Category Archives: The Homestead

This is what our kids do with their spare time.

Catch snakes.

Want to see more? I know you do!

This one’s name is Tiger Lily. I didn’t make that up. The kids actually name them.

This next one has attitude! I think they should name it Sassy!

Look at it, sticking it’s tongue out at me!

These are the kind I prefer, the baby snakes.

Snakes all have personalities too. Did you know that?

This one is into music.

He REALLY gets “into” it. 😉 Get it? Into it? Ah, I kill myself sometimes. lol
Other times I laugh alone… well, maybe most of the times. Most people don’t ‘get’ my humour.  In either case, I laugh, and that’s good, even if it’s laughing at myself. :p

Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.
Elsa Maxwell

(such wisdom, and such a great first name too! lol)

Of course, most people prefer THIS kind of snake.

The knit kind. This is one Julia made, she came up with the idea to make baby snakes that fit inside the mama’s ‘tummy’.
She likes knitting snakes. 🙂

I like her knitting snakes.

It’s much more fun for me then the alternative…

Oh, and I MUST share this last photo. This photo makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD! Seriously!

If you want to get a better look, click on the photo to make it bigger.
One child holding a snake, the others oblivious to the snake and better yet? What makes me REALLY laugh about this? Is that even if they were not oblivious to the snake so close to their heads, they wouldn’t care! Ha!

I love my kids.

On our facebook page we’ve been having some ‘pay it forward’ give aways. Some have asked, “what does this mean?” so I thought I’d explain a little better here.

To read all about the history of ‘paying it forward’, you can read more online, and at this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward

This has been a long standing demonstration of generosity. Personally for me, it simply means realizing one’s blessings in life and doing for others in whatever way you can. We are all blessed, no matter what our situation in life, there is always some small blessing in each and every day. It doesn’t always FEEL that way, but it is true. I feel when we go out of our way to bless others, it in turn blesses us because we are realizing the needs of others and not just our own. Our society today has become much to ‘me me me’ and this is our small way of trying to take the emphasis off ‘me’ and putting it on ‘you’.

We make cloth products, so to pay it forward, we share those products when possible. If we have some extra’s and feel we can afford to spend a little extra on the cost of shipping, we like to share and offer some up as a ‘pay it forward’. It’s our way of sharing with others as an appreciation of all our customers sharing with us. This business isn’t a ‘hobby’ and it’s not ‘just for fun’. It’s a very large part of our family income and very much a necessity. We appreciate our customers, and we want you all to know this! So we pay it forward.

As we play these games on our facebook page, I want you all to stop and consider how you can ‘pay it forward’ to others. You don’t need to have money to ‘pay it forward’, often times we can bless others without any funds at all! We can go out of our way and do something nice for someone. We can smile and say something nice that’s totally unexpected and could make someone’s day. We can put aside our own wants for a moment and give our child an extra few moments of our attention by doing what THEY want to do for a while. We can bake something and share it with someone we know will enjoy it. We can help a friend, or a stranger, in need. There are SO many ways to ‘pay it forward’.

To participate in our very own ‘pay it forward’ games on facebook, you need not pay it forward in any particular way. All you do is simply comment on our ‘pay it forward’ posts and by doing so, you’re simply promising to try your best to figure out a way to ‘pay it forward’ to someone else! It can be however you want, and to whomever you’d like to bless! There’s no rules about how, or when, etc.. It’s really just about opening our eyes to those around us and not just our own situations. This can be pretty tough at times, but greatly rewarding!

If you’ve got a ‘pay it forward’ idea or story to share, please feel free to leave a comment!

Let’s have some fun!

How about a question and answer time again! We had one way too long ago and it’s time for another.

Feel free to ask me ANY questions pertaining to;

the homestead, the emporium, our life as a family of 7 & my ramblings about it all

Got cloth questions? Ask away! There’s no such thing as TMI (too much info) around here!

Questions about raising kids? I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll try my best!

Raising teens? We’re certainly not perfect parents but we like our teens and think they’ve turned out  pretty great and they get along REALLY well (when they aren’t trying to mutilate one another!)

Questions about sewing, cooking, baking, homesteading? I’m no expert on any of these things but again, I’ll try my best to answer!

How about questions about homeschooling? We’ve been at this since our eldest was in kindergarten and she’s now finished school and has a full time job, so ask away! I’m a bit of a curriculum junkie (more so the different STYLES of curriculum then actual name brands)…

Marriage? We’ve got 20 years under our belts now! And it hasn’t been an easy 20 years either! Ha! If there’s ever advice we can share to help others make it to 20 years and beyond, we’re here!

Got a question for the man of the house? I’ll make him… err… I mean, I’ll ask him nicely… if he’ll answer. 😉

Biz questions? Ask away, again, no expert but doing fairly well in our own way.

Been wondering about our crazy little homestead? Now’s the time to ask your questions.

Got questions I wouldn’t think of because I’m on this end of the screen and you’re on the other end? Go ahead, ask away!

