Complete Health and Wellness

Homebuilding update.........

Well I haven't been here at all lately because we are so busy with the house! Just thought I would write and let you all know I updated my homebuilding blog and it's coming along. I just hope by this time next year we will be all settled and I'll be able to post about canning, gardening and other homestead things! Here's the link:

http://hurley1751.blogspot.com/index.html

My Home Building Blog

Just thought I would share the link to my home building site on blogger. I made if for friends and people out of town that want to keep up to date on the progress of our new home being built. Come by and say hi!

http://hurley1751.blogspot.com/

Need some advice on Guinea Fowl and goats

So my husband and I have decided we want at least one goat as soon as possible on our new homestead. I think we would like to go with a Nigerian Dwarf goat. We want it for a couple reasons, one for a family pet and something for my daughter to learn to care for, and two to help us with the poison oak and brush/weeds on the property (along with regular goat feed.) Does anyone have a good website or exeperience with these type of goats that you could share with me?

The second thing is I have been reading about Guinea Fowl and how they eat ticks, small snakes, rodents etc. and are kind of like watch dogs. This seems perfect for us since we have a lot of Chaparelle with I have heard ticks LOVE, plus there are a lot of deer and that means deer ticks. However my husband has heard they are loud and annoying. Just wondering what people thought that have actually raised them. We have 5 acres so I am hoping it wouldn't be that bad.

So any advice would be great. We aren't going to get too much going as far as animals right from the get to because we will be busy building the house but I at least want to get thee things going right away. I appreciate any responses!!

Lots of changes going on

There are so many changes going on our little homestead, like for example, not having a homestead!! It all happened in less than a month. We weren't even thinking about moving (although we knew we couldn't stay where we were forever) but some property struck our fancy and we started talking. We went and saw the property, talked to a realtor and had our house on the market in a week, it sold 3 days later. The property we liked got sold in that amount of time too but we ended up finding some property that was ideal for us and now we are building!! We are currently staying at my aunt's house while she is out of town and while all our paperwork gets finalized on the new property. We are just thrilled!!

It was hard to see the old house go, it was our first house, we brought our first (and only so far) child home to it and it had such charm and so many memories. It was just getting tight though (and no way to add on as we only had .11 acres with houses surrounding us). I really feel this is what was supposed to happen for us, it just felt right, I prayed about it and always said in my prayers that if it is supposed to happen to let it happen and I was at such peace with everything that has been happening. I am not normally someone who can give things up (although I've been trying hard lately) and I always want control. So this was a great experience for me in just trusting God.

Another benefit to this experience is that we are able to get rid of ALL of our debt (minus the house payment). We were not in horrible shape but we got married young and got caught up with keeping up with what we though we should have and what everyone else had. Luckily we had opportunities to get rid of the debt and now this final opportunity. DH and I have had long discussions about not spending unless a necessity and not EVER buying anything on credit again. Not that it is such a horrible thing but we tend to get suckered into it and are not as smart as we should be about it.

Now, the downfall. In Oregon (especially in our area) house prices are HORRIBLE. To give you an example we bought our 1100 square foot home on .11 acres in 2000 for 89,000. We just sold it for 179,900 and we could have gotten more but it didn't feel right to us and we wanted to sell it fast. It is almost impossible for young couples or single working families to afford to buy their own house. So, our dream of 5 acres and a house big enough for the children we hope to have is going to cost us dearly. It's not ideal but moving out of the area isn't an option and I feel like at least with a big house payment we are investing in something instead of throwing it away to interest rates and things that depreciate. Plus I will be able to grow more of our food, keep animals that we can eat, dry my laundry outside and all kinds of other frugal things I couldn't do before. However, it is does prove to be too much for us our house, when finished, will have a lot more equity so we can sell it and start over with something smaller. However, I have prayed about it and I feel like this is what God wants for us and I am going to take full advantage of it. In the long run it may just be a learning experience for us but at least I am following my heart and what I feel God wants which is all I can do, right?

So if you got this far and I am totally grateful! That was a long post but something I have been wanting to write about lately. Stay tuned for more to come, and pictures of our property and plans on what I am going to starting in about 2 weeks! Have a great day everyone!

What's going on around here?

I don't post often like I used to mostly because I don't have a lot of time. But I do like to read other's blogs. When I signed on yesterday I noticed a lot of people wanting to leave and some other people posting rude things on their own blogs. What is going on around here? I mean aren't we here to share homesteading ideas and tips? I still see plenty of that going on in the last 100 posts page but I think there are way too many people that are unhappy for one reason or another. I would urge those of you wanting to leave to stay because that just makes the problem worse and gives those who are trying to hurt you more power to do it to someone else.

