Back to Basic Living

You may recall that we put together our rain barrel in July of 2008 and added a pump and sink in June of 2009. I LOVE that rain barrel. The pump allows me to water the garden and the greenhouse plants uphill from where the rain barrel resides. It does a wonderful job.

Even though the barrel holds 305 gallons, it was quickly filled with our very wet spring last year. 305 gallons weighs in at approximately 2400 pounds - something we didn’t consider when we built the original platform. As a result, the barrel collapsed on one side.

It still worked just fine, but it really bothered Bernie. So we disconnected the barrel from the down spouts, and because it’s been so dry for so long, I managed to drain the barrel the past week. Bernie and I decided to work on a new platform for it today. This is the barrel upside down - you can see the area that collapsed pretty clearly.

Mirrie and Georgia came out to help for a while - not with the rain barrel platform, but with clearing some undergrowth next to the woods.

Bernie laid out cinder blocks for the foundation, and then he laid down some 4X4s.

He put some OSB on top of the 4X4s and nailed them in place.

After sitting in the sun, the barrel became a little more pliable, and we were able to push out the area that was collapsed. Then we used the power washer to clean the inside of the barrel.

We put it up on the platform, but didn’t completely hook it back up. We are leaving it open to air out completely. We’ll finish it up in the next few days.

Even though I was fine with it as it was before, I’m really much happier with the rain barrel now. It sits up higher so i can easily fit watering cans under the spigot if I need to.

Now all we need is a little rain………

My parents were here visiting us last week. We had a wonderful time, and it was unbelievably difficult to watch them leave yesterday. *sigh* But, rather than focus on how much I miss them, I’m going to show you something my father and Bernie did for me last week. They built this for me:

An outside sink! How incredibly cool is that??? It’s attached to the back of my garden shed so I can work in the shade, and it’s hooked up to my rain barrel. Now I can work with my potted plants in comfort and I have a place to clean up the garden veggies before bringing them in the house. I can’t tell you how much I love that little sink. And the coolest part of all is that they used leftover lumber and an old sink that was laying in the cabin shed. Bernie and I started painting it yesterday, and I’ll put up pictures of how it looks once we are finished.

Bernie had hooked my rain barrel to a small pump a couple of weeks ago so that we could attach a garden hose and pump water up hill to my garden and greenhouse. Here’s the little pump:

It’s inside my garden shed, under the work bench Bernie built for me. He attached a piece of garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom of the rain barrel, ran the hose through a small hole in the garden shed, and attached the other end of it to the pump. He installed a spigot outside my garden shed so that I can hook up a garden hose and the pump will pump the water through it.

Daddy and Bernie added another spigot above the sink. It splits off of the pump and they ran it through the wall to my sink:

I am tickled beyond words with the results. Thank you, Bernie and Daddy! Bernie is now excited to add two or three more rain barrels around the property. He’s keeping his eyes open for small pumps that go on sale.

My parents brought their small dachshund, Oliver, with them for the visit. Oliver is a cutie. He’s a couple of months older than Diesel and Dolly, but he’s MUCH smaller. Oliver has attitude, and he didn’t let his size hold him back. When he wanted something, he went for it.

Those puppies played and played while Oliver was here.

And they chewed up lots of sticks.

And, when Oliver left, Diesel pouted a little.

We had a great time visiting with my parents and Oliver. The week went by entirely too fast. I’m extremely blessed to have such wonderful parents.

I love you mom and dad.

Bee Free,
Penny

The entire Shenandoah County can thank Bernie for the recent lack of rain. He ensured a drought by building his rain barrel a few months ago. But it seems Mother Nature has forgiven him, or started feeling bad for punishing the entire county for Bernie’s actions, and as I write this, we are getting rain. Lots and lots of rain. The rain barrel is now more than half way full, taking it to just over 150 gallons of water. Woo hoo! If this keeps up much longer, we may have a completely full rain barrel - and that will come in handy when Bernie does something else to irritate Mother Nature.

Bernie’s been busy taking care of things around here. Since we’ve taken a couple of vacations in the past couple of months, discretionary funds are a little low right now, so he hasn’t started any new projects. Instead he’s welding fencing on the driveway gates, using the backhoe to remove ugly stumps in the back yard, working on keeping the cabin roof from leaking, and any number of things on his never ending list of stuff to do.

We were greeted Monday morning with several little crows from Bobby Lee. They were the cutest little crows - very raspy and strained sounding. He’s currently pausing on each syllable and it makes me laugh every time. It kind of sounds like “ER….ER….ER….EEEEERRRRRRR”. For some reason, he will only crow in the morning while sitting on the roost. Once he comes outside into the chicken yard, no amount of begging or coaxing will convince him to crow. I want to get a video of it, but it’s so dark in the coop when I let them out that it doesn’t video very well. I’m not giving up though. I may just have to video the outside of the coop and hope you can hear him crowing inside of it. You will definitely hear Duke crowing inside of it. That boy has turned into a crowing machine. He crows all day, every day. And Bernie can get Duke to crow by asking him if he’s a turkey. Duke really seems to take exception to that.

