13 bean update

So the experiment is going amazingly well.
This was taken just a few days after I put them in my germination station.

This was taken today.

In the first one, the split peas and chickpeas had not sprouted. In the second they are barely starting to show signs of roots.

I will be putting these in the ground shortly, maybe even today.

In my kitchen I have cabinets with side shelves near the kitchen sink window. The one on the right is where I have been doing my tomato seed saving. On the left is where my bok choy and onion experiments have been taking place. On the windowsil itself I have my avocado tree, ginger plants, bok choy, and watercress.

I also included a photo of the hairy little dried tomato seeds from my speckled roma (Also pictured above)

Today I finished the fermentation process for more gardeners delight and my green zebra. I started the process for my orange strawberry tomato.

I also picked a few more common mallow flowers for drying.
As I was picking them and watering my garden, I think I am seeing the first signs of carrot emerging. It gets so dry during the day I was worried the ground may not be staying moist enough even with watering twice a day. I guess I was wrong. I like being wrong on that one.

The picture on the middle right is my new drying rack set up. I don’t know why I had not thought to use a door coat rack for drying herbs. I have mint drying on it right now.

In other news… I my winter tonic is ready and works amazingly well. I tested out this batch when I started to feel a tickle and a few coughs happening, took a little, and have been great since. I will be making another batch of this here in the near future.

I also decided to make my own almond milk recently. I think it came out wonderful and works great for my protein shakes.
It took 1/4lb (1c) of almonds. At $5.88 a lb that put it at $1.47
It is suggested to use two cups of water, though I ended up using 3-4. We will say 3.
So divide that by 3 and it ended up being $0.49 a serving. Divided by 4 it is $0.37
It costs about the same per serving as buying almond breeze from winco but without any added ingredients.
I am going to try it with one of the unsalted nut mixes just because I am curious… I will let you guys know if it is any good.

This is the link to the site I used for making almond milk: How to make almond milk at home

Update on renovation

I mentioned in an earlier post about the awesome door handle I got a steal of a deal on. Well I finally got photos of it after the hubby installed it. So much better than the crappy round door handle that stuck a bit,



Today we got the final coat of the tea bag color on the walls. We only have two areas that we need to fix and it will be done with that wall color.

Eventually I want to put either some metal art or plaster filigree up in the little triangle area that is its own level in the kitchen.

The tea bag color is in the kitchen, though sadly the photo makes it look more sandy than the light creamy green it actually is. Hopefully I will get better photos of the color.


Before I think I mentioned that the cabinets have been through some things. I have had to repaint a handful of them a few times. First time I painted the base, I had them outside.

They were on the two tarps but closer to the house… We of course forgot about the sprinklers. Thankfully mostly dry, we moved them onto the porch. I sanded areas that needed to be re-sprayed.

Next goof up was spraying several sets of cabinets and drawers on the tarp in the laundry room. Great space to do it in, but the tarp, while it was a good tarp, ended up with layers of paint and stuck to the cabinets, leaving weird textured chunks of paint on some of the cabinets. Thankfully the ones above, which are just primed, did not end up with any issues. The doors and such did in some areas though. The ones that did have issues got re-sprayed with the final coat after sanding.


So this time I decided to lay down different tarps in the back bedroom (future crafting room) and living room. I needed ample space to get the base coat on as many as possible. I am currently behind schedule by a little bit but thankfully not as far behind as I would have been if not for the spray gun.

I like this photo because it shows the creamy white with hints of yellow that the gilded endive paint has. While I am still nervous about the end result, I am excited to see it as well. This is the first time I have painted cabinets. I am crazy doing this all at once before testing it on one or some other wooden piece of cabinetry. I have not always been known to test something before jumping into it though. 98% of the time it works out great, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I managed to get 15 + pieces sprayed with the gilded endive. Still have all the drawers and a few other shelves/doors to paint. The lower section is not on a deadline like the upper section is. Those have to get put back up shortly, and I am trying very quickly to get them finished so they can be put back up on the wall.

I am excited to get to the actual glazing. I feel this is where my artist skills will come in handy. My family is loving the progress with everything so far. Walls are coming along nicely. Cabinets will become a French country dream.

Happy that today was a semi short day. Basically only needed to paint the kitchen and one other wall, then get as many cabinets sprayed as I could with the surface area I had available. I wish I could spray them all in one go but I just can’t due to needing to rotate them out for space reasons. They will all get painted. I just wish the color coat dried as fast as the primer does haha.  My brother brought his friend and having three people there to tackle the projects of the day made it go by much faster. I think we were only there about 4 or so hours? So not too shabby compared to the 9+ hour days we have been spending there as of late.
I actually get to relax and eat my mint chocolate chip ice cream ^_^