Town House Homestead Tuesday

Progress

Progress is becoming my favorite word and experience. We have been in our new home for just shy of five months. We have worked and grown, grown gardens and made a lot of progress bringing her back up to the fine place she should be. This past holiday weekend was by no means one of relaxation. It began with my daughter joining forces with the owner of the bees she's been attending. Early Saturday morning they inspected the hive and harvested honey and talked over plans for winterizing the hive. They were joined by a family that wanted the children to experience working with bees. I don't have pictures because I stayed behind to get caught up on some household chores. 

This past week I took advantage of the farm market. We bought half a bushel of tomatoes and I put up fourteen quarts of tomatoes. It equaled the same price as canned at the super market except that we know what is in the tomatoes and feel better about what we are eating. 

I also put up eight pints of peaches for winter use. They are so delicious and I have the skins and pits steeping to see if it will be strong enough for peach pit jelly. 

My daughter brought me home these beauties. She purchased them from a co-worker whose daughter raises chickens. I am thrilled and will be cooking and baking with them this week.

I've made some progress with the cast iron dutch oven. I have scrubbed it several times and heated it well and so far the progress has been good. I hope I can devote some more time to it this week and maybe cook a meal in it. 

After finishing with the bees Saturday and getting some what caught up with house chores we headed for the basement to resume working. It required patching holes in the cement, stapling wires up so they didn't hang, brushing down the walls and the removal of all the wood along the crown of the room that was left from the lowered ceiling. We worked late Saturday, but were right back at it to be ready for painting Sunday morning. 

Before we started painting we realized we needed to get more windows opened. In the 58 years this house has existed the windows were rarely opened and the original screens were rotted out so we took the time to tape new screen in the windows for a temporary fix so we could ventilate the basement. We worked until after dark Sunday to get this quarter of the basement covered and primed so we can keep going. What a difference and how thrilled and exhausted we were. Progress comes with hard work and burning muscles. The paint for the floor is being delivered today. What is next with the walls is still up in the air, but they are ready for whatever my daughter decides. It will be her sewing and work studio so it's up to her. We will be working on another quarter of the basement this week to make a food storage pantry that is clean and organized that will house a work table and possible freezer. For Monday the work went outside. There was another large amount of trash to prepare for pickup today and the back yard needed mowing. We went as far as we could before we both were ready to collapse. It was time to quit and relax and just see the progress we had made. That's what's been happening this past week at the New Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. Be Happy!