I have Sprouts!

So my tomato seeds have started sprouting, I just now have to ensure the in house temp stays warm enough for them to grow properly. My older daughter came come with some info on a free gilt through her ag teacher. I am hoping as they go back to school the little one is still available. Seems it is a heritage breed but has a bad back leg. Shrugs A injured back leg does not mean she would not grow well or even be able to breed depends on how she handles the leg as she grows.

We have to spend part of today working on cutting more firewood as we're behind on it. Weather is ugly temperature wise today but we have to do it. We are also going to start working on our homestead projects as well. One of which is a storage building for hay and straw, our outdoor kitchen as well.

I still have to butcher some roosters in my flock, the Leghorn roosters are beating each other up, granted it's only 2 of the three of them doing it. The two Turken roosters are behaving, so I'm not sure why they are.

Not much else going on.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Silly Things in Life.

There are some really silly words/phrases in the English language and sometimes other ideas are strange as well. Example... “They shot him dead.” So can someone shoot someone alive? Really, come on folks think about it. The phrase is just downright silly.

We even have silly things in gardening, Everytime I look up how to grow something different, everything says “sandy loam” is the perfect soil to grow “X” item. So what doesn't like sandy loam if you are going to grow it? Think on it how many things tell you that what you want to grow wants hard pan, or heavy clay soil?

On the concept of silly things in existence, P.E. class at my kids' school. Now, this school always has the money at the end of the school year to buy all the seniors a gift because they are graduating. However, they don't wish to keep up the gym floor constantly so all of the children are required to have brand new gym shoes that have never been worn outside for the kids to wear for gym class. Otherwise they are required to do P.E. in just socks, which personally I have an issue with.

Now anyone who regularly reads my blog knows that I am a Pagan, and I let the kids go to a local baptist church as it's what they want. I discovered something that is done there that I have an issue with. They bribe the kids with candy to learn their bible verses, and to get them to keep coming back. That isn't right because it shows kids that you only want what someone is willing to pay you to do something. Also I find it wrong that kids are gaining belief in something because someone is paying them to believe in it. What happened to following with your heart?

As for a homestead update, tomorrow barring rain we pick up rabbits and we just got the rabbittry built yesterday. It has temporary sides on it at the moment (tarps) but it is weather proof, as Harriet and Snowball have shown us as they did not get wet with all the rain we had last night and this morning. We have constructed a new sawdust toilet for the building my and Silver are in for this winter, it still needs a seat on it, but shrugs we'll get there. Granted it would have been great to have had it done this morning with the downpour and all the lightning we had. The garden is still producing tomatoes, cucumbers,peppers, and squashes. Seems we did have one pumpkin on the vine, however once it started turning orange it started rotting away. The chickens loved it.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Snow Days ...Gods When Will it End...?

Firstly.. Sorry to not have written anything in a while. Life in general has been hectic here.

Now about Snow days... the first year we were hear we had sooo much fun with them. Seemed like every other week the school would cancel days on end. Well in the last 2 months aside from the normal time off they have had an additional 2 and a half weeks off. ...and last week it got ridiculous. The last couple days they had off there was no snow on the ground and one of them was a day it rained all day. I jokingly said on Facebook that it wasn't a snow day it was a “rain day”.

It was so bad that back on Monday I joked about the fact they'll call school off on account of heat... as it was in the 50's in January. The intense cold did give us a minor problem. Our pipes froze, just one segment and it was the important one. The outside pipe leading to the house from the well. So instead of waiting for thaw we just went out and bought some PEX pipe and re ran it.

On the pigs we were going to get... Seems they died in the cold we had along with the goats these people owned. Now my only problem with this is that we own 1 goat. She lives in a shelter made of tarps, concrete board and some rolled roofing. Theirs had a post beam structure and 3 goats in total. I'd think the three goats would be able to keep each other warm. While the only help my goat had was hock deep straw and my daughter's blanket. Shrugs

We got our van which was out of commission working again. Spent over $300 on the repairs till we replaced the right thing. Funny thing is everything we replaced needed it, but wasn't the problem till we got to the final one. It was the MAP sensor something that costs $40. Well at least we now have a new...

Fuel pump

Fuel filter

Distributor cap

ECM

Spark Plugs

Spark Plug Cables

..so we know if something else happens they won't be those.

