Independence Days Challenge, Dark Days Challenge For Next Winter, Fun Blog!

Rose and Molly

Independence Days Challenge-

1. Plant Something- Moved one of our rhubarbs to a sunnier spot, does that count? :) Will start planting the new cold frame this weekend, if I'm not too yucky (cold). Read the 10 Veggies You Can Grow in Shade, to get ideas.

2. Harvest Something- Eggs, grass clippings, food scraps to chickens.

3. Preserve Something- Dave bought a used bike and sold his old one. Easier on his shoulders and made a good profit!

4. Store Something- I keep stocking up on more basics every week, working on the freezer now. 

5. Manage Reserves- Get A Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Getting ingredients to make homemade laundry soap.

6. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipes- Made some Jambalaya with leftover hot sausages and chicken, yummy!

7. Build Community Food Systems- Still need to get to the spring farmers market, again.

8. Recycle/Re-Use- We built a new raised bed from recycled, free lumber, finally! Will move some soil from the main bed soon to plant. Used recycled cardboard boxes taped together for our chicken condo til the little girls can go outside full time.

9. Skill Up- Still reading Little House In The Suburbs by Deanna Caswell and Daisy Siskin, good book! Reading up on what to plant soon.

10. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Re-habbing thrift store clothes with repairs, hemming, etc.

 Dark Days Challenge For Next Winter- I had never heard of this before, what a great idea! Dark Days Challenge I will try that next winter.

Fun Blog- I like this one, cute ideas! Thriftathome

Chicken Update- Rosie getting acquainted with her new sisters-

Neighbors gorgeous tree...

30+ Vegetables You Can Grow in Shade, New Backyard Garden Raised Bed

Ten Vegetables You Can Grow in Shade- I found this today, great timing since we've been building our new raised bed, which is part shade- 30 Veggies for Shade  Good to know! It's amazing how much you can grow in what you might thinks of as unusable space.

Full and lush with veggies!

New Backyard Garden Raised Bed- 

Dave and I finally got the pile I was beginning to hate built into the new backyard garden raised bed. The only cost was some screws. The wood had previously been untreated 2 x 4s from long pallets. Would have gone to the dump :) You could buy 10' fir 2 x 4s if you start with new wood. "Mr. Stumpy", leftover from taking down a sick tree, will be all covered with soil. After building I planted herbs and veggies, the weather cooperated! I will plant some more grasses and/or perennials in front of the wood frame to soften it. First we laid out the wood (see stump in middle) and as we wanted to utilize the space, it's wedge shaped, but you can build square-

Screwing the boards together, some re-cutting involved-

See junk 2 x 4s for braces inside and stump-

We filled with extra garden soil and our own compost. Veggies and herbs planted-

Flowers peeking out

Flowers planted, will add bark dust, next weekend we'll help out the sod with more seeds-

hen exploring, supervised!



Oat Flour Crisp Topping Recipe, Garden, Chicks In A Room With a View, Good Deals

Oat Flour Crisp Topping Recipe- I've been starting to convert some wheat flour recipes over to oat flour, and here was my first try, a mixed berry cobbler-

 before baking-

After

Sorry we grabbed a couple of desserts first before I took the photo. Here's the classic crumb topping recipe I used and modified, and the flavor was good!

Oat Crumb Topping-

1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teas. cinnamon (I use more) cut into small pieces

1 stick cold butter

1/2 cup rolled oats

Just cut the mixture together and put on your favorite cobbler.

Garden- The garden is growing fast! Berries are getting tall, the rhubarb should be turning red soon. All the new sun in the garden is really helping, since we had our massive tree trimmed-

New perennials are looking good that we planted last week-

Lettuce is coming up in the cold frame, woo hoo!

Tomorrow we'll start setting up our new cold frame. Next weekend I'll start moving some wheelbarrows of dirt from the main garden bed, that will be fun :(  I'm getting good workouts in the yard! 

Chicks In A Room With a View- The girls are getting bigger every day, BUT it's been cold and rainy, so I haven't gotten them outside at all. Tonite it supposed to be in the low 30's. We set up our old $2.00 playpen designed for kids for outside (no floor). It works great upside down for a chick playpen inside too. Here they are in the kitchen, getting more room and a change of scenery-

They also like to hang out in the living room, by the big window, with the coop outside, towel for easy cleanup:) They are really feathering out. They were really relaxed sitting in the sun and they love this spot. The lighting was really nice late today for these photos, and I LOVE my camera!

Aren't they cute? I swear, I have washed my windows twice in the last month or so, and every time a storm blows thru my windows are dirty again! Er... 

Good Deals- I found these nice, thick wooden spoons at out local grocery outlet. They are Paula Deen brand, I love them! A buck each!

I went to the local Eddie Bauer outlet today. I found 2 great polo shirts for work and a fleece top for 75% off, good deals. I also got a fleece jacket, ditto 50% off. A lot of my work clothes that fit are pretty worn, and that's something I'm working on fixing over the summer. It's easier to buy a little new clothes at a time and not take such a big hit. Next week or so I'm going to make some homemade liquid laundry soap. We'll see how that goes!

I loved these ideas for a Recycled Backyard Lots of cute ways to save money and have some creative things to play with! I loved this one, reminded me of school! 1/2 a kickball!