Down on the Homestead - Dec. 11th - Dec. 17th

**QuilterMom** · 12-11-2005, 01:54 PM

Good afternoon!

Dh is working on baseboard and trim for the baby's room. We got part of the closet organizer done last night and will hopefully finish that today as well. I have 6 loads of laundry to do today (would have been 5, but we had a furbaby

incident this morning so the dog beds had to be washed as well). Our temps are cooling down nicely so I have lofty baking goals today. I've already gotten 5lbs. of potatoes made into mashed potatoes for the freezer and need to do 5 more lbs. I have 2 banana breads and a peach cobbler baking now. I hope to get 3 batches of blueberry muffins made and 2 or 3 batches of chocolate chip muffins made and into the freezer - not sure if I'll have enough evaporated cane juice crystals or not for all that. Dh is hinting heavily for ginger cookies. I'll probably have to have him stop by the health food store in the next few days to buy some cane juice since of course I didn't think about it while we were there yesterday!

Nothing else planned for today except watching Survivor tonight.

Have a great day everyone!

Diane - Glad I could be of help the other day with your question!

**Mom23boys** · 12-11-2005, 02:13 PM

Hello to all.

Kim, glad to hear your baby's room is coming along.

Trying to do some cleaning today. Have washed clothes all morning! Ready to run out of them at any time.

I decided to cut my own hair this morning. It has been short for about 6 months, so I just trimmed it up. I always cut the boys and DH's hair, so thought I would see if I could do my own and did pretty good.

I am impressed. I would have ran to Wal-Mart to have them fix it if I would've messed up. LOL! I also colored it to remove the grey. I swear my kids give it to me.

Dh has to work today. I hate his work schedule. He has to work Sun.-Thurs. I wish it would return back to Mon.-Fri. Sure would make weekends better. We could then share the same days off again.

No other plans for today. Just watching the Survivor Finale too!

**forestdale** · 12-11-2005, 02:28 PM

Hello ladies!

I've been working at our store and will be back there again today. Boy, was it busy yesterday with all those Christmas shoppers. I was really pleased that two of our regular customers told me yesterday that they've seen the For Sale sign on the front of the store and they'll miss us when we sell.

I still haven't done any Christmas shopping myself but we've cut down on gift giving this year so I'm sure I can do all my buying in an hour or so.

Kim, is the baby's room almost finished?

Michele, grey hair is part of the motherhood badge.

I hope everyone is well and happy. Have a great day everyone.

**baxjul** · 12-11-2005, 02:31 PM

Hello!

Nothing going on here, it is only 60 degrees, so just hanging out in the house cooking for the week. So far I've made a big pot of boiled dinner (cabbage, ham, potatoes, carrots), and also a huge pot of ham stock to freeze.

I have a migrane today, so I'm just relaxing waiting for the medicine I took to kick in!

Went to see Trace Adkins and Travis Tritt last night, it was great.

**owiebrain** · 12-11-2005, 02:55 PM

Julie, I'm so jealous! I love those two!

Not much going on inside today, maybe making some cookies later and, of course, starting dinnner.

After hubby gets home from work, the push is on to finish up the nitty gritty, getting ready for the cement trucks to arrive at 10 Monday morning.

My main focus now is figuring out a bathtub and water filtration for our rainwater catchment (getting this done thanks to a friend. Hi, Cindy!

) Those are my two main projects for the next week or two.

**jzkitten** · 12-11-2005, 04:25 PM

Hi all!

I just joined the homesteading club and it said to post what's going on in your day...so here goes.

Woke this morning to a strange odor. Seems a skunk got under the house. PU!!! It's worse in my son's room. Had to take a chicken count this morning. Hubby said skunks eat chickens(never heard that one)

Did a load of laundry and dishes.

Made 2 batches of Mountain Dew jelly to give in cookie and candy baskets. Still have to start on the fudge, brownies and cookies.

Finished chef's apron and hat for Christmas gift.

Have a good day everyone!

**forestdale** · 12-11-2005, 05:40 PM

Welcome to the thread, theresa.

**seatosea** · 12-11-2005, 06:18 PM

Hi everyone!
Theresa, Mountain Dew jelly?? Sounds very festive!
I cannot believe it is already Dec. 11th! DH and I had the day off today, started pulling together Christmas gifts that we had packed away. What fun to discover all the goodies.
We have a huge pile for gift baskets but I like the baskets to be really full so I am wanting to make more goodies!
Washed and dried two loads of laundry, put away. Cleaned kitchen from top to bottom and spent some time shoveling the lovely white stuff!

