unhingedhomestead

[unhingedhomestead]

My first raspberry is almost ripe!

[unhingedhomestead]

So apparently im a very bad blogger. Here is a green house update.

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Look at all my growth!!

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My green beans are starting to climb and I am obsessed!

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Let's talk about upcycling furniture. I can't call this refurbishing because I feel like I completely reimagined this table instead of taking it back to its "original" vision. This is my first upcycle and although it was very minimal tool usage and very straight forward, I am proud of myself for the overall vision and desire to complete it. I often find myself starting a million projects and finishing none so this has been great!

This is how the table started. It also had black hardware but I am new to blogging and forgot to take my initial picture.

Next we sanded this B down

And painted her all nice with the inspiration of a Fabrege Egg. After spraying with the spray paint I wiped it down with a rag so the natural wood pattern would poke through.

Here she is all reassembled.

And of course, we added a little spice!

Thought about ending this by saying "hope you like it" or "let me know what you think". But I like it and thats all that matters so keep your opinions to ya damn selves!

[unhingedhomestead]

If you have a toddler or are planning on having a baby soon, do yourself a favor and plant some berry bushes. Babies love berries and berries are expensive!

It takes 2-3 years to get a good yield from these but it is so worth it! I planted these bushes that I got from Lowe's 2 years ago and as you can see it looks like I will be getting quite a bit of fruit this year.

Berry bushes are very low maintenance especially here in Ohio. I never have to water them and asside from berry picking all you have to do is cut out the "canes" at the end of every season.

Stay tuned for pruning instructions that have worked for me!

[unhingedhomestead]

Let me be the first person to convince you to stop buying toxic coffee creamer and syrups.

You can make your own brown sugar cinnamon coffee syrup with four ingredients and 10 minutes of your time.

1 cup brown sugar (I make my own by mixing cane sugar and molasses)

1 cup of water

1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

Add water and brown sugar to a sauce pan and cook on medium low until all sugar dissolves. Add your cinnamon and cook down for 10 min stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and mix in vanilla. Wait for it to cool and transfer to a cute container so you feel fancy.

You can adjust and different spices and extracts are desired. Experiment and let me know how it goes.

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Let's talk about herbs!

I saw a lot of advice on the internet on how to get my plants to grow busier and more fruitful. The most consistent advice was to constantly trim these bad boys. So as unnatural as it felt, I did it anyways and I am so glad I listened.

Each herb has a different set of rules for trimming; make sure you look them up and follow them. You might feel like you are killing them. They will look a little ugly, but I promise it is worth it. Not only will your plants grow outward to catch more sun and have healthier production, but you will get to immediately use them!

At the top is where my herbs are after a fresh trim today and below is what they looked like the day I planted them. I planted all these herbs in my planter box on mother's day. I have already gotten multiple pieces here and there for dinners, dressings etc. As you can see the consistent trimming has done amazing things for my herbs already!

If you need to trim, but don't need any herbs you can dry them in the oven or dehydrator to be used later. If you don't have enough to justify this just yet, chop them up and add them to an ice cube tray with olive oil. Pop these in the freezer for use any time!

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Plants are in the ground! When doing raised beds, save your cardboard and any yard trimmings you have. Filling these bad boys with all planting mix would have cost a fortune. Instead, we used amazon boxes and paper grocery bags as a barrier, branches from tree trimming, leaves as filler, and soil on the top with a "plant food mix." Next year, we will mix our soil with our compost that is currently brewing. We are sunburnt and exhausted but so excited!

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The green house adventure begins!

[unhingedhomestead]

Like I said in my bio, I had zero hobbies, so we are trying a lot of shit.

Multiple brand new things at once. Almost an overwhelming amount. So, of course, I thought "why not document it on the internet for a bunch of people that probably won't read it?"

My current projects include a greenhouse that my husband and I just finished yesterday. This green house is way bigger than I thought, and now a girl that has killed every plant she has ever had needs to fill it.

The best part of this whole hobby journey I am on is that none of it would be happening if I hadn't gotten pregnant 2 years ago. I did a lot of research as a first time mom and realized everything we eat is trash. I can't mitigate all of it but I'm here trying to handle what I can within reason. So naturally I started canning my own food to protest "the man" and realized with the amount of work I was actually protesting myself and my personal time. But I loved it so the next step was bread making and cleaning my entire home with nothing but steam, vinegar and baking soda. Then came A LOT of Pinterest pins to the point that now I am overwhelmed by new things I can do. So I thought, "why not keep this train going?".

Now here I am with a blog. Something else I've never actually done.

Just me. My home. My plants. My blog. My desire to do engross myself in this world of sustainability. And a payer that I don't overburden myself with things that are supposed to be fun and soothing.

Wish me luck!