On Just A Couple Acres

~Vanilla Pudding Recipe~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:34:00 +0000

I've tried many, many different recipes for vanilla pudding over the years. Since we've acquired laying hens and a family milk cow, I've been trying to find recipes that use up the largest amount of those ingredients as possible because let's face it, vanilla pudding is a whole lot quicker to prepare than an angel food cake (to use up some eggs) or cheese (to use up the milk). Cooling time aside, of course.

The problem always seems to be that I never have a consistency that is appetizing. It's either very loose and becomes watery after a day or it will have the dreaded egg chunks in it. No matter how thoroughly I seem to temper the eggs, I always get those nasty little bits of cooked egg. Using just yolks never seems to make the tempering go any "smoother."

Then twice, maybe three times a year, I'll indulge my eldest (Who am I kidding?- And myself too!) and make my Boston Cream Pie recipe. My husband doesn't care too much for it. He likes his pie description to be preceded by words like "apple" and "sweet potato", etc.... But when I remind him he's not the only one around here and bake that Boston Cream Pie, I always marvel at how easy the vanilla filling is to make and how well it turns out, not to mention how delicious it is!

The last time, I decided to try preparing it as though I was preparing pudding and see how it turned out.

And it was perfect.

Always one to push things one step further, or in this case two, I wanted to see how it would set up for a vanilla pudding pie... and if Hannah could make it without any help.

The short answer- Yes on both scores.

{Vanilla Pudding}

2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour or cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
3 c. milk
4 egg yolks
4 t. vanilla

In a medium saucepan whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth and then whisk in the milk.

Gradually whisk the milk & eggs into the saucepan until well combined.

Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until it boils and begins to thicken. Boil, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Spoon into a cups and cover with plastic wrap directly onto of the pudding to prevent the surface from forming a skin. Refrigerate until set and cool, maybe 3-4 hours. Or fill a warm, pre-baked pie crust, cover with plastic wrap in the same manner and chill overnight.

Whisking dry ingredients

Separating yolks

Spilling milk

Adding milk to the yolks

Spooning into a pie crust

The final product

Enjoy!

~Week Four~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

1/22- No photos at all... we had a wonderfully full day, blessed with much fellowship. Quite out of character for most photographers, I never, ever take my camera with me and when I do, I'm far too embarrassed to actually use it. Part of me hopes that through this little project here, I'll become more comfortable with using it in public.

1/23- Oh happy day! Gardening season 2012 officially kicked off and I chit the Red Wing onion seeds in the basement. I noticed this morning that they germinated well and have little curls of roots sprouting from the seed.

1/24- Such a mild winter as we're having, it was brought to my attention that the lettuce seed I broadcast late fall was growing well and in desperate need of thinning. I was shocked to see how thickly it's growing and I couldn't handle the bending over to get much of it done. Besides, it was pretty chilly outside and I wanted to go in. (If only someone had noticed the day before it had been in the 50's!) I'm keeping my eye on the forecast and will try to get out there and pick away at them every day it isn't raining. I gave the rejects to the chickens who were grateful to get some greens.

1/25- With both digital thermometers I purchased this winter breaking within two days of one another and the milk filling the refrigerator fast, I was thankful that Hannah decided she wanted to learn how to make vanilla pudding. She's been blessing us with a wonderful double batch every day this week and will share the recipe with you on Tuesday. It's very simple, virtually fail-proof (no little chunks of eggs!), and delicious!

1/26- Here we go again. This has been the most sickly winter I can remember and another cold is making the rounds. So far, three have been spared and sadly, I'm not among them. I'm not complaining this time though because this is NOTHING compared to the last one.

1/27- The thermometer came!! And just in time! With 8 gallons to process, I've used 2 for mozzarella, 2 for farmhouse cheddar, 1 for cream cheese, 1/2 for vanilla yogurt, 1/2 for 2 more days of pudding, and 1/2 for cultured "buttermilk." Thankfully, I can face the day of rest tomorrow without the thought of all that milk in the back of my mind.

1/28- Today is our monthly basement cleaning day and the next time it rolls around, I will have just days to go before meeting this baby. Since I was in the storage tub anyway finding cloth diaper inserts, I decided to pull some extra homebirth supplies (Yea!! I found two cold packs- I thought I was going to have to go without this time!) and all of the gender neutral clothing we have on hand. I was excited to see we have quite a few newborn diapers left over as well. Is it me or do they grow out of those in a minute and a half?? The birth staring me in the face today has made me a bit anxious since I'm pretty sure the little one has done yet another flop and I feel a head under my ribs and startling large kicking way down low. The rest of the today you'll find me trying to keep my head from exploding doing breech exercises.

~Alphabet Books~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Of course when we're trying to introduce our pre-readers or early readers to the alphabet, we can't forget about books!! As much as we're enjoying our ABC toys, I read to my children... a lot. And why not use that time to start making their introduction into the wonderful world that reading opens up?
As I searched for toys I was interested in purchasing, I also went book "shopping" for titles I'd like to find at the library or maybe add to our personal home library. A couple of these we already have and I recommend, but many more I'm looking forward to reading soon!
{For The Baby}My First ABC Cloth BookLOVE having the black/white/red books and toys for my infants.
I can't think that we have a book, so I'll be buying this one soon!
Baby's First Library ABC

My First ABC Board Book Just bought this book and love the conversation it starts with my baby pointing to each picture!

Curious George's ABCs Board Book

Winnie-The-Pooh's ABC Book
ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book
ABC's (Little Blessings Line)Another board book we own... I'm partial to the fun illustrations in this Christian-themed ABC book

{For The Girls}
A is for Annabelle: A Doll's AlphabetWritten & illustrated by Tasha Tudor, we love this girlie little book!

{For The Boys}

The Construction Alphabet Book

{For The Artist}

Museum ABC

The Little ABC Coloring Book
If memory serves, W is for witch which we all don't like, but I keep my Dover coloring books high on a shelf and pass out pages I've copied off my printer, so it's not really an issue.
Also check out Proverbs For Preschoolers. I posted about it here (including some pictures of the contents) and we really adore that pre-reading curriculum.

A Apple Pie and Traditional Nursery Rhymes

{For the Traveler}Geography from A to Z
B Is For Buckeye: An Ohio Alphabet
Search for your state- there's a title for each one!

Country Road ABC

{For the Nature Lover}

A Cottage Garden Alphabet

Wildflower ABC

All in the Woodland Early

{For the Historian}

A Is for Adam: The Gospel from GenesisWritten by Ken Ham from Answers In Genesis, this book tells the creation story through the alphabet and comes with coloring pages in the back that can be copied out for the children. I love this book for helping the littlest one "do school" when we learn early history.

P Is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet (Alphabet Books)

A Pioneer ABC
My Little House ABC

{For The Agrarian}

Eating the Alphabet

Plain Pig's ABCs: A Day on Plain Pig's Amish Farm

Peekaboo Farm

An Edible Alphabet: 26 Reasons to Love the Farm

Vegetable Alphabet Book

What are your families favorite ABC books?

~When Your Hens Eat Their Own Eggs~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:41:00 +0000

If you happen to follow Reformation Acres' Facebook page, you'll know that last week we came to realize that we had a serious, serious issue that developed in the coop where what seems to be our entire flock of laying hens has taken to eating their own eggs. That's not exactly what I meant when I said that I wanted to start supplementing their feed rations. Those little treats are for us and I jealously covet them for my personal use in the kitchen!

We had hoped that there were only one or two culprits, but as the investigation proceeded more and more hens were found to be guilty. Finally, one morning, after finding half an egg that became fully frozen in the process of being eaten and then dropping a newly laid one on the floor of the coop and having the entire flock practically pounce on it we admitted the problem was bigger than we had realized. It's pretty impossible to isolate the violators when it's your whole flock! And an attempt by my 13 year old to taint some eggs with hot sauce didn't phase them.

After lamenting to you and reading all of your wonderful suggestions, I decided to do a bit more research and came across a most horrifying and embarrassing statement:

The causes that incite hens to eat their eggs usually result because of poor husbandry or management practices. -Source

Ouch.

Over the past few cold months there have been some changes to their lifestyle they are no doubt unhappy about and a few areas where they've been neglected more than they ought.

Namely their confinement to the coop when they're accustomed to ranging freely their entire lives. This has made for some very bored birds who are used to much more activity.

Sadly for them, I've decided we just can't have them roaming our entire property freely and I'd like them to stay within the pasture area in order to protect my perennial beds, keep the driveway and walkways clear of droppings, and in the summer months prevent them from flying into the garden and wreaking havoc.

We thought the problem had been solved by clipping their wings as well as the addition of deer netting around the perimeter of the pasture, but the deer netting withstands the elements very poorly and we only got one season of use from that investment. We're saving right now to add something more durable soon and in the meantime they're stuck. (Only clipping wings wouldn't work by the way since their feathers insulate them from the shock of the electric fence and they just walk right between the first and second strands.)

It's also come to my attention that "someone" has been doing a poor job replacing the nesting material in their nesting boxes. I learned that inadequate nesting boxes- whether they're too bright, not the right size, too few, or improperly lined- will lead to the nasty egg eating habit. It seems silly to me that with so much loose hay lying around from feeding the cows that we need ever have a problem lining the boxes.

Among the other causes for egg eating are:

A poor diet, especially inadequate calcium, resulting in weak or thin shells- I read one theory that the egg eating habit begins when a hen 'tests' her shell strength, culling out the weaker ones. I don't know that they actually do that, but it was an interesting theory.
Inadequate nesting space
Inadequate nesting material
Irregular egg collection- Gathering should be happening 2 to 3 times daily
No clean drinking water
Non-laying hens- Older hens need to be culled from the flock
Parasites

After considering that list, I see that our most easily identifiable issues are boredom, having one older hen that most likely is no longer laying, and inadequate nesting material. I also read conflicting reports about lighting- some say there is too much, some not enough. Our lighting certainly isn't consistent and is sometimes left on all night long. I'm thinking they shouldn't have 24 hours of light and we're getting a timer so there are no more nights where we forgot to turn it out.

