Foolish Friday

Knock Knock !

Who's There ?

Sarah.

Sarah who ?

Sarah doctor in the house ?

Caleb's (age 9) picture he drew this week of a house with a lot going on. I don't think I can explain it all, but there is a lion with a dog house, a laser zapping ants on the ground, a tree on fire, electricity arcing between antennae connected to the door knob and I have no idea what else. Caleb wants to be a mad scientist. You might need a doctor at this house! Maybe we shouldn't have let him watch "Despicable Me" and "Igor."

Update on Gardening

Those of you who have been following my blog know that we moved from Nevada to Utah this summer. We purchased a house that needs some work and which has an overgrown/neglected yard. We are slowly making the changes and repairs we want to make. Many aren't worth photographing. A lot of light fixtures have been or are in the process of being changed or changed out. We're getting odds and ends of things done. The garage has been mostly organized and now my husband can actually park his truck in there for the winter. Some pictures are finally getting put on the walls, shelves have been added, all the closets and guest room have been painted and a bunch of yard work has been done. This week the energy audit guy is coming to inspect the house and give us advice.

Here are a few changes I have pictures of from my flower bed project. I'm afraid they aren't very spectacular as they are mostly pictures of dirt.

Before. Front door area.

After. This was all grass and weeds. Now it's waiting for spring planting. I put some bulbs in too. This bed wraps around two sides of the house--see following pictures.

After. Terraced and waiting for spring planting.

Waiting for spring planting. Once plants are in I will mulch it all. This was all grass and weeds and lumps of decomposing landscape fabric and mulch, roots and construction rubble.

I dug up sad looking irises from too shady places in the yard and replanted them here. I hope they look perkier in the spring.

I dug up this black edging and recycled it from other places and greatly increased the size of the flower beds. We're trying to get rid of some of the grass. This bed was half grass and mostly weeds and rocks. Now it's rich with compost and ready for spring planting. This bed will get herbs since it's close to the back door and kitchen. The sickly mum and coral bells were there already.

Sue

A few things to do . . .

We recently purchased a new house with .4 acres in what I describe as a somewhat "jungly" condition. One of our neighbors mentioned that the previous owner rarely ever mowed.  We have our work cut out for us, but we are looking forward to making improvements. We've been living either in the desert or in an apartment for the last 7 years and haven't even owned a mower in that time, so this is a big change for us.

Here are some "before" photos of upcoming projects:

This is what I call  "the scary slope"  in front of the house. It's got various types of trees, a lot of crown vetch, an assortment of weeds, some junipers and who knows what else is hidden in there? The neighborhood cats enjoy stalking prey here and I'm scared to know what exactly lives in the mess a few yards from my front door. This photo was taken after my husband went after it with a machete. It was spilling out over the concrete making the sidewalk impassable.

This is the official garden area. This is after I spent an hour or more digging out buried tomato cages and pruning back some blackberry canes.  It's still a tangled mess that needs many more hours of work.  I plan to make a compost bin in one corner and a small salad/herb garden and flower cutting garden in the rest--nothing too ambitious.

I call this one the "hidden spruce."  Our yard slopes up in back so that this beautiful blue spruce could be seen from the back of the house nearly at eye level if the scrub oak wasn't in the way. It will be trimmed back a little. My husband already trimmed back some of the small branches.

And this is the front door with a patch of eroding dirt between the sidewalk and the garage and a patch of weeds on the other side. I'm thinking that a smallish conical tree with blue-green foliage on either side would be nice to set off the entrance. I also want to improve the curb appeal by sinking flagstones into the sod in front of the picture window to make a patio seating area to take advantage of the splendid mountain views from there.

The view.  No need to improve that.

Sue

Refrigerator Organizing Tips

I enjoy household tips that make life a little easier and hope to share some with you over the next few months. Today I am giving you my favorite refrigerator organizing tips.

My son, Caleb, loves string cheese and I like it as a healthy snack for him. I use an extra coffee mug to put it within easy reach so the frig door doesn't stay open too long letting the cold out.

Caleb loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and wants them almost every day. I bought this plastic bin (pictured above) at a discount store and put bread, natural peanut butter (that needs refrigeration) and jars of jelly in it. Now I just grab the whole thing out of the frig when it's time to make his lunch (see photo below). You can do the same with any type of sandwich makings or the items for your morning toast or bagel. If you use sandwich bags you can store them in there too, but we like reuseable containers.

I wipe the main shelves of my refrigerator out every week to keep it clean and shiny--usually doing this right before my big grocery shopping trip when the shelves are the most empty. I rotate through cleaning the door shelves, meat and vegetable bins which don't need to be cleaned as often. I line the bins with sections of newspaper to make cleaning them a breeze. We prefer the comics section ☺ The newsprint neutralizes odors and the newspaper soaks up spills. Now I lift the newspaper out and replace it periodically instead of having to remove the bins and wash them.

Since I instigated these organization tips, my life has been just a little easier.  I hope you find them helpful.  I'd love to learn more. If you have a great refrigerator tip, please leave me a comment!