New Year's Resolutions?

I know, people usually don't want to admit that they do this, but it IS kind of good to sometimes have a "check" of ourselves, and re-evaluate how things are going in our lives and even in our homes and farms.

So I thought I would share a few (until now) unwritten and unspoken things I would like to change on my farm and home this year! 

As being relatively new to the "farm" thing, I think it is good to always question how I can do things more efficiently and even more naturally. I plan on being more "deliberate" with my garden this year.  As in, I am planting things according to their "freezability or can-ability".  So less of the cuccumber/ mellon thing...  More of the rotational garden that can be "kept" thing...  I am keeping with NO chemicals on my garden.  I am soon going to be ordering my seeds, and I am BEYOND excited about the thought of Spring again!  This year our strawberries will be ready, and I am so excited about those also.  Especially with NO chemicals.  I pick from a local farm that is surrounded by farm ground that sprays their fields.  So you HAVE to know there are chemicals there.

In the barn, I hope to keep things pastured.  And feeds being natural feeds, when necessary.  We really don't have the option of organic around where I live, with out a HUGE price tag and shipping...  I am excited to be having our first baby goats!  I will be letting them nurse from their mother for a week or a little more, THEN I will be milking the mother and bottle feeding the babies their mother's milk.  Bottle feeding will help with the friendliness of the goat.  Which will be GREAT for 4H.  I hope to shear my sheep again this Spring, and take in all of the wool this time to have it processed,  I am excited for the potential of my own yarn!  What to make, what to make....

In my home, I hope to keep with making cleaners, and to learn how to make more.  I am planning on more organic in my cupboards too.  I have been gradually trying to do that, so as to not break the bank.  I want to continue to  make things more in the kitchen.  My family loves it, and I feel SO much better about knowing the ingredients.

Overall, SIMPLE.  SIMPLE!  I am a simple, mother and wife.  I live on a farm.  I get my feet and hands dirty.  I want my boys to be healthy and HAPPY.  I ADORE my husband.  I am a child of God.  Beyond that, there isn't much else.  Keep it simple.  Keep LIFE simple.

What are YOUR resolutions for the new year for your home and farm?  Please share!!!  Let's encourage each other in this process this year!

Inspired...

This Wednesday night, my hubby and I traveled an hour away from our home to see speaker and farmer, Joel Salatin.

If you are like us, and have some land, own animals and want to do better, want to be more natural, more organic... Joel Salatin is your go to guy.

In the speaking engagement Wednesday night at Albion College in Michigan, Joel showed pictures of his homestead and explained how not only most farms in the U.S. are not only smelly and many times breeding grounds for disease, but how these animals aren't being allowed to do things to their full potential, or being able to express their "animal-ness", as Mr. Salatin says.



For example, instead of having a farm where you raise cows for beef and then having to scoop poop and feed them grain everyday, and on top of that having the distinctive SMELL of a cow farm... you could allow cows to do what cows LIKE to do... They could be put on a pasture, able to forage for their own food, then each day move the cows to a new grazing area (via SIMPLE electric line). THEN, allow something like meat chickens, layer chickens or turkeys to come behind the cows , dig around in the soil, spreading around manure, and making MORE manure. After a day moving them also, following the cows... Then in a few weeks time, you won't only NOT be able to tell the animals were there, you will have more beautiful and lush grasses then you had before! Even better, unless you are sittin' with your nose over a fresh pile of poo, you won't even be able to SMELL the couple hundred animals that are on your farm!

And, oh! This CAN get better!

No disease!
HEALTHIER MEAT, EGGS, and DAIRY!
LESS WORK!!!



So, our trip was great. I am HOPING to someday go visit Mr. Salatin's Polyface Farms. I am looking forward to reading more books by him in the future, like my next one coming from Amazon.com (free with all of the Swagbucks I've earned!), Pastured Poultry Profits!



I'm a farm geek...

I ain't ashamed.

What is YOUR Purpose?

Why do you garden, have chickens, raise a cow, maybe milk a goat?

