60 gates road

Daddy Comes Home Today!


So today Kevin comes home and I thought I would check in with my "hitch goals." I got 4 things out of 6 taken care of, 1 thing I started on, and one thing I didn't even try. Here's my original list:

1 - Submit DVDs and books to Amazon trade in program

2 - Start building chicken coop

3 - Clean out hallway closet

4 - Clean off front porch

5 - Remove stuff off bottom two shelves

6 - Weed front bed/thin out elephant ears

I did everything from that list except for cleaning out the hallway closet. Which is something that really needs to be done this month anyway! I looked into submitting the items to Amazon but most of what I wanted to trade wasn't available as a trade in and for the ones that were, the amounts I would get were all less than ten cents and right now that's not really worth my time, haha. 

Also, as with many projects around the house accomplishing these "little" ones made way for more to be done. Which in my opinion is a good thing because I believe in baby steps to getting things accomplished. One thing at a time, right? Ok well we will see what these next two weeks hold for our little family!!


A New Hitch, A New Beginning

Whenever Kevin leaves to go on a new hitch, it always feels like a new beginning for me to get stuff done around the house. I mean, it may be that I am trying to fill my time that I would have otherwise spent with Kevin but it also gives me a fresh perspective on what needs to be done around the house. I hope I'm not going to overwhelm myself but I've come up with a list of (mostly) small projects that will slowly help get our house on better shape. I already began working on the new chicken coop and the front bed! So that's a good start and I've still got two weeks left until Kevin comes home.
 
1 - Submit DVDs and books to Amazon trade-in program
 
2 - Start building new chicken coop
 
3 - Clean our hallway closet
 
4 - Clean off front porch
 
5 - Remove stuff off bottom two shelves
 
6 - Weed front bed/thin out elephant ears

how in the world do i get rid of a piano??

In the first year that Kevin and I were married, we somehow got a hold of two pianos. 3 1/2 years later and we still have both (large) pianos.  I'm not a professional pianist by any means but I had always hoped that I would have my own piano when I moved into my own house.  Looking back, I shouldn't have worried because yeah, I totally have two pianos!  And I do play on both of them! Just when I'm alone because they are both completely out of tune and people don't want to listen to an out of tune song, haha.

But...two pianos in your house, in the same room, can really take up a lot of room.  We have gotten so used to them by now, but every once in a while I get to thinking about what else I own that I could put in one of those spots.  As in a bookcase, that is still at my parent's house. Or this really cool wood burning heater thing that is currently in my laundry room acting as a shelf for our overflow of stuff we don't know what to do with.

All I'm thinking is that it would be really nice to only have one piano and more room for our other stuff we really would like to use!


the gardening diaries: quick update

I don't have much to say this week.  My focus has not really been on my garden, oops.  I started to weed a little bit last week, I think I already posted about that, but I haven't done much since then. 

It stormed yesterday and my corn stalks took quite a beating and are slightly leaning.  I also need to add some more supports to my tomato plants, they fell over and the tomato cages are just not strong enough to hold them up anymore with the weight of the tomatoes added to them.

the gardening diaries: quick update | mini garden goodiesThis morning after I mowed the yard, I picked some beautiful veggies from the mini-garden.  It has always done well for me since I began using it as a garden space last year.  The chickens used to live there so I think that's the secret ;)

the gardening diaries: quick update | grape tomato "volunteer plant" the gardening diaries: quick update | grape tomato "volunteer plant"I also spotted some "volunteer" tomato plants on the side of the chicken coop that had blooms and some green tomatoes.  Jessica has gotten some of these before and they call them "chicken cherries." Ha!  I think these look more like grape tomatoes so I'm gonna go with "chicken grapes."

the gardening diaries: quick update | raspberry blooms the gardening diaries: quick update | raspberry bushWhile I was mowing, I spotted more blooms on my raspberry bushes that I got a month or so ago.  They were almost dead at Lowe's and I picked two plants off the clearance rack so I paid almost nothing for them.  I planted them in the yard and I just let God water them!  My pastor's wife, Mrs. Angie, used that phrase with me once and I really liked it so I use it myself!

Ok y'all!  Until next time :)


the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks)

the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks) clovers for chickens! | the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks) orange tomato | the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks) cherry tomatoes | the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks) the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks)I have not really abandoned my garden but I'm sure it feels that way!  Last week we went on vacation to the mountains and before that I had not really done much tending to the garden.  It rained half the time and the other half it was super hot.  Fortunately before we left, Mr. Randy used the tractor to plow(weed?) the garden and, wow.  It looks great!  At the least the first rows do.  There is this section at the back corner of the garden that is the tomatoes and peppers where a lot of weeds have sprung up.  I took a picture of the tomato patch before I started weeding it this morning.  I think the weeds are the worst on this side because the part of the field that touches the garden had not been bush hogged at the time that I planted my seeds and plants.  It was kind of the "wild side."  Since then, it has been bush hogged twice but there was nothing to do about the weeds that had grown into the garden except pull them up by hand.  Which I have now done once.  This morning. haha!  There is something really satisfying about weeding, too.  It's definitely hard work, but the weeks seem to come up fairly easy.  I just had to be sure to grip them at the base of the plant so I could pull up the roots, too.

