The baby has arrived!!! He was born 12:45 this afternoon(pacific standard time) without any problems and mom says he looks nice and healthy. They named him Caden Michael.
Mom will post later with details and pics etc.. She just wanted me to let you all know!
Emily
Mom wanted me (Emily) to post an update on the baby, so everyone knows what is going on. Here it is:
Yesterday morning (really early! she had to be up by 3 o'clock!) Mom and a friend drove to the airport and then flew down to California. They made it around 8:30 or so, but by the time they arrived at her house, everything had stopped. It was just pre labor stuff. And so they did lots and lots of walking, and she took castor oil etc....But last night at around 10:00 things really started happening, so now she is officialy in labor, and we are just waiting for a phone call (however long that may be...) to tell us that our little nephew has entered the universe (world, earth, etc...) and we are excited!!
Emily and Leanne
OK.. no baby yet! 
I am still waiting.. 
Other than that.. my Tuesday on my homestead is/was business as usual. Laundry, school work with the kids, housekeeping, web business stuff to work on, and more.. I know there was more because I was doing it! LOL..
The older girls just left for a Bible study at a local church. It is not the church we attend but one that is near us and they know a few girls that will be there so we thought this might be something that they might enjoy doing.
Jacob, Sierra and Isaac are currently working on a Nancy Drew mystery on CD.. they love these things. Tobin and I want to watch the next to the last episode of Pretender (first season).. it is a two part episode so we will have to watch the other half tomorrow. But we may wait till the girls are home as half the fun of watching them is doing this as a family….
Bedtime seems to come early when you get up at 4:AM LOL… and I think we may just do that instead!
Dinner tonight was spaghetti, garlic toast, peas & corn, coleslaw. Easy and yummy. I still need to make sure I have several meals all planned out before I leave to my oldest daughters.
Now my friend and I have a plan.. if the baby has not come by Thursday her and I will leave Thursday night and stay the weekend and see if we can make things happen. 
That sums up Tuesday on the
Today has been a busy Monday. I spent some of the day putting together gift baskets for my web store and taking pictures and getting it all up on my site. You can see them here: http://crystalscountrystore.com/giftbaskets.htm
Then it was laundry. Seemed like a lot more than usual today. Isaac had a spelling test and finished all the rest of his first batch of Paces. So I guess he is on to a new set of Paces tomorrow. I helped Sierra learn more about the dictionary, how it works and how to look up words. Jacob did his school pretty quickly. For now most of it is review. After school work was done it was lunch (leftovers from the weekend) and then hang laundry on the line, make sure the house was picked up and work some more on my site.
I am still in
Dinner tonight is Navy Bean Soup, Cole Slaw and Rosemary Bread Sticks… Yum… then we will watch another episode of the Pretender.. Not having network TV makes me really out of the loop on what is happening on this front.. but my kids started watching the Pretender (which is an old TV show) on DVD awhile back. They had borrowed it from friends. They loved it and started bugging Tobin and I to watch it. We rarely watch any TV.. we don’t have time!! But after being bugged enough we said we would watch the first episode.. well we were hooked!! We are almost done with the first season (after almost a year! LOL.. shows we still don’t watch much even when we are “hookedâ€!) When people ask me.. “how do you do it all?†I guess I can say.. I don’t watch TV and I don’t sleep much! LOL ( I have talked previously about my 6 hour nights!)..
That sums up my Monday on my
My MIL sent me this link to a film clip about NAIS
I highly recommend everyone see this! If you don’t think NAIS is a serious threat to small homesteads..
THINK AGAIN!
To Learn More Click Here:
I just wanted to share this recipe with you. I made these today for lunch and the kids really enjoyed them. Here is a picture of half a sandwich that was made with the burgers.
2 c cooked pinto beans (beans should be nice and soft)
1 c cooked brown rice
2 eggs
½ c whole wheat flour
Salt, pepper, seasoning salt to taste
In a large bowl combine all the above ingredients. Use a potato masher to mix and mash up the beans. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Scoop out bean mixture using a ¼ cup measuring cup and plop out onto the hot oil. Use the back of the measuring cup to flatten and shape the patty. Let it cook until nicely browned on the first side. Flip the burger and use the back of the spatula to flatten out the burger some more and let it cook on the second side.
Remove from hot oil onto a platter to cool. Serve with toasted whole wheat bread, mayo, ketchup, lettuce, cheese, pickles and any other hamburger trimmings you would like!
This recipe lends itself very well to doubling or tripling. You can cook these burgers up ahead of time and flash freeze them (this means to lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze them separately). Then store them in a freezer bag for easy use.