Do you do it because you have decided to be a "farmer"? Is it because you saw a cool website of these people who were totally organic, and you thought that was pretty hip? Maybe because one of your good friends has started doing some organic farming, and you are kinda tagging along, seeing how it works?

What ever your purpose is, you need to REMEMBER it. You need to weekly, if not daily reflect back to that purpose and ask yourself if you are keeping on track to that purpose? Is there any TRACK to keep on, in your purpose?

If you are doing it because it looks cool, or because "so and so" is doing it, save yourself some time and money and stop now. You MAY be able to make it with that purpose, but chances are slim.

You have to have an idea, a dream, a GOAL that DRIVES you. THAT is your purpose. That will drive you for MUCH longer than a "fad".

SO what if you started out thinking it would be cool, and then now you really want to DO this? Decide your purpose. Why do you want to do this? Money? Recognition? We may as well stop there if those are going to be your purposes! In farming, there isn't much money. Farming, farming for health, farming for families has started to become a job similar to a Steam Engine Conductor... nearly non-existent.

Yes, but I drive by farms all the time! HUGE ones!

You may... but those are most likely producing GMO corn or soy, working FOR a bigger company. A bigger company that tells THEM what to do, how to farm, WHAT to farm...

If you want to have an organic (or nearly organic) garden, meat, eggs, milk... You have to get yourself a purpose. Because when you are standing in your local farm supply store and all there is on the shelf for insecticides is chemical, you have to look back to your purpose. What about feed? GMO, or expensive organic? Maybe raise some grains yourself?

How far do you go?

That is where your purpose comes in handy!

OUR purpose is WORKING TOWARDS organic. We don't have money to burn. And to buy organic feed is going to take CA$H.

My husband works a more than full-time job, and I stay at home. We have 4 young children. Working towards that goal for us, is the best we can do. One step at a time.

Simplify. Our purpose is to try to improve our ways of doing things, slowly. Making things more organic, and more healthy. I always look back and imagine what it would have been like to live in the Great Depression. There were no frilly extras there. No boxed meals. No hoppin' in the car and running through a fast food drive thru because we didn't have time to make supper because of work.

Things were simple. Simplify. Does that mean we take out all of our luxuries? No. We still have ceiling fans, but we don't but use a window air conditioner a few days out of the entire year. DO we never eat fast food? Well, not if we can help it! We have gotten to the point that home raise chicken, organic carrots and potatoes and fresh baked bread is WAAAAY more enjoyable to us that a processed chicken sandwich and some grease fries with a super-sized soda.

SO what is YOUR purpose? How will you achieve that purpose? Where do you see yourself in a month? In a year? 5 years? How will you get there? Where do you find your inspiration? Who tries to knock you off course? Who or what will cause the most resistance in your journey?

Are YOU READY?

What is your purpose?

My Changes for the New Year...

As I wrote in my last post, I want to make some changes and start growing more of my own food in this next year.

There are also some other changes I would like to make, and have already been trying to make to cut down on waste (waste is MONEY!), and make my family healthier!

I am not an eco-conscious person, I mean I don't TRY to produce lots of waste or anything. But I think with waste, there is also a waste of money! I am horrible at purchasing produce, and it going bad before I ever get to use it. Or re purposing my left-overs. They usually go bad or end up getting tossed to our dogs. I also hate the waste of paper towels and plastic bags! Paper towels, cost me money, not a lot but money is money! And plastic bags from the store, don't even get me started... I like having a few around to line my bathroom trash can, but that's about it. They build up SO quickly in my trash closet! Then I end of with WAY more than I will ever use, and end up having to toss some.

So, here are a few things (as mentioned above) that I am going to try to do this year to cut costs, to save, and to make my family healthy! (in no particular order!)

