Homemaking on the Homestead

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. I t 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 m...

  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 Washington so I guess that answers the question on whether my daughter has delivered her baby.. not yet!   We are a couple days overdue...

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: http://libertyark.net/NAISclip-final/

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.     Crystal ’s Bean 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, ketchu...

10 Things I'd Do If I Had More Time finish writing my book do a major update on my website sew for fun make more soap keep up on my blog better work on a bunch of new recipes paint my hallway read more to my kids go on another vacation   visit with my friends  

  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 we...

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.   ...

  It is early morning ( 4:30am as I write this) and my hubby just left for work.   One year it would be nice if he had ‘normal’ weekends off.   But it seems in the airline business it is a 24/7 operation and days off can be spread anywhere through the week.   I remember years where his days off were Tuesday and Wednesday.   So I am content with Friday and Saturday!     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 ...

  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 after”..   so she treats Emily ...

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 Homestead Blogger when it started.   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 oft...

  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...

  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...

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 t...

  Yesterday was my daughter Leanne’s 15 th 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 9:30 – 10:00 and I wake up with Tobin at 4:AM and start my day.   So it is no wonder I eventually at some point in the week have a slow day!     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 ...

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 g...

  I started this morning by taking Hannah’s tires to her.   She is house sitting and on Wednesday last week she was driving on gravel and slid into a ditch.   Had to have a tow truck come and pull her out (and put her spare tire on as one tire was flat).   She was a bit shaken; but not hurt, thankfully!   So Tobin and I drove up to where she was at (she is over an hour from here).   Tobin had another spare tire with him and he put that on the car too as the other tire was packed with gravel.     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...