Down on the Homestead - Nov. 14 - 20th

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone, although it is almost afternoon. We all slept in this morning, so we have a late start.

Once breakfast was finished, I then ground up some grain and now have bread dough on the rise. I also plan on making buns.

I have to cut out more material to sew up more pjs for Christmas gifts. I'm really enjoying the time spent sewing and praying for those little grandsons of ours while sewing.

Dh and I sorted out a few craft items I want him to make.

Tonight I need to clean the post office and then read.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone.

[guest2]

Goodmorning CJ! You sound busy as always.

Jeff and Chris are off hunting again and left me a present htis morning...mud clear from the front door across the livingroom carpet, dining room carpet and on the kitchen floor! Not what you want to wake up to. Somehow they also got mud on the front door . Anyway, we got that all cleaned up and the front steps, porch and walkway swept and I put a chair outside for them to sit on and take off their boots before they came in the house.

Jaysn and Josh went down to church here in town with some of their friends and I have spent part of the morning cleaning. I can't believe how fast the dust builds up in this house. You can dust one day and the next day it has to be done again. It's kind of like all the leaves that are falling outside, you rake and they just kleep on falling. I've also had some wonderful quiet time with the Lord and am planning on reading the book "First We Have Coffee" today that I borrowed from a friend (I have been trying to find this book for years).

Last night Jeff was so sweet, he looked at me and said "you are so awesome". I asked him why he said that and he told me it's because I respect him, do a great job with our finances and homeschooling our kids, send him off hunting with a smile on my face and a kiss even though it means I'm a hunting "widow" for the season and spoil him. Apparently he and his friend were having a discussion about how things are at his friend's house and how things are strained there. It's nice to hear that you are appreciated, but it also makes me sad to hear that things are not going well for our friends. I'm going to have to keep them in prayer more.

Last night we were watching the railroad and great lodges of Canada shows on PBS. It brought back so many wonderful memories for me. We discovered new places that we did not know even existed and now we are going to reasearch how much it would cost to stay at some of these wonderful out of the way smaller lodges. The kids were thrilled to see the Banff lodge because they remember that from our trip up 4 years ago. I love Canada!!!!

YOu all have a blessed day!!!!

[QuilterMom]

Good afternoon!

We've been to church and stopped by the grocery store on the way home. Dh is planning on making homemade chili today and ds wants me to make him some homemade mac and cheese.

I got my compost tumbler started yesterday and need to go add some things to it and do a bit of weeding in the garden. We also need to get all the remodeling mess in the kitchen cleaned up/moved somewhere else in anticipation of our new stove and dishwasher being delivered tomorrow. I have a couple of loads of laundry to do that I have to use the dryer for (dh still hasn't put up our clothesline LOL) and dh and ds are about to go out to our pond and try to catch some fish (we don't eat them - they will toss them back). I think all of our snapping turtles are gone (from when we all flooded from Hurricane Jeanne) and they have ended up in someone else's pond. Ds is not happy about that because there was a little one he had named George that would always come and eat bread that we would toss to the fish. We have fish in our pond now that weren't ours before the hurricane (my friend's dh noticed that) so I think dh is anxious to try to catch some just to see what's in there now. LOL

Have a great day everyone!

[Michele Annette]

Hello Ladies!

I hope you are all having a beautiful day. It is so nice and sunny here, that even indoors, I feel great!!

I'm getting ready for the Thanksgiving week and tomorrow is payday, so I get to order the turkey!

Today I'm:

*vacuuming rugs
*wash dishes and put away
*mopping floors
*cleaning the bathroom
*scrubbing the kitchen (walls and all!)
*washing, drying and putting away three loads of laundry.
*Made my Thanksgiving grocery list plus extra stuff for the next two weeks.
*make a list for Costco
*make a list for Mr.G's
*Ordered snow tires! Yeah!!! I need these so bad!!
*cut quilt pieces
*crochet mittens

DH just asked me today if I wanted to move my sewing room upstairs, from the basement, to our computer room. Then move the computer room to the basement. Sounds great to me!

It looks like we will definitely be here for the Winter. But we are making an ultra cheap trip to Colorado for a week very soon. We have a desiel car that gets super gas milage and the trip will cost up approximately $300 round trip in diesel. We get about 55 miles to the gallon in our car. We are doing this because we are still thinking of Colorado as an option to move to. Vermont is rediculous in house and tax prices! We just don't know what to do, but we definitely know that we both want a homestead! I am glad at least that we both want the same things as far as a house and land is concerned. We really want to build a strawbale house with all of our power generated with solar. Do any of you do this currently? I won't be able to telecommute at my current job if I move that far because my bosses made it a rule that I would still have to live in the state of VT. So that really is much harder since I don't have an instant job. Not sure yet what's happening or if it will all change next week, but we need to figure out this stage of our lives and it's pretty difficult. We are emotionally attached here and that makes it so hard. I do feel positive about it though. So whatever decision we make, I know it will be in our best intrest.

