Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

Trying to play catch up around here with a ton of little projects and larger projects, with my head spinning about how to prioritize. I'm bad that way...walking to one project and get side tracked by spying another.

My son is out and got electric to the storage shed for us, which will be GREAT for construction projects...been having to bring them down to the house to work on them, transporting wood, tools, saw horses, etc. back and forth for various projects. He also mounted up an overhead light in that shed, so now it's going to be soooo much easier to get in there and dig around in various bins to find tools and hardware. Also night for going up at night to find something or when we are up there working on deer at night.

I spread lime in the yard for flea prevention, raked leaves for the spare pen and run where the stewing hens are living temporarily until it gets cool enough to butcher. Removed compost from under the roosts to use in my carrot box(still have to build that) and replaced the material with fresh leaves.

Fresh water with mother ACV in all waterers, filled up the spare utility wagon with more water(I have some manure tea in there already) so I could water my lettuce and pak choi sprouts under the low tunnels. Parked that in the garden so I can keep those watered with good stuff. Need to pick maters again.

Hope to get in there this evening before dark and work on those tunnels, patching the Agribon where my male cat thinks it's just a high ol' time shredding that material, covering it all with deer netting to keep him off that. All that extra work for a blasted CAT.

Fixed the knob on one of the nest boxes but still have to fix the hinges there where a certain dog, who shall remain nameless, opened it and pushed down on the hinges with his big ol' head while trying to steal eggs.

 

[sumi]

Bee, busy bee as always Your animals remind me of a place we stayed for awhile, with friends. Their dogs were unbelievably greedy, though well fed. I made some small beds for growing squash and their cats thanked me for the nicely dug over toilets followed by the dang dogs going digging in there for the cats' deposits which they ate. (I did mention they were well fed?!?) I ended up placing large stones around the plants, so they don't all get dug up.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@sumi Lol! I was just thinking that we need more options than just the "like" button. 'Cause, I hit "like" to the idea of putting stones around to protect the plants, but there's not much likable about the cats using your fresh dirt as a dumping ground. And the dogs?

 

[Beekissed]

The grandgirls have been out, getting dirty and playing at grandma's house. They LOVE going to grandma's house, which makes me feel good. I loved going to my grandma's house when I was little too. So much to see and do!

Ariella~aka Ella~is still scared of the dogs but is working on getting over it. One minute she's patting them and kissing them(ick) and the next will be screaming bloody murder when they even walk in her direction.

 

[Beekissed]

Mama reconditioned the headlights on the CRV and they look brand new. It's like a miracle to see them go from oxidized to clear as a bell, makes the car look newer, for sure.

Got maters washed and into the freezer for canning into soup later on. Got apples washed and will dry them this evening, in preparation for storing for winter eating.

Tinkered around repairing an outside access door on the coop nest that's been whopperjawed for a year now and was glad to get it done finally. Also changed a few things Eli had incorporated on the shed door where he had rigged up some redneck features for latch pulls and doorstops. I just changed out the bent nails he used for antique drawer pulls instead to give it a more classy look, if one can do that on an old log shed.

Mounted a large hook under the cabinets at the back of the shed on which to hang the Mantis tiller so as to get it out of the building but still keep it out of the weather. That worked well.

Made improvements to the work bench~widened it with a couple of 2x6 pieces from that lumber my brother gave me(he took apart a set of bunkbeds at his place and gave me all the lumber...that was a few years ago) that seems to never end~ and mounted a unit on the wall behind it for organizing our hardware. I have two smaller, much, much older such units I picked up at a yard sale the other day that need cleaned and mounted as well. I plan to hotglue a piece of hardware out of each drawer on the pull so I can tell at a glance which screws/nails/nuts are inside of it. I've always wanted a workshop like that.

Now that we have electric up there, I'm thinking we'll mount an LED shop light over that bench so we can easily find our hardware in those units. I'm tired of scrabbling around in several different places looking for our hardware....I'm going to spend this winter up there sorting, labeling each tiny drawer, and making some sense of it all. I may also mount a piece of plywood up behind that bench and place nails so as to hold certain tools, drawing an outline around each one so I will know at a glance if one is missing and not where it should be.

 

[Beekissed]

The low tunnels were a bust, so I'll be deconstructing those soon. It's too hot and dry here for good germination. I should have started everything in trays so I could have kept them watered well and helped them germinate.

These should have been planted at the first of August but I Mom was in and out of the hospital for weeks at a time that month, far from home and I was with her, so none of that got done on time.

Oh, well...if I'm here next year I may get to such things. I'm not going to get down about it, there's a reason for everything that happens and God's plan for me is just fine with me.

 

[Beekissed]

Fall arrived late but it's growing more glorious by the day! Yesterday was a wonderfully beautiful day and the colors changed throughout the day and especially as the sun was going down. I kept looking down the yard as I worked on a project and it was prettier each time I looked, so I'd take a pic....again!

View from the throne, so to speak....

And out the side window to the right...

