to Dom by his boss at Christmas. 
For the first time we tried a recipe that involved cooking the turkey in a paper bag…it came out great! Another thing we did was to cut WAY back on the amount of fast food items we eat. While it was a personal goal to stop eating all fast food (any food pre-made and/or frozen and purchased at the store or from a fast food restaurant) in 2012, “Eat the Food” has become a daily reminder that we always have more than enough in the fridge or pantry to eat. Yes, we did go out for breakfast yesterday, but hey, it was a local establishment and sometimes lovers need to get away and flirt from across the table. Dom has been enjoying the no-knead breads he makes and I think we are at the point where we may not have to purchase bread anymore. He also experimented with his new sour dough culture and created a no-knead sour dough bread, but that’s a whole other blog post!
Build Community Food Systems:
We gave almost a dozen eggs to our neighbor (my dad). We’re hoping to be able to reach out more to our greater community by participating in this year’s farmers market as well as the local co-op in Albuquerque. We also gave out our homemade bread to another neighbor down the block who supplies us with all their horse manure which gets included in our compost.
Skill Up:
We attempted…ATTEMPTED! to make our own butter this week. It didn’t turn out as planned and in the end all we had was more milk. LOL The problem? First problem was that it was ultra pasteurized. Second problem was that I didn’t read that it was ultra pasteurized. Third problem was letting it whip in the Kitchen-aid for too long, and finally, we learned to read labels and use common sense the next time we attempt to spin milk into butter. 
We also attempted to make a homemade gel laundry detergent which turned out to be a liquid instead of a gel. It works but it’s just not as thick as we’d hoped.
Organization:
Even though organization wasn’t on the list for Independence Days, I decided to add it to my own challenge. This week we utilized unused space to create another area for storing our food. The shelves aren’t finished and will become a part of next week’s challenge for organization when the trim is on and all the jars are added. It’s kind of like an open pantry space. Don’t get me wrong, we do have a pantry, but right now we aren’t using it optimally. Just wait till I organize my pantry! Wallpaper, flooring, labels and preserved food up the wazoo! heehee! I also did a very detailed cleaning of the kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room, and Simmi’s room and let me tell you, it needed it! Doing a detailed cleaning that includes all areas that are touched by others (remote control, door knobs, light switches and so on) can help keep illness down. With spring being just around the corner, I’d like to avoid anyone getting a spring cold. We’ve gone one full year to this point without a single cold or flu…not even a sniffle, and I’d like to keep it that way!
If you’d like to join the challenge, leave a link to your Friday Independence Days Challenge and I’ll be sure to come and visit to see what you’ve been up to. If you don’t have a blog, just leave a comment and let me know what you did to move towards greater independence this week.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I really must get back in the habit of grabbing a couple of items for our Emergency Kit every week or two! I totally do it in waves, but I think the slow and steady method is much wiser
Thanks for the reminder!
Bee Girl (AKA Melissa) recently posted..Independence Days
Hi Melissa,
I think our emergency supply will be working on more medical supplies.