Workbench

Well I am still working on cleaning out that shed and getting it organized, but I had to quit and take a break because my back isn't happy with all of this day after day work on it. So I have been trying to rest up for the past two days and let the ole back rest. I am on here tonight trying to find me a workbench plan so I can see if I can make one for the shed. I have found a couple counter tops at my favorite bargain store that I want to make it with. I paid 10.00 for the longer one which is like 8' and the 6' piece I paid 5.00 for it.
I am hoping I can get started back on my work in a couple days or so. I hope you all are going to have a great weekend!

Outdoors and Stuff

I have been working around outdoors for the past week or so. I built me some shelves in our shed so we would have a place to put things. They aren’t the prettiest things in the world but they will work for what I have in mind. I laid the 2x4 across them so you could see there is two, one down one side of it and one down the back side. I also made one on the front side as well.

Next pic is of my garden. I had clear plastic over the first two rows of tomatoes. That’s what the little arch things are there for. It was still too chilly at night when I planted them and I knew they wouldn’t grow so I closed the plastic at night and opened it in the mornings. Anyway you can see by the third row how much of a difference covering them made. They are twice if not three times as large as the others are.

I finally got my shingles in the paths around where I planted the string beans. You can see all my mulch on the sides in the pics. I have a huge pile at the ends of the shingles. You can also see the pinecones I’ve got to pick up in the top edge of this one. lol ALWAYS something to do around here.

Oh by the way, I didn’t mention what I had planted. In this garden I have tomatoes, snap beans, squash, (the egg plants haven’t came up yet), and peppers.

Then in the other garden I have tomatoes, garlic, chives, snap beans, and cucumbers. Then I also have another pile of mulch over there for that one. Am probably going to go ahead and put it on the plants this next week some time. The reason I haven’t yet is so the soil would get warm from the sun and the mulch would make it cool and it needed warmth. It’s really starting to heat up around here now so I think it’s time to put the mulch in place before I have to weed the things! Got ENOUGH to do around here thank you! ;)

Figured you might like to see my grated up soap when I was making the rebatch soap. You can see my left over honey in the pint jar. I used some of it in my soap.

My table with the makings of soap on it. Every things not there yet. We’d just got done measuring every thing.

Then I thought I would throw in a couple more pix. ;) One is my cutie pa-tootie nephew. I’m SURE he’s going to LOVE that! Hee hee And yeah he is single to. We were at the pizza place.

Last but not least….. I went to the bargain store I like to shop at right before Easter and someone there had drew this on the chalkboard. I thought it was soooo pretty and just had to take some pix of it. The girl sure did do a great job drawing it and check out THAT PRINTING!!!!!! VERY NICE!

Outside Shed

Yes I have moved on from soaping to shed-ding. lol Our shed has been in such need for awhile now of some T.L.C. I’ve said all along I was NOT doing it by myself but it looks like that’s exactly what I am doing. Although I have gotten some help from Hubby and his brother. They mounted the wall cabinet for me and then help from my sister on the shelves. We got one of those done when she came by on Monday. So it IS coming along slowly but surely!!

I needed some more 2x4’s to frame some more shelving up with. So we got those today along with some shingles for the garden paths.

Anyway I am trying to clean out the shed and get it organized so we can find our things. It’s been a wreck for much too long now! I don’t have any where to put anything so I am trying to get some shelves made so I can start organizing and cleaning out. Without the shelves they’d be no cleaning it out because you have to have an area to sit things to get started to organize.

Hubby is NOT a builder person. Now you can give him a welding machine and he can do all kinds of things with it and do it well, but to build something from wood, is a challenge and he is an all or nothing kind of person. IF he doesn’t have exactly what he thinks he needs to do the project, (and that takes LOADS of money we don’t have) then he doesn’t do anything if he can’t do it all. So that’s one reason the shed has just been there and no place to sit anything or no certain place for anything. It’s an eye sore that I do plan on working on. Hopefully I can get this eye sore done in a fast time frame. That is, BEFORE it gets TOO HOT, because I don’t do heat! ;)

My plans are to at least pretty it up some. It’s an old metal shed, nothing fancy by any means but it IS a place to put things and for that I AM thankful! So when you have lemons, make lemon aide and that’s just what I plan to do. ;) My plans are to even landscape around the sides of it to help the looks of the poor thing since it IS soooo ugly!

I really love the color of THIS shed! The green shutters on the other one looks really neat and the green plants I like with this color to. Tried to save the first  pic to my computer so I can see if Wal-mart can match that paint color for me but it wont let me save the pic. I was searching for ideas on landscaping around the shed when I found this pretty little shed that I love the color on.

Anyway if I am missing in action for the next few weeks you will know where I am. Just please keep me in your prayers that God will give me some energy to get this job finished before it gets too hot out there for me to do it AND that I don’t find a snake out there as well! :) Because THAT’S WHY I have said I wasn’t doing this project alone because I am SOOO SCARED of the things! UGHHHH

Azaleas Blooming

Here is my brides wreath in full bloom. I wanted to transplant it all in the circle drive but haven’t gotten that done yet either. Just soooo much to do around here all the time. :(

OK here are my azaleas in bloom. I love the color of this one!

My pink miniature one. This thing has never bloomed like this before.

And another one of it.

This one is the Formosa azalea. It is huge and all the blooms wasn’t opened up yet when I took the pic.

These deep red or maroon ones are out close to the road. They haven’t been planted very long.

