Easy Peasy Backsplash

 Friends, we have entered the era of Peel & Stick, and I am fully on board with this.

As much as I love my new digs, there are a few things that fell kind of flat.  The drywall and the paint were disappointing.  I keep finding evidence of sloppy mudding and orange peel-like areas.  There's a softball sized area in the media room that actually looks like a close up of skin pores, and it's smack in the middle of the wall.  The paint they used is simply awful; if you so much as look at it, it will leave a mark.  It was sprayed on in two thin coats, so if you try to remove any blemishes, with a few gentle swipes you're suddenly peeling off the outer part of the drywall.  This has presented a huge issue around the stove and the sink areas in the kitchen, as they are most prone to be splattered or splashed with water, grease, or what have you.  

pre-backsplash

I had been toying with the idea of a four inch butcher block backsplash around the kitchen counters, and in searching for materials I came across peel & stick tiles.  Further investigation into that led me to peel & stick faux tile sheets.  This material is much more budget friendly, so I decided to give it a try.

I measured the area and ordered my sheets.  Originally I had only intended to do the length from the kitchen door to around the corner to behind the stove and end at the refrigerator in one tile height, which was 12".  Once the sheets arrived I started taping the tiles up with painter's tape to see how it looked.  I ran the one tile length, then tried taping up to the bottom of the floating shelf to see how that looked.

I decided that I did prefer the tiles all the way to the underneath of the cabinets, but I didn't relish the thought of all the cutting involved to make it look right if it went to the underside of the floating shelf.  

I cleaned off the counter and began by cutting the first tile so it would line up flush to the trim on the left side, and then started lining up the sheets.  The nice thing about these thick sheets is that they will kind of clip together before you peel off the backing, which makes it much easier to do templates around outlets without committing to sticking the sheet to the wall.  I used the thin cardboard insert that came in the package of sheets to make templates.  By turning it upside down I was able to use it twice and sometimes three times to mark out outlets.

The reviews I read about most peel & stick items almost always suggested using a secondary adhesive to ensure the sheets actually stick to the walls.  Many people finished a job and within 24 hours the tiles began peeling off the walls like crazy.  Whether that was due to not cleaning their walls enough or poor adhesive on the tiles, I can't say, but I used a commercial grade spray adhesive on the backs of my tiles to be safe.  If I worked quickly enough, I was able to peel off tiles that didn't set right and realign them.

When I came to the corner, I thought my best bet would be to score the tile so it would fit neatly into the corner and wrap around to the other wall.  I did that for the bottom tile, but for the top half tile, I put it into place without scoring it, and used a squeegee tool to press it into place.  Both strategies worked, but i think the scoring will probably hold better.

Here to the right you can see how the sheets fit together before you glue them on.

Because I decided to go with one and a half sheets all the way around, I didn't have enough to finish to the refrigerator.  I've ordered two more boxes and will hopefully have this done in a few days.  I still don't have a hood vent, so I'm toying with the idea of just leaving the border or maybe going up the wall with more sheets.  My other thought is to get a washable paint that matches the tile color and paint a section of the wall behind the stove.  Without a hood vent, it's difficult to picture the different options.

For now, I'm very happy with the end result.  It gives the kitchen area a little more oomf with that pop of color.  So far between the 5 packs of tile, the wallpaper kit, and the spray adhesive, I'm at $150.93.  My meager budget thanks me for that!  I didn't track my time, but I would say I probably have five or six hours into the project so far.  Laying out the tiles and making the templates was definitely the most time consuming part, but also the most important.  I only had one section, just after the corner, where my tiles started to become misaligned.  Thankfully the microwave hides that part.  If you look closely, you can see the seams where the tiles don't quite butt together, and I'm not sure if I'll address that or not.  I need to live with it for a while and then I'll decide. 

spring tease

 Just when you think spring has arrived and maybe you can get out and do a little work on the property...

...winter says, uhhhh NOPE.

 Well, it is March after all.  We've had wicked Nor'easters on April Fool's Day, so you can't count the weather out just yet.  

The storm didn't stop a couple of young Tom turkeys from their daily trek.

 And a small flock of Red-winged blackbirds showed up at Mom's feeders.

Meanwhile, inside the house, seedlings are beginning to emerge.

Three of my broccoli seeds have sprouted, and they're already getting leggy.

Now, I know that to fix leggy tomato plants you can transplant them into larger pots, burying them deep.  The little hairs on the stems are actually roots, so they'll quickly spread under the soil and anchor the seedling a little better.  I had no idea if that was also a solution for leggy broccoli seedlings, so off to the world wide web I went.  The verdict?  Yes, you can do the same.  Instead of climbing through the mess that is my storage shed searching for small plastic pots, I'm going to use toilet paper tubes.  

