Garage Renovation

When we bought the house, it had a ramp from the garage into the mudroom. It came in handy for moving heavy appliances, boxes, and other items that needed a dolly, but time and resources have made it possible for me to finally start work on a work bench area.

I remembered to start taking pictures about half way through the demolish process. The handrails have already been taken down along the 10 foot sloped ramp.

All of the 2x4's have had the nails removed, and the ends trimmed (if needed) for the workbench. I'll repurpose as much of the wood as possible. I still have plans to build a small step down for the Doctor since it is a HUGE step for a three year old. It'll be easier to get into the house on leg days as well....

Our teaching Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class has ended until this Fall, so we will have more time to complete planned posts, projects, and a mini-blog series. I don't know if I talked about the surreal feeling of being done with school, but I am slowly refocusing my energies towards skill sets.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Easter Analogy

We took the kids to our church Easter Egg hunt yesterday, and I was thinking that all of the kids scrambling around to collect the eggs is very similar to what happens whenever the weatherman calls for any frozen precipitation. It's nice being a parent and standing back watching all the mayhem.

Happy Easter.

-The K family

Backyard Potatoes

I had a hour before work to finish up the side yard potato/compost containers. Last year, we had to replace the main water line from the house to the meter, and they dug up quite a bit of the side of the house. The monkey grass was re-purposed to keep the water away from the foundation and move the water towards the backyard.

I cleaned up the old leaves and mulched them with the mower. The leaves will make the base layer, then some sand, followed by the cut potatoes (with eyes). I'll top off the potato cuttings with more mulch and a little bit of soil.

The cages are being kept together with zip ties, so that at harvest time, I can just clip the ties and harvest the potatoes. I chose this area for a few reasons, plenty of light, more soil is needed at this location, easy to watch, plenty of room for runners since this area doesn't get mowed, and close to the faucet.

I'll periodically post throughout the year until the first frost. I've probably started with about three pounds of raw potatoes for this endeavor, plus $13 for the rabbit fencing. Maybe $16 as a start up cost....

I'll start the third container this weekend with the boys as a science experiment.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Backyard Potatoes

In the practice of moving from hoarder to sustainer, I've had an experiment going since this winter with raw potatoes.

These potatoes have been in the pantry since the first frost of last year, and looking kinda tired, but they have sprouts and should be able to produce more potatoes. The idea is to see if these potatoes from the last harvest can be replanted with only storage in a cool dark place.

I'll be putting them into wire fencing containers with sand, and periodically dump bagged mulch from the yard on top of the plants. This should make the plant climb the container while producing more potatoes per square foot. The wire fencing will be connected using zip ties to make the harvest easier.

I also had a bag of older potatoes that I bought a few weeks ago, to compare results. The red potatoes were cut in half, with eyes on each half, and will be dried for 24 hours before planting.

I'll post tomorrow with the final product.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Rant Alert About Netflix

We've used Netflix combined with Amazon Prime video for several years to ditch high cable costs. We spent $243/ year for our home entertainment needs. Recently, Netflix replaced the 5 star rating system with a thumbs up or thumbs down due to the customer having a hard time deciding how to rate a video series. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

These are the same idiots that caused Burger King to stop selling the 1/3 pound burger because the customer thought it was smaller than the 1/4 pounder. Listen, people are generally stupid. I mean, if you have to put warning labels on hair dryers to NOT use them in the shower, well...we have a problem.

I'm rating Netflix a big thumbs down for caving to the intellectual deficit in America.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

News link: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/netflix-kills-star-ratings-thumbs-up-thumbs-down-1202023257/