Zorro's Bachelor Pad

Setting down our stones for the bunny grow out area.

Close up of the rocks laid out before we put them in.

We also made this bachelor pad for our male rabbit; Zorro

He truly loves it!

To celebrate we gave him a full month of down time before putting Stormy back in with him to try again.

Brick Bandits

BRICKS!

All right, so we didn't steal them and we're not bandits.

I did however, beat everyone else in our township to the deal of a lifetime!
(seriously at least 20 other people wanted them and one even begged for a phone call in case we didn't take them all!)

And when I say all
I mean
ALL!

13x4x11-2= 570 bricks!

It took several hours and trips to bring them all home in our van but we did it!

So an amazing thank you to the wonderful couple that wanted them moved on!
You guys are amazing!

Current plans for the bricks include:

Grow boxes in the front yard to line the walk way.

The floor of my soon to be tea patio!
(much sooner now!)

Possible grow boxes around the tea patio for herbs!

~~~

This weekend we will kick off the first project of adding grow boxes to the front yard!

Pretty sure this pile is going to take a while to use up but its going to be lots of fun.

Now years ago I would see these posts and wonder how people manage to find so many great things for free?!
I'll tell you, its a matter of looking, being available and luck.
I'm on several community boards for our small town,
(which is how I found the bricks)
luck was seeing the post within ten minutes of it being posted and being the first person to respond.

I also search online area's like KSL or CraigsList.

We also troll the cull bin at Lowes and Home Depot.
 

Also I've join interest groups - this wasn't to gain free things but to learn from others.
The benefit is that many people in those groups will share what they have with other people that they know care about those same interests first.
I'm in a homesteading group, a rabbit group & a few chicken groups.

Most of what I find now is on Facebook in private groups.
We also have a few amazing friends that let us grab up things their companies are clearing out.

Paying attention and cultivating relationships in these areas really helps us find the great deals!

Like getting 570 bricks for free!

I've wanted a tea patio for years!
We've marked out the area, even have a patio set all ready to use under it.

Yet, we've waited due to budget (skint broke is a thing)

Now I can start on the floor and the walls with things we've found for free!

Deeply grateful today!

Bean Trellis Project

You can see three bean walls, the fourth should be built Saturday.
After they are done we will be adding trellis/lattice across the top of the four walls.

The first trellis is Thai Purple Beans which I was given when we bought heirloom tomatoes and I got to talking.
See here as well.

The last three will be Chinese Long Beans

which my husband found and imported from China as we couldn't find a local seller.
See here as well.

Also in the front you can see our garlic.
We added straw to help keep the weeds down and the soil damp.

So many projects this summer! Can't wait!

My Potatoes!

Last fall my husband and I read a really great article on why and how to plant potatoes in the fall.

Planting Irish Potatoes

Funny enough it was posted in the Utah Backyard Homesteading group, Oct 3rd, 2016.
I fell in LOVE with the idea - especially since we'd just tossed a massive load of wasted hay from our rabbits into our compost heap.

Wanting to share the information I had my husband read it, he too decided that we needed to try it.

ONE small problem, it was October already and we were BROKE.

Now, you as a reader and not a person with a front row seat to the story of my life, you might find what happens next odd, however, it happens to me a lot.

My friend Lori called me up out of the blue saying she wanted to drop by and that she had a surprise for me, YAY!
(who doesn't love random surprises?!)

I adore surprises - especially from her!
She pulls into the driveway, asks for my husband to come out and help unload,

unload what you might ask?

A 100 pound box of Idaho potatoes recently pulled from the ground from a friend of her's farm.

NOT KIDDING, all in the SAME day!

That night we roasted up a few
(they were amazing)
And planted 6 in the ground!

So far three of six have come up from the ground - two plants just this week!

In 2014 we tried and failed HARD at growing potatoes
2015 we didn't even try.
Reading this article I had hope that this time things might be better.
I adore fall planting - my garlic harvest is amazing!
So I have hope of harvesting potatoes this year - maybe
(fingers crossed)
we might have enough to last us the year.
So far I've gotten both my garlic and my carrots to last us a full year, adding another massive crop to feed our family would be amazing!

Also up this year will be revamping my under the stairs basement storage from Christmas storage to a cold storage room.
Where I can store potatoes, garlic, onions, herbs and other various things.

Another article on fall planting potatoes