Grandma Skills - a new series

In my last blog post I wrote about hubby and I being on a quest for simplicity, sort of a “back-to-nature” kick. We have really enjoyed it, so I decided to start a new series of blog posts detailing our efforts. I’ll include the good, the bad, and the ugly so you can learn from (or laugh at) my mistakes.

I couldn't decide what to name the series, so I reached out to a friend for help.  While I was trying to describe what I had in mind I kept coming back to “the kinds of things that our grandmothers knew how to do, but we usually don’t”.  So, I decided to go with the obvious and name the new series “Grandma Skills”.

Most of my posts will probably center around cooking since that is what I enjoy the most. However, I will also cover things like gardening, needlework, sewing, cleaning, and home repair/maintenance.  

Now, I’m not going to get all crazy with this. I’m not going to swear off modern conveniences and I will definitely use tools that my own Grandma never had (like my beloved KitchenAid mixer). However, I will try to keep things as “grandma like” as possible. No bread machines allowed!

A Very Earthy Kind of Day

Last Sunday was a kinda weird but amazingly fun day. The hubs and I have been talking for quite awhile about changing our lifestyle and starting to live more simply and organic. This week-end we decided to finally put those plans into action.

The day started with us planting two new fruit trees. By "us" I mean "hubby" - I stayed inside and made a grocery list.  Poor guy had to dig two big holes in the clay that we call soil.  He then planted the trees and put lots of good new soil around them. I can hardly wait until they start blooming so I can share pictures.

The next big event of the day was mine. I have been fascinated by the art of bread baking for as long as I can remember, but I had never tried it. I was really intimidated and afraid of failure. On Sunday I finally got my courage up and decided to teach myself to bake bread. I did lots of research, then just dove headfirst into the flour.  It worked!  I produced an absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) loaf of bread and pan of pull-apart rolls.  I am so proud!  It was actually not as hard as I expected and I had so much fun. There will definitely be more bread baking in my future.

My first attempt at bread baking. Pretty awesome, right?

The last new thing for the day was setting up our new composter. We got one the kind that is fully enclosed and spins so you can keep the greens and browns nice and mixed up. After I cooked dinner I went out and proudly deposited the potato peels into it. Now I just have to get in the habit of doing it regularly.  We will be planing a vegetable garden this spring, so I can hardly wait until we have some compost to put on it.

By the end of the day I was feeling very much like a tree-hugging granola-munching earth mother and I LOVED the way it felt!  Here's to many more week-ends like this.