​Hi everyone! I thought I'd pop in with an update. I'll be taking a break from Frugal Accomplishments for at least three months, but that doesn't mean we're not doing fun and/or frugal things around here. 

House Project

We started on our home renovation this week!!! We will be putting an addition on our new-to-us house. We've been thinking and planning for this project since last summer, so to see it actually started is pretty cool. First, we have to tear off part of the old part. When we planned the renovation, I told Hubs I didn't want to see the old chimney go. I don't know, there's just something cool about an old chimney, even if it's not functional. Well, we made a compromise; we're tearing the chimney down, but I'm keeping some of the bricks to make something with. I think it will probably end up being a raised bed or fire pit in the back yard.

After Hubs got the first few rows off, it pretty much fell apart. All I had to do was tap (some of) the bricks with a hammer, and they came loose. It was in pretty bad shape. I think the mortar will come off most of the blocks pretty easily.


Block Scheduling

Several weeks ago I implemented a new scheduling system that I learned about on Youtube. It's called "block scheduling". Basically, you give every hour a purpose. Then you do that thing for an hour, and when the clock strikes a new hour, you move on to the next project. Here's an example of my summer schedule:

7:00 am- Wake up
8:00 am- Free
9:00 am- Daughter awake, dressed, breakfast
10:00 am- Chicken chores/House project
11:00 am- House project/cooking
12:00 pm- Read w/daughter, Lunch
1:00 pm- Weed strawberries
2:00 pm- Daughter nap, more weeding
3:00 pm- Projects
4:00 pm- Projects
5:00 pm- Projects
6:00 pm- Dinner
7:00 pm- Wash dishes
8:00 pm- Free
9:00 pm Prepare for bed (plan tomorrow's meals and events, pick up house, set out clothes, brush teeth, etc.)
10:00 pm- Read
11:00 pm- Fall asleep

Of course we don't follow this to a T, but it gives enough structure to help me be more productive. It also helps because it keeps daily chores like laundry, cooking and cleaning "contained" to certain hours. For example, I try to do a whole day's cooking, if possible, before lunch. When that hour is up, it's up and I move on to other things. There is always more cooking I can do, always more cleaning. During the summer, though, I really need to stay focused on outdoor projects. If the strawberry patch or garden gets out of hand, it's a nightmare to deal with. By doing at least an hour's work in the garden/strawberry patch, I can keep that functional. The same goes for household tasks like laundry and dishes. 

Another thing I did was make a "Do Not Do" list for summer. You guys know I love projects, and my interests are all over the map. Sometimes I just have to tell myself "no". No knitting or sewing during the summer. No extensive research projects or reading. No excessive blogging (which is why you're getting mostly pictures now). No working on book projects. No extra cooking from scratch or decluttering. Spending more money on food has really helped pare down housework during this busy season, as well as using the clothes dryer and disposable diapers. It's not necessarily frugal, but it's only for a few months. Once we're settled into the new house, I look forward to having more regular, garden-variety frugal accomplishments again.


But I Broke My Own Rules

I broke my own "no excessive reading" rule this week, though. I ordered a rare book from the library, and it came!!! It's a collection of annotated Civil War letters written by a soldier who lived down the road from us. The author/compiler really did her research, and the back of the book has family sheets and extensive indexes so you can figure out who's who and even what happened to them after the war. I already knew who several of the people were from my own research, but reading the letters answered some questions I had, and really gave me an idea of what the culture in our area was like. If I could pick a super power, it would be time travel... and this is the next best thing.

​The book was more or less self-published in the 1980's, so you can't buy it anywhere (unless, perhaps you found it at an estate sale or something). Thank God for our library interloan system!!! To have the letters all cleaned up, typed out and annotated is like a dream come true. There are more letters from our community that I'd love to get my hands on, but they're buried in the archives at CMU. I would love to get those cleaned up and typed out as well, or even photographed and put on the internet so at least they're easily accessible for research.

Anyhow, so that was probably the highlight of my week.


Amazon Alexa

We had new internet installed at our house, and the company was doing a promotion. They gave us a free Amazon Echo Dot. I know, I know, these devices spy on you and listen to your every word in order to sell you more stuff (or so the conspiracy theorists say). But I installed ours, and found out that it can read my Kindle books aloud!!!! That means it can turn all of my free Kindle ebooks into (albeit low-quality) audio books that I can listen to while doing projects, cooking or cleaning. That means I can do excessive "reading" without sacrificing productivity! 


