My seed saver Urban garden kit....

Project Seed Domino""Neighborly help and friendly advice."the motto of Homesteading Today....I have been inspired by so many requests for my seeds on freecycle, that I have come up with a new project. And a new challenge for those of you who have seed saving worthy gardens- or will will have one this gardening year. I will be saving extra seed from our garden to make up "urban garden kits". Enough of each variety to supply a garden of 10X10 size....

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Giving the gift of seed saver gardens & another statue....

I have an abundance of food gardening seed that if not used this year would have gone in the compost pile. Then I had one of those strange dreams. You know the type. They never make sense and you wonder what you ate the night before to set that series off.... I was in our hilltop garden, surrounded by tomato plants. At first all was well. I could feel the sun warming my back (most likely Frog snuggling up or grizzle nuzzled into my neck- hey we...

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In honor of the Lunar Eclipse: Goddess project

Panda has been so excited to see the Lunar eclipse- and I have thought the 20th was for 3 days now... But TODAY is the 20th and the Eclipse is tonight. We decided to honor the evening with a tribute to Mother Goddess. I acquired some "raw" stoneware pottery clay recently which Panda has been begging to get her hands on. So we made statues of Mother Goddess to put on our personal Nature shelf. She has a great shelf window above her bed which she uses...

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Finished berry tote, Panda's guitar, A shared path

It is finally done. I learned from a few mistakes on this one. First, when using cheaper softer wood~ PRE-DRILL holes! Second lesson was- easy on the sand paper.here it is in naked Glory. See the wood glue spots? yep...Pre drill.... And third was easy on the color mixing of paint... I went a bit too grey and a bit hard with the sandpaper after having it all built. I was going for the roughed up vintage look... May have to go play hard in the dirt...

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History of cheese class, more goat updates, and dreamy chicken moats!

I found out about an event in our area concerning the History of Cheese. Coming up April 4,2008 at the Kelso House ."The History of Cheesemaking, presented by Abbe Turner of the Lucky Penny Farm in Hiram, Ohio. Abbe is a cheesemaker herself and crafts fresh goat�s milk to create an artisan cheese, which she has sold to Northeast Ohio specialty stores and restaurants. She has studied her craft in Pennsylvania, Vermont and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison...

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Homemade valentines, chick delivery date, and seeds still available

I spotted on another site a great idea for homemade Valentines for the kiddies to exchange. For the life of me, I can not rememebr or find that post! So if anyone can chime in here with the source, please let me know so they can get the credit due to them.Paper CD sleeves (envelopes) that have the plastic circle window, decorated with the heart day theme we decided upon.We took it a step further and made heart shaped chocolate chip cookies (homemade...

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Second half of seeds, and a seed swap / trade?

Look what came in the mail today!That would be the second half of my seed orders. I now have all the seeds for this years garden extravaganza. Big and lots of work of course. Having it fenced in as soon as possible will make it easier to handle with the children. Nix the picket fence. I think we will have to go with cattle panels since they are less expensive (about $20 per 16 ft section being 4 ft high versus the 8 ft section of $20 picket fence)....

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Winter day = woodworking Spring gifts

The snowy wind and cold may be keeping us inside, but there is fun to be had in the workshop! I have found so many great books through the the local library and their Ohio inter-library exchange program. This current one titled "Woodworking projects for the Garden" by Richard Fruedenberger, has been a great winter dream escape. The projects are so easy for the semi-beginner/almost intermediate wood shop enthusiast. Today's favorite project pick...

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Half seeds , a chick cancel, and possible homesteader library group

I received my seed order from Bountiful gardens, the other day. It is killing me to just let them sit in that manila envelope. I can hear them calling out "plant us now Tammie!". I dare not this early and then have plants over crowding each other, fighting for sun in the big east window. I must wait. Fight the urge and give it one more week. Thats all. Just one more week. Then I can bury these little gems, waiting for the first sign of sprouts to...

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Fake UPS guy!

While i was on the phone with my friend, the neighbor called in and she clicked over. The neighbor wanted her opinion on an incident that happened 2 days ago.Her 12 year old boy had just got home from school (latch key kid for 1 hour till parents got home) and heard a knock on the door. It was a man wearing the brown UPS shirt and regular pants- (not the mandatory uniform pants and not the normal UPS guy who comes through with their deliveries). He had a small cardboard box in his hands. He asked if the kids parents were home. Then asked if anyone...

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Super Bowl XLII is Over! So Who Won a Leather Recliner?

Many contestants entered our Super Bowl XLII Leather Recliner Contest to have a chance to win a leather recliner by Stanley Chair. If someone wanted to enter the contest, they would have to write a blog post including a link to our website, describe which recliner they want, and predict the final score of Super Bowl XLII.The final score of Super Bowl XLII was New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14. No one in our contest correctly predicted the...

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Thought I would share...

My dog bed recycling craft has been shared /referred to on a few sites. May not seem like a big deal to some, but I still think it is super cool to have been mentioned by these guys.Here http://www.thebudgetcasa.com/archive/diy-ways-to-reuse-old-clothes/and herehttp://whipup.net/2008/01/22/post-holiday-recycling-refashion/Cool, Ay?I hope to have the recycled chicken feed project up soon to share for those who may have some of your own and would like a way to reuse them- other then as for rubbage.Sunny days,Tam...

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Hatchery order, Chia update, and Recycle feed bag dilemma

I have our chicks ordered from The Meyer Hatchery. We have 11 total, with 1 being a rooster. What are we getting this time around?3 Salmon Faverolle hens1 Salmon Faverolle Rooster3 Dominique hens2 Cuckoo Maran hens2 Americauna hensThey should be in with the first hatching later this month. Their computers are being switched over and had to take my order by hand... Hope it does not get lost in the pile.This will give a nice rainbow of egg colors...

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How to build a garden hod basket * tutorial *

Winter giving you the Garden blues? Why not use the down time to build accessories you will need once the weather warms up? A jig saw ($20), hammer & nails, staple gun ($10 -don't forget the wood staples), waterproof wood glue, measuring tape, and wire cutter are all the tools you will need. I frequent Home depot for my lumber needs which seems to be often. We do not have "locally owned" lumber yards around to patron. This week, I picked up some...

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