A chance to get some great homesteading stuff free! I'm in!

I'd love to know how many of my readers are of a "homesteaders" mindset. 

Anyone? 

Well, anyway... you could say that I am.  I want chickens so I can collect my own eggs (or rather so the kids can).  I want goats (or even a cow would be awesome!) so we can have fresh milk.  I want land and gardens and fences and even a barn... if we're lucky. (Not that I believe in luck.  'Cause I don't.)

I had to share this bit of my dreamland so you'd understand why I'm bopping in here during my baby-moon simply to share this with you. 

You see... the new owners over at Homestead Drying Racks have come out with an Ezine about homesteading.  And it looks to be absolutely beautiful inside.  And the first one is free!  Go get it... check it out... and enjoy!

But, ultimately, as cool as that is... it's not really enough to get me back here blogging when there are babies to care for and a house falling apart. 

Nope, but the huge and amazing giveaway they are having to celebrate the debut of this online magazine IS enough to break me away for a few minutes. 

I'd take just about any of the 10 prizes they're offering... but I'm really torn about whether I am desperate for the 1st or 2nd prizes.  I really want them both... as in, I've been wanting both for a long while and it probably won't be in the budget for either anytime soon.  :( 

So... here I am spreading the news about both.  Go over there.  Get your free magazine and enter this giveaway!!!

Labels: Homesteading, Passing it On

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 6:30 PM 2 Comments

2012 "Homesteading" Goals... In the house

From one of those meals I actually cooked at home!

Ok... so these could be considered good, old fashioned, homemaking goals.  Or goals for the keeper at home.  Or any other name you want to give it.  These goals would be goals if we weren't on a path to become "homesteaders" one day.  But to keep everything symmetrical, and since a "homestead" contains both an outside and an inside, I'm keeping it my "Homesteading" Goals.  And since tomorrow is the last day of January and we will officially be in the second month of the new year (and thus, the year really won't be new anymore), I figure I should get these goals posted, let alone written!

In the sidebar you'll see my list of goals before baby comes (just over 6 weeks now!).  That list may or may not grow longer as I think of things and will hopefully show my progress as time passes (though my new sewing machine is having a problem so I won't be sewing tonight... hopefully that will be fixed soon so I can continue to work on those projects!  'Cause I was really starting to feel like I was making headway.)  All this to say... I won't mention "before baby" specific goals in this post.  Anymore.  Sorry.  

So what are my homemaking goals for this year?  To be honest, they are vast.  And they range from all sorts of topics like cleaning to mothering to personal to whatever else my life touches in the day to day.  Because, really, doesn't it all play into our homes?  So I guarantee that not every one of my goals will be listed here.  In some cases I'll generalize (you'll appreciate me for that)... in others, maybe not so much.

One more thing... since we are adding baby number four (5 and under) in approximately 6 weeks and I know I will see some set backs as we adjust to being a family of 6 in 700 square feet, I'm establishing the goal "date" as being by the end of the year.  Hopefully in most cases I'll see these goals met way earlier than that, but since these are goals for 2012, I'm allowing myself all year to see victory without having "missed the mark" on any one of them. :)

Here we go:

• To establish a house cleaning routine I can follow... and to actually follow it faithfully!  (i.e. to have a clean home... to my husband's standards, not mine!)
• To plan and actually prepare meals (i.e. to eat at least 20 out of 21 meals a week at home... without getting take out)
• To have a meek and quiet spirit (a life long quest to be sure... but I'd love to see actual progress this year!)
• To stop yelling!
• To live life "on purpose" (home, marriage, children... all of it!)
• To seek to tie heart strings between me and my children.  
• To do more sewing for my home and family.

So there you have it.  I'm sure there are more... and I'm sure there are little steps to each of these big goals.  But now you can see a bit of my heart... and I've taken the time to put it down for my own review down the road!

Ultimately I wanted to list a single goal for this post...

1. To find, buy, and move to a new home.

But since I have no control over that at. all.  We'll stick with the ones I listed above.  What are your goals for your home this year?  


Joining in here.