Garage Sales

Hey, so there was something frugal this week after all! I went to some garage sales and bought a few things... mostly for Princess. But I also got a book for myself:

​And you all know how much I love books.

Til next time,
-Bethany

I hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Day!
-Bethany

​Below is a video I made with special announcement:

Yesterday, we stopped at the grocery store. I bought two hams for $0.77 per pound. They didn't have any of the cottage cheese left that was on sale for $0.89/lb., so I got a rain check. But you know what else we bought? A full-priced pound of summer sausage, for $5.00. Guilt-free!

I know the video above was a long one, so if you didn't watch it, here's the gist: I won't be recording our grocery spending on the blog anymore. In short, it's because I don't want to be tied to the $10.00 per week budget. Of course I'll still be sharing grocery savings, but I want to have the freedom of buying full-priced food without compromising honesty and integrity here on the blog (that is, leading you to believe we're on a strict budget, when we're not). The video has more whys and wherefores, if you're curious.

So, here's to celebrating the transition from "extreme" frugality, to just regular frugality! It's been a fun five years. Now, let's talk about what impact this has had on our finances and what it can do for you.


How Much Did The $10.00/week Plan Actually Save Us?

As I mentioned in the video, I was spending about $50.00 per week, or about $2,600 per year for the two of us. I came to marriage with a lot of skills, though (cooking from scratch, canning, etc.), and with experience shopping on a budget. Our personal savings over the past five years was about $1500 per year, or a total of $7500. Since it took a little while to whittle down to $20.00 from that original $50.00, let's call it an even $7000.00.

Looking back, $1500.00 per year doesn't sound like much. But you have to keep in mind that our transition was from "frugal" to "extremely frugal". Saving money is kind of like losing weight. A woman who weighs 200 pounds and loses 50 is going to look dramatically different. A 150 lb. woman who loses 15 pounds is still going to benefit, but not as much.


Is It For You? How to Calculate Potential Savings

Is the $10.00 per week budget for you? Let's count the savings and see if it's worth doing, even for a short amount of time. Tip: You can adjust the actual number to the cost of living in your state. This can range from $10.00 for cheaper states, to $20.00 for the most expensive states, like Alaska and Hawaii.

1. Determine goal budget. (Example: $10.00 per person, per week.)
2. Multiply goal budget by the number of people in your family, to determine weekly budget. (Example: $10.00 x 2 = $20.00.)
3. Multiply weekly budget by 52 to determine yearly projected spending. (Example: $20.00 x 52 = $1040.)
4. Multiply current monthly spending by 12 to determine average yearly spending. (Example: $50.00 x 12 = $2600.)
5. Subtract the first total from the second. (Example: $2600 = $1040 = $1560.)

And that, my friends, is how much you could save by switching to an "extreme" grocery shopping (or not shopping... lol!) protocol. 


Is Extreme Frugality Worth It?

1. Yes: Think about how much money you could save by dramatically reducing your grocery spending (most folks could easily do 50% like I did). Over the course of five years, many people I know could buy a house with the extra money they spend on groceries! Ask yourself if the grass-fed beef is benefiting you as much as getting into a home of your own (or buying better shoes, more books, donating to charity, etc.). I think even a short-term stint of extreme frugality would benefit most of us, in more ways than a fatter bank account. Frugality teaches us to be creative and thankful. Extreme frugality even more so.

2. No: I wouldn't trade home ownership for a lifetime of grass-fed beef, but some aspects of extreme frugality aren't beneficial long-term. Decades of eating conventional, cheap foods (especially highly-processed ones) can be problematic for many people. It concerns me that so many children are starting out life with weight problems, bees are dying, hormones everywhere are being disrupted. These are things we need to consider before committing to a lifetime of cheap food. 

3. Maybe: There is a difference between long-term and short-term frugality. Everyone can do short-term frugality, but not everyone likes it. Long-term (or lifetime) frugality is only possible if you enjoy it. That means it will look different for everyone. Some people are okay with a lifetime of thrifted clothes, but not okay driving beater cars forever. Other people are happy to give up restaurants, but not travel. One housewife loves to cook, and another one would rather use coupons to buy prepared food. As time goes on and we get ahead financially, we can all embrace and benefit from our favorite forms of frugality forever, and ditch our least favorite parts. Isn't that good news?

So, I guess that's my tidbit for the week! I'm really looking forward to sharing new projects and frugal endeavors with you in the coming weeks and months. 

