Tool Round-up: Garage Edition

Moving and never totally unpacking really puts a dent in the cleanliness factor. So today, we went full UFYH on the garage. Having a garage and a barn, we have tools and projects scattered between them. Today's goal was to get those all in one place. Garden projects? In a garden bin. House maintenance/materials? In a house bin.  Car materials? Fencing swag? You get the picture. The main MAIN goal however is to be able FIND the materials we need to finish up projects whilst dad is away YET STILL be true to dad's organization system enough that when he gets home, HE can find and rearrange as necessary. 

oh. em. gee. Do we have our work cut out for us! 

In true Washington fashion, it was raining most of today! So I threw up our little cabana over my truck bed to help the transition from garage to barn be less moist. Cardboard and rain just don't mix, you know? 

Woo! Part one complete! Our initial focus was "do we need immediate access to this? or can it live in the barn?" and keeping this in mind, we were able to free up space. We compounded computer boxes from 3.5 to 2, took Boy-Child boxes to his room for HIM to deal with, and got rid of the trash. We keep a box of cracked corn for the chickens in the garage as their treat (mostly called "crack" because, well... it is) but there have been some spills which encouraged rodents to roost and defecate. Mum has also been collecting the empty feed bags, they're canvas and so would make great grocery bags. Well, they still had bits and pieces of food left in them- also encouraging rodents. Unhealthy droppings EVERYWHERE: on the floor, on top of boxes, and, in the case of some un-taped boxes, INSIDE. At the stage this photo was taken, Mum was pretty happy with what was left. The pegboard will continue to be scant and disorganized until ALL the tools are rounded up, cleaned, and redistributed accordingly. It is a great idea, just needs tools!

At this point, the back wall looks pretty good but there are two tool stations that still could use some UfYH-ing. Mum focused on the smaller station (right photo) first while I got rid of trash, broke down boxes, and prepped stuff to be hauled to the barn. Dad's tool rack and shelves is pretty sacred ground, but he hasn't had a chance to properly move-in or arrange things to his liking. We tried to keep true to what he DID organize.

 Topmost shelf is exterior lights (a few motion sensor ones and the solar lights for the yard), next shelf down is adhesives and sprays. Everything from WD-40, to super glue, to Rustoleum. It's all in one place. Next shelf down is actually pretty empty- we found a bunch of stray fishing paraphanelia as we were cleaning (both the inside cupboard and the garage) and were able to relocate them to a tacklebox. The three shelves to the right have car supplies (Dad recently did the brakes on two of the vehicles), Door making materials, B&D sander, sandpaper, mum's awesome Dremel, etc. All within easy reach and within sight.

We did a little rehab on dad's poor tool-tower, pulling all the paper to one drawer and electronic/electrical materials to another. Top drawer is for misc nuts, bolts, screws, blades that can be gone through another time. We pulled all of the actual tools, though, and put them in little green army bags for easy moving.

The right hand photo is actually immediately to a person's left as they exit the house from the laundry room. Mum wanted to keep the car supplies (windshield washer fluid, oil refills, and cleaning materials) to their own shelf. Dad's boots have been cleaned and tucked out of the way for his return.

Speaking of tool round up - man that wrench in the center is Clue worthy in heft! 

All these puppies and the bits and pieces of tool boxes have been culled from the house and now the garage, and are ready to move to their second to final stage: the barn. Once there, that will be ALL the tools possible and they can be cleaned, organized, and delegated throughout the property. We'll KNOW what sets are complete, what needs filling, and what just ought to be replaced. 

The next, NEXT project is the barn. Which is now mostly classroom, haha. But will be barn again once mum moves into her new classroom right and proper. Before that, we have a PUPPY COMING as well as guests so the organization and puppy-proofing of the house is a priority. 

So have a picture of our chickens to tide you over :D

Gardens - Green House Prep

Guest Author Girl-Child here, with another weekend update. While Mum was visiting our Sailor in Port Townsend, I got a few projects done around the homestead.

      It's just the right time to get veggies going (or so my green-thumbed madre assures me) and once her National Boards is through- she's itching to get back into the garden and play. To help prep for that, I decided to take a day to clean out the green house. Oh yes! The green house mentioned here is up and sturdy and full of life. Just... the wrong kind of life. *cue psycho shower scene music* Eek! Dandelions! Aphids! and Baby Black Widows! Oh my!

     If you remember last February, mum mentioned a bunch of new plants she wasn't quite ready for. Well, Washington proceeded to rain, and rain, and rain, until all of her lovely new plants either drowned, were eaten by chickens, bowled over by raccoons, or molded. The ones that survived, were stashed in the green house and promptly forgotten about. As you can see below, there's a lot of plants to wrangle and pots to sanitize before anything new can start living in here. 

 Gloving up, I grabbed an empty bucket and proceeded to delicately clip-n-catch the dandelion heads with some garden shears. After about ten minutes of this, I recalled my heritage and dashed inside to put on sunscreen.  Very important! Then I doused the bug infested greenery with distilled white vinegar and hot water before tearing them out by their roots (or as close to the roots as I could manage).

The pots were all plastic, aside from some organic/compostable ones (which were pretty thoroughly moldered and tossed into the compost heap), so I got the go ahead to save the soil. If you look in the far back of the above photo, there are some half-wine barrel type garden barrels on the right hand side. They all contain good soil now, ready for re-purposing. The pots were rinsed and arranged by size on a low table, to be sanitized at a later date before rejoining their fellows in the Garden Shed. Plastic labels and tags were washed and put in that white plastic three drawer tower in the Shed for the next batch of lovelies!

Much better! Now that there's room for seedlings, I re-set up Dad's veggie trays.

The carrots and sweet peas are first to show!

 The other project I was able to get to before papers swallowed my weekend, was the raised garden bed. The boy child hauled these bags of peat and compost from in front of the Garden Shed to here. We don't have a wheel barrel big enough, so we would have to mix 3 bag compost with one bag of peat by hand. We weren't certain what was the best way to go about it, so I opted to experiment a little with this handy dandy twirly ground aerater doohickey (yes, that is it's official name, or at least it is until I can ask mum).

It took a bit of work, but the compost and peat mixed perfectly. Mum still wants to add another row of boards around the edge (we're all tall folks here, leaning over will be easier), but that can be added later. For now, we've got a good soil base for any goodies Mum feels like planting! Only two more weeks to go!