Sunshine Cleaning

Over the past few weeks, our movie habits have changed. We were talking last night and we both mentioned that we really don't like going out to the movies anymore. I remember not to long ago, the movie theater was our "third" place.

For me, there are two major reasons that I think I'm less likely to go to the movie theater.

The first is of course the price. I think here in Reno we are up to $9.50 or $9.75 for a movie. Of course if you go during the day, the price IS cheaper...so we are talking about maybe catching a movie and lunch tomorrow as a nice daytime date.

The second reason is that a lot of time, we have a hard time decided what we want to see...seems that we end up saying, "well I guess we could see..." I don't really want to spend $20 to see a movie we not that into and won't make us into better people for seeing it.

So instead of going to the movies, we tend to walk to the nearest redbox (2 min) and rent a movie. Last night we rented the new release, Sunshine Cleaning. I was so excited that they had it. I had heard about it on NPR a little bit ago and then Morgan found out that it had just came out on DVD so off we went to the movie vending machine!


Sunshine Cleaning is a move about two sisters that need to find new jobs. The older sister's boyfriend tells her about cleaning crews that clean up after a crime screen. They clean up all the blood and guts after someone has died. Don't worry though, the movie isn't gory...just a little bit of language and some partial nudity. The sisters start their company, Sunshine Cleaning, in order to make money but in the end, the business gives them more then just a paycheck.

I really don't know what you would call this genre of movie but this is the genre that we like...the kind of weird movies that not everyone gets. We get them...and we love them! I'm thinking I'll start working on a list of movies that we've really enjoyed so that you can check them out for yourself.

Here is the list for now:
1. Sunshine Cleaning
2. the Visitor
3. Pieces of April

Iraqi Bundles of Love

I'm not really one to repost other peoples blogs but I think the below post is a good idea. There is a soldier in Iraq right now that is asking for care packages of sewing suppiles for the local Iraq women. Please read the following post from the blog makingthishome:

I think you’ll love this next de-cluttering idea because not only does it help you and your home, it makes an even bigger impact to the recipients of your purge. So you ready to dive into your fabric stashes?

Art La Flamme, a US soldier, saw a need for change and decided to do something. Inspired by Three Cups of Tea, he’s inspired to fight for change. Art and his unit are asking people to donate sewing supplies to give to Iraqi families. He wants to help people carry on with their lives by clothing their families, making a living, and – you’ll love this part – creating a piece of beauty in their world. Fabric, yarn, thread, needles, pin cushions – you name it, and he can use it.

His program is called Iraqi Bundles of Love (IBOL), and you have to act fast if you want to participate. Packages must reach Art’s unit before they leave Iraq, which means you have until September 7 to pop your donation into the mail. Postage is the same as shipping a package within the US (or to the US, whichever the case for you).

For more details, check out this post on Art’s blog.

If you’d like to donate to the cause, Sew, Mama, Sew! will send a huge bundle of supplies including 5 yards of fabric from their store for only a $15 donation.

Our Family Farm

It seems that we are well on the road to turn our home into a modern family farm.

Our garden is just amazing! The first thing anyone says when the see it is "wow!" We just have two 4'x4' boxes and followed the general square foot garden idea. Morgan did a lot of research to determine what plants we could plant next to each other and what plants to keep far apart and the result is a 20ish foot by 7" by 8" jungle of almost a dozen different plants. We are currently rolling in tomatoes and cucumbers.

I think we have finally decided to go with ducks for next year (we had been debating between ducks and chickens.) We still need to design our duck run and watering hole but we still have a bit of time. We will then order our female Campbell Khaki ducks and have them in the spring. Because the water needs to be changed daily, I am planning on using the duck water to flood irrigate the little corn patch that I want to plant. I might even plant it in the duck run area to give the ducks some shade.

Also in the spring, we want to keep bees! I can't believe how excited we are about bees. I have been thinking about this for several months now but just in the past few days really started doing the research for it. I've spoken to almost a dozen people in the city and county trying to find any regulations or ordinances that would prevent us from becoming city beekeepers. A local beekeeper said I could "shadow" him sometime this week and watch/help him harvest the honey. I also spoke to the state agriculture office yesterday and they not only gave their blessing, they also pointed me in the direction of the local beekeeping club.

This is the perfect time to get started BEEcause I don't have to order the bees until around November or December, so there is still lots of time to talk to the other beekeepers in the area and learn everything that I can from them...maybe even find a sponsor.