But even after the cause that prompted the bad habit is remedied, the habit itself still needs to be nipped in the bud.

Add calcium to the diet- Oyster shells, grit, or black oil sunflower seeds
Crushed eggs shells-
Washed and dehydrated prior to crushing
Place golf balls in the nesting boxes- Whether they are being tricked into thinking they are laying an adequately hard shell or whether the attempt to get to the inside causes discomfort or they realize they're not penetrating the "egg", this is the most popular suggestion for quickly resolving the issue
Spicing the eggs- It's suggested trying to add hot sauce, ground pepper, or mustard to some eggs. This didn't work for us though. She shook it off and kept right on going.
Construct roll away nesting boxes- Denying them access to the eggs before they have a chance to sample the goods
Don't over crowd the coop- Add plenty of roosting space or they'll roost in the boxes which risks egg breakage.
Darken nesting boxes
Nesting boxes with adequate space- Not too much or too little. What's adequate? Everyone has they're own opinion. Backyard Homestead Guide To Raising Farm Animals suggests 14" wide x 14" high x 12" deep
Removing the offender- If you can identify her that is.
Beak Trimming- Certainly a last resort
Culling the offender- The fact is they teach the other birds to eat eggs and unless you can quickly correct it, you'll have a huge problem on your hands.

In addition to resolving some of the issues that might be causing the egg eating, we're trying the old golf ball trick. In the last several days, we've gone from one, maybe two, eggs a day to anywhere from six to twelve!! I still don't believe we're getting them all, but that's a huge improvement with just a few simple changes. If the situation persists, I'll most likely pick up a bag of sunflower seeds to throw down for scratch to ward off boredom and increase calcium intake. (Who are we kidding?? I'm not going to be picking anything up!)

Have you ever had to deal with an egg-eater in your flock? Did you find out the cause and how did you combat the habit?

~A Little Baby Bump Fun~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:10:00 +0000

A sign of things to come??

Everyone should have seen early that I would spend at least 5 1/2 years (so far) of my adulthood sporting a baby bump. (Of course that doesn't include the 6 1/2 years of nursing those babies.)

I see I had some serious cankles and everything, but for the record my backside has never proportionally been that large!!

~Girls In The Kitchen: Better Than Carrot Cake Muffins~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:45:00 +0000

Organized mess-making taking the form of "Girls In The Kitchen" has lain dormant for most of the year.

My girls have been active in the kitchen, perhaps not as much as they should be, but I always have a little help here and there.

Still I could often be quoted as saying, "I'll just get it." Everything is always rushed and hustle & bustle in the kitchen completely contradicting the lifestyle I'm desirous of leading. Perhaps if I just embraced my work load in there and instead of trying to move on with my day, my little homemakers-in-training would get some more hands on experience which is why I love and dearly miss these posts. And my girls (ok & boys) missed them too. They love knowing that when I pick up my camera and call them into the kitchen that I'm handing the reins over to them and relinquishing control.

This day they were in charge of making "Better Than Carrot Cake Muffins" from The Homestead Blessings Cookbook to serve for breakfast the next morning. They were were lovely muffins that rose beautifully and were healthy, hearty, and delicious.

Hannah managing a little tedious prep work with carrots fresh from the garden soil.

Meanwhile, Lydia measured the dry ingredients into a bowl.

All the children snacked on more raisins than went into the bowl.

Personally, I didn't care for the addition and would leave them out the next time.

Not much of a raisin fan here.

If you let your child do nothing else in the kitchen, let them crack the eggs. Hands down it has always been the most exciting and favorite occupation of my little ones. Benjamin was green with envy!

Dispensing 1/2 cup of honey was difficult for Lydia and she really wanted me to take over or just skimp on the amount, but I made her hang in there. When she went to add it to the bowl, however, I had to take over because somehow she was getting it into her hair! Still can't figure that one out.

Frightening, isn't it?

On second thought, I did help. I greased the muffin tins. It's not worth the risk of losing it all when the muffins stick to the pan and fall apart.

I soon regretted not greasing the tops too and they needed a good soaking before coming clean.

Aren't they lovely?? They just look like they'd be good for you too! And with the addition of whole wheat flour, no sugar, about three cups of fruit & vegetables, and crunchy pecans they are!

Homestead Blessings Cookbook

~Increase~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Free Desktop Wallpapers

~Week Three~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:31:00 +0000

1/15- A rare deer sighting on our property... this happens about once every year or two. It's a cause for great excitement. We stood at the window watching them until they were out of sight.

You can imagine the even greater excitement when the next day they were back, and not only that but I just happened to be looking out the window and catch a flash of movement in time to see our barn cat, Tom, chase them out of the brush you see on the left there and into the yard. The deer bringing up the rear then spun around and charged him up into the nearest tree where he stayed for quite some time with his eyes fixed on the grazing deer. It was quite a site and makes for an entertaining little story.

1/16- I finally, finally finished Hannah's hat. The pattern was a challenge for me. Although I have been knitting hats since she was a baby, I've never attempted anything so difficult and it didn't help that I didn't check the gauge (confession: I never do). The first hat I made was small enough to fit Rebekah (20 months old)!! At least they have matching "twin" hats now :) I think I used needles 3 sizes larger than the pattern calls for, knit it on 5 double pointed needles instead of a circular one, and instead of just a couple rows on the brim in garter stitch to keep it from rolling, I did more like six because two wasn't enough on the first one to prevent the rolling.

1/17- Enjoying a little alphabet time with my pre-reader

1/18- The girls are back in the kitchen making some Better Than Carrot Cake Muffins from the Homestead Blessing Cookbook.

1/19- CHEESE!! I finally got a batch of mozzarella to turn out thanks to some help from the cream cheese. I still don't know what the problem is, but I learned to bypass it by adding 1/2 t. calcium chloride dissolved in 1/2 c. water to the recipe following the addition of citric acid.

1/20- One word: trust.

1/21- Got a much needed note of encouragement today from a friend from afar. ♥ you too Tara!

May your Lord's Day tomorrow be wonderfully blessed & refreshing!

~The Alphabet & the Pre-Reader~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:38:00 +0000

Having learned from Charlotte Mason how to early kindle a fire for reading in your child through relaxed and natural playtime, I've been excited to scour the internet looking for additions to our toy chest to facilitate learning through play. There were many different ones that caught my eye, a few of which we're already enjoying.

{Blocks}

My last couple early walkers loved to pull this toy around stacking & unstacking the blocks. We're needed a refill on blocks though as it would seem that a few of ours have gone to that mysterious black hole that sucks up small toys and socks and they're never seen again.

{Nesting Cubes}

This quilted fabric set of nesting blocks is so adorable! My babies pretend they're hats. I also like the little board book that it comes with.

{Magnets}

We used to have this set of magnets years and years ago, but that pesky black hole.... I could see myself using this to put those words my pre-readers are getting stumped on (like mixing up pat & bat in the first group of words) so as they passed it during the day we could do 5 second reviews. Right now, I'm just writing those words on a slip of paper and asking them to carry it around with them and look at it throughout the day- a responsibility they take quite seriously.

{Puzzles}

I bought these cards recently and they're so nice! Wonderful for matching up and teaching those beginning sounds of the alphabet they've been learning for the past few years. I appreciate the storage bag for all those loose pieces- (Still keeping it stored nice and high anyway!)

{Bath Time}

{Games}

{Writing}

A wonderful set of tactile cards! The letters have a sandpapery feel for little fingers to trace before diving into writing. My 20 month old to my 6 year old all enjoy tracing the letters with me.

{DIY}
I've come across some clever ideas on Pinterest that would be frugal alternatives to toys.

These are the toys that Hannah is working on hand sewing right now. The instructions call for machine sewing which would make for more solid construction, but she flies through her hand stitches a bit too quickly cheating by making large stitches and needs to work on the skill. This will give her at least 26 days of practice.

What are your favorite games to teach the alphabet and beginning words to your pre-reader through play?

~Homemade Cream Cheese Recipe~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:26:00 +0000

Today I'm sharing a cheese recipe that I haven't had nearly as much trouble with as I have the mozzarella lately.

That's not to say that I haven't had any trouble with finding a recipe for cream cheese that works for me. When our cow dried up last year, I had been trying several different methods that resulted in grainy cheese with an offensive, spoiled odor.

Being stubborn, I picked up right where I left off last year and can finally, happily report success.

Ultimately, what I'm looking for is a dessert cheese to be used for making our favorite cheesecake. We love cheesecake and now by using fresh dairy products and farm fresh eggs, I can feel pretty good serving it to my family as far as desserts are concerned.

Allow me to try to persuade you why you need to make this simple, delicious cheese.

Are you convinced yet?

Here is the recipe that produced such enticing results. Each recipe resulted in enough cream cheese to make 1 & 1/2 cheesecakes, about 36 ounces. I made 2 batches and 3 cheesecakes using the world's best cheesecake recipe.

(And just as a side note, I asked her how she was able to successfully waterbath a cheesecake without it leaking and she said they use 3 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil and I've never had a leaky cheesecake since. Also not in the recipe, but a useful tip is to turn off the oven once the cheesecake is set and just open the door until it comes down to room temperature. Then remove the foil and refrigerate to chill. This step helps to preventing a cracked top. I've also learned that a cheesecake freezes wonderfully- in fact I think the texture improves after thawing a frozen cheesecake!)

{Homemade Cream Cheese}

1 gallon whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
1/4 t. calcium chloride, dissolved in 1/2c.water
4 mesophilic culture cubes
4-8 drops liquid rennet
1 t. salt

~Add milk & cream to a pot and stir well, slowly heating to 86 degrees.

~Add calcium chloride, stirring.

~Add mesophilic culture cubes, melting and maintaining temperature.

~Add 4 drops rennet, stirring slowly and gently in up and down motion for 30 seconds

~Cover pot and set aside without further disturbance for 12-24 hours.

~Curds are ready when droplets of whey form on the surface about 2-3” in size and the curd mass begins to pull away from the sides of the pot.