Labels: Home Making, Homesteading, In the Kitchen, Keeping My Home, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 10:09 PM 1 Comments

2012 "Homestead" Goals... Putting up

Last week I shared our goals for the garden this year.  "Putting up" may sound like it should be attached to that set of goals, but in fact for us, it's different.  Our garden has yet to give much to put up at all, and while it is a goal to put up and use up all my harvest this year (as opposed to other years), today I'm talking about other places we can gather food to put up.

Last year I had some very deliberate, though unwritten goals about gathering our food from local (and semi local) orchards and fields.  However between weather (moldy strawberries in our area due to rain) Lyme Disease, and early pregnancy, we only really got over to the blueberry picking.  This year I reset my goals for gathering and canning!

We'd like to pick and can/put up the following:

Strawberries
We found a semi-local organic strawberry patch for pick your own.  This past year they weren't able to open due to the excessive rain and mold.  Hopefully this year we can go as we like to use these for jam and smoothies through the year.

Blueberries
We also have a local organic source for picking our own blueberries.  I'd like to have several gallons of berries, at least, to freeze for smoothies, muffins and pancakes through the year.

Cherries
We've picked these over the last few years, but don't haven't tried organic yet as there isn't one close to us.  We freeze the sweet ones for smoothies.  This past year we picked up some pre-pitted sour cherries to can for pie (they are still waiting in the freezer for the canning part) while we were in Michigan.  This next year we're hoping to drive the hour + to pick our own sweet and sour cherries from an organic farm.  I'd like enough sour cherries to put up 12 or more quarts for pie and enough sweet ones for smoothies all year.

Peaches/Nectarines/Apricots
We've never really done this before (though we got a peck to try out canning this past summer) and I'm excited about finding an organic pick your own source and about having these fruits around for eating throughout the year.  I'd love 30-40 quarts or more put up, but we'll see how the summer goes.   

Rasberries/Wineberries
These are available to us on the property of My Beloved's office and here on our street.  We often get between 1-2 gallons worth for making jam.  I usually combine them with some strawberries and cherries for what I call "Cherry Berry Jam".  I'm hoping to get at least this many!

Apples
For the past few years we've picked up 5 bushels of apples to can for pie filling and applesauce in the fall.  It gets us through the whole year of applesauce and the kids love it!  This past year our fall was crazy and I wasted about a bushel of them... my goal is to waste nothing this year.  Even if it means getting fewer apples to start with!


There may be more I'm not thinking of now, but these are my main goals for what we put up this year.

Do you gather from local orchards and such to put up??  I'd love to know what you do!

Labels: Homesteading, In the Kitchen

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 10:19 AM 0 Comments

2012 "Homestead" Goals... in the garden

Ok... so from time to time I mention our "homestead" dreams.  And though I don't spend much time talking about it here, it is something that we've been working on for a long time... and something that a bunch of time goes to each year.  Despite our lack of a real "homestead".

Oh, we have dreams.  But instead of just dreaming, we decided years ago to do the best we could with what we have.  We figure, whatever we learn now can only help later when we are really living that dream!

So we started a garden.

Sigh.

Oh, we love to do it.  Love to plan it. Love to start it.  Love to work in it together.  But in the end it's hard to say that it's actually worth the time, effort and money that goes into it every year.  Especially when one get's Lyme Disease and can't care for it. 

So this year we are making some changes.  Mainly, we plan to take down the green house and see exactly what we can do without it.  Our little garden area is wedged between a hill covered with tall trees and our house.  It gets approx 3-5 hours of direct sun daily (assuming no cloud cover!)  The greenhouse was built to protect our artificial light source.  This year... nothing.  We'll be planting only what can handle partial shade and hope we get enough sun to produce something!

Oh, I may put some tomato plants in pots in our front yard (assuming our land lord is ok with this) so we still have our tomatoes.  And My Beloved may try growing some things in his office at work (more room there than here), but overall, we're sticking with the low light veggies!

So... my goals for the garden???

1. to be realistic in our plantings (planting only a handful of different things so it's manageable!)
2. to actually care for our garden throughout the summer months
3. to keep records of what we plant and harvest so that we can begin comparing in future years based on what our family needs to eat for the year (our true end goal one of these years!)
4. to actually use up and put up what we harvest... instead of letting it all rot both outside and inside!

