Where I’ve been

So my internet has been acting up for a few weeks now, and late last week it decided to just give up the ghost.  Not sure what’s going on, but man you don’t realize how much you use the internet until it’s not there.  I’ve had these wierd bugs on my squash and no way to look them up.  Criminal I tell you.  So what have I been doing instead?  How about some pictures?

pulling up carpetWe recently discovered that underneath the nasty cream carpet in our house, are these gorgeous hardwoods.  Initially I was afraid they’d be majorly damaged or something but once it was all done (except a few places under heavy furniture…need the husband’s help for that!), they’re in fabulous condition! Once we get it DONE, I’ll do a whole post about it.

wyatt floorsSee, we even put the toddlers to work.  Gotta earn your lunch around here! LOL!

Egg nestWe found a spot where the chickens have been hiding their eggs and found this.  Haven’t found any there since.  We know they’re somewhere…just don’t know where.

run runLots of this. Always lots of this.

1st french braidRee had her first french braid.  I’m not great at it yet, been out of practice for years!  She liked it though, and that’s what matters.

custom initial pj setA custom flannel pj set for a customer.  This was the last I had of this space themed flannel and I’m kind of sad.  It’s so wonderful for older boys who are past the “puppy dogs” stage.

froglet foolMaking a ton of Froglets!  Some of these are for orders, and some are stock building for a big show next month.  I think they look so pretty all lined up like this!

Jacob first trophyLast but not least, last night Jacob had his awards ceremony for baseball.  This was his first year playing an organized team sport, and I’m so proud of him!  He improved ALOT, and won an award for “Most Determined Player”.  I have to agree with that one!

So, what have YOU been up to this week?  Anything exciting?

Our First Eggs!!

I was up early this morning with Ree and Wyatt, so I got kind of a slow start.  Well, just now I wanted to hop in the shower before church so Bobby went outside to feed and water the animals while I did that.  When I got out of the shower, Bobby came in and said “Babe! Look what I found!”.  And in his hand were these two little beauties:

First EggsI am SO excited!  So excited I haven’t even brushed my hair yet, I had to come and show  you!  These are small, about the size of a medium egg you would see in the grocery store, but that’s so wonderful!  What a huge blessing for us to start out the Lord’s day with such an amazing thing.  I know what we’re having for lunch!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, our girls are just over 4 months old, so this seems like it might be a smidge early for them to start laying (most things I’ve read say they start laying around 5 months).  Does this mean I have overachieving chickens? LOL!

Preparedness Challenge #18: First time canning!

Preparedness Challenge

I started this post earlier this week and never quite got it finished.  I’ll blog more in depth about the process next week, but today I want to talk about preparedness. This linky is hosted by Homestead Revival (a SERIOUSLY fabulous blog which I have come to adore in the past few months!)

Now, before you go thinking I’m turning into some off grid crazy hermit who explodes grenades at the “perimeter” just for fun, let me correct that now lol.  Over the past few years I’ve begun to feel like this country is headed in a BAD direction, which the recession then proved.  I naturally tend towards stockpiling food and such due to past experiences, but now I feel it’s time to do it right and well.

A big part of being prepared for what is referred to in some circles as TEOTWAYKI (The End of the World as we know it-which always makes me think of Tom Petty lol), is learning new skills and honing new ones to be used not only for your family, but in situations of bartering with others (which you already know I’m a huge fan of!).  That’s one reason I’ve started learning to can produce.  Yes it still scares me to even think about.

canned picklesDespite the fact I was scared to death to start, and after MUCH research, I finally took the plunge.   I’m happy to say no one was injured or broken in the makings of these pickles.  It’s a wonderful feeling to see jars lining up on my shelves of produce grown by our hands, and preserved by our hands.  I ordered a pressure canner earlier this week (thanks to Swagbucks!), so we’ll see if I can carry over the success to that; or if I just sit and look at it in fear and apprehension lol.

Do you can?  Have any tips for this newbie canner?  Hop on over to Homestead Revival for more posts about homesteading and prepping!