(This is actually a clean break on mozzarella, but gives you an idea of what one looks like)

~Check curds for a clean break

~Carefully transfer with a slotted spoon to a cheesecloth covered colander inside a large bowl to collect whey for further use

~Drain for 1-2 hours

~Tie up corners and hang in a warm area for 10-20 hours, scraping the sides of the cheesecloth every 4 hours or so to facilitate further draining. (Complete draining time depends on desired consistency.)

~At the last scraping, mix in 1 t. salt for flavor and to release any extra whey.

Credit

Enjoy!

Sharing with:
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
Real Food Wednesday
Raising Homemakers
Simple Lives
Fight Back Friday

~Cost Analysis: Breakdown~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:31:00 +0000

I was asked if I would share the breakdown on the cost analysis of the garden I posted earlier and figured while I was at it, I might as well break down all the areas of the homestead in case anyone else was wondering what the specific costs were and how they cut corners. I'm sure this will be useful to me next year as well when I try to see where I had success or failure in our goal of reducing our costs for this year.

{Garden}
Cost Analysis:
Expenses- $632.30
Yield- 308 lbs. 5 oz.
Price per Pound- $2.05

Seeds-$225.45
Seed Starting-$26.75
Plants-$175.52
Mulch-$14.00
Pest Control-$180.04
Tools-$10.54

{Layers}
Cost Analysis:
Expenses- $458.50
Yield- 170 dozen eggs
Price per Dozen- $2.70

Chicks-$34.88
Chick Care-$22.60
Feed-$329.35
Feed Storage- $10.00
Bedding- $46.68
Cartons-3.99
Pesticide-$11.00

{Broilers}
Cost Analysis:
Expenses- $932.16
Yield- 466 lbs. 7 oz.
Price per Pound- $1.99

Chicks-$192.00
Feed-$740.16

Chick Care-$35.36
Feed Storage-$10.00
Butchering-$126.43
Pest Control-$60.00

{Hogs}
Cost Analysis:
Expenses- $690.51
Yield- 413 lbs.
Price per Pound- $1.67

Feeder Pigs-$150.00
Feed-$440.51
Butchering-$100.00

{Dairy Cow}
Cost Analysis:
Expenses- $1048.58
Yield- 152.5 gallons
Price per Gallon- $6.87

Grain-$229.46
Kelp-$53.98
Hay-$356.11
Feed Storage-$10.00
Tools-$95.60
Fencing-$23.43
Breeding-$280.00

~Week Two~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:18:00 +0000

1/8- My first grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat made with a Farmhouse Cheddar.... so delicious!

1/9- Afternoon with handicrafts... Hannah's working on hand-sewing alphabet toys for her little brother & sister

1/10- Putting together updated pages in our family cookbook

1/11- Why, when imitating mommy takes on this form, does it produce such feelings of guilt?

1/12- Broomstick + glass stove top = no camera lens for mommy....

Thankfully, I had the money saved for a new camera lens and can use it to pay for the replacement glass

1/13- Both had troubles falling asleep last night leading to an impromptu sleepover on mommy & daddy's floor. She's the snuggliest! And that little hand wrapped around another when she's sleeping melts my heart every time!

1/14- Yet another botched mozzarella recipe this morning!! After a couple weeks this is getting quite frustrating! We're talking probably close to 10 batches of cheese completely ruined!

It keeps looking like it will turn out just fine- the curds seem very slightly softer than normal when I cut them I suppose- but when I get to the stretching stage they just turn into mush and fall apart! At first I was thinking that I needed to let more whey drain out and therefore let it hang for probably 18-24 hours and now I'm wondering if by letting it sit so long, there is too much acidity?? On Monday, I'll be back at it and I'll try testing and stretching after 5 hours like the recipe originally calls for. I know my recipe works well and my ingredients are fresh and accurate. If I don't figure it out soon, I'm going to have to assume that it's the milk. (If any of you have experience with cheesemaking and recognize what is making my curds fall to pieces after all that work, I would so greatly appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me!)

May your Lord's Day tomorrow be wonderfully blessed & refreshing!

~Reading~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:41:00 +0000

It's been over a month since I posted some thoughts on Charlotte Mason's writings and I'm glad for it as it has given me the opportunity to implement some changes in our reading program in our little schoolroom. And I can attest now that Charlotte Mason does indeed offer us a “Practical and common sense way to teach reading in English."

I've taught two of my children to read, thus far, and with the first I used a thorough, phonics-only approach and program. Ultimately, after much boredom and tears, I felt that it took far too long to get the child to a point where they felt like they were doing anything that resembled reading... maybe two years, at least?

I started off my second on the same track after looking into many of the most popular phonics books of the day and finding the methods so convoluted I could barely understand them myself, let alone teach them. After teaching her the first 8 most common letters and their sounds used in English, we picked up a McGuffey's reader and started working through it. But many of my approaches were similar to what I learned while teaching my oldest and they made the work of reading tiresome to her. We even began this year on day one with tears over the reading lesson!

Shortly after, I read about Mason's method for teaching reading and while using it to help her along, her reading skills have improved a remarkable amount over the last six weeks or so! It continually impresses us and she is no longer remiss to sit with her reader for a lesson.

More exciting to me is how happy and easily the lessons are going for my pre-readers. I'm teaching my 6 year old (who I didn't begin to teach until now as a result of a speech delay) and my 5 year old to read using Mason's methods referenced below and it has been such an enjoyable time that even my 3 year old is trying to get in on the action most days!

I can't express enough that so far (we're 8 or 10 weeks into our year) that this has been the first beginning where I haven't wondered how I was going to make it through? I can't help but attribute it to the changes I've made and the lessons I've learned as a result of reading through what little of her work that I have!

Having spent the first part of my career as a home educating mother as a staunch phonics-only advocate, the thought of beginning with sight words was foreign to me, but Mason makes a compelling argument.

{Sight Reading}

Learning to read is no more than picking up, how we can, a knowledge of certain arbitrary symbols for objects and ideas. There are absolutely no right and necessary ‘steps’ to reading, each of which leads to the next; there is no true beginning, middle, or end.

Many of our English words are, each, a law unto itself: there is nothing for it, but the child must learn to know them at sight; he must recognize ‘which,’ precisely as he recognizes ‘B,’ because he has seen it before, been made to look at it with interest, so that the pattern of the word is stamped on his retentive brain. This process should go on side by side with the other- the learning of the powers of the letters; for the more variety you can throw into his reading lessons the more he will enjoy them.

It is time we faced the fact that the letters which compose an English word are full of philological interest, and that their study will be a valuable part of education by-and-by; but meantime, sound and letter-signs are so loosely wedded in English, that to base the teaching of reading on the sounds of the letters only, is to lay up for the child much analytic labor, much mental confusion, due to the irregularities of the language; and some little moral strain in making the sound of a letter in a given word fall under any of the ‘sounds he has been taught... The fact that English is anomalous as regards the connection between sign and sound, happily exonerates us from enforcing this dreary grind.

The child cares for things, not words; his analytic power is very small, his observing faculty is exceedingly quick and keen; nothing is too small for him; he will spy out they eye of a fly; nothing is too intricate, he delights in puzzles. But the thing he learns to know by looking at it, is a thing which interests him. Here we have the key to reading.

Even for their earliest reading lessons, it is unnecessary to put twaddle into the hands of children.... How easy to read ‘robin redbreast,’ buttercups and daises’; the number of letters in the words is no matter; the words themselves convey such interesting ideas that the general form and look of them fixes itself on the child’s brain by the same law of association of ideas which makes it easy to couple the objects with their spoken names.

Which makes the point that this type of sight reading we're referring to here is not the same that we've come to know from public schools. Real sentences, with real thoughts, communicating real and lovely ideas to fire their minds and excite them.

Read the passage for the child, very slowly, sweetly, with just expression, so that it is pleasant to him to listen. Point to each word as you read it... expect the child to pronounce each word... with clear enunciation and expression... do not let the child fall into a dreary monotone, no more pleasant to himself than to the listener.

The child should hunt through two or three pages of good clear type for each of the words he has learned, until the word he know looks out upon him like the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers. Lest he grow weary... guide him unawares to the line or paragraph where the word he wants occurs.

I've been letting them use the Kindle for this purpose which is so exciting for them to "read" like their big brother & sister. I'll find a page with a word they've learned or are trying to learn and once they've found it, they'll go sit and "read" that page for a while.

Charlotte Mason breaks down the task of reading into six different parts- Alphabet, Word-Making, Enunciation, Spelling, The Reading Lesson, and Recitation. We've been using each of the different parts to vary the lessons as much as possible, but counting any work done to this end as "reading." (In other words, I'm not binding myself to doing six different lessons each day.... that may seem obvious to you, but I've been known to shackle myself with that in the past!)

{Alphabet}

A task which should not be imposed too soon on the childish mind.

A box of letters for the the little one.... Finger drawing the letters in the air... A tray of sand.... phonetical sounds of the letters... But the devices for making the learning of the "ABC" interesting are endless.... let the child alone, and he will learn the alphabet for himself: but few mothers can resist the pleasure of teaching it; and there is no reason why they should, for this kind of learning is no more than play to the child.

When should he begin? When his box of letters begins to interest him. And there is nothing against it so long as the finding and naming of letters is a game to him. But he must not be urged, required to show off, teased to find letters when his heart is set on other play.

When (tears are) the case, the fault rests with the teacher.

{Word-Making}

The first exercies in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable ‘at’: tell him it is the word we use when we say ‘at home,’ ... Then put b to ‘at’- bat; c to ‘at’- cat; fat, hat mat, sat, rate and so on. First let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant; then let him add the right consonant to ‘at,’ in order to make hat, pat, cat. Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows. Set the words in a row, and let him read them off. Do this with the short vowel sounds in combination with each of the consonants, and the child will learn to read off dozens of words of three letters, and will master the short vowel sounds with initial and final consonants without effort.

When this sort of exercise becomes so easy that it is no longer interesting, let the long sounds of the vowels be learned in the same way: use the same syllables as before with the final e; thus, ‘at’ becomes ‘ate’... He will make new words with much facility, helped by the experience he gained in the former lessons... then the same sort of thing with final ‘ng’- ‘ing,’ ‘ang,’ ‘ong,’ ‘ung...

