Sunday

Life here has been plugging along. Hubby is still working on his classes for his Masters. I'm working and budgeting in items we needs for the house.

Here was my birthday present.

This is the wall with the cabinets removed.

Cabinets being installed 

I got them stained and sealed, My son put on the handles. I am looking forward to replacing the bottom ones next. I am still trying to decide on granite or Quartz.

 

Projects

Cut down a couple trees yesterday

These are from last week, the colors are amazing this year

The tree above in the middle is the one we took down. It was growing around a sprinkler head.

Sunrise

Cool clouds

Front yard

The boys and I have been working here and there on the front yard. 

I planted some flowers today.mits starting to come together.

These lilies are under my blue spruce

The tree above,Jason and I thought it had died. When it was beginning to bud, we had a hard freeze then snow. It looked sick. Jason cut back the grass, I spread Epsom salts around. The tree has made a come back! I am hoping it grows and spreads out. Our hope is that it will grow and provide shade in front of the house.

Jason worked on the bathroom. He hung the sheetrock and taped it. He will do the muddling next weekend. One step closer to being complete.

Bathroom progress

Thomas and Jason got the window changed, put up the cement board for the shower stall.

It's so nice!

This will be the shower stall

 

This is the base. Jason will pour in the mortar tomorrow

The sink will go there

Tomorrow is one day closer to it being finished!

Bathroom remodel

Our bathroom downstairs was gross. I could never get the shower stall "clean", it leaked like a sieve. The floor had numerous water stain. The glass shower doors leaked.

Hubby tore it down to the studs. 

We are finally getting around to putting it back together.

Hubby put down the mortar that the tub liner will sit on top of. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it will be set, so we can move on to the next step.

crazy weather

Here it is, the middle of  May, and the weather forecast is for "frozen mix"
We burned my garden area this weekend, hubby and son #3 used the neighbors rotatiller to mix it.
I was going to plant this weekend, glad i did not. I had to move my chicks back into the hen house. I know they have feathers, but I'm not too sure the little box i have is warm enough for them.
I do have to laugh, we live in what is considered a high plains desert. We have our secondary water (its canal water, its is what is used for watering lawns, agricultural uses) on, but have not actually turned on the sprinklers, or the AC for that matter. Several of my neighbors have been using their water religiously on their lawns. Late this morning the clouds opened up and it poured. There was so much water it was standing in places. We do plan on taking out areas of grass, and using rocks and gravel instead. I would rather use the water for my trees and garden instead of the grass.

I am hoping this weekend to plant my garden. I am planning on putting in tomatoes, jalapenos, zucchini, onions, and carrots. I want to do lettuce, but I think I will put this in containers and place it on the north side of the house, so it gets mostly shade. I was going to plant potatoes, but the doctor I work with is friends with a farmer in Idaho. I got 50 pounds of potatoes last year for $12 a bag. I canned most of them. They have been great to use in dinners. Pressure cooking them is the way to go. I dont have to worry about mice getting into them!

May 14 2017

Well, I was working a second job, them quit. They were under the impression I should work 60+ hours a week, and yo yo shifts.( example, work 2 to 1030, have a day off then work 5 am to 5 pm). No thank you.

We are preparing to p,ant in the garden. Hubby and son #4 got a propane torch to take care of the weeds.

It was a big weed infested mess prior.

I am hoping to plant this weekend.

Here are my chickens. The one on the left, with the three red hens is a rooster. He is super sweet, not very loud.

The black chicks are my newest additions. They are sex links. They are about two months old. I have had them in the hen house in a pen the last 2-3 weeks. The lousy thing is, Tuesday our temperatures drop to the low thirties. I will have to move them back inside the hen house. Silly weather.

I now have 14 chickens. I enjoy my flock.

My house faces east west, I finally decided to plant some shrubs. My hope is that they will fill out and help block the sun, which will help keep the house cooler.

This Friday we will get some more dirt, then apply Mulch to the top. I may add another row of bricks. I still haven't decided.

Week of March 27

Well, I had intentions of updating this blog every week, ha ha ha

Then life threw a curveball at me.

Things have just been busy. I started a second job. I like it so much, I am quitting my first job. Too much drama and non sense.

