The First Harvest/Spice Rack Project Scrapped/$ Totals Update.

So, silly me thought my broccoli heads would get as big as they do when purchased at the market. Silly, silly me. Therefore, I'm a little way late on harvesting them. I managed to salvage one and a half of them, and will try to keep the plants going for the "side shoots" I keep reading about.

Trying to make the most of my oops, I chopped off a couple of the broccoli leaves, and added them into my salad mix. I had intended to cook them up like "greens", but found their raw taste to be more than acceptable.

I'm proud of my first harvest. It felt really good to eat food that I had grown. I did have a moment of "But I don't really WANT to eat a salad tonight", but that was quickly changed when thought of the food that I created, being wasted. I have a problem with wasting food. I buy good/healthy food, and end up throwing part of it in the trash. My hope is, this garden will assist me with being more mindful of eating the food I produce or purchase before it spoils. Looks yummy? It was! Didn't realize I made a smiley face with the strawberries and chicken until I looked at these pictures. Hehe.

I'm kind of peeved my wild strawberries (or are they something else?) are growing ridiculously well in my yard, and the animals leave them alone completely, whereas they were eating mine in my topsy-turvy prior to moving it to the front porch.

Speaking of my yard I finally mowed the back yard for the first time this year. I've been paying someone to cut the front. I'm tired of trying to deal with my horrible hill. This cheap chick thinks the $15 to have the entire front yard cut, is completely worth it. I cut the backyard this past Friday. If the weather cooperates, I will likely tackle the Neighbors weed overgrowth on our shared fence. GRRRR.

I'm a little tardy in posting this entry. The harvest was last Thursday, the grass cutting was Friday, and the spice rack was Saturday. The spice rack project I've been talking about has come to a screeching halt. Sigh. Here's a pic of it as it hung in the cubby underneath the basement stairs.

And here's all the stuff I took out of the little drawers. Need to sort this stuff and put it with the other miscellaneous home improvement type things.

Once I had the thing off the wall, I figured out a few things. There's no back. Ok. That one isn't all that big of a deal. The shelves the drawers are sitting on...they don't all the way back to where the wall is. There's at least a 2" gap. AND the unit itself, is about an inch and a half wider than is ideal for the location I wanted to hang it in my kitchen. Yes, It will fit, but it will mess with my need for symmetry. THIS will be a problem. So. I've decided I'll draw up some plans and see if I can figure out the miter saw, and just make one that suits my needs better. I may even break out the router and make it all fancy! One benefit of this exercise is, the unit is no longer on the wall, therefore I will not be banging my shoulder, etc. into it when getting boxes out of the cubby area. It's where I keep all my empty USPS boxes for my eBay sales. I may possibly post a rant about some tw@t on eBay leaving me negative feedback last week. Totally uncalled for. I'll wait to see if it resolves itself first.

Lets see...what else. Oh yeah. A financial challenge update. Credit card is sitting at $170.34 (that's including the pending $40 I spent on dinner at PFChangs last night, with a girlfriend from school. I splurged on an $8 drink, and it was darn tasty!). I have about a 1/4 tank of gas left from my last fill up (5/14), and will probably top off the tank when I leave work today. Bringing me to my goal of $200 or less spent on the credit card this month. Cash, I'm not doing so hot on the cash. I have $9 and some change left for the rest of the month, and $4.46 on a Visa gift card. Again, this is do able if I stay out of stores.

Stores! What a freak'n rip off. Stupid me put the beater for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer in the dishwasher and of course it ate the coating off of it, so it is worthless to me now. I went to Kohl's after dinner last night to see how much a replacement beater would cost me...$36! Arrrggghhh. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have cash in my PayPal, and this is exactly the kind of thing I try to use it for (if not paying off bills). So, this morning, I purchased a replacement beater THAT IS COATED so I can actually put it in the dishwasher. I should get it next week.

Dishwasher. I know, sounds like I'm wasting energy/money, right? Probably, but I've also recently been reminded that the gaskets and seals, etc will dry rot (?? other term?) if I don't use it occasionally. So I've taken to running it every 2 weeks or so. I hate doing the dishes, so this is working out quite well for me :)

I got an expense check from when I was away for work at the end of last month, and used 2/3rds of it on restocking my groceries. I don't know how to record that in the budget, since it was reimbursing me for mileage and food that I charged, that I wouldn't have if I were home. Anyway, I shouldn't have to go shopping again until the end of next month. I'm trying to make sure I cook at least 2x a week, and use up the food I have in the house. I got tons of vegetables, meat, fruit, and a few snacks for lunch. All for less than $80. I love Aldi! Even if I were to add this into my charge budget (though I paid through my debit card) I'd still be under March's $300 challenge. Sigh. Maybe $200 is too much to try to stay under? Meh, some of this months charges are for parking for that conference, at the beginning of the month. Double sigh. Just need a "regular" month, to see if I can meet the challenge.