Town House Homestead Tuesday.

The weather for the last week has been challenging for getting work done outside. Heavy rains for hours and mud up to your ankles. I need so much to clear a bed for my garlic, but it may be a few more days. While it rains I've been working on my seed inventory and saving what I can from my harvests. So far things look okay for spring. 

A nice hard frost moved in last night. Our neighbors had their lawn mowed, just as evening set in, and the shorter grass made it look like snow.

I spent a while yesterday getting my delicate plants inside and harvesting the beans and peppers that were as close to ready as they would be. I will now start pulling the plants and prepping for spring. Baby steps. I cut the zinnias and put the heads aside for more seeds, and saved this bouquet for some added indoor joy.

Work is slow on the shelves because of the extra help we get from Hunter. He's such a devil dog. He needs time with us outside to just play and run, but I'm hoping that he'll learn to be out much longer by himself. I work with him every day repeatedly to get him where he needs to be. The rails will be up for sure this weekend and then we'll decide the length and design for the shelves. From there it will be getting them cut and stained. I can't wait to finish unpacking. It's been a year and a half already and I'd like to see some of our holiday decorations out. 

Finally the stairway to the basement is getting a face lift. My daughter kept using the leftover paint in the tray, she used to paint the living room, to clean up the dark panelling. We have gray paint left too, so the steps will get done. I like it so much because now when the lights are on it's bright and safer for me. What else is there to do when the rain outside is so heavy. Keep building home equity of course.That's what's been going on this past week at the Town House Homestead. It doesn't seem like much, but oh it is. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. Share your bounty and love.

Town House Homestead Tuesday

It is so nice to be able to retreat to blog posting and get away from so much media frenzy, hate, and lies. These girls live without television, but we are constantly bombarded with it on other devices of our choice. We are where we are and have what we have not because of any politicians, but because of hard work and determination, obeying the law, paying taxes, and sharing with all who come and help. No one has ever left without a meal to go, a full belly, or something to help them get ahead too. So, moving forward and speaking of hard work, yes we did more this past week. It's getting harder because we are tired and hurting a bit more, nursing injuries, and sleeping less but in the end it all pays off. 

Again with help from Emily, she and I finished more painting in the basement and have set the germination shelf in place. Next step will be the lighting and then we can start our seeds. What you can't see clearly in this picture is the closet organizer being installed beyond this shelf. It's still a work in progress. My daughter got it free with her Amazon points and it will be used for more storage. Extra parts will be moved around and used elsewhere. This part of the basement is moving out of it's dungeon stage slowly, but the end result will be pollinating flowers, herbs and some vegetable plants. The reward for hard work.

I needed to get a few items at the grocers and after that we took the time to do some indoor walking through a couple of thrift stores. It was too snowy and icy to walk outside. I found close to three dozen more canning jars to add to my "jar" bank account. There are four different sizes and it was orange tag day so quite a few were 50% off. None cost more than $.99.

I continued cooking and baking from scratch. Yesterday's bread was so good and I calculated the price per loaf at $.35 and a little kneading. I also know that I can pronounce all the ingredients. So, here's to all who are working hard to be successful. I hope that this blog is more than an encouragement to you. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Town House Homestead Tuesday

I have garden fever. Okay? There I admitted it. I know I am not alone and that's even better. This has led to more renovations and a big step forward almost a year earlier than we expected. 

The hive in the living room is now two medium supers taller and the paint or stain is next. We believe we have everything we need now to get the girls in April and start a strong colony. Here's hoping any way. 

Our friends Richard and Karen provided me with a ride to pick up a large shelf unit a week ago. The larger shelves were reduced in price and I needed to act so that we could get one step closer to having a good place to germinate my seeds. I put off a canning project to be able to purchase this shelf, but that's on the agenda for February now.

Emily came by this past Sunday to help put it together with me. We inherited a shop light in the rafters of the garage and she helped me get that down so that in the up coming week or two we can test it to see if it works. Shop lights will be hung from the shelves to provide the light I need for my seeds. I'm sure this is not new to many of you out there. Just having the space to do it is exciting for me.

