The Original Fly Swatter!

I don't know about you, but during the summer months on our homestead, we seem to be under attack from flies!  It is annoying to say the very least.  But then you have the next problem:  how to get rid of those flies?  Where is that fly swatter? 

I don't know about you, but in our home they seem to develop legs and disappear!  Or they are made in China and break after you kill one fly!  Well, the other night it was late and I was really needing to kill some flies when I went to throw the newspaper away.  Then I realized...this is what my grandpa used to use to kill those buggers!  So I folded it up and gave it a SWAT!  And sure enough, IT WORKED!  And I tried it again and I had another one down!  And then another!  And I was having fun with my cheap fly swatter!  Yep, I have decided that newspaper is really the best fly swatter on the market!

Flat Surface Stovetop

Many friends told me that you can't 'can' with a flat surface stovetop:  they are wrong.  There are some that are designed to handle such a task and if you shop, you can find them.  No, not every flat surface stove top can handle that task, but mine can and does.  In fact, I have had two pressure canners going at once on my stove top with no problem.  I just put up 21 quarts of cucumbers this past week and it was a snap. 

While I was canning, I did have some water boil over which does create a bit of a mess and I am faithful about using the polisher to keep my stove top clean; however, this time around, my bottle of polisher was EMPTY!  So I decided to try some thing different and it worked!  Yep, plain ole baking soda cleaned my stovetop without scratching and with no problem!  I was so excited!  Do you know how much money I can save now by using baking soda on my stovetop instead of the 'special' polisher?  Yep, that means more money for animal feed or garden seed:  either way, I WIN!

The Joy of Radishes

Radishes are usually the first vegetable crop ready in the garden. They are forgiving and quick to mature, and are a crisp spicy addition to salads and sandwiches. Most radish types being round and red, they are a little deceiving to children who are expecting a sweet flavor when they bite into their first one!

At the end of the radish season when the last few go to seed...leave them! The pods that develop after the flowers fall are delicious when new and crisp. They taste like...radishes!

Radishes sprout quickly, and that quality is useful if their seeds are sowed with notoriously slow-to-sprout carrot seeds. A few radishes will mark your rows nicely while waiting for the carrots to germinate.

When I was a child, radishes never were the center star at the dinner table though we did enjoy them. More importantly, they were the first victory in the garden after a long winter...eagerly planted, eagerly watched, and joyfully harvested.