There you have it.  Simple?  I hope so.  It never seems to be though.

Now, these are my goals assuming all we have to use is this little plot out back in poor sun.  There is a small chance we will have access to a larger plot in wonderful sun a couple miles from here.  If that wish comes true, I'll share our updated plans, but the goals will pretty much remain the same!  The time commitment will just increase!

Oh, did I mention that baby number 4 is due right around the time many of our plants need to be started???  Yeah... My Beloved may be doing much of the early work on his own!  We'll see how it all turns out!


I'll try to share some of my other "homestead" goals for this year in coming weeks.  What is January for anyway?

Labels: Homesteading, In our garden

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:16 AM 0 Comments

Homestead Blessings: The Art of Cooking

This video series has been high on my list of things to own and watch for a long while.  I was just afraid of whether or not they would actually be worth it, so I keep putting off spending the money.  But this year for Christmas two of them appeared "under the tree".



The first one I viewed was The Art of Cooking.  I have to admit that, I was a little afraid it would be a silly waste of money.  Is it really going to be worth it?  I already know the basics of cooking (not that I'm good at it)... and my daughter isn't old enough to get anything out of it yet.  But I watched... wondering if the Candle Making or Crafting or, even Gardening, videos would have been a better first pick.  But I watched.  I figured that if I like the basics premise of how they teach and the "southern charm" everyone keeps talking about, then I could just go ahead and get the rest I don't have.

But let me tell you... I am a visual learner!  I get so lost in reading recipes and hearing how people do things.  These ladies walked me through several recipes for each meal of the day.  And they all look so good.  Best of all, they made it look so simple.  Now, of course, I know they did some time lapse stuff, skipping the longer parts of sifting, etc.  But still, it has encouraged me that I can get in that kitchen and do some nice things for my family!

My favorite part???  They use many of the ingredients we've started using in our own kitchen... fresh ground whole wheat flour (though they use unbleached white sometimes too), coconut oil... and of course the cast iron pans!  I wondered how much of what they taught would really be transferable, but in reality... from homemade salad dressing (which I actually feel brave enough to try now), to apples and onions (a recipes I first read about in the Little House Books), to a new pancake recipe I may just have to try (and many more), EVERYTHING should transfer quite nicely into our home!



I look forward to watching these again and again... and to interjecting what I learn from them into my own kitchen... my own opportunities to bless my sweet family with home cooked meals!


(I'm sure my husband just got excited that I got this video first!!)  :)

Labels: Homesteading, In the Kitchen, Passing it On

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 6:51 AM 0 Comments

Frugal Christmas Garland

Perhaps I have mentioned before our dream of owning a bit of land and living off of it to the best of our ability.  Some these days call it homesteading.  Some call it mini-farming.  Basically, we want to get back to basics... the basics of long ago.  The days when the milk you drink is from the family cow (or goat as it were), the eggs are from the chickens that roam the yard, and the Christmas decorations are ones the kids scavenged. 

Oh, wait...

Perhaps we don't have to wait to do that last one.

This fall, when on our semi-daily walks (weather permitting... and it didn't permit often!) I let the kids collect pine cones.  I wasn't exactly sure what we would do with them, but we gathered anyway.  Then just the other day, I grabbed that bag of them and some raffia and some little cuttings of scrap fabric from some Christmas hot pads I'm working on, and vwa-la!

A sweet Christmas garland... using just what I had on hand... and what those little hands gathered this fall!


How to:

1. Gather how ever many pine cones you want for length.  They are still out there... just go hunting with your kids.  Or send them out in the yard if you have the right trees!
2. Tie raffia end to end (or use jute or whatever natural or unnatural material you want of proper length) until it's as long as you want it.  
3. Tie pine cones to raffia at intervals of your choosing.
4. Tie Strips of fabric (I pinked them for cuteness!) or ribbon to the top of each pine cone.
5. Hang Garland at will! 
6. Enjoy!

Participating here:

Labels: Christmas, Homesteading, With These Hands

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:58 AM 1 Comments

I love this!

Ok... I'm loving two things today.  (Well, besides reading to the kids, dinner from the freezer, and a slightly caught up kitchen!)

