Down on the Homestead May 2 - May 8

[Heather]

Good morning!

We are getting MORE rain...it hasn't stopped for 2 days and is to continue!

Today we are sanding the kitchen floor and painting it....yesterday's project but it got bumped ahead one day! When we moved here we pulled up the yucky flooring and there was maple underneath...we sanded, stained and varnished it and looked great for awhile but with the kitchen being the highest traffic area in our house it gets scruffy looking SO we decided we are painting it to give it a new look for the summer!

We are also taking apart an upright piano...I bought it believing the owners that all it needed was to be tuned....wrong...it needs about $2000.00 worth of work to be done to it and any shop wants at least $200.00 to take it away to the dump so we decided to take it apart ourselves, use the beautiful walnut wood for shelves inside the front door and take the rest to the dump ourselves.

I have roast beef in the crockpot and will add potatoes and carrots late afternoon. Bread is in the bread machine and I'll pop a cake in the oven this afternoon.

Well, off to start my day.....have a wonderful one yourselves!!

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone. I'm off to a slow start as I just got up. It was so good to just stay under those quilts. Its a bit cool again this morning and I don't want to put the heat on.

I finished the quilt yesterday. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. If all else fails, read some instructions and so I did. Now I know what to do with my next one. Today I plan on starting the second one and also quilting a small wall hanging I have done.

Being a day of rest, I don't have too much planned, although I do have to bake bread. I'll do up a batch of buns while I'm at it.

Otherwise, its going to be a quiet day here. Its nice and sunny, but still very cool. We need Heather's rain and Margery's temps.

Have a great day everyone.

[forestdale]

Good morning homesteader girls.

You're a busy bee today, Heather. I love wooden and painted wood floors. I bet it looks grand when you finish.

CJ, it always paints a lovely picture when you talk about quilting. I hope you enjoy your day.

I was very busy yesterday. The sick lady I was helping had her sister flown out from Italy to stay with her until the baby arrives and she recovers, so that was a relief that she's getting some family help. After I picked up the sister from the airport I came home and started tending my vegie garden. I cut up comfrey to lay on top of the potatoes that are just peeking up out of the ground. I have some Pink Fir Apple potatoes I'm going to plant this year and I lay them on a table in the sun so they can sprout a bit before I plant them. I've never grown this variety before but I've eaten them and they're delicious - buttery and with yellow flesh. I hope they grow well. I moved two lots of chives to fit in four strawberry plants - my dh can't eat strawberries (they give him gout), so when they grow, my son and I will be very happy. I also tied up the tomatoes, added liquid seaweed to everything and pulled out a heap of wild rocket.

Today I'm tackling the front garden and planting some flower seedlings. I also have some inside chores but I'll do them all after I've enjoyed my outdoor activities.

Soup and hot bread for dinner tonight and probably a warm sticky date pudding for dessert.

I hope you all enjoy your day and hello to all the girls who check in later.

[guest2]

Good afternoon! It's been a simply gorgeous day today and it's been full of surprises. First of all, it was rally weekend at our church where people get to browse and sign up for any small group they might want to attend. Our Pastor set the theme of "a group for every interest" by riding into the sanctuary on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle! Yes, we do have a group that loves to ride motorcycles and have fellowship with other riders both Christian and non Christian. Some of the other groups are scuba diving, love covers (quilting and crocheting group that makes quilts for the homeless), Finanacial Peace, cooking classes, Vocal performance, Greeters (that's the group our family is in) and many others. We greeters later served Krispy Kreme Donuts to everyone during the service. How cool is that????? Our sermon today was on being a light to the world and reaching out and having fellowship with others and showing them God's love. Wonderful! We also came home with 2 dozen donuts, 1 of which will be going with my hubby to work tomorrow so they don't land on my hips!
We also did some shopping and got some great grocery deals. I convinced hubby to not take us out to lunch and instead let me use the money to stock up on loss leaders at Fred Meyer's. I was able to get chicken noodle soup 4/$1, pork and beans 5/$1, Dannon 6 packs of water .89, huge containers of All detergent for $5.99,sour cream, mangos and a few other items. BTW, Fred Meyer, Walgreens and Walmart were all out of the Shick Intuition razors. Anyway, I spent less on stocking up than we would have going out to lunch.
This afternoon, the twins are working on lawns, Jeff is getting the swamp cooler up and running and I'm working with Jaysn on his report. Tonight I hope to watch a classic family film "Finding Nemo" with hubby since all the boys are grounded from TV and such. Dinner will be leftovers.

