Birdstump Barn

Chugga Chugga Choo-choo!!

How is it that our homestead activities have such a preschool song theme to them??

Anyway, Tuesday was spent by me having an absolutely beautiful peaceful day at home with the kids getting caught up on laundry - lots of nice mucky clothes from the well-exploring the day before - on the most beautiful sunny day you can imagine.  I love Missouri, by the way.  The seasons change, right when they are supposed to.  And in the spring - get this all you west coast people  - we get birds, singing and tweeting and all that.  Just like in books!  (My experience with birds on the west coast was that mostly all you get is crows, seagulls if you live close enough to the water, and some very quiet robins that just fly into your windows now and then, but don't sing much.)  So we hung our wash out on the line, opened up all the windows, mopped some floors, and just enjoyed the day.

David on the other hand....he got to drive down to Kansas City on an errand.  There was this guy on craigslist giving away railroad ties.  He said he had about 3000 of them.  So off I sent him, to rent a big flat-bed truck, and get a whole bunch of them, for the purposes of 1. lining our future driveway, so that we don't have a big problem with gravel washing away as we hear is common. 2. building a foot bridge across the creek so we don't have to get so muddy and mucky every time we want to cross.  and 3. putting in any retaining walls we might want to put in, like in the area where we want to put our garden shed, but the land needs leveling up a bit.    So, heroic guy that he is, he spent all day loading, moving, and unloading railroad ties.  We ended up getting about 50 of them.  They are so heavy! About 75-150 lbs each, depending on how solid they still are.  So, after delivering them to our property and unloading, we looked at that big cool truck, and thought, "While we have this thing, is there anything else we want to move?"  And so up we went to our old mobile home, and brought down our riding lawnmower, wheel barrow, and bbq.  And then all the way back to KC he went, to return the truck.  I got to bed at 3 a.m., David not until about 5:00, poor guy.  But it's done!

Untitled Comment

02:19, Thursday, March 15, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Carrie,
You are adventurous!! So glad you are enjoying the beautiful weather here! Did you notice the mosquitos are out??? Can you believe that -- in march of all times??????

Gloria
ps. if you need help with moving logs let us know!

What a Haul!

04:28, Thursday, March 15, 2007 .. Posted by melm

Literally and figuratively. *grin* If these ties are old enough that the creosote has leached off, they would be fantastic for raised-bed gardening too. It sounds like things are temperate enough where you are that you don't need the warmth/freezing ground issue tackled like here, BUT they sure help with trying to garden with kiddos around, and with small garden critters. At least make 'em work for what they'll try to "steal" from the garden.
Railroad ties are great for doing edible landscaping, too, because you can layer retaining walls so that you can put soil in between them and plant edible goodies as well. Less tilling, more planting, more pretty-much-free produce!

Ohhhhh Daaaaviiiidddd!

09:05, Thursday, March 15, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Gramma would like some railroad ties too!! (Yes, everyone, I know David is wonderful, not stupid, but it just sounded cute to me!)(He is probably SO happy I am not his Mother in law!)
Oh, those are wonderful for raised beds! Grampa and I have two raised beds for veggies, and I use big pots for my tomatoes. I've already got lettuce plants started for a small planter up on the kitchen deck. Nothing better than getting lunch off the deck right outside the kitchen door. I'm tempted to try doing a tomatoe plant upside down in that bucket thingy. I've seen it now in Mother & Backwoods Home. Not quite sure if I'm that adventuresome. Odd, yes. Adventuresome-wellllll......
Nigh nigh, Gramma
P.S. Booky? Hogs & Kisses!