Kitchen redo: before

Good gravy I think I've lost my mind! I have decided to paint my kitchen, top to bottom and will probably be starting next week! I'm really excited for this one, but I know it's going to be a tremendous amount of work and halfway through I'm going to think I have made a huge mistake, but the outcome I know will be glorious!
Why do I think I've lost my mind?  Well, Thanksgiving is a few weeks away, and we've got a certain boy's birthday party between then and Christmas. Plus, you know life. Feel free to send the men in white coats to take me away!

Here's what I'm working with.

These pictures are almost two years old, (I can't believe that!) and the faucet has been replaced but other than that it's the same. 

The cabinets are so dark! They also match the floor. I don't get it but hey, that's how life goes. The ceiling is the same... baby yellow as the walls (again, why?!)

Cleaning the years of grease and grossness off the cabinets, walls and ceiling is going to be the worst and probably most time consuming part. I don't even know how I'm going to get the ceiling clean enough. Thanks textured ceilings.

First up,  cleaning all the gunk from the ceiling. That will take, 3 days, I'm guessing. 3 days. On the ceiling before priming and paint. That alone makes me not want to do it!

I'm putting it out there, so now I have to do it! After reading and watching every video on the subject I'm confident that I can do it. Have you painted cabinetry before? Any tips?

I'm not dead, I swear. Look here's pictures!

Well, Hi there!
I know, I know I've been M.I.A. for the WHOLE summer. Sorry! But you know, life. I have a few posts coming up so I haven't been doing a whole lot of nothing!

Here's a quick update of what has been going on around here. We had a crazy summer, the garden was fantastic! I did a lot of canning! New things too, more on that to come.

The chickens continue to be... idiots. We haven't lost any more. They are currently molting (loosing and regrowing feathers for you non-chickeners).

Nature Baby turned 3! I'm not sure how that happened. Again more on that to come.

I knitted some things, they'll come too.

Scribs was traveling for work  for a month this summer. So flipping long! I, thankfully, had some help from the kid's Fairy God Mother Xina and my parents. The kids were crazy. While Scribs was gone I started to re-do our bedroom as a surprise anniversary present for both of us. That'll come too.

Um.... I think that's about it. I'm going to try my best to get back into the swing of things. I have several months of cost per dozen to do.

Things will come, I swear! I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures from our summer.

How was your summer? Tell me everything!

Garden update

Progress in the garden this year has been slow. And I mean at a snail's pace slow. The weather hasn't been great. This spring has been all over the place, nearly 90 one week and then barely into the 60s with lots of rain. Lots of rain means no bees flying around, no bees means less pollination which means less vegetables. Enjoy that little biology lesson? So far July has been pretty crummy too, it's only in the 60s. 60s! It's freaking July!

A lot still hasn't germinated, my poor beans didn't even bother to show up, so I replanted them and only 1 out of about 2 dozen was popped up. I think I have a bum batch, we'll see once the sun finally makes an appearance again.

There is some good news, we do have a some teeny-tiny tomatoes growing from the plants I started from the Ratatouille kit . Only one pepper plant has been eaten by rabbits, and the chicken fence is up around the garden. No free for all this year girls, sorry! The peppers are flowering and even growing tiny peppers! Hopefully we'll get a few this year. 

Every time I have attempted to go out and take real photos it has either been raining or started raining as soon as I put the camera together. So it goes. I did manage to get a few photos last week, and since then there has been progress!  We actually had some spinach and lettuce salad from the garden. It looks like the spinach is getting ready to dart. Bummer.

Our cucumbers are getting there, I have about 4 that are ready to be picked, not quite enough for a jar.  Soon! The first zucchini will be ready this week too. We'll see what happens with the rest. I'm not holding my breath. 

How's your garden growing? Hopefully a bit further along than mine!

Just checking in, kind of like WIP Wednesday.

We've been busy little bees as always. My parents came to visit and I had some much needed help, I was pretty productive while they played with he kids. The fence around the garden is finished! Sucks to be you chickens and rabbits! I finally went shopping alone and bought myself some new clothes, not too exciting but I so rarely do anything for myself. I haven't bought new shorts since before Mr. Lovebug was born. He'll be 5 in December if that tells you anything. I didn't get Mr. Lovebug's room painted but thats ok, I still need samples and all that jazz. Another day.

It is officially summer vacation! The weather has been crummy to say the least. It's been almost 90 and now this week barely into the 60s and rainy. This dreary weather is so draining! The kids don't want to go outside, there's no sun, it's just... bleck! Oh well.

We've been eating lots of strawberries form the yard but they're almost done for the season. Pretty soon it'll  be black and blueberries. Can't wait! The berry fields have their sound machines on, which isn't as bad as last year. They have moved the alien abduction sounds to the other side, I'm guessing out of courtesy.

