Dead Mouse and other Homestead Happenings

Oh dear, I have had practically nothing to share lately.  No new recipes, no new concoctions of herbs, or even anything remotely exciting.

Unless you count the night that King proudly brought in a dead, flattened mouse.  Two girls went ballistic and screamed for me (or their Dad who conveniently ignored them) to come rescue them.   

I found one daughter holding one puppy, and one holding the other and both screaming and pointing to the dead mouse.  I removed it of course, even while they were screaming at me while doing it.  I had gloves on, but they still couldn't watch.  I told them when they grow up and have kids, they'll be able to do almost anything without gagging. 

Puppy nap time - Zuri with her head on top of King.  They both are growing so fast already.  King still thinks he's a lap dog, so this will be interesting.  King has learned "speak" already.  He's been easy to train in that department.  He's very vocal.  Zuri is such a doll.  I just hope she can hold up to her end if protection is needed.  She is so calm for me.  

They are partners in crime.  This weeks casualties?  One church youth group flyer that they kept pulling off the fridge, along with the clip magnet.  I had to go in search of their toys to get them to stop.  Oh, and one chewed our 19 year-old's computer charge cord in half. Not their fault.  Daughter just forgot to put it up.  I told the kids to put stuff up as if they were baby goats in the house.

Hubby and I have gotten the tree limbs split and stacked, so we are ready to tackle that one tree when school is out for Christmas.  This Saturday however, he'll be putting Duaghter's car back together. 

I have finally made myself something

Another Barn Discovery

I apologize in advance for the fuzzy photo, but these pulleys are way at the top and I was on the ground photographing them.  They are the original wood pulleys, still intact.  I took a quick picture for our album.

 There is one more at the very top peek of the barn too.

Once again, we have someone interested in the barn.  What's left of it, minus what we'll take from it.  Not sure if it will happen, but we'll see.  This will be the umpteenth person to look it over.  It is a lot of work, but I would like to see it reused as much as possible. 

Twenty Plus

 I have fallen onto the band wagon of the 20+ questions.  Enjoy! You'll need a cup of something to read through this.  I hope it entertains you today.
 
1.  Do you like bleu cheese?  Yes, but only mixed with whiskey and butter to slab onto a grilled steak.

Random Tidbits ~ Baking Tip

(Puppy nap time)

 

The other day I was up before 5:00am, and not because of dogs.  I just couldn't sleep for some reason, and then the phone rang - fog delay.  I was able to get a few good hours of writing in while the pups slept.  The pups pretty much sleep like this when the are worn out from play time.

I had to laugh at King one day.  He had a squeaky dog bone toy in is mouth and was barking at the same time, trying to get Jesse to play.  Jesse wanted none of it, but the sound King was making was hilarious.  Like he was saying "pretty please?" to Jesse.

Library Loot ~ Beginner Medicinal Herbal Book

I've been borrowing books from the library, over and over, contemplating which is the best medicinal herb book to purchase and have on hand (along with handicraft pattern books).  The above stack came in all at once, and my loving Hubby picked them up for me.  He was struggling to get in the house with them, ha ha!  I had to explain, how it saves us money. 

I do like the recipes in this book - Medicinal Herbs, A Beginner's Guide, by Rosemary Gladstar.  I think I've shared this book before also.  I have one of her books with herbal tea recipes and make the teas.  This book remains on my wish list, unless another one interests me.

These other three have many recipes that may be useful for us too.  There is a headache tea I'd like to try, and a few others, but need a few more herbs planted next year.  For now, I'll borrow these again.

In the process of borrowing books on growing mustards, and making mustards, I located more herbal recipes for meals here.  I actually found enough that I am making a binder for all recipes with herbs (because my recipe box in my kitchen has exploded).

I checked my library account again - 7 more books were in.   The bottom one may be the one home manual I need to buy regarding medicinal herbs.   Most of these I am flipping through quickly, but taking notes and checking costs.  I'm also looking at the recipes.  I do not want to buy a book that has strange ingredients that I do not grow or cannot buy organic at a good price either.  

Now...if I can find a book that contains a great length of information on using turmeric for pain and other health issues, I'll be even happier. 

I have been madly working on handmade Christmas gifts for the girls, writing, and puppy training. 

Last night's dinner?  Homemade meatballs baked and warmed in the crock pot with home canned hot pepper mustard sauce, and roasted brussel sprouts with onions and garlic.   

