End of the Road Ranch

So I finally did it - I got everything together and made 2 batches of soap! I was really quite easy, but I guess I should wait until I see the results before Ii feel too good about it.

I used the technique and recipe from Crystal Miller at www.thefamilyhomestead.com, with a little of my own twist to it. Here is how I did it.

I measured out the oils and put them on low in the crock-pot to melt. I then put the water in a stainless Steel mixing bowl and slowly added the lye, stirring until the mixture was no longer cloudy. I then waited for the oil and the lye to both get to about 100° F. I added the oils to the lye while mixing by hand and then switched to the immersion blender. I added the FO at a light trace and poured into my molds at trace. Right now they are setting in a Styrofoam cooler with a blanket over the top. I checked them a while ago and they seem to be pretty hard.

I made a batch of Pumpkin Spice and a batch of Apple Jack. Tomorrow I plan to try another recipe for 5 lbs of Oatmeal Milk and Honey soap. I plan to give these as Christmas gifts.

On another note I have had several successes and one failure in my wood cook stove. I just made my first batch of yeast bread and it came out GREAT!!! I have made a few pies and several batches of cornbread so far. I totally destroyed an apple pie - the top was black and the bottom was raw - the middle wasn’t too bad . The trick seems to be keeping the temperature even while cooking - you can't just add a bunch of wood, you have to try to keep it going steadily.

The crew should finish the siding on the big house this week. We painted the interior over Thanksgiving weekend with the help of family. The hearth is going in next week and Dh will start milling the wood for the flooring and the t&g ceiling next week. We are moving right along!

Baby Connor is getting bigger and bigger. He is giggling a couple of time a day now and has started watching us as we move around the cabin. He is our most smiley and social child so far. He will smile at anyone who pays attention to him - but Mama is his favorite person in the whole world (it is so good to be a mother!).

I went shopping in town yesterday and got everyone's red shirts for Christmas photos. I think I'll take them this Sunday, as it is the only day of the week Dh will not be working during daylight hours.

I love family gatherings and I am getting excited that all of my siblings and 2 significant others will be here for Christmas!!! Yeah for family!

Thanksgiving

We were going to try to host it in the claim shanty - but who wants to sit on a plywood floor after being stuffed with stuffing? So my parents let us host it at their house. Here's who came: Josh's mom and her boyfriend, Josh's Dad and his mom, my mom and dad and the 5 of us. Our friends and their 4 girls and 1 nephew came down for dessert later in the evening. We had a great time.

Josh cooked the turkey again, basting it with butter and white wine over cheesecloth and it was delicious! I made some pies, and the sweet potatoes and orchestrated the rest of the potluck.

I started a tradition last year that we repeated this year. I got a white linen table cloth and some fabric marking pencils. Each person wrote what they were thankful for and their name and the year. During the year I embroidered it into the table cloth using red thread. This year we each wrote something else. We outlined the little kid's hands. I think I'll use orange to embroider this year’s inscriptions. The idea is that you will have a memory and guest book at the table with you each year. Hopefully it will be a real family heirloom several years from now.

New baby, new dog and a roof

I'm back, I think. Life got a little hectic with the birth of our 3rd child on August 21st, but I think we are settling down again (I'll write another time with the details of his birth). As we left to go to the birth center to have Connor, DH suggested that we stay at his mom and her boyfriends place for a few days to recover in a clean and more comfortable place where we could have help with the older kids. I really enjoyed that stay. This birth was harder on me than the previous two, and I was really sore for a few days (mostly in my hip and abs). I laid on the couch with the newborn for almost two days straight - I never thought that would be possible with two toddlers.

We finally got back to our little cabin and enjoyed the two weeks of dinners our church family provides for families with new babies. DH and a good friend of his were working very hard on our big house and got the roof papered when the first round of wind started. The first time the Santa Ana winds hit it blew off about half of the roofing paper. My tired DH worked all evening in the very cold wind repairing the paper before more damage could be done. That started the rounds of sickness.

