Phase One

I was a bit late getting the garden in, but it's been planted and going strong for a couple of months now. As with everything out here, there are some high points and some, well, less than high points.

 

 

Three weeks ago I had cucumbers, tomatoes, popcorn, zucchini, onions, spaghetti squash, brussel sprouts, okra, and herbs growing.  We were just starting to get some good zucchini and a few cucumbers. There had been some minor squirmishes with bugs, but nothing a little peppermint spray hadn't taken care of. I was feeling good.

 

The corn seemed to be thriving.

I was delighted to find a sweet little baby spaghetti squash starting to grow.

The tomato plants had a ton of flowers and I spotted the first fruits taking shape.

And the apple trees had a ton of beautiful, healthy fruit on them.

It's easy to forget how fast things can change out here. In three short weeks we've had numerous rainy days and even more sunny days. My plants have either grown by leaps and bounds or they've met their untimely demise- all in the blink of an eye.

 

The cucumbers have taken off and I have already canned enough pickles to feed a small army. I'm only partly joking when I tell my family pickles are to become the standard veggie for every meal.

 

 

 

The tomatoes are as tall as me and have put on a ton of fruit, though nothing has ripened yet. I'm still holding out hope for jars and jars of spaghetti sauce and salsa.

 

 

 

Once one squash bug showed up my precious squash plants quickly started to decline. The zucchini is pretty much toast and the spaghetti squash is barely hanging on. It remains to be seen if the spaghetti squash can hang on long enough to allow the few good sized fruits to finish ripening. The amount of eggs and adult squash bugs in my garden boggles the mind. This is definitely one of the areas I must reevaluate for next year.

 

The corn is starting to flower. I'm hoping there are enough plants for successful pollination to occur. If we're very lucky we'll have popcorn to harvest in the fall.

 

Both the okra and the brussel sprouts have battled caterpillars and while still alive they are very stunted. I have managed to get rid of the critters with peppermint spray, but I'll just have to wait and see if the plants can catch up and put on some fruit.

 

 

 

The apples are still growing and starting to put on a lovely pink blush. I'm beyond excited that we're going to have some apples. It looks like we have one red variety and one green variety so I should be able to can applesauce and apple pie filling both.

 

This year's garden is just phase one. I have plans to expand into the other half of the fenced area next year and to put in a berry patch. This fall we will plant three more apple trees, too.  I still have a ton to learn about maximizing harvests and minimizing bugs and loss. Eventually, I will have two more 25x25 garden areas and lots more veggies. I'm grateful for the successes and the failures- they're helping me learn!

 

 

Tonia

Chicks!

We have enjoyed the chickens so much that we were quite excited about bringing in chicks this spring. The Hubs was very serious about the actual chicks, doing all sorts of research on what kind to buy, which breeds were best, and where to buy them. I, on the other hand, was more concerned about ME- what do I have to do, what might go wrong, what's the proper procedure in raising chicks? In short, what might happen when I mess this up terribly?  The kids were just giddy and didn't really care about anything except when the chicks were coming.

April 24 was the big day. Armed with a list of requests, we went to the hatchery and picked up our babies. There were two batches- the layers and the meat chicks. It is very difficult to figure out which chicks are females and which are males so we bought more than we'd need. If we are lucky, we'll end up with 50% layers- only one rooster will stay and the rest will go into our freezer. If we are very lucky, we'll end up with mostly layers and have some laying hens to sell. The meat chicks, of course, are all destined for the freezer.

 

Once we got them home, they went into their brooders, which is nothing more than a "nursery" pen. Chicks can't keep themselves warm so they need heat lamps for that purpose along with food and water. The different kinds of chicks need different kinds of food so that is our biggest reason for keeping the two groups separate. The Hubs used silt fencing to create our brooders this year, but within a couple of hours we realized this arrangement is incredibly inconvenient.....by next year we'll have nice brooder boxes that are raised instead. Then I will be able to check on and deal with tiny chicks without having to get on the ground.

Despite all of my reading, I still wasn't prepared for how high maintenance chicks are for the first few weeks. Right when we got them home we needed to take each chick and show it where the food and water was. Bug got that job after I climbed into the brooder and struggled with trying to sit down without crushing a chick and then struggled with trying to get back up without crushing a chick. You probably don't need to be told this, but crushing a chick would be very bad. It was decided the danger was slightly lessened by having a little person get in the brooder instead of me. Good call.

After the initial orientation of the chicks, they have to be checked on quite frequently. Are they warm enough? Too warm? Are they eating? Are they pooping? Has that poop collected on their little furry bottoms and created "pasty butt"?  Who is going to clean off those poopy little bottoms? Oh wait, that last question was never asked- obviously, that was my job.

