Rooster Run 200

Introducing the "Rooster Run 200". This little gem is currently housing the 4 roosters from our latest batch of eggs hatched. They are destined for the freezer, but until then they will get some mighty fine food, green grass, bugs (well they like'em), fresh air, and sunshine. This is made light enough for me to be able to move it to fresh grass daily. Originally, due to it's mobile nature and the final destination for the birds, I was going to name it "Road trip". A friend who shall remain nameless, thought I should name it "the green mile". Fitting since the netting is green, but I ended up referring to it as "the rooster run" out of habit and, well, it stuck. This is my design. No plans, just pictured it in my head and went with it. My mom tells me that was a talent my dad had and so I feel very happy that it's something I can do as well. It cost me about $30 in supplies because I re-purposed items I already had on hand. The used dog house was $10 of the $30.

Measures 5 ft in length and 3 ft in width.  The PVC continues inside the dog house to give the birds something on which to roost.  If you think those white lines in the center look like they're going thru the dog house, you would be right.  They go all the way thru to the other side.  This allows the dog house to be elevated to make them feel safe, and to keep them dry in wet weather.

You can barely see the little darlings under the house.  They like to hang out there during the heat of the day.  Having the house elevated allows them to use every bit of space in this run.

That's a hinged door on the top there to allow us access to the water.  They don't have a feeder because we throw their food down to encourage them to scratch.  Trust me, they eat well.  They are moved to fresh grass every day before I throw down their food.

You can also see a pole that comes from the house to the end of the run. That is an outside roosting area. Again, I am trying to give them the use of as much space as possible. The waterer is attached to the hinged door so that when lifted out the string holding the water comes up to be removed.

To Do List

Good early morning from the hot south!  If you haven't seen a U.S weather map lately, the southeast is due for some 90+ degree temps over the next 2 weeks, but more than likely 6 weeks.

In preparation for the upcoming swelter, I was making out a checklist of things to do to keep us comfortable and not break the bank.  Originally this list was typed on here for my own personal use, but I got to thinking that I'm not the only one facing the heat and the financial hit it can bring.  For that reason, I turned this into a frugal post.  There are two lists on here; one for utilities, and one for outdoors.  I'm keeping both here because I will still use this list and it will give you an idea of things to do to help with heat and dry spells (or drought) for utilities and your outdoors.  The items that don't pertain to you, just disregard.


SUMMER UTILITY MANAGEMENT LIST

1.  INSTALL AC UNITS AND SHUT OFF HEAT PUMP TO SAVE FOR WINTER (side note here.  Our heat pump can't handle temps over 85.  We didn't find that out until after it was installed.  Plus the thing is on it's last legs.  Saving it for winter means literally we are saving it to be used when we absolutely need it so as not to risk losing it from over work).  TO ADJUST FOR INCREASE IN POWER USE, DO THE FOLLOWING:

A.  HANG DRY ALL CLOTHES ONLY PUTTING THEM IN THE DRYER TO FLUFF WITH A DRYER SHEET  PRIOR TO FOLDING.
B.  MAKE SUN TEA
C.  ALL BAKING AND CANNING WILL BE TIMED FOR AFTER SUNDOWN.
D.  UTILIZE GRILL AND CROCK POTS IN LEW OF STOVE.
E.  BREAK OUT THE STAINLESS POT AND FILL WITH WATER.  SIT OUTSIDE ON DECK FOR SUN TO WARM, AND USE FOR WASHING DISHES.  USE DISH WATER AFTERWARD TO WATER GARDEN PLANTS DURING DRY SPELL.
F.  LESS OVERALL BAKING, MORE FROZEN FRUITS, SMOOTHIES, COOL DESSERTS AND SNACKS.
G.  MOVE ICE TRAYS INTO SMALL FREEZER AGAIN.  ADD A CONTAINER TO HOLD READY ICE. ( keeps us from opening the larger freezer all the time to get ice, so less loss of cooling)
H.  POSSIBLY USE CONTRAPTION FOR CONVERTING WASHER DRAIN HOSE INTO GARDEN HOSE TO HELP WATER GARDEN DURING DRY SPELL.  I had one of these made years ago when we were in a drought.  I went to a hardware store and told him what I needed, giving him the diameter of my drain hose.  He put it together while I was standing there.  It cost me a few bucks and I've kept and used it ever since.  Go to a hardware store for this.  They know their stuff.  The big box store won't.
I.  PLACE CONTAINERS UNDER WINDOW AC UNITS TO CATCH CONDENSATION.  USE FOR WATERING GARDEN.


