Down on the Homestead April-17-23

[Michele Annette]

CJ, I hope you don't mind me starting today's thread...

I didn't get a chance to visit yesterday. I went to my friend's place for some girl time. It hit 70 here yesterday! What a wonderful feeling when Spring feels like it's really here.

Today DH and I picked out some seeds at Gardener's Supply for our Homestead. Even though we have to save them and not plant them yet. We have really been into our main goal of buying land and stetting up a homestead. We are getting ready to convert our turbo deisel car into a car run on waste vegetable oil that we get for free from our local Chinese Restaurant. Already asked them!

I don't think I ever mentioned how much homesteading means to me and my DH. I know I have stifiled my feelings because we are trying to figure out where exactly we need to be, but I think it will be so worth it doing this research. My mind now is in a different mode. I now find myself measuring detergent and finding out exactly how many uses I get out of each box. You have no idea how much it is hurting me to eat out of my stockpile, but I'm finding I can still stock up on some things that I still use regularly because I will use them up in time if we happen to decide to move.

I can also tell you that we are not spending another year in this apartment. It's really bad. We now discovered that we have carpentar ants.

All the homestead and alternative energy magazines we have been using as reference have been a great help! Frugal Village helps me everyday! I love you guys.

[QuilterMom]

Michele - I would love to hear about you guys converting your car over to run on the vegetable oil! Very neat!


We have been to church, Sunday school, and Home Depot today. Dh is gone to Ace right now and when he gets back we have gardening work to do and I need to mow. I have a feeling I will be doing all the gardening work though. LOL I need to get green beans sown today, but dh needs to dig out/prep my herb area for me since he is so much faster than me. He is itching to get the bathroom walls and ceiling primed so he can paint. We finally got our tile we ordered 10 zillion years ago (feels like that long!) yesterday and dh's co-worker came and textured the walls and ceiling yesterday.

Not sure what else is on the agenda today. It's still pretty windy here and the rip currents in the ocean are awful. Looks like we might have a huge migration of sharks headed our way from just below us as well.

Have a great day!

[forestdale]

Good morning homesteaders.

Michele, it's great you're both making strides towards living more sustainably. I believe that every single thing we do has the potential to make a big impact on our environment. I congratulate you both for your efforts.

Kim, why are the sharks moving up the coast? Is it a seasonal thing, maybe searching for schools of fish (or swimmers )?

I had quite the day yesterday. I started off in the garden planting out seeds, then went over to visit DS1 who has been sick with the flu. He's recovered now so we went to the plant centre together, he wanted to get some vegetable and herb seedlings. I HAD to spend $50 on plants too. I came home, had a spot of lunch and was just starting to clean my front verandah, repotting some plants and rearranging when an unknown car drove down the driveway - it was Kathleen!! She'd flown 2000 kms to deliver my birthday present! She was with a friend who drove her up from the airport so we all went inside for tea and cake. Then the phone rang and it was Diane and Rick saying they'd call in on their way home from visiting Casey. Then DS2 came home from work with two friends, Diane and Rick arrived with a friends of Casey's, then DH came home and was shocked to find a house full of people. We ended up cooking for the crowd and eating outside near the BBQ. It was a fairly warm evening so it was a nice end to a busy weekend. Kathleen hopped on the plane to fly home at 11pm. It's lovely to have such wonderful friends.

I'll be cleaning up today and finishing off the jobs I didn't get to yesterday. I also hope to do a bit of gardening and to sew all afternoon.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

[PrairieRose]

Michele, I'm sooooo proud of you and your dh--converting that diesel to use used oil. I read about that in Mother Earth News and I've been wanting to do that with dh's work truck as well. WTG girl! Just think....you'll be driving for free once you factor in the conversion unit. (Well almost free, guess you'll still be doing oil and filter changes, new tires, etc...but still....)

Wow Kim, you reminded me of the scene in Jaws....where everyone is at the beach......

Rhonda sounds like you had a wonderful birthday. I'm so happy that you were blessed with friends and family on your day.

Gripey has been working in the yard today. He's mowed and pulled weeds, got the zillions of potted plants out of the pump house to acclimate and now he's checking on the carwash. It's looking like wind and rain for us this evening.

I've finally gotten my filing cabinet cleaned out.....ugh. 10 yrs. worth of papers, receipts, etc. and SO ON.....ack! I still have to box it up tomorrow and pack it away. And I have one file left....the one with all the manuals of all the small gadgets we've had over the past 10 yrs. It should take me too long to plow through those though. I'm so proud to have this job finished I just can't tell ya.