10 Things I'd Do If I Had More Time
Today is busy day for me. I have a homeschool meeting this afternoon so that means I need to get several things done this morning before I leave. Actually right now I feel like going back to bed! LOL.. I am lacking in sleep even though my husband keeps telling me that 6 hours of sleep is plenty!! Well it may be for him, but not for me! The problem is actually finding the time for a nap! I don’t think that will happen today.
I have some beans soaking right now and I need to get those started for tonight’s dinner which will be bean soup of some sort. I am trying out and messing around with some new bean recipes. Beans are such a good quality, frugal food to use!
We are still waiting for our curriculum to arrive. I guess it seems more like ‘school time’ now because it is raining and cool outside. Sometimes September is just beautiful and warm and sometimes it is wet and cool. For now, I guess it is wet and cool.
I am waiting for “The Phone Callâ€. My oldest daughter is nearing her due date and I find myself unable to think of much else. She will call when things start happening (and lots of pre-labor things are starting to happen which has put me on higher alert now). My dearest, closest friend (she is like a sister to me) and I will be flying down to be with her (hopefully) while she has her little baby. She is having a home birth, which I am thrilled about. She was less than impressed with the hospitals and doctors in her area. So I am praying that all goes smoothly for her. I have had 5 homebirths myself and I think she just grew up seeing that birth was normal and that is also why she has chosen to deliver at home.
I guess it is time to get breakfast started for the kiddos.. they will be waking up soon. I am posting their new fall schedules so they can get use to the idea of more structure. I don’t know why, but all the structure flies out the window during the summer!
Here is a look at Jacob’s morning routine (he is 12):
Jacob’s Schedule
~Get up
~Get dressed down to socks and shoes
~Make bed
~Pick up room: no toys, clothes, junk on the floor, under the bed, on top of dresser and desk
~Come downstairs
~Take care of baby goats IF milking is done
~Eat breakfast
Chores:
1. Wipe off table after breakfast
2. Sweep dining room floor and mop if needed
3. Clean bathroom
4. Extra help as needed
Start school work
I am still working on Sierra’s and Isaacs. The older girls don’t need to have it all spelled out they seem to get with a new schedule better than me!! 
That sums up my Tuesday on the
I was looking for a good way this morning to use up some leftover oatmeal that I had made for breakfast.. these muffins were just the thing! The kids are eating them up right now along with the leftover soup from last nights dinner...
1 cup leftover, cooked oatmeal
¾ c milk
1 egg
2 T melted butter
2 T real maple syrup (or honey)
1 ½ c whole wheat pastry flour (if using freshly ground flour pack the cups slightly with flour)
1 ½ T baking powder
½ t salt
In a small bowl combine leftover oatmeal and milk; using a wire whisk if needed so there are no clumps of oatmeal. Add egg and mix well. Add melted butter and maple syrup (or honey) and mix well.
In a large bowl combine ww pastry flour, baking powder and salt.
Add milk/oatmeal mixture and mix until combined being careful not to over mix.
Divide batter in a muffin pan that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Fill the muffin cups ¾ full.
Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.
Goes great with soup!
It is early morning (
Our weekend was nice and more relaxed than past weekends. We spent most of it inside due to wet weather which was sooo nice. It is cooler now and really feels like fall! I cleaned up my area where I store my soap making supplies and organized that a little better. I got some soap made and Tobin cut it and it is curing now. He and I wrapped some that was finished curing. Tobin caught up other things too.. and we were able to rest. Made us both feel like it was a restful weekend.
The goal for me this morning is to get the family to the early service at church. When we get home I will, hopefully get a few things done.. or take a nap.. haa..haa.. we will see what appeals more!
I do have more soap to get made so I may prepare my molds and measure out oils and get ready for another big soap making afternoon. I also have been making candles. I have made paraffin candles before but after reading about the problems associated with burning paraffin I wanted to learn to make soy candles. So that is what I am doing. So far I have learned a lot, they are not hard to make and I am getting it figured out. So if I don’t make soap I may make some more candles!
Other than that I have dinner preps to do and work on a menu too for this upcoming week. I have meals in mind and food in the house so it is just a matter of writing them down so I don’t have to do the thinking each day.. that part is done.
Last night I made potato pancakes. It has been a long time since I had made them. The whole family really enjoyed them. I served them with applesauce on top. They went along with baked chicken, muffins and peas.
Potato Pancakes
This is not a real exact recipe (which is nice because then you can adjust it to fit your family size).
