Productive day

Today was a fairly productive day today. We had to travel out of town for a doctor visit.

Normally, seeing the doctor is about all we acomplish for the day. Pick up a few groceries that we can’t find locally and scoot on home.

Today, we finally found some chicks. We didn’t go overly crazy, two of each varity they had, and two ducklings. For a total of eight critters. By the time it’s all said and done, we likely won’t save any money on eggs. At least not in the short term.

However, this isn’t about the ever climbing egg prices. Yeah, sure, it does play a part. But it’s a very small part. This is more about teaching the boys some responsibility and gaining a little more on a self-sufficient lifestyle.

I picked up some boards and a biscuit joiner. Spent more than I really wanted to, but I’ve decided to build a new back door, and the boys could use new doors for their bed rooms. So that’s three, so far. I also need one for a small metal shed out back and another for the chicken coop. The cheapest new exterior door that I could find was around $400 and they went up from there.

If I only made the one back door, I’d save four times more than what I have tied up in tools and materials so far.

We installed the new halo headlights in the pickup. They really give the pickup a cool new look, and I should be able to see better when driving at night.

While out of town, I found what I think would be the perfect handle for an old sledgehammer head. I dug out of a neighbors garage when they were moving and he was giving things away. It’s very old and pretty rusty, but I believe it will work great for blacksmithing. I have hung onto that hammer head for well over ten years now. I reckon it’s time to put it back to work.

I also stumbled across an old steel bed frame someone dumped in my backyard. If they saw the price for angle iron, they would likely regret tossing it. Normally, I’d be upset by people throwing their garbage in my yard, but something like that, I’ll gladly repurpose. I’d been struggling with how I’d build my raised beds.

Not so much now, I cut all the rivets loose and have enough angle iron to build at least two raised garden beds, using it to support the corners and the old sheet metal I have on hand.

Of course, as soon as I started getting serious about putting a raised garden bed together, it started to rain.