That'll Teach 'Em!

I just had to share this. I found it on Craigslist and couldn't quit laughing. I am not one that advocates child abuse in anyway but this one might just work. I can totally relate to this guy's plight as having a 13 year old will test anyone's patience. He may have just found the perfect "listening" tool or tools depending on how you look at it. So here it is...... Please don't hate me if you think this is cruel, I just thought it was funny.

Hello,

This may sound strange but it's been brewing in my head for a long time. Like many of you that have children, mine don't always listen. I'm starting to get really tired of this and have an idea for how I'd like to help motivate a bit of change around my house. I'm looking for a stack of bricks (50-100), preferably regular house bricks as my children are 11-5 in age and can't pick up the big ones.

My idea is that I'd have a stack of them at one end of my yard and when they haven't done what I've asked (like hang up their clothes for the 4th time that day) then they can move the brick stack from one side of the yard to the back of the yard. Nothing horrible, but it'll be nice and boring and hopefully it will teach them that picking up their clothes is so much easier than moving bricks :)

If you'd like to help out with this little project of mine, please let me know. I'll be happy to come pick them up and I'll pay you $10 to take them off your hands. I live in Boise and will travel anywhere in the valley.

Thanks!
Mike

Well, what did you think? Mean as heck or just the perfect plan? I personally think it could go both ways but it is creative as most of today's children don't seem to know the true meaning of hard work in relation to the luxuries they have on a daily basis. Mine included as evidenced by the recent loss of her cell phone usage for a week. Maybe I will try bricks when the texts exceed 5,000 per month. That would likely go over like a ton of bricks....... Get it?

My Compost In Need of Remodel

I got this very cool compost tumbler for my birthday a couple years ago. Does anyone see the trend here? Pygmy goats, compost tumblers. My next birthday is coming up and I fear what is next. Actually, I loved this gift and the goats are still growing on me. We chose this one by Mantis. It is called a ComposT-Twin Compost Tumbler. It has two 10 bushel chambers so you can fill one while you cook the other. The company claims 14 days to Brown Gold but it is really more like 6 weeks in my world. I probably could get it done a little faster if I really paid attention to it but I get easily side tracked. This will be the third year with this gadget and I really like it. Plus non-gardeners are always asking funny questions about it, which is often a good laugh for us.

The real problem lies in the pile we have waiting to go into the compost tumbler. This is not so pretty and I plan to do something about that this year. In the beginning we tried to contain it with some left over wire cattle panels.

I had tons of sod to add and didn't want to put it in the pile inside the cage so I dumped it out in front. Sod is very heavy when first removed from a new planting bed. We recently acquired a chipper/shredder so now the options are endless. We are going to shred all this stuff and add it to a newly built compost system. My husband just doesn't know this yet. I have to let him come up with the plan and then I will pull out the drawings and pictures of how I want it to look. We are getting awfully handy with the little building projects. That little willow shrub needs to come out too but that is another day, another project. One step at a time around here.

Raised Beds Free of Snow

 

This is what the raised beds look like when nothing is planted in them. But the true intention here is to gloat about the fact that there is officially no snow in the immediate area. YEAH!!!! Nothing is greening up yet but when the snow actually leaves, there is cause for celebration. My beds are made out of 2x12 lumber which is not pressure treated. They will not last as long but the possibility of bad stuff leaching into the dirt and veggies was enough to be OK with rebuilding them in 5 or so years. I may even get more time than that out of them. We will have to see.

These barren pictures show the layout pretty well. The grates on top are made from cattle panel (?) with about 6 in. squares in them. I have them cut so that nothing over hangs the bed, therefore no leg injuries when you walk by. The purpose of this is to keep the pets out of them. I had tall growing plants in the ones without last year. I will add them this year. You can plant right between the squares and plants come right up through them without any problems. Very great when the cats don't use them for, well you know. We filled these beds with compost only the first year. They were very hard to keep wet enough for good growing. I added Miracle Grow Garden Soil the following year. Only 2-3 bags per bed and they held moisture perfectly. I am going to try mulching them this year. Maybe with grass clippings? I have always been hesitant but I think they need some good additives as nutrient leach from the soil of raised beds very quickly.

All Moved In.... Almost!

I am most of the way moved into my new garden shed. I found a lot of my tools and garden musts and hung them on the pegboard. I added things to my lower shelf and organized it all as I went. I plan to use the shelf for starting seeds next year. I would like to hang grow lights to the under side of the counter and have my trays there until time to harden off out doors. I would still like to buy a little more pegboard organizing stuff so that everything has it's own perfect spot. Buying before building turned out pretty well though.

