Monday, April 30, 2012

4-30-12

Blogger hasn't been nice to me lately.
I wrote a whole bunch yesterday
and went to publish it and only the 
part about the flea market and the seeds
I bought showed up.  I was so upset
because I posted a lot and didn't
feel like writing it all again.
So today we'll see how it goes
and I'll try to redo everything. 


-------------------------------------------------------

7:30am

I got everything reposted again from yesterday.
What a pain in the rear.


------------------------------------------------------------


9:30 - 10:15pm

 I got the tomato cages, which was one long
continuous cage that went around
my tomato plants last year, taken down and rolled up.
It was tacked in with U shaped staples,
wiring and rope to hold it up on the posts
and bottom boards to keep the rabbits and
other critters out.  No fun.  But it's done.
Then I removed and raked out all
the weeds.   Nothing like starting
off the morning with sore arms.
Now comes the fun part of figureing out
how to design the garden beds.
Kinda liking this layout found HERE.
But will have to adjust it some to the plants I have
or will grow from seeds.
You also have to figure out what plants
can be grown with others.
This is called companion planting.
Might have to move my window and stuff to another 
location if I would plant tomatoes along the fence.

Still have to bag up all the weeds.  Maybe later on.




----------------------------------------------------




5:00pm


Still trying to plan out my garden beds.
Not having fun and are getting flustered with it.
You have to consider the type of plants you put
in the beds, how much sun they need and
what plants are compatible with others.
Sounds easy but it's not.


Making Chinese for supper tonight.
I sliced up some smoked sausages and threw
them in a pot of water with a little soy/teriyaki sauce.
Once it starts to boil then I'll throw in spaghetti.
I'll serve it with Chinese stir-fry veggies and teriyaki
sauce drizzled on top.




-------------------------------------------------------------




8:00pm




This evening I went and got a small load of 
free wood from hubby's work from where they
are redoing some upper patio decks.
Plenty more wood to get if I need it.
Didn't want to overdo it at the moment.
I won't be able to use this wood for the porch as
it is too thick and very heavy. 
It almost reminds me of railroad ties.
So that means they'll work great for
the garden and flower beds.
Most boards are already cut to 4'
which would be excellent for a square foot garden
which are usually 4' x 4'.
They are 2" thick and 6" wide and 4' length.
Check out the idea I had to store the wood.
I used a pool ladder.
Got from a yard sale last year for $3 to use
with our pool.  We're not putting the pool
up this year so I found another use for it.
No bare spots in the yard from where wood would
be laying. 


Well I just checked the weather and it
seems we're going to be getting some thunderstorms
around 9:00pm.
Good sleeping weather with the windows cracked open.


--------------------------------------------- 

Sunday, April 29, 2012

6:45pm

It's been a long day.  We got a lot 
of stuff done though.  Spent most of 
the time outdoors since the weather was nice.

You know you live in Ohio when
you get up early to head to the flea market
and are wearing a t-shirt under a sweater
and are wearing a winter coat with socks and shoes.
Then by the after noon you change into
shorts and a sleeveless shirt and go barefoot.
LOL. 

The flea market was better than last weekend
with more vendors.  I did find a couple vendors
who were selling the flower and veggie seed packets.
I got 50 seed packets for $2.00




 I also bought a 6 pack of hot banana pepper plants for $2.00.
That was a really good deal considering 
I saw ONE banana pepper plant at Walmart for $3.00.
It was the only other live plant I wanted to get for the garden.


When we got back home from the flea market
Tony cut the back yard.  I wanted to plan out
my garden beds but as I watched the sun and shading
I realize where I wanted to put the beds along
the fence in the back just wasn't going to work.
It turned out it was all shaded in that area
so I had to come up with a plan B.

Plan B will be to put the garden beds 
where I previously had a garden
the year before last.  It stays sunny most
of the day and I already have horse
manure mixed in the soil.  This photo was taken in the
late afternoon as the shade was setting in.  It won't be 
as large as the one before due
to a vehicle sitting on half of
the previous garden bed.  That is why
I am trying to learn about square foot gardening
so I can put just as many plants into a smaller space.
I still have a lot of work to do in the garden space
from raking it all out, pulling up old tomato fencing
and digging up dirt and making the wooden beds.
About 3 years ago I was given a ton of day lilies
for free if I dug them all up.  I ended up with
a small pickup truck load.  So many that I had a bunch
left over after planting them around the house.
I ended up planting the remaining ones at the edge
of the old garden.  Well I had to dig them all
up today if I wanted a garden here again.
I found them all a new home in the front 
of the house by all the bushes where
nothing else wants to grow.
They'll probably look crappy this year being
thinned out and transplanted but next
year they should look much better.