I put a small amount of seed starting soil in the bottom of the tube, dropped the broccoli seedling in there peat pellet and all, and filled it with more soil.  Hopefully that will give them a chance to bulk up their stems before they really start leafing out. 

seed fever

 We had a few days of unseasonably warm weather last week, making my seed fever spike like crazy.  I've been researching wildly trying to keep myself from jumping the gun and starting things too early.  I pulled my overwintered pepper plants out of the basement and am sad to report they did not make it.  I watched a few more videos on the subject and think I might try again next winter.  Though the peppers didn't make it, this little fellow popped out of the soil the pepper plants were in.

I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I have a strong hunch it may be a sunflower seedling.  I have had mice in the garage this winter, and did find sunflower seed shells in a corner.  I'll let it grow and see what happens.

I've also started a few celery stubs for transplanting, as I do every year.

I brought my greenhouse upstairs and set it up in preparation, too.  I've had this contraption for years now - it's a cheap Job Lots pipe and wire shelving system with a plastic cover.  This year I wanted to give my seeds a better start, so I've invested in some small grow lights.  I attended a webinar last week on seed starting given by our local university's cooperative extension, and I learned quite a bit.  Instead of the old fluorescent grow lights, people are now turning to specialized LED lights.  The ones I purchased are colored; they give off a purplish-pink glow. 

They're designed to either run independently or you can connect them together via included cables, so they all switch on at once.  They came with hardware to mount them to a ceiling permanently, or with zip ties to hang them, which is what I'm doing. 

You can see the plug for the included cables; each light has plugs on both ends. You can either use a stand alone cable with an on/off switch, or a connecting cable that will run lights off one another.

Connecting two lights with the included cables.

Blue lights help seedlings sprout and grow, red lights help things flower.  California Lightworks gives a great explanation of how lights affect plant growth, development, and flowering.  Honestly, I have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the technical aspects of it, I just know this should work better than the plastic cover and a sunny window.  At any rate, the lights are perfect for my setup.  They're just long enough so they don't hang over the edge, and small enough that I can hang two on each tier.  

I'm also trying out some new silicone seed trays.  I love that they're reusable and BPA-free.  Bonus - they're fun colors.  I'm wondering how easy it will be to get the seedlings out of them when the time comes, though.  They are pretty flexible, so that should help.

Next weekend I'll be starting a few cherry tomato plants, some bell and hot peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and I'm going to try my hand at annual flowers, too.  I have some petunia, pansy, and impatiens seeds on the way.  I have a feeling I may run out of room once these seedlings start needing to be transplanted.

On this episode of Little House on the Prairie...SNOWSQUALL

 If you've never lived in an area that gets a little wintry, you've probably never experienced a snowsquall or a whiteout.  I've lived through a couple.  Once in a plow truck coming down a very steep and winding road, which is probably 95% responsible for my hair going grey at an early age, and twice while outside minding my own damned business.  

Last night at just dark, I finished  my barn chores and headed down the driveway to the get the mail at the mailbox across the street.  I stopped at the edge of the road to let a vehicle go by, then headed across the road.  I was suddenly aware of an intense roaring sound, like a freight train was coming at me.  I looked both ways down the road, thinking I was hearing a big town truck plowing, when I was suddenly surrounded by gusting winds and blowing snow.  I grabbed the mail and turned to head back to the house, and could barely make out the end of my driveway just a few yards away.  I had to struggle to keep myself upright on the snow covered ice that was underfoot while being buffeted by incredible winds.  "This is it" I thought.  "This is how unsuspecting farmers died in the 1700s...I should have put a rope from the barn to the mailbox so I wouldn't get lost."  My mostly rational brain seemingly forgot that I live in a semi-rural neighborhood, not the vast open prairie, and the chances of getting lost in a whiteout were slim-to-none in these parts.

I did make it to the barn and I slipped inside to wait out the squall.  My face stung from the force of the snow hitting it, but I was unscathed.  After about three minutes the squall petered out, and I went inside to my nice warm house.  I think a lot of us forget how much we're at the mercy of nature when we're outside, especially if we're alone.  I've had a few instances where my heart got a pretty good workout, either falling or getting a tiny bit lost or accidentally being too close to wildlife. I kind of enjoy that little bit of drama in my otherwise mundane daily existence. 

February Thaw

 As of today we are at 10 hours and 24 minutes of daylight.  The sun is definitely stronger, and the 40* temperatures have been helping to settle the snow pack and even melt some of the 2-3" thick ice floe that is my driveway.  Here's one days worth of melting.  Gotta love seeing that dirt!

