Posted in Gardening, Gifts, Local, Local Food, photography, tagged friends, garden, Gifts, neighbors, onions, photography, Photos, Sunday, sunday photos on July 20, 2014| 4 Comments »
We have a few neighbors and friends that like to garden. One of them brought us some fresh onions the other day.
fresh onions
They were beautiful. A beautiful gift.
What treat are you enjoying from your garden or local farmer’s market?
Sincerely, Emily
Posted in Frugality, Make Your Own, Miscellaneous, Re-using, Recyling, tagged Bench, benches, creative re-use, free stuff, frugal, Frugality, Garden benches, neighbors, off cuts, plant benches, potting bench, re-use, scrap lumber, scrap wood, what to do with wood scraps on April 6, 2013| 9 Comments »
Yesterday I posted about some free wood scraps (cut offs) that I got from a neighbor. Today I wanted to show you the benches that I made using similar scraps of wood.
I originally saw this bench design at my next door neighbors. He is the woodworker that I have posted about before (over at Sincerely, Emily) who makes wooden toys and the bus. He is very handy, and builds a lot of other things that they need or want around the house/property like a tall, large tripod to hang large wind chimes in or trellis for any vines. He also built a pergola off their screen porch and aviaries for their doves and another one for a parrot. Small scale or large scale, he has his hands in it and he has always had a pile of scrap wood to use along the way.
What is so great about these benches is that you can make them any height and any length. You just build them to fit the space you need to fill or the area you want to use them.
Not only can you make them to fit your space, but the scarp wood you use for the horizontal pieces on top can be mixed and matched. They can be 2×2’s, 2×4’s, 2×6’s, etc. I am definitely not picky and do not need them all to be the same. I love using the 4×4’s for the legs. They make the bench very sturdy and will take the weight of a lot of plants or a person if you are making it to sit on. The smaller tables my step-dad made for the laundry basket near the clothesline and the compost tumbler where made using 2x’6’s for the legs. Those tables do not need to support a lot of weight, so it was good to use the lumber scraps we had and save the 4×4’s for the plant benches.
I put a piece of concrete under each leg (look at first photo) to keep it off the ground and away from moisture so the leg won’t start to rot. Our ground has not been moist or wet very often over the past few years here in South Texas, but if I can help the legs of my benches last just s little longer, I will.
The pile of scrap wood I hauled home in November still sits and waits for me. I had planned to get a few benches made this winter, but that is one of those things “on hold” until I get better and can do my own things again. (JD is you happen to be reading this, feel free to use that beautiful scrap lumber and build me a couple of benches!)
I have talked about how strange things get me excited, like free horse manure and free mulch. Well, you can add scarp wood (or cut offs) to that list.
What kind of neat free stuff have you picked up along the way?
Sincerely, Emily
Posted in Foraging, Relationships, Wild Foods, tagged Bees, Foraging, herbicide, lawn, neighbors, weeds on August 2, 2010| 52 Comments »
We live on 10 acres, mostly pasture with a small stand of evergreens and lined at the edges with wild blackberries. Our property is a perfect square, with our house smack dab in the middle. To the north of our farm is a small family run dairy farm. To the south is my mom’s acrage To the east is another 10 acre farm that raises beef and sheep. To the west…well to the west used to be over 50 acres of just open space with a creek and an old dilapidated saw mill.
Now it is a housing development with homes on lots from 1 to 2 acres. On our Western flank we have 3 neighbors. It is the #3 neighbor that I will be speaking about today.
As I was driving home the other day I noticed that the blackberries along the fence line bordering #3 neighbor were turning yellow. I stopped the car and got out to take a look. As I got nearer it became obvious they had been sprayed with some sort of herbicide (all of our roadways around our town are sprayed the same way so I knew immediately how it looks)
I got back into my car grumbling about the nerve of someone to spray the blackberries on my property.
The next day and the day after that I visited #3 to speak to her about spraying on property that wasn’t her’s. She was never home.
Meanwhile I have called the county to find out the rules about this. They were clear that no one had the legal right to spray on another’s property, even if it was blackberries (which if you lived in Western Washington you realize that they are considered a nuisance plant.)
Anyway on the 3rd try I stopped by her daughter’s house at the beginning of the housing developement and was going to leave a message to have her mom call me.
Of course the daughter was concerned about what I was wanting to contact her mom about (I would be to if a neighbor wanted to talk to my mom who lives on her own)
So I proceeded in the nicest way possible to tell her daughter that I was concerned that her mom was spraying my blackberries. I explained that not only did my kids pick and eat the blackberries all over our property but we also were beekeepers and that these berry bushes were an outstanding source of pollen for them.
I was clear that there no legal standing to do this.
The daughter although polite kept asking me “you mean you want blackberries?”
I explained to her about making jam and gardening organically and feeding bees.
She told me how she and her husband had spent months and months clearing their 2 acres of the native ‘weeds’ so they could put in their expansive lawn and borders. She certainly didn’t want my blackberries infesting her mother’s equally manicured lawn and she didn’t blame her mom from spraying. She frankly thought I had a screw loose…
It finally boiled down to yes I want those blackberries and they are on my property and could she please tell her mother to call me when she returned from vacation so I could speak to her.
Why do people want to move to the country and then clear out all vestiges of said country and plant lawns that look just like those in town?
Why would someone think that just because they want to keep their perfect lawns that it could possibly ok to use killer spray on someone else’s ‘weeds’?
Have we come so far from our roots that the manicured lawn is now the norm and I’m the oddball?
Kim can also be found at the inadvertent farmer where she raises organic fruits, veggies, critters, kids, and…a camel!
This year we celebrated our Second Annual Real Food Challenge. Challenging ourselves and our readers to eat fewer processed foods and focus on eating Real Food for the entire month of March.
While the month of March is now over, we still plan to continue the Real Food Challenge by keeping in touch with our readers every few weeks. We want to support our community with advice, recipes, and even giveaways when possible so that all of us can live and eat healthier.
Whether you eat mostly fast food or already make just about everything at home, there's something for everyone in this challenge. We can all make a change whether small or large.
Join the challenge, check back often and give us your feedback - we're excited to hear how you're all doing in your quest to Eat REAL Food!
Not Dabbling In Normal 