Homemaking on the Homestead

  OK.. I am sooo excited as are my kids..   we are heading east and will meet up with Dalyn and Tara for a picnic.   I have known these lovely ladies for some time now and we have been planning this little get together since last year.   Each of us has been looking for a day that would work for us, and today is that day!   So my post will be short as we need to pack up our lunch, milk the goats, feed and water the critters and load up the van.   Dalyn and Tara..   if you read this..   I will be seeing you shortly!!  

I am up and enjoying my coffee this morning in my quiet house.   I am listening to some praise music this morning..   Chris Tomlin’s CD ‘Arriving’.   My girls are always loading up music on my computer and this CD is one of them.   I have also responded to a few emails and decided it was time to read a few blogs and do some posting.   Yesterday was not really a holiday for us.   It was business as usual.   My husband is an aircraft mechanic and works for a regional airline and wouldn’t you know it.. they still fly planes on the holidays and they still need mechanics around!      So I got laundry done and a little house work done and made another batch of sourdough bread.   I have a big day ahead of me.   I have to get the kids to singing practice with the homeschool group.   We have a local senior’s center and they do luncheons for the seniors in the community.   Our church will be serving the lunch next m...

My 3 daughters Hannah, Emily and Leanne started their own blog here on the Homestead Blogger..   It is Homesteading Sisters blog.   Please stop by and say Hi!!    

  We have had a wonderful day off!!   My hard working hubby seems to always have something to keep him busy.   Neither of us could remember the last day he had that had no plans of things to accomplish for him.   Today was that kind of a day.   So it has been very mellow and very enjoyable today!     The rain and gray skies are still here, but the weather report is promising us better days.   Tomorrow things start changing to sunny skies.   My daughters and I have nursery duty in church tomorrow.   My girls always enjoy doing that with me.   Can’t have too many arms to hold babies!   For dinner tonight we are taking our favorite macaroni and cheese recipe and adding leftover ham from last nights dinner to it to make a casserole.   Leanne is making coleslaw to go with it.     That sums up our slow paced mellow day here on the homestead!!   Here is our favorite mac and cheese recipe.   It comes...

  Appetizer What was your first job?    I worked at a day care center..   began in me a desire to never put my future children in one!   Soup Name some of the things you collect.  I don’t really collect anything unless you count goats!     Salad Name a recent fad that you just don't 'get'.  Walking around with your flabby belly showing over the top of   your pants and your shirt too short to cover it??   That is like what???.. Cute? Sexy?... Adorable?... hmm…   still not getting it..   Main Course Describe the worst weather situation you have ever been in.    I live in the Pacific Northwest .. we don’t get 'worst weather' here.. it is pretty mild.   But one winter being snowed in and having the one main highway in and out of our place closed down was a little on the disconcerting side for me …   Dessert Which shoe do you put on first?  the right shoe    

  Yum!!   This is one of my favorite pies.   And with the fresh milk and eggs that we have right now it was an easy choice for last nights dessert.   Emily, my daughter who loves to bake made this for us.   I did not get a picture of it until this morning, so the meringue was not as high as it was last night. Cream pies just look better the day they are made!     This recipe will make 2 pies, feel free to cut it in half if that is too much for your family.   2 baked 9-inch pie crusts (recipe follows) 4 c whole milk 1 c cane juice crystal’s ¼ c ww pastry flour ¼ c cornstarch 1 t salt 5 T cocoa powder 4 eggs, separated 2 T butter 2 t vanilla   Scald 3 cups milk over medium heat.   You can use a double boiler for this to make sure you don’t scorch your milk, or just watch it very carefully!   In a separate bowl combine cane juice crystal’s, flour, cornstarch, salt and cocoa powder.   Stir in the rest of the milk and the eg...

  I admit that this granola is not any where near as good as my regular standard recipe .   But I have to say that what I did like about it was it was easy to make and in fact so easy that I told my 10 and 12 year olds that they could make this themselves.   My youngest 3 (ages 12, 10 and 8) are the main granola fans.   So I thought that it would be nice for them to have an easy to put together recipe so they can take part in their favorite breakfast meal.   5 c oats ½ c honey ¼ c coconut oil Goodies.. raisins, coconut, nuts, dried fruits, etc…   Put oats in a large bowl.   in a small saucepan heat coconut oil until it melts and add honey just to warm it up.   This makes the honey easier to pour.    Pour this over the oats and using your clean hands mix it all up well.   You can use a spoon, but I find it really works better with your hands.     Put this mixture into your crockpot.   Turn on low.   Leave the ...

  Well today is starting out slow.   I have answered lots of email. I get a lot of letters from ladies and usually if the answer only requires one or two sentences then I respond quickly.   If the answer requires more, then it may sit in my inbox until I have a chance to get to it.   This morning was my chance.   So hopefully if you wrote me a letter, you now have an answer waiting for you.   If you don’t, then send your letter in again.. it could have been missed by me or ended up being blocked by my sometimes over zealous spam blocker!     Tobin is off today and sadly will not have the holiday off.   And he is still working on our rental! Lots of details to take care of.   We had never really done an official turn over in this rental.   The man that lived there previousl had been there for 11 years.   So it was very dirty and things were worn out.   After this it should not be such a job.   The ad for it will go i...

What is wrong with Splenda?   Well to begin with it is an artificial sugar.   It is made by chlorinating sugar.  This process chemically changes the structure of sugar on a molecular level.    The reading I have done on it shows that there have been very few studies done on its safety for people.   There have been no long term studies done to determine if there could eventually be health problems.  No studies have been done on its safety for pregnant women or children.   There have been some studies done on rats and there are numerous problems for the rats (enlarged liver and kidneys, decreased red blood cell count, aborted pregnancies, diarrhea, to name a few that I read).     The makers of Splenda say it is not metabolized into our bodies but some studies show that about 25% of it is.   They have no idea at this point what affect that could have on humans.   If you would like some further and more indepth reading: http:/...