Potatoes – as many as you want, wash but don’t peel
Eggs
Flour, whole wheat pastry flour is what I used
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying, I used coconut oil but olive oil would be a good choice too
Grate potatoes. I used my food processor to do this and it went very quick. I grated about 10 medium sized yellow potatoes (but any potatoes you have will work). Put the grated potatoes in a bowl and add eggs. I added 3 nice sized chicken eggs to my 10 medium potatoes). Mix this well and sprinkle in flour until the liquid is fairly thick. If it is too thin, add more flour. This is not a real exact science, just play around with it and you will get the hang of it. Salt and pepper it all.
Now heat up the oil in a fry pan. Using a small (1/4 cup size) measuring cup, scoop out potatoes and put them in the hot oil. Use the back of the measuring cup to flatten them down. Let them cook until brown and turn to cook on the other side. It takes a few minutes to cook; you want to make sure the potatoes are soft and cooked.
Serve a generous dollop of either sour cream or applesauce on top.. very yummy!!
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That sums up my Sunday on the
Actually the day will be spent mostly off the homestead as this is my day to run errands and go to the big city for groceries. I am hoping to stock up on basics so I don’t have to go back for awhile.. going to town is a real disruption to my schedule.
Emily will be dropped off at her job. She will be watching over an 93 year old lady. This woman is in great shape physically but mentally she is very forgetful and her son and daughter in law don’t like her alone during the day while they work (they could envision her turning on the stove to heat up some soup and forgetting about it or other things such as this). Hannah watches her sometimes too. This lady, the girls say, is the sweetest lady! They enjoy being with her. Her recent memory is pretty much shot.. although she plays a heck of a game of Skip Bo! LOL.. She does not like the fact that her son thinks she needs “looking afterâ€.. so she treats Emily like a guest in the house. Offers her tea, lunch, ice cream and books to read and the two of them play cards. Hannah is often cleaning house while there so Miss Margaret thinks she is there for housekeeping purposes only.. she is always telling Hannah.. When you finish this or that job it is just fine if you would like to go home.. Hannah just smiles and says, OK thank you.. Of course the lady does not remember that she said that and a few minutes later is asking if she would like to play Skip Bo.. Older people are sweet.. you just have love them and respect them.. one day we will all be there.. I remind my girls about that often.
On the home front my faithful sweet Leanne will be here keeping her younger brothers in line (a chore in itself.. LOL) and looking after Sierra of course which is pretty easy as she loves to be in the kitchen with Leanne cooking or reading or drawing and Leanne will be baking bread and working on her math book. Emily and Leanne have some personal goals in their math and wanted to start school now even though I won’t be starting with the rest of the kids for another couple of weeks. I said that is fine with me!
A new recipe to share.. Emily has been making these for us lately. They are really good and very easy to whip up last minute:
Rosemary Breadstick Twists
Preheat oven to 400*
1/3 cup butter
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 TBS parmesan cheese
1 TBS cane juice crystals (sugar)
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1 tsp minced garlic
In a mixing bowl combine flour, salt, cheese, sugar and baking powder. Stir in milk until just mixed.
Knead the bread until smooth. Roll it into a rectangle measuring 12x6. Cut into 12 one inch strips.
Stir the rosemary and garlic into melted butter. Twist the one inch pieces 6 times, place in melted butter.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
That sums up my Wednesday on the
1. How long have you been blogging?
I started my first blog on the Homeschool Blogger over a year ago. Then moved over here to
2. How many times have you taken a break from blogging?
Only a few.. I really LOVE blogging.. it is a lot of fun…
3. How long is the longest you've gone, so far, without posting on your blog?
A couple of weeks
4. How many fellow bloggers do you keep in touch with, through your blogs, on a regular basis?
I have lots of friends!! I love reading their blogs when I get a chance.. I am a very busy lady on the web and don’t have nearly enough time to visit as many fellow bloggers as I would like to!
5. Have you ever met, in person, a blogger on your blogroll?
Well yes and no…. I have met a couple of my fellow bloggers… Dalyn and Tara.. but we knew each other in the cyber world before we were blogging…
6. How often do you update/change the 'extra' stuff on your blog?
Not as often as I update my website, web store and my message board!
7. Do you think you'll be blogging for years to come?
Oh yes!! Certainly if I am able I will be blogging!!
Oh my… what a busy day.. but aren’t most Monday’s? I have been so busy on my homestead today.. Nothing earth shattering or huge.. just the basics of daily life… Laundry to take care of (wash, hang on the line, fold & put away), dinner preps (rice to soak aka Sally Fallon, hamburger to remember to bring out of the freezer.. all for tonight’s Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake), house to clean up from the weekend (sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, clutter pick up, dusting, laundry/pantry in constant need of organizing, etc..)… yes the typical Monday!! Did I mention I made a batch of soap too?? Yes I made some more Rose w/rose petals soap.. it is selling very well.. rose is a scent that many enjoy.