This is not reading, but it is preparing the ground for reading; words will no longer be unfamiliar, perplexing objects, when the child meets with them in a line of print.

{Enunciation}

Require him to pronounce the words he makes with such finish and distinctness that he can himself hear an count the sounds in a given word.

Another advantage of slow and steady progress- the saying of each word receives due attention, and the child is trained in the habit of careful enunciation.

{Spelling}

As spelling is simply the art of seeing, seeing the letters in a word as we see the features...

Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made...

Do not let him learn to spell or even say the letters aloud with the words before him.

{Reading Lesson}

Write out the word on good big print

Tell them the word

He is to look at it until he is sure that he would know it again

He makes it from memory with his loose letters

The loose words from the verse are scattered and he finds the word

When it is learned, he makes a column of the old ones, reads up, down, and cris-cras

We dictate words from the verse and he chooses them from his loose word and places them in order and reads them off

Allow him to make up verses with his loose words which will “give him such a delicious sense that knowledge is power, as few occasions in after life will afford.”

We take care that the sentences make sense

New words are written in his notebook in print hand, so that he can take stock of his possessions in the way of words.

Reading is to him a delight henceforth and it will require very bad management indeed to make him hate it.

He learns to read in a way that affords him moral training. There is no stumbling, no hesitation from the first, but bright attention and perfect achievement. His reading lesson is a delight of which he is deprived when he comes to his lesson in a lazy dawdling mood. Perfect pronunciation and precision are insisted on, and when he comes to arrange the whole of the little rhyme in his loose words and read it off (most delightful of all lessons) his reading must be a perfect and finished recitation.

{Recitation}

I hope that my readers will train their children in the art of recitation; in the coming days, more even than in our own, will it beehove every educated man and woman to be able to speak effectively in public; and in learning to recite, you learn to speak.

Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing, and it is good to store a child’s memory with a good deal of poetry, learnt without labor.

The child must not try to recollect or say the verse over to himself, but, as far as may be, present an open mind to receive an impression of interest. Half a dozen repetitions should give childrens possesion of such poems... The gains of such a method of learning are, that the edge of the child’s enjoyment is not taken off by weariful verse by verse repetitions and, also, that the habit of making mental images is unconsciously formed.

Every effort of this kind, however unconscious, means wear and tear of the brain substance. Let the child lie fallow until he is six, and then in this manner of memorizing, as in others, attempt only a little and let the poems the child attempts be simple, and within the range of his own thought and imagination. At the same time, when there is so much noble poetry within the child’s compass, what a shame it is that he should allowed learn twaddle!

The child who has been taught to read with care and deliberation until he has mastered the words of a limited vocabulary

And if that all seems an awful lot of work to put together by yourself or if you're simply more comfortable with following a program, Simply Charlotte Mason has put together a lovely curriculum, called Delightful Reading, based on the methods outlined above. We've been using it to assist us for the past several weeks and just love it!

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series

~Looking Ahead~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:43:00 +0000

Last year was certainly full of challenges and blessings, but it is the challenges that are beginning to shape the vision I have for our upcoming year at Reformation Acres. With a new baby set to join us this spring, though, who knows what the year will hold for us! If I've learned anything over the last decade or more of parenting, it's that it is much easier to plan for the year a newborn joins the family than it is to execute it.

Here's what I would like to see happening around here

{Bible}

I implemented this plan last year for our daily nourishment in the Word. We've fallen into a pretty comfortable habit, but I'd like to make certain that it continues...

Morning- Read a chapter over breakfast- Right now we've just begun Joshua and are working through the Old Testament.

Noon- Daily Proverbs reading just before lunch. Either a verse or a chapter- if verse, then with commentary; Pray it over the children.

Evening- Family Worship- With so many little ones, brevity is key. We're keeping it to 10-15 minutes and are ever so slowly working through God's Names

Bedtime- Daily Light from the Bible This is as close as I come to that "quiet time" with God all of your best Titus 2 type sites promote. Usually though they recommend beginning the day with that quiet time, but it hasn't become a reality for me in the past, try as I might. Most days begin around here with a hungry, crying baby. Not exactly quiet. At any rate, I've yet to see setting that time apart commanded in the Bible and so I'm content to do the reading with the children throughout the day and to quiet my mind at the end of a long day with a quick five minute reading. That way I can fall asleep "meditating on thee in the night watches" (Psalm 63:6) so to speak instead of fretting over this day or the next.

{Reading}

My reading plan fell apart miserably last year since most of it consisted of reading the Charlotte Mason series for six of the months. I never dreamed that it would be such a rich experience that I would need to take it in doses, implementing aspects of it into my life as I went along. Though it was my book for March last year, I have yet to finish the first one!! Here's what I would like to read this year-

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series continue at a leisurely pace
Health For Godly Generations (Watch for review & a giveaway!!)
Don't Waste Your Life
Loving the Little Years
Let Us Highly Resolve: Families Living for Christ in the 21st Century
The Godly Home Tending Your Garden: Wisdom for Keepers at Home
Parenting by God's Promises
Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus
Becoming a Woman (All 3 books in the series)

For heavier Sabbath day reading, I'll slowly work through-

By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today
How God Wants Us to Worship Him
Walking in the Law of the Lord

Not seeing much in the way of homesteading?? I tend not to plan out my reading for that as carefully. That's not to say I won't be reading books on the subject as I come across them and then share them with you!!

{New Skills}

NOTHING NEW FOR ME!! I want to work on perfecting what I've already learned.

BUT... I want to use this time to invest in new skills for Hannah in particular. I always seem to be "too busy" to work with her and if ever a girl needed a creative outlet, it is Hannah. I'm breaking the skills down into quarters...

1st Quarter- Handsewing
2nd Quarter- Crocheting
3rd Quarter- Cross Stitch
4th Quarter- Baby Toys

{Habits}

Project 365- Use my camera daily, post on blog once weekly for accountability purposes

Herbal Medicine Cabinet- Research, Reference, Inventory, & Build

Renew Nature Journaling and Daily Outings- Maybe wait until after a little postpartum recovery? I know myself well enough to know I'll fall out of habit for at least a couple weeks while I heal.

Financial- Eliminate revolving & personal automobile debt & begin the using the Debt Snowball to pay off the 2nd mortgage by 2014

{Home & Homestead}

Home-

New front door- Ours leaks air terribly and it's right in the same room with the thermostat!
Paint interior of the home- After 7 years and so many 2 year olds scribbling on the walls, cleaning them has become virtually impossible. We really need a freshening up!
Finish the beams- Last fall we knocked the wall out between the living room and kitchen to open up the floor plan and replaced the wall with beams. They need stained and brackets installed.
Butcher block the island- Knocking out the wall created an island and it needs a new countertop. The boys will be making their own butcher block this winter.
Cover outlets housewide- The electric work on the project somehow left them all exposed and makes it feel like a perpetual construction zone here.
Hang upstairs bathroom door- Because it has a hole in it and the new one was painted two years ago.Seriously.
Repair shower upstairs- It's unusable right now because the water will leak down into the dining room. Pretty much the upstairs bathroom is wasted space.

Yard-

Fill in ditched areas from water management efforts last year; fill in low spots in the yard
Paint fence & deck
Stump removal and general yard cleanup

General Homestead-

Reduce the cost of feed by 40% by planning and purchasing at a locally owned feed mill instead of the Farm & Garden store just up the road
Find commercial establishments that we can glean from their cast-off produce etc... to supplement feeding with (Thanks Anna for the excellent idea!) Already we're thinking of ground apples in the fall, waste from the cider mill, and there is a pumpkin farm just up the road.
Greater predator control... Set fly bait traps out before noticing losses during key seasons such as broiler raising and corn ripening. Try liquid fence?
Add lime to the barn floor; whitewash walls to clean up

Produce-

Learn about orchard care
Prepare ground orchard for fall addition- how can we put the pigs or chickens to work for us in this capacity?
Build a greenhouse- Just a little lean-to one next to the driveway against the house large enough to accommodate the tomatoes and other seedlings that must wait until nearly June to be planted, but get too lanky underneath the basement grow lights for that long.
Continue to create an herb garden
Try to maintain a focus on aesthetic appeal throughout the property- It's difficult, but it's important for me to try to keep it looking quaint & charming around here. Pinterest has helped give me tons of ideas to try to implement.
Garden season extenders- If finances provide. I was blown away last year by the cost of how much as simple row cover costs!
Crop cover in the fall
Reduce overall price/pound by 25-50%- Of course that means successfully grow more produce, but all I can do is plant & water & wait upon the Lord to give the increase.

Poultry-

Return to woodchips deep litter method- While the straw is cheaper, composts better and more quickly, it's dirtier overall and we had to use Sevin to get rid of a serious insect infestation last fall
Implement heritage turkey & chicken breeding program in order to eliminate the need for spring replacement costs- We're learning that it's best to add just a few new chicks each spring so they will begin to lay in the fall and carry us through while all of the older gals are going through their molting process. Purchasing turkeys every year is VERY expensive ($10+/poult) not to mention the minimum orders are often 15 pouts. Knowing that parent stock can survive on the land for no cost (free-ranging year round) if we could get some in here that gave us a few poults each year to raise up for meat would eliminate that expense.

Cattle-

Continue to study and implement rotational grazing thereby improving pasture quality. Consider comfrey and chicory.
Hay feeder improvements- As of now, there is a lot of good hay getting dropped to the ground and trampled in.
Maintain a daily routine through the the three months Maybelle is dried up- That way we can get involved if her calf refuses to nurse again eliminating the potential for another e-coli infestation. We also experienced problems with kicking when we tried to begin milking her not to mention she would only let-down for the calf which was a nuisance. A final benefit is that having a routine means she will eliminate her wastes before coming in to milk.

