The country living grain mill is like the grand daddy of all grain mills and if dropped onto most every other one would literally CRUSH IT!
We had always wanted to make our own flour so that we could have the freshest bread and a grain mill seemed like the obvious choice for that. However, we also wanted to be able to use the grain mill if we did not have power, and we wanted one that would last a life time the country grain mill fit the bill perfectly!
The largest repair the house needed as soon as we purchased it was a roof! With winter only a month away it was a must.
As you can see from this picture the gutters were falling off, and shingles were missing.
About 10 days ago I planted some PaperWhite Narcissus bulbs to be forced indoors.
The original post with details is here http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/375-forcing-paperwhite-narcissus-bulbs.html
A lone yellow daffodil that sprouted through the wandering ground cover last spring gave me some motivation to plan a fall bulb flower patch our first fall season living in our house. It is a miraculous site in the gloomy days of early spring when its still too cold to bask in the sunshine and everything is a muddy mess to see a new flower emerge from the ground after being long forgotten. As is the case with many projects you’ll read about here, this was my first go round with bulbs (well, second including my “forcing narcissus bulbs” but that doesn’t really count).
Time flew by as it always does and by the time I had a chance to sit down and figure out what I was doing most online bulb suppliers were having their end of season sales with discounts from 30-60% off. Being on a budget I went with the site that gave me the most bulbs for my dollar and ended up ordering from tulipworld.com. I ended up with about 180 bulbs of different varieties for about $50.
I did take some time to map out what was going where taking into consideration the bloom times, planting depth, and plant height to maximize the visual impact of the bulbs I ordered. A few different sites I did some research on recommended planting in layers and giving the bulbs more of a natural look by letting them fall into the spot rather than lining them in rows like toy soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »
While at the local nursery I found some PaperWhite bulbs 50% off and decided it would be a good way to add some life indoors during the dreary winter months.
This was a quick project; I just added a layer of pebbles to some pots, added soil, mixed in a tablespoon of bone meal, plopped in the bulbs, covered with soil and watered. And let the trickery begin! After bulbs have experienced a cold period during the winter months (I’ve read 13 weeks is the minimum) they can be brought indoors into the warmer spring like temperatures and they will think its growing season.
I’ve read that they can be forced in pebbles alone. Either way, they can be placed almost shoulder to shoulder in a pot….much closer than when in the ground. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the larger of the 2 bedrooms neither has an attached bathroom. 3 windows, a good sized closet, and very spacious but this room needed a face lift.
Before
The carpet was stained more places than one could count with cat urine and the walls and doors were beat up. Read the rest of this entry »
The downstairs bathroom is approximately 35 square feet (not including the shower) of awkwardly configured space. It was hard to get decent shots of the work so bare with me!
The before pictures have been misplaced but this room has changed a lot so I’m posting anyway.
After Demolition
This room started as a bedroom and now serves as the office. Start to finish pictures..here we go.
Before
(As mentioned in previous posts these pictures were taken before we closed but after we did some cleaning to spruce it up so the lender would be so kind to finance our house. )
This picture shows the far corner of the office. We’re lacking in pictures of the other walls but you’ll see those in the progress pictures. This room measures approximately 312 square feet with a tall vaulted ceiling 2 large windows and 1 narrow window. The seams in the ceiling are visible in this picture.
Demolition Day
Following the living room progress start to finish. This room didn’t have as many dramatic changes as some of the others but what a difference the smaller touches made!
Before Pictures
(For those who haven’t read the other room posts, these before pictures were taken before we closed but after we did some cleaning so the lenders would finance this house for us.)
We get quite a few visitors at our hummingbird feeder on the deck and have some pictures to share. This feeder is hanging on a post on the corner of the deck close to the Japanese Maple and some taller pines where the hummingbirds like to gather.
Up to this point we’ve shared some of the nitty gritty demolition pictures of various parts of the house. This is chronicling the remodel of the kitchen from start to finish.
Before the demolition began.
(As mentioned in a previous post these pictures were taken before we closed but after we did some cleaning to spruce it up so the lender would be so kind to finance our house. )
Moving into a house with a septic system made us much more aware of what goes down our drains. This was a perfect reason to get away from using the harsh chemicals we were accustomed to. Getting over the impulse to reach for typical scrubs, sprays and liquid cleaners containing bleach every time I thought something was germy or stained wasn’t hard. I’ve found alternatives that satisfy my need for cleanliness but don’t harm the break down process of the septic contents.
The new Clorox and Lysol disinfecting wipes and spray (since you let it dry and don’t rinse away) are perfect. No chemicals go down the drain but I can still wipe down the counters after raw meat is prepared and they’re great for bathrooms, too. Read the rest of this entry »
To keep our canned goods rotating we’ve set up a Shelf Reliance Cansolidator Harvest 72″ unit. This unit holds up to 600 cans although we don’t have ours filled to the maximum capacity. It’s actually pretty empty at the time this picture was taken.
Assembly took about 2 hours and was a bit tedious. The frame work goes together easily with a little help from a mallet. For each slot there are multiple cross supports that snap into place and they each need to be fitted to the correct can size so the cans rotate smoothly which was the time consuming part.
Once the unit was put together we had to seriously consider which canned goods would get a spot in the cansolidator and which would remain on the shelf in the pantry. Only the foods that we use on a regular basis and felt we could get through before expiration got a spot. The other foods that we don’t keep many of on hand are living happily in our pantry!
