I have been wanting a bike rack for some time now--the type that you see in playgrounds and parks. Right now we have 4 bikes scattered in the yard, and in a few weeks all "the cousins" will decend on our farm along with another family that has 5 kids (they are broke, so spending there vacation camping here so they can avoid hotel and eating out costs--we are near several FREE attractions and 2 state parks that are only $5 a day per car). All those will decend with their bikes also, so I have the potention of having 17 bikes in my yard...17 chances of running over one....

So, anyway I have been pricing them and they are big bucks. Then DING, the bell went off in my head with a great idea! I have a ton of landscape timbers which were given to me free from craigslist for a 4H project. (We needed 32 and the guy gave me 54 as he was going to burn them. Everyone in 4H took a few to use in their horse arena and we still have some left). Anyway, back to my idea, I am going to stand 2 of them up on end and bury in quickcrete. Then between them, I will put 2 to 3 lengths of black rod iron porch railing. I will have to saw out every 6th bar. I already have the quickcrete, so for $40 I will have a bike rack. It will be similar to the one I saw in a school supply book for $320.

So, that will be one of my projects for today. As soon as dd3 finishes feeding/watering animals we are off to Lowes as I have a $20 gift card from there from mypoints to apply to the project.

dd4 and dd5 are at church camp with several of their cousins. It is the same camp DH and I went to as kids.

What other frugal things have I done since I last blogged over a month ago????

Bought 4 grapes that were marked down to $6.99 a pot--normally I pay around $14 per plant. I also redid my orchard using more of the free timbers--I used the ones that were too short or too long for the 4H project.

I also found some rubber mulch, which means I won't have to keep replacing my mulched areas every year. It is from recycled tires and was on sale for only $1 a bag more than they wood mulch which seems to only last a year for me.

I also have been sewing--so far made 3 summer dresses for the girls, and have started in on a bunch of shorts and found fabric I forgot about (red wool) that was going to be a blanket years ago--now its enough to make 3 little girls winter coats. I will have to buy fabric for the lining though (unless I use some old satin curtins for that they are pink so it would be an ok color for it).

I have been couponing like crazy--Price Chopper last week had ragu for 99 cents a bottle and I had a bunch of 75 cent off coupons, so we stocked up--that made it cheaper than Aldi's sauce. Have also gotten free toothpaste, deoderant, soap and dishsoap from using coupons and CVS/Walgreen promotions.

My babysitting which was going to be 18 hours a week has been closer to 30 lately--but on the long 12-14 hour days I have them at my house which works wonderfully. The kids (city kids) can run, play on the farm and see the animals, and I can still be with my family and get my girls to and from their night activities--VBS, 4H and girl scouts. It has doubled my pay, so thats ok too!

Meanwhile we have at least 1/3 of our hay needed for this winter (free). We have cut our firt cutting here at the house. a friend cuts and bales it for us here and at our other farm. He takes half for the work and we get half for providing it. We should get 1 more cutting here, and then 2 at the farm. By summers end we will have all our winter hay supply at no cost to us. Plus, here at the house it is less mowing for me to do, and less $$ spent for mowing fuel.