New Pictures!

Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 10:20

Well I am going to put the pictures on that I said that I would when last I blogged. They are of my canning room after my husband cleaned and painted in there. I am also putting on some pics of the bread and peach pies that I made. If you look close in the pictures of the white shelves you can see that I am labeling what is in the shelf using blue lettering.

This is my where I will put the jams & lellies that I am doing. The green containers are for my 50# of

flour & sugar.

And here are my goodies...

Tomorrow I will get some pics of the garden on here. I have quite a jungle growing out there. I have to go as I am reading a really good book series now and would like to get some reading in before bedtime.

Love in Christ,

Mona

Canning, and other homestead chores

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 12:53

I have not posted in a long time. I have been very busy with getting my canning started. I was very excited to find out that my mother had a peach tree at her new house. She called one day to say that the peaches were ready to pick and so away I went. I picked ALOT of peaches. 4 boxes to be exact! So I was able to get 24 pints, and 7 quarts of peaches canned, 7 quarts of pie filling, and 12 pints frozen. I also made a ton of peach jam, 3 peach pies and peach scones. So I was definely done with peaches after the 3 days it took me to get all of this done, but it was very rewarding. She also had a plum tree in her yard to I picked a basket of plums too. I made plum preserves and some plum sauce. I have also been canning other pie fillings and now have 6 quarts of blackberry and 14 quarts of cherry pie filling. I have some pics that I will be posting after I figure out my new computer and how to resize them to fit.

My DH cleaned all of my canning shelves out in the storage room and painted them all white, including the cement floor. It is very clean in there now and looks great. I will get the pics posted as soon as I can.

My garden is doing great and I have sooo many tomatoes coming on that if they ever get ripe I will have plenty to put up. I wanted to do diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. I knew that this would take a ton of tomatoes so I planted 19 plants that I grew from seed. Most of them are roma tomatoes and I know that these are great to what I want so I am excited to get started.

I am only getting started though I still have a lot of things I want to get put up this year, but things just are taking awhile here to get ripe. I heard about keeping a canning journal where you write down what you canned and the quantities, then around next May or so you take an inventory seeing what you have left. What was used up or things that did not get used, and use this information to know what to do the new year.

Well my sister is calling and I want to gab with her so I will be going.

Mona

Egg-citing!!

Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 11:10

Well I am so happy! I have been collecting eggs for the last week from my own chickens! After the chicken massacre, I went onto Craig's list and found a man selling 6 month old laying hens. I bought 7 of them and brought them home. The very next day I had 3 eggs, and since then I have gotten up to 5 a day. Even though it is not the same as having babies that you have raised from a day old start laying, I am just so amazed at going out and looking in my coop and seeing those eggs every day. My 5 year old thinks it is so fun to go get eggs with mommy.

I also have lots of peas on right now. I was very relieved as I thought may be I planted them to late and it would get to hot before the got ready to harvest, but I think I am okay. I am just waiting for the peas to grow in the pods then I will get them put up. My other garden items are doing well also.

We had our Miner's Jubilee this weekend which is like our county fair. A good time was had by all.

Have a great Lord's day!

Mona

Summer days

Posted on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 08:18

I have been continuing on with my quest to get things in order around here.  My son has been a big help by watering everything outside everyday. It is so nice that he takes an interest in how the outside looks. He also mowed the lawn this weekend, WITHOUT being asked. I am posting some pictures of both porches and the outside as I said that I would. So here goes..

This is my front porch...

This is my back porch..both are nice for sitting in the morning with my cup of tea.

Here are some garden pics.

Blueberries on..this is the first year for these so not many.

This is broccoli, cabbage, onions. Lettuce & radishes are in between the broccoli.

Carrots with peas behind them

Here are some pics of my clematis and my backyard.

And finally my mailbox. This is also a clematis that I have climbing over my arch into my yard

 Thanks for taking my tour. I wanted to let those know who were interested how my butter turned out. I am not really sure about it yet. It was the first time I have made it so I am not sure if the smell while I was making it and the taste are normal or not. I thought is had kind of a "gamey"? taste and smell. I am pretty sure that what cream tastes like is based on what the cows are eating and maybe they are on to much grass or something. I will try it again using different cream from other cows and see how that goes. I also read online that I needed to "proof" my cream by leaving it out on the counter for several hours. I was not to sure about this but I read it in several different places so I did it. Now I am not sure if that had anything to do with it. Anyway I am not giving up and I will try again. The strawberry freezer jam was GREAT! but I am having a hard time keeping the family out of it so we can use up the cooked and processed jam that I did last year. We seem to like the freezer much better. Well I have went on and on and probably should go for the night. Love to all my friends out there.