Library Loot ~ Beginner Medicinal Herbal Book  © Dec 2015 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Surprise Mail

Mail delivered this absolutely adorable hand knitted miniature sweater Christmas tree ornament!  It came with it's own hanger too.  And a lovely card to go with it.  It totally made my day!  Thank you Mama Pea!

Surprise Visit ~ Moon Passing Venus ~ Surprise Road Trip

Warning:  It's a "grab a cup of ...." kind of blog post today.
 
I was taking bets as to how many people would notice, including our kids that were not home, the work we did on Sunday.

They noticed.  Whew.  Looks so nice when I look out my window now.  It's that kind of relief when you see a messy room all cleaned up.

Our 19 year-old surprised us with a visit last Sunday night.  First thing she said, was "I noticed you don't have any outside lights up."

Guilty.

We had zero time with all the outside work.  She insisted we at least put some up around the front porch. We did not.  We ended up taking a road trip.

One Big Job Complete ~ Whiskey Sticks

In July of 2014, we came home to this.  Free wood.  Delivered for free.  Pieces were bigger and taller than myself, and wide.  Very wide.

Guess what?

Homemade Herbal Lip Balm ~ 2nd Making ~ Uses for a Salad Spinner

Like most of you, my hands, face, and lips are feeling dried up and awful already (cold and wind).  My younger two girls love the homemade lip balm, and we are almost out of homemade hand lotion.  That is now on my to-do list now also.

The last time I made the lip balm I used small plastic, round containers. 

 This time I used lip balm tubes.  I used 10 of them.

. . . from the handiwork journal

Now, first of all, I have no business in starting any of these new fun projects, but I did.  I still have a baby blanket that is not finished.  Remember the granny square one?  I put it away and plum forgot again.  I have to use different white yarn so we'll see if it even turns out right when I do finish it.  

So.... 


Cup of coffee anyone?  This one was a bit of a challenge for me, and my coffee is sitting up a bit too high in the cup, but I'm glad I'm venturing into toys for kids.  This would even make a nice pin cushion for someone who sews and loves coffee.  Heck, it could be hot chocolate.  I could crochet mini marshmallows on top.  I mean it's a play toy, so we can play all sorts of make believe.

What's in the Jar? ~ Random Tidbits

Guess what I am making next? 

Hint:  It will need to infuse for 3-4 weeks and will be ready in the nick of time for Christmas day.

Bread Baking ~ Library visit

Rainy days are good for bread baking.  I made my first Jalapeno Cheddar Artisan bread the other day.  Yum!  If you'd like to try the recipe it's from Candy at Lazy J Bar C Blogspot  Delicious!  I baked it to go along with ham bone soup for dinner. 

The weather continues to be wet and cold here.  I made a trip to the library and brought home these:

Recycled Barn Wood ~ Recycled Pillows

Hubby and I had another prosperous morning in the chicken/goat barn.  We used odd pieces of barn siding (recycled from the big barn) to repair and fix up the barn doors.  You can see in the photo there are a few holes yet to cover, but the bottoms of the doors are looking much better (sharing photos soon I hope). 

. . . time and patience.

Barn Cleaning and Other Random Tidbits

Late Thursday, all day Friday and all day Saturday, the rain fell here.  We had one more moment of porch time.  Saturday, although cold, I stole a few moments out there too.

Buttering with Cranberries ~ Homemade Gift Idea

You'd think there would be a scientific term, for a syndrome defining chronic recipe collectors.  Specifically for those who collect new recipes to try, while attempting to try all the stashed recipes they already have.  It's an obsession I tell ya.

Sigh....

New recipes find me whether I want them or not lately. 


Cranberry butter was a new, delicious butter for me to make.

You can simply use it, freeze it or gift it.

I'm sharing the recipe

Food Dehydrator Uses ~ Making Homemade Bread ~ New Side Dishes

In the past several years, I knew that my dehydrator had a temperature for rising bread dough.  It was not large enough, height-wise.

 My new one however, is perfect for rising bread.

 I placed a small tray of water in the bottom, removed all my racks but the bottom one, and covered the dough with a damp cloth.  My dehydrator has a clear door on it, so I can see the results without opening it.

Finished!

 45 different scarp yarn colors, and 90 ends sewn in later......

