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Sigh.........It is Christmas morning, the kids are playing with their new toys and DH had gone to bed after opening gifts and working the graveyard shift. Actually our youngest went to bed with daddy. She wanted to snuggle..... I have only had about 3 hours of sleep. We went to my parents home last night for Christmas Eve festivities. They live about 30 miles East of us. I got a phone call at about 7pm from my SIL that lives about a quarter of mile down the road from us. She said that if we didnt leave soon, we probably wouldnt make it home! I was very bummed. So I packed up the kiddos and we took off. The roads were horrible even on the highway and to top it off, it was white out conditions. I could only see about 20 feet in front of my car. The snow was coming down fast and feirce and on top of it the wind was so bad it was blowing sideways. We we got to our road we drove part way up it and my MIL sent my BIL and FIL to come help us make it up the road with their four wheel drive pickup. BIL got in the van to drive it through the drifts. Info...the drifts were like 4-6 feet high on the road! We got part way up and both the pickup and our car got stuck. Luckily some members of our church live up the road and had a loader. They brought it down to help us out. BUT THEN THE LOADER SLID AND GOT STUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The farmer with the loader called his wife and 20 min later we heard snowmobiles coming up the road. Each on of us, one at a time were snowmobiled up to our house. My BIL and SIL from Utah came in right behind us and had to be snowmobiled in too. Thank heaven for these selfless neighbors! Our cars were stuck down in the road. My MIL meanwhile called the sherriff and had the scrappers coming. They scrapped and both my BIL's went and got our van out. Imagine this....we left my parents (A usually 30 min drive) at 8pm and didnt get to our house until midnight. Then it was 2am before my BILs got our van up here. I was so stressed about DH making it home but the road had been cleared very well and he made it home at a normal time. They are forcasting for another day 90% for snow! I hate it. DH has to go to work again tonight at 4pm. I pray that he has no problems. Anyway. I hope to get a little nap today. My youngest was very stressed that Santa would have to put us last on his list because she knew wouldnt deliver unless she was in her bed. But alas, he came. I also see that our cell phone came in super handy through this experience. What did we do before cell phones? Thank heavens for them! Off to see if I can get a little shut eye! |
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We have discussed many things as a family as what changes we want to make with our new year! Recently we have started having a weekly family meeting! We even take notes. Here is a copy of the agenda we use! Myers Family Meeting Family We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. Family Meeting Rules:
Person leading the discussion-
a. Read the family mission statement b. Pray /Scripture/Spiritual thought . c. Agenda (things to be done) d. Scheduling e. Personal Goals f. Assign scripture and thought for next meeting to someone g. Acknowledgements h. Family nutrition/menu planning Person Assisting the Person Leading 1. Manages the time line. 2. Manages that each and every person leaves satisfied , complete, and appreciated and respected. 3. Manages that no one leaves without permission from at least one parent. 4. Manages the calling on of people. Family Meeting Agenda Items: 1.__________________________________________7.__________________________________ 2.__________________________________________8.__________________________________ 3.__________________________________________9.__________________________________ 4._________________________________________10.__________________________________ 5._________________________________________11.__________________________________ 6._________________________________________12.__________________________________
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It has been mentioned to me that we need to update our blog. I looked and my last post was Nov25th! Sorry. I guess this is a busy season. I have read other blogs, but just havent been updating ours. Life is very cold here. We have had snow almost everyday for a week and it looks like we will for another week. Tonight will be Christmas eve and we are looking forward to all the festivities. We will be missing my little sister in Montana horribly though.....snifff.....sniff...... Anyway. I thought I would be thrifty this year and emailed the majority of our Christmas cards out to our friends and family. Here is a copy of it! Dear Friends and Family, Yes, it’ that time of year again! The Holidays have snuck up on us! Christmas is a wonderful time of year and our friends and family are a major part of that! Time for our annual updates: Roger is doing well. He is working at Dairygold in Kim is still doing the same. She has been canning tons this year and adding to our food storage. She is still home schooling, though all three are doing school this year! She is her ward food storage specialist. William (10) is growing tons. He is about half the size of his dad! He is trying to tell his mom that fishing and hunting are valid subjects for school, but she hasn’t fallen for it yet. He takes care of our current livestock every day and we appreciate this. Cody (7) is doing very well with school. He is reading very well and enjoys it. He is very high energy and often can be found doing school upside down. Our little monkey! Kalee (6) is loving doing Kindergarten this year. She is starting to read and said she doesn’t have a favorite subject. She loves it all. Kalee loves to cook and is everywhere her mother is. Her grandmother Seable calls her Velcro! If you get the drift! We hope that you are all well and that your needs are met. This is a joyous time of year. We love hearing from all of you. Please drop us a line. At: Roger’s email: drycreekdairy@gmail.com Kim’s email: rkmyersrus@gmail.com