Oh, yes, back to those two things!  Sorry.

First, is entrepreneurial opportunities for our kids!  I just love that.  I love the idea of five year olds growing and selling sun flowers, raising produce for a road side stand, and now, young girls selling beautiful things!  Growing entrepreneurial spirits in our children does a number of things for them.  In running a business (or helping alongside a family business), children learn about money, business, and work.  I'm sure there is more too.  In a sewing business, they are learning and practicing valuable skills... as they are in a cookie baking business, or other crafts.  Domestic skills, gardening, creativity... all these things can be fostered.

In addition to all these, potentially more obvious, benefits, our children (and especially our daughters) are being given experience and opportunities to help make some money from home for future families... enabling them to bless their husbands while being a keeper at home!  I love this! 

Credit

And the other thing I'm loving today???  Lilla Rose!

Have you heard of it?  I have a hard time believing you haven't heard yet because I have been seeing them around for a while now (around blog land that is).  I think they are just stunning, and I've given my hand at a few giveaways here and there, but otherwise I haven't paid too much attention.

Credit

Until last week that is... and for real, today.  Just today I was reading over at one of my favorite blogs and this was the post.

Two girls in this sweet family are now consultants for Lilla Rose!  (Ah, now you see how my two things I'm loving today are related!)  They directed me over to some videos on You Tube to see how hair can be styled with these special hair clips.

The kids and I watched all the videos they had... and I so totally want one!  Or three.  Or more.  Maybe.

I have plans.  I may just use birthday money to get a couple.  Or maybe I'll leak the information for Christmas (um... I believe I just did.)  But Christmas is so far away! (Ok... maybe not.)  For now, I'm trying to win a couple over here!

Credit

But this is huge for me... for me to find something I'm willing to spend birthday money on is a big deal!  So why do I want these?  Especially when I could hit Target and find 2 or 3 various hair clips for the same price???  Let me count the ways...

1. I have a ton of very thick hair that comes to just about my mid back.  Not layered at all.  Traditional clips don't work great for me.  I have one (in all the years of my adulthood) that I can use just to put it in a "ponytail" without using a scrunchy.  All others have broken over the years.  I have no idea where this one was gifted from... and it's not anything special.  Just brown.  No where near this pretty!
2. I always wear my hair up!  I bugs me around my face and it bugs the kids down around my shoulders... not to mention the little hands that want to play in it.  Then there is the fact that I don't spend a lot of time (read: any time) on my hair in the mornings.  A bun is easier, faster, and totally do-able!
3. My husband really hates scrunchies!  I mean really.  For that very reason alone I should have burned them all years ago.  Yet, as I type, one holds back my hair in a low, thick, unbrushed (I'm going for full disclosure here!) ponytail.  Some little hair pretties that can actually hold all this hair in an attractive way... I'm not sure why I don't already have some!

I could probably go on... but these are the big ones!  I'd encourage you to head over and look at what Lilla Rose has to offer through Amber's (15), Kaitlyn (13) and Alyssa's (11) site!

And take a minute to enter for a chance to win a couple!

Labels: Homesteading, Passing it On, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 3:04 PM 1 Comments

It isn't even ours

It isn't even ours, yet I picture the walls a different color.
Isn't even ours, but I know where I'd put the beds.
It isn't even ours, but I have the chickens and goats all assigned to their quarters.
Isn't even ours, but garden plans are swimming in my head.


I guess you could say we took the next step toward our dream of homesteading... are trying to anyway. Thursday evening we went to look at a little place on five acres... then we followed our realtor across town to her office and filled out contracts to make an offer.

*Silence*

Yeah. We were pretty surprised too. Neither of us expected it to go anywhere when we left the house to go look at this one. Our realtor had sent me the link for it the day before and we agreed to go look at it, but for the price we could pay, it was way to good to be true. We knew there was something wrong with it.

And there is... but we were certain there would be something more wrong with it than we were willing to take on. Or could afford to.

So we went, hoping that the too good to be true wasn't. We arrived and liked it already. Our sweet realtor (church friend) had brought her General Contractor husband along to look at it for us too. What a special blessing!