Hogs-

Improved slopping system- I'm not sure what my husband meant by this, maybe he doesn't like having an open slop pail under the kitchen sink that is emptied once a day.
Switch to winter raising and butchering- I'm very excited about this considering the discussion we've been having about feed costs lately. Raising pigs closer to the canning & harvesting season mean greater opportunity to take advantage of vegetable material we would have otherwise composted. Not to mention the prospect of using the cast-offs from other farms as mentioned above.
Improved watering & fencing system- Using a rotational system through their pasture, it was difficult to move the posts and electrified polyrope. Being on the back of our property, it's troublesome to get them an adequate daily supply of water. Before we'd cart it back daily in the trailer of the lawn tractor, but it died last year and the spring we used to water them from just outside of their was diverted to the pond to help with the water problems we've had in the back pasture.

Hopefully, we'll get more scratched off the list this year than we did last, only time will tell.

So enough about us, what are your big plans for 2012?

~Refashioned Jean Skirts~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:47:00 +0000

Tackling a reader's question today... I was asked about finding maternity skirts and I'm so happy to report that this is my first pregnancy where I have exclusively worn skirts!!

During my last pregnancy, I shared how uncomfortable and restrictive I find maternity jeans to be. Perhaps I'm shaped funny or something, but I feel like I'm perpetually hiking my pants up, wriggling back down into them throughout the day with the most unladylike contortions! I hate that they're marketed so that you need to purchase a full wardrobe for each trimester... and I imagine that being in my 7th pregnancy, I would get more use out of such an investment than most!

It was a great relief to discover stretchy knit skirts during my last pregnancy. How wonderful it felt to dress femininely yet feel as comfortable as I would be if I were sweatpants- more so maybe!

Sadly, that company I purchased from seems to have gone out of business, but during a visit to Pinterest I did find a very similar skirt tutorial that I fully intend to use one day.

This time, in addition to my wonderful knit skirts, I decided to make use of all those old maternity jeans I've accumulated over the past decade and refashion them into maternity jean skirts. Of course you can follow these methods with regular jeans as well and someday I will with all of my old jeans.

I've made 3 skirts in 3 different styles-

I've worn this skirt in public twice (I don't get out much ;) ) and was complimented both times. I split a maternity skirt up the inseam of each leg and then used the legs of a few other pairs of jeans to piece together the inside making sure that the split legs from the first pair were spread as far apart as allowable to give a lot of freedom for movement. I was feeling lazy and instead of creating a hem, I ran a stitch around the hemline to prevent too much fraying and just cut the edges close to the stitching.

The second skirt was made by splitting the pair of jeans up the inseam again, but this time instead of using several pairs of old jeans to piece the center, I only used one pair. With the second pair, I removed the each leg as high as I could, opened them up along the inseam, then lined the outside seam with the centers of the new skirt. I also lined up the existing hem lines on both pairs of pants so that I wouldn't need to re-hem the skirt. I would advise using a boot-cut or flare leg jean in order to allow as much room as possible along the bottom.

The third skirt is by far my favorite. (And was the one I was wearing while baby wearing.) It provides the most room and fullest fit (my personal taste leans towards a nice full skirt). For this skirt, I cut the legs of the first pair of jeans off right across lower edge of the pockets. I opened the now detached legs up along the inseam and repeated the steps with a second pair of jeans so that I now had 4 full legs opened up. I pinned them, sewed them together, and sewed the tops of the now attached legs to the top of the first pair of jeans. (Make sure the fullest part of the legs is towards the floor to allow the most room for movement.) I made the hem just the same as I did in the first skirt except that to finish it, I notched the lower edge every inch or two and as it frays, it makes a little ruffly look.

Of course, I can't take credit for any of these ideas. I found them similarly made all on Etsy, but by raiding my own jean stash, I was able to make them all for free!! They were so simple too that I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a couple pairs from a thrift store to dissect for a couple bucks each, enabling me to make a comfortable jean skirt for mere fraction of the cost of purchasing retail!

~Homesteading Profits & Costs~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:13:00 +0000

I am loving the discussion fueled by my previous post analyzing the actual costs and yields from our homestead in 2011!

So many of your worries and concerns are the same ones I've been battling with this past year!

You're right, food prices are on the rise and I'm not just talking about at the grocery store! A stop at your local feed store is costing anywhere from $3.00-$6.00 more per 100 pounds since the beginning of 2011 if your prices are anything like ours.

What is most troublesome to you and to me is what is actually in those sacks! While there may be a variety of fillers depending on what you're feeding, chances are the bulk of feed mix is either GMO corn or hormone-producing GMO soy. Neither product I prefer to feed my animals knowing that it is simply being recycled right back into our food supply and bodies.

Coincidentally, my husband had to stop at the feed store today and they offered him an alternative to the grain we feed our dairy cow at milking time. (Yes, we give our cow a bit of grain. We measured it actually to try to estimate how often we'll need to buy it and it amounts to 4 pounds of grain per day. We really tried last year to go the all grass-fed route but as a pregnant, lactating cow with no fresh grass in the dead of winter her body condition was visibly deteriorating and this little treat daily showed marked improvement in just a couple of weeks. Our steer that we raise for beef won't receive any supplementation to his hay because the demands on his body aren't the same as his mother's and he'll have plenty of time to bounce back in the spring before butchering.) The benefit to the proposed dairy grain mix was higher protein levels... no doubt achieved through additional soy. I couldn't help but think of all the dairy farms in the area housing their Holsteins feeding them solely this dairy mix and polluting the milk supply.

Similar grievances could be listed for feeding all of our stock. Chickens, pigs.... The basic components are all the same and the cost is painful to our pocketbooks. I searched high and low last year for a company where I could find organic, soy-free chicken feed and it was simply out of the question we couldn't afford it. I went so far as to compile a list of ingredients to build my own feed, eliminating GMO's even if the mix still wasn't organic and the feed store couldn't get most of the ingredients for me. Certainly not enough for me to put together a protein-packed egg-producing mix. How discouraging!!

It begs the question, "Is it worth it then to raise your own meat?" if you are in a situation such as I am, and many of you are, where you have serious ethical objections and concerns about the the effects from the feed you're forced to give your livestock because there are simply no alternatives available to you and you haven't enough land to make it possible to grow your own feed.

I would suggest that the answer is, "Yes."

Even if your cost analysis proves a wash (or worse- and if you are new or newer to homesteading and are dealing with the initial investment that is often involved when beginning your endeavors, it might be worse) and you can feed your animals not much better than they do at the factory farm up the road, I believe the benefits of raising your own meat (and produce) are worth the time and effort.

Of the utmost value and importance to me as a Christian family, I find that living an agrarian lifestyle makes it easier for me to impart spiritual wisdom to my children. The Bible is full of agrarian language throughout that is used to communicate spiritual truths parabolically. Since they are living it out and understanding the concepts, they can easily make some of those connections.

Secondly, we live in a day where our children know so little about where their food comes from that I've heard tell of television shows and government programs being made to teach them about food. I believe that is important for our children to learn where their food comes from and appreciate what goes into the process of raising their own food. I may have mentioned this previously, but this summer, my husband had taken my then 2 year old to the grocery store and made an executive decision to stray from the list and picked up a pack of hot dogs which prompted my boy to ask his father if "he shot them?" How rewarding that he already realized that the "meat" came from a once live animal!

More than that, I believe that satisfying, meaningful work is found in productive labor and caring for your livestock. Many would agree with me I'm sure. Isn't that what you do when you want to teach your child responsibility? You buy them a gerbil or a dog and they have to feed, water, and walk it? How much more rewarding is a pet with similar responsibilities with returns on the care in the form of nourishing food?

It is highly gratifying to sit down to eggs at breakfast laid by hens scavenging your own backyard, a salad grown in your own soil at lunch, and to a dinner of meat once fed by your own hand! The direct relationship to your food and the workload that was involved in it seems to me to have so much more value and substance than to toil for what amounts to the yo-yo-ing numbers in a bank account as the money goes in one day and is spent the next. It's tangible produce and the whole family can reap the benefits! Besides, it is good that a man should bear the yoke in his youth. (Lamentations 3:27)

And if that care was of the nature that improved the happiness of the livestock during it's short life you will be rewarded with a quality of meat that will be superior to that where the animal was raised in dark, cramped quarters and not at all like it was intended to live. Think of how invigorating it is to get a little fresh air, sunshine, and exercise after having been cooped up for a few days on end during a bad patch of weather. It's simply exhilarating!! I'll be honest, I'm not interested in the happiness of my livestock for the sake of animal rights or any such thing. While I believe that a "wise man regards the life of his beast" (Proverbs 12:10), I can't help but selfishly realize that a happier animal with a stress-free death yields better meat.

Besides, there are small things we can do to potentially reduce your feed costs as well as dependency on GMO soy and corn. For all of your livestock there are root crops and greens that you can grow in order to help lighten your reliance on the feed store. It all adds up.

{Poultry}
For instance we exclusively free-range (or rather pasture-range) our chickens at least half of the year. Between finding bits of greens, insects, berries, and grain in the manure. (Another good reason to give a bit of grain to your cow as a small-scale landowner- there is much less manure management because the birds will pick through scattering the piles looking for undigested grain and in days it's gone. This process also allows for the smaller pieces of manure to decompose and improve the pasture more quickly than a whole pile.)

For those like us who butcher our own meat, carcasses can be first thrown out for the chickens to pick any scraps of meat left from the bones. We have deer carcass out there right now that is picked cleaned and waiting for me to nag someone to go pick up.

With better management, it could be possible for me to grow many greens throughout most of the colder season to supplement, but for now I'm sending my botched cheese recipes and the whey drained from my attempts- both successful or otherwise- out to the barn for the hens to drink. Whey is full of protein and they love it! I love knowing they are filling up on the whey instead of feed and I'm satisfied doing what little I can to improve the situation.

I also recall seeing that Sustainable Seed Company even sells a Poultry Package to get you started complete with dent corn, chard, pumpkins, millet, peas, oats, flax, sorghum, and even tobacco (for insect control). They claim this package will support 10 chickens on 1/14th of an acre assuming you free-range part of the year!! I will certainly be bearing this in mind when planning any additions we'll be needing to till up for 2013!

{Pigs}
If you are raising pigs, an excellent way to grow your own meat with little acreage, there are small ways to reduce their dependency on commercial feed.

One of course is to give them kitchen scraps. We compost very little of our vegetable material while raising hogs and the compost bucket becomes the slop bucket. They also love to drink high protein whey.