I listed some items on Ebay and I already have a bid on one item. Trying to put all Ebay sales into ING., interest is great right now!
Dinner is cooking, simple chicken and stuffing with a salad.
Stay warm everyone!

**dwallyfam** · 12-11-2005, 07:15 PM

Well today was kinda lazy. DD had a birthday sleepover last night. Luckily (for me) only two girls showed up. So it wasn't to bad. Had some leftovers from it. Having some leftovers for dinner tonight and froze the pizza for Christmas Eve Dinner.

Made some realizations between last night and today on our debt. Talking to DH about it and hope to be getting rid of some of it next year.

Today went to the Dollar General and stocked up on some items. Trying to get my stockpile going. Finished Christmas shopping. I still have a few stocking stuffers left but will be getting those at DG later this week. Did laundry and now getting ready to work on scrapbooking and sewing. Trying to use up what I have before I get more.

Kellie

**favesis37** · 12-11-2005, 08:26 PM

hi all! well today, dh and i wen tand picked up my chrismas gifts, i always pick out what i want, then we came home and ate lunch( he wanted to go out but we came home). then i went to visit my horse and took her some left over veggies, along with old bread for th echickens, got home to get a call from my daughter in law saying the baby has ecoli! panicked about that for awhile( lol)
took a nap and now i am going to wrok on the last hat i need to make for the holidays!

**Valerie in WA** · 12-12-2005, 04:04 PM

Kim, I'm sorry to hear about your dgd. Pm me, okay?

Theresa, welcome!

Diane, I've been puzzling about that tub for a couple of days now and all I can come up with is concrete, but it wouldn't be comfortable to soak in - it would be bumpy and rough. I hope you find a good way to do it.

Rachel has a bad cold (flu?) with fever and chest congestion, but she's surviving. Mean Mommy that I am I haven't even let her have tylenol (because fever kills the germs - that's why our bodies make fevers). I did just set up both the kids with the sofa bed folded out to immerse their brains in television. With a temp of 101.4, she doesn't feel like playing.

I'm just puttering about the house, dishes, laundry, and some needle work.

I've also been playing a lot with my new digicam. I'm very happy with it. Last night I used the timer to take a family portrait in front of our Christmas tree. I'm slowly learning about manipulating photos on the computer. My camera can also take some video, but I haven't played with that yet.

I finally got brave and broke the news to dh that I was making "door quilts." I thought he would call them "dork quilts,"

but actually, he took it pretty well - he didn't fuss about me being weird. He did express some concern that it wouldn't be effective. He thinks that you would actually need to seal the door to stop drafts (like with plastic and tape). I think that the quilt will provide a pocket of insulation. To reinforce my point: this morning as I reached to open the blinds on a window, I could distinctly feel that the air between the blinds and the window was colder than the air in the room. So I'm going to persist with the door quilts. All he has to do is securely mount the rods.

I went to a couple of thrift stores yesterday and got two rods and some shower curtain hooks. I also found a sheet that will look very nice with my living room furniture (for the front door) - I could have used some scraps I had on hand, but for $5 this will look SOOOOO much better.

I scored on 12 brass napkin rings for only $3! And I bought a Christmasy table cloth (dark red & green with metallic gold) which will look nice with my white dishes, and a couple of light plastic (but shiny red and green) serving trays for cookies or hors d'oerves, etc.

Oh, the other thing I bought yesterday was a mat and frame for a stitchery I'm finishing for Becca's birthday (in a couple of days). It looks really pretty.

I'll post a picture when I get it done.

Saturday, we went to a Christmas party. My dh is technically self-employed and a one-man corporation, but he works pretty much full time as a sub-contractor for a larger general construction company. The owner of that company always throws a really nice holiday party. He gets a ball room at an extremely nice hotel, caters lunch (for 50) with an open bar and hands out bonuses and thanks everyone for their hard work. He also hires musical entertainment - a singing group that does a few Christmas carols. Any new guys get good-naturedly hazed and everyone has a really nice time. We really enjoyed the party and stayed after to visit with several people. It was nice for me to get to know some of the other wives. I guess the guys just talked about various jobs, but we ladies talked about all sorts of things.

I'm still waiting to hear when our new heat pump will be installed; it should be sometime this week.

Well, I guess the dishes aren't going to wash themselves; I'd better go. Hope everyone has a lovely day.

**forestdale** · 12-12-2005, 05:46 PM

Good morning ladies.

This is the first day in a few weeks when I've felt I had some time to post here. Don't ask. It's been hectic.

