Category: Outdoor

Puppy love!

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Its been a while since we had a dog. Out last dog was a miniature Dachsund (Polly) which we believe was a sweet natured person In a dogs body. We had her before kids so as our threedaughters came along, they had Polly as part of their family from day one. 

It’s been about 4 years since we lost Polly (after 18 years as a part of our family). This past weekend we got a new rescue puppy from the Morgan County Humane Society in Madison, Ga. 

She is a 3 month old mixed breed. Part Dachsund and part ?? (Corgi or basset or Fiest). After a long debate about names, we settled on Daisy. 

Every rescue pet has a story and there are so many varieties out there. Big to small, mixed breeds to pure breads. Support your local Humane society or shelter and if it’s right for your family, rescue a dog.  

    
 

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DIY air Conditioner for under $10

Posted on Posted in DIY, Outdoor3 Comments

There are lots of post on this simple DIY ac unit. I plan on taking this on my next camping trip to provide a little comfort at night. Aside from the 57 degree air it blows out, it provides a nice level of white noise from the fan. 

All you need are a few supplies. (You can get all of the for under 10 dollars. 

  
-Foam cooler (plastic igloo type cooler would work as well). 

-1″ pvc connector 

– clip on 6″ fan 

 
Fortunately the fan is not assembled so you diagard everything but the main fan unit. 

  
I did use the front shroud as my template for the fan cutout in the top. 

   
 
Repeat the same thing on the side with the 1″ connector. 

   
 
Use a razor knife or some other sharp object to cut out your circles. 

  
With a little hot glue to secure, Insert the fan in the top hole and the connector in the side. You will end up with this.  

   
Load the cooler with ice or frozen bottles (bottles don’t distribute as much moisture), turn in the fan and you’ll get a nice steady stream of cold air. My test was over night and the bottles shown were still cold with a few of the bigger bottles still partially frozen. I’m thinking 4 two liter bottles would definitely provide cold air for 6-8 hours easily.  

 
Here is my digital temp gauge measuring the output temp. 

  

Silly boys, Marshmallow Shooters are for girls! (& dads)

Posted on Posted in DIY, Faith, Family, balance, OutdoorLeave a comment

So my middle daughter of the threedaughterdad crew and I spent some time creating some diy stuff over the weekend. I made a 1/2 blowgun recently (perfect size for mini marshmallows) and she wanted her own. So after a quick trip to the hardware store and about 5 dollars in pvc we had what we needed to get started.  

Supply list:

-2′ piece if 1/2″ pvc

-T connector

-End cap

 
Next, cut 4″ off the 2′ section

  
Then cut the remaining 20″ piece in half. 

  
Lay all the pieces out. 

  
Put together with a gentle tap. We used a rubber mallet. 

  

After all the pieces are assembled, you end up with this

  
She used some duct tape from some of her previous crafts (nothing like pink and camo color scheme) and wrapped it up to look like this…

   Here is a video of the marshmallow shooter in action (with slow motion for maximum effect).  

 Nothing like a family marshmallow war to bring out the kid in all of us. 

Raised bed gardening.

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Trying to keep your kids engaged in something other than media is always a challenge. I am always looking for ideas to do that will allow my three daughters to learn and get their hands dirty. We’ve had gardens in the past but this year we decided to try something different. Build a raised bed garden and grown some food for our family. Oddly enough we found a plant-a-gram on William Sonoma. 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/agrarian-garden/agrarian-garden-plant-a-gram/
 

They show gardens built in a 4’x4′ pattern with each section being divided into 12″x12″. It show how many of each item you can plant in a 12″ section. We used 2×8 lumber to build the frame and placed a nail every 12″ on all sides to mark the squares. Then we tied paracord to mark off the 12″ squares.  See the pic below along with one of my threedaughterdad helpers. 

   

We built and planted on April 4th. I filled one of the boxes with regular Miracle Grow garden soil and some peatmoss to help retain water. The second was filled with Miracle Grow Organic soil and peatmoss. I can say the organic soul was much better. Here we are May 18th and we have quite the crop growing.

  
 I am including my plant-a-gram below so you can see what we planted.