Updates from the Homestead

-

 


 


Today is slightly overcast with the promise that some of it may burn off, we will see.  In any case it is not raining or cool so it will be a perfect afternoon to get out in the garden.  I have been trying to get to some weeding done for the last few days but life has been busy, busy.  The kids and I have kept up with the watering and I weed some as we water.  We have to water by hand right now.  I have a spring near the garden that we use to water but because there is not a lot of elevation from the spring pond to the garden, I can’t use sprinklers.  And because it is a pond with pond debris in it, I can’t use soaker hoses.. they get plugged up.  So we water with watering cans until the plants are bigger and then we use PVC pipe and do “ditch irrigation” along the side of the rows.  The system works quite well. 


Tobin is working on Emily’s little red Jetta again today.  There was some problem with the back wheel and he has been fixing that and taking care of other car maintenance at the same time.  Emily asked the yesterday, “What do people who don’t have dads to take care of their cars do?”.  We both chuckled at this and said..  “They have to take their cars to a mechanic and pay for repairs”.    As she is thinking about life on her own one day I think she had even more of an appreciation on how well her dad takes care of her.     I will say that in over 25 years of life with my man I have never had to worry about having car issues while out and about.  He is so incredibly responsible in keeping up with car maintenance (he even has a spread sheet to keep track of when and what he does on all our vehicles)..  I think it is the aircraft mechanic in him (airplane mechanics is all about scheduled maintenance).   


Leanne is now home and I have all my chicks back in the nest for a bit.  She was house sitting and caring for Miss Margaret (the little 90+ year old lady she watches while her son and his wife vacation).  I always miss her when she is gone.  She was gone for a week and last night was so happy to be home.  She is homebody just like her mom . 


Jacob and Sierra are working to finish up the last of their schooling.. should be done with it all very soon.  Testing should be this month.  I need to call the lady who does this for us and see when it will be.  Then we will officially be done with the school year.   


Yesterday Sierra and I made 4 gallons of my granola.  Hopefully that will last us for a month or so!  


Today on my to-do list I have my regular Wednesday chores, laundry, and dinner preps.  I am going to make an Oriental Chicken Salad for dinner and maybe some bread sticks or dinner rolls to go with it.  I also need to make up some more kefir. Granola and kefir smoothies make a great summertime breakfast.  After the to-do list is done I will head to the garden.   


Hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday on your Homesteads!! 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 4, 2009 at 3:56 AM

    Sounds great! We've been busy on our farm as well, there's never a dull moment is there? Love the Blog... God Bless.


    - Christina

    Snowbound Farms

    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