Urban Homesteader

Why again did we buy pigs.....

Oh, yes, it's part of this whole self sustaining lifestyle we are trying to lead.  Well, the pigs are getting bigger and they love and I do mean love to try to get out of their pen.  My honey built them this nice big pen in our barn that keeps them sheltered from heat and rain.  Do they appreciate all of his hard work?  No.  I guess the grass is greener on the other side , as they say.  So honey has been doing all sorts of fence mending, LOL, to try to keep these little devils in.  They are still so small that they can squeeze their little bodies through the hog wire.  So yesterday hubby wove barbed wire through the holes.  Well, this was the scene this morning.

I think Betty and Wilma were getting the best of him.LOL

So now the love of my life, has wood pallets lined up all over the pig pen.  It looks horrendous but oh well.  It's just until they are too big to squeeze through the holes.  We will soon have our garden spot fenced in so that they can graze on it.  We will have a door on the side of the barn for them to go in and out.  That way they will have shelter and be tilling and fertilizing my garden spot. 

We fared very well from the hurricane.  We got lots and I mean lots of rain.  My yard is a sopping wet mess but it could have been so much worse.   Here's a pic of the horses yesterday.  I think they were just tired of the rain but they wouldn't get out of it.

We have had so much going on here since the buying of the new homestead.  We love it so much here.  Here is the hammock that my DH put up for us before the rain came in.  The kids love it!!!  They will take their pillows and blankets out and read a book in the hammock.  I hope to see them out there a good bit between now and winter.

Since the purchase of the house, groceries and gas have tripled.  This has really dipped into the budget.  We have not had the resources to buy all of the supplies that we have wanted for the new homestead.  However, we did read in the Market Bulletin this past week that a guy wanted someone to come and take down a shed and do the cleanup and you could keep the materials from it.  Dh went over to look at it today.  It was an old smoke house.  So he and our son will go start to take it apart in the morning.  We are so thankful.  We will be using the siding for our garden shed and hopefully the roof will be used for a new chicken coop this spring.  We hope to triple our flock but we will need a new coop.  This will put us on our way. 

Like I said, we have had a lot going on.  One thing as of late, is our muscadines and pears are ready and I have been making jelly and jam.  I am so thankful for what the Lord has provided.  These will make wonderful Christmas gifts on a very tight budget.

I hope you are all doing well and bless you!!!

A Little Grace and Charm

$34.95 

A Little Grace and Charm

$34.95 

Sally Fallon Speaking Engagement

Dear Friends,

As you know I have strongly advocated the principles of Nourishing Traditions and a Nutrient Dense Diet (scroll way down) for several years. Today, I'm delighted to tell you about the Deidre Currie Festival which has great guest speakers, including Sally Fallon, lined up to teach more about traditional foods and nutrition on Sept 13.

My friend, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, www.kellythekitchenkop.com, who has frequently helped me with phone seminar transcripts, wanted all Nourishing Traditions enthusiasts to know about this upcoming Sally Fallon speaking engagement.

Kelly writes:

"Last fall, my friend Kathy spoke at a Weston A. Price conference near Detroit, organized by a woman named Deidre Currie. At the time, Deidre was pregnant with she & Archie's first child. Sadly, it wasn't long after the conference that Deidre passed away, just after giving birth to their baby boy, Jack.

This fall, her husband is organizing the Deidre Currie Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 13th, 2008, to honor her memory. He has some great speakers lined up to teach us more about traditional foods and nutrition, which Deidre was passionate about."

I wanted you all to know about this Festival, because as a recent widow myself, my heart goes out to Deidre's husband Archie, a single dad of their infant son.

Here is the Speaker line-up:

---Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

---Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression, Schizophrenia (watch for a post about all this coming out soon)

---Jerry Brunetti, one of nation’s foremost experts on food, farming and health

---Karen Lubbers, Michigan farmer, teacher, environmentalist

Also, I hope you will consider:

1. Reading Archie & Deidre's story

2.Register for the Festival at this link, say you heard about it through me, Marilyn Moll. OR

You Can Win 2 FREE TICKETS TO THE DEIDRE CURRIE FESTIVAL! HERE'S HOW:

• Tell all your friends!
• Have them register online BEFORE 11:59 pm on September 1st, 2008
• When they register, be sure they put your name in the "Referred by" box, so we know who wins the free tickets.

3. Consider making a donation to Archie, a single dad. Here is more information:

• Being a single Dad, Archie works quite a bit to make ends meet, and he's hoping to move he and Jack back to New Zealand after the conference so that Jack can grow up around Deidre's family, but moving is costly. If you'd like to send a donation, send it to: Archie Welch, P.O. Box 690, Clarkston, MI 48347.
• If you do sign up for the conference or make a donation, please say you heard about it through Marilyn Moll, The Urban Homemaker.

