Updates from the Homestead

-
Life has been busy the last week or so. Hard for me to believe but my baby boy turned 13! Now it is official, all my children are in their teens and 20’s.. strange feeling! Isaac had a sleep over with a few of his friends; they played games, xbox, and ate junk food. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The next day we had a party for him with pizza and cupcakes for dessert.








I am so ready for some spring like weather. I am happy to see that spring will be here this weekend.. now for the spring like weather to match!  The weather man said normally for March the city gets 3.71 inches of rain for the entire month. As of yesterday 4.75 inches had fallen! Where we live we get even more rain than the city (city gets 30 to 35 inches a year.. we get 75 to 100 inches), so I am sure we have had even more rain fall.. and it feels like it .. wet and gray and muddy.. On the bright side.. my garden seeds arrived in the mail today. I can’t wait to get my tomato seeds started! I guess that is one way I will make it feel like spring. :)


This weekend I plan on attacking a couple of my kitchen cupboards. They are so in need of organization. I hope to post about this in a couple of days.  I'm working on my spring cleaning.. but actually I have been doing this since January.. a little here and a little there..  I will keep on posting about it as I move through the house. 

Hope you all have a great weekend on your homesteads!
 

Comments

  1. jeanMarch 19, 2011 at 9:05 AM

    Happy Birthday to your sweet son! Looks like he had great fun with his friends. Don't they grow up just too fast?! Keep enjoying him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 19, 2011 at 9:12 PM

    Happy Birthday to your son Isaac!!!
    I can hardly wait for spring too--if it weren't for the little bit of clear skies we've had, the yellow of the daffodils and forsythia and the fruit trees that are beginning to blossom, I'd be going crazy by now with all the rain the PNW has had this year--LOL:)
    Working on my kitchen too--can hardly wait to finish it!
    Blessings,
    Aimee

    ReplyDelete
  3. JennieMarch 20, 2011 at 6:50 AM

    I just stumbled upon your blog as I am dreaming of my own homestead for my family. I am going to love reading!!

    http://www.makingahomeandfamily.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. MelissaMarch 20, 2011 at 11:07 PM

    Where do you buy your seeds from?

    ReplyDelete
  5. CrystalMarch 21, 2011 at 4:54 AM

    Melissa I buy them from Territorial Seed Company: http://www.territorialseed.com/ They specialize in seeds that grow well in my damp PNW climate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MelissaMarch 21, 2011 at 7:59 PM

    Very cool! I'm always looking for great heirloom and organic seed. My climate is definitely not wet, though. :) I'm from the Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, Arizona (Mesa) We run the risk of having our plants scorched into oblivion every year if we don't get them in the ground before it starts to (very) rapidly heat up. I'm just getting back into gardening after a long hiatus. My husband and I are renters right now, but my parents are graciously letting us sharecrop their bit of backyard garden space. We were lucky this year. We got seeds and seedlings in the earth just before some beautiful rains came to settle everyone in. :) Best of luck with everything! I love your blog and website. Such an inspiration. Thanks! -Melissa

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more