This Moment

I am sitting in a new area which I set up today.  A perfect spot for reading, surfing, or writing.  Nothing special just a quiet warm area, close to a window, a lamp, lap blanket, pillow and an apple crate covered with a lambskin as a foot rest.

I am looking at the barn cat that has not been in the house for a year until lately.  Suddenly  she’s decided to move back in.  She only allows the kids to get close.  We’ve renamed her  ”Pretty Eagle” based on a book we read recently.

I am thinking about my bees which thrive from neglect.  I have not written much about them this year. At the beginning of the year I found the queen for the very first time.  I was ECSTATIC!   Shortly after I found the queen they swarmed and I was unable to capture them.  No honey again this year from my bees.  However, I did barter for some.  Tomorrow I will winterize their hive as the cold days are upon us.  Flower Girl made honey throat lozenges this morning for a first.  We sucked on it like candy until they were all gone… LOL

I am listening to Mac Gyver playing on the TV from a distance.  (Actually now that I proofread my house is quiet = priceless!)

I am sipping water that I have by my side 24/7 but earlier tonight I had a glass of apple cider and vodka….it was delicious.  I will definitely have again!

I am regretting not taking pictures on Thanksgiving, whatever was I thinking?  We had a great day filled with some of my family in the morning and Maine Man’s family in the afternoon.

I am planning on making homemade gifts for Christmas.  I am good at peeping on Pinterest for ideas.  Now I just need to lock myself in my sewing room for a while.  First on the list is cotton bread bags.  I’ve never made them before.  It shouldn’t be too hard with the help of You Tube.  Then I’d like to make the kids each a blanket and maybe we will make Christmas ornaments too.  I hope to capture pictures of the gifts we give so I can share here.  Each year I try to make changes in effort to cut back on the expenses, create less stress, and  to SIMPLIFY and ENJOY the season.  A couple of years ago I told a few people lets stop swapping unless it is homemade.  Last year I stopped sending out picture Christmas cards, and this year I am going to distribute my gifts throughout the month of December instead of all in one weekend.  What are you doing differently to make this season less stressful?

A day in the life….

As I spent the day cooking, cleaning, organizing, and minimizing the kids spent the day setting up the cabin.  Well the boys did, the girls just hung out in there intermittently throughout the day.

I was impressed by the progress that they made.  Country Boy spent the last few months accumulating goods to fill his “cabin” with.  Today he did just that.

Since firing up the wood cook-stove for the first time this afternoon they already cooked up some hot cocoa, mac & cheese, and deer steak.  Yeah… no dishes or clean-up for me!

Maine Man has spent endless hours helping CB get this together before Winter.  They still have a few more things to do before moving it to the final destination.

Squirrel hide…

They even decorated the loft with Christmas lights.

A game of war….

It is still a work in progress.  But it was great to see the kids take such pride and work together to make it a usable space today.  I have no doubt that they will have many good times in the cabin.  Some of my fondest childhood memories were in cabins we built, lake-side lean-to’s and moss houses we constructed.

:~day 24

Two pigs went to be processed at the end of last week  There were no problems loading our pigs but our friends pigs were a completely different scenario…..there is an interesting story behind it.  All I will say today is that Country Boy said if I had been there with a video camera we could have won $100,00 on home funniest videos.

We have lots to do in order to finish getting buttoned up for winter.  We have seven bushels of apples in the walk-in cooler waiting to be made of.  We also have 20+ meat birds ready for processing.  With that said I am feeling the need to step away from the blog for a bit…. it may be a few days, it may be a week.

30 post in a row is more work then I thought.  With that said, the next 5 posts (day 25-30) will come over time, not on a daily basis.  It has been fun to see the numbers of visitors on my blog go up.  On Bangor Daily News I observed my daily visitor count go up as high as 419 and on Blogspot it went up as high as 398 visitors in a day.  I appreciate all the feedback I get…. random comments, private messages on Facebook, and sweet words of encouragement when I run into friends and family in the community   That is why I’ve carried on since 2008 sharing tid bits of our life.  There are times that have been challenging that I have seriously considered throwing the towel in but for all those reasons above I continue this journey.

Making yogurt:~day 23

Prior to the last couple weeks I’ve made yogurt a few times successfully and I even  posted a how-to last year.  I’ve also goofed making it on a handful of occasions.   It’s kind of like bread making.  You make a few good loaves and you get all cocky then you screw up a few and your back to being humble.

My friend recently shared how she makes it and I like her method best.  I have yet to screw it up!  I’ve been making it weekly for the past month from raw organic jersey milk.  One of my other friends delivers to me weekly.  How lucky am I?  Fresh, raw milk in a glass jug delivered to my house every week.  The milk is good for about a week and I usually try and make the yogurt with it just before it is about to turn but not always.

Initially I bought a small container of plain Greek yogurt for a starter. After the first time making yogurt I used the previous week’s yogurt as a starter.  I make a quart at a time but it would be easy enough to double the recipe if you wanted.

