With most of the major gardening done, I can concentrate on the indoors. I have a few gardening chores still, but they won’t take as much time as they did last month.
This month, I plan to focus on organizing, spring cleaning, and decorating. We did a lot of organizing and cleaning last week; we rearranged both girls’ bedrooms and three closest, organized the pantry, organized the toiletries, organized part of the sewing room, and organized part of the laundry room, which leaves less to do this month.
The organizing and cleaning jobs are jobs that will involve the whole family.
I also want to take care of the huge mending pile.
Gardening:
1. Plant warm season seeds (beans, Armenian cucumbers, squash)
2. Plant summer-flowering bulbs when they arrive (dahlias, lilies)
3. Plant more lettuce seeds
4. Plant hollyhock seeds (I’m trying some short varieties that I hope will stay up in the wind)
5. Plant sunflower seeds
6. Move two pots in garden. Replant green onions from one pot in the garden and dig up a small euyonomus plant to plant in their place.
7. Move stakes in the garden that aren’t needed and put them in where they are needed
8. Thin apricot trees (instructions here)
Sewing:
1. Sew two pillows for the living room
2. Mend at least 31 items from the mending pile
3. Sew dress for Wren for her birthday
4. Sew aprons
5. Sew skirt for Wren for her birthday
Organization:
1. Finish organizing sewing room
2. Organize my clothing in closet
3. Organize one drawer in my dresser
4. Pack away winter clothing from all family members
5. Organize one kitchen cabinet
6. Organize bedroom closet
7. Organize sewing closet
8. Finish organizing laundry room
Spring Cleaning:
1. Wash fronts of kitchen cabinets and drawers
2. Vacuum tops of kitchen cabinets
3. Clean door frames
4. Clean all light fixtures and ceiling fans in house
5. Wash walls
6. Wash baseboards
7. Clean carpet in both girls’ rooms
8. Wash windows, window tracks, and windowsills
9. Clean behind and under refrigerator, and clean refrigerator coils
10. Clean behind washer and dryer
11. Clean patio
Decorating:
1. Take new family pictures, have them printed, and hang them in the dining room. I have a $25 Sam’s Club gift card that I earned from Swagbucks in December that I keep forgetting to use. I will use it to pay for prints.
2. Change pictures in girls’ rooms. I hung some frames in their rooms and now need to print new pictures for them.
3. Choose artwork for two frames in bathroom
4. Print photo for empty frame on my nightstand
Hello Brandy & all from Australia 🙂 .
In the garden –
– Make more use of the space in the garden by constant planting & filling in gaps, by doing so there will be continual supplies of vegetables like peas, beans and beetroot instead of gaps in having some produce to eat.
– Be more diligent in picking vegetables from the gardens to avoid waste or over ripe produce.
– Continue going out each day to weed the gardens to keep on top of them so that it isn’t such a big task all at once.
Craft hobby business –
– Catch up and make more items to add to my store which have been sold such as eye masks & journal covers.
Groceries –
– To keep within the budget that I have & spending less this month, pulling in overspends from the last 2 months from stocking some essentials up to a 12 month supply.
– Check on supplies of yeast, bicarb soda, and dried fruits to see if I need to restock any of these this month as the wholesale bulk grocery supplier on the internet I deal with is having a 15% off sale this week.
In the home-
– Continue to re-organise rooms to enable more stocking of medical supplies, flours etc.
– Do some autumn cleaning and pull out the stove & fridge and clean underneath.
– Clean some windows both outside and inside the house.
I am definitely going to be diving into the spring cleaning this month, too! We’ve had some really lovely weather here, and I am considering planting my lettuce and spinach seeds. I don’t want to plant a lot since we are definitely still in the winter season here. But I can cover one small raised bed in the event of snow or frost.
