Work travel essentials

I've traveled pretty heavily over the past 10 years. I have gotten better at it over the years and am proud to brag that I packed for a 10 day trip (including 8 days overseas) in a carry on. I'm not always awesome in my packing, but these travel essentials help keep me organized and ready to go.

1. Packing cubes

I'm pretty much addicted to packing cubes. I don't use them for short trips but if I am staying more than two nights I'm probably using them. I got a set for my mom, then one for myself and then a second for myself (and the boys too). I think they are fabulous! They make my bag so much more organized. I find that I forget fewer things if I use cubes because it forces me to organize. I usually make one bag for workout clothes, one for casual and one for business. With the kiddo his cubes are divided tops, bottoms, pj/undies and sometimes a bag of "nice" clothes. AKA ones to hide from Grandma in case we need to be in public at some point. :)

The bags pictured are ebags cubes but there are several other brands. You can buy them directly from ebags or on amazon.  They come in a variety of sizes but I mostly seem to use medium bags. I roll the clothes to fit the bag and then cram the bags into my suitcase. For the kiddo I use medium and the long sized bags. 

*A added my refer a friend link here because it should get you 15% off and I think free shipping. 

2. Reusable grocery bag (that squishes into a small space).

Notice the little red blob in the top right corner of the suitcase? That is a reusable shopping bag. I ALWAYS travel with one. Sometime I use it as a purse cover of sorts. Stick my purse in that bag and then under the seat in front of me. I also use it to have extra room on the trip home or to combine a shopping bag and my purse into one "small" personal item when flying home.

Also, more and more places charge you for grocery bags, so this helps with that issue too when you are away from home.

3. Dry shampoo

This is really targeted to the ladies. I became a dry shampoo believer about 5 years ago. It is a travel staple for me. I can easily get away with second day hair which is a great time saver during travel. Plus if you are only gone one night and don't need to wash your hair you can lighten your load of hair products to travel with you. 

4. Multi plug

Some hotels have one accessible plug near the bed and others hidden behind furniture or in the bathroom. I'm not a fan of charging my electronics on a bathroom counter. So I bring along a multi plug to turn one outlet into three. I used to bring along a power strip but this serves the same purpose and takes up less space. I found my current one from the Dollar Store but you can get them most anywhere.

5. Earplugs

I keep a set of disposable ear plugs in my carry on bag. I don't use them very often but on a late flight these are really awesome. Equally helpful if you happen to have a loud hotel. They hardly take up any space.

6. Oatmeal packet

Another item that takes almost no space but provides a great meal option. Heat water in the coffee pot and pour it into the travel cup usually provided in your room. Cover with the lid and let it cook for a bit. If you don't have a spoon the wooden stir stick provided for the coffee will do the trick. :) Quick, cheap and easy.

7. Tea bags

I have lived most of my life on well water. Chlorinated water tastes awful to me. So having tea bags with me is a great help in disguising the flavor of a bad hotel water. You don't want to get dehydrated on a trip. I've heard others mention this as a way to bring some sense of home with you. That can't hurt either.

8. Landry hamper







This is a fantastic find from the dollar store. It folds flat and takes up almost no space. It isn't the most durable thing ever but mine has lasted a year already. Totally worth the buck! I love having a place to keep dirty clothes away from clean ones. On car trips I have started just keeping the dirty clothes in the hamper and dumping it right in the washer when we get home. This is more essential for travel with the family than work, but sometimes those activities have some crossover.

9. Granola bar
Side story - when I was young some very close family friends got stuck in a snow storm in their car for several days. They lived off ketchup packets and miraculously survived. Since them my Mom has been a little crazy about emergency preparedness (and we keep ketchup packets in the vehicles still). Carrying a granola bar is a bit of that emergency preparedness. But you also might have a hangry mini emergency or get a bit nauseous and need something to calm your stomach. Granola bars last a pretty long time and take up hardly any space. So don't leave home without one. You can also sub a protein bar in here if that is more your thing.

10. Mint or peppermint candy
Peppermint is very soothing to a tummy and helps relieve nausea. Seriously it works for me. Especially on turbulent flights, mints are a must. I specifically prefer Mentos on flights, I swear it helps with ear popping since you kinda chew them.

11. Ready to go toiletries
This set of plastic bottles have been traveling with me since I was a senior in high school. These exact bottles. I try to fill them up when I remember after trips so that they are always ready to go when I leave. I don't have to worry about having to use hotel brand products and I don't have to purchase bunches of disposables. 

So, what do you think? What items are essential for your travel?

