Sud Shack the before

So, this is a combination laundry and bathroom. it was, in the beginning, our only bathroom. yes, it is outdoors and disconnected from our home. there were the occasional nights when it was cold and people probably thought we were crazy but we loved...well, we made it work haha. 

now, it mainly serves as our laundry only since we built our larger home...larger in comparison, but still small. anyway, it was ugly and i hate laundry anyway so i was unmotivated. these pictures are semi-before

i say semi before because i had already put up a chandelier and a support frame for the shower curtain.

obviously, we don't normally have the tools laying on the floor but otherwise everything is as it normally was, a complete mess.

junk everywhere, no organization

the black in that photo is part of the after.

ok, now it is that pipe and all the others that really motivated me to finally tackle the laundry room a.k.a. our Sud Shack.

after pics and story coming soon, as in i just finished it and need to load photos....so, we will just see how quickly i get to that

DIY deck storage benches

we built our deck awhile back and we are finally getting the benches built.well, thats the plan anyway.
we will be starting them, of that i am certain.
so here is the half of the deck we are working on today.

so, there is the before. im just gonna go ahead and post this now so it doesnt stay a draft for the next month. 

hope to bring the results in the next few days

we got a mini

I cant recall if i mentioned that our goats had to be re homed.  it was a sad day when our female, Bella, went to live on a farm with a cousin of mine. We decided that it was best for her to be with "family" so we could still visit. i put family in parenthesis because while we are distantly related we are not close. turns out we haven't been allowed to visit her and it still breaks our hearts. short story with our male. once he didn't have a female he tried to mate with everything. i mean everything and if you know goats then you know the spraying and the smell was just too much.

 let me introduce y'all to Marron.

i will be posting more about Marron soon. plus, the pallet paddock and how we built it. 

till next time, keep it Green, clean, and classy. 

concrete LadyBug part 2

there it is!!! its finally finished...well the statue is and now i need to landscrape around it, haha.

so, y'all know that this project started with dirt, lots of dirt. 

my brother came by on day two and helped me shape the mold. i had done some shaping on it day one but then the chickens came by and investigated my work and ended up chicken scratching it to a shapeless blob.....thanks chicas

 finally it was shaped and right away we started adding concrete to it. i first put a crocheted shawl on it so the concrete would have something to grip to. ..... I'm giving instructions of what i did, not what you should do. i have zero sculptor/concrete/statue making skills but what i did, did work.

oh yeah, to apply this concrete my brother and i just used our hands which i highly suggest you NOT TO DO. The concrete will chemically burn your hands. 

after, we had it covered half way...we ran out of concrete, my brother stood guard because the chickens kept coming over and trying to get on it and leaving chicken foot prints all over. ugh, sometimes farm life is a pain.

day 3 my brother and i got up early and headed to lowes for even more concrete, this time i got even more than we thought we would need. we got the ladybug covered!!!!! 

day 4 i covered the ladybug with the second coating of concrete and for this i wanted a smooth finish so it wouldn't be all bumpy and scratchy on my baby Z.

now, for this one i didnt use my hands...ok, well i did but that was not making it smooth enough and i had a brilliant idea to use a stick on tile because they are flexible and very smooth

the white heart is where Z put her hand prints in the wet concert. i knew i couldn't make it look realistic so i went with cartoon and added the black border at the bottom to blend it in. i will be putting a circular border around it and filling with mulch

a GREAT visit

so, over the last weekend my mom and me took off on a roadtrip to take baby Z to meet her great grandma. the visit went smooth and we took Z to a park that i had found on line. it was so beautiful and they had so many statues that kids could play on even a ladybug which is Zs favorite. she fell in love with this ladybug and an ant (i love it mommy its nice and wont bite me) haha.
the love was so profound that everyday she reminds me of the ladybug and says "bring ladybug here so daddy can visit and i wont miss it" too cute
so, as a conclusion to this story...im now experimenting with statue making. it needs to be big enough and strong enough for her to sit on plus smooth for her perfect skin.
brainstorming with my family and we all came up with this....

a pile of dirt....

