Outside Update

 

My first attempt in a keyhole garden.  We are all about recycling. There is so much ‘junk’ around here I have not spent one penny on anything for this project.  Seriously… not one!  All these cinder blocks I have dug up from around the property when we bought it.  Same with the old bricks. 

 

Part of a keyhole garden is layering your green compost with your brown compost.  So I used old phone books, cardboard, newspaper, old branches, leaves, rabbit manure, and some top soil to fill it up. 

 

You’re right… its not a keyhole!  LOL  I made a major mistake so its now a raised bed we will use for strawberries.  Cheryl next door is tired of bending over for berries too, so here is one of our new strawberry beds.  I am going to utilize some old gutters for the other strawberries…

 

This is the mess left from moving the greenhouse.  Its been a year.  But at least the greenhouse is in the sun now and all the hoops will be in a line. 

 

 

My lens starting fogging up.  The beds are popping with seedlings. The pea gravel is on its way… I cant wait to get the pathway in order…

 

 

Here is the greenhouse being reassembled on the inside.  A few more shelves and I can start getting pots and trays ready for seedlings.  That’s Russ favorite thing in the world is planting seeds. 

Potato Beds…  Four in total… 12 x 12 ft.. some partitioned into 4 ft squares and others in half.  We grow sweet potatoes, yukons, russets, blues, fingerlings, purples, and they  have lasted all winter… and have some to replant this year without having to buy more tater starts.   

Last years potato towers.  They will be joined together in the middle and built into a more permanent raised bed… for what I am not sure yet… but nothing is wasted around here. 

Below is our poultry yard that includes Muscovy ducks, barred rock hens and a handful of old layers I cant seem to part with.  My Java hen… the original homesteaders chicken, and a favorelle…

More panels being being counted and dragged over to be upcycled into another hoophouse.  It will sit behind the greenhouse so all hoops will be in a neat and tidy row. 

We have been in the new house now for three months and the mud is finally subsiding so we can begin to think about landscaping.  And our pile of dirt that was left over… lol  So until next time…  happy homesteading! 

Woodstove update and more…

 

   One of these days, I wont live in a house under construction.  One of these days…

We also finished off a few more space saver items in the kitchen…

 

  It only took about three hours for things to be complete.  But it was neat to see a hole in the roof…

 

Russ with the ceremonial first fire… I just love wood heat.  My body loves wood heat, our power bill loves wood heat, and I love knowing that in the event of power outages I can cook all over this thing.    

 

A success! 

 

The bookshelf pots n pans rack.  It holds all our daily Orgeenic pots and pans.  Its opened up one whole shelf in the cupboards that I can now utilize for something else. 

 

 

And it looks sharp.  Below is the magnetic tool /knife bar that we put in above the stove.  Our kitchen is the hub of the family so no matter where we live its always a little cluttered in appearance.  The tool bar eliminated another tool jug on the counters which you can see are not exactly the largest in the world.  Comfy for me… and I am learning where to put things to make them more functional.  Oops… the cupboard door is open.  I am really not good at this documenting stuff.  When my kids get big and want the album of photos, I have nothing.  Really… One of these days I may try to organize something… one of these days….

This should probably be an entire post in itself, but we are still getting it all organized.  So a detailed list etc. will come later when we hone in on survival gear.  But in moving in we rotated survival supplies into the new pantry to get a grip on what we need to reup in the survival corner of our lives.  A friend gets these metal boxes from her work.  Most are lined and can hold 50 lbs. of food.  So here we are rotating stock as we try to settle in… Once food goes into the containers they are labeled, dated and moved to where we keep our “to go” stash of food.  Like I said… maybe an entire blip on it later…

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite room in the house.  Wherever I live, my stockpile is my favorite place to visit.  The kitchen itself has a small pantry that is for daily food use, but now that the shelves are in we have filled them with all of last years canned goods we still have on hand.  We are eager to really pack it full of things we pull from the garden.  And Danny is about the bestest friend in the world for building them for us.  We utilized the only three shelves that came with the house at the top to help with lighting.  Its only a 5 x 10 room with one little light bulb and we were afraid the higher we got with the shelves the darker it would get.  The top will be reserved for paper goods that don’t weigh too much. 

I am really no good at this documenting stuff, but I am trying!  March is going to be very busy but I will try to get some of the outside so you all can see what a mess was left behind from moving in the new place.  I feel like I am starting at square one with clean up again.  I know its not THAT bad, but man… I am tired of cleaning up!!!  So until next time… Happy Homesteading!!!