Growing Forward

Last year we were given a bag of sweet corn seed from Monsanto's Grow Forward program. Due to the drought and changes in our crop plans, we had to wait and use the seed this year.

The idea behind this program is to grow an acre of sweet corn to share. Share it and do some good in your community. Monsanto offered to provide the seed if the farmer would take care of the rest and do some good with it.

Beautiful baby corn plants!

The sweet corn seeds we planted and grew are GMO. They enable us to grow with limited herbicide and no pesticide sprayed. I'll try to do a post on why that works awesome. But today I want to tell you about how awesome this experience has been, in ways I didn't really expect.

The GMO sweet corn is on the left.

The sweet corn ripened pretty quickly and was delicious (seriously awesome)! We only have one food bank in our community and they are only open two days per week. So we had plenty of corn to share with them and more to share in our neighboring community. We made a total of four deliveries to our local food bank with my car full of corn. I also made a delivery to a soup kitchen in a neighboring community.

Fresh picked corn headed to the food bank

We have donated to food banks before and helped with food drives. But usually all non perishable goods and done when the food bank isn't open. In this case the food is fresh and needs to be delivered as they open (which is an interesting logistical challenge in providing fresh produce to those in need). I'm a mom and busy so usually I arrived a few minutes after they opened. This meant that for the first time I was seeing the people who are using this important service. Not only did I see the faces and the children, I saw the quantity of people who needed this food.

Check out this interactive map by Feeding America to see what food insecurity rates are in your back yard. http://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2013/overall/california.

1 in 7 Americans turns to the Feeding America Network for food assistance

Seeing the level of need in our community was striking. Almost every time I made a drop off there was a long line for people waiting to use the service. People of all ages and both genders and plenty of children. And as some of the volunteers noted, many people from working families.

It was so rewarding to get to drop off fresh food to people who need it!

Some friends stopped by to get corn and helped pick some extra boxes for the food bank.

This project was also a great way to visit with friends and neighbors. We invited people to come and pick and pick some extras for us to take to the food bank. We even had people bring boxes because we were quickly running out of containers! We also delivered sweet corn on the days the food bank wasn't open. Keeping up with an acre of fresh sweet corn is a challenge!

This was a really rewarding project. We are thinking about doing it again. We have friends in other parts of the country who are selling fresh corn and donating the proceeds. This allows the food banks to use the money for whatever their needs may be. With our food bank only open two days a week, this may be the better option. We have almost a year to decide but it sure has us thinking about hunger in our community and how we can help.

We really thank Monsanto for providing the corn seed!

Moving Backward: from owning to renting

We had been dreaming about moving back to the country for years.  Looking at houses and waiting for one to come on the market.  Less houses mean less go on the market.  What did come up in our price range either needed a complete remodel or went so quickly we didn’t have a chance. 

I changed jobs and had a 30 minute commute to and from work.  My commute was nice.  It was the opposite direction as traffic and I got to watch the fields grow on my daily commute.  It also gave my an hour a day to listen to an audio book or sing along to the radio. 

A year and a half later, Michael changed jobs which came with way less stress but also less pay.  His job was now very close to mine and although his commute was now 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes to an hour is was still long. 

His new boss asked him is we wanted to rent out his old house.  Michael was sold instantly – I was not. 

How could we go backward?  We OWN our house, why would we go back to renting? 

Then we sat down and mapped out this potential move.  We discovered we would save about half on our housing expenses (mortgage, insurance, and utilities) and the saving on our gas – no, sorry, FUEL (we have a diesel truck and car) was going to be significant too.  We also priced out rentals in our area and discovered we could rent our current house for enough to cover the mortgage.

Ok, that sounds good but still – renting is throwing your money down the drain, right?  Kind of yes but also no.  You are trading your money for a place to live.  That’s not a bad thing at all. 

Then there was the difference in the houses.  Our house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, brand new windows, new flooring, a new master bathroom, a 3 car garage, a decent sized backyard, and we could modify it as we pleased.  It is situated on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs.  The potential rental is a modular – a trailer without wheels, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, awkward layout, mismatched floors, a pond behind the house, and literally 5 minutes from my work.  It is in the country close to the land Michael was going to farm and close to his dad and grandma’s house.   

Yeah, you read that right my husband wanted me to move from a house to a trailer and the crazy part – we did it!  Even crazier – we couldn’t be happier about our choice! 

We moved when I was 7 months pregnant, spent the 8th and 9th month of my pregnancy getting our old house ready to rent out while getting settled in our new place.  It was crazy but looking back it was all worth it. 