Aside from the Monday basics I also FINALLY ordered this year’s curriculum; my how late I am on this. I usually start school by the beginning of October (the weather in this part of the country just demands that you be out and enjoying it! LOL.. the rest of the year is wet and muddy and not too enjoyable.. and the school work can be done during that time.. ).. Now I just hope it all arrives in time.. if not, I won’t sweat it.. we will start soon enough.
Hannah came home yesterday.. Yea! I missed her SO much.. not for just all that she does here on our homestead but for her.. She has the sweetest personality and I really love just being with her. Children are such a blessing and it made me realize that one day she will be out of the house and on her own (as her older brother and sister are now) and what a vacancy that will be in my life.. One of these days I will probably be writing about how to deal with the empty nest syndrome (but with my youngest at 8… it may be awhile.. 
)
For those that read my website, The Family Homestead (http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com ) this morning I did a much needed update on my dessert section and posted lots of new recipes and even a new section on pie recipes.. if you are interested here is the link: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/dessertrecipes.htm
Tobin and I spent the evening down at the pond enjoying the sunshine and 80 degree temps and just visiting about the days events.. It is a nice time together that we both enjoy. Now he is catching up on things around the home…
That sums up my busy Monday on the Homestead!!
Today is Tobin’s normal day off. So it begins our weekend.. this was a very short week! Only 3 days.. I really like that, wish they all were that short, then he could be home doing the things around the homestead he would like to do! Today Tobin put new plastic on the greenhouse. The goats had really torn up the plastic that was there. Now that they are out of there he wanted to get it covered before the rainy season starts. He also rototilled the garden. I told it that if was May I would be getting excited about planting! LOL.. but next year for sure!
I wrapped up more soap. I am just being slow about it. I have done quite a few dozen and right now have about 4 more dozen bars to wrap.
The girls and I made crepes for breakfast. I think we are finally fine tuning our recipe. There are tons of crepe recipes and I just keep trying out things.. add more eggs, less flour, more or less milk, etc.. this mornings were the best so far! I will share the recipe after I get it written out properly. I also peeled and chopped up 4 small apples and 3 pears and added a bit of water and cooked them until soft. Then I added butter and honey and let it simmer a little longer. We filled the crepes with the fruit and drizzeled the honey syrup over the top.. yum!!
That was more of a brunch because everyone was up way to late this morning.. I told them enough is enough! We need to start getting back on a better schedule even though we won’t start school for a bit longer. Dinner tonight is chicken noodle soup (I made a huge pot last night so we could have leftovers tonight). Emily is making some breadsticks and we cut up carrots and made ranch dressing to go with the soup.
I am so happy to say that our barn is now full of hay!! Tobin picked up one ton on his way home from work last night and we unloaded that, then him and I went back and got another tone. Two tons will feed our goaties just fine this winter. This morning I had to look in the barn again and see all that pretty green hay stacked up in there.. Makes me feel almost as good as full pantry! LOL..
Well it is time to chat and visit with my hubby who just finished mowing some of our property..
I don’t think this has been one of my more productive weeks actually!
1. Finished writing some articles and got my monthly newsletter sent out.
2. Went and took tires to Hannah, my daughter who was house sitting and who had had a flat
3. Helped move goats out of my garden and into their new home!! Yea!!
4. Made Feta Cheese
5. Enjoyed some homemade sauerkraut that I had started last week
6. Labeled and wrapped 9 dozen bars of soap (still a few doz. to go)
7. Swam in my pond and enjoyed the sunshine
8. Celebrated my 5th child’s 15th birthday
9. Tried out a recipe for cornmeal tortillas.. still needs more work
10. Hung out several loads of laundry on my clothesline
11. Enjoyed reading the newest issue of Making It Home magazine
12.Worked on my website, my new message board (I am getting ready to have everyone currently on my board move to a new one and I am getting that set up)
13. Went out to lunch with my hubby (actually that was over the holiday weekend.. does that count? )
Yesterday was my daughter Leanne’s 15th birthday! My how the years go by! I can’t believe she is 15 already.. but I do say this with every child and every birthday.
This is her picture from yesterday:
Today on my homestead it has been slow going. I never seem to get quite enough sleep. If I could just get to bed sooner that might help! But it never seems to happen. I go to be around
I am a 7 to 8 hour a night person, and a steady diet of 6 hours a night seems like just not enough. My husband has always done fine on 5 to 6 hours a night with an occasional 7 hour night. How many hours do you sleep at night?