My son gets to go on his first maneuvers with the National Guard next weekend, hope he enjoys it. Right now all we are currently doing is making plans for the building we are going to do. The house is low on the list, have so many other things we need doing first. Well house, outdoor kitchen, layer house/yard, goat house/yard, pig pen (as we are planning on trying for some other pot bellied s).

Well That's it for Now.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Bulb Planting Day

Yep I'm going out today to plant some flower bulbs, the ones we ordered months ago showed up early this week.  Due to the rain we were suppose to get (we only got rain 1 day) we decided to wait till today to plant them.  I do not know if they will grow today or in a year.  My cabbages and other planting seem to have taken and this morning I'll have to see if they got too cold last night due to frost.  Which is amazing due to the fact we were in the high 70's the other day.

I have jumped off the "no-poo" bandwagon, Ok not jump I dived head first off of it.  I have discovered that I have one BIG issue with going no-poo.  My hair is very dry and very thick, the issue I'd have is that it would take me a couple hours to comb through my tangled knotted hair after "washing" it.  The first time was not bad, but it got steadily worse.  So a couple days ago while in tears and barely combed through the rat's nest that my hair became I gave up and went and used shampoo and conditioner.

Now I will say if I ever needed to live washing my hair in this manner I could do it... however I'd have to cut my hair VERY short to make it easy to comb through.  Actually I did like how my hair felt while I was off shampoo(s), it felt so much better  I would recommend trying it and seeing if it works for you.  Now trying it means for at least a month.  You may be surprised.

Now I want to mention something about the "school lunch thing".

My local news is still covering how kids are still hungry after coming home from school.  Now I have a few comments in reference to this.  Most kids are not use to eating "healthy" foods.  Also most kids are not use to eating a serving size.  Which is generally much smaller than what you get in a fast food place.  This really is a home problem, however... if the kids are suppose to be properly fed at school. Well, then they need to be satisfied.  i know one BIG issue is kids would rather have chips and candy rather than fruit and cold veggies.  Now my kids will do fruit and cold veggies, however they are still coming home hungry.  Well my son is anyway.  His problem is he is a picky eater, which is his own problem.  If he doesn't want to eat enough to be full it's on him, because he refuses to eat some of the entrees they serve.

Now the reason for the change in the school lunch system is because the First Lady is trying to fight childhood obesity.  Good, however there are other ways to combat this.  The biggest one would be to increase Phys Ed, and making it more physical.  Now I say this because I know when we lived in NY my kids had a few weeks of stacking cups.  Now I know it's now considered a  hand-eye coordination sport, however it's not very physically challenging.  When I was in grammar school... many years ago... the first one I was in make the kids run a track for 10 minutes daily.  Now put that on top of sports.  That would help.  Also saying that recess suffices to exercise kids.  Watch what goes on during recess and I'm sure you'll see a lot of kids just hanging out.

So this in my opinion this is being handled wrong.  I hope someone figures this out and maybe changes something that will work better.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Storm is HERE

Well I was woken up at 4am to be informed that yes, the kids would not have school today.  looks out window  EEhh... I don't think they'd make it down the hill to the bus stop anyway with all that ice and freezing rain anyway.  My daughter as the school hadn't posted it last night like 50+ other schools in our area woke me at 6am to ask about school.    I told her there would be no school so she went back to bed.  However I couldn't, so I got up and fed the dogs and cats; and the fire needed tending.  So now here me and Silver are watching the radar, listening to the weather woman.  

We are hoping the ice won't be too bad, Silver already commented that due to the amount of it we won't be driving any where in the next couple of days due to the ice on our van.  It should thaw on Saturday though as we are suppose to hit 50 again.  Our other concern with the ice (aside from power outage that is) is the possibility of trees/branches coming down from weight.  I know it happened in the last ice storm years ago, so it is a concern.

So now I have kids home and quote "bored" as there is "nothing to do".  I don't remember being so bored as a kid as I could not find something to do.  I guess it has to do with all the electronic devices out there as the kids seem to think if they aren't gaming on something when they can't go outside that there is "nothing" to do.  Considering how many books I "chewed" through as a kid you'd think my kids would do the same.  I'm not saying I don't have a reader... my reader however reads only one set of books over and over again.  shugs  I don't understand it, but I guess that just makes me old.