I have been writing this blog post in my head for over a year now.  I still have conflicting thoughts about it!  Sometimes I feel like we took a huge step back and might not ever live in a house we own again.  I long for the days when I can tackle projects to improve the house again.  Other times I know this is the best thing for our family right now.  We get more time together since we are spending less time commuting and we live in a much more peaceful area. 

I just did the math and I spend 11.5 DAYS (24 hour periods) on the road in my year and a half commuting to and from work.  When you look at it like that – WOW!

Maybe we did move backward, but as odd as it sounds sometimes you have to move back to move forward.  (At least that is what I am telling myself!)

Carrot Mac & Cheese

This is the easiest Mac & Cheese ever!!  You only need 3 ingredients and it is perfect for babies and toddlers.  It falls apart and is easy for little hands or little forks. 

You Need:

- Carrots (1 cup pureed – about 6 carrots)

- Pasta (2 cups dry)

- Cheese (I cup grated or cubed)

Seriously, that’s it!

Peel and steam the carrots then put them in a blender or use an immersion blender to create a carrot puree.

Cook the pasta.

While the pasta is still hot, drain the water out and throw in the carrot puree and the cheese.

Mix it all together and you are done!

You can serve it right away or put it in individual portions and freeze. 

I used an ice cream scoop (perfect portion for a toddler).  Put down some wax paper on a cookie sheet, make sure the mac & cheese scoops aren’t touching.   

Put it in the freezer overnight.  Put the frozen portions in a ziplock bag and pull one out at a time for a quick lunch or dinner. 

Yum!

Treadmill desk

Since I have been working from home I have dreamed of having a walking desk or treadmill desk. But, I'm cheap. Too cheap to buy one, until recently.

I started with a cheap stationary bike and jimmied up the handle bars to hold my iPad. This worked ok, but not very well. The toddler kept messing with my high tech jimmied work and since it is an upright bike I move around too much to type. So I could watch a webinar or something, but not really work. Maybe I just move around too much. 

In any event I bit the bullet this summer and purchased a light duty treadmill. I went back and forth on a few models before settling on this one http://www.amazon.com/Confidence-Power-Motorized-Electric-Treadmill/dp/B004TGWUPE/ref=lp_3407831_1_2?s=exercise-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1436332379&sr=1-2. It gets great reviews for working as a walking treadmill or for a walking desk. It is NOT for running. It is very narrow and a very jostling stop. It also turns off every 30 minutes. But it is affordable, compact and light weight. I would love it more it if folded easily. 

The second step in my master plan was to find a desk or shelf for it. I found a ton of ideas online. But they were either too expensive or too much work. I don't need a full blown desk, I just want a mini desk of sorts. Just for light computer work. This is what I ended up finding. http://www.walmart.com/ip/16503526

My plan was to get some pvc pipe to make legs. But as it worked out, I was able to simply zip tie it to my treadmill. 

Tada! Please ignore the junk on my floor. 

Now, I have not lost 50 lbs or anything but I really enjoy using this. I've been catching up on webinars while getting a few extra steps. Once the kiddo is back to preschool (and not asking to join me on the treadmill every 7.8 seconds) I hope to schedule a morning walk on it while reviewing my emails. 

Have you Heard of This?

A family member shared an awesome post of facebook the other day…

Dolly Parton has a program called the Imagination Library.  The Imagination Library sends a free book to a child every month from birth to 5 years old.  Like them on Facebook here.  As a teacher, getting books in the hands of all kids is something I think is extremely important.  The brain develops very rapidly between birth and 5 years old.  Reading and exposing children especially children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families to books is very important to their success in school and ultimately in life.  Children coming into school from socioeconomically disadvantaged families are already behind – they have about half the vocabulary of a kid the same age from a professional family.  Half the words!  Reading is important even at a early age!

Anyway, off my soap box … Dolly Parton is one of my favorite country artists but now I love her even more. 

This is not available everywhere (it’s not in my area unfortunately) but check to see if it is available in your area!  Then read to your child every single day!

Can't we all just get along?

Why is it that defamation seems to be acceptable when advertising food? It is the only industry that I can think of where it is acceptable to say 'buy my product because yours is bad' instead of 'buy my product because it is the best.' I don't know when this started but I sure wish it would stop.

When VW advertises the saftey of their vehicles, they just tell us how great theirs is. They never say 'buy a VW because a x brand will kill you.' It seems to me there would be a lawsuit and I would imagine consumers wouldn't stand for it. 

