A Real Woman's Journal

 I use to blog all the time and I loved it. When my old blog home stopped working, I just gave up. What I miss most is the usefulness of having a journal of what was done when. A good farmer keeps good records and blogging can be a fun and creative way to keep records. So here is to trying to blog more and have a record of what is happening around here. This is as real and truthful as it gets, so be kind. 

I awoke a little late this morning because I was with two of the girls at a 4H meeting last night. To be honest I skipped reading my Bible so that I could get DH's breakfast ready on time. Two eggs, two pieces of toast, three pieces of bacon every morning almost. Delved righ in to morning chores. Aly is on restriction from animals for lying and has been required to switch chores for 2 weeks. She is not my kitchen girl, so I need to help her more with her morning chores. Got the kids breakfast made and a batch of cheese started. Got my room cleaned and by 8 AM we had all the animal chores, tidying, and other morning chores done. 

Today we went straight outside after clean up. We are trying to finish several fencing projects. We finished a new turkey pen last week and this week we are fencing in the berry area and hoping the geese and ducks can use the pen as additional area to forage. I had to spend the majority of the day discing the wheat field. We have been planning to plant 3 acres to wheat as the grain for our animals this winter. Today I finished the discing of 1.5 acres. Of course it is suppose to rain. We have to get the wheat planted soon or we won't get a crop. 

So where are we at with our little farm. We are scaling the garden back this year, but the pigs did an excellent job initially ploughing it and we have quite a bit planted. In so far - potatoes, onions, peas, kale, beets, and carrots. We have lettuce, herbs, and brassicas started in the greenhouse. We planted 4 new blueberries and 4 new grapes. We have 2 small orchards that are both mostly planted although a bunch of trees do not look great. 

In terms of animals we have a jersey dairy cow who is suppose to calf in August, an angus beef cow who is suppose to calf in May, an angus bull, and 3 steers. We have 2 LaMancha does and a buck.  One doe kidded already to 2 doelings and 2 bucklings. We have 3 Icelandic ewes, an Icelandic ram, and 3 shetland/Icelandic ewes. Three ewes have lambed and given us 3 ewe lambs and a ram lamb. We have 2 quarterhorses. We have 2 sows and a boar and 1 sow just had 6 piglets and we lost one. We have about 10 additional pigs we are raising to butcher. We have 3 black Spanish/red bourbon turkey hens and a red bourbon tukey tom. We have a 4 ducks and 2 geese. I refuse to count how many chickens there are. We have a bunch and 15 new poults were purchased - rhode island reds, brahmas, and wyndottes. Then a broody hen came out of the forest with 10 chicks. 

Our farm goals are to provide for ourselves as much as possible and to spend as little money as possible. We are trying to make the most of the land we have. 

Spring Time

I always love this time of year. Everything is new and clean. This year, I am loving it more than ever. I feel more independent and able to take on projects without my husband. I am getting lots of stuff done with just me and the kids. It feels great . . . full of promise and hope for a productive year. 

Old Fashioned Life

I have been thinking a lot lately about what is old fashioned living in a modern world. You definately capture it in the small choices each day. It is a journey. Here is a look into an old fashioned morning at our home.

I woke at 4:30 am and spent some time in bed reading. It seemed extra cold. I got up, dressed and went to the living room and called the girls to get up. While I waited I worked on the socks I am knitting and the quilt I am quilting. My hands tingle, so I switch back and forth between projects. After sending a daughter and son out for morning milking, another daughter and I started breakfast.

We usually work outside for 3 to 4 hours each day and that requires a good breakfast. Today we had leftover french bread that a daughter made yesterday. Along with that we had from the canning room - peaches, pear jam, raspberry jam, and catsup. Potatoes were gathered from the cellar for hashbrowns, eggs were fried, and a couple of pounds of bacon were cooked up. This was all served with milk and juice from the peaches. I used my 2 cast iron pans so the food has to be cooked in stages. Butter was churned yesterday which the kids generously spread on their bread. The only ingredients in this meal that did not come from our farm were the salt, pepper, flour and sugar.

I do not have a wood cookstove in the house, so for now I cook on my electric one. However, we do shun modern equipment to do our housework where possible.  We sweep by hand, wash dishes by hand, knead bread by hand, grate potatoes by hand, and so on and so on. Whenever possible we find older equipment to use as it is sturdier and better made. Part of living old fashioned is recognizing the disposable nature of society today. Everything is made to be quickly broken and replaced.