We discovered by chance a particular weed, I wish I knew what it was, and would pull a handful or two for them every time we ventured back for a visit.

Another thing we do is to allocate as big of a pasture space to them as we can afford to and then rotate them through it in small sections. This allows them a bit of opportunity to eat the green grass and other goodies they might find. We will be switching over to raising them later in the summer this year instead of in the spring because the ground will be drier for less trampling and the grass will be more established and less tender hopefully giving them greater opportunity for grazing. I also like this system because there will be more opportunity for scrap feeding as that is canning season and there is tons of waste then.

{Cattle}
The difficulty with raising cattle, whether for beef or dairy, especially on a small scale is the availability of enough pasture land to sustain them. Obviously, if you have no pasture available to you, that will entail much higher food costs. This is one of the reasons why I love Dexter cattle and am an advocate of the breed for small homesteads. They are known for their efficient feed conversion requiring much less pasture (and less hay supplementation in winter) than conventional dairy and beef breeds. It's just a bonus that they can function in either capacity serving all of our needs as a homesteader. Also being an Irish heritage breed, they are quite adaptable in the winter and need little in the way of shelter- a protective run-in would certainly suffice if necessary.

If you do have pasture land, but it's junk, such as is the case here, it will take some work to improve it and I think that the rotational grazing we will implement this year will go a long way to achieving that end. However, depending on where you live though, you still have to deal with some supplemental feeding throughout the cold winter months when grass isn't growing. I imagine that for those living in the northeast the trouble is more than for those living in plains states where there is an abundance of grassland and that growing season is longer in the south than in the north. For us as northerners living in a relatively wooded area, we depend on hay to feed our cattle for half of year. That means increased feed costs throughout those months and we're learning the hard way that requires a bit of planning.

It is much less expensive to purchase your hay in the summer months when it is being harvested especially if you will have a cow lactating over the winter and desire to improve the quality of her milk (and cream line) with alfalfa. We can't find alfalfa anywhere at any price and are forced to resort to expensive, processed alfalfa pellets in order to sweeten and fatten up her milk. She goes through the pellets mixed in her grain ration much faster than were she chewing on a flake of alfalfa hay making it all the more expensive.

We're also looking into ways to make the most efficient use of our pasture through the addition of comfrey or chicory which reportedly lasts longer into the fall, is highly nutritious, and does well under rotational grazing.

In summary, I truly believe that with research and ingenuity, the knowledge, experience, and reward of homesteading are well worth the satisfying labor and offset the cost deficits despite that we can't always do it just as we hoped we could without contemporary non-organic feed.

How do you creatively supplement your livestock's feed? We'd all love to hear your clever ideas and suggestions!!

~2011 Homestead Yields & Cost Analysis~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:44:00 +0000

We've come to that time of the year when all the hard work of record-keeping pays off and we can see what our 2 1/2 acres actually yielded. It's no longer about insects, rain, and predators making us feel as though 2011 wasn't everything that we hoped it would be.

But seeing the real figures is quite revealing to show us just exactly how the Lord blessed our work and provided for our family last year!

I did not expect to come anywhere close to the 2,378 pounds of food produced in 2010, especially considering the above mentioned factors combined with the fact that in 2010 we butchered a bull for an extra couple hundred pounds addition to the totals.

But in the end, we actually surpassed our 2010 yields by 105 pounds!!! That's a total of 2,484 pounds of food grown on just a couple acres! And I see so much room for improvement. But more on that in a minute.

Here's how everything stacked up-

Where I see the most need for improvement is in the area of expenses. 2011 was the first year that I spent a lot of time chasing down and recording receipts and I am so glad I did. I would have never dreamed that we were spending so much money especially on the cattle, laying hens, and in the garden.

When I go grocery shopping, my target price for produce is no more than $1/pound... so when I learned that our produce cost was over double that it dropped my jaw! While some might consider $6.87/ gallon for raw milk (the last time I purchased organic milk from the grocery store which was years ago, it had topped $7/gallon) a happy price, I don't after accounting for the labor investment in caring for Maybelle and processing her milk into various dairy products. And $2.70/dozen eggs isn't a happy price either especially when you factor in that we don't purchase feed during the summer months!!

As you can imagine these figures have drastically shaped the way that we are planning to invest in our homestead in 2012 and reducing the cost is a big factor in shaping our goals.

One thing is for certain, I have come to truly see the value in record-keeping for efficient and economical homestead management and the practice begun in 2011 will most assuredly be one that I continue for years to come!

~Week One~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

One of the habits I'd like to build in this new year is daily use of my camera.

You would have known that if I had gotten around to posting my list of goals for the new year. Clearly my more laid back approach this year is turning me into quite the procrastinator!

I'll bet you think that I might use my camera frequently considering the volume of photos posted here, but really I find that I'll only pick it up for the purpose of posting which means I might go a week or sometimes more without taking any photos. Using my camera can then be frustrating since I'm not as familiar with it as I'd like to be. Then it seems the only reason I photograph anything is to blog and that isn't right either. This is especially the case during the winter when dreary days and a dark house make taking a decent picture a real challenge and I'd like to improve.

I appreciate the accountability blogging provides (I already found myself on two days not feeling like it and realizing you'd never know if I just never started), so I'll be posting once a week a photo from each day that week. No particular subject. And hopefully these little glimpses into our days will make it feel more personal and inviting to visit here.

1/1- Singing "Rejoice, rejoice!"

1/2- First dusting of the season... love fat chunky snowflakes

1/3- Speaking of chunky... little 'Gus is looking like quite the butterball! Isn't he so cute? I hope that won't make his destiny next winter too hard to fulfill.

1/4- Look who's on the move! Her little feet are healing so nicely, but the new skin is very sticky attracting every speck of dirt. Makes this gift from her grandparents simply perfect.

1/6- Hannah rolled out two perfect loaves of bread for the first time. Beautiful!

1/7- Sitting down to try this hat pattern... again.

May your Lord's Day tomorrow be wonderfully blessed & refreshing!

~Customizable Homemaking Binder Pages-Revised~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:51:00 +0000

I'm terribly sorry for any hassle that my attempt to share this post with you may have been. Apparently, that application, while very convenient for me to use for uploaded from Pages (my word processor) is extremely limited, especially for those without a Apple ID. To use the public links only gave you the option of looking at my documents- no downloading. Just a big tease! I'm afraid that since I am using Pages, that any document you choose to download may or may not require a bit of tweaking (hopefully just with font type, size, and colors because when I'm seeing the .doc file those are the only changes I see needing made. Of course, you could choose to print the pdf in which case they simply become a write-in-the-blank template like in year's past.

Speaking of fonts, if you would like to download the fonts I used for your own use, I chose BakerScript & Miss Brooks.

This year instead of sharing write-in-the-blank templates with you all for your own Homemaking Binder, I've uploaded my templates to the internet so that you can download and type in your own plans and customize the look of the pages to suit yourself. I hope that you will find them helpful in organizing your home or your homestead. Any feedback is most greatly appreciated!

As a quick note, you may notice that of the 5 Binders I mentioned yesterday that I use to make my home run more smoothly, I have not shared anything from the Health & Nutrition or the Homeschooling Binder. The former is requiring a major overhaul and when completed I will share at that time. I intend to do a lot of work in the Health & Nutrition department throughout the year and I'm sure you'll be hearing lots more from me as I learn. The Homeschooling Binder requires more work before uploading and a bit more explanation as well. I imagine with different state regulations requiring different things from us all they may not be as helpful as some of the other pages anyway.

{Homemaking}

2012 Calendars- I love having these calendars in my binder. I've come to the point where they not only remind me of appointments and birthdays and such, but I also use them to jot small notes about the day that I'd like to remember. New words or funny sentences the children spoke. Little activities. I don't do that nearly as often as I'd like, but enough that they have become a keepsake. For homesteading purposes, I'll also mark seed-sowing dates so that I'm not referencing numerous locations.

(January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

Cleaning- (Monthly & Seasonal Cleaning Outlines; Natural Cleaners Recipes)

Daily Outline (Schedule) Template

Monthly Outline (Schedule) Template

Monthly Budgets- 2 week & 4 week

Financial Checklists- Home Improvements; Purchase List; Savings Log

{Homesteading}

Annual Cost Analysis Sheet

Dairy Production Calendar- Use a calendar to easily record daily dairy collection for the month. Each day of the week is color coded for use with our system of color-coded milk labeling.

(January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

Dairy Production Chart- Records monthly tallies from the Dairy Production Calendar

Expense Charts- 2012 Expense Records for Garden, Cattle, Hogs, Layers, and Broilers

Homestead Yields- Record current & previous years production totals and record the difference to analyze homestead yields and growth

Layer Production Chart- Print one for each month to record your daily egg totals. Record that number on the final sheet for annual production

Outdoors To-Do Checklist

Pantry Inventory

Seed Purchase List

{Coversheets}

Bible

Cleaning

Cookbook

Finances

Health & Nutrition

Home Education

Homemaking

Homesteading- Includes one for Homesteading, Records, Produce, Poultry, Hogs, and Cattle

Menu & Grocery Planning

Side Labels

{Menu Planning}

Grocery List Template (3 column)

Grocery Planner- Grocery Planner & Menu Planner Coversheets (are pretty pixelated- I don't know if that would fix itself upon download or not, but just in case I made 2 separate coversheets and posted them with the others above); 12 month/4 week Menu Planner; Price List, Pantry Inventory; Freezer Inventory

~2012 Homemaking Binder Additions~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Would it be a new year if I didn't update you on updating my homemaking binder??

I'm sorry, but the more I utilize the system, the more I love it! Admittedly, when I first drafted the pages, I would go weeks or sometimes months without using it, but it was always in the back of my mind and I was forever thinking of ways to improve it so that it might be of greater and greater benefit to me. Over the years, I found I was using it more and more frequently. Now hardly a day passes, where I'm not found several times referencing, filing, or recording something on it's pages. By far it is my most useful and helpful tool for building effortless homemaking habits!