We spent 2 weeks with colds and the stomach flu at the same time. Wanting somewhere more comfortable and clean we moved back out of the cabin for the first of 3 1/2 weeks of moving between my parents’ house (about 20 minutes away) and Josh's mom's place. Every time we moved back into the cabin something else would happen. Somewhere in the middle of all of this I bought 2 bushels of apple seconds and spend a day and a half canning 32 quarts of apple pie filling! The second round of winds sent us back to Mom and Dad's as Josh stayed in the cabin praying the whole place wouldn't blow away (this time only 1/3 of the roofing paper blew away). Josh estimated that we had sustained winds of around 80 mph at our property. That was when all the fires started, so the next few days there was so much smoke in the air that I wouldn't let my still sniffly kids outside - so we stayed at my parents, until the smoke cleared at the beach and we went to visit my MIL again. We are now on our 3rd straight night in our own beds and our little cabin.

The big house is coming along nicely. The drywallers are mudding the interior and the exposed beam work is all stained. The rest of the roof came early this week and DH and friends will be roofing all day tomorrow and Saturday. The painter wants to start staining the porch beams, t and g ceiling and decking on Monday. We are planning to have an interior painting party the day after Thanksgiving. Josh has finished milling all of the wood for the exterior siding and will start putting that up soon after the roofing is done.

As if this isn't enough, we got our new black tri Australian Shepherd puppy right in the middle of all of this. She was born the day after Connor and we got her when they were 7 weeks old. We named her Belle and she certainly is a beauty. She has been going to work with Josh everyday and is doing very well adjusting to life with us.

Well life around here in a one room cabin with 3 kids under 3, a puppy, 4 kittens, 22 guineas, 2 turkeys and 18 chickens and several men working on the house each day keeps us on our toes - theres not much chance to get bored.

Remember that God can help you handle whatever he has given you! Smile and let Him do the work!

The Family Grain Mill

In response to quiltercmr "Which grain mill do you have? I am planning to buy one that is electric or hand crank and am looking at the Family Grain Mill." and anyone else interested.

I have a Family Grain Mill and it works well for light use, but it does have some limitations. I decided to buy it based on a few factors, the biggest being that it had the interchangeable hand crank/ electric options. I like to be prepared for anything/everything but know that hand grinding is not realistic for me if it is not necessary (my son isn't old enough to be the motor!

). I liked the large grain cup and the fact that I could get the oatmeal roller attachment.

It works great with both soft and hard wheat, although if I want a very fine flour I will have to send it through several times. I have only rolled oats a few times since I still had a stock of store bought, but it seems to work fine. Oatmeal must have more oil in it than wheat because when I grind it into flour it seems to get a little sticky, but I just run a little hard wheat through the machine when I am done to clean it and it seems to work fine. I haven’t tried any beans or rice.

The one grain that I was disappointed with is the corn. It is very hard on the machine to grind it, so I really limit how much I use it. I will sometimes find small pieces of plastic from the grinder in the ground corn, and it loosens all of the parts as it grinds. I have adopted a 3 part grinding method to get fine corn meal, starting by running the corn through on the coarsest setting and then regrinding it on finer settings. This seems to work well for the corn and the machine, but I still limit using it.

I love using the flour for the obvious items like bread, but also for hot cereals in the morning and especially pancakes! I use the following recipes the most.

Bring 1 part liquid to a boil in a pot. Meanwhile, mix together eggs, grain and other part liquid. Since salt keeps some whole grains from absorbing liquid properly, save the salt until the end). Slowly add grain mixture to the boiling water, stirring constantly until it comes back to a boil. Add salt. Remove from heat and cover, let sit until it reaches desired consistency.

I like adding the eggs to get a little protein into the cereal, but have found that you can't add too many without the whole thing becoming excessively eggy in consistency.

Mix all ingredients together adding enough milk to reach desired consistency. Let sit until baking powder activates and begins to raise the batter (about 5 minutes, usually by the time the griddle is hot). Grease griddle with lard and cook as normal. Serve with a small amount of Pure Maple Syrup and fresh or canned fruit as topping.

