Written By Nate. In Arizona, Cooking, Corporate America, Daily Life, Food, Green Living, Indiana, Midwest

Thanksgiving might be a week behind us but I’m still pretty pleased with our decision to go local this year.  Instead of elbowing the crowd at the freezer case at the local grocery store, we located a nearby farmer who raises natural and fresh turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday.
This is something we’ve done before when

Written By Nate. In Composting, Daily Life, Green Living, Indiana, Sustainable living

I am a coffee fiend.  Notice I did not say that I’m a coffee addict although I’m sure my friends and family would make a very different testament regarding that label.  My everlasting search for a good “cuppa joe” exceeded my expectations at my favorite local coffee shop yesterday.
Yes, I said a local coffee shop. 

Written By Nate. In Cleaning, Green Living, Homemade, Household

It seems like one of the many products consumers are bombarded with on TV commercials every day are the copious amounts of chemicals and cleaning products to sanitize and freshen your home.  So many of those products contain dangerous chemicals or volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that may actually be doing us more harm than good.
That’s

Written By Nate. In Energy, Green Living, Holidays, Household, Recycling, Reducing Bills

It’s taken me a while to jump on the LED Christmas light bandwagon, mainly because the incandescent strands we have still work and the prices on the LED lights are still a little high for my liking.  Last year though, I noticed I had about three strands that weren’t working properly, so I began pillaging

Written By Nate. In Baby, Personal Stories, Random

The changing of the seasons is definitely on the march here in southwest Indiana and with it comes a stark quandary about where time disappears to.  This time of year for my little family is often a busy one.  My wife’s teaching work picks up a ferocious amount of speed as she nears the end

Written By Nate. In Cleaning, Daily Life, Environment, Green Living, Homemade, Indiana, Midwest, Natural Remedies, Nature, Personal Stories, Pets, Self-sufficiency, Wildlife

It’s that time of year when the skunks start coming out of the woodwork and interacting with the friendly wildlife we call pets living in our yards.  T had a near heart attack the other night when she heard our dog going crazy outback and opened the door to the most pungent skunk spray smell

Written By Nate. In Cooking, Daily Life, Food, Green Living, Homemade, Indiana, Midwest, Recipes, Self-sufficiency

As the nights get cooler and the days get shorter, apples that ripen in the Fall are finally ready to come off the tree.  We have several U-Pick apple orchards in the area and enjoy going to fill up a bag or two as we wander down the rows of apple trees.  Inevitably we come