Here are my goals for the week: http://www.mediumsizedfamily.com/work-the-plan-goals-for-the-week-229/
Brandy,
I have been a quiet reader of your blog for some time now. I truly love all your posts and eagerly awaiting the beginning of a new week for I know you will have new posts up! I am barely starting out on the journey of frugal living/saving and by that, I mean, reading and trying to get things in order to start. I LOVE seeing your to do lists and what you have accomplished each week. Please keep them coming!! Blessings from Texas!
We’ve been bit by the spring cleaning big too. I’ve been selling using OfferUp app on my phone. It’s been great! Once we clear enough out between selling & donating (or trashing as appropriate), we will mske a sewing corner for me so I don’t have to keep stopping to clear kitchen table for meals 🙂
I will be re-organizing my sewing room this month. It is a small room (it is only 6′ x 6′) so it won’t be too much for me, but I am considering emptying it to the walls and starting over.
I will need to start washing the windows inside and out. If I do a window every four or 5 days I will have them all clean within this month.
I want to re-paint the front door. It is turquoise right now, but I am seeing too many doors that color. The door was purple before that and it got where 20% of the town seemed to have purple doors. I must have a new color this year. *laughing*
I am working up to a remodeling of the house. I am hoping to have some sketches ready in the next week or two for my husband.
We are planning the gardens for the year.
My 11 year old granddaughter wants to have an herb garden. I fear it might be too much for her, but we are working it out on paper. I don’t know enough about herbs yet to be much help, but I am trying.
She sketched what she wants and it looks like an old Colonial herb garden. I am hoping she loves it.
Any and all suggestions for the herb garden are welcome.
Becky, you might consider growing medicinal herbs as well as culinary herbs. You can make gentle and effective remedies from herbs you grow yourself. I think it’s a great way to take responsibility for your health without the side effects and expense of medicines. I recommend this book for “recipes” for different herbal remedies, it’s written by an MD. Have fun!
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Home-Well-Without-Prescriptions/dp/1426214820/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456855243&sr=8-2&keywords=Prescriptions+for+a+healthy+home.
We will be putting in our spring container garden, starting with peas, spinach, and other greens, as well as moving lavender from pots to our one in-ground flower bed that gets too hot to grow much else. I have a blanket, robe, and apron to mend, as well as a sweater to finish knitting for my son. We use a food rotation system in our pantry, so things stay in use quite well, but I will inventory everything as a reminder of what we have that I can work on using up. (I try to do an inventory once a year – I have a clipboard in the pantry where I can keep a running count the rest of the year of what’s in stock and what’s opened). My daughter will be with her father the end of the month, including her birthday; I hope to use that time to redecorate her crafting space so she can make better use of her supplies. [I already have her permission for this and we started sorting through her things for donate/trash/keep – but the final decorating will be done by me for her to come home and enjoy.] I will sort through both kids’ clothes for spring/summer to find out what, if anything, is needed for when our warm weather finally arrives.
A while back I read a tip that has helped make cleaning the top of the kitchen cabinets much easier : Line them with waxed paper! It is the perfect width for my cabinets and I use several sheets, overlapping them rather than one really long one which would be difficult to manage.
This past weekend we worked very hard in our yard. I got my son and husband to put a triangle shape concrete floor under my clothes line. I have a HUGE umbrella clothes line. It came from Australia. I hold 4 really large loads of wash. I needed a place to stand without bumps and odd dips etc. I have arthritis in my ankles and knees really bad. When I ‘misstep’ sometimes I fall all the way down. Now I have a nice level place to hang the laundry and can just turn the lines when I need to.
We also got old dead plants removed from our pots. Got some beautiful Lavender to plant in their place. I also got a new white Lady Banks rose to replace the one that died. We got a stone placed on the grave of my mother’s dog. (she is in our garden but I believe they need markers)
We got the roses trimmed back. (I have several large ones growing against my house) I wanted them cut down a lot. I saw an idea on pintrest to start a new rose by taking a cutting and putting it into a potato and planting it. I gave it a try with my beautiful yellow rose and will see how it goes.
