Moles are such a huge nuisance in my garden. They dig tunnels all through and wreak havoc with my veggies, uprooting them and such.The watering we do sometimes ends up down the mole hole instead of the plant roots.I was getting very tired of fighting them for another year.So I started doing a little research on how to get them out of my garden.Poison was my first thought..but I didn’t want that stuff in my garden.Traps are effective but expensive. So I looked for more affordable remedies.I came up with one that is easy to do.You make a mixture of castor oil and Joy dish soap (2:1 ratio).You add a few tablespoons of this mixture to a gallon of water and pour it down their holes.
I have been doing this with some success.The reason it can work is that moles have a heightened sense of smell and can’t stand the smell of castor oil.They also don’t like the feel of it on them.After a couple of applications some of the holes were not bothered any more but I still had some.So the next time I put in more of the castor oil mix into my gallon of water and made the applications a little stronger.I had been using 2 to 3T tablespoons per gallon..so I doubled that.Well I am happy to say that yesterday while in the garden I saw that all my mole holes had not been disturbed again..so success maybe?We will see.
If my pesky mole just makes holes in other areas of the garden I will try another solution I read the other day and that is bubble gum.You drop pieces of bubble gum (or Juicy Fruit I also read they like) into their holes.The reviews I read said this was effective and will end the problem permanently!I guess their digestive systems can’t handle gum..they are eaters not chewers.. haa.. haa.So if castor oil does not solve the problem..I will try bubble gum.
Just thought I would share this bit of mole info for anyone else battling them in their gardens this summer..
Happy Birthday America! Today I am especially grateful for the wonderful freedoms we enjoy. The freedom to worship, the freedom to praise God, the freedom to own our own property and live and work as we wish. For all these freedoms and more I very thankful for!
I pray each one of you enjoys a blessed & wonderful day!
Happy July 4th to everyone. What a blessing to live in a country like ours. Take time to enjoy all the wonderful and beautiful treasures all around this great land!
We are going to my Aunts for a cook-out. I am bringing baked beans with all the yummy added things in them My brother will say "Why can't anyone make just plain good ole' beans? So I guess I will take a plain batch for him. He's worth it . He's just about the most unselfish person I know. I am also making a peanut butter pie. Yummy! My hubby is working today. I wish he were here. I am going to miss him .I will have to take him home some good stuff when he gets off. After 21 years I still can't wait to see him at the end of each day!
I better go feed and all that good stuff. Morning is my favorite time of the day. When I get on the computer I often wish I was enjoying it outside instead. I need to blog at a different time of the day. But when is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL
Everyone have a blessed day!
Love, Tina
I have been planning our weekend. Tomorrow we will enjoy a quiet day at home.. just family ( all 12 of us!). We always enjoy a special meal on America's B-day.. so this year I will be making grilled steaks ( a rare treat) , baked potatoes, homemade baked beans, watermelon & homemade apple pie! It's not the fourth w/ out homemade apple pie!
Sunday our Church is holding an evening meeting and then a potluck meal. I'll be brining watermelon, lemon meringue pies and spinach salad. The girls are making cookies & cupcakes. We are also going to bring a pinata & water balloons! It should be a fun evening!
Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays! We sure enjoy celebrating and taking time to remember how blessed we are in this land of the brave and home of the free! I am also thankful for the freedom and perfect law of liberty thru Christ our Lord ! Jesus died so ALL men could be set free! How grateful I am for that! We are no longer under the bondage of the law -- but are free thru the grace and liberty in Christ! Thank you Jesus for your precious blood shed on calvary so all men can be free!
Hope you all enjoy a blessed Holiday!
Gloria
Life at ElCloud Homeschool/Homestead this week ...
Today the sky is clouded with a soft gray layer, and a gentle rain is falling on the clothes I forgot to remove from the clothes line yesterday. (oh well) Our 23 chickens and 1 guinea hen are also getting a shower, since we still haven't fixed up the coop for them. Since the 13 Ameraucana hens were digging nesting pits in the dirt yesterday, they probably needed the shower anyway. I think the digging means they are about to start laying. I wonder if they will all use the same spot, as our guinea hen usually lays hers in the same location each day. If not, we'll be having daily easter egg hunts with the colorful easter eggs the Ameraucanas lay.
I have two boys sleeping on the couches in the living room beside me. They stumbled out earlier, said hi, laid down, and fell asleep again. Molly-dog did the same thing on the floor beside me. Although she didn't say hi.
The garden is enjoying the cooler temps and this morning's rain. We planted so many seeds and new plants this past weekend. Some are new to us, and we may be late on others, but it's worth a try. We planted pumpkins, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, sweet potatoes, burgundy beans, and tomatoes. We already had wax beans, green beans, lima beans, and potatoes planted. We harvested the last of our peas, and half of our onions. I blanched and froze the shelled peas, but I am still in the process of chopping and freezing the onions. I like doing that, even with store-bought onions, because they are ready to use in many of my dishes.
