too much of a good thing

If you are my "friend" on Facebook then you already know that I have an overabundance of soap that is filling up the little space we have in our house! I'm selling the overstock in my Etsy shop. I would like to offer to you, my blogging friends, the soap at a reduced price. I appreciate you all stopping by, reading and commenting here. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't blog.

So, if you're a reader of this blog, you can buy a bar of soap for $4.75 (plus $2.25 shipping.)

You can see the soap info here.
If you're interested, please email me at mountainhomequilts@charter.net and we'll work out the details!

when making yogurt goes wrong

See, I told you it wasn't a good idea for me to use raw milk while making yogurt! Once again I have completely failed. But that's o.k., that's what experimenting is all about! I tried yesterday to make yogurt with pectin.Apparently, too much pectin. Thank heavens I didn't use raw milk this time (again.) I won't be using it until I get this right!

chicken raising

If you live in the country you just have to raise chickens. There really aren't any ifs ands or butts about it. And even if you don't live in the country you can still raise healthy hens that provide you with healthy eggs. All you need is a coop and some free green grass for them to roam on. Although they aren't the brightest livestock, they're certainly one of the easiest to care for.
A friend of mine called me the other day and gave me a recipe for chick starter- which then lead to my search for a homemade layer food. Here's what I found:

Greener Pastures Farm Chick Starter Recipe:
This recipe is whole grains, except for the corn, and can be fed to newly hatched chicks as is (whole grain) or soaked overnight. I used to grind their feed, but found that they waste most of it, and remembered that Mother Nature does not grind food for baby chicks!
Milk is made available free-choice, as is water with apple cider vinegar and garlic. Worms or scrambled eggs (with some fresh garlic added) are given daily. I am able to find all the following ingredients in certified organic form, except the kelp. My worms and my eggs are "home-grown" and are therefore organic! PLEASE NOTE: Do not feed milk or oyster shell to chicks that receive a premixed feed; these additions are only for chickens fed a home-made feed that does not already contain calcium in the mix. ACV = Apple Cider Vinegar

2 parts whole corn, ground (or purchased organic corn meal)
3 or 4 parts whole wheat
1 part barley
1 part oat groats
1 part shelled sunflower seeds
1/2 part lentils
1/2 part split green peas
1 part millet
1/4 part flax seeds
1/2 part seaweed
garlic (several cloves per gallon of water)
ACV (about 2 Tablespoons per gallon of water)
organic milk to drink (don't worry if they don't drink it all up; if it
solidifies, they will ingest it with glee!)
freshly dug worms
organic scrambled eggs

Layer recipe:
2 parts whole corn (in winter this is increased to 3 or 4 parts)
3 parts soft white wheat
3 parts hard red winter wheat
1 part hulled barley
1 part oat groats
1 part sunflower seeds (in winter this is increased to 2 parts)
1 part millet
1 part kamut
1 part amaranth seeds
1 part split peas
1 part lentils
1 part quinoa
1 part sesame seeds
1/2 part flax seeds
1/2 part kelp granules
free choice of granite grit
free choice of oyster shell
* It's not necessary to follow this recipe exactly... just make sure your birds are getting enough protein, which is predominant in the hard red wheat and the legumes. Free-range birds usually find plenty of protein from bugs, etc.

Both of these recipes come from Greener Pastures Farm in Vancouver, WA

I picked up quite a few of these ingredients from our health food store's bulk section today and plan on soaking mine tonight!

**Oh, and by the way, this is my 400th post!!!!!!! Yahoo!! So the first person to comment here will get something special in the mail to them!**

batik fabric giveaway winner!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
19
Timestamp: 2010-03-22 15:01:26 UTC

Which means.......

Pokey said...
These are pretty, and could be so fun. For spring, I'm opening the windows, and airing the quilts- happy spring! Thanks for the giveaway!

Congrats to you! :)

Giveaway #2 **Now closed**

Time for another giveaway of fabric! This one includes 13 batik fat quarters. I'm just not a batik person so these have to be purged from my stash! :)

To enter, leave a comment here and tell me about how you're getting ready for spring. One winner will be drawn this coming Monday (March 22nd.)

And don't forget to follow along- there will me more fabric giveaways!

getting it ready

We're slowly in the process of getting our house ready to sell. When I say slowly, I'm not joking. It really is slow. While my parents were here though my Dad helped out a bunch and painted our dining area and our side door! I LOVE new paint. It cleans things up super quickly! Now I don't want to put anything back up on the walls because it looks so uncluttered! (Unlike the rest of my house!)