I thought this might be helpful to some..   Liquid and Dry Me asure Equivalents a pinch = less than 1/8 teaspoon (dry) a dash = a few drops 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce 2 tablespoons = 1 ounce (liquid) 4 tablespoons = 2 ounces (liquid) = 1/4 cup 5 1/3 tablespoons = 1/3 cup 8 tablespoons = 4 ounces = 1/2 cup = 1/4 pound 16 tablespoons = 8 ounces = 1 cup = 1/2 pound 32 tablespoons = 16 ounces = 2 cups = 1 pound 64 tablespoons = 32 ounces = 1 quart = 2 pounds 1 cup = 8 ounces (liquid) = 1/2 pint 2 cups = 16 ounces (liquid) = 1 pint 4 cups = 32 ounces (liquid) = 2 pints = 1 quart 16 cups = 128 ounces (liquid) = 4 quarts = 1 gallon 1 quart = 2 pints (dry) 4 quarts = 1 gallon (liquid)     I got this info (and used it with permission from them): http://www.humec.ksu.edu/fnp/materials.html    Lots of good info on that site.  

I have had a few people ask me for recipes for making homemade lotions (after mentioning that I made some the other day).   Some have asked for simple recipes.   I have been making lotion for awhile now and I am not sure there is really a simple recipe to share with you, at least simple for the types of lotions that I make.   I have seen some very simple recipes on the internet (put in a google search for Homemade Lotions).    Many of these recipes are simple and the resulting lotion needs to be used up quickly or stored in the fridge due to either the fresh ingredients used in them or the lack of any perservative.     These types of recipes are simple to mix up in your kitchen and have fun using.     If you want more of a lotion in the sense of what you are use to buying at the store (only much better.. in my own opinion anyway!! ) then you can read and proceed with the following recipe.   Lotion making is a matter of combining oils and...

  Milk for centuries has been known for its skin softening properties.   According to history Cleopatra enjoyed milk baths as part of her beauty practices.      I have found that washing with soaps made with goat’s milk leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth.      Milk is high in protein, vitamins and many minerals.   These qualities are wonderful on the skin!   I have a couple of children with sensitive skin and since using my homemade goat milk soap their skin has not broken out in rashes,that I suspect, were caused by the harshness of commercial soaps (which are actually not soaps but detergents).    Goat milk, with its high butterfat content, gives soap a unique skin softening and soothing property.    These wonderful qualities give soap a rich and luxurious feel that can be quite healing on the skin (this has been our experience with it).   If you are interested in trying out some homemade goat milk s...

  Well it is a gray drizzly morning out..   I keep saying to myself, “I am not going to let this get to me, I am not going to let this get to me, I am not going to let this get to me”.   Not sure it is working!!   LOL..   I have loved the sun and will now have to wait very patiently for its return.   The weather forecast predicts the next 5 days to gray and rain.     So for today I have some soap making on my list of projects to tackle.   I have bookkeeping to catch up on and I have laundry to do and a laundry room to straighten up.   I will be assigning some of my children to help with these tasks.   I also need the kids to go outside and pick up their now wet toys and the wet swim suits that were hung over the deck to ‘dry’.       Emily is making some buttermilk pancakes this morning.   We soaked our flour in buttermilk last night.   talk about yummy tasting pancakes!!   I have started doing ...

  I have been pretty busy lately and not doing a great job in keeping up with 2 blogs so until further notice the blogs will be in simulcast..   I will post the same thing on both of them.     Today has been a busy day.   I made some yogurt and more buttermilk.   I still need to go and feed my sourdough starter.     I helped Jacob pack for his big fishing weekend.   He is going with a friend and his friends dad (our pastor) to our church’s Me n’s Fly Fishing Round-Up.   He has never fished before so this will be a new experience for him.   He is excited…...   has all his clothes washed and packed and the sleeping bag ready to go.   I put the list of supplies in his back pack and told him to make sure he looks at the list before he leaves and checks to see he has everything.   I cut my soap that I made last week.   Three different types of soap were made and now are cut and will be curing for a few weeks. ...

This came in an email sent to me by my mother-in-law…   Please speak up today!!   This is a vital issue to all homesteaders!   If you would like more information on NAIS and the harm it will do to small time farmers (just like many here on the homesteadblogger) click here: http://nonais.org/   Here is the Action Alert:   The agriculture appropriations bill (HR 5384) is expected to be on the House floor Wednesday, May 17 for debate and final vote.     Congressman Ron Paul has introduced an amendment to block all funding for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) at both the federal and state levels.   This may be our best opportunity to stop the NAIS.   Please help by doing all you can. Here are some suggestions:     1. Call YOUR Congressman. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 225-3121.     (If you don't know who to call, click here: http://libertyark.net/tools.shtml    - and enter your zip code in the b...

Name Ten Things You Are Planning on Doing This Summer.   Here is my list:   1. Visit the local farmers market regularly to make up for not having a garden 2. Ferment, can and freeze the food I get from the farmers markets 3. Enjoy many, many days down at the pond with my kids, just soaking up the sun and swimming 4. Make lots of soap 5. Make ice cream often with the kids…   6. BBQ regularly 7. Read a few (yet to be selected) books to my kids 8. Enjoy lots of campfires down at our pond 9. Plan our big 4 th of July party with friends and enjoy another memorable evening with lots of fireworks, hotdogs, hamburgers and lots and lots of kids!!   10. Go somewhere fun with my hubby to enjoy our 22 nd wedding anniversary!