Homemaking on the Homestead

  We had a nice break in the rain this week. Then Wednesday the rain was back, but not as bad as last week. Now the weather report is saying there will be a few more dry days.. I do hope it will be as they say!   During this dry weather Tobin and the boys have been out gathering our winter’s wood. They got almost 2 cords this weekend and we already have about 2 so we are almost there (we go through about 6 cords every winter). Tobin figures one more weekend (his weekend) and we will have it in. We are blessed to be able to gather enough wood from our property. Due to all the rain in our area many trees grow very fast and in the 11 years we have lived here we have never had to get our wood from an outside source. We just do a lot of selective logging.   Here is a pic of the wood they got this last week, there are 3 rows of it and it equals approx. 2 cords.  -   There is a pic of our wood shed and the middle bin is wha...

I haven’t started dinner yet!!! I am sure everyone has been there before. I had a menu planned but the day was crazy and I did not get things pulled out of the freezer and put together in time. I was helping Tobin with something in his shop and we were chatting and enjoying the time together when I looked down at my watch and realized that the time had just flown by and it was 5 already.. and no dinner… so did I call for pizza? Run and get fast food? .. nope.. here is what I did..   I grabbed a pound of hamburger out of the freezer. While that was defrosting in my microwave I chopped up an onion. I pulled a big soup pot out and started cooking up my meat and onions. When that was done I added 12 cups of water, 3 chicken bullion cubes, salt, pepper, 1 can of green beans, 3 cups of frozen corn, 1 can of diced tomatoes and let this come to a boil. When it was boiling I added 3 cups of tortellini noodles that were chee...

  We had a very wet weekend! I have no idea how much rain we got, but it must have been several inches.. the rain just poured down.. wish I could send it those parts of the country that need it!   We never seem to get through these really rainy periods without some rain caused excitement and this “little” storm was no exception. On Saturday night, after Tobin had left for work, the boys were in our room in the basement that we call our music room.. also has a tv and other things. They were playing Nintendo. The girls and I were getting ready to settle down and watch an episode of 7th Heaven.   Isaac ran upstairs and got a couple of big towels and I immediately figured they must have spilled something and asked him what happened. He told me there was water leaking into the music room. So I went down to see what was going on and right under one of the windows water was basically pouring in. I told Jacob.. we...

  Life has been busy here on my homestead lately. I have the kids in full swing now with their schooling and I have been making soap like a mad woman! Soon I will have a couple new scents out for the Christmas season. Hard to believe the year is zipping by so quickly.    This week Tobin and I have been doing some organizing. He has been organizing and cleaning up his shop in preparation for some car maintenance and to get ready to do some work on the inside of the house. I have been cleaning house, defrosting freezers and still want to spend some time going through my storage totes to see what can be cleaned out. My kids have a tendency to just toss stuff in and on top of the totes; leaving behind a chaotic mess.. so I need to deal with this (with their help) and see what can be reorganized. The kids have gone through some of their clothing lately and so I have a few bags of out grown clothing to give away. We are making room f...

    I have been missing in action for the last week or more.. Aside from being busy and sick with a cold I was also gone for 4 days. I have to say I have a wonderful, loving and kind husband. It seems the more years we are married the closer we get.. He decided we needed some time away and so we headed to the Oregon Coast for 4 days. What a wonderful time we had. It was a much needed relaxing and refreshing time for us both. My younger children stayed with friends and my older girls handled the household and their own responsibilities. They did great while we were gone and even suggested we needed to do this more often…. LOL..    I am still battling a head & chest cold, but would like to think I am finally on the winning side!  I was the first to get it and the rest of the family has had it and recovered and I am still battling.. but like I said, I think I am over the worst.  However my kids are ...