OUTSIDE TO DO LIST

1.  PICK STRAWBERRIES
2.  PICK SQUASH
3.  WEED EAT SIDE YARD ( we had this cleared in early spring and it is starting to grow again.  Our absentee neighbor is absent and has not addressed his side.  It's encroaching on ours.
4.  CUT GRASS
5.  KILL STUMPS IN SIDE YARD- (See explanation above in Weed Eating)
6.  SPRAY SIDE YARD WITH HOMEMADE WEED KILLER-  I don't want to spray Round up close to my garden plants, so it's an Epsom salt, vinegar, dish soap combo.
7.  WEED GARDEN
8.  PURCHASE MORE PINE STRAW( this is for mulching the garden beds to hold in moisture and keep roots cool)
9.  CLEAN OUT CHICKEN COOPS
10.  CLARK- Our rooster.....he's on his way uh out.  We have a younger and, hopefully nicer one coming up.
11.  TIE UP BLACKBERRY CANES (over due)
12.  SPRAY PERIMETER OF HOUSE WITH ORTHO (we have ants like crazy!)
13.  PURCHASE AND USE ORTHO ANT KILLER- This is different from the Ortho above.  This is for killing the mound.
14.  STAIN BACK DECK- This is just for my own use and we will get to it as soon we can.

Updates from the Homestead

Hello!  Kind of a rainy on and off day today with thunderstorms headed our way come Sunday.  As I speak chaos has ensued outside as the chickens are letting the world know someone has laid an egg.  It's quite the spectacle!

Speaking of eggs (they've simmered down ...well maybe not), I am 99.9% sure we have a little banty hen brooding on 6 banty eggs.  That is so exciting for us!  We got a Little Banty rooster for our three hens about a month ago.  His name is Eli and we got him from a chicken rescue for free.  We just put the word out in our area and someone contacted us.  He fit right in with the hens.  No fights or anything which is great.  We aren't really raising these chickens for eggs or meat.  The chickens are so small there really isn't much use for the meat, and it takes 4 eggs to equal 2 large eggs.  I usually reserve the banty eggs for baking.  The little guys are fun though, provide manure, and eat bugs too; so still worth it.  We've had a few offers on chicks when they hatch, primarily for any that are lavender colored as we have a lavender hen.  Now if we can just get the full size hens to sit on some eggs, that would be great!  We do have three chicks we recently incubated.  It produced, I know for sure, one rooster, and one hen.  The third is still a toss up, but I'm leaning toward rooster.  Little disappointing if that's the case.  Roosters mean meat for the freezer, but not something we look forward to.  It is something we accepted though when we chose to raise chickens.  If we can't get a hen to sit, we plan to incubate again in about 14 weeks.  We prefer a hen do it, but we will incubate if need be.

On the garden front, I have 90 tomato plants currently being planted on this off and on rainy day.  They have gotten so big, I need to either plant them or re-pot them.  I don't think I have enough pots.  So in between rain showers I'm planting tomato plants.  I have 29 left to plant.  Any tomato volunteers in the garden are getting the ax.  I know they are cherry tomato plants, and I don't need them.  Out they go.  I only have room for the tomato plants I am planting.  Well those and the 46 pepper plants I also have to find a home for.  Yea, I am not playing this year.  I need tomatoes, peppers, and beans.  I have plans for tomato sauce, salsa, ketchup, tomato soup, chili, BBQ sauce, etc all put up for winter.  I'll also freeze a large amount of peppers to cook with.  The beans are starting to poke their heads out.  I have 12 speckled Lima beans (a good substitute for pinto beans) coming up from last year.  They get to stay.

In addition to all this, I am harvesting spinach, asparagus, and a few beets in the garden.  I have garlic growing like crazy, as well as a parsley plant held over from last year (they are a semi perennial).

Blooms are on my strawberries!  Yay!  I've even seen a few baby strawberries, and my blueberry bushes are covered in baby blueberries!  I can't wait!  I also have apple blossoms on my apple trees!  Now if the deer will just leave them alone.  No peaches I guess.  They bloomed too early and a late freeze got them.

