New Chicken Coop Run and Cooking Green Beans

                                     

So, I decided to buy a new chicken coop run and we started putting it together with the help of the grandson on Sunday who read the directions and figured it out.  I love buying used so we don't have to put things together but after months of looking I knew that was not going to happen.

We have spent all week on this thing tweaking it to make it work but I'm so glad I got it now.  The other one we had was 3 dog kennels zip tied together.  Now, I can walk inside of this one to clean it.  The birds can fly and they seem happy.

Not to be outdone Granddaughter helped put bricks around the outside.  We are thankful for them both.

Now we are tired and need rest but the garden is calling us. The beans should be ready to pick on Monday so I'll start canning again then.  

This morning I put a pot full of greasy white beans (with some others mixed in to help make it full pot) to start cooking on the stove.  Served with sauerkraut and spareribs, we should be happy.

Husband read on one farms website that you can now buy beans already strung and broke up.  They will cost you though.  Would you buy them ready to cook?

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Who says We have to Stand all the time While we Cook? (Flashfood deals and garden is coming in)

 

My flash food order of the week (Meijer)

4- 1 lb packages of ground beef 73/27% fat -$2.99 each 

We don't usually buy this but so far we have used this in tacos and hamburger stew -drained very very well.

Total $12.56

Perdue Grilled Carved chicken strips one at $1.99

Perdue Rotisserie chicken strips 3 at $1.99 total $5.97

total $8.36

Dashmart

7 packages of Oscar Mayer Hot dogs for $1.01 each total $7.42- I couldn't pass up this deal!  Into the freezer they went.

If by chance you haven't tried flashfood yet and it's available in your area you can use my referal code of VICK36PZH and we both get $5.00 towards are order of $7.00 or more on your first purchase. Just download the app on your phone.

In the garden:  

The garden is coming in a little at a time so I'm canning a little at a time.  7 pints of tomatoes.

More zucchini flour.

Today's feat will be apple butter from our apples in the backyard.  I have it all at the table so I won't have to stand.  Who says we have to stand all the time while we cook?

The mustard greens and green beans will be ready the first of next week.   

My two biggest mistakes this week:  

1. Not saving the rest of the cooked cabbage (I gave it to the chickens).  It would have been great in the hamburger stew.   

2. I have an electric stove- I didn't check to make sure the burners were correctly attached and getting hot.  I was pretend cooking for 10 minutes.  Sigh...

How's everything going at your house?

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Good Sales and In the Garden still!

 

It was a good sale day last week when I ran across all this yarn for $12.00.  Right now all my energy is outside but soon the cold wind will blow and I'll be stuck inside most of the time. Endless possiblities!

In the Kitchen:

I had 4 zucchini's I didn't know what to do with.  I've already made bread, used it in a vegetable bake a couple of times, and made some zucchini crisp this season. FYI: Youngest daughter didn't know the crisp was zucchini she thought it was apple.  Love it! 

In the end I decided to make zucchini flour.  I didn't get much but I think there are more zucchini monsters out there to make some more soon.

In the garden:

It's weird year in the garden ...all the frost/freezes where just north of us and now we have green beans that are just starting to get big enough to pick.  I think we will do that early next week.  

We like a bean that is full...they taste so good that way.  These are Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans.

We got a late start with a flooded/cold garden but we just might make it.  That would be a blessing if we did. 

How's everything going at your house?

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Apple Harvest, Mustard Greens, Zinnias, and a Cabinet Remake!

We are so excited this year to have a lot of apples!   Oh we have had one or two on the tree but this year was a great harvest for us!  

The grandkids helped us pick yesterday, I wish I had my camera.  They are not apple orchard beautiful..but still it's kind of cool.  

Oh my goodness there are my big feet.  LOL

Mustard greens growing in raised bed and in the ground garden.   We've had two messes already.  Taste  so good..nothing like the greens we have been getting at the store.  Nothing like them at all.

We have green beans on the vine ...hope they make it before the frost.

