Fencing, garden and some random stuff!

Well, I seem to be having a lot more free time on my hands lately, so I get to blog more! Yay! Except I'm running out of things to talk about! Hmm...  Why do I have more time lately?  Let me explain.  I have been telecommuting to my job in Utah for the last 5 months, some days are frustrating and others are awesome!  But, I was nearing the end of my rope and started looking for work where I could do a little bit of socializing in the process.  Even though I haven't found any work yet (still looking...), we decided that I should quit my job last week.  I worked for them for the last 6 1/2 years, I am super sad and will miss everyone at work, but I think it was for the best. I have learned so much and gained so much experience working there, I can't thank them enough! And it turns out it was at a really good time, and I'm happy that I left on my own terms.  The real estate market in Utah is quite low at the moment, so my place of employment were doing some layoffs anyway, so, really, it was good for both of us.  I have decided that I want to start school in the Spring and finish up my Bachelor's degree.  My plan, so far, is that I want to get a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and a minor in Accounting.  All in all, I think I want to be an accountant.  You can do it all online for the most part, and doing the degree this way can make you eligible to take the Certified Public Accountant exam for the state of Wisconsin.  (I'm planning on attending University of Wisconsin-Platteville, which is about a half hour away if they accept me.  Still waiting....)  Accountants can make pretty good money, and I have always enjoyed playing with money and numbers like that.  And, since we eventually want to start our own farm business and maybe a few other things, it would be nice for me to have some background in business to help us out.  Hubby is thinking about getting his Master's in Business Administration (MBA), but we aren't sure when and where and what not. That would be really good for him and probably help him a lot in his future.  We will see what happens and how things play out though.

We've had some pretty productive weekends lately!  We've been wanting to make a fence to go around the chicken coop so that they could play in my garden and fertilize and things like that.  So, several weeks ago, we got some posts and some 6 foot fencing.  We finally decided to put everything up!  Here is the view from the corner of my garden.

We used the PVC pipe from the temporary run to make the little gates, they are kind of redneck, but I'm just fine with that! :)

Here is the view from the side of the house...

I love that they can just run around if they like and have more fun.  Some day, we hope to have a nice big back yard where they can just run around and play free and be safe!  Hopefully...But they seem to be enjoying themselves! :)

Do you remember that rusty cast iron pan?  Well....on Monday the 14th, we had a large crew of stupid roof people come to replace the roof at the request of the landlords.  I stuck myself inside the whole time because I didn't want to see anyone or anything like that.  So, I finally attacked the pan!  Here it is after my attack!

I used Brillo steel wool soap pads.  It was hard to get all that rust off, but I think it came out pretty nicely!  I also baked the pan the same way as I did the other one, about 350 to 400 for an hour and let it cool in the closed oven.  I think it turned out really nicely, lets hope I can just keep both pans maintained.  I do like cooking with them, it cooks really evenly and browns pretty nicely. I need to figure out some other awesome things to make in them.  I think maintenance will be the hardest part.

Apparently it is the season for raspberries at my house!  I am not complaining, they are soooo good!  The raspberries on the right were picked a few days before the ones on the left.

I can't believe I am getting so many raspberries from the one plant, its incredible.  Funnily enough, we aren't getting anything from the other plant.  Maybe its not as well rooted or something.  By the way, all of those raspberries in the picture were gone within 30 seconds of taking this picture! Hehe...YUM!!!

I went grocery shopping earlier this week and I saw my favorite pumpkin display ever outside a grocery store.

I love how clever they were and made it a really nice display, rather than just throwing pumpkins out.  

Also, I have decided to try to learn how to knit.  Here is my learning swatch.  

The bottom 6 rows-ish is the "knit" stitch, the next 6 or 7 rows is the "purl" stitch, and then the top 7 rows is the "rib" stitch (even though you can't really tell, but you can kind of tell...).  I'm still trying to perfect it and become more consistent, but that will take some time.  Its kind of cool though.  I think its a bit easier because my mom showed me how to crochet when I was young, so I feel decently comfortable around yarn and stuff.  Knitting is a whole different ball game though.  I wanted to learn because I really like the stitch patterns that you get with knitting.  Someday I hope to knit a sweater, but we'll see how things go from here.  Since I don't know many people out here, I'm learning from a book.  I picked this and everything else up at the Hobby Lobby in town.

Here is all the materials that I use/have...(the book said I should get a little kit going, so there we are).

Its kind of fun, but we'll see how it goes, as I've already said.
Well....I think I'll go play with the chickens for a few minutes and see if we received any delicious presents.  :)  Have a good one!
xoxo
c