In Loving Memory Of My Dear Husband

                                                                    1956-2016 

                  A loving husband, caring father and amazing grandfather.

In Loving Memory Of My Dear Husband

How could we know that morning that God would call your name?
We had no time to say good bye my love.
Only God knows why.
I thought we would grow old together and watch as time passed by.
Instead I lie awake at night with tears upon my face.
You were the center of my world and held my heart with grace..
Why did you have to leave me in this very lonely place?
I pray to God please give me strength to walk this path alone.
I carry a little peace in my heart knowing that in time God will bring us together again when he calls me home.
Your Loving Wife

Grandma Bonnie

Spring Is In The Air

Daisy's new spring clip.

Our Little Daisy

She is our miniature poodle. I just wanted to share with you. We've had her since May. She is now 10 months old.

Grandchildren at Christmas

It has been three years since all our grandchildren have been together at the same time. What a wonderful Christmas blessing. I say that's an occasion to celebrate. We sure did not want this day to end. We are so thankful to be blessed with such lovely grandchildren. 

It's been a long while since I have been able to do a blog post. We are still working here in South Dakota. I am looking forward to going home for a visit. Perhaps for Easter we will see.  I have got to get back to work. Enjoy the pictures. Catch you later.

Grandma Bonnie

What Has Grandma Been Up To?

It's been awhile since I have been able to write on my blog. I can hardly believe its been almost a year since our move to South Dakota. We will be taking our vacation next week. We will go home to check on our little homestead. I am sure there will be tons of work to get done while we are home.
So our job is going great. We have been caring for and teaching 18 children. We feel blessed every day being allowed to give to such beautiful children.

So the next post I will be sharing about my new puppy! I hope you stop by and check it out.

DIY: Sandcastle Beach Cake

Its been a long time since I have posted on my blog. I would like to introduce my guest Tootsabella and the Rose posting the sandcastle beach cake.

Hello everyone!

I am Tootsabella Rose guest posting from Life with Tootsabella and the Rose

Recently, Grandma Bonnie from Grandma Bonnie's Closet and I had made this super cute and tasty sandcastle beach cake.

We had such a great time with this cake that we both agreed that it was the easiest and most fun cake we have ever made. It looks challenging for sure but I assure you the non cake decorating person can do this. If you are interested in making this cake, head on over to my blog for the details and more pictures. Enjoy the cake and have a wonderful day!

"It's Not About You, Mr. Santa Claus" Winners

Announcing the winners for the three copies of the book "It's Not About You, Mr. Santa Claus" by Author: Soraya Diase Coffelt.
You have been contacted by email. You have 72 hours to respond to the email with your information or another winner will be selected.
Fishingerlprxc 
Libbey

Fblnin

Thank you for your comments.

Congratulations to all.

A Love Letter About the True Meaning Of Christmas

Disclosure: Grandma Bonnie's Closet has not been compensated for the following book review. I received a copy of the mentioned book for review purposes. All opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review and Giveaway
Title: "It's Not About You, Mr. Santa Claus"
Author: Soraya Diase Coffelt

Just in time for Christmas a wonderful book for your children explaining the true meaning of Christmas. I thought I might have a problem sharing this book with some my grandchildren. But, after reading the book myself I found this is a great way to introduce the true meaning of Christmas to young children when they are ready. We have always shared the story of Jesus birth with our children and grandchildren. So, it was a pleasure to read this story to my grandchildren.

I just love the writing style and the illustrations. This book will make a great stocking stuffer for your grandchild.

To purchase "It's Not About You, Mr. Santa Claus" visit As the Stars of the Sky. 
To enter the giveaway for a chance to win one of Three copies, visit the As the Stars of the Sky web site and make a comment here about something you like about this book. Each comment you make will count as one entry. Leave an email contact in the same comment if your comment is not linked to your email.
The giveaway drawing will be held on December 4th. The winners will be contacted by email and have 72 hours to respond.

This book is also promoted on Grandma Bonnie's Gift Guide.

A Trip South

We made a trip recently to see our granddaughters. The drive took us 18 hours to get there. We spent a day and a half then we had to get back to work. Another 18 hours drive back to work. The trip was well worth it but very long and tiring. I love traveling by car but the drive from north to south was fairly barren. Not much to look at. I did get a few pictures but nothing spectacular.
So here is a sample of what we saw.

Then we ran into this scene when we got over the border into New Mexico.

But the best view of all was our our beautiful granddaughters. 

We are very thankful that we were able to visit them. Every moment spent with our family is worth everything to us.

