A Hetic Spring

Well things have been hopping crazy around here. Between the weather, my family and the garden, I've been running on empty. We're gonna be having another grandchild so I have lots of baby things to start making. The weather is slowly letting us get into the garden and I did get 50 lbs of potatoes planted. This is our 1st year that we are planning to grow enough to store all winter. But I still planted more than my new garden plan allotted for so I had to revamp the design again. I have over 300 hundred plants to start inside, There won't be a flat surface in my dining room that's not stuffed with newspaper cups with lights hanging over. Each year I have a unique (Well unigue to me) plant to grow in the garden, last year was Sorghum, this year is Luffa Gourds and Paprika Peppers. I didn't end up making any sorghum molasses but the animals sure loved eating it. I hope to do better drying the peppers and making our own smoked paprika. And I can't wait to have some homegrown luffa sponges to use.
After plowing and tilling the garden, not to mention planting 50lbs of potatoes I am proud to report that the homemade deodorant works fantastic. Though my hubby was a little surprised when I asked him to smell my armpit and tell me if my deodorant was working☺ That idea was a no go, but I can't smell any unwanted odor and no one is complaining, so I can only assume it'd working. Since I last posted I've made another batch of soap.
Tonight I start an 18 hour workshop at our Extension Center. It's all about Urban Home-steading Farmsteading  (they changed the name because of the now infamous trademarking of  Urban-Home-steading(s)) . It's supposed to teach us the skills, tools and strategies to live a simpler, self-sufficient life. So hopefully I'll have lots of new ideas to post in the coming weeks. Well we have 3 Birthdays this week, and I'm still not finished with making their presents so I had better get busy.

Use a 2-Liter Bottle as a 50 Watt Light Bulb lightbulb hack

Yukon Mike over at the Living Prepared Blog posted this link and I just had to pass it on

Almost Garden Time

 Our weather is finely in the 50's this week. With the ice and snowing melting and the property a big mud bog it's really got me in garden mode. Time to start planning the garden and start the seeds ☺

Last year I started my seeds in 2 liter soda bottles, sorta like mini terrarium. But I found this technique very space consuming. I needed alot of lights for the amount of plants I started. And I found that my plants became very leggy because with the height of the bottles I could not lower the lights to the proper distance. This year my daughter is starting a large garden. And with my DGS's 2 year old "helping" fingers, she figures that it's a better idea to keep her seedlings at my house.  So now it's time to come up with a better way to start my seeds. I've always wanted the Paper Pot Maker, but no way will I spend $18.95 for it. After hunting around the Internet I found these 2 video's. I like this 1st video because it seems to make a stronger pot, more like the wooden pot maker. But the 2nd video is more simpler, and if you twist the cup in the last step it should tighten up the pot bottom just as good. I think will be using one of these 2 video's to start our veggies this year.

How to Make Elderberry Syrup

How to Make Natural, Homemade Deodorant

PPS: to last post

I forgot to add I toted all that wood with supervision

and 3 eggs in my pocket

Wood Box filled thanks to IRT: Deadliest Roads

I learned a lot from watching IRT: Deadliest Roads Himalayas. They taught me how to fill my wood box. Usually I just fill my laundry basket with 5 stick of wood and carry inside the house. But since Hubby can no longer help and #1 son is working most of the time, I figured I had to come up with a better method.

I used to just load up the trusty Rhino then back it up to the back porch landing and unload it into the house. But since that #x***XX## thief absconded with my beloved Rhino I am now reduced to this, the beloved wheel barrow. Isn't he cute ☻

Next I had to figure how to get up the back porch steps, Thats where IRT: Deadliest Roads comes in. Watching them load those truck by walking up a 2x4 ramp lite the lightbulb for me.

Wala, 5 wheelbarrow trips up the ramps and around 3 hairpin curves inside the house ends up with one very full woodbox. I can now load my wood all by myself! Which is a good thing since #1 son is moving in with his girlfriend on New Years.

A Day in Pictures

Got Eggs?

Smile ☻ 

I Hate Dogs!

I ♥ Sorghum

I guess I took a sabbatical, but it didn’t feel like one...

Things have been pretty hectic around here. My Hubby has been undergoing lots of medical tests and then 4 weeks of physical therapy. Of course just when he was getting steadier on his feet we hit the max on his insurance for physical therapy. Never fails, it sucked seeing my pts. loose PT when I was working as a head injury nurse, and it sucks more when it’s your hubby loosing out. At least the testing is all done till we take the results in to the specialist in late October.

We apparently had that Animal sucker sign hanging on our foreheads again. Courtesy of my DD, we now have a horse dog that takes up more of a king size bed than my hubby and I can. His name is Ukie and how she ever thought that big beast could live in her little apartment with her, the grandkids and a little miniscule yard is beyond me.

Three of the five girls are laying steady now. We now have had a grand total of 61 adorable, tasty, medium brown eggs with the thickest shells I’ve ever cracked. I’m not kidding, I dropped one on the counter and it bounced without a crack.