I would highly recommend getting Crystal Millers bread making lesson on CD for anyone new to baking whole grain bread - her recipe is delicious and is the only one I use now. Her website is www.thefamilyhomestead.com and her blog is here under quiverfull.

What is a luxury?

I know I am a little slow in adding more posts, but things keep moving around here.

I had an interesting experience this last week; sometimes you don't know you are missing anything until you have it. DH was gone fishing in Mexico with his dad for about 5 days, so I put a few extra things on the calendar to keep the kids and I busy. One of those things was making dinner at a friend’s house and then watching a movie (a favorite of mine - 7 Brides for 7 Brothers). Here at the Claim Shanty we have 2 rocking chairs with seat cushions on the porch, an office chair with a seat cushion and benches at both the outdoor picnic table and the indoor table. If you really want to get comfy, you go to bed , or maybe pull a bench up in front of a rocking chair to act as a footstool, but those are really your only options. But my girlfriend is a normal, house living person who has - drum roll, please - couches!!!!!!! Yes, it was VERY comfy to sit, lay and stretch my 36 weeks pregnant body out on her couch, but what struck me was not the comfort of the couch, but how easily I had lived without something that so many of us think is a necessity. We are a spoiled nation. When the big house is done I will put the big down couch right in the living room and thoroughly enjoy sitting on it in front of a fire, but I am glad for a lesson in recognizing the luxuries that we take completely for granted.

Now to answer a few of the questions. My wonderful DH insisted on electrical outlets, so I am not hand grinding my grains, although my mill does have a hand crank option and I have the attachment - just in case of . . . I just bought bread and rolls of all sorts, but have a really hard time paying that amount for "fake" bread that feels more like candy than bread. I would like to try a simple solar oven to try to bake bread in a lighter fashion than the heavy Dutch Oven, at least till I am recovered after the baby. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a few extra computer minutes to research a design that won’t cost anything to try. I'll use the wood cook stove as soon as it cools down enough to actually dream of having a fire inside the cabin.

Everyone tries to get me to take more stuff. Most of it would be convenient, but there really is a very limited amount of space in here. People have offered electric skillets, small air conditioner units and microwaves, to name a few things, and while they are all very well intentioned and the items would make life easier, they don’t fit into the cabin or the lifestyle. I am starting to turn things down on principle, not just for space. I have really learned that the amount of time needed to care for an item of that sort, is often not enough to offset the benefits of using it. Take sippy cups, for example. When we moved up here I said no to sippy cups. I didn’t want to hand wash them in a sink and try to get all of the dirt/sand out of the little grooves. We have had some spills, but the amount of time spent on cleaning up the few (or more) spills is WAY less than the total extra time involved in washing them every day. Even if it is justifiable, every little item you own has to be cleaned, moved, serviced, dusted around, used or just put away. This all takes time and thought and energy. Why not slowly do one basic chore, like hanging out the laundry, or cooking in a pot over the fire rather than rushing to do many things? What I have learned by being out here is that this concept truly works - you actually have more time, even though the chores you have to do take a little longer and involve more work. So as for what you need, I would say, as little as possible.

With all that said, I do have the Kitchen Aid for kneading and the electric grain mill, not to mention the washing machine and the computer (I would really have a lot more time if we got rid of the computer - but alas - running a business and all!). My advice would be to cut WAY back on clothing, cleaning supplies (I have just gone to a Baking soda or vinegar or dish soap cleaning regime), furniture, dishes and anything else you can even imagine living without. You can always go get more back out of storage or from the dollar store, but the chances are you won’t want to. Oh yeah - cut out the toys - they don't need them, and educational is a sales term.

Good luck to all contemplating living this way - it is worth every minute of it- don't pass up the chance if you have it (especially if you have kids).

Campfire Breakfast in Photos

Here is a typical morning around here. It is about 5:45 and dh has just pulled the water kettle off the fire and is pouring coffee inside. I sit and watch deer and pray until the fire dies enough for the skillet. This is the view from the front porch of the claim shanty in my rocking chair.

Yumm! Homemade, homeground, whole-wheat pancakes and home canned apricot preserves to top! Not a bad life!

Claim Shanty Life is DIRTY!!!