It's Been Too Long

It's been ages since I last posted on my blog. I have been extremely busy over the last few months with many changes going on in our little world. I will give you a quick rundown on what has been happening here. I accepted a new job out of state. We have kept our home just moved temporarily as far west as I could have ever imagined.
I really did not plan this move it was Gods plan. We had been struggling with a work injury and a long term job loss. As anyone who has been job hunting lately you might know there are few good jobs available to be had locally in small towns. We really tried to stick it out and stay in the same area. I love our little town and our farm. I fought tooth and nail to find a job in the area but after weeks and weeks of being stubborn I realised that fighting to stay was not in our best interest. We prayed and prayed until we saw the path that God was directing us to.
The move was hard on me. I did not think I could be happy away from our family and home. But, knowing that we are serving God and following his direction has helped to put everything into perspective.
The new job we accepted is in community service to needy children. I wish I could tell you more about the job but privacy laws are strict in this nature.  I will be stopping by to check out all the blogs I have not kept up on. Please be patience with me while I catch up with all the good reading I have ahead of me.
On a side note Grandma Bonnie's Closet will be working on a Holiday Gift Guide for the month of November.

Ozeri Green Earth Pan

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this product. I received a free product in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are my own.

I have been wanting a ceramic pan for a while now. When Ozeri ask if I would like to review the Green Earth Pan I was thrilled! I have been using the pan for three weeks now and I must say it looks just like it was on day one. No scratches, peeling or discoloration. I am so pleased to say nothing sticks to this pan. I love the safe 100% PTFE and PFOA free ceramic non-stick coating. 

The frying pan is 8 inches in diameter and has a textured bottom. The elevated texture creates air pockets which distribute heat underneath food to enhance cooking. The pan is easy to clean since food does not stick there is no scrubbing to be done. 

Before the first use the pan should be seasoned with a little bit of oil. High temperatures when cooking are not recommended. Also as with any non-stick pan you should never cut food in the pan. 

The first time I used the pan I made omelettes for the family. The nice thing about this pan is I am able to cook with very little oil. 

At this point I got so excited how well the pan was cooking I forgot to take more pictures. The omelettes turned out perfect. 

The pan comes with its own little protector pad that is good to use when storing your pans together. This will prevent scratching the ceramic coating. 

If you would like to purchase one of these little gems. Stop over to Amazon and get a Green Earth Pan by Ozeri.

Fun With Our Grandchildren and more.

We have been crazy busy this last few weeks. I have hardly had time to write any posts lately. I decided to squeeze in some time just to let all my readers know I am still out here just busy as can be.
We had some baby goats visit us a few weeks ago. They are Pygmy goats and  such sweet little animals. I would have loved to keep them but they are not milk goats so I could not keep them.

We took a short trip to visit our grandsons. They sure are growing like weeds.

 That's Little Roo. Grandma see my balloon hat! You have just got to love those big brown eyes!

Of course Pooh Bear had to join in the fun with his balloon hat and balloon animal.

Then our grandson came for a visit a few weeks later.

Pooh Bear, Little Roo and Little Bug. "Grandma we are picking you these pretty yellow flowers!"

Just too sweet don't you think? 

Then our granddaughters Pumpkin and Sweet Pea came up from New Mexico for a visit. On their way up the stopped to see Pooh Bear and Little Roo.

Next stop grandma's house. Little Bug stopped over to spend the night with his cousins. We had a happy house full. 

My granddaughters wanted to celebrate their birthday so off we went to the American Girl Doll Store.

 Pumpkin and Marie Grace in their matching nighties.

 Sweet Pea and Ruthie in their matching nighties.

At some point during all the visiting and traveling we found time to drain our Koi pond. It is still sad to think about all the koi we lost. We have since filled the pond and added 4 koi. I shall share some photos later of the new koi.

So what do you think? Have the grandchildren grown like weeds? What have you been up to lately?

Ozeri Brezza III Dual Oscillating 10" High Velocity Desk Fan

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this product. I received a free product in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are my own.

With the heat of summer blasting away in my home I was more than a little tickled to have the opportunity to review the Ozeri Brezza Dual Oscillating Desk Fan. I am not a fan of air conditioning. We do have a couple window A/C's that we use in the living room and guest bedroom but we like to use a fan in our bedroom. I like to be cool but not cold when I sleep.  With the Ozeri Brezza III I have been able to direct our air conditioning toward our bedroom without turning our bedroom into a freezer. 
The fan comes with a remote. This remote comes in handy when the night gets cooler and I want to turn the fan off without leaving my bed. 