I won a book! I'm so excited, I never won anything until this week! I love Heather’s Homemaking Blog. Well she had a drawing for a copy of Sharon Astyk’s book A Nation of Farmers that she wrote with Aaron Newton. Yay, I won it and I can’t wait to read it. Thank you so much Heather. Please visit her blog here.

We're Laying

At least one or two of the Girl's are. Yesterday I found the first egg, the darker one on the left, inside the Chicken house right in front of the door. Today I found the lighter egg hidden under some hay in the back corner of the house. The nest boxes show signs of the girls making themselves comfy in them, but no egg laying. Since I suspect the lighter egg may have been the first egg layed and that I just missed finding it, I marked both eggs and put them each in a nesting box. Maybe now my girls will get the idea of where I'd like them to deposit their eggs.

I Never Mowed A Lawn Until I got Married

And now I think my Husband understands why. First off in my defense, I was trying to hurry so I could beat the afternoon heat. Secondly I have always mowed along the edge of the rock walkway. It's easy, you just put the lawnmower 1/2 on top of the rocks and 1/2 on the grass and off you go. It's easy, who needs a weed eater? Well apparently I do, especially if I keep the mower level set to 2. Because apparently a riding lawnmower blade is not supposed to look like a golf club after it has an accident with a rock. So $40.00's later with new blades and the back yard finished. 

in we go to our living room when my hubby looks over at the front door and spies with his little eyes, the shattered window I apparently sent a rock thru when I mowed the front yard.

I give up ;‹(

For now on I'm waiting til my son gets home and he can mow the lawn!

Surviving the Heat Wave

 I looked it up. The hottest temperature on Earth ever recorded most likely occurred in Death Valley, California during 43 consecutive days between July 6 and August 17, 1917. During those days, the temperature was over 48 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).  120 degrees Fahrenheit is what our Weather man informed us that the heat index would be today in downtown St. Louis. Granted we don't live in the city, but it's still pretty hot down here 30 miles south of that city.

We're just trying to stay cool here. I rigged the barn up with fans to help Jerry and Chili keep cool. And the chickens love just hanging out in the part of the coop run that below the house.

I've got the Name☻

At least my hubby can remember things, His name is (drum roll please)

Jerry

Is it bad when you forget you Goat's name?

Today Chili got a new friend, err, I'd introduce him to you but I forgot his name. Instead I'll show you a picture.

Why I have a goat that I can't remember his name is kinda a long story. Hubby says we should put up a sign that says, Unwanted farm animals, we're your suckers. I'm still trying to convince him that the goat is just visiting, but he's not falling for that.  Hey when we were first married that's how he suckered me into a Mastiff. That horse sized mutt was only staying for the weekend while his owners went out of town. Hubby forgot to mention that they moved out of the state that weekend! Paybacks fun☻

Anyhoo, back to the goat. I really wanted some goats, had a chance of getting 6 goats and hubby and son were big naysayers. We don't have goatproof fencing, son says, so out went that idea. Then son says "So and So if I could remember his name I'd know my goats name because the goat is named after him needs to get rid of his goat can we keep him?" "What about the fences?" I ask him. Oh I'll fix up the fences, he can stay in the barn pen til I get them done. I think I replied something like sure, but if your father asks he's just visiting for the weekend, but don't hold me to that. It was very hot and I was working in the garden at the time, maybe I had heatstroke? Hubby doesn't believe the weekend bit, and doesn't think the barn pen will hold him in. And I have a goat who I can't remember his name and he also seems very skinny to me, so since I know nothing about goats, I'll now have a vet's bill soon to. But he is kinda cute, and I saw Chili giving him a sniff  kiss so I guess he's a keeper.

Garden's finely starting to grow up

Coops Done, except for painting

I'm pretty proud of this coop. It's almost entirely made from recycled stuff. I only spent just under $20.00 total for it all. That was for the PVC pipe for the Waterer and Feeder.

Today I made the nesting boxes. I made them from Cat Litter Tubs. I'm planning on getting some of that spray paint made for painting plastic to paint them to match the coop house.

These are the only things I spent money on. It was still cheaper to make them then it would have been to buy a large feeder and waterer. I've got some leftover house trim paint to paint all the wood. Not sure when I'll get to that, but we're all sent up for eggs now. ☻

Pics of the Week

Yay, the car's computer finely reset and it's all legal. I've got another Master Gardener Class in an hour, but I just wanted to post some pics from our week. The Girl's have gotten so big, and Chili's looking especially cute ☻

Wedding Roses all crocheted and ARMY Afghan reposted on my website

Well with all this rain (24 days of rain out of the last 30) I haven't been able to get the garden finished planting yet, but I did get all those Damn Wedding Roses crocheted for my nephew's wedding. Which is this Saturday, but boy did I cut that one close, they went in the mail today. I don't know what I was thinking when I designed that pattern.
I did get My ARMY Afghan pattern re-posted to my website. It's kind of an abbreviated pattern, enough to crochet the afghan, but I still have to re-post a more detailed pattern this fall when I get more time. Right now, if this rain ever stops, I have to much to around here on the homestead and in the garden. Add all that with a sick grandchild, my Master Gardner class on Wednesday, my granddaughter graduating kindergarten on Thursday and a family reunion on Saturday and I think I have mush brain syndrome.