In loving service to my King,

Mona

Working on my suburban homestead

Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 12:46

I said that I have been busy but what a joy to be able to do this kind of work rather than sit at a desk 9 to 11 hours a day like I used to. I get to enjoy the hot sun and see my new home begin to take shape in the way that I want it to.

Yesterday I weeded my three big flower beds in the backyard. Then I gave everything a good dose of water. I got another section of my carrot bed ready and planted more carrots. I will plant one more section of carrots in another 2 weeks. That will hopefully give me nice garden fresh carrots to eat long into the winter. My potatoes are coming up and will be ready in a few days for me to throw more straw mulch in top. I want those potato towers to grow tall! I also got my back porch cleaned off and the planters all in place so that I can get some flowers today to plant in them. I will be posting some more pics after the weekend.

I also made 3 batches of strawberry freezer jam yesterday and will have another 3 or 4 to do today. I also plan on making my butter for the first time. I will let you all know how that goes. Well I have to go and get ready to celebrate another fine Lord's day. We are having baked ham for dinner after church today so need to get somethings ready.

Love to all,

Mona

Shopping trip and other things

Posted on Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 12:32

Well my sister and I did end up going shopping on Thursday. I tried to blog about it that night and after I had typed it all out in a long blog, I hit some mysterious button and deleted the whole thing! Well I was so disgusted with myself that I just gave up and turned off the computer for the night. Since then I have been very busy making up for lost time of not being home for those 2 days that I have not blogged. So here goes...

We ended up going to La Grande which is only 40 miles away and not very big, but it does have a Wal-Mart and that was enough. We both would have liked to go to Boise, but we got a bit of a late start and with my sister having milking chores to do that night we did not have enough time to make the 4 hour round trip and get our shopping done. My sister has 2 goats and a cow that has to be milked. By the way, many of you friends of mine are also friends of my sister. Her name is Alaina, and she is the blessed and terrific mother of 13 children and her husbands name is Roy. She also has a blog and if you have read it much you will know who she is. Her blogs are always so full of the crazy wonderful chaos of raising 13 kids (10 are still at home). She is hilarious and I keep telling her she needs to write a book. I call her the wise woman, and whenever I need advice on ANYTHING, kids, farming, canning, sewing or marriage, I can aways call her. We had a great time, we ate lunch, laughed and were laughed at. But that is what happens when a mom of 13 that lives 90 miles from the closest Wal-Mart gets to go out with out the kids to shop there. We ended up with 4 carts. You should have seen us fitting it all in the car in the parking lot, but with the well done efficiency of a mother of many she managed to get it all in there with me only taking stunned directions.

The next day I went to visit my mom and dad, and we went shopping and out for ice cream. I bought a new apron that I plan to take apart and make a pattern from. It was a bit expensive but it was so cute and I can make many from it now. On the way home I stopped and got 2 dozen eggs and some cream to make butter from my sister, and her friend Wendy.

So that was my two days away from home, now back to work.

Sad, sad Day!

Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 11:12

It is a sad day at the Olson's residence. Three of my lovley ladies in my backyard flock met a brutal and violent death at the paws of my little Shit Tzu dog, Nuxy. So due to the fact that a weasel got 2 of them early on, the fact that "Mercy" ended up being a rooster (which I cannot have in town and therefore had to go live with a friend) and now my murdering canine killing 3 more today, I have went from a nice sized 10 hen flock to a 4 hen flock. I am very upset about my hens. I guess that does not make me a very good farm woman, since I cried and was not very tough about it.  Well I did raise them from 1 day old, and I handled them every day so that they would always be nice. They were all so beautiful, and I had chosen such a nice mix of breeds and colors. So anyway, my husband felt sorry for me so he picked up pizza and brought home.