As I go around and show you things in my yard
I'll tell you prices of everything to make
the flower and garden beds and how I managed
to make them as cheap as possible.
The little wheel barrow I found free
along with the hose reel that I found along
the curb on trash day and all our hoses
left behind by residents where Tony works.



I still ended up with about 6 or so extra plants
and had to figure out where to plant them.
I decided to put them in the middle of my
rock bed with the zinnias.
The rocks were already there dumped into our
yard by the neighbor behind us trying to
block off the alley way and to keep
people from driving in the grass.
It looked like crap.  And I was a little upset
that he did it.  But he has since moved
and I'm trying to make the best of it
considering I can't pick these rocks
up and haul them outta here.
I arranged them into the flower bed you see
to make it look like something other than a rock pile.
While there was no evidence of ants or
ant hills in the flower bed I managed
to dig up a bunch and found them 
all up and down my arms and hands.
Those little buggers looked pissed off.
And I'm pretty sure they bit me because
the areas between my fingers burned and
hurt like heck afterwards.  I'm going to put some
crawling insect killer in there.
It's safe around pets, people, flower and veggie gardens.
I'm all about natural gardening 
and have been using this stuff for the past year. 
I even used it on my banana pepper plants
last year that started getting bugs.
They were gone by the next day!
That 4 lb bag at about $9 goes a long way!
I still have most of a bag left.
I put some in plastic condiment bottles
I found at a yard sale for .05 cents each
and squeeze it onto the areas that have pests.

Here is my Concord grapevine coming back this year.
I found it at Lowes in their mark down area.
I've had about 3-4 years now.
No grapes yet.


Tony was about ready to throw out this iron
umbrella base when I rescued it.
We haven't used patio umbrellas for years
and this has been sitting around doing nothing.
I found a metal pole to put in it.
I would like to find a bird feeder to put
on top of it.  This will keep squirrels out of the bird seed.
 Iron umbrella base was free and found at
my hubby's work.



Here is a bird bath, but I use it to give
the squirrels and neighborhood wild cats drink of water.
I found the metal bowl for free
and the table used to be a patio chair I found.
I removed the back part of the chair since it was broke.

I have two other actual birdbaths,
one is plastic and one is like a ceramic.
Both were gotten at yard sales for $2.00 each.


I got the solar powered tiki torches put in along the driveway.
They were $3 for 4 of them at a yard sale.
The iron work on the fence was part of a gazebo
we got off Freecycle.  I tore it apart and hung
the panels on the fence for morning glories to grow on.
The hostas were all gotten from my hubby's work.
Residents leave behind plants on their patio 
and I'll go over and dig them up and bring 'em home.
The old street bricks lining the driveway flower
bed were gotten free from my mom.
Someone had them as a sidewalk in front of mom's house
when they moved in and mom put
in a concrete walk and had them tore out.

 I decided I wanted to jazz up my garden area
considering it is my retreat area to go to
and relax.  I brought up an old window I had
in the basement and put it up on the fence.
I found it free along a curb.
The shutters I also got free along with the flower box.
The two wooden benches I got with the free
wood I picked up recently off Craigslist.
The medium sized flower pots were .05 cents each
at a church sale.  I even found the John Deer
wagon out along the curb.  I use it all the time
for gardening hauling plants, tools, bricks
and what not around the yard.  All my yard tools like
shovels, spades, hoe and rakes were given to us.


When working out in the yard on a sunny day
be sure to remove any heat patches that you
may have on your shoulders.  I forgot about the ones
I had on and had gotten a little sun on my shoulders
and now have a white, rectangle spot where
the patches were, lol.
These things have helped my shoulder pain.
You can get a box of 20 at Dollar Tree.

We had supper outside.  Tony fixed up some burgers on the grill with all the fixins.  We also had tater tots and potato salad.
The grill use was free.  A coworker of Tony's moved
into an apartment at their work.  The residents are no
longer allowed to have grills on the property
due to being a fire hazard.
His coworker had asked us if we could store the
grill at our house and in return we could use it
when we wanted.  It even came with a full tank of propane. 
All folding chairs and tables were found free
at Tony's work.



After a long day everyone was tired
and had their bellies full.
I noticed one kid went missing.
This is where I found him, in his room asleep
with his birthday bike over top him, lol.
We got the bike for him on Saturday and
told him he couldn't ride it til his birthday.
So he's been cleaning and working on it in his
room and admiring it like it was a trophy. 
It's a DK General Lee bike we got
off Craigslist. 








Saturday, April 28, 2012

4-28-12

2:30pm

I made some sweet Italian bread pizzas for lunch.