My Daughter Laura's Engagement Story!

Last week I was invited to the home of local Paonia residents Joan and Ron Beers, grandparents to my daughter's boyfriend Brandon Coble, for a family dinner. Brandon's parents, sisters, sister's boyfriend, sister's husband, uncle and aunt were there as well. (Stephen and Mary were out of town.)

Brandon has been serving our country in Baghdad for the past 8 months and has been home for an 18 day leave before returning to Iraq for another five months. Laura and Brandon have been friends for the past three years and have been dating long distance for the past 5 months. ( With Duane's permission.)

After dinner I was busy visiting with Uncle Rick and Grandpa Ron, and Mom Karen, while the grown children were enjoying a spirited word game called Probe. Apparently this game requires each contestant to spell out one word, and everyone takes turns guessing one letter, and as in Wheel of Fortune, if the letter is there, then the card is overturned and you can take a guess at the word.

All of a sudden Grandma Joan, comes into the room and says, "Marilyn I really think you need to see what's going on with this game."

My reply was, "I don't do word games." But Grandma Joan insisted, "Marilyn! I REALLY THINK YOU NEED TO SEE WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THIS GAME IN THE KITCHEN!"

Meanwhile, my daughter Laura is calling, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!" At this point, I realized I better get up and see what the commotion was all about. As I entered the kitchen I saw a sparkly ring upon Laura's ring finger.

It turns out Brandon's 15 letter "word" was really a phrase "Willumarryme". Look at the above picture carefully.

No one was getting Brandon's word, until Laura's turn, when she called out "l" and "m". Her startled and nervous response to the word/phrase was "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" At which point, Brandon got down on his knee in front of Laura and his family, and asked "Will You Marry me?" and Laura said "yes!" This is the point at which I discovered what all the commotion was about and that my daughter had just become engaged!

So, I am a very excited mom this week , although sad to not share the happy event with Duane. Duane had already decided before his death that he would give his approval to a winter wedding.

So shouting from the roof tops, I am pleased to announce my daughter, Laura's, engagement to Brandon Coble for a January 3, 2009 wedding. More details and pictures will be at my blog, marilynmollcom as soon as I get to it.

Now, I'll admit I shouldn't have been too surprised because Brandon had asked for my permission to marry Laura before Laura received the ring. Nevertheless, I really didn't know when, where and how this special event would happen, nor did I expect to get to participate in the excitement! God has been so good t o us.

Please be sure to be praying for Brandon and the thousands of other troops deployed in Baghdad and around the world.

Life and Death on the homestead......

We had a very trying Sunday around here......

I will preface with, we spent a lot of Saturday night preparing food for Sunday, as we were going home to church for potluck.  Our church back home has potluck the first Sunday of every month and we haven't been since March and I was really needing the encouragement.  I have missed our home church soooo much.  So when we woke up Sunday morning, needless to say we were on a TIGHT schedule.  Well, everything was going along well until youngest daughter, Lindsey, went out to put her rabbit in his day time pen and feed the chickens.  Well, she went down to the chicken coop and she saw 2 dead chickens in the pen.  She ran in hysterical.  My honey went down there to find that there were 2 chickens ripped to shreds on the ground.  I will tell you a little about our chicken set up.  We have a pretty large chicken yard.  Our coop is a large rectangle box that sits about 3 feet off the ground on posts.  The coop has doors on it that can close the chickens in at night.  However, we had not been doing this, as we had not had any problems.  Well, Saturday night some predator dug under our fencing and climbed 3 feet to get in our coop and got some of our chickens off their roost.  We are thinking it was a fox.  We're not sure.  We lost 7 chickens and 3 guineas.  It was a devastating loss. 

On top of all this comotion, we went on to church and had a great day of likeminded fellowship.  I sooo needed it!!  We got home around 5 ish and went down to the coop to see if all was ok.  I looked over to the rabbit cage and did not see a rabbit.  I wanted to be sick.  It seems that in all the uproar of the chickens my youngest daughter forgot to latch the pen.  I can not tell you how upset she was.  We were scouring the yard, the pasture, and the barn with no luck.  I came in the house and just begged God to let them find Lindsey's rabbit.  My husband finally came in and said he was going next door to borrow a post pounder to work on the chicken yard.  I told him I would ride with him.  A little ways up the road, I looked out in the neighboring pasture and saw 2 little white ears.  I screamed for hubby to stop.  He stopped in the middle of the road and jumped out to run across the pasture to get the rabbit.  He screamed back up at the house for the kids to come get him.  They did and all was well. 

I praise God that He hears our most nonessential, ridiculous prayers and that He cares about the broken heart of a little girl.  He is an amazing God and I praise Him in the devastation of death and the rejoicing of Life.

