Remodeling the backyard.

I have been doing lots of work in the back yard the last few weeks. Pre-digging holes, etc.… and this week I planted the first two trees. A Barbados cherry tree and the Jamaican cherry tree (Not an actual cherry and taste like cotton candy).

I planted the Jamaican cherry tree first, only to have Blaze, our over-sized dog who thinks he still a puppy, dig all the new soil I made myself just for the tree out and damaged the roots. So, I built a temporary fence around it and the Barbados cherry giving them time to take root.

I’ll probably put a more permanent fence in that general area but in the end by goals the ultimate we have a food Forest. On one side and build a playground for the kids on the other side. This way the kids can play and snack.

I am planning to use different fruit trees, with the idea being, that because some trees only are fruit at certain times of the year, I have trees that bear fruit during those years, ensuring there’s always fruit.

Anyway – I am satisfied with what I gave done so far.

How I’m saving money on groceries

Since I moved into my new home, I had to change how I spend my money. Especially, seeing the act of buying the house took its toll on our pocketbook. From Closing cost, connection fees and deposits on top of our normal every day spending. So, to save money we started to make some changes. One such area is on our groceries.

Groceries is an area where we actually spend a lot of money and the coast of goes up every year, while like most people my pay does not. Now I would love to grow my own food and be off the food grid as much as possible. However, we just moved in and this will take time and money to start getting enough fruits and vegetables to feed us inorder to make a financial impact.

Not to mention, its 114° (Fahrenheit) out right now and is expected to get to 121° by this Tuesday. So, planting anything and expecting it to survive when its young and week, is not wize.

Though I do have three little seedlings growing in pots in the house (tomato, okra, cucumber and it looks like a jalapeno plant is poking through the soil and may make it), it’s just not enough to to feed one person. So, I needed to come up with better ways not spend a lot of money

Anyway –  One way I am saving money is something my aunt Deb suggested. A program that saves produce from landfills and I am not talking about spoiled goods. You see, produce is often rejected for a variety of reasons. Such as it too small, or to big, or has a blemish on it. What this means is that, instead of stores selling perfectly edible and healthy foods, they just take it straight to the landfill. Wasting millions of pounds of food every year.

So, I had gone out to check out this program in my state that saves this food from the the landfills, selling 60 lb of produce for just $10. Now, it not like shopping however, you get whatever they have that week. In my case it was lots of Roma tomatoes yellow squash mini sweet peppers and jalapenos.

Now there is no way I can eat it all before it spoils, and there are only so many dishes I can make with the produce I got this week before I get sick of eating the same ingredients over and over.

So, I have been flash freezing and dehydrating what I got for 10 dollars and it’s a lot. So every time I go I should get different things, things that are in season. And I can do the same it won’t be long before I will always have what I need, Frozen or dehydrated. Thus I will only be spending about $20.00 a month on produce and only need to buy any meat I might need or want.

After the first few months I will probably save $200.00 to $300.00, more once my own garden gets up and running.

The move is over. Time to unpack.

Well, we have finally finished moving in to our new home and have lots of unpacking to do. I managed to pull a muscle in my left arm getting some last few items from home. Funny part was is I did not do it with any thing heavy.

Luz on the other hand is having fun being creative as she unpacks and decorates. She got a eye for interior decoration so she in charge in that area.  She even desided to get a little creative with the dinner that I was making an added a few of her own ingredients while I wasn’t looking. I think it’ll actually turned out great.
Elijah, well he been a wee bit of a knucklehead, making things harder for everyone. He wanted to help and still does, but there not much he can do that wont end up making things harder on us. It’s hard to find ways to keep him out if they way while giving him something to do.

On a side note, our internet is not working. They said it was tuned on, but we are not getting a signal. So we must wait one more day for that to get taken care of.

Right now my body is sore, I hope is will be better tomorrow, as it’s the first day back to work. Only good news is I am in charge of stats on the east side tomorrow and stats usually go pretty easy and not that physical most of the time.

Idea’s for the outside of the home.

I have lots of plans for our home. One such idea is for me to install some stone panels on the out side of the home. This is how the home looks right now.

Here kinda of the the idea I have behind one thing I want to do to the home.

 

This photo I edited really does not do it justice, its just to kind of help me see what it will look like when I do. I also, have not decided on the type of stone panel I will use. Not to mention I will be doing the same to the wall that is around the home to give it a well needed upgrade.

The entire weekend, Luz and I had spent time working on the new home. Cleaning and installing curtains and blinds. Something that was surprisingly exhausting and took longer then I thought it would. 

The curtains I had installed are juat temporary, as later I want to put in better quality rods and curtains. For now, I got cheap rods from the Home Depot and curtains from savers and Goodwill.
Here’s a photo of the blinds I installed.

Here’s the curtains.

I have lots of plans for the home, like upgrading the bathrooms, upgrading the look of the home (inside and out), replacing the outlets and ceiling fans, cleaning the vents, getting the spa up and running, cleaning up the back yard and puting in garden, etc… So, its a long list.

I am sure the home will keep us busy for a long time. I will keep people posted.