OH MY GOSH I’m a winner!

Posted on by September 14, 2010

YEAH!!! I won some wonderful books! From the Tiny House Blog Labor Day Book Giveaway contest!

I’d like to first thank all my friends and family and of course my lovely daughters Jessy and Maggie and of course, everyone that has helped me through the years… and our kitties and the dogs and of course Lester and Earl, my little gerbil friends. Of course, this contest win wouldn’t be special without my Mobygal loyal readers, luvs you all! I would like to dedicate this lovely prize lot win to all those who dream of a small, simple home and seek the wonderful calm and contentment that living light on the world will bring them. Yes, I think that we all can appreciate the words of the 14th century Castille poet who wrote about simplicity so well in his 1,450 line poem entitled, “Ode to Simplicity” that I will now recite to you all…. er… huh? Not enough time? Drats. Okay, yeah and thanks to my Mom and Dad who made me and all my friends that complete me and my daughters who are my joy and life and of course music… and all my bluegrass friends and my band guys, oh yeah, and everyone that ever came to the opry… and…. and… and….

(oh, sorry for the sillies! I AM SO EXCITED! I’m gonna have some super cool reading stuff…)

http://tinyhouseblog.com/announcement/labor-day-book-giveway/

Stay tuned as more contest drama develops!!!

How ever will I sleep????? (hee hee)

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Monday, Monday

Posted on by September 13, 2010

Even though I don’t work a 9 to 5 type of job… I still have to face the Monday chaos each week. Sometimes its better than others. And often, I choose to sleep in LATE on a Monday, so I don’t have to deal with all the emails and calls and panic that ensues in the “real” world. It’s one of the nice perks of working for yourself.

I find that everyone seems to survive whether I am dealing with Monday issues at 9AM or 2PM. I have FINALLY come to embrace this little bit of wisdom. On Monday mornings, everyone seems to want to rush into the work week with both barrels a-blasting! They want to hit the ground running, they are refreshed from the weekend and they want to show the world who’s the boss. They have to-do lists and shooting off an email about an order they think should have arrived, or questioning about some product or a graphic job, it’s a quick job and it gets sent out first thing.

I used to think that it meant that their summons needed my IMMEDIATE attention. So for years, I would spend most of my Mondays in a “reactionary” panic… checking email every ten minutes and panicking over every request, issue and command. It just seemed the thing to do.

But then I began to see that my responses were not returned with fair enthusiasm. In fact, 95% of them were left dangling for hours or even days. That’s when I began to see the true picture. To see that these panic demands were just the result of people “clearing their desks” to begin the week. So I just began to chill out some. Relax on Mondays. Heck, even take most of the day off and have a nice long breakfast, maybe work in the yard for a while. Read. Stop checking my mail. Usually by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, it slows down to a normal flow of life. People are having lunch and got full tummies and would love a nap and start to reach a nice comfortable work pace. They can respond to calls or emails, and they are much more pleasant.

I made a vow about 2 months ago to stop adding to the Monday morning chaos of the world. I decided, no more first thing orders to suppliers. They are up to their armpits with everyone else doing that and my order rarely would get any special treatment. In fact, I began to notice that my Monday morning orders had a higher chance of being wrong, or getting delayed… and I rarely had time to visit with them and shoot the breeze. So now, no Monday supply orders until at LEAST 3 PM.

I stopped emailing others about questions or my own panics… no calls to gig organizers, or questions about wholesale, or anything like that. Not until 3 PM on Monday. What a difference… I actually get quick responses and lengthy, polite ones!

I try to make sure I have new fresh content on my blogs Sunday night. Because I know a LOT of people check the blogs first thing Monday morning and I’d like them to see something fun and new, maybe even inspire them for the day! That’s nice. I know I do it, but then I like to check every morning to my fav bloggers… it’s like my morning newspaper.

Well, I’m challenging all my readers to think about their own Monday morning chaos… and how do you handle it? Can you join me in starting a new little revolution, and try to not add to the karmic chaos that is Monday around the world? What can you do to help with it… to make your Mondays less stressful and filled with skurying busy activities that seldom seem to really be productive… let me know!

I spent today by sleeping in to 11:30… dealing with a little chaos and an errand for a few hours, then around 5 PM I went and laid down to read an hour or so and then had dinner. Now, I’m back at work and will probably work till 11 or midnight and the day will be wonderful content and productive. Already have 3 cards done for the day and have two more that will be done soon… what a wonderful Monday!