This is the start of the fourth space/laundry room area in the basement. It wasn't even going to be thought about for a few months if not longer, but the universe is leading the way. I started painting the wall bright white to reflect the light for the germination shelves. There are electrical outlets already wired and a couple of months ago we found a water line run to this part of the basement for a future wash tub. We shopped through all of our electrical collection we had and found hanging lights to illuminate this dark corner so we could work. I have a ways to go, but it will be done soon enough to set the shelf against this painted wall and we've once again utilized more space. This has been an amazing nine month journey. First seeds will be for the pollination garden to be planted around the bees. Our goal is to give mother nature back some of her wild, and rid our corner of the planet of some useless grass. I have a small glimmer of hope that we can start with some vegetables too and start a community garden, but for now only time and income will tell. That's what's been happening here at the new Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday.

We are taking our time and doing it as right as possible, but the waiting is killing us. We had a couple of days at the end of last week that we really did not feel well. Tired mostly, but Sunday with the help of a dear friend we pushed through. The floor was washed three times and vacuumed even more to get it as clean as possible. It was worth all the scrub. We got all of the walls touched up and started the trim and down went the first coat of floor paint. We let it dry and got the second coat on. This basement tear out and renovation is coming along great and barring no further delays in a couple of weeks we can move the studio in and re shelf the pantry.  Wish us luck. We are racing mother nature because as soon as the studio is moved out of the garage we need to fill holes to keep critters out of it.

While the second coat was drying we moved on to the third portion of the basement. We'll call it the furnace room and got the cement walls coated in white with the primer. The further wall will be blue and the wall on the left may need another coat.

A portion of the space that will be the food storage room got a start with the floor. We did just enough to be able to move shelves in and organize the pantry when the time comes that we can walk on the floor.  

As I said we are doing it to the best of our knowledge and ability. Thanks to friends, YouTube and research it is going to be nice. We have even found some one who can help with the 59 year old screen windows that need replacing.

Once the shelves are in place we will be adding the canning that we have been doing, yes, while we've waited for paint to dry and in between the regular work. Here we have pasta sauce and apple butter. 

My daughter wanted to make something from scratch doing all the work herself and the canning herself. So she spent time making the apple butter and I gave her the first basic lessons in water bath canning. It was a job well done. We put the apple peels and scraps in water with sugar to make vinegar. It's doing well and fermenting in the cupboard.

Today's adventure in the kitchen was a batch of root beer jelly. The root beer was from a recent trip through a drive through for a quick bite and it never gets consumed so today I made jelly. It tastes like root beer candy. It will be shared with friends and the excess added to the pantry.

That's what's new at the Town House Homestead this week. All the work is beginning to feel great and the results have been amazing. On October 15th we will have been in our new home for six months and it feels like it's been home forever. We still love her. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday.

We are taking our time and doing it as right as possible, but the waiting is killing us. We had a couple of days at the end of last week that we really did not feel well. Tired mostly, but Sunday with the help of a dear friend we pushed through. The floor was washed three times and vacuumed even more to get it as clean as possible. It was worth all the scrub. We got all of the walls touched up and started the trim and down went the first coat of floor paint. We let it dry and got the second coat on. This basement tear out and renovation is coming along great and barring no further delays in a couple of weeks we can move the studio in and re shelf the pantry.  Wish us luck. We are racing mother nature because as soon as the studio is moved out of the garage we need to fill holes to keep critters out of it.

While the second coat was drying we moved on to the third portion of the basement. We'll call it the furnace room and got the cement walls coated in white with the primer. The further wall will be blue and the wall on the left may need another coat. 

A portion of the space that will be the food storage room got a start with the floor. We did just enough to be able to move shelves in and organize the pantry when the time comes that we can walk on the floor.  

As I said we are doing it to the best of our knowledge and ability. Thanks to friends, YouTube and research it is going to be nice. We have even found some one who can help with the 59 year old screen windows that need replacing.

Once the shelves are in place we will be adding the canning that we have been doing, yes, while we've waited for paint to dry and in between the regular work. Here we have pasta sauce and apple butter. 