I was also a little melancholy because my son has been gone all week since Sunday at Christian summer camp. I am not used to being away from him and miss him something terrible! Tomorrow I might possibly be going to Boise with my sister. My husband thinks that it will be good for me to get out and do something and I agree. I have not went shopping or went anywhere with a friend basically since I moved here on February 1st. I have really not noticed to much and I have been very happy to stay home doing projects and getting moved in. But now I see the value of getting out and I am excited and hope it works out that we can go.

I will blog again soon and tell about my trip if I get to go.

Praising God for his mercies, new every morning,

Mona

Happenings

Posted on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 11:04

In the last couple of days I have went to a few garage sales. I did not get a lot but did get some things that were a real blessing. I found a water bath canner that does 10 quart jars instead of just 7 like the one I have now. So I can do 17 quarts at a time using both. Yippee! And I picked it up for just $7.00. I also got 2 dozen quart jars for $3.00. Considering I have been buying a dozen for $10 new, I thought this was great. I am trying to really stalk up on them and have been buying 2 dozen a week. Lastly I bought McKenna, my 5 year old, a stick horse for $3. She LOVES it. She rode it all over the 2 stores that we went to when we were done. It was very cute. She named it Kiara, after the lioness on the Lion King 2.

We had a beautiful thunder storm today. It was nice as it has been pretty hot here and it helped to cool it down. Not to mention I just like the sound. It also watered all of my garden outside which helps with the water bill.

Good night,

Mona

Menu Talk and other things

Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 10:13

Yesterday I finished getting my pea frames strung and put in with my peas and got the peas mulched with some straw. Those peas have already started to wrap around the strings! I am hoping that our season for gardening did not get started to late and that I will get peas before the sun gets to hot and kills them. All I can do is wait. I also got in my carrots and potatoes. So everything is planted in the garden and mulched in. So now I just love to go out every morning and see what has came up since the day before. I walk around with my hot cup of tea and enjoy what God is brining forth as payment for all my labor. It really does change every 24 hours. I still want to get an herb garden planted and some pots that are empty and need some pretty flowers to look good. But all in good time, and I just work on these extra projects a little each day with my additional work and I really do see progress around here.

Here is this weeks menu:

Mon - Pork Gravy, rice & green beans

Tue - Super Nachos

Wed - Lemon Pepper Chicken Breast Sandwiches & Salad

Thur - Round Steak with Rich Gravy, mashed potatoes & corn

Fri - Fish (Of some kind), noodles & Salad

Sat - Meatloaf, Baked Potato & carrots

Sun - BBQ Chicken, Pasta Salad & homeade rolls

I am kind of tired tonight, I think I will go take a hot bath, with some candles and music. Good Night All!

In service to my King,

Mona

Weekly Menu

Posted on Friday, June 13, 2008 at 12:12

Here is the menu for this week. I am posting it late and will get my next weeks menu posted on Monday when my week starts. I like to read these from other people to get ideas for my own. So I thought I would contribute.

Mon. - Chinese food. (No, this was not on the menu, but stuff happens)

Tues. - Beef Tacos

Wed. - Shredded BBQ Pork Sandwiches & Salad

Thur. - Turkey Chili & Cornbread

Fri. - Chicken Fried Steak & Mashed Potato, Buttered Corn

Sat. - Sweet & Sour Meatballs & Rice

Sun. - Chicken Parmignan w/noodles, green beans

Well it is another beautiful day in a row here so I better go. I want to straighten up the house then get outside and work while the weather is good. I also want to hang out some laundry on the line today.

Love in Christ's service,

Mona

Beautiful gardening weather

Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 05:43

Well I have not posted for awhile, as I have been very busy. I put in my garden (see pics below). My DH made me those wonderful bean A-frames. I think that they will work great! I put down newspaper and straw over all of the aisles for mulch to keep down the weeds and hold in the moisture. I am very excited as everything was grown from seed or sets this year, no transplants from the nursery. I will post more pics when things start getting grown up.

I also planted a shade garden. And two of the plants that I planted in there are:

This beautiful Viola, and

this great Coleus.

 My DH also completed the build on my chicken coop and clothesline. Here are the pics for that:

I have also completed my menu planner for the next month. I will share this weeks menu later as I have already taken up alot of time with this post.

