Back to normal!!

Well its been awhile - not that I haven't been busy just I have been to busy
We have done some camping with the families both mine and hubbies locally and to Hinton Alberta - both were a great relaxing get-away time!!
Now we are back to school YAY!!!!!! time for mom to do some more projects!!!!

First day of school - Kyra- grd 6  Gavin-grd 5   Grace -grd2

 As for the rest of our free time most of it is spent in getting our house and yard ready for winter ugh which mostly means around here is that we spend a lot of time out in the bush gathering firewood!  LOTS and LOTS of firewood as that is how we heat our house in the winter  as you see here the pile is slowly growing. We really need to double or triple that much to have enough for the year and a bit left over for next year!!

  What we do have split and left over is put in the woodroom of our house which is in the basement about 6 feet away from the woodstove!!!  I love it!!!!  its alot of work getting all the wood in there and stacked but come winter it sure is nice to just open that door and get wood - Last year we had it stacked to the ceiling and it lasted us until just about the end of January - that being said last year wasnt a really cold winter so we shall see what happens this year

repurposed wood project

So I had those great little wooden crate things from my work - to see click HERE  

I have had them sitting around for awhile now - some I turned into storage crates but most I tore apart and turned into the following project

Before (and dang it I hate the front door)

 I made a base of  plywood for the top of the stair railing so that I could nail the thin strips of wood that I got from the crates to the top of the plywood they wouldn't stay flat and in place nicely with them just being nailed to the drywall top that was there

As you can see some of this hasn't been aged yet nor has it been sanded down or anything

To see how I age the wood click HERE

 All finished just needs one more coat of poly so I can wipe it and dust it

 Just need to finish the bottom trim now but that is for another day!!

Time to change up the groceries

I still have other projects on the go or in my head I should say but hey its Summer its busy and I am running out of time so hang in there I shall be creating and destroying and whatever else shortly - i hope!!  :)

Its time for me and mine to get back to eating decently (more) hahah not that we eat alot of junk really, but by the time 5pm rolls around I am usually to tuckered out to cook a big grand dinner - its what you get when you wake up at 2:30 am daily.  So I am revamping my menu for cooking and my snacks YAY ME!!!  ~ not really!   It involves alot more work for me but its more budget friendly ( I hope)  So out goes all those premade handy snacks and in comes baking and menu planning and pre-cooking - so if you have quick easy family faves feel free to share them with me.  (quick and easy being key) 
Step one of my new Snack plan is having Vege and Fruit precut and prepped for the kids in the fridge at all times (cause I dont prep enough fruit and vege at work lol)

Day one! hour one! is going good
Step two is baking which I loathe,   really I hate it!!!  but I shall do it!   tomorrow I make rice Krispi squares bwhahaha thats my big bake, start small right?  no really I do have some other goodies planned but thats the first
My plan is to make lots of each baked good and divide them into portions to last two days - cause I hate it when I bake something and for some reason the last 4 or 5 end up never get eaten. then Freeze the rest , Can you Freeze Rice krispie squares?  guess I will find out.

Dinner plans are using a menu with a few variations for each week.
And..............each grocery run (every two weeks in my house) I plan on doing one Big Cook of one recipe for about 4-6 meals total into the freezer
Todays was Pizza casserole - from the "Big Cook" cookbook   (if your thinking of doing a big cook and dont know where to start I recommend this book and website)

If you fold over the tops of your freezer bags they dont tip over and here is the bonus you dont get crud on the "zipper"

I always keep one out of the freezer for the evenings meal mmmmm

Sooo we shall see how long I stay motivated to keep this up!!!

Remember this....

Gonna grow me some wheat grass..

well here is the update bwahaha ok so it died it got a few inches tall i neglected it and it died!   But not all is lost it turned out to be an excellent.............

Kitty bed!!!!!!!  note the dead grass hanging down the edge and kinda shoved up the window in the back teehee

 

computer desk re-do

So I was going to make a desk i have plans and drawings all done up and everything but with summer and it being busier then normal for me with work and all that great stuff I knew I would not be getting around to it for at least a few more months.  Also I need to start practicing my furniture re-doing painting skills so that when I go to do a few more important to me pieces of furniture I will hopefully have a clue to what I am doing.  So why not start with my old laminate computer desk which by the way I LOATHE!!!!!!
anyways here are the before and after

Oh and inside I put this!!!   Hot glued down and everything I hate the coffee ring!!

Hammock

It was a beautiful day and I was feeling lazyish - who wouldn't and all I wanted to do was relax outside in the sunny shade and read a book - I don't have a nice lounge chair sooooo the next best thing is.......or better thing is............
A HAMMOCK
Got my idea HERE   with instructions for a quick DIY hammock - I think there shall be at least 3 more made by the end of summer. cause this one folks IS ALL MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyways I went scrounging around for material I knows I have a stash of some somewhere in the many containers of misc that I have in my house or crafting area. I found a big piece in the bottom of a bucket

If you cant find enough material an old sheet will do.  If you want it extra sturdy you could sew two sheets together.   I did hem the sides and just made the fold at each end to put the string through. 
Now the hard part finding somewhere to hang it and one wouldn't think that would be to hard in my yard with all the trees we have but thing is most of them are along the road and now outside the fence we just put up.
Here is the end result must now find a little table set to put beside it for drinks and other treats for me whilst I relax a sunny afternoon away.

Potatoe cages

Last summer we took out our garden cause it really wasnt in the best location and I wanted raised gardens instead (still waiting for the raised part)  oh that and with working and the kids and blah blah blah I just didnt want to have to keep up a huge garden so this year we will be trying some new ideas that I have found here and there online
One of them is Potato cages
You need wire I used just square wire (good golly that is technical isnt it?)
straw ( i had lots left over from my chicken coop cause I load it full to the brim in the winter)
dirt
seed potatoes

First layer some straw and then make it a nest so it climbs up the sides then fill in the nest with soil - put your potatoes along the outside - try to get the eyes facing out.  Cover the potatoes with dirt then make another nest one top of that with straw so on and so forth until you reach the top - i want to put some plants in the top to like hmm you could put flowers or say some other veges like spinach or lettuce or something.  Will update this when they start to sprout - If the start to sprout lol

My helper - Gracie

This was taken on June 20th and yep they are definitly sprouting!  I wonder if its to late to make some more?

So they did work - they died but not because they didnt work mostly cause i got busy and forgot to water them!   I got a nice pan full last night of new potatoes for supper mmmm sooo delicious!!!
Next year I think I will be placing them over in the one corner of our yard and I will put either a) a soaker hose through the middle of all of them or b) a piece of PVC pipe with holes drilled in it down the middle of them to make watering them easier  but definitely will have at least 6 or 7 of them in the yard  also note to self put bean plants along fence in the one corner!!!!