Author Archives: Sheila

Garden Update

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This will be a picture heavy post. I wanted to make sure that I documented the garden this year.  I know in my mind that gardening is a slow process but days like today I want to make sure that I look back and confirm just to give it time.

I planted seeds 8 days ago, but none of those seed have germinated, probably because this past week has been extremely cool. I need to allow an extra week for most of these plants to germinate.  We have not lost any of the transplants so that I am going to count as a success.

Both of the GreenStalks (vertical planter) are full of plants! I am waiting for the Basil to germinate. I had absolutely no luck last year. I have another 2 packets of seeds. My theory is that I need to keep using the seeds until I have no more. If they don’t germinate, I can always purchase a start even in June. The bottom row of one of these contains 4 bell pepper plants. I ended up purchasing 3 plants to get started.

These are the current plant located behind the greenhouse. I am debating on if I need to go ahead and purchase some tomato start and fill the empty 6 buckets?

This is the bed in front of the office window. I have 8 zucchini plants seeds and 3 Cherokee tomato plants along with the sugar snap peas that are climbing. I will be replacing any zucchini that don’t germinate because I have none in the freezer!  Again not sure about any more tomato plants.

This bed contains 5 squash plants that I purchased. I thought I killed one when transplanting but it appears to have survived!

Tiny tomato plants. We currently have 21 plants in the tomato beds along with 8 marigolds. I am ready for these to take off and fill the entire bed!

No new cucumbers have germinated but so far these 5 plants have survived well!

14 additional green pepper plants they have survived but are struggling.

No signs of life in the green bean beds. I have planted 2 entire seed packs… Waiting is not easy for me.

Last ditch effort to grow either cantaloupe or watermelon. I used all the seeds so I may purchase a couple of starts the last week of May.

We have already watered twice since planting a year ago. Tonight we discovered that our front water barrels  has a huge crack. This is not something that requires an immediate fix but we will work on upgrading to a water tote sometime this fall.

 

Five Things Friday

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  1. Countdown to Summer!
    5 weeks till Lily’s High School Graduation!
    5 weeks of school for the kids and 5 weeks and 3 days until my Summer Break!
    60 days till we go to the beach!
  2. We are all ready for the newest chickens to move outside. Last weekend, Lucky the rooster escaped!  This evening they have knocked over the water so much that the cardboard box is mushy and the floor is wet!  They should move outside full-time next week!
  3. I am starting to organize and prepare for canning this summer. I have been slowly purchasing jars since October. I have been lucky enough to find on sale at Walmart, Target and Tractor Supply for around $1 a jar including rings and lids.  I was hoping to pick up some jars used but they are at least $2 a jar so today on Walmart, I found an ordered 3 dozen pint jars and 3 dozen quart jars.  One of my goals for tomorrow (Saturday) is to get the canning closet organized and cleaned!
  4. This weekend is probably the least busiest one in a long time. We do have several small projects to complete but the goal is to rest and prepare for the busiest week of the school year!
  5. We tried one of the new recipes that I was hoping to use to stock the freezer this summer and it was a bust. No flavor!

Thursday Thoughts- Goals

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The summer is fast approaching, and I am counting down the days!  I want to make a list of the things I want to accomplish during the summer break.   This way I will also have more accountability this summer as well.

  1. Gardening- My goal is to grow and preserve as much from the garden as possible. I am hopeful to restock the freezer. This goal may also include purchasing some items to make my life easier in the fall.
  2. Prepared Meals- I would like to get 100 dinner meals in the freezer. I will also work on adding convenient breakfasts as well. I also want to freeze at least 10 pizza crust and maybe even some pie crust as well.  The dinner meals can include both crockpot meals and casserole.  I actually need to get started on test meal during the rest of May to help determine what things we like and what is worth making again and again.
  3. Exercise-  I am going to set a goal of 3 times a week this summer. This can include walking in the pool and hopefully at least 1 trip a week to the Y to work out.
  4. Restock- I want to spend time organizing and restocking both the pantry and the freezers. I had actually thought about adding a goal for shopping at least one day a week.
  5. Store and organize all the pictures. I need to clean off my phone but am really afraid that I am going to lose pictures.  I also need to make and order several books from Shutterfly.
  6. VIew and Decide on at least one additional video course for our Sunday school class.
  7. Earn at least one $50 gift card using apps. This is free money but also something that I don’t always make a priority.
  8. Organize/sort and Print a new passwords list for home.
  9. Review, revisit and revise as needed our household budget.  I am hopeful that things will have settled down so that I can put together a realistic budget for paying off medical bills and reducing our overall debt.
  10. Enjoy at least one day a week either reading or just relaxing by the pool. OR at least one day a week on  a special adventure with the kids!