I love it! We are about a month into life here at the claim shanty and the cabin still does not feel too small, although aspects of it seem tight. I am now 34 weeks pregnant and am getting big and uncomfortable so the low ceiling upstairs in the loft is becoming annoying, especially since we are sleeping on the floor. I find that standing up and trying not to hit my head at the same time is increasingly difficult, especially during the night.

Life here is dirty. The kids are always dirty, the clean clothes are dirty, I am dirty and the cabin is dirty. The kids are getting nightly baths and Saturday night baths constitute a major scrubbing, trying to get the ground in dirt and sap and ??? off before church in the morning. They don’t seem to mind the dirt, and I can probably tolerate more than the average woman, but it starts to get to me (probably just nesting). There is still no grass, as we are having a well issue and don’t have much extra water. We will start drilling our well deeper in about 2 weeks and hope to tap into a better water source. After we have water, we can start thinking about a very small lawn right in front of (and maybe behind) the cabin, which will help keep everything cleaner and cooler.

Some regular tasks are too hard for me right now. I just bought bread for the first time in a long time, because lifting the big camp Dutch oven in and out of the pit is just too heavy and hurts my back. So no home baked bread until the baby is here and we are resettled. Oddly enough scrubbing the sink is a little difficult too. It is a deep utility sink and with my tummy as big as it is it is very difficult to reach to the bottom of it, much less scrub it; dh helps a lot when he can.

I am still cooking on the open fire or in a crock-pot, as there is no other source of heat. I am also cooking for more men, as there is always someone here helping dh with the big house. I have had a few burnt (really, burned up completely) meals but the biggest challenge has been learning the timing of cooking on a fire. I tend to either let the fire die too much or it is too hot to cook on. The manzanita wood we are cooking is really smoky, which is hard for things that need to be stirred, like breakfast cereals or turned, like pancakes.

The big house is coming along quickly right now. The guys have the foundation poured and have started framing – the floor joists are all in and I hear that there will be some walls standing by the end of next week! It is still a big push to get it done by the end of next April and every bit of help is greatly appreciated.

Oh, the baby guineas came Thursday! They are so tiny – I am used to chicken chicks and the keets are around half of the size. Very cute!

We've moved into the Claim Shanty!!

Some of our, or rather, my original ideas and plans changed as we were in the process of building, many of which were just a result of better understanding dh’s plans. Here are the basics of life around here: The cabin is 16’x16’ with a loft that is about 16’x11’. There is a small bathroom with a small shower and a toilet; it even has a pocket door on it thanks to a friend who saw one at a yard sale and thought of us. We have a few electric outlets around the cabin, 2 at the countertop on the kitchen side of the cabin and one on the office/desk side. We are still running a business out of the house so we fit the desk and 1 file cabinet on the short wall of the cabin (between the bathroom and the loft stairs). There is a built in dining table with a bench at one side. I’ll get 1 or 2 small chairs for the other side when the weather cools down, but right now we sit outside almost all of the time. There are stairs going to the loft (DH didn’t think that a ladder was a good idea with me 7 months pregnant and with the 2 toddlers); they are small and steep but so but better than a ladder. The bedding and all of the clothing are in the loft. We put memory foam over a down mattress for our bed and it is very comfortable.

There are 6’ covered porches on both the front and the back of the cabin which really add to the living space, at least in the warm weather. The front porch really is the living/dining room right now. The 2 rocking chairs and the picnic table are our current couch and dining table. The back porch is like my work space. There is a small Lady Kenmore washing machine which I found at the local thrift store for $10 (it can only handle about 2 pair of jeans at a time and you have to switch the hose from one faucet to the other for different water temps.), a refrigerator/ freezer combo, and an upright freezer all on the back porch. My clothes line is just off the porch and we have moved the stainless steel countertop and the propane burner to this backyard area to form a little summer canning kitchen.

It is very cute and so far I haven’t felt like it is cramped or too small at all, but when I am trapped inside with 2 toddlers and newborn this winter I may feel differently. DH had the foresight to set us into a small clump of trees which gives a lot of protection from the sun (the back porch area is shaded all day!). He milled all of the wood for the interior and exterior siding out of local logs! He calls it “ a rich mans claim shanty”.

