It's Finally That Time Pt 2

Continuing from where I left, we are still in the back yard.

This is where we are going to put the carrots and onions. We filled most of it with compost. Now we are just waiting to buy some top soil. A friend gave us this raised bed, so we wanted to put it to good use.

Here is the left side of the garden. The first row are some seed potatoes that we planted. It is already starting to grow through the ground. Behind that towards the back, we planted some leeks.

I'm sorry that this side came out a little blurry. In these rows we have planted cabbage, cucumber, corn, and peas. We forgot to buy beans, so that still has to go in.

In this picture, you are probably thinking...what in the world? We have more potatoes under the hay. We read somewhere that you can plant potato above ground. as it grows, just keep covering it with hay. We had tried it last year and weren't successful, so we wanted to give it one more try.

Here is just part of our compost pile. It should be ready to use in our fall garden.

Now, we can move to the front of the house. That is all I have as far as food goes.

The first picture is what the front of the house looks like now. On the right is what it looked like when we first moved in. We cut down all of the overgrown holly bushes. The electric company cam and cut down the tree. we have plans to put strawberries in from of the house, but it is almost too late now. Yeah, I know and John needs to cut the grass again. I will get him on it.

I am growing Chinese lantern in the hanging basket. There is a small pot right below that that is growing marigolds. You can also really see how much the grass needs to be cut.

I'm almost done, I promise.

On each side of the door, I have alyssum around the outside edge and morning glory in the middle. That is what that butterfly looking leaf is.

Then on each side of the porch, I have pots with African violets starting to grow in.

See, I told you that I was almost done. That is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

It's Finally That Time Pt 1

Last year I discovered my new love for gardening. I never thought that it would be something that I would enjoy. I figured that maybe I would set a flower pot out here and there and that would be the extent of it.

Since the weather has finally warmed up, we have been busy trying to get the soil ready for planting. One of my long term goals is to feed my family from the garden 90% of the time. Since we has so much rain towards the end of the summer last year, we planted some of our stuff in containers.



There is thyme and dill growing in this pot. It is set out by the back door. Things are starting to come up, but as you can see it will still be a while.

The big black thing is actually a spool from cable wire. Pretty cool, huh? We have one on each side of the patio with lettuce and rosemary. I can't wait to taste those yummy summer salads. The small pot in the front is last years catnip, that grew back. Right behind in will be oregano. The pot all the way to the left is also from last year. That has dill, parsley and basil.



Ok, let's see if I can remember what I have here. The first two pots are turnips, the next two are radishes, and the last two black ones are beets. The brown pot has lavender that I inherited, but I'm not sure that it is going to make it. Then you can see the rest of my lettuce and rosemary.

This, here is four trays of starter tomatoes. We made the little pots out of newspaper, so when we transplant it to the garden it will be biodegradable. I don't remember the order, but I will tell you what we have. One tray is just regular hybrids. Then we have some cherry tomatoes. Another tray is a grape tomato that we ordered from Burpees. If you eat it at room temperature, it tastes like a tomato, but when you put the same tomato in the fridge it will taste like grapes, cold. I can't wait to try those. The last tray has another grape tomato that has a hint of honey. Those are called honeybunches.

I have so much more to share with you, so I will be back by the end of the week. I hope that I can inspire you to be self sustaining and grow some of your own food.

As Good as New

My husband had gotten some free tables off of Craigslist. It is pretty heavy wood and still usable. The only problem was the had a Pit Bull puppy that had chewed the side of the coffee table. It did look terrible and I wish I remembered to take a before picture. Well, let's not focus on where we came from. Let's just focus on where we ae going.

When I originally got the tables I figured there had to be something that I can do to make it look better. I wanted to sand down the edge of the whole thing and let it have a bumpy look all the way around. there I wanted to square off the edge with and new piece of wood and then tile it. Yeah, right1 What was I thinking.

Anyway, here is what we came up with.


We covers it the a heavy fabric that is made to look like leather, but it actually feels like a microfiber. We went ahead and cover the end table, too.


I love the way they came out. I couldn't be more please.

We are working slow, but I'm so happy to see some progress being made in my house. This month makes a year that we have lived here. I can't wait to share what we are doing next.

Change Jar Challenge

Families Focus is starting a fun challenge. Gather all of those coins and let's see how much we can make it grow. This is the old school way of having a savings account. If you would like to join in just post your running total on the site. Through motivation and encouragement we can help each other have that emergency back up plan.

Join in here (note: you must register)

Stay tuned for lots more fun challenges to keep money in your pockets.

CVS $5 Challenge 5/3-5/9

I have been doing this challenge for a few weeks, now and it's really fun. Basically, all you have to do is see how much you can get without spending more than $5 out of pocket.

For more details and other scenarios, visit Kingdom First Mom.


Here is what I did:

I had $3 in Extra Care Bucks (ECB) from last week.

Transaction 1:

Bought Colgate Max White Toothpaste for $2.99
Used Colgate coupon for $1 (SS 4/26)

Payed with $2 ECB from last week
Total out of pocket = $.07 (tax)

Transaction 1:

Bought Adidas 3 deodorant for $3.99
Used Adidas coupon for $1 (RP 4/5)

Payed with $2 ECB from previous transaction and $1 ECB from last week
Total out of pocket = $.07 (tax)

Total for the week was $.14
ECB for next week $3

Total value = $6.98