How to Find Direction Using a Watch

 Scenario:

You're lost during daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere.

  It is standard time (not daylight saving).

 You have an analog watch.

What do you do to find your direction?

My husband talks about an old trick to find direction using a watch.

I found the same directions at this link and also here.

You will need to adjust if your watch is set to Daylight Savings Time.

Hold your watch horizontally

Point the hour hand at the sun

  The point exactly halfway between the hour hand and the 12 on your watch is South.

  The opposite direction is North.

Remember that the sun rises in the East 

(the sun will be in the East before Noon)

and sets in the West

(the sun will be in the West after Noon).

 The sun is Due South at noon. 

The same holds true for the Southern Hemisphere

Except- point the 12 at the sun and North will be halfway between 12 and the hour hand.

Just another reason to have analog watch.

 Although, you could mark the face of our digital watch to match an analog face.

The proceed with the directions above.

This first link also has details for finding direction using the sun and a stick 

or using the North Star at night.

   It's pretty good information to remember.                                                               

Pinwheels and Prayers Needed Quickly

A little girl needs your prayers- and pinwheels.

And Missy Shay, wants to help.

I'm stealing a couple of lines from her blog

(see link below)

I hope she won't mind.

I am no pinwheel expert (as you can see)

I struggle with them, of all things!

But I'm up for sending a few of them

and hoping Missy can use them.

From Missy's blog:

The little girl's name is Kenzie.  She is 7 and has cerebral palsy.
She just had surgery(She had to have hamstrings lengthened, groin muscle lengthened, and her hip put back in place. It involved breaking her leg in 2 places and some other work to repair the cup that the ball joint sits in.) and I would really like to get this quilt to her as quickly as possible.

If you can spare a few prayers

and a couple of pinwheels

send them to Missy Shay.

Please go to Missy's blog for the sizes 

and additional information.

Briefly, this is the tutorial for making easy pinwheels

using charms would be even faster.

From Missy's blog:

Here is the tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
 http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/update-on-the-easy-pinwheels/  The block finishes out to 5 3/4 when using five inch squares to start with.

Please let me know if you can help, you can send the blocks to my house,
Missy Shay
211 Alston Ct.  Mansfield, TX  76063

Missy's Homemaking Adventures 

Woodland Finds

Whatever could have caused this?

Hop over and see what you think!

Woodland Finds

Sorry for the short cuts this week.  

I thought I'd put up some woodland posts with our short stretch of good weather.

Tornado threats the next two days as a result of our 76 degree temps today,

a far cry from the ice we had on Sunday!

We battened down the greenhouse so we'll see how it does, hopefully well,

unless a tree comes down on it.

Woodland Cats

Come and meet the cats:

Woodland Cat Post

Ham Fest ?

My husband asked me if I wanted to go to Ham Fest with him.

I thought I'd see a lot of this.

But what I got was . . .

scroll

down.

Get 

Ready 

for 

it 

this  (no, not my car)

It was Winterfest, for ham radio operators,

at the Gateway Convention Center 

in Collinsville, IL which is 

just over the river from St. Louis.

There were lots of tables full of gear,

lots of meters

and tube testers

and radios, new and vintage.

There were shirts (crazy hams!)

I LOVED this- 

too bad it didn't fit.

I wanted a "Frank" shirt for my gardening chores.

How cool is that!  LOL

(really, I wanted this, they were auto shop extras)

After an exhilarating morning, we made our way back home,

across the river,

through the city,

and into town so we could pick up a few things. 

On the way I saw the sort of ham fest

 I was thought we were attending.

Lucky dogs!

photo credit of hams

Girls and Bonfires

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

The sun was shining and warmth blanketed the ridge

as the girls ran back and forth between each other's homes.

"Where are the girls?" I asked my husband.

"They're up near the garden playing bonfire," replied my husband.

They were gathering sticks and twigs and placing them in the fire pit.

Soon, my granddaughter ran down to the house completely out of breath.

"Where are the matches?"

WHAT ?!

"GIRLS, get down here," said my husband,

"If you want a fire we'll make one in the pit on the courtyard.

Go get sticks!"

Soon they gathered sticks, twigs and logs, 

and we had the start of a fire.

People began pulling up lawn chairs, 

kids played flashlight tag but sadly, 

I was out of marshmallows!

I picked some dead flower foliage from the garden wall

thinking that I'd just burn them while we had the fire going.

Granddaughter, Taylor, took advantage of the situation,

her impression of a zombie bride!

The next morning, this was all that was left.

A solitary log.

Here is a photo of the dressing table we refinished for her.

I still have to make the dresser scarf and a cushion for her chair.

The dresser is also in place and she's pretty excited about her new arrangement. 

Now we've got to figure out what to do with her little girl stuff, 

which is up to her mother, but it will be leaving my place!

Linking to Country Garden Showcase

Our New House - Greenhouse That Is

I inherited a greenhouse.

