Homemaking on the Homestead

Good Morning! I slept in a bit this morning and it felt great. I've been getting up to get outside and walk/run before it gets to hot. Today is not supposed to be as warm so I figured I could sleep in and get out later on.  It's been a relatively easy going week.  I've mostly kept busy with home things. We'll be leaving soon to go down to California to be with our daughter who is due to have a baby. We are hoping to be there for the birth, but don't want to leave to early. First babies seem to run a bit late in our family. I've been doing a little prepping and pre packing to be ready to leave when the time is right.  I also got my kitty, Pila, to the vet's office this last week to be fixed. So no more babies. Hopefully she'll settle down to be a nice house cat now. If she does escape (like she did earlier this year) I don't have to worry about kittens.  We've been enjoying the lovely summer evenings, sitting outside and ...

Good Morning! How is your week going? Mine has been good. I've been getting up early and getting out to take my walk before the heat sets in for the day. I love the freshness of the morning. I took a couple of pics to share. The lake and mountains were so pretty this morning.. Hubby finally took down the dead tree next to our pond. It was a white alder tree and from what I understand they don't have a huge life span. I'm pretty sure they were planted here well over 30 years ago. There are a couple more that need to come down as well. I'm always sad to see the trees come down..  It will, however, give us a nice bunch of fire wood for the winter!  Goals I'll be sticking around the house today. I'm expecting a phone call and I want to make sure I'm around.  Homemaking Chores for today: ~2 loads of laundry ~sweep & mop kitchen floor ~shake out rugs in the hallway and mop the hallway floor That's ab...

Good Morning! How is your week going? Mine has been good. :)  I decided to make use of the cool morning and got out and did my workout this morning before getting this post out. I finally did make a batch of soap. It almost turned into a disaster. I had the soap started in the crockpot and the phone rang, I went and picked it up and was talking for a couple of minutes when I remembered my soap. I walked back into the kitchen to see it all cooking away, right up and out of the crockpot and all over my counter! I was able to stir it down and salvage most of what had spilled out. After all my soap making years I do know that you should NEVER walk away while making soap. Ha! I'll be more careful next time.  I scented it with peach fragrance oil and got it cut up. It smells so good. Even though it is ready to use because I make hot process soap, the bars are still soft. So I lay the bars out after I cut them and let the excess moisture evaporate for a week o...

Good Morning! I hope you are having a great week so far! I woke up this morning to some beautiful sunshine! I'm certainly enjoying the fact that summer has arrived. I sat on my deck drinking my coffee and soaking in the warmth. I took this pic down my driveway.. A couple of weeks ago my Hubby was in Home Depot and was looking for something and lost his footing and a large, heavy bracket fell right down on his left index finger. It bled horribly and was very swollen. It was late in the afternoon when he got home and felt like it would be fine. The next morning it was still badly swollen so he went in to the doctor. The doctor said there was no infection and asked if he wanted an x-ray. Hubby said no, he'd wait for it to heal up on its own. To make a long story short, after 2 weeks it was still in bad shape and he went in yesterday again. This time they insisted on an x-ray and discovered it was broken.  I'm waiting now for the call f...

Good Afternoon! After a month of busyness my life is finally settling back down to my normal routines. While it was a wonderful time, I have to admit the peace and quiet is so nice! :)  On Friday we got up at 3:00 AM and were out the door by 3:45 heading to the airport to take my grandson on his journey home. He was flying by himself and we were able to escort him thru security and wait for him to board his plane.  We got thru security and then got some breakfast sandwiches at the McDonald's that was there.  I wanted to make sure he had something to eat before his 7 hours of flying time. I also made sure he had some snacks with him as well.  When the time came we hugged and kissed him goodbye and he got on the plane. We stayed to see the plane roll out.. He had a good flight and arrived in Kentucky on time and was picked up by my daughter (his mama).  On Sunday my son and I decided to go and do another hike. I'll s...

Good Morning! Happy Wednesday friends!  We're in the countdown of days left with my grandson. He's been here almost a month and we've loved it. He's got to see lots of uncles, aunts, cousins and of course grandma & grandpa. It's been fun having him here.  This last week he spent a lot of time with my youngest son, his uncle Isaac, and it's so great that they have formed such a nice bond together.  I'm certain he'll go home with lots of fun summer memories.  Yesterday Grandpa taught him how to drive the tractor and he had a good time with that..   My little kitties are growing up and ready to leave the nest and I'm ready for them to go! I need to get some more pictures today of them and see if I can find them homes. They are super cute, but, I'm done with it now :) Time for me to get mama cat fixed so we don't have this happen again.  I was able to get pics of 2 of them, the third one hid behind...

Good Morning! It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me. My normally quiet little life has been anything but that! :) But it's also been so enjoyable and full of fun.  I had family that started rolling in last week on Wednesday. My daughter and her boyfriend from California and their cute little fur babies were the first to arrive. My son from Ohio was next in line. My other daughters in California could not make it and my daughter in Kentucky could not be here. This year we had 5 out of our 8 children here with their families.  One of these years everyone's schedule will be able to line up and they can all make it to our yearly family get together.  We also had friends and my niece here as well making for a very full house.  I loved every minute of it.  Here are some pics from our time together (we also had an evening of fireworks but I didn't get any pics of that as I was helping with kids and taking pics in the dark is not that...

Good Morning! How are things going for you this morning?  I hope all is well.  I woke up to a very cool feeling house. I had a couple windows open and shut them and then went and started a little fire. Yep, it's June 19th and I'm still needing to make fires to heat up the house now and then. I know the real summer will come eventually and there will be a nice break in the fire making. Which is good as we are close to being out of wood. This last week was good and busy. I had a couple trips to town, went on a hike with my oldest son, chatted with my oldest daughter to see how her 2 weeks of duty had gone (she's Army Reserves) and had a visit with my youngest son, a doctors appointment and other bits.  Hubby has been working on our barn doing some repairs. We don't have animals anymore but the barn needs to be maintained and mice and moles were having a great time in there.  He's repaired the foundation in areas and is putting down a new ...