Month: March 2012

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Reseeding a tough spot

Plans have been set about seeding a bad bald spot, that is right in front of the porch. It’s not like a walk path. Grass just never grew there. I had tried everything. I never give up when it comes to growing things. Last year I found a bag of grass seed, for shade or moderate sun. The name is American, I keep trying to figure out where I got my last years bags for the back yard where the old pool was.

This stuff, if anyone can find it, and need a tough but soft grass, also light traffic, and it’s a lush emerald green. It actually makes me want to landscape and start from scratch with this brand. I just wish I knew what store I bought it at. I keep thinking Kmart. It comes in in a white bag, and it just has American in blue printed on the front. Nothing fancy and it only cost about 2.98 for ten lbs. Judging by the way it’s come up in the past, it proves that beauty doesn’t have to be expensive. Also, delvers what the package says. I like getting what is promised when buying items. I’ve always wanted to be a test person and reviewer for merchandise. I think it would be a riot and so cool!

 

 

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Needing kid and dog gates

I thought my days of baby gates were well over, until I got a call from my younger sister, who lives out of  State. It appears she is coming up here to visit some of the kid museums, the zoo that is up north a ways from us, and in general find another way to spoil her grand children, ( I do believe there are five of them, all under the age of 10 years old. This is going to be a scary experience for me, and by the time the stay here is over,  it will no doubt had been a bit scary for some of them also. For the most part the kids all but maybe 1 really likes Great Auntie. Problem is my sister. She may mean well, but it only goes so far.

My sister asked  if I will  lock my dog up in one of our bedrooms, since one of her grands were afraid my dog Jasper. She says Jasper bit her. My kid saw her hit Jasper with a stick on his nose. Jasp thought the kid wanted him to play tug o war and grabbed “his end” to pull. So this is when I told her about Kidco Gate Shop and the fact that they are into safety. I however, made it clear that while shopping for gates, to keep in mind that they were for the safety of Jasper, our family member also. She got my point.

I’m not too terribly worried about this visit. I told my sister, if she didn’t know what kind of gates to get, to read the Safety Gate Guide and Tips. Hopefully she will  envision what gates she would need in her own home and realize that it’s possible that what happened to my Jasper, could be happening to her own two “Fur Babies” as she calls them. She has to put them in her bedroom when the grands come over. I wish I would have known about this shop a long time ago.

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OCD over cleaning products

Yes, I have to admit that for as long as I can remember, I have no doubt tried every cleaning product that ever were to hit the shelves…and even as seen items in a magazine or on television. That was years ago though. I learned a lesson. I just don’t do it.  But, every time I see something I want to try that is a cleaning product, and it looks like something I want to try, I go to the store and buy it. Sometimes I have found, a person can get the same thing at quite a savings if you really compare materials they are made of, as in these swiffy ( my word ) wipers and wet cleaners. This also is a lesson I learned.

I compared weaves of the pads and the thickness of them also. The cleaning product used on the wet wipe things. Some generic or store brand will do, but only in certain areas. Now mind you, this is all my opinions, so make your own observations. Mine are based on saving money, while not loosing clean power. In this case, I happened to pick that swiffy cleaning product. I’m sure there will be more “reviews ” on down the line.

Right now, I’m on the search for a cupboard cleaner that actually does what it says it does. It’s either that or I stick to Murphys.

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News on bale gardening

Tomorrow I am getting the straw to get ready to start bale gardening. This is going to be interesting for me. I’m glad I have a couple blogging buddies to conspire with, while starting this. I think I’m going to start out smaller and less complicated than my original plans. This is not to say, I couldn’t do what I planned. But I have a feeling that I’m starting a bit too late. It’s going to be trial and error here on my part.

I’ve read a great deal on the subject of bale gardening. In fact I have poured over everything I could get my hands on to read and every video to watch. There is such a vast amount of ideas out there and some are really more complex that it seems to me it has to be.  I’m going to go on intuition with a few ideas I picked up from what I read, and then see how this project all turns out. I’ve got the seeds I need, and that is another start, besides getting the bales.

