{"id":1814,"date":"2013-04-08T08:38:58","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T15:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/?page_id=1814"},"modified":"2020-03-28T11:15:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T18:15:19","slug":"gardening-in-nampa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/gardening-in-nampa\/","title":{"rendered":"Halfway Homesteading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t need to reinvent the wheel. Some people feel they do. I&#8217;m content to focus on the parts of homesteading that are interesting to me. Will I die in a zombie apocalypse or an economic explosion? Probably.<\/p>\n<p>But, it will be fun growing my own food and brewing my own beer.<\/p>\n<h3>Lawn Care<\/h3>\n<p>Before we discuss lawn care, you need to know two things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I hate over-paying for lawn care services.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t want to mess with my lawn that much.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Gettin&#8217; Choppy<\/h4>\n<p>With that out of the way, let&#8217;s discuss a key factor: mowing.<\/p>\n<p>First, get a lawn mower. If you&#8217;ve got more than 1\/3 of an acre, lucky you! You git to riiide while you mow, baby! Check your favorite used marketplaces for a riding mower (or an even better term: lawn tractor)! Paying less than $200 is a great deal on a running mower.<\/p>\n<p>For us regular mortals, we need a normal walk-behind mower. Are you bummed about pushing a metal engine around the yard? Well, check out self-propelled lawn mowers. You would be surprised how often people let these suckers go for less than $100. I scored a self-propelled Craftsman mower for $75 one day.<\/p>\n<p>If you are cheap like me, and are willing to actually push your mower like a chump, look for free mowers on used marketplaces or in your neighborhood. I scored one from my neighbor with a broken ignition handle (the bar you need to hold to keep it running). Simple fix- a bit of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B001EX1C2W\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B001EX1C2W&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=fbcdce2debdb14f80b15ec173aea6974\">11-gauge wire<\/a> wrapped around the ignition switch, and that puppy was rip-roaring ready to go!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Putt putt putt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Does your crappy\/free\/near-to-death lawn mower struggle to rumble? Think about getting some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00869JG02\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00869JG02&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=4b470b8e3de0d3018a84c48d94811a38\">carb cleaner<\/a> or possibly a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0012VY0Z2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B0012VY0Z2&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=f02fba8863751ed6fb71e0d226075dcb\">new fuel line<\/a> (need enuf for multiple machines? Get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01MTMXM2O\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B01MTMXM2O&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=aacda49db9d31aea7439c196f09f133a\">extra-long fuel line<\/a>). Seriously, every youtube mechanics video I watch that discusses problems with lawn mowers running almost always comes back to three things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Are you using old bad fuel? Or, did you put bad fuel in it? Flush the fuel, get new better fuel.<\/li>\n<li>Are the fuel lines cracked (letting air in), blocked or leaking? Get a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0012VY0Z2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B0012VY0Z2&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=f02fba8863751ed6fb71e0d226075dcb\">new fuel line<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Is your carb gummed up? Spray a bunch of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00869JG02\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00869JG02&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newdeals0ab-20&#038;linkId=4b470b8e3de0d3018a84c48d94811a38\">carb cleaner<\/a> in it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Seriously, I&#8217;ll bet those three steps solve a million problems. Step 4 is a doozy- take apart the carb. No thanks, youtube mechanics!<\/p>\n<h3>Gardening<\/h3>\n<p><em>(Mulch that, drip that, make it grow with stremfth!)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I think I like gardens because of three things:<\/p>\n<ul>Watching anything grow is awesome (except, maybe, cancer)<br \/>\nIt is cheap, self-creating art<br \/>\nThey are useful because they make healthy food.<\/ul>\n<p>Anyone who is interested in gardening blogs should always start with two blogs:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardensofthewildwildwest.com\">Gardens of the Wild West<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"gardeningboise.com\/\">Gardening in Boise<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t need to reinvent the wheel. Some people feel they do. I&#8217;m content to focus on the parts of homesteading that are interesting to me. Will I die in a zombie apocalypse or an economic explosion? Probably. But, it will be fun growing my own food and brewing my own beer. Lawn Care Before &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/gardening-in-nampa\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Halfway Homesteading&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1814","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Halfway Homesteading - LearningMore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/gardening-in-nampa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halfway Homesteading - LearningMore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#8217;t need to reinvent the wheel. Some people feel they do. I&#8217;m content to focus on the parts of homesteading that are interesting to me. Will I die in a zombie apocalypse or an economic explosion? Probably. But, it will be fun growing my own food and brewing my own beer. 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Some people feel they do. I&#8217;m content to focus on the parts of homesteading that are interesting to me. Will I die in a zombie apocalypse or an economic explosion? Probably. But, it will be fun growing my own food and brewing my own beer. 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