Work Around the Homestead

This past weekend was pretty hopping busy around the Homestead! Here is a little recap of how things went. Friday night, Justin's mission, to remove the radiator from our new (to us) tractor...I guess it needs a new one. Bummer! I'm thankful to get it done now, before we are needing to use it. My mission, to reorganize, and take inventory of our canning jar supply. Both missions were accomplished!

 All nice & organized....

 My pantry...

 I simply used masking tape to label where I plan to each item.

 This is all we have left...a few cans of tomato juice, apple sauce, apple pie filling, peaches, spaghetti sauce on the bottom.

SATURDAY

Hubby spent the day on the road with the kids...picking up a part for the tractor, then picking up our new (to us) garden shed. Again, thank you Craigslist.

I spent the entire day at Beekeeping School!

 I started off the morning putting together the hive kit. It was great to see all the parts of the hive and exactly how they go together. (Above: the bottom board, the hive box.)

  I have all the frames built, and ready to go, I was so proud of myself! 

I forgot to take a picture of the completed project with my top & all..opps!

Then the morning session was finished off with a demo on using the smoker. Then the whole afternoon was spent consuming an ENORMOUS amount of instruction. I took three pages of notes. I plan to teach all the great info to the kids as a part of our garden study.

Shortly after arriving home from "school" I saw this in my driveway!

 My new Garden Shed!! (This is the back.) The previous owner built it for his daughter as a playhouse.

 We went to work prepping the site. It's a little hard to tell, but there was lots of brush in the way.

 Caleb & Zach helping to move things our of the way...love my helpers!

 My good looking Hubby, and my father-in-law clearing the brush...

 All cleared out, tree branches trimmed, now time for the machinery!

 My awesome father-in-law leveling up the ground ...

 After leveling, we laid cement blocks.

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Then after more time than we planned on, and executing Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D...you get what I mean.... we finally got this HEAVY beast in the spot we wanted. I LOVE IT!!

While the men all worked on the shed positioning, the kids and I played outside.

 The kids were enjoying some chips for an afternoon snack.

 I was admiring the blooms on my thorn-less blackberry and all it's buds....I can hardly wait.

Then I moved on to check out my blueberry bushes....Look at all those gorgeous buds!

My raspberries look like they wintered very nicely as well. Many of the perennials I transplanted are starting to come up. I'm very excited about the peonies peeking up through the ground. Okay I think it's safe to say I'm just excited about everything around here these days!

 I'm linking up to Homestead Revival this week!
You can go check out what other Homesteaders are up to.

Old Hymn Book DIY project!!

We've had an old hymnal book for awhile, I think we got it at an auction..imagine that! The covers have fallen off, some of the pages have fallen out, but there was no way I was getting rid of it. I saw an idea (although I don't remember where) a long time ago where someone hung sheet music on the wall of a room. I thought that was a fun idea and maybe someday I would be brave enough to try something different like that.

WELL GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY?

 It's rather hard to see it, I did it in our half bath, which is pretty tiny & not camera friendly.

 Hear is another angle...you get the idea, right? I really LOVE it! So many wonderful hymns!

 I framed "In The Garden" it's a special song here at our house.

 Here are a few more that I really love...The Rugged Cross

 Jesus Loves Even Me....

There is Power In The Blood

I have plenty of extras still in case any get ruined for any reason. I love the floor to ceiling look! I used Stampin' Up mini glue dots to fix them to the wall. They will remove will no problem and not leave any marks if I choose to ever remove them. This makeover took about an hour. I did a totally random layout...no planning involved. I really like thinking outside the box when it comes to making your home your own. 

The real test is if the MISTER likes it....

First Sale of the Season!

It's the beginning of March and the first "sale" in our area was in the paper. I went for mainly one thing they had in the add....canning jars. Not only did I score what I went for but I grabbed a few other goodies too!

I scored 4 dozen quart jars in all. (One box not pictured.)

I love the trough looking wood thing in that back, I plan to plant some pretty flowers in it!

The spreader was a huge find...it still has all the seed plates!

Want to guess how much all my treasure cost me? ~ I love that game....

 I'm smitten with this super old wire basket.

I'm not sure if you knew this about me, but I LOVE galvanized anything!

~All my loot was $20! ~

$3 a dozen for the jars

Then I bundles together the spreader, the bucket, the basket, and the wooden trough.....$8

A big thank you to AMERICAN PICKERS for teaching me the bundling trick!

I don't know what you think, but I'm tickled pink with my first garage sale of the year!

Zach.....

I don't know about it you, but I have this weakness for a little shavers who is missing their front teeth.

 Zach has joined that club as of this morning! He's so proud.....I JUST LOVE IT!

Two More Added to the Homestead

Lance has been wanting to add to his duck collection. This week were purchased two baby ducks from our local TSC store.

