Solar powered lights in a non-electrified shed

When we moved to our acreage, we inherited a 12x24' pole shed located out by the edge of the property, well away from the house.  Of course, there was no electricity run to this building, which meant I had to bring a flashlight any time I needed to put something away after sunset.  It didn't take very long before I got tired of that and installed a solar powered, motion-sensing, LED security light inside the shed to light my way after dark.

Green acres is the place for me

The new 10-acre plot that we just purchased has about a quarter of an acre (100x100') that the previous owners used for gardening.  That's obviously too big a garden to manage without either a large team of people or some mechanized assistance.  The family from whom we bought our acreage also had a 1952 Ford 8N tractor that they were willing to sell us, so that sent me on a three-day crash course of not only figuring out which tractor to buy, but also what implements would be necessary and how to use them.  Here's what I learned.

Choosing a new lawn mower

When we bought our old house 16 years ago, we bought an inexpensive Craftsman push mower to care for the smallish lawn.  It held up well (a little less so after our kids started using it), but has been showing its age lately.  I patched the rusted-through deck with duct tape (which worked quite well), and I've had to rebuild the carburetor every couple years when it didn't want to start.  Last week, even cleaning the carb wasn't enough to keep it running, so I decided it was finally time to upgrade.  I did lots of research and ended up coming home with another Craftsman that was very similar in concept to our old mower.  Given the amount of time I spent on this decision, I figured I should share my thought process with you all.

A simple garden trellis for growing squash

We've got three 4x16' raised garden beds at our house.  My family enjoys growing squash and other sprawling vines, but the problem is that they take up so darned much space in the garden.  One way around that is to grow them upward along a trellis instead of sideways.

Dealing with Poison Oak

A couple weeks ago, my son and I were out at our new acreage clearing brush away from the tree stumps that our pine wilt infestation left us.  Despite the various implements of destruction, we spent plenty of time handling the felled foliage as we loaded it into the trailer and later back out again at the dump site.  A couple days later, I discovered the hard way that there must have been some Poison Oak in the mix.  This was the second time in a few years that I'd dealt with this weed, so I figured it was time to learn more about it.  Here's what I found.

Pine wilt infestations

Our next door neighbor at the new acreage is a professional landscaper with Landmark Landscapes.  He bought his acreage just a few months before we bought ours.  The first time we met him that spring, he pointed out that a few of the numerous Scotch pines on our lot looked like they were succumbing to "pine wilt."  We didn't do anything about it at first, but when he mentioned it again in the fall, we decided it was time to act.