Country Critters

Rednezvous

We are back. It was a beautiful site that sits about 4200 feet in the Cascade mountain range.  I made a laof of sourdough bread each day, and within an hour or so it was usually gone.  I never could get it to crisp up like I do here at home.. but it still tasted really good.  DH and I also made main dishes for the contest, he made his Chile Verde, and I made the chicken enchilada casserole, along with the bread.. I got second place with my casserole:>  and won a neat clay pot insert for my dutch oven.  My SIL won first place, with a black forest choc cake, it was really good.

We didnt have as large of a turn out as we had hoped for..80-90 shooters..  it was nice in the fact that both my brothers and their families were up there and we camped fairly close. 
The weather was horrible from Friday on, lots of cold wind and rain, mixed in with fog, ice pellets and snow.  COLD!!! very cold... I was so glad to get home and get a shower, after we unpacked the pickup and had to setup the wet tent and hang up the wet fly.

Goings on....

Sorry for my being totally neglectful of my blog. Life has been rather busy...nothing outside of normal for us...just busy. Computer time has been limited...as life has been happening.

Let's see....

Work has been progressing on the cattle round up area. We need to sell some cows, but haven't had a way to sort them out of who goes and who stays. We hired a friend to help us (and when I say us, I mean Honey and Thomas) with this task. It's nearing completion. Oh, what a happy day it will be when we sell some cows!!! Some will go to be processed, some to the sale barn. We're hoping more go to be processed than to the sale barn. We've been so blessed. Almost five years ago, we started with 3 heifers and 1 bull. We now have 23 cows, with more calves due this year. God has been good to us!

Thomas' last shooting competition was in Clarksville, TN on May 29th. He did so well this year, he's hoping to continue next year. It will depend upon the cost. The season will be longer (since they will be starting on time) and thus, be more costly. We shall see...sure would love for him to continue.

Natalie and Mary have finished up their school year. They are both quite happy to be on summer break...they are making all sorts of plans for creek days...

Rebecca and Thomas are still working on math and science. They will continue this for the summer. This will keep these two subjects fresh in their minds come next school year, as well as catch them up as we got a bit behind this year.

Summer arrived early here. The past week has been quite hot. If you've read my blog for any time, you know I'm not a fan of heat. Today's high temp is to be 98* (again..was yesterday too)...with a heat index of 108*. UGH. I'm ready for fall to arrive now. Had my fill of summer already!!!

Though...I do appreciate the goodies from the garden that the heat brings. We are finishing up the last of the romaine lettuce and collard greens. We had our first cucumbers of the year last week. The tomato plants are loaded with green fruit. I keep checking in hopes of seeing some beautiful red on them! The cantaloupe and watermelon are sure putting out the flowers. We have sugar snap peas growing. Green beans are tiny yet. Should be a bumper crop this year! It is so neat to go out there and find a fruit or veggie on a plant that you started as a seed. God sure did a marvelous work in that, didn't He?!

The past week was an expensive one, farm wise. The tractor needed some repairs and new parts. Ouch! They sure are pricey!!

We'd like to replace our Burb with another. Ours needs several things repaired...and it seems like it would be money better spent to replace the Burb. We now have rust issues....and a long list of repair needs. We are praying for this purchase as we don't have the funds just waiting around to be spent for such a purchase.

If we had a trust worthy and cool (read that...working a/c) vehicle, I might be tempted to take some road trips this summer. I'd love to go visit my family in NY. I could visit them and escape the heat at the same time. Toby wouldn't be able to go with us...if he could, we'd add in traveling to FL to visit and see the changes there...and make a trip up to MI to visit my in-laws. But, it's not a choice at this time...maybe in the future.

Honey needs me to bring him some parts....gotta go. Love it when Honey calls for me!!

"I told God"

You hear this alot...."I told God"... that He had to meet this need or that. That he needed to send rain for the garden. That He had to pay this bill. That He had to take care of this situation.

