Take a moment to see the beauty God has created.

Most often in the world today it is hard to find the good in it. 

I few weeks ago I went up town. 

As I drove into town I witnessed a truck go 5 feet out of his driving lane  to hit a turtle that had crossed the road successfully.  Then once into town I had to shop for groceries for my work.  I then saw a man in the parking lot empty trash from his car and leave it in the grass next to his parking spot, rather then putting it into the trash can that was just 20 feet away.  This was followed up by me seeing a dresser placed on the curb.  I didn't think to much of this at first as many people will put their unwanted items near the curb for someone else to pick it up and reuse it.  Well this day it was different the person and sprayed it with black spray paint " I don't give anything away for free". 

Charities are seeing a drop in people that volunteer or give to the less fortunate.  Companies are finding it hard to fill job openings, as there are many people out there that feel they should not have to work for what they receive.  We have racial unrest, and drug abuse running ramped.

With all that in  our seemingly small town, it can be hard to see the positive things that are still out there in the world today.

But don't stop looking for it.

All lives matter, All people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

and that can begin with you.

Sometimes you can see Gods reminders as it is seen in the light that reflects off of a water fall.

Or as the moon shines through the clouds above a church reminding us to have faith.

It can been seen in the raindrops that stick to a rose.

Or in the smile of an old dog basking in some cold water on a hot day.

Show kindness to a stranger.

Help a person in need.

Surprise someone by paying for their meal at a restaurant or drive thru.

Volunteer, and give back.

Your one act of kindness could make a difference in someone's day, someone's life.

It has been sometime since we posted any thing in our blog.

 

Today I felt the need to share a little bit of the beauty of Nature.

Sometimes we get so busy in our daily lives, that we forget to be thank full of the simple Things.

When you really open your eyes, you can see the simple beauty of nature.

We can learn a little from what we find. Above is a picture of a fireplace from long ago.

Below this plant survived in the harshest conditions. 

The Picture below was viewed inside of a cave, the rock is growing.

Sometimes all one needs to do is look up. 

Look up to the heavens God is painting some calming pictures.

Below the  is a picture of drift wood in the water,

look at the sparkles from what is left for some shells

The pine cone above was found hanging in an unsuspecting place.

Below the wave was caught  with droplets in the air.

Above is ice going out on a lake.

Cold but calming. Beautifully framed by nature.

Loft Bed with shelves

 

Steve and I, live in a small home and we have limited space for all of our interest.  We are always in a quest to find or shall I say, create more space with the limited space we have.  Sometimes with sustainability it isn't about getting more space it is about doing with what you have and making the best of it.  Steve and I decided on building a loft bed for our spare bed room.  This room is a small 9 buy 10 foot room with high 8 1/2 foot ceilings.  There are many options out there for loft beds but none that really met our needs or what we wanted to spend.  This is what we came up with. 

 

The bed is made out of 2x6's, 2x4's, 1x6's and 1x10 for the book shelf at the foot of the bed.

We also used a paneling for the back of the shelf on the head board.

You may notice the steps on this loft bed are angled, we felt this would make it easier to get up and down rather then a ladder straight up and down.    This bed cost us less than $200.00 including the mattress.   If you were going to purchase a bed if this type you would spend over $1200.00, what a savings. 

Zucchini Carrot Bread

Minnesota weather was not very kind to us this year as far as our garden was concerned.  We had a late spring and early frost which shortened or growing season. We did manage to get some nice potatoes from the potato towers we tried this year, as well as some nice zucchini.  I had some fun in the kitchen and came up with this great tasting and healthy zucchini carrot bread.

This recipe will make 4 (8x4 inch) loves or 3 (5x9 inch loves.

4 cups shreadded zucchini

2 cups shreadded carrots

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup apple sauce

4 tsp vanilla 

8 eggs

4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup brown sugar (don,t pack it in the cup)

4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Optional

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 

Move oven rack to low position to center the bread in the oven.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease your pans with non fat cooking spray. 

In a large bowl mix the sugars, eggs, oil, apple sauce vanilla and salt.  Once well blended add the flours,baking soda. bakung powder and spices.  The batter will get thick.  Lastly add your zucchini, carrots and optional nuts.  Mix well

Bake (8x4) inch pans for 50 to 60 minutes. (9x5) inch pans for 1 hour to an hour 1hr 15 minutes.  Toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the center. Cool in pans on cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool completely on cooling rack.  Can be stored in the fridge up to 10 days or longer in the freezer.

The pop can Solar heater update.

Many of you that have looked at our blog may be wondering how well our pop can solar heater did for us in 2012.  We compared our bills from 2011 to 2012 and we have saved $600.00 over all in the winter of 2012/2013.  We approached 2013 with our first tank of propane for the year already prepaid due to the amount we save.  Now with the cost of propane so high if you have a south facing window it is well worth giving a pop can solar heater a try.   

Those south facing windows are also a great place to grow plants during these very cold winter months.  Getting ready to start your plants for the summer.  Steve and I have been looking at trying some vertical gardens as well this year.  We will let you know how well that works for us. 

Puppies at the Goplin House

On April 10th, the Goplin House was expanded a bit by a litter of Golden Retriever Puppies. 

Above is mom (Wendy) with all ten of her puppies.

This is a picture of a puppy we call Sandy, she will be a permanent addition to our family.

Above are the boys and below are the girls. they will all be adopted to loving families.

 This puppy is a little girl that loves her voice to be heard.  We call her Drama.

I call this picture the spokes person, as this puppy is speaking up for all the others that are sleeping.

 

The puppy below we call this little guy, cuddles as that is all he likes to do.

 

Solar Heater Up-date

Our Solar pop can heater is performing well on sunny days.  We are seeing temperatures coming out of it up to 102 degrees.  Sunny days our gas furnace is kicking in 1/3 as often as it does on a cloudy day.  This is giving us a drop in the amount of gas being used to heat our house this winter.  We have had only one fill of gas so far this year.  We like our home a bit cooler then most, we maintain a temp of 68 degrees on sunny days being heat mainly by the solar pop can heater.  Steve and I have seen days where the furnace has not kicked in for 5 hours with temperatures outside at 25 degrees.