Zinnia's are blooming.

I finally painted and put decals on my bathroom cabinet.   I could not find a cabinet as sturdy as this one at any sale I went to, so I decided to remake it.  

I'm not sure if you guys are like this but when I have something I've finished I can't help but to keep looking at it and smiling.  So crazy, but I can't wait till I go to the bathroom to see it again. 😂

(Just so you know I can not recommend these decals.  They are pretty but they were very hard to put on.  Me and my granddaughter were very frustrated trying to rub on every detail).

I hope you all are feeling good and have had a great summer.  It sure did go fast.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Getting the Garden Halfway Planted!

 We planted about half of the garden this week with tomatoes, cabbage, and honey rocks.  It's too wet and cold to plant seeds so hopefully we will get warm  weather next week to plant beans, peppers, and potatoes.  The garlic, peas, lettuce, green onions, radishes, mustard greens, and onions are coming up great already.  Lettuce, radishes, and green onions have made great salads!  

You know, I kind of like planting like this -it's not so stressfull trying to do it all at once.  Here are some of the 25 tomato plants I put in the ground.  I hope the sun coming this week will help them a lot.  Next to them I also planted basil and marigolds.  Basil helps with pests and the deer hate marigolds, or so I'm told.

Yesterday, the chickens were out and husband needed help, like now.  So, after helping him I replanted the cabbage.  Wonderful, just wonderful.  They look so small now!

We had a wonderful sunshinny Memorial day and planted flowers at my Mom and Dad's grave.  Every year my granddaughter helps me plant...actually this year she did it all.  So full of questions about life and death.  Mom passed away 9 months before she was born.  She would have loved her!  

I noticed that the soil was very low by the headstone.  I'm going to put a bag a soil there in the fall.  I think all the rain did that.

How was your Memorial Day?

A Wet., Cold Mess!

 Did I tell you we have the heat on?  Yep, it's chilly and wet here in Michigan.  Yesterday we reached a high in the upper 40's with rain.  

The plants are waiting in the greenhouse.  We managed to plow the garden for the first time but it is too wet and cold to plant.  The seeds would rot and the plants would die.  It's downright depressing. We have went through this before and have planted more into June and still had a great harvest. So, I'm going with positive thoughts 

I ordered two more raised beds for the back of the garden.  With the wooden ones this will make four raised beds back there and two by the greenhouse.  The back wooden ones have onions and garlic growing in them and the ones by the green house have mustard greens and snow peas.  

Eventually we will get more.   I think with the changing weather and  our changing ages 😀 we need to look ahead.  I would like it all done of course now but  Rome wasn't built in a day, husband says. We will get it.

On other news:  I managed to sell something yesterday that I had on marketplace for a month.   Don't give up people -someone will want it!

I woke up one morning and watched Becoming a Farm Girl on youtube.  That woman made me get with it in the kitchen.  Inspirational for sure!  I made Trim healthy Mama pancakes, pickled eggs, and boiled some eggs for the week.  

Grandson is here this morning...I'd better think of something for him to eat that he loves.  Sausage, pancakes, and biscuits might make him happy.

Have a great day!

First Harvests this Week 5/8/25

 

I have been harvesting lettuce from the green stalks that I have in my green house -for salads and wilted lettuce for husband. (yuck)

I also harvested some green onions.

I was able to pull up some radishes for salads too.

I'm thankful for the greenhouse and the greenstalks that sit on higher land than the garden.  It's very wet right now.

I just transplanted the herbs back outside.

I have mustard greens growing in two small raised beds.  There are some peas in the middle of them somewhere.  Crazy idea I had ...I'll see if it works soon.

The fencing is for the chickens...they love mustard greens and digging for no reason.  Help me.

Tomatoes are growing great but I can't grow a pepper plant for the life of me.  

Back is slowly getting better-I do a little at a time and all is well.  Apparently the chiropractor said that I will never feel 16 again but I will get a lot better...I guess that's ok.

How's your garden growing?