Projects

Oh the projects that we have committed to right now. Thinking about them makes me tired, but not stressed. That's a good thing. Last year I spent about 4 months stressed out due to trying to put a lawn in, landscaping, and having an outside wedding next door. Helping my parents get their yard ready was stressful. they did most of the work, but I helped out a bunch in the weeding, planting, ideas department. Don't think that is much? You try and dig out bulbs that haven't been dug up and seperated for at least 7-10 years. I ended up with hundreds and hundreds. And I didn't get them all. We ended up with a nice crop still coming up this year. that is ok though. the plan all along was to dig them up (they were so thick that weeding and making the bed look nice was nearly impossible) and putting a normal amount back in this year. The problem was that after all that stress and hard work that when the time came to put them back in we were too tired.

Fast forward to about a week ago. We were talking about the yard and Dad says something to the affect of we need to put those bulbs in soon. they've sprouted because of the leaky roof in the garage. So we pulled out the boxes of bulbs and sure enough they were happily sprouting in their boxes. There were some gross and slimey ones that we couldn't save. But most were just fine. We ended up giving about half of them away on Craigslist. The other half we planted in an out of the way flower bed that is still sort of a holding place until they get back from their mission (leaving in 6 weeks!) and can figure out where they want them.

Anyway, projects. I've decided that we don't really have the money to buy new furniture that is needed. Our old stuff is truly wearing out. We have worn holes in the fabric. So we went over to our local craft store with our handy dandy 50% off coupon and spent about $350 for fabric. 25 yards of it. Cross your fingers for me. The nice thing about this project is that it will keep until I have a lot of time to devote to it. That is why it isn't really stressing me out.

Next project. Screen doors. We need these for bug control. Last year the flies were horrible. This year we decided we had enough money to buy screen doors. Front and back door idealy since the kids are so young and love to leave the door open. We went to Lowes and found that they had reasonably priced screen doors. We were even able to special order one in a matching color for our front door for a small fee. The back door is just going to get plain white.

Next project. We bought and planted 4 fruit trees. this project is ongoing. We still need to buy those tree rounds to put at the bottom of them. But this project is pretty much done. Just needs to be finished up. You may say this isn't a project, but planting trees takes an hour or two if you do it right. So that is a project in my book.

Next project is the garden. We are going for a modified square foot gardening thing. We love so many things about the square foot gardening method. First of all, very few weeds. Last year we were overtaken by weeds by early July. With all the stuff to do for the wedding I gave up around mid July. I just couldn't stay on top of it. Hubby has built boxes. These boxes will have plastic sheeting on the bottom to keep out existing weeds like the dreaded bindweed we have so much of around here.

The dirt you use is actually considered a "soiless" mixture. Basically its equal parts vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. The only maintanence on this soil since it is so loose is to mix in more compost each year to enrich the soil.

I was skeptical but Mom and Dad did this last year. Their plants were beautiful. they grew faster than mine and looked nice and healthy. Best thing? VERY FEW WEEDS! Dad said that most of the weeds were due to the type of compost he used. Another thing we plan on doing is putting something, probably weed barrier if we can afford it, down between the grow boxes. This will keep the weeding to a minimum. HALLELUJAH!

We will have to continue to weed the yellow raspberry plants. that is pretty much unavoidable due to the nature of raspberries and how you want the plants to send up new starts.

The last project that I'm trying to avoid thinking about is Mom and Dad's yard. They will be leaving in about 6 weeks. That leaves us to take care of their lawn. And the grapes. And the fruit trees. And the blackberries and raspberries. And any other things my Mom thinks she needs to plant before they leave like golden raspberries.

I'm not all that stressed because I'm trying to think positively. If we get overwhelmed, I do have 4 other siblings and their families who have offered to help out. And Mom and Dad and us have discussed the possibility of hiring someone from church to help out for an hour each week or something along those lines. We are going to try to do it ourselves first. Hubby wants to do that. But I will be asking for help from the family when I feel it's needed.

Last project. Collect and organize food storage for one year. We've really been working on this lately because of the price of food going up up up. We've got our wheat and a lot of other stuff. We found a food storage calculator on about.com and modified it to fit what our family eats regularly. We don't want to store food we don't eat regularly because then it would go to waste.

We've also added things to our list such as toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant cocoa powder, things that I wouldn't want to live a year without if something were to happen or if we got into a financial bind.

So those are our projects. Overall, I'm not feeling stressed. I feel like we have time. Most of the projects can be put off until we have time to accomplish them. the only one that can't be put off is Mom and Dad's yard. I feel very positively about that though. They are going on a mission. Their house and yard will be taken care of. I just have a good feeling about it.

I am going to miss having Mom to go chat with and Dad to bounce ideas off of. I've really been spoiled by that. The kids love going to grandma's for the toys and treats. I guess we'll live though.