1. Bring 1 quart of milk to a gentle bubbling for approximately 10 minutes.
2. Turn off heat, let stand for a couple minutes.
3. Take out approximately 1 cup of warm liquid and place in jar of choice.
4. Add 2 Tablespoons of dry milk & 2 Tablespoons of yogurt.
5. Shake in jar.
6. 15 minutes later or so add remaining liquid to jar, shake, wrap in towel and place in dark area overnight.
7. Refrigerate in the morning.

THAT’S it!  This recipe is very forgiving so if you mess one step up it may still come out.  (I’m talking from experience here)  Last batch I flavored with vanilla extract and honey, next batch I plan to add maple syrup.

Give it a try, it beats buying it in the store and you know exactly what the ingredients are.

For those who wonder….:~day 22

CB preparing to make squirrel stew all on his own.  He never asked me for a bit of help.  He brought it over to his cousin’s to share with a loaf of fresh bread.  Tonight when I came home from work he was making pumpkin chocolate chip whoppie pies and he even cooked up the pumpkins rather then grabbing a can from the cupboard.

RECENT COMMENT ON MY BLOG….

“I’m curious, how do your kids feel about being such major providers for the family larder? Is it just business as usual or do they have a sense of pride that they helped put meat on the table? Was it hard for your daughter to shoot a deer for the first time or is she more of a practical person about it? Are they so used to life and death on the farm that hunting is sort of an extension on that? I know that’s a lot of questions, but my kids are talking about learning to hunt and I guess I’m wondering about the psychological aspect of it. I never went hunting with my father, just fishing, so I don’t have my own experiences to fall back on.”

FG cooking deer steak.  We’ve been eating in nearly every day.

MY RESPONSE TO THE COMMENT ABOVE :

GREAT QUESTIONS!! My kids take much pride in providing for our family. They are actively involved in many aspects of putting food on the table from picking eggs, feeding and watering animals, hunting and foraging, and helping my husband process some of the livestock we raise. It is normal life for them. Our children thrive in this homesteading environment. My daughter did cry after shooting the deer but mostly out of excitement. I think she was unsure of herself, unsure that she could kill a deer so she was overwhelmed with emotion. I also think anytime you take the life of another there is a humbling moment and damn there should be. Hunting I guess is an extension of what we do and it is something my husband is passionate about therefore my kids are. It is sad that as a society we have taken the faces of the animals away from meat in the supermarket. In my eyes children of today should all learn these basic survival skills as someday they made need to know them.

Better Late then Never:~day 21

Flower Girl the crazy Red Riding Hood along with her cousin the Lumber Jack.  Love their costumes!

Never Say Never:~day 20

A couple years ago I received and e-mail asking me what I thought about getting goats.  I wrote my friend back with a rather extensive list on why NOT to get goats and I believe I told her I would NEVER own another goat in my life.  This past summer the goat count went as high as 9, now we are holding steady at 6.  I milked 2 does throughout the summer but they are all dry now and in the process of being breed.  Moral of the story….Never Say Never cause you may just eat your words as I did….

:~day 19

I swear I warned them all!  No more babies, winter is coming.  Defiant bunnies and ducks.  Muscovies anyone?  We have just a handful left.  Attempting to minimize before winter!

Outdoor Fitness:~day 18

I’ve just started reading Outdoor Fitness by Tina Vindum. I am really liking it and hoping to get some new ideas from it. My days in the gym are done (as of now, anyway). Of course now that I have a free membership through my workplace to several gyms I feel that way. LOL….Anyone have any suggestions for good reads about outdoor fitness?

What was I thinking:~day 17

Not sure whatever possessed me to say I would post 30 days in a row. (on a somewhat daily basis)

Regardless I am sticking to it, so here is some RANDOM pics from our life as of lately.

Anatomy & Physiology as Mother Nature intended. Lucky kids to have such a fine dad that teaches them everything he knows.

My friend’s sheep. A few weeks back we took a stroll out back on her land to a babbling brook and waterfall. There we sat and talked. Moments like that make me feel blessed for my friends that I spend time with regularly and those I just get to visit with from time to time.

Nothing like home-grown chicken! The kids and Maine Man processed 20 of our meat birds last week. We have more that they plan to do in the next week or two. Some we bartered with and the rest will feed our family until Spring.

With Thanksgiving approaching and cranberries in season I have made cranberry sauce twice and plan to make it this weekend for a friend. I figured I would post the link in case anyone wanted to give it a try.

The kids just after Flower Girl shot her deer. Always a humbling moment when you take the life of another in order to sustain your own.

Gingerbread cookies in October, why not?

The kids used cookie cutters on the pumpkins, they came out pretty good.

School is going good for the most part. I have much more confidence this year then our first year homeschooling. It is not without its moments but we surely will have no regrets with this commitment. It has been fun to learn along with the kids for both Maine Man and I. We each have our strength and weaknesses. We are all really liking the book series Dear America. We just finished reading My Heart is on the Ground. I cannot wait to start the next book in the series. My Name is America is also being enjoyed by the kids.

Anyone else still battling to fill the barn, garage, woodshed before snow flies?