Today is a sabbath rest day for us. We take things a little slower and we will spend additional time studying God's word. While we sing and worship, I will work on knitting socks, quilting, or spinning. We have a bunch of household projects to finish inlcuding rugs and table linens, so all older girls are busy every evening with hand work.

This is just a glimpse. It is hard work, but the pace is slower. You can think while you work or pray. You see God in everything you do. The creation and the Creator. There is rhythm. We also enjoy ourselves. We sing while we work. We laugh. We are together and talking. We share our lives together.

Cold and Flu Season Natural Treatment

We are not quite done with canning and there is still a lot of produce to put away in the cellar, yet the children are already suffering with the first colds of the cold and flu season. This appears to be respiratory and Jon woke up breathing very loudly. So here is how I am treating the children naturally.

I had Jon get in the hot shower and breath in lots of hot steam. When he got out I rubbed peppermint and eucalpytus essential oils on his chest and feet. I then covered his feet with socks and wrapped him up in extra blankets.

Next, I made some horehound and honey cough drops. We grow horehound in our herb garden so I boiled some in to a tea. I then added the honey and a little lemon juice. I boiled it to hard candy stage and with a little cream of tartar put these in a pan rubbed with oil. For exact instructions you should look at thefamilyhomestead.com website. Once these set up, the kids were excited to suck on them. If you haven' had horehound before, it is very bitter. These are not too bad because of the honey in them and the honey is great for sore throats and coughing.

Finally, I am brewing up some chicken soup to feed them. I had cooked some chicken bones the other day in to a nice broth. I cooked some onions and garlic to some of the chicken fat, added some brown rice, and the chicken stock and meat from bones. I also added some lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. When this is fully cooked, I will added some kale cut in ribbons. This soup is packed with all types of things that are good for sickies as well as having lots of vitamin C.

There are lots of treatments that are natural for colds and flu. It is good to plan ahead and have the items on hand before someone gets sick so that you can respond with the best possible treatments. If this really settles in to someones chest, I will use an onion poultice to move it out.

Flavored Vinegars

Each fall we take apples from our trees and put them through an old fashioned cider press. We then brew the cider into vinegar through the winter. Grapes are steamed and then fermented before the vinegar "mother" is added to make more vinegar. Unpasteurized vinegar is said to be very good for you.

We then take some dried peppers from last year, a few garlic cloves, and/or some herbs to create these lovely flavor infused vinegars. Packaged in a nice jar with an easy pour top, they will look nice on your counter and taste great on your food. Try one this spring on some fresh salad greens.

Finally . . . Spring Planting

The feel of the earth this time of year is both warm and wet, crumbly and smooth. It is a great feeling to finally put plants in the ground and feel the dirt on your skin.

Sunday we continued transplanting while Mr. Makalea was able to get the upper garden disced and harrowed. Monday brought more nice weather and the rows were cultivated in nice straight lines across the odd shaped triangular corner of the upper field. Just as quick as he finished our planting teams followed behind. One person laying down onion sets from each end of the row while a planter followed easily poking down each little plant.

The dry weather continued early on Tuesday and we were able to get broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower starts planted in between the onions. Several years of interplanting have proven to us that this combination helps control pests - onions and brassicas. Throughout are also plants of catnip to help with aphids.

But that's not all the exciting news. We have some new farm animals! Baby chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks are spread around the farm in their brooders. As soon as they feather out, they will have the opportunity to either free range or be on pasture. In addition, we have a new milk goat, two new Icelandic ewes, and 2 new Icelandic baby ewe lambs.

At the end of this month, beginning of next, we are expecting our milk cow Daisy to calf. A fine Jersey heifer would be nice but most of all we look forward to some fresh milk.

Cabbage and other veggies

We had a great time transplanting cabbage the other day. The seedling flats look lush and full which means we have far more seedlings than we need. We transplanted and transplanted like a little assembly line until we were tired. We only made it through a half of a flat. We still have another flat and a half of just cabbage. More pots are needed.



The hoop house has been tilled on one half and then half of that will contain rows of kale, swiss chard, carrots, and beets. While they do not need the extra protection, the soil is dry enough for us to begin working it. The garden areas are still quite wet and with our clay we are not able to start planting yet.



During a brief dry spell we did get the peas planted. The other day I checked on them and they are starting to poke their heads up. Lettuce and peas will be the first crops we will harvest.



Other crops were also started this weekend. We got both tomatoes and peppers started. Eggplants will be this coming weekend along with a second pea planting.