Bungalowjungalow

A Thought

bungalowjungalow — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:28:43 +0000

Hello friends, it has been a while! I was thinking about music today, and thought I’d share the thought. When I think about music, the picture above is frequently seen by my mind’s eye: cozy, comforting, friendly, a worn book, a good friend. A time when you can go somewhere without going anywhere. Plus, you can visit almost any time in history - medieval cathedrals, the nobility or peasants of the middle ages, the romantics of the late 1800′s, the roaring twenties, and so on and so forth…and who said that time travel isn’t possible? Well friends, I went ahead and took the picture that I was thinking about, it’s not a very good picture, but I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and by the way, the thought is usually about as far as I get these days.

Summer Break

bungalowjungalow — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:20:11 +0000

Just a “hi” to those out there who may come upon Bungalowjungalow. In case you’ve been wondering, I decided to take a summer break from blogging – I’m having a hard time sitting in front of my computer long enough to write and post pictures while it’s so warm and beautiful and there’s so much to do outside. However, as soon as the weather starts to turn and we’re indoors more, I’ll look forward to sharing our adventures with you once again!

May all of you continue to enjoy summer’s beauty, bounty, and warmth! See you all in the Fall…

Strawberry Jam Makin’ Time!

bungalowjungalow — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:37:25 +0000

Late morning through early afternoon, wonderful strawberry smells arose from the kitchen. We bubbled and brewed 2 batches of the most delicious stove-top jam! My expert canner/jammer friend came to help guide me through the stove-top jam making process. We washed, dried, de-topped, smashed, cooked, jarred, and hot-water bathed while our 5 little boys played (her 2, and my 3). The boys did great – absolutely no catastrophes took place, and they were still playing happily at the end!

First, the directions that came in the pectin package were carefully studied. I found out that every pectin brand has slightly different directions that must be followed to the “t” for jam to turn out well and set right. By the way, isn’t that a cute apron?

Hot water bathing our jarred jam – just look at her cute, pregnant tummy…

Lovely, sparkling jars of strawberry jam. My bread machine made a loaf of honey whole wheat bread so we could properly taste test the strawberry goodness - it was lip-smackin’ good! Oh, how I wanted to just sit with spoon and jar…mmm…

Strawberry Pickin’ Time!

bungalowjungalow — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:44:41 +0000

It is strawberry picking time! Last Thursday we went picking with friends. The fields were ripe and scrumptious, and we kept finding ourselves eating just one… more… berry. ” A fresh strawberry IS a fresh strawberry”, I’ve heard it said. So absolutely right, nothing compares! May all of you have stained mouths, hands, and clothes sometime soon too~

My friend pictured below is an experienced canner/jam maker - she’s going to teach me how to make stove-top strawberry jam this week…mine never seems to set right. She says there’s hope for me yet…we shall see on Thursday when we get another batch of berries and go to work in the kitchen. They have two little boys, and a little girl on the way!

Wouldn’t you like to bite into this luscious berry right now?

“Working” the fields – what a great way to teach kids where food comes from, and the joy that can come from good old-fashioned hard work. I foresee lots of field work in the future for these two as they grow up – and for their little brother as well.

A Phone Call From Grandmother

bungalowjungalow — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:37:58 +0000

My grandmother called me yesterday afternoon while the boys and I were making some chocolate oatmeal cookies (we omitted 1/2 cup of flour and added cocoa instead!). We were just scooping the last spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet when the phone rang…I love it when she calls, we chat about this and that, and I usually end up asking her tidbits of advice about homekeeping and child-rearing. She gives the best advice – so, so full of perspective! (~Grandma is Portuguese, was raised in Hawaii, and is a woman of great faith.) While we were on the phone, she shared with me some thoughts/sayings out of a book that she’s been reading…here are two of them:

“It is better to build strong children then try to repair adults.” What a great piece of wisdom, coming from someone who truly raised 4 stong children (my mother being one of them).

The other is “Worry is a futile thing, it is somewhat like a rocking chair. Although it keeps you occupied, it doesn’t get you anywhere.” Isn’t that the truth! Back, and forth, and back and forth, we mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, rock our chairs and rock our chairs don’t we!

She also shared with me a paraphrase of Philippians 4:11-13. Grandma’s paraphrase went like this: “I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe to being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty, whatever I have, wherever I am I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

~Thanks for the phone call yesterday Grandma, I’ll talk to you again soon.~

Urban Farming Attempt…

bungalowjungalow — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:32:40 +0000

Time for a quick update and news from our Bungalow. Mama’s too tired to write much tonight, though…my three little boys continue to be wiggly, warm-hearts that provide me lots of wonderful work, and so at the end of the day sometimes I’m just plain weak. Thought I would show a few pictures, though, of our continued urban farming attempt. What is it they say? Oh, yes, a picture is worth a thousand words – so here are some pictures…

Vegetable garden growing!

My rose hedge is blooming! “Lavender Simplicity” from Jackson & Perkins:

Our latest, greatest, cute but practical yard idea: Why not use an empty wine barrel for a hose home? Makes putting away the hose super easy!

