Tag: homesteading

Day #40 – Sprucin’ It Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I had a few things on my to-do list today that I wasn’t exactly looking forward to but they needed to get done. I needed to mow first and because it was 79 degrees at 9 am this morning the morning glories were still open. Unfortunately the humidity was at 73.

I knew I needed to start laying the pavers. First I needed to paint them. I would have loved to do a bright color, but the only paint I had enough of was the warm cinnamon. That works.

Next I had to lay them out and dig out the rest of the grass and dirt to try and get them as level as I could.

This took quite a while, but it was so satisfying when it was finally finished.

I brought some rocks from the backyard to the front to just add that little touch to the all gravel part.

Nothing ever grows in the small pots I have hanging by our front door. Since we’ve had some good luck with wandering Jew I decided to try them there.

While I was planting those I noticed our house numbers were looking a bit faded. Since our house is old I didn’t want to completely take them off because who knows If I could even get them back on so I just used a black sharpie.

So much better.

The last thing I had on my list was to pull out the dying cucumber vine, stake up the tomatoes and plant the pumpkins sprouts and marigold seeds.

See the little cat on the left? That’s Monkey and every time I’m pulling weeds or planting anything, mainly when I’m a sweaty mess, she has to come and rub all over me.

I hope the cloches keep the pumpkin sprouts safe until they are bigger. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Day #1

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I saw two videos that really made me think. In the first one a man says “If you stop effing around for 100 days and everything you know that you needed to do you did, just think how much ahead you’d be”. Then I saw another video where a woman was explaining that if you just did 1% more every day just think how much everything would improve. I completely agree with both of them. I always have things on my to-do list that I either just don’t feel like doing or I don’t make time to actually do them. So, today is Day #1 of me getting my shit done and improving all parts of my life every day. It might not be something big, it could actually be quite small, but an improvement is and improvement.

Today was an outside day. I started calling them this when I was doing my funeral directing/embalming apprenticeship at a funeral home in a small central Texas town. Every single Wednesday I had to mow, weed eat, blow off the grass and leaves and mow that path on the land behind the funeral home. It was hard work, but as an apprentice you always had to do the not so fun jobs. This is what I always think of when it’s an outside day.

Well, I mowed, which is a normal thing for me to do every week, but today I cleared off some brush that Donny had cut down. I also got to work on the chicken coop’s Johnson grass and weed problem. Y’all, it was HOT. I had to use my pick axe to get to the roots. Some I couldn’t get to due to the board skirting so I had to use scissors to cut them down as far as I could.

This was the mess I was wrangling. It doesn’t look that bad in the picture, but the weeds were taller than I am. I finally got through them after a whole lot of sweat equity.

Our coop is made of recycled materials. It has 3 stories in the back and a small run in the front. They are really only in it at night.

It has a latching door, but we fortify it with the screen and boards so that the night critters can’t get in.

The fence line plants are growing back and the chickens are enjoying all of the shade.

We are finally getting cucumbers. The ones I have bought from Aldi have all been so bitter. I’m happy to say that these are so good and not bitter at all. Last night I made a salad with cucumbers, tomato and red onion. Delicious.

When I finished all of the outside work that I was going to do for the day, the weather said that the “feels like” was 102. I could actually wring my shirt out.

I could not wait to jump in the shower. Did I mention that I’m allergic to Johnson grass? Ugh

One of the highlights of the day is that the construction crew is officially finished with our street work. They also did something I’ve never seen before. Because they had to dig up a lot of our yard, they brought a big truck and were spraying grass seed.

Ours was growing back pretty well, but hey, I’ll take it.

Garden Growth

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

We did not do a big garden this year. I got the seeds started late, but I am proud to say that everything I am growing is from seeds. Not a big flex to anyone who gardens, but it is for me because I’ve never been able to do that before. Everything I’ve ever tried to start from seeds, except the cantaloupe last year, has died.

This squash is in the enclosed garden. It should be ready in a few days. I’m embarrassed to say that this garden is half empty. We do have tomatoes, tomatillos (they came up from the crop last year) and cucumbers. I finally got around to weeding this area last week because it was a mess.

This is the before.

And the after.

I do love my little front bed, but it doesn’t get as much sun as I would like. The cucumbers are starting to flower along with the tomato plants so that’s encouraging.

Donny planted this butterfly plant a few years ago and this year it has really taken off. I can’t wait for the hot pink flowers to really open up.

I have always bought a basil plant every year. This year I decided to try seeds and they are actually growing.

We even have a corn stalk. A piece of corn from the bird feeder must have fallen down and sprouted. I thought it was funny so I just left it to grow.