As I said, there is nothing legally preventing us from beekeeping but we've decided that it would be nice to inform the neighbors...did you know that once a bee leaves the hive, within 15' it can be 100yards in the air and cover a 3mile radius? Our neighbors might not ever even SEE our bees but we still want to let them know so that they can come visit them if they like. We've also learned that once away from the hive, the bees are very gentle.

I am also going to be putting together a gift basket full of honey and bee products for each of the neighbors. I might even make up a little brochure for them as well. Then after we harvest the honey, we will be sure to give the neighbors each some.

So, by this time next year we will hopefully be producing the following: Honey, honeysticks, honeycomb, mead, candles, hand and face cream, duck eggs, pumpkins, fresh veggies, corn (cob and canned), jellies and jams, and worm castings.

I think that we decided to release everything under the name of Fireflyskies Family Farm and keep with Morgan's brand name of Fireflyskies. Now we just need to trademark it and come up with a logo!

Zucchini Pizza

Thanks to our wonderful neighbor, we have a steady supply of zucchini this summer. I love random veggies during the summer because it forces you to come up with different and creative ideas.

Twice this summer Morgan has made a Parmesan zucchini dish that is just amazing. Just for fun, I added a little pizza sauce and it was excellent! So...tonight we came up with the idea of Zucchini Pizza (I'm sure not a new idea but new to us)

So tonight my lovely wife got to have gluten free beer (Redbridge), gluten free "pizza" and for desert we have some left over gluten free carrot cake from last nights birthday celebration.




Here's what to do:

Pre-heat oven to 350*F

-Slice a large zucchini into about 1/4" slices

-place in pan (after it is coated in a thinish layer of olive oil)

-cover in Parmesan cheese

-bake for 20min

-pull out, flip over, cover in cheese, cook for another 20min or until done.

-remove from oven, add pizza sauce and grated cheese and put back in for 3-5min to melt cheese...enjoy!

I think tomorrow we are going to make some Zucchini spaghetti!

P.s.
Check out Morgan's B-day present

Drano Vs. Plumb-Away

So our bathroom sink has slowly stopped draining. It was so slow this morning...it was like trying to drain the sink through a coffee stirrer! We received a Home Depot gift card yesterday at the housewarming so we decided to pick some Drano there to take care of the leak (Don't tell Lowes). We found the Drano no problem but it was surrounded by about 10 other drain de-clogging products... hrm.

I had never thought about buying anything other then Drano so I was a little caught off guard to see so many products! We started looking around and reading labels to try something a little less chemically and safier on the eniroment. We found two "green" products. The first introducted little bacteria to eat the build up and prevent clogs but could not clear them...no good. The second was a niffty product called "PLUMB-AWAY." The box says it is good for 8 clogs and safe to use. It has neat buzz words like "water powered!" "enviroment friendly" "no acid, lye or CFCs" and of course, "Lemon scent!"

Because we are trying to safe the world, we bought the "PLUMB-AWAY" for $8...it didn't work. In fact, it clogged the sink the rest of the way...bummer. It worked for a little bit but then once half the water had drained...nothing. So I did it again. And again. And again. I used all 8 "one second" shots of bottled, lemon scented air and still nothing.

So...off to the store we went. I bought the big bottle of Drano for about $8.50 and poured about 1/3 of the bottle down the drain...waited 30min and bam! no more clog.

Yay for a clean, clear drain...bad for the world :(

I know I could have tried to snake the clog but I was afraid it would just puch the clog further into the system. Does anyone know a better way to clear a clogged sink that is better for the enviroment? I don't want to have to use chemicals next time.

Please let me know if you do!

P.s
I do think the Plumb-Away would have worked on a smaller clog...maybe if I had used it when I first noticed things were slowing down.

House warming

Thank you to everyone that was able to come to our house warming! It was so great to be able to spend time with everyone and share the fruits of our labors. If you weren't able to make it and still want to see the house, just give me a call and we'll let you know when we're home!

Here are some final pictures of the patio!




And check out how big the garden is now! I can't not believe it is doing so well! We are up to our eyeballs in cucumbers...time to learn how to make pickles! My Mom also put together a make your own dehydrator kit for us!
Yep, that's the garden. Somewhere in there are two garden boxes and about 12 different types of plants.