Today I'm going to fertilise my vanilla orchids and all the pot plants on the front verandah. I also have to tie up the tomato bushes as they're so big now they've fallen off their stakes, even though they were tied up only three weeks ago. I might clean out the hen house too if I get enough time before it rains.

I've already got two loads of laundry on the line drying. It's going to be hot today with thunderstorms later. We've had a terrible storm season this year. There's been people killed by fallen trees and lightning, a little flooding, ruined crops and road washouts. The drought isn't over yet but our fabulous long range weather predictor - NOT the weather bureau (who are hopeless) says there will be a lot of storms over the next couple of months and possibly a couple of cyclones. He gauges the weather using sun spot activity and old weather reports, the weather bureau only have computers.

I have a bit of cleaning to do this morning and some tidying up in my sewing room, after that, I'll be writing.

We've cut our electricity bill right down this quarter, no doubt some of that is because we are here alone now, but we've (ok, I have) also been very pedantic about turning off lights, not using the aircon except when it's very hot, cooking on the gas stovetop etc. All those little things added up to a big difference.

Our new chickens - Gabby, Sara and Margery, have all settled in well and they're all laying. There is something wrong with Sara but it's not effecting her a lot except she is the bottom of the pecking order and the older chooks peck at her. She stays with her friend, Margery, most of the time and most of her days are happy ones. Margery is quite the adventuress. She leads the new chooks outside the fence and down to the creek. They peck away down there and sit in the cool of a big mango tree and eat the fallen fruit. I hope they don't get taken by the carpet snakes that hang around here too. DH freaked out as he couldn't find them when he had his days off last week but I told him to look near the creek and sure enough, they were there. Margery brings them back every day and they all put themselves to bed in the hen house.

Life is bubbling away nicely on the run down to Christmas I'm even thinking of making a Christmas cake.

I hope you all have a great day.

**seatosea** · 12-12-2005, 06:57 PM

((Kim)) I hope the wee one gets to feeling better quickly!!!
Valerie, hope Rachel is feeling better soon!
Rhonda, I love that Margery is taking care of Sara. Your post is making me miss my garden...
Long day at work today, I have so much to do but I am afraid I am pooped!

Dinner is in the oven, a pizza from the freezer, will have a salad also.
I need to get two packages together tonight as I need to leave very early in the morning.
Hoping to find nuts at a good price tomorrow for spiced nuts gift bags. If I do that will be my project tomorrow night.

**ACEHearts** · 12-12-2005, 07:48 PM

I'm going to make my first ever post here. We don't have our own homestead, but do live on a farm in the country and I'm working right now on simplfying things as much as possible so I don't have to go back to work in the new year.

As for our day "down on the homestead", today DH spent the day in the barns, getting ready to ship out chickens tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night (we manage a commercial poultry farm).

I spent the day baking cookies so I could do an exchange with my sister when she comes tomorrow. I'm now exhausted, and going to spend the rest of the evening working on a knitting project, getting the kids to bed, and waiting for Diane (owiebrain) to come online with pictures of the concrete pour at their house today!

Cindy

**Mamaw** · 12-13-2005, 06:18 PM

Hello all!
Posting for the last few days here. I spent the weekend at, you guessed it, my daughters with my 2 wonderful grand daughters. Madelyn still has colic and has now been diagnosised with acid reflux as well as the allergy to protein in cows milk. So she has the special formula as well as some medication to take now. But hopefully it will help her. Morgan is doing beautifully. She is such a lovely child. She can sing the refrain of Jingle Bells now and it is so cute! Needless to say, I enjoyed the weekend!

Sunday evening after I returned home I came down with a bit of a stomach virus. That necessitated me spending Monday in bed. Still feeling a bit rocky but at least I can think now! LOL

Today was spent working and doing 5 loads of laundry. The last one is in the dryer now. Tonight I hope to wrap a few more gifts and then back into bed. I think I need to still take it a bit easy as my belly is in protest if I eat or drink anything. And frankly I am feeling tired and drained!

DH spent the morning working on a new cupboard in the utility room. He feels he needs more room for his clothes and our closet is too crowded so he wants to add one of his own. I sure hope it turns out OK. I told him if it looks "Mickey Mouse" I am gonna kill him! You all might be writing me in the "big House"

DD is at school and work today so that is a good thing. It is freezing here so the dogs and cat are staying in with me and cuddling up., Kitty is in a basket on the stand in my office, all curled up and sleeping away. She sure looks peaceful! Both dogs are in the living room, on their beds also snoring away. Must be the life!
Well off to make a cup of hot tea and try to wrap a few parcels.
Hope you all are warm and safe!