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The Weekly Digs #112

Written byBecky Updated

This week has been a whirlwind of gardening, packing, painting, building, canning, and the list goes on! I’ll probably have to keep this brief because it will mean I can get much needed sleep.

In the Garden:

The big news for the week is Cam and I set up our caterpillar tunnel! I had purchased it a few months ago but it took a while to ship and then it just kept getting pushed back on the project list. 

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It only took one week of moving 120 tomatoes starts inside and out every time the weather looked bad for us to move setting up the caterpillar tunnel project to first in line. 

It took several days to install but I already love it! We still need to build end wall doors.

We moved all the tomatoes, peppers, and most of the indoor plants in the tunnel. They aren’t planted yet, just staying warm and dry in there.

  • I crimped down and covered the winter rye and clover mix. 
  • Planted cucumbers- Homemade pickles and Natsu Fushinari varieties
Winter rye, getting ready to crimp

Farm Animals:

Chick growing is a part time job with almost two hundred chickens. Each of our kids has a chick job- food, water, grit, or adding bedding- that they rotate through each week. Cam and I help where needed, which is may be more often than not. 

In the Kitchen:

Cam and I went to an area of town we don’t go to often to pick out countertops. On the way home we went by a strawberry stand and I couldn’t resist! Our strawberries we planted won’t produce until next year because I pick off the flowers to create a strong root system. 

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I should have been packing but instead I canned 14 half-pints of Lemony Strawberry Jam.

House Progress:

Speaking of packing, it’s just 4 days until we move. The house is definitely getting close to being done. Our builder thinks we could be done by the 24th. Unfortunately the countertop company that is laying our fireplace surround wants to wait until after our wood floor is in to template.

The soapstone surrounding the fireplace will run to the floor. They are saying we need to wait at least two weeks after templating for fabricating, finishing up around June 4th! That will certainly set us back. We are also still waiting on our garage doors.

Kitchen. Blue/gray color on island looks pretty bright but in real life it’s much more muted.

Painting for the interior finished up this week. I’m really happy with how it turned out. They’ll need to touch up a few spots but overall it looks good. 

Mudroom. Cabinet maker fixed cabinet diamond details, they look much better. The first time around they were huge.

Cam’s house project this week (in addition to helping me put up the high tunnel in the garden) was painting my art studio. It will act as an office too while Cam is still working from home. 

Living room. Around fireplace and on the hearth is where they will lay the soapstone we are waiting on.

We weren’t sure whether or not we should paint it or if we should just have the painters do it. It’s a different color so it would’ve added cost to the painting bid. 

We mentioned it to our builder a few weeks ago and he passed the word along to the paint crew that we would paint it so that made up our minds for us. 

Art Studio/ Home office. Needs one more coat of paint but it’s almost done.

After living in our old house full of unfinished projects for the past seven years, I now want to avoid additional house projects at all costs. Anything we can finish and do now we are doing and that is why we are knocking out these last few projects.

Wish us luck as we take on this week and the moving craziness. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it but thankfully this will be our last house move. 

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2 Comments

  1. Your house looks beautiful! You must have really high ceilings too which makes it feel light and airy. I’ve never moved into a new house so I’ve missed the luxury of moving into a place that was fully painted. In our current digs, we finished the final room painting and now have to start all over again.

    I have an unrelated question. Did you ever try doing any cover crops when you had your smaller garden either in the ground or in the raised beds? I also hope you explain the crimping process again for us slow learners 😉

    Reply

    1. Thanks! Yes I did cover crops in my smaller garden too. They make such a difference even though I know it is hard to give up precious and limited space. I found the cover crops that grew over winter were best because they grew when nothing else did. They also protect the garden soil underneath. Here is a blog post I did about them: https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/how-to-use-cover-crops-in-the-home-garden/

      Crimping sounds fancy but it’s not very complicated. All we did was take a T-Post, tie some string on it and laid it horizontal on the ground. Then you step on it, pushing the vertical growing rye down to the ground so its flattened horizontal. It doesn’t kill the rye, it just allows you to pull over a tarp easily. The tarp cutting out the light will finish the job and then you have mulch in place.

      Reply