Harvesting

If you’ve read here for very long, you know that last winter we bought our first home with a small amount of land.  We’ve been steadily working on our little homestead here, transforming it piece by piece from a typical “mow the 2 acres of lawn twice a week and have pretty landscaping” property to something a little different!

gardenThis is our garden as it sits.  It’s our first year gardening so it’s a bit of a hodge podge but so far going well!  As you can see if you look at the squash though, we’ve been battling powdery mildew.  I discovered yesterday that I was going about it wrong though.  I thought you were supposed to water the plants at night so the heat didn’t burn off the water before it got to the roots.  Well, apparently not the squash, that makes the mildew grow!  So maybe now it will get better..my poor plants!

harvestThis is from about 3 days of harvesting (yes, I know..the zucchini is taking over!), and as you can see, things are going well! The zucchini is amazing, I’ve been making bread to giveaway, eat, and freeze; I’ve also been chopping it for the freezer for casseroles and such this winter.  The yellow squash we’ve been frying, I only have 3 plants of those and they don’t produce as prolifically as the zucchini so we’ve kept up with them well.  The cucumbers…oh Lord the cucumbers!   They’re growing like crazy (and sometimes in crazy shapes as you can see!), and I’m making pickles with them!

morning chickensAnd this is what I see out the back door most mornings.  We have  a couple of silly chickens who REALLY don’t like being in their run so they fly out as soon as it starts to get light inside and don’t come in until dusk.  It kinda cracks me up!  I do think we’re going to have to clip their wings though since they’re going into the neighbor’s yards!

Now, who wants some zucchini bread?

Happy Mothers Day!

My weekend started with this:

Jacobs 1st hit

This is my oldest son Jacob playing his 1st baseball game EVER.  At his 2nd time up to the plate he got his first base hit!  He was so stunned he started running then he stopped (and got tagged out then), but man I’m so proud of him!! There were only a half dozen kids or so on his team that hit the ball, but regardless, they won the game 5-4!  Totally a proud mama over here!

Today, we spent working on this:

Onion bedWell not THIS specifically, but the garden.  This is our bed of onions that are growing SO well!!  In the background you can see part of the tires that we planted full of potatoes today.  We have more potatoes to plant but we need more tires! I had read that you get better yields with potatoes by planting them in tires so I thought we’d give it a shot.  It also seems like you’d use less space by doing that unless you’re like us and plant about 40 lbs. or so of seed potatoes.

We managed to get the rest of the beds tilled today(I think, we’ll see how it shakes out once I get planting!!!), and I got the potatoes and carrots in finally.  Lots of work equals one tired but very happy mama.  Planting continues tomorrow of course!

Happy Mothers Day to all out there! I hope your days were filled with massages, good coffee, chocolate, and perfectly behaved children!

Bartering or Trading-making it work

Barter image

Photo Credit

We all know what bartering is right?  Or trading?  It means trading something you no longer want/need/use and trading it with someone else to get something you do need/want/use.  No cash changing hands.  It’s been the basis of living for hundreds of years, but fell out of society’s eye sometime in the last few decades as people started thinking that “used” stuff was bad or whatever.  I, personally, have never felt that way.  I’m thankful every day for the lessons my parents imparted to me regarding finances-one of which is that getting something 2nd hand wasn’t bad.  They taught me that not only were you spending less money than buying it new, but helping the environment in lots of ways (less resources consumed for making the new widget, old widget not sitting in a landfill, etc.).  Now, my parents weren’t very “green” or overly environmentally conscious, it came more from the direction of it just makes sense!

barter network

Photo Credit

For a really great in depth article on the technicalities of bartering, read this one, it’s fab.  In this day and age, you aren’t limited to your local community.  I’ve done some fun trades with other artisans product for product.  I bartered for my logo design (which I completely adore!), and she also did various other things like my business cards and the graphic for my woven clothing tags.    There’s a website called Swap Mamas that helps coordinate bartering, I think childrens items and coupons are the most active categories there, but I’ve traded for things like file folders (which I use to organize my sewing patterns, and I was out!) and canning jars.

