1893 Victorian: The Exterior Makeover

I've been promising these pictures for a long time now and I finally found the time to get all these pictures together off the two cameras, my old laptop and my phone.  We've been working on this house for a long time!

Here she is in all her glory not long after we bought her in 2008.  If it looks like a cold, late Fall day, that's because it was.  Cold and rainy.  And the house was just as dreary as the weather.  She looks so sad with all her missing windows and porch lattice, peeling and weather-worn paint and the front porch steps that are being held up by one lonely nail and alot of tradition.

In late Spring of 2009, we started the huge task of addressing all the exterior issues.  First up was clearing that 100-year-old maple tree off the house (left side of the pic) and taking out the old chainlink fence and overgrown bushes.

This next picture was taken looking at the west side of the house from the edge of the 2 lots that came with the house.  The yard, in fact, is huge and awesome.  It would be a great place for a garden or orchard.

Even on this side of the house we see more signs of neglect:  more missing and boarded up windows, shredded roller shades and general disrepair.  But one good thing?  The roof wasn't leaking but it needed to be replaced. 

Here's a closeup of the attic window on this side of the house.  If you look closely, you'll see that many of those little square panes of glass are missing.  We would find many a squirrel skeleton in the attic because they were taking advantage of these openings to get inside into the warm attic.

If you look through the front porch in this next picture, you can actually catch a glimpse of our house just across the street.  Being so close would become really handy, as we spent almost every waking hour for the first year working on some project on this house.

Behind all the overgrown trees and bushes and the peeling paint, there were signs of a beautiful, old house just waiting for someone to bring it back to life.  This original stained glass window at the foot of the stairs is what made me fall in love with the house initially.

In the first year, we would completely tear off and rebuild the bottom of that big ol' wrap around porch with its curved railings, put a new roof on, replace the furnace, fix all the broken windows, replace all the windows in the attic with energy efficient windows, and scrape and paint all the wooden trim and windows.  In an upcoming post, I'll show you some detailed photos of the work in progress but, for now, how about a before and after side by side?

Click to biggify this picture!

What a big difference, huh?  I have really enjoyed seeing this grand old lady come back to life with some TLC.

24.6

That was the temp in the chicken coop this morning.  Even worse, the temp outside had dropped to 18 degrees!  J. and I broke out the "chicken furnace" (a ceramic heater) for Henrietta last night since she is in an elevated dog house that isn't insulated.  We set it up to blow hot air into the house and then draped a tarp over it, so she was nice and toasty all night.  The other girls had to endure the 24.6 degrees this morning, but they don't seem any worse for wear from the experience.  Having Henrietta separate from everyone else stretched us thin because we only had one heater. The ceiling light has a plug-in in it, so I think I'll install the brooder lamp above the roost this weekend as an option.  I feel much better about having that suspended versus the ceramic heater that could catch the bedding on fire.

But silly me...I tossed and turned and worried about them all night.  Would the tarp catch on fire? Would the girls freeze?  I'm such a protective chicken mom.  So I hurried out this morning and was relieved to find that everyone was fine.

Just one more night of this cold weather and then we're back up into the 70's for the weekend.  That's 70's in December!  But, hey....who's complaining?

So that brings us to the topic of how to keep your feathered friends warm and toasty when cold weather hits.

Chickens are cold hardy and really only start to get cold at 32 degrees.  Notice that my coop was running over 6 degrees higher than the outside temp, so the hens are putting off quite a bit of their own heat.  Had the temperature only gotten to 25 last night as the weatherman stated, I probably wouldn't have worried about them.

