For Lack of a Better Post

Ya see, I have about 3-4 posts that are half written. And I just haven't had the time to finish them to publish! So, for lack of a better post, you'll get a whole lot of pictures and not so many words. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway so I'll let them do the talking for me.

In no particular order.........

Enjoy your week!

A Homestead Update

Things around the homestead have been busy, but I've been trying to figure out just what we have been actually doing. The days all seem to run together in the winter as we're stuck inside most of the time. Here's what we've been up to:
1. Thinking of spring. Our Santa Rosa Plum is already starting to bloom and the Shiro is right behind it. The peaches and blueberries have their little buds but the apples and pears won't start to blossom until March or April. I've already ordered my tomato plants from Territorial Seed. While I grow every other vegetable or fruit from seed, I do tomatoes from plants. I've tried the seed and failed- miserably. We have a very short, cool growing season here (from about late May until September- that's just over 4 months) and attempting to get tomatoes from seed just doesn't happen. If everything goes just perfectly then I'm lucky to get tomatoes from the plants.
I decided not to order many seeds this year since I have quite a few left over from last year. I'm hoping that the rain will stop before June this year.2. We are hog free at the moment and it's somewhat strange not to have the pigs here. The homestead doesn't feel complete without them. Gavin and I are trying to decide whether we'll be getting more in April or if we'll wait until August.
3. I'm debating the turkeys.......again. Get them? Not get them? No one really enjoyed having them but they were great for Thanksgiving and Christmas! I'll have to make a decision soon as the chicks will be arriving in just a couple weeks.
4. I just started a new Bible study with a small group of ladies about a month ago. We reading "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." It has a short study, for each chapter, in the back of the book. It has been a great read so far. I was desperately craving a study and this book and our little group of 6 women has been an answer to prayer.

5. Binding quilts. I'm trying! I'm going to plan on sewing the binding onto my quilt today and taking photos of how I do it to share. Have you joined the bind-a-long? How is your quilt binding coming along?
6. We've had to learn to "do without" the past couple of days. My van has a major steering problem that needs to be fixed. It is not safe to drive right now so we're all packed in like sardines into my husbands truck. Our power was out yesterday morning and my husband made a terrific breakfast on the wood stove. Being without lights and an oven is one thing but when our power goes out we also lose water. The pump from the well doesn't work without power. Thankfully, the next place we'll live will be off grid so we won't have to worry about ever losing power. Hopefully.
7. We've also been trying to take advantage of the snow. I'll take the kids during the week and it's fun but not as much fun as when daddy gets to come!

8.Then there's the usual, laundry, housework, chopping fire wood as the wood stove has been going every day, schooling, church, youth groups, taxes, year end paperwork, etc. In other words, life is busy! A very busy blessing.

See what everyone else is up to on their homestead over at the Barn Hop!

homestead update + a recipe

Wow, it seems like forever since I've blogged. Oh wait, no, it doesn't just seem like it, it has been forever!
We have had quite a few things going on that have kept my fingers and my mind away from the computer world. Here's what's been happening:
1. Mason. That little baby is a peach. I am so in love with that little boy. He's had a couple ups and downs though lately. A couple weeks ago he burned his hand (pretty bad) and has been having to have it wrapped (and re-wrapped) twice a day. It is healing really well though and I'm hoping to have the wrap off by next week.
He has just started walking and is doing so well. He also is turning 1 this Friday, which is coincidentally my birthday as well! We won't mention my age though. And Wyatt just turned 13 a week or so ago.
2. The pigs are getting bigger, and bigger and bigger. No longer cute little piglets, they smell and I'm ready to butcher. Butchering them will have to wait until January though.
3. Speaking of butchering, the turkey's official D-day ("D" meaning death) is November 20th. Only 17 more days with those little ladies. Phew.
4. My dad had heart surgery last week and is now home and doing pretty well. The surgery went well but there are still a few things to be worked out in the next month or so.
5. We've had a bear coming around that has been creating quite a few problems for us and the neighbors. I guess this year is pretty bad with bears here. Overpopulation, not a good thing with bears.
6. All 3 of my little kids were sick with the flu in the last week. That wasn't pretty.
7. Gavin and I have been volunteering on Wed nights at church with "Kids JAM" and it's going well. Love to see the kids hearing about the Lord and having a great time too!
8. I'm still working on covering up most of the garden. The herbs stay where they are though and I got garlic in the ground about 2 weeks ago.
9. I've had a little extra time to read and have been reading this book by Debi Pearl. Wow, it's good and while I would say that I do most of the things in the book that Debi talks about, she really enlightened me in a few areas that I need to improve. Great read. I'd highly recommend it to all wives!
That's about it here. What have you been up to?
Since it is fall I wanted to share this recipe. I actually got the original recipe here and then had to modify it quite a bit for what I had on hand. The results? Pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Perfect for fall.