Ahh ... now I am typing around the 3 year old, and she's decided it's time to have a conversation. She's telling me all about our adult cats, and our baby kittens. Now she's telling me about the baby bunny we rescued from one of our outdoor cats yesterday, and put in a rabbit cage on our porch. I told her that this morning Daddy and I rescued another one, and put it in the cage as well. I guess I'll send children out to pick grass and clover to feed the baby bunnies today. We put lettuce in yesterday, but I remember when we had a house rabbit for awhile that iceberg lettuce isn't really healthy for them. We do have carrots, too. I'm not certain this was wise, but we really couldn't stand by and watch the cat eat baby bunnies. He's supposed to be catching RATS, not bunnies.
Speaking of our baby kittens, they are 2.5 weeks old now. Most are doing well, but one is definitely a runt. I should bottle-feed him more often, but I keep forgetting to ... or he gains weight and I hope that he's improving and quit, only to have him slack off again. Melody is a good mama, even though this is her first litter. For the first time in our cattery, we have a waiting list to contact first when they're ready to go to new homes.
There is no water running into the house today because the main pipe into the basement started spraying everywhere yesterday. We don't use many cardboard boxes in the basement, but the ones that we do use sit on top of plastic totes since the basement does leak when it rains. Unfortunately if it's raining inside from a spraying pipe, they can still get soaked and ruined. Two chairs, and 4-5 boxes are soaked. We'll see if any of it can be saved or not. I filled pitchers and buckets with water, and if I have to, I can turn the water main back on long enough to re-fill the pitchers. Life will be interesting today, and the laundry will have to wait another day or two.
The girls are still excited about their first 4-H judging event yesterday. They took their sewing projects in for judging in the Fiber Arts category. 13 yo A's 9-patch pillow received a blue ribbon. 12 yo R's striped drawstring tote bag also earned a blue ribbon. 10 yo C's watermelon drawstring tote bag earned a red ribbon. If you're not familiar with 4-H ribbons in KS, there is Purple first, then Blue, then Red, and finally White. I'm so used to thinking of blue-ribbon as being first place, that I usually forget that purple is best when we're at the fair. Now that we've been judged once, it's much clearer to me. I won't forget again. Since none of the girls earned purple ribbons, they won't recieve any of the grand champion or reserve champion prizes. But it was a good first year ... and a good first attempt at sewing with their sewing machine. They may not take sewing in 4-H again (they're undecided), but they will continue to sew.
8 yo J will be spending his evenings and weekend finishing his woodworking project with Steve. His judging is on the 7th. As usual, he dislikes the boring work of sanding involved in the project. I told him it was similar to his sisters not liking to iron their seams open or take the time to pin each seam in sewing. But those tedious details make a better finished product.
Our 2008-2009 school year is officially finished, but the TOS Homeschool Crew has also officially begun. Our first review curriculum (Grapevine Bible Studies) is shipping, and we'll start that soon. Our school year won't officially start until August 17, but we'll be doing light schoolwork before then.
Baby G is awake now, and snuggling in my lap for his morning feeding. He's crawling, pulling up, and cruising along the furniture now. Unfortunately, it also means he sometimes over-reaches and falls down. He has a bruise on his cheek from the coffee table at the moment. But at least he falls over backwards less often. He is our first baby in a non-carpeted house and it was hard to get used to the little bruises on the back of his head when he was learning to sit up. We actually used the boppy pillow with him while he was learning to sit, and I've never used it that way before.
The past several weeks Baby G was slowly cutting 3 more teeth, and ended up with an ear infection. They're finally all in, and he finished his antibiotics ... but now he has a summer cold, so he's still miserable at times.
More and more of my day lilies are blooming. The fair is early enough this year that I might be able to enter day lilies in the open class flower category. Usually all our flowers are gone when the fair gets here. I'll have to see what is still blooming next week. We don't really have any veggies to enter, and I'm not ready to try to enter our chickens. Maybe next year one of the kids can enter our rooster. I know I'm not practiced enough at bread baking to enter that category, so I may just fall back on my Grandfather-in-law's beautiful choice of day lily varieties he planted and enter those only. Next year we all hope to enter photography. Some of the girls want to pursue it as a project, and I enjoy it, as well.
I have a stack of books I'll be reviewing this month and part of next month. And then I really am going to slow down on book reviews. Curriculum reviews will keep me busy enough.
I've rambled on long enough, and I can't think of anything else to share ... so it's probably past time for closing this post. This feels like a chatty letter written to my friends, so I'll close with
I recently made vanilla ice cream and it was delicious!!I wanted to share my recipe with you.You can now find all my ice cream recipes (eggless recipes and non dairy too) and ice cream making directions here:http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/makinghomemadeicecream.htmIf I have more recipes to post I will be adding them to that page.