But, other than putting up heaters or brooder lamps, there are some other things you can do as well:

1. Keep their water from freezing.  Either use a heated dog bowl or the farm\critter supply stores sell heater bases that go under the galvanized chicken waterers.  If you have neither of these, make sure you check their water regularly and break up any ice that may have formed.
2. Use a wooden roost for them to sleep on.  Galvanized metal is way too cold for their feet. Also, make sure there is room for at least 6 inches between each hen.  When it's cold, they will fluff out their feathers as added insulation and they'll need room to do so.
3. Fight frostbite.  Combs and feet aren't protected by all those feathers and are susceptible to the cold - especially if you have large breed chickens with large wattles or combs.  One way to prevent frostbite is to cover them with Vaseline, petroleum jelly or even olive oil.  Do this after they've gone to bed for the night and it will be much easier.  Trust me. 
4. Give them a treat.  While not a replacement for daily food, feeding scratch, sunflower seeds, and cracked corn as a treat will actually help to raise a hen's body temperature. Just a couple of handfuls every evening is what I normally feed.  And I've been known to give them some yummy warm oatmeal as well.
5. Use the deep litter method.  Rather than cleaning the coop every month, just deep clean the coop in the spring and layer on a fresh layer of bedding every month.  As it packs down, it will provide insulation to the coop and the hens enjoy scratching it up if you throw some corn or sunflower seeds in there.  I initially thought this would  smell to high heaven but, believe it or not, it doesn't!
6. Shovel a path.   If it snows, clear a path in the run or the yard for them so they don't have to bust through snow and get wet. If you're a chicken herder like me, you know that chickens hate getting wet. 
7. Collect eggs regularly.  This doesn't really help the chickens, but it will prevent your eggs from freezing.

I hope you found these tips to be useful.  If you've got any other tips about keeping our beloved chooks warm (other than plopping them in front of the fireplace), I'd love to hear them.  Leave me a comment!

I've shared these tips with this week's Barn Hop, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Down Home Blog Hop and Farm Girl Blog Fest.  Go check  them out!

Mother Nature Hates Black Friday

Domino and Foster getting ready for a snooze after eating too much turkey.

 

Well, I hope everyone ate too much, enjoyed the heck out of their families and had some glorious naps in celebration of Thanksgiving.  I know that J. and the dogs certainly got their fill of the latter.  I don't think I've ever heard so much snoring.  :-)

 

Earlier this week was gorgeous...in fact, I took the day off before Thanksgiving to enjoy the 70-degree weather and get the chicken coop cleaned out and the garden beds cleaned up.  I was out in a t-shirt and soaking up the rays.  The good news is that I was able to collect quite a few Cherokee Purple and Rutgers tomatoes to use for seed next year.  And the hens were really happy to get to pick over the leftover cabbage and tomatoes. 

 

Thanksgiving for us was almost as nice.  I think it hit mid-60's and J. and I spent some time finishing up the screen doors on the back porch of the 1893 Victorian.  We need to finish the front ones and then that should be it for the outside work.

 

I didn't see anything in the Black Friday ads that would pull me out of bed at midnight or some such silly hour.  Honestly, there's not alot that we need and, for that, I am thankful.  I did quite a few good deals online:  99 cent poinsettias from Lowes to grace our Christmas mantel (a tradition of ours), $22 for a year's supply of my allergy medicine at CVS (normally $62!), and some really nice LED Maglights for half-price (Lowe's again). 

 

Those folks who ventured out early must have been shocked at the change in the weather.  Instead of the balmy 50 degrees the night before Thanksgiving, it was now close to freezing! I headed to breakfast with a friend and a trip to Lowe's to pickup our order a little before 7 a.m. and had to drag out my winter coat.  It certainly made me glad that we hadn't decided to go stand in line at Cabela's for the deal they had on .223 ammo.  While I was out, I swung by Bass Pro Shop for J. and picked up 5 new ammo cans that they had for $10 each.  I had a $25 gift card that I won so I paid half that price, which is pretty good considering they go for $15 used at the local gun shows.

 

I was surprised that Bass Pro wasn't busier than a normal shopping day and Lowes was empty.  They said they hadn't been busy all morning and still had all their Black Friday deals in stock.  Cabela's was packed as was Walmart, according to other folks.

