Buying Local Ingredients ...



... Is something that I've always wanted to do, but I never knew where to begin.

That is until my bestie/business partner took me strawberry picking last week!!!

It was such a joy to be out in the sun, picking from the Earth.

(Cottle Strawberry Farm located in Fayetteville, Georgia)

 We quickly filled our $11 Cottle container, but we were not quite ready to return home. 

So we decided to do one of our favorite past times, HOUSE STALKING!!!

Which lead us past a small sign that advertised FRESH FARM EGGS!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe our luck?

But since it was already late in the day, we vowed to return another time.

And return we did!

(Fresh Eggs from Flintwood Far, in Fayetteville, Georgia)

For a carton we paid $5, the owner a very kind woman, told us that if we like these, then she will sell us 30 eggs for $10.

She was also kind enough to reassure me that her chicks/hens "scratch" for their food and that she and her husband allow them to also go out on the land to scavenge as much as possible. While they are not fed organic feed, they are more on the natural route either way being as they are allowed to "scratch" and eat things like worms, etc. Plus she feeds them veggies like lettuce that she grows herself. She also puts natural grapefruit oil in their water.

I've read some horrible things online about the way chicks/hens are fed and the owner herself told us about a gentlemen who also raises chicks/hens, who laces their water with of all things, BLEACH!!!!

I couldn't imagine eating an egg laced with bleach! YUCK!

Since my bestie and I have never used fresh farm eggs before, we decided to spilt the carton so that if we don't like them then at least we didn't waste $5 each.

I can't wait to start baking with them...

~N~

Honeysuckles Smell Like....

... home.

In Georgia, honeysuckle bushes are EVERYWHERE!

They are so beautiful and fragrant.

I remember as a child, there was a honeysuckle bush right next to our front porch. My mom pulled the flower into her hand and showed me how to sip the honey from it's natural cup.

This became a little tradition for me in the summertime.

Sadly there are no honeysuckles near my apartment...

But there is a street that I take to go home from work that is lined with them.

That sweet smell always seems to ease me even after a long day at work.

~N~

Sometimes You Just Have To Do What's Best...

(It's time we leave & explore)

...For you that is.

Remember my post about my apartment?

I do, vividly!

I love the excitement I had about having my own place and starting new goals. Sadly though, since moving here all I've really done is WORK and get further into debt.

Even then, I still LOVED my apartment. But that has all come to an end. I am no longer happy.

Since last year, July to be exact, I've been calling my rent office because my dishwasher is no longer working and the door has fallen off. ( I've also been calling since January of this year about my upstairs toilet being busted. They fixed it 2 weeks ago, before that I had to run downstairs every time to use the downstairs 1/2 bath).

~~~~~SINCE LAST JULY!!!!~~~~~

To date, the darn dishwasher is STILL in the same condition as last year!

I've called every week to put in work orders. I've even spoken to both the manager and co-manager in person AND on the phone about the situation. (Once, the co-manager left me on hold and would not pick up the phone when I called back)

So again I decided to try to speak with the manager in person, did I mention AGAIN!!!! His response?

~~~~~Slight hostility!!!~~~~~

He told me that the complex has money so there is no reason for it to still be busted and that I should have come and spoken to him. But this one is the real reason I've decided to pack it in, this man told me that I should stay on him so that the problem gets fixed.

I work a 40 hour job PLUS I come home and put in another 8 hours for my business. I don't have the type of time that most have, where I can continually go to the rent office to complain about something.

SO if I'm calling almost EVERY week then that should let you know that the problem is not being handled. I mean come on, numerous work orders coming in for the SAME problem AND from the SAME apartment and you can't put 2 and 2 together???!!!!???

Not only has he forgotten that I DID come and speak to him in person but he's also LOST his mind to think that I'm going to STAY ON HIM TO DO HIS JOB!!!

My job is to work and make sure that I hand in my rent on time. Which I have done very well since the day I moved in. My job is not to stay on top of another person's responsibilities!!!

Even when I did attempt to call him about the dishwasher still being broken a week after our last encounter, he left me hold on, only to have his secretary tell more lies about someone coming to fix it.

That was the last straw!

WHY am I giving my hard earned money to a complex that is too lazy to fix what's broken and too insensitive to apologize for their mistakes!

That is why I have decided to move back in with my mother and younger siblings. Only until I finish getting my self out of debt and with me not giving up $600 a month to these jerks I can do it a lot faster!!!

Wish me luck!

~N~