Til next time,
​-Bethany

​Well, I warned you all that we might get busy around here, and I'm excited to see the spring starting to show her face! Of course all Michiganders know that it takes two or three months for her to stop playing peekaboo and actually stick around (by which time you call it "summer", not spring), but we are excited nonetheless.

​
Basket Liners

I made two basket liners in anticipation for our garden harvest. I used to think basket liners were tacky and outdated, but if you're actually using the basket, it makes cleanup so much easier. Instead of having random seeds and bits of dirt stuck in between the cracks, you just remove the liner, dump it out and throw the whole thing (the liner, that is... not the basket) in the washer.

​The big basket is for our regular everyday garden harvests; rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, radishes, etc. The smaller basket is for herbs and to use as a backup harvest basket. 

It was more of a pain than I thought it would be to make the liners. I had to draft a pattern, finish the edges for durability, etc. Since the liners were custom made to fit the baskets, I probably won't be able to use them with other baskets (but I'll try). Before I invest more time into making basket liners, I'll make sure the baskets are sturdy and will last for years. Many of the baskets I have now are already on their last leg. So that's something to keep in mind if you, too, are thinking about making a liner for your harvest basket.

​
Honey Harvest

I'm not the best beekeeper. Actually, I'm a pretty rotten beekeeper, but it turns out that even rotten beekeepers have their rewards.

I cracked open the old hive on Saturday and this is what I found:

​If any of you can help diagnose the problem, that would be great! I contacted the people who I bought the bees through, and they suggested that the queen probably died. Obviously, all of the other bees died as well. But before they died—bless their hearts—they left me some honey.

I was able to harvest almost a whole gallon of honey!! I'm super excited about that, since one of my goals this year was to eat healthier (raw local honey is so good for you!). Not only that, but I wasn't expecting any harvest. Now I have honey AND beeswax to work with.

Even though beekeeping won't work for me this year, I plan on trying it again during a less busy season. I'll be keeping the equipment and hopefully reusing everything. Another bright point is that I found a free way to harvest the honey, without the use of an extractor. I used this tutorial. Hubs made the wood piece with some scrap lumber, and I made the bag out of cheesecloth that I already had.

Even though the value of my little harvest doesn't nearly cover the cost of equipment, it really encouraged me to keep on trying. Beekeeping is something I've wanted to do for years, and I was so happy to have the opportunity to try it out in 2018. Now that I know the ropes (or at least, a lot of what NOT to do), I hope next time will be more successful.

I think that's all for now!
-Bethany

1. Groceries: I bought a frozen lasagna and boxed pasta dinner at Walmart for about $7.50 total. We returned $17.30 worth of cans, so I didn't figure the grocery costs into our normal monthly budget. Since we will be very busy during the next three months, I spent time perusing Walmart's website for boxed, canned and frozen meals to see how they might fit into our regular menu. For two people, the frozen meals were most expensive at $5.00-9.00. Boxed meals were about $2.00 (but, of course, don't include meat) and canned meals (including meat) also cost about $2.00. While packaged meals aren't all that healthy OR frugal, I'll be working in the strawberry patch and on our new-to-us house and won't have as much time to spend on regular household tasks. What time I do have will probably be spent in our vegetable garden or sleeping. Last year June was exhausting for me, and that was without the house. Some disposable diapers, paper plates and already-prepared meals are a small price to pay for an extra hour or two every day during such a busy time. The premade meals, even at $2.00-8.00 each, cost the same or less than fast food, and we won't have to drive anywhere to get dinner on. 

As our budget is now, I spend about $2.00 per meal (lunch and dinner). The packaged food will probably put us a little over budget. I am hoping that I'll be able to replicate some of the store-bought meals at home though, and save money that way. Some of them are only frozen vegetables with meat and rice. "I just can't bring myself to pay $8.00 for that!" I complained to my brother, while standing in the frozen food aisle at Walmart. "I can cook some rice in the Instant Pot and dump a few cans in for a lot less than $8.00." So, that could also be a solution.

2. Cooking: I made bread in the bread machine. I'm still working on spending less time in the kitchen (while still making food from scratch, on a budget). This week I spent between 30 minutes and 60 minutes per day cooking (plus a similar amount of time washing dishes every night). Doing all of the cooking tasks at once has cut down the time, I believe, by a bit.