For me, I never know how to approach someone about bartering.  How are you supposed to know if they’re open to the idea?  I’m always afraid of offending, so it’s very rare for me to ask!  Some places, like the folks over at Weksny Acres, have a page up on their site with what they are currently bartering for (which they refer to as “Farm-cycling”-how awesome is that?).  This is the place that is breeding some chicks for us right now, by the way!  OK, but if someone doesn’t have it out there like that, then what?  Any suggestions?  Should I just chill about it and not be afraid to ask?

Another thing that’s hard is that alot of the things I’m wanting/needing are really limited to my local area. We’re slowly working on getting to know more people in our community, and I’m hoping once we are “out there” more the bartering will flow more freely.

So what’s on my list you ask?  Well, it’s kind of long!!!

  • Hormone/antibiotic free beef
  • Knitting lessons (although this may lead to a yarn stash that rivals the fabric stash which may lead to my husband leaving me lol!)
  • Fencing for the pasture
  • Lumber-so many projects for this one!
  • An assistant to help me with writing listings and such
  • Photography lessons
  • Accounting services (would have to be an ongoing thing of course)
  • Graphic design services (I want to build a whole website for Froggy Girl Designs!!!)
  • Pyrex pieces from this vintage collection
  • Good quality jelly roll pans
  • Anything from my amazon wishlist (and no, it doesn’t have to be new..just usable!)
  • Wool dryer balls
  • Homesteading magazines (stuff like Mother Earth News, Homesteading Today, etc.)
  • Dansko clogs/shoes in a womens US size 6
  • Red worms for vermiculture
  • Livestock for our homestead (chickens, goats, sheep, maybe even a cow?)

And my dream big/trade up list:

  • New pole barn (ours is ridiculous, I should do a post about it sometime so ya’ll can laugh)
  • Truckload of organic compost
  • Electrical work
  • Acreage

See, everything from little stuff to big..now, to make it happen!  I want to know your thoughts about bartering!  Do you do it?  How do you go about making those connections?  Interested in a trade with me?

Our Frugal Chicken Brooder Setup

Last week hubby and I were at our local farm store picking up a few things and we heard a ruckus.  It was that tell tale sound we’ve been waiting months for-chicks!!!  So we rushed over and started talking chickens.  We knew we had the stuff at home to set up a brooder, and our coop is about 99% finished.  We have a friend breeding us some of her free range, non-hybrid breed chickens but man, we just couldn’t wait!  We know we want a flock of 30+ chickens, so we went ahead and bought 16 chicks.

baby chicks in brooder #1

The 2 yellow ones are Cornish Cross-destined to be butchered in about 7 more weeks.  We had 3 but lost one the first night home.  We only got a couple because we’ve never butchered before and wanted to start “light”.  The stripey ones are Barred Rocks, and the ones with white dots on their heads are Black Australorps.

Aren’t they cute???   Now, why you’re here..you want to know about our setup for their brooder right?  Well here goes!  First, we knew they needed to be in the house for a couple of reasons.  1) Coop isn’t ready yet (not warm enough, no electric for heat lamps, etc.); 2) protection from predators & weather; that type of thing.  So where to put them, we decided that in the living room by my desk was the best place to keep them safe from kids and cats.  We had a BIG Rubbermaid bin that I used to keep all my flannel in, but the lid was busted many moons ago and I no longer needed it for my flannel.

chickens #3We purchased the feed holder and waterer from the feed store (although if I had seen this post from The Prairie Homestead I may have tried that first!), as well as the red bulbs for the heat lamps.  The top was made again, to keep them safe from kids and cats, but allow us to see them and them to have plenty of ventilation.  Bobby used lumber and hardware cloth we already had on hand (both of which I think we actually got from someone’s trash pile at some point shhhh).  The piece sticking up on the left is to attach the heat lamps to.

Brooder Lid

This is what the brooder lid looks like from the side.  We wanted to make sure it couldn’t be slid off so its like a box kind of.  It’s also too heavy for the little ones to move on their own.  All of the kids LOVE sitting and watching the chicks, and I can NOT freak out knowing they can’t hurt the chicks.