Right now I have been doing all the cooking/ baking in either a crockpot or on the campfire. We have just secured a wood burning cookstove for wintertime, but it is too hot to use it right now. I have never hung out laundry before, and so far I am enjoying I immensely. I find that even though basic tasks take longer, I have more time to relax since there is so much less to care for. Life has a very different pace, and I am enjoying it!

A Day in the Life of . . . us!

I recently went traveling without my children for the first time, I have never even been away from them for a whole night. I flew across the country to my sisters wedding and college graduation (yes, all in a 24 hour period!) taking two red eye flights and staying only one full night to minimize the time away.

My wonderful MIL stayed with my dh and dks, stepping in for me. She came to my home a full day before I left so that I could show her how our day ideally runs. I wrote out this schedule for her and for the journal. She did an awesome job, the kids had a great time, and they weren't even spoiled when I got back.

6:45 – 7:00 Kids wake up, change diapers, get them dressed, tidy their bedroom

7:15 Kids eat breakfast and have water, Mama brushes their hair, and reads them the daily Proverbs with a cup of coffee in hand, write out To Do List

7:45 Clean kitchen – kids help unload dishwasher and sweep if necessary, finish kitchen, prep lunch and dinner if necessary (Mama-if you don’t know what you’re having by now you're planning to fail!)

8:30 Switch laundry and start daily chore – if nice out kids can play out on the deck or lawn as long as they are in sight and play nicely

9:30 Diaper change – if it hasn’t been necessary already and snack (something with protein preferably)

10:00 Back to chore/To Do List. Involve kids as much as possible, don’t forget to take a few breaks and sit outside with kids or play/read with kids. Sing while you work and always keep a happy attitude, explaining everything you are doing to them.

12:00 Papa home and we all eat lunch together! Tristan puts plates in sink. Cup of milk for the kids, wash up, Papa back to work, change diapers and into nap clothing and go to sleep for nap time.

12:45 Once kids are down Mama to business/office work. Once done Mama gets break time.

2:45 Back to chore/To Do List. Involve kids as much as possible, don’t forget to take a few breaks and sit outside with kids or play/read with kids. Sing while you work and always keep a happy attitude, explaining everything you are doing to them.

4:00 Tea time (hopefully with Papa if he is around) take break and kids have snack (sometimes mint tea)

5:00 Clean up/ animal chores/dinner prep (Tristan usually helps Papa when Papa is around at this time)

6:00 Dinner. Tristan puts plates in sink. Cup of milk for the kids, wash up, change diapers and into P.J.s, read 1-2 chapters of book and then to bed.

7:00 Mama finish up kitchen, sweep, and finish all other chores. Meat out to defrost for tomorrow, try to be entirely done by 8:00pm.

9:00 Bed – Ahhhhh! Don’t forget to pray to wake up praising the Lord first thing in the morning – it really works!

A chore a day

I switched to doing my chores according to the day of the week about a year ago. I love it.! All I need to do that day to be successful is my one chore, make meals and tidy (okay . . . and change diapers, wipe faces, train children, feed poultry, etc.). I usually have much more on the list than my one thing, but I know that the house will run pretty smoothly if I do my one chore.

I was really inspired by Kim's website www.largefamilylogistics.net to get the house in order. If you haven't visited her yet I highly recommend it no matter what your family size is.

New Garden Design

I finally finished the new homestead garden design! I'm too late to start a lot of the plants this year, so this is more like a work in progress. I won't even have a fence around it to begin with - so we'll see what kind of success we actually have. The space on the homestead allotted for the garden is bigger than our current needs, so you'll see all of the empty space. With a quickly growing family it seems silly not to plan for the ultimate need. I love preping to garden!

Paperless and non-disposable

I have wanted to join in on the paperless conversation I have seen floating around. We have been on a slow journey away from disposable items for a few years. I try to measure my success by reducing the amount of trash we throw away - I figure that the less we throw away the less we have bought and the less we are wasting - I don't really think I have made a dent in the trash yet, but here is what we have done:

Switched to cloth napkins - I found quite a few at local yard sales and have made a few from fabric remnants.

