Near Record Rain/ Lightning Strike, Bees Love Lavender! Progress With Chicks

Near Record Rain/ Lightning Strike-
So far this month we have had near record rainfall! The weeds are loving it but it has just been too wet. We had a really severe thunderstorm come through Saturday dumping a huge amount of rain. Because it was really hot and then a cold front come through we had really awful thunder and lightning as well. The winds were whipping, I got up Saturday morning about 7 a.m. or so and the thunder was really really loud. I got up and came out and watched the thunder and lightning from the living room.

At one point I heard what sounded like a close explosion and Anya (our cat) jumped up about a foot or two straight off the floor into the air! No kidding, never saw her do that before. I was afraid our tree had been hit, or one of the neighbor's, or a structure.  I couldn't see anything. The next day my husband Dave found out from the neighbor right next to us that their driveway had been hit by lightning. There was a nice big scorched area, no photo sorry. I think that's the first lightning explosion I have ever heard and it was really really loud! Luckily we are all okay. As we speak today it is pouring rain again and all of 58 degrees. Supposed to be 93 by Sunday, here's hoping!

Bees Love Lavender! 

My lavender that I was able to winter-over has been getting visits from bees! I went out last week and stood very still, took photos of the two or three that were pollinating it. I was able to get pretty close. Bees are in such sharp decline in the United States that is wonderful to be able to provide some home habitat easily and beautifully!

Progress With Chicks- 

The chicks are doing really great! They are getting big and have feathered out-

It had been too cold and wet to start getting them outside. Its supposed to be pretty warm by Sunday so I'm going to start getting them out in the daytime. They can look and stretch their legs out. We have an old, thrifted ($1.00) outdoor playpen that works great covered with bird netting to protect from predators. The nice thing about working from home I can put them out for a few hours and keep an eye on them. It's really great to be able to add more chicks to your flock, since for me that's definitely a part of my urban homesteading self-sufficiency mode. Even if you don't butcher your chickens, which we don't, there's so much you can do with eggs for protein! You can also sell or barter. Of course they also eat lots of bugs and weed the garden area for us. The chicks are pretty funny watching me work through the day with their little box right behind my desk. I got a couple of little windows in the box and they are really fascinated I can tell. Who knows what's going on in their little pea brains?

This is Ellie from six years ago as a chick-

Cute

Then later-

Only done once for a photo op, no poop on my shoulder!

Curtain Hack & New Rods Upgrade

Curtain Hack & New Rods Upgrade-
I posted a while back about investing some stimulus money into our lifestyle. One of those things was getting our last window some insulated curtains. All the others in the house were good. I hung the new curtains on the old, skinny rod-

I spent hours trying to find some insulated curtains for the house. They're energy efficient and great at keeping the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. See post here Investing Money For Homesteading/Life   I finally got a rod, from Overstock.com after Amazon fell thru, and Dave installed it-

The rod is a shabby chic distressed white. I never did like the grommets on the curtains, so I decided to flip the curtains upside down, and use the hem as the top.  I then measured how much fabric to remove. I bought the curtains longer than needed since the reviews said they shrank. Next I removed the grommets and hemmed the edges-

 Next measured a 1" hem to match the side hems-

Pressed and pinned in place-

Had matching thread, used the sewing machine, only took about 15 minutes! Came out nice!!!

All done!

Next I found a great $15.00 silver rod locally (Ross) for my other mini upgrade-

Sad skinny wood rod, what I could afford years ago

New rod, so much better in scale and dresses it up!

Last one to do, just doing a white paint job, now that the rain has stopped!

Independence Days Challenge- Covid Edition

Independence Days Challenge- Covid Edition-
I thought I'd do some updating of various projects and this list is a good way to organize things! Join in, post on your blog if you like! FYI I didn't invent this list, several other bloggers were doing this for quite a while over the years. Here's the recent Independence Days Challenge- Covid Edition... 

1. Plant Something- We just planted a row of Blue Lake bush green beans, a patch of small mixed pumpkins and several kinds of Italian "frying" peppers on the south side of the house. Used to be a spot for the old shed we tore down. I finally found some of the peppers at a local greenhouse, happy dance! The varieties we planted are Marconi, Giant Marconi and Jimmy Nardello.  The peppers are long, sweet. They're great stuffed, topped with marinara sauce, or add to pasta sauce and freezes well. Great addition to the garden-

Our poor tomatoes have finally perked up with the hotter weather.  I saw that Seed Savers Exchange had free shipping so I bought some Radio Calendula seeds to plant, looks like this, love the spikes! I planted a whole big flower pot full! 

Photo from Seedsavers.org

I finally planted my new flower box Dave built with Basil and some local Calendula-

2. Harvest Something- Eggs, Basil, Chives. Too early for summer veggies yet. 

3. Preserve/Store Something- Two batches of fermented veggies, Sauerkraut and Carrots w/ Ginger and garlic. Froze some meats. I'm going to do an inventory of the freezer soon. I may can some of our frozen apples. 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Bought some seeds with free shipping from Seedsavers.org for next year. Bought some Brats from Costco to freeze, got a great coupon deal for canned cat food. Anya barfs if she eats dry, so the Vet said to switch. We did, little vomiting and she lost weight, which was good! The Vet said dry food has way too many carbs, no wonder. She's also more active!

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Ditto fermented goods. Eating some meals from freezer foods. 

6. Build Community Food Systems- Nothing at this time. Hope to sell extra eggs at some point in the late fall/winter, when the new girls start laying. Five chickens in production, look out!!!

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Dave built a cedar planting box from an old planter my daughter was going to throw away. I told how how big big and he built it! All free.  We gave away a tote of leftover river rock from the path prep thru Free Craigslist. The woman is using as border for a community garden! Happy to help with that! 

Dave brought home two boxes from work for the chicks. I start the first week with a laundry basket, then move to a larger box. Next I combine two boxes for a larger space. They'll be outside soon, hopefully in a few weeks, slowly integrating to the flock. Feathering out and weather are the factors.  The shredded bark that was dumped here with our purchased gravel we re-used in the garden for mulch, mostly gravel free. 

8. Skill Up- Still working on the Retrosuburbia book, love it! Learning lots of Australian slang! 

Dave and I did research, he got our new walkway in, looks and works great! 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Our flock! We bought our three new chicks, all growing well! 

From the left- Debbie, Sunny and Luna 

I bought a new curtain rod online, the finial was broken off on arrival. Since it was a clean break I decided to glue it back together. Will never show, will touch up if needed-

It's a fun, shabby chic distressed finish-

It's going to replace the too-small rod, isn't wide enough for the new curtains-

My work from home "office"

That gave me the idea to paint an existing rod in our main bedroom. It was black, which was fine. Later I added sheers and a second rod, which is white. I'll take it down and paint it white to match-

Our bedroom is a light gray with white trim, so it will match better. I have tons of paint! No cost update-