Thriving In My Thrifty Week–The Weather Has Finally Cheered Up! April 26, 2023

The weather has turned! It’s finally sunny and warm this week. I have really been wanting to till the garden. I had some help getting the tiller started and a refresher on how to manage it and did quite a bit today. This is our mid-sized tiller and I seem to be able to manage it just fine.

I won’t be able to plant until it is worked up again in a couple of days, so I’m glad the weather is supposed to stay nice for a while.

I also got some weeding and clipping done in the flowerbeds. There is SO much more to do, but at least I got a start. I was able to get quite a bit into the yard debris bin and hope to fill it up this week. Since they take a bin full each week, included in our garbage service, it’s always a goal to use that part of the service whenever I can. It’s also a nice way to challenge myself to keep on working away, bit by bit.

Rob found an amazing deal on bags of bark dust, garden soil and got some steer manure/compost while he was at it. We’ve been spreading that around here and there as we get a spot ready, and used some of the compost to enrich the garden. I have 2 sections of my home-made compost ready to spread once it dries out a bit. It’s too heavy now for me to handle.

Normal cooking continued: Sausage Spaghetti Pie (green peppers, onion and sausage sautéed and put on top of spaghetti/cottage cheese base with mozzarella on top) for us and young adult group, salad, peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies for the freezer, lots of leftovers, home-baked chicken nuggets, chicken and pepper filling for burritos, gf wraps from a Bob’s Red Mill mix, and jars and freezer containers of fruit, veg, etc. I’ve been working on emptying the fridge of leftovers and produce and am continuing to work through the pantry and freezers. It’s just not that long until the garden will start producing and I need room to put the freshly preserved produce!

Our microwave broke and Rob found another one quickly at a hardware store we’ve used and loved for years. We got a medium-priced one, and it’s amazing that it does 4 things–air fries, convection cooking, toasting or broiling(not sure), and of course, microwaves. I’m excited to see what I can do with that. If I only use the microwave feature, that’s just fine, as well–after all, I was trying to buy a microwave:)

We took Malcolm for a drive Sunday afternoon. We ended up at the beach late afternoon, so stopped in at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, used our membership, and he enjoyed himself for the 45 minutes we had before it closed. He just needed to get out of the house, as he’s had a cold, and well…Rob likes to drive:). What can I say? It was a great afternoon.

I anticipate that I will be outside as much as I can find the time for as long as the weather stays nice because I’m so eager to get some work done out there. Meals will probably be quite simple, and I’m not sure if I will bother shopping or not. It will be fun to see how the week shapes up!

8 thoughts on “Thriving In My Thrifty Week–The Weather Has Finally Cheered Up! April 26, 2023”

  1. Sounds like you’ve been busy! Glad the weather turned nice and you are able to get some gardening done.

  2. I love your blog and the photos! We used to live in Portland and so seeing the greenery and trees is great. I admire how much you accomplish every day and how you care for your family. Thank you for the time you spend on this blog, it is a lovely bit of goodness in the world, hilogene in Az.

    1. I’m so glad you enjoy it! I can’t even imagine how different it must be from Oregon to Arizona, it’s so much hotter and drier. What a change for you! Long ago, we lived in southern Oregon and even that was a huge change for me and we came right back up the valley to our precious Willamette Valley after only 3 years. What I did love about it was I could grow watermelon and other hot-weather crops so much easier than I can here.

  3. I love the greenery too. I moved from zone6a PacificCoastal to zone9-something, the same as Las Vegas! I’m not looking forward to the heat but I have to be honest and say I was happy to leave my snow tires behind.

    Just wow looking at the photo of you with that rototillar. I last used one that size in my early 40s and have a great appreciation for the work you’re doing. Well done!! I have one now but it’s a little bitty baby two tine electric one.

    Are you expanding the garden or ‘just’ getting the existing beds prepped for the year?
    Looking forward to watching your garden grow. Cheers,

    1. We got the big garden ready. We were tilling in some steer manure/compost and fluffing it up to plant.There are just too many weeds for me to hand dig them all. I have a combination of raised beds and a traditional row garden. The truth is, once we get it tilled in the spring, we have a tiny tiller or a hoe to cultivate it all season, and then it usually gets another final till in the fall, if the rain holds off. I can handle that mid-sized tiller with some direction from Rob, and the tiny tiller is just my speed. The biggest Troy Built tiller is beyond my strength.

      Last year, we had dahlias in the very back next to the fence (and along the shop, and in the back of the garden, and in the front flowerbed, and….). We dug up half of them from the one area in the back of the garden, as we have no family wedding we are providing flowers for this summer, and are going to try corn in that area. We gave a bunch to our neighbor and hope that the ones by the shop and compost bed come back, and put more out front in empty spaces. I’ve done more shovel work this year than normal, and there’s more to do. We did dig up some irises to plant some pumpkins at the front right hand side of the garden. There’s never enough room for everything I want to grow!

      I never till the raised beds, and I do hope to add another one this summer to plant more strawberry runners in for fall/next year. The raised beds are perfect for overwintering crops and also strawberries, since those crops might get in the way of the fall tilling….it’s hard to manage it all so I get a proper rotation of crops in my city garden.

  4. It seems as if your backyard is getting larger and larger. Perhaps it is the camera angle or maybe the exhaustion I felt seeing you work the tiller. Mercy. I have tried doing that and it is rough.
    I admire your determination.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
    PS: Our microwave broke this past week also. I did the rounds and only found one for sale at the thrift stores. I took a cup, added water from the bathroom, put it in the oven, turned it on, and was pleased that it heated up. I felt proud of myself thinking I had gotten a good deal, until I opened the door and it kept running. I quickly slammed the door shut! I know why it was donated!
    Bill insisted we buy a new one since he can’t abide tepid coffee. He was sitting his cup of coffee straight on the eye of the stove to get it boiling hot! I agreed to a new microwave to keep him from burning the house down.

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