 

With the sun and the warmth, it's hard to resist starting some seeds.  I don't want to start my veg too early, so instead I'm working on catnip, cat grass, and seeing if some echinacea seeds collected a few years ago are still viable.  I've also started a small batch of salad greens that are coming along nicely.

Most of my herbs are still alive, which is amazing.  As much as I love gardening, I'm really not good at it.  I have lost my rosemary, and I'm fairly certain I've killed my lemon grass.  The rest seem to be struggling, but still alive.  I have my pepper plants that I'm overwintering in the basement.  If all goes well, by next month they should be showing signs of life.  I've never tried this before but I'm hopeful. 

I'm not sure if it was from the potting soil or the garden soil that the herbs came in with, but I had an insane infestation of fungus gnats this winter.  They look like fruit flies and apparently they emerge from the soil in damp conditions.  According to a YouTube video I watched, one adult can lay 300 eggs in the soil and they're constantly hatching.  It's almost like a flea infestation - you have treat to kill all life cycles, not just the pesky adults.  The video suggested a dedicated water bottle that has a chunk of mosquito killer, like Mosquito Dunks, in it.  Drop a chunk in the water, let it sit for a day or so, then whenever you water your plants, use that water.  It's the best way to kill off the larvae and the eggs in the soil.  For the adults, there are these wonderful little sticky traps you can put in your plants.  They work fantastically well!

After a couple weeks of this two-pronged approach I'm happy to report there are significantly less gnats.  I'm still using the treated water and have put out a new sticky trap, but at least there isn't a massive cloud of these buggers around my herbs anymore.

 I'm also happy to report that Flea has been doing terrific this winter.  He is moving sound, hasn't had any signs of winter laminitis during even the coldest temperatures, and has been seen cavorting and sprinting around the paddock.  

He's come a long way from the crippled up little mule he's been for the past four years, that's for certain.  He's been on the drug Invokana to regulate his insulin resistance for just over a year now.  There were small signs of improvement within the first four or five months but a few backslides, too. The last six or seven months have just seen him get better and better.  Invokana is a relatively new approach to IR in equines, so we're not sure what the long-term effects will be.  One of the side effects seen in horses has been high trigycerides, which can be life threatening.  In these cases, horses are given a less stringent diet.  This means I can relax a little on the amount and type of hay he gets.  I still have to test any hay to keep it within recommended guidelines, but the hay can be at the upper threshold of percentages for sugars and starch.  When we first started this journey of PPID/IR, Flea would typically do well all year until around the end of January, when he'd start to show signs of being footsore.  He would remain sore and have difficulty moving until around April, when temperatures would start to rise.  I'm holding my breath to see if he makes it through to May this year without issue.  If he does, I'll be elated.  The one thing he's lacking currently is exercise, so getting the track system completed is my #1 priority this spring.  I'll be happy to see both mules moving more, and I'm sure they'll appreciate being able to move outside of a tiny paddock after all these years.   

...that's not what I had in mind.

 In light of my previous post, Mother Nature responded with a resounding FREEZE HER OUT! battlecry.  We've had bitterly cold temperatures, and our last storm was 8 inches of heavy snow followed by freezing rain.  To add insult to injury, after the blizzard raged all morning, temperatures rose to nearly 40 degrees F by afternoon, then plummeted once again to below zero the next day. 

Although that storm was hell on my snowblower, I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised at how well my mini-split heating system is doing so far.  It seemed like any time I told someone that was going to be my heat source, I was told it wasn't a good choice for the area, and I should really have an alternate heating method to aid in keeping my house warm.  Instead, I soldiered on with my plan and I don't regret it yet.  

One difference with the mini-split vs. a typical forced hot air furnace is that I've learned you don't fool with the settings, unless you plan to be gone for any length of time.  I have 3 of the 4 heads set to 67 degrees, and it's keeping the house comfortable.  The 4th head is in my bedroom, and I have that one turned off.  During the day when the sun heats the upstairs, the units will run maybe every half hour to keep the temperature steady.  At night, they seem to kick on every ten minutes or so, but they're so quiet you don't really notice it.  I do hear the compressor unit turning on and off outside my bedroom wall, but it's not an irritatingly loud noise.  I did find that in the basement the floors are very cold, and working down there all day wasn't comfortable.  I moved my work from home setup to the upstairs, but I still go into the basement den to watch tv at night.  Having a propane heater in the adjoining garage is definitely helping to keep the downstairs warmer, I believe.  I have that set at 48 degrees, which is probably a little warmer than it needs to be.  My propane consumption hasn't been nearly as much as I had anticipated, either.