The overall goal for the summer is to get everything back organized and ready for the school year.

Monday Menu Planning

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In the department of food/groceries, I am currently in survival mode. I need to survive the insane next two weeks followed by four additional weeks until Summer break starts.  I know that grocery spending will be high this summer as my goal is to restock the freezers so that I can stay in survival mood for the entire school year!  This week we have only two ball games!  I am also continuing to try and use food in the freezers in order to organize and make additional space as needed.

 

Breakfast- Saturday- eggs,grits, sausage, bacon and toast.
Sunday-Left-overs   Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal,
omelets cereal and milk,waffles, French toast sticks, bagels, and I also have breakfast burritos, breakfast hot pockets, sausage mcmuffins and sausage egg and cheese mcmuffins in the freezer. I may attempt homemade bagels to use up greek yogurt but we shall see.

Lunch- Saturday-left-overs Sunday East Coast Wings , Monday-
turkey roll ups  Tuesday- taco soup Wednesday- salad  Thursday-  left-overs of some form.  Friday- out to eat.

Dinner- Saturday-Left-overs   Sunday-more left-overs  Monday-tomato soup and grilled cheese Sandwiches Tuesday- Tortellini Alfredo and garlic bread.
Wednesday- Corn dogs and French Fries  Thursday- salisbury steak with mashed potatoes. Friday-Cheese quesadillas and mexican rice

April in Review

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The first week of April was awesome and flew by! The rest of the month has been either the slowest month ever or post Disney blues.  We have only 6 weeks of school left and things are going to be in high gear for at least the first three weeks of May.  I knew we would be over this month with both Groceries and Gas but at least I can say that we are honestly on top of it. 

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Not Met! $1029.60 We had a $225 Amazon subscribe and save order along with a 2 Liter Diet Coke stock up!  I am perfectly content with this! 

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Not Met!  We have spent $625.46 this month. This does include our trip pulling the camper to and from Disney. 

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 7 . I am on the struggle bus!  I need to get back more consistent and on top of this! But I will say that after checking the last several years, this month is typically a low post month. 

Exercise- I was very pleasantly surprised to walk miles and miles at Disney without increased leg/ knee pain. I did take medicine one night but only one! 

Expenses:  This month I paid for Lily’s graduation party. Pool dues were also paid but we are keeping our heads above water so that is all that matters! 

May will be a survival month. I am anticipating extra expenses and lots of busyness. I do want to sit down in June and write some measurable goals for the summer.  Changes may be on the way, hoping they are good changes!

Homesteading Update

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Yeap we officially have a homestead now that we have both a large garden and chickens! And today we have spent alot of time between these two things.  I had planned and mentioned that I would do gardening updates on Sundays but I wanted to get all the numbers on paper while I can remember.

Lily’s chickens are now four weeks old; they will need to remain inside for at least 2 more weeks. Today, as we have feared one of the chickens escaped from the brooder box.  It was likely my fault as I was getting an Amazon package out of the closet to use in the garden and the screen was knocked down and out came the rooster.  Oh yes by the way we have confirmed that we indeed do have a rooster.  This was the first chicken she picked so it is here to stay until it attacks.  We were able to find a taller cardboard box and transferred the chickens. This was only possible as we are turning off the light today for good.  Rugar got into the excitement as well but all is well that ends well at least for now.

