Thursday on the Homestead

-


 


This week has been another taste of winter here in the Pacific Northwest..  I have really wanted spring to show itself ..  but I guess I have to wait a little longer.


 


Yesterday we had everything..  wind, rain, snow, hail, sleet, sunshine..  it was a bit of a wild weather day to say the least!!  Today was a little better.  We woke up to snow and then lots of rain and hail and more rain. 


 


I thought I was going to go to the library while my girls did their cleaning job, but Hannah did not have to work so she took them.  So I got to stay home.  Jacob, Sierra, Isaac and I went down to the barn and cleaned out the stall area and I put down fresh stove pellets (I use wood stove pellets for stall bedding).  I then cleaned out the people side of the barn.  Later in the day my daughters hauled out the milking stanchion and I gave it a good scrubbing and disinfecting.  Tonight we are separating mama and kids so I can officially start milking again.. Yea!! 


 


Later in the afternoon I managed to get some shampoo bars wrapped up.  I have more soap to get made this weekend, and my line of baby products to work on..  They will be ready for sale by about the middle of this month. 


 


Emily managed to get 2 more skirts cut out while I was wrapping soap up.  We put a hold on our quilt project so we can get some skirts made for Sewing Seeds. 


 


The girls asked if they could make breakfast for dinner tonight..  so I said sure!!  They made whole wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon.  That is fun to do occasionally.


 


Our evening has been quiet..  Tobin is working on some needed things, the girls are having some sister time, the boys are, well..  being boys.. LOL.. too much noise and too much energy for me!! Haa.. haa..      and I am blogging again!!  Yea!! 


 


Hope every one had a great day on their homesteads!! 


 


 

Comments

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