When we moved into the house there was already a mailbox at the road along with posts on either side of the drive and what appeared to be a sign post.  All plain, worn and grey.  When we had the unexpected but wonderful warm up in March we thought it was time to paint the mail box post as well as the other posts.  I suggested putting one of the big bird houses on top of the sign post for decoration. Well, it kind of took off from there……..

The end result was this.

Painting the mailbox itself was an accident. I got paint on it and instead of running back up to the house for a rag I decided to keep going knowing that a replacement mailbox was in the near future.

We finally picked up a nice big rural mailbox but of course it was all black which would not work with our colorful entrance. Spray paint here we come. At first I thought just plain orange would be nice, but after painting the whole thing orange I thought it may need some more color to match what was happening……lesson being, never let me loose with spray paint!

Last night we installed the new mailbox.  I wish I had a camera out there to catch the carriers expression when they pull up to it. It has already slowed down a few cars while we were installing it. *grin*

Mr. S. came home on Saturday with an idea for the trees. He was in a local store and saw a display of noodles. Not the pasta kind, the water toy kind. He told me that while looking at them he came up with an idea of stringing a rope through them, securing it with a washer on one end and an S hook on the other and hanging them from the trees. I was a bit uncertain but figured it was worth a shot and seeing as how he is so supportive of all of the crazy ideas that I come up with it was my turn. So Sunday we headed back to town and picked up 5 noodles of different colors and some purple rope. (purple rope is necessary when you’re doing a project like this… it color coordinates yanno)

After a few minutes and some rearranging of the bird feeders onto the bottom of the noodles these are our new tree earrings!

They move very softly in the wind and make us smile. The birds seem to enjoy them as well.  What do you think?

I have been going a bit nuts trying to figure out how I’m going to start all of the plants I want to start inside the house on top of the little desk in the spare room which happens to be in front of the window that gets the most sun.  Finally I gave up and admitted that it wasn’t going to happen.  That’s when I started searching out  inexpensive greenhouse ideas.  Leave it to google to solve my problem quickly.  Very early on in the search I ran across this great link. How to Build an Inexpensive Cold Frame in Under 30 minutes with no Tools!  Well that title has my name all over it!

Straw bales!!!!

http://www.appalachianfeet.com

So I call the local store where I have purchased straw before and they inform me that there is a straw shortage in the area. They haven’t had any all winter.  So I explain what I’m attempting to do and ask if they think hay will work as well.  Sure!!

Not being totally convinced I throw the question out on my Facebook page and some of my friends replied with justifiable concerns. So Mr. S makes a call for me to a guy he knows who has horses and L tells Mr. S. that there’s someone who sells straw at such and such cross roads. “look for the sign”.  Ummmm…… after an 1/8 of a tank of gas and a nice leisurely drive to no where there is no sign and i’m discouraged, but will settle for hay if all I can get is hay. So back to the original store I go.  When I got there I talked with the owner this time and told her what I was hoping to do. She gave me the phone number of a person who she had just talked to today that said they had a few bales of straw left!  I called, we met, I have straw!  Ends up he was one block west of where L said we would find the original location. *sigh*

Back home I go with my wonderful golden straw to “build” our cold frame.  I set up all the bales and located the PERFECT window from the barn and tada!!

Mr. S hooked up the hose for me and I filled a bunch of pots and trays with mix and then watered them down and covered them back up until morning. Tomorrow when I get up at the crack of dawn for no apparent reason i’ll have something to do!!

I used plastic knives to make my plant markers so that I can try to keep track of what is what until we get it into it’s final spot in a few weeks.  I’m very excited!  Tomorrow after work i’ll transfer the tray of chives out to the cold frame also and free up some of the space on the desk in the spare room.