My electric bill is only a little higher than it was in my big drafty farmhouse during the coldest part of winter.  There, I was heating with a forced hot air furnace (oil), a wood stove (firewood and compressed wood blocks), and electric heaters to take the chill off in certain rooms.  Even though I don't have exact numbers, I'm definitely spending less to heat this house.  Of course, it helps that it's smaller and much better insulated, but it is wide open, too, with a vaulted ceiling in the main living area.  

Would I recommend a mini-split as a main heating source?  Yes, IF your house is well insulated.  For new construction, absolutely.  As an additional source of heat?  Yes, absolutely.  They are built to be energy efficient, and I can't lie; the added benefit of having air conditioning during the summer is a huge plus.  I'm very, very happy with my choice.

< reset preferences/winter=cold,snow >

 What in the world?

 

 

Another one of these warm up, rain, deep freeze, rinse, repeat winters.  

Thanks a lot, climate change.

I'm still holding out hope that I'll get a chance to use my new(used) cross-country skis that I bought two winters ago.  We'll see.  

winter, at last!

 

Six inches of snow just before Christmas, how apropos!  The ground wasn't quite frozen yet thanks to the abnormally warm weather we were having; just a few days before this storm it was almost 60*.  But now winter is here and everything is so clean and brisk and beautiful...

My first winter being able to watch the boys from on high, too.

So far this winter Flea is doing fantastic.  The medication I have him on is really helping to keep his insulin resistance in check.  He hasn't been in boots since April, and I'm hoping he won't have to revert back to them this winter. 

Meanwhile, I'm taking a free mini-course in permaculture online since I can't actually garden right now.  I'm learning quite a bit, to be honest!  The gardener has a great solution for terraced gardens that I wish I'd found before I started my perennial beds, but I may be able to incorporate the design into my forest garden...if I ever get that going.  Her method involves natural materials, and the terraces blend into the landscape nicely.

We have a flock of Bluebirds hanging around, which is cool but at the same time kind of weird to see them in the winter.  

 They do add a bit of color to the landscape, competing with the Blue Jays.

The Bluebirds have been taking advantage of my giant planter full of natural foods, which is awesome.  They seem to like the winterberries best, but some of the smaller songbirds have been snacking on the seed heads.  I'll have to grow something in there next summer that can overwinter and provide food.  Maybe some dwarf sunflowers?  I'd better start seed shopping now...oh wait.  I never stop. 😉

Out with the old

 One more piece of Stoneridge Farm has faded into the history books.

A once handy tack & feed room, chicken coop, rabbit house, fort, and cat hangout...now reduced to a pile of rotted wood and moss covered shingles.  

No, it didn't fall in - the insurance company said it had to go, as it was a safety hazard.  In the spring we'll have someone haul the pile of debris away and I'm sure Mom will make that spot beautiful. 

First snow...time to wrap it up.

 Yup, we had our first snow November 19th.  Nothing major, just a few squalls on and off throughout the day.  It didn't even stick.

Still, it was a reminder that winter will be here sooner rather than later.  It spurred me to take care of the tender bulbs I had pulled and was drying in the garage.  They're all clean and trimmed and nestled in fresh shavings for the winter now.

Thanks to daylight saving time, I don't have a couple hours after work to putter around the yard, so I'm cramming everything into my weekends.  I grabbed a load of 50/50 mix to finish up the giant planter.  I can't lie, having a truck is so handy!  

Today I scoured the edges of the woods for some greenery to give it a holiday feel.  A giant planter of dirt isn't really attractive, and I didn't want the soil splashing up against the house if it rained.  Greens (and browns...I'm going for a more natural look) will help keep the soil in place a little better until it freezes.

 

My mother is a pro at floral displays.  Unfortunately I'm not.  But I have seed heads of asters, goldenrod, and staghorn sumac in there for the birds to nibble on, so it's at least serving a purpose.  I also put some solar lamps among the branches and string lights along the stair rails...for ambiance, I guess.

Quick edit - mom stopped on a roadside and clipped a bunch of Winterberries, enough to share.  Definitely an improvement!

 

I was given a load of sawdust earlier this summer and hadn't used it all, so I scraped up what I could and laid it over the landscape fabric on the tiered garden.  I'm hoping it serves two purposes - one, to weigh down the fabric so it stops sagging and stays in place this winter, and two, provide a base for the mulch layer I'll add in the spring.  