We are dealing with some fire ants. My poor husband and son, and grandsons almost itched themselves silly with those darn things. We wanted to move some of my wood barrel buckets. They are so heavy with dirt that it was decided to remove some dirt and move the buckets and replace it with some compost as I have a lot. The ants were not happy with being turned out needless to say. We laughed at the silly dances they were doing but we got it done. Ants were sprayed and we got them moved.
We got or Basset hound Belle a bath. She did not like it one bit, but she smelled too much like a hound to not take advantage of the warm day. With the 2 boys it only took a few minutes and 3 bath towels later she smells much better.
I also washed all the heavy bedding and hung it to dry. Got it put away till next winter.
I only have one goal for March. It is to get the house listed. We are making huge progress. I got the sewing room cleaned Sunday night and Monday morning, and finished last night after work. That was a mess I had left for too long, so it was a major job. I cleaned for 5 hours this morning, spiffing up, and then we met with a realtor. She will get us numbers by tomorrow, as to what she thinks the house is worth. I was very pleased that she was satisfied with the rooms I had finished. There are several rooms left to finish, including the kids’ rooms, but with all the help I have coming in over the next few days, I think I can get it on the market on the 17th. She likes to put listings out on Thursdays. It actually needs to be done by the 14th, because she will have it photographed. So, that’s 2 weeks, since today is the 1st. After that, I will need to keep it spotless for showings.
Don’t be afraid of planting the herb garden. Most herbs are really just weeds! I would suggest cooking herbs since they smell great. She could enjoy eating them straight from the garden and learning how to cook with them. A pizza garden is fun. You grow all the herbs used on a pizza. Also children enjoy mints since they smell wonderful. A fun herb is called “toothache” Spilanthes acmell because it numbs your mouth.
I hope you remembered to remove the eyes of the potato before you planted the rose in it!! I did that many years ago and grew quite the crop of potatoes before realizing my mistake.
nope. Did not. The instructions I read said nothing about that. I will do it tomorrow. Thanks for the info.
Hi Rebecca and welcome from Australia :), to our frugal community and glad you are getting some inspiration from everyone.
Barely starting on frugal living and saving is a good place to start, you will be surprised from just starting how far you will get in a short period of time. By just taking baby steps and adding little by little to our supplies as we could afford it, following is what we have accomplished in 2 years on pensions through frugal living.
My husband & I have only started on this track also about 2 years ago and have now through frugal living and buying everything on special got 12 months worth of personal care & bath products, and now 3 months on most grocery items and 6 months of groceries on some other items. We are hoping to continue to stock our own home grocery store to a 12 month supply of everything this year.
We have also set up from scratch approx. 170 sq meters of vegetable and herb gardens with a drip irrigation system, which we are blessed to eat vegetables from almost every night without going to the shops to buy any vegetebles. Purchased a new garden tiller, a back pack brush cutter, blower vac, ride on lawn mower, 2 chainsaws, and a 7 x 5′ trailer with cash as well as a supply of fertilisers and vegetable seeds to last a year. We have also been building up a supply of fuel in jerry cans in the garage when it is cheap, for our car & garden machinery and have now reached around a 3 month stockpile. To explain the equipment we moved from the city to the country 2 years ago onto a 1/2 acre property and had no machinery to cope with being on acreage.
We are saving for our first home together whilst renting, and am really excited we have reached enough in our savings now to buy a cheaper block of land and shall continue to save to build our home. We hope to pay for everything with cash without borrowing from the banks at all.
All of us will be different in our progress depending on our individual finances, but the most important thing is to start.
We wish you luck in any progress you make, but in a short period of time you will see an improvement in both your grocery supplies and also in your savings too.
Hi Roxie from Australia :), and got to admit the clothes lines they make here are enormous and hold a good amount of laundry, usually as you say around 4 large loads of washing. Good to hear that you have a cement slab underneath to stand on too, it always helps to have stable & flat work suface to work on and also I would imagine help to keep your feet relatively dry in wet weather too.