Enough of that.. Right now Jacob and Isaac are stacking some more wood. It is not a lot as in the past pictures I have shown. It was wood cleared off the hillside when Tobin was putting in the fence. Jacob got it cut up yesterday.
Emily and Leanne are washing and grading chicken eggs. They sold 8 dozen yesterday and realized that if we had any walk up customers they don’t have any ready to go..
Sierra just got another Nancy Drew book in the mail from the library and my little book lover is lost in a new mystery.
I just finished getting the chicken in the pot with water and salt and it is heating up. We are having chicken noodle soup tonight.. simple enough. Maybe some breadsticks to go with it.
Today is Leanne’s laundry day and she has her laundry going already. I have one batch of shampoo bars to finish labeling and wrapping and two more batches of goat milk soap to label and wrap and a big batch of soap to cut. SOOOO I really should be doing that instead of blogging.. but blogging is just a bit addictive!
On that note, I guess I best get back to life on my homestead.. and another cup of coffee ~Yawn~ 
I have been sharing in the last few blogs about our goat building and fencing project.. so this evening I thought I would now post a few pics!
The area to be fenced was pretty much up a hillside, with a few flat areas. Tobin has trail for his tractor to drive on so he can drive up to our spring house and water reservoir. Our water comes from a natural spring that is then gravity fed to a 1000 gallon reservoir and then gravity fed down to our house. I guess this is one good advantage to living in such a wet area (lots of natural springs around here) and living on a hill!
Anyway, one of the projects that Tobin had was building a little goat shed for my bucks. The whole building began as an idea in my very talented husbands mind, and then he bought supplies:
Then he worked on it for one whole weekend and in the end it was a nice little goat shelter:
Actually the building would also make a good chicken coop or even a garden shed.
Then put in the T-posts and strung 6 rows of wire. If you want more info on how we hot wire our fences (not the traditional way using grounding rods) then you can read my article about that here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/electricfencing.htm
After the wire was up and he had strung electricity to the little barn we were finally able to bring the goats in to their new home.
They loved it! Lots of blackberry brambles and underbrush for them to eat. And I also brought a few of my other does. Breeding season is just starting and I have several does that need to be bred this year.
Here is a picture of my two newest bucks, Bill and Will (they are twin brothers that my sweet mother in law gave me):
Here is the main buck of my heard, Sgt. Pepper. He is a great guy… stinky but such a nice buck!!
Here is checking out his new house:
To maybe try and give a view of how hilly it is, in this picture you can see the little goat with the brown spot on her back (Dolly) at the bottom of the pic and then the main gate so that the tractor can still get up the hill and above that between the two trees is a white goat (Kloey my Nubian/Boer cross)…
And finally just for fun I took a picture of my nocturnal guard dog Daisy, who is up all night barking 
and protecting and sleeps all day!
That sums up the current project on our homestead!
He and I went to the city the next day and had the tires fixed. She was supposed to come home on Saturday so dad could put the new tires on her car. Well she called me and told me she had driven to the nearest little town and soon after getting home she saw that one of the spare tires was flat! It is a blessing it did not happen while on the road or there would have been another $100 tow bill (really I think I liked dealing with kids as babies better than this young adult stuff!!! LOL).
So today I drove up there with the 2 fixed tires and she changed them herself. One of things my husband requires from all his children (both the boys and the girls) is that before they can get their drivers license they must know how to change a tire. He works with them until they can do it themselves. I know this is the aircraft mechanic in him.. because my dad never had me do that and today if I ever get a flat tire I call my husband!! LOL.. I was proud of Hannah this afternoon as I watched her change both tires!
I came home and started a batch of feta cheese. We really like this stuff! Yesterday for breakfast I made Tobin an omelet with sautéed onions and feta cheese.. he loved it!
I also fed my sourdough and got the hamburger out for tonights dinner which is going to be spaghetti.
Tobin is still working so hard on our goat fencing. Our property has so many hills and blackberry brambles and roots, etc.. that it is has been a huge challenge to get most of it fenced. I have seen picturesque farms with lots of flat land all neatly fenced in…. well that is NOT my homestead.. LOL.. Mine goes up a hill.. That is to be expected because I live in a gorge.. you know mountains on both sides and the mighty Columbia River in between.
Soon my goat boys will have there new home!! Tobin has the shelter all built, the electricity wired to the little shelter, the charger hung in there and even a light in there. He is hoping that by tomorrow the wire will be all strung (6 rows) and we will be moving the boys in there.
That is how we are spending our holiday weekend on our homestead!
