The 16 brick stove is great, it can even be modified into an oven or mass heater.

Picked up about 170 bricks for free (I love Kijiji) for an outdoor fireplace project...
Wow, the projects keep adding up!
Now to find the grill, a steel plate and some stovepipe.

Oh I miss my Dad's! He worked for a trash company and got all kinds of stuff for free. He got all his bricks, an old stove top, a grill then we made it look like a corner indoor fireplace in the back yard. It was so cool. I would love another one.

Picked up about 170 bricks for free (I love Kijiji) for an outdoor fireplace project...
Wow, the projects keep adding up!
Now to find the grill, a steel plate and some stovepipe.

Oh I miss my Dad's! He worked for a trash company and got all kinds of stuff for free. He got all his bricks, an old stove top, a grill then we made it look like a corner indoor fireplace in the back yard. It was so cool. I would love another one.

I'll let you know when it's done, that way whenever you come to "La Belle Province" you can come on over and roast dogs & marshmallows with us!

HI Blue Girl

I always do some straw growing each year, its got a interesting learning curve to it.. Did you get the smaller bales (60 to 80 pds) or did you get the large bales 800 pds or so placed where you want them? The reason I am asking is because the size makes a fair amount of difference on how many years you can plant the same bale? I have been able to get up to three years worth of planting in a big bale, where I have not got one proper year with the small and then a half way planting on the small.

If you want to get more then one year out of the bales, don't follow the books recommendtion that you break them apart in the fall, of course you will need to loosen them if you are doing anything like carrots/potato's to get it all out, I don't know how you are planning on doing it, but we set them side by side with full twine on them on the outside to hold and then retwine a loose twine around the twice and cut the hard twine, it gives more room to breath and allow you to have the ability to then push dips into the tops, which are then filled with good dirt and we tend to mostly direct start in them, try and water only as much as required at the roots of the plants, don't soak the rest of the bale as it will compost much faster then you would think if you just water the whole bale at a time (I learned this the hard way).

As you said you have no dirt, do consider careful placement of where you want these bales, as if you put them in a good place and then use them and compost them in place with a bit of work, you could then box around them and make them into soil for a raised bed. I did that with a large bale one year, he had weighin them, so I know they were coming in around 850 pds of straw and I used it and then rotted it in place, with a mix of the dirt and then I mixed in so compost on the second and third years, then water really good, added more dirt on top, and several handfully of worms in the mix and let it rot down, by the next spring, we just put 2 by 10 around it and kept allowing it to go down and we have a filled 10 inch raised bed which I light fill back up each spring with use.

Thanks for the info farmgal.

We have the smaller bales and fortunately I was so excited, that hubby and I placed them where we want them (full sun) because it rained the next day. We set them up in 4 sets of 4 with pathways between them. I like the idea of loosening them up a bit because we intend to plant in them, but they are really tight. Makes sense.

That was my idea - to compost these where they are. Adding new bales next year. Now we can add chicken manure as well as the compost and worms. A raised bed would be nice, especially if it is good earth that hasn't cost the earth. lol

Today's prep was snack sized cans of Chunky soup. $1 each but, easy to store and easy to eat if you need something quick, easy and right outta the can! 😎 (I realize it says week but I find myself doing something almost every day)

I'll let you know when it's done, that way whenever you come to "La Belle Province" you can come on over and roast dogs & marshmallows with us!

You realize I will take you up on that one day! We are all over the place. lol Quebec is one of our favorite getaways! (I am still working on the speaking french part though) 🙂 I have friends around Montreal and Buckingham.

Picked up about 170 bricks for free (I love Kijiji) for an outdoor fireplace project...
Wow, the projects keep adding up!
Now to find the grill, a steel plate and some stovepipe.

I've seen lots of old propane BBQs at the side of the road on garbage day....maybe the grill from one would work

Picked up about 170 bricks for free (I love Kijiji) for an outdoor fireplace project...
Wow, the projects keep adding up!
Now to find the grill, a steel plate and some stovepipe.

