Rehoboth Farm
Homestead Snapshots...
Not sure how good these will be. I'm not what you would call tech-saavy in the least. Even joking, one probably wouldn't call me that. My 'techie' is off in Arkansas, so I'm all you have when it comes to sharing pictures here. I'm using the video camera (it takes still shots as well) and working to figure out how to upload them...it's slow-going, to say the least.
Here are some shots of daily farm life on this homestead...
Barn chores being done this morning -- seems the goats decided they could in fact, push hard enough on the fence and make their escape. So, while the fence was being rebuilt by eldest daughter and I, Matthew started his job....mucking out the barn.
Remember the tree? This is it. Not really much of a tree looking at it this way, but it's a good tall one...just dead for the most part.
This is the life, isn't it? Just lounging around...totally centered in the walkway of the front porch, not caring one bit for those of us coming and going trying not to break our fool necks dodging kittens!
This is our 'seeing-eye' goat....the friend we bought for the blind one. We tethered them out in the barn lot this morning after they made their escape.
These are the newest additions to the homestead...they are supposedly pregnant, but honestly, they are the skinniest 'pregnant' sows I've ever seen. But that's ok...they'll fit in the freezer much nicer this way ;o)Those are some of the shots of the day here. Maybe something exciting will happen here that an be shared later...not that we don't have exciting moments, but honestly, with Dewey gone, I'd just as soon keep things nice and quiet around here.
Recipes to share...
These are from one of the LDS Cannery recipes....sounds like something I definitely will have to try!Breakfast Cookies
yield: 48 cookies
2 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 3/4 cup oatmeal (not instant)
2 cups Grape Nuts cereal
1 Tablespoon flax seed meal (optional suggestion)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened ** (see note below)
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple
2 cups raisins
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, oatmeal, Grape Nuts, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir to mix. Set aside.
Beat together butter and sugar; add vanilla and eggs, beat well. Stir in crushed pineapple (including juice) and raisins. Add flour cereal mixture and stir until blended. Drop by large spoonful on lightly greased baking sheet or use a #30 ice cream scoop. Slightly flatten cookie dough. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. Store cookies in closed container. Freeze extra cookies until ready to use – reheat in microwave, if desired. Makes 48 cookies.
**NOTES: Try substituting 1 cup crunchy peanut butter in place of the butter
Apple Pie Tarts (yum...cherry and other fruits as well!)
Homemade Yogurt
Yogurt is expensive to buy in the store but SO EASY AND INEXPENSIVE to make at home. Give it a try and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised. It costs less than 50 cents to make a quart of yogurt. I use the cannery dried milk.
4 cups very warm water (not over 120 degrees)
1 3/4 cups regular nonfat dry milk (3 cups instant)
1/3 cups plain yogurt with active cultures, no additives (if bought from the store to use as a starter)
OR 1 packet of yogurt starter (I buy mine at Good Earth or Wild Oats )
Mix well with a hand mixer or in a blender at the lowest speed. Pour into a ceramic or glass dish with a lid. Put a heating pad on your counter and turn it on low. Cover it with a kitchen towel, put the yogurt mixture on the towel and cover the entire thing with a large bath towel so it retains the heat. I do this just before I go to bed and it is perfect when I get up in the morning.
Do not disturb the incubation. During the incubation period the cultures multiply and thicken the milk.
I then refrigerate the incubated mixture for 2-3 hours until it has cooled completely and is cold clear through. Divide it in half or as you wish and flavor each in different flavors with cannery jams. Mix the yogurt and the jam together with a hand mixer until well blended. You can add chunks of fruit it you wish.
Set aside 1/3 cup plain yogurt before flavoring to "start" your next batch.
Oatmeal Breakfast bars
Submitted by Marilyn Park
I particularly liked this recipe, easy and quick to put together. The bars you buy at the store are loaded with sugar and have preservatives and things I don't want in my food. Plus these are high in fiber! Love that! Try this recipe.....I think you will really like them.
2 3/4 cups old fashioned oatmeal or 1 cup 6 grain rolled cereal and 1 3/4 cups oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons honey
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup dry milk
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 to 1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup golden flax seed ground
1/2 cup palm shortening (or whatever you use)
1 grated apple with skin on
Cream egg, shortening and brown sugar and applesauce. Add all other ingredients and mix well, add raisins and nuts and grated apple last and mix in. This is a thick batter. Spread evenly on a non-stick 9X13 pan with a heavy spatula. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-16 minutes. 12-15 good sized bars.
Tuesday Visit
The news I've heard so far sounds very good, considering. Gustav didn't beat down on New Orleans as the thought for a while there. Our prayers are with the million plus folks throughout Louisiana without power and still bearing up under the remnants of heavy rain and winds.I worked on my Bible class lesson last night. Our Pastor was teaching verse by verse on Wednesday's from the book of Acts. He asked me if I would be willing to take his class for the rest of the year. I sort of agreed, tentatively, and said I'd pray over it.