I better get back to my day. Have a lovely day!

[kimmee]

Good afternoon girlees!

Considerably warmer day here in Colorado - because of our elevation when there is no breeze you actually sweat in the winter here when out in the sunshine. I 've been working on a second chicken house today - so I can seperate my breeders from my egg layers. Some of my chickens are getting so pretty!! and I have more order allready to place at Strombergs in January for some exotics that I want to raise! Chickens are a lot of fun we they are not eating each other

The main part of the house is clean ( not the kids area - I need a dumptruck to clean their side of the house!!) and roast beef in the crockpot. So I am kickin back a bit here before I start sewing.This evening when we go pick up the kids - except Aimee cuz she's going to Avril Lavigne!&nbsp we will stop by King Stoopids (Kroger) and get our Turkey cuz they are on sale for two days only - $8.00 for 20 lbs. of HoneySuckle White!!

We are going to have our Thanksgiving celebration next Sunday - since Bob will have them for Thanksgiving Day. I 've got lots of prep to do cuz I am going to make my usual spread for Turkey Day and I just love to cook!!

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday on your homesteads!!

[forestdale]

Top of the morning to everyone.

I'm at our store again today and I hope it will be busy again. I worked like a trojan yesterday and only had a couple of breaks. I also met a lot of nice people so it was a very pleasant day.

Michele, we had solar hot water in our last house and it made a big difference to our electricity bill. Here the government give you an incentive payment of around $1000 to install solar panels, they are also offereing around $1500 to install water tanks. Things are looking up.

Kim, can you tell me how your friend makes a compost tumber from a rubbish bin?

Debbie, isn't it wonderful to be appreciated and told you are by your favourite man.

CJ, I hope you have a little time for yourself in your busy day.

The sun is shining outside and it looks like another perfect day.

[QuilterMom]

Bethany - I don't know anyone that composts, but I want to so I did some research on my own. Dh and I decided a regular pile was too risky here because of the variety of poisonous snakes we have so I am trying to make my own tumbler out of a trash can. I found this http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_soil_wat...378480,00.html and this http://www.dirtdoctor.com/forum/view...ighlight=trash .

[QuilterMom]

Michele - My dh is a solar water heating specialist so if you have any questions just let me know! He highly sings its praises. I would love to have it in our house, but the slope of our roof is too steep (the main problem) and we are shaded by too many trees (secondary problem).

[Ellise]

Good Evening ladies, cold here today. DH had to work so it was just DS & I today.

~ sewed a hat & scarf for my neice (fleece)
~ homemade meatball soup
~ made Sticky buns
~ working on a scarf for me
~ washed a load of laundry
~ need to fold laundry and put away
~ cleaned litter box
~ cleaned up the kitchen

DS rented walking tall and a PS2 game last night so he's busy playing.

I found a little down time so I'm in the village

[forestdale]

Kim, thanks for those links, I'll check them out when I'm not at the store. I've had compost heaps x 3 for donkey's years. We have many many snakes here and although I've seen a snake or two sunning themselves on the heaps, I've never had a problem with them. (I'm not really frightened of snakes, it makes a bit difference.)

I also have one of those anaerobic bins but I don't like it. I think the tumblers are the best and make compost in around 3-4 weeks.

Thanks again.

[slowtypinwoman]

Good evening everyone,


It has been a while since I have been able to come to the village for more than just a minute or two. I am having fun catching up on all your lives.

We are busy getting ready for the community theater play of The Odd Couple. ( the female version) In it I play the Felix Unger part called Florence Unger. It has been a lot of fun but also a lot of work. The play is next week end. So wish me to break something!

To keep the cost of our lives down during the last couple weeks of the play, I have been cooking most of the day. I now have lasagna in the oven, cooked a hamb/deer mix for tacos, and have kilbasa ready to go for one night as well. I also made cookies for Alex.

We spent a large part of the day doing laundry and are still at it. How can three people generate so much soiled clothing?

I hope everyone has a peaceful week!
Marcia

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone. Its going to be a georgous day today with +12C temps and lots of sunshine. I'm loving this weather.

I'm back to making Monday laundry day. I found it so much easier last winter to have one day per week for laundry. I have some laundry I need to fold and a bit I need to iron as well.

I also think I'll make up another batch of bread and buns. The buns I made yesterday are all gone. My family loves homemade buns.