I would highly suggest planting some lavender with the herbs. You can pick the flower buds before they bloom and dry them for a wonderful smelling potpourri. Then you can help your granddaughter to make some pretty sachets to give as Christmas or birthday gifts! There are lots of uses for lavender. I would suggest a little research on line for other ideas. Lavender is a perennial so it will come back every year, even with our harsh winters in Canada. Making different gifts from the lavender could become an ongoing project for you and your granddaughter to enjoy together.
hi Becky, I’ve never posted before but I love this blog and keep my eye peeled for your posts! I hope to get my house here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Va listed this month too! My husband died here at home on Thanksgiving (with me and a hospice nurse here) and I will be moving somewhere smaller and more manageable. But he had felt bad for a few years, and left so many unfinished house projects and clutter and pure filth and I have been decluttering and tossing and cleaning for a few months. My agent wouldn’t list this house until I hired a contractor to fix things so I am doing that now. I seem to look forward to big pickup trash day the most, every two weeks I build a huge pile of trash at the road.
Anyway, good luck – thinking of you and yours – C’mon spring! Lari from the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA
Brandy,
Where did you order your summer bulbs?
Thanks! Kim
Lari,
Oh, I feel for you! It sounds like you have a huge job cleaning up. It is thrilling when it all goes away to the trash or charity shops. I get that entirely.
I’m sorry for your loss. How special that you were able to be there with your husband at the end. I know you put everything aside during that time. I’ll bet it feels great to see things getting fixed up, but bittersweet, too.
Good luck getting it done:) I’ll keep updating everyone here (I love this blog, too, it’s one of my absolute favorites!), and on my blog. Thanks for all of the encouragement.
Kim,
In the past, I ordered lilies from Van Engelen, but they take orders starting in June for fall shipment and were sold out, so I went to Holland Bulb Farms for more Casa Blanca lilies. I ordered some from them a year or two ago and they did fine (those in afternoon shade; I found the sun burned them in the bud stage here (the ones I had planted in full sun; we’re just too hot that time of year in my area). So I ordered more from them in the jumbo pack option.
I also tried some new places this year:
Easy to Grow Bulbs for dahlias. I was looking for a specific dahlia (Cafe au Lait) and they had a great price–better than what I saw anywhere else.
(Today I heard about another place for dahlias, called connells-dahlias.com, and they have some dahlias in packs of 5 for $10, and some 5 for $15, which is a great price! So I might look into those next year if these do well and I decide I want more.)
I also ordered from a place called Eden Brothers. I ordered a couple of dahlias from them, but they were more expensive than Easy to Grow Bulbs. I also ordered the short hollyhock seeds from them. I know hollyhocks will grow here (I’ve grown them before) but we have a lot of wind and it is harsh on hollyhocks, so I’m hoping these shorter ones will be able to stay up.
I had a few dahlias last year from Winco, but I found I had to cut them right away to bring in; the sun was burning them otherwise. It’s hard to know where to plant things here when most things say “full sun” and they can’t be here; petals and leaves just burn on lots of plants come April through September. I also tried some dahlia seeds from Outside Pride. They were smaller and I think I’m more interested in the big ones; for something smaller that looks really similar and is much cheaper, I can just buy zinnia seeds in bulk from Wildseed Farms and I’ve ordered more from them this year, too).
Enjoy your summer flowers!
*Just a little note–I checked my email and Holland Bulb Farms has their dahlias 50% off this week, if they have the ones you want at the price you want. They have some other things on sale right now, too.
March Goals:
Gardening:
-start all of the cold weather veggies that need to be started and finish starting the perennial herbs.
– Re-build 2 of the raised beds that the sides rotted off and get them filled with good dirt (this will only happen if we quit getting snow DUMPED on us!)
– Fix the strawberry bed and get it prepped for the new plants. My chickens DESTROYED the bed and ripped up all of fabric mulch I had laid down. Note to self – make sure you have a better fence around your berries!!
