Putting The Potting Shed To Good Use

Friday was a great day to be outside here on The Witch’s Island. We both had the day off work thanks to the Good Friday holiday and it was also Earth Day so I decided that I should spend the afternoon getting my seeds started for the vegetable garden. Friday was also the sixth anniversary of my Dad’s death and that’s always a rough day for me so I was glad to have something to keep me busy.

After Wednesday night’s snow storm (yes, three weeks into April for crying out loud!) the temperature was back up to normal and the snow had all melted off again. There was a bit of an edge to the wind though so while it was great to get outside I was glad I could get into the potting shed, to dig in the dirt.

There’s no mistaking what goes in this box.

These mint tins are a great way to keep leftover seeds organized.

While I was planting the tomato seeds I started thinking about just how much variance there is in the per seed cost of those cute little packs. The Tiny Tim variety is the best price per seed. You get 200 seeds in a package for just $1.95 or less than a penny per seed. I know from last year’s garden that each plant will produce lots of tomatoes so they are a very good bargain. We also grew Bobcats last year with good success but they are much more expensive. A package of Bobcats contains just 25 seeds and costs $4.35 or about 17.5 cents each.

The trays have all been filled with starter mix. Let’s get planting!

That’s a lot of cucumbers. It looks like we’ll be giving away extras again this year.

We are trying two new varieties this year Tomande ($4.75 for 20 seeds or about 24 cents each) and Applause ($5.15 for 15 seed or about 34 cents each). How can there be a 3400% difference between two varieties of tomatoes? I’m sure that Vesey’s has good justification but it still makes me wonder. I just hope that the two new types will be good producers, too.

The Raiders were very successful last summer.

Okay, you’re all planted. Now grow, my pretties!

Whatever they cost you still have to place two or three seeds together in each cell of the starter tray so you’d better hope they all germinate and grow strong enough to separate into individual plants. I love this part, you know, watering, feeding, transplanting, and then transplanting again into the garden. The watching daily for my little seedlings to sprout is worth every bit of effort. The first one to poke through the soil makes me smile and my heart fills with hope at what my garden will be like this year. All these veggies will be harvested, consumed, pickled, frozen, over-wintered, given to love ones and the local food bank.

While I was prepping the seed trays Hubby was not just sitting back drinking beer. He replaced the top surface of the tractor shed ramp which had rotted out. The original surface had been made with left-over pieces of plywood that he had on hand but 5 years of exposure to the elements had been too much. The plywood was badly rotted and some of the supporting structure was also in poor condition. He replaced it all with pressure treated material and then covered it with adhesive backed roofing roll for added weather proofing and traction. Hopefully, this will last for quite a few years.

He also put the clothesline to work for the first time this year. The bed was stripped and the sheets and blankets were washed and hung out to remove a winter’s worth of staleness and farts that tumble drying just can’t touch. We slept like babies that night!

The new ramp for the tractor shed now has a non-slip surface thanks to some leftover materials from the gazebo.

While I was sowing seeds I had my laundry boy hang out the wash.

It was just so nice to have my hands busy while I thought of my father. I remember the one year he came for a visit and I was dead-heading some marigolds as he was watching. I turned and looked at him and said “You’re not just a pretty face you know, you can help out.” He burst out with laughter and started helping me. The poor marigolds lost their heads, some dead and some new blossoms, but we had fun. Thinking of the look on his face still makes me laugh to this day and I’m laughing and crying now as I miss him so much.

This happy little frog is going to greet me at the potting shed until I can get some flowers for this urn.

I hope your Earth Day was great. Happy Easter and I hope the Easter Bunny found you.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

I love Thanksgiving weekend! Especially this year as I was able to convince the boss at work to give me an extra two days (Thursday and Friday) off. Five day weekends sure beats five day workweeks! I used both extra days just for me (at least as much as I could convince myself to do so). On Thursday I slept in as long as possible and then had a nice relaxing day around the house. On Friday I took myself to the Big City for a fun day of shopping at the Boutique (Value Village) and elsewhere.

