Costa Family Farm

Hello!

I am so happy to see this blog is still here. I may have some entries for it someday soon. I hope the Lord is blessing everyone.

For now I will say that a white Pekin duck has been living in my bathtub for 2 1/2 weeks. He survived a weasel attack one night whike the cats were sleeping inside due to the cold snap.

His name is Prince White.

My World Has Changed

Hi. I am so sorry to not have been on here in a long time. Even before my sister died (Thanksgiving weekend) I was a month behind. I had "answer Providence comments" on my to-do list. Working too hard, as usual.

Then as my Mother put it well, the world came to an end when an assailant came in and attacked my sister. Murder was his intent and he succeeded.

I may be starting a new blog just to have a place to write out all my feelings online. Well, most of them. All of them could put me on the FBI's watch list. If I do, I will link it here.

This is a place for homesteading, so I will not take up too much. If I ever do anything with my animals/farm again, I will (still) try to write it here. I still have recipes & herbs to share. Life has not stopped altogether; we are forced by sheer circumstance to survive this and go on- somehow.

My husband brought my female Rouen duck Elizabeth to the door today just so I could connect. (Isn't he wonderful?)

I have written some on my "old" homeschool blog. Again, surviving this is my new and biggest agenda: although I continue to homeschool our children, my time on thoughts is spent on emotional survival.

Bless you all in your homes, the comfort we still have is in the Lord, each other, our children, and the relative and hopeful safety we have in just making a cup of tea. With no strangers or bad people around.

Posted by Mommie (Allison)

Echinacea Immune Booster

Last week my family had a cold. They all looked pretty miserable so when I got it I decided to fight back. I made myself tea with Echinacea and a tiny amount of Goldenseal. The other herbs I used were just for flavor and sustenance: clover and alfalfa. The clover is from our yard. I’d have made this for my children but they won’t drink it’s sharp flavor, although they do drink about everything else I give them. (I was making a different tea for them,, basically to soothe their throats, and gave a little pinch of restricted herb ephedra to one son to open up a slight allergic response to his cold.)

I drank my tea twice that day and didn’t get the cold as awful as my family did. This is important because if I get sick, as you know, there’s no lying down on the job!

Echinacea is used best as a preventative. It can be taken alternately 10 days on, 10 days off throughot a sickness season, to boost immunity.

I felt better by the 3^rd day and made the mistake of working too hard, moving boxes of winter clothing in our shed’s loft. The next day I was sick again.

I repeated the Echinacea & Goldenseal and was healed again by the next day.

I know, I should have just continued with the Echinacea straight through.

Goldenseal is a strong antiobiotic. It is not recommended to drink it much. I was in a state of emergency (I presumed.) It is very useful as a topical antiobotic. I have previously written about its use on umbilical cords.

This is what my Expectorant/Congestion Mix for the children is:

Pleurisy Root, Licorice, Coltsfoot, Slippery Elm, Chamomile, Nettles, Alfalfa, Red Clover

Instead of a strong herb like Ephedra, which should only be used in extreme cases, and then with much care to use just a pinch, this is my usual Lung Support for children:

Chamomile, Mullein, Licorice 

*You MUST STRAIN this through a coffee filter or the mullein hairs will stick in the throat and drive the person into frenzy.  Mullein grows wild up here!

We used herbs and homeopathy to once heal a son who was a toddler at the time. I will write about that event soon.

Maple Blessings

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

It never ceases to amaze me how God takes care of us and supplies for our every need.

We have been getting our winter’s supply of seasoned wood deliveries yesterday and today. The man selling to us is brother to a baseball coach my oldest son once had. He and his wife own Morgans. His wife manages our favorite excellent restaurant in the next town. Most of all, the man was happy to see how our boys got right to each pile he dropped off, and had it thrown in the wood shed before he came back with the next load.

(They get 2 cents per log. It adds up!)

Yesterday, one son came out with a complimentary dozen farm eggs for our wood man and his family. This morning Mr. Wood (as I’ll call him) brought us ½ gallon of his family’s maple syrup, tapped, collected, and boiled down by them this past spring, of course. It is the best we’ve ever tasted! I was just making oatmeal (organic, with our blueberries mixed in) and we poured the maple syrup right on. It was delicious!

