My Bluebirds on the Ground Report

    Hello and happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!  

    I just wanted to share that Annabel kindly invited me to write a guest post on her blog, The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm.  She has readers from all over the world, and some have been giving reports of what is going on in their area, as well as preparedness measures they have been taking to stay ahead.  I feel so honored to be able to contribute!  I hope you'll visit her blog and look around.  It is such a wonderful source of homemaking and preparedness encouragement, and I really think Annabel has the ability to turn everything she touches into something beautiful!  

    My post is here.

    I have also added a subscription service to my blog on the sidebar (it can only be seen when viewing "web version") should you like to receive an email alert when I publish a post.  Otherwise, you can follow along through Blogger (also on the sidebar), or you can simply bookmark my blog and visit whenever you like.  All of these options are free for those who want to follow along.  I do appreciate all of my readers and your lovely comments, so thank you!

Our First Project of 2023: Part 1

     As you may have guessed from my posting on Thursday, the boys and I are feeling much better.  Thank you so much for your prayers!  It is so nice to be able to get back to the things we enjoy.  The weather has been beautiful, especially in the mornings and evenings, so we are turning our thoughts towards outdoor projects.  Colton has some vacation time this month from both of his jobs, so we are going to try and make the most of it!  Working on projects together is fun for us, so it's a win/win.  I'm sure we'll have some downtime, too, though.  Maybe.

    For our first project, we are tackling this little spot:

    This is in the garden to the side of my garden shed.  Behind it through the screen door, is the chicken run.  (The metal building is the coop.)  Initially, the chicken run fence started at the front of the shed, but since our chickens free range anyway and we wanted more garden space, we moved the fence to the back end of the shed last year.

    It created this little nook, which has actually turned out to be more awkward than anything.  I thought about planting herbs and flowers around the perimeter and adding a picnic table or seating area in the middle, but it never happened.  About all that has ever grown here is stinging nettle.  In reality, I am not very good at a cottage-style garden layout, as much as I absolutely love the way it looks.  My mind operates better with orderly rows.  And living where we do, I always have snakes on my mind when the weather heats up.  Lots of bushy plants on the ground are perfect hiding spots.  

    So what to do?  Can you guess?

Maybe another photo will help...

    Colton is building me raised beds!  I'm really excited about this project.  As crazy as the last year (two, really) has been, I haven't been able to have a garden like I normally do.  I've missed it so much.  I think this will be much easier for me to manage for the time being. Eventually, I might give the boys their own little section of the beds to grow things in.  In any case, I think this is a good use of the space.

    So far, we (when I say we, I actually mean Colton) have leveled the area, put down black plastic, and built the frames for the beds.  We already had the dirt for leveling from another project we did last year.  We also already had the black plastic.  Someone at work gave Colton a huge roll, and we just set it aside for "just in case".  We always seem to have projects, so we gladly accept free materials when offered!  We did buy the lumber, but the price is surprisingly coming down, which is nice.  

    Stay tuned for progress reports!

A Big Week

  We had a big week here at the cottage.  We were able to get a major project done that had been on our to-do list for 3 years!  Each time we thought we'd be able to do it, it was pushed back for one reason or another.  Surprisingly, at least to me, it didn't take very long and went without a hitch.

 We finally moved the propane tank out of our garden!  Besides making the garden look better (because I care about that sort of thing, remember?), this frees up a good amount of space for us to plant more vegetables. It's also one less thing to weed and till around and one less hiding place for snakes. Oh, and the propane man won't have to come into our garden to fill up the tank.  

 Much better, don't you think?  Of course, moving it was the simple part.  We still had to run the gas line to its new location and hook it back up again.  Thankfully, my dad was here with his trencher to help Colton.

  By about 3:00 that afternoon, they had the trench dug, the line run, and everything all hooked up again.

  Since my dad was here with his trencher, he and Colton also dug the lines to run water and electricity to the garden shed and chicken coop.  This is also huge!   

Trenches to run propane out of the garden and water to the shed and coop

  We are just a few steps away from not having to haul 10 gallons of water to the chickens each time they are running low.  My arms are happy.

A trench to run electricity from the house to the shed

  Colton is hoping to get everything hooked up in the next few days.  Once that is done, all the lines will be buried and I can get back to planting a garden.  

  I'd like to give a special thanks to my dad for all of his help.  He saved us a lot of time, money, and labor.  I'm glad he was a part of helping us create this important part of our life, and we appreciate everything he did to make this happen!