Our hostas that did not do very well last year, and we even thought they had died off, are going crazy.

I decided to plant some avocado seeds and I guess now I have a mini orchard.

We had some sunflower seeds that we had harvested from one of our giant sunflowers a couple of years ago. Donny planted them in the backyard and they are doing their thing.

I’m still trying to work on the back corner, but we’ve just been getting so much rain lately, I haven’t had the chance. I did make a little bell wreath for the patio on one of those rainy days.

So that’s the outside update. Fingers crossed that everything grows.

Months ago Jackson asked me to get these two cat pictures from a thrift store. I loved them so it was a yes. Last night we realized that they reminded us of Queso and Bailey so I guess it’s like a little tribute to two of the best fur babies there ever were.

A Little Update

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

This weekend the weather was just awful. It was cold, windy and rainy. We ended up staying inside almost the whole time. The most exercise I got was changing into my chicken boots about 10 times a day to go out into our water logged yard. One morning last week, it was about 5:30 in the morning, I heard the chickens getting very restless. That’s unusual for them when it’s still dark outside. I was walking into the backyard when I saw this giant owl perched on the roof of the coop. When it heard me it flew away. We make sure that the coop is completely secured when it gets dark because there is always something trying to get to them.

We have 8 hens and they have finally started laying again, which is great with the price of eggs now.

The city is replacing the water and sewage lines in our neighborhood so our street is getting ready to get torn up. It’s going to be a pain for a while, but will be so worth it once it’s finished.

They are just about ready to be digging in front of our house. What started off as a very foggy wet day turned out to be just gorgeous.

I finally got all of the donations bagged up. There were piles sitting in our living room for weeks. Jackson and I took them to the thrift store. We decided to go inside and see if we could find any treasures. I found this planter that still had the original makers sticker on it. Even though it was completely and horribly tarnished, it was marked solid brass so I picked it up.

I started working on it when we got home.

After a lot of elbow grease mixed in with some vinegar, salt, ketchup, toothpaste and finally some brasso that I picked up at the grocery, it turned out pretty good.

Speaking of thrifting, about a week ago I picked up this little table to use as a plant stand. Who would have thought that it’s the perfect table for Donny to use while he is healing. He still has a hard time putting weight on his knee, but he finally has an appointment with a rheumatologist on Thursday. I feel so bad for him because he still goes to work and uses all of his energy there so he is wiped when he gets home. Because he becomes a stomach sleeper during the night, he’s been sleeping on the couch so that he can keep his knee from moving. I am just praying the this doctor can give him something that will help him out.

Reinforcement + LJS

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Lately some of our chickens have been very bad. There are 3 ring leaders that insist on flying over the gate and running amok in our yard and all of the neighbors’ yards. I spend a lot of time during my day herding chickens back to their yard. Donny and I spent a lot of the day outside. I was taking down the Christmas lights and he was adding more insulation to the coop because we are supposed to be getting some colder weather later this week. Those 3 chickens plus some other followers in the group kept getting over the gate. Donny realized what a pain it was to be wrangling chickens multiple times. He brought out more chicken wire to raise the gate area even more. We thought that worked until one of the chickens flew right over it. I had had enough. I decided to do whatever it took to keep them in our backyard.Donny told me, “you can be serious?’. Oh, but I was. All it took were 2 brooms and a rake plus several zip ties. I also got our scarecrow out of the shed and made sure to chase the chickens around waving it and growling loudly. I figured if they were scared of it they wouldn’t come near it. This is how it turned out.

Donny’s first reaction when I was finished was, “what are the neighbors going to think?’. I told him I didn’t care because I was sick of chasing chickens. Let’s cross our fingers that this works. Let’s hope the HOA is okay with it. Ha had, just kidding, we could never live with an HOA because I’m pretty sure we would get fined every day and/or kicked out.

Hannah treated her boyfriend to dinner since tomorrow is his birthday and she has to work tomorrow night. Since they were already going to eat we decided to try out our new Long John Silver’s. I know, I know, most people think it’s gross, but it has a special place in our hearts here in Longview. You see almost 2 years ago it was not doing so well and they were going to shut it down. That’s when our Facebook group “All Things Longview” went on a mission to save it. And save it we did. Several months ago they completely tore it down so they could build a new store that wasn’t grimy and greasy like the old one. The brand spanking new LJS opened a few days ago and I’m happy to say that we had to wait in the to-go line for quite a while. Even the inside was full and there was a line in there also.

The food was actually SO good. Everything tasted so fresh and it wasn’t overly greasy. I was quite pleased. They also got the order 100% correct. Go LJS! I hope you stay this busy.