So why is it that consumers are ok with this in food? I saw a website today that was promoting raw milk as one of their products. Note that I don't personally drink raw milk but I'm all about people having options. But raw milk is a high risk product. People can die or become very ill. 

But my issue was in the fact that they called other farming practices harmful. Ironic since their concerns are with hormones, GMOs and RoundUp. None of which are connected to consumer deaths and are widely accepted as safe and highly tested and regulated. 

Why is is they have to add fear into order to sell? Your products should sell on their merits. If you have to scare someone into buying your product, you must not have a great product to begin with. 

I'm am all about people having options. If you want organic, buy it or grow it. If you don't believe the over 1000 scientific studies about GMO saftey, that is your right and you are welcome to buy the many products that don't contain them

We still sell our natural beef. And we spell out what that means. In our case no added hormones and no antibiotics. Our steers eat grass and corn because it is a system that works for us. When most people ask why our beef tastes so amazing, I can honestly tell them it is because of the dry aging process. But you will never, ever hear me try to sell you my beef (or any other product) by bashing they way someone else grows their product. 

If we could all do this, I think agriculture would be better off.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

This spring has been incredibly busy! I say that every year but I guess we keep piling on more projects.

This year we are growing:

Beef cows

Sunflowers

Sudan

Corn 

Sweet Corn

Pumpkins

And our personal garden too.

In May we were busy as volunteers at our local fair. This is probably my favorite volunteer project! 

The drought is a very critical issue for us still. We are in a location with the best above ground storage water practically in the state but we still battle drought. With low soil moisture, the ground was sure thirsty when irrigation began. The lingering drought is the reason why we chose to grow Sudan this year. It is a lower value crop but very drought tolerant.

We will not be coming back to the farmers market selling beef. We are considering pumpkins. We decided that the costs of attending the market was too heavy on our family for the return. Instead we are enjoying more Saturdays as a family.

We do still have a very limited quantity of beef that we are selling to our existing customers. We are currently fully sold for this year.

National Ag Day Bus Tour

In honor of National Ag Day, our Glenn County Farm Bureau hosted our 2nd Annual Bus Tour of Glenn County Agriculture. I'm so happy we got to share real farm stories with our local consumers. Here are a few pictures to share.

We started at Burreson's Blueberries. Dennis Burreson shared with us the history of the settlement of his place and all the work that went into growing blueberries in Glenn County. The moral of the story - they are hard to grow here.

Blueberries are delicious for bids too. In order to reduce crop loss from bird damage, Dennis bring is a falconer and 12 Falcons to protect his crop for 5 weeks. While it costs around $1000 a day for the falconer, it saves close to $5000 per day in lost blueberries. 

If you buy blueberries from Costco during the last week of May, chances are they came from this ranch right here in Orland.

The next stop was Walnut Avenue Ranch.

Need some sweet treats for Easter? Come here! They make almost everyt

hing in house! The prices were very reasonable too! You can even buy online - http://walnutavenueranch.com/

They make chocolates and lots of nut brittles a by hand. 

If this was a smell-o-vision blog, you would be so hungry for brittle right now. It smelled amazing! 

The last tour stop was the Schager Dairy owned by Mike and Pat Schager. As a neat side note, my Grandfather and Pat's father were friends growing up in Willows, CA. :)

Mike and Pat milk about 500 cows. It might be hard to believe but that is small dairy. Mike estimated that to really be economically viable they would need to have 2,500 cows.

The cows live in a freestall barn which means the cows choose where to eat and sleep inside the barn. The floor is cement but the cows actual enjoy bedded mattresses. 

The milk truck visits once per day to empty this milk tank. Both Mike and Pat work full time on the dairy, every day. Much of Pat's work is paperwork. She has to provide a tremendous amount of reporting on water quality and nutrient management in addition to normal business paperwork and tracking the health of their herd. 

The cows come in twice per day for milking. Their dairy is unique in that they have three breeds - Jerseys, Holsteins and Brown Swiss. 

We had a great day touring! If you want to join us next time, call the office and order your tickets early. You can also check out the tours offered by Tehama County Farm Bureau and Butte County Farm Bureau.

National Ag Week

Today marks the start of National Ag Week. A great time to celebrate agriculture across the US.
Here are a few facts to share:

• In California alone we have over 76,000 farms. Most of these are family owned farms.
• California produces over 400 different crops. We have by far the greatest crop diversity of any US state.
• Over half of all the US-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables are grown in California. You're welcome the rest of the country. ;)
• The top crop in California is milk. I think our cows truly do enjoy the weather here.
• California produces over 90% of the US Artichokes, Strawberries, Almonds, Garlic, Tomatoes and Olives.

