Home Depot Garden Club Coupons

As members of the Home Depot Garden Club George and I have been privy to some great coupons. We received a special flier a couple of days ago with all sorts of good coupons for things that never go on sale, but you still need -- like fertilizer, potting soil and supplies and lots of other outdoor items. 

If you are looking for some good coupons and Home Depot bargains, I strongly recommend signing up with their Garden Club; it takes just a moment and it's free. If only Lowe's had a program like this!


This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

Creative Way to Use Less Cheese

During George's bachelor days he lived on a diet of deli foods: salty meats, tons of cheese and every kind of mayo laden salad you can imagine.

I'm pretty sure George didn't marry me just for my cooking, but he did express that he was looking forward to eating real food that was a lot healthier than deli fare once we married.

It was really easy to cut out the deli meats and salads -- that improves the nutrition (and our wallet) immediately. The cheese was a bit more challenging. Cheese is a good for you food, in limited quantities, but not half a block a day.

George just loves cheese; so it was  little more challenging for me to reduce the amount of cheese I serve without him feeling deprived. At first I just started slicing off really thin pieces off a block of cheese and then putting a couple on each sandwich. After a time or two of this George asked me why I stopped putting cheese on his sandwiches. Apparently it doesn't count if he can't see the cheese sticking out around the edges.

One of the creative ways I've found to use less cheese and have George still feel like he's getting a lot of cheese is to make sure the cheese is sticking out of the sandwich.  See the picture above?  If we are having some kind of bbq meat sandwich, or sloppy joes I usually make the sandwiches and cut an American cheese slice in half and lay it diagonally on the sandwich. This way he only eats 1/2 as much cheese but feels like he is eating a lot of it. If we are using cheese cut from a block, I cut very thin slices and make sure they hang over the edge of the bun.

 

Flavorful Steakhouse Potato Salad

Up until creating this recipe (which is a copy from an expensive deli salad) I've had the terrible problem of a bland, blah potato salad. No matter what I added to my recipe, there was just no flavor. That's all changed. Now I have a delicious recipe that will never be left sitting in the bowl at the end of potluck.

Now, I'm not saying you have the same problem with your homemade potato salad but if you are looking for a flavorful potato salad that's a real crowd pleaser, give this recipe a try.

Flavorful Steakhouse Potato Salad

5 large russet potatoes, diced and boiled until tender
2 ribs of celery, diced
2 green onions thinly sliced
1/4 cup of diced red onion
4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
6 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup of another favorite veggie diced (I like to use cucumber, red pepper or radishes)

Dressing

1/2 cup of Lite Mayo
1/2 cup of Lite Miracle Whip
1 Tbsp milk
1/4 cup ranch dressing
1 tsp + of Steak Seasoning

Mix dressing ingredients together and add to all of the other ingredients. Toss well and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Notes:  We all like differing levels of creaminess in our potato salads, so feel free to tweak my dressing ingredients to get the result your family likes the best.  We fall somewhere in the middle of dry and extra creamy so that's what you get with this recipe.  Now, the real secret to the flavor in this recipe is the steak seasoning. I would start off using 1 tsp. of this seasoning (I use McCormick's) and then after tasting the potato salad, add more if you think it needs it.

George has rated this potato salad as his favorite, which is no small honor. I'm looking forward to bringing it to his family's reunion this summer and am planning on bringing the dish back empty.

Here's to the summer of empty potluck dishes!

This post is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Monday

Chicken, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Garden Salad

Tuesday

Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Wednesday

Tacos with all the fixings

Thursday

Oven Fried pork chops, Corn on the Cob, Mixed Veggies

Friday

Pizza Night

This post is linked to MPM.

Easy Recipe for Homemade Dry Laundry Soap

My husband gets his clothes really, really dirty in his line of work. On any given day he can come home with ground in dirt, grass, oil, and grease stains, dried paint and tar. Sometimes its all of those at once!  I've found that many store bought laundry detergents get his clothes clean if you add a few drops of Dawn dish soap in the wash with the detergent.

Another, much cheaper alternative I like to do is to make my own laundry soap. I find that I use a lot less than store bought detergents (probably because there are no "fillers", just cleaning agents) and the clothes seem to come out cleaner.  Now, I am not promising my homemade laundry soap will get out tar, paint or the worst grease and oil stains, but it does do a better job towards that end than anything I've bought in the store. 