Sweet Italian bread $1.10
2 loaves cut in half 
then cut in half again.

1 can tomato soup- .50 cents

 garlic powder & Italian seasoning- free

1 pkg pepperonis $1.67

leftover ham- free

onion- .05 cents

2 cups shredded cheese $1.89

Total cost:  $5.21
serves 8 @ .65 cents a serving


-----------------------------------------------------------


I learned today that at hubby's work
they are totally redoing some of
the upper patio decks.
I'm going to try and get hold
of some of the old decking wood for free.
That sure would help out a lot
with all my projects.
If I can get that wood I could also
do my back stoop and maybe
make some borders around all my flower beds.


-----------------------------------------------------------




4:00pm


Got the Charger sold today.
That's two things sold in the past week.


----------------------------------------------------------


5:00pm



My body aches are improving today
since putting heat patches on my shoulders.
But the tiredness starts to overwhelm me at times.
Was getting ready to lay down
and this is what I found in my bed!
Kitty's got it so rough around here, lol.
'Bout ready to tell him to scooch his 
butt over so I can lay down.


------------------------------------------------------------




I just submitted my 6th reusable tote
bag design for the Kroger contest.




-----------------------------------------------------------------------




I told y'all yesterday that I had flowers coming up.
I forgot to mention that both of my trees I planted
3 years ago will have pears this year.
Be sure to check the marked down plants
area at your nearest Lowes.
I found these pear trees for only $1.50 each tree!!
I knew I wanted to plant a couple trees
to watch them grow over the years.
And I knew I didn't want ordinary trees
but ones that would be practical and
supply us some food. 
To buy fruit bearing trees you need
to have two in order for them to produce fruit.
Just like it takes a man and woman to make a baby.  
It kind of works the same way with
fruit trees.  The bees carry the pollen from
one tree to the other pollinating them.
I planted them on the first anniversary of 
buying our home.  I really wanted them after
moving in but couldn't afford any
especially after buying things for our home
like lawn and garden equipment,
paying 3% down, earnest money, paying 
inspector fees and everything else
that requires money when buying a house.
The first year we had them only one produced pears
while the other didn't have any.
Last year neither had any pears.
And I'm excited about them both having
pears this year.
It appeared that some of the pear buds
had been damaged by frost.
But there are some without the frost bite.
We'll see how this Ohio weather goes
to see if they pull through and make it.
And ya gotta watch the neighborhood kids
who like to pull the fruits from the trees
and use them as baseballs.  Grrr!
That happened the first year and I was so upset!
You take care of and baby your plants for many months
only to have it ruined like that.


------------------------------------------------


8:20pm

Kitty the pole dancer, lol.



---------------------------------------------------------


Friday, April 27, 2012

4-27-12


Have no idea what happened to the posts
I posted today.  I hope Blogger don't start this crap again.
I had problems before with my posts disappearing.

I don't feel like reposting everything from earlier.

I still don't feel good.  Better but not the best.
My legs feel like jello and are shaky when walking.
I did manage to unload the lumber from the truck
tonight.  I'm guessing with what lumber I have
to work with that I can make six 3-4" x 2' x 4'
raised garden beds.  Going to try to work
with the free wood I have before buying any.


Tony got the yard cut this eve
and I got my 4 solar tiki torches
in the ground along the driveway
that I got at a yard sale today.
They're pretty cool.  They flicker like
those flameless candles.
Not too shabby for .75 cents each.


I also noticed that I have flowers coming
up that I planted less than 2 weeks ago.
Got a bunch of zinnia starts in the rock flower bed
and a bunch of marigolds coming up 
in the front yard corner flower bed.
Oh, and some of my onions are starting to come up.
I had squirrels dig up a few and I replanted
them because they didn't seem damaged.
Maybe the smell got to them, lol.


I've been hoping to find the person with
all the seed packets at the flea market
30 for $1.00 but they haven't been there
the last couple of weeks.
Been wanting to stock up on some
veggie seeds.  I'm stocked on flower seeds.

Well it's almost 9:00pm and I think I'm going
to head to bed and watch some Ghost Adventurers.  
Tomorrow we're going to get
a bicycle for Jonathan for his birthday coming up.
He picked out a General Lee bike
off of Craigslist.
We have to meet the owner tomorrow at his work.
He works at the Toy Barn in Dublin.
I've heard of this place and for those of you
who don't know what it is, it's a place
that sells exotic, high dollar sports, muscle and one
of a kind cars.  I checked them out online
and saw a couple of their cars 
going for $108,000!
I warned the kids not to get anywhere
near these cars when we go there.
You can look but DO NOT TOUCH!
I'll be taking my camera along with me.