Random Tidbits

Today's weather is not as cold as yesterday.  I'm going to put a few folding lawn chairs back on the front porch.  I hear Thanksgiving day will be warm enough to sit there and relax a bit.

Hubby plans on working all day Thanksgiving day.  Not at his full-time job, but here.  We have a lot of brush to take care of yet.  Most likely I'll be working in the kitchen in outdoor work clothes, joining him when I can as well.  

I'm typing like a mad woman, to get caught back up with National Novel Writing Month.

It's Monday already?! ~ Journal Junkie

Where did the weekend go?

I'll admit it went fast, but it was very, very peaceful here this weekend.  The first time in the last two years.  What a relief for our family and our animals.

Homemade Croutons ~ Homemade Dry Italian Seasoning ~ Tidbits

It seemed as soon as we stocked some firewood by the house, the weather turned dreary, cold and then rain arrived.

 We woke up to this.  The sun is shining and the there is no wind.  It's actually a beautiful Sunday.  Warning....feeling talkative this morning.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage.

Our grocery store is now selling an organic whole wheat (labeled non-gmo) bread.  I was lucky to get a loaf at a good price, which I made homemade croutons with.  Next batch I will try using homemade bread of some sort.

Porch Time ~ Work Time

Porch time was a bit cooler yesterday, but I had it no less. I honestly wanted one last moment out there before we put furniture away for winter (which is today).   I had most of my chores done, but decided to sneak it in early.  Just in case.

I wasn't sure what dinner time would bring, and I did not want to miss out on "5 minutes for me."

It was another good day to

Winter Prep Continues

It might take us much longer than most, but somehow we get most (or all) of our winter prep done.  Although, I'll admit, panic is creeping in, as time passes by.  

We have to remove the brush from the tree, and cut the remaining of it down, before we can set up our snow fence.  This weekend Hubby is hauling our second oldest daughter's car home for an all day Saturday repair.  That leaves our work undone.  I'm afraid the brush will be frozen to the ground come Sunday morning.

....from the homesteading journal

. . . harvested more kale and froze some.

Mini Retreat ~ Back to Reality World

Hubby surprised me and whisked me away over the weekend.  Even though he was feeling under the weather prior to the weekend, he took us away for that much needed (balance) time we need alone by ourselves.

I gave up my computer over the weekend, and wrote with pen and paper.  Which was a challenge, considering I wrote in the care with Hubby driving.  I hope I can read my hand writing today.  It will be a  challenge in itself to get caught back up.

Upon returning, we plunged directly into reality world.  No time to sip wine on the porch, or lounge around and read books either.  We dove right back in whether we wanted to or not.

Rain and Drizzle

Not much going on in the way of gettin' things done for winter here.  Although wood stoves are getting looked at.  We now have a bag of cherry pits to try in our pellet stove, and see how those heat this winter.

It's been raining and mostly drizzle in our parts.  The wind arrived in full force, which I am happy to see, as it will dry out the ground and the porch furniture I need to put away yet.

Chicken feed in my hair and other homestead moments. . .

No photos for this tidbit, but you might get a laugh.  It was raining and pretty dark out.  I headed out to open the barn doors and let some light in on the ladies and Sparta.  It was still raining and too early to let them out and about, so I

Testing the new... Tidbits

I filled my new dehydrator with organic dandelion greens.  I still want to put more in the freezer, but I will be utilizing the dried greens too.  They dried faster than in the old dehydrator too.

The dried greens will be used for dog food, to make tea, to add to any dish we eat, to make dandelion vinegar, and other herbal mixtures.  I won't have to buy dandelion tea any more now.  Oh, I can use the dandelion for poultices too.

Happy Homemaker Monday

It's already a very busy Monday.  I'm joining Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today.

The weather . . .
Cool, sunny and delightful.

Weekend Update

Sunday I had "back up" plans in case the tree service guy (aka Hubby) had another "interruption."  My first job was to put more kale up, then tackle putting zinnia seeds in packets.

Saturday Scraps

I'm up early although against my will.  Now that I am dog care taker number one, I have dog duty.  Most days he curls up with me, but today, he was up and begging to go out.  So up I am.

I haven't have enough coffee yet, and already deleted a comment accidentally.  I hope that isn't a sign of how my day will be today, ha ha!

Yesterday I put up the last of the dandelion greens into the freezer.  I was afraid they would go bad before my dehydrator arrived.  And like all things you try to plan, my dehydrator arrived after I froze the last of the greens.

