Comings and Goings

Well the Brother-in-Law and wife made it to their new home with his parents (Wife's too) in tow. I wasn't in town for their arrival but they are in all the same. And I didn't have to carry anything :) The in laws left yesterday on their trek back up north but I suspect that we'll see them permanently within three months. Mark my words.
Got a few things accomplished this past weekend, with help from Squeak, FiL, and BiL. Soffits and flashing are done as well as a door and window installed. I need to find a double door or I'll have to make one and install siding. Done. Well a ramp for the tractor and gutters for the door side. I plan on rain barrels at this end since it is next to the garden.

Spent yesterday (after sleeping in) cleaning the garage, removing the final rear brakes on the small car, transplanting all of my peppers and eggplants into bigger containers, and starting on the tomato transplanting. I am trying a mixture of Peat Moss, Compost and Perlite in my cups. Hope to do the remaining tomatoes tonight, or at least the ones we intend to keep. 

I suspect planting time will be around April 5th, although we have a big PB game that weekend. If not then March 29th or April 12th. 

Have a good week kids. 

Spring?

I don't know but it was a nice weekend all the same. Spent a lot of time outdoors in yardly pursuits.
After a trip to the store I spent the afternoon of Saturday roofing the building. Getting closer all of the time. Even had Stalker Wife shoot some pictures of me. Weathered Wood is the shingle color and admittedly they are nicer than the ones on the house.

Didn't get to the soffits but I did knock another item off of my list; finished building my son's paintball marker box. It holds all of his stuff in one place. Not crazy about the latches though so those may get changed.

Today involved another trip to the store, actually returning a bundle of shingles I didn't use and picked up some flowers. Didn't get a picture of those. This afternoon was planting time; Red Pontiac, Russet, and Yukon Gold potatoes, Scarlet Nantes carrots, garlic, Red and Yellow onions. Not too many this time, bag each :)

For your eyes only.

Crazy, right? That's a lot of eyes.

Well I need to do some planning as we are going to add three more raised beds, so that means water lines need to be installed. Also running a line to the building so renting a ditch witch this time. No more digging long trenches for me. Working on that building about did me in. 

WOF of the Week.

Enjoy it while it's here kids. 

What's Going On????

Glad you asked. I know you didn't but you're here and it has been a while since we've seen each other.
I had a whole post laid out but deleted it for a nice bulleted list instead.

• Birthday last Friday. Give a Shit meter lower still.
• Brother In Law and his wife moving down next week from Dayton. Got to help them get set up. 
• Good friend coming in the following weekend for a quick stay.
• Been leaving for out of town work last few Sundays. This makes for long weeks. Getting tired of hotel rooms but in the plus side I am a Diamond Elite member. 
• This weather lately just plain sucks. 

Plants still going strong. 

Looks to be a nice weekend so I am going to concentrate the roof and soffits. 

Saturday Workings

I actually got the walls on the building! And I even got the facia trim boards on too. Now all that is left is the roof, siding, soffits, and the ramp for the tractor.

While at the big box store I perused the small selection of garden offerings on display. Since I never started lettuce or anything else for that matter I picked up some red and standard cabbage, iceburg and loose leaf lettuce, and some chinese cabbage.

I also picked up some onions sets, red and yellow, and a 4'-0" x 4'-0" cedar raised bed for The Wife's herb garden. I haven't put it together yet but it will be nice when it's done. 

On the growing front everything is going well; even some of the tomato seedlings I started this past weekend are coming up, some faster than others.

That's whats going on around here for this beautiful Saturday. Weather seem to be taking a turn downward towards the end of this coming week so any work that can be done outside needs to be done to get ready for all spring happenings. 

Until next time. 

Super Sunday

I suppose it is Super Bowl Sunday. Sorry to say I am not a big football fan anymore so there may be just a passing glance. I suppose the commercials are worth watching. Not really for me anymore. Sorry NFL.
Beyond getting rained out Saturday I finally got the building under roof. Sheeting actually but more progress. I need to put on the exterior wall sheeting then it is suppose to be my next inspection.

On the gardening front things are growing, slowly, but growing. Resisting the urge to start more!

The top is Anise Hyssop and the bottom is my celery starts. Like I said, resisting the urge. 

WOF of the Week. 

Once again in my hat. Hope your team wins tonight kids. Ya Team!! Ra ra ra!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 has passed our homestead. By popular majority vote presents were opened Christmas Eve instead of today due to everyone's schedule. That and the chance to sleep in this morning. :) Everyone seemed happy with what Santa brought this year.

Daughter-in-law using her new tablet.

The Wife cruising the web.
 

 The boys playing games.