Chickens getting bigger! Every evening, and first thing in the morning, they can all be seen perching in a row just like this. The chickens continue to have hours upon hours of play time with the boys…and -wow- can those kids catch a chicken like nobody’s business! Still no eggs, but soon though…

Still (always) lots of un-completed projects…firewood to be split, dirt and bark mulch to be spread:

Swinging with Daddy! Plus, a trench-in- progress…Joe is very excited to be planting a screen of bamboo along one of our fences for added privacy:

Logging Day

bungalowjungalow — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:56:35 +0000

Saturday was a barn-raising day of sorts for some good friends of ours (they are also our cousins through marriage) who bought a beautiful 4-acre plot of land and darling home last December. They are expecting their first baby (a little boy!) in September, so there was/is much work to do before then to help them get settled. Our gang of five, Uncle Michael & Aunt Jenny, plus our pal Dave, all headed up to Washington to help them clear their land for a fun-filled day of logging, playing in the mud, bonfires, and hotdog and marshmallow roasting. At the end of the day, we headed home with a trailer full of firewood, too (our woodstove’s gonna love it) – thanks guys!!

The boys roamed free catching frogs, snakes, bugs, seeing deer, and spotting a wild rabbit!

Who’s that hot mama with the chainsaw?

Uncle Michael kept the bonfire burning all afternoon…

Lumberjacks!

The next-door neighbor’s cat recently had kittens…they were so cute all curled up in the straw…

Aunt Jenny with a darling kitty:

Roasting time!! (The ladies were busy preparing yummy salads while the guys started on the hot dogs.) Hot dogs and s’mores never tasted so good!

How To Plant A Fruit Tree

bungalowjungalow — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:40:50 +0000

Some friends of ours chose a nice sunny spot in their yard, cleared the “land”, and decided to make it (and call it) an orchard. What a novel idea…the size of one’s yard doesn’t matter, anyone can have an orchard! One can even train fruit trees, grapes, and/or berries along a fence for a surprisingly large harvest (kiwi comes to mind, too) and still have an “orchard”…the term is subjective if you ask me. The key is to be creative and just work with what you have. So, inspiration set in for us, and we made ourselves an orchard this weekend. We chose 4 different dwarf fruit trees – one apple, one pear, and one plum …all multi-grafted trees so they will self-pollinate, plus a sour cherry tree (sour cherry trees self-pollinate). We didn’t know how to plant a fruit tree before this weekend, so just in case any of you are wondering, too, here’s our simple version of how to do it:

Dig a hole twice the width of the pot the tree came in, and about as deep as the pot. Take the tree out of the pot. Take a shovel and loosen the roots. Place it in the hole:

Fill the hole in with dirt. Next, take a hose and turn it on so it trickles. Place the trickle near the tree base, and leave it there until the ground is soaked:

Next, take one bag of steer manure and spread it all around the tree base.

You are done!

A neat organization we’ve just learned about is the Home Orchard Society – you can visit them at www.homeorchardsociety.org

Homemade Salad Dressings

bungalowjungalow — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:15:01 +0000

We are finally harvesting salad stuff from our garden. I’m always late to get my first greens into the ground even though I think about it all winter long…one of these years I’ll make it by the beginning of spring when stuff like salad greens can first be planted (and thrive). So, now to dress them up: Making salad dressing used to really scare me – it seemed so complicated. Since last summer I’ve been slowly overcoming my salad dressing anxieties and have discovered that it’s really not hard, it just takes a little extra time. (Which sometimes I have, and sometimes I haven’t…thus an extra bottle in the fridge.) These are two dressings that I love and make regularly, I hope you enjoy them, too. If anyone out there has any tried and true salad dressing recipes, I’d love to receive them! You could jot them down on my comments if you feel up to it. I thoroughly enjoy reading comments people leave me but am not in the habit of posting them up…but I’ll be sure to post any recipes I get so others can enjoy them as well!

Green Romaine, red Romaine, buttercrunch, spinach leaves along with radishes just picked and washed:

This is my favorite creamy dressing…so delicious. I tend to use this one with parmesan and/or croutons. Good used in a Ceasar salad, but also provides good back-drop for more flavorful veggies…definitely worth the extra effort!

Creamy Italian Dressing (compliments of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons white wine or white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

1/4 teaspoon oregano, crushed

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

2 Tablespoons milk (or a bit more if desired)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a metal whisk.

Bungalow’s Vinaigrette

Good with greens mixed with various things such as dried cranberries, and/or pears, diced apples, or maybe a little citrus fruit, or sunflower seeds, etc.

1/3 cup salad oil (I usually use a plain tasting oil like canola, sunflower, etc.)

1/3 cup white wine or red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1 garlic clove, crushed or minced

Whisk (or shake if you have a shaker) all together and enjoy! Note: Either the celery seed, parmesan cheese, and/or garlic can be omitted to make a simpler vinaigrette. One thing I’m learning about vinaigrettes is that you must have the oil and the vinegar, and the rest is really up for discussion!

We have A Rooster!

bungalowjungalow — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:35:18 +0000

“You’ll know you have a rooster the first time he crows”, or so said our chicken-expert friend. So, Thursday morning when we heard a very peculiar sound at 5:30 AM for the first time we were suspicious. “What is that sound?”…we were baffled as we awoke to something that sounded half-way between a yell and a moan. (We later learned that it takes a while for their “cock-a-doodle-doo” to develop.) After searching the house and checking on the kids, we pin-pointed the sound to a certain chicken that was sitting right in the middle of all 7 chickens sitting in a row on a perch. “Well, maybe it’s just a hen with some sort of problem.”…so we gave it another morning. Sure enough, at 5:30 (on the dot) the next morning the same sound came from the same chicken, and then again on Saturday morning. If we had lived on a real farm we would have cooked us up some fried chicken, but since we live on an urban farm we sold him back to the feedstore from where he came. So, now we are back to just little hens – or so we hope. Happy to report that the last few mornings have been very peaceful.

Here he is (or was) looking very much like a rooster in this picture: