Bells of the North Homestead

I write this today not for those who already know who I am, but for those instead who are new to our page.  Now I have to admit, the page used to go by the name How Does Our Garden Grow because when I first started it in Maryland, that was how it fit us more.  How IS our garden growing?  When we first moved to Maryland, we had so many things happen to us financially that, truly, we were really bad off.  We had dry goods in our pantry, but nothing fresh in the fridge, and only a small amount of canned goods.  We had no homemade canned goods at all.  Imagine being in a situation where all you have is flour, Bisquick, sugar, cornmeal, some dried beans, and a container of rice.  Yes, you can make a meal out of that, but it gets boring super quick.  To make matters worse, we couldn't afford to buy much due to issues with the condo we still owned in Alaska along with car troubles and a financial gaff by the military which left us with two and a half months of no pay due (yes that means

This morning our family finished breakfast, were engaged in cleaning up and putting things away.  I decided I'd really like a cup of cappuccino before I got moving on making some salsa with some reduced tomatoes from Fred Meyers yesterday.  Suddenly I heard a large bird, I mean really large hit the front window.  I exclaimed loudly "what the heck was that?" Of course my husband Edward just answered "huh? What?  I didn't hear anything"  So I went out to look.  Thank God I did.  Poor Pot Pie, our newest addition who is one of the few that DOES NOT have her wings clipped was hanging out in a pot of dirt at the window.  The poor girl was looking in with desperation, not realizing I was standing on the porch.  I shrieked "Pot Pie sweety, what are you doing here?"  At which point I grabbed her, began walking to the yard where the chickens and rabbits are when I then screeched with a chicken held to my chest "DOG!!!!" Oh no.  A dog was in the y