Naturebaby is being especially nature-y. She's learning about bugs as per usual, which means I'm learning about bugs and when inside she's big into jigsaw puzzles. Mr. Lovebug wants to play video games all day. Obviously that's not happening. My parents brought him a learning book to learn letters and things, we bought him special super-hero pencils to use and I'm hoping we'll put a big dent in it by the end of summer. He really isn't into writing or drawing so getting him to try is a challenge. I'm hoping the special pencils and 1 letter a day helps.

And I bought an ice cream maker. Goodbye egg sales! I made strawberry ice cream the other day with berries from our patch and the chicken's eggs. I've only had a spoonful, I'm worried the eggs will make me sick. Did I mention I can't eat eggs without feeling like I wish I was dead. Yeah, there's that.  Anyways it's delicious! Next up will be an eggless base so I can eat until I wish I was dead for a completely different reason. I'm starting to think perhaps I need a dairy producing animal.

How is your summer going? I know I haven't been around but you know, life.

Cost per dozen for May 2016

I'm pretty sure I say this every month, but how is it June already? I feel like I have a million and a half things to get done before next week. Oh well, so it goes.

May was a pretty good laying month, a really good selling month, almost no left over eggs to speak of and almost everyone is paid up. Sounds good to me!
Someone who shall remain nameless is broody. Again. She is cracking eggs. Again. And covered in egg gunk. again. she really needs a bath on of these days. I'm not thrilled about it, but at least no one was eaten. No eagle attacks, no predator attacks of any kind.

The girls laid 214 eggs, (17.83 dozen) I sold $57, spent $55.76 and made a whole $1.24 for my troubles. I'm not complaining, the girls pay for our eggs and their feed.

They have been making their way into the garden, which means I need to finish putting up the fence and they're traveling to the neighbors yards. I should just build them a run and call it a day but I like them roaming around and eating whatever they'd like.

FO construction truck sweater

I finally finished the sweater for Mr. Lovebug. We'll thats not true, I finished it some time ago but it was warm and then I couldn't get a picture of him wearing it. It's not easy to get a 4 year old to stand still for pictures. Oh well what can you do.

I'm about 75% happy with it. We'll see how it fits him in the fall, I have a feeling I'll end up taking out the collar and re-doing it. It's wonky and ill-fitting. We'll see how much the kid grows in the next few months, I followed the directions except making the sleeve flat for some stupid reason, I probably should have followed my gut instead but what can you do.

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Gosling and size 5 needles. Or knee-nulls as Nature Baby says.I made the largest size and purposely made it a bit bigger, you know kids grow no matter how hard you try to get 'em to stop.

I'm really happy how the vehicles turned out and I'll probably use the charts again.

I really haven't been knitting much since finishing this guy. My hands are sore, my middle fingers especially are sore and stiff. It feels like I need to crack the knuckles, but I crack (or don't) and stretch and there isn't any relief. Not using my hands this time of year isn't an option, so I do what needs to be done and knitting falls by the way-side. I have two WIPs with no end in sight. Tough life, I know!

More goings on

Let's see, what's been going on around here.

We have a lot of new residents in our trees, including a pair of goldfinches. They're so bright it's easy to spot 'em. I have seen a few vultures around, which would suggest the salmon are running but I don't think that's true yet. The eagles are spending too much time above the fields instead of the river. Soon though I hope.

We've finished up the fence and now we're almost finished prepping and planting the garden. There will be more on that. We have strawberries! Our plants are heavy with fruit and they're surprisingly not getting eaten by the chickens!

Mr. Lovebug is finished with school and home full time. We have some fun things planed for the summer.

I've ordered some hedges for parts of the yard, we're building a new play structure for the kids and an address sign for the yard, again more on all of that later.

It's the time of year for weird weather, sun showers, hail, and beautiful evening rainbows like this one. The kids are always amazed when we get to see them.

Cost per dozen for April

Oh boy, I'm a bit late on this one! April (and now half of May!) flew by, the girls were trouble makers as per usual. No one was broody, eaten or injured, so that's a good month. Truckee (The Rooster) continues to do his job of protecting the ladies. We have had a few eagle scares. This seems to be becoming a weekly event, but Truckee groans and the girls hide. If he isn't near them he will come running to protect them. He is a good rooster.

We had 217 eggs, 18.08 dozen. My cost for feed and straw was  $19.38, I sold $24 of eggs making $4.62 profit. Hurray! Months like these the girls are earning their keep. I can't complain about that.

They have been making a mess of the garden and now traveling into the other neighbor's yard (but they don't mind). We'll be adding a garden fence this year, I'm not sure if that should factor into the cost per dozen.

At some point in June I will be doing a deep clean of the coop and deworming the flock, that will definitely have a higher cost per dozen but you've got to do what you've got to do.

Garden 2016 let's get this thing going.

I feel like I'm really behind in terms of the garden this year. It's already May and there's NOTHING done! Well... not nothing, the compost is spread and the ground has just been tilled. Now it's time for the really hard work. Building the rows.

check out the before (top two) and after (bottom two). Huge difference!