3. Gardening: I planted sweet potato slips and green onions in dirt (they were previously in water). I didn't get a chance to plant anything in the garden this week, but I did spend several afternoons peeling straw off of my strawberry patch. We put it on way too thick last year (we just rolled several big round bales' worth out onto the rows) so it was a real task to pick off all of the extra. The good news is that I have plenty of straw to use now.

4. Thrifting: I bought a cardigan and lightweight hoodie for myself at $1.10 each. We found a pair of jeans for Hubs that cost just $3.00 (we don't usually find his size, so that was a great deal!), a glass candlestick for $0.50, a plate for $0.30 and a square basket for $0.45. I use square baskets for organizing like items on shelves.

5. Music: I used a Prime credit to buy a classical music album for $0.09. Recently I've been trying to decide how I want to collect music for my own use, future home school use, etc. Tape and CD players are becoming more expensive and hard-to-find as people move toward digital music; not only that, but CDs are easily scratched up and then they're worthless. It's possible to listen to music for free on the internet, but Pandora doesn't let you pick the songs, and both Youtube and Pandora have commercials. Premium or subscription services don't provide enough value for the cost (commercial-free Youtube is $12.00/mo., Spotify is $10.00). I know that the music I'm looking for (generic kids' tunes, classical music, etc.) is cheap enough to just buy, but it's hard to do that when I know I can probably get it for free somewhere... if I'm willing to listen to enough commercials. But I don't want to waste brain waves on commercials. If any of you have tips on how/where to get free downloadable music, let me know!

6. Books: I ordered a book from the library interloan system.

7. Shower curtain: I replaced three broken shower curtain rings.

I think that's about it for this week. 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

Even though it's still cold out (in the 40's today), I'm getting so excited for spring.

1. Groceries: We didn't buy any groceries this week. As the warmer months draw near, I'll be shopping less and harvesting more. I'm hoping to add fruits and vegetables to the eggs I already collect from our homestead.

2. Cooking: I cooked and froze the beef I bought on sale last week. I also made cookies! Lately I've been working hard to do most of my cooking once a day. That means I'll look at the day's meals, and see if there is anything I can do to cook both meals at once. Then I try to do all of that within an hour. I set the timer and try to work like mad! Of course, I let Princess help me, so there are plenty of interruptions. Even with the interruptions, I've been keeping that batch-cooking time to around an hour. I still spend about 15 minutes per meal actually putting everything together, if it's not something I can prepare in advance.

I would say that I spent about an hour and 45 minutes, per day, this week on cooking. My goal is to get that number down to an hour (except on Wednesday, which is cooking day, and Friday afternoon, when I bake things for fun).

3. Homestead: I gathered plenty of eggs this week from our chickens. I also foraged some Kentucky Coffee Tree beans. I cleaned them, soaked them for 24 hours (this was because I tried planting some of them) and roasted the rest of the beans at 300 degrees F for three hours. I think most of the beans exploded, but only a few landed at the bottom of the oven. A majority stayed in the pan. Then I used our Vitamix dry container to grind the beans into a powder. It turned out great!

I think that's all for now. How was your week?

Til next time,
-Bethany

I love this time of year. The weather is starting to warm up, gardening and yard-sale season is near. We submitted the house blueprints for building permits this week, so that's super exciting as well!

1. Groceries: We spent 37.03 at Kroger and an unspecified amount at Walmart... I'm thinking it was around $5.00. We bought a bag of potatoes, a Reese's bar and probably something else that I don't remember. 😕 So we'll call this week's total $42.03. My goal was to spend just $90.00 in March; right now we're at $87.51. I think that calls for a spending freeze! At Kroger I got 80/20 ground beef on sale for $2.00/lb, cheese on sale for $2.00/lb., and grapes for $1.00/lb. Those were some great prices for our area, so I was happy to sacrifice the next few weeks' grocery money.

2. Cooking: I made yogurt (with starter from a previous batch), cooked a bag of chicken thighs and made broth with the bones. I also made a number of bird suet patties from ground beef fat that I saved in the freezer. Our little girl loves watching the birds eat!

3. Gardening: most of the seeds I planted last week have germinated! All of the tomato seeds were a great success. The chives have also all germinated. The hot pepper seeds, eggplant and all but one pumpkin-on-a-stick seeds have not germinated yet, but those could take at least another week. 

4. ​Crafts: I painted the rest of my mismatched jar lids. 