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Attack of the Heirloom Tomatoes!

Posted on by September 12, 2010

Here is my first bowlful of tomatoes.

Aren’t they purdy? Just enough for a few salads and a slicing mater or two for the dinner table. Perfect amount of tomatoes for a day or three. Don’t you think?

Ah, but who knows the evil that lurks in 40 feet of raised beds when a goofy gardener woman foolishly plants 41 tomato plants in her rich compost heavy raised beds on the hot side of the Moby…. AGHGHGHGH!!!!

This is what we’ve been getting now, every two or three days. Yes. by the washtub load. And more.

I have been giving them away… friends, neighbors, the mail man. Little children passing on the street. Even dogs are trying to help out.

“Grandma, I’m not sure dogs are supposed to eat these things but if you insist, I’ll give it a try…”

We’ve made sauce, we’ve made dried, we’ve made salsa, we’ve made more sauce, we made chunky gaspacho like salsa… we’re making ketchup this week and we’re making stewed tomatoes…. I’ve run out of jars. I’m pouching some in freezer bags.



And yet… THEY STILL KEEP COMING!!! MORE MORE MORE!!!!!

OH MY GOOD LORD…. will it ever stop????




“Hey everyone! Party at the Moby! Sherri’s making salsa in a washtub!!! Bring chips!!!!!”

Well, kidding aside, we are enjoying them… even the girls admit that the sauce is very tasty… we’ve made two batches of homemade spaghetti-os now and they actually like it. I think I’m going to get some REAL parmesan cheese and some ravioli and see if I can entice them to give it a try… they are not tomato fans…. WHAT WAS I THINKING????? I’m the only one that likes this stuff in the Moby! THE ONLY ONE!!!!




Here’s another days harvest. Yes, we have been weighing them as they come in… we’re almost to 100 pounds of maters. 87 pounds so far. Add that to our other veggie poundage and we’re up over last years for sure!!! We’re just under 125 pounds… 124 to be exact. I expect we’ll see at least another 50 to 75 pounds of potatoes. And we’ve got carrots, peppers and ah, more tomatoes coming in. Oh, yes and apples! (But that’s another tale….)

I am sure we’ll hit the 150 pound mark this year, probably more.




Okay.  I’ve numbered the tomatoes that are ripe so far because I know you’re interested in what we’ve got going and how they turned out from the seed posts of spring time.

1. Mortgage Lifter…. yes, that famous story about the guy paying off his mortgage with these beefy maters… they are good sliced with a little salt…

2. Amish Paste – I have to tell you, this is my favorite to just slice and eat!  They are SO good… and so like the totally flavorful garden tomato taste.   They make AWESOME sauce…

3.  Our own cross polinated mater….  we have dubbed…  Moby Teardrops –  We have had a few plants throw these weird little teardrop Gajo De Melon Tomato. We think they got a little too close to the striped romans…  unauthorized tomato sex was going on.  Bad, bad veggies.  Of course, it didn’t help that we planted everything all crammed in together…

4. Royal Hillbilly – cute medium sized gems.   I’m not sure if they should be bigger…  our water situation was not good…  but they are good eating and great for salsa.

5.  Striped Roman – We LOVE the look of these fellows.  As a paste/Roman tomato, I have to say, the Amish Paste are a bit better tasting.  But you can’t beat these for effort and appearance!  They’re wonderful!  We are definitely growing these next year, just for the color if nothing else.

6. Black Krim – Award winning and beautiful in color… a dark rich purply black on the tops.  Good slicing tomato.

7. Gajo De Melon Tomato – Imagine melons, imagine sugar, mix in some tomato, and you describe the delicious taste of this lovely cherry tomato. They are pink and yellow, blended and marbled together, in lovely melon tones. Plants produce these gourmet fruit well.

8. Yellow Mountain – I really like these.  The color is fun and they make a really cool sauce.  They are excellent sliced and I think they are definitely going to be planted next year.  They won a spot in the Moby 2011 plans.




Well…  I don’t know how much longer we can hold out.  They’re coming in the Moby now almost every day.  Sitting on the counter, taunting me, making me get my knives out and start processing them!   They’re relentless!

I even had a taste test to show them I was serious and they would all be eaten… and still they come.  More and more and more…

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