Thursday, April 26, 2012

4-26-12

9:40am

Mom called this morning and asked
if I wanted to tag along on her trip to Meijer.
I said sure because I wanted to check out their
vegetable plants.  This is usually where I buy
them cheaper than other stores.

Today I found veggie plants for
.99 cents a 4 pack.  While checking
for some decent plants and making sure
the ones I picked had four plants in each one
(many I picked up only had three
so be sure to check) 
I noticed that some had extra plants
in them.  I got 11- 4 packs of veggies.
I ended up getting 4 extra plants
in some of those packs for
a total of 48 plants.
Total cost was $10.89
Then I used a 10% employee discount of $1.09
and that made them all $9.80or .89 cents a 4 pack.
When you add in the extra 4 plants I got 
it was like I paid .20 cents per plant.

I got-

2 pks Early Girl Tomatoes

1pk Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes

3 pks Beefmaster Tomatoes
(somehow I ended up with 3 packs
of these when I only wanted 2)

1pk Green Bell Peppers

1pk Yellow Bell Peppers

1pk Red Bell Peppers

1pk Ceyenne Peppers 

1pk Red Chili Peppers 

Before checking out with my plants
I cruised by the produce section because
 I know sometimes Meijer will put out
a cart with marked down fruits and veggies.
I got 2 heads of lettuce for .25 cents each
and 3 bags of celery.
.67 cents, .55 cents and .50 cents for each one.

Did you know that you can chop off the 
bottoms of store bought celery and plant them
in your garden and they will regrow?!
 So there's three more plants I'll add to my garden.
Still need to make the garden though so these
plants will stay inside til then.

--------------------------------------------------------------------


8:55pm

I felt ok today.
At least this morning and part of this afternoon.
I decided to use that time of feeling better
to straighten up my house which
has been going to heck and back the last
couple of days due to not feeling well.
I think I rushed into things.
I now feel worse than what I started with.
Shoulders down both arms, my upper legs
and my lower back ache, throb and feel inflamed.
One step forward and three steps back.
Still taking mom to some yard sales
tomorrow morning for a bit,
or at least as long as I can stand it.
Ibuprofen isn't doing a darn thing.
I might try Naproxin tomorrow aka Alleve
to see if that works any better for the muscle
and joint pain.

I'm tired so might be heading to bed soon.
I was up at 3:45am this morning when the
rain came down in sheets.
It was raining so hard hitting the window
and that's what had woke me up.
I got up and went out under the carport
to see if the yard might be flooding again.
I didn't see anything.  Then I went to the basement
to check the fuse box.  During major down pours
we have been getting water coming in through
where wiring comes through our basement walls
and water would pour over our breaker box.
We ended up with a bad main breaker
one time and lost half the power to our home
around Christmas time.
The breaker box is less than 4 years old.
A couple months ago I caulked all the outside
holes around wiring.  
Thank God it worked this time around
keeping water out! 


Nighty night.
Hoping tomorrow is a better day for me
because at the moment my body feels like
it is on fire.


 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

4-25-12

Here is my most recent bag designed for the
Kroger reusable bag contest.
Please vote for it HERE :0) 
It's the most popular of all the bags I've designed so far.
It's ranking 146 out of 16, 064 bags designs entered.




-----------------------------------------------------


9:30am

Still feeling a little achy and tired today
but not as bad as yesterday.
  
2:30pm

I awoke from my nap with an awful case of acid reflux.
I took a heartburn pill in hopes that it will clear up soon.
And guess what?  I'm making chili for supper.
Boy if those two don't clash. 


-----------------------------------------------------------------


7:30pm


Still haven't got around to getting the wood out
of the truck since Monday eve.
But I have noticed that boards are
slowly disappearing out of there.
And have noticed a fort of some
sort being built by our shed.
So much for using some of my wood
to make garden boxes out of, lol.
That's ok.  I figured out a plan "B"
to make them fairly cheap.
It will cost $21.28 plus tax to make
seven- 7 foot long x 2 feet wide raised garden beds 5 1/2 inches high (all connecting to one another) 
if I use 17 fence picket boards from Lowes.
Double that price and supplies to $42.56 if I make
the garden bed 11" tall.
I already have screws and scrap wood
to use in the corners of the beds to attach the sides to.
The only thing I would need is to hire
someone to go pick up a truck load of free horse manure for me
if or when I make them.



------------------------------------------------------

 8:45pm


Going to lay down.  I took ibuprofen
about 40 minutes ago and feel no relief
of pain in my shoulders/arms from it.
I don't dare raise my arms up.  
I'm lucky to get my hair tied up in a pony
tail and that's all I can do.
I can't even comb/brush out my hair at the moment.

-------------------------------------------------------------