Actually, since spring fever has been hitting me right and left lately, I am really excited about starting on all of my ideas for the house and garden!

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Add pool liners, pool covers to list.

Since having a serious case of spring fever, I got the brilliant idea when the temperature turned 72 degrees, that it was time to take off the pool cover. I have learned a lot of lessons by just removing the cover all by myself. Usually my daughter helps me, since I am so short that,  I can’t fold the cover back the way I like to do it, when I had shorter pools. I knew I should have waited, but the fore-mentioned fever that struck, made me wanting to do things, yesterday!

While trying to remove the pool cover, I noticed there were a few rips in the pool liner. It made me sad, since  swimming pool liners can be really expensive to replace. I don’t like that patch it, concept. To me, it may help in a quick fix. But I’d never half fix something, only to have it turn out to cost more money, that to get something that will last. I learned that 35 years go. Nothing is a for sure thing with a swimming pool, even if you have a pool person to do the work.

I was talking to my buddy Pattie, who also has had pools all her kids lives, as I have. I have always been in the water it seems, from diving Jr. Olympics, to swim events and just relaxing, or playing with the kids. Pattie told me to check out sites online and I know where I am going to get my pool needs now. Unbeatable prices, the people there know what they are talking about, and are there to help,  so it seems, and did I mention great prices? (smiling…) It’s good to have a place to get my pool supplies. All because the spring fever got the better of me, and I needed a pool cover and swimming pool liner! ( Have to give Pattie some snaps for recommending this supply place,  too! )

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Submersible pump needed

With the weather has been super odd, all over America… I now wish I would have bought another submersible pump. Now, I used to have one before getting married. I had every tool and useful thing that every woman should have and know how to use. for fix it, clean it, cut it…the right tools. If one buys cheap, that is what you get, in my experience.  Just watch for your, “stuff” if things start to disappear if there is a man around.  My ” stuff ” started disappearing at a very fast pace. Needless to say, it ticked me off. I should have a “tool” and ” guy stuff belongings,”  pre nup.

Now, I need to buy another submersible pump. I know I had one. It was older, but a great brand. Best I ever have had. So I’m frantically looking for the pump, since the rain is flooding the crawl space. Finally after driving myself looney, full knowing I had that darn pump, my husband tells me it’s in our neighbors cellar. Actually, it’s a fall storm cellar under the ground. I guess last summer, my husband decided he was going to fix the storm cellar, but needed to pump the water out first. Something took him off this project and, guess where my pump was found. A year later. Not cool.

I’ll get off my soap box now, if I can step into a small row boat when I get off of it. Even the yard is flooded.

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Thinking about stenceling

Lately, I’ve been looking at my walls and in the past, I would on whims, stencil a bit on my walls. Actually, I have stenciled an archway with ivy vines, fairy’s, butterflies and flowers. Since to me, it looked like  simple…well…stenciled stuff. To me, it looked “flat” on the wall. Not what I go for.

The more I looked at the archway, the more I wanted to change it. One night, everyone was asleep and I was in a really mellow mood. I got out my paints and hand painted connections between leaves and vines and such. Then added definition to the whole thing, buy painting what these subjects really looked like. I’m pleased to say, that the ivy on the wall, now looks like real ivy. The Fae’s are fluttering, and the flowers should have a smell…

I realize that there are patterns out there that an artist has made and the scene is awesome. But if I bought others pattern pieces, it wouldn’t feel like my own art. So, I’m going stick with my gardens on my wall and do this project all myself. Great thing about painting on walls…you can always paint over it, if you don’t like what you painted. That to me, is more home improvement!