 Well, later in the day I was just realizing I’d have to go out for bread (too late to make any, and I also mean in the bread machine) when Mr. Wood came back with his final delivery, and what did he bring? A loaf of maple cinnamon bread from his wife’s restaurant of employ, along with a container of maple butter! The bread had just come out of the oven.

We had all just finished a scant tuna fish lunch, and did that bread ever go down well! I didn’t even have to leave to get more bread.

God uses people so often to bless us. It reminds me to try and not weary in doing good for others. We don’t give of our time to others as much as we used to: it’s all invested in the children, homeschooling, and life! But we still do manage to do good deeds for others occasionally. In that respect, God also provides, because often our helping of others is something laid before us suddenly.

I ran and got a bag of our frozen blueberries for Mr. Wood. Next week we plan on going to see his end of the wood operation. My boys are very curious about the conveyor belt which he uses to load his truck. Next year, they might help him load.

 Since our guys count the logs to get their pay, it will be fun to tell Mr. Wood he brought us a total of 2,702 logs.

Vermont Chicken ‘n Biscuits

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

 There are as many variations to this recipe as there are for canning pickles. Still, I made my first batch of these and we had a delicious feast. Twice!

 It’s Chicken “Pie” church supper time in VT, but we won’t be going this year. The price has long ago exceeded the value of the dinner, and I believe they should offer a Family Price instead of my paying more every year as my children age. So I won’t be supporting their efforts.

 Instead I was blessed to come across a recipe and try this on my own:

 Start with cooked chicken and 2 C. chicken broth

 Make a white cream sauce (margarine, flour, seasoning, milk) and add the 2C. broth. Season as desired (onion, garlic, etc.)  (*variation on method, below)

Place chicken in 9x13” or whatever size pan you are using and pour the gravy on.  

Place in a 450 degree oven.

Mix up a batch of your favorite biscuits. When the gravy in the oven pan is boiling, remove pan from oven and place biscuits on top of chicken with the sides gently touching.

 Return to oven and cook until biscuits are done.

If the biscuits are getting too brown before finishing cooking, cover them with aluminum foil, but remove it again a few minutes before you take everything out of the oven.

The reason for waiting for the gravy to boil: the bottoms of the biscuits get cooked faster that way.

 Serve with mashed potatoes, vegetable, cranberry sauce, homemade pickles if you’re inclined, and a pie for dessert. Your men will never forget this meal.

 Some people add vegetables right to the chicken & gravy pan. I’m sure it works fine. I’m told adding pan vegetables is not the Vermont way. I’ve also heard celery in there is delicious. So it’s up to you.

Now I can make this meal for my family whenever I want to. With the extra money, I’m going to buy Invitation to the Classics. I’ll still have enough left over for an ice cream.

 variation-

*My friend, a native Vermonter I must say, had a great idea for this. She puts the chicken in the crockpot on low overnight. Then she de-bones it in the morning and refrigerates the chicken separate from the broth. She also stirs up her broth into a gravy by just adding flour and seasonings while it’s hot in the crockpot in the morning, then refrigerates it until later use.

Teamwork!

I came across my husband's note thanking the kids for all their work a couple of weekends back. (He leaves notes on the counter in the morning for children still sleeping.) I was really astounded to see the quantity of things with it all written down like that.

In a 48 hour period:

grass mowed

car washed

tires rotated

vacuuming (new vacuum)

yard picked up for Fall

children's bedrooms picked up for Lessons season to start

barn advance cleaning

pool chemicals checked & added

kitchen cabinets washed

bird feeder filled

AND my husband and I painted in our bedroom and wallpapered a wall

Then this past 3-day weekend:

tractor fixed and running

harvested garden

fields mowed w/ tractor

We're not all work and no fun. We had a beautiful harvest and barbecue dinner. movie night, attended a barbeque party on Monday the holiday, and had another home movie that afternoon. 

My husband's list just reminded me how effective a family team can be.

Training Our Pony

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

I have started a series of posts about our pony and her round pen training. It is on my personal blog because, to quote myself, "training Ebony...has a lot to do with me personally."  I have a link to the series Training Our Pony on this sidebar, for future reference. I just put up a series of photos. All the info is over there. Horse lovers, unite!