 

How about you?  Did you venture our for Black Friday?  Did you get any great deals? 

A Day of Thanks

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

 

--"Thanksgiving" 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Couponing for Fun and Profit: Part 1

In the intro to this series, I talked about paying just $13.00 for our 7 lb ham and 12 lb turkey for Thanksgiving.  And I promised that I would give you some more info.

Okay....let's get to it.  The number one thing I hear from people when they find out I'm a couponer is "well, I never buy those brands" or "you can't beat Aldi's prices" or "I could never do that".   Folks, I've been doing this for over 3 years and I'm here to tell you that none of those statements are true.

Here's an easy example that you can do right now.  CVS paid me over $4.00 to shop there yesterday and I came home with a bunch of free stuff including sleep aids, allergy medication and toilet paper.  There are 28 free items that you can get at CVS right now and many of those you don't even need coupons for!

• iTunes or App Store Gift Cards - buy $75, get back $20 EB (Limit 1) = $20 profit 
• Advil Children's Suspension Liquid (1 oz) $2.37, use $1.50 coupon or $1 coupon (9/30 or 10/28 RP) and get back $2.37 EB (Limit 1) = $1.50 - $1 profit
• Glade Scented Oil Base Warmer $1.25, use $1 coupon (or here or 10/14 SS or 11/4 SS) and get back $1.25 EB (Limit 1) = $1 profit 
• AirWick Scented Oil Warmer $0.99, buy two and use $2 off 2 coupon and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $0.99 profit 
• South Beach Diet Meal or Snack Bar (5 ct) $4.99, find package with $1.00 coupon, and get back $4.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE or $1 profit
• 3M Command Hook (single pk) $0.99, use $1 coupon or $0.50 coupon (11/11 SS) and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $1 - $0.50 profit
• Charmin Basic (Single Roll) $0.99, use $0.25 coupon (10/14 or 10/28 P&G) and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $0.25 profit 
• Coke (1.25 liter bottle) $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Advil (10 ct) $2.99, get back $2.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE
• Somnapure Sleep Aid (4 ct) $1.99, get back $1.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Carmex Lip Balm $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Nasal Ease Allergy Reliever (0.18 oz) $9.99, get back $9.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Nutrawise (Youtheory) Collagen Formula (120 ct) $9.49, get back $9.49 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Bayer Countour Next EZ Meter $10, get back $10 EB (Limit 1) = FREE *Use coupon in Diabetes & You magazine found in stores for a FREE One a Day vitamin WYB this meter 
• Street King Energy Shot (2 pk) $3.99, get back $3.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Pur-Absorb Iron (28 ct) $16.99, get back $16.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Haviland Thin Mints or Nips Candy $0.88, get back $0.88 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Kraft Mac & Cheese (5.5 - 7.25 oz) $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Kleenex Slim Pack Facial Tissue (3 pk) or Sparkle Single Roll Paper Towels $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 2) = FREE 
• As seen on TV Easy Feet $4.99, get back $4.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Cepacol Sensations (4 ct) $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks (8 oz) $2, get back $2 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Starbucks Double Shot (6.5 oz single can) $1.99, get back $1.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Starbucks Refreshers (12 oz) $1.50, get back $1.50 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Hot Wheels Cars $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Powerade (32 oz) $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Play-Doh Soft Pack Resealable Pack $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Phillips Universal Remote $6.99, get back $6.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Thermacare Back & Hip Wrap (1 ct) $3.49, get back $3.49 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Illy Issimo Caffe (no sugar) BOGO sale, use BOGO coupon (Diabetes & You magazine found in stores) = two for FREE 
• Lindsay Large California Ripe Pitted Olives $1, use $1 coupon = FREE

Now I realize that some of that may be Martian to you, so let's go over the lingo.  EB means "ExtraCare Bucks".  CVS has a program called ExtraCare and you can sign up for it in the store for free and they'll give you an ExtraCare card.  To get these deals, you MUST sign up and you MUST have an ExtraCare card.  (Some of us have several....*nonchalant whistling*). 

