Ameda Holmes

Thanks, Hans! Rahn will love your carpet idea!
We have some of the carpet he's already pulled out  in the yard to try to smother some bindweed and poison ivy.

Thanks everyone!
Rahn and I are going to take advantage of the perfect weather for getting stuff done outside and work on making some dents in the to-do list.
Last week, Rahn got the rabbit cages under better shelter, and he started a second compost bin handy to their cages. A dozen rabbits put out a surprising amount of manure! That bin is also handier to the kitchen, so the coffee grounds (including those from the coffee shop), egg shells, vegetable trimmings that the rabbits don't eat, some leaves and sawdust, and other compostables will get into this bin.
He also did a fair amount of clean up and organizing outside.
This week we'll be going to the town lots and dropping some trees and cut into 8 foot logs to haul home and place for raised beds.
We're also going to get a couple pickup loads of pallets for the various pallet wood projects around the place.
Rahn disassembles the pallets in the easiest possible way - He puts a metal blade in his reciprocating saw and cuts the nails.
I'll be taking a few turns this week with the rake to get leaves into the raised beds, and the buckets for the containers. There's a spot where I can dig out some of the subsoil fairly easily to put in the bottom of the beds, but the wheelbarrow has a flat tire. I'm hoping Rahn can get it fixed this week, but if I can just get some buckets half-filled with the subsoil, that'll be a start.
I've renewed my request on Chipdrop - if I can get a load or two from them, it'll be a huge jump on compostables. (If you haven't heard of Chipdrop, it's a resource for tree companies to find people that can use the shredded trees and leaves,so they don't have to pay to dispose of it at landfills.)
I also plan to make a run to Walmart this week and fill the truck with broken-down cardboard for the bottom layer in the raised beds.
There are a few other bits on our to-do lists. Rahn is replacing the carpeting in the living room, hall, and 3rd bedroom with laminate. I'm finishing a pair of hand spun, hand knit slippers for myself, and then a pair of wool socks for Rahn. Just finish a pair of socks for myself.

I think that's enough plans to make for this week!

Hi, Fil
I should be able to help you here. I've been knitting for 57 years. My grandmother taught me when I was 5. I learned to sew in school, and my step mother expanded greatly on that instruction. A great deal of my wardrobe even now is sewn at home on one of my 3 vintage sewing machines. I learned to spin about 35 years ago, and weave a couple years after that.

Here is my YT video on the basics of knitting


And here is my favorite basic slipper pattern:
AmedaDesigns - Ameda's Favorite Slippers

I just finished these hand spun wool socks for myself.

Hi Alder & Eric!
Good idea. I do have a 55 gallon burn barrel that we have a lid for. What about just adding logs to the bottom of the raised beds? Does it have to be charred? I've never done hugelkulture, so I have no basis of comparison.

One of the projects on the list is installing drip water lines for the rabbit cages. Got more bunnies!



This is a lionhead mix doe

This week will be a pretty good one for getting some of the outdoor construction projects done. We've found that a friend has a more powerful chain saw and he is willing to let us use it.

Hi, Rebecca, Guy, and Eric!
Watering is not quite the issue here as it would be in Arizona and Nevada. I'll be running drip lines from our rain water collection system, and at least in the 5 gallon buckets, drain holes will be a couple inches from the bottom. We're hoping that we can get enough water storage in place before the 6-8 weeks of really hot weather hits.  We're putting in a number of linked 55 gallon poly drums. We get about 41 inches of moisture yearly, though July and August are usually quite dry.

We are using composting toilets, though the compost from them is going to be used on non-food crops. We have a second compost corral for the other compostables.

My favorite mushrooms are portobellos. How are they for this job?

I'm pushing for a chipper! If we can get one, there is so much that can get run through it.

The trees on the east side of the house that Rahn is cutting are dead ones. Since we do get a solid six weeks of VERY hot weather every year, we want to keep a healthy amount of shade on the house. We did have a fairly large dead limb come down in the last storm that just missed the roof over my bedroom!

I'm hoping that there are a couple pecan trees on the town properties, as we are going to need good smoking wood for "da Beest" It's a big smoker made from a recycled vent-hood.


I love mushrooms, but have never tried raising them. Indeed, I don't have a clue where to get the spores!

Our property is just about an acre in size, and the 2 town properties are each 50'x150'

Dang! The post went down the rabbit hole! Let me try this again!


Anyway - this is a pic of the property last winter before the house got moved here. We get a fair number of leaves from the oaks here, and there are 2 family properties in town that are completely overgrown. Rahn is going to clear them so they can get sold. This should give us all the fire wood, brush, and leaves we can use.

I've been rounding up some sources of free compostable materials and building materials.  A mill in town gives us about 50 gallons of plain sawdust a week, a lumber yard has about all the free pallets we can use. A BBQ place can give us about a dozen 5 gallon buckets a week, and one of the local coffee shops can give us about 10 gallons of spent coffee grounds every week.

Our meat rabbits give a fair amount of manure every week, and as soon as Rahn builds enough new housing we'll be breeding the 6 females and have a population explosion in 30 days.

Hi, Eric!
Here is a pic of the front yard


First iteration will be containers, yes. We're also planning on getting several loads of wood chips, compost,  and manure to get large swaths of raised beds going. We have a nice long growing season, and I have had plenty of experience in building large gardens. My Ex and I had a large market garden going where we turned red Oklahoma clay into good soil in a single season. Took about 7 tons on the half acre of llama, horse, and sheep manure to do it!