Here's my recipe for Dry Homemade Laundry Soap (I can't stand the messy, gloppy, wet version!) with step by step instructions:


2 Bars of Fels Naptha, Ivory, Sunlight, Zote, Kirk's Hardwater Castile
2 Cups of Washing Soda (I use Arm & Hammer)
1 Cup of Borax (I use 20 Mule Team)

First a few notes on the ingredients; these are important! Don't skip over them!

You can use Fels Naptha or any one of these other soaps: Ivory, Sunlight, Zote, Kirk's Hardwater Castile. Do not use regular bath soaps, those are not "real soap".  I really prefer to use Ivory soap but didn't have any on hand so I used Fels Naptha. Fels Naptha had quite a strong odor, especially when you are grating two whole bars of it! So beware of this when making your soap if you are sensitive to strong odors. But please note, it doesn't affect the smell of the clothes, they come out clean smelling.  If you have hard water that is not treated with a water softener, I strongly recommend you use Kirk's Hardwater Castile soap. This is a fantastic soap that lathers very well even in hard water.

As for the borax, any brand will do, but the most common brand in grocery stores is 20 Mule Team, found in the cleaning aisle. Washing Soda is not the same thing as baking soda, be sure what you buy is labeled as "washing soda or super washing soda". If you cannot find these products in your stores locally, they can be ordered from a couple of places: Amazon and Church & Dwight.

Ingredients

Grate the soap into a large pile and then add it to a large bowl. Likes like a big pile of cheese doesn't it?

Add one cup of borax and washing soda to the soap. And mix together well.

Scoop a couple of cups of the mixture into a blender and blend into a fine powder. Keep doing this until the whole batch is done.

You just made your own laundry soap! Use 2 Tbsp for regualar laundry, 3 for really dirty stuff.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday & WFMW.

My Sweet Pea Purse

Last fall, my beloved summer purse that I'd been carrying for a couple of years finally bit the dust.  This spring I've had a hard time finding a suitable replacement; after all, it has to be just the right size and color and most important of all, it has to be the right kind of cute. 

After trying my luck in the local stores several times and coming up empty handed, I searched Etsy, the mecca of all things homemade and found this little treasure from Sweet Pea & Co.  It arrived today and I just love it! My purse "guts" fit perfectly. Please keep in mind, I'm not a mom, so I don't need anything bigger than this.

From this angle, the purse looks like a large tote bag, I assure you it's not.

Here's the insides. Three pockets just the right size for my needs.

Creative Ideas to Use What You Have and Make It Yourself:

George and I enjoy finding creative ways to use what we have on hand to make something we need instead of going out and spending money on something new. Often, what we end up creating turns to be nicer than what we could've bought and it serves our purposes better. So, not only do we save money, we get a custom product for free or pretty close to it!

Take the flower bed in the photo above. When we started planning this bed I had visions of using some landscaping bricks easily found at all the big box home improvement stores for $2 each. Instead of purchasing the bricks, we used field stones from a nearby stone pile. Out here in the country a field stone boarded flowerbed looks much more natural and fitting than a brick boarded bed.

Here's a garden cart George made in an afternoon.  He used two wheelbarrow tires, made an axle and welded the metal frame together from pieces of a bed frame and then cut wood panels for the bottom and sides. We've used this little cart often to carry lots of dirt, mulch, rocks and wood for going on four years now and it's still going strong. George has also built a plow and a harrow to use on our garden.

Not everyone is as mechanically inclined as my husband (I totally am not!) but there are still lots of opportunities for you to be creative and make some things yourself.  For example; here is the last batch of homemade laundry detergent. I still buy laundry soap at the store if it can be had for pretty cheap but I prefer the homemade kind; you need to use far less of it and it gets George's dirty work clothes squeaky clean.

We have a lot of bird houses and various 'critter' boxes around our yard. All of them are homemade from whatever scraps of wood we have on hand. I love the rustic look! Above is a picture of a birdhouse George made; one side of the house is Plexiglas so you can see right inside the birdhouse. You could never find one of these in a store. This photo is taken from inside our house; we taped a piece of fabric over the Plexiglas to give the resident wrens some privacy as they reared their babies.  Every once in a while I lifted the fabric to have a look inside and see the up close workings of a nest of birds, very cool.