I finished a couple pair of pjs yesterday. Once the above is done, I'll get back into my sewing room and sew up more. I need to get a couple more pair cut out. I'm running out of flannelette for the boys so will have to pick up some while I'm in the city on Friday. I thought I would have enough but not quite.

Once the kids are up I need to get their school started.

Tonight I'll be cleaning the post office and then reading.

Marcia - good to see you back.

Have a wonderful Monday everyone.

[kimmee]

Good Morning Girlfriends!!

Its a beautiful very brisk day here at my homestead  35º -brrr! But the sun is shining and the animals are all friskee - Sammee is running around having bad attacks and bouncing all of his girth sideways - he is so hilarious when he gets nutty!!

I actually got to leave the house last night for one whole hour to pick up the boys and buy a turkey - I never get to leave the house anymore - and though thats not all bad cuz Ilove my house and can't stand the general public!, I am starting to feel a little reclusive. Bruce leaves everyday for work so he doesn't understand that when he tells me we are going to go somewhere and then we don't I get a little disappointed - I don't let him know that it bothers me but every once in a while I wish he'd see it from my eyes.

Lots to do today !! Clean the weezil cage , bake some more bread, a few loads of laundry and an attempt at finishing my chicken coope though I suspect I will need help - which won't be available today.

 This afternoon I will be sewing a new robe for Aimee and cords and dress shirts for the boys Christmas outfits (to wear to Grandma's).

have a lovely day on your homesteads!!

[QuilterMom]

Good morning!

My day is off to a rotten start. We were supposed to have our new stove and dishwasher delivered today. The company couldn't even give us a delivery window until last night after 6pm and we were on the schedule today for the 8am to 10am window. We were told we would be called when they were an hour away from us (which to me means we should have received a call no later than 9am). Shortly after 9:15am we received a call telling us we would not be getting our delivery today because they were having 'mechanical' problems. The lady would give dh no more info, but wanted to go ahead and reschedule. He had to explain that he had to take off work this morning and he couldn't just reschedule because he had to get approval through his company first and find out what jobs they have him scheduled for this week. She told dh she would have to call him back to see if they were still planning on coming today and dh told her he needed a call back immediately. I insisted dh call the lady we placed the order with (the person who does contractor sales) and see what he could find out from her. We waited for 30 minutes for someone to call us back and still had not gotten a call so dh called the 800# of the company and was put on eternal hold (imagine that!). During that call the contractor sales lady called and said the delivery truck had broken down and all today's deliveries had been cancelled. Ugh! I told him some demands to make (to put even more money in our pocket for the inconvenience and because we lost money on his paycheck this morning since he's paid by the hour). I tend to get really rude with people in these situations , but I get compensation for our inconvenience - dh just lets people walk all over him (my opinion). Now dh just called a bit ago and the first lady that called this morning FINALLY called him back (over an hour and a half after dh told her he needed an immediate call back as to what was going on because he had to get to work) and said that the delivery might be made this afternoon, but they don't know for sure. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Um, sure, dh is at work and he's supposed to what, just take off work and come sit here and see if they show up or not????? So, I really don't know what's going on - either we're getting them later today or it'll have to be rescheduled for another day. Either way dh is going to end up missing a lot of work which is not going to help us any. Ugh!

What a great way to start my day (messed up my homeschooling time as well)! I need to do a load of laundry and hang it to dry, bake some bread and make some cornbread, work on the compost tumbler some more, and get some flash cards prepared for our next math lesson.

Oh, and I almost forgot. We had visitors last night! Dh had already gone to bed and I was sitting on the sofa watching a movie and working on ds's quilt. I heard a big ruckus out the window behind me and knew that the cat's food was being tossed and thrown about. I thought the cat had gone psycho and turned on the lights and opened the front door to see what was going on. There stood two of the biggest raccoons I've ever seen! One ran almost immediately, but the other just stood in front of the door and stared at me. It didn't intend to go anywhere so I had to yell at it to get it to go on. The cat was in front of the front door like he was scared to death. I went to tell dh what had happened and heard the ruckus again - the defiant raccoon had come back! I opened the door and there he was standing again. Ugh! This morning all the cat's food was gone so I'm sure they came back after I went to bed. I told dh we have to get the remainder of the existing garden fenced off now or they will be munching in it, too!

Have a great day everyone!

[kimmee]

Oh Kim - I know that feeling!! I woke up to a momma racoon and her five babies in my Pantry once - they came "THROUGH" the ceiling - what a mess!! they even dumped the slimfast!! weight conscious!! They were big buggers and they were not scared - I even picked up one of the babies and then they all ran !!