Now on to the garden update!   I decided that because it is only 70 days until our beach trip we needed to get  the garden planted. I will wait 2 weeks to plant/ replant to help avoid a big harvest the week we are gone.
Snap Peas-   50 planted in front bed, only 26 seeds germinated and they are finally tall enough to reach the trellis.
Tomatoes- We moved 34 to the greenhouse and transplanted 32 today into several different spots.  Most of these plants are very small but I am hopefully that we get some tomatoes’ this year.
Green Peppers- After a second planting and removal of the heat lamp we moved  21 pepper plants to the greenhouse.  Today we transplanted 16 plants.  These again are very small but if we can get 2 peppers per plant I will be happy. I purchased 4 green pepper and 3 banana pepper plants this week from a farmstand.  I want tons of peppers this summer.
Squash- I have lost a packet of yellow squash seeds. Instead of attempting to purchas another packet, I purchased 6 plants for $1.75 from the farmstand. I broke the roots of one plant so I am hoping to have 5 yellow squash plants. Which will be an abundance of squash.
Zucchini- We have used all of the zucchini that was frozen.  So I planted 8 zucchini seeds today. I am hoping to go big with Zucchini this year!
Cucumber- I purchased 6 plants to count as my stagger planting.  I also planted around 20 seeds today. I am not sure of the exact number but if they have not germinated in 2 weeks I will be purchasing more plant starts.
Green Beans- I have planted an entire package of bush commander beans and blue lake green beans. I am planning to plant the same amount in 2 weeks.  I would love to have enough beans to freeze this year.
Basil- an entire packet planted in the green stock. This is another thing that I will be replanting in 2 weeks if they do not germinate. I grew no Basil last year so I have to get something going this year.

In other purchase I did purchase sage, thyme and oregeno. And several different types of flowers. I have plant marigolds around the tomatoes with the rest in the greenstock vertical planter.

Money Spent
Lowes      $52
Farmstand  $42 including a gallon of strawberries
Nursey- $15
Total $105

5 Things Friday!

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  1. Today is Matt’s 51st birthday! We are celebrating by eating at one of his favorite burger joints “Bad Daddy’s.”
  2. This has been an extremely busy month that I just can’t seem to catch up with. Monday Zach’s Ballgame, Tuesday Izzy’s birthday, Wednesday Braxton ballgame, Thursday- Took Mom grocery shopping for the first time in a month. So we hit two scores with a plan to go to Costco to finish the restock this weekend.  And today Matt’s Birthday, see above.
  3. We have eaten out more this week than any other time except for Disney! This weekend I have got to get things together and in place to get us back on track!
  4. I have decided to hold off on transplanting my tomato and green peppers outside. I want to wait at least one more week if not two weeks depending on the soil temperature and air temperature.
  5. Lily’s new chickens have reached the point that we had to give them a taller container and a screen on top.  We also are starting to turn off the light during the day so that they learn to regulate their own temperatures. We have about 4 weeks left inside!

Saving on Saturday- Chicken Coop Remodel

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This will be a picture heavy post but first the story behind why we need the chicken coop remodel!  The week before we headed to Disney, we discovered on our video that a possum had gotten into the chicken coop. The kids and I did a quick fix on the door by placing several cement blocks to keep the bottom from being pulled out.   We knew that once we returned, we would need to put some serious work in to make the door stronger.
While we were at Disney, one night 3 of the chickens got locked outside.  We also discovered that the coop did not provide enough shade for days with temperatures in the mid 80s.  This meant we needed to figure out a way to add some shade.
We returned on Monday from DIsney with plans to spend today (Saturday) working on remodeling the coop.  But first more excitement. On Tuesday night we saw a racoon on the chicken camera. On Wednesday night it was joined by two others. And at least one racoon got in the chicken run. We were thankful that the chickens were locked safely up so nothing was harmed. Zach and I discovered on Thursday that something had pulled out couple of nails at a low corner and that is how the racoon was able to get in. Thursday night we set a trap and caught at one of the racoons.

Today we started by add strength and a new latch to the door.

Next up we used material that was already here to upgrade the chicken run. We decided to try and increase the head space so that we could easily get in and out as well as add shade for the chickens.

We are all very pleased with the result. The longer boards were found in the rafters of my building, chicken wire was recycled from the chicken run (it was originally the top), the long metal piece was purchased but not needed when we updated Matt’s Beatle building and we even cut up a couple of landscape timbers that we decided are not needed!  Total cost $0!!!!!!!!

In other exciting news, meet our three new chicks. They are currently almost two weeks old.

“Lucky”

“Honey”

 

“Biscuit”