Even if you don't feel like you are very creative I bet if you thought about it for a bit you could come up with several things you can do or make all on your own!  There are lots of tutorials on the Internet and in books with instructions on how to make just about anything. Spend a little time searching and you just might surprise yourself with your new found skills.

This post is linked to WFMW.

I Love You Liberty Mutual

Insurance companies are not often the bearers of good news. We recently paid our yearly premiums for the house and both cars. I bet you can imagine how fun it was to write those checks.

To say I was less than thrilled to see another envelope from the insurance company in today's mail is an understatement.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Here's a summary of the letter:

Dear George and Trixie:

Oops, we charged you too much and will be sending you a big fat refund within 30 days.

Love and apologies,

Your Insurance Company

Actually the refund probably won't be big and fat, but it might be; they forgot to apply the multiple policy discount and I'm not sure how much of a discount that is with this company. But it's worth digging in prior year files to find out.

I'm just geeked they even noticed and are correcting the matter!

There are Tons of Healthy Printable Coupons Out There

Just thought you would want to know, on my other blog I've put up a giant list of lots of healthy coupons, and a few not so healthy. Go check it out here.


Photo Credit: The Coupon Goddess

Menu Plan Monday

Saturday:

Chicken 'n Dumplings, Mashed Potatoes, Garden Salad

Sunday:

Sloppy Joes, Green Beans, Deviled Eggs

Monday:

BLT's, Deviled Eggs, Fresh Veggies and Dip

Tuesday:

Almond Chicken Casserole, Squash and Garden Salad

Wednesday:

Fish with Lemon & Dill, Au gratin Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

Thursday:

Chinese Takeout (George will be getting Sweet & Sour Pork and I will get Schezwan Chicken or Cashew Chicken)

Friday:

Homemade Pizza Night:  This week it's Hawaiian Pizza.

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

4 Ways to Get Good Quality Furniture For Cheap

Last weekend we went up north to visit George's parents and ended up coming home with a nice "new to us" couch. We've finally got a couch where you don't sink down into an abyss with no hope of climbing out. Plus it's long enough for me, George and Barney to each have our own cushion, love that!

Remember, how I wrote about how much I admire my in-laws frugal ways? One of the things they've learned over the years (and I assume this is once all three rambunctious boys were out of the house:) is to  buy very high quality, well made furniture. It always costs more, but it lasts a very long time and it's very comfortable stuff. They do shop around and wait for a sale or special offer in order to keep the price down a little.

Our "new" couch is over 20 years old and you would never know it. Its made by the Amish, (here in Michigan, we have a lot of Amish furniture places) they are known for top quality pieces at fairly reasonable prices considering what you get, but their prices are still more than what you would pay for the cheap junk. They make the kind of furniture you have refinished or reupholstered instead of kicking to the curb in 20 years. This couch probably wasn't cheap but my in-laws got 20 years of use out of it and we are expecting to get quite a few years out of it ourselves.

Ways to get good quality furniture on the cheap

1. Accept hand-me-downs from relatives.  Obviously I'm highly in favor of this as it's free.

2.  Search Craig's List, Ebay, and your local paper for people that are trying to sell their good quality furniture.  Years ago, I got a beautiful Early American Rocking Chair for a song this way. This chair is one of those that will still be here and rocking someone into a peaceful solace long after I'm gone. Another big thing, here in Michigan is people are selling out almost their entire household to relocate to Florida or some other warm state. In the summer, we routinely see ads for a whole houseful of top quality furniture because the retirees are headed south. Ever moved 60 years of stuff 2000 miles? You can buy a whole houseful of new stuff for the same price and many do.

3. Shop second hand stores and the curb. Many times people discard a terrific piece of furniture because they have no vision of what it would look like with new upholstery or a new coat of paint. When you've lived with a piece of furniture a long time, you tend to get bored with it and want the latest, newest, something or other and want to get rid of your "junk". I know, I've felt that way lots of times. But the old saying is true: one man's trash is another man's treasure. I've found some very good quality items very inexpensively at second hand shops and the curb.