Dandelion Greens for Dogs ~ Crocheted Cowls ~ Writing Update

I picked up more dandelion greens on my trip to town delivering meals to Dad.  With my dehydrator due to arrive any day now, I plan to dehydrate some for Jesse.  The one dog remaining from the original pack of ours.

He has tumors, and some were removed, but are growing back.  They are "fatty" tumors, but with that in mind, I'm drying dandelion, to sprinkle over his food (1 tsp. per every 20 lbs. of weight).  

His dog treats are made with kale, so he's getting more vitamins and nutrients that way as well.

Plantain Healing Salve ~ Homemade "Neosporin"

Remember the herbal oil I was heating in the sun for a plantain/comfrey salve?

Well, it's done, and I melted beeswax with it and wa-la!  Homemade "Neosporin." 

I washed a few lip balm containers, and some recycled baby food jars to store it in.

Random Tidbits ~ Dandelion Greens

Not sure how many interesting posts you will be blessed with this month.  After cranking out 3400 words yesterday (bringing my total word count to 5200), I literally ran to the porch to get some "me time" in, but did not even get there until 5:45pm,  Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs, and I had to make a fresh batch of meatballs, so time was of the essence. 

Detox and Recovery

Yesterday, Hubby and I got early morning porch/coffee time, before he headed out to fix Daughter's car.  I ended up having evening porch time with a book (yay!).  The good news, is the car is fixed, but she missed class today.  She'll get to drive back today.  That way I can still have my own car this week.

Party is not over yet ~ House is a Rockin'

You all may have to check on me in the morning......the house is still rockin' at 10am today.  I did sneak out to the porch for my coffee and sunrise, but slowly they woke up.  They devoured the mini caramel apples I made.

Egg on the Porch ~ Fun Happenings

Despite being the weekend I was up pretty early.  It's hard to sleep in when a cat is demanding food by sitting backwards in my bed, and flapping his tail on my face.  He's not even my cat per-say.  His master is Youngest, but he spends most of his time with me. And of course, barn kitty Timmy was at the door pawing to me for food too.  I just love that cat.  He is so loving.

The sun was shining when I let the chickens run free yesterday, but clouds quickly took over.  I'm not ready to see less and less of the sun, but I enjoyed what we did get yesterday.

I let the chickens out of their run yesterday, to have free roam of the homestead.  They typically huddle in their favorite mud bath dirt hole, or under their favorite tree.  Not yesterday.  They were everywhere, and it was quite nice to see them from every window of the house.  

I had to laugh at this.  I walked past the side door and saw few hens run off the side porch.  When one lady got up, there was an egg under her.  HA!  It was warm, so she must have been sitting there for a while and I didn't know it.  Just something funny to share.  Oh, and they didn't just leave me an egg, you can see they left chicken poo on the porch too.

Garden ~ Random Friday Tidbits

My home grown kale is still producing.  This is has been the most impressive year for kale, despite the rest of the garden.

 I brought in a large pot of kale and had enough to blanch and freeze for one meal, and fill the dehydrator with the rest.

Campfire Enchilladas

We made these the other day, and that is not my homemade tortilla in the photo (sadly).  I had purchased food supplies to go camping, so we ended up making "camper" meals this week instead (minus the camping).

Freezing Mashed Sweet Potatoes

The grocer had organic sweet potatoes in stock, so I took advantage and brought some home.  I'm freezing them for winter meals.

Yesterday, I baked several, then allowed them to cool completely.   I added a bit of water and organic broth to the pan.  I pierced each sweet potato a few times before placing in the covered pan.

Random Monday

I spent a day reading and completely writing exercises on Sunday, and realize that every book that was recommended is not available at the library.   Although, I started reading two books that I've had on my shelf, I felt I had wasted away the day. 

I was already in a sour mood by Sunday morning.  We should have never cancelled our camping trip.  The rain and wind was nothing like the forecast stated.  And Sunday, the only thing to deal with was the cooler temperature.  Three of us badly wanted a retreat to get away from everything.  One was our college daughter, who was sad we cancelled it in the first place.

Dehydrator Dog Treats

I shared this recipe once before, and since I was dehydrating more of our home grown kale, I'm sharing again.

First, you will need to cook the rice, and dehydrate kale and Parmesan cheese (see note) to make them.  Once you have these dried, you will then have them on hand to make the treats.