My brother & sister-in-law decided to set sail

and move onto a yacht down in Daytona Beach FL

which, although very large, really doesn't lend 

itself to a greenhouse, 

especially when there is fresh crab to be eaten on demand. 

We selected a site by the garden for now.

Erected the sturdy frame.

Added the plastic covering

and rolled up the doors and windows

to let the air through until we are ready to use it.

It will get very good morning sun and then 

hopefully protect the plants from the stronger

afternoon sun once the temperatures warm up.

They had it for several years so there are some

repairs to be made around the zippered doors.

I think I'll get velcro and go around the entire opening, 

then put new plastic on the ends.  I believe JoAnn's 

has material suitable for this. 

Tom is going to make whatever shelving I need

and is even thinking about using the frame

to build something more permanent

once we determine where the best location is.

Now I'll need to read up on what to do and when to start 

planting for zone 5/6  (St Louis outskirts).

Suggestions are welcome!

Linking to Country Garden Showcase

Winging It - Grab and Go Meal Deals

A blogger posed a question on Facebook-

Do you plan your meals

or Wing it?

My response- Wing it-

But let me qualify that statement.

(photo above, pork butts after the smoker)

(After slow cooking all night preparing it for pulling)

We look for really good deals on meat.

Not only do we purchase a hog and process it ourselves,

we watch for grocery specials such as these pork butts.

Yes, we like pork a lot.

At $1.00 per pound, we purchased two good sized butts.

Then my husband smoked them,

we pulled them and vacuum sealed in 1.5 lb packets

so we can just pull out what we need for one meal.

Add some BBQ sauce and sides for a quick meal

or plop it on a bun  and have with your favorite chips.

We do the same with deer, chicken

and a smaller amount of beef.

So, not quite planned, 

but not quite Winging It!

Definitely Grab and Go.

Today's purchase

Chicken Breast $0.99 per pound, purchased 2 packages (limit)

Pork butt $0.99 per pound, one additional package for the freezer.

Muffin mixes $1.00 each

Three frozen  (specialty) pizzas $4.00 each**

Large loaf of white bread $0.99

As a treat- ice cream bars.

Total cents off savings (no coupons)  $36.26

Our freezer with the 1.5 lb packets.

** we make our own pizza very similar to this specialty pizza, 

cracker thin crust with provel cheese (a St Louis creation).  The cost per pizza is about $8-10 for us to make it. Expensive but our pizza is pizza parlor quality.  When we find a similar quality pizza on sale at $4, we can't  pass it up!

Cheesy Basil Fritatta Recipe

Another absolutely fantastic, delicious recipe, one  full of 

eggs, potatoes, cheese and herbs, 

compliments of my husband- the cook at our place.

Having too many eggs recently?
Not only are we freezing them for future use, 

but also searching out high egg content recipes.

And why not take advantage of all those freshly laid eggs

since raising those chickens is costing a pretty penny these days?

As a side note- see the celery floating in the canning jar?

It's growing! It's about 1 1/2 inches high now.

And the eggs- lots of them every day, 

even with temperatures in the low teens!

Well- back to the recipe.

12 eggs- lightly whisked but not beaten

Yellow potatoes, sliced- enough to cover the bottom of a 10 inch oven safe skillet

    (we use All Clad)

2 TBL dried onions (or chopped fresh)

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 C milk

1 TBL basil

1/2 C shredded mozzarella cheese- use your judgement for amt.

1/2 C cheddar cheese- sliced or shredded- use your judgement for amt.

salt

pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

On Stove Top

Fry sliced potatoes in butter using the 10 inch oven safe skillet.

Salt and pepper to taste as cooking.

Line bottom of skillet with potatoes.

Prepare Egg Mixture

Whisk eggs in bowl until mixed but not beaten

Add mozzerella

Add milk, onions and basil

(If using fresh onions, cook until tender and add to egg mixture)

Set aside until potatoes are done

.

Add egg mixture on top of the fried potatoes in skillet.

Cook over medium heat until the bottom of the mixture seems firm.

In Oven (for this recipe we used the regular oven, not convection)

Add cheddar cheese to top of egg and potato mixture

Transfer skillet to preheated oven.

Cook for 20-25 minutes- checking progress occasionally

Once the mixture has puffed up, remove from oven

Slice.

The only thing that could have made it better was adding bacon- but that goes without saying, doesn't it!

Free Reading Material

Here is my super frugal post of the month-

Free Reading Material

In one day I collected 9 free publications.  Actually there were more but these were the ones I was interested in.  You can see some gardening magazines, some municipality news, restaurant reviews, recipes, society news, things to do and "green" magazines.  

Since we don't get into town very often, these magazines give us a little peek into what's going on 

or where we can find products not available in our area. 

All Free.

All can be either recycled, repurposed or composted.

And I didn't even buy a thing.

Except for some garden seeds- how could I pass those up?