Saturday morning I was all rested up and raring to go. Hubby and I made a quick trip to the Small City to visit the Farmer’s Market and do some grocery shopping. Hubby needed some more (!!) plywood for the gazebo so we picked that up, too. When we got home he went off to build and, with him out from underfoot, I settled down to some serious baking time. I made all my fall favourites; pumpkin pie, apple pie and butter tarts! The apple pie was made with Honey Crisp apples that we picked last weekend at a local orchard. They make a surprisingly tart filling and I’ll definitely be using them again. I made all the pastry a couple of weekends ago and then froze it to ease the workload this weekend. That saved me a lot of time. My KitchenAid was a great help, too. This is the first year ever where the pumpkin pie filling didn’t get sprayed all over the walls by the hand mixer!All told I made 1 deep-dish apple pie, 1 pumpkin pie with pastry decorations, 3 pumpkin tarts and a dozen butter tarts. Not bad for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon!

We picked these Honey Crisp apples at a local orchard last week. This will be the first time I’ve tried them in a pie.

I sure am glad that I made and froze this pastry dough last month.

This pastry mat is the perfect device for rolling out dough to the right shape.

The dough is rolled out and is ready for the pie pan.

The apples have all been sliced, spiced and added to the shell.

My pie is ready for the oven.

I used a set of fall-themed cookie cutters to make these decorations from the left-over pastry.

The pumpkin pie filling was mixed in my new KitchenAid!

The KitchenAid did a great job. No splattering of filling on the walls!

Butter Tarts were next.

The KitchenAid was great at this, too.

I wish I had a shop window to display all my lovely baked goods!

After all the baking was done we finally had a chance to break out the Halloween decorations. I have 3 great big plastic tubs full of Halloween-themed stuff and I still manage to acquire more every year somehow. It’s gotten to the point now where I have to pick out just my favourite items to put on display and I end up leaving the rest of it in the tubs. Some of my things haven’t been out for years. Maybe one day I’ll have a yard sale and everything on sale will have something to do with Halloween. Man, would I ever love to come upon a sale like that!

Here are a few of my best pieces. I hope you like them.

This witch welcomes everybody who comes to the front door.

We made this happy pumpkin family years ago.

I found this guy at Winners a few years ago. He’s kind of a cross between W. C. Fields and Humpty Dumpty. He was so creepy I just had to buy him.

This big ceramic pumpkin was another Winners find.

My Dad bought this for me at a yard sale because he knew I would treasure it.

I saw this craft on the ‘net years ago and I just had to make one for myself. This is my favourite set of hangers but I have 3 others, too. One for Easter, one for summer and a birdhouse set.

This is one of Hubby’s efforts. He found the pattern in a book he bought.

I took a stained glass class twenty years ago and this skeleton hand is one of my favourite efforts in that discipline.

The saying goes “Two heads are better than one.” but it seems that three heads just leads to confusion!

Here’s a little Halloween wish for you.

Ratty says that he just wants to give you a little kiss good-bye!

Pins Galore

Wow, I had no idea that I was or had become a collector of pins. I was reading the “Grunge Queen” the other day and she was writing about a recent trip to the Goodwill store where she scored a couple of neat jewelry pieces (read the article here). I loved the filigreed owl pendant and it reminded me of a pin my sister gave me several years ago. So, just for fun, I dug out all my pins to have a look and it seems that I have quite a few!



As I was looking them over I noticed several themes going on. Halloween was the most obvious; this is “The Witch’s Island” afterall! There are skeletons, Dracula, ghosts and witches. Did you pick out the pin that say’s “#1 Witch”? I guess that’s me!






Did you notice the different witch pin in the upper left hand corner? This is an original designed, carved, and hand painted wooden pin from darling Hubby. It’s a beauty and I wear it with pride. The skeleton and Dracula pins have working doors and sometimes I wear them opened and at other times I leave them closed. Oh, and the Scardy Cat pin was too frightened to even be on the same mat as the witch!



Next are my bunny pins. I do seem to have an exceptional amount of them, also. The oldest one of these is the “Barnaby Bunny” from Hallmark. He’s turning a yucky yellowish colour now but he is almost 30 years old. There’s a bunny pin with a door as well. Hmm, maybe there’s a theme there, too.



What amazes me is the amount of Christmas reindeer pins in there. I didn’t know that in my subconscious I must really like reindeers. The big gold one (maybe from Avon) actually has a battery inside which allows his nose to flash red. I just love this but the battery will die out quickly if I leave it on for any length of time. It’s a great ice breaker at a Christmas party. Who doesn’t love Rudolph?



I also have some pins which were given to me from family and friends and as I look at them all gathered together they bring back great memories. The Grinch pin is a gift from my Dad and all of his children received one as a joke. We loved the old Grinch (and Dad, too) and how he stole Christmas. It was always our favourite Christmas show.