This is my Magnolia Fascia I believe is how you spell that word. Man this thing is smelling fine right now. Smells like a really ripe banana and the bush or tree whichever you choose it to be, can get really really big. My Maw-maw used to have one in her yard and it was a monster. Every year when we would go for her birthday party it would be in bloom and smell soooo divine! I always loved it and finally have me two of the plants now.

Getting Sidetracked

Wondering if any of you ever get sidetracked when you’re trying to accomplish something? I do it ALL THE TIME! UGHHHHH Well I did it AGAIN today! I’m SUPPOSE to be cleaning out the shed and organizing it but went to dump a load of trash that I had gotten out of it and was going to burn it, and got sidetracked. Sidetracked you ask? What did you get sidetracked on? With me it doesn’t take much because there is always soooooo much to do around here! :( It seems to stay piled up on me.

Anyway, back to the burning the trash and stuff I was throwing away out of the shed. I got out there to unload the wagon of junk and got that unloaded, but saw a pile of oak limbs from hubby cutting down a tree 2 years ago that never has been cleaned up. I worked a little on it during the winter every chance I got but this was a HUGE oak tree so with huge oak trees you get huge oak limbs. He had cut the wood off it to burn for two winters now. So the small limbs were still out there to be cleaned up. This is actually out of our yard but I like to keep it all cleaned up so I can mow it 2-3 times a summer.

So I get all those limbs picked up and burnt. Then I decide I NEED to get all the leaves AND pine straw that was under all the limbs, raked up for my garden. So I do all of that and pile it at the gardens edge for putting on the garden when the soil warms up more. So THAT took up most of my time and it’s really later on in the evening now. BUT BACK to the shed I go……….

THEN I go back to the shed and start working some on it. Not through with that project my any means! It’s going to take quite awhile to  get it done! I am going to build some shelves in it to sit things on. I have a wall cabinet someone gave me that I also want to hang up. Then I also have some hanging hook things for hanging things on that I will have to put a board up to hang those on as well. Yep lots to do out there before it gets to hot in that metal shed! Then I am also going to TRY and get things organized so we can find what we need when we’re working on a project.

OH and I ALSO mowed the yard when I was SUPPOSE to be cleaning up the shed! lol So now the lawn is mowed as well. Sidetracked? Yep all the time? I sure wish I had like 25 of me around here and then maybe I could get caught up and everything look nice. I have a “to do” list a mile long! :( And it seems to grow. ;) 

So what about you, do you get sidetracked as well?

Things I Made

I saw a soap cutter on one of the soap forums and I really liked it. So I made me one today and also redid the lids on my soap molds hubby and I made a few weeks ago. The lids wasn’t wide enough for the molds and they would slide off when I was carrying them to the utility room. So I put a little board on the underside of them on each end and that holds them in so they wont slide off when I have them full of hot soap. This is the soap cutter below. I’ve got to find me a guitar string to screw onto the little board lying there. Then the other end of the string screws onto the left side of the cutter. You take the little piece of wood in your hand and pull the string tight with it and guide it along the edge of the board and it cuts the soap nice and straight. See the little stop block on the bottom board? That stops the soap and you can cut the soap to the same width every time. You cut it with the guitar string. Cool huh?

Molds with the new lids. I can take the ends off the molds if I need to because they have wing nuts on them.

The lids from the underside. I’m not going to paint them because I don’t know what the paint would do with the hot soap. I always line the molds with paper or good plastic so the soaps not in contact with my wood.

All my soaps curing. I stacked them with these metal trays so they can get air all the way around them and under them. I just bought this metal shelf the other day for only 3 bucks. Just in time for my soaps!

Freezer Cooking

Yeah it’s not about making soap this time. ;)

I saw something online awhile ago that got me to thinking. It’s getting summertime now and I hate to be in the kitchen cooking when I can be doing something else. I’ve gotten to where I hate to cook and I guess I am just plain out burnt out on it. Anyway with this in mind I was thinking about cooking some meals to stick in the freezer so when I am worn out from working in the yard all day or canning all day, I could just grab something out of the freezer for dinner. I sometimes cook too much of an item so I can put the rest in the freezer for later. I do this a lot with soups and chili. BUT since it’s getting summer no one around here is going to want soup or chili.

I need some ideas for things that freeze well. I’ve got one of those Once A Month Cookbooks so I will refer back to that as well.

I would like some ideas from you all about meals you freeze that freezes well.

Here are a couple links in case you’re interested in this.

Freezer Cooking Day

How I Plan My Freezer Cooking Day + Free Planning Worksheets!

Freezer Cooking Days

A Slob Comes Clean

 

Leave me a recipe you make that freezes well. :) I have one I will share with you that I think would freeze really well. I am going to try it and see, so I will know shortly!

 

Chicken Enchiladas (From an Amish Cookbook)

3 cups chopped chicken
½ cup salsa
½ cup sour cream
Flour tortillas
Evaporated milk (for topping)
Cream chicken soup (for topping)
Cheese (for topping)

1.) Combine meat, salsa, and sour cream.
2.) Wrap in flour tortillas and put into baking pan, seam side down.
3.) Mix cream chicken soup and milk.
4.) Pour over tortillas.
5.) Top with shredded cheese.
6.) Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Topping measurements:

1 can cream chicken soup
½ can milk (we used evaporated milk)
Cheese (just sprinkle over it)