Brooder Setup

This is what the brooder looks like in action.  The lamp you see is one I had from a failed “make your own light box” experiment for the shop (seriously, I am SO not a photographer..it’s ridiculous).  Overall I think we spent less than $20 out of pocket for the whole setup; and then the cost of the chicks of course.

Oh, and really?  The joy I feel listening to them make their little chirpy noises is worth every penny!

Welcome 2011-We’re going to be great friends

happy new year

Photo Credit

Happy New Year Ya’ll!  I’m EXCITED about 2011!  2010 was a year of continued hardship and struggle for our family, along with great joys and blessings.  Quite the conundrum, yes?

But 2011, oh how I love the feeling of starting anew, with a blank slate so to speak.  It’s like the joy of a brand new notebook, with pages blank and crisp, awaiting your lists, thoughts, plans and dreams.  I try not to be too hard and fast with the resolutions, I try and live every day being a better person than the one before.  I do set goals though, new year seems like as good of a time as any to be a benchmark for those.

My goals for 2011 so far haven’t taken complete shape, they’re still wide open and rather vague.  They look something like this:

Family:

  • Get better about planning meals..I’m horrible at it, but going to try harder.
  • Continue on our mission to live and eat more locally, organically and sustainably, which goes hand in hand with the next 2;
  • Make community connections-we’re finally SETTLED it’s time to start making friends!
  • Continue working on our mini homestead-compost pile is in place, today the chicken coop is being built, to be inhabited in the next few days, in the spring we’ll work on our garden, as well as fencing in the side pasture for goats and sheep.  We’re also considering one milk cow, but that needs more research!

Personal/Business:

  • Continue growing Froggy Girl Designs.  I learned alot last year, but I need to keep moving forward.  I do have to keep in mind though that I’m a mama of 5, and home and family are more important than making a name for myself.
  • Reclaim ME.  For over a decade I’ve been either housing or feeding another human being with my body.  We’re done having children (SOB :( ), so its time to get Mika back.  This includes losing the weight I gained over the last year and a half from eating my emotions, making friends locally, and taking care of a few medical issues that have been nagging at me as well.
  • Be a better mama.  There are too many days I find myself existing, and not participating with my kiddos, and I hate it.  I want to teach them well and love them better.
  • Find out more about magazine submissions and publishing.  I have a few ideas I need to polish up and figure out how to get them out there!
  • Gradually move away from Etsy and focus solely on my Artfire shop.  This is the big scary for me!  Marketing is NOT my strong point!

So that’s kinda it in a nutshell for me for 2011.  What about you, got your goals set?  I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a FABULOUS year, don’t you?

So there was this girl, and she had a blog..

And she had posts half written for MONTHS that she forgot to publish.  So then she wouldn’t post at all. And she’d look at professional blogs and get all icky feeling.  So she wouldn’t post at all.  I might be that girl, maybe.

New House FrontThis is what we’ve been busy doing, we were house hunting and settled on this!  The picture is blurry but I just took it from the MLS listing as right now we’re covered in SNOW!  Winter has set in here in Southern Indiana and while it’s gorgeous out there, I REALLY am not a fan!

Side yard

View of the side yard-1 acre of open space

The winter will be spent preparing for spring.  We’re going to be getting chickens first and foremost, then a couple of goats and sheep as well.  We’ll be raising them for meat, eggs and milk.  Along with the garden we’re planning we hope to supply most of our own food-grown organically and without any types of chemicals.  I never thought I would be so “crunchy”, but the more I think about my children and the health issues facing our nation today (most of which I believe come from the crappy food supply here), the more I want to do it ourselves. Wow, sorry, didn’t mean to go off on a little rant there!

So I’ll be figuring out a garden, learning to can, learning how to be a chicken/goat/sheep mama and all that jazz.  I’m still sewing, and still listing things over on Etsy (and now on Artfire as well, although I had a total brain fart with that one that I need to get fixed!).  That will still be my main focus here but you’ll also be seeing more about how we’re making our little homestead!