 

Me sitting on my butt watching Buying Alaska.

 

After sitting around for a while I needed to check on the onions. I may have promised pictures. I don't remember.



I went and got more lumber yesterday as I knew I'd have some free time today. Trying to get more work done on the building, and Squeak came out and helped me for a while. We were able to get the remaining walls up. Next I have to put on the exterior sheeting, build trusses, sheet  and shingle the roof for my next inspection.

After that I turned my attention to the garden even pulling up some more carrots.

I hope I'll be pulling everything up probably next weekend.
Well we'll be seeing family for the next few days and you'll see a few other things. Sad part about everything is that the WOFs are in the kennel. Oh well.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Well That Was Short

It was. It was a wayyyyyyy too short weekend. I fell like I didn't get half of the things done that I wanted to. Doesn't help when I did nothing Saturday except watch movies, Christmas ones at that.
Thanksgiving was just The Wife, Squeak and myself. Sorry, dogs too. Bubby and his wife spent their time with her family. She then proceeded to get ill yesterday so they went straight home and we never got to see them. Oh well, that's the way it works sometimes.
The Wife and I ventured out Friday to do a little shopping, just to see what we could find. We didn't think about fighting any crowds, leaving the house at around 8:00. We actually found most of the stores not that crowded. Old Navy was another story. It looked like looting was taking place. The line to check out started at the front of the store, went clear to the back, then looped back around to the front. Needless to say we didn't stay. I don't have the patience for a lot of people in one place. Take a look.

Saturday was A Christmas Story, Christmas With the Kranks, and Muppet Christmas Carol. WOF kind of day.
Today. I cruised the garden (everything doing OK) then I proceeded down to my 'favorite' home improvement store for more lumber. I was able to get all of the main post bolts in, the floor down and two of the walls up on the building.

Not too bad if I say so myself. It just takes time when you're doing it yourself. I am hoping to get it under roof by the end of next weekend.
I did go through my seed catalogs and have a good idea of what I am going to be getting for next year, which believe it or not is not that far off! I will say that the Baker Creek catalog is like the holy grail of heirloom seeds! Wow!
Last but not least Growing a Greener World episode this week had some great information on home made pest repellants and killers, one of which I tried with good success this year (the dish detergent and water.) Good info here.

WOF of the Week. What can be said for just being comfortable.

Going to be long week I'm afraid, not looking forward to it. Lounge when you can kids.

Cold Spell

has hit us in the Sandhills of NC. Left for work this morning to 14 degrees. I spent Sunday afternoon covering what I could in the garden (cabbages and lettuce) hoping that they would make it through the next few days. It has been below freezing the past few days but really hit bottom last night. We aren't used to having things this cold here so it is very 'refreshing' in the mornings! I did leave the carrots uncovered as I wasn't sure how they would fair. Some are ready for picking and others are on the small side. Mostly due to the farmer as I didn't do a good job thinning them out after they came up.

 

 

 

Next on the agenda is choosing what to plant next year. Instead of onion bulbs I think I'll try some seeds and start them inside now. There's a couple varieties I want to try, Walla Walla being one of them, and I definitely want my reds. Just as long as they store well.

 

As I said in my last post I thought about contacting the power company and see if they would lease me some land and I also promised a picture. After that post I ended up on the road for four days and was just plain busy this weekend. Maybe I can ask my wife to get one today so you know I'm not lying. :) Also maybe I'll stick her with the task of contacting them about my brilliant, stolen idea. She's not doing anything now anyway.

 

On the top picture above you may be able to see the faint image of a building floor frame. I finally started the outbuilding Saturday!!!!! After screwing around at Lowes in the morning (their fault) I pretty much worked non- stop till a little after dark- thirty and beer thirty. Squeak came out and helped as much as he could but could only manage 3 posts before heading inside (no ACL tear BTW! About a month's worth of PT and he should be good!), so I did everything else by myself. That sucks when you have heavy lifting and placing to do but is also a blessing to me as I don't want to listen to other people's opinions on shit. The second (beer- thirty) I actually got yelled at whilst sitting in the garage with my boots off. I hope to continue working on it throughout the holiday weekend and at least have the walls up and roof on.

 

Saturday when clearing out the tools and trash. I told you I finished after dark.

 

 

Sunday afternoon shot after trip to see the kids.

 

 

Got to get some plastic to cover the sheeting as it is now supposed to rain the next few days.

 

That's about it this time. One thing: The Wife came out Saturday to get some pictures of me and Squeak working, with her in her pajamas. Sadly I left my phone in the truck but was able to get a couple good shots. I can't share them with you as it probably would be the last time I blogged here. They were good though.

Stay warm kids.