This is a funny title for a stormy patch. The last few days, we’ve had rain, hail and howling winds and some of us may have gotten a little stir-crazy, but we got some stuff done! Lets start with the most exciting thing. Something I have been waiting for for rather a long time. A really, really long time. Guess what got done on the weekend? The Husband installed the WASHING LINE. Yes! Can you believe it?
The old wind-up style washing line got taken down some time ago because it was falling apart and in the way of things, like my plant alcove and the pruning mountain. It was also too shady thanks to the cedar tree. The Parents-in-law kindly gave us a fence-mounted washing line that they didn’t need. That was more than two years ago… The Husband has now earned himself some major brownie points. He even had to attach it twice, because the first time he attached it too close to the house so that a person coming down that side of the house could hardly get past when the washing line was up. Thankfully, The Husband maintained his sanity enough to move it further down the fence for me. Behold, this marvelous sight!
Of course, I won’t get to test it out for some time if this blasted rain continues.
I ended up out in the blasted weather, trying to waterproof the chicken coop. Water was seeping into the far end, so I took The Husband’s suggestion and dug back the dirt near the outside of that end and attached some black plastic, then weighed it down with some bricks and dirt, to try and keep the water from getting under the bottom of the wood. The chickens were very enthusiastic about the dirt that I was chucking around all over the place. After more stormy weather, some water is still getting in so I will have to reassess the situation.
I also rendered a big batch of lard. I had one packet of pork skin and a big chunk of fat that The Husband had cut off a pork shoulder roast. It took a long time of keeping an eye on the slow cooker, but the result was a very good stash of lard for our cooking needs. And some pork crispies.
I’ve pricked out and potted up most of my tomato, capsicum and chili seedlings. So far, I’ve done 42 tomatoes, nine capsicums and six chillies and there are still some tomatoes and capsicums to go. There are two questions: 1) what am I going to do with all these tomato plants? and 2) where am I going to fit all these seedlings? There isn’t quite enough space for 50-odd tomatoes in my Vege Plan. I’ve actually only got 12 in my plan. At the moment. I’m sure I can squish a few more in the garden somewhere… But since I needed to re-sow some of my first batch of tomato seeds, I purposely sowed more than I needed to so I could sell some. I might as well try to make a bit of money for my efforts. As for where they’re all sitting at the moment, well, let’s just say the dining table is slowly getting gobbled up by plant trays. A mini greenhouse is on my project list.
I also sent a few things off to a new home. I heard that there were some families who needed basic things like curtains, and I felt that I should give them the half-houselot (six sets) of curtains that we replaced after moving in. I was intending to sell them one day, as they were quite new, just not to my tastes, but it feels so much better to give them to people who really need them. I know what’s it’s like to live in a house missing some curtains for a very short time and can’t imagine how cold and dreary it must be on a worse scale. I also took a few unused items to the Re-store (Habitat For Humanity). De-cluttering gets even better when your stuff can make a difference to someone else!
On a final note, one egg thief has been caught. But there might be more than one, and so the plot thickens. Who or what will it be?
Wild Hope Homestead 