– Build the raspberry bed to get that ready for the new canes.
– Figure out if the shadier areas can be fenced off and used for lettuces.
– Clean out the rabbit barn/shed and try and get the rest of the yard equipment in there now instead of the garage.
Do any of you know what can be used to bring balance back in to a heavily manured area (poultry, so hot manure)?? Nothing will grow where the original duck pen was but it is beautiful black dirt!
Sewing/Crafting:
-Make up more lots of feed sack totes to list and sell off the inventory.
-Make curtains for the trailer flip we are doing.
-If I have the materials, make a couple roman shades to replace the ones in our bedroom the kittens think are fun to play in at 5 AM (they are quickly ruining them – but they were here when we moved in 19 years ago so I guess it’s time for something new!)
-Make a couple dog leash hangers for the house and bus/RV
– Find another weathered apple crate to make one more rolling storage bin for the bulk items in my pantry.
Home:
– Finish deep cleaning the kitchen and then maintain it so it isn’t an embarrassment when someone drops by! My kitchen is old and very ugly but it is so much more so if it isn’t clean!
– Deep clean the pantry and possibly paint the walls.
– Try a new technique for removing the wall paper from the stairs to the family room. The first home owner just slapped wall paper up with out priming the walls and there is 2 layers so my plan is to just take the first layer off and then paint over the first layer since when that one is peeled, it also removes the paper covering the plaster of the drywall so you wind up having to mud huge sections of wall – which I despise!
– wash all the nose and muddy foot prints off the main floor windows!
Pets:
– Get all the cats rabies vax done and possible get the younger ones chipped
– Get the puppy chipped, get her lyme vaccines started and figure out how to manage things when she comes into heat (She’s a Dane – it’s not recommended to spay them before age 2)
– Get the other dogs yearly vax’s updated.
– Purchase all of the heartworm and flea and tick meds we need for the entire year
– Continue building up their food supply and purchase a couple large 50 gallon drums to keep it stored in for safety. I am also stocking up on canned food as this is less likely to be ruined in a tornado situation (our most likely natural disaster)
Your comment about wallpaper reminded me of seeing someone taking down wallpaper in a several hundred-year-old place in Switzerland. It was a history lesson, seeing 5 layers of wallpaper and they still weren’t to the bottom yet. I wondered how much space they would gain in the room when they finally got to the wall.
Hey, great idea! Thanks for sharing it!
Melissa,
I don’t know how long the duck pen has been empty. When poultry manure is first produced, it is very hot. If a pile sits for a year or more, it does break down into lovely composted manure, and then should work fine for gardens. My husband uses the tractor to scoop up the dirt/poop mixture from both the chicken pen and the pig pen and makes a pile. He just leaves it there for a year or until he needs it. Then, every time I empty a raised bed, he puts a scoop of the composted material on it before I re-plant. It keeps the soil fertile. He also puts big scoops on the big garden and tills it in.
We have tried putting leaves on the garden. One time I remember that we put lots of raked leaves on a certain section of the garden. The next spring, I planted green beans there. They ended up stunted and shriveled, and did not produce well. I learned that the leaves rob the soil of nitrogen while they are breaking down. The next year, after they were totally broken down, that section produced extremely well. We had that problem one time when we purchased compost made from peppermint leaves. (They grow it in huge fields and make Stash peppermint tea from it) It was not well rotted, and the large pile actually caught on fire in a small section, due to the heat from composting. Nothing would grow decently on the strip of garden where we had put that. Again, the following year, that was some of the best soil in the garden.
Don’t be afraid of the herb garden at all! My first “garden” my parents let me plant when I was 9 or so was an herb garden and I continued it till I was 12 when my parents divorced and I moved. I missed that herb garden almost as much as my dad and that was saying something.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is unless you want said herbs coming back year after year try and plant annuals. Parsley is a great one as you can use it for cooking, it grows well in a bunch of different environments and it’s a great introduction to medicinal herbs as it’ll help to settle an upset stomach.
