I haven't posted lately. It's the story of my life; I have been waiting for Liv to download pics & life got really busy all of a sudden. It went of cold very rainy Spring to Summer, right now! Animals, garden out of control, flowers being too wet now drying up, laundry, my oldest daughter's wedding in Colorado, kids summer camp, local parade & family day in the park where we took our goat milk soap & sold it, and on & on ...... I don't like CRAZY BUSY! I heard someone say once that B.U.S.Y. was an acronym for:

B-being

U-under

S-Satan's

Y-yoke

while that sounds a little strong to me at times, sometimes life just "get's busy"with 13 kids & a farm but, I do try to remind my self & evaluate the things I'm doing. Do they bring honor to God? Are they REALLY blessing my family? Alot of times I have to say No. So as I type I am evaluating some things and revamping my schedule. I want to be sure my farm living doesn't take all the carefreeness of summer out of my life the  life of my kids. I want to enjoy my flowers & grass not just worry about the watering & up keep, if you know what I mean. It is late & we have company coming for a visit thru the 4th of July so better go for now. I will post hopefully soon with news of our farm & family happens as well as PICTURES! lol

Justified by His Grace

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:4-7 KJV

__________________

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

__________________

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

Acts 13:38,39 NIV

I don't think I have ever taken a photo of the old homestead from this angle..... I was on my mower today and I had my camera in my apron.... this is being taken looking west from our garden area...... I wish I had a photo of what this looked like " before".. oh my! It was so delapitated!  The building next to the house is our "schoolhouse" or aka: "smoke house".... it was built as a smoke house and was in such bad shape when we moved here. Many told us to tear it down. My husband decided to make something of the old structure and completely remodeled it from floor to roof... and made our schoolhouse! We spend a great deal of time here... this is where we do all our schooling. As you can tell it's close enough to the house, that I can run in and check on things.   This November it will be 3 yrs since we moved to Missouri. This place has seen many changes - it's really not the same place we drove up to!  Wow.  Still have things to renovate still, but most of the stuff is done! Praise God for that!

 I thought I would share some pics of some of the projects we have been busy with here on the homestead.

First of all, we have so enjoyed all the wildlflowers that have bloomed! I love bachelor buttons & black eyed susans!  We took an old hand pump that had been on the old cistern that we took out ..... and repainted it and used it for landscape decor!

This area had once held a cistern and hand pump and we tore that out and made a flower bed.....

 We had a big problem in this area.... the previous owner had laid brick pavers and they had cracked and the weeds were coming thru and muck..... my 16 yr old son tore the whole thing out, leveled the dirt, laid down black landscape tarp and then put down pond rocks and some stone...... turned out nice, eh?  I was so suprised when I was done and so happy! No more mucky wet ground!!

 It sure is handy to have a teen age boy around!  He helps me a great deal with household projects! Great job, Jacob!

Dru has been busy working on refinishing all the outside doors. Stripping, sanding, re-staining and then finishing...... he even took the old door hardware and cleaned them up with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint! It turned out great! 

We took the old screen doors, stripped them, repainted and cleaned up the old hinges.... we rescreened them with a tough pet resistant screen..... it sure comes in handy to have screen doors durring bug season!

Finally, I have really been enjoying working in our garden and flower beds..... the roses are blooming and beautiful... and the wildflowers are attracting the butterflies and hummingbirds and bees...... one of my favorite spots in the warmer months is my front porch.... I love to sit out there on my rocker and look around at the surrounding countryside.... it's where I go in the early morning hours.... I love to sit out here and listen to the birds chirp and sing praises to my Lord...

Home sweet home.......

Lots of other projects we are working on..... hope to share more later next week!

Until then, God bless!

gloria

Applesauce Date Cake
Yield: 12 Servings
Further proof that something sweet and delicious can still have significant nutritional value. This cake keeps well and is great for snacks or with lunches.