We're going to friends for dinner so I don't have to cook (yippee!). Otherwise not too much excitement on this windy homestead. I hope you guys all have a wonderful day.

[QuilterMom]

It's migration time, but the waters are much clearer right now than usual so that may be why there are so many more sharks (because they all couldn't be seen before!). It seems like every time we're at the beach we see a fin - seriously! Maybe it's the clear water, but I think they are moving closer and closer to shore.

We are also trying to monitor 2 fires behind us! The neighbor to the south of us has his horses on the land directly behind us and then there's nothing but vacant land between there and the next house (maybe 12 or so acres if you just count going straight to the next house). Fire vehicles keep rushing up and down the road. The smoke is very dark, thick, and ugly. We've not been told to evacuate so far. Dh has been climbing up on the roof periodically to keep an eye on things himself. Of course the wind is blowing like crazy which doesn't help matters. Ugh!

[Heather]

Kim~stay safe

Rhonda~what a wonderful suprise! You are blessed with wonderful family and friends

Michele~I think it's great what you are doing working towards being on your very own homestead ((HUGS))

Lisa~don't work too hard and enjoy your dinner out tonight

This weekend has been busy, busy. Yesterday morning we drove over to Elora to pick up our seeds and plants for the garden. Everything was in except the raspberry canes. I will pick those up in a couple weeks when I get the tomato and pepper plants and my flowers. We picked up:

~750 more strawberry plants (have 500 in garden now)
~100 asparagus
~2 red currant bushes
~2 black currant bushes
~100 gladiolus bulbs
~spanish onion and red onions
~10 more rhubarb plants

Seeds:
~enough corn for an acre
~beets
~peas
~green and yellow beans
~pumpkin (giant, normal, pie, mini)
~gourds
~strawberry popcorn and ornamental corn
~watermelon
~cantaloupe
~carrot
~turnip

We stopped at the farm supply store and picked up some fencing material and buckets for water for the horses.

When we got home we planted the rhubarb and the currant bushes. DH then worked up the gardens one more time. They are all ready for planting. The back garden which is about and acre and a half will have the corn and veggies in. The garden beside the house has all the strawberries, raspberries, currants, rhubarb and asparagus.

We have talked for a long time of opening a small stand on our property with fruits and vegetables and this is the year. We are very excited about it and hope it goes well. If not....we'll be WELL stocked for the winter...lol!!

Tomorrow is to be a nice day so I'll get the asparagus planted. A friend of ours is coming on Thursday with a strawberry planter so that will save ALOT of time planting those.

I did 4 loads of laundry yesterday and hung them on the line, it's so nice to be able to put it out in this nice weather.

Today DH left this afternoon for work and will be back early Thursday morning. We are not a healthy household, all of us have very sore throats, cough and fever and with wanting to be outside and getting things done it's the pits. Went to town to get some medicine and groceries. Didn't have time to get DH's meals together so they were bought.

Oh, this weekend I also put together a block/tied quilt for a friend of DD's, it was bright and colourful and she loved it. I couldn't sleep last night so I whipped that up.

Have a wonderful day ladies!

[Mom23boys]

Michele, how interesting. I would love to hear more about converting your car to oil.

Kim, keep safe from the sharks and the fires.

Rhonda, I am glad your birthday was filled with surprises.

Lisa, enjoy your meal. It is always better when someone else cooks it.

Heather, sounds like you are planning a great garden!

It has been wonderful here today. Chris had a scrimmage baseball game today so we went there. They did great.

Didn't get much done in the line of housework except dishes and laundry.

There are only 29 days left until school is out for summer. That is not counting weekends just school days! Can you tell I am ready for summer?

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone. Happy Birthday Chriss. And happy baby day to Missy.

Just so everyone knows, I won't be around much over the next couple months as I have to get a quilt made by wedding day and also get everything else done I need to get done this spring.

After we went to church yesterday we ended up at the "farm", where our oldest dd and her fiance have rented. Its an old house that needed a lot of cleaning and painting. We all dug in and cleaned and painted for the full afternoon and didn't get back here until later at night. Once we were home, dd and I had to also go and clean the post office. It was a very long day.

Today I have planned:

~laundry (one load done and ready to hang outside. Another ready to go. Once its dried, bringing in and folding.)
~bread making (its started and on its first rise)
~working on quilt
~meeting tonight at 7, meaning I have to leave to go into the city at around 5 p.m.
~cleaning the post office

Hope everyone has a great day.

[Michele Annette]

Hi Everyone!