See you all later,

Mona

Hamburger Bun Recipe

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 12:46

I wanted to post my hamburger bun recipe as I had a couple of people ask for it. In response to Bell who wanted to know if I had froze the buns, I have not tried to do that. So far I have not had a very good freezer for freezing bread products. So here it is:

1/2 c. water                                    1 egg

1/2 c. milk                                       1 pkg. yeast (2 1/4 teas)

1/4 c. sugar                                     1/4 c. warm water (110 degrees)

1 teas. salt                                       4 c. flour

4 teas. butter

Mix together milk & water and scald. Get it really hot but don't boil. Add sugar, salt & butter. Stir until everything is melted and dissolved. Add egg, stir. Put the yeast in the warm water in a separate bowl and mix until dissolved. Add to the rest. Stir together. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add the other 2 cups of flour until a dough forms. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for a few strokes. Put in a bowl and let rise until double. Punch down and shape into buns and place on a greased cookie sheet. Let rise again until double. Bake at 425 for 15-20 min.  I made 8 buns with this recipe. Make sure that you flated them down, (about 1 1/2 inches) mine puffed up quite a bit. Even if they look round like a cannon ball, you can still use them and they will taste great! Just flaten more next time.

Enjoy! If you have any further question, just ask.

Mona

Baking Day

Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 11:14

Hello my friends,

Well yesterday was Monday, my baking day. So after my morning swimming aerobics class and clean up routine, I got busy. I asked my DH what he would like and his request was scones. So I ended up making 2 loaves of bread, orange-cranberry scones, cinnamon rolls and hamburger buns. We had hamburgers on the BBQ last night and they were delicious with the homeade buns. By the way, buns are VERY easy to make and I have a great recipe. So we will have leftovers for lunch this afternoon.

Today is my weekly deep cleaning day, so I better go. I also want to finish some laundry that I got behind on. I have been hanging out my clothes on the line, but since it is still not real warm outside I can not get very may loads done in a day and that slows me down.

Love in Christ who gives us all things,

Mona

It's a happy day, and I thank God for the weather!

Posted on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 05:36

Well it is a wonderful sunny day here in my little home town. We have had all kinds of weather this week. Rain, snow, thunder & lightning, heavy frost, but for the last 2 days, beautiful sunny weather. I am so glad. I always seem to get so much done with these nice days. I finally got my sun porch cleaned and the boxes that were in there moved out, and mostly unpacked. I am inserting a pic of it. It is where I have grown my veggie starts so therefore it doubles as a sunny nice place for coffee in the morning and also a greenhouse.  

I also am including some pics of my veggie starts that I have grown from seed:

Waltham Broccoli

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Sugar Baby Watermelon

Tomatoes

This is just a few of each seedling. For instance I have 18 broccoli, 16 tomato, etc. I also have as seedlings growing up bell pepers, cucumber, green cabbage, pumpkin, sunflowers, and many herbs. I also have beans, peas, corn, potatoes, carrots, onions, lettuce, radishes, green onion that I will seed directly into the ground come the end of May. Well I need to go I have do up the dinner dishes. I made homeade noodles today with Chicken. We eat it on mashed potatoes with corn and homeade bread.

Happy Homesteading!

Mona

It's not a diet, it is a healthy eating plan....

Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 11:56

Well I have not posted for awhile. I have been busy with starting my new "healthy eating plan". I am starting to think that is what I am telling myself so I feel happy. I really want to loose weight though so I am trying to cook the same foods but use better ingredients. Anyway, I also started working out at our local YMCA. I was doing it 6 days a week, but that with the planning of my new eating plan was just taking to much away from my household. I was having a hard time balancing the two. So I scaled back to 3 days a week so I can get to the spring stuff that has been waiting all snowy winter for me. So far I think it is a better balance. As far as the food goes though, I am still struggling a bit. So much of my definition of being a "good" wife and mother is wrapped up in providing scrumptious, tasty meals for my family. Including dessert! I am having to revisit that and my family is noticing. So far not to many complaints though, we shall see.

I am anxious for spring to get here as my starts are ready to get into the garden ground. I think I will go ahead and try to plant a small salad garden and see if it will make it. Having just moved here, and the weather being so strange this year, I hope that it will do okay. I am using it as my test.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

Mona

Slow moving day..