​5. Thrifting: I went to TWO thrift stores this week! At the first store I bought two T-shirts for myself at $0.50 each and a dress for $3.50. The dress had a small tear, but I looked up the brand website and similar dresses sell for around $100.00 each. So I thought that was a steal! I also bought a plate for $0.79 (not a great deal, but it had sentimental value), a candlestick for $0.50 and a basket for Princess' books at $1.50. The basket wasn't cheap, but square baskets never are at thrift stores. It keeps the books contained, which frees up more of my time to do fun things.

The second store was a bit higher priced, but I did find a $2.00 cardigan for Princess to wear with her (free) Easter dress. But the BEST deal was a bunch of all-in-one diapers (BumGenius Freetime) diapers for $2.00 each. I bought ALL of them! LOL! Even though we're pretty much done with cloth diapers for Princess, I hope we're not done having babies. For the next baby I had considered buying more all-in-ones (they're less work than the other kinds). Not only that, but it's nice to have extras that you can loan out or give away to others who are interested in using cloth. Some of the diapers need minor repairs, but those won't be a big deal because I'm rehabbing some of our other diapers already (see below). I can always sell the diapers if I end up not using them.

6. Sewing: I worked on replacing the elastics in some used Fuzzibunz diapers. It was a surprisingly easy project—I just had to buy the proper sized elastic, which cost less than $2.00. One of my sisters-in-law is due with her first baby this summer, and she said she was interested in using cloth. I thought it would be nice to have some that she can try out while she's here (they live out of the country) and even take home if she likes them.  

7. Toddler exercise: I brought a little plastic playhouse/gym inside for our daughter to play on when it's cold outside. I noticed that she enjoys climbing all over the furniture, so I thought the playhouse slide would be a better outlet for her energy. So far it's been great! Not only that, but it was free, left by the previous renters. 

8. Cans: I picked up over $5.00 worth of cans to recycle while on walks. This time of year, the roads are LITTERED with cans! It's like a gold mine out there! 

That's all, folks!
Til next time,
-Bethany

1. ​Groceries: We spent $45.48 on groceries this week. I went to Walmart and stocked up on things like beans and dairy.

2. ​Cooking: I made granola this week. And cookies! I used the granola with some homemade yogurt and frozen berries to make parfaits for the fridge. I noticed that the granola got soggy, so next time I'll just keep that separate until serving.
​
3. Gardening: I started the first seeds of the year!! On Saturday I planted chives, tomatoes and pepper seeds.

4. Crafts: I needed a jar for toothpicks, so I used an old glass coconut oil jar from my stash of cleaned, reusable jars. I was proud of myself for finding a suitable container, but the lid was an ugly gold color. I used some chalk board paint (that we already had) to paint the lid. After the paint dried, I used a chalk marker to write on the lid. I really liked the final result:

​I think I will do this with all of my other reusable jar lids. I have some pickle jar lids that I think would really benefit. It's nice to at least have jars that match in color, if they don't match in size. Of course I don't paint regular canning jar lids, but I think it will be great for things like salsa or pizza sauce jars.

I also finished painting four new peg dolls for Princess. I started these before Thanksgiving (hoping to use them for decorations), but here we are, four months later. Oh well; I guess better late than never.

I think my painting skills are improving. I learned this time that the lightest colors should go on first. It's SO hard to paint light colors over dark ones! You can see how the white collar on my pilgrim looks kind of... thick. That's because it needed 123,345,456 layers in order to look okay.

5. Time management: I unsubscribed to several blogs. I found myself spending hours of mental energy coming up with counterpoints and arguments to political posts (thinly veiled as "personal finance"). Of course, I never actually comment my carefully thought-out replies, which is why reading those blogs is a complete waste of time and energy. 

Many personal finance blogs are written by women who work outside the home. There's nothing wrong with that, but a career leaves little time for the kind of frugality that I'm interested in. Homemaking blogs provide more usable content to me, plus almost none of them have a "housewives are victims" mentality, which is something I can't stand. I am going to be careful in the future to avoid time-sucking blogs and only follow sites that provide usable content.

6. Shed makeover: Hubs and I refurbished my old goat shed for resale. The shed itself was free- in fact, Hubs got paid $250.00 to move it from the previous owner's place! He dug a box of leftover vinyl out of our backyard*, so that was free as well.  We ended up putting new doors on ($20.00-$30.00) and I painted the doors with leftover paint. It was a long day, but I think the finished product was worth it:

I think that's about it for this week!

​Til next time,
-Bethany

*Are we country people the only ones who have random junk in the backyard??  