I did some organizing in the garage again, and can now fit the truck, tractor, snowblower, and generator in there.  I have a few furniture refinishing projects to work on this winter and once those are done, it will open up some more space.  And after I go through all the boxes of crap I still have, I can purge again and downsize my hoard.  

I was going to leave Reputa in the she-shed for the winter, but when I took out my snowblower to make sure it would run, I discovered that mice had packed nesting material inside it.  I had to remove a bunch of covers and clean it out so I could start it.  I don't want to take a chance of having mice move into Reputa's engine!  I was hoping I could fit her in the garage with the plow on, but there just isn't enough room for that.  Maybe next winter.  

Now I just have to make sense of my tools, and I'll feel better about the state of things.  

What a mess!!!  At least I can't say that I have nothing to do, right?

Fall Chores

 It's the big push to get everything ready before winter sets in.  My garage is still not ready for a truck to be parked in it, but I'm trying.  I've moved most of my tools in from the she-shed, but have yet to organize them.  I've mowed the pasture one last time, pulled all the vegetables from the garden, and tried to do a reasonable cleanup outside.  

I brought in my herbs for over-wintering, and set them up in a vintage crib I purchased at a yard sale a few years ago.  I removed one side so they'd get as much light as they need, but they're protected from a certain plant-eating cat.

I had to lop off 90% of my sage plant because it was so large, so I tried my hand at making smudge sticks.  I think they're supposed to be thicker, so next time I'll keep that in mind.

I've been working on the tiered garden again.  I was desperate to get my plants out of their pots - the ones that came with me from my old house were potted up in late summer, 2018!  Some of the plants became root bound and many of them died in the pots, but I still have quite a few left.  I decided to forget about building walls of cinder block, and instead went with more wooden raised beds.  I gave up on trying to level the tiers, too.  Just get them in, once the plants are growing you'll never even notice the downhill slant of the beds!

I had 3 yards of 50/50 (compost/soil) delivered, and after I had lined each bed with yet another layer of mule compost, I filled each bed with the soil.  

We hired Corey to come back with his tractor to do some of the heavy lifting for us.  I had him dig out the bottom block tier with his backhoe, then put the remaining 50/50 in that bed.  I also had him move the pallet of blocks to the other side of the yard, and I did some clean up around the beds. 

I've left enough room between each raised bed and along the front of the tiers to lay my large patio blocks to create walkways around the garden.  I'm not sure if that will get done before snow flies; it may be a spring project.  I also plan to put bark mulch over the landscape fabric.  It's getting there!

The blocks that weren't used to build the gardens I used to build a manure station for the winter.  It's not pretty, but it's functional.  I've found that just piling the manure up leads to lots of weeds growing in it, so this way I can have it contained and easier to manage...hopefully.

Another garden chore was to move my Craigslist planter to the front of the house.  This was the fiberglass transformer cover that I picked up for a song a few years ago.  Of course I did the hugelkultur treatment...I had some large poplar branches that needed to be cleaned up in the pasture, so I started by cutting those up and tossing them in the bottom of the planter.  Areas of the pasture were overgrown and after mowing there were thick layers of cut grass that needed to be raked up, so that went in over the wood.  Top dressing was of course more mule compost.  I'm going to try to get another load of 50/50 mix to complete the recipe, then it will be ready for planting in the spring.  I'll probably give it a more complementary paint job next year, too; maybe dark grey or black.  The green just doesn't look right.  In case you're wondering, the bottom is mostly open, so plenty of drainage.

grass clippings and leaves over poplar branches

mule compost top dressing

If time and weather allow, I still have 8 posts to get into the ground for my mule track, and the fence needs to go up at some point.  I have to take down the preliminary chute, as I've moved that to the back of the paddock, and I need to run my giant weed trimmer around to tidy up the pasture.  It's going to be winter proper before we know it!

One Year Ago Today...

 It's hard to believe one year ago we broke ground for my house.  I have an awful habit of only seeing what hasn't been done, and I have to remind myself to do the opposite.

I'm still not finished unpacking.  I don't really have things exactly set up the way I'd like.  I still don't have room in the garage for my truck.  I didn't even start on my back yard.  I haven't touched up all the dings and marks from banging furniture against the new walls.  I don't have all my pictures hung.  My downstairs bathroom floor is still gross concrete.  I haven't finished my kitchen island.  I still don't have a backsplash, or a hood vent over my stove.

But.

BUT.

I have a bed to sleep in.  I have glorious sunlight pouring through my windows.  I have a work from home nook, and a tv room.  I have a place to eat, a place to shower, and a place to retreat to after a long day.  I have a home, and that's something.  

I'm pretty lucky, really.