2 c Flour
2 t Sodium Free Baking Soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
2 eggs
1 c Brown Sugar, Packed
1/2 c Unsalted Butter, Softened
2 c Applesauce
1 c Dates, Chopped
3/4 c Pecans, Coarsely Chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9X9X2" pan with non-stick vegetable oil spray.

Stir together flour, soda and spices. Add eggs, brown sugar, butter, and 1 cup applesauce. Beat at low speed just until the ingredients are combined. At medium speed, beat 2 minutes longer, occasionally scraping the side of the bowl. Add remaining applesauce, dates, and walnuts; beat 1 minute. Pour batter into pan. Bake 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan.

It seems like since I started Facebook, I have little time for blogging! On top of that, life has been busy here this summer.... with all the outside chores and yard work, and household projects we are working on... life is just plain busy! 

Sorry about neglecting this blog. It's not my intention, just too much to do and not enough time!

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely summer,

gloria

Our sow died yesterday.  It was quite sad but she also left us with a comical moment.  The sad part is that she was such a good mother - never laid on any of her babies.  She was sick for about two weeks and we weren't sure what was wrong.  She just stopped eating but there were no other symptoms. I tried googling pigs that won't eat, but really found nothing.  I thought you could find anything with google. 

The comical part is that I went to the pig pen yesterday to show a potential customer the pigs.  They were considering buying a butchering hog.  As we get out there I see that Big Mama was in a little mud hole and I thought she must be enjoying herself.  I say to the customer, "she hasn't been feeling like herself lately."  They say, "I guess so, she looks like she is not breathing."  I look a little closer and yes I have discovered our deceased sow along with the customer.  Luckily they still decided to get a hog.

They also bought half a steer.  I am looking forward to having it butchered as I am out of beef.  Our family (9 of us) has eaten a large steer this past year.  We have another steer to butcher in about 4 or 5 months.  We will also eat about 4 pigs and 100 chickens a year.  This winter will be the first time we have goat to eat as we are planning to butcher some of our kids (goat kids that is).

We have decided not to get another sow for now nor will be keep one of the hogs we have now for a sow.  It will be cheaper on feed if we don't have to feed a sow through the winter.  In the spring we will reconsider keeping a sow of our own.  We have had difficulties finding a boar to breed when we have needed it, which has meant we got many fewer litters than we should have.  We have to be careful to how many animals we keep as we are still working on managing our own animal food resources, ie. corn and hay.

DH cut our hay yesterday.  We hayed a different set of fields this year than last based on our rotation plan.  I am interested to see how much we get.  DH put in a hay loft in our barn to store it.  Hopefully there will be enough room as he only finished one section before moving on to another project.

Yesterday was a busy day in the kitchen.  We made whole wheat bread.  I use Quiverfull's recipe for 2 loaves http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/deliciouswwbread.htm.  We make 2 loaves a day every day but Sunday.  I don't use gluten flour but instead substitute 2 cups of the whole wheat flour with unbleached organic white flour.  We knead by hand for 10 mintues and let it rise both times on the counter.  We bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes and then melt butter on the top when it comes out of the oven.  The butter leaves it soft on top instead of hard.

I also made some cheese and yogurt.  We have tweaked our schedule to include dairy processing 3 times per week.  We need to process our own goat's milk as well as we are planning to purchase fresh cow's milk from a friend several times a week.  We are hoping to be able to make all of our own dairy products.  Maybe then DH will let us get a milk cow.  I am experimenting with recipes to find some that are not too complicated.  I simply don't have the 4 hours of time that some cheese requires to do things like slowly raise the temperature a few degrees every 5 mintues.  If anyone has any recipes or ideas I would appreciate hearing them. 

I also canned a batch of cherries and we have continued to freeze cauliflower, broccoli, and strawberries.  It is slow going this time of year and I still need to figure out how to get enough cherries to last all winter.  We are enjoying preparing meals with fresh vegetables from our garden.  The girls and I also tweaked the menu plans to remove items we didn't enjoy and add some new things. 

I hope you are enjoying your homestead  . . .