While I get what the person is trying to say...it sounds rather rude to me. No, God doesn't have to do what you think He does. He can let this bill go unpaid. He can let your garden wither up and die. He can not take care of a situation the way you see fit. He is GOD after all. It may not be in your best interest, or part of His plan, to do as you see fit.

I ask God to meet a need. Or to pay a bill. Knowing full well that it's completely up to Him to do so...or not.

Think of it this way....your child comes to you and tells you that you must pay a bill for them. Would your heart be more willing to do so had they asked? Certainly, if it's within my power, I will do whatever my children need. But, what if what they are asking for would be detrimental to them in some way? Would I still do what the "tell me to do", just because I can? Probably not. I'd look out for their best interest...and sometimes...even when it's a seemingly good thing....I don't do it.

Ask of your Heavenly Father...don't "tell Him"......

Rant over.... :)

Saturday on the Homestead

Today has been a fairly quiet day.  The weather turned cool and wet so I have had a break from watering and weeding the garden.  I am sure the next dry day I can get in the garden I am going to find that the weeds have grown twice as fast as the veggies! LOL..  I also need to get the unplanted area rototilled this next week.   

I was able to check several things off my to-do list today.  I packed orders, paid a bill online, started a batch of beef stock, caught up on my Quicken, made dinner and packed hubby’s lunch and got him out the door to work, did some laundry, and did a little writing.  Emily and Leanne were working today so it was just me and the younger kids.  I had them clean their rooms; they were a bit of a mess to say the least.  Now I am getting a little computer time and listening to Tim McGraw.   

Emily had mid-terms this week from her online college courses.  She had the tests proctored by the library so it was very convenient. But it was a bit of a stressful week for her and for mom too..  it always seems when my kids stress so do I!    

Tomorrow is Father’s Day and we are making chocolate ice cream and some oatmeal cookies for dad.. he will like that  .    Dinner will be chicken alfredo and a salad and maybe some dinner rolls.   

Now it is time to look to my week ahead and see what needs to be done.  The kids have their year end homeschool testing (CAT testing, officially).   Sierra is the only one left with school work to finish up but she should be done soon.  Jacob is glad to be done with his school work because he has several summer jobs lined up with the neighbors.  They appreciate a young man who knows how to work to help them with chores around their homesteads and he appreciates being able to make some money .  

Tobin will be finishing up with Emily’s car maintenance this week; he is going to be replacing something that has to do with the steering.  He has replaced shocks, struts, brakes, and more (not being a mechanic myself I can’t remember all he has done.. but it has been a lot!).  The car should be set for another several thousand miles. Then he needs to work on his Jetta.  We still have wood to get in and house projects that need to be done so he is feeling a bit stressed by all that needs to be done before the summer is over.. and it just officially is starting!  

Well that is all from my homestead.  Hope you having a great weekend on your homesteads.. 

A Granola Morning

The Cost of Making Ice Cream

I had a comment on my last blog post on making ice cream and how expensive it is.  Perhaps some of it has to do with the ingredients you choose to use and the type of ice cream you make.  I think it is also important to note that the recipe makes a whole gallon of ice cream and that would be like buying 2 typical containers from the grocery store.  Ice cream is one of those foods that are so full of garbage ingredients and chemicals it is not funny.  It is hard to find really good quality ice cream.  I was even looking the other day at the ice cream my food co-op sells and was disappointed to see that it contained natural flavors (another name for MSG) and gums to help make it smooth.  And the cost was ridiculous.  So this morning I roughly calculated the cost in making a gallon of homemade strawberry ice cream with better quality ingredients.  I personally think that even if you used less than excellent ingredients (like sugar instead of cane juice crystals) you could cut the cost that I came to AND still have a much better quality product than what is typically in the grocery store.  In any case..  here is my breakdown of costs ..   

Eggs: $1.37 – right now I don’t have my own chicken eggs.  I buy free range, organic eggs from my food co-op for $2.75 a dozen.

Milk:  .50 cents -  I buy whole milk (rbst free) from Costco (about $4 for 2 gallons) normally (when I don’t have enough goat milk or it is not milk season.)  Since you pour the milk into the ice cream maker when you have added everything else I don’t have an exact measurement..  I am guessing maybe 2 to 4 cups of milk.  So I rounded the price up for 4 cups.  