Switched to cloth diapers and wipes (most of the time) - I still can't quite get myself to use them on Town/Outing days, at Church or at night, so it is a slow process, but with 2 in diapers, the $$ savings really does add up quickly.

Reduced the amount of paper towels used - but there are still those really gross jobs!

Take the paper towels out of the kitchen and hide them for special use only, have a stack of rags/cloth towels handy for everybody to use.

Practice Infant Potty Training with baby #3 (a whole different topic of discussion)

Switch to dish rags instead of sponges (I just have to remember o use a new one everyday or the smell is unbearable (not to mention unsanitary)

I am very lucky to have full spousal approval and help in this area; in fact he gently reminds me when I have reverted slightly. It is always helpful to have support!

Claim Shanty Update

Modest Clothing and Maternity Patterns

Here in Southern California - yes even in the rural mountain communities - there is a serious problem with the way people dress (even at church). I guess it took me a while to realize this (in other words, I was the same too) because only in the last year or two have I been refining my wardrobe into modest, feminine clothing. The difficulty is that there is a lack of modest, feminine items in the maternity stores and the pattern books, and what I can find online is often so modest and unappealing that I know that either my husband wouldn't care for it - and he is a HUGE supporter for modest dress - or it would draw attention to me because of its extremity in the other direction - not very modest, but in a different way.

So, my answer so far is broomstick skirts. I can make the waist as large or as small as I want - I usually make it very large and then add tucks to make it fit when I am not pregnant and let them out as I need the extra space. They are very comfortable and feminine and take about 2 hours to make. They are easy to pair with a t-shirt or a nice blouse - depending on the day and my husband likes them a lot!

But I am on the lookout for a second style - I was thinking one of the split riding skirts that buttons in the front to make a solid panel - It would be nice to be able to ride in what I am already wearing. I have found several patterns - what I need to know is how to adjust a pattern into a maternity waisted pattern - or better yet - something that can work for both times and the in between.

My basic requirements are being ankle length for heavy winter skirts and just an inch or two above that for summer, wear with sandals skirts. I don’t want any skin showing between there and my collar bone. Neither should any piece be too form fitting - I don’t mind a fitted t-shirt as long as the attention is to my face and no where else. Oh yeah! - No logos across the breasts or the rear (really I won’t ware them at all but those locations are major pet peeves, especially on young girls).

In my search for free information I have located a book in the library about making maternity patterns - but the next time I make it to the library will be in several weeks - and I need a few new skirts now - before we move to the claim shanty (see previous post).

Oh well - a few broomstick skirts won’t hurt and I will have some projects for hand sewing from the shanty this winter.

Moving to the claim shanty . . . HELP!

We have decided to move to our piece of property while dh builds our new house. I am so excited! He is going to build us a small rough "claim shanty" (We all been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books). It will be 16x16 or smaller, but will be insulated, have a wood cook stove, a bed high enough off the ground to fit to small trundle beds ( ok - probably some form of wooden crates) for the two kids, and ??? for the baby boy due in Sept. There is a well on the property as well as electricity, and dh says we will run one outlet to the house for the crock-pot and my kitchen aid for kneading bread (I guess I’m a little spoiled!), but I don’t expect running water, except maybe a hose just outside. This is likely to last about a year. Hmmm . . . life in a one room cabin with 2 small kids and a baby - Sounds like a challenge.

DH will be spending all of his free time trying to get the big house built before the loan deadline (10- 12mo. we aren’t sure yet) and being it is an hour round trip from my parents house (where we are living now) to the property, we realized that we wont we wont see him for a whole year practically - I'm not interested in that - so the option is to go with him. I am up to the challenge.

I am scrambling to try to get ready - I had a beautiful garden planned for my parents’ house and already have the chicks arriving at the end of this month. Now it is time to replan and make lists of what I need to take (really what needs to be left due to the lack of space in our claim shanty). Any suggestions??? I have no idea how to cook on a woodstove!! That’s what the internet and the library are for.