I think that keeping the system up to date is crucial for it to work properly. I pay much closer attention to what the plan is and how the days are actually going. As our lives go on, of course, they are constantly changing and so what worked last year most likely won't quite fit into this year and a tweak here and there at least once a year makes everything go so much more smoothly!

In the past, I've shared with you that I have 5 binders:

1.) Homemaking
2.) Homesteading
3.) Homeschooling
4.) Menu Planning & Grocery
5.) Health & Nutrition

{Homemaking}
One of the greatest changes I've made to the system this past year was that I have incorporated into the Homemaking binder an Education tab. Under this tab I'm keeping a list of goals & curriculum for the year (sometimes I find at the end of the year there were whole books I meant to utilize and forgot to!), an outline of what I'd like to get done each day of the week for each child, and a month's worth of record sheets for each child.

The purpose for this addition was to eliminate the daily usage of one binder and keep it so that the Homemaking binder is my center of operation. I've already been using the Homesteading binder in much the same way and keeping all the totals for the month under Homemaking and then tallying and shuffling the previous month into the Homesteading binder once a month. I made that improvement last year as I planned on keeping better homesteading records through 2011. I like it this way a great deal and it is so nice to function with just one binder most of the time.

Otherwise, I've made few improvements to the Homemaking binder with the obvious exception being my Daily Outline & Monthly Schedule.

From the Monthly Schedule I've removed all of the work in regard to baking sourdough and feeding the starter. The system worked beautifully, but since my starter was spoiled I haven't found the time to get back in the habit of working up another batch and I'm realistic enough to know that with a baby due just a couple months, now isn't the time to bother. The cheesemaking I've been doing already has me feeling like nearly every moment is spent in the kitchen and I'd just as soon have one less thing to try to remember to do. I added a reminder for Daily Laundry Management and also my husband has a small note each Saturday to work on some crucial element that is often neglected if not scheduled into the month.

I was quite pleased with the Daily Outline and rhythm of our days at the time of my last revision and little editing was done other than a tweak here and there.

One other noteworthy addition made to the schedules was a Yearly Schedule so that we might be better prepared to get all of the work done around here. It's so easy to get swept away in the busyness of life that before long you're wondering why the chicken eggs are perpetually soiled when they're brought in. It's so nice to have those little tasks planned into the year so they're always taken care of.

Our Yearly Schedule for 2012 looks like this:

{Homesteading}
I found the additions I made to the Homesteading Binder last year to be of great benefit during the year and only made two small additions. First, was a seed order inventory and list for the upcoming year, and the second was to design a Cost Analysis Sheet that breaks down your yields per product and the price per pound. I was shocked at what I saw for our 2011 Cost Analysis but I'll share more on that soon.

{Homeschooling}
The Homeschooling binder suffered a major overhaul last summer as I completely revamped how I envisioned our schooling time. We just finished our second full month of school around here (we've adopted an agrarian calendar) and I am thus far quite pleased with our "smooth & easy days." This year has proved to be the most tear-free yet (to both mother and children) and I'm so thankful because I had been beginning to fear that educating my children would prove to be one of the most challenging parts of raising them. I know I promised half a year ago to go into greater detail about these changes and please forgive me that I have yet to do so. Chalk it up to hormones, but I lost all my nerve to confess to just how relaxed our homeschooling here had become. The reality didn't end up as bad as it seemed to me on paper. I do hope to find the time to share more in the coming days.

{Menu & Grocery Planning}
Menu & Grocery Planning continues to be a wonderful system for me especially as I try to buy more in bulk, the Price List has proved a wonderful tool to help me track cost and the Pantry & Freezer Inventory Sheets to analyze how frequently we're requiring what quantities so that once-annual bulk purchases might become a reality in the near future. That is the goal at least.

{Health & Nutrition}
Finally, the dusty Health and Nutrition binder is scheduled to get a makeover this year. We're a relatively healthy family, but between frequent illnesses this year and the accident with my one year-old's toes, I've felt the need to build my knowledge and outfit my medicine cabinet this year and intend to make some progress to that end as the year passes.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my templates with you in a downloadable, editable format so that you can easily get started setting up your own customized homemaking binder!

If you're interested in learning more about my Homemaking Management System, please visit my Homestead Management page.

~Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:48:00 +0000

It's not often that a cookie will make the cut into our family recipe book, but this recent discovery satisfies my family's sweet tooth and almost assuages my guilt considering its' inclusion of somewhat healthful ingredients... as far as cookies go. I know it's not exactly pumpkin season either, but we're sure enjoying them none the less!

Most of all, I appreciate any excuse to delight in a sweet & creamy glass of fresh raw milk!!

{Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies}

3 c. rolled oats
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. salt
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1 c. pumpkin
1 c. walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside. With a mixer cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then vanilla, then pumpkin. Mix in the dry ingredients until well combined. Mix in nuts. Drop by tablespoon sized spoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for 14 min. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Recipe Credit

Enjoy!

~Getting It All Done~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:01:00 +0000

One of the biblical foundations for born again farming is the fact that God is the one that makes things grow. In other words, only he can produce the fruit. This means that we aren’t to go out and try to produce fruit in our own strength. Instead, we need to focus on being faithful with the time, skill, and resources God has given us and leave the results of our faithfulness up to him.

God gives us enough time during the day to get done all that He wants us to do, but not necessarily all that we want to do.
-Redeeming The Dirt

As the fresh start of a new year has the tendency to do, my thoughts are gravitating towards what accomplishments I'd like to see fulfilled in 2012 whether that is on our homestead, in our schoolroom, in the home, or especially in my walk with Christ.

I shared last week that I tend to be rather ambitious, aiming my standards high... and missing the mark. This year I find myself approaching 'my' goals more realistically. That being the case, Don't Work Like A Greedy Farmer really resonated with me and will with you too regardless of whether you farm since we ladies have a proclivity to compose lengthy to-do lists each day that leave us feeling like failures each night. Please take a moment to read the article and hopefully you'll be as blessed by it as I have been!

~Slow & Steady~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:19:00 +0000

Crimson sunset beauty amidst stormy clouds

I didn't mean to express that I was disheartened while reviewing how few of my many goals I met in 2011 and I greatly appreciate all of your kind sentiments of encouragement that were shared with me this week!!

One of the wonderful things about blogging for me is that it provides not only a place to connect with like-minded individuals, share what I'm learning or glean from what you are, chronicle our journey, and record things I might not otherwise have recorded and come to regret it later, but it provides me with a wonderful opportunity for some accountability in goal-making and a chance to exercise humility when I failed to meet meet my own standards.

I suppose I thought it only fair, after posting such an ambitious list last winter, that I am completely transparent about the outcome, (after all, I promised to do so on my side bar) and show how even when we dream big, especially in homesteading where so many elements are fully out of our control and are in the Lord's hands, He can give us a reality check and remind us just exactly who directs our affairs. I can not fathom the struggle it would be for the gardener without faith in Providence as they saw all of their trials and shortcomings being the result of their negligence or that it was just "fate," "luck," or "chance" that brought them to this point. How thankful I am to know that every drop of rain and every successful hatching of leaf-footed beetles this past year, every illness or moment of bodily weakness that kept me from "getting it all done" was for my own good and given from His hand! It is truly such a comfort to me and any momentary disappointment is quickly followed with that assurance and the peace that naturally comes with that knowledge.

I think that if I could impress any new homesteader with some minuscule granule of wisdom I may have gleaned and that the Lord has really impressed on my heart this past year, it would be that a homestead isn't built in a day, year, or in just a couple of years for that matter! It takes time and experience and wisdom to grow our land. It is all too easy to look in books or at other's homesteads and want ours to be just as big or do just as well and be discouraged when things don't work out to our expectations. And that's not a bad thing if, through it, we learn to rely all the more heavily on His sufficiency and continued Provision, great or small.

Sadly, there is no such thing as 'instant homestead' and let's face it, were we relatively wealthy people (in monetary terms of course) who could afford to put the many aspects of sustainable lifestyle in place in a short space of time, I doubt that but a few of us would feel compelled to leave our lives of ease and comfort to discover the satisfaction of what it feels like to have such a direct connection with feeding our families.

Besides, we live in a day when these skills we're trying to reclaim are 'forgotten' and so despite the mastery that was gained in previous generations, we're having to figure it all out on own. To be sure much was written down, but a great deal of this knowledge can only be learned by experience. So even if we could afford to get it all in place, for it to function successfully will only come with time and skill.

I hope that when you visit our little homestead on the internet that you might be challenged, encouraged, learn from our accomplishments and especially from our mistakes. I post them that you might not repeat them and that your season of trial and error might be shorter than ours. I want it not just to be a "here's what we're doing", but "here's how we're doing". I want you to feel free to ask questions, correct me where I've erred, share with me your joys, triumphs, and pitfalls.

My hope for my homestead and yours in 2012- that will be reflected in our goal setting for next year- would be the old proverb 'slow and steady wins the race.' Don't add to your workload further burdens until you've done what you've already started and can do it well. Be sure that you're able to maintain what is already in place. Build habits, lasting habits, so that things run smoothly, joyfully, and all is not chaos, clutter, and disappointment in your homes and on your homesteads.

May your 2012 be wonderfully blessed and full of joy! May your homes next year abound with the fruit borne from the Christ-honoring goals you set in the coming days!

~Meeting Our Goals... Or Not~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:15:00 +0000

As I begin my year-end reflections, I can't say that I'm sorry to see 2011 go. It certainly was a year full of trials and challenges and I think that as I look back I believe our struggles might easily be summed up in a statement I made back in February, " I may have bit off more than I can chew."

And it would seem that what I couldn't chew, the overly abundant insect population in the garden this year took care of the rest for me. Between that and mud, and water woes, and the fact that is seems we've been dealing with one form of illness or another since the beginning of July.

Our goals for 2011 were as follows:

~Our main growth this year in light of that will be in the garden. Seeds offer a huge return for very little investment and I'm hoping for a very productive year that will feed our family until the next. I'm expanding into herb gardening and will fill my perennial gardens will herbs both culinary and medicinal and edible flowers. I think my new philosophy is, "If you can't eat it, I won't grow it." I'm adding asparagus in the front yard as an edible ornamental where we had planned to put some pampas grass to make mowing easier in the corners of our white picket fence.