[canadian gardener]

LOL I like the sounds of your pastor Debbie!!! Fun.

Heather that flooring sounds marvellous. Old Maple wood. Wow. And you are clever thinking of taking apart that old piano. I'd have just gotten depressed fantasies of chainsaws and pickup trucks backed up to the nearest window or door.

Bethany I'm glad your friends sister is able to come help. Hope that you can relax a bit at home and enjoy your gardening.

CJ it's gone cooler and cloudy thank the Lord. It was supposed to hit in the mid 30's but some thunderclouds gathered and it's cooled off although no rain yet.

Well I've had a fun day. Went to church, came home, made a nice ham with brown sugar glaze and tried a new recipe for scalloped potatoes and it worked well.

I've been puttering away at dejunking, did some in the bedroom, some in the kitchen and I'm doing little bits in the living room. Odds and ends. Wish I had the nerve to sell the crystal and be done with it! I am not that fond of it. Maybe someday. Meanwhile a whole bunch of other stuff is leaving.

Ds is over eating dinner with us, and doing his weekly load of laundry. Looks like he will need to retake a class so he won't graduate this June, it's next June. Oh well.

The bright side is he can take a few more other courses plus some extra bank courses and he'll be that much further ahead when he does graduate.

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone. We got rain last night and it looks like some very nasty weather is coming our way. So if I'm not around, you know its because of the weather.

I don't have much planned today. Its usually laundry day but I did it all yesterday because of the weather report for today. I do need to fold those clothes.

The only other thing I need to do is vaccuum and clean the fridge.

Otherwise, I want to get some more quilting done and later tonight, I'll do some reading.

Have a great day, down on your homestead.

[guest2]

Goodmorning my Frugal Friends!!!

Sounds like everyone is keeping busy on their homesteads. Praying for good weather for you all and many blessings!

Today is another busy one for us (is there any other kind of day???). This morning we have our writing class and then band practice. I'm need to be back home by noon since DH will be coming home for lunch. They are doing a kitchen remodel right out of town here at another friend's home.

I already have a roast in the crockpot. I'll shred that later and add some sour cream to the gravy to make stronganoff for dinner. After lunch today I need to make 4 loaves of bread, a big batch of yogurt and slice up a big turkey ham for lunchmeat. I'll also use some of the sliced hame to make a big ham and pasta salad for lunch tomorrow.

The laundry is done and hanging on the line. I just love the smell of line dried clothes. I also have our bedroom window open so the room airs out. Spring has got to be one of my favorite times of the year.

[Strawberry]

Good morning friends!

The weather has turned cooler & rainy with a chance of thunder showers later.

I'm trying to get lots accomplished today. Clean bathrooms, dust, water plants, vacuum, paperwork of dks camping trip, paperwork for dks competition trip, bake bread, muffins, make appointment for ds at college, and I know there's a few more things I'm forgetting. At least college classes are over so no more driving for that.

My oldest ds is out of town on a work training course and the house has sure been different. I know I need to prepare myself for when he eventually moves out.

The sunburn is healing nicely on ds#2. It had me concerned when it turned yellow but we quickly got the infection under control.

I better get off this computer if I'm going to get my task list done today.

Hope you all have a great day!

