Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

My Other Favorite Place ~ My Back Porch

On Mother's Day, my 20 year-old son, cleaned everything off this patio.  It's what we call the back, only it's kind of the backside of the house.  It's big enough that some day we can screen in a portion of it.

You can see the grass is looking terrible alongside the rock flower bed.  That's because we had to dig and dig to find the septic tank.  It's just now growing back in.

Anyway, my son swept it all off and got out all of the furniture we still had.  He cleaned off cushions and I helped wash off table tops.

It's not "fancy" furniture, but you know our family motto.  We've been using this stuff for probably 5 years now.  Thanks to my wonderful Uncle, I have a new umbrella for the table.  Ours broke a few years ago.  The orange looking pots have seeds planted in them, and behind the table is a large rose bush I planted (moved it from under the kitchen sink).  Each week I figure out a way to make it peaceful and look nice.  I think it needs a few more flower pots.

I got one of the bird feeders up that also came from my Uncle.  Now I can watch more birds from my "other" favorite place.

Our garden continues to get planted.  Here is hubby digging weeds out of the strawberries I never got moved.  I guess I'll be moving those later in the fall (to the raised bed). 

We've planted numerous cauliflower plants, kohlrabi, cucumber, and green beans.  We ran out of plastic (yep, this pioneer agreed to plastic between rows).  No more weeding and more time for stocking up.



We may be taking a few tablecloths and aprons camping, but I am sure hubby will keep our load to a minimum.  That's okay too.  Camping doesn't come with rigid requirements, only lots of fun.

It's been a tradition for me to buy a new color of bandana for us to take camping (for two daughters and myself). 

Yesterday, despite being congested, I got my first bike ride in.  After 35 minutes of treadmill walking, I finally got a 5 mile bike ride in.  I am now working on cleaning out my garage, so I can get back to working out with the speed bag and heavy bag.  I squeezed myself in there and boy what a nice work out that was. 




5 comments:

Catherine said...

What a lovely sanctuary! I found your blog on a google search looking for Julia Child's braised cucumbers, and found the post you did on it and your charming blog. I've been enjoying reading it.

Happy belated Mother's Day from a reader in New Jersey.

Candy C. said...

Love your back patio, even the "before" picture with the chickens! :)

Unknown said...

Nice back patio!

Unknown said...

Have you thought of cardboard between the rows? I've tried that and it works...

Sam I Am...... said...

Wow! What a transformation with the patio! It looks SO nice..I'd love to have one like that.
You must be in REALLY good shape with all that working out!
I love your garden area....full sun, nice and flat! What a beauty!
We don't have a MJ Farmgirl Chapter here. I was going to start one but I have too much going on here for that right now.