This has been a busy weekend

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Yesterday I planted our raised bed with our early veggies: several lettuces, several spinaches, several radishes, and shallots. Monday the peas will be planted. I've never used that raised bed with our dog around...after I planted some lettuce, he jumped in. hmmmm, I thought - this won't do....So, I dug around in the corn crib (obviously not used for corn anymore) and found some old tomato stakes & rebar & made a fence around it! Finished planting & I'm done - Not so fast! Water! Since our water hookup is FAR away from this raised bed, I ran into the garage & then down into the basement to find all of our garden hoses. (Needless to say, this isn't the Nearing's homestead "every tool in its place") When I finally found all 5 of them (yes, 5) I started to hook them up, only to find that the one we always leave in the yard has recently been mowed over, so it has no hooky-ma-bobby-thingy on the end of it anymore! Duct tape to the rescue! That held only long enough for me to water the seeds. Whoosh!

Today we tore up our one & only bathroom - yikes! This has been a project a long time in the making. I knew we were in trouble when my husband asked me to go get the sledgehammer. ;) Our old tub was cast iron covered with enamel - who knew?! So, it went flying out the window in pieces! Look out below!

So, that's been my weekend so far - how about you?? ;)

-- heather (h.m.metheny@att.net), April 27, 2002

Answers

Well, last week it was a broken toe for me, this week I was having problems with the wringer washer hose leaking and had to use some duck tape (goodness, what did they do before duct tape???) I didn't do a very good job the first time I put it on and was cutting it off with a knife and stabbed myself in the hand! It could have used a stitch or two, but since we currently have no medical insurance (3 more months to go!) I just poured in peroxide, sprayed with antibotic spray, butterflied it and taped it up. I am such an idiot sometimes!

We have been working all week on clearing some pasture. The things we are finding out there! Why in the world would someone dump thier old bed springs out there??? Anyway, it is nice pasture but needed mowed and cleared out. We don't have a tractor (only the Sears garden tractor) so I have the little dump trailer hooked up to the back, my brother (hubby still out of town but only 1 more week to go!) walks in front of me and loads any debris in the trailer and I mow as we go. Here we are on this big hill, me on the tractor, brother walking in front me, mowing strips of grass almost all tall as the tractor, carting this little dump cart with bedsprings and junk! I'll bet the neighbors thought "what the heck are those people doing now"??!! (They think we are kind of funny because we do things kind of unconventional sometimes - hey, you gotta make do with what ya have, right?). Anyway, I got kind of scared a few times because it IS pretty steep in some places. I was having visions of me and the tractor and the trailer and the junk tumbling down the mountain with my brother chasing after us! Other than cutting out those darn wild rose bushes we did get it done. I for one vote for a "real" tractor someday soon!! And oh yes....and either get the automatic washer fixed or get a new hose for the wringer washer!..LOL!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.


I've been blessed with a great weekend! I finally found a wheelchair with the right leg extentions, so I can sit with my legs up on pillows....I need a chair if I want to go anywhere which requires extensive walking or sitting..so this allowed me to go to the Arts and Crafts festival on the town square Saturday, where I met the lady who will be teaching me to use a drop spindle! I had my first lesson there in spinning!! YEAH! It was fun! I got to watch a fellow demonstrate his potter's wheel. and another person was doing weaving..there was so much to see and learn! I had a ball! I have not been able to go to anything like that in nearly a year, so what a treat! We spent all morning there, and then in the afternoon, we came home to discover that the other hens had been harassing the new baby chicks! So, we thought we would solve that problem by putting the mother hen and the babies in a nice big rabbit cage full of straw.....nope...the babies kept getting stuck in the holes..arghhhh..so, we got a huge cardboard box, filled it with straw, put the mother hen and the babies in it, covered it with the rabbit cage and put the whole thing on the screened porch for the night...At midnight, I woke up with the idea of using the old dog kennels in the outside shed as a chicken nursery (sometimes I get brilliant ideas at midnight LOL)..the folks who had the house before we bought it, used to have a dog-grooming business, so out back there is a 12X12 shed with 6 built-in floor cages, all with tight mesh locked doors and cement flooring..each cage opens up in the back to a "run"..voila! So this morning before church, we hauled straw, the chick waterer, chick feed, etc. to the shed..made sure the area was cleaned out , packed up the hen and the chicks and deposited them in their new quarters...we opened up the windows and locked the door..tomorrow, we will get some hardware cloth and boards and make them a safe run outside where the other hens and the dogs and goodness knows what else cannot get to them. we always wondered what to do with that shed..now we know..a chicken nursery! I have never been around baby chickens..they are absolutely the cutest little things..all fluff! The mother hen is the greatest! She was exhausted from fighting off all the other hens..there were feathers all over the place and they sure weren't hers! It was so easy to get her from the cage to the box and from the box to the kennel cage..I just reached in and move one of the chicks.....she followed that baby right away!!! LOL....

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), April 28, 2002.

My weekend was a bit less productive (for me, at least). Saturday I went out to my land after work. I got on my Deere and started moving some of the "gifts" the previous owner left me. Essentially, they simply cleaned out the horse stalls and pushed everything outdoors on two sides of the barn. It's all composted completely but is soft as can be to walk on and needs to be moved so I can get proper drainage around the barn. I'm going to put down some gravel for a parking area on at least one side so getting rid of all this is a must.

As luck would have it just as I got going it started to rain. I think I've found a canopy for my Deere but it isn't on yet so I just decided a little rain wouldn't kill me and kept working until I broke the bead on a front tire. If it hadn't been for the front end loader I'd never have been able to get it off there as a jack would've sunk in that muck (well, not really "muck," but I didn't want to get censored here).

Well, the rain had gone from a light shower to a severe downpour. By the time I got the wheel off there was a foot wide stream running right next to me. By the time I got back with the tire fixed the foor wide stream was gone. In it's place was a foot deep lake!

By the time I'd driven my truck close enough to see that problem I was almost axle deep myself. I made a quick decision that I didn't like the shoes I had on that much anyhow so I got out and slogged over to the tractor and got the tire on. Much to my delight, my Deere 4WD pulled itself out without any problem and so did the 4WD Tahoe. It was getting dark so I headed home and did one quick load of laundry (guess which outfit... LOL). So much for Saturday.

Sunday the rain continued here with falling temperatures and very high winds. I thought I'd just stay inside and enjoy the day until the phone rang. A friend called and needed help moving into a temporary home while they're looking for something permanent. They had a place lined up that fell through at the last minute and their lease ends tomorrow. The last load was in the truck at 10 PM so it was a long day.

I'm so happy to be back to work today. I can use the rest. ;o)

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), April 29, 2002.


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