Update: Since a couple of you asked; we're not moving far. Just to more property. To afford it though we have to get this house and our rental house ready to sell. Our home isn't as much work as our rental though. Our goal is to have everything ready to put up for sale next year. We'll see how that goes!

silly boy

when good parents go home

Mom, this is what my kitchen looked like 2 hours after you left........

Oh, and the quilt tutorial........not quite done. Soon though! :)

a couple things...

First, the yogurt making. I told Cindy that I'd try out a recipe that was on the WP webpage. I did try it, about 2 weeks ago. I just haven't had a chance to share yet.

For this experiment I actually used organic, pasteurized, non-homogenized milk. I didn't go raw because I was way too freaked out that since I was trying it for the first time, I would mess up and either heat the milk beyond 118 or just do it wrong and then I would have wasted some VERY expensive raw milk.
The whole heating process is something that you have to watch like a hawk. You want it heated to 110 but not to 118. It's like trying to control a big, hungry dog from eating a steak that's 2 feet away. I think it may take more practice before I go raw.
I followed the recipe and then sat my jars of milk into this cooler. I didn't have a thermos like the recipe called for and I made 2 quart jars (one using my yogurt culture and one using the 2Tbsp of Brown Cow yogurt as suggested by the recipe) I heated some water on the stove to 110 and added it into the cooler to keep the yogurt warm. The quart jars then sat in this cooler overnight. The next morning I had 2 quarts of yogurt. I did not add any sweetener in the making process and added a little vanilla the next morning. The texture was thin. Not as thin as milk but not like yogurt from the store (which is to be expected since my yogurt does not have pectin in it.) The flavor was o.k. I guess I'm just used to sweetened yogurt. Brown Cow sweetens theirs with things like maple syrup and cane juice. And their yogurt is good. Mine needs improvement. But like I said, it was an experiment. I'll try again, and again until I can get it right!

Second, I made this for lunch the other day and it was so incredibly delicious!

1 homemade tortilla cooked to a nice crisp

organic mild cheddar cheese, sliced

sauerkraut

sliced mushrooms and zucchini cooked in butter

Layer and enjoy!

Third, assuming that I finish the top tomorrow I'll have a quilt tutorial on my blog on how to make the quilt I'm making for our bed. SUPER easy quilt with a great look!

giveaway winners

True Random Number Service
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
7
67
Timestamp: 2010-03-12 23:00:29 UTC

So that means that....
Bobbi Jo said...
Love it! Can always use fun fabric:)
Wins the #1 fabric (KJR)

Sharon said...
Sure, I can always use more material. Thanks for the giveaway.
Wins the #2 fabric (blues and greens)

Congrats to both of you! :)
If you want to follow along with my blog I will be having 2 more giveaways in the next month as I destash more fabric; all leading up to the May date for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

homemade dish soap (for your dishwasher)

This recipe comes straight out of the latest issue of Mary Jane's Farm Magazine so I can't take credit for creating it! :) Cindy asked me to post it here, so here ya go:

Combine equal parts baking soda and borax in the detergent compartment and use white vinegar in the rinse cycle well.

That's it. Pretty simple!
If you try it, please let me know what your experience with it is. I may give it a go myself! :)

giveaway ***Now Closed***

I was going through my fabric today and realized that I need to get rid of more so here we go...

Katie Jump Rope scraps and fat quarter cuts.

A mix of blue and green fabrics.

Two little sets of fabrics, two winners. Leave a comment and I'll draw two winners this Friday!

my little tree

It's hard to believe that this was my little girl 2 years ago today!Happy 2nd birthday sweet Timber!

like father like son

I actually found a few spare minutes this afternoon to download these shots and share them! My parents are coming tomorrow for a week which means a couple things 1. help with the house 2. help with the kids 3. a little free time for me. (Yes, I do realize that all of that sounds pretty selfish but I'm excited!)

Anyway, the other day I walked outside to find this......

And then there is poor little Timber who wants so much to be like Layton. You have to remember the girl is only 1. Well, until tomorrow at least when she turns 2!

lost

I feel a little lost right now. Most of it comes from the lack of sleep and barely being awake enough some days to even get housework done.
So, I'm not gone. I realize that I haven't blogged in a while and I have a bunch to share, like my yogurt making experience and a quilt and pictures of my kids and how the sauerkraut is coming and on and on.....
I'll get back here soon- Promise! :)