Now let's look at a specific deal, pull it apart, and see how this works.  How about this one?

Advil Children's Suspension Liquid (1 oz) $2.37, use $1.50 coupon or $1 coupon (9/30 or 10/28 RP) and get back $2.37 EB (Limit 1) = $1.50 - $1 profit

From this, we know the following: 

• The sale price is $2.37.
• There are several coupons we could use.  The underline under the $1.50 coupon indicates that it's an online, printable coupon (just click and it will take you to it).  Or, if you have the Sunday paper from 9/30/12 or 10/28/12, there was a $1.00 coupon in there.  There are often multiple coupon inserts in the Sunday paper and they all have names, including Smart Source, P&G, and RedPlum.  The RP after the date indicates that it was the "Red Plum" coupon insert.
• When we buy the item, we'll get back the full amount of $2.37 in the form an ExtraCare Buck, which is a coupon that prints at the end of our receipt.  That coupon is good for $2.37 toward any item in CVS with a few exceptions like prescriptions, stamps, and liquor.

Now let's go to CVS and find the Advil Children's and take it to the register.  Here's what this simple scenario will look like:

1. Hand the cashier the Advil and your ExtraCare card (or ask to sign up for one).
2. The Advil will ring up for $2.37.
3. Hand the cashier your coupon.  Let's pretend you printed the $1.50 coupon to maximize your savings.
4. The total will now be 87 cents.  Pay the cashier.
5. The receipt will print and on it will be an ExtraCare Bucks coupon for $2.37.  You just profited $1.50!  And it only took about 5 minutes of your time.

Now, I don't have kids so I'm sure you would ask why I would want to buy a children's medication.  The answer is two-fold.  First, it's a moneymaker which allows me to spend the profit on items that I *do* want and need.  And, second, I either give away or donate those things that I get for free.  Couponing has allowed me to make a ton of donations of products to homeless shelters and women's rescue shelters.

So get those printers going and dig out those old Sunday papers.  In Part II of this series, I'll give you tips on how to pay even less in the above scenario, talk about why where you shop matters, and give you some great sites to look at if you want to learn more about couponing.

Thanksgiving on the Cheap

I love bargains.  I can't remember if I mentioned here that I'm a coupon nut, but it's probably not a stretch of the imagination since I've talked about being raised by grandparents that lived through the Great Depression and saved everything. We can't get crazy like some of those folks on that Extreme Couponing show here in the Midwest because there are no stores that triple coupons, but we can get some pretty good deals.  In fact, over on my Thriftypuppy blog, I used to outline all the deals every day.  It got to be WAYYYY too time consuming, though, and I quit when I realized that I was doing more coupon blogging than actual living.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a couponing blog but I've been doing alot of couponing lately and getting some great deals.  So I thought I would share it with you in hopes that you could save some money also. 

J. and I usually spend Thanksgiving at home together and sometimes we make the dinner with the turkey and trimmings and sometimes we're lazy and just hit the buffet.  The problem is that I love turkey pot pie and everything you can do with leftovers and the smell of roasting turkey wafting through the house.  So we're cooking this  year for the second year in a row.

This weekend, I picked up a 7 lb. ham and a 12 pound turkey, which is enough for the two of us, for just $13.00 after coupons.  No, that's not a typo.  Given that the ham retailed for over $23.00 and the turkey was $18.00, that's pretty darn good.  How did I do it?  Combining a sale with coupons.