The fan has four air speeds. Low, Medium, High and Quiet.  

The OSC(L/R) button activates the automatic left and right oscillation.

The OSC(U/D) button activates the automatic up and down oscillation.

The fan has a programmable timer button. Just press the timer button once and repeat to set the timer to the following increments: 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, and 4 hours.

What I like about the fan is the ability to sit the fan beside my window or A/C and direct the cool air where I want it. It will also be great to use in the winter. I will be facing the fan at the ceiling to direct warm air down and circulate it through our house. 

Then there is the dual motion feature! To maximize the distribution of airflow into a wide space, activate the up/down button while in the left/right oscillation mode for automatic dual motion oscillation. Now thats an awesome function!

Check out my video on youtube. See all the great features in action. Its less than a minute twenty five seconds long. I appreciate the views. Thanks for watching.

Like Ozeri on Facebook.

I hope you all are staying cool this summer.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Goats

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this book. I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are all my own.

Have you ever thought about raising goats for milk, meat or just as a pet? I have had that dream for some time now. We have been making plans to purchase two Nigerian dwarf goats. I have never raised goats before and I did not want to jump into this project without doing thorough research on the subject of raising dairy goats. While looking into all the information online I came across the book titled, "How To Raise Goats Everything You Need To Know" By Carol Amundson. I immediately begged for requested a review copy from Voyageur Press. 

I am so thrilled to tell you this book is very comprehensive in dealing with the subject of raising goats. The first chapter describes each type of goat and their breed. Its is important to research all the available breeds and their types so you might be able to choose the best goat breed for your needs. I myself am interested in a small dairy goat. I have no need for a meat goat. I am not interested in fiber goats. I just want goats for their milk. Well maybe also their pet qualities. The book has helped me decide what my needs are and made it easy for me to choose the best breed for my situation. So, after choosing a breed of goat the chapter goes on to give a quick peek into the physical and behavioral view of goats in general. There are several charts included on the parts of a goat. And also a chart on body condition scoring. 

This will come in useful when I inspect my goats for purchase. Its nice to know I won't just be picking a goat because of its pretty coat or striking blue eyes. Knowing a little about what a good body condition is and what to watch out for is very important when purchasing a goat. Next, in chapter two I read about preparing your goat farm. The topics included animal diseases, management systems, dead animal disposal, auctions, breeders, acquiring your goats, housing, fencing and much more.

Chapter three Breeding Your Goats was fascinating. I am looking forward to having some kids and the fresh milk resulting from their birth. Very exciting indeed. There is so much more great goat information in this book. From milking a goat, handling goats milk, meat goats, fiber from fiber goats, goats as pets and even showing goats. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to start raising goats on their own.

When we do purchase our very own goats we will be one step closer to living the sustainable lifestyle we are working tward. 

Have you ever raised goats? What type of goat would you be interested in owning? 

The Encyclopedia Of Country Living

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this book. I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are all my own.

Being on a mission to turn our family into a sustainable homestead that is earth friendly and  Eco-conscious I have been looking for suitable educational resources to help us on our journey. When I came across a description of the book "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" I knew it would be a wonderful resource to learn from. 

Thanks to Sasquatch books for allowing Grandma Bonnie's Closet to review "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" By  Carla Emery. 

I have been reading and reading and did not want to put this book down. I can hardly describe my fascination with this book. The day I received the copy in the mail I sat down with the intention to flip through a few pages and get a feel for the organization of the book. That was a mistake because I could not put the book down. I forgot to make dinner. My husband, (poor dear) came home to no dinner. I scarcely looked up from my book to apologize for not fixing dinner. I did eventually pull myself away from the magnetic pages of the book and fixed us a fresh green salad for our late dinner. I then promised my husband I would limit my reading to one section at a time while I finish this book. 

Here is just a little about "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" to give you an idea of the contents included in this book. 

The book contains over 1 million words and is 928 pages long. It is divided into 11 chapters, organized into 125 sections, with over 500 topics covered. It contains over 2000 recipes and 1,500 mail-order sources. 

There are so many interesting topics in this book it is hard to choose which information I want to share with you. I will share with you just a few of the many topics I want to study and learn more about from this book. From the first chapter Oddments, I am very fascinated in "Making an Ice Cave". I think it would be very useful to be able to keep ice in the case of a grid down situation. Another skill I would like to try my hand at is "Building a Mud Oven", It starts out by saying, "If you have clay soil this is a natural. Start by building a dome-shaped frame of willow branches and sticks about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long. Cover your branch canopy..." (You will have to read the book to get the rest of the directions on this DIY project.)