On the home repair front, we now have a new deck on the front of the house as well!  I can't stain it yet.  I have to wait about 6 weeks.  If it ever dries out long enough, I can go ahead and stain the back deck.  It's new too from this past October.

I guess you could say I like blueberries!

Good morning all!  The sun is shining today and I'll take it even though the temps are veeeery chilly.  I have to chuckle because of the fact that not only did the ground hogs get it wrong, but so did the meterologist when it came to weather in the U.S these past couple of months.  If you will remember, the ground hog up north (don't ask me to spell his first name), Phil, said the north would have an early spring.  Then down here in Ga, our own ground hog, General Lee (see we do things so much simpler down here.) told us we would have 6 more weeks of winter.  So January and February gave the north some record breaking ice and snow, and gave us more of a spring like feel (along with massive amounts of rain).  I think that was a bit of a disappointment for both yankee and southerner alike.  Up north wanted to see warmer temps, and we down south always want to see snow!  We love the beauty, and, let's face it, we love the DRAMA; will it snow, will school be out, will we lose power, we need bread and milk (I have no idea why that is), etc.

Lest you think we only rely on Rodents with rank, the "Powers that be " weather folks concurred!  So here we are down south eagerly anticipating a "greater chance of snow and colder temps".  February was supposed to be The Month.  Instead, we were warmer and wetter.  I guess they got the wetter part right, but no fun stuff.  Just rain, and more rain, and more rain.

Due to the warmer and wetter weather, my blueberries (and peach tree, but nothing to do about that) bloomed out.  I mean bloomed out!  They are loaded with blooms, and I do mean loaded.

And now we are due, after many weeks of above freezing temps, for the bottom to drop out tonight.  Our low for tonight is forcasted to be 23 degrees.  Not the coldest it's been here in Ga, but cold enough to kill all blooms everywhere that temp can be found.  Anything below 29 degrees causes damage, and the lower the temp the more damage.  At 23 degrees I could lose all of my blueberries.

There isn't anything I can do about my fully blooming peach tree.  It's a loss again this year (grrrr), but I can try to save my blueberries.  Enter copious amounts of heavy white plastic, tomato cages, fencing, clothes pins, tape, twine, and anything else I could lay my hands on the save these berries.  My berries are planted against my house and get full sun.  I have tomato cages made from field fencing, as well as some field fencing.  I used those to make a framework around the blueberries.  Anywhere the plastic touches the blooms, will freeze.  The cages will help hold the plastic away from the actual bushes.

A peek under you can see what I'm talking about with the blooms.  Some haven't opened quite yet, and some are fully open

As I'm wrapping these buggers up, the wind is breezy at 14 mph.  So as you would expect, just about the time I would get something in place, the wind would move it....a lot.  Then I would finally get it together and the wind would open a place.  Usually in the most inconvenient place.  As I'm working I'm saying to myself "it's a good thing I like blueberries".  This mantra then became "not so sure I really like blueberries".  But now that I have it taken care of, I think I do still like blueberries.  I'm caustiously optimistic that I have them secure and we may be able to ride this out thru the next 2 days.

The flip side of this coin is that these cold days will help set my blackberries, so there is a silver lining.

The weather prognosticators are saying this is winters last hurrah.  Yea.  I'll believe it when I see it.
As an aside, I'll worry more about what the powers that be in weather say will happen with "Climate change" in 10 years, when they can accuately predict a 5 day forcast.  Just sayin.

Also along the gardening front; tomatoe, pepper and squash seeds have all been started.  Now we wait.

So hows your weather?  Have you started any seeds?

It really is the small things

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't realize how much you missed something until you had it back again?  Well that's me this week.

For months now, maybe longer than that, I've dealt with a dripping leaky faucet in my kitchen.  Periodically I would remove the handles and tighten things down and it would do okay for a while until next time.  Well it would do okay except for the fact that it didn't shut off right away when you used it.  I'd learned, over the years, the art of filling something up until just before it was where I needed it and then shutting off the faucet to let the water continue to fill to the mark I had chosen.  I have to say; not to brag, but I'd gotten pretty good at guesstimating.  Now I'm not a skin flint.  Replacing the faucet was just something that was put on the back burner because there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Well the time had come for the faucet's periodic tightening, so yesterday morning I went to turn the water off under the sink and noticed...a leak.  Not a huge leak, but a leak none the less.  I called the plumber and they came out yesterday afternoon.  Trying  to save a little ( there were still higher priority items); I had asked him to just fix the leak and maybe fix the drip in the faucet.  He was totally honest with me and said he could fix the faucet as is, or replace it with a new faucet.  I'm seeing dollar signs, but in the end, the difference between the two jobs was about $40.  So $40 got me a new, lifetime guarantee on parts, Delta Faucet in my kitchen.