 Meet Junior & Speedy..don't ask which is which we can't tell them apart yet.

 They are both Mallard ducks, and there is a lot of holding these cuties going on these days. The plan is to take one of them in 4-H, but we are still looking into that.

 Two new ducks equals one really happy young man.

Over the next couple months we plan to add four 4-H pigs, two pet rabbits, a batch of meat chickens, two sheep for 4-H, possibly a couple baby cows,  24,000 honey bees for our new hives, and a puppy!

Like I mentioned before, we will not be bored here at the HOMESTEAD this Spring!

My Latest Adventure......

Earlier this winter I had the notion that I wanted to maybe start up my own bee hive. In my mind, the plan was to do my homework over the next year then get my supplies ordered by next Spring. One thing about beekeeping is it can be very pricey to start this hobby. In my research I found it's not uncommon to have 1,000-$1,200 in starting up your hive. (These estimations are based on starting two hives, which is recommended). Just when I thought I had this whole thing planned out.......I got the mail from my mailbox. In this batch of mail, I happened to find out their is a beekeeping school only 30 minutes from me being offered in early March. Well that got me thinking, "Maybe I could just go to the school and get a jump start on that homework I was wanting to do." This Bee School even provided some tools, books, hive start, ect...bonus right? After considering it a bit more, running all this by the Hubby, we decided that is would be great to take the school and be prepared for the next year. That very night, my Craigslist stalking  Husband was cruising one of his favorite sites.......HE SAW IT!!

Hive boxes that were only $5!! They also included the frames (which had never been used yet!!) So I know could score hives for only $20, plus a little elbow grease to clean, repaint, and then the upper frames (supers) need some new foundations on their frames. Well as this to say, my start up fee for beekeeping just dropped DRASTICALLY! A new hive for one batch of bees can run from $150-$300 new, and since they recommend two hives that's $300-$600 you have just in hives (without the bees!) Now I have enough boxes for 4 hives and it only cost me $75......now that get's me excited! Then we also discovered some local we can buy the actual bees from for $70 instead of $100...yet another savings! That allowed us to save $60 just in bees. (I'm starting 2 hives this year.)
All this so say, that even though I was thinking this whole project would begin next year, the Lord had different plans in mind. I'm okay with that, His timing is always better than mine. I can say one thing with great confidence...I WILL NOT BE BORED WHEN SPRING DECIDES TO ARRIVE!

I think these beautiful boots might look a little different when March & April roll around!

I'm linking to HOMESTEAD REVIVAL...be sure to go visit other homestead bloggers.

New Baby Chicks.....

 At our Tuesday Homeschool Coop Classes, the science class has been getting to watch some eggs hatch into chicks. They have had such fun watching the process, but by far they seemed to enjoy holding the chicks and watching them. Of course that meant these chicks needed a home after all the fun. Well I was offered them and it ended up no one else wanted  them. So now we have added 7 more chicks to our collection. I am very excited because we do not have either breed I inherited! We have 5 Barred Rocks, and 2 Leghorns. Do you want to take a peek and see what those furry little darling look like?

This first picture shows how they felt after being held by little people ALL DAY LONG!!!

 I think I can relate to how they feel after Tuesday classes....I know they look dead...but they are not

 Here they are getting a little drink before they crashed again

Another shot (because I just can't help it!) all cuddled up

Country Kids Just Wanna Have Fun!

The kids found a new past time last Friday afternoon. Climbing on a fallen tree, then using it as a human catapult. In case your curious this is how it works:

 First you pull down the limb for your little brother to climb on

 If that doesn't work, try this method

 Once he is on, pull back the branch counting to 3...then he's catapulted into the air & loving it all

 Everyone took turns...this went on for at least a constant 30 minutes

Little Miss decided this activity was best to watch from another branch & not to participate

 A GREAT time had by all....soaking up the sun...flying through air...WIN! WIN!

My cute crew

Happy B-day Caleb!

Today marks my 9th year as a full time stay at home mama! I can't even hardly wrap my brain around the whole idea of it, but it's true. Caleb Curtis, who's nickname is Cubbie, was born on a very wintery storm kind of day...lots of ice and snow. Which meant that our visitors were very few! Caleb is so sweet and compassionate yet I would venture to say he's my orneriest one of the lot. We love his adventurous spirit, although sometime I just hold my breath and pray for the best.

Happy 9th B-day BIG MAN!

 

 This past Saturday he had a few friends over to help him celebrate!

Tulips

There is something very wonderful about Tulips! When I see them I immediately smile...then I think SPRING!!!! I made a stop at Kroger this last week and couldn't resist the urge to pass by them without grabbing my a little bouquet.

(Not only are they gorgeous, but they were inexpensive. 20 tulips for $7.99!

My lovely bouquet..promising that Spring is not far off!