First fire of the season

But we'll need to buy some firewood of we want any more!

Woohoo!

Window installation started today. Dudley was not pleased.

Progress...

This has been a BUSY summer. What have we been up to since May?

Shed-no-more and garden report

Started this project a few weeks back...

Homemade laundry detergent

I've been meaning to try this out for ages. Bob was reluctant when originally I told him about it - said he liked the smell of our normal detergent. But I've been using this homemade stuff for several weeks now and he hasn't even noticed! Shhh!! ;)

Super simple recipe*: 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup borax, 1 bar Fels-Naptha laundry soap (grated)

Sauvignon blanc and canine helper optional...

 

Mix. Use 1 tbsp per load of laundry.

 

As I said, I've been using this for a few weeks and it is working great. Clothes smell fresh, instead of scented. It removes dirt/stains just as well as our previous detergent and is much much cheaper.

* I got this recipe from another blog but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I'll add the link later when I inevitably find it stalking home/diy blogs... from the Yellow Brick House blog!

Facelift for the front porch

Our front porch featured some DIY lattices, courtesy of the previous owners (one on by the door, and one at the end of the porch that the roses could grow up) However they were pretty rotted and needed to come down.

 

Dudley supervising...

I literally broke these apart with my bare hands

After!

I think the porch looks much cleaner and (obviously) open now. We will be putting in a new lattice for the roses at some point, but up next is scraping and repainting the wrought-iron railing...

A new addition and necessary repairs

We've added a new member to our family! Dudley is a 5 1/2 year old, 9 lb. Dachshund/Chihuahua mix. We recently adopted him from Midwest Dachshund Rescue. He's settling in really well.

Excuse the old, ripped up couch - I'm googling slipcovers right now!!

With the blizzard we had a couple weeks ago, we could only take him on walks - the snow in the backyard was way too deep for this little guy! But now it's all melted and he can run around the yard, which means it's time for escape-proofing.

On the N side of our backyard, the neighbor's wooden fence has big gaps on the bottom. It had some mangled wire attached to it to close off some of these gaps, but there were still plenty of holes for a tiny dog to sneak through. As for the W side of our yard, it doesn't even have a fence! We stapled 2 ft. tall rabbit-fence (rectangular holes - bigger at the top, smaller at the bottom) along the whole fence line, and ran it between the shed and the fence to make a barracade at the W side. It's not quite as high as it should be, but it will do for now. There is talk of working with the neighbor to put in a new fence in the spring.

Bob and Dad hard at work, me supervising

Mom and I at the back fence

Thanks to Mom and Dad who were in town for the weekend and assisted with the project (also, thanks for the pictures Mom!!)