My mad wood-working skilz

 The other day I bought a purple aster. Mostly just because it was purple but it was also on sale. So I brought it home, stuck it in a pot, and put it on the railing of the porch. Then the wind blew. The aster did not last long on the little 4" railing.

So I came up with an idea. Borrowed some wood from M, dug my jigsaw out of it's hiding place and set to work.

Three days, 4 partial re-dos, and a-lot of jigsawing and TADA!

A bench.

 

It may not hold a lot but I only intend for it to hold plants. And it seems to hold L just fine. 

And she helped clean up.

 

Tomato Hornworms - The End

 

It's not really the end of the Hornworm. Or even the end of my troubles with the hornworms. But it is the final life stage of the hornworm. Meaning I found a hummingbird moth flitting around my flowers. Sad part was I was so excited to see one. Even though I knew that meant that some worms avoided my Bucket of Death, and that next year my issues with the worms will continue. Still very cool though. 

The Stone Egg Experiment - Part 1

This is a stone egg. It really is a rock. If you get it wet it looks like it glows. It used to be one of those things you buy as a kid because it's cool. Now it's in the hen house.

Why is it in the hen house?

Let me put my teeth in and I'll tell you a story from my childhood....

*insert sloppy denture insertion noises*

Back when I was knee high to a grasshopper and bread was... probably less than a dollar. I wasn't the one buying the bread so I have no idea how much it was. It was just always on the counter and I was aloud to eat it.

Anyway. We had chickens. And I remember someone, who was taller than me which means they were older, said to put a round drawer knob in the nesting box to stimulate their laying instincts. Well I don't have anything with a round knob, but I found this stone egg in a random place. So I put in the nesting box. We will see how it goes.

Piles of Hay!

There isn't a whole lot to say about this one. In the picture you can see my "hay" pile, composter, and chicken hut. I can even spot a chicken. I say "hay" because it's really just long grass that M bush-hogged for me because my little electric lawn mower couldn't make it through it. But isn't hay really just cut grass anyway?

I started using the "hay" right around the chicken hut because it was handy and I hadn't found what I thought was supposed to go in the hut and laying boxes and didn't think Henrietta would appreciate a bare floor. Then I realized the cut grass = hay thing and tada! hay pile!

Now to hope the grass grows a bit taller before it dies for the season, hope M fixes his tractor or get Dad to bring his over, and collect the grass. It doesn't get much better than that!

Country Dogs

This post is kinda gross. But that's dogs I guess. I'll skip down a bit just so your not forced to see grossness if you don't want to.


But who wouldn't want to see what the dog dragged in?


Or is it drug in?


Well either way.



Have I given you enough chance to leave the page yet?




Ok If your still with me now your seriously interested. So here's the story,
I'm dog-sitting my dad's two dogs. Both are hunters, German Short-hair pointers. Abbey is 15 and Buster is 3. And Abbey is gross. Well Buster is too but it's cause he's an unsnipped (though soon to be snipped) male. Back to Abbey. She came home with this yesterday:

And then this morning she found the rest of it. I spent a good 10 minutes scrubbing my hands after having to wrestle disgusting decaying turtle parts from an old dogs mouth.

Seriously. Ew.

Roosters, Hens, and Eggs!

 

Henrietta is finally comfortable and relaxed and has started laying! Her eggs are large in size and a lovely sea green color. 

The two hens that have just recently joined my little flock lay small-medium sized brown eggs. 

All in all everyone is getting along and I haven't needed to buy eggs in almost 2 weeks!

No Preservatives Please

One of my goals that accompanies moving into the country is to break my prepackaged, sodium laden, preservative packed foods. Yes their low in calories, as long as you don't eat the whole box.... oops.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on the bread bag? Natures Own was one of my favorite store bought breads. It has 20 ingredients. Seriously? Here they are:
Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Maltitol, Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Contains 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Butter (a Trivial Source of Cholesterol), Salt, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Monoglycerides, Calcium Peroxide, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Datem), Cultured Whey (Milk), Vinegar, Natural Flavors, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Yeast Food (Ammonium Sulfate), Soy Lecithin.

I have given it up since moving. I now make my own via a bread machine. There are 6 ingredients in my bread now. Water, sugar, salt, flour, dry milk, yeast. That's it. It's fantastic. Tastes amazing. Makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

I also have given up store bought cereal. The amount of sugar in a bowl of cereal is enough to run a toddler for an afternoon. Home made granola cereal is so much fun though. As long as you don't burn it. :) And I can change it every time I make it and it's like a whole new cereal. Sunflower seeds, peanut butter, almonds, raisins, cranberries, wheat germ, even baked apples. Everything adds a new flavor and each has it's own nutrition value. Well wheat germ doesn't add much flavor but it's nutritious.

One word. Bisquick. My grandmothers secret to amazing pancakes. Holy preservatives Bat Man. So easy to mix up a batch of home made "bisquick" without the preservatives. It's not like they help preserve a healthy body. Botox would do a better job.

I'll keep adding to the list of foods I've learned to make to avoid the prepackaged - quick and dirty - foods. Next up: The Bug's favorite: Kraft Mac and Cheese.