Homemaking on 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 so...

I am just loving my little garden!   It has only been one week (and a couple days) since we planted it but already I have little plants growing.   Why should this surprise me?   I don’t know but it always does..   Seeing the wonders of God always has me in awe.      Here are a few pics of the garden.   I was standing in the back for this one.   If you look closely you can see the green sprouts coming up….     This one is from the front of the garden looking back..   We put the tomato cages on Sunday afternoon..     In one week here is what my beans are looking like..   And my corn…   Today I need to weed..   again..     and mulch..          

  I usually make potato salad like my mother did.. mayo, pickle juice, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, hard boiled eggs, onions, pickles and of course potatoes... never really measure anything. Last night we were grilling some steaks on the bbq and Tobin really wanted potato salad to go with the dinner. But I was completely out of pickles. So I searched online and found a recipe that I modified somewhat and it was delicious!! Tobin and Emily loved it and want me to make it again..   I thought I would share it with you..   Potato Salad 4 very large potatoes (I am guessing about 4lbs) ½ to 1 onion, chopped finely 6 hard boiled eggs salt, to taste     Dressing 2 eggs, beaten 1/3 cup cane juice crystals 1 ½ t cornstarch ½ cup vinegar ½ cup half in half 1 t prepared yellow mustard ¼ cup butter 1 cup mayonnaise ( I used my homemade mayo and it worked great) salt & pepper, to taste   Wash an...

Today we got the garden in!!   Woo Hoo!!     Six of us (me and the kids) spent 2 1/2 hours in the beautiful sunshine and got everything planted..   now we just have to keep it going! LOL..   We planted lettuce, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, corn, flowers and tomato and cucumber plants….   I have a HUG E garden area and in the past have planted the whole thing.   I knew I was not up for that this year so we planted about 1/3 of it..    Here is a pic.. not a whole lot to see at this point..   but soon it will be full of veggies! .. This morning when I got up I decided to get the angel food cake made for shortcake. I knew I would be outside working in the garden and then it would be time to make dinner and I wanted to get it done before that. When I was out shopping yesterday I bought 8lbs of strawberries at Costco.   The kids had already eaten 4lbs of them and if I did not get that cake made the other 4lbs would be...

    The sun came out this week it was so nice!   Hubby did some wood gathering; time to start another year of getting in the winter wood.   We still start a fire some days to take the chill off, but I see that changing soon.   We are almost out of wood now.      This week Tobin spent a couple hours or so letting Leanne get some driving practice in.   She has her permit and is now working on her license.   She will be driving by summer’s end, I am sure.      I finally ordered seeds for my garden this week, they should arrive today.   I was not sure if I was going to have a garden but my girls really wanted one and I figured this summer does not look anywhere near as busy as last summer was so I think we can stay on top of it.   I will also buy some plants (tomatoes and cucumbers) and hopefully we will have it all planted by this weekend.   Tobin rototilled the garden on Monday for the 3rd time so it sho...

  My recent blog post “to-do lists revisited” I talked about my kids doing chores.   I had a comment/question:   Hi Crystal, how do you get your children involved with your chores? Mine do not want to help, they want to play. When I force them to help, they complain the whole time. I am so exhausted of asking all the time for them to do their chores - just set up the table, fill the glass with water. They are 7 and 10 and I don't think that asking for help to set up the table is expecting too much from them? What do you think? No, I don’t think you are asking to much from them in any way.   You asked how I get my children involved with chores.   It is part of their childhood training.   Chores are not an option or something annoying that must be done.. it is just part of life..   kind of like eating and school, etc..    It is a basic that when we make messes.. we clean them up. It is part of living real life.     I...

Sherri asked in my last blog post how to sign up for my newsletter.   I send it out through Yahoo Groups.   You can go to the newsletters homepage:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomesteadHappenings/    and sign up.   I also have a sign up box on the main page of my website:   http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com   just scroll about halfway down the page.