[Katybird]

Today I am doing laundry, it is the never ending job around here, it seems to multiply on it's own during the night. Dang, I wish I could figure out how to make my money behave like that . I am going to bake some cookies and maybe a cake for desserts for the week and I want to get my mini blinds all washed down for the fling for today.

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

[canadian gardener]

If you ever do get your money to multiply like laundry I will need to know your method

Hi ladies. Doing laundry, cleaning house. Monday being monday. Nice day though.

[forestdale]

Hello homesteaders.

I've just returned from a trip to the organic supermarket to stock up on bulk items like barley, sugar, flour etc. While I was out, I also bought some fancy wool and knitting needles so I can knit myself some mittens. I'm really going to enjoy knitting although I have to teach myself how to cast off and on again. I have the Reader's Digest Needlework book here and they give clear instruction in it. After I finish the laundry and the floors I'll take myself out to the front porch and cast away.

For those of you following my office cleaning saga, I've still not started. So I still have the Christmas tree behind me in a box, and yes, I do know it's May.

Have fun, my friends.

[Heather]

Yes, Kathy, oh wouldn't that be great!!

Good luck on your mittens Bethany.....enjoy knitting away on your porch!

Hi Margery, back into the routine again, eh?

CJ, (((HUGS)))

I am off here shortly to take dd to school and then Dylan and I are off to town to run many errands. He'll do his schoolwork when we get back this afternoon.

This floor is taking longer that I thought. Instead of sanding it all, we primed it last night so with DH gone this morning for the week, guess who is painting tonight? Also I'll be touching up the trim in the kitchen.

I have half my curtains done for the kitchen so I must get to that this week as well....oh where does time go?

Have a wonderful day ladies!

Debbie, I'm comin' to your house with all that yummy food!

Tina, you've been so busy, I'm glad you DS's sunburn is getting better.

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone. It is a new day and I will rejoice and be glad in it. When struggles come I always try to look at it to see what good will come out of it. A dear friend reminded me yesterday the good that can come out of a struggle our family is now going through. God is good!!

Today will be a start of a new adventure, much sooner than we planned. I'll share about that in a few, but not right now. Bethany, I'll leave you guessing for a bit longer.

I need to wash bedding today. Its going to be a warm, sunny day so I'll get everything hung out on the line.

I also promised the kids I'd make them some homemade buns, so once I'm off there, I'll get the bread dough started.

Later today, I'll finish a wall hanging I'm doing. I only have the top and bottom border to put on to have the top finished. I'll start on another one once I have the top finished on this one. It was much smaller and so much faster to do, now that I've done the block several times over.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day down on your homestead.

btw - Tina, how is your mom doing?

[MJsLady]

Well today wil be a trash and straighten day i think. The diningroom is almost empty now with the book case moved and all the ebay boxes gone!
Once I have read up on all the posts i will go out and water the veggie garden! I see several corn sprouts, a few melon, and squash ones and some sno peas! They all look healthy so far!
It looks to be warm and sunny again today, it seems Fridays lately have been our stormy days with cool windy Saturdays to follow!
Well I must get busy with the watering, I promised myself some water melon once I get the watering done!
Have a great day ladies!

[canadian gardener]

Big hugs CJ and praying your day gets a bit easier.

Last day for the ladies bible study before we break for the summer, so I'm zipping along here, checking in briefly.

Bethany those mittens sound like fun. I like small knitting projects best, you get to see them finished before it becomes a huge thing like a sweater that seems to take forever. Dishcloths, mitts and hats are my speed.

Happy Floors Heather! (variation on happy trails? heheheheh) and hoping that project comes together and finishes easily.

Tina if you see this, Darlenes thread for light summer recipes, I was hoping you'd share that wonderful iced coffee recipe of yours.

Ladies it is to die for! I had it at her place and it's wonderful. Kind of like a Tim Hortons Iced Cappucino for those Canadians here or any Americans who know the Tim Hortons coffee shops.