The Hopeful Homestead

bits and peices...

Little Homestead things I'm up to these days...

I'm crocheting dishcloths.  We needed some new ones, and I found a new pattern I liked in Mary Jane's  Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook, only I started with 30, not 20 stitches.  DH likes them bigger, so OK.

Fall baking.  Pumpkin & apple everything!  This weekend I''ll be making a big batch of mini pumpkin muffins for church.  And some banana bread. mmmmm...  It makes the house smell SO good.

There's a greenhouse in my greenhouse!  DH got my new 4 x 6 greenhouse assembled and we'll be setting it in place out by my clothesline in the next few days.  A much more manageable size than the 20 x 60 greenhouse we're converting to a shop.  Then I'll get some lettuce & spinach planted.

I sat and mended Tuesday afternoon, and got all those little things done I'd been putting off.  A button here, a stuffed toy there.  Now that pile is gone. 

I also mailed all the letters our girls had written to all their cousins, so there's another pile gone.

My pantry got cleaned the other day after we found creepy crawlies in some bags of beans & rice.  I'll be getting some glass canisters to keep this from happening again.  I hated having to throw out groceries. 

We're really facing up to our finances this month with a renewed commitment to our budget.  (gulp)  The biggest thing we've noticed is that we didn't have a category for "animals" so all of our feed costs were "unexpectedly" eating our grocery budget.  We'll be fixing that!

We're cooking from our menu again!  We've gone a week only eating out once (the girls and I grabbed lunch when we were at church longer than expected last Sat.)  Last night I was tempted by Chinese, but DH did the grocery shopping while I was at Choir practice, and got stuff for Make Your Own Subs so we came home and did that instead.  YEAH!! (yep.  He's great for grocery shopping!- plus we saved gas by only going out ONCE this week.)

Just little things, but they really do add up.  Peace~

Shari

Mud Room ReAssembly

AH... our insane, unexpected home remodeling project is done!  The floor looks amazing, and everything is back where it belongs.  Here's a couple of pics...

Oooohhhh... Don't ya just love it????   This shows the floor with finished grout (Earth is the color we ended up with)  And this is the charming little chest of drawers we salvaged out of Mom's shed when we first moved in here.  We just turned a hose on it, and wiped it down, and it looks beautiful!  Al thinks it looks so good she may want it back!   It now holds all of our veterinary supplies in the top two drawers, and will have hats/ gloves/ mittens in the middle drawer, and all of my gift wrapping supplies in the bottom drawer, so I gained a laundry folding/ gift wrapping center to boot!  I also added a chair for Al to have a spot to take off his work shoes, and we have the option of substituting a bench in front of the chest for winter when the ladies seem to always have wet, muddy clothes to take off before I'll let them inside.  I'm very happy with how the entire project turned out.

This is a shot of my pantry all re-organized and back in it's spot.  I'm very happy with it.  No more appliances on the porch, no more dog crates in the yard.  Whew.  Now I can finish putting the rest of the house to right, and get ready to go away only one week from Monday.  I'm taking my laptop, so should be able to blog our way across the country and back.  Probably over at my blogger blog, since we'll be on our way Home, to Gilead from the time we leave.  I can't wait to go, but I love our new house so much, I'm a bit sad to leave home too.  After all, my roosters have really started crowing, and our garden is taking off again now that it's getting a better sun/ water ratio.  Oh well.  Sherrie will just have to eat my 'maters for me, and I can plan big for next year once we get home. 

Anyway, that's what we've been up to.  I'm off to read a bit and enjoy another cuppa joe.

Peace~

Shari

2 weeks and counting...

If you've wondered where I've been lately, but perhaps you haven't, we've been crazy busy trying to get the tile done, and the house re-assembled... and I've been recovering (slowly) from being sick... and we're working on being ready to leave home for 3 weeks to go visit Al's family.  (you know who you are...) SOOOOOOOOOO....  My "homesteading" right now looks like this:  Laundry on the porch, bread from the store, trip over laundry baskets full of canned goods from the pantry that had to be moved, kittens every where (including reports from the girls of a NEW one under our porch last night, but no sighting yet, a chicken who is an escape artist, evidently the grass IS greener on our side of the fence... and dogs who smell, shall I say... FOUL!!!  Too many ealry trips to the lake for them, I think!  Our garden is suffering from lack of H2O as the hose that was watering it is now running the washer (gotta pick your battles) but I did get to eat a few small carrots from the garden yesterday that were great!!

We're also talking big about our plans for AFTER the vacation... Paint colors for one.  All neutral.  It's like a decorating version of let's make a deal... or poker, I'm not sure which... I'll see you your white ceilings, if you raise me olive green walls in the loft, and paprika stair treads.  Wide trim, or stick with what we've got (stickin' by the way...) today we chose a cabinet finish (my super handy hubby is going to re-finish the functional, but ugly cabinets we have to give me the awesome but far too pricey look I love at Lowes...)  Countertops, backsplashes, floors, freezers, dishwashers, lighting.  I guess 6 months was as long as we could live somewhere without a re-modeling project.  BUT so far we're way keeping the cost down, so I feel pretty good about it.  Also we're discussing homeschool plans for the girls, and possible college plans for me.  There's talk of garden re-working, and adding more space for next year.  Rain barrels, and building Al's shop.  Terracing the hillside under the powerline, and creating an orchard...  A BILLION and ONE things.  If you want to check out how the floor is coming hit my Home to Gilead blog, I posted a Pic or two over there today...  Things are crazy as usual, and I really wouldn't have it any other way.  Gotta Run!  Peace~

Shari