4.  Save up and buy it yourself.  Okay, so this isn't cheap, but sometimes it's the only way. If you save up and choose to buy top quality furniture you can rest assured you will be getting years and years of comfortable service from it and will feel as if you've gotten your money's worth.

Years ago, I had an old, crummy mattress that had seen better days. When it got so bad that the springs were constantly popping through the mattress and stabbing me at night I had to get something else.  After years of sleeping that terrible mattress, I had made up my mind to get the best mattress I could possibly afford.  Twelve years ago I shelled out $899, plus tax to get a double pillow top mattress. Oh, my, that was a gigantic amount of money to me! But, it is the most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on.  Even now, 12 years later, it is so comfortable I sigh in peaceful bliss when I lay down on it.

One way to minimize the amount of money you spend on top quality furniture is to purchase directly from the manufacturer. In my in-laws case, they buy from the Amish a couple of towns over. Another option is to make it yourself or have your super talented husband make it. That's how I got a custom mission style desk made out of birds eye maple for close to free.

We've all had bad experiences with buying the cheapest because that's all that our budget could bear. With a little patience and creativity we can find some real bargains on quality furniture that will provide years of comfortable service.

I'm Finished!

Cue the hallelujah chorus! I've just finished our tax return! Seriously, I'm not kidding -- I'm just about shrieking with delight right now and I like taxes, I even have my own tax business on the side. Tax Season 2009 is DONE!!!!!

For those of you that have been wondering where on earth I've been for the last week, this is where I've been. Deep in the bowels of the tax world, finishing stuff up for clients and then our own return, which admittedly is the most complex return I've ever done.

Oh how I desperately wanted to take a break from the computer work and write here and to visit all of your lovely blogs and leave comments, but I just couldn't get sidetracked.

Every year I always promise myself that I won't put our return off. I start out with the best of intentions to complete it before I even do one client return. Um.... that doesn't work out very well because it takes a while for all our documents to arrive and then there is the last mad dash for any and every receipt we may have misplaced.

This year was especially painstaking for two reasons:

• We ended up getting to take a medical deduction, when I hadn't planned on it. So I had to scrounge around for any and every medical receipt and even call some of the medical providers to get copies -- me, the never-throw-away-a-good receipt-queen. Talk about humiliating. But those people don't know I'm the receipt queen so it's okay.

• We ended up owing far, far less than anticipated and while that was fantastic news (thank you medical deduction and depreciation allowances) it was cause for serious alarm. I double and tripled checked all 29 pages of our return to make sure all was well, because you know how sick you would feel if the IRS said, "pony up a bucketful of money" in an audit next year.

Life Lessons from our Garage:

George is out in the garage right now. He just finished building a beautiful mantel for a customer and now he's got a gazillion infinitesimal sized springs sprawled all over his workbench in and effort to repair a lock set. I just went out to give him the good tax news (which in case you missed it, is he gets to cut a much smaller check than he planned). I tried explained all of the details and asked if he wanted to see the paperwork so I can show him I'm sure it's correct and we will do okay if audited (he is always concerned about an audit from "The Feds"). He turned green and said, NO I don't want to see any paperwork, I trust you. This is funny, because I turned green the moment I saw all those teeny tiny springs everywhere. We will each happily be sticking to our area of expertise. If I go before him, he will have to hire the taxes done and if he goes before me I will have to hire a locksmith.

The Importance of a Summer Calendar

Photo Credit: Paper&Stitch

With Summer fast approaching, we typically find ourselves out and about taking full advantage of the nice weather. We have lots of fun things we want participate in: family reunions, vacations, barbecues and holiday celebrations.  For us, the summer calendar books up almost as fast as it does around the holidays!

Before I know it, the calendar is full and it seems like we are constantly busy and on the go, but we have no time left for the things we really want to do and no time for much needed R & R.

One thing that works for us to help us get in control of our summer schedule is to start our summer calendar, now. By us, I mean we. In our family, I am the keeper of our social calendar. We've worked out a pretty good system, so that neither of us feel over committed and both of us know what's going on when by checking our "community calendar" hanging in the kitchen.