Well, I need to go help Silver with the breakfast we are making the kids. So, stay warm and dry everyone!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Storm A-Coming

Well it looks like this will be another day without working outside as a ice storm is headed this way.  Last time there was an ice storm in this area a few years before we moved here there was wide spread power outages, some lasting a couple of weeks.  So in a few hours we are going to be setting up some emergency water as with having a well means if there is no power you have no water.

The first thing we did this morning (well after feeding everybody of course) was to go out and cover our wood pile, just to ensure that we will have usable dry wood that isn't frozen solid.  I'm going to have my son dig out the hatchet for just in case when he gets home from school.  We got the wood pile covered with one of the tarps we bought to keep cement dry, as when we start buying it we will be buying in small amounts till we have enough to work on the house with.

We're making up a "vat" of chili which will be good if the power goes out as we could set it on the wood burner to keep hot  for us to eat as needed.  The only concern I will have if the power goes out will be the water issue as we don't have enough things to store water in for emergencies right now.  I'm going to be using my sugar bucket as there is no sugar in it right now.

With the possibilities this brings, it has one more.  That one is that the kids may not have school tomorrow, which would be annoying as they had Monday off of school for President's day.  From what it appears as I sit here watching the radar for the last couple of hours the storm seems to be moving a tad faster than the weather men said it would and I believe it will be here in the next couple of hours.  Which doesn't bother me aside from wondering how easily the kids will be coming home.  As the school calls off days when there is a tiny bit of snow, as they do not think the buses can handle the dirt roads in the bad weather.  So it makes me wonder.

I know when we lived in New York there was not as much trouble getting the kids to or from school in bad weather.  Those buses had chains that are always on the bus, they just descend when needed and attach tot he tires then.  When not needed they detach and go back into their "holding" area.  These buses here don't have them, so I wonder if it starts to get bad will they call home requesting parents pick up their kids up or will they close early after watching the radar and send them via bus?

Well I have to go out and check on the chickens before this gets here, have a good day all and stay warm!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

BBBRRRRR... It's cold outside!

Lovely early Monday morning for those of you in the US!  

I got the kids up this morning and found out some of the local schools are closed due to the temps it is 15 F outside right now which is about -15 C   I imagine those schools are having either heating issues or had pipes burst, as my kids still have school, they aren't happy about it; but that is life.  I remember the one time I figured I'd get off of school when I was in middle school, we had; had thunder snow the night before.  When we discovered we still had school the next day I found out that the snow was up to my hips.

I'm just kinda amazed that the schools are open today as 2 winters ago they closed school when we had about 4 inches of snow on our car bumper.  I just hope they stay warm enough, they all have nice coats for cold.  My son is just the type that thinks 40's is good shorts and no coat weather.

I had to take the chickens some boiling water this morning to thaw their water and I will probably have to do it again in a couple of hours.  I'm trying them out on wild bird seed at this moment as we ran out of chicken feed on a day that the feed store was closed.  I'll let you know if I notice any changes in their egg production.  I am planning on eventually to do my own animal feed.  It might start this year as I'm going to try growing Amaranth this year and if we get a good crop of it I'm going to try it on the chickens first.

For all of you in the North... Stay warm!  ..and those in the south stay cool!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

HAPPY YULE!!!!

Sometimes life can be very interesting in a week and sometimes nothing happens at all..
or rather nothing of note happens. …
this week isn't one of those quiet ones...
 Last Saturday when I posted I was doing so while we were out grocery shopping, on a very nice warm day, but the day after was even warmer. So warm that me and Silver were able to eat breakfast outside at our outdoor table without coats on. Halfway through December in our climate that's just weird... We did enjoyed it immensely however. Later that day we spent watching a stump burn out in a fire ring we borrowed from Queen Sized Tink and her family. We haven't had a camp fire in a while and it was nice to have.

 I have a couple cute pictures of the last batch of kittens we had that I finally got around to tinkering with. Merlin and Lady have had their moments of oddity just like our other cats. The first is of Lady on the food dehydrator:
 
 Then little Merlin in the pot from making my spaghetti, I thought it looked like he was searching for food.
 I also have a picture I took in October of the pond we're digging out full of water. I have tried out a new recipe, it is for sourdough pretzels; they were very good so try it out:
 Sponge:
 1C sourdough starter
 1 ½ C white flour
 1C warm water
 Remove the starter from your refrigerator and stir it well. Take out one cup and place it in a warm bowl of 2 quart or larger capacity. Return your starter to the refrigerator. Add the warm water and stir until well mixed. Slowly add the white flour stirring continuously to blend the flour in well. You want the mixture to be smooth, you may use an egg beater or an electric mixer. Cover and set in a warm place to proof, this can be 8-12 hours. I let mine go overnight.

