Friday, March 15, 2013

Yesterday was full of awesomeness. Money spending awesomeness, but still awesomeness.

Photo Credit: Andie712b

I got a sewing machine, which I have been wanting for a few years. I got promised one over a year ago but the person who promised it has never come up with it, so I went looking at a thrift store. Found a great one, that had all the manuals. So, then, of course, I had to buy fabric. I will be making some aprons next week.

I also got a scale, which I need for selling stuff on Etsy, so I was super excited to find that. I was not the only one excited. As i was carrying the scale out to the car, some lady stopped me and offered to buy it from me. It has a huge base so i wasn't willing to do that, but I did point her into the Thrift Store, where they had others.

While i was browsing at the thrift store, I found a Spiderman comforter. My youngest daughter's bedspread recently got mangled when Bellatrix the puppy got ahold of the edge while she was in her cage when we weren't home, so she definitely needed a new one. And, she loves Spiderman. She was so excited when she saw it. Best $3.00 I've spent in awhile.

At Walmart I picked up a set of those pans that turns tortillas into taco salad shells in the oven, marked down on clearance to $7.00. I've been wanting one of those for quite awhile as well. I'm wondering about baking bread in it.

When I got home I went looking for fabric online. I found some cute dark red and brown striped material that will make a great accent for the new curtains I desperately need for the living room. I ordered swatches, so I can get solid material to match at a cheaper price locally, then I'll order a few yards of the striped material, which is about $8/yard, to accent the curtains. I love the idea of having a little bit of color in the curtains. If I have enough left over, I may use the same fabric for my bedroom, with a different main color. I got a swatch with light blues and yellows for the bathroom and laundry room. I am thinking about doing a fabric shower curtain (with a regular liner) so I may use that there as well. Those rooms are both south facing and get a lot of sunlight year round, and in the winter, they are the brightest rooms, so I'm hoping using the bright colors in those rooms will keep them looking cheerful all year long.

Last night's dinner was taco salad. It's too bad that I didn't have time to make tortillas so we could use our pans. But with being gone for so long,

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Photo Credit: Ken_Mayer

I'm sitting here in the living room, having accomplished absolutely nothing except getting the kids fed, dressed, and out the door for school, and a single load of laundry into the washer. There's a fire going in the wood stove, the dogs are sleeping, and the cats are mostly being lazy, and trying to get to the remains of the cornbread we had with breakfast.

Well, the lazy won't last for long. I'll enjoy it while it's here.

Our warm weather continues. High 50s today. I'm hoping to get dirty outside this afternoon, although, by the looks of things, it's still pretty chilly outside. It looks cold and gray right now. I'm hoping that improves quickly, as it's almost time to feed the chickens and take the dogs outside.

Yesterday the three youngest and I got a new bale of straw put into the chicken coop. The kids had a blast spreading the straw around, finding themselves covered in it. There was much giggling and grinning. Perfect way to spend a late winter afternoon, if you ask me. We threw some scratch down and let the chickens go at it, to get the straw a little more spread out.

We also got strawberries and apples into the dehydrator. I'll be checking the strawberries in a bit, they should be done at this point. I have about twelve more pounds of apples to do, so there will be lots of time spent in the kitchen today! I'm also planning on making granola, so it will be awesome to be able to do some batches with the dried fruit.

Monday, March 4, 2013

I hate Mondays.

Photo Credit: DeusXFlorida

Between being gone most of the day on Sunday for grocery shopping, and the results of said grocery shopping, I always have a lot to do on Mondays. Add to that, I didn't have hot water on Saturday. For some reason, the pilot light on my hot water heater randomly decides to go out, and I can never manage to get it relit.

Today's list includes seventeen loads of laundry (not really), twelve pounds of cheese to grate (really) and freeze, six pounds of strawberries to do something with, and twenty pounds of apples to core and slice for the dehydrator. The chickens will be happy today, with all of the scraps.

We're getting about six eggs a day now.

I bought bins this weekend to get all of the chicken stuff, except feed, stored in, and the materials to build the hanging chicken feeder. We lost a lot of feed this winter because the feed bowl is down on the ground in the coop, so the chickens walk in it, and poop in it. We have the same issue with the water, but I ordered these waterers, and I'm hoping that solves the poop  problem entirely. While we're not losing anything with the poopy water, it's a giant PITA to bleach out the water bowl when it's 17 degrees outside.

Today I will also be adding a bale of straw to the chicken coop. I do the deep litter method, so I add a bale every 3-4 weeks. I may be adding more often in summer, depending on the smell and bug count. I'll be buying twenty or so bales next week to have on hand. That should get me through the next year, depending on how much I end up adding over the summer.