No, I don't believe in women teaching Bible. Well, I certainly don't believe in women teaching men/boys. If it were a child's class, I probably wouldn't have the reservations, but this is teens.
The reason I agreed, for now at least, is that our church is incredibly small...on a really good week we have all of 25 faithful attend (truth be told, we have all of only 37 on the rolls right now altogether). Our teen class was started after we arrived....there were only 2 other children. We came to church and bingo -- youth explosion :o) Right now, for the 'teen' class, we have those 2 daughters of a friend, my two eldest girls, and my middle son. Once in a blue, blue moon, another friend of ours comes to church, but he is never able to be counted on. It just depends on what he feels like doing, and his family doesn't push otherwise. So, I would be teaching my own children...well, my own son. I don't have a problem with that at all. If the class were to grow to include other teen boys, I would not keep teaching.
Either way, I didn't stay with the book of Acts. I might change my mind, but right now, I went with a short study, 'introduction' as it were, to the 12 Apostles instead. Then I have something we had started here on the final days of Christ and His Resurrection. I'm just not sure what to do with the teens. I know my own children will follow and understand the study I have, but I'm not sure about the others. The 2 daughters are both saved, but their level of actual comprehension I don't know about. There is one more girl who comes every so often -- an elder's daughter -- but you can't count on her, either. It's Fair season throughout the Mid-South and she does alot of shows and demonstrations (she does rodeo stuff and barrel racing, plus her family runs a livestock sale and auction service).
Well, we'll see what happens.
On another note, Dewey and Christopher headed out early-squirrely this morning for the job in Arkansas. Straight into thunderstorms and rains. We are pretty sure we have forgotten to pack him something, but that's typical. You always feel like you are forgetting something when you don't really want to leave in the first place. But, we loaded his new truck to the gills...he might forget something, but he certainly won't lack for much of anything! The children each tucked drawings and such into his bags and toolbox for him to find. Right now, we are planning him back next weekend. This week they will get settled into the lease house, and start the process of hiring locally -- something that might be difficult. Everyone on this job must have their Arkansas Electrical license. If they can't man the job that way, it will go Union. Not a problem for Dewey as technically he is still Union, but Christopher won't be able to work the job then as he isn't in any of their schooling. Let's pray they can man the job themselves.
Question of the day -- if a tree falls in your yard and you aren't there to witness it, does it make a sound?
Yep. It does. Just after finishing on the grill yesterday, we were all sitting inside getting dinner ready at the table and we heard a whoooooosh and a light sort of thud. We al stared at each other like goofs...as if any of us had a clue what that noise was...and someone finally got the bright idea to get up and go look. There at the end of the trailer laid our pine tree. It wasn't the prettiest one we have by a long shot, but in the spring it was covered with a solid mass of wisteria up one side. Now, it's just lying there in the yard like...well, like a fallen tree.
I knew we shouldn't have mowed the side yard. We'd let it go for thee longest time (ok, so it was more out of laziness than any other reason...still...) but here we just mowed on Saturday and now Monday comes and down it goes. Could be all that tall grass and weed was holding the old tree upward.
And wouldn't you know it, but the chainsaw isn't working. So...next question of the day will probably be this:
How many homeschoolers does it take to drag a tree to the back pasture?
How Did You...
...find out about homeschooling?We found out when we met the Gregg and Sono Harris family. They used to live in Dayton, Ohio and they led me to the Lord, introduced me the that handsome man in the pic who would later become my husband and told us that they homeschool their son. Yep...the cute little kid in the pic is Josh "I Kissed Dating Good-bye" Harris when he was about 8 years old! He was my little buddy and the 1st homeschooled kid I'd ever met.
... KW
Back from Vacation!
I always feel pushed and pulled in both directions when it's time to come home from vacation...ESPECIALLY when we have been to one of our favorite places!
We LOVE going to Lakeside, Ohio - on Lake Erie - every year. A family that is some of our best friends has a cottage in Lakeside that we go to every year. And...every year...even though it is one of the hardest places for us to leave...it's always so good to walk into our own home. Isn't it funny how the Lord gives us such a heart for our homes? The whole way home I am internally whining because we have to leave the cottage and our daily walks along the lake shore, the fun vacation food (diets DO NOT EXIST on vacation!), sight-seeing, cool lake breezes even on hot days...and then as soon as I walk into my home I'm so glad to be here!
The Lord is good in giving us a heart for our homes.
Here are a few pics of Lakeside...
Jenna outside the cottage.
This was in 2000 at Marblehead Lighthouse...just east of Lakeside.
I'll have to scan some more recent pics of our trips. Hope you enjoyed these.
Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><
Up-Date on Thesis!!
I am excited to say that before we left for vacation that my pastor/dean e-mailed me and said that he really liked my thesis. I also found out that I will be graduating w/HONORS!!! WOOHOO!!! Oh, how I would like to show my high school teachers THAT bit of news! lol
Another cool thing...our friends - whose cottage we were staying at - came up to the cottage the day we left. So, we had lunch w/then before we headed out. The husband of that family is also on the board of directors of the little seminary I'm attending. He said that they had a meeting just before they left and that Joe (our pastor/dean) even commented to everyone about how good he thought my thesis was!!! I am competely shell-shocked! My biggest worry was that it wouldn't be "academic" enough. Maybe I'll post it sometime...but it's LOOOONG. We'll see.