My first herb garden consisted of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (my dad was a Paul Simon fan *laugh*) and it was a wonderful introduction into the world of herbs for me.
When I was a bit older I expanded my herb garden into things like bee balm and mint varieties. I planted my garden on an old stump and found it was a great way to help break down the stump.
I, now a days, after studying herbs a bit more, will grown Calendula (a marigold variety) as it is a wonderful moisturizing herb to make into salves and things. I also plant marigolds as insect repellent pretty much everywhere *laugh*.
The sky is the limit and trust me herbs are a great introduction into the world of gardening as they are pretty hardy plants :). Good luck and I hope your granddaughter loves it!
Becka you are a dream! Thank you! I have a miserable time cleaning the grease off the top of my cabinets (no proper hood in kitchen) and I get so frustrated. The wax paper would make it a LOT easier!!! Thank you!!!
Becky,
I think it is so neat that your granddaughter wants an Herb Garden 🙂 You can make a trip to the library together and check out some books on herbs for tips and ideas. Also I am sure that Pinterest is loaded with ideas as well. I would definitely choose Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme, Chamomile, Oregano, Sage, Mint (plant these contained as they will spread like wildfire!), and Chives. Your granddaughter may also want to make sure that there is space allowed for Annual herbs such as Basil, Borage, etc. Best of luck on a fun project!
Linda,
Thanks for sharing this book. It looks great! 🙂
I agree Rhonda! It would be a wonderful continuing project 🙂
Melonie,
I also use a clipboard and have one for the freezers too. It helps so much in saving money (and time) in being organized 🙂
I bet your daughter will be thrilled when she comes home 🙂
Hi Becka,
I really need to try this. I have seen this tip before but haven’t gotten around to it. This Spring I will!
Hi Lorna 🙂
Your posts are so motivating! I am really wanting to try my hand at succession planting this year. It seems perfect for keeping the garden going. And weeding every day keeps it from becoming overwhelming and not wanting to even touch it. 🙂
Lari, I am so sorry for your loss. I am praying for the Lord to bring you comfort, strength and to heal your heart. I’m glad that you are here 🙂
I am anxious to hear about the Rose/Potato venture 🙂 I wonder how long it takes.
Melissa,
When our pup was in heat I purchased boy’s boxer shorts and put them on her backwards having the tail use the fly. We had tried the belts and pads but she would always tear them up leaving a mess. The boxers worked great and she even took them off when she was done 🙂
🙂
Melissa V, who told you that Danes shouldn’t be spayed before the age of 2 years (please, tell me it wasn’t the breeder)? I was a veterinary technician for over 10 years and I’ve never heard that before. In fact there are several things that go against that logic. Aside from the risk of them getting pregnant, and the frustration of dealing with a massive dog in heat, the cost of your spay will go up two fold. First, mature spays are much more expensive because the there is more blood flow to the area which increases their surgery risk, and second, the cost of spays are determined my weight as a larger dog requires more anesthetic. A two year old Dane will be full sized, weighing much more than a 6 month old pup. I would highly suggest discussing this with your veterinarian as they have significantly more knowledge on the medical risks of waiting.
We are off to a busy start this month thanks to incredible weather. Normally we still have snow but it reached 67 yesterday and was bright and sunny 🙂
Some of the things on our list are:
~Finish cleaning out shop. My husband’s shop has been a catch-all and we started cleaning it a couple of days ago. We were able to fill 2 large contractor size trash bags with trash 🙂 We also have pulled aside some items to list for sale on Facebook yard sale sites as well as starting a pile for metal salvage which we will get cash for when turned in.
~We placed electric tape fence around the garden and the piggies are enjoying rooting for us 🙂 They do an amazing job tilling and it keeps us from having to feed them as much too!