The Mud Oven is a project that I am going to start working on as I have an entire back yard of clay! I will share it with you when I am finished. 

Chapter 2, Introduction to Plants is fairly comprehensive. If its about plants, made of plants or useful for plants you can find it in this section. From DIY cleaning products, planning a garden, seed saving, seed storage, vegetable propagation, root cutting , resources for seed catalogs, greenhouse design and so much more I can't possibly list every topic in this chapter. So, let us just skip to Chapter 7 Food Preservation. From drying, canning, root cellars and making vinegar this is a very interesting look into food preservation. Probably the most important section to read in this chapter is the Twelve Life-Saving Canning Rules. Keep in mind I am a canning enthusiast so the canning rules are very important to me. 

I will have to skip the sections on animals, livestock, building a barn, growing your own coffee and more, but I do believe you have got a good idea on the contents of this book. 

What I like about this book is that the instructions and explanations are clearly written. The illustrations, charts, and resources are clear and easy to understand. 

 The Encyclopedia Of Country living is definitely a book I think everyone should own. No matter where you live you will find some very useful information that may just come in handy someday. Well, off I go with a glass of lemonade to enjoy another chapter in this fascinating book.

In The Garden

Not so much going on in my garden yet. Even the cold weather plants are struggling. I am guessing the garden soil has not warmed up enough yet. It sure is going to be a short growing season if this keeps up. Even the hardy pea seedling are struggling to grow.

I plan to plant my tomato seedlings next week after Mothers Day. Hopefully that will be past the last frost in this area. Pooh Bear and Little Roo are coming for a visit this week. I am looking forward to their visit. They should keep me very busy. I will share some pictures of their visit if I don't get too busy. Well, I wish you all a great week in your garden. Happy gardening.

All You Need Is Less

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this book. I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are all my own.

As you may already know I have been researching sustainable living. I have been trying to find ways to become more Eco friendly without going overboard. Can one go overboard in sustainable living? Hmm, anyway Viva Editions has kindly asked me to review the book "All You Need Is Less" by Madeleine Somerville. 

Oh my gosh! I love this book. I am not exaggerating at all. This book is so perfect for anyone that is trying to become earth friendly and live a more sustainable lifestyle. I enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover. Every chapter is devoted to a specific topic. For example chapter one is all about the home. This chapter has a recipe for laundry detergent that is not only Eco friendly but also budget saving. Then there is the alternative tips to dryer sheets which is perfect for an asthmatic person like myself. In this chapter you can find all sorts of Eco friendly alternative cleaners that you can make yourself. Next is chapter two, its all about the body. My favorite tip in this chapter is the facial toner. Just mix 50/50 water and ACV. Then use a cotton ball or soft cloth to blot gently over a clean face. 

When I first picked up the book I flipped through the pages and thought for sure the gardening chapter would be my favorite. Well, I did enjoy reading the gardening tips and the section on "A pesticide-free garden". But, to be sure chapter seven the Health and Wellness chapter should have been my favorite chapter. I was certain the minute I found this great remedy for a cold or flu. I will be trying this recipe the next time flu season comes visiting our home. 

So, finally I settled on my absolute favorite chapter. Chapter eight "Baby". The story on poop will have you laughing yourself right out of your chair. I laughed so hard until I could not see the page before me. Am I going to share with you the poop story?

I hope you enjoyed the little peek I gave you into the pages of this book. I think you should pick up a copy of "All You Need Is Less" and read the poop story for yourself as well as the rest of this delightful book.                           

Thoughts On Sustainable Living And Egg Cartons

I thought I might share with you today some of our ideas and plans for becoming a little more self reliant. This morning while making eggs for breakfast two thoughts crossed my mind. The first thought was the two egg cartons we had in our refrigerator were made from two different materials. One egg carton was made from Styrofoam and the second was made from cardboard. It actually depends where we shop at to which type of egg carton is available. The nearby little grocery has cardboard cartons for the eggs. The larger supermarket which is thirty minutes away has the Styrofoam egg cartons. I have thoughts about each type when it comes to living a sustainable lifestyle. If you are raising laying hens for eggs. You might want to have a stash of the Styrofoam cartons. When I knew I was going to be raising chickens I started saving my egg cartons and asking my family and friends to save their egg cartons. I could wash the egg cartons and reuse them multiple times. Now , I have not had laying hens in a while now and I actually prefer the cardboard style egg cartons because I can put them in the compost pile.
The second thought that crossed my mind when making breakfast was that we need to get some more laying hens. I believe that would take us one step closer to being self reliant. After Breakfast I jumped on the computer and found some chicks on Craigslist. Ha ha! I might be on my way to getting some chicks over the weekend. I will be keeping you posted.

