one tree down

We had a dead maple tree in the front yard. It is now cut down. Watching workmen cut down a large tree is one of the most entertaining activities we ever pay anyone to do on our property. And thanks to all that entertainment we have a beautiful pile of wood in the backyard (and we were able to share wood with our neighbors). It feels really good to have fuel available. Now we need to have a chimney guy come and make sure the fireplace/chimney is in good working order. I'm looking forward to having some fireplace meals this winter. I've never had a house where we could do that sort of thing. I realize that a cookstove makes a lot more sense as far as truly being able to heat the house, but we don't have a cookstove and we do have a fireplace.

air conditioning

Yesterday, after church, one of the brothers in the ward said to me, "You know how people told you it didn't get that hot in Minneapolis?" I nodded and finished his sentence, "They LIED."

The air-conditioning man is here attempting to fix our problem. Living simply has its limits. It is near 100 degrees and near 100% humidity. Pretty miserable. I could handle living through this (I'd stay in the basement all day and night) but the kids are really complaining.

LATER: I now have a new favorite human being-- the air-conditioning repair man! It's fixed.

t-shirt quilt

This is the quilt I made for my daughter out of her high school t-shirts. We were both happy with how it turned out. I will always look at it and think of the Cosby show. We went through a couple of seasons of Cosby show reruns on the computer as we put the quilt together.

let the gardening begin

OK, so I'm just taking baby steps, but this is the start of my garden. I've got one plot, which will have composting stuff dug into the dirt until I can make it into a decent compost pile, next year this will be my first garden bed. In the plastic tub are my "Joseph Smith Memorial Tomatoes." When we were coming back from vacation we stopped by Palmyra, New York to visit the Sacred Grove and see a few sites from church history (sighhhhh, I wish I could've spent longer). At the Joseph Smith farm house they have a working garden and they were giving away some of the extra tomato plants. I took three of them and we'll see how they do!

before pictures

These are my pictures from yesterday. I'm officially labeling these as the "before" pictures. My goal is to develop this entire yard into an urban farm. I'm slowly making decisions and mapping out where things will be. First on the list is to get rid of that beautiful maple in the backyard. It's gorgeous, but I'll never have a garden with that huge tree shading everything. I've already talked with tree removal people. We're going to have so much firewood!

a building year

I want this blog to be a discussion of the ins and outs of an urban homestead. I feel like we were doing pretty good down at the old place, until the moving process started. Now it is time to start all fresh. I've learned a lot from doing this all before and this time I'm going to do things a bit differently (but mainly the same). This year is going to be a rebuilding year. I think it'll be interesting to document the changes. First off is to get "before" photos and then start moving forward on the the homestead. This is a great place to have an urban homestead. I even found a STORE that sells things especially to people like me! I'll be able to buy my city chickens as soon as I'm feeling ready (which won't be until next year, but, hey! I found a place to buy small quantities of chicks).

stuff overload

Well, most of the house is unpacked. All this STUFF. Who in their right minds needs all this stuff? Yet, while we were living with all our stuff packed up, I was constantly looking for this and that. Now I can find scissors, forms, books, etc. We found the muffin pan and the scented oils and my yarns. I can find stuff,now.