~More canning. I learned how to pressure can last month so I have more recipes to make, I got bit by the pressure canning bug 🙂 I have had my canner for a couple of years but between busyness and intimidation I never got around to using it. I love freezing foods but like the idea of convenience for my Spaghetti Sauce, Beans, Soups, etc.
~I am making Mustard today 🙂 My first attempt. My husband and I tried a locally produced mustard Cherry & Habanero Stoneground Mustard. I had some Cherries in the freezer and everything else with the exception of the Habaneros so I am anxious to see how this fares.
~We started (too early!) pepper and tomato plants for the garden. Well, my honey said as they get bigger we will transplant and keep them in the shop in a sunny window. I am hoping that we didn’t jump the gun.
~I am doing research on starting perennials from seed. I had several packets of seed and would love to have more cutting flowers in the garden as well as herbs.
~More yard cleaning as weather allows. A company that trims trees in our area will drop off mulch for free so we have already requested for them to come this year so we need to make room for the piles 🙂 This has come in handy for paths in our garden and the path from our back porch to the shop/woodshed.
~Get some pallets and create a real compost system 🙂
~I need to make an inventory of items needed for curing bacon and ham. It will be a couple of months before processing our hogs but I want to be ready.
~Like everyone else…Spring Clean! Wash walls, clean ceiling fans (which I just recently read a neat idea for cleaning them: place a pillowcase on each blade, shake the blade and wipe pulling the case away. Then toss the case in the wash) I think that one of the reasons mine don’t get cleaned as frequently as they should is because of the dust that will fall on everything so I am anxious to try this!), shampoo carpets and clean cabinets (and the tops!), and I am sure that there is much more to do 🙂
~Finish cleaning the yard and prune trees.
~Inventory the freezer and pantry again.
~Make raised beds. I want to plant garlic, strawberries and crocus (for Saffron) in beds this year.
~Finish quilting a table runner and napkins.
~I want to make a lap blanket with felted sweaters I have. I would love to embellish each square.
I am sure that there is more but that is all I can think of at the top of my head 🙂
Thank you Brandy and ladies 🙂
ALL giant breeds are at increased risk for joint/ligament issues if they are spayed or neutered before they reach their full growth (and those are extremely expensive to treat OR can result in having to put the dog down) + there is an increased risk of constant bladder leakage in the females if it is done before the first heat. This is NOT just coming from breeders but rescue groups and multiple vets. We have done extensive research into this in order to weigh out the pros and cons of waiting since heat cycles are not fun – there is a reason a grumpy female is called a bitch! Our male was a runt – he reached his full growth by a year so he was neutered earlier.
I’ve got a lot of cleaning projects planned for this month too. Normally I would wait until April, but there are buds on the trees here, which makes me hope, perhaps prematurely, for an early Spring this year.
My list for the month can be found here…
http://makedohomemaker.blogspot.com/2016/03/monthly-goals-march-2016.html
Thank you both for kind comments, Sharon and Becky. It is bittersweet getting this place all repaired and cleaned up for other folks to enjoy. I had planned a fun retirement up here for us with 35 intensive veggie beds and mushrooms, strawberries, asparagus, blueberries and had gotten all that going. Now I don’t know if anyone would want to carry these projects on. I have a barn too – just full of old things, most of which have been taken by a good friend of ours who is much younger and handier. He is the one I count on but he is an hour away and I really am here alone, going in circles. He’s very busy and everything he does for me is a favor so I hesitate to dictate when he should come and help.
I have a contractor and his crew fixing things but they have their own plans too – ha! They were supposed to come yesterday and today but they haven’t and now we are expecting snow. The real estate agent is not encouraging about a good price with the market the way it is here with people all upset about a possible natural gas pipeline coming through the town in a few years. They want an easement on my land too. It seems plenty of bad luck has converged here. She says buyers want things perfect and want a bargain. Well this place won’t be perfect but we are painting and repairing all we can think of.