We lost several chicks in the first few days and even though that was an expected complication it still stressed us out. Were they going to die no matter what or did we do something wrong? We finally settled down a bit when we had a couple of days go by with no lost chicks. In the end, we ended up with 20 layers and 30 meat chicks to raise.

It didn't exactly help our anxiety to find chicks looking like this. Turns out this is what a sleeping chick looks like. They literally just collapse like they cannot move another step. When you touch them, though, they jump back up and run around chirping away. After about a week of constant worry we realized this was normal and all was okay. I'm pretty sure I developed an ulcer in the meantime.

The Hubs started working on the nursery coop right away and within 3 weeks we had two lovely nursery coops that will serve us well for a long time. We also had gigantic chicks who were changing colors and developing feathers. By this time, the chicks could flutter and fly around a bit. They had also started working on establishing their pecking order. The tiffs and disagreements were, and still are,  pretty entertaining to watch.

At 6 weeks old, the Hubs has finished the work on their runs and they are now really looking like chickens. They are fully feathered, running around, and eating bugs and grass. At this point the discussion has turned from how to keep them alive to how to properly kill them. This is not an easy topic for me, no matter how much I like fried chicken. I mean, I cleaned their poopy bottoms for crying out loud. Now, I'm going to chop them up and eat them? Well, okay, yes I am, but I'm going to have to go to my happy place before I can make this happen. The Hubs has no such qualms. He has been watching Youtube videos and recruiting help in preparation for butcher day. We'll actually have two butcher days. The first will happen in a few more weeks and will involve the meat chicks. The second will happen after the layers have grown and matured enough to identify the roosters and the hens. The extra roosters and any "older" layers who aren't laying well anymore will  be taken care of. The resulting meat will fill my freezer and should be enough for the entire year until we're ready to do the process again. We'll also have new layers who will start laying in the  fall, hopefully.

So, now we've raised chicks. I'm pretty proud to have another homesteading must under our belts. Now for turkeys, pigs, and sheep.......

Tonia

 

Unrecognizable

The amount of work we've (okay, mostly the Hubs) gotten done this spring is absolutely amazing. Our little piece of the world is really starting to look good and, unbelievably, feel like home. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have dreamed that possible when we moved in last August.

A zip line, with a cool platform and rope ladder, has gone up and quickly become a favorite with the kids.

An empty section of the tin building has become a beautifully done nursery coop, complete with automatic feeders and waterers.

Unhealthy, uncared for, apple trees have been pruned and thinned and sprayed with neem oil. We're watching the baby apples with anticipation.

The planned garden spot has been fenced in, tilled up, and planted. God willing we'll have popcorn, cucumbers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, zucchini, spinach, kale, okra, spaghetti squash, onions, and plenty of fresh herbs through the summer.

Needless to say it's been a very busy, very tiring past couple of months. But, I'm happy and so excited to see things coming together. And I should mention here that I really, really love my Hubs. He has been working so hard to make this place wonderful and I'm so grateful I'm on this journey with him.

So, what's next? Runs for the chicks, an infirmary coop, a berry patch, a retaining wall and concrete pad in front of the coop, an expansion on the chicken coop, a pig pen..........yep, I think we'll stay busy through the summer!

Tonia

Super Hubs

While I was falling apart like a big baby this winter, the Hubs was working away on a "little" project.

Remember this?

The cellar was gross. I had assumed that it was going to always be. It is, after all, a cellar. I was okay with that, really. We removed all the trash that was down there and replaced the plumbing- I figured that was about as nice as it could get. I was wrong.

I wanted to set up a grow area for seedlings down there so I picked up an old table and asked the Hubs to hang some lights for me. I didn't really think about it again until he told me he was just about done.

Imagine my surprise.

 

He patched and painted the walls and the floor. He even painted the poles and the stairs. It is beautiful.  Then he hung the lights, giving me a lovely little seed starting area.

 

 

 

I am a very spoiled wifey. Who needs a super hero when you have a Super Hubs? Not me. I'm totally keeping the Hubs.

Tonia

The End of the High

Yeah, I know.....you've been wondering what happened to me, right? I wish I had some cool, witty story to share about how I've been so busy transforming the Heap that I wasn't able to blog, but alas, there is no such story. The truth is- I sort of fell apart this winter. Not everything about this new life is fun, or rewarding, or even normal. Some days I kind of hate it. There, I said it.

I don't like to be cold and this winter has been a record breaking cold winter. But, cold at the Heap is like nothing I've ever had to deal with before. I'm not talking about, "Brrr, it sure is cold out there." It's more like, "There's snow IN MY WINDOW" cold.

