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Spring 2016 Update

pring is here! And with it comes an end to all the sad, empty landscape that is our yard. All the old perennials are popping up and flowering, the birds are chirping a little louder, and the bunnies are multiplying. I’m a huge fan of plants that come back year after year, and since this is our second year in the home, we finally have big bushy flowers! We’ve lavender lining the front walkway, rosemary and raspberries along the chicken fence, and strawberries in the garden. With all the rain …

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Magnetic Key Holder and Elastic Sunglasses Holder

have this bad habit of coming home and putting my keys, wallet, and sunglasses in a different spot every time, and I’d always spend 5 minutes looking for those things before I walked out the door again. So I needed a solution. And this is what I came up with. On the left is a simple block of wood that has 40 rare earth magnets embeded in holes in the back. I used a 1/2″ forsner bit for 1/2″ magnets that I bought on amazon in a pack of 50. …

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Rabbits : Raising and Care

originally wanted to get into rabbits because their poop is just the best fertilizer. You don’t have to compost it. You can just gather it and spread it on the garden. I had intended to breed them and raise them for meat as well, but we haven’t quite gotten there. My wife is still pretty opposed to the idea because they are so dang cute and we’ve gotten friendly with them. So here’s what I’ve learned about caring for rabbits. Rabbits really do have a knack for making more rabbits. Female …

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Quail : Raising and Care

got into quail kind of by accident. I was visiting a small farm I found on facebook in the Dallas area to buy some chickens (We lost 4 to a raccoon) and they had a ton of other animals as well. Ducks, geese, pheasant, and tons of quail. So I was naturally curious, because I love all animals, and was given a ton of information about the little guys. So I wanted to share some of that with you. In case you’d also like to get some quail. First of …

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Building a Deck of Cards

One of my friends grew up playing card games with her dad and has very fond memories of doing so. As hes gotten older, he has lost the ability to be able to hold a fan of cards in a hand in front of him, and its been years since they played card games together. So she came up with an idea and asked me to help her build it. This is what we did. Simply, we took a 2×4 and cut 54 – 1″ chunks and then trimmed a …

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A Hammock Inside?! Yes, Please.

My wife and I love hammocks, and I had an idea… Lets put one inside. At first, my wife was like “you’re crazy, but if you can do it so that it looks really nice, go for it.” So I did. I put a lot of thought into where it would go and how it would hang and how to adjust it and how to make it so you can get it out of the way easily. Here’s what I’ve got: Besides a hammock you’ll need the following: On one …

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Garden & Raised Bed Design

The day we moved into our new house, I started planning where the garden was going. I knew I wanted pretty raised beds and a unique style. (not just the big 4’x8′ beds you see all over) I came up with this idea for ‘4-corner’ approach with a pond in the middle and started building. Each of the 4 corners is 8′ long at the longest sides, and then 4′ on the shorter 4 sides. So each box gives me 48 square feet of planting space. The walk ways in …