Enjoy the garden while you can girls, you're getting fenced out. 

This year we opted for a tractor and harrow instead of just rototilling. My goodness, what a difference! The soil is so smooth! We have heavy clay, this year it was better but still very heavy. I added compost and that helped. I might add sand next year but that's not even worth thinking about yet.


Now for the hard work, building rows, then landscape fabric, planting and drip irrigation. I'm going to use straw in-between the rows. It'll break down quickly, help keep the weeds under control and it's cheap.

We've been doing a lot of work outside and with each step of each project I want to do more. More more more!We have a few more fence panels to put up. I'm like to run them out to the field, but we might just stop where the long grass starts. We'll see what happens.

In case you're wondering what our garden looked like last year, here's a few highlights (The first tilling and what it looked like by July)

I can't wait until I have more produce than I know what to do with!
Are you growing anything this year? Tell me about it! I love to know what other people are doing!

It's fence day!

I am way more excited than I should be! After hours of clearing out our neighbors over grown trees (which look way better now if you're asking me) it's finally fence day!  We cut, chopped and dug up literally truck loads of branches. I started last fall (as you can see from the photo above) but had to quit during the winter, I had a big pile to haul but the truck wasn't running. Then the floods and wind storms put it under water or branches all over the yard.

The only before photo I could find was from our first winter here. So there it is, not terrible, until you realize the property line in 6 feet deep. The kids loved climbing branch mountain, pretending it was a castle, mountain, bean stock or whatever Other thing popped into their heads. They climbed the lower newly-cut branches and sat on some pretending it was a back hoe. Those two! I tell ya!

Getting cattle panels home is kind of a pain! Good thing it isn't far. Why cattle panels? We have A LOT of fence to put up. We aren't doing it all this weekend but we are planing on putting up about 180 feet of fence on one side of the yard. That's a lot of fence! One day we'll upgrade but for now this will do, and by now I mean several years.

 We did about 140ft today, the rest we have to mark out and trim the crazy grass heading into the field. We'll work on it this week and hopefully be ready for a bit more work by next weekend. We'll see how it goes though.

It isn't the most beautiful fence in the world, but it does it's job. I'm really happy with it. Good job, Scribs!

Cost per dozen eggs for March

March was a doozy, let me tell you. That wind storm threw our regular cost per dozen out the window. I had to buy fencing to make a temporary pen for the chickens in the barn, bedding, waterer, and a snack to keep the girls busy. Other then that and replacing the damaged bits, getting some shavings and feed, thats a high cost.

It was a good laying month, but also a lot of unexpected expenses, 3 times that of a normal month.We had a few wonky eggs, everything seems to have corrected itself. I'm not concerned about it.


The girls laid 237 eggs, 19.75 dozen.
My cost was $101.01 and sold $27, making my cost per dozen $3.75 not terrible but not great either.

In other chicken news, we have a new Rooster. Mr. Lovebug has named him Truckee. Our Faux-Roo wasn't doing too well and we decided that it would be best for him to put him out of his misery. There will be a whole lot more on that another day.

So back to Truckee. I met a woman buying chicks (she was, not me) and we got to chit-chatting, she had mentioned that she had a few too many roos. I offered to buy one after telling her about our flock, the space they have, blah blah blah. She wanted to make sure he wasn't going to the soup pot. I was supposed to go and get him the day or the wind storm, well obviously that wasn't going to happen. After calling and calling I couldn't get a hold of her (her power had been knocked out). I felt terrible for not going to get him when I said I would and couldn't get a hold of a her. Luckily enough I saw her again and made arrangements to go pick him up.

Going to get him, oh boy that was an adventure. First, the GPS took me all over as always. You'd think I would have learned by now not to trust it. Nope! Then we took some back roads that were filled with farm construction. Nope, back to the highway. Finally we get halfway up the mountain and I can't find the place. Adventure indeed. We go there, the kids mostly had a good time. If you've never driven with a crowing rooster in the back of your car....

So that's the story of Truckee. He has earned his keep so far. We had an eagle attack, everyone survived no worse for wear. Feathers everywhere but no missing or hurt chickens. The girls come when he calls (mostly growls). No attacking or even following the kids. He's a good boy. We're very grateful that he's joined our flock.

Thats a bit more than just a cost per dozen update, but that's what has been going on with the chickens.

Oh yeah, our Buff Orpington, Crazy-Legs is broody. She's trying to sit on eggs but keeps cracking them. Great maternal skills. Broody is when a hen wants to sit on eggs and hatch 'em. They'll sit there all day and night, pull out their feathers so the egg is against their skin and they get crazy. I've heard to described as PMS and Menopause all in one. They will sit even with nothing under them, yell and growl when disturbed or even peck and bite. They neglect their own nutritional needs for phantom eggs. I'm working on breaking her of this.