Blueberry Time

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

We have been picking our blueberries since returning from our trip. What a blessing they are! There were some established bushes when we moved here 7 years ago. Every spring my husband prunes them and extends the line to include more. They usually last in my freezer until April or so.

 Apples have started coming in from an orchard. Also today my friend came by with a basket of tomatoes! Something we didn’t put in this year. Wow! That is a wonderful unexpected surprise.

 So what is your weather like? Is it changing? I remember when we lived in NC, by now I had at least another 4 weeks to wait before the humidity lightened. Our eves have been very cool already, making the pool chilly during the day.

 Soon the leaves will start to crisp up. We have about 2 weeks left before our first hard frost.

Lavender and Goldenseal

Last week my husband had an open wound on top of his foot that hadn't healed since our trip, when he (or the surf) bashed it with a small surf board. He realized it was infected when it remained open and wet and had a red ring around it. He realized he was going to be taking time out of his busy work schedule to visit the doctor! I wanted to try to help him at home, first; this is what I did:

Made up a bowl of warm water & lavender oil, maybe 10 drops, and had him use it with a clean soft cloth to compress his foot for a while (20-30 min.)

Then I had him dust the sore with Golden Seal. We get a little bit of it onto the end of a cotton-tipped Q-tip or whatever and just tap it to release the powder. The powder is extremely expensive per lb. but you don't have to buy a pound of it! Still, we don't waste any.

Golden Seal also dries up umbilicals like you've never seen before. It's a very strong antibiotic, so you get the benefit of rapid drying and germ-killing. Like any powder, dust it on carefully so's not to get any into the newborn's nose or eyes.

About my husband- by the next day, his foot was dry, sealed over & healing, with the redness gone. We never did need the doctor.

That's why I like herbs. You can do something at home, and you get a choice between using a doctor or not. If a doctor is needed, we go.

Blessed to be Back Home

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

We are back home from 3 weeks away. It was amazing to stand in our yard out by the barn upon our return and the only sound we heard was our children's voices. A homeschool family who watched our animals for a lot of the time also surprised us by cutting our residential lawn before we returned. That was a huge surprise, and a big help. It was so long that when a neighbor farmer came by on his tractor, she thought he was going to hay it!

Yesterday we had a blessed day. I finally got outside just to weed the flower gardens and fill the birdfeeder. It was a cool, clear day. Today is also (70') but I hear we are in for some heat the next 2 days.

I hope to begin interior painting soon, and ride our pony. The farrier is coming again next week. She still has some splitting of her front hoofs.

 Enjoy the season, everyone!

New Barnyard Fence

This is the newly completed barnyard fence, where our fowl will be spending the time as we take a trip.  The occupants who normally free-range are not in it, yet. They will still be closed into the barn at night. They can also access the barn from the fence (but not get out). The hen/duck house is through the little cut-out door in the barn. It locks from the inside, then a big door inside the barn locks from the outside. The idea is birds cannot get out, coyotes, etc. cannot get in.

There's no place like home! I almost can't wait to get back already (and we haven't left yet, uh-oh...)

I hope everyone is having a fun & productive summer at their place so far.

Microscope Giveaway

Discount Homeschool Supplies is giving away a FREE microscope to one winner! Find out more on Tami's Blog!   Tami is going to give away one of  her new MSK-01 microscopes. The retail value is $199.99, and she needs help in spreading the word about her June and July website specials so please go help her out.

Click HERE for more!

Fixin' Fences & River Photos

My poor husband is so tired, trying to get us ready for a trip away. This morning we woke up at 4:45 a.m. with the sun brightly shining...and my husband said, ...(sleepily)..."The longest day of the year."  It didn't sound like he was looking forward to it.

Big Daddy and crew have been dealing with fences. First it was a fence between our duck pond and the neighbor’s property. It seems with all the rain, the ducks decided to check out the neighbor’s puddles in his backyard. Then they heard the river and have been trying to get across the road to locate it. Beep! Beep! Ducks don’t understand horns, and they prevented cars from traveling down the road. Oops.

 Then it was buffing up an electrifying the electric fence for the pony. Zap! It works well. More than the pony have been zolted since.

 Now they are completing work on something new for us, a barnyard fence. Our chickens and ducks free range, but this fence is for security during a trip. God has already blessed us with people to feed the animals. We pay only $15. a day, and that is a real bargain. Just one dog at a kennel is $40. per day. We are glad our 2 black Labs get to stay home.