Here at the house, we have numerous projects going. We began work at installing a chain link fence. Work is currently on hold though due to the weather. This is the first time since 2011 Utah has not had drought conditions. We have had so many gray, drizzly days I have felt as if I am in Seattle.

Hubby did get the garden tilled. We will do it again before we plant. 

I got a rooster. He is pretty, not aggressive. He is almost 2. He is amazing with my hens. 

I will need to take some pictures of him.

Hubby cut down 6 big trees in the back. They were some kind of elm tree. They were spindly, would leak sap, loose beaches every time it as breezy. I'm glad they are gone. We are planning on putting a shed back there, along with some fruit trees. We have a large pile of limbs. We plan on renting a chipper to take care of them. We will then spread the chips around our lot. Our soil is sandy, so I try to compost to help improve it.

We also decided to do a small remodel project, because we just didn't have enough going on...

We had a large closet in the laundry room. The back side of it was the boys room. We closed off the laundry room side and opened up the boys side.

This closet easily quadruples the space they had. I am very happy with it. I sprayed the texture, once it was dry I applied the first coat of primer. We are hoping to have it done by this weekend.

Happy Saturday

Today was beautiful. It got up to 52 degrees. Thus morning was the first morning in I-don't-know-how-long that the hens water wasn't a block of ice. I enjoyed the sun. Cleaned out my henhouse, put in fresh bedding. The snow however, is almost up to my knees. It made it challenging trying to work in the  backyard.

The mountains (Wasatchs) are so pretty with all the snow!

No shortage of snow here..

Week 5

This last weekend, we were at a store and noticed they had appliances for sale. We purchased a new fridge (28.6) .  Our old fridge was 20.2, I simply don't have time to go to the store multiply times a week.

We worked all week de icing and removing snow off the back patio.

We get the fridge, go to hook it up..

The fridge was too wide. By not even a quarter of an inch. Yes, the boys had a great time teasing their dad about measure twice, cut once to make sure you aren't off.

My solution: buy new cabinets. They are unfinished, I can stain them :)

I about gagged when Jason and TJ removed the old cabinet. The amount of mouse poop was disgusting.

I was going to make lasagna for dinner, hahaha

We had almost everything put together last night. Jason still has to cut down the counter top.

I love the space this fridge has.

We will have lasagna tonight...

Week 3-4

The amount of snow that we have received here has been crazy. We have had more gray days than I can remember since moving here two years ago. Yesterday and today were sunny. It was amazing to see the blue sky.

This is my driveway and front walk way.

This is the walkway leading up to the front door

There is my poor suburban. Good thing we tarped it before the snow began.

Needless to say, we have spent a lot of time shoveling and deicing.

The younger boys went camping last night. They said they were cold, but had a lot of fun.

Hubby and I went to the store just to look at lights. We wandered to the appliances, noticed they had refrigerators on sale. We bought one. This one is similar to my old one in Washington. I'm excited because 1) it's bigger, so it will hold more 2) I really dislike going to the grocery store. 

It will be delivered onThursday. I figure since it will be freezing, I can set any groceries I have in an ice chest and set it out back. It isn't going to be warm anytime soon, so we will be ok.

 

I love baking. Tonight I made a chocolate zucchini cake. We will have some for breakfast. Just because we can.

Week 2 2017

Yesterday morning, it was 22 degrees out, so I went for a walk

I love how the rays hit the snow. It was quiet, except for the occasional dog bark. The mountain tops are amazing. Two years ago when we moved here, the mountains were bare. There was lots of thick,freezing fog. I look out in out back yard, and wonder how long the snow will stay. We plan on taking down the Chinese Elm trees in the back (there are 6-7).  I plan on planting three more apple trees, and two peach trees.

My dogs caught two field mice this afternoon and killed them. It was 15 degrees this morning, it only got to 24 today. I'm not too sure why they weren't hibernating. Two less mice I have to worry about.

The kids have had a four day weekend. They didn't want to go anywhere. They all said it was too cold (I have to agree with them).  I made cinnamon rolls today

They came out amazing. 

My plans for this spring are to go on some road trips. Idaho has several beautiful waterfalls. I want to take the kids to see them. Growing up, my parents never took us on spontaneous road trips. My kids have traveled more than I ever did. I want to make an effort to see more historical sites. The kids are only young once.