Posted on Friday, April 4, 2008 at 06:28

Well it has been a very slow moving day today. We have just kind of relaxed and done not much of anything. I do not do that often so it has been nice. I did make a cheesecake. I also worked on my household budget this morning. I did something called the "Checkbook Challenge" that I read about in my New Harvest Homestead magazine. You take yourcheckbook and for the last 30 days divide up the amounts into different catagories, ie groceries, gas, household, eating out, etc. Add them up and see where you are. I found out some very disappointing things. Here is what I learned.

1. I go to the store WAY to often. To change this I will be planning better and taking one day a week to run errands. I was suprised to see the time I wasted in this area.

2. I am spending way to much at the grocery store. I have not really been staying on a good budget. My fix for this will be not to use the checkbook any more but  to get out cash in the budgeted amount for groceries and keep in a jar in the kitchen. When the money is gone, we eat what is in the cupboards!

3. We are still eating out to much. Even though I felt like we had cut down considerable, and we have, we still eat out lunch quite often. To help with this I need to plan on having lunch items that are easy to fix and eat at home.

All in all I am glad I did it, but it was an eye opener to some problems that I thought I was doing better in. I am just looking at it as something I can keep improving on. You all should try it, you might be suprised also.

Blessings,

Mona

This Weeks Menu

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 12:36

Well here is the menu for the week:

Sunday/Tonight - Chicken Parmigana w/noodles, green beans & homeade challah bread

Monday - Grilled Pork Chops, baby red potato & steamed broccoli

Tuesday - Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday - Beef Taco Burgers, fruit

Thursday - Round Steak w/rich gravy, mashed potatoes, Carrots

Friday - Eat out night

Saturday - Beef Ribs, baked potato, peas

Well that is it. I have had eat out night for a long time, but am considering giving it up in the name of frugality. Also my family prefers home cooked meals anyway. My menu if done through the month of April. I have a system set up with recipe cards that make it a snap to put together.

I heard from the feed store and due to the hatchery being backed up my  baby chicks will not be coming next week, but will come the first week in May! I am sad, but since it snowed here again today that is probably for the best.

Mona

New pictures posted

Posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 12:59

I posted some new pictures of my kids in my "Little Blessings" photo album. Please feel free to check them out, I am so proud of them.

Mona

Chicks are on their way!!

Posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 12:34

Well I went and ordered my chicks from our local feed store yesterday. I got 6 of them, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Silver Laced Wyndottes, and 2 Golden Sex Links. I am so excited they are supposed to be in on the 2nd of April wich is next Wednesday. So we are getting the brooding box ready, and my husband has started the Chicken Coop in the backyard. I will get some pictures up of my chicken adventure next week. (chicks & coop).

I worked on McKenna's room more today. I was overly confident in thinking that I could get it done in a day. So far I have worked on it 3 days. Oh well, tomorrow should be the last. I have just been busy doing other things. Today I went to the local food Co-op and took a class on how to package food for resale there. I have became a memeber and now will be volunteering to work there 10 hours a month. In exchange I will get all of my purchases there for 30% off. It is a great store, a health food store, mostly organic items. Pretty much anything you want. I got my unbleached white flour for $.49/lb, (with my discount) which is really good for my area.

I also finished my menu for the month of April today, and did some grocery shopping. I need to bake bread again tomorrow. Funny how fast we go through it.

Have a blessed evening.

Mona

Painting today....hmmm not my favorite.

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 11:18

Well today I think I will tackle painting Mckenna's bedroom. We have had to do quite a bit of painting since moving into our house. We painted the livingroom, dinningroom, our bedroom and Dakota's room. Also 2 of Dakota's walls were wood that needed to be restained which we did. So anyway I have been putting this off as I am not really fond of painting. But I can not really get her room organized for her until I do it. We adopted her at 16 months old through the foster care system and she was born drug effected. She has some behavioral things left over that make it so she HAS to have order or is out of control! So for her I can get it done today. I also need to move all of her furniture out and paint it.

The weather here has been beautiful and sunny for 2 days! It is still chilly outside, between 32 -45 degrees during the day, but oh that sun! I makes me want to get out and start working the ground for my garden, but it is still pretty early. We could still get snow on the ground.  

I also found out that even though we are in town, I can still have CHICKENS!! Yippeee!! I have always said that if I could just have a garden and chickens living in town for a season would be fine. So we are now looking for plans for building a chicken coop for our yard. (I have a pretty big yard)

Well I am going to get to work.

Mo