I've seen lots of old propane BBQs at the side of the road on garbage day....maybe the grill from one would work

Yup, been looking for stuff like that too...only problem is that my area has way too many scrap scroungers. An old fridge I put out last winter lasted about 1 hr at the curb. Going to my scrap/auto parts guy today, so maybe he has something he is willing to trade for my old spare tire on the van.

What did I prep this week? Well not exactly supplies, but a place to store them as I'm running out of room. I'm cleaning out "stuff" from a built-in floor-to-ceiling cupboard, in my bedroom, with strong shelves that I am turning into a spot for canned goods and even bulky supplies.

This week? Food, what else...lots of canned goods and such. You can never have too much. Specifically, one of my favorites, was about 2 lbs of cheese sauce mix from bulk barn. The kind that comes with mac n cheese. I'll never buy KD again!

Prepping for a move now!
So the goal is to eat to the bottom of the freezer before July 1.
I have packed up and labeled 2 of my prep closets this week and have gone through to see exactly what I still need!
I still need lots once I move but, I gotta get up there first!

I did buy was 2 emergency/camping lights that are crank powered. They have 8 light functions, am/fm radio, emergency strobe in red plus you can plug in an mp3 player to it and you can plug it into a car lighter. Not bad for $15 each. They look like coleman lanterns.

I did buy was 2 emergency/camping lights that are crank powered. They have 8 light functions, am/fm radio, emergency strobe in red plus you can plug in an mp3 player to it and you can plug it into a car lighter. Not bad for $15 each. They look like coleman lanterns.

Good job...you must have listened to some of my old podcasts...I LOVE CRANK POWER!!!

This week. I canned carrots and turnips and onions. I dehydrated onions. I cooked 4 cups of kidney beans and then I dehydrated them. They are now 'instant beans'.

Hubby and I promised ourselves that we wouldn't scrounge through the pile of "heavy garbage" that are sitting out for municipality pick up. We usually do, but we are overwhelmed with things that have to be done.

BUT we found 150 feet of chain link fencing and couldn't resist. I consider it prepping because our fence needs to be replaced. Without it, too many people come too close to the house and I want the dogs free to run the length of the yard - good incentive to keep out.

Hey all, after a month on the forums, I just found this particular thread... glad to see I'm not the only one buying so much pasta, canned sauce and peanut butter when it's on sale.

This last week, went to the Calgary Horticultural show and didn't buy much but learned a bunch about permaculture and got some leads on developing a rain water system for our new house (June 1st possession date) and the gardens we want to develop.

Ran the generator for a while to be sure the winter wasn't too hard on it. Reliable Honda won't let me down it seems.

Picked up a Fusion Stove/fuel and 2 machetes for the BoB's .

I like this thread as it encourages ppl to think each week about their budgets and current status.

A lot of loss leader sales on this weekend. Garlic was on sale 9 cents a clove so I got 60 cloves, about half has been dehydrated so far. The rest, too much to mention. Four trips to the car to get it all in.

Today I got cup of soups. On sale for $1 a box. I like them because even with cold water they are edible... just crunchier.
Mac and cheese sauce mix, beef gravy base, split peas (yellow and green) and a bag of loose tea. I vac packed this stuff into 1/2-1 cup portions and they are now tucked away in my stock.

I did buy was 2 emergency/camping lights that are crank powered. They have 8 light functions, am/fm radio, emergency strobe in red plus you can plug in an mp3 player to it and you can plug it into a car lighter. Not bad for $15 each. They look like coleman lanterns.

Good job...you must have listened to some of my old podcasts...I LOVE CRANK POWER!!!

These are handy little things to have around that is for sure!
My youngest and electricity love to hate each other and tonight he blew another outlet out. I reached over and grabbed my light, cranked it and down stairs I went to turn off the power, back up to fix the outlet and then back down to turn the power back on and replace the fuse. It worked great! Back in the JIC box it went!