sitting down and shuffling

projects, money and food.

First 

We need the basement ramp wall and the kitchen porch fixed this summer. Hubby thinks the drain in the area is broke and it's washing dirt out from the porch causing it to drop and forcing the wall on ramp to shift.

Hubby priced it out at $1200... I looked over his figures and made it $2000 and told him he forgot he would (whether it's good or bad) replace the drain as it is over 20 yrs old. Nor did he count on replacing any of the porch frame if it was bad. I can use the old floor to build more garden boxes or other stuff.

Second
Then we looked at the deck railing. Hubby is going to pull out what we have left of the building supplies and then we will figure out what we still need. We will definitely designing it to hang hummingbird feeders and plants.

Priced it at $1000.... neither of us think the railing for the ramp is here because we weren't sure how long it was going to be.

Third

Drive way needs finished and widened....

Hubby was going to stone around the pond but decided not to. E is planning to have a couple colts graze his land on the other side of us so we could just leave the gate open to the pond so they can have a water supply. Side benefit would be we wouldn't be mowing it every 4-5 days as the horses would graze closer to the pond.

Propane truck can't cross our concrete sidewalk as it would break it so it's a debate whether to finish the driveway to the basement....

We do have to widen the driveway. Hubby's truck has one side or the other in the yard... I had wanted it to be 2 car wide to begin with... looks like I am getting my way.

Priced out at $2000. That's on the high side but we thought we might have to move the mail box about 3 ft and Hubby will use concrete there so the mail carrier doesn't get stuck in that area. A small culvert will have to be installed where the ditch runs under the driveway. Two types of stone will be used.. base stone is expensive but necessary .

Fourth

Gardens...

we have probably all the boards we need to make sq.ft garden boxes to get us started. Not including what boards can be reused from kitchen porch project.

I will be painting the boards as they are not treated. I have done this before and the boards lasted 5 -6 yrs before I had to replaced...longer than the vinyl ones did.

I have at least 1 if not two sq ft boxes we brought from the old farm.

I have large pots for trees to be put in until planted.

I have 15 gal grow bags and 25 gal grow bags for the potatoes

I have several of pots of different sizes I can use.

If I say I have all my seeds and plants I will probably realized I missed something. I actually have went back and ordered seeds to grow dried beans as I realized after seeing a pound of Navy beans selling for over $5 I needed to make room to grow more than what I was.

I asked before we even moved in to have a winter growing house. Hubby put me off last fall.... I even pointed out a couple styles that is around us that is NOT heated.....

He agreed this summer we would get one up, might not be what I wanted but we would get something up. He misses his salads during the winter and I am get stressed thinking I bought something on recall (usually after we ate it). I think this style will be good for the two of us

We can put it on the south side of the barn( taking the cost of the that side off the building costs) and I can enter through the barn. The barn has a water hydrant on that side also so running a garden house that we already have would do. I saw this on this site

https://extension.umn.edu/growing-systems/deep-winter-greenhouses

This works in Minnesota so it should work here.
It does look like they are growing the crops in rain spouting... not a big deal as there is an Amish about 4 miles from us that makes spouting to order.

Money 

Retirement is back to making some money after we pulled money. I put part of the money we pulled  in Hubby's savings to help him cover what ever with the business.He went from hauling 2-3 loads of pallets 5 days a week to only hauling 2 loads once or twice a week. BUT he has picked up hauling livestock, corn seed, food (was on pallet) and Amish farm equipment a load averaging twice a week.  Still he is going to be a bit short if it continues all summer.The Amish produce auction is not going to open this month so that is 4 jobs he knows isn't going to happen. I can see him being short on money to cover the business for a few more months.

I put 3 months of house hold bill money in Ally savings... keeps our fingers out of it.

I put 5 months household ( or 3 if we need more to cover business) in a CD.

We bought a new to us truck to transport dogs. We use the car about twice a week to run Amish on short trips. The bank they use here in town (our bank also) is closing it's branch so they have to go 5 miles one way... it's an hour to 1 1/2 hrs trip for those in this area... I am now getting asked at least every other week to take some one to the bank.They have even starting asking others if they need something at the bank and take it with them when I take them. Last week we stopped 3 times on the way back (all on the way) to drop off deposit slips.

New dog truck

We offered 2/3 rds of their asking price, a few minutes later they accepted. Has less than 100,000 miles so even though it's a 2005, we should get it to out last the dogs. Well , maybe not Charlotte as she's only 2 going to be 3 on Father's day.

As for the balance of what we pulled I am sitting on until we get some of the project supplies in. Then what is left will go to a CD.


Food

HEAVENS... We have enough for at least 6 month to year That gets us to the harvest and praying that it doesn't get flooded out like last year or burnt up like 2011.
 The 6 months is if we need to share. We have 2 daughters that are not working. One will get unemployment, probably by time she is back to work. The other one is a server.... so are 2 of her 3 boys living with her... All income has stopped. Their unemployment check together won't even pay the rent let alone utilities and food.
We told them to not go to the food pantries that we would help. I sent money for milk. Both are now baking bread including the one that doesn't cook from scratch EVERY and she's 40.

AND then 2 wks ago Son 2 lets me know he can't find Navy beans and is on a CALL LIST for when they come in. He checked on Monday and was told MAYBE a month... so he asked the price $5.50 for a pound. I sent him 3- 1 lb bags of Navy beans, 1 lb of pinto( soup then refried or bean burgers), 1 lb of small red beans (red beans and rice (he was stationed in Georgia for 4 yrs or bean burgers) and 1 lb of black beans with a package of sazon seasoning for Cuban black beans and rice...bean burger or soup also... 2 lbs of minute rice and the last 3 Jiffy corn meal boxes that my brother gave me that was Daddy's. Expiration date was 12/31/2019... still good as Daughter 4 just used one of the two she took.  Was less than him buying the beans.

SO that sent me off pricing soup beans.... I then ordered more seed to plant for soup beans LOL. I will pay that amount to grow them, I am not paying that amount to make 1 pot of bean soup.

Asparagus is coming up... I will do a test of freezing it and seeing if we will eat it that way. I pickled most of it last year of what we didn't eat or give away. I do have 3 people willing to come pick if we get ran over... Patch is 4 ft wide and at least 80 ft long.

I told Hubby if we worked hard at it this year, we should be self sufficient in 3 yrs. IF the fruit trees produce then. We will have to buy tropical fruit always. Not enough heat in long enough season to grow them here. BUT that also means I need more canning jars and canning lids.

Temperature is now warm enough to paint the garden boxes..

Blessed be everyone