 

[sumi]

Beekissed, I'm thinking not for the first time I would love to visit your place one day. It looks so nice in the pics and now with the fall colours on the trees, it's breathtaking! What a wonderful place to live, with all that beauty to look at..

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We don't get that kind of color here...

 

[Beekissed]

Thought I better post on here, just to keep this thread current. I'll blather on about the things I did today....

Started late, so didn't get some things done, but still feeling mighty fine about getting all the little naggy things done....you know those, the things that nag at your mind every time you look out the window, walk by a certain item, etc.

Stripped my bed and did laundry...still have to fold and remake the bed, but it will feel good to crawl into smooth, clean, soft sheets tonight. Still need to make laundry detergent...will likely do that this evening.

Got the extra junk out of the pantry and put where it should go(carport, shed, trash)....all except Eli's bag of hunting clothes, his bow and half a bag of deer corn. That will be gone soon as well, as hunting season shuts down in 2 wks.

Got our half of the shed cleaned up, things put away, things organized and I can finally see the floor again! Hallelujah!!!! Had enough shelf space to accommodate the items brought from the mud pantry porch, even, so I'm happy.

Got hay bales stacked next to the pup's tent for added warmth and wind blocking. Still have a couple of hay bales in reserve for refreshing nests, dog beds, and layering into the raised bed when that time comes. The pup tent was built the other day out of pallets, plywood, CP, and an old tarp so that Jake and Ben could sleep together while Ben's on his tie out...why Ben is on his tie out is another long story I'll not talk about here. They LOVE this range shelter/pup tent, so this is the winter digs for the dogs this year...Jake no longer wants to sleep in his warm and snuggly house, he wants to stay with Ben.

Got the hay bale raised bed moved to a better place, put down bark, leaves, heavy cardboard and then a layer of hay in it~so it has soil at the bottom, then the chips, hay, bark, leaves, cardboard and hay all in layers. Sure hope we get enough rain and snow to compact that down and start it into composting mode. Still need to place a good rope around the whole thing to keep those hay bales nice and tight into it as they decompose. I'll need Eli to help me with that in order to get it as tight as I would like.

Got the roosts dusted down with permethrin dust...I just put some in my hand and smooth it onto the roosts so as to minimize the amount that falls into the compost below.

Got the garden hose stretched out down the slope to keep it from freezing up, cut about 15 ft off it(it's always been too big and this year it developed a hernia near the end) and put a hose repair piece on the new end...if that thing actually works without leaking, that will have been the easiest hose repair I've ever done.

Sort of looks like this.....

...and took all of 10 seconds to apply! Loved that. I'll use the portion cut off the hose to divert water from my butchering station and also use a length of it to get water into my coop from a rain and snow catchment setup I'm going to place on top of the dog house.

While I was doing that, I lost the new blade out of my box cutter knife....couldn't see it anywhere in all those leaves. So, I prayed for it to be found...I kept envisioning the little girls stepping on it, the truck or mower running over it and getting a puncture, or it flying up and hitting someone in the eye as it is mowed over. I prayed that the Lord help me find it before it could hurt someone...I was still praying as I found it! Then I thanked God in prayer again...He is such a good Father!!!

Put crystal clear plastic up on three sides of the playhouse, over the windows and had just enough to finish that. Stored the slide behind the playhouse. The plastic definitely makes for warmer playing in there. Now I just need to take a day to gather all the food, pans, potholders and utensils, bring them in for a good bleaching, then a good wash down of everything in the playhouse as well.

Found my snowboots, so brought them down for a good going over.

Worked a coat of furniture polish into the potato bin/bench and will do that again after bit. I'll have to get a pic of that for y'all...it's just a plain little box but I LOVE that kind of simplicity and sturdiness and, boy, is that thing sturdy to sit upon. It's built from an old packing crate I got at the Rehab store for $7 and some antique scrap lumber we had here.

Took apart the hose nozzle...it's been leaking for some reason, so it's all soaking in ACV water right now to work all the sediment out of it.

Took the old, ancient and rusty dip stick out of the car and replaced it with a new one...badly needed!

Moved the extra and older garden cart up to the building so Eli can remove the undercarriage...he wants to use it to construct a wood cart that can be more easily winched up to the front porch. I want to use the body of the cart to hold a hay bale so that when Eli goes outside to pee, he can do it in my haybale instead. Then I could take that saturated bale and place the hay in my raised bed.

Cleaned stray items off the picnic table~it tends to be a work bench/catch all for any outside projects.

Found an unwanted clear, small tote that fits perfectly over my chicken skinner vise and even found a stray bungee cord lying on the ground by the picnic table, in order to secure it in place. This will keep the worst of the weather off the vise, though it will still need a coat of grease on the metal and threads to keep it from rusting too much.

Moved the other mower into the shelter of the house until we can get it hauled off for repairs...hope to get to that this next week if we can remember.

So...got quite a few things straightened up, cleaned off, organized, and stapled down today and it feels GOOD! Oh, so very good!!!

The good part? Even though it feels good to get a lot done, there are still many things left to do this winter so I'll never lack for something to do this season.