 I look forward to using the new barnyard fence next time we have company over for a barbecue. Last time, it was really embarrassing shooshing chickens off the picnic tables, away from the potato chips!

 The barn may not be as clean as the animals are accustomed to 365 days a year, and my farm hands need a vacation.

There are pictures of the river we have property on here.

He's Up and Around Again

Posted by Mommie (Allison)

Thank you all for your prayers! He was up again quickly. Here is a comment from my husband, who either:

1) didn't have time to write a post

2) forgot this is his blog, or

3) all of the above...

from Big Daddy:

That guy who was down spent several hours, along with his brothers, out in the rain repairing fence. The rain seems to disapear in your mind after you are out there awhile. When you get done you feel sort of like a Hero for enduring the wettness. Many people would give praise for the month of rain we have had. And many people work outside in all kinds of weather all the time. We just do it now and again, mostly in the cold of winter.

Now he was out repairing fence yesterday, not the day he got sick! But I sure do appreciate a healthy immune system. I made all the kids put on dry clothes (and 2 of them, hot shower) as soon as they got inside.

We might see some sun soon, but it's been raining again for 6 days. We were expalining to the children: never complain about too much water!

Healing: One Down

One of my boys is not feeling well. He’s resting on the couch right now (with a walkie-talkie for contact). I didn’t have any harvested raw honey to give him, so I cut up filled honeycomb and let him eat as much as he wanted (a few squares).

He won’t swallow garlic or garlic capsules so I’m going to have to make some soup! Or garlic bread!

I’ve given him an herbal tea with Echinacea in it. We’ll see how he does.

Prayers are appreciated, if you think of my little man, thank you.

Good Product for Poison Ivy & Oak

I have not forgotten to put up pictures of the Plantain plant. We had 13 days straight of rain, then my husband was away for 6 days.. you know the rest.

I was reading at VTLinda's about her experience with poison oak. For some reason I couldn't comment there (probably a computer thing, my fault) so I thought I'd write it here:

Hi, Linda!

If the government officials didn't know we or our town existed, I'd be in heaven-on-earth.

The poison oak reminded me of a wonderful product called Tecnu. Has anyone ever heard of or used it? I think pharmacies sell it. A farm & garden might sell it. It is for poison ivy & oak. I used it when we lived in North Carolina for 5 1/2 years while my husband attended NCSU.

You rub it on the effected skin for several minutes, then rinse with cold water. It removes the poisonous oils. I used to follow it up with a drying agent, like Calamine if it's OK to be pink, clear Caladryl if it's not. This routine usually worked really well toward healing and brought about comfort and drying up in a couple of days.

Have a blessed day, everyone.

Friendly Small Town

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

The Sun shined today, all day- and blue sky.   Yippee!

Vermont has as many people living in it as the nice township in NJ I grew up in. Vermont is the least densely populated state, of the continental 48 (Alaska is the less densely populated of the 50).

There is a phenomenon I am used to now that we have lived here a while (well, 7 years). When I go out somewhere, I usually always see someone I know. I don't want to take this for granted. It's just wonderful.

Also, we live on the outskirts of a friendly small town. You go to church for a while, attend the picnics on the Town Green, etc. and pretty soon many faces you see are familiar.

Many of those folks travel to the same mall or bookstore or sewing shop or WalMart an hour away in Burlington, so I haven't been surprised to bump into people I know there, too. Besides, there are only so many people in the whole state (about 600,000). 

I have come to expect it. Now when I go anywhere I am thinking, "I wonder who I am going to see?"

Except I don't want to see the Governor again. I try to avoid him now. He's a very nice man; I just think if he sees me again, he is going to run. I am embarassed now , but I cornered him once and asked him about everything from our henious homeschool laws to our abortion laws (VT is the most dangerous state in the nation for women, and children too of course, because of its liberal abortion regulations.) My husband reminds me that people corner him all the time.

I also do not ever want to run into our "independent" socialist cogressman again, (I won't even spell his name,) but that is for a different reason. 

Well! Here I am blaaaaging away. Better go finish the soup and rolls! Have a blessed sunny day, everyone.