1. Use more of my reusable shopping bags. I have 4 now and when I went shopping yesterday, I only brought home 2 plastic bags! YAY!
2. Once a month (or less!) I will purchase 2 rolls of paper towels. This will last us the entire month or MORE. How did we go from using paper towels like candy, and now using less than 2 (regular) rolls a month? I tool them away for a while! We used towels to wipe up spills and used napkins only when needed. Now we are still on our first roll, and I put that roll on the holder 3 weeks ago! I also want to MAKE some washable napkins. MUCH cheaper!
3. We have been trying to recycle more! This is something in the past we never worried about. Like I said we aren't into the whole Al Gore/ global warming thing. Personally, I don't believe it. BUT, I DO believe that we are responsible for trash, trash, trash.... too much trash, no where to hide it! The other day, hubby and I were cleaning out a few glass jars for the trash, and he asked if I wanted to keep then for freezing/ canning. I looked at them, and their lids and I thought, "Why not?! " They are the perfect size, and some of the lids can be replaced with an actual canning lid for canning next year! Less money on buy MORE canning supplies!
4. Make more food from scratch. This I have been trying to do more of, and I really think it is working. Not only is it SO much healthier for you, but it DOES also save money! Bread, for example, using my FAVORITE recipe to make several different types of breads, I spend no more that $1.99 on a 5 lb bag of unbleached white flour, the yeast I bought in the jar, with a coupon for cheap, the other ingredients cost pennies... And for $.50 or less, I can have fresh bread! GOOD FOR YOU too! The other night I made a recipe, from my SIL web site, requiring only hamburger, carrots, potatoes, and brown gravy. My hubby got a deer this fall, so we had nearly free meat in the freezer, carrots I bought, potatoes from our garden (FREE!), and brown gravy I bought in an envelope with coupons... I spent less than $2 on our dinner that night! Add in some homemade bread and you have a great meal for 6 for $2.50! You CANNOT buy a pre-made meal, or fast food for that price. You can't hardly feed ONE person for that price! Let alone 6! Don't be afraid of your kitchen, ladies! If you don't know how to cook very well, ask a friend to help teach you! Get a couple meals under your apron strings and save your family some dough! (pun intended...)
5. When you have the chance and finances, get yourself some GOOD cookware. This is something I am working at doing! I would look up info on teflon, which is a toxic chemical... I am trying to steer clear of teflon (which I have right now). I am looking at getting some stainless steel pots and pans and/ or some cast iron pieces. Check out this site, I have been drooling over the Paula Deen cookware sets... Lovin' the cast iron casserole dish. This would get used SO often around here! But, my plan is to invest in those GOOD sets, that will NOT harm your family with chemicals AND will last a lifetime! I am also trying to keep away from plastic cups and plates, you can read my post on that HERE. So, we are using more of my ceramic plates and glass cups. Which, with little boys doesn't seem like the best idea, but they know they will break if they are dropped, and they have been very good with them this far! Health benefits rule over being afraid something will get broken...
6. Garden! I LOVE to garden. I love to plant a seed and see it grow into a huge fruit or veggie producing plant! I love to eat a meal and KNOW that it came from our garden! Talk about cheap! Especially in the summer, I love sitting down to a meal at the picnic table and to be able to tell my family, this meal was FREE! That is something to give thanks for! Remember, you can have a garden on 10 acres, on 1 acre, on 1/10th of an acre or on a balcony! You can even do it on your windowsill in the winter! In fact, for the last few weeks I have been starting to make a list of seeds that I am going to be ordering... I have gotten several seed catalogs in the mail in the and have been DROOLING on the pages... well, not really, but almost! I am trying to keep in mind the veggies or fruits ability to freeze or can, as well as what we can enjoy fresh. If you don't know how to garden, talk to people! And then start small! Borrow a book from the library, look it up on the Internet... Short of PHYSICALLY not being able to garden, there is no good excuse! Think about the healthy benefits! Oh boy!