Also, as I was going in, I took the clovers I collected to the chickens.  I love giving them clovers, it's probably their favorite snack!  I had been seeing glimpses of yellow/orange on my tomato plants in my mini-garden and I wanted to see how much longer I would have to wait for a lovely tomato.  As I was taking some pictures of those not-quite-red tomatoes, I saw a bright red one!  I was super excited and dug around in the green leaves and ended up finding four small red tomatoes!  They are cherry tomatoes so they are supposed to be that size.  I took them inside and washed them off then ate one.  It was delicious.  And sweet.  Kind of like candy.  I can just taste the bacon-tomato sandwiches that I am going to eat all summer!


the gardening diaries: watering

the gardening diaries: watering - the first sprout the gardening diaries: watering - the garden sprouting the gardening diaries: watering - baby veggies sprouting the gardening diaries: watering - baby corn stalks
For a couple of days I have been considering whether or not I need to water the garden.  It rained a few days after the seeds were planted, but it has not rained since.  I know that at least my tomato plants were going to need watering soon since they were already full grown.

Two Sundays ago I was ecstatic to look out my kitchen window and see the first beautiful green sprigs in the morning sunlight!  They were so pretty and cute all in their rows with the sunlight highlighting them and making them glow.  It really looked like they were glowing for real!  I went out with my rubber boots on to walk the rows and see what all had begun growing since the last time I had looked and found all the tiny sprouts everywhere.  The only row that I could tell that hadn't popped up was the okra, but I was not worried.  I just figured they would pop up eventually.

Last Friday I bought another garden hose to connect it to the one that I already had so I could reach the garden.  I watered it a little that evening.  I got about halfway through by holding the nozzle and spraying it before it got time for me to leave.  I have a sprinkler attachment and I keep saying that I'm going to attach it and water it for a while, but I just haven't done that yet.

Saturday it looked kind of cloudy like it was going to rain and Sunday looked like it was going to rain too, but it didn't rain until Monday.  It rained Monday a lot and some on Tuesday.  I was so happy to see that rain!  

Until next time!


the gardening diaries: never ending rain

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I'm beginning to think I will never get my garden planted.  It rained daily the past week.  And by rain, I mean heavy rain.  The sun came out Wednesday and Friday afternoon for a little while and to see the sunset.  Unfortunately that wasn't enough sun to dry out my plot so we weren't able to disc it up and never got the chance to make any rows.  In fact, the night before Kevin left, he was going to test the dirt and see if he could do something, but when the front tires got into the mud, they didn't even spin, they just slid forward propelled by the back tires!  And that was just from the rain last Sunday and Monday. 

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Jessica and I went on a plant shopping trip about a month ago and bought seeds to plant in our gardens.  When she planted her seeds on Good Friday, she actually ran out of seeds!  I don't know about her, but I really thought I had enough.  So after that I decided I probably should look into getting some more seeds.  Two years ago I had this beautiful coleus plant with these vibrant colors and I have been looking for another one like it.  Since I haven't been able to find one, I googled the plant and found a website that I can buy the seeds.  I ended up buying some other seeds too!  Like some heirloom varieties of tomatoes and some jalapeno seeds.  I couldn't find any peanut seeds (is that how to say it?) so I found another website that I was able to order from.  With this being my first time to garden, I ordered three different kinds of peanuts.  The ones that I knew to get were the Virginia Reds.  Kevin's grandmother told me that those are the best ones to grow so I made sure to order those.  I also ordered the Talbert Small Reds because Kevin likes the flavor of small peanuts.  I don't know how all of the different kinds are going to turn out but I am excited to see what happens! 

The sun finally came out for a full day on Sunday and Monday so if it will just stay out, then it will dry up enough to get some rows made!  I have certainly been enjoying this little bout of sunshine and really cannot wait to be able to watch my garden grow in the sunshine!!  As I write this it occurs to me that I need to plan out my garden.  I want to have a garden year round so I want to plan for that, too.  I have read in a garden book that gardeners "orchestrate" the garden to where it blooms and produces in such an order that it's just so beautiful and wonderful to watch. 