Love, Roger, Kim, William, Cody, and Kalee Myers
Anyway.....we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! |
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Well it is two days before Thanksgiving and I am sitting at the computer at 122pm in my pjs Yep..... The weather man said that the high today will be 42* and I am chilled to the bone. Now for those that dont know me......I AM A BIG GIRL.....I dont get cold.....so this is cold. My dh is off and my youngest has a cold. They are cuddled up on the couch snuggling and the boys have finished their schoolwork and have gone out to hunt.....heehee ( dont know what they will get with there little pea shooters....) Anyway. I have a headache, I cant get warm, andI have a ton of laundry to catch up on today and tommorrow will be a day of cooking and prepping for Thanksgiving. I do have 8 gallons of heavy whipping cream on the table coming to room temperature so that I can make homemade butter for our freezer and meal for thursday. I have 6 more gallons that I am saving for desserts and candies for the next month. I am blessed to have a friend that gives me this out of the kindness of her heart! What a blessing. I am thankful for her. Tommorrow I am making 4 dozen rolls. My extended family has requested that I make white rolls (GASP!) They arent used to whole wheat so we I will make what they want. I am also bringing a cranberry salad and homeade butter and a mincemeat pie. We will be eating at my moms and both my brothers and their families will be there also. My dear sister will be at home in Montana( we live in Idaho). I will truley miss her. Wish we could get together more often. The cranberry salad was a salad I had at a recent church function. Had to hunt down the recipe, but it was SOOOO GOOD! I will share it with you. Cranberry salad 1 large box of cherry jello 1 1/2 cup of boiling water dissolve 1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce 1 can of crushed pineapple DO NOT DRAIN , with juice let sit for 30 min in fridge to a egg white consitancy Add 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts 1 cup of red grapes sliced in half, legthwise Let set up IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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I have been missing in action for awhile. Super busy. Almost done with all the canning and such. Dried peppers and tomatoes this last few weeks. Have some apple pie filling to can if I can find the time. I did a few items for an area craft sale and that took up some time. I made candy cane bath salts, lemon drop bath salts, did tons of different types of gifts in a jar ( brownies, cinnamon pancakes, muffin mixes, cookies, etc) Also did homeade caramels and toffee. So far those have been the best sellers! A few other items too. Trying to get on track with home schooling. Seems like there isnt enough hours in the day to do what I want to get done! UGH! Any ideas? |
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A friend sent this recently. And I totally felt like it was something I should share here! I was very dismayed when, recently, a family member of mine said to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency. These words came from someone who in the past has been a great prayer warrior. What is happening was my question??? Why are we Christians settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and taking our country back? We allow ourselves to be stripped of the right to pray at school functions and in school, we have the 10 commandments removed from government places and are told we cannot pray in school, all the while providing public prayer places for Muslims. What in the world is going on and why are we being apathetic? Why aren't we praying? Our God is a mighty God who is waiting patiently for us to raise our voices to heaven to stop the tide of the anti-Christ actions in our world today. Now we find we have a charismatic candidate for president who does not respect our flag and refuses to wear one on his lapel except when it becomes politically expedient and whose own wife and pastor that he loves profess to have strong anti-white feelings, and we sit back and say 'it is a given, we can do nothing.' There has never been a time in 2000 years that we can do nothing, never a time that we must sit back and allow the evil in men's and women's hearts to take over our world. We should be very afraid because our apathy is leading us to perdition. It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry We are great at passing stories and pictures around the internet, but where are our prayers and prayer warriors praying to stop this tide of Barak Obama? God parted the red sea, Jesus raised himself from the dead, and we can bring our country back to its Christian roots and stop the move to the rise of Muslims in our country. We can stop our country from being 'under Allah,' but we must begin to pray, to pray as if our country and our lives depended on it, because they do. We can stop all these atrocities against God's commands that have taken root in our country through something as simple as sincere prayer, a call to God to deliver us, to forgive us our sins of apathy and to protect us from the evil that is upon us. Okay prayer warriors, here is your challenge, start those prayer chains. Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop Barak Obama the proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Raise up good men to lead us and protect us. George Bush is being buffeted because he has fought a holy war against the evils that attack us and we should not be surprised because a prophet is not honored in his own country. But we should not rest on our laurels and allow ourselves to be taken further off the path of Christianity and to have God removed from our presence in our schools, courts, government and businesses. Invite God into the fray. Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a might army to defend us and to protect our country as he did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts in prayer and fasting. Please pass this around to all people of prayer that you know and maybe, just maybe a more eloquent person of prayer will write something better and more inspiring and even the rocks will shout that Jesus is Lord and our Mighty God is with us, bringing the victory for us and ultimately for Him. |
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Been busy. On Monday we picked some free Rome apples that a friend from Church offered us. We got about 2 bushels. I plan on making apple pie filling with them. We have enough applesauce and dried apples. I sure wish we owned a cold press for apple juice! Then later that afternoon we got about 2 bushel of green tomatoes. I plan on making some more green tomato relish and some green tomato mincemeat for pies. Then that night a dear friend offered us to pick her concord grapes. Boy were we tierd from gleaning all day!. Yesterday we (DH and I) made 35 quarts of grape juice. It smelled so good! It was super thick too so we should be able to use it for concentrate! I have a busy weekend, with a food storage group thing on Saturday and neices baptism and then a wedding! So I wont probably get the tomatoes or apples touched until Monday of next week...Oh well. The grapes couldnt wait though! Glad it is done. Mess is cleaned! |
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A friend of ours gave us 6 gallons of heavy whipping cream. So we kept 1 1/2 gallons for making some homemade ice cream and made butter with the other 4 1/2. We decided that we should try to can it! We did 19 pints of it. Was actually really quite easy. We plan on trying a jar later next week to see if the flavor changes and such! Will let you know! |
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Don't know if I told you but I made a awesome deal with a sweet lady at our church who also homeschools. I make 4 large loaves of bread a week for her and she teaches my 2 oldest boys piano! Isn't that awesome. There is no way we could afford it otherwise! I know we are getting a steal of a deal, so when I can I will sweeten her deal. I love to barter....have you bartered for anything? Share it with me! |
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This time of year is sooooo not my own.....It seems like Sept and October are so busy. Between back into the routine of homeschooling and trying to can the summer and fall's harvest I just dont have a spare minute! At last count I think I have canned somewhere over 700 jars this summer!!!!! DH said we may have to get a stronger floor in our food storage room! Heeeheee Anyway the last few weeks I have done sweet and sour sauce, peach pie filling, tons of dried apples. I have had 2 dehydraters running around the clock. I also did 12 1/2 gallon jars of grape juice and 5 qts. I plan on doing more grape juice next week and when the rome apples come on I plan on doing about 30 qts of apple pie filling. I did enough apple sauce last year that I dont have to do that this year. Cant wait until it is cold outside and canning is over. I am dreaming of the day where me and my littles are on the couch wrapped up in blankets and sipping hot chocolate and eating homemade cinnamon rolls and reading a great novel together.....ahhhh! I should have been a bear....I love winter! Lately all of our friends have been busy and no one can get together....so the hermit life calls me anyway......cheaper that way anyway, right? |
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Besides homeschooling, cleaning house and doing like 3 loads of laundry, and bringing our oldest to cub scouts, today DH and I went to Oregon....heehee....we live on the Idaho/Oregon border...like 3 miles from Oregon....anyway....they had a case lot sale in Oregon so we bought lots of stuff. Some of it isnt very healthy, but will help in a pinch! I bought 4- 25 lb bags of sugar for $8.99 a piece. 4 cases of smack ramen for $3.00 a case. 10- 2lb bags of brown sugar, for 4-$5.00. A case of mandarin oranges for 2-88 cents. A case of pineapple 20 oz cans for .88 a piece. Also got some 90-10% hamburger for $1.69 a lb. And a case of 24 macaroni and cheese boxes for $6.00. Also they had seasoning packets for 3-88cents. Got sloppy joe, beef stew, taco, brown gravy, turkey gravy, pork gravy, and meatloaf. Very good deal on these! They are usually $1.19 a piece. Felt pretty good about the deals I got! Can use many of the items with some of our healthy stuff. Also I am making some more canned sweet and sour sauce this week and the pineapple will be just the ticket! Also stopped at the farmers market in Fruitland, Idaho. The produce was so gorgeous! The bell peppers were huge!!! And so many colors.....yellow, red, orange, chocolate color, green and purple! I got 3 of each kind because they were 3 for a dollar. Also they had beautiful winter and summer squash and local celery! |
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Sorry I have been MIA(missing in action). Have been doing tons of canning. Salsa, sauce, Pears, pear sauce, pear butter, peaches, peaches, peaches. Also some jalepeno jelly! Today is a real homesteading day. Been baking. Did 5 loaves of bread, and 4 trays of cinnamon rolls. House smells great. DH is out with the kids butchering a chicken for our dinner! Gotta love homeschooling. That is what they are doing for recess! heeehee! |