Our local coupon-friendly Hy-vee has a sale right now where you get the turkey free if you buy the ham.  I had a $5 off $50 coupon for Hy-Vee so we're down to $18.00 for both at that point.  Then it gets creative.  They also had  sale on Kraft items where you buy 10 selected Kraft items (cheese, Velveeta, mayo, etc.) and you automatically get $6.00 off at the register.  Price Chopper has the same sale, but they are giving you $10 off.  Did you know Hy-Vee price matches?  Just take the ad in and ask them to price match.  But I still would have had to pay for the 10 Kraft items.  Luckily, they had Kraft shredded cheese on sale for just $1.00 and I had six $1.00 off 2 coupons.  So I bought 10 of them at just 50 cents each after coupon, or $5.00 total, and got the $10.00 off the turkey\ham.  That $5.00 "profit" brought the total down to just $13.00 for the stars of our Thanksgiving dinner.

Now you may not have a Hy-Vee or Price Chopper in your area, but price matching and coupons are usually OK at most stores.  Several stores are doing the "buy a ham, get a turkey" sale, including ShopRite and HEB.  Check your local stores to see if they are offering something similar.

Want to find out how to get 28 ABSOLUTELY FREE items or even make money at CVS today?  Check out Part I of my Couponing for Fun and Profit series!

A Lucky Day

Extra credit if you recognize the movie!

 

Triple sevens, four-leaf clovers, lucky rabbit's foot.  I should have bought a lottery ticket tonight because we have had one heck of a lucky day.

 

It started off with me walking into work from the parking garage and lo and behold there's a dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.  Sure, it was no fortune...you can't even buy a soda out of a vending machine for a dollar any more.  But a buck is a buck and, with no one in sight, I went ahead and picked it up and put it in my pocket.  Little did I know that it was a foreshadow of the day to come.

 

Later that morning, I got some really incredibly great news.  We're going to have some awesome new neighbors!  That's right...we sold the house!  And the great news is that we avoided having to put it on the market and over $6,000 in realtor fees, which allowed us to split the savings with the buyers.  They are so excited about moving into this beautiful old house, and we are just as excited about having like-minded folks in the neighborhood.  That'll be three houses on our block that have gardens and chickens.  Woohoo!  More on that later, but I don't want to jinx the deal.  In fact, I hope I haven't jinxed it already by writing this.  Aaarrgghhhhhh!

 

J. and I were supposed to head to the Wallflowers concert tonight at the Midland with his brother and his wife because J. won free tickets.  But right before I left work, I got a phone call that was the perfect ending to the day.  My sweet little Domino won an iPad3 in a contest that I had entered him into. 

Domino's contest entry picture.

Who could resist that ornery sweet little pup?  

 

J.'s brother bailed on the concert, which we weren't too upset about, so we stayed home and flopped on the sofa and loved on the dogs and reflected on how blessed we were today.  With all the turmoil in the world, it's nice to know that the Universe hasn't forgotten how to smile on you once in awhile.

 

I hope you had a great day as well!

A Day of Honor

“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

-- "Ulysses" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

 

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If you've seen the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall", you'll recognize this as the poem that M (Judy Dench) recites so gracefully about halfway through the movie.  It solidifies a theme that runs through the whole movie of old vs. new, renewal, destruction and resurrection.  The poem moved me to think about Veteran's Day and the trials that our servicemen and women have endured to keep this country free.

 

The brave soldiers that serve and have served in our military have moved earth and heaven.  They are a force for good on this planet, ever vigilant, a steadfast friend or unyielding foe, a savior to many. Time and again, they have been called upon to lay their lives on the line for America and others. Today is the day that we recognize their heroicism, their honor, their sacrifice.

 

The Heritage and Guardianship status outside the National Archives during our trip to DC in 2005.
 

If you meet a veteran today, please thank them for their service.  Today is their day.

 

 

Teufelshunde

Today is J.'s birthday.  That is to say, his second birthday.  You see, he's a United States Marine, a vet who served in Operation Desert Storm.  He's a proud Teufelshunde or "devil dog", which is what the Germans in World War I referred to the Marines as because they "fought like dogs from hell".