Yall I have died and gone to heaven!!!!  It's one of those single handle deals, and it's so pretty and shiny!  Better yet, when I tun it off, it's off.  It's taking some getting used to.  No drips either!  I just don't know what to do with myself!

THEN!  On top of that, we currently have a landscaper out here clearing some brush to the left of our drive way.  It's been 22 years in the making; the brush that is, and has more than taken over.  But once the absentee landowner came to clear his side of the fence, we knew we could do ours.  We're, or I should say the landscaper, isn't even done yet, and the amount of wonderful sunlight we now have on that side of the house is wonderful!  I can't wait to utilize this new space for planting!  Don't know what I'll plant, but it will be something!

To date, in the last year alone we have

Replaced the back deck with a better one
Replaced the front door and added a new storm door
Replaced the faucet in the kitchen
Removed Brush from the side of the drive way

In addition, the plan is to replace the front deck with a better one in April (I hope).

The latest two items on the list; the faucet and the brush removal, were un-planned expenditures.  All of the items on this list were paid for in full at the time of service.  No financing, credit cards, or payments.  Sometimes the money came out of savings in it's entirety, and sometime we only had to take out a little to add to what was already in our checking.

Are we rolling in dough?  Uh no not really.  I brought in a little over $3000 with  my Etsy shop last year, and my husband brought in about 37,000.  We paid for things out of that like Health insurance, Groceries, Utilities, Car repairs, etc.  The last quarter of 2018 saw a huge chunk of dh's paycheck going into our health savings account to pay off medical bills.  We hope to have those paid off by April.

So how can we pay for all of these things?

1) First and Foremost; God's provision.  I feel very strongly that, because we are faithful to give Him what is his to begin with, he blesses the rest.  I can't be convinced other wise.  The back deck is a great example.  He brought in friends to help.  If we had to pay a "professional" for the same deck, it would have been more expensive.  As a result, we paid for the supplies with some extra on top as a thank you.

2) Being Debt Free-  We never saw it when we were in debt.  We thought it normal to put things like clothing, dining out, movies, etc on a card.  What we didn't realize is that those un budgeted luxuries kept us from being able to make needed repairs around the house.  We didn't have the money we thought.  And we didn't because we were making payments, with interest, for things "for fun", or that were " on sale".  Problem was, when we did have a repair that HAD to be made, we put it on the card as well.  We had to then.  Now, those fun things like dining out or movies, or even clothes, are budgeted.  We still do them, just smart.

3)  Saving!-  If you want to make payments, Make them to yourself!  We have our emergency fund, and try to keep it at the $1000, but we also have a car fund for car repairs and hopefully to one day pay cash for our next car.  We aren't to that point yet, so there is a lot of prayer over our two cars to keep them going.  I admit that, but we do have the funds to make repairs, even large ones, if need be.  We also save for car insurance.  We get a discount if we pay in full, so we make payments to ourselves each month for it to all come out on the renewal date.  And lastly we save for big projects.  We weren't able to save for these last two specifically, like I said they were un planned, but we had been saving for the deck replacement and so we adjusted things.  The deck will wait a month, but we should still be able to do it barring any other un planned expenditures.

So there you go!  Small things really do add up!  In more ways than one!  What are some of yours!

Garden fails and what I learned from them

After the brutal temps over the past couple of weeks, today Dh and I were out and about in the back yard beginning the garden prep for this coming spring (in 65 degree weather I might add). 

Usually I learn my gardening mistakes, or I should say take note of them, in the fall while cleaning the garden up for winter.  I didn't get to do that this fall.  I didn't have a chance, and was under doctors orders to not exert.  Then the holidays came and my little Etsy store was going so fast I could barely keep up (thank you very much!). 

So the holiday season is behind us, Etsy is somewhat caught up, and the weather is glorious right now!  Enjoy it while I can!  In addition, our absentee land owner next door is finally clearing out the fence line adjacent to our property.  This means we can clear ours out now.  We have a landscaper coming by to do the bulk of the work.  The job is just too big for a weekend foray.  I say all of this to say, spring is in the air and now I am getting a chance to clean up, and evaluate last years success and failures; mostly failures.