The Mexican sunflower with all the turquoise stones was purchased for a couple of bucks at a yard sale by Dad and when he returned from the sale he held his hands behind his back and had my sister and I pick one. This pin was in the hand I picked. I don’t remember what my sister received. I’ll have to ask her.


Lots of pins, lots of happy memories. Thanks to the Grunge Queen for the inspiration. Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Shiny New Pots!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about money issues but this week I’m going to tell you how we saved ourselves $600!

You may remember awhile back that I mentioned receiving an inheritance from a long lost relative. At that time we decided that we would buy a piece of original artwork from the money so that we would be able to remember receiving this gift for many years. Well, it turns out that there were more assets in Eric’s estate that needed to be distributed and so; we will soon receive another small amount of money. The question was how to use this in such a way that we would think about him and what he had done for us.

We’ve had the same crappy old set of cooking pots for over 30 years. It’s been this mismatched amalgamation of an old set from Sears and 2nd’s from factory outlets in the States that my Dad bought for us. We also had a few extra pieces we picked up here and there. The lids of some of the pots had started to crack off years ago. Hubby has had to reattach them using various methods including hot melt glue (not advisable) and epoxy. It was embarrassing for us to let anyone see them and we have wanted to replace them for a long time. What a perfect way to use Eric’s money!

So I started to research different cookware manufacturers. I was looking for both high quality and Canadian manufacturing. There were not too many manufacturers that fit this set of requirements but Paderno soon rose to the top of our list and we began to look for stores to buy them from.



Last weekend we spent a whole day crawling every kitchen supply store on the Witch’s Island looking at pot sets. Have you any idea just how few pots available in our stores are actually made in Canada? Not many, is the short answer. Paderno sets were particularly hard to come by and we ended our shopping experience by deciding to do some more research.

While on the internet I decided, just for fun, to look at some used goods sites and to my great surprise, I found someone who was selling a set of Paderno pots for $500! The set she was selling is listed on Paderno’s website for a staggering $899! On top of that they had apparently never been used and were still in their original box. What kind of crazy person spends this money on pots and doesn't use them? Apparently, someone who receives them as a gift and who already owns a set.

This is a much bigger set than we had even considered but it had everything we needed and more. Here’s the description from the Paderno website:

“Paderno's largest and most complete set of "Pots for Eternity" are made in Prince Edward Island and feature a heat conductive bottom pad for superior cooking performance, durable welded handles and a flared, no-drip lip. Paderno's precise heat control, durability, ease of use and elegant design make it ideal for both home and restaurant use. Backed by our exceptional 25 year warranty. Set includes: 1.5L, 2L & 3L Saucepans, 3L Steamer, 6.5L Dutch Oven, 24cm Frying Pan, 1.5L Double Boiler, 4L Casserole, 6 covers List Price: $899”

I decided that I would try and get even more of a bargain. So, I called and told the woman that I was looking for a Paderno set but I only had a $300 budget and would she consider this amount? I was amazed that she said “yes”. I even said it again that I could only spend $300, okay? She agreed again and the next day we traveled all the way to the Big City to see the pots. They were exactly as advertised, still in the box, still wrapped in plastic and still with their original price tags in place! Wow, we grabbed them and ran, thinking that there had to be a catch somewhere. We even had to stop in a Timmy’s parking lot to count all 14 pieces just to make sure. They were all there; my faith in humanity is restored! All we have to do now is sell off the old stuff at a yard sale this summer. The “Urge to Purge” will be the theme! Thank you, Eric.





After all the excitement of bargain pots, we went to the Village to look for some bargain clothing. I found some great stuff there, too. I got two pairs of jeans, a game for next weekend’s “Game Night” and a flower vase to replace the one Hubby broke last year while “dusting”. I bought this all with the last of my Christmas gift certificates meaning no money out of pocket. The vase is “Hoosier” glass and it weighs a ton so it’s not going to tip over, easily. I can hardly wait to put some flowers in it. Hubby, are you paying attention?



Then it was on to grocery shopping. Why, oh why, do we go grocery shopping at the busiest grocery store on Witch’s Island at the busiest time of the week? We had to line up just to get down each aisle. Then we had to wait for almost twenty minutes at the checkout line. Hubby was set to blow and swears never to go back to this store again, we’ll see.



We did get some good buys, though. We spent $100.02 on all the stuff you can see in the pictures but $40 of that was for the chicken which we split into 8 two breast packs. That’s enough for eight different meals for us so it was a real bargain.

All in all, it was a very successful shopping day.