Really though I need to figurer out how to best arrange a small amount of clothing for the kids that will only get washed once a week.

Does anyone out there hand wash cloth diapers? I need some directions. (I can’t even stand the thought - I just about dump the pail into the machine with a 10 foot pole as it is!).

As for the menus - I guess it will be a lot of beans and cornbread - I don’t have a ton of storage - but I will use a freezer and fridge that are already on the property in a shed. Any ideas are welcomed.

Playing catch up . . .

Well dh left this morning to drive to Missouri to pick up our new lumber mill - so I have the house and the kids to myself - I already miss him. The last few days have been busy getting ready for him to be gone for 6 days on top of the usual - but lets see what else did we fit in . . .

Friday I got to tour the house he just completed building for some clients - it is beautiful - very rustic but in an elegant way. We had been invited to go out to dinner with a few friends so we put the kids down early and headed out - my parents were home in case anyone woke up, but they slept soundly.

Saturday - We hit the yard sale jackpot! We got everything from the professional range for the new house to the tower for the water tank to sit on and the spilt railing for the fence. I found oil lamps, pitchers side tables and dressers, in great shape for next to nothing.

Sunday - Church, bruch and then relax while dh started hauling stuff from the sale to the property.

Monday - Make bread, laundry day, clean from the weekend, reorganize closets, etc.

Tuesday - Bought material for Easter skirts and for some materity skirts, helped dh prep for leaving.

Today - Saw dh off at 3 am, tried to go back to sleep, up late, clean, plan garden (will write more later), play in sprinklers with kids, wash all fabric, start cutting Easter dress for 1 yo daughter, transferred garden design to computer and catch up on blogging

Now - to bed late (I cant seem to go to bed on time when dh is gone, too many projects that I want to complete).

A day at the zoo

Yesterday dh and I took the kids to the local zoo. We had one free pass and kids under 3 get in free (ours are 2 and 1 with one on the way) so we got in for a total of $11.50! We had a great time. They let you feed the giraffes if the zookeepers can coax them over, so we stood in line, but they wouldn't come, so it was canceled for the day. We got to feed them several weeks ago when I took the kids to the same place with our local homeschooling group. Here’s a photo of that!

Well Thursdays are town days - so we are going to drive to town and go to the $.99 store, the library, the park and the grocery store. Should take all morning! Have a great day!

The chicks are coming . . .

I just ordered my batch of chicks for this spring. My goal is to have a completely self replacing poultry setup within 2 years. Each year I get some Cornish roasters for our meat birds, a few replacement Black Australorps for laying and pray I can find just a few turkeys at the same time at some local feed store. Last year no one had turkeys - I still don’t know why, but I called ALL the feed stores within a 2 hour radius and no one had them. So this year I broke down and ordered the minimum 15 from McMurrary's Hatchery planning to sell at least 7 (I already have 4 reserved) of the 9 Broad breasted bronze. I also got 6 Narragansett Turkeys which are rare, but known to be quiet and make good mothers. These will be my breeding stock, hopefully, for years to come.

Instead of the large Cornish roasters I'm going to encourage my Black Australorps to set their own and we'll just eat them. They are smaller, but so is the price tag. So this year I am getting the breeding stock up and next year we'll start the brooding.

I'll also be getting guineas either this fall or next spring. I know they are noisy, but our new property is filled with predators and my beloved B. Australorps are so tame I'm afraid they'll all get eaten the first time they range on the new land. We also pulled a small tick off my 2 yo son after being on the property (just crawling around, not bitten) and guineas are known for really reducing the tick, spider and snake population wherever they range. We can always eat them if they are too noisy!

Order now if you haven't yet. McMurray Hatchery has a list of what chicks are left and it is now updated hourly, many breeds are gone.