How We Plan Our Summer:

On April 1st I made a list of all the things we know are coming up that we for sure plan on attending, like our family reunion, a wedding, a sporting event and then added special events and activities we would like to attend if everything works out okay schedule-wise. It's worth noting I prepared this list with only the information we have right now. It's entirely likely that we could add some things as the summer draws closer. This isn't a strict, rigid schedule, we allow ourselves to change things up a little. This schedule is mostly to make sure we don't get over committed or leave out anything that's really important to us.

Here's What Our Schedule Looks Like

Weekdays: my husband works very long hours during the warmer months. Our priority for every weeknight (unless it's a holiday) are for us to be home together. I help George unload his truck and we sit together out in the lawn chairs while he relaxes from his day; then we have a late supper. I try to never schedule something on a weeknight unless it's unavoidable.

Please keep in mind this is just the schedule that works for us, right now, in this season of life. You may have a totally different schedule that works better for your family and that's great!

Weekend Plans:


April 4th Easter Sunday: Take Mom to church with us and then out for lunch

April 10th, Drive up to the lake and visit with George's folks for the day,

May 7th, Go to the Holland Tulip Festival with my Mom & sister.

May 8th, Mother's Day weekend; we aren't sure yet what we will be doing, but we've got Saturday booked for something.

May 22nd, Wedding

Memorial Day Weekend: If the weather cooperates and the ground is dry, we will be putting our garden in! We will also probably have a get together or go over to my sisters

June: Sometime in June we would like to visit Meijer Gardens and Binder Park Zoo.

July 4th Weekend:  We may head up north and visit George's folks at the lake, or we might have a get together here at our house; not sure yet, but we will do something fun to celebrate.

Weekend of July 31st; Family reunion

August 4th; our anniversary, as this is a weeknight, and probably a very long day for George I can just about guarantee we won't be doing anything to celebrate on our actual day. We will probably go out to eat the Sunday before or after

August 12th, George's birthday; same deal as our anniversary. I'll make George's favorite meal of bbq ribs for supper that night and give him a gift, although I have no idea what it will be yet. I'll treat him to dinner out on the weekend.

August 14th Drag Races. We look forward to going to a big drag racing event each year; this year is no exception. Hey.... this could be George's birthday gift, but I can't get away with that because we do this every year ; )

August 29th, My birthday. FINALLY it's on a convenient day! We will go out for supper after church to a restaurant where people will wait on me. Yea!!!!!

August 30th, This is the first anniversary of my step dad's passing. I am going to leave work early and visit my mom.

Labor Day Weekend: Not sure what we will be doing, but we've got it blocked off for something fun!

Not included on this list is the impromptu fishing excursion and a trip to Frankenmuth. We will squeeze these in as time allows and they will most likely be very short notice. We also will be planning a short trip to San Antonio when my sister gets married; they haven't set a date yet; (I'm so hoping it's not going to be in August in 115 degree heat, but we will still come anyway; that's what air conditioning is for!)

Apparently Walking Is Too Much For Me.....

We had a lovely Easter Weekend, all except for the last few hours of Sunday -- I'll get back to that in a minute.

Friday was a terrific sunny day with a light breeze.  Because my sister and I find it very difficult to coordinate our schedules for some much needed "sister bonding time" we were both beside ourselves with joy just to go grocery shopping together on Friday morning. We met at the store and had fun taking our time to get groceries, we even sat down on a bench and just visited for a little while. Then we grabbed a bite to eat and did some more visiting. I didn't always think so when I was a little kid, but she is such a treat to spend time with! After I got home and unloaded and put away the groceries I did a little cleaning, straightened up the kitchen and mopped the floor; then got stuff ready for our pizza supper.

Saturday George and I spent most of the day tearing out our old landscaping timbers in the back yard so we could replace them with new one that weren't all rotted out and enlarge the bed.  Whew, what a lot of work! But, I'm glad it's done. Now we need to dig up a bunch of dirt from the field and bring it in to fill in the bottom of the bed and then we will get some nice miracle grow type topsoil and some shredded bark mulch, and then --- my favorite part: PLANTS. I've been dreaming of this project (not all the work, just the finished project) all winter. Once this project is finished there will be pics for you.