Dinner tonight is carnitas. I love it when I can put almost everything for dinner into the crockpot and leave it all day.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Yesterday was warmer still. We've gone from lots of snow in the yard to lots of mud. Still have sick kids home with a cough. I'm hoping it will be warm enough and not windy enough that we can go outside and let them get some warmth and sunlight to help.

Some days seem like I move in a circle from kitchen to laundry room to living room to outisde for something, and yesterday was one of those days. I do enjoy it, though. Some days, I'm in the kitchen for six hours or more a day. But it's all in the name of providing the healthiest food I can for my family.

Photo Credit: La.Catholique

This is radical homemaking. Perhaps we could even call it retro homemaking. Maybe our grandmothers did it. For sure, in most cases, our great grandmothers did it. For centuries, farmwives have been tending the garden, preserving the food, tending the livestock, at least those for home use. They have known animal husbandry, seasonal eating, planting by the signs of the moon, how to make lard, soap, and the best feed for their animals.

As technology advanced, women began to move out of the kitchen and off the homestead. Workplaces became open to them, either by choice or by necessity. And a few generations or so ago, women began actively fighting for their rights to do things like vote and own property of their own and work. Whatever you think of feminism, the be all end all of it is that women have a choice. A plethora of choices, if you will. You choices are based on your wants and needs, as are mine.

So I am proudly a radical homemaker.

We have better technology now, and can do more, faster. It's not that I want to undo any of that. It's that I want to know that I can do it. It's that I need that connection, that touchstone, to the past. It's that our food supply is full of artificial that and GMO'd this and frankly, I want to move away from that. But mostly, it's that I want to give my children a legacy, and past full of memories and skills they can hold on to as they grow. Sure, dance lessons or soccer would give them the same thing, but those things aren't available here, and if we lived in the city, we probably wouldn't be able to afford them. This love for the earth, respect for the food, knowledge of where their food comes from-that I can give them.

And some days, being a radical homemaker means I spend six hours in the kitchen. Yesterday's circuit went something like this

Dishes
Laundry
Check the fire
Clean in some room
Check the fire
Sprouts
Dishes
Check the fire
Sit for ten minutes
Lather, rinse, repeat

That's all in a normal day here.

We did go by our little local market. We don't shop there often because their prices are generally higher, but I found myself in dire need of something or other (yes, it was probably chocolate) so we went. I stumbled onto a bounty of fresh vegetables on sale. I bought some cucumbers, which I will pickle with onions in vinegar in the fridge for Mr. S., and some carrots that will go into the dehydrator. I found a package of marked down tomatoes that won't last long, but Mr. S. will enjoy them sliced with dinner for the next few days. He's the only one that will eat tomatoes like that.

Since we had carrots and cucumbers I decided to buy a head of lettuce, and made some ranch dressing mix when we got home. I used this recipe and while I'll have to agree that it made phenomenal ranch, the mix itself did not fit into a quart sized canning jar. I have it sitting in a baggie until I can use more and then I will move it into a jar.

Dinner last night was the aforementioned salad, and spaghetti and garlic bread. It was fantastic!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I didn't have time to write yesterday. By the time everything got done in the freezing cold and snow, and I finally got R. down to sleep with his cough under control, I was wiped out. I had planned to write while I waited for the dishwasher to finish but that just wasn't happening.

I got all of the farm chores done, including working the dogs for as long as I could stand to be outside. I brought in some firewood, covered in snow, so it would have time to dry before we needed it, mentally saying unkind things about the kid who lost my winter work gloves. I'll have to do it all over again today, but it's supposed to be at least ten degrees warmer today and I can see the sun is shining. It's amazing the difference that ten degrees can make!

Photo Credit: Watt Publishing

I spent some time doing some research on turkeys, and getting a few questions answered on BackyardChickens.com. I think we'll have to wait until at least next year to get turkeys, which will bum out Mr. S. He was looking forward to having that scrumptiousness on the dinner table. But they can't roost with chickens and need a larger pen, and we need to get the chicken run expanded and the garden fenced.

I made mayo for the first time. It wasn't fluffy and it didn't get very thick. I used a whisk and will try the blender next time. Since I just needed it for making Ranch dressing, it was fine.

We've been trying to find ways to reclaim some of our water. We use a LOT of water. I am able to reclaim the overflow from the clothes washer, and yesterday I reclaimed about 5 gallons from sprout rinsing and running water to get it hot. It all goes outside. Last night it was cold and snowy, so I just dumped it in the yard. We have several garden areas and trees where we can dump the water. As soon as I find a natural dish detergent that actually works, I will put together some kind of reclamation system for the kitchen sink.

Last night we had sloppy joes, fried potatoes, and salad for dinner. I crave salad in January like nobody's business.