Failure #1-  Wood chips.  I don't think wood chips make a great mulch.  Don't get me wrong, they are great for in between rows of raised beds.  I know that NOW.  They aren't great directly on the bed.  It doesn't matter if they're aged or not.  My plants suffered last year, and I believe the main reason was wood chips.  Now if you compost the wood chips into the nice crumble compost, that is another story.  So From now on, wood chips will keep their place in between the raised beds.

Failure #2- My rabbit proof "Fence".  Ha!  I put this PVC netting around my garden in the hopes of keeping the cute little buggers away.  Didn't work.  I buried it and everything, but they still got in.  It slowed them down a bit getting out, but they still got in.  Another draw back is it made it harder to have access to opposite sides of certain raised beds.  This allowed weeds to take over and made it difficult to get to the produce.  The weeds took over up to the edge of the netting on the outside of the garden and made it hard to get them out.  The roots, stems, etc wrapped their self through the netting, and it was a mess.  Well that is all down now.  I'm not planning on growing anything the rabbits will be interested in this spring; carrots, broccoli, cabbage, etc.  If I do, I'll put a hoop house over it to protect from varmints. 

Failure #3- Corn!  I planted my corn too close and too much.  I affected my yield big time.  Plus I had all of my tall plants at one end of the garden, which made it like the amazon trying to get thru to pick or do other garden maintenance.  I'm not planting corn this year anyway, but when I do, the beds will be staggered.

Failure #4- Seed catalogs!-  These got the best of us as we went nuts buying seeds galore.  We were going to try this, and this, and this.  What happened was I didn't have room in my garden for all this wonderfulness, and ended up without enough of what I really needed in order to preserve for winter use.

Failure #5 Wooden seed starter boxes!- UGH!  Got this brilliant idea from a Youtube video I was watching.  It goes without saying that if wood ships will steal nitrogen from the soil, then logic would say, so would wooden seed boxes?  I mean that sounds right. Well it sounds right today, but back then I was all on board with trying it.  Yea, Back to Terra Cotta pots or seed pots.

Gardening is a series of successes and failures.  If you try something and it fails, well you know not to try it that way again.  Let me tell you though; if you have something that works well, don't try anything else.  Use what works for you.  If you're struggling with something, by all means try what you can, but don't mess with perfection.

A Treasured Find

2 1/2 years ago, my father past away .  I miss him every day..every day.  Over these past few years, there have been many a time when I had one more question, wanted one more hug, or just hear his voice.  He had a great voice.  Also over these past few years, My siblings and I have worked to clean out and organize his things.  We each had things that we brought home.  Mostly for practical use.   The truly treasured items remained with Mama.  I do have his first Dulcimer that he built.  I have one of his tool boxes, and I have his hand saw from childhood.

Daddy was big on having enough stuff apparently.  I've brought home spray paints, varnishes, tools, envelopes, folders, Blank DVDs etc.  As we speak I'm typing this blog post on one of his many gadgets; a lap top.  I named it "Daddy's", because it was and will ever be.  Daddy was big on gadgets too.  Unbeknownst to me, one of those gadgets contained a treasure.  A treasure trove!

It's a digital camera.  I had brought this home last year and it had remained in it's box, unused, because it was on standby for when my camera bit the dust.  There he is above with said camera.

Yesterday I broke the memory card in my camera. It was in my laptop because I had been downloading shop pictures.  I bumped it, and well...There ya go.  I ordered another one on Amazon, but then got to thinking about the box holding Daddy's old camera.  In this box were extra memory cards too.  Yay for saving, but not the treasure I'm writing about.  I did, however, start looking at the camera.  Just out of curiosity, to see how it worked.  In it, I found another memory card.  I figured out how to work the camera, and saw what I thought were pictures of our last Christmas together in 2015.  WOW!

Today, or I should say this morning, I set about downloading what I thought were pictures, onto my laptop.  They aren't pictures, but rather short video clips of our last Christmas together.  Daddy is no where to be seen, being behind the camera you see.

But I hear him....I hear his voice as he talks to us; when he talks to Rusty, their dog.  He's there.  Just on the other side of my computer screen.  That's my treasure.  That's my find.

Don't worry, this find will be shared.