 

The cold wind literally blows straight through this house. The siding and windows need to be replaced desperately, but those are expensive propositions and have to wait their turn. The central heat is incredibly inefficient and drinks propane at an alarming rate. When propane costs skyrocketed mid winter we had no choice but to turn it off and rely on space heaters. I have been so cold for so many months that I was starting to think I'd never thaw out. And when I'm cold I become tired, cranky, and apathetic......it's not pretty.

 

Chores are no fun when things look like this. Everyone still needs to eat, though, so it doesn't matter if it is 10 below, there will be a trip outside first thing in the morning. There were a lot of mornings this winter when I questioned my sanity. Why did I want chickens so badly again?

 

 

I enjoyed the first time we were snowed in, but after numerous times of being unable to leave for days on end, it seriously lost it's appeal. Trips to the grocery store became cause for celebration, which is just sad, really.

 

Spring is here, though, and already the pain is fading. We have plans for a big garden, new chicks, and possibly pigs this year. The Hubs has been working hard on new fencing and other outdoor work. We survived our first winter at the Heap and it can only get better from here.

 

So, stay tuned, friends- I'm back and we're going to have lots to share!

 

Tonia

Kids' Room Revealed

It's done!

This has become.......

lovely.

 

Beautiful gray walls, amazing wide trim, old floors redone.........

 

A space for each kid to call their own.......

And a special area for the growing girl......


And that's that. Short and sweet, because, frankly, getting this room done wore me out. I'm too tired to even plan the next room and that my friends, is very, very tired.

Tonia

 

Kids' Room- MORE sneak peeks

We are getting so close! I'm trying not to get to impatient, but seriously! I just want this room done!

The painting has started in the room. Everything has a coat of bonding primer on it (or two in the case of doors and trim) and it's finally time to start painting the colors....creamy white for the trim and gray for the walls. I expect that it will take me the rest of this week to get it done. Homeschooling, AHG, and church events come first so I have to paint when I have time, which is hard to come by sometimes.

I started the painting work with the freebies and  thrift store finds I had gathered so they are all ready to go into the room. Forgive the lack of "before" pictures- my camera battery was dead and I didn't want to wait to get started on things so all you get is "after" pictures.

We picked up the  table and chairs one day while we were out and about. Someone had thrown them into their yard with a "Free" sign on them. The table was a circle table with the expandable track to hold a leaf so it was easy for Hubs to split it in half for me. I spray painted it yellow and then covered the top of the table with the same fabric I used to make the headboards. This was accomplished by using spray adhesive to attach the fabric and then covering the fabric with several layers of polyurethane. I think it looks great and I love it, but the top of the table is not smooth like I would've hoped. I've since learned that you should coat a table like this with resin so when I make my side of the table that's what I will do. The chair got several coats of spray paint too. Everything was then coated with a clear top coat. The table will be mounted onto a board attached to the wall so that it is secure and then it will become Bug's make-up and/or sewing table. She is delighted, which means I am too.

The nightstand came from a thrift store where I found it for $10. It was a typical wooden nightstand so I gave it a couple of coats of the same color that will go on the walls after I spray painted the bottom opening. It then got a coat of clear top coat. This piece will go by the table and hold Bug's hair and make-up things. This is her favorite piece for the room so far. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of it.

This is the inspiration piece for my next project. I saw it when I was browsing in Gordman's one day. Even in a "discount" store, this piece was $40! I thought it was very cute, but I was pretty sure I could make one myself for a lot less.

So, I dug through the huge pile of pallets that the Hubs had brought home for me until I found the perfect one. You can see how it has the ideal place already there for me to cut it into pieces. I cut through the bottom pieces to separate the two ends (which I'll use for shelves somewhere else) and then I cut the remaining middle piece in half.

And ended up with these two pieces. I had to add a piece of wood to the end so it would have support, but that's it.

I then took each section and painted it the gray color I'm using for the walls. Next up was a coat of the creamy white I'm using for the trim. After that, I gave the pieces a light sanding so that the gray color would show through some and it would look aged.

For the different sections I had the Hubs cut out pieces of scrap wood in the appropriate dimensions and then I spray painted them according to the colors each kid wanted for their board. To one piece I attached a paper clip, to another piece I attached a clear picture frame, and to the last piece I attached a cork board.

My piece cost about $8 total to make and I think they will look great above the kids' beds. I am still debating about putting their names on the blank spot on the board- I hate to try to do that and ruin my work, but they do sorta look like they need something still, don't they?

Another huge milestone was hit today....I got the kids' clothes put into their closet. This got rid of three giant totes in the communal bedroom. I am seriously giddy.

 

Unfortunately, it also forced me to see  that despite our purging we still have too much stuff. Looks like I'll be getting stuff ready for a consignment sale very soon. But at least it's off of the floor and out of bins. Oooh! Soon the Hubs and I will have our own room again! {Swoon}

Tonia