Cane Juice Crystals: $1.44 

Cream: $1.25  (I buy cream in 2qt containers from Costco – it is rbst free and not organic, organic would bring the price up) 

Strawberries: $2.50 (I bought 4lbs for $4.99 from Costco and used about half of them.  I rounded up for this cost analysis) 

My estimated cost using the above ingredients for one gallon of ice cream is:

$7.06 

I think this is not a bad price to pay for the quality of ingredients put into it.  The best ice cream (ingredient wise) I can find in the grocery store is Haagen Daz.  They are over $4.00 per pint making the cost of a gallon $32.00..  haa.. haaa..  

Breyers is another ice cream with pretty good ingredients and they don’t even sell half gallon containers any more..  they have been downsized.  I think I paid about $2.80 awhile back for 1 1/2 quarts (but I have seen the price over $3 per 1 1/2 quarts). At the price I paid that would make it about $7.50 for a gallon (if my math is off it is because I have only had one cup of coffee this morning and my brain is still foggy! LOL)..   

The cost for a 1/2 gallon of organic ice cream from my food co-op comes to a whopping $11.63!!  making it over $23 for a gallon.   

Another thought I had on the price is that this price includes strawberries.  If you were to make vanilla or chocolate ice cream the cost of vanilla extract and/or cocoa powder would be less than the cost for strawberries. So the type of ice cream you choose to make can also influence the price.   

In the big scheme of it all I had not really considered that homemade ice cream was a huge expense, especially for the quality of food my family gets for the money. I do know that it is also not the most frugal of all desserts either, but still sits somewhere around reasonable in my thoughts and sure makes for a great family treat once in awhile.  

Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry season is in full swing here in the PNW.  I have been buying them every week now and the kids eat them as fast as I buy them!    I have been making a lot of strawberry shortcake.  But the other day a friend of mine was making ice cream and that gave me some inspiration to make some for my family.  I remembered that one of the treats we love is strawberry ice cream and that was something I had not made yet during this wonderful strawberry season.  I made some on Tuesday.  It was delicious!  I pureed the strawberries and found that it was more enjoyable to eat than when I have just chopped them up. 

If you would like my recipe and detailed instructions on making ice cream you can find that here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/strawberryicecream.htm

I have a pretty basic 4qt ice cream maker made by Rival.  I have had it now for several years and made a whole lot of ice cream with it.  This basically is the ice cream maker I have (my bucket is round, an older model I guess! ):     

Rival 8804-BL 4-Quart Oval Ice Cream Bucket, Blue

They are not very expensive and will give a family a lot of gallons of delicious ice cream and a lot of fun making it as well!!     

Now onto chocolate ice cream this weekend..  I will keep you posted on that one too… 

Have you ever wondered....

You never know what you will find

You never know what you will find when you buy a used item.  I bought a dog collar on E-bay.  It came in a big blue I look over the item, interesting.  I look for directions and I find a bunch of old bank papers, savings accounts, money market and deposit slips.   I was able to call the seller and we talked.  He was so shocked that it had that stuff in the box, but happy too.  To find out his dad hid stuff. It was neat to talk to him.  I am mailing him a package with all the bank stuff to him.   I have asked him to call me when he gets the package so I know it got there safe.

You never know what you will find, mj

hola

Another rainy in the night day but sunny today - I mowed the lawn in the back. I kept the curtains mostly closed inside so it's much cooler in here than yesterday. I'm trying to figure out a meal for tonight without meat - I don't like to cook with meat - I'd rather do without it completely, but I don't just cook for myself.

I think I could do this one from www.home-ec.101.com or maybe I'll just make spaghetti without meat - I do have some of that textured protein soy stuff. That's what I'll do plus cook some veggies to go with it and a salad.

P.S. My husband and daughter never did even realize there was no meat in that spaghetti - I still can't believe it and I didn't say a word or laugh or look guilty. mum's the word.