But on the flip side, this is a magical place with great views, wildlife, air, etc., and maybe someone will fall in love with it as we did. I wish I had had the imagination to think I might need to live here alone after 20 years or so here. My husband always claimed to be a mountain man and could stay here alone but it turned out that he never would have been able to do that either.
Becky, I am always impressed that you take care of children with special emotional needs – We only took in rescue pets and I need to find a place to land where they will be safe inside/outside.
I take it one day at a time (and my friends all tell me I am doing remarkably well) but I am just exhausted. Hang in there Becky and I hope you get a quick sale – Lari
My goals for March:
[list]
Complete taxes and paperwork to receive tuition voucher for kids for next school year.
Donations to the church yard sale.
Make 40 upcycled t-shirt pillows for the scouts’ bedtime bags project for the homeless. (Running out of time, we have shirts, and this will make it achievable. Plus, hands need something to do during March Madness!)
Menu plan.
Start seeds.
Get desk and table organized.
Declutter.
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I am thinking that newspaper would work great too if anyone gets papers for free 🙂
It has been un-fenced for 3 years however, it is still an area where all of them hang out at times so there is still manure being added – just not in such concentrated amounts. I am planning on fencing it off but was hoping that maybe a type of cover crop would help amend the soil a bit?
YES! That was the kind of idea I needed! Thank you!
Hi Sharon and let me know how you go with the succession planting when you do it.
Totally understand looking out the window at the vegetable gardens and being completely overcome by how fast the weeds grow compared to the vegetables. It does make me sigh sometimes and I find myself saying to my husband, I only just weeded this not so long ago and now look at it. I am seeing progress though as the weeds are getting less in each garden bed as the gardens get older, so I think I may have got rid of a lot of them 🙂 .
Hi Sharon and glad things are off to a good start for you for the month and sounds like you are decluttering & sorting amazingly well.
I would so love to can and bottle here, but sadly our little cottage which is 10 x 14 metres total size would simply not fit another appliance in it. However from reading our bread machine instruction book we can make jam in our bread maker, so think I shall try that out at a later date.
My March goals on keeping within budget got derailed today when we went to pick up a few groceries whilst posting today and found out the shop we get our bread improver at a fantastically low price from is shutting down, for 18 mths – 2 years until they can move into the new section of the shopping centre they are currently building. So my husband & I set about with mental view of pantry items in mind and no list to stock 18 mths – 2 yrs supply of everything we usually get a lot cheaper at this store. Fortunately a lot was on 50% off special so that was good.
When I got home I went through the shopping list of items I had written from what my husband told me we needed for next weeks monthly grocery shop. I found to my surprise and happiness that I was able to cull what was on there by $38.98.
The totally amazing outcome of sheer panic first up to reality turned out that I had indeed reigned in an overspend of $127.77 for January & February down to a total of only $15 in the red for the first 3 months of this year. A small amount I can then set about fixing up out of next months groceries.
Funny how it is human nature to panic first and then look for a solution :). So the end result was absolutely fabulous and we are now blessed to have 2 years supply of more grocery items a lot earlier than we thought we would too.
Brandy,
I placed an order today with Holland Bulb Farms and I found a coupon for free shipping for any order $40 and over (MBFREE40). It does expire 03/05/2016. I really hate to pay for shipping on anything so I was very pleased to find this code. Looking forward to getting these bulbs and planting. Have a great weekend……we’ve had beautiful weather this week!!! Thanks! Kim
I found the best way of teaching kids to love gardening is to show them what “weeds” and herbs they can eat. It doesn’t take them long to figure out which plants are which, when they want to pop a sprig in their mouths. Unlike my husband, who after 54 years of being married to a gardener, refuses to admit he recognizes anything more difficult to identify than chives! He is always mowing or pulling out plants that I’ve paid good money for! I need his help, so I don’t say too much, but if my pink lilac ever actually blooms, I’ll know for sure it’s a miracle! Kids love to show other kids that you can eat clover and certain blossoms- the trick is to keep them from eating all the berries before they are fully ripe.