And if no one has questions, well… I guess I’ll have to go wash my hair, or do some laundry, or dishes or something to amuse myself otherwise…

**I  must add… the only questions you can’t ask about is how to balance it all and still keep a clean house. Because that one, I have NOT mastered and I’m no where near mastering it, so for that question, I should be the one asking all of you!

Chanterelle Mushrooms

We’ve always known that this area has some great mushroom varieties but we’ve been scared to even dare try and figure out what, where and how. Knowing you could get really sick if you ate the WRONG kind of mushroom we knew it wouldn’t be smart to try any until we found someone who knew what they were doing.

This weekend our son went out mushroom picking with a friend and they brought us home about ten pounds of these mushrooms! Tonight we had some fried along with steaks.

I didn’t get a photo of the finished dinner since hubby cooked them on the grill while I was busy sewing.

Tomorrow I’m going to try making homemade cream of mushroom soup!

Ever had wild mushrooms? How do you cook them? They are going out picking again next weekend so I’d love more ideas. 🙂

Since posting the contest the other day and asking for people’s votes on their preference, dog or cat, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and asking myself, (since we have four dogs), why do I like them so much?

First, I should share that we do also have 2 cats, so it’s not as though I don’t like cats, I just like dogs more.

In your comments, many of you shared your reasons as to why you prefer cats over dogs or dogs over cats. So I asked myself “what are my reasons?” I thought I’d share my thoughts here with you.

This afternoon I pondered the question as I took a short video clip of Teagan, our pup, while he was out in his ‘yard’. Teagan is so small that we are unable to find a harness to fit him. Even the kitten harnesses I have don’t fit him. ha! That’s tiny. The breeder had already begun paper training, but I prefer our pups to learn right away to do their business outside. However, with no way to put him on a leash I had to get creative. We have a LOT of predators around here, such as eagles, vultures, owls and hawks, so there’s NO way I could ever risk letting this one pound pup run loose outside! So I came up with an idea for a little ‘yard’. It’s very simple actually. It’s the sides and top part of a guinea pig cage which we’ve used for countless animals from rabbits to chicks, to let them spend time on the grass. This is working perfectly for Teagan. We simply take him outside every so often, set him inside his yard and wait for him to do his business. He’s learning quickly!

Take a look at this clip if you’ve got a moment to spare and I’ll share my ponderings when you come back.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJ7vSC1EQw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

As I watched Teagan play in his tiny little yard, I realized just what it is that I love so much about dogs, and about puppies in particular. There was Teagan, in a 3 foot by 1.5 foot ‘yard’, and what’s he doing? He’s playing and having fun. He’s finding any little thing in his ‘life’ to enjoy, from a piece of pine tree to an old leaf! He’s enjoying life, to the fullest! 99.9% of the time, Teagan is doing just that, enjoying life. No matter what’s going on around him, he’s busy living. Our other three dogs are all older and no longer pups. They range in ages from 2.5 to almost 8 years old, so they don’t ‘play’ quite as much, but they do still live for the moment, for NOW. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, not even this morning or this evening, but just now, RIGHT now.

As a person, in life, sometimes I’ve been ‘put in a box’. Often times it’s because of the circumstances I find myself in. Most often it’s due to things such as financial issues, job loss, illness, strife among family or friends, or any number of  reasons. I find myself in a box, a situation which I can not control but which I find is now controlling me, and what I can, and can not, do.

Finances is probably the best and easiest example.

My husband and I have been married for 20 years now. We have five children and a small homestead with quite a few animals in an expensive area where basic things like hay, and gas, cost just about an arm, and half a leg, more then most other places in this country. We are not rich, nor have we ever been in our 20 years of marriage. Now that we have both been self employed for a while, we find ourselves in a financial position where every.single.week. can be UP, or it can be down…

These circumstances can often cause us to feel like we’re stuck, in a box. The temptation, when things are down, is to want to just hide in a corner and try to forget about life around us.  How I truly want to be though, is like Teagan. Living each day, each moment, RIGHT NOW and enjoying it to it’s fullest! I don’t want to keep myself in a box and stress about yesterday, or tomorrow. Yet, I do. We all do. However, I think we can try our best not to spend more time allowing ourselves to feel stressed, then forcing ourself to enjoy life and have some fun. I’m trying to find that balance, as I’m sure most of us are.

As I typed this out, Teagan has been laying on my chest, fast asleep. Confident in his peace, his rest, not worrying about anything to do with later. I want to rest in peace like Teagan, pooped out because I took time to have lots of fun, even if it was just in the little things.

It’s apple season around here and we’ve got them coming out of our ears!

The three younger girls and I got busy on taking care of the apples we’ve had sitting around in boxes waiting to be dealt with.

I wasn’t being picky on the types since these were all given to us, so we used all the red varieties for applesauce.

I’ll share here how we make our applesauce for those who have wondered how and thought it was difficult.

