The shed, and the hubs

I feel a little bad now for making my husband look like a butthead. He really is a great guy. I showed him the shed when he came home tonight, and he was genuinely impressed. He had expected that it would take weeks, or at least days! Even though I spread it over two days, the clean-up honestly only took about four hours. Anyway, he asked what I planned to do with it, now that they shed was clean. I tried, in vain, not to roll my eyes at him, and calmly told him that I plan to get chickens and goats. Once I have some money, that is. He actually wasn't irritated. He even talked about what we were going to do about the roof, before I get animals. Huh? Go figure. lol A funny side note: When my older daughter stopped by, my 8 y/o told her that she was going to be selling lemon aide at the yard sale. "And Courtney,"Mia says. "All of the lemon aide money is going to be mine for the guinea pig I'm going to get". And Courtney, who is so like me, says, "Eww. Why would you want a stinky, noisy, guinea pig? Get a rabbit instead". LOL. Like mother, like daughter. I even found her "bunny crossing" and "Pygmy crossing" signs from the Fair, in that shed. We were trying to figure out what to do with them.

The Shed Is Finished

" We are the champions my friend. And we'll keep on fighting until the end." The shed is FINISHED!!!! Well. it's all cleaned out at least, lol. I even hosed it down. Just don't look at my backyard. Holy cow! It looks like a white trash explosion back there. Tomorrow I will tackle cleaning everything for the yard sale and organizing the rest. Pictures will be taken as soon as soon as the yard is cleaned up. I'm too embarrassed to show that. It's bad enough that my neighbors can see it. My kids were an amazing help. At least my son was. My 8y/o daughter bailed on us after about 15 minutes. Then my oldest daughter came over to see. I think I shocked her, lol.

We have the shed about 3/4 empty now. Not bad for a total of three hours work. I have to get up early tomorrow and finish up. My backyard looks like a dump! Bulky pick-up is two weeks away. I'm hoping my neighbors don't get annoyed , but I'm putting the junk-stuff in the alley now. If we do it neatly, there shouldn't be a problem. No HOA around here. We all get along pretty well. My next door neighbor's landlord trimmed the trees today and practically filled the dumpster,so I can't throw much out. I'm trying to leave room for house garbage. We only have once-a week garbage pick-up and it's not until Saturday. The roof on this shed is trashed. Now I have to figure out what to do with it.I think we'll tear it off and put aluminum panels on it. I'm hoping the beams are good enough that we don't have to replace those. The people before us put electricity in it but had to cut it off when we had the inspector out. It was pretty badly jerry-rigged. My friend is an electrician. I'm hoping he'll give me a good deal to wire it properly this time. I want to put a fan and some light in there. The biggest trick right now, is to keep my husband out of the back yard for a while, lol. He's going to have a fit if he sees this mess. He finally realized what he had gotten himself into last night. I was watching my guilty pleasure, Real Housewives Of NJ, and he had gone to bed. He came out about an hour later and said, "I can't sleep. What exactly are your plans for the shed?" I about fell off of the couch, laughing. That will teach him to dare me.

The Begining Of The Barn

We live in an old house, built in the late '50's. There is an old brick "garage" in the back yard. I would say it's at least 500 sq ft. The garage doors were removed and boarded up before we bought the house about 13 years ago. It has a regular door and a bunch of windows, and would make the perfect barn. Crazy. I've been scratching my head for the last month, trying to figure out what to use for a coop and a goat pen, and this garage has been in front of my face the entire time.The problem is, it's full of junk that we don't use! I mean, almost floor to ceiling full. We've just been to lazy to clean it out. Hello! McFly! Now, I must say, my husband has NOT been into the whole "barnyard in the backyard" thing, at all.He thinks he can just pretend I'm not going to do this. Ha, ha. He should know by now that once I set my mind to something, it's going to happen. So, I told him I am going to clean out "the shed" this week, and he laughed at me. i told him that once it was clean, I was getting my chickens. He laughed harder. The jokes on him. I'll take that as a bet, bwaa, ha, ha. Plus, the kids are out of school this week. LOL. They're going to hate me by the end of the week. So. This is the beginning of my coop "design". Stay tuned.

Working, working, working. Yesterday, I made sourdough bread in my bread machine. Then I made mayo-parmesan chicken with the Helman's recipe. It came out so good. Next time I make it, I'm going to use kefir cheese. Today I worked my butt off in the kitchen. I scrubbed down the cabinets and rearranged everything. I'm trying to cut back on all the junk that I've collected. Oh my God, I have so much crap! So, anyway, it feels good to have that out of the way. I have sourdough coming out of my ears. Today I decided that I was going to divide and refriderate it. I figured I would give some away. Well, I went to stir it up and it looked like it had mold on top. I was so pissed. Weeks of work just got poured down the drain. I had to start a fresh batch tonight. This time I'll play it smart and keep it in the fridge. Lesson learned. Tomorrow will be all about cleaning up my 8 year old's room. I am not looking forward to that. It usually ends up be a full day's job, only to be destroyed again in a day. It's so frustrating. This time she won't be able to have friend's over for a while. Back to the grindstone. I have dishes to do.