Kim- I hope the fires are out! The sharks freak me out!

Rhonda- You day sounded so wonderful! Hope your DS is feeling better.

Lisa- Good job on the filing cabinet. That must have felt great to have it done!

Heather- I love reading your plant and seed list!! It reminds me of my put away garden journal.

Michelle- I love it! Counting down the school days...it means Summer's almost here!

CJ- That was so nice of you and your family to help your DD and her fiance! It a lot of work!

I will be sure to post DH's conversion with pictures as soon as it happens. I'm not sure of DH's time frame on the conversion though, so I will have to keep you posted. What I can tell you now is DH is using the reference book:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0970722702/qid=1113848205/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-0062310-0128175?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank[/ame]

There is a conversion kit that DH would have to order from Canada (can't remember from where in Canada) but it already has a filtering system and heater in it, so there isn't much work to it in the long run. Less mess and less hassle...a more user friendly kit. I'll let you know more when I find out more.

The quilt is coming along nicely and I'm giving myself this nest weekend to finish it. That will give me plenty of time to deliver it. I'm nervous though...am always nervous about what the customer will think of the final piece.

I have decided to get a treadle sewing machine to replace my electric one. I like the

Omga Necchi

at Lehman's. DH's mom has a desk with the treadle that DH is trying hard to get for me. If that happens that is what I'm going to do. How awesome is that? I'll keep you posted on that too!

Hope you all are having a great day!

[QuilterMom]

Ds and I have run errands and done school and I'm coming up for air from the spring fling mission this week. I've been working in the spare bedroom. This mission is a toughie for me because the bedrooms are catchalls for everything with all the remodeling going on and the utility/laundry room only being halfway finished.

I have to head out to the garden now and start getting my herb area ready.

Have a great day!

[QuilterMom]

Oh, I forgot to say that yes, the fires are out. They burned 110 acres, but kept heading south instead of west toward us. 1 house had part of their fence destroyed and some trees in their yard burned. Yay for the firefighters!

[dmvezina]

I posted this on last weeks!! lol Crazy, crazy life right now!! lol

Good afternoon! What a crazy day yesterday and it was so gorgeous outside too! I got my first sunburn of the year!! lol

dd-13 had opening day for softball. We had a parade at 9 & the game at 1. Of course, things in between. Then dh & ds had baseball practice at 3.

Today I cleaned both bathrooms and did 3 loads of laundry.

Breakfast was oatmeal, bananas & toast
Dinner will be creamy swiss steak, noodles, & corn.

I'm watching general hospital right now and it's a commercial, so I gotta run!!! lol

I hope everyone is having a great day!

[forestdale]

Good morning all!

It will be a busy morning in my homestead with a relaxing afternoon to follow - I hope. This morning I'm vacuuming, doing some laundry, baking bread and another banana and pecan cake and cleaning the front windows. After lunch I'll be sewing on the front verandah. It looks like a lovely day for me full of chores and sewing.

I hope you all enjoy your day.

[DaisyLady]

Good morning all,

It has been super busy the last couple of days. On Sunday dh arranged for his parents, my parents and my brother(with his girlfriend) to come and help me spend the afternoon celebrating my birthday. DH baked a cake for me and my mil brought some sparkling wine! All the kids and dh even gave us a mini concert.

Yesterday, I went to a seminar in the morning on designing patterns for knitting. I met several other knitters and made some new friends (a couple even spin too!) The lady who owns the wool store hosted this seminar and let me attend for free It was really great! In the afternoon I went shopping for new clothes with my birthday money. I didn't do very well on my own and ended up returning most of it to the store in the evening. DH actually helped me choose some other things. (He stood and held things for me )

Today I am back to normal mode and I do have a class to teach this afternoon as well as a meeting tonight.

Hope you all have a blessed day!

[dmvezina]

Good morning!! It is supposed to be another beautiful day today!!

I need to do:
2 loads of laundry **both hanging outside now**
wash the bathroom floors
put my clothes away
polish the bedroom furniture
clear cobwebs from bedroom
wash bedroom windows
straighten bedroom drawers
wipe bedroom baseboards
clean bedroom lightswitch
clean bedroom doorknobs
clean phone in bedroom
clean bedroom ceiling fan
straighten closet shelves
fix shoes in rack
throw away any trash in bedroom
declutter the nightstand
bring dd-13 to Dr's appt **done**
bring dd-16 to counseling appt

Breakfast was apple pancakes & yogurt
Dinner will be creamy ham & rice, carrots and cookies for dessert

I hope you all have a great day!!