7. Raise your own meat. This is a new one for us. My husband is the go-to guy in this department. I cannot do the "deed" in this one. We recently decided our chickens, after 3 years of faithful service, gave us many a good egg, but were failing in that department, because of their age. My husband decided to find out how to butcher a chicken and found a friend willing to help out. After an afternoon in the barnyard, hubby had brought several chickens, cleaned and ready for me to cook up. It wasn't as hard for me to cook as I had thought. I didn't have anything to do with the killing or cleaning process. I don't know that I could do that. Some women can, and more power to them! But thankfully, my hubby knows he is the ONE for the job and can do it. Now we have a means to providing meat, good meat, for ourselves. No growth hormones, no inhumane treatment. Just happy, free-ranged chickens! We will probably get some meat chicken in the Spring, as well as some turkeys. The cost will not be a LOT cheaper for your meat, BUT you DO know where it came from. Look HERE for info on free-range animal meat, and how much MORE vitamin benefit is in free-range animals meat. Very interesting!
8. Use what I buy! Like I said before, I am horrible at buying produce and then it go to waste in the fridge. Or letting left-overs go bad. I am going to make an effort to eat all that I purchase! I mean not all by myself, but you know me and my family.... :) On THIS site, they said that the average American family throws away 14 percent of their food. In terms of money, that's almost $600 every year in meats, fruit, vegetables and grain products. WHAT!? Imagine how much money I could be saving my family by using what I buy! And you! How are you in the food waste department? Ouch! Have a Left Over night, where you eat those leftovers! That is what we have been trying to do... Or if you cook a chicken one night, and have leftovers, PLAN on a chicken dish the next night also. If there is leftover potatoes or rice, make those part of your meal the next night. Maybe change it up a little, if your family HATES leftovers. Make leftover potatoes into potato cakes! YUM! Or Add the rice to a soup to make it more filling!
9. Turn off the lights! The tendency of my family is to enter a room and to turn on the light, even during the day! As I was sitting here typing this, in the daylight, I noticed 3 lights on that were serving no purpose! Ahh! This won't save you TONS of money, but every little bit helps right? Plus, where I live there is a shortage of energy! If we don't make a change soon, we will lose our power or be paying out the wa-zoo... I have went so far as to, if my kids leave their lights on in their rooms, I give them a warning or two, then I take the light bulb away for a while! I might need to do that with myself too!
10. Get up off your bum! Yeah, this is my problem sometimes. I have all of these great ideas (like above) and then I am too lazy to do anything about it! Don't be lazy when it comes to the health of your family, or even when it comes to the hard-earned money that is your family's! My husband has a good job, but we don't have extreme luxuries like new vehicles, cable (or any channels for that matter!), we don't go out to eat much, or go on big vacations. If we do go on a vacation, it is because we saved for it. I have a basic cell phone, no frills. My husband works hard for his money, and I don't want to be wasting it away. I use coupons, I buy used items from ebay or garage sales. If something is broken, it is cheaper to fix it (most of the time) than to buy a new one. If you DO buy something new, make sure it is GOOD. (is there a warranty? Will this last a lifetime? Is this a luxury or necessity? Where can I get this CHEAPER?) But, don't be afraid to do the work yourself! You CAN do most things yourself! You either choose to learn or you choose to pay out your hard earned money to someone else to do it for you...

