Garage Workbench.

Recently with our move to the new house I  had the opportunity to make a work bench in the garage to consolidate my tools that were in boxes throughout the house, garage, and shop. 

Removing the old shelves was half the fun! Too bad I didn't get to use a jackhammer. 

HomeDepot had a special on 12ft 3/4 pressboard, so I covered this unit for cheep. 

Turned out better than expected, and held more than I thought. Looks like I need another shelf already since this one is full.

Thanks for reading!

Moving, and Then Some

Well thank goodness the moving is over! Everyday was a journey, harder and longer than planned. Here's a recap of our long and hectic trip.

Kelsi started packing long before the move, which was more than helpful. We ended up with this mountain of boxes in the living room as a result. 

The outside stuff ended up being more work than inside. Rolling hoses, pulling fence posts, lifting garden boxes, and more.

When I was pulling up the garden I found a huge bags worth of carrots that I had forgotten to pull.

I also found an equal amount of beets.

The day I pulled down the fence to the garden the geese and ducks went to town on the remains. 

The chickens made a dent too, but the worst damage was done by a huge flock of deer. I was unable to get a picture of the deer since they run so fast. It was sad to see our garden chewed away in a matter of hours.

Then, after all of our prep work, we finally got the key. We were loaded up and were sitting in the driveway of the new house when the closing attorney called to say it was ours. That's how excited we were. 

On our first trip over we brought the cats and dogs. I took the cats. It was a long and frightful experience for them.

Maybelle sat on my shoulders for the majority of the trip, which was a huge pain since she is a big girl.

We put the cats on the cat tower when we got the new house since that's familiar to them. They stayed there huddled together for a long time

We have hardwoods throughout the upstairs of the house which were covered with by carpet. Naturally we had to remove them before we put the furniture in. 

A pile of carpet nail strips really paints the best picture of the work involved. This is only one rooms worth. We pulled hundreds of staples and nails from the floor. We thought that was hard, but we still need to refinish them.

The dogs settled in right away, no change there.

The cats took a day or two, but they soon came out from the safety of the basement and took to the bed like usual.

After the interior of the house was all moved in we set out for the greenhouse.

I jacked it up and placed it on blocks so we could move it more easily. 

We were planning on moving the greenhouse with many men and a large trailer, luckily a friend with some heavy equipment became available and was able to lift the greenhouse with relative ease. 

A perfect fit for the trailer.

It was nice following my greenhouse through the streets of Spokane. We made it to the new house in one piece. 

Lessons learned from the first time we setup the greenhouse taught me to put down lots of bricks to keep the heat and suppress the weeds. Luckily we had a half pallet worth at our old house.

I also invested in some weed cloth as an extra barrier. Grass coming through bricks is especially hard to pull out from experience. 

I lifted the greenhouse with a jack, which made it easier to get the cloth under every square inch of brick. 

I ran out of brick part way through, but the cloth is down and some day soon I will have the rest bricked in. 

We also had lots of cat traps laying around. Caught one!

Shortly after moving in we adopted a new dog from the Airedale Rescue. His name is Rowen or "Roe". A good dog with a big heart. Such a lover.

He took to us right away.

He fit right in with our busy family.

They play like this all day long

They also stay close during resting periods.

To say goodbye after a long post, I would like to wish everyone a happy Chanukah. 

Thanks for reading!

An update worth reading.

When Juliette died this spring I lost my motivation to blog. That didn't mean life stopped for us around here, far from it. We had a very busy growing season and our most productive plant sales to date. After a long 5 month break from the blog, I come with an update. It's a long one, but I think it'll give a good idea of what we have been up to.

We sold thousands of plants this spring. We spent hours in the greenhouse every week. Transplanting, watering, and seeding.

We were so busy this year that we had to put in another shelf in the greenhouse.

It wasn't empty long. Kelsi did a significant amount of business in flowers this year. She had that shelf filled before it was even built.

After a few months without our farm dog, we adopted this fella. His name is Finnegan. He is a handful, energetic, and he has a troublemaker in him. On the bright side, he is healthy, happy, and well loved.

This was the greenhouse prior to our warm weather sales. Although we did have a great turnout and we sold more than ever, regrettably this was our last year doing the greenhouse business. Our time input was large. Hours every week. When the hours added were compared to the sales, it is a wash. Not to say that we don't enjoy doing it, but when profit is the driving force it became less enjoyable and more of a pain. So, next year we will go back to where we started. We will grow enough starts for us, and some extras for our gardner friends, but it will be our hobby again.

After the plant sale season was all finished Kelsi and I went on a trip.

We had the opportunity to spend some time in Maui this summer.

It was a good vacation with family.

We still have lots of crazy cats.

I traveled to Israel for a two week study trip.

It was hot, some places greater than 120degrees.

And I got to ride a camel! That's pretty cool in my opinion.

With all that time away, it's a big surprise that we had a garden to come back to.

But we did, and better than ever. 

The beans climbed over the 8ft fence, and choked out our chicken windmill.

Finn loved to spend time in the garden.

The chickens are good as usual, eating bugs.

The ducks and geese continue to be loud.

The sunsets over the garden are still beautiful.

There is a cat in that bag of food.

Her name is Lucy, very sweet, and very much a kitten.

Finn went on his first camping trip this summer. He had a pretty good time.

Clouds over our campsite.

Kelsi and her parents competed in a group triathlon.

The sunflower patch brought lots of bees.

The new kitten Lucy spent a lot of time with us in the garden.

Finn took shade under over grown cauliflower leaves.

Onion harvest 2012. 9gallons worth once they were dried and trimmed.

Dori snuck off and hatched some eggs.

She ended up with 4 babies. She is now a thriving full time mother. The babies are almost as big as her, but she still huddles them under her wings nightly in the coop. She loves to bring them down to the garden where they can fit through the fence and range in the garden. None of the other chickens can fit, but the little ones have a good time.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!

We picked pounds and pounds of them, every week.

The tomato plants in the greenhouse grew through the roof again.

We had a good variety this year. 

Our last big picking was 53lbs.

Our last big pepper picking was a pretty good yield.

And for the last big news.

We are expecting.

And we are moving. We bought a house on a couple of acres not far from family. We have to move all of our infrastructure from the garden, the greenhouse, fencing, and the chickens. It's a lot of work, but it'll be worth it once we are all settled in. The house is a fixer, and we are going to have to reestablish our garden, build a new coop, and many other projects. So i will have lots of stuff to write about.

Hope you all enjoyed the update and thanks for reading!