Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Apr 21, 2012

85 Degrees! Girls Gone Wild, Garden Stuff, Independence Days Challenge, Great Books

85 Degrees This Week- It has been a wacko spring,  yo-yoing between winter/spring. Now we're yo-yoing between spring/summer. The forecast is for the mid 80's til Thursday! Oh joy, not really. This is just too warm, too fast. I had to unpack my summer shorts, most of which don't fit! Yay! I'm down to about 40 lbs. smaller. So off to the thrift store a couple of days ago, and I scored! Lots of great shorts and a few summer tops. I must say- it's so much easier to find a LOT of clothes my size, now that I'm moving out of the "plus sizes". I always hated the lack of choice. I'm big on that :)  I will be taking in some of my favorite summer clothes, to get more mileage out of them. Ironically, I had bought 2 like-new L.L. Bean linen camp shirts during the winter. They're way too big now! Break out the sewing machine!!!

Girls Gone Wild! I loved the title, sorry I had to! The little chicks are getter bigger fast. Molly and Rose have been taking field trips out to the living room this week-

Rose in the back, Molly in the front

Tail feathers coming up!


I brought out our $2.00 junk outdoor playpen. It's perfect for the chicks to get a feel for the outdoors during the warm days, and to keep them separate from the two big girls. They had fun today, but cried for me a lot after a while :) They calmed right down when I picked them up, went inside and .... nap time!




Garden- I mowed with our push mower, and I think I hit every piece of bark dust in the universe in the front yard, erg! Nothing like it jamming every 2 feet. I finally broke out the rake, and got most of the rest. Looks much better! With all the rain, things are really greening up fast. I washed the outside windows- I love my windex scrubber thingy for windows, it actually works! I cleaned up the clutter in the house, did laundry, whew, busy! My seedlings inside are doing well, tons of basil-
leggy nasturtiums, and Swiss chard didn't do so well


BUT, the good news- Dave, my hubby, got a free like-new display case, black wire metal with shelves- about 2' wide, 5' tall, 1' deep. It will be perfect to add a grow light system to next spring and have an "official seed starting rack". And it was FREE! I love rescuing stuff that would go in the dumpster otherwise. I just don't have a good set up for windows facing the light in the spring... and since we can get lighting at wholesale... :)

Independence Days Challenge-

1. Plant Something- We'll be setting up the lumber for the new raised bed tomorrow, for veggie planting.
2. Harvest Something- Eggs, chives, grass clippings going into the compost!
3. Preserve Something- Same, freezing more food. 
4. Store Something- I keep stocking up on more basics every week, a little at a time. After garden is set up will add another rain barrel for the garden.
5. Manage Reserves- Get A Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- The 2 new chicks are growing fast! I found a nice, natural wormer, so we won't need to lose any eggs any more! Woo hoo!
6. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipes- I'm taking more home food to work for lunch. Working on the last of the homemade canned foods.
7. Build Community Food Systems- Going to let co-workers know I will have eggs for sale soon, once wormer is out of their system. I will start going to the farmers market now that they have opened today.
8. Recycle/Re-Use- A lot more composting, feeding chickens food scraps. I'm taking in more clothing for summer, again. Bought several items at Goodwill for the hot weather. Will be building a new raised bed from recycled, free lumber Dave got from work.
9. Skill Up- Reading Storey's Guide for Chickens and Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan w/K. Ruby Blume, excellent! 
10. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Keeping bigger clothes to take in. Got the new seed rack components. Re-purposing some pillows soon with leftover fabrics...
 
Great Books- Reading Storey's Guide for Chickens, excellent reference book. I wish I had bought it sooner!!! 
                                
 
Also excellent- Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan with K. Ruby Blume! I find some homesteading books too general, this one has lots of very specific ideas
                                
I'm also reading Still Life With Chickens- Starting Over In A House By The Sea, a bio by Catherine Goldhammer. I love her style and wit. I can see why it got such great reviews! Only $2.00 on Amazon...
 
 
                            
 
Happy Summer, I mean, Spring!

3 comments:

Candy C. said...

I love Rose and Molly's field trip pictures! LOL!!
I am so impressed with your weight loss! You go girl!!
It is definitely summer here. We were 94 degrees yesterday and last Saturday, it was spitting snow!!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I loved "Still Life With Chickens" and I love the idea of an old junk play pen upside down. Great idea!

Unknown said...

94 and snowing, bizarre, but there's no climate change! Ha...

The junk play pen actually had no floor, it was designed for little tikes to be on the grass! I wish they'd had those when mine were little...

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