Wild Weather/Front Yard Garden Redo, Thrifting Scores!

 

Wild Weather/Front Yard Re-Do:

Life has been busy, so NO blogging lately! Settled in my new job nicely, took a lot of brain power I will say. We've had some very WILD weather since May, a lot of rain, some snow and wild temperature swings. We had some flooding on the street right near ours two weeks ago. The force of the water pushed the manhole covers up and off! We had some severe monsoon type rain. Then rain off and on mild temperatures. We had another monsoon rain last week. That resulted in the basement office (across the hall from where I work) having 4 inches of water on the floor. Luckily it triggered an alarm for cleanup and there was no permanent damage. Getting cool again with a freeze advisory in Oregon tonight. The rain's been great for the perennials!

 

 

 

 

 

It's been tough on everyone's allergies sadly. Pollen city. It has made it hard to do gardening trying to work between the weather systems. I've gone between wearing summer clothes and winter clothes. We had  some firefighters in the Boise National Interagency Fire Center going up to Canada to help with their fires. I feel really bad for them but I think this is going to become a regular thing sadly. Crazy weather, excessive rain and droughts. 

Before shot

Last year the county came through, widened our street and added sidewalks which were much-needed. We knew it was coming, which was good, so we were able to plan ahead. Since we had a lot of shrubs and perennials right along the front sidewalk we were able to move some of them to the back yard. We figured we would save of those more mature plants. After the process was done the county had added a steep slope on the front with turf. We decided to let it winter over and then re-do in the spring. Dave was able to remove the first strip of turf closest to the sidewalk by hand. We both went shopping and picked out some things we liked. All drought resistant and low water.  I thought it would look nice to have something tall that would stay green year round in the corner by the sidewalk and driveway. I think it looks nice! It's  a Juniper-

 

 

We opted for some different kinds of plants with different colors and textures. We choose a nice tall grass by the end and then mixed in with some different perennials and shrubs. We relocated one of the shrubs from the backyard into the second section, but it died. Bought a replacement. The other one survived. Dave did all the planting, then put down weed barrier and bark-dusted. With a tight budget we're going to do the rest of it this fall and next spring so that the whole slope will be landscaped, no mowing.  I would like to remove all of the front yard turf but Dave is not a fan so far. Time will tell. Really happy all our fruit trees are really loaded this year! Love our peaches-

 

Red Haven peaches

With various projects and the weather we got kind of a slow start getting the vegetable garden planted. We went through this last year! Luckily I had started some things from seeds and we had planted some cucumbers, two different kinds, kale and collard greens. Those have done okay with the crazy weather. I also started from seed some rainbow Swiss chard and added a couple store-bought ones and started those in a wooden planter box. I also started some basil,  transplanted outside into another planter. We finally bought some veggies, Dave planted the various tomatoes, yellow squash, Italian and Gypsy Sweet peppers. They will be slow to get going, but worth the wait. Our normal summer are so hot they will grow thru most of October-

 

Thrifting Scores!

I hit a local thrift store this week and got some really great deals! My non-stick 13" skillet I use all the time was starting to fade. I spotted was a 12 inch like-new non-sick skillet. The lid I already had fits perfect, $4.00-

 

 

I found a Stanley coffee mug for $3.00-

When I got home I realized part of the lid was missing that you push to drink. Luckily the Stanley website has replacement caps, so for $10.00 I ordered one, then will work. Still saved quite a bit on that one. It will be good in the winter to be able to take my own hot tea to work. We don't really have a break room in the part of the building I'm in. No where to get hot water.

I've been meaning to make a "bug hotel" but then saw one for  $10.00. We mounted in our backyard on our maple tree! Will attract pollinators that don't sting and hopefully they will find it this year. To buy the bamboo alone to make one of my own would have cost more than this-

Got a fun little wreath for my kitchen dining room display area. $2.00! Fits right in with the color scheme. I previously had a thrifted French style clock, but decided I did not need a third clock in the dining room-

Spotted a nice Fleur-de-lis statue that I will paint for somewhere in the house. Not sure what color yet, maybe dark blue? I only found out a year or two ago that I'm part French. There is quite the history with the symbology of fleur-de-lis going back to very ancient times, including the Egyptians. It's a really fascinating symbol. I always thought it was just associated with the French but it goes way back before that-

Found a nice summer weight blouse for $4, perfect condition. Nice large glass container that I will put flour into, $3.00. Really interesting that a lid that came with it actually has a canning-type rubber gasket on it, it fits inside the screw on lid, never seen this before-

 

 

 

Happy Earth Day!!!