On a side note. Nothing to do with sustainability. It has been a sad spring this year. We lost all the fish in our Koi pond. We had around 50 Koi and goldfish. We had raised most of the Koi and goldfish from small fry. Some of our Koi were over 15 inches long and 12yrs old. Our pond is about 5 & 1/2 feet deep. Well below the frost line. These fish have survived many winters in our pond. The only conclusion I can come to is this winter was far too cold too long. It is sad but we will have to start over.

I will leave you with just a few photo memories from my archives.

I hope you enjoy this beautiful spring day!

Working Toward A Sustainable Lifestyle

I have been thinking for a long while now on how our family can get back to a more sustainable living situation. It would be nice to be able to depend on our garden for most of our fruits and vegetables. We even have a plan to add a couple dairy goats and a few laying hens in the future. Our plan is to start out slowly with a few easy projects. Our first project this year is putting in a Back To Eden Garden. (which is well on its way.) We have also started composting. Recycling is second nature for me and the hubby. We have been reusing, recycling and repurposing most of our lives. One of the biggest changes we are making is reducing consumption. We are looking for ways to reduce our energy and water usage. This will go a long way in helping us to live a sustainable lifestyle. As I find ways to reduce our energy and water consumption I will be writing about it on my blog. I hope to share some eco friendly project ideas and maybe learn something from my readers along the way.

Making Sourdough Starter With The Help Of My Ozeri Kitchen Scale

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this product. I received a free product in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are all my own.

I have been thinking about making my own Sourdough Starter for a few months now. I had found an old recipe of my mother's for Sourdough bread and it brought back lots of wonderful memories. When I received The Touch II Touch Sensitive Kitchen Scale with Microban from Ozeri I knew this was a great opportunity to make the sourdough starter. 
The kitchen scale has a modern design that looks great just hanging out on my kitchen counter. The Microban antimicrobial technology helps fight stain and odor-causing bacteria for the life of the scale. It is digital and provides precise results up to 11 lbs (5 kg) in graduations of 1 g or 0.1oz. 

   

With the large high-contrast LCD display, large weighing platform and touch sensitive buttons the scale is effortless to operate.
I needed 4 oz. flour for my sourdough starter. I pressed the start button then selected my unit of measure. I then placed a coffee filter on the scale to weigh. Then pressed the Tare (start) button. The Tare button allows you to subtract the weight of a bowl, plate or other container to determine the weight of the ingredients being weighed. The Tare button is an awesome feature!

The scale also comes with a Calorie Guide and U.S. Postal First Class Letter Rate Guide. Now I can weigh the packages I send to my grandchildren right at home. No more running into town to mail a package.
So, I have got my 4 ounces of flour measured out. I am ready to start my sourdough starter.

Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

1 cup non chlorinated water

4 ounces flour

1 canning jar quart sized

1 coffee filter

Directions:

Day One: Mix together water and flour. Cover with coffee filter and place ring of canning jar lid over the coffee filter. The coffee filter allows airflow into the mixture but keeps dust or insects out. The airflow is a must to create a good environment for the lactobacilli and the wild yeast that are attracted to it. Set in a warm place. I placed my started above the refrigerator. 

Day Two: Remove 1/2 the starter. Add 1/2 cup non chlorinated water and 2 ounces of flour to the remaining starter in the jar. Mix well. Use the removed starter to make pancakes, bread or feed it to your compost pile. This starter is not as sour as the finished product will be. But it is better to be used then discarded.

Day Three - Day Six: follow instructions for Day Two. Each day you will see more bubbling and detect a stronger fermented sour smell. It will kind of smell like baking bread. 

Day 7: Now the starter is finished. It should be bubbly with a sour smell. It will grow a bit when you feed it. Now the starter can be placed in the refrigerator and fed once a week. When you remove starter for a recipe just replace what you remove. For example if you remove 1 cup starter add 1 cup non chlorinated water and 4 ounces flour back to the starter. 

At any point during making the starter or storing the starter if you see discoloration such as pink, green or black it has begun growing mold. Just discard the starter and begin again.

The starter will have a mild sour taste to begin with as time goes by it will grow a deeper, richer, sour flavor.

I love this kitchen scale already. I have used it a million times in the last week. Now is a great time to begin a healthy diet and start counting calories. With the calorie guide and scale I am sure to succeed. 

You can Purchase the Ozeri Kitchen Scale on Amazon.

Happy Bread making.

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