haha, part two coming soon

chicken coop on WHEELS

i have been meaning to post this one for a long time, over a year. we were tired of the chicken coop clean up and wanted a new design that would mean less cleaning time. around the same time my brother, works in construction and remodel, had a job with a tongue and grove demo. he asked if i wanted the wood...free lumber that's a big YES PLEASE!!!!

my brother is the greatest y'all. he delivered the lumber and stayed to help me build it.  we live in Texas where it is 100 degrees 90% of the time...i may be slightly exaggerating  but keeping the chickens cool and not warm was the main objective. so, that is why the walls are mostly just chicken wire and not solid. i wanted whatever breeze we had to be able to blow in. we do add a heat lamp for the few cold nights that we get. 

we ended up using sheet metal, for a roof, as the walls on the upper part to keep chickens safe from predators. even in a coop a  raccoon can reach in and hurt or kill one or several chickens. chickens like to perch up high so they are never on the lower beams. we put them in just as a step to the higher beams. 

the inside view. we only put in perching beams and no boxes. we have their boxes built somewhere else and its so great! if the boxes are part of the coop the eggs get so much poop on them, its way better this way

so the above picture is what the bottom looks like from the inside....dirty. this is real life, chickens poop like 24/7 haha. the coop is on wheels and every few days we roll it around and usually i spray the inside down before movoing it but i havent kept up with it due to a crzy cold front in texas. we got snow!!!! that never happens and it was before freezing for days. my husband even had to take a snow day at work haha. 

i do have pictures illustrating the build step by step so comment if yall want more pics or instructions. till next time.

Half Dozen chicken coop

So, this is the start of our newest chicken coop. We had a devastating loss of all of our chickens and ducks. Long story short, even with a fenced in yard a pack of wild dogs broke in and killed them. For a long time we didn't get more; we had our daughter and a million homestead projects plus we were sad. 

I got us more chickens so we were ready to get the coops built. My brother works in construction and remodel so he often has access to scrap wood. He was working on a tongue and groove ceiling and the clients were going to just throw this wood out!!! Obviously, he took it for me. Thanks Theo. 

Not only did he snag the wood for me but he built this coop too! He started with the side walls. 

The pictures kind of explain the process. This coop will house six chickens and the nesting boxes we have are for our backyard so my brother built in three boxes. Mr and I originally thought that each chicken needed it's own nesting box but they don't so this coop got three perfectly sized boxes and that'll be good enough. 

Till next time, y'all know the drill keep it green, clean, and classy

Shalimar and Z

New Farmily Member

This is our newest family member Chloe. She is a Californian rabbit and was a gift for babies from her great-grandpa

Wicker Garage Sale Score

Project Cottage

Laying the first layer of subfloor. So we decided on two layers for our subfloor instead of one thicker layer; this way we could add more support...you might notice a pattern:) but we also did this to cut the cost a bit.
The first layer was laid down vertically and then the second layer was done in a combination of vertical and horizontal so the seams wouldn't meet up. In between the layers we used subfloor liquid nails. The label says that this will make the connection 200% stronger than screws alone. Or course, you still need to screw everything down.
That's that, we are almost done with the second layer then it's on to framing walls, finally! That should go faster which will be great because the floor/foundation has taken way too long. Till next time folks y'all keep it green, clean, and classy. Shalimar

Project Cottage -floor insulation

This project was simple but time consuming. You will need razor knife, blades, mask, measuring tape, and a board. We went with the higher grade R-30 attic insulation because it's better to spend a bit more once and then reap the environmently and ulitilty benefits month after month.  

The board is for holding down the insulation. It's super fluffy so just extend your razor knife pretty far and hold the insulation flat, then it's way easier to cut.

All the corner boards that were double 2x6 got a corner bracket. 

Then after like a million cuts, the floor will be fully insulated, hooray. Glad that itchy job is done, oh yeah wear long gloves (like the yellow ones for dishes) 

Next is to lay the su flooring. Before you lay down the plywood run a bead of liquid nails subfloor glue over all the connecting supports. The label says that this will make your connection 200% stronger that just screws alone. Stronger is better:) 

More coming soon as we lay the subfloor. Till then, keep it green, clean, and classy. 

Shalimar