Well, I guess those are some of the things I am going to work on in this new year. What about you? Are you doing anything like I am doing? Please share!

Also, don't forget to take part in the poll above! Please tell us how much of your own food your grow and eat!

Canning Pumpkin... EASY PEEZY!

I never knew...

Never knew how EASY it was to can your OWN pumpkin! Never would have GUESSED that it was as easy as it is!

"Yeah, but Sarah, you, like, bake stuff and I just don't do that much baking...."

Oh come on! Trust me! If you know how to gut a pumpkin (like for Halloween?) and cut open a watermellon, TRUST ME. you are already halfway there! Oh there a 3 other things you have to be able to do~ turn ON your oven, turn on your water faucet, and turn on a timer. Can YOU do those things? I thought so! I knew you were a brilliant bunch!

So, how EXACTLY do you go from here:

To here:

TO HERE?

Take your pumpkin. Cut it in half. Dig out the guts (Keep some seeds for your garden next year! Or to eat! Also, don't forget to throw the "guts" on your garden for compost!). Lay your halves on a large cookie sheet (open side down). Put enough water in the cookie sheet to just cover the surface. Stick in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour (maybe a little more, if you have a huge pumpkin!). Take it out after the timer buzzes. Scoop out the pumpkin (throw the skin out in your garden too OR give to your chickens!). I used my mixer to "mash" the pumpkin. Then I used my pumpkin puree to make a pie. Use the recipe of your choice! SEE! EASY PEEZY! ;)

I also stuck the left-over pumpkin in our refrigerator for some of our favorite pumpkin recipes, like this. YUM-O! You can also "can" the pumpkin for use months down the road!

My sister got me some small baking (or pie, or REGULAR) pumpkins from Wal-Mart for $.05 a pound!!! WOW! She got me 9 pumpkins for $1.50. You CANNOT get close to that price in a can! That is seriously A PENNY for a large can of FRESH pumpkin! Sweet! It IS so easy, and great for you! Plus, you can say, THIS IS FRESH! I DID IT MYSELF!!!

Guess what we have having in our garden next year? Yeah, baby!

New Ideas, Make it Yourself!

It is getting closer and closer to the holidays, and I have found some MORE great ideas for homemade gifts! These 2 ideas come from a great little site I found, called "Sweet Cottage Dreams". Here are two ADORABLE ideas:

When my grandmother passed 2 years ago, she left behind many things that when you saw it, you thought of her right away... One of those things was shells. She LOVED shells and she left a lot behind. Cuz', you know they have plenty in heaven. I even got MORE this summer when my mom and I went to Florida to close down and try to sell their place down there. Well, there were TONS of shells. I think she always grabbed them when she walked the beach, which she also loved to do. So, I was thinking the other day, what am I going to do with all of these shells? Then I saw this perfect idea:

Shell wreaths. I think they are a perfect addition to summer or to a cottage... And a great way to keep all of those shells that my grandma thought would be nice in her home... Go HERE to see how this can be made... Very easy!!! And when ever I look at my pretty shell wreath, I will be able to think of my precious grandma...

Then check out this precious little gift:

Soooo cute and you could make these to add to the top of a gift or they are cute enough to have as a small gift alone... And best of all you could make them yourself! Go HERE to see more about them!

Remember, a handmade gift is one of the BEST gifts a person could receive, ESPECIALLY when made from the heart...

O Praise Him

How do YOU praise God? Where do you praise Him? Do you praise Him in church? Do you praise Him in church ONLY?

Psa 30:11-12 You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance; you have taken away my sorrow and surrounded me with joy. So I will not be silent; I will sing praise to you. LORD, you are my God; I will give you thanks forever.

I find myself singing in the car, in my home... BUT have we ever praised Him, in a place that unbelievers surround us?

Consider this a challenge, for you and for me:

***You may want to scroll to the bottom of this blog, and mute the music so you can hear this video!!!***

Awesome Video... God's Love for Us NEVER Goes Away

I was visiting one of my favorite blogs, Rylee for Life (left side bar) and she had this video posted on her blog. I watched it and loved it so much, I had to post it also. Toward the end, You can FEEL the power of the crowd... And remember, no matter what we have done, we can ALWAYS fall back into the arms of God. He will always love us...

Doing More with Less

In doing some homework before getting my sheep in a few weeks (hopefully!), I came across a video on UTube for a family, who is quite an inspiration! I love planting and harvesting, I love seeing the fruit of my labor. In the summer especially, I love to be able to work with my hands and see something become of it!

Well, go HERE if you would like to watch a couple minute video on a family who lives in California, in the suburbs of Pasadena. They own 1/5 th of an acre, and they produce enough food to not only feed themselves but also to sell to their community and several fine restaurants in their area! It makes me want to go out and do much more with my 10 acres!

Check it out, and tell me what you think!