A New Homesteaders Life
Well here it is October and we are just getting to the compost pile. I have managed to acquire enough pallets to do two bins. I have decided that it should be placed on the back line of the property near the trees. It won’t get too much sun and should be more protected from the on slot of the rain drain from the neighbor’s property. Here are the pallets. ere we are putting them together. We are using baling wire to hold it together. Okay, that should do it. Okay, I have read that you need to layer the stuff as you add it to the pile. There needs to be a layer of brown stuff, to a layer of green. The brown stuff is going to be the leaves and grass clippings that I have been saving for this project, green will be the tree trimmings (it was so nice of the tree trimming company to leave us two great big piles of debris from when the trimmed the trees in the area that hung over the streets. They did this so the school busses don’t get damaged.) Going to take awhile to get that to the back of the property, one wagon full at a time. I will be saving the good stuff from the kitchen like coffee grounds, egg shells, fruit and veggie left over’s and trimmings. Household stuff includes any type of paper or cardboard and some of my crafting stuff can be added also. No meat, dairy, plastics or any type of chemical should be added. Well that’s a start. I understand it should be turned and checked weekly for moisture content. I hope to keep you guys updated as the seasons change. I hope this works cause I need lots of dirt, lots of it. I’m hoping to also get a pile of manure to mix in later when the compost becomes dirt. Stay tuned folks. We will be updating this one through the Winter.
0 Comments
Instructables is a great place to learn from others who have laid out the steps for you to achieve a lot of different things to do and make. Here is the page link; www.instructables.com These are a list of the projects I have done. Yarn Pooling this is the way to make plaid using crochet. www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-Stitch-Yarn-Pooling Except for the things that had to be done we played hooky from the Homestead this week. We instead went and explored the area and took some time by the water. Saw so many deer, it was wonderful. They seemed ready to pose for the camera. Discovered the “Swim beach” that is near the house and a place to fish from the banks today. Found a few treasures to take back home. Mr. Britches ended up getting a tick and had to remove it from his leg. I’m just glad that we didn’t take the dogs with us, not ready for that yet. Fleas are bad enough. We went to town this week for groceries and find out about getting our official paperwork taken care of. I just love Paris TN, such wonderfully nice people. I love the County Court House Building it is so beautiful. I’m in awe of the architecture of the old brick building, it has such history. It has wonderfully inlaid tile entryways, and of course any court house that could be called that should have old paintings hung in the hallways, this was no different. This building just oozes history. I love it, can’t wait to find out more about it. I am so glad we came to this community; I was worried we would be looked at sideways for being from Colorado. This place feels like it has been waiting for us to get here.
Well back to work, all that goofing off was fun but work awaits. Later folks Adding in some Flowers So I just love flowers. I asked Mr. Britches if we could add some flower boxes to the outside “Den”. The “Den” is actually going to be our outside work room for crafting. It is a screened in room that has a fireplace in it. Great for those chilly nights, that happens here at the lake. This room has been a great sanctuary for me during the very hot and humid days here in Tennessee. I am so not used to the Humidity, having spent most of my years in the Southwest. Phew sometimes it has been downright miserable, but we will prevail. My plan is to have flower boxes at the front entrance, along the front and back sides and I hope to put some along the railing on the back deck. A little at a time and this will be so wonderful to sit and enjoy…later. Well here are the front boxes and the front side done. The back will have to wait as I want it to be done I want a very large bed and dirt is expensive, who’da thunk. On each side of the walkway entrance I put in a Monrovia plant on both sides. The hummers really love the purple flowers, they stick there bill in and shake it around. It’s very comical. I plan on collecting the seeds and trying some “Winter Sowing” (more on that later) with them. I also added white mums and pansies to each box. I added a small plastic stump that I saved from my aquarium, for the frogs. I heard they like stuff like that. the front side I put two boxes instead of one long one. I have plans on making a fountain for the middle. In this one I added my fern that I split up and put them on the ends of each box. In the middle I put red hibiscus “Luna”. The flowers are huge. At the other end I put the most beautiful white and lavender mum. I had left over pansies and put them in front of the hibiscus. I also had