Wow! I have sourdough coming out of my ears! I almost have a gallon at this point. I need to start, or refridgerate it to slow it down. Tonight we had sourdough pancakes for dinner, just to use some up. They came out pretty good. At least the family liked them, lol. also made another loaf of sourdough bread. Tomorrow night will be sourdough biscuits and gravy. My family is going to be sick of sourdough soon. I still need to make those sourdough chocolate chip cookies, too.

A Day In The Life

Wow. I'm so worn out tonight. It was a long day. I did the mad-rush, tornado cleaning this morning for a Mother/Daughter tea party. Then I gave Chocolate Facials at the party. Then, I had to dash over to my parents house for a dinner party for my brother. Ah, blessed, packed, weekends. I always feel like I've accomplished something once they are over. I just wish I didn't feel so drained afterward.

Sourdough Bread

With all of the fermenting I've been doing, kombucha, kefir, water kefir, I decided to try sourdough. This one is really fun. It's always funny to tell people that I have to feed my sourdough. Gets a good laugh. In a week, I have over two quarts. I decided last night that I had better put it to some use. Thank God for the internet and being able to find bread machine recipes. Yes, I know how to bake bread in the oven. Yes, it is fun to punch it down, too. I just hate the time it takes. Mix up the dough. Let it rise. Punch it down. Let it rise again. Bake it. It's just to much trouble babysitting my dough. This way, my bread machine does all the work, while I play on Face Book. So, it came out pretty good. It has a nice, crispy crust and a yummy, chewy texture. My family likes it. Next on my list is Sourdough chocolate chip cookies. Maybe tonight, after dinner... Right now it's time to pick up crickets to feed the frogs, lol. Ta, ta.

I was at the Racquet Club today. Don't I sound rich? LOL. Yeah, right. Seriously, we have friends who have a membership. And quite honestly, our Racquet Club is more of a YMCA with a bar added. It is a fun place to have a kid's party. The nice thing is there are lifeguards to keep the kids under control, while the parents enjoy some adult time. Very relaxing. And so fun for the kids.

Doing the Mom Thing

Oh the high school years! Not mine. My children's. We have four down, only two more to go. The first four weren't really involved in much, so it wasn't a big deal for me. Now I have one in band and choir. The problem with being a band parent is that suddenly marching band becomes your life, not just your child's, yours too. So tonight I had the joy of manning the Eegees booth. Eegees are basically an Icee made with natural flavors and fruits. By the end of the night, I was a sticky mess, and my feet hurt. Thank God I only have two years of this left! Wait! No. It begins again is six years. God help me.

Why Pretty City Homestead

Why did I name my blog Pretty City Homestead? Don't laugh. You should have seen the names I tried, starting with "Simply Urban". It was taken. Seriously? Now try coming up with ANY title similar. All taken. Right down to "Urban Chic". Finally, Pretty City Homestead popped into my head. Not taken! Yay! The name is rather funny considering there is NOTHING pretty about my homestead. Laugh, laugh. Maybe it's the beginning. I can work on fixing this old, falling apart, POS house, and blog about it. Ok. That works. Next on my list of things to blog is my return to the "simple life". Such a funny phrase when there is nothing simple about it. It's not difficult, or overly time-consuming, but it's a little more work than modern Americans are used to. My foray into "simple" has begun with culturing probiotics. I am lucky enough to have friends who love to share. My first try is kombucha. This is a culture that looks like a mushroom. It's fed Sweet Tea, which it turns into a sweet/tart drink. Fabulous for doing a kidney and liver cleanse. I was also given some milk kefir grains. The kefir culture "eats" the lactose in the milk, separating it into "curds and whey". The curds can be eaten like cottage cheese, made into a cheese spread, eaten like yogurt, or drank like a smoothie. The final culture is water kefir. These "grains" look like clear, plastic chips. They live on sugar water and create a fizzy drink similar to soda pop. i can't wait to try these. Oops, I almost forgot! The final, FINAL culture is Sourdough. This one is really fun to work with. I love watching it "feed". It bubbles and foams and is just really cool. It is also a lot more work than the other cultures. Sourdough has to be fed more often than the others. Luckily it's as easy as stirring in a little flour and water once a day to once a week. I can not wait to make bread. This is going to be fun. So, welcome to the beginning of my homestead in the city. I can't wait to share as learn. I'm sure I'll make many mistakes along the way. Hey, that's part of the fun of the journey!