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Hi Reader,

I hope you all had a nice weekend last week, whether you were celebrating a mom or mom-figure or just hanging out. 😀

I had some sweet time with family, but I was s.o.r.e. and was so happy when it was time to go to bed on Sunday. 😂

Why? Because I WAS able to dismantle the broken concrete garden patio like I had hoped AND create a new raised bed AND plant it. Whew. Brian took half the concrete pieces to the transfer station (aka, dump) which weighed in a over a ton. And I moved more than that, one wheelbarrow at a time!

• Upper left: shiny brand-new patio 5 years ago.
• Upper right: Brian helped sledgehammer the pieces apart for me so I could pick them up (the patio had grown a lot of moss...Oregon).
• Lower left: I then had to shovel multiple loads full of dirty gravel (and then lug to other areas around the property) to dig down far enough to have more room for soil to be added (this garden area was built on an old manufactured home site, so layers of gravel). Brian took pity on me after awhile and finished this task up.💜
• Lower right: The finished bed ready to be planted.👏 This space took a whole yard of garden soil one wheelbarrow at a time - see what I mean about sore?

After this I planted rows of corn, a couple zucchini, three hills of spaghetti squash, and a few red potatoes I still had to plant.

Then of course I covered the whole area with garden cloth and chicken wire to try and protect all the seeds from the ground squirrels and birds.😂

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More Gardening

​Garden Tasks for May​ It's a big month in the garden! ​ ​

​How to Plant Tomatoes So They THRIVE​ I've planted mine, and they are under row covers (yes, attached to the tall cattle panels- you can see them in the new bed photo above!). No red mulch this year - I'm testing out something else. ​

​How to Plant Corn Weed Free​ I've never hoed a corn patch in my life - let alone in the middle of summer's heat (no thank you). I'm so happy to have a corn bed again.😀 ​

Our Week's Menu

Here's what was on my menu this last week (literally copied from our kitchen menu board!):

• Mon- Turkey paninis with tomato chutney (just spread it on the bread - it's SO good on any type of grilled cheese/panini), salad with simple vinaigrette​
• Tue- Baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, roasted cauliflower & carrots​
• Wed- Grilled salmon Caesar salad, toasted sourdough​
• Thur- Grilled sausages and onions, salad, toasted sourdough
• Fri- Slow cooker best chili over baked potatoes
• Sat- Burgers
• Sun- OYO (on your own)

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A Kitchen Favorite

For Christmas I asked Brian for a beeswax-lined linen bread bag. They aren't cheap, but regular linen bread bags just weren't keeping the bread well so I wanted to try one.

The one he got is similar to these and I've been using it pretty regularly. I do have to say that I prefer to get our bread in the freezer as soon as it's cool as it seems to be the freshest after thawing, but when I need bread over a couple of days on the counter, this has been working well.

I'm curious - do you use a special bread bag or way to store bread?

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What's New

​High Protein Maple Cinnamon Granola​ I've tweaked and adapted my classic granola for months to bring us one with 3x the protein (!), more fiber, and still be lower in sugar and keeping the calories in check. ​ RECIPE HERE! ​

​Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread​ I've updated the photos, added step-by-step instructions, and answered questions to this popular recipe. ​ RECIPE HERE! ​

A Few More Things

Brian and I finished up the Lonesome Dove audiobook (and then rewatched the miniseries!) and now we're listening to Nate Bargatze's new book and we love it so far! Of course he's got funny stories to tell, but he also has some really heartwarming tales about his family and growing up. This is a fun one to listen to with others so you can laugh and talk about it.

We had an accident (well, we didn't - our dog did...) and had to toss our guest room rug (trust me, it wasn't salvageable). We moved our bedroom rug there (I had never liked it for our room) and I found this wool rug for a really good price. It had good reviews, but I was still surprised when it came that it was such good quality at that price. It didn't have a bad smell, relaxed out of the roll quickly, and is nice and thick. It is a bit scratchy (like wool), but it's under the bed mostly and is fine on feet. The colors are similar to the photo, but it's actually lighter in person with definite blue areas which looked faded grey in the photo. All in all, I'm super impressed with an all-wool rug at this price and this design (I didn't want to buy another propylene rug...).

I have another wool rug to share - once I got that one the hall rug didn't coordinate (you see them together when looking from the kitchen), so I found this wool brown-tan-cream checked rug also for a great price. It looks exactly like the photos of the brown rug, though it did have a smell that really bothered Brian. We left it outside overnight and then it was fine. This one is slightly softer than the other and I know the color will hide the dirt nicely since this is the hall from the mudroom.😂

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Sure appreciate you - thanks for reading and I hope your week is wonderful!

PS- Remember to tag me on Instagram so I can see what you're making!

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