I quickly realized I have more little hand rakes than one girl needs. I think I picked them up for several years in a row when I wasn't as organized. My husband also keeps bringing me things that he thinks a garden shed ought to have. On the opposite wall, I would still like to install hangers of some kind to hang up my long handled tools like shovels, rakes, and the like. Maybe another shelving unit for more storage.

I also added some potting soil to the bin, more for show than for anything. I even got a cool vintage ice scoop (?). Also a gift from the man shop side of this building.

The finger is still very sore, not nearly as bad now that I hand drilled my little pressure relief hole. That was pretty high up on my hardest things to do list. I really don't believe man was meant to bore holes into his body (other than ear piercing). Pretty sure the nail will be gone shortly but as I've been told.... it could have been worse.

Dang Goat

It really is hard to be annoyed with this funny little goat. Ollie is just a character. Heck, he's even photogenic. We have been letting them out of the barnyard and into the yard while we work outside. We figured they could use a change of scenery too. Plus their little feet could use some trimming which can effectively be done on the alphalt of the drive if they would just stay on the driveway. Ollie has decided I must be one of his 'girls'. He started trying to herd me, and headbut me when I don't do what he wants. Which is all made more annoying by the fact that he is a wether goat. Short for neutered. This little dork, slept in my house because he was such a ninny when we got him. I couldn't stand the thought of him feeling afraid or mistreated by the girl goats. Now he is king of the hill. Not so cool when acted out by a 45 pound goat. He is little and full of attitude. I think he sometimes forgets who feeds him so well here. OK, so my husband feeds him, but I let him be fed. He should remember that. The funniest thing I have seen in a while is Ollie running full tilt down the long driveway. His back end gets going faster than his front legs will take him and you just know there is about to be a disaster. There never is, but it is damn funny nonetheless. He always has to keep Doyle in sight and yells if he can't see him. My husband has a bromance going with a pygmy goat. Nuts, huh?

Garden Shed Completed

I had this slightly used and very messy storage room off the shop and accessible from many areas of the garden. I tended to toss big junk in here every year and always wished I had a garden shed in which to store my stuff. Sometimes it takes a lightning strike to make good ideas occur to me. I had a lot of snow time on my hands this winter to plot and plan this spring's projects and this one made the list. I really wanted to house all of my garden paraphernalia in one spot and not have to look in the barn, the garage or the man shop to find what I was looking for. Inside the house I am extremely organized, in the yard and garden I am organized. But in the garden tool category I failed. So here is the project; before and after.

This work bench is taller than a normal one. I should have measured the one in my husband's man shop but I thought I knew best. I chose 40 inches because I hate to bend over and since I am 6'4" (not really, I am 5'5") I thought this sounded good. Way too tall. Oh, well. We seriously over built the bench and in the process I hurt my finger, which still hurts 4 days later. I finally drilled a hole in the nail and let some of the pressure out and boy does it feel better. I can touch it now.

We added peg board all the way around the work area so that I could organize in my legendary (laughed about) manner. This room has been paneled for many years with some old salvage paneling. It's original purpose was a fort for my daughter who is now too old to have one. But it is insulated and we plan to add a ceiling soon. For now it functions perfectly. I added a shelf close to the ground and that way I can add grow lights from the underside of the counter, hung on chains so they can travel up and down above new seedlings. This room has power so I plan to start my seeds in here next year. The big window you see above the workbench opens into the shop, which has a wood burning stove, so the seedlings won't freeze in the early spring. See how well this little project came together?

We also recessed a shallow tub into the counter top so that when I am potting up plants or filling seed trays I will have a nice place to hold my dirt. I even bought a garbage can to house all that pretty potting soil. Then when I want to store my dirt back in the big garbage can, I just lift this tub out an dump it all back in. This is something I always wanted.

And lastly, you must have the inspector come and deem all of the work proper and usable. Ollie did this for us free of charge. He quickly found he could scratch his head here perfectly, I think he was thinking this when I took the picture. Isn't he cute? Last week he was about to become a head mount for the new garden shed, this week he isn't head butting as much, he will live to eat another day:-D

Ouch!

While working on my first project to cross off the list, I hurt my finger. Bad. I don't know if it is the fact that I have been crash dieting or that I am a weenie, but I almost threw up. Then I thought "that's gonna leave a mark". My husband I were working on converting an unused storage room in the shop to a garden shed with a workbench, when somehow a 12 foot long 2x4 smashed it. Before I even had a chance to explain what just happened it had started to darken. Thank goodness it wasn't the hand I clean teeth with. That would have been hard to explain.... why sick has nothing to do with illness and everything to do with a smashed finger. Forgive the crummy fingernail polish but I also pulled early spring weeds. Just thought I would share my newest owie. I am a klutz. Boy, my husband felt bad.