My daughter wanted to make something from scratch doing all the work herself and the canning herself. So she spent time making the apple butter and I gave her the first basic lessons in water bath canning. It was a job well done. We put the apple peels and scraps in water with sugar to make vinegar. It's doing well and fermenting in the cupboard.

Today's adventure in the kitchen was a batch of root beer jelly. The root beer was from a recent trip through a drive through for a quick bite and it never gets consumed so today I made jelly. It tastes like root beer candy. It will be shared with friends and the excess added to the pantry.

That's what's new at the Town House Homestead this week. All the work is beginning to feel great and the results have been amazing. On October 15th we will have been in our new home for six months and it feels like it's been home forever. We still love her. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday

First an update. My thrift store cast iron Dutch oven finally got to a point where I felt comfortable using it. It turned out better than I expected.

Not perfect, but with use now it will become more seasoned. This was my maiden meal with it and it was so delicious.

I roasted a six pound chicken with lemon and rosemary in my convection oven. Next time I will roast using the regular baking feature because it needed to crisp up a bit. I will keep practicing with the convection oven and cast iron to find the correct temps and times.

After being held up for two weeks because of Wasps and pulling out insulation to remove the hive and all the clean up, this past weekend my daughter and one of our dear friends spent five hours getting back on course with the basement painting. All walls have two coats and they even managed to paint a second section of the basement that I will be using for my food storage and freezer and we'll have a microwave available for craft projects. You can see the two rooms with the dividing wall. 

This is a comparison photo. The upper picture is after removing the drop ceiling cleaning up old wires and 58 years of who knowss what and patching the cement walls.

She purchase a sheet of peg board and a variety of different pegs to use for her sewing and craft tools. This will hang on the panelled wall where she plans to place tables and her sewing machines.

This is from the back end of the room looking up the stairs and you can see the work in the second room. They will be painting the floor a dove gray this weekend and beginning the cement walls in the third section of the basement which houses the furnace and water heater and most of the house mechanicals. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have it more settled, but it is beginning to feel like a useful part of the house and the dungeon is moving out. This has been major work for us and other things have been going on, but they will wait until next week. I have so much to do today and need to take advantage of the cool dry weather. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday

I think this week I'll show you some of my flowers that came up in the garden. We were gifted Cana Lilies and they are awkward, but okay for this year. We also received several Dahlia's and they are just starting to blossom making the garden look pretty before it all settles back for winter. 

To the left of the Cana Lilies are white Mums, in the pot is peppermint, and in the front of the photo is Spider Wort. All plants and bulbs were gifted and or saved from the trash. The white mums were table decorations for a college graduation brunch, used for a couple hours and heading for garbage bags. They, along with everything else, filled out nicely and we will move and adjust things next Spring.

I baked as usual. This is a loaf of lemon blueberry muffin bread. It was so delicious. I'm going to try other blueberry recipes too. I'm in the mood to try everything at least once.

I was given some Salsa this week. I didn't make this and I already had an open jar in the refrigerator, so I canned it. These are eight ounce jars ready for the pantry.

I started some new quilt blocks. I needed to use up some scraps of the quilt I'm making for either toss pillows or pillow cases. I have a new respect for the number 13. This is the Cathedral window block. Each block is 4.5 inches square with 1/4 inch seam allowances. It took 13, 2.5 inch squares to make each block. I tried it two different ways to see what I like and I still can't make up my mind so I may use both and alternate them. 

Progress on the basement walls continued. My daughter chose an aqua shade for the opposite end walls and it gave it a quick and wonderful fresh look. The opposing walls will remain white, but will receive a coat of good white paint over the primer.

It will still be the basement, but it is getting so much better. She has chosen a light dove gray for the floors. This past Sunday two of her former students came to help and they were able to start another quarter of the basement with a white base coat. All was going fine until...we ran into a major problem. Work abruptly came to a disappointing halt, but for the safety of all it was quite necessary. I will continue this story next week, because it is still continuing and is already two days strong and could take a couple more days. That's what's happened this past week at the New Town House Homestead and there's more for next. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.