Easter Sunday we took my mom to church with us; then we went out for lunch afterwards.  I could tell my mom really enjoyed coming to church with us. She is a Christian, but doesn't attend church; I think she really misses the fellowship. Six hours later we returned home.  We were exhausted when we got arrived so we took a nice nap and got up and puttered around the house for a bit.

You've probably guessed that the male version of "puttering" is different than the female version. George likes to tidy up the garage and shed and organize and plan out his tools and work schedule for the next week. I like to tidy up the house and clear out paper when I putter.  In the middle of my puttering I stopped to take a break and do my walking in the driveway (we have one of those long country driveways that make for a nice walking surface, so this is where I do a lot of my walking). 

Growing up, one of my nicknames was Grace, because I was anything but graceful. Being a class A Klutz hasn't been too much of an issue for me because I go out of my way to keep away from situations that would just be begging for an accident. Most of the time I can do a pretty good job of walking and talking at the same time.

But, last night apparently walking while carrying in the paper was too much for me. As I was crossing the road on my return from the mailbox I fell flat out, face first in the dirt at the edge of our driveway. Just imagine me holding in all the swear words I know and then letting out a loud AGGGGHHRRRRRR!!!
that nicely summed up all the pain, irritation and embarrassment of taking a nose while from plain old walking (and having to lie there face down in the dirt while I figured out how to get up without hurting myself more).There was nothing in the way that I could've even stumbled over! Goodness! Once I was able to make it up the the house and plop down in a lawn chair to start a round of therapeutic bawling I felt better. I slowly took stock of the damage; my left ankle and right knee took the brunt of the fall and are accordingly sore and swollen, but it's nothing that a few days rest and some Motrin won't fix. After I sucked it up and quit whining and George figured out I wasn't going to die he got me to laughing by asking if anyone saw me.  He's sweet and loving like that ; )

George knows all about my klutzy tendencies and most of the time when I trip over my own feet, he just looks at me with a goofy smile that says "I saw you do that, but I'm not saying anything about it!"  Last night he said he thought I did so well on Saturday working around all the landscape timbers, piles of dirt, shovels, cords etc. He thought for sure I was going to trip over at least one of those things and here I go falling down while just walking and here I go falling over nothing!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday

Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin's

Tuesday

Fish, Coleslaw and Oven Fries

Wednesday

Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans

Thursday

Some kind of Italian Dish, probably layered spaghetti or maybe meatballs and spaghetti, Garlic Toast and a Garden Salad

Friday

Pizza Night

This post is linked to Org Junkie.

Spring is Finally Here

Today could be described as nothing less than fabulous. The weather was perfect, 78 sunny and breezy. Spring is officially here this far up north and I'm loving every minute of it. Even if those minutes are cleaning windows....

Spring cleaning at our house isn't scheduled for a couple of weeks yet, but I got the urge to get started today. I stripped off all the plastic we keep on the windows all winter, cleaned the glass and then washed the curtains.  Oh, my what a dusty mess. Everything is so clean and fresh now, though!

The curtains were the first load of laundry that I've hung out on the line to dry this year. Hanging out clothes is one of my favorite chores; those curtains smell so good I've already been over to the window a few times to sniff them.  Hmmm I'll probably have to explain to George why I'm sniffing the curtains. He'll probably think I've been at the Windex too much : )

 Isn't a line full of clothes one of the more scenic country sites there is?    We have a road not too far off the side of our property. You can always tell the people that aren't locals because they slow way down and watch me hanging out the laundry, some even wave at me. I remember what it was like before I lived out here. I used to go driving in the country and do the very same thing. If one of the ladies would've waved me over I would've ran right up there and hung out her whole wash!

 A fresh pedicure -- another sign of spring. Be sure to notice the gorgeous red oak hardwood floor George worked so hard to put in. Thank God for sweet, carpentry talented husbands.

 My mom sent me this lovely spring card. It's so nice to get something besides bills in the mailbox. Go send a card to a friend, or family member; you never know how much you will cheer someone up.

Apple seedlings. It's that time of year -- I've got to get figured out what all I'm going to start and get the flower beds and gardens ready.  Happy sigh.

That's it for tonight folks.  I've been going since 5:30 this morning and am bone tired; but it's such a good feeling. Spring is such an invigorating time of year.  What have you been itching to do this spring?