Vanilla Ice Cream
6 eggs 3 cups cane juice crystals 2 T vanilla (only the real stuff) 2 c. whole cream Whole Goat Milk, as much as needed to fill ice cream maker container (whole cow milk will work too.. :) 1 T arrowroot powder (helps make the ice cream smooth.. but this is optional if you don’t have any)
In a big mixer (like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) mix together (with the wire whip) the eggs and cane juice crystals until light and lemony colored. Add vanilla and mix again. Add cream and arrowroot powder (if using). When all of this has mixed together completely pour it into your 1 gallon ice cream maker container. Add whole milk until you reach the "fill line" on your ice cream maker container.Follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker or click on the above link for general instructions.
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!
We are having taco salad for dinner tonight.I always cook up my hamburger and add taco seasonings to it before adding it to my salad.I realized this morning I was out of taco seasoning and it was time to make more.This is another product that I make myself now.We are not real big fans of the taste of the taco seasonings I use to buy from my health food co-op and I wonder about MSG in it as well (the grocery store stuff definitely is full of yucky things typically).I recently was reading an article (wish I could remember where now.. maybe Dr. Mercola? If I find it I will give the link).It said that if a product lists “spices” in their ingredient list and they purchase bulk mixed spices from a supplier that adds MSG to their spice mix then the company that uses the spice mix does not have to claim that it contains MSG. So basically something can say it is MSG free but still may contain MSG if they have the word "spices" listed in the ingredients.If you have MSG sensitivities like my hubby does or you just want to avoid it for health reasons …read your labels carefully!
Taco mix is so easy to make. It takes less than 15 minutes to make up a batch, the recipe doubles easily.I usually make a double batch but today I did not have enough dried onion, so I settled for a single batch.
Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix
¾ c dried onions ½ c chili powder ¼ c salt 3T garlic powder 3T cornstarch 3T ground cumin 1T to 3T cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.Store in plastic or glass container with a lid.
It takes approx. 3T of this mix to equal one packet that you would buy in the store.
This recipe makes about 2 cups.I store it in a canning jar in my cupboard.
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!
I didn't have my camera with all the time, but here are a few pics of our time at camp meeting.
This is Megan and Linda. We brought Linda with us. It was her first time to camp meeting and she really enjoyed it. The car ride is long and the girls listened to some music and watched a DVD on the way, I believe.
This is Paige sleeping in the carseat. Car rides are especially long for her.... construction took us on a couple detours that we hadn't planned for.
The girls were just talking at the memorial park at the academy. This was one of Paige's favorite places to stop (It was also just before her class, so we had to keep her focused as to where she was going).
This is another view of the same little memorial.
These three are Paige on the homemade waterslide. They have a sewn form underneath. They cover it with a heavy plastic sheet. Squirt dish soap on the plastic and run water down from the top and half way down to keep the plastic wet. The kids get to sliding down quite fast and at first Paige wasn't too sure about it, but she enjoyed it a bit more each time. Paige rode down on her tummy; she rode down backwards; she rode down with a noodle; she rode down with friends. She only quit because they got the popsicles out and it was time to go. She was chilly (they use just water from a hose), but had a big smile on her face. Here's some more fun water shots...
A view from the top... Paige is in line behind one of the teachers.
Paige's first time down... a bit stiff and unsure.
Back up again!
On her back!
with a noodle!
Landing in bubbles.
With friend Thea from our home church.
With another new friend.
Popsicle ending at the waterslide.
Paige at crafts. They made telephones that day.
Snack time... popsicles again... it was a really hot day this day! The kids and MOM's were glad for this snack!
Story time with Pastor Dave.
Paige is in upper row, still in story time. They held their classes in the music rooms so the Kindergarteners could sit on the risers. They used the new SDA readers from the new reading program. Paige really enjoyed them and wants them... now where to find them...
Activity time had various activities. The kids especially liked this one.
Last one, the kids sang in the adult auditorium one evening. Paige started out in front, but later got pushed to the back when the kids wanted to get on the microphone (which was off... the adults know better!) Paige's class had between 45 and 60 kids each day... more on Sabbath.
Sorry it was mostly all Kindergarten adventures... that's where I had my camera... I didn't bring it to the other meetings! I didn't even take a picture of our camp site... and I try to do that each year...
I have been planning our weekend. Tomorrow we will enjoy a quiet day at home.. just family ( all 12 of us!). We always enjoy a special meal on America's B-day.. so this year I will be making grilled steaks ( a rare treat) , baked potatoes, homemade baked beans, watermelon & homemade apple pie! It's not the fourth w/ out homemade apple pie! 
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...
Our Journey Into The Country - A Faith Walk