Long story short (I'll "bless" you with the details when and if we actually get the house), it has everything we wanted (before recently deciding we could settle for less) plus a bunch of stuff we knew we couldn't want yet and a few things we would never think to ask for. It'll be work, don't get me wrong... but it has sooo much potential.

It's bank owned, and banks are kinda a pain. Instead of giving them 24 hours like we probably could have to make their decision, this bank requires 5 days... business days. Ugh! That's like... Thursday.

My pastor's wife put it best this morning when she said we must be cautiously ecstatic! Yep... and the "cautiously" part isn't stopping me from planning it all out in my head. The ecstatic part is just too strong!

So we wait... and it's not so bad. We know this would be an awesome house (on five acres with out buildings and 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms... ahem... sorry). And we want it really bad. But we know that God knows what he has for us. Knows our future. Knows what we need. And if this isn't it... we know He holds the heavens in his hands. We know that if this isn't what He has planned for us, we don't want it.

And we know that if it is what He has planned... it's going to be an awesome little homestead!!



Counting our blessings...

290. God is bigger than my dreams

291. God's dreams for us are bigger than my dreams for ourselves!

292. He knows what we'll find out on Thursday

293. He knows what we won't know for days after that

294. He cares for us

295. Provides for us

296. Loves us

297. His grace is sufficient!

Amen!


Also linked to...

Labels: Gratitude, Homesteading

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:56 PM 3 Comments

Preparing for Evacuation Type Emergencies

I love Homestead Revivals Preparedness Challenge. Proverbs 31:21 says "When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet." Basically... when hard times came, she was prepared!

We never know what's going to happen. Whether we are preparing for the colds of winter or the droughts of summer, we are to be prepared. From house fires to earthquakes and nuclear disasters, there are all sorts of things to be prepared for. And these last few require being prepared to grab and go in a hurry, don't they.


This week I've begun working on "leave in a hurry" bags. It's been tough for me to do because I keep thinking of all the things we'd be leaving behind in that sort of situation and I'm not really ok with that. But then I have to remind myself that this is a last resort sort of thing. What would we need to really survive for a few days until help arrived, or we could get somewhere else? There are all sorts of things, and I hope to be more prepared this next week... but what I have done so far is gather some kid clothes. Something warm and comfy for late night or cold weather, some long sleeves and "pants" options, and a pair warm weather clothes for each. Combined with whatever they would be wearing when the "disaster" strikes, and they should be dressed for whatever.

It's not much... but it's a start. How much more glad will I be if I can "have no fear for my household" in one of those situations... because I've prepared ahead!

Join Homestead Revival today for some more preparedness ideas... and link up your own!

Labels: Homesteading, Keeping My Home

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:36 AM 3 Comments

Crazy, I know!

I could post about a number of things with that title... but today, it's about the broccoli plants started in our bathroom.

Yep, you read that right. They are in the bathroom.

Oh, and the crazy part? We have baby broccoli growing already. In January.


That's right.

January.

Our hope is that the greenhouse will enable us to put plants in the ground even earlier than we've ever tried.


So for now... we have broccoli in the bathroom. And many of them have their first true leaves. I'm not so sure exactly when we'll be putting these outside, but weeks from now for sure. I believe we're planning to put them in bigger pots soon too. But one day there will be 16 broccoli plants in the greenhouse. And we're hoping that by starting them so early, we can use the space for growing something else through the summer... and that we can actually harvest some broccoli before it gets too hot.

And you all thought you were crazy for thinking about gardening already! Didn't you?

Labels: Homesteading, In our garden

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 1:20 PM 0 Comments

I'm dreaming of a clothes line

We created senior portraits for a girl from our church a couple weeks ago. We were out at their home, using their land, creating portraits with her horse. As we crossed the yard behind the house toward the goats, the mom began apologizing for her clothes line filled with jeans.

"It doesn't bother us." My Beloved told her. "She'll probably want to take a picture of it for her blog."

The woman was appalled. Why would anyone want to take a picture of someone else's wash line?

For one simple reason, really.

In at least a few ways, she was living the life we want to be living.

Labels: Home Making, Homesteading

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 5:25 AM 1 Comments