Wash the apples, pull the stems off, and throw them in the pot whole with just a touch of water on the bottom to keep them from burning. Put a lid on and let them simmer. I put them on low heat and just let them cook slowly.

After they simmer for a while, they start to get soft and mushy.

They start to split, go kind of brown and get REALLY soft and mushy.

At that point you get out yourfoley food mill, if you have one, and if you don’t, you NEED one because it’s one of the most inexpensive tools your kitchen will ever have, yet it is indispensable if you’re wanting to make your own applesauce and other sauces as easily and healthy as possible! Mine is an oldie, but a goodie. I have two actually, both purchased second hand. They last forever.

Turn that handle over and over until you’ve got nice, pure, applesauce coming through!

Sweeten to taste if you like, and you’re done!

We sliced up all the green apples.

And put them in the food dehydrator for delicious dried apples.

I’d share a photo of the end result, but the evidence has all been eaten up. Every tray of it!

With the last of the apples and some cabbage we were given that I had previously frozen, I made a pork chop dish.

It was yummy. I love pork with apples!

Any apples we don’t eat, the horses happily do!

*Don’t forget to enter our contest, one post below.

I was going through some old posts of mine and found this one. Thought it was funny enough to share again. lol

Sunday, February 18, 2007
A night on the homestead

At 3:30 am, I was running out the door in red pj’s, hair all wild with a large broom handle in one hand and an ax in the other! lol What a photo that would have made!

I had just fallen asleep at 3am after working, and watching an hour of tv to help me get to sleep. I woke at about 3:15 to Julia tapping on my shoulder to climb into bed with us. We fell back asleep, then at at 3:30am I woke up to my husband jumping out of bed, and chickens squaking horribly!

My husband grabed the big flashlight and was out on our bedroom deck trying to see what was going on in the chicken coop/house. They were squaking in a way that you just KNEW something was in there. It was scary because we’ve found cougar prints around here lately, and one day the chickens fence was pushed down by a large animal and the cougar prints were around the chicken house. The cougar couldn’t get at the hens though, since we close them up in their hen house at night.

I went running down the stairs, looking for the baseball bat. Couldn’t find it, so I grabed the next best thing. A heavy broom handle. lol I ran out the door, and see the small ax on the back deck, so I grab that and head out to the chicken house. Hubby got out there shortly after me, and I gave him the ax. We head out there, and we can see the doors are still shut, so it can’t be a cougar but there’s definitely something in there, freaking the chickens right out. Their spazzy cries were unmistakably scared. Hubby cracked the door open just a tiny bit, to try and see what was in there, without letting it out. The poor chickens were all freaking out, trying to shove their heads out of the door. I thought they would all die of strokes, they were so terrified!

Finally we could see a black animal in there. It was a MINK!
We opened the door to let the hens out of the way. We step into the chicken house, and sure enough, he killed one of our girls.  I was so mad! I took that handle and tried my best to whack that thing over the head, but he got away from me and I missed.  He scurried out through a hole in the corner.

We spent the next 2 hours cutting and nailing pieces of 2×4’s to cover up all the gaps in the chicken coop. At one point Joshua (our son) and I saw the mink again. The little buggar tried to steal an egg right in front of us!

I will say, I am not a violent person, I don’t wish any animal any harm, but to me, this is different. That nasty thing could have, and would have killed many more of our hens if we hadn’t heard it in there. Minks are part of the weasel family and are notorious for killing much more then they will ever need to eat.

Hopefully he won’t be able to find his way back into the hen house again! Joshua’s trying to figure out how to catch the thing.

I wonder if we had Rocky the rooster at that time, if the mink would have even dared to enter the hen house.

Some how, I think not.

*Unfortunately, since I first wrote this post, our rooster was killed by something, we’re not sure what though, while we were away one day. The hens were all safely hiding in their hen house when we got home, but not Rocky. He must of died trying to protect them from something but we have never figured out what.

On our way home from the pediatric specialist last week, we made a pit stop past a job/home my husband is doing some work in. Every time we’ve gone by this house I’ve always gone gaga over the neighbours flower garden. Dahlias, dahlias and more dahlias EVERY where.

As we were pulling away from the home in which my husband stopped into, we noticed the neighbour was out and about so I opened my window and mentioned his flowers were looking fantastic! It’s October and his garden is STILL full! Simply beautiful! He asked if I’d like to take some cut flowers home with me. I dared to reply that I happened to have my camera with me and would he mind if I took some photos as well. He said sure! What a delight that was!

This neighbour is a retired dr and now he raises all these dahlias and takes them to shows.

He grows ONE HUNDRED varieties of dahlias! I’m quite sure we heard that right. Although it’s just amazing to consider!

I think I’m going to put the following photo in my studio since I’m going with reds and blues.

I’m also getting a lot of dyeing inspiration from some of these!

Just gorgeous! I absolutely LOVE the unique details of flowers. No two are alike! It amazes me, the beauty of each one!

From Bold…

to subtle…

And then, after I snapped away, I went home with treasures besides wonderful photos. They’ve been on our dinner table since!