Mr. Britches hang my house ivies (golden pothos) on the front side. My lonely little geranium was hung in the middle of the windows. Next year I would like to add a shelf and get four more geraniums to display there. I was so excited to find a yellow rose bush on 50% sale. I convinced Mr. Britches I just couldn’t live without it. It was planted where it would get the most sunlight. It is going to be just lovely. When the time comes this fall I want to add some bulbs for some spring time color. Well got to go wash my hands and get cleaned up for dinner, later folks. Garbage Disposal in the Boonies Hey everyone! I did not realize when you live out here your choices of waste disposal was limited to either hauling it yourself, or burning it. Never had to think about it, the Garbage magically disappeared when the big truck showed up. Well we took the choice of burning. Okay we still had a lot to learn, LOL! Did you know there are things you just can’t burn? Like metal for instance. We are such green Homesteaders didn’t even know to think about garbage as a problem. So we kept burning, but our burn barrel was filling up fast with a lot of unburnt debris. I had Mr. Britches dump it out and look to see what was left of our burns. Well a lot of tin cans, aluminum cans and stuff that the fire just could not touch, because of all the other crap in there. So we drilled some holes bottom in the metal barrel. That was a good start. It helped with the flow of air. I also started sorting out the metal products. I ordered a can crusher and Mr. Britches mounted it and we started crushing cans, of which we will save up and take to get recycled. The tin cans, mostly from canned veggies I rinsed out and placed in another bag to take to the dump with any other stuff we couldn’t dispose of here on the Homestead. We still had a problem with air flow so I started looking for alternative barrels. I found one that looked like a regular metal garbage can with holes in it all over, even came with a lid that also had holes. It works wonderfully burns everything down to ashes, with very little debris left. I got excited about that, I know right, what a thing to get excited about. Behrens is the brand we purchased it is a modified 20 gallon metal trash can burn barrel. ( I am not an affiliate for this product. In fact you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.) We decided to keep the big metal barrel for the stuff that just would not burn and the ashes of the waste that did. I did think about adding the ashes to the soon to be made compost pile, but when I thought about it I did not want to add all those possible chemicals from the plastics and other junk in there polluting the compost. We can take trash to the dump. So now we have four things to sort out for garbage; compostable items, burnable stuff, aluminum, and stuffs that just won’t burn. I’m hoping this next year after we get the garden going we will have less metal cans as I’m going to start canning.
The next big thing we have to get going is the composter; stay tuned in for those adventures. Hey All!
Well week two here at the homestead. We have so much work to do. Still unpacking, still looking for those missing items I was sure I labeled the box so it could be found easy. Fleas, I hate fleas. We are trying lots of new products, many that don’t work )O: I will probably write more about that, poor cat he is miserable. Well at least I can walk through the living room at night to use the rest room. I had to go around and step over boxes, and piles of stuff to be put away. A mine field had nothing on this floor. The bedroom is done, but I think the bed needs to be moved over to the south wall. The morning sun is just too bright. Mr. Britches needs a new dresser. He is such a clothes horse. The man has more clothes in the closet than I do. Shoes, thats another thing, we need some way to store them so we can see what we have. I can’t wait until we get to remodel the bathroom. The storage cabinets in there are pretty much useless, and whomever redid the bathtub needs to explain to me why. Yes that is the faucet attached to the overflow drain. Well after a mad Dash, really a 15 and 1/2 hour (1093 miles) drive to our new home, we have arrived. Tired and sore with our little family of two dogs, one cat and 11 budgies. During our drive, most of it in driving rain there were little to no problems.
It took us two days to get everything unloaded. Thankfully our new landlords family was here to help Mr. Britches get his beloved motorcycle off the moving truck. Yes we even packed that in there. Gosh, it so beautiful here. But no time right now to explore gotta get things unpacked and somewhat organized. We have an acre and half to work with. The plans are to start with a garden and some chickens. I would like to get a goat latter for fresh milk also, we drink a lot of that. Our little homestead is just a stone's throw from the lake so we will be adding fresh fish to our diet anytime we can. We want to live a better healthier life and get back to some basics in life. It's time to get some rest after all that moving and unpacking. I'll be back as soon as we get things more organized. |
Hi!
|