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Been busy around here. In the last 10 days or so, I have canned peaches, 3 batches of salsa, peach nectar, and have frozen 52 qt bags of corn. I have also planned a church womens function, picked a bushel and half of pears( luckily they need some time to ripen), and have homeschooled and attended a 2 functions regarding homeschooling. I cant wait until the weather really cools down and all I have to do is cook, clean and homeschool........sigh.....I know I say this every canning season. I was thinking the other day. I want to make some banana bread....had to tell myself....>NO you dont have time or space right now! |
Got lot of canning and school work to do, so I am trying to organize and simplify my life! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This week has been full of canning....school....canning....school..... I have done tons of peaches and tomatoes this week. DH's grandma has a big peach tree and she gave us three boxes of peaches.....I didnt know we were getting these or I would have bought the 3 boxes I had last week.....sigh.....I have frozen, dried, and canned peaches and did peach nectar. I have done over 30 qts of salsa and 20 qts of tomato sauce. Tomorrow I have 4-5 boxes of tomatoes to do so I will probably do more tomato sauce and ketchup. DH loves home made ketchup. On top of this, this starts our 2nd week of school. I dont want to get behind, like I always do during canning season, so I have made sure we have got everything in on top of doing the canning.....the house has kind of fallen apart, but this too will pass and I will catch up on cleaning after it is done. Next week, DH's grandma has a whole tree of yummy plums that we can go pick. We plan on juicing most of them, but I will probably do about a dozen pints of plum jam. I also got a great recipe for jalapeno jelly that I plan on making soon too! DD's primary teacher gave her a jar at church and we had it on biscuits last Sunday. IT WAS YUMMY! |
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I got this on an email on a food storage yahoo list that I am on. Thought is was very useful information and thought I would pass it along!
Better than Bleach: Use Calcium Hypochlorite to Disinfect WaterMore Articles Related to WaterGets past the bleach storage problem
Many ourdoorsmen, survivalists, and households preparing for emergency disasters rely upon common household bleach as a disinfecting agent to make water safe to drink. Bleach will destroy most (but NOT all!) disease causing organisms (boiling water to make it safe to drink is always the best method). What is not well known is Calcium Hypochlorite is far better for chemically disinfecting water. Old Way: Using Bleach to Disinfect WaterI cringe to think how many people have expired bleach in their disaster emergency kits that will be used for treating polluted water. Those of us who have emergency preparedness stocks of survival food and survival gear often keep a gallon or two of unscented household bleach on hand for making safe drinking water in large quantities. Bleach is often the chemical of choice because it is commonly available and frequently mentioned when discussing the how-to’s of drinking water. calcium hypochlorite - bleach
Typical fresh household chlorine bleach has about 5.35% chlorine content (be sure to read the label). To use household bleach for disinfecting water:
If the water is cloudy with suspended particles:
Why Using Bleach to Disinfect Contaminated Water is a ProblemA little known problem with long term storage of bleach in your disaster emergency supply cache is that it degrades over time. Consulting a Chlorox bleach representative produced this statement: “We recommend storing our bleach at room temperatures. It can be stored for about 6 months at temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. After this time, bleach will be begin to degrade at a rate of 20% each year until totally degraded to salt and water. Storing at temperatures much higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit could cause the bleach to lose its effectiveness and degrade more rapidly. However, if you require 6% sodium hypochlorite, you should change your supply every 3 months.” I cringe to think how many people have expired bleach in their disaster emergency kits that will be used for treating polluted water. Even what are considered reliable sources of information such as the EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA will show you how to use bleach to disinfect water but will leave out this exceedingly important piece of information. This is why I created Survival Topics – to give you the real information you need to survive. So if bleach is unreliable for long term storage in emergency preparedness kits then what other commonly available chemical methods of disinfecting water are there? As it turns out a better solution is easily available. Use Calcium Hypochlorite for Disinfect WaterA 1-pound pag of calcium hypochlorite in granular form will treat up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water Calcium hypochlorite is one of the best chemical disinfectants for water, better than household bleach by far. It destroys a variety of disease causing organisms including bacteria, yeast, fungus, spores, and viruses. Calcium Hypochlorite is widely available for use as swimming pool chlorine tablets or white powder that is much more stable than chlorine. This is often known as “pool shock”. How to Disinfect Water Using Calcium HypochloriteUsing granular calcium hypochlorite to disinfect water is a two step process.