Today, I hope to work on my home management binder.  Chas, really got this fire started under me after her post yesterday.  I have been wanting to do this for a while and just have not taken the time to sit down and do it.  Here are some great links if you are interested.

http://homemanagementbinder.com/

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2008/04/welcome-to-hmb-.html#article

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2008/07/tour-of-my-home-management-binder.html#article

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AHappyHome/285537/

These are just the tip of the iceberg on what you can find.  It's great!!

Blessings,

Trixi

I found this on another site and thought it was fun......

Your IQ Is 100

Your Logical Intelligence is Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Above Average Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Above Average

The Simple Woman's Daybook.....

I love participating in Peggy's The Simple Woman's Daybook, but just never have time.  Although, today I just made the time.  Here goes:

Outside my Window...I here the chirping of birds and it is going to be a scorcher of a day.  They said the high was going to be 98 with a high humidity.  Oh, my!

I am thinking...of all that I need to get done.  I have cleaning and laundry, as we pretty much do nothing but spend time with Ronnie on the weekends.

I am thankful for...my children.  I am thinking on the new school year and I am so thankful that I can spend my days with them.

From the kitchen... Ronnie smoked two chickens for me this weekend and I will be putting them to good use today.  I think I will make Poppyseed chicken and Crockpot chicken enchiladas.

I am creating...we have so many projects going on but the biggest thing I am working on is our plan for next year's school year.

I am going...nowhere today or tomorrow.  We will be home, praise the Lord.  Wednesday we have dentist appointments and hopefully a library trip.

I am wearing...right now I am still in a T-shirt and pajama pants.  The kids are still sleeping.

I am reading...I have started my chronological reading plan over and am reading in Genesis.  I just ordered the Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery and Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs.  So I will be devouring those pretty soon. 

I am hoping...for a week that is full of great memories with my kids before the hustle and bustle of starting school starts.

I am hearing...I am listening to a little news before the kids get up and it all gets turned off!!

Around the house...are piles of school books that I need to sell on ebay.

One of my favorite things...the simple life that we have found and are now cherishing. 

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...not to get too busy!!!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

This is a great picture of the sun setting I took a couple of weeks ago in our back yard.  I wish those electric lines were not in it but you still get the jest of the beauty.

After you are finished here go over and check out the other daybooks.

Have a great day,

Trixi

New additions to the homestead (pictures)

Well it has been such a long time since posting.  I have missed you all!!  I have come by periodically and checked in with a few friends.  We have been so incredibly busy since buying this new home.  I have even started a new blog dedicated to the projects we have going on around here, as far as fixing up this house.  Here is the link:  Making It Our Home.  However, I love this community of people and all that I have learned here. 

Here are some of our going ons.....Last week we expanded our temporary chicken fencing to add an additional 50 feet, to make it a little more permanent.  We may add another 50 feet of fencing.  That will make our chicken yard around 150 + sqare feet.  We have also added 4 new guineas to our 24 chickens. 

Now for the newest addition to our homestead.  Here is a sneak peak.

Aren't they just the cutest.  We went to Philadelphia, Ms. Saturday, to the little local flea market.  They have every kind of chicken, guinea, donkey, duck, cat, dog, rabbit, goose, turkey, and on and on, that you could ever imagine.  Well, Saturday they also had pigs.  Now let me tell you that my sweet hubby has wanted to raise a pig for such a long time.  He looked at all of these guys and we went and ate lunch and talked about it.  The number one concern was that we do not have the fencing set up for them yet.  Has that ever stopped us?!!  Anyway, we went back and got 2 little girls.  They are 5 weeks old and just as cute as can be.  We named them Petunia and Penelope.  My son wanted bacon and ham but the girls didn't even think that was funny.  We ended up putting them in our old brooder box in the barn.  Our rabbit has been occupying it but he went back in his old pen.  We will start working on our pig fencing this next week and soon they will have a more permanent pen.  Here are some more pics. of the girls:

I know these girls are for food but I just can't imagine this little cutey being in my freezer.  My hubby keeps telling me I wont feel that way when she is 300+ pounds.LOL

Have a great day,

Trixi

Hummingbirds......pictures

On our new back porch, I have hung 2 hummingbird feeders.  They are breaking my bank.  We have about 10-12 hummingbirds feeding on our feeders.  They are going through the juice about every other day.  I love them.  They are so beautiful.

I make my own hummingbird juice.

Hummingbird feeder juice

4 parts water to 1 part sugar.  Right now I am making 6 cups water, boiling it then adding 1 1/2 cups sugar.  I let it cool and then fill my feeders.  I hope to add another feeder soon.  So that I am not making it up every other day.LOL

Blessings,

Trixi