How to make any fruit cordial

Well, yesterday dh came home and said that the same clients sent another box of lemons and a box of oranges. Oh Boy!!??!! I think that this is a way to test my resolve on the "Waste not, want not" effort. I don’t need anymore dried zest - last weeks lemons made three full spice bottles of it, but who couldn’t use more lemon juice. I think I will use a veggie peeler to remove large chunks of peel (no white pith) and candy both the lemon and the orange peel this way. We will drink the orange juice right away - I'll just juice a little every morning and I'll continue to freeze the lemon juice in 1/3 cup servings in the muffin tins. I really like the idea posted by Jamie yesterday about slicing the lemons very thin and soaking them in sugar overnight and just adding water - sounds delicious, but how do you preserve them for the whole summer?

Last year I dehydrated thin slices of grapefruit and orange to drop into punch bowls and pitchers. I used the grapefruit slices this weekend to decorate some lemonade but found that it made it bitter after it sat for a while (it tasted like grapefruit in the lemonade - duh!). So next time I used the orange slices; it wasn’t as pretty, but it tasted a lot better. If I had my dehydrator I would do the same with the lemons.

Okay - here is the way I make cordial. It ends up as sweet as you like, butt remember it seems to get smoother after it has sat for a few months. I have read that you can make it out of any fruit or fruit combo you like. So far I have done sweet cherries, plum and a combo of the two, and am now trying the lemon. Get creative - think pineapple & coconut, or strawberries & bananas, or be boring like me and make cordial out of anything you are tired of processing any other way.

What to do with a bushel of lemons

Last week, one of Dh's clients gave us a bushel box of lemons just picked off their tree, at a lower elevation. So Saturday I processed lemons.

Not wanting to waste any of it (I am trying to get better at this) I decided to dry all of the zest to keep all year for baking. First I washed all of the lemons with a veggie brush and then dried them thoroughly with a towel (I didn’t want any extra moisture for the drying process). Then I set up my box grater inside a cookie sheet and started to grate away on the smallest set of holes. You have to be very careful to only set the yellow skin and not the white pith underneath, which is bitter and not very lemony at all. This took a lot longer than I expected, and I was tempted a few times to skip right to the juicing, but I hung in there.

I saved about 6 lemons for making decorative peel curls to decorate the tops of scones, breads or fish. I may eventually candy it, but that’s a lot of work for a handful of lemon peel. I used a zester tool, but a vegetable peeler would have worked just fine. I took long strips of peel off the lemon from tip to tip of the fruit. I put these onto a plate to be dehydrated.

I have a large Excalibur dehydrator but it is in storage this year since we are temporarily at my parent’s house while we are building our new home, I'll get it out at harvest time but it isn’t worth it for small jobs like this. I just put the plate and the cookie sheet of zest in the oven with the pilot light on. It only took a few hours until it was nicely dried, but I always leave dehydrated things out for a day or two to let any undetected dampness dry.

After I got the zest drying I decided to make a lemon cordial for sipping after dinner during the summer. We don’t drink a lot, obviously I drink very little, being pregnant or nursing continually, but it is nice to have a few sips of something refreshing now and then. I post these directions later, as I'm running out of time this morning. This took 4 lemons.

Next I juice all of the lemons with my citrus juicing attachment to my Kitchen Aid. I froze the juice in muffin tins (aprox 1/3 cup each) to make using it a little easier. I always want more than an ice cube sized portion, but that would work too. As they froze I dropped the bottom of the muffin tin into hot water for a few seconds, tuned it upside down and put the pieces into a LABLED Ziploc bag and back into the freezer. I got about 3 dozen 1/3 cup servings plus I made lemonade twice while it was still in juice form (before I got to freezing it).

Wow! That all took about 4 hours, but I think it will prove worth it when I can make good lemonade (made with apple juice, not the traditional sugar and water) and have all my own lemon juice for canning the tomatoes this summer.

I am trying to instill the ideas of "Waste not, want not" and "Waste is as a sin" (I don’t believe it really is, but it sure doesn’t show gratitude to either God or our husbands, both of whom are providing for us). I was definitely not raised like this, so I figured I better start working on it now, before the kids get old enough to learn my old ways .

Have a great day out there and don’t forget to be cheerful - the joy of the Lord doesn’t hide somewhere inside, it shows on our face and in our voice.