Be sure to obtain the dry granular calcium hypochlorite since once it is made into a liquid solution it will begin to degrade and eventually become useless as a disinfecting agent. This also means you should make your treated drinking water in small batches, for example enough for a few weeks at a time at most. Another plus for using calcium hypochlorite to disinfect water for emergency use is that a little goes a very long way. A 1-pound pag of calcium hypochlorite in granular form typically costs only a few $US dollars and can be obtained in any swimming pool supply section of your hardware store or online. This amount will treat up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water, which is enough for a family of four for some six or seven years at a gallon per day per person! Calcium hypochlorite will store for a long period of time and remain effective as a chemical drinking water treatment. So get rid of the household bleach and buy a can of Calcium hypochlorite for your disaster emergency water disinfection needs. It lasts far longer and treats far more water than the traditional chlorine bleach water disinfection treatment. |
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A friend of mine called me on Tuesday evening and she had a bunch of $10 off coupons for JCPenny's. And they had a bunch of stuff on for 75% off. So I went with her. I got some great deals. I bought DH and I some huge bath towels. They are 6 feet long and almost 3 feet wide! You could totally use them for twin blankets! I bought them for $8 a piece! I bought 2 really nice shirts for DS1. They are like Henley's with a button up short over them. They were originally like $39.00 but after all the discounts I paid $2.11 a piece for them! I bought DD 2 pear of legging and 2 sweater dresses for a total of $7.24. I felt very good about my trip out to JcPenny's! |
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I have been canning all day! We also started school on Monday so today was mostly catch up and independent study and writing practice for the two little ones. William had reading, writing, and such. Anyway...... Yesterday was our first real picking of tomatoes. I canned 12 qts of salsa today. I have two pans of sauce on the stove to process probably tommorrow am! Also in my pursuit of lids this afternoon I came upon a organic farm out here near our house. They had a sign for peaches. I bought 3 1/2 bushels of peaches and I have those to freeze, dry and can this next few days too! Pretty good price to $6-8 a 1/2 bushel for organic peaches....depends on the size of the peaches. The lady was super sweet and also GAVE me a ton of dairy products. They were going out of date like tommorrow. She gave me 6 1/2 gallon jugs of heavy whipping cream. I came home and made a ton of butter. It is all in the freezer. 3 big containers of raspberry yogurt. I promptly made them into freezer yogurt pops. I have them all freezing right now! 1 gallon of milk.....the kids will have that gone in a minute. Also like 12 little cartons of chocolate milk( you know the kind you got when you had hot lunch at school). I put them in the freezer too! Can pull them out for picnics at the park for the kids. I plan on buying a lot more produce from this gal when we need it. She was so kind and generous. The house smells so good on the days that I have cooked salsa down.......I probably wont make it to bed, until later, but oh well...... |
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Since we are in the height of tomato season, I thought I would share a great tomato soup recipe you can can! Tomato Soup For Canning |
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The following recipe represents the ultimate in simplicity in cheese making. It will produce a delicious cottage cheese that resembles ricotta and is excellent fresh or used in cooking Italian dishes such as lasagna. We recommend that beginners start with a cottage cheese to get the feel for the basics and for the instant gratification of being able to enjoy the product immediately. Ingredients:1 gallon 2% milk
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