 

82 Degrees & More Snowy Weather! Two Home Office Rehabs, Mini Grow Light System Hack

 

 82 Degrees & More Snowy Weather!

We have had really crazy weather here lately! One afternoon it was 82 degrees and sunny, within 3 days it was 32 and snowing! This is a more wacky Spring than we usually have here. Hens are laying great! Fresh eggs galore is so satisfying for us. The good news is the garden is greening up with the days longer-

 

 

 

Bonnie enjoys the sunny spots in the house-

"Before" shot original home office

Two Home Office Rehabs-

With my new job, and an earlier shift, my first day of work I drove in the pouring rain and dark. Not fun. Luckily it's daylight now, and I will be starting to do hybrid work in a few weeks. We added a new larger desk to our home office and relocated our other small existing desk. Here's the before and after on that! (Before shot above)

Originally when I applied for my new job it was listed as no remote work, 100% in the office. Between the time I was hired and the time it was posted things changed. I was very happy to find out I would be doing part-time remote/office work. It's really nice not to have a full time commute and be able to work from home some of the time. Lots of little things you can do in between working from home like moving sprinklers, running a load of laundry, etc. We were in the dilemma of what to do since we moved our personal home office stuff into the bedroom office. Now with that area being a kitchen buffet-

We opt to use a laptop with a monitor/keyboard/mouse at home. We decided to move the small existing desk into the other spare bedroom and set up our home office there. We donated my sewing machine cabinet and put my sewing machine in the craft closet- 

 

That made room for the small desk to go into that bedroom. Good excuse to deep clean! We deep cleaned that area, always hard to miss the dust bunnies behind the furniture-

 

Old desk, ready for when I start working remote

So next- what kind of desk was I going to use to work from on? We looked around and I really wanted to get something that would be more like a piece of furniture. Eventually when I retire we won't need two desks so I figured we'd buy something nice that we could keep long-term. We didn't want to spend too much money so I looked around and finally settled on a desk from Costco. It was $200.00 off, ordered it online and had it delivered within a week. The thing that really sold me on the desk was it was mahogany hardwood construction. I wanted something really stable that was not going to get wobbly or weaken over time. I did shop around quite a bit and we didn't want cheap MDF, etc. Dave and I got started-

Look at the Mahogany grain!!! WOW

 

Dave and I put the new desk together and it looks great! We're keeping our home set up for now. We'll move our gear to the other bedroom when I start working from home. We didn't spend any money for this except for the new desk, $300.00. I really like the distressed farm style! If we ever decide to move the personal workstation into the living room it would be a nice fit.

 

 

Bonnie approves! 

I used some leftover fabric from my kitchen buffet, so I sewed up a curtain with velcro on the top. Conceals a food storage bookcase, dresses it up!

 

Mini Grow Light System Hack-

I wanted to start some seeds and we were going to set up our grow light system in our extra bedroom. It's worked really well before. I decided this year, based on last couple years, that I really didn't need to start quite as much. I suddenly had the brilliant idea that instead of using the whole 6' tall grow light rack, with multiple shelves, that I could just downsize it. I decided to put it on top of our buffet in the dining room. So Dave set up just one rack for me-

 

Lettuce seedlings to thin

 

Basil from the grocery store to go outside

 It's over the waterproof counter and there's power there. Easy to keep an eye on and I can start plenty of cucumbers, squashes, herbs and flowers there. Because our growing season can be kind of unpredictable here in the summer we really prefer to buy tomato starts. They get off to a quicker growth pattern. I know not everybody does that but it works for us. I just moved a few things around and I added my wooden organizer that I and the seeds are in close proximity for the gardening season. Now I just need to keep the cat out! Will fill the rest of the pots this weekend. Lettuce will go outside in pots. I have given up growing in the garden area.