So yeah, we are slowly but surely getting there!  My first year for a garden is definitely getting a rough start but hopefully that will just make it all worth it!


the gardening diaries: breaking up the dirt

This past week I have been busy with getting the plot ready and the dirt broken up for the rows.  Mr. Randy has been doing all the "tractoring" and I've been doing all the "supervising" haha!  Last Saturday I mowed the spot where I wanted to put the garden.  It was out in the field where the horses lived for years and the grass is wonderful and gorgeous and wait, why are we digging some of it up?  Oh yeah, for a garden!  I got the grass mowed and on Monday Mr. Randy and I set about to getting rid of as much grass as we could before he used the tractor to break ground.  Since we got a late start on burning, we just raked as much of the grass clippings as we could and burned those little piles.  For future reference: don't do this again.

After the smoked cleared he used the tractor to make the first pass over the ground.  The discs barely went into the ground it was so hard and covered with grass.  Then the fuel line came loose and he stopped so it could be fixed.  After about twenty minutes or so, Kendall got the fuel line to go back on while Mr. Randy and I drank some much needed water!  He started the tractor back up and we worked out there until dark.  

On Tuesday, Michael and Diane came over to get some of the grass to put in their yard.  We loaded down their truck with so much of the sod and still barely put a dent in it!  Apparently, in the winter I should have taken care of the grass by either burning it or I could have covered it to kill it.  I don't want grass in my garden and really should have done this first but oh well, next time I will start sooner.  While Mr. Randy continued to break up the dirt I spent that time pulling clump after clump of grass out of the plot.  It seemed as if I pulled out one clump of grass and then two more would appear!  I still have a good bit there but I'm not fretting too much!  I think my favorite part is how good the dirt smelled!  Even Sally liked playing in the dirt :)

I am so excited doing all of this, the hard work and the preparation of the ground.  It is my first time to do any gardening like this!  In the past I have just kinda done it halfway.  But this.  This is a big deal to me!  I've got lots of plans and really they just keep multiplying.  One idea leads to five others and those lead to more!  There's so much I want to do and so much I can do it's hard to keep it all straight.  Right now, though, I am focused on getting everything ready to plant!  


the gardening diaries: the beginning

For the past few years, I have slowly learned more and more about growing plants and I have had dreams of having a garden.  This year I have been more determined than the last to get this done.  So far, the only thing that has worked out is that I bought the seeds I wanted.

The discs that would be used to break up the plot were not at our house, they were at Kevin's uncles house so we had to get those from him.  We finally were able to borrow a trailer and were able to go and get them the last day that Kevin was home.  So that means he was unable to work on the tractor before he left for work.  We didn't think about it needing maintenance until Kevin's dad said something about.  Oops.  Fortunately we were able to use Michael's tractor to get the discs on and off the trailer.  Last Friday Mr. Randy started to change the oil but the fuel line needed repairing.  Then on Saturday they discovered water leaking out of the block!  (Kevin told me that this is also referred to as the motor. haha)(correction: engine. not motor...should have known better!)  Mr. Randy fixed it for the time being but it's going to need some more work on it eventually.

The first week of December I planted some garlic cloves and I am soooo excited that they look like they are doing wonderful!  According to my gardening book, the time for harvesting garlic is in the fall.  I wish I didn't have to wait so long!  But I'm still pretty excited about it!  It will be super awesome to have my own cloves and I can't wait to cook them and use them!

Jessica and I went to Lowe's last week and in addition to seeds for the garden, I also bought some herbs and tomato and pepper plants!  I did not start seedlings as early as I should have and I can be kinda impatient so I went ahead and bought plants already started.  And really, I'm just so excited to have some vegetables already!  After my surprising success with the plants last year, I can't wait to see if I can do better this year.  I really believe that gardening is something you can only truly learn with experience.  And although I am getting started late, if I don't just go ahead and dive in and get started, I may never start.


home alone goals 2/24

Well y'all, it's that time again.  Time for my two weeks without the hubby being home.  It's always hard for us to part and I don't really know how long two weeks feels to other people, but it feels long and short all at the same time.  I look back at the last two weeks and realize that a lot actually happened and wonder how it all fit into those two weeks when they seem like they went by so quickly.  So maybe that's how days work, the days are long but the weeks seem short.  

I don't know why I feel this way, but every time he leaves, I make mental plans for things that I want to accomplish before Kevin gets back home.  Maybe it is because there is more of a time restraint and that way there is more of a deadline for me to aim for.  Who knows!  Anyway here are my home alone goals for this hitch:

- Clean out pink room.

- Redo open cabinet decorations.

- Bathroom closet and shelves.

- Meal Prep.

- Etsy shop opening.

- A lot of knitting and exercising!!!

I'll try to check back in as I do these things, what do y'all think? :)