Well I certainly made the financial investment into the garden. Between seeds & plants & fertilizers & organic pest control methods, our garden this year was anything but nearly free. I have yet to compile the totals in comparison to our 2010 yields. I do know that in some areas there was improvement, but overall I fear we will show a loss especially in light of our pantry totals.

~I hope to extend our seasons with cold frames and mini-greenhouses if possible. We have the supplies already for at least one cold frame.

And that one cold frame was all that was built. Late fall I scattered some iceberg lettuce seeds in it, but after comparing it to to a simple raised bed scattered with romaine lettuce seeds, the romaine is growing nicely and is needing thinned badly whereas I didn't see any sprouts in the cold frame. We'll see how things progress though.

~We have a new patch of fresh earth tilled up and awaiting planting. There grains will be grown, wheat, oats, barley, and corn. I think that covering the seeds until they're sprouted will help tremendously as it would seem that the chickens eat most of the seed before it germinates. I'm considering growing rice in buckets too for a fun little project for the children.

No rice. But we did grow oats, wheat, and corn. The chickens ate the barley even though I tried to cover it. Even fencing them out didn't seem to work they kept finding ways to get into the grain as it ripened. We did get a meager harvest, but the largest gleaning was in knowledge. We worked hard this fall to amend the soil appropriately and are now sheet composting the straw and manure from Maybelle & Gus' sacrifice area to help improve it further.

~To our orchard, I'd like to add lowbush blueberries and raspberries as a hedgerow along our property line and hardy kiwi to grow over the picket fence that borders the orchard.

Zero growth & accomplishment in the orchard this year. In fact, we're down two grapes, one cherry tree, and two blueberry plants.

~We need to plant the pasture and since it is part shade will be trying a frost planting of orchard grass in a few weeks. We've read conflicting reports of whether or not orchard grass lends itself to frost planting, so the choice is tentative. I'd like to cultivate some comfrey in the back pasture wet areas as well. Comfrey is great for cattle, composting, fertilization, and for the natural medicine cabinet. Forage chicory is another option that we're looking into adding to the mix.

The pasture continues to give us plenty to worry about. Wanting our cattle to be primarily grass-fed, getting it into decent condition remains a priority. Thanks to the Cornish broilers this fall and plenty of wet weather throughout the year, any efforts we made were all in vain and it's in worse condition now than it has ever been.

~We'll be adding replacement layers in the spring. We're hoping to hatch our own sex-linked chicks, but so far our breeding program is a flop. We've built two mini-coops to house them and they have yet to produce a single egg. At this point we've let them back into the general population and will just gather the eggs to hatch from whoever and hope for the best. We also decided to let each of the children choose a breed of their own liking from the Murray McMurray catalogue and their choices are very silly looking birds.

All of the children's chickens, save one, died early on. Our breeding program continued to be a flop when the rooster began to attack us repeatedly which ended his time here. His replacement has so far proved less aggressive, but we'll see how he behaves in the spring. The chicks won't be sex-linked which is a shame, but his companion roosters from that straight run purchase proved fine eating with the richest, darkest, and most fully flavored chicken meat I've sampled to date and I wouldn't mind the additions to the freezer.

Click Image For Credit

~We're considering starting to breed Narragansett Turkeys to keep us supplied with meat instead of the Broad Breasted Bronze we used this year. This is up in the air, because of minimums on shipping. We're looking for someone to go in on a shipment with. Otherwise, we'll have to go with Bourbon Reds because that's the heritage breed the local feed store will be offering.

Another breeding program that went bust. We couldn't even find a source that would sell less than 15 turkeys at a time and I wasn't willing to make a $150+ investment into it just yet. Of course this meant no homegrown turkey here this winter.

Click Image For Credit

~Our meat chicken production will grow this year as well. We'd like to try doing 2 groups of 50, one in the spring and one in the fall. We might give Freedom Rangers a shot for the first round to see how we like them. I know my husband would love to build a chicken plucker.

Finally a goal that met with success! Well some success. Since we found that Freedom Rangers are the breed of choice for this homestead, I chose to see this as an step in the right direction. Much work remains to be done on predator control before the next batch of chicks are set to pasture. The chicken plucker was built and worked wonderfully increasing our efficiency at quickly processing large batches of birds.

~We are also trying to evaluate whether we should overwinter a couple of hogs next year. We are already nearly through the ham, sausage, and bacon, but until the bull was butchered, that was our primary source of meat. I hoping that adding the chickens will mean more variety of protein options in my menu planning, and we'll be able to stretch the meat further. However, since, we're going to be butchering them ourselves this year, I'm worried about the waste I'm sure that we'll have.

I have a plan for our meat that will keep us from glutting on meat seasonally as it is butchered. Provided it works, we won't worry so much about what little lose will occur while saving hundreds of dollars annually by doing our own butchering. Instead of overwintering this year, we're giving the land a bit of a longer rest and will be getting hogs mid summer for a winter butchering.

Click Image For Credit

~Hannah would like to begin raising rabbits this year and we could easily convert the chicken tractor to a rabbit tractor making it a project with very little investment.

No rabbits this year. Time (and money) were fleeting and we never found the time to get the project started.

Click Image For Credit

~Eventually, we'd like to become bee keepers and there may be a program in our area that would allow us to do it with no investment at all! They would provide all of the materials and training! Wouldn't that be exciting. Otherwise, it's very, very low on the priority list.

No bees. The program is no longer open and it's position low on the priority list coupled with the aforementioned time & money made this goal never materialize.

~To assist in my cheese making venture, I'd like to have a cheese press built. There is after all only so much one can do with ricotta, cream cheese, and mozzarella.

The cheese press was built- and early in the year too. However since the milk didn't really start flowing until the calf was weaned a few weeks ago, I just pulled it out for the first time... today actually. We're seeing some kinks and design flaws that need to be worked out, but I hope to be able to produce a hard cheese soon.

~Another project this year will be whitewashing the inside of the barn & coop as well as our fencing

Nope. And I was just thinking yesterday how a nice whitewashing would improve the aesthetics of that dirty old barn.

~ I'm determined to maintain immaculate financial records and food storage records this year so that we can better plan how to allocate our finances in 2012

Yes! I don't know if I would call them immaculate, but they are pretty close thanks to much hounding on my part for every feed bill that came into the house. To be sure a few slipped by here and there, but such is life if you don't control every aspect of the homestead. I can't tell you how valuable I have found it to be to maintain at least expense records and yield tallies. Unless you are homesteading solely for hobby, it has gone a great way to show us where we need to cut costs and make improvements in efficiency.

So although it's been an altogether disappointing with the progress we've made this year, it's wonderful to be able to assess that progress and dream of a more promising 2012!!

~Baby Wearing While Pregnant~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Carrying babies #6 & 7

It's easy for me to know just what to do when my baby starts to become adventurous and explore his or her world. I discovered the joys of baby wearing several years ago and so appreciated the freedom it gave me to get my to-do list accomplished and still have my little one close to me, involved in what I'm working on, and most importantly... out of trouble!!

This summer was no exception! Normally I'd have no problem just setting the baby (I'm talking crawling, early walking age here) on a blanket with a few toys and get some weeds pulled or something else around the yard. The worst I've dealt with is a baby with a little dirt in their mouth or sampling the leaves for flavor. But this year, Lil' Miss Independent would not only walk off, but walk out of sight. I think the problem was that she knew there was a kitty around somewhere and she was determined to find him. The only thing that would give me peace of mind while getting my chores done was to wrap her up onto my back.

Back Wrap Cross while pruning tomatoes in the garden

Only having been familiar and comfortable with one carrying technique so far, all I know is that pretty early in the first trimester, having that band cinched around my sensitive stomach is very uncomfortable and increases my feelings of morning sickness and the baby carrying is quickly abandoned.

Necessity has compelled me to try to find a way to keep Bekah off of her feet and out of trouble while I try to manage the household- particularly the influx of dairy since having fully weaned the calf about a month ago. And after searching I am so happy to report how very comfortable it is to wear her on my back with the Rucksack Tibetan carry!

There is no stress on the belly whatsoever and I actually thought that having her back there balanced out the weight up front and I was able to work in the kitchen doing dishes, stretching cheese, and carving a ham before she nodded off and I was able to lay her down for a little mid-morning nap.

Since we have been getting nearly two gallons of milk a day, I've been spending most mornings the past week processing it into mozzarella cheese, 6 quarts of yogurt, and a failed attempt at cream cheese. Thankfully, I seem to have worked out all of the kinks I was having with mozzarella earlier this year and I've only botched one batch in the last few days. (Turns out that adding the culture cubes makes all the difference in the world in flavor. I had two separate people tell me that batch smelled like bleach!) I'm getting the best stretching I've ever had and if I'm not careful nibbling little ends here and there of the chewy, squeaky, buttery, warm cheese is going to mean trouble for my future waistline!!

Then I'll be needing to go back to the back wrap cross carry simply to cover up my unsightly midsection!

Do you enjoy wearing your baby as much as I do? What is your favorite carrying position?

Links for 2011-03-31 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 PDT

FREE SEEDS!
25 seed packets from Seeds of Change- a $75 value!- for $4.99 shipping!

Links for 2011-03-18 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:00:00 PDT

America's breadbasket aquifer running dry; massive agriculture collapse inevitable
Just another reason to grab a packet of seeds and grow your own food.

Links for 2011-02-22 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

Pathogen in Roundup Ready Soy and Corn Could Lead to Calamity, Scientist Warns
"A new self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-size organism could be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy and wilt in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn, a plant pathologist has warned U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack."

Links for 2011-01-22 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:00:00 PST

Everything you always wanted to know about COMFREY but were afraid to ask
Comfrey 101
COMFREY FOR THE HOMESTEAD
Comfrey Order Form
http://www.nantahala-farm.com/images/Comfrey.pdf

Links for 2011-01-20 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 PST

How to Formulate Your Own Chicken Feed
Hate to use soy for feeding the animals... is it possible to not only mix our own, but grow some of it?
Chicken Feed Recipes
Including traditional recipes without soy