Hi everyone! I did a terrible job recording frugal accomplishments last week (as in, I didn't write down a single one). That being said, I thought I'd pop in here with a few things anyway.

We didn't buy any groceries again this week. Hubs was gone over the weekend to an event, so Princess and I chilled out at home. I attempted two days of potty training. I think she was starting to "get" it, but I'm not sure. For now she's back in diapers. She's still young yet, I just thought I'd check in to see if she's ready or not. Some tries were successful, many more were not. I figured out that she pees about every two hours, which means that her cloth diapers really only hold one pee (the reason for this being that she "floods" the diaper and it can't absorb fast enough). I was hoping that the weekend would be a little more successful, but it left me with more questions than answers.

One accomplishment wasn't really mine, but I had a part in it! Last weekend we were helping remodel my sister's new-to-her house. She was getting a new stove, and asked "Do you think there's enough room in the dumpster for this old stove?" she asked. "It came with the house."
"Dumpster!" I cried incredulously. "I cooked a frozen pizza in that thing. It still works! You're not going to toss a working oven, are you?"
"Well, what else am I supposed to do with it?" she asked. I looked again at the stove. It was true that it was very grimy and dirty, and the door handle was cracked and a small corner had broken off somehow. It would be perfect for a place like... deer camp.
"There's someone out there who would love this working stove," I said. "Sell it on Craigslist. Or Facebook Marketplace. All of the cool kids are using Facebook Marketplace." Of course, she had never sold anything on Craigslist and I had never sold anything on Marketplace (which tells you how cool I am). While she went with Hubs to the hardware store, I used my mad photography skills to snap some pictures and list it on Marketplace. The stove didn't sell that day, but this last weekend she relisted it and it sold for $60.00. Selling the stove freed up space in the dumpster and added $60.00 to her house remodel fund.

My sister is not the only one working on a house remodel. My in-laws are currently remodeling one of their rental houses to move into. After that, Hubs and I will be remodeling their old house and moving into it! So I am pretty excited, but between all of the remodeling going on there will be less time for frugal accomplishments. Of course I'll be busy with our house, but I also want to help my sister and in-laws with their projects as well. I'm hoping to pull off regular posts and/or Youtube videos, but if it's a little quiet around here, now you'll know why.

Since there's still snow flying, I'm taking every opportunity to devour more good non-fiction books. I wish I could quantify the amount of money saved by reading, but I can't. So it probably doesn't count as a frugal accomplishment.

I think that's about it! 
Til next time,
-Bethany 

I don't have a whole lot of frugal accomplishments this week. I spent a lot of my free time reading, plus we were gone or busy almost every evening, as well as all of Sunday and Monday. But here is my small offering for the week:

1. Groceries: we didn't buy any groceries.

2. Cooking: I cooked a turkey this week and made broth with the bones. I also baked bread. 

3. Free stuff: Over the weekend we helped my sister remodel her fixer upper home several hours away. We were able to help her get a lot done, but she also gave me some free stuff! I got an assortment of half-used shampoo and conditioners, plus some clothing. 

4. Hobby farm: Hubs helped me (or rather, I helped him) make some structures for my vegetable garden this year. We made two diagonal trellises, a vertical trellis and a tepee trellis to fit over my 4'x4' raised beds. I am going to use the diagonal trellises for cucumbers and small zucchini/melons, and hopefully they will serve a dual purpose as shade for lettuce. The vertical trellis will be for tomatoes, and the tepee trellis is going to be for my purple Chinese long beans. Hubs also put a little shelf in our chicken coop, which has been very helpful. Nearly all of these things were made with scrap lumber; we used one 2x4 for the tomato trellis.

In addition to that, the chickens are beginning to lay more eggs at this point. Last week I used the excess eggs to make boiled eggs, egg salad, crepes and fried egg sandwiches, in addition to eating them for breakfast.

I was very happy to get the garden structures built before "busy season" hits in March. Not only were most of the structures free, but they'll help me grow more produce, do less weeding and they will beautify the garden. I'm so thankful to have a handy husband! 

I won't be posting hobby farm updates this year. Instead, I think I will just do small blurbs in the weekly post. My goal this year is to produce as much food as possible for the $500.00 or so that I'll earn from selling strawberries in the spring. That amount is plenty to support our chickens and garden, but I'll be looking for more things to grow or raise myself, inexpensively.

5. Youtube: If you haven't watched it already, I made a video for Youtube last week: 

I think that's about all for now!
Until next time,
​-Bethany