 Pretzels:
 1 ½ C sponge
 1 C HOT water
 2 T butter
 3 T sugar
 2 t salt
 5 ½ C flour
 1 egg yolk
 2 T thick cream or evaporated milk
 The first thing you wish to do is stir up your sponge and return 1 cup of it to your starter, replenishing it. Then with the rest of your ingredients at room temperature, you can start your prep. Add the 2 T butter, 3 T sugar, and 2 t salt to the 1 C of hot water stir and cool till lukewarm. Put the sponge in a warm bowl (btw I just use the bowl I proofed in), add the water mix to it and stir in. Add 4 cups of the flour, ½ a cup at a time stirring after each addition. This will get very stiff! Turn out onto a floured board and knead in approximately 1 ½ cups more of the flour. The dough will be very stiff. Place in a greased bowl, turn over and cover. Let set for 2 hours to proof (please note it DOES NOT SAY until doubled). On a board that has been scraped clean of flour break off pieces of dough about the size of a large egg. Roll each piece out with your palms of your hands until it is about 18 inches long and ½ inch in diameter. Twist into the shape of a pretzel. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush them with a mixture of the egg yolk and the cream. Cover and place in a warm 85 degree spot for 30 minutes for proofing. Then brush with the yolk/cream mixture again and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
 I can tell you it was a very good batch of pretzels, Silver commented that they were better than any we have bought in any store.
 Last night was Yule for those of you who celebrate it, and Silver and I attempted to stay up all night with a fire lit in the same fire ring from Tink. We set up piles of wood for the night and even a kitchen for some foods were were going to cook over the fire.
  The only problem we encountered was that we were too tired to keep it going come midnight. So what we did do was bring the wood that was burning into the house and put it into the wood stove and set it up to keep burning all night. This morning it was still burning and all that was needed was to set a couple extra pieces on the fire to get a good flame going.

 I would like to take a moment to mention something that has been in the news for well over a week now.

(*steps on soapbox*) The shooting disaster at the Connecticut school, personally I think it was a horrible tragedy. I also believe in gun rights, HOWEVER... I do have an issue with people who buy assault rifles or large magazines and say they have them for hunting. If you need that many bullets to shoot a food animal then there is a problem with you.

Also that being said … if guns are taken away the only ones who will have them are cops and crooks... BECAUSE crooks don't care how they get the weapons in the first place so removing the legal way of getting them doesn't stop crimes. The crooks will still get the weapons if they want them.

 I hate to say it but in this day and age, if someone wants to commit a violent crime they -WILL-, if they don't care what happens to them after the fact legality won't prevent it. This is something that those who are in power either don't care about or forget “conveniently”.

 I do hope that person who killed those kids who never had a chance to live burns in what ever version of HELL they believe in. I also hope people don't forget that some of those kids killed might have siblings that need hearts and hands reaching out to help them. The other kids that -survived- this tragedy will have a horrible emotional scar that they will carry for a very long time just due to the fact of how old they are.

 Now here is something else to think on about this crime. In many countries around the world this happens daily... and no one notices or seems to care. It happens in an American school and the world stares at it. We need to stop this WORLDWIDE... not just here.(*steps off soapbox*)

 http://youtu.be/fDTKypXUwoI

I hope everyone had a good Yule and that all have a Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you have.

 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be... .

Semi Random thoughts...

I have been so lazy this last week, we started working on the sanctuary , by cutting down the couple of sapling that have sprouted in the space. That is all we have done here this week in reality, and I really need to get out and clear some space in my berry patch as it's getting a tad overgrown with plants that are not berry producers.

I also need to clear out the non-potato plants from my potato bed, I guess it's just been the warm last couple of days making me not want to go out and work. I plan on going out and working tomorrow if it's not raining, as we are suppose to have on and off rain for the next seven days here.

I had an interesting thought the other day on HFCS(high fructose corn syrup), now except for the very random soda when we go out and I need some sugar in my system; we have pretty much removed this substance from our diet. Except for ketchup, and I mention this for one reason. I generally put it on burgers myself, and the other day for the heck of it I put it on some of our home made fries. I did a “yuck” immediately. It's weird as I know why I got the “yuck” it is the HFCS as I've had some ketchup that has none in it and those taste “normal” to me. However, the kind I recently picked up as my son is a ketchup hound uses it.