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Address plaques as a gift

My oldest daughter and her family are planning on buying a house, that is totally awesome and fits their needs perfectly. I went to see the home, and decided right away to look at residential address plaques as a house warming gift. Since the house is way out on a country road, and set back from the road quite a way, it is rather hidden, or will be, once the corn and wheat fields start to grow, which is what the house is surrounded by. Also there is a dirt road before the house that literally just leads into a small woods. It’s easy to mistake that for a drive way.

I know that they are going to put in a new mail box, and that will have the house number on it, but sometimes since the road doesn’t have any street lights, it is hard to read the numbers in the dark, despite of head lights shining on them. I thought about browsing through the custom address plaques, that areilluminated for the house front its self. My daughter will keep the porch light on at night, if her husband isn’t home, but when he is home, she shuts it off, and if they had company at night, it would be hard to read the house number. Besides, if I find the right plaque, it’s a gift that my daughter wouldn’t buy for her self. It’s also a home improvement item…at least I think it makes an improvement on a home.

The personalized address plaques are what I am definitely looking to buy. The give a touch of class to a home, and I know my daughter would love that. She likes nice little touches that make a house more of a home. I did find a few that are in my budget range, so that is a financial help. I think it’s a good and unique gift to give.

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Plugged up sinks

My kitchen sink is totally plugged up. It could be from the kids not putting the little strainer thing in the drain, so it catches the icky stuff that they like to just wash down the sink. Usually I can unplug it all, but today, I gave up trying and have decided I need to borrow my friend’s “snake” and weave it down in to my drains, then hopefully it will free what ever is stuck or built up in there. At times like this, I wish this old house had a garbage disposal.

There are a lot of small, “must do,” things on my list for this weekend. We’re supposed to have some awesome warm weather coming in, so it would be a perfect time to get to these little jobs that need done. My husband has to work, and since he works nights, he’ll sleep during the day, but my boys and daughter told me that they would help me with the chores on my list. I’m kind of wondering if they really will when they have a change to get outside in the great weather, if we have what the forecasters are saying we will.

I do plan on the little home improvement things getting done…chores that just in case I need to, can be done by myself alone with out any help from others. I also want to get out in the yard, if it isn’t too muddy from the storms that we have been getting the last few days. Even if it is muddy, it’ll be great to sink my bare toes and feet into the earth again. The yard needs a major clean up and some branches and wood to be hauled away that can’t be used as kindling. Hopefully all goes according to a somewhat plan of what I want to do. That saying, “Even the best laid plans can go by the wayside, ” keeps running through the back of my mind.

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Veggies, fruit and animal fertilizer

Normally of course I would say that horses and gardens do not mix, as last spring I woke up one morning, went out to the farm and found my horse Black Jack, eating his way through my veggie garden. He also did his morning constitutional (a few times) in my brussel sprouts, and I wasn’t too pleased at the time about it at all. But, “nature called” and it landed on nature. LOL!

While walking Jack back to his pasture, I wasn’t really thinking about his poop in my garden. I was looking at the fence and gate and trying to figure out how my Houdini had gotten out again. Of course, the rest of the morning was spent checking for broken fence or low fencing, faulty gates and ways Jack could have escaped AGAIN. I was thankful that he doesn’t go far, of course…but it was starting to become a weekly event. I went back to my house perplexed, and the doo doo was forgotten for the moment.

That night it rained really hard, and then into the next day. I was happy for all of my gardens and went about farm chores in the rain, and when the sun finally came out, I was kind of lazy and just turned the manure over into the dirt (mud at the time) and called it good enough…though I actually didn’t know if it was okay, since I had never done that before. By the end of the summer, I figured I did the right thing, despite some of the gardening magazine articles I had read. My brussel sprouts did very well! So perhaps this year, I may add a little extra “Black Jack constitutional” to my mulch and fertilizer then see what happens. No one ever called me an ordinary stick to tried and true gardener. I love experimenting and trying things that perhaps others have, but I’ve not read or heard about. Or, some things I make up as I go along. I’m sure others have done this, but I never had, so to me…it’s a new trial and error thing