When you want something done, you send in the Marines.  Born on November 10, 1775 and still going strong.

These brave men, and those in the other branches of the military, put their lives on the line to protect the freedom that you and I enjoy (and others seem to take for granted.)  They are heroes, every one of them and they deserve our utmost honor and respect.

Oorah, boys!  Oorah!

Come Sit A Spell

Another beautiful 70 degree day today and I'm stuck at work.  I'd much rather be sitting on this front porch watching the world go by.  With a glass of iced tea. 

More pics of the house are coming tomorrow, I promise!

Enjoying an Indian Summer Day

It wouldn't be Missouri without some crazy weather, so it's no surprise that we're going to be enjoying 70 degree weather the next couple of days and then have thunderstorms over the weekend and highs in the 30's at the beginning of next week.

 

What better way to enjoy this nice weather than to be out scratching for bugs?

Or tasty worms?

Oh, look what I found!  Mushrooms!

Never mind...that nice human is throwing out  meal worms.  Nom nom nom!

And then everyone stopped what they were doing.  I mean STOPPED DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.  No movement whatsoever.  It was the darndest thing and I'd never see the chickens do that before.  I couldn't see or hear what made them do it, but obviously something was scaring them. 



Shhhh...don't move.  I think it's the IRS guy.

They must have stood that way for a 45 seconds.  And then it was back to scratching through the fallen leaves as if nothing ever happened.  I was probably *this close* to impending doom and would have been blissfully unaware except for my trusty chickens sounding the alert.

 

Unscathed,

Shared with this week's Rural Thursday blog hop. 

I'm Speechless

That sign a few hundred feet back?  The one that said "WARNING:  Fiscal Cliff Ahead"?  The conservatives in the backseat were screaming warnings, but apparently the more liberal folks were too busy playing with their free Obama phones or plannnig out how to redistribute our wealth to notice the impending doom.

Instead of hitting the brakes, we hit the gas last night.



It's Election Day

And now I'm getting ready for the election party tonight.  I'll be taking along a very special friend.

The mustache was J.'s addition.  Given how this campaign season has gone, I'm surprised this thing still holds air.

In all seriousness, no matter who you vote for, please get out and exercise your right to vote. 

Falling Back

My grandmother used to say "time waits for no one" and, being the wise woman she was, she was right.  Yesterday was the day we set our clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep.  While the extra hour is great, am I the only one that hates the time change?  It's now going to be dark when I get home from work!  That means no recess for the chickies or doing ANYTHING outside after work.

 

So I let the girls out for a looonnnng time yesterday afternoon while I did some work around the poor, neglected garden.  That's right...I fell back into gardening. 



My autumn harvest!

Note the 2 jalapenos - they are the only jalapenos we've gotten this year and J. is as happy as a witch in a broom factory over them.

 

Those crazy I-thought-they-were-dead-from-the-drought tomato plants are producing like made now.  The oblong tomatoes are Romas and they are literally falling off the vine.  Probably because the vines are dying now that we've had a couple of near-freezing nights.  I don't know if there's enough to do anything with or not.

These Roma plants are looking a little sad, bu tthey're dropping tomatoes like crazy.

You can see that my garden has been pretty neglected since we've been spending all our time getting the house ready to sell. 



Would somebody PLEASE mow!?

Thank goodness J. mowed right after I took this picture.  The weeds were starting to get taller than the tomato plants.  And look at those potato boxes!  I wonder if there are any taters in there or if the weeds have cannibalized them?



Can you spot the strawberries hanging on for dear life in what used to be my strawberry bed?  Actually they seem to like being insulated by all those weeds.

I would have had a couple more really nice size tomatoes but some feathered critters got to them before I could.



"It wasn't me!" says Fiona

I hope you enjoyed your turn around my forgotten Fall garden, folks.  It feels good to be back.

 

I've shared this post as part of this week's Barn Hop.  Go check out what everybody is up to!