Pumpkin Cake Bars With Cinnamon Icing (my way)

For the Pumpkin Cake:
1 1/2 c pumpkin pie mix (that eliminates the honey and spices)
1 c peanut butter (because really, almond butter is WAY too expensive here)
2 eggs (from pastured hens!)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla extract

For the Cinnamon Icing:
1 box instant icing (as pictured below)
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a medium sized bowl, combine all the cake ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine. Pour into an 8×8 oven safe baking dish (I suspect you could squeeze 12 cupcakes out of this recipe if you use a muffin tin). Bake until completely cooked through, about 30 minutes.
I baked mine in a 8.5" pie plate and then made my frosting after the cake was baked. When cooled, I frosted it. Then we inhaled.

The only thing I would do next time is not put as much frosting on. It was too sweet for me. If you have a HUGE sweet tooth though like my hubby then it's, "just the right amount."
One of the greatest things about this recipe though is that it's grain free! Yep, you read that right- no flour! And if you follow the recipe for the icing that's in the original recipe then it can be milk free too (in case you have someone with that allergy.)

I'm going to try and quilt some more in the next few months and the next thing I'm planning on sharing here is how to bind a quilt (just for you Lisa!) Keeping my fingers crossed that I can get to that in the next few weeks.
Plus, I'm planning on a book giveaway later this month. Stay tuned!

back

While we enjoyed visiting my parents for 5 days, we are also so glad to be home. My parents live in a very big city, in a huge metropolitan area and honestly, it gets a little overwhelming for me! I guess I've just lived in a small town for too long. It was so nice to see my parents and brother though.

Big cities though usually have big things to do- like the zoo!
One of the best parts of our trip was taking a day to drive up to see my grandma and grandpa.

This is a photo of their house, courtesy of Wyatt.
My grandma lives in a sweet town that's about 25 times smaller than ours. It's population is 250 and there is a small grocery/hardware store, a church, a post office, and a gas station. I love it there! I wish that it wasn't a 10 hour drive from our home. We'd certainly visit more often if it were closer.
We got back Monday night and I promptly got back into the swing of things. I collected eggs from the chickens, cleaned the pig pen and canned 7 quarts of peaches. Oh, how I missed being home!

here comes the rain

It's raining here today. Well, maybe more like sprinkling but it's wet enough that the ground is visibly wet. The benefit: I don't have to water the garden. The drawback: It's been so damp in the mornings anyway, I'm struggling with mold on the green beans. This weekend, while it was sunny, I was able to capture a few good pictures.

Our freak carrots this year...

New wax beans starting to push through

One of my most favorite parts of the garden...Sunflowers! Just getting ready to bloom.

Plum tomatoes starting to ripen

Mason eating dirt while waiting for me to finish taking pictures. Good thing it's organic dirt.

Gavin working on clearing the back part of the property. There is much more to clear but he got a start on it yesterday. He spent about a half hour with the Bobcat pulling out trees and leveling the brush. We were talking afterwards about how much time that would have taken without heavy equipment. I do not envy the folks that had to clear their land by hand so long ago. We're not sure what we're going to do with this space that we'll have cleared but our first thought is to get our miniature Jersey. While we would love to move to more property ASAP the reality is that we still have a ways to go before we are financially ready to do so. But, we really want our own source of milk too. It's going to take a while to clear, especially with our rainy season right around the corner, but we'll work on it slowly.

And lastly, chickens. I think I'm addicted to chickens. Does anyone else feel like that? I love having them. I could get more and more and more and more but I told Gavin that I'd limit our flock to 10 while we live here.

The Pea Pickin' Homestead Update

The peas are ready to pick! Yay! Actually, I really dislike peas. Cooked peas anyway. Raw peas are a different story; I love 'em! So we mostly plant peas simply to pick off the vine and eat. They are fantastic in the garden because the kids can just head in whenever they need a snack and pick a handful.
As I tried to get a shot of the peas that we picked for dinner,

I kept having this problem...

Here are a couple updated garden shots.


We had the hardest time with the garden this year thanks to the rain and cold that stayed until June! My onions had blight....in May. I replanted my pole beans about 5 times. Really. I had a terrible battle with slugs this year and they won time after time. The slugs are finally gone and my poor pole beans are just starting to climb. I'll be lucky if I see beans before the cooler weather sets in. Maybe our growing season will get slightly extended since it started so late.

Mason has been enjoying the swing.

And Timber is such a good little helper with anything that needs done outside (and in!)

Wyatt's back from Vertical Life camp and he's been busy building a go-cart!

Gavin is busy with work and the pig pen (our pigs will be here in 2 weeks,) Layton has been keeping himself busy with his trains and the garden hose, and we've been hitting the river as much as possible!

Well, that's about it here. I love summer! How's yours going?

saturday night

Here are a few shots from our Saturday night at the homestead. You'll be glad there are no photos of me. It has been windy here the past couple of days and the pollen is flying- which means me, with a runny nose and bloodshot eyes. Not a pretty sight.

Yep, once in a while I do cave and allow my kids to eat something non-organic. I cringed when I read the ingredients on the marshmallows but I don't even think they make organic marshmallows, do they? And I certainly don't want my kiddos growing up not knowing what a s'more is!