terrycorum.com

I am not sure why, but Google seems to like this site. I just posted 2 little articles today and they were immediately cached by Google! I have done a little work on some other blogs and never get quite this success. So I am going to continue this blog and post some things for a site that I do a lot of work on and needs all the help it can get, google-wise!

Scratch n All is the site I want to promote. Scratchnall® pads are designed to give your pets a safe place to scratch – any time they feel the urge. They also work to protect your property from paws, claws, heads, hooves and hips. This pad can be used for cats, dogs, horses, goats, donkeys, any animals that are scratching all the time. The pads are designed to be put together to make as large a scratching area as needed for the type of animal it is intended for. The best way to show this is by a picture:

A single Scratch n All pad installed on corner

Several Scratch n All pads installed on barn door frame

Even better is a video:

I recently converted a coat closet into a pantry. This closet is in the entryway right inside our front door. The entryway is very small and in the winter I hang a heavy quilt over the doorway into the living room to help keep the house warmer. That works very well. But that closet has 2 walls facing the outside and with the quilt hung up the closet becomes so cold in the winter that no one wants to hang their coats in it anyway! So when I decided I wanted to create a place to store foods, I felt that closet would be perfect!

The closet is 4 feet wide by about 3 feet deep. I have a digital thermometer in the pantry and since it has turned cold, the temp in there hovers right around 50 degrees fahrenheit. Perfect!

However, being a coat closet, it only had one high shelf. I did not have money to buy shelving materials so I used what I have, namely plastic milk crates and odd pieces of boards I keep for just such purposes. The closet is working very well, I really like having a supply of food on hand so I don’t have to run out if the weather turns bad. But it really needs to be emptied and reorganized already!! I noticed that one of the milk crates sides are getting droopy because a lot of canned items are on the shelf it is hold up. I am going to have to take care of this before I have everything fall down. This is what is on my mind lately.

Sorry I do not have a picture of my pantry because I do not have a camera right now.

I think I always wanted to live simple, just things got in the way…

At times I would do things like bake my bread, make yogurt, sew my clothes.  Most of the time these things were done because I never have had much money, so I had to do things the “cheap” way.  Most of my adult life I had a fulltime job.  I had children.  My husband had a lot of health problems and did not work or do very much around the house.

Then, in 2001 I lost my last full time job at the age of  50.  We live in a Detroit Michigan suburb and the economy around here was starting to go down the drain.  It has never recovered.  So any dream I had of finding a full time job (especially at my age) was pretty much a waste of time.  So I started working at home making websites.  I did work part time at a couple of different jobs, but I hated them.  Being a cashier in a grocery store for minimum wage was not for me.  Then I partnered up with a gentleman who sent me website work to do on a regular basis.  He asked me what was the minimum amount of money I needed every week and he paid me that.  If there was more work, great, but at least I could count on the minimum while I was learning to live very simple.  He died suddenly 6 months ago, but I was left with the regular clients we had and am managing to keep just about the same income I had with him.

My first garden

In the meantime, I started doing more simple living things around the house.  Cooking from scratch, more sewing, small things.   Then the food scare started.  It started with tomatoes for me.  The ones in the store dissappeared and that summer I planted my own, along with a couple of other things.  My first vegetable garden was quite small, but I was impressed by what I got from it.  That winter I did a lot of online reading about organic vegetable gardening.  That was when I found blogs like Little Homestead In The City, down–to–earth, and others.  I was very impressed by what other people were doing in their yards in the city.  The next summer I dug up more of my backyard and planted heirloom seeds I bought online.  More success!  So much so that I canned up a lot of tomatoes, made pickles, and froze some other items from my garden.  It wasn’t enough for the whole next 6 months, but it certainly made a dent in my grocery bill!

Way too much lettuce that season!

I also started making sure I bought locally and organically if at all possible.  I composted our scraps and cardboard.  My garden this year will be the majority of our backyard, I am hoping it will be an even greater success, enough to last us through the winter and next spring.  I am now 59, my last kids are grown, although they still live at home, and unfortunately are both now unemployed.  Money is still tight.  But that’s ok, because we don’t need much.  I have been trying to teach them what I have learned too.

In between working on websites from my little home office, I do the simple things like gardening, sewing, knitting, cooking.  To me life is the best it has ever been!  I don’t leave home often, I don’t spend hardly anything at all except what is required. The clothes I wear are old.   It would be really nice if I had enough money to visit my 2 other children and 5 grandchildren on the other side of the USA, but I will have to settle for Skype visits.

My gardening buddy, Jack, sunbathing

I have pretty much abandoned this Word Press site for this one because I needed to learn Joomla. I have moved all the posts from this site to the new one, just haven’t moved the pictures of my grandchildren over yet, …too much work…

This is what I want for Christmas please!

OMG, we aren’t supposed to get rain all week!! My rain barrel is only half full. We had some rain yesterday, but that son of mine has still not dragged out my 2nd barrel from the basement so I can get it set up. Well, this being Michigan, the weather forecast is likely to change and we get some rain after all, I hope!

I have been busy the last few days trimming privet hedges and keeping some of the branches to make my very own fencing and bean poles!

I know, its not a pretty site, but its free! I also trimmed some rose branches and used them along the bottom of the fencing, I read somewhere that the thorns will keep animals out. I don’t have enough to go all the way around though.

I found this blog yesterday and I love it! The writer is so funny…

Oh, one more thing – I noticed some green bean vines starting to twine around my corn today!

I put this here because I want to remember to watch it!