I personally like the different views shared here. I don't share my religious views because I consider that a personal thing that I share with those that I know or see in real life, but I don't necessarily want to share it here. Not to say that people shouldn't do it here, it's just my own personal thing. I just hope that those people that are being nasty will see what they are doing and find it in their hearts to accept everyone here. Or at least stop visiting those blogs that they can't seem to stand. I would also encourage everyone to try to stick to homesteading, since I don't think we can get ourselves into much trouble if we do that!  I mean, there are plenty of other bloghosting sites you can join for free and can then write whatever your heart desires but this is homestead blogger so let's stick to that. Ok just my 2 cents since everyone else is giving theirs. Hope everything settles down around here soon.

What a day already!

Well while a lot of you are in the thick of winter it's looking a lot like spring here! It's about 55 degrees and bright sunshine. It's amazing how much more motivated you are to get things done when the sun is out. I also know it's going to be short lived as it's still January and we usually will have another really cold spell before spring starts to really make an appearance. I've grocery shopped today and cleaned half the house. The other half will get done soon and we are off to dinner to celebrate my best friends birthday.

We saved about 1000.00 this weekend! How? you may ask. Well when we bought this place 6 years ago we were told to get our big tree cut down because it was growing under the foundation. Every year we would get an estimate and it would be too much money but by the next year the price would have doubled!! Finally our new brother in law overheard us talking about getting it cut down and said he used to climb trees and cut them down for a living! He did it in a few hours and we didn't have to pay them anything! They are such great people and we are so relieved to finally have it gone. My poor dh has been dealing with the aftermath of it all day, cleaning gutters, getting rid of debris etc etc. We still have to deal with the stump because it will start sending shoots off soon we know. My fil helped and we gave him all the wood he could load in his truck for his woodstove. We don't have a woodstove yet but hope to get one in the next year or so. It's hard to come by wood for burning lately so we were happy to trade his labor for our wood.

Anyway it's been a beautiful day and I need to keep up on the chores so we can go to dinner and come home to a clean house. Stay tuned for my adventures with my Kombucha Mushroom that I ordered on e-bay last night.............it should be interesting :)

New Beginnings

Well it's been a long time since I've posted here. I've been here, reading, learning, trying new things and commenting when I feel like it. It's just hard for me in the winter when there is not much going on. I just didn't feel motivated to do much of anything. However the last week has shown me a false glimpse of spring and I'm itching to get started again. Last year when I started posting here i had big aspirations and expectations of myself and it didn't quite turn out like I wanted. I'm new to homesteading and I think I tried to do too much too soon. Anyway in the mean time here's what I've been doing at home.

Making my own laundry soap (I never knew it was so easy!)

Making my own bread

Cooking more from scratch

Buying organic when it fits in my budget (what a difference of quality and taste)

Using more natural remedies for sicknesses

Getting my body in shape and ready for any upcoming "blessings" ;)

Anywway by brother in law proposed to his girlfriend a couple weeks back and we have been spending a lot of time with her lately and I have a lot in common with her including homesteading type things too. My dh has a big family 3 sister, 2 brothers, almost all married with children and we had a big family birthday party last night. Anyway last night I was talking to everyone about canning and how I only got dilly beans canned last year and my mil asked us if we would all like to come over and can this summer! I was so excited because my new sil has a lot of skills she can share with us and so does my mil. I'm going to make a list of the things I want to grow, can, or preserve so I can start to figure out what I need to do. It's just so overhwhelming to start all these projects without someone who REALLY know what they are doing. So i am very thankful for my mil and future sil because I know I am going to learn a lot.

Well, that's what has been going on here. I hope to start posting more. I will def. still be reading and keeping up on what everyone else is doing. So keep up the recipe, growing, canning and homesteading posts!

2006 Cookie Swap

Ingredients:

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Just wondering something

My weekend

Well I started my weekend on Friday. My sil and I canned 19 pints of dilly beans! I've never canned before and we were going to do regular green beans and just a few dilly beans but we found out we needed to use a pressure canner for the regular green beans and didn't fell comfortable without the help of someone who has used one before so we just made the dilly beans. Anyway I've never had dilly beans before but they sound good and everyone who has had them likes them. Sil and I are going to try and do one canning or bread baking session a week and get stocked up on things. We are both new to canning and freezing in bulk so we are excited about this new venture. I've been looking over others blogs lately and have found some great recipes. I'll have to try some of the peach jam recipes they just sound so yummy!

Picked my first ripe tomato today! I guess that week and a half of over 100 degree weather ripened them right up! It's now cooler like in the 80's and SO NICE. We have the windows open and got the house cleaned up fairly fast this morning because we weren't so hot. We do have AC but I love when i can turn it off and just open the windows and be comfortable.

In baby news I'm still waiting to take a test. I actually have been taking tests but nothing yet. It's still a little early yet but I am an impatient person (something I am working on). I'm hoping and praying! It seems everyday I hear of someone else that is pregnant, friends etc. So it will be fun to share this pregnancy with so many others, and have our kids be the same age. That's always fun. My 2 best friends are pregnant right now so I would be more than happy to join them. Anyway wish me luck!

Well my aunt is in town from San Diego and I have some errands to run before she comes over so I guess I better get off here. I think I will post the picture of the dilly beans later so youi can all see what they look like. Have a great day!