Garden, Part 2

Well, the garden is coming along quite nicely!  We've spent the last couple of weekends working on it, and have made some really good progress.

Here's a friendly tip; at the Placer County dump a truckload of composted soil is only fifteen dollars, and they even load it all up for you!  My Dad and I were able to fill all three beds with three truckloads of soil, which was a great deal.  

Last week, Melissa and the kids even got some plants put in.  The garden is creating quite the buzz with the neighbors, whenever we're working on it we have people interested in what exactly we're doing.

I think this is having a good impact on the kids as well.  They are very eager to help whenever we are working outside, and hopefully they will feel a sense of satisfaction as we begin to get veggies and eat them.

By the way, any suggestions on how to keep cats out of the garden?  One in particular seems to be excited about his new litter box...  

Chickens, Part 1

Well, we have a coop!

After a few days of hemming and hawing about the merits of building versus buying a coop, we found a pretty good deal on this little guy.  Honestly I'm a pretty handy guy, but limited carpentry skills combined with our lack of garage would have made this project about a nine hour one, in my estimation.

The builder of this coop advertised that it was build out of "reclaimed redwood."  I'm pretty sure he's a fencer that uses torn down fences to make these and sell on Craigslist.  It is a pretty nice little unit, though, with a hinged roof for cleaning and an access door by the nesting area to grab out the eggs.  Now we just have to fill it with some hens!

My plan is to build a small frame enclosed with chicken wire around the front of the coop, so the hens can hang out outside.  That's something I can make relatively easy.  We are really excited to learn the ins and outs of chicken care and the kids are super anxious to get some chickens, they already have names picked out!

We'd love to hear your suggestions on breeds of hens that are good with kids and, of course, pump out the eggs!

Garden, Part 1

Well, let me start by sharing the plan and purpose of out garden.  Melissa has always had an interest in gardening, so starting a vegetable garden has been one of our priorities since moving.  We had a potted garden last year that was rather unsuccessful, so this year we want to make sure we do it right.

Another thing that's very important to us is reaching out to our neighborhood, and building relationships with the people around us.  We are hoping that the garden will help in that process.  The plan is to make our front yard a community garden of sorts, where the ripe veggies will be in a basket for the neighbors to enjoy.

We're modeling the raised beds after my parent's, which are made of cinder blocks.  This will provide us with a nice raised bed that will last a long time.  The addition of a capstone on top really makes the beds look nice and complete.

I am also in the process of running the irrigation for the garden.  After hand watering gardens over the years, we really think that a watering system with a timer will help with the health of our garden, thereby increasing the yield.  This requires me to run lines under the sidewalk, though, which is turning out to be a bit of a chore.  It's definitely doable, it just requires some time and a little elbow grease.

Hopefully this summer we will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and so will our neighbors!

We're Finally In!

Well, I know we haven't posted any updates all weekend, but the move has us both pretty exhausted. Plus, dealing with getting our internet up and running proved to be more complicated than we expected.

First things first, we decided that removing the carpet, getting the place professionally sprayed, and replacing the carpet was the best idea to remove the fleas. I really think it was worth the expense, and now the place looks really nice. Honestly, though, dealing with the carpet made the move really stressful for us, and we were literally moving in around the carpet installer on Friday night.

Overall, the move actually went pretty smoothly. We had tons of help, and also got to use a friends flatbed truck, which helped tremendously. We are so grateful to have so many great friends, and such a great family. Without them, things would have been much more difficult. The moving process is great for getting rid of junk, though, we are finding ourselves scrutinizing just about everything we own before we put it away at the new place.

So, now we are pretty much all set up. Our stuff is moved in, and the place is really starting to feel like home. Honestly, the more time I spend there, the more I like it. Everyone in that little community has been great so far, and we are really looking forward to doing projects, especially in the yard.

Here are some photos of the living area, before we moved our stuff in.

Living room

Kitchen/Dining Area

Kitchen

Minor setback

Well this afternoon was rather interesting, to say the least.

We decided that it would be a good idea to take some boxes out to the mobile home, since we already have a lot of things packed. When we got there I started unloading my packed car, Melissa started vacuuming, and the kids started running and rolling around like crazy people. Honestly, I was kind of irritated that Melissa decided to vacuum while I was trying to move in boxes through the small hallway, but it's a good thing she did.

After the kids were rolling around on the ground in their room for a little while, Kaela started freaking out. Apparently, the previous tenant didn't take care of their dog too well, resulting in a flea infestation. The vacuum canister was crawling with them. Ugh. The bedrooms are the only areas in the house with carpet, and they are being bombed as I write this. I just hope the bug bombs take care of the problem, or we may have to spend some money replacing the carpet.

I am glad that we found this problem while we still have another house to sleep in. If anyone has any positive experience with getting rid of this problem, please let us know. If you have any horror stories, please refrain. :)

Countdown 3 days.....

  So, three more days until we move from our three bedroom two bath home. This place has been our home for six years and six days.  We brought home two of our three babies from the hospital here, and we remodeled the house to fit the personality of our family.  We made a beautiful garden, planted things and watched them grow.  Here we have made many memories that we will never forget.  This has been our home; our safe, comfortable home.  But, life is full of changes, and Aram and I know that change is good.
  So, now we must embark on this new journey for our family.  We are ready, well we think we are.  We are moving to a two bedroom mobile home and yes, it is yellow.   It was Aram's Grandma's home for nearly twenty years, before she passed away a few years ago.  It was her pride & joy, even though it was a piece of junk.  I hated going to visit because it smelled gross, it was dirty, and the neighborhood was well not a very good one.  I obviously judged and didn't even know I was doing it.  We will talk more about her and the mobile home later.   Yes, six years later, here we are moving to this yellow mobile home of all places and we are actually excited about it!
  So, boxes are everywhere and we are prepping to move.  This move, though, is not just a change of location.  We are changing a lot in how we are going to live and this blog is going to be a place where we document those things, as well as give tips on how to change your own life in simple ways.  While the world says,  "gain more and get more," we are realizing it is, "lose more gain more!" 

The kitchen is packed!