So I can honestly say that HFCS does add “flavor” to the products it's in, and if you are no longer use to “tasting” it on a regular basis you will notice it. I know I did, Silver did as well. I know my kids don't notice it as they eat meals at school, which we all know is filled with foods that contain this ingredient in it. I really am considering setting up “home” lunches for the next school year, and getting the kids off it; but it might be a loosing battle. I say this because my kids do get “rewarded” by teachers with soda pop, candy, and chips. How do you stop that? The schools obviously have no issues with it, and neither do the teachers.

It kinda goes back to my complaint about the local churches using candy to get kids to participate in their churches. I understand rewarding good work, trust me; it is the easiest way to get a child to work. However, I think there is a better way. I know all kids like coloring.. even older ones, I have seen it. They all also like stickers (who doesn't?), and little “sticky” things. They could even reward kids with more computer time.

Come on folks.. how about trying????

Speaking of the kids, they will be out of school on the 14^th of May, I think that's a bit early. I know they didn't have snow days this year, but it's still odd to me to see kids out of school before June. I don't think they are doing a heck of a lot right now either as they took the “mandated” standardized tests a week ago and the kids have not come home with any homework since. My son said they are doing their “final” exams right now in the high school, but he only had to take one; and that in all the other classes he's watching movies. What ever happened to teaching the full year?

I'm a little sorry this has turned into a bit of a gripe session on here today.. but trust me I could go on a tad more, about much more. Tink knows why, but here is not really the place to vent on certain subjects. I would like to thank her in advance for the plants she is passing along, I've had so much troubles getting melons to grow; she's going to be passing some starts onto me. I love melons and have been disappointed that the last two years I have not been able to get them to grow.

I am “working” on some bread loaves today, one straight sourdough, the second is a sourdough with oatmeal, flaxseed, and sunflower oil. I hope it comes out good! I have been branching out of late trying out new things with the no knead sourdough and , we had been thinking something. If Silver could get me an outdoor bread oven built and we can find a way to cook multi loaves at once, would I be able to sell them at the local Farmer's market? Do I need a special permit to sell a baked item? I think I will be looking into this. I do love baking and I just get behind on it too. I am also going to see when the kids take their trip this summer if I can pick up some fabric scraps to do some other “projects” that I could sell possibly. I love to sew and I do it all by hand, I have made my kids blankets often from young ages; all from “remnant” pieces of fabric. They love them, and they are very sturdy so I wonder if there is a market for them locally.

Well that's it for now... before I ramble 20 pages or more.... grins

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

How long till school starts again?

WOW this has been a long summer to me, the kids seem to get bored very easy here. For them it's not been as interesting as living in the city was, I can understand that; but unlike them I can find things to do with my time.

Yesterday however I was LAZY... Granted I washed 3 loads of laundry, made breakfast, got the animals fed; and watered our container plants. The problem was, it was too BLOODY HOT! I just could not get the motivation to get up and do anything.

This morning so far I have fed the dogs, watered all the gardens and helped Silver finally put in our chicken nests. Right now I am waiting on water to cool off enough to wash some dishes so we can eat breakfast. Then we are taking baths, and after that I get to pull out the meat for tonight's dinner. Which will be chicken in some form or another.

Now what we did for our chicken nests is in 2 parts (no "filling as yet that will have to wait till the 1st). Part one is a platform that we nailed the 4 buckets to. The platform was made with 2 2X3's, and a piece of the white paneling. We nailed them onto it so they won't move. Now the second part has to do with the fact that we used 2 full sized 2X3's. So as we have more 2X3 that platform the second part is a new roost for the birds. This space covers the whole back half of our chicken coop, the next thing we need to do is make a door so I can start putting them inside at night. Maybe it will motivate them to lay, it can't hurt right?

Well for right now this is it for my post I need to go tend to those dishes.

School countdown less than a month

Be Well, Be Safe and Blessed Be...

WATCH THIS!

Sorry folks I know I'm suppose to write a review on my cooking experiments but PLEASE WATCH THIS!!!!!!!!

http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=407F9AE226C99ACAC328F71E49BDAC52