So thank a farmer today!! Agriculture is vital to our dinner tables and our economy!

Affordable Vacations- Cruising

We just got back from a great vacation on a Cruise! We started cruising in 2010 and have really enjoyed the three cruises we have done. We have only cruised with Carnival so far and their loyalty program and great rates keep us coming back.

We have only cruised out of California ports and only to Mexico so far. For us these have made the most sense for best use of our time and money. We hope to eventually cruise to Alaska, the Bahamas and Caribbean.

These are the biggest four reasons why we love to cruise:

1. Affordable - Cruises are hands down one of the most affordable vacations, especially if you live near a port. I'll go into this more in a future post to show you what we spend on ours. Like any vacation, they can be as expensive as you make them too but there are some great ways to keep it very affordable.
For me, the affordability factor means I can really relax. I don't fret about if we spent too much at X. This is a big deal for me and I think helps me truly get my brain into relax mode.

2. Practically All-Inclusive - The cruise rate includes standard meals on board and basic drinks such as tea and coffee. Alcohol and soda are not included and you can choose a fancier meal for an extra charge. We have always found the included food to be good (hello lobster night) and have never purchased the upgraded meals. Room service is even included. We typically order coffee to our room and head out for the actual meal.
The cruise price also includes a good variety of entertainment. Typically there are nightly Vegas-style shows and comedy shows. There are also game-show type events and many activities happening on the ship. Mini golf, pools and hot tubs are also included on most ships. The ship we were just on had a "waterworks" area for kids with three very nice slides.

3. Floating Hotel/Resort - Some people use the ship like the floating hotel that it is and venture out at all the ports. Instead of moving hotels every day, the hotel moves for you. The time that you need to be back on ship is very firm, but most people don't have trouble with it.
We prefer to use the ship as a floating resort and stay on the ship most of the time. We love laying out and enjoying all the included amenities. It works out very well either way.

4. Limited phones - This is my husband's favorite part. Since you are in international ports and international waters there is limited cell phone use. We put our phones on airplane mode or turn them off when we set sail and don't even bother with the expensive international cell plans. The ship has a phone should there be an emergency and our loved once can call the ship should they need to. This allows us to literally unplug for the cruise.

We love to cruise and I'm looking forward to sharing more about our experiences in upcoming posts!

What goes into selling at the farmer's market?

Selling food at the farmer's market is a ton of work. We did a guest post at the Food Journal to share. Check it out and learn why we may not be going back to the farmer's market.

Motivation Monday from MLK

Happy Monday all! 

Some days I feel like I am crawling and others I am running but the important part is the forward motion. 

Pruning Fruit Trees

January is a great time of year to prune your fruit trees. Don't be afraid to prune! Your trees will thank you! My favorite resource for fruit tree advice is Dave Wilson Nursery's You Tube Channel. They have fantastic videos on pruning, grafting, and much more. Go visit them at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWu4u--cZ84

My husband doing some winter pruning

A California Winter Garden

If you live in a climate that allows it and have never had a winter garden - you are missing out!
A winter garden in California is so simple and such an easy way to get some fresh produce in the winter. We have a cool enough winter without much frost.

3 young broccoli plants - volunteers from last year

We have grown broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and lettuce. Lettuce and broccoli have been the most successful for us. Both are super easy. You can usually find broccoli starts at the local hardware store (or you could start them by seed but we have better luck with starts) and lettuce seed is equally easy to find. We like to purchase the salad bowl seed packs that include a mix of varieties.

All we do is plant them, maybe fertilize them, cover them if a deep frost is coming (we have only done this twice ever) and harvest. :) Unless it gets super dry like the last year or so, we don't even water them. Sometimes I forget we even have them.

Healthy broccoli plants

For best results get your starts in the ground October 1st. Lettuce can be sown later and sown again mid winter for many, many harvests. Don't plant too much lettuce as you can't preserve it well. And don't be afraid to thin your lettuce early and thin heavily. We forgot to plant lettuce this year so no photos.

How about you - do you have a winter garden?

Happy New Year!

2014 was the best year ever thanks to the birth of our baby girl.  I have some goals to make 2015 an awesome year also, I just need to get them written down!  This is my plan for this year …

What are your goals?

 

I like to make different categories of goals including financial, health, and career.  

Remember to make your goals SMART! 

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Timely (or Time – bound)

Happy New Year and let’s DEMOLISH some goals!!