Thanks SO MUCH for your prayers!!
Blessings, Kim Wolf
Grand-babies up date
The grand-babies came back last weekend Sunday. They went to visit their daddy ( Michelle is now saying Maddie belongs to her husband) for a week it ended up being 3 weeks. We had to pay for Michelle's gas to go get the kids from Vegas. Michelle said she did not have enough money to go get them. Odd a few days before she went to get the babies she went to Disneyland and out to eat and shopping.
We saw the babies for a hour last Sunday and Michelle said she will let us know when we could have them for a day. The babies cried and had a fit at leaving our home that night they both wanted to stay here. We got the babies Tuesday until Wed afternoon. Friday morning Michelle called me, both of her sisters trying to hunt us down because she was sick of the kids and did not want them. She said the were crying for us. So we took the babies.
Michelle just picked them up and was asking if we could take them again next week while she is in court. Ok, we will watch them but they will stay the night before and what ever we decide to do that day we will do.
Why I said that is we have annual passes to Disneyland (Michelle does not) and we used to go once a week until I broke my leg. I told Michelle if we are going that day , we are GOING. She has a fit over that. Well, I am sorry but we train service dogs and Disneyland is a good place to work the dogs and who says's we can not have fun with the babies at the same time??? We are only at Disneyland for 3 hours. Why only 3 hours ? Well, we do not have to wait in lines. We get to walk up the exits and get on fast. So we are able to do so much in a short amount of time.
I told Michelle we are not going to put off schooling or our plans just to please her. What we are doing that day we are doing. If she wants us to have the babies on those days she needs to except our plans. That also includes us going to the lake to kayak. We have life jackets for the babies and would never let anything happen to the babies.
Hubby and the girls and I just decide we are not going to play her games anymore. We are going to live our life as we do everyday and not change what we are doing just because the babies are here. That is how we brought up our girls. We can take them anywhere and do anything with them because we did that with them. Now we are going to do it with the grand-babies.
Just a vent , God Bless, mj
some trails from today...
Just some trails I took while printing and looking hither and yon...http://darkwoodfarm.wordpress.com/
http://homeschoolhollow.blogspot.com/
http://asustainedlife.blogspot.com/
Schooling: American History
Do share if you have any great resources to share with this topic. I'm puling things from all over to pick and choose from for our own studies this year.http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html
This seems to be a great resource so far. They have a ton of other downloads and printables as well.
And anyone...I can not make the link thingy work for me at all. Sorry --
Something daddy has always wanted a skunk tail
Daddy has always wanted a skunk tail for his truck. He wants to hang it from his antenna, (ok, he is a red neck 
)
A few days a go I was checking the old large goat pen to see about moving the goats back and I saw a piece of the fencing that I am going to have to fix. I noticed there was a dead black animal laying there. I got close and saw it was a skunk. I went to the barn and asked the girls if they knew when it died. They said Midnight a friends dog was on the night before and killed some thing. I told them about the skunk. We girls went to check it out and it was a fresh kill. So I asked where the scalpels were?, out they said, bolt cutters? Dave has them, Why?? Well..........................
Girls daddy always wanted a fresh skunk tail, so I am removing this one. Kristi was sad , the poor skunk, Shayna ok cool. I used a shovel and removed his tail. What do you do with a skunk tail?
Well you :
Here is a picture of the tail, bottom side up, before we started:
Next we have a few pictures of me cutting the tail down the center, but not in half, WHERE ARE MY SCAPPLES??? :
More :
And one more :
Last we have the tail cover in salt:
We saw both sides of the tail had close to same amount of white on it so we girls voted to do the bottom side. The side you are to do.
It is still covered in salt until it is cured. When it is done "cooking as we are calling the process" I will sew it back up and attach some kind of doohickey so he can hang it from the antenna. My red neck boy/man.
Hubby was so shocked when he guessed what his Prize was! He was laughing so hard, he could not beleive I took the tail off for him!!
I was laughing and told him that if I was not a farmer / rancher I would have never done it. I would have NEVER done this if I stayed the person my parnets brought up. I would have hiered someone to do it 
! Sorry mom but I did it .
I will show a picture of the tail when it is all done.
God Bless, mj
{ Last Page } { Page 2 of 5 } { Next Page }
About Me
My Profile
Archives
Friends
My Photo Album
Links
Vision ForumThe Canning Pantry
Mantle Ministries
Categories
Recent Entries
First HayThe Vegetable Garden (so far)
A poem
Bees, Honey, and the fear of insects.
Golf Courses and Coonhounds
Friends
NewHarvestHomestead
countrydreamn
wannabeone
HandsNHearts
homesteadinthemaking
smmagers