Speaking of Duke, we had our first little “rumble” last weekend. I was cleaning out the coop and raking the coop yard and Duke did not appreciate it at all. He was following me around and clucking up a storm and nothing I said would calm him. I turned in his direction to do something, and he fluffed up and came at me side ways. Well, I saw red! I snatched him up before he even knew what was happening. I tucked him under my arm and continued cleaning and working. He struggled and fussed for a while, but finally settled down. After about five minutes or so, I stopped and petted his chest and told him in no uncertain terms that while I appreciated him watching over the girls and taking his duties so seriously, I am in charge in the chicken yard and aggression toward me will not be tolerated. I also took the opportunity to remind him that there’s not much we enjoy better than a pot of chicken noodle soup. When I finally put him down, he was quite calm and much nicer. I finished cleaning up the coop and run with no more interference from the boy. When it comes to getting sideways with someone, Duke will learn he’s met his match with me.

Bernie took a picture of the chickens outside playing in the rain:

I’ve always heard the saying “madder than a wet hen”, but I can tell you my hens love playing outside in the rain and getting wet. It makes them happy. The huge lump on the stairs to the left is Duke. Duke likes to get a lot of rest. The chicken running towards the camera in front of Duke is Bobby Lee. Bobby Lee likes to run and we seldom see him standing still.

My meal worms are multiplying like crazy. I’ve been waiting to make sure we had a little life cycle going before feeding the chickens many of the worms. With plenty of beetles, pupa, and larvae in the container, I think it’s about time the worms can become a daily treat for the chickens. Meal worms are their favorite snack - and they are so easy to raise.

Things are going well on the homestead. Bernie and I are staying busy and wondering how it got to be the end of August already. Soon we’ll be eating fresh eggs the chickens lay for us. Now THAT will be something to crow about!

Bee Free,
Penny

I seriously don’t know how time gets away from me so fast. I’ve got a ton of pictures to upload to the Back to Basic Living website, a new page on canning that is almost complete, and a page on putting together a rain barrel. All I need to do is make a little time and finish all these things up and get them uploaded. The problem is that I seem to have so many projects going on at the same time around here that I never finish one before I’ve started another. I’m sure I could use a lesson in organization. Or maybe a lesson in focusing. Probably both. Maybe I’ll start an online course…..

I had to go into the D.C. area last week for work. I started working from home about a year ago, and I rarely have to go into the Big City, so I shouldn’t complain. But I will.

I had to spend two days in that madhouse. A friend was kind enough to put me up for a night so I didn’t have to get a hotel. That was the nicest part of the trip. The work days were long and it cost a fortune to eat breakfast and lunch there. And I don’t mean to be ugly, but those city people can be just plain weird. Honestly. I worked in D.C. for several years, and I always knew the people could be a bit odd, but I guess in the interest of self preservation, I tended to ignore or overlook it. I suppose it is a matter of surviving in such a crowded area that makes some people become completely self absorbed and totally unaware of their surroundings. No eye contact. No acknowledgment of another’s existence. Bumping into people without an apology. Talking on cell phones at the top of their lungs in the middle of a crowd of strangers. IPod ear buds fastened securely in their ears to remove them, if only mentally, away from all the people. Not everyone is like that in the Big City of course, but there are enough of them to send me high tailing it back to the homestead with more resolve than ever to never leave here again. And with a new appreciation for my chickens. Maybe I’m the weird one.

[NOTE: Because I know some of the people from my work read my blog, please let me say I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU. I'm talking about the other people. You are wonderful. Seriously. Unless you happen to be one of the ones I don't like.]

Speaking of chickens, they are getting big! They will be eight weeks old tomorrow. They’re learning to cluck, but they haven’t given up peeping yet. So the chicken yard is routinely filled with noises of peeps, clucks, and an occasional crow. Very cute.

I have a bunch of pictures of the chickens to upload to the website and I’ll try to get that done soon, but in the meantime I wanted you to see how big Duke and Bobby Lee are getting:

Look at that comb and those wattles! I swear that Duke just makes me swoon. Bobby Lee is a wiry little thing. I think he looks a bit like the Road Runner. He’s handsome and I think he’ll really be a sight when he fills in and matures. That’s watermelon at their feet. Those chickens love watermelon. They get really excited when they see me coming with it. They even act like they love me when I show up with watermelon, so I make a point of giving them a few slices everyday. Of course they’d act like they love Atilla the Hun if she showed up with watermelon, but I don’t like to think about that.

Bernie has been stringing the fencing wire. He’s got about 1/4 of it finished. He and I worked on putting together our rain barrel last weekend. I was going to write that this is another project we have yet to finish - but Bernie went outside and finished it while I was typing. Yay! Here’s a picture of it:

We had to install the rain gutters on the front and back of my garden shed (and yes, by “we”, I mean Bernie) and then put together all the fittings for the barrel to make the intake portion, and the drain on the bottom of it. I have to tell you it was like a scavenger hunt at Lowe’s to find all the fittings to concoct those things. But it was kinda fun. I’m working on a webpage to describe what we did, with pictures of each step, in case you are interested in a rain barrel for your place. Ours holds 305 gallons and we plan to use it for watering the garden.

I made some soap last night - Cucumber Melon. It smells heavenly. I haven’t made soap in a little while, so I decided that since I’m swirl impaired even on a good day, I would just stick with something a little more basic and make it all one color. It’s a light, refreshing pale shade of green.

We’ve been busy around here, and we’re loving every minute of it. I suppose it would be nice to actually finish a few projects, but then I worry we’d miss something else that’s fun and just waiting to get started. I think I’ll go discuss my options with the chickens.

Come to think of it, maybe I really am the weird one.

Bee Free,
Penny