Still Raining!

It is still raining! I am grateful for all the water... the green things are growing like mad, even without direct sunshine. We're going into our 2nd week of rain. Needless to say, we haven't accomplished a lot outside this past wet week. The children have been going outside to play, even in the rain... I just have them change into dry things when they come back inside!

The sun showed itself through a cloudbreak for a few minutes today, and I stood in the doorway and soaked it up. The green velvet mountains glowed, the sky is so bright. We are watching the green travel up the sides of the mountains. Last week, VT's highest mountain (Mansfield) still had snow on top. We can see it from our front yard.

Daffodills have surprised me in the perennial garden. Our yellow daffs have come up already, but these are white & orange ones, a lot! I don't remember putting bulbs in there. It's nice how things multiply.

I hope to have more outside-doings news soon. Hope you are all enjoying your Spring. I enjoy your posts.

Rain, rain, rain and the Orchard has blooms!

The ducks are extremely happy! Even a cold and wet Spring is nice. It is so GREEN!

I groomed the pony last week and noticed her mane isn't as long as usual, nor is her winter coat letting go as it usually does. The farrier trimmed her feet: one had chipped, which is also a first. I remembered we decreased her protein last Fall, and I am upping it again.

The most beautiful thing is happening: blossoms in the orchard! This is wonderful to us. The baby trees were put in our first Spring here, 2000. We also had a new Baby then, our 5th son. Each child has a fruit tree in the orchard. My second son's pear tree is covered! They are all excited about their trees. It took a lot of patience. Waiting 6 years is half or more than half, a whole or more than a whole lifetime so far for all of the children except our oldest (14).

The men fixed the mower and cut this place in an amazing amount of time (to me). Hubby got the part he needed for his tractor welded ($6!), a stabilizing part for the hitch. I hope he gets to brush-hog all the fields, so those scratchy plants don't come up!

We bought flowers on Mother's Day but I won't be putting them in the children's beds in this rain!

Plantain Salve

Posted by Allison (Mommie)

Hi! Here's the recipe for Plantain Salve:

1. Harvest the plantain leaves(longleaf or broadleaf, either is fine) from your lawn. Don't wash it! You don't want water in the salve: it will spoil it. Just shake off the leaves. They are probably clean 'enough'.

2. Chop up the plantain and bruise the leaves. Put it in a pot with some olive oil. For every ounce of olive oil you use, you will need an ounce (or a Tbs.) of beeswax, so measure your oil use accordingly.

3. Heat the oil slowly, let it stay low enough to avoid burning, but warm enough to draw out the plantain's herbal properties. Let it stay warming until you think the palntain has been absorbed into the oil as much as pocssible. It does not take a really long time. Watch it carefully!

4. Drain the contents of the pot through a metal strainer, into another pot. Let it sit draining for a while. You can even push some through near the end. Now you have plantain oil, just so you know: you can make any herbal oil this way.

5. Add an ounce or 1 Tbs. of beeswax per ounce or Tbs. of oil in the pot. You can start with less if you are not sure, and add as you go. Warm up the wax in the pot and stir. You can't tell how the consistency is going to be until it is cooled, so don't worry too much about it now. I usually put it in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling and check it later.

6. (Later) Check the consistency. Too runny? More wax will fix that. Too hard? Leave it out to reach room tepmerature first. Is it still too hard? Then you can add more olive oil, or even better- more plantain oil if you have some left. This final step requires playing with it or just settling wiht less than perfect consistency. I would rather have my savves a little too runny than too hard. Remember you just want to be able to use it.

If you know planatin, you know the many uses this salve can have. This recipe can work with any herb! You can make yourself a comfrey, calendula, plantain, yarrow salve.. you can chop and mix the herbs together and make anything you need. I have used the above mix for everything from diaper area to cuts. I like having plantain salve isolated in a salve for special bug bite problems or sny skin rash which needs to be calmed down. The analgesic properties of plantain are way, way high.

Remember, the very best thing for an insect sting is to grab the plantain leaf from the lawn and just chew on the leaves, quick! Put the green saliva on the sting. Your little